"This is the Galactic Federation Bureau of Illegal Activities. We believe you to be smuggling illegally acquired goods from the Federation. Please allow us to board your ship in order to perform a search," Wesley repeated, hoping that the ship he was contacting was innocent this time.
"Uh, okay…" was the response. The other ship slowed to a stop, and their ship pulled up alongside it. Wesley stepped through the hatch into it. "What's your name, sir?" he asked the victim of his trick.
"Patrick Halbruner," responded the confused trader. He started toward the cargo hold. "All the stuff I'm carrying is in here, I'm sure you won't find anything…ob…jection…able…?"
He trailed off as he noticed the gun aimed at him.
"Don't move," commanded Wesley as Odius, Ashen Feather, and White Voice filed into the ship. "Tell us where all your pieces of identification are."
"In the glove compartment," Patrick responded with fear. Wesley gestured for Odius to check, and they found all the necessary papers where he had said.
"Now, listen carefully," Wesley said. "We're going to take this ship. You can take ours in exchange; it's a better one, anyway. When we get the chance, we'll find you and send your identification papers back, along with ten thousand credits, provided you don't turn us in. Does that sound good to you?"
Patrick nodded silently.
"Good. We hate to do this, but we have no choice. Now get out of here."
Nodding, the man quickly scurried through the hatch into their former ship and flew off.
"That went well," said Wesley cheerfully. "Now we can dock at the capital without any suspicion." He glanced at Odius. "Not entirely sure what we can do about you, though…"
The Space Pirate shrugged. "I'll be content to wait out of sight in the cargo hold if I have to," he said.
"That solves that problem," said Wesley. "So let's get to it."
-=-=-
"President Rodriguez, sir?"
"Now what?" he snapped. Moments before, he had been perfectly cheerful, but now he was irritated beyond belief. For the past few hours, he had been subject to these mood swings…he wished he knew why.
"Status update on the X project, sir. We've successfully eliminated their weakness to Metroids. Even more, they seem to be completely under our control."
"Send them after Aran," Rodriguez replied immediately.
"…Um, sir…we don't know where Aran is."
Rodriguez glared at the man. "Do I look like I care? If you can't find Aran, then draw her to us. Deploy the X Parasites on a place that's important to Aran. Tallon IV should suffice."
"So you want them deployed on Tallon IV?"
"That's what I just said, isn't it?"
"Point taken, sir."
As the man departed, Rodriguez's cheerful mood returned. He took off his glove and toyed with the claws on his hands.
-=-=-
They had gotten into the Federation capital without any problems. After docking, Wesley had assumed the identity of Patrick Halbruner, pretending that Ashen Feather and White Voice were unregistered with the Federation. Now, they wandered Sector 11, searching for information about the Federation's recent activities.
"Sectors 10 through 16 are open to the public," Wesley explained to the two Chozo as they walked. "I know a guy who can get us into the other ones, though."
With that, he led them down one hall. "Sectors 10, 11, and 12 are for government-related things. Sectors 13, 14, 15, and 16 are on the rooftop; they're the capital's city. The guy I'm taking you to is in Sector 15."
They arrived at an elevator, and Wesley pushed the button marked "15".
Once they reached their destination, Ashen Feather and White Voice gaped in awe at the sight that spread out before them. The Federation capital city was the pinnacle of Federation society. Countless skyscrapers reached toward the artificial atmosphere, with even more countless people milling about.
"Impressive, isn't it," said Wesley. "The Federation can build a great city, if nothing else."
With that, he led them down one road, into one of the less flattering parts of the city. At last, they arrived at a small restaurant, which Wesley led them into.
Except for a reptilian man cleaning dishes at the counter, the restaurant was empty. He glanced up as they walked in, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Tarus? That you?"
Wesley nodded. "Surprised to see me?"
The restaurant owner grinned. "Not really. Traitor or not, you always find your way back here. But who're your friends?"
