Life Born in the Stars

Actually, this started out as a way of ranting, much like There Will Be Shadow did. Then I liked it. So here we are, 'nother Metroid fanfic to read. R and R as usual, please!

I came out of hyperspace, and that's when it happened. Just...happened. Nearly nine months I had been waiting, and it all boils down to this: trying to flee from Space Pirates while fighting my own battle for survival.

It hadn't meant to be like this, but not even the strongest willed person can stop the urges of their own body. So, every so often, I pay one of my male acquaintances a visit. Only this time, it takes me a whole month and a crapton of sickness later to discover that this guy didn't use protection. Note to self: do not see that asshole again.

I suppose people may wonder why I didn't just have an abortion. Hah, they may call me ruthless and cold-hearted, but I do care, you know. And I also have morals. I had life growing inside of me, life which had yet to do wrong. It didn't deserve to die just because of a mistake. In my eyes...it was murder. Then again, my definition of that very word is becoming more blurred by the second...

So, I had just learned to live with it. Nine months, my child has been growing inside of me. I thought it was going to be bloody awful. But, after the sickness had passed, it actually wasn't that bad. My unborn child was rather pleasant to me, except for a couple of instances where I nearly had my ribs broken by its kicks. Despite this, I had still rather enjoyed my pregnancy. I could feel every movement of my child, and when all was calm and clear outside my ship, I often found myself humming quietly while stroking my ever expanding belly. I did not want it to end. But, alas, all good things must draw to a close, mustn't they? Such is life, unfortunately.

Leaving my AI, Adam, to control the ship, I somehow stumbled to the back of my ship where the bathroom was, and began to run a warm bath. A very warm bath. The metroid part of me disliked the cold; even a little was fairly intolerable. And newborn babies...well, they needed warmth, didn't they?

As I felt my ship lurch into hyperspace once more, a contraction tore through my body, making me gasp for breath. My legs almost gave way beneath me as I grasped my swollen belly with one hand and fumbled for the bath tap with the other. I was satisfied when I finally heard the running water cease and felt my contraction subside enough for me to move. Seizing my chance, I dissipated my Zero Suit from my body and started pulling off my undergarments. Just as I started on my bra, though, my contractions started up again. Grunting in agony, I swore with what little breath I had left and leaned heavily on the side of the bath tub.

"Lady?"

The soft, calming, masculine voice drifted into my ears, instantly relaxing me. I could feel another pair of hands loosening my bra off for me, before they guided me into the bath tub and eased me gently into the warm, pain relieving water. I cupped some water in my hands and let it pour onto my swollen form before submerging my belly and placing my hands upon it. I let every part of my body slacken despite the fact my womb was still contracting away inside me.

"Breathe gently." The voice again. I felt the same hands from before now massaging my shoulders, and I knew Adam must have reverted to his hologram form. "You're tense. Relax."

Adam. He must have reverted to his current form when he heard me in distress. "What about the ship...?" I exhaled heavily through a contraction, looking up at him weakly. His face, exactly as I remembered from the Bottle Ship years ago, twisted into a smile and his hands really worked into my shoulders.

"I jumped the ship into hyperspace again, so you needn't worry, Lady. Those Pirates will be lucky if they catch us."

"And the Federation?" I almost leapt out of the tub, but my as of yet unborn child and Adam's hands on my shoulders kept me firmly in place. "Can they find us?"

"Don't stress, please. It'll do neither of you any good." Adam replied calmly. One of his hands left my shoulder, and the next thing I knew, it was resting just above mine on my heaving belly, relaxing me further and sending this strange, electric feeling that felt good coursing through my being. When he continued, his voice was whispering by my ear: "We are nowhere near the Federation. It would take them weeks to find us now."

I nodded slowly, and then shut my eyes. I eased my breathing, and as I did so, my contractions seemed to let up a little. I sank a little further into the water, gripping Adam's hand as he tried to move it from my distended belly, before letting out in a barely audible whisper, "Thank you, Adam."

