"Samus!" I called after her. "Samus, what are you doing?"

"Changing the station's orbit!" she called back. "You gotta keep up, Dr. B! We don't have much time!"

"Samus, stop!"

She skidded to a sudden halt, surprisingly quickly considering she was wearing several hundred pounds of equipment. "What? What is it?" she demanded, her cannon held at the ready for any threat.

I caught up to her, placing my hand on her cannon. "Samus, stop and think. Why are you doing this?"

She didn't even stop to catch her breath. "So I can ram the station into the planet and…"

"No, Samus, why did you suddenly begin to trust the computer?"

"Wh-" She blinked, then frowned at me. "It's a human thing, Dr. B. You wouldn't understand. Now, let's go…"

I pulled her back. Certainly, she could have yanked free, but she had known me long enough to understand there must be some serious reason behind my resistance. "Samus, you had an emotional revelation regarding the computer. I understand this. But you can't go charging into its plan without thinking."

"You were perfectly fine with getting killed before! Besides, it's Adam, so I know he's…"

"The computer is not Adam, Samus. That's the whole problem with…"

"No, no, it is! The Federation downloads the minds of its greatest leaders into…"

"Samus! Listen for a moment! You are letting your emotions run away with you!"

She stopped talking, lowered her arm cannon. "All right, I'm listening."

I took a deep breath. "Samus, I believe your statement that the Federation found a way to preserve the minds of certain leaders. I even believe that this computer thought and acted as your friend Adam might have done, if he was still alive. But he is not alive, Samus. The computer is not Adam. It is merely a copy."

She wavered. "But…"

"Samus, there are thousands of the Others that have the same DNA as I do, have been programmed with the same knowledge of the Space Pirates. We are clones, but that does not mean we are the same."

"Well, of course not. You're the only one that is sentient…"

"That's not what I mean. Samus…no copy is ever the same as the original. If I were to copy Chozo writing from the walls on Tallon IV, and input it into a computer, it might be the same words…but it would not be the same writing. It would not have been carved there by Chozo hands."

"I…" Anger flashed across her face. "Dr. B, you don't understand. You've never lost…"

"Yes I have, Samus," I told her firmly. "I lost Dr. Reyman. You remember how I behaved immediately after our escape from Ceres. Even if the Federation stored some part of his mind or body, or even both, Dr. Reyman is gone forever. And so is Adam."

She looked at the floor, her voice wavering ever so slightly. "Why are you doing this, Dr. B?"

"You need to be clear-headed for this mission, Samus. We won't get a second chance."

"I…" She wavered, staring at something I couldn't see. "You're right…he told us, dead heroes do no one any good. Anyone lost was a failure, his failure. That's why he…"

She stood silently for a moment, then her head jerked up and she stared at me with deep resolve. "I understand, Dr. B."

"Do you still want to follow through with the computer's plan?"

"Yes." She nodded, as if to confirm it to herself. "It doesn't matter if the computer is Adam or not. Its plan is the best one we have…and we don't have enough time to think of another one."

"Understood. Lead on."

The comings and goings of the SA-X and other creatures had altered the BSL station beyond recognition. We ran through blasted hallways, picked our way over gaping chasms, and squeezed through collapsed corridors. One of the elevator shafts we needed could not be brought back on-line, so I instructed Samus to ride on my back as I made my way down the walls of the shaft.

False Others roamed the halls, attacking us without purpose. Samus may not have noticed, but these things were even more empty than the true Others. There was no malice, only a driving need to consume. And that, to me, seemed even more frightening.

Finally, we reached the command station that would allow us to change the BSL's orbit. I must confess that I was not surprised to find another SA-X waiting there for us.

"Just die, you corrupted piece of junk!" Samus snarled at it after several missed shots.

I fired upon it, but it always moved nimbly out of my way, and always focused on Samus. It unleashed its own arm cannon on her, the bolts ramming into the walls. I could feel the room becoming dangerously unstable.

"Dammit, we don't have time for this!" Samus tackled the Thing and held it in a headlock, trying to rip its arm off. I grabbed one of its legs and shoved my own blaster into the armor at the back of the knee, hoping to reach whatever was inside.

Samus pulled at the Thing's head, finally wrenching it off. Blood splattered across the wall, red tinted with an unnatural hue of yellow. The head fell out of the helmet, a grotesque mockery of Samus's own face. It had no eyes, only masses of tissue where they should have been, and the mouth was merely a slit in the face. Her hair looked like short pointed quills.

She completely ignored the hideous bio-form and focused all her attention on the navigation computer. In no time at all the alarms began to sound. Warning. Planetary impact imminent. Ten minutes to impact.