"These are Ashen Feather and White Voice of the Chozo. Guys, this is Daalin, of the Arbezt."
"Pleased to meet you," Daalin said, giving them a toothy grin.
"Daalin's a retired army officer," Wesley explained. "He's made a lot of friends among the higher ups in the Federation, so he can get us into the private sectors."
Daalin's grin faded. "'Fraid not, Tarus. My buddies are under extra-strict orders not to let anyone into the private sectors, no matter who asks. I can't help you there."
Wesley frowned. "Well, do you at least know what's been going on in the Federation?"
Daalin hesitated. "…Yeah, I know that. But it wouldn't be good for anyone to hear me talking about it…if we head into the back room, it should be fine…"
He walked around the counter, and switched the sign on the window to say "Closed". He gestured for them to follow him.
"All right," he said after closing the door to the back room. "What do you want to know?"
"What's the Federation been up to?" Wesley demanded. "What are they trying to hide the most?"
Daalin stared at Wesley in surprise. "You've never been this suspicious before," he commented. "In fact…you seem…never mind," he muttered.
"Well, let's see…where to begin, where to begin…there's a lot that even I'm not privy to, but from my understanding, the Federation's recently formed a new alliance of some sort…apparently, it'd be controversial if the details of the alliance were leaked to the public, but that's all I know on that issue. Uh…something big also went down in Sector 7…apparently big enough for them to completely shut it off to everyone. They've been conducting experiments of some sort in there since then…"
"Anything else?" asked Wesley.
Daalin shook his head. "Sorry, that's all I know. Aside from the usual government business, anyway, and you know how that is."
Wesley sighed. "I was hoping for some more concrete information, but thanks anyway."
A thoughtful expression crossed Daalin's face. "Well…there is one last thing of interest. I don't know if it's what you're looking for, but it might help you, regardless."
He reached up onto a shelf and brought out a small, slightly dated computer. "From time to time I'm given access to the Federation's main database," he said. "The last time I was allowed to do that was a few weeks ago, and I found something interesting in there…"
"What was it?" asked Wesley
"A dormant AI," replied Daalin. "It was hidden amongst unimportant files, so I assumed that it didn't want to be found. I transferred it to this computer and activated it, but it's refused to communicate with me…"
"Maybe we'll have better luck," suggested Wesley. "Let's try and see."
Daalin activated it, and a circle appeared on-screen.
"…YOU!" it roared upon seeing Wesley.
Wesley took a step back uncertainly.
"What have you done with Samus?!" the computer demanded intensely. At this, Ashen Feather began paying attention.
Wesley's eyes widened as he realized what the AI was. "Adam!" he exclaimed in relief.
"Answer the question," Adam snapped.
"We've done nothing with Samus," Ashen Feather interjected. "We're her allies. She disappeared, though, and now we're trying to find her."
"You betrayed Samus, though," Adam growled to Wesley.
"I wish I hadn't," Wesley said quietly. "But what's done is done. I am now completely on Samus' side. And if you don't believe me, well…you can ask Samus herself once we find her. But I'm just wondering…how are you still intact? I thought you'd been retooled into a Federation AI?"
"Samus told me to copy myself to the Federation mainframe before they had finished retooling me," Adam replied. "I remained dormant there until this person came."
"Wait," said Ashen Feather. "If you were on the Federation mainframe, then did you manage to find out what they were up to?"
"I still am connected to the mainframe. But if I make any activity on there, then they'll be able to detect me and find you."
"That's fine," said Wesley. "We can wait until we're a safe distance away from the capital to find everything out."
Wesley turned to Daalin. "Thanks for everything," he said.
Daalin grinned. "My pleasure."
-=-=-
On the planet Tallon IV, above the icy Phendrana Drifts, a Federation ship passed above. Its cargo doors open, and countless yellow, amorphous blobs descended on the landscape…
"Do you think we're far enough away yet?" asked Odius, peering at the Federation capital rapidly shrinking into the distance.
"Probably," Wesley considered, "but let's keep going for a few more minutes just to be safe."
