She then turned and acted as if I were not there, shifting her attention to the computer panels in front of her. I watched the screens offer up information without any prompting, confirming our observations that she had found a way to hack into our systems. She moved carefully, methodically, occasionally raising her head upon hearing a sound other than the constant hum of machinery.

For my part, I opened a wall panel that contained a series of missile launchers. They were supposed to be used against rogue Metroids, but I knew that upon acquiring my I, I had become an enemy of my own people. They would kill anyone associated with Aran, and any traitorous act was punishable with termination. The launcher could be easily mounted on the shoulder and plugged into visual sensory nodes, so I had finished arming myself before she moved on to the next room.

I stood in the doorway while she shot down the Others, who took no notice of me whatsoever, being completely focused on their goal. In any case, they would not open fire on me until my desertion had been confirmed by central Command. I was merely a bystander until declared guilty, but I did not know how long I could use this shield. They attacked her with ferocity even by our standards, mindful of the large reward offered for her capture. It was not often that we were offered incentives.

Once the Others were all dead, she returned to the computer panels. Interested in whether she was looking for something specific or merely taking a methodical approach to data acquisition, I asked her, “What are you looking for?”

She turned around, startled, as if she had forgotten I was there. “What do you know?” she demanded.

“Anything that is in those panels, unless it has been entered after I secured you for study, We are privy to all others’ information. What you are reading there is merely the last entry made by whoever was at the computer,” I explained.

“What do you know of the Chozo artifacts?” She demanded, a tense tone in her voice indicating that my health might depend on the answer.

I gave her information freely. After all, she was an ally I. I had more in common with her than the Others at this point. “Only that they possess some great power, and are connected to the remnants of the Phazon meteor in some way. You will want to keep examining the Others’ notes if you want to find out more. I will have missed any updates after I left my station.”

She stepped over until she was standing in front of me. “You’re quite a blabbermouth for a Space Pirate. How do I know you’re not some kind of spy, or leading me into a trap?”

“If my speech interferes with your examinations, I will be silent. I was merely curious.” I thought for a moment. “We are directed by central Command. What directs you? Is it based on the information you find?”

“Somewhat.” She left it at that and proceeded to the next room. Clearly she did not wish to communicate. Still, this central question, of what to follow, stayed solid in my mind. My I was new, so all I could do was follow another. There must be something driving hers. Or did it come from within?

The possibility gave me a strange, tantalizing feeling. To be directed from inside! Once I confirmed this I would have to ask her how to do it myself.

I followed her through five more doors, which contained 4 security cameras, 3 Wave Fighters, 2 Ice Fighters, an Elite, and a series of small spiny creatures that had somehow found their way into the lab area. The local fauna had been quite adept at getting into our restricted areas, and from what I had heard, even populated the ruined frigate ship.

She paused, and then made an involuntary movement with her hand toward her face. Then she turned around and started back the way she came.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I have to go back to the Chozo Ruins,” she replied absently.

“Why are you going that way?”

She turned. “What do you mean?”

I pointed to the next door. “There is an elevator leading to the Magmoor Caverns two rooms down. It is the quickest way from here to the Ruins.”

She came back slowly, eternally suspicious. “How do you know? Have you gone there?”

“I have never been to the Ruins. We are not allowed there. Actually, I was never allowed to leave my station. But we were required to learn all possible exits to the planetary surface.”

She hesitated. I realized the Hunter could not be a threat to us if she were not naturally cautious. “Would you like me to go first?” I asked. When I didn’t receive an answer, I walked to the door myself. My I had awakened a delicious curiosity in me, one that insisted on seeking things rather than waiting for them to come to me. The moment she mentioned the Ruins, I needed to see them, even though we were not allowed in. Because I had not been allowed in.

I stepped through the doorway and the three Others there paid me no attention. The second Aran walked in, the Others sensed her foreign presences and leaped up to attack her. I moved off to a corner of the room where I would not be hit in the cross-fire.

But one of the Others had seen me. A team leader, something I had not realized when I walked in. “8411-B! What are you doing?”

I knew there was no use in my explaining my actions, so I merely fired one, then two missiles. He split apart and gave me no more trouble.

Aran approached the smoking corpse, having already dispatched the other two. She stared at it, then at me, with intense incredulity. “Did you just kill one of your own?”

“They are not my own,” I said simply. “They do no possess an I.”

She regarded me for a long time, as if only really seeing me for the first time. “So…will you follow anyone with an I? What about Ridley?”

I considered this. “Ridley would not accept another I in his presence. He would terminate me. But you do. So the answer is no.”

She said nothing for a long while. Hominids are expressive creatures, but I could only see her eyes, and I could only determine a calculating expression from them. “All right,” she said at last. “Where is this elevator you mentioned?”

“This way.” I turned to the right and opened the door. It led from a small hallway to an elevator platform. I pressed my hand (the one I used for examinations; the other ended in a long scythe like weapon) against the stone block in front of it and it lit up. Both of us stepped onto the platform and it rose up into the lava fields.