"Run like hell, Dr. B!" she yelled over the alarms, as if I needed to be told. "Computer Adam told me there's a ship waiting at the hangar!"

We both sped through the station even faster than we had gone before. I could hear Samus's ragged breathing beside me, and my own exoskeleton seemed heavier and heavier the more I ran. But we had not even a second to stop for breath.

I skidded to a halt at the entrance to the hangar, and Samus nearly rammed into me. I raised my hand and pointed at the hulking mass that blocked our exit. "Samus…an Omega Metroid!"

"Ohhh, you have got to be kidding me," she said as she raised her arm cannon. The Omega swiped at her with its enormous claws, opening its mouth to reveal fangs the length of my arm in its gaping maw. She unleashed volley after volley of fire upon it, and yet it didn't even flinch. "Dr. B, there's something funny with this one! What the hell is going on?"

"It's…it's some mutated form!" I exclaimed as I dodged the lethal claws to get a closer look. "It's bigger than the ones that the Others bred, and it's coloring is different!"

"Get…out…of…our…freaking…way!" Samus dodged and rolled, shooting at its mouth, its stomach, its rear.

With blinding speed, the Omega Metroid slashed Samus across the chest. She went flying into the wall of the hangar. I fired on the creature as it moved toward her, but of course my little blaster did nothing. "Samus! Get up!"

"I…I can't!" I could hear a slight edge of panic in her voice as the creature roared over the doomed ship's countdown. "I can't move! It's done something to my suit…Dr. B!"

I attempted to step in front of Samus, but the Omega merely slapped me out of the way, its claws scraping against my exoskeleton. I staggered to my feet, watching in horror as the Omega raised its arm for a finishing blow.

Suddenly the blast of an arm cannon sent it staggering back, its hand encased in ice. "Samus! Excellent shot!"

"It wasn't me!" We both turned in surprise and shock to see the headless SA-X stumbling across the hangar floor. It fired more ice beams, the X's all-consuming need to kill Metroids driving it on. I ran to Samus's side, pulling her to her feet. "Let's get the hell out of here!" she shouted, and I pulled her toward the sole remaining ship in the hangar.

We nearly fell over each other inside the ship, and I almost fired on something that darted over my head. I lowered my arm when I realized that it was only the Etecoons and Dachoras from the lab. Well done, said the Dachora. Now, it is time for us to leave.

"I've got the controls," Samus managed to stammer out between gasping breaths. She sat down at the panel and mashed the buttons. The ship rose and turned around, and we all lurched backward as it sped away from the ship. Just before impact, I could see the SA-X and the Omega Metroid still fighting.

We watched from a safe distance as the BSL station collided with SR388, creating a massive shockwave. And then, there was nothing left but debris.

"Well, I guess that's the end of the Metroids," Samus said after a long silence.

The computer panel sputtered to life, and I recognized the I that had just entered the room. Well done, Samus. And Dr. B, of course, said the computer-Adam.

Samus took off her helmet. "I don't say this often, but I really need a vacation."

Samus, you are not in immediate danger, but you cannot relax just now. The Federation knows that you went against their orders, and destroyed their projects. Not only will they never hire you again, but you are now a criminal in their eyes. If you meet up with them again, they will have you arrested.

"Screw the Federation," Samus grumbled, rubbing her forehead. "I think I've had enough of them to last a very long time."

You must be careful. They will be looking for you. They may even send other bounty hunters after you.

"That's good to know, Adam, but that's not really something I'm going to worry about," she said. "There's no real safe haven in this part of the galaxy." She sighed as she sat back in the chair. "It's going to be a hell of a lot harder finding people who can help fix my suit and my ship, though."

"We could explore other parts of the galaxy," I suggested. "I'm certain that we could find someone willing to pay a bounty hunter for one thing or another. You certainly have plenty of experience."

Samus threw her head back and laughed. "You're absolutely right, Dr. B. Agh…I have to admit I never planned for this. It's going to take some getting used to. I've always been able to count on the Federation for a break here and there…I'll have to find something else."

Struck by a sudden inspiration, I said, "Samus, have you ever attempted to contact any remaining Chozo?"

She looked at me thoughtfully. "I've tried in the Federation- and Pirate-controlled areas of the galaxy. But they were accomplished starfarers, and there are lots of areas that haven't been explored by either the Federation or the Pirates…"

That sounds like the most reasonable path of action, said the Adam-computer. Samus, Dr. B, I am willing to assist you in any way I can.

Samus grinned. "Well, that settles it. You ready, Dr. B?"

I nodded. "Always."

The End