With the safe recovery of Adam, they had left the Federation capital in good spirits. They had uploaded him to their captured ship, and now they were preparing to put the plan into action. Their plan was to have the computer find some helpful information, then quickly disconnect and escape before the Federation could detect Adam and track them. It was risky, but they were confident it would work if they were far enough away.
"Right, that should be good enough. Adam, you know what to do."
"Of course."
There was silence for a few moments until Adam spoke once again.
"Mission accomplished. I could only gather one bit of information before they would detect me, but it's helpful, nonetheless. Take a look…"
The hologram of a yellow blob appeared on the display. "That's an X Parasite!" gasped Ashen Feather.
"Precisely. The Federation got its hands on a good amount of them and has been conducting experiments to further their potential as a biological weapon. Some of them were deployed on Tallon IV just a few hours ago, in fact."
"Why Tallon IV?" Odius asked, confused.
"That information isn't in here, unfortunately."
"We need to find Samus, then," muttered Wesley. "We need her to defeat the X. There are no other options."
"I should be able to find her," Adam offered. "I have a link to her suit, and…"
White Voice held up Samus' disassembled Power Suit.
"…Oh."
"Even if she did still have her Power Suit," Ashen Feather said, "she's disconnected her link to you. The Federation could find her at any time thanks to that retooled version of you. We don't have any way to reach her."
-=-=-
The guard sighed and let out a puff of smoke from his cigarette. This job was pointless, if you asked him…aside from himself, the other guard, and the half-dozen or so scientists in the building they were guarding, there was no life on this planet. What did they need protection from?
"Hey, Bill," his buddy said.
"What?"
"Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"That. Right there."
Bill squinted into the distance, trying to see what his fellow guard was pointing to. "I don't see anything."
"There was somethin' jumpin' around. Like a human bunny or somethin'."
"You're hallucinating, Rob," Bill snorted. "Ain't nothing around here but us, the snow, and the mountains."
"I'm tellin' you, it was -"
"It was nothing," repeated Bill. "You're just seeing things 'cause you're bored like I am. 'Cept I'm not loony like you."
"If you say so," Rob said uncertainly.
"I do say so," Bill replied. "And don't you forget it."
"How long we got left on this shift, anyway?" the second guard asked, trying to change the subject.
"Two weeks, I think. Then another two bums are gonna come down here and have to stare at the snow for a month." Bill spat on the ground as if to enforce his point.
"What could they be doing in there, anyway?"
"Dunno. Don't care."
Suddenly, the door opened behind them, and one of the pudgy-faced scientists poked his head out. "Dinner's ready," he reported. "You two want to come inside?"
The guards nodded, and they contentedly walked through the door.
Samus Aran watched them go from behind one of the snow dunes.
-=-=-
No doubt about it, now: this was the place she'd been looking for.
The presences within the building were beginning to give Samus goosebumps, they were so powerful. Old Bird had assured her that they wouldn't attack her, but she couldn't help but feel somewhat frightened at the prospect…after all, every other time she had faced them, they'd been trying to kill her.
…Except for once, she considered.
Samus shrugged. She'd worry about that when she got there. For now, she needed to consider her course of action. Did the Federation contact this facility often? If so, forcing the residents out would make it obvious that something was wrong…but if they were allowed to stay, they could give her away at any time…
I'll just get in and out of there as quickly as possible, Samus decided. With that, she started down toward the building, prepared to fulfill her purpose here.
-=-=-
A crash resounded through the whole facility, shaking its very foundation. Bill dropped his fork. "What da hell wash DAT?" he demanded, his mouth still full of food.
"I'll go check," offered Rob. He got up from his seat and walked in the direction of the crash. Thirty seconds later, he rushed back, his eyes wide with fear. "Samus Aran!" he cried. "It's Samus Aran! That's who I saw earlier!"
"Go fight her," one of the scientists commanded.
Bill stared at him. "What are you, nuts? She'll kill us without breaking a sweat!"