His free hand began to massage my shoulder tenderly again. "Any time, Lady. So, are you planning a water birth for your child, then?"

"No." My response was a contented hum. "The water's just to relax me until I'm sure I'm ready to do this..." A gasp escaped my lips when I felt my child kick me. "Did you feel that?"

I heard a chuckle escape from the mouth of the hologram. "That child sure is a feisty one."

I laughed too, but soon sobered. Adam seemed to sense the change in my mood pretty quickly.

"Samus?" He addressed me gently by my first name for the first time in ages, concerned. "Are you all right? Truly?" When I did not answer him, he continued, "Are you scared?"

"I don't really have that much expertise in the maternal department." I told him straight, not having enough energy to lie. "What if I'm a rubbish mother? What if...?" A finger went to my lips before I felt my head being turned to face Adam. Then a soft, delicate, reassuring kiss on my cheek.

"If you truly thought you were going to be a rubbish mother, you would not have come this far, would you?" His grey eyes gazed deep into mine. "No-one could ask for a better mother than you, Samus. Your maternal instinct and bond is strong; you would defend your child to the death, I know it."

The last sentence of his brought tears to my eyes, but I managed to blink them away. My hands gripped tighter on his. "Adam, could you do something for me?"

"Anything for you, Lady."

"Would you...help me?"

"With what?"

"Everything."

"Of course I will. I'll always be here for you."

"Thank you, again." I finally released his hand, but he kept it on my abdomen for a short while, before he rose fully upright.

"I think I'll leave you to compose yourself for a while." He spoke quietly to me, but being ever respectful as he was when living, kept his eyes averted from my naked form in the bath tub. "I'll be around the ship. Call me when you are ready, and I'll be there."

"I will do, Adam. See you in a while." I smiled, breathing through yet another contraction.

With that, I watched as Adam left the now steamy bathroom, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him. I left my entire body sink into whatever comforting position it wanted to in the warm water.

Soon enough, about half an hour later in fact, I could feel that it was time for my child to enter the world. Even though I was in intense pain now, I was at the calmest I had been for a long time. I began to shift to get out of the bath, but I soon found myself struggling.

"Adam...!" My call was weak, and I wasn't sure at first whether he had heard me or not, but I needn't have worried. Sure enough, the steam parted and I could clearly see Adam's hologram standing over me with a towel and nightgown tucked under his crossed arms. He was still smiling slightly, but his eyes betrayed his concern.

"Easy, Samus. Gently does it." He placed the items he was holding to one side so he could support me from behind as I slowly exited the water.

The first thing I felt was the change in temperature, but before I could get really cold, a large, fluffy towel was thrown over my shoulders and wrapped carefully around my body. I hunched as a contraction, stronger than any that had previously torn through me, took me by surprise. My breathing instantly became ragged as I clung to Adam for support.

"Keep your breathing nice and slow; I've got you." He reassured me, putting my nightgown on for me. He kept the towel over me afterwards for which I was glad for; cold was the last thing I needed. He then guided me forward at a slow pace. "One step at a time, Lady. Keep up that breathing, you are doing great."

With one of his hands behind my back and another clutching one of mine and holding it high, I allowed Adam to inch my shaking form towards the door of the bathroom. Before he could push it open, I felt another small pain in my abdomen, and something warm trickling down my thighs. I thought it was water at first, and then I realised...-

I panicked.

"Adam! My waters, they've...!" I tried to warn the AI, but my contraction intensified just at the wrong moment and cut me off midsentence. I soon found myself leaning on Adam heavily, and he was tenderly stroking my hair. I couldn't work out why until I realised my pain was making me cry.

"Shh, shh..." he whispered gently in my ear, "Don't cry...it will all be all right...Let's get you to your room, eh? Slowly now."

"Adam..." I forced his name from my lungs again, casting a pitiful, desperate look at him, "...my chair...the pilot's chair...is it clear...?" My breath was laboured now as I tried to force my words out.