Aran seemed much more at ease in the caverns, probably because there were far fewer of the Others there. We had many stationed there at one point to draw geothermal energy from the lava, but only a few remained for maintenance now. I followed her closely, taking note of her movements. After she blew up a floating creature, she waited for the gas it emitted to dissipate. I did not know if that gas would be poisonous to me as well, but it would be foolish for me to examine that now.

The makeup of the walls changed, from metamorphic rock to igneous slabs hewn by a biological creature. But they were weakened from interference from plant matter and the weather effects of the planet’s atmosphere. I did not understand why such an advanced race as the Chozo, which had designed the Hunter’s armor, had built their home with such inferior materials.

She paused in front of a series of etchings in the walls. I examined it, then asked her, “Can you read the Chozo script?”

“Yes,” she said flatly, as if asking further questions would be dangerous. But I could not help myself…what abilities did she possess that allowed her to read a dead language?

And she had mentioned that her suit was of Chozo make. How was this possible? We had found numerous objects above our comprehension, that held great power, but such technology seemed impossible to connect to the extinct species. “How did you learn their writing, and why did they give you such impressive technology?”

“I lived among them for a time. No more questions, bug,” she snapped. I resolved to be more cautious in my inquiries. I felt a nagging desire to know exactly what had been written upon the wall, but realized that such information was probably not worth the risk.

We entered another door, but had hardly moved three steps when an extraordinary event occurred. A terrible screeching rent the air, like the hunting cries of Metroids but harsher, with a strange echoing quality. The light in the room seemed to coalesce into three tight round balls, and then suddenly they shifted into semi-transparent forms resembling the many statues all around the planet’s surface.

With a shriek, they raised flashes of energy over their heads and threw them at us. We both dodged, and I hid in the corner while Aran ran forward with her weapons firing.

So these were the paranormal energy beings - ghosts, the hominids called them. Ghosts of Chozo that had once lived here. Curiouser and curiouser, I thought. Why are they attacking her, if she lived among them? Did she steal that technology? Ah, that must be it. She had been stealing the Others’ resources as well. Now these remnants of Chozo wished to take revenge upon her as well.

One of the ghosts sighted me, and threw a flash of energy that grazed my right arm. I ran from my corner and it followed me, disappearing for a point and then popping up behind me. Then I felt an extraordinary stimulus - pain, extreme pain, as it hit me with its flash of energy.

I lay on the floor, my nervous system momentarily overloaded, and marveled that a mere remnant could create such an effect upon me. I saw the ghost raise its hands above me for a final strike…

And then it staggered back as it received fire from Aran’s weapons. I staggered to my feet and realized that I had momentarily lost my sense of hearing when I suddenly heard her shouting, “…told you to move, idiot! 8411-B! Are you listening to me? Get behind me!”

I moved up against the wall with her in front of me. She fired a series of blasts at the remaining ghost, until finally it spread its arms in resignation and disappeared.

“Why did you just stand there?” She demanded, breathing hard from exertion. “I can’t save your stupid bug butt every time you get in trouble.”

“If I had been destroyed by the ghost, it merely would have meant that it is stronger than I. I have only limited fighting capabilities.” I indicated the missile launcher on my shoulder. “The Others have attempted to fight the ghosts with no success. But even if I knew I would die, I wanted to see them. Before I came to this planet, I had no prior knowledge of such phenomenon outside of fictional hominid narratives.”

“It’s the damned Phazon,” she muttered more to herself than to me. “It corrupted them, just like everything else on this planet. They’re not the Chozo I once knew.”

“Of course. I doubt you could have stolen your equipment from them if they were more powerful as whole beings.”

“Well, I…what?! I didn’t steal this, bug. They gave it to me.” She made a movement as if to strike me across the head with her weapon, then changed her mind. “I don’t want to hear you speaking ill of the Chozo again, you hear me? Next time it’ll be a blast to the head.”

I was surprised. “Why did they give it to you?”

“None of your business.”

Silence. We seemed to be at a standoff. Then she turned away and sat down on one of the many large pieces of structure that had fallen from the roof at one point or another. She exhaled deeply.

“Do you require sustenance?” Perhaps the fight with the ghosts had taken up most of her energy.

“Wh-no. Why do you…” She stood again, and stared at me intensely. “You ask this stuff because you really don’t know, do you? You’re really not one of them.”

“I would not ask a question if I knew the answer.”

She pondered this for a while, then said, “8411-B is too long a name and too hard to say. From now on, you’re Dr. B. Got it?”

“I require a new name?”

“Well, you’re not one of them anymore, right? So why should you refer to yourself as one of many, just a number?”

I considered this. I had found my I, so I was in a different state of being than when I was part of the Group. Therefore a different term of address made sense. Also, she had asked me to call her Samus. She was no longer the Hunter as far as I was concerned, as she did not hunt me. So it made logical sense for me to change my name as well.

“I accept, Samus. I am Dr. B.”