"You are sure this can work, De'Tan?" asked Fihker, captain of the Space Pirate warstation Shinarr.
"Absolutely!" De'Tan answered excitedly "If we can get enough phazon from Talon IV, we could even create a generator capable of opening the dimensional rift."
Fihkar stroked his beard in thought. "How long would these modifications take?" he asked.
"Anywhere between three standards weeks to a month, captain."
"Make sure they are made within the month." Fihkar ordered "I fear that we may be betrayed again very soon."
"Again, captain? But our people could not possibly withstand another attack. They would run all over us! We wouldn't be able to-"
"Which is exactly why I want these modifications made, and the efforts on Project Alpha doubled."
De'Tan bowed his head in apology "Yes sir. Everything shall be done as you command." Then he turned and left the captains office. De'Tan was troubled by what the captain had said as he hastily made his way to the lab. Some new experiments with the Phazon had been started earlier in the week, and the results had yet to be assessed for the day. Entering the lab, he noted the presence of security officers and criminals who were sentanced to death.
"May I ask why you taint my lab with the presence of these traitors?" De'Tan asked, directing his question at the large officer in charge.
"They are here for the testing of the new creature." The officer informed him.
De'Tan cocked his head to one side. "They are here for some form of final entertainment?"
The officer shook his head. "For execution."
That was unexpected. "Execution? But the test subject is unstable! It could either explode or become even more agressive as it cuts them down!"
"The captain has ordered the test of it to evaluate it's efficiency and success." The officer leaned down to look him in the face, eye-to-eye. "Or do you have a problem with that?"
De'Tan wasn't intimidated easily, and stared right back at him, a sneer that matched that of the officer. "I will allow this, "test". But only in a shielded chamber, with a full security detail outside the door, one inside the monitering room, and another outside the door."
"Very well then." The officer stood at full height, and barked the order into a commlink, then, after a brief exchange, placed it back on his belt. "Your security details are in motion as we speak. Your test has been assigned to cargo bay three, for it has the monitering station you installed. Now, get the creature, and we shall escort these traitors to their final resting place."
De'Tan strode across the room, and pressed a button on the wall. A large holding capsule portruded from it, and rested itself onto a hoverbed. It was three meters in length, and one meter wide. Inside was a blue octopus-like creature. It had six tentacles, a large bulbous head, and a small device on it's back. Project Alpha, half living, half machine. A cybernetic recreation of Metroid Prime. Only more powerful. Right now it was sleeping, but that would change as soon as they reached cargo bay three.
"It's grown since yesterday." De'Tan commented.
"Yes." his assistant called out from a nearby desk "Nearly sixty-four centimeters on each tentacle, and it's head has doubled in volume."
"Incredible. But also a problem."
"Sir?"
"If this thing continues to grow, it could break free of it's confinement. And if that happens..." He trailed off, allowing for an ominous pause to tell his assistant of the calamity that would take place. He pushed the hoverbed towards the doorway, stopped, picked up a datapad, and left. The journey to cargo bay three wasn't as long as one might expect. The lab was situated on the same deck for it's easy access to materials held there. But it was even more convienient since it had been modified and transformed into a shielded test chamber, one suitable for containing even Metroid Prime. A security detail was waiting outside. An indication that his order had been taken out. They admitted him into the monitering area, where he placed one end of the capsule into a recepticle in the wall. A large glass window allowed them to view the large test chamber, which was currently occupied by the prisoners from the lab. Computer terminals were lined up in front of the window, displaying the chamber's enviromental data and the vitals of every being inside.
"Are we ready to proceed?" He asked the nearest scientist.
"Yes, sir."
De'Tan sighed "Awake and release Metroid Prime Alpha." The scientist did as instructed. They looked over at the capsule, where Metroid Prime Alpha lay. It opened it's glowing red eyes and zoomed out the opening into the test chamber. It hovered in mid air for a moment, waiting, as the device on it's back activated it's tentacles sequenciously.