"It has been since you went into labour, Lady. Can I inquire as to why you ask me about it?"

"T-take me to it." I collapsed further onto him, stuttering my words. "T-take me to my chair."

"I don't think that's..."

"Please!" I was practically begging him now. I felt him nod, and as soon as I was sure I could walk again, we began to amble to the front of my ship.

A lot can happen in ten minutes.

Or, in my case, in my condition, right now, not very much. It had taken Adam that long to guide me over to the pilot's seat of my ship and set me down carefully. My unborn child had not made it easy; countless times it had threatened to escape free from its prison inside my bulging abdomen and drop out of me, or bring me near collapse with the agonising contractions it was inducing. But we made it. Barely, but we made it. I sank into the seat in exhaustion, oblivious to Adam's efforts to make the area more comfortable for me. I didn't speak for a while, just concentrated on my labour. When I did speak again, the voice that emerged from my mouth was dry and croaky.

"Adam..." I managed to startle him; I saw him visibly jump on the edge of my vision. "C-could you set some...coordinates...for me?"

He knelt by my side. "Where to?"

"Home."

"But you are home. You live on your ship now, remember? Unless you mean the Federation..." He trailed off slightly, a thoughtful look on his face. "But we are outsiders now..."

"No. Home. My home. Where I was born. K2-L."

"My Lady...Samus, K2-L was destroyed..."

"Please, please take me there! One last time." The pleading look in my sapphire eyes again.

I heard what sounded like Adam sighing, before he inputted the coordinates into the ship's control panel. "Just to warn you, we'll be on the outskirts of Federation territory..."

I screamed. Swore. Another torturous contraction. "Shit!" Being on the outskirts of territory that belonged to the very ones that were hunting us was the last thing on my mind.

"Calm down." Adam gripped a hand. I squeezed it violently in return. Had he been living, I'd have crushed every bone in his hand. "We are almost there. Just hang on, stay strong..."

He kissed my sweating forehead softly. I merely closed my eyes as pain overcame my senses.

The ship finally lurched out of hyperspace again, and the scattered rocks of a former planet soon came into view. Lumps of one of my former homes. The mini asteroid field that was the remains of K2-L. Tears blurred my vision, both of pain of my labour and memory of my loss in the past, as well as at the strange joy of being back home. The birth of my child was now as perfect as could be. I nodded to Adam, and he set the ship in orbit around the space debris, before repositioning himself so he could better see whether my baby was coming or not. My hand was still fiercely gripped on his.

"Okay...breathe deep, and on the next contraction, I want you to push as hard as you can, all right?" Adam instructed me quietly.

I nodded, bit my lip as the contraction brewed, took in a deep breath and pushed as hard as I could. I ran out of breath and pushing power less than half a minute later.

"Samus, you are not pushing hard enough! If you don't do this, I can't help you! Just a little more!"

You try doing this! I wanted to slap him there and then, but I was forced to push again on another contraction. My exertions left me struggling for breath once more.

"All right, I can see the head!" Adam's voice drifted into my ears. I barely took notice of it. "Samus?" He shook me. "C'mon, keep awake!"

I hadn't been aware I was falling asleep, but I was suddenly tired from nowhere. And cold, too. Wait, cold? I tugged Adam's shirt and he seemed to understand. He wrapped an extra towel around my shoulders.

"All right, same again."

I pushed again, even harder than both the previous times combined. I could physically feel the head of my child in between my legs now. I fought a fatal urge to cross them, and instead writhed a little uncomfortably.

"Nearly there, Samus. Just one or two big pushes, c'mon!" Adam encouraged me.

I let out a grunt and pushed again. Even as I felt my breath run out, I continued pushing as hard as I could, for as long as I could. The head of my baby crowned painfully at last, and I watched breathlessly as Adam motioned to free my child. When I caught my breath, I gestured for him to stop, and realising what I desired, he let me expel my child from my body by myself. Gently, tentatively, with Adam's hands guiding mine, I fumbled for my newborn's head and I slowly pulled my child from its prison before cradling the infant against my chest. Fluids gushed to the floor of my ship, and high pitched cries filled the room.

