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The Bottle Ship (ボトルシップ, Botoru Shippu^?) was a decommissioned space facility. This "derelict space station" at Cosmos region A47 was the setting of Metroid: Other M.

Samus Aran enters the station after her gunship receives a distress signal from it codename "Baby's Cry". She explores the ship and encounters the Galactic Federation 07th Platoon headed by Adam Malkovich. The group defeats the Brug Mass and then splits up to explore the rest of the space station.

The Bottle Ship is surrounded by space dust, making the station look as if it is destroyed, and effectively adding to the