Chapter 37
A Decision To Make
Think about how much time we've wasted. The steps our enemies have made while we've wandered the cosmos aimlessly. How much longer can we detour until we're unable to ever find our way back onto the right path?
The Hunter's Secret Cave - Min Bassa's Planet
"I've taken on greater odds. I know what the Kriken are capable of. We can't leave them unchecked," I said.
The Hunter stepped forward. "Then I'm afraid we're at an impasse. Because I'm getting off this planet. And your ship is the only way I can do so."
That's what I was afraid of. That he'd force me to make a decision. Every confrontation we had was time lost. Every decision we made time gained or given. It was hard not to think about. What if every little moment like this cost us? What if we were missing windows of opportunity? What if we found the Garden, but we were a day late after its destruction?
That thinking would start to become paranoia. I couldn't keep myself constantly worried like that. I had to stay focused. Still, new confrontations were running the clock.
"Well, I need you to understand this," I began. "We appreciate what you did for us, but that's our ship. It's our prerogative where we go with it and when. If I say I'm staying on this planet, then that's what I'm doing. If you want a ride off-planet, you'll have to save a different survivor."
"The planet is full of hostiles, you know this," The Hunter of the Cave replied. "You'll go after the Kriken, but you might not even make it that far. We're not the only hunters stranded on the surface. And who knows who could still be within the Hub below."
I took a step forward, raised my arm cannon at them. "I don't believe either of us are going to change our minds here. We're going to get onto our ship, and you're going to let us leave.
There was a hole in the cave ceiling, that's where he likely brought the ship in. It went straight up through the canopy above. It was a tight squeeze, and likely no fun to manage while getting shot at from below.
"Let's keep this civil," I said, cannon still pointed at the Hunter.
The Hunter dove to the side, taking cover behind an outcropping of rock. I did the same, just as I yelled over to Excolo.
"Help Adam and get the ship ready for take-off. Now!"
Excolo nodded and took off towards the ship. As he ran, The Hunter of the Cave spun out from the outcropping. He had a sword, to match his seemingly medieval-Earth garb, his cape whipping out past him. He pointed the sword, its blade aimed like the barrel of a gun. Energy surged from the coursing rivers of plated metal up the hunter's body and into the sword, until a blast of electrical energy seared through the air.
The blast was lightning quick, throttling Excolo, sending him tumbling to the ground. The ground nearby was scarred by electrical burns.
I looked over at Excolo, and in taking my eyes off him, the Hunter of the Cave was on top of me instantly. How can he move so fast? I barely got my arm cannon to block the blow from his sword, but then electrical energy surged through the sword again. The thunderous shock blasted me back against the nearby cave wall, nearly knocking the wind out of me.
Into my morph ball I rolled and took off, boosting away to avoid another flurry of arcing electrical power. The nearest cover to take was barely within reach before another blast burned the ground.
I quickly scanned around cover. Seeker Missiles. Target locks followed a flurry of shots, forcing the Hunter of the Cave to dive out of the way. Some of the seeker missiles nearly lit up my own ship. Damn it. I need to be careful. I thought the Hunter wanted off this planet as badly as I did, enough to not risk the ship. But then it occurred to me - he just needed to win the fight. He'd try to repair the ship if it got damaged in the process. But I needed to both win and keep the ship safe.
Seeker Missiles, though, they could at least track this hunter. Potentially better than I could. I needed a way to slow them down. Ice Beam shots could do it if they weren't so slow. Wide Beam shots might do the trick cover, but if I wasn't careful I might take out the ship with that feature.
That is, unless the ship wasn't there.
Another lightning shot. I dodged out of the way, firing back a quick grouping of plasma shots that missed their mark.
I chirped into my comms. "Excolo, do you read?"
"Copy that, Lady," Excolo responded. "Can I call you that, too?"
"When I tell you, you're gonna take off with Adam."
Adam and Excolo both blurted out their surprise. "Take off?!"
"Just do it, when I tell you!"
The Hunter of the Cave rushed me again, and this time his sword connected. I felt the surge of electricity ravage my nervous system, not to mention the chasis of my armor. It blasted me back again, and this time the hunter followed through on its initial attack, chasing me down as I was tossed back across the room.
I quickly activated my Grapple Beam, firing it over my ship and across the time. It yanked me away from the Hunter's next blast with barely a moment to spare.
The other wall crumpled, with roots, moss, and dirt falling to the knotted ground as my Grapple Beam turned loose. But I had enough momentum to make it across the room and slide to the floor, away from my assailant.
Talk about wasting time - this Hunter was looking to end this as quickly as they could.
Now they were on the other side of my ship. We started to circle it, keeping the ship between us as an innocent bystander.
"One last chance, we don't have to end it like this!" I shouted across the room.
The other Hunter let out a gruff growl. "We've both made our choices here!"
Have it your way.
I quickly charged my beam. "Now!"
My ship's boosters quickly sprang to life. Flowers and plumes of fire and smoke blossomed beneath the ship, popping it up into the air - just as my arm cannon snapped to a purple hue. I let the charge fly.
The Hunter of the Cave, stuck on the other side of the cloud, had only the blink of an eye to react to the sound of my unleashed arm cannon shot. He dodged to the side, but the Wide Beam shot didn't just tear through the smoke cloud at high speed - amplified by notes of plasma and fire - it caught the Hunter's dodge.