In short, I had done it. Finally done it. I had – no, we had – brought my child into the world.

Swiftly, Adam clamped and cut the umbilical cord that still linked me and my child together before aiding me in wrapping my child up in one of the last remaining towels. Tears oozed down my face as I pulled my wailing baby closer to me. I cooed to it gently, singing a gentle lullaby to it in Chozo while Adam cleared up. I offered the newborn a breast and it immediately latched on, allowing me to see what I had been gifted with.

A beautiful girl. A daughter who looked almost exactly as I did when I was young; the only things she had inherited were her father's pale skin and emerald coloured eyes. In every other aspect, she was just like me, right down to the fuzz of golden blonde hair she already had growing on her head.

"Kamira." I whispered to my feeding babe.

"Kamira?" Adam raised his head, gazing at me questioningly.

"It comes from kamara, the Chozo word for 'shining star' or 'burning spirit'." I explained to him.

"It's a beautiful name." He smiled approvingly. "For a beautiful child. Say, that song you were singing earlier..."

"It was a lullaby Grey Voice used to sing to me when I was little." I admitted quietly. "Grandpa – Old Bird – eventually taught me the words and what they meant in Galactic Standard. I've never forgotten them in either language."

Adam finished cleaning up the last of the fluid on the floor. "Could...you sing it again? In Standard?"

I nodded, before taking a little breath and lapsing into song that sounded birdlike:

"O' Child of Light,

O' Hatchling of Life,

Sleep now, young hatchling.

Feel not lost here, but lose yourself in your dreams;

O' kindest, sweet dreams,

And you'll see me in the morn', my Child of the Stars...

Come now, sweet dreams, dear child,

Let kind dreams take you, Newborn

To sleep, o' gentle sleep.

Good night my burning spirit;

My shining star...

Sleep, rest your tired eyes.

Sleep."

"That lullaby is amazing..." Adam whispered. "And look! It even worked on someone."

I gazed down at my daughter, puzzled. To my surprise, I found she was fast asleep.

"She must be exhausted, poor thing." I remarked, being careful not to disturb her.

"I'm surprised you aren't yet."

"That's because I still have one more thing left to do." I paused, before continuing, "The afterbirth..."

"Ah. Do you feel any more contractions yet? Any urges to push?" Adam rose to his feet, a dirty towel in hand.

"A slight twinge."

"I better get a bucket for the placenta, then. I'll be right back." I watched the hologram dash off to somewhere in the ship.

The final part of the birth, expelling the now unneeded afterbirth from my womb, was actually the easiest part, surprisingly. Unlike Kamira, it just eased out and into the bucket that Adam had retrieved with relatively little effort at all on my part. After that, it was just a case of Adam inspecting it for completeness before doing one final cleanup of the cockpit and removing the bucket. After that, he brought a chair to sit beside me and he held me in his arms, with one resting underneath Kamira, and I leaned on his chest with my eyes shut, still cradling my sleeping newborn daughter. The only sounds were mine and Kamira's breathing and the gentle hum of my ship. I felt Adam's hand comfortingly stroking my hair delicately. The soft caress of his holographic lips on mine in congratulations of my efforts.

"Adam?" I breathed quietly, not opening my eyes.

"Yes, Samus?"

"Set a course for Aether."

"Right away." I heard him input the coordinates into the control panel of my ship and it jerked out of orbit in response. "Was there anything else?"

"Just one more thing." I paused briefly, before uttering, "Any objections?"

I didn't have to open my eyes to know that Adam was smiling at me. He kissed me again lightly, before responding, "None whatsoever, Lady."

With that, I fell asleep in his arms as my newly created family journeyed on through the voids of space to our new home in the stars.

Aether, the planet of the Luminoth. Where U-Mos would be waiting for us. For our homecoming.