Chapter 6

Samus opened the unlocked her apartment door and walked in. The main living area was spotlessly clean, it was no more than 9 meters long, and 6 meters wide. A small sofa lay along the north wall across from a flatscreen display, and a comfy looking chair was set beside a coffee table in the north/west corner. A doorway on the east wall connected it to a small dining room, which contained nothing more than a table with two chairs, and a door leading to a kitchen area. The south wall also had a door. This one led to the sleeping/personal quarters and bathroom.

Her power-suit walked in from the dining room. "Hello, Samus," It said in a pleasent male voice "you have returned earlier than usual." After retiring from bounty hunter work, Samus had turned her power-suit into droid because she had lacked a need for it. She had also been lonely as hell.

"That shouldn't be a surprise, IR6Y" Samus remarked scornfully "I'm always early on Friday. Remember?"

"Of course." the automaton replied, returning to the kitchen "I am most unobservant of this phenomenon."

Samus rolled her eyes. Phenomenon? It was routine. How he hadn't been able to catch onto this, she couldn't understand. But then again, the droid brain she had installed into the powersuit had belonged to an old philosopher. And that philosopher had made the droid to be a companion with whom he could discuss his theorys.

Samus lay her folder, as well as some other things, onto the coffee table and lay herself down on the sofa.

"I hope nothing wrong happened at the university today." IR6Y commented from the kitchen.

"Nothing of considerable interest." Samus replied "Just the normal students handing in reports, and students reporting that something ate their homework."

"You sound as if that is a normal problem."

"It IS."

"Oh." IR6Y said after a slight delay. "Perhaps you should take steps to eliminate this problem."

"You mean other than not trusting my students?" Samus asked.

"Not trusting your students wouldn't do anything." IR6Y stated "Perhaps...you should try rewarding the ones who do their homework with less-"

"I don't like where that's going, IR6Y." Samus interupted.

"Sorry, Samus. Perhaps you should forget it."

Gladly. She stretched a little before settling into a comfortable position, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Hello, Samus. Did you miss me? I've missed you. More than you could tell.

Samus ignored the voice. She was dreaming, and anything in a dream didn't matter to her. Pictures of the dream began to form. She saw a silhouette of a man she thought she should recognize. But without the face, he was a mystery.

I don't have much time to do this. The man said. You must listen to me.

"Who are you?" She asked.

The man seemed to glare at her a bit, although not in a malicious way. Someone you used to know. Someone you cared about. Someone who cared about you...

Samus stared at him harder, struggling to remember who it could be. But she was cautious, and didn't risk raising her hopes. "If you were really who you say you are, I still have no way of knowing that it's truly you."

The man shrugged. There are many ways I could prove it to you. But I won't. Not now.

"What do you want, anyway?"

What many people seek, and few people get: Help. I need your help right now, Samus.

"Why would someone with the power to speak with people in their minds need help?" She countered

His forehead rose on one side, as if he had raised an eyebrow. Then, his face illuminated just enough for her to see a wicked smile form on his lips. Many people who seem like they can take on anything, are really nothing more than pawns in the grand scheme of things, Samus. Like you were with the IBHA. General Farkus and his demands to seek out any remaining Metroids. And you following his orders without delay. You knew they saw you as disposable, as they did all bounty hunters.

That shocked her. Nobody knew what Farkus had had her doing. Not even after fifteen years had she disclosed that information."How do you know that?" She squeaked out.

The man's smile got colder. Wouldn't you like to know.

The dream stopped suddenly as she felt herself being shaken. IR6Y was standing beside her, shaking her with his one hand.

"Dinner is ready, Samus." he said, pleasently.

1

Dinner was always quiet for Samus since the days after Derek died. IR6Y sat with her at the table, even though he couldn't eat, to keep her company. Regardless, niether of them ever said much of anything. Except tonight.

"You're sure nobody was outside just now?" Samus asked for the third time.

"I assure you, Samus" IR6Y answered sounding a bit annoyed "that no people have visited in many months... Except for that one man who claimed to be a Jehovah's Witness."

Samus bit her lower lip. Someone had to have been outside the building talking to her. But if IR6Y hadn't detected anybody then there couldn't have been."

"However..." IR6Y began "I did detect a male human presence just outside the door earlier today. After that, I haven't detected anything else."

"Did he knock on the door, ask to come in, anything?" Samus asked with her mouth full.

"No."

Samus sighed. "Someone had to have been near this building." she murmered.

IR6Y cocked his head to one side "Who had to have been here?" he asked.

Samus looked at him. If she told him he would probably think she was dreaming or something. What if it had been a dream? A dream braught on by the onslaught of emotions after watching that security camera tape. But it couldn't have been. She knew what she had seen! It had felt completely real! But she had to realize that it might have been, in fact, a dream. Suddenly she didn't feel very hungry. Her heart ached. It ached for the people she had lost in the past. People she hadn't been able to save. Slowly, she stood up and excused herself from the table. She made her way to the bedroom, flopped down on the bed, and cried quietly to asleep.

1

IR6Y heard her quiet sobs of sorrow, wishing there were something he could do. The problem was that he was a mechanical entity, and she was a biological being. That didn't seem like a large difference, especially when considering that it didn't really matter what shell you were in, so long as you felt feeling towards others. But, there were still so many differences. For example; her species had been around for tens of thousands of years, where androids had only been perfected four-hundred years ago. Also, she had a soul. When she died, it would leave her body, and leave to another realm they called the afterlife. He was a personality program that could be transferred from system to system. He could live forever in this world, but he could never move on to the next. Taking all of this into consideration, he knew that no amount of philosophic data could ever help him to understand human emotions, which he lacked.

Although, how does one wish to make someone happy, if they do not possess emotions? He would have to give that further thought. Thought... thought... codeword "thought", ceasing all recording functions...transmitting copy A.I. Clyde into Samus's subconcious... cannot comply... Samus is not yet sleeping... waiting for standard human shutdown to occur...