"Metroid Prime Alpha has been fully activated." an assistant announced from one station. "It's vitals are... abnormal?"
De'Tan whipped around to face her. "Abnormal? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. It's reading's are off the scale. I'll have the sensors recalibrated to it's new signs in a moment." Metroid Prime was pulsing with a blue light that started in the head, and traveled down it's extremeties.
"Sensors recalibrated." the assistant announced. "But it's power levels are still off the scale. In it's current state, it could power the station for a year."
De'Tan heard her, but what he heard filled him with horror. Metroid Prime alpha was already dispatching the criminals, the method it chose was most disturbing. It sent a tentacle into a criminal's face, and sent a jolt of electricity through her. Blue growths appeared on the body afterwards, showing that it was capable of producing phazon.
"Do you have the enhanced phazon weapons?" De'Tan asked a security officer.
"Yes. We were outfitted with them specifically for this."
"Good."
Metroid Prime Alpha finished off the last criminal and started looking around for more. Blue bolts of electricity leapt off the creature, and into the bodies. They rose from the ground, glowing and full of life.
"Sir! Criminal life signs have returned! What should we do?"
"We wait." He told her. "We must properly evaluate their abilities as well as MPA's."
The assistant bowed her head. "As you wish."
"How many died?" Fihkar asked.
"One-hundred-and-sixty, sir." De'Tan answered. He looked like he had just been beaten with the active end of a power line. Any hair that had been on his body had been turned to ash. He had burns all over his body, and a wound on his left upper-arm was glowing an unnatural blue color.
"And the creature?"
"Currently in stasis. We were able to herd it into a stasis tube, and place it in cargo bay three. We're ready to space it the second a breach is reported, and tactical is standing by to destroy it."
Fihkar smiled. "A brilliant success! I congratulate you, De'Tan." he held a knife in his hand and pointed the tip at De'Tan's neck. "It's a shame it came too late."
De'tan stared at the point, the expression on his face unchanged. "Traitor."
"Yes," Fihkar nodded "It would seem so."
"How much did they pay you? several million credits? Two warships? Maybe a planet for you and your wife."
"Life, De'Tan. They've promised our species life. And in exchange, they wanted the designs for Project Alpha, and those of the Phazon generator we won't have time to build."
"We would've had time to build it if not fore your treachery."
"Perhaps. But then we'd be running from the truth."
De'Tan cocked his head in question.
Fihkar put down the knife and raised the gun that had been grafted onto his arm after becoming a warrior. "The Kriken are going to destroy us, De'Tan. You should've known this long before I did."
"I'm a scientist, not a tactician. I bury my nose in books and study. I do not perform tactical simulations to run an army, or trouble myself with politics."
"Which turned out to be you're undoing." Fihkar's smile turned into a line "How can you live with yourself now? Knowing that expanding your knowledge brought you naught but death."
"I suppose I won't, seeing as you'll kill me in a moment."
Fihkar smiled again.
"But, please, allow me the honor of last words, captain."
The traitor shrugged "Be my guest."
De'Tan turned on his commlink, but left it on his belt. "Omicron-theta three-two-eight-nine."
Fihkar's smile shrank a little "What fool wastes his final breathe like that?"
Now De'Tan smiled "One who has spent his life hoping to bring people like you to justice."
An explosion rocked the ship. The look on Fihkar's face was one of surprise, De'Tan took a small amount of joy from it.
"Not expecting anyone so soon I presume?" he taunted. "Or perhaps it's because they haven't arrived yet."
"What did you do?" The gun was still pointed at De'Tan, who still wasn't showing any sign of intimidation.
His smiled broadened. "I've released your worst nightmare." Blue growths sprouted from the wound on De'Tan's left arm, small arcs of electricity jumping from it. Fihkar fired, but it was useless. De'Tan took the bolt in the forehead and absorbed it. Just before the warstation made a random jump into hyperspace, all the air inside it vented.