"Anyone else want to try fighting her?" the scientist asked. Nobody raised their hand.
"Alrighty, then," he said, and they all went back to eating their dinner.
-=-=-
Samus was surprised at the lack of pursuit, at first, but didn't bother questioning it. She walked unchallenged into the heart of the facility, and shivered in spite of herself. She had known what to expect, but it didn't make actually seeing it any less unpleasant.
Metroids.
Almost every stage of them, from baby to Zeta. Samus assumed that they hadn't discovered how to control Omega Metroids yet, but she didn't care; her last encounter with an Omega Metroid had been less than pleasant, anyway.
There were two or three of each, held in frost-encrusted stasis tubes. After a bit of hesitation, Samus fired a missile at a tank containing at Alpha Metroid. As the tube shattered, the Metroid let out a shriek and flew at Samus. The bounty hunter prepared for trouble and leveled her arm cannon at the beast before it paused. Then it floated calmly over to Samus and stared at her expectantly.
Samus reached out with her hand apprehensively and pet the Metroid. It let out a trill of happiness in response.
"…Wow," Samus murmured, and continued to free the rest of the Metroids.
Before long, all ten of them were gathered around Samus. She was shocked; not a single one of them had showed any sign of aggression towards her, aside from some anger at the beginning, which she assumed was from being trapped for so long rather than directed at her.
Strangely enough, she felt a sort of kinship with them.
"Right, then…" she muttered. "Let's get you guys out of here."
She spotted a communications unit, and walked over to it. She tried to remember the contact code that Ashen Feather had given to her on Zebes.
-=-=-
A beeping sound rang out from Ashen Feather's pocket. He took the portable communicator out in shock, staring at it.
"…It says that it's from a Federation facility," he said fearfully. "But the only person I gave it to was Samus…"
"Did they capture her after all?" wondered Wesley.
"Answer it," urged Adam.
Ashen Feather pressed the button nervously. "Hello?"
"Ashen Feather? Is that you?"
"Samus? Oh, thank heavens you're alive!"
"Listen, I'm in a bit of a fix here. I'm stuck on the planet Lycas in a Federation facility with some…er, friends. Could you head down there and get us?"
"What the…Lycas? How in the cosmos did you get there?"
"Long story short? I had a little help from your people…"
Ashen Feather blinked. "You are a woman of many surprises, Samus."
Samus sat at the table, staring uncomfortably at the facility's staff on the other side. They were all too aware of the powerful arm cannon resting on the tabletop. That, and the ten bloodthirsty Metroids all around them that they had imprisoned.
Gradually, the sound of a ship engine became apparent, and something landed by the facility. "That must be my ride," Samus said. She got up. "Sorry for all the trouble, but I do what I need to do. You can understand, right?"
They couldn't, but in order to appease the dangerous bounty hunter they nodded. Samus led the Metroids out to the snowfields, where the ship was waiting.
Ashen Feather was waited outside. When he saw Samus' new suit, his jaw dropped; when he saw the ten Metroids, the color drained from his face. "You've got a LOT of explaining to do," he muttered as they headed back into the ship.
Samus grinned. "I thought you might say that."
"We're going to need a bigger ship," Odius grunted as their ten extra guests filed in, forcing them all to remain squeezed together.
"Just throw everything unnecessary out of the cargo hold and keep them in there, they're used to being in tight spaces anyway," Samus replied.
"They're not gonna eat me, are they?" Wesley asked, eyeing the Metroids fearfully.
"Probably not."
"Probably not?" Wesley repeated, his eyes bulging with fright.
"All right, Samus," Ashen Feather said. "Please tell us what in the name of the cosmos is going on here."
Samus sighed. "Old Bird – my surrogate father," she added, noticing the confusion from Odius and Wesley, "visited me while I was unconscious. To keep things brief, he brought me here and gave me this Protector's Suit as a replacement for my old Power Suit – you guys still have that, right?"
White Voice held up the helmet in confirmation. Samus nodded her satisfaction. "Good. Well, he told me that the Federation was conducting Metroid experiments on this planet, and that if I freed them they would make valuable allies. I did as he said, and, well…here I am. So, what have you four been up to while I was gone?"
"Five, actually, lady."
Samus whipped around in disbelief, staring at the shipboard computer. "Adam?!" she cried.
"The one and only."
She turned back to Ashen Feather. "You've got a LOT of explaining to do," she said, echoing his earlier words.
As they retold their story, Samus seemed to be deep in thought. Every now and then, she would glance back at either Adam or the Metroids.
"…and thanks to him, we found out that the Federation has sent the X Parasites to Tallon IV. We don't know why, but with you and all these Metroids, we can get rid of them before they grow to be a threat…!"
Samus frowned. "No, we can't."
Ashen Feather blinked. "But, why…?"
"They're trying to lure me there," Samus muttered. "They're trying to force me out of hiding by attacking a place dear to me. There's no other reason for them to go after Tallon IV…"
"Then…what do we do now?" asked Odius.
Samus thought about this for a moment. "We do the same thing they're doing," she decided. "We need to draw them out. We need to get them to fight on our terms."
She deliberated for a few more seconds. "We will return to Zebes," she said. "We won't hide our activities, either; the more people who know where we're going the better. They will need to decide if attempting to follow me onto one of the most dangerous planets in the galaxy is worth it or not. In the meantime, we can focus on purging Zebes of the X."
Ashen Feather eyed her skeptically. "Eleven individuals won't be able to completely purge a whole planet's worth of them, you know."
"That's true," Samus agreed. "But we can do what we can to slow it down. And besides…there's something there I want to do…" she added, images of a robotic brain exploding from a Super Missile in her head.
"What about the rest of us, though?" Wesley asked. "I'm definitely not going down there again. You're the only one of us who won't get infected."
"Your job," Samus said, "is to help Odius." She turned to the surprised Space Pirate. "I promised that I would help you bring down the Space Pirate Empire, and so far I haven't kept that promise. Under these circumstances, this is the best I can do."
"I understand," Odius replied, shaking Samus' hand.
Odius now turned to the rest of them. "Here is our plan of action," he said. "After we've dropped off Samus and the Metroids at Zebes, we'll meet back up with my troops. They've been given orders to find out what the rest of the Space Pirates have been up to. Once we know everything we need, we'll plan out the rest from there."
Everyone else nodded their approval. "Good, then," Samus said. "Adam, set us on a course for Zebes."
"…This ship doesn't have any way for the computer to control the travel either, lady," the computer said dryly.
"Oh. Okay, then…one of you set us on a course for Zebes."
White Voice stepped forth to do as Samus requested.
-=-=-
President Rodriguez was in exceptionally poor condition. He was continuously trembling, on account of the freezing weather (the Federation capital was heated to a temperature of 70° Fahrenheit). He kept muttering to himself deliriously, and looking around as if in search of somebody watching him. He refused to be inspected by doctors, though; he insisted that he was fine and that everything should be carried out as normal.
The messenger (who, in recent days, had taken a keen dislike to the president, thanks to his behavior) poked his head into the office again. "Sir…another update on Samus Aran," he said distastefully.
"Aran?" the president asked excitedly. "Did you catch her? Is she dead? What? What is it?"
"She's been spotted on numerous planets in the past few hours. In all cases, she's been quoted as saying that she's headed to Zebes."
"Zebes, eh?" Rodriguez muttered. "She must be trying to lose me…must be trying to escape my grasp by fleeing to the planet she thinks she's safe on…fine then. I know just what I'll do."
He glanced up at the messenger. "Prepare my ship," he ordered. "Inform the GFS Valhalla that I'll be arriving soon to take all their experiments for a field test."
The messenger nodded, seeing what Rodriguez was planning. "With any luck, he'll die in the attempt…" he mumbled to himself.