Pirate

From Scratchpad

Pirate

Samus Aran sat on her bed in a Phi sector space station. She had just returned from another solo mission against the Space Pirates and she was exhausted from it. She fell backwards onto the bed and stared blankly up at the ceiling for a few minutes. Ah, she thought as she lay there in the florescent light that came from the hidden bulbs around the edges of the room, whenever I feel like bounty hunting isn't worth it I should remember the way I feel right now. It's so good to be alive! She had just managed to get home eat and shower before the fatigue set in and she could no longer move a mussel. She was wearing a lose-fitting shirt and some blue jeans instead of her normal skin-tight Zero suit. It felt good to be out of that Zero suit but even more so it felt good to be out of her Gravity-suit. She was lost in thought when there was a knock on the door. She just managed to get up from the bed and answer the door. When she opened the door it revealed a bounty hunter in a suit similar to hers but jet-black. He spoke metallically and his visor was impossible to see through. "May I come in Ms. Aran?" He said it said to her standing kind of awkwardly as if he was embarrassed to be there. "Why sure of coarse!" She replied. She was suspicious of him but she had learned from the Chozo to be polite to everyone no matter what your first impression is. He stepped into the room surveying it as he did. It was small with a bed, two chairs and a table somehow stuffed in to its diminutive enclosure. There were three doors leading from it, one that he was standing in that very moment and of the two others one lead to the bathroom and the other to a closet. He sat down a one of the chairs and Samus sat down across the table from him in the other. He contemplated where to start, guessed, and then began as best he could. "I suppose your wondering why I'm here? Well, Samus Aran, I need your help!" This did not surprise Samus at all. Bounties sometimes came this way when they were non-federation at least. "My people are being subject to a genocide sponsored by the Federation." "Who are your people anyway?" The other hunter unattached his mask and then said, "I believe you call them Space Pirates." He took of his mask and there it was: the reptilian features the beady eyes; he was a Space Pirate that was sure. Samus desperately looked around for something to defend her self with but there was nothing. Then she remembered the pistol she always kept with her. She pulled it out and leveled it at the Space Pirate grinding out her words, "Say good-bye Pirate scum!" "Sure go ahead," He said pulling back his head to reveal the soft flesh of his neck, "Kill me and join the Federation's quest to eliminate my species from the universe." Samus curled her finger around the trigger and was about to end the miserable Space Pirate's life when she stopped. Something was different about this Pirate. Something that made him not the same creature she had killed on countless missions. She lowered the pistol a bit but still had it trained on him, "What do you want?" She grudgingly said still not believing what she was doing, "Why are you here?" " I am here to find out if all humans are the same and I think I now know." "What do you mean 'all humans are the same?'" Samus said but this time all the malice was out of her voice. "Whether all of you would kill us on site as you were about to do there. I thought that surly Samus Aran with her Chozo training would not do something like that but it appears that I was wrong." "Well it's not like you guys make it easy for us to love you or anything like that!" Samus replied a little exasperated this time. "No, that is true. The Space Pirates make it hard for my people for being evil as they are. You have never thought that it is strange for a species to be named as a thing, a stereotype, a generalization? Ah, well, you wouldn't would you? Well there is a reason and that is that 'Space Pirates' is not the proper name for us. We are Xoren originally from the planet Xorf. We were one of the first sentient races in this galaxy. We reigned over many planets wisely and justly that is until another sentient being came to the galaxy: The Mother-Brain. She captivated my species and promised us great riches if we would follow her into battle. My people followed her and the rest is history. As fall as myself is concerned I was born into a small family who lived aboard the frigate Friydu. My father worked as a scientist on the vessel researching a strange creature that was native to SR388. The creature that you call Metroids. I never really played with anyone my own age, friends as you call them, because that might create individuality, something that our commander did not want at all. Even at the young age that I was, treason would be punishable by death so I was cautious about how I rebelled against the High Command. I tried to learn all that I could so that I would never be the dumb 'perfect' solder that the command wanted me to be. I had been told all my life that the humans were evil and that they would sooner kill than look at you. With my rebellion I mentally embraced the humans as a people who were opposed to my commander and thus on my side. I thought that if I escaped the Pirates the humans would open their doors to me but I was wrong. When I left the Pirates the humans tried to kill me whenever they could. I was imprisoned, shot at, chained, spat on, and even more things that I will not say here all because of my race. I came here to see if you were the same and to offer my apologies to you, one who has experienced so much pain at the hams of my species." Samus was stunned. She had never really thought of the Space Pirates as sentient beings that thought, laughed, cried, had families, and fought for what they thought was right. Really, when you came down to it, the Xoren or the Space Pirates were the same as the Federation: just a group of beings fighting for what they think is right or for survival. "I too offer my apologies to you for all my people have done to you and your people." "You were forgiven before you asked." Said the Xorean as he put back on his helmet, "My people have done many wrong things, I know that, but don't ever believe that we are the demons your Federation makes us out to be. And with that he left. He left as soon as he had come. And he never even game Samus his name.

000

Samus was once again lying on her bed but this time she was not thinking of her past victories but of her future unknowns. She thought of all the unknowns that surrounded her and all the others who live in this universe. She might not have known the name of the Xorean who had talked to her today but she knew that she would never look at life, or death, the same way again. THE END