The Hunter spun wildly to the ground. Looking back up, all he could see next was the shoulder of my suit. Charging through the smoke, I hit him as hard as I could. I hadn't built up the Speed Booster yet, not with the small diameter of the room we were in, but the impact felt like I had. The Hunter's neck snapped back, the back of his head slamming against the wall.
I pushed off, rising up into the air before him. My arm cannon reconfigured, ready to fire off a Super Missile, and I let him have it. Five Super Missiles, in a single volley, rupturing the ground below me, wherever the Hunter may have been. This created its own new cloud of smoke, one I didn't plan to stick my neck into.
"Samus, let's go!"
Excolo and Adam lowered the ship back down from the ceiling, close enough where I could hoist myself on top or a catch bar, and get myself back inside. I took hold of the ship as it rose back to the ceiling, heading for the exposed canopy.
All the smoke began to clear - the Hunter of the Cave was gone. I dropped off the ship, landing back on the ground, changing my mind just as quickly as I had made it.
"Samus, there's only so much we can do to cover you here safely," Adam explained.
I ignored his message. Checked the ground, scanned my surroundings. The Hunter of the Cave, somehow, was gone, disappeared in the smoke. I turned my attention to the cave opening, not the one in the ceiling but the one that fed through the tunnel back out into the jungle, where we had originally entered.
I raced through as fast as I could. If the Etecoon and Dachora were around to scamper off to the side, they would have without hesitation. Wait, where are those animals, anyway?
The rest of the cave was empty, too. I breached back out to the jungle on foot, back at the cave entrance. But the Hunter of the Cave was nowhere to be found.
"Any sign of him, Samus?" Excolo asked.
"We'll wait for you here," Adam said.
"No, I'm coming back," I said. "I'm not chasing him into the jungle."
And with that, I turned on my heel and walked back into the cave the way I came.
Federation Vessel Ranger-Class 64-X - Surface of Min Bassa's Hub
Soon enough, we were flying over the swampy surfaces of the planet of Min Bassa's Hub, hugging low to the canopy through the mists hanging above the trees. The last thing we needed was to get caught by somebody, or something's, radar and get taken down. Anyone below us on the surface likely wouldn't be fast enough to respond or catch up to us, through all the water and thick mud.
That is, if that Hunter was telling the truth about the whole planet being turned to swamp.
Another bout of paranoia hit me. Our ship seemed like it was in one piece, and good as new, too. As if we had never crash-landed on his planet. How did I know if the Hunter hadn't installed some kind of tracking device on the ship when he and his animals dragged it away and claimed to fix it? Or worse, planted some kind of explosion?
But that really wasn't paranoia was it? It was that kind of thinking that was going to keep us alive. I took a mental note to ask Excolo to sweep the ship.
That is, once he finished taking the nap he was taking further inside. I wouldn't wake him then; I had something else on my mind that too was bothering me.
"Anything yet, Adam?" I asked as I sat down at the front of the ship. From my perspective, we were flying blind into an endless wall of mist and fog. The only visibility I had was how close we were to the tops of the trees below, everything else was a sea of gray. But Adam, of course, could see much more than I could. That was always the case, wasn't it?
"Nothing. No major breaks in the canopy like the one we just left from. Nothing's come up on radar for hundreds of miles."
"I'm not sure if that's frightening or reassuring," I said under my breath. "And we can't exactly make our own hole down there."
"You'd be correct. This is just a ranger ship. It has scouting and hyperspace capabilities, but not much in the way of combat," Adam explained.
I thought for a moment. There were actually two things that were bothering me.
First, the heart attack I suffered before we got here. I've felt fine since then, and I passed it off as a side-effect of absorbing another SA-X. Sure, my body can absorb the X Parasites, but was it meant to? How much can it withstand before it hits a limit, if there is one? I could believe that there might be side effects after a certain point or moment, even if my Metroid DNA allowed me to do it in the first place. Either way, it wasn't exactly a comforting thought that it could happen to me…and potentially happen again. And maybe I wasn't as fine as I thought I felt.
But then that brought me to my second concern - Adam.
"You've been acting strange," I said.
"Samus, I thought we just discussed–"
"First, how you reacted when I had my cardiac arrest. That wasn't like you you. You would never react that way, not even to me. Then this whole story about your son and pretending to be him? You came up with this idea to pretend to be your son, in order to what? Make me not doubt you after what happened on the BSL? But then you barely kept up the facade, and give it up the moment I asked you about it. That's not just not being honest, that's nonsensical. The Adam I know doesn't lose his cool. The Adam I know doesn't wear a mask or hide behind weak lies and stories."
"Samus, I-"
"You need to tell me right now if there's something, anything, you're not telling me, Adam. And it needs to be the truth. If you can't do that, then there's nothing else I could trust you with."
"Yes, Samus. I can do that," Adam said.
He paused, but only for a moment.
"I need you to trust that what I'm about to say is the absolute truth. Do you trust me?"
I inhaled slowly. "...Yes."
"During our mission on the BSL, I was informed that I have an expiration date," Adam said. "And I'm running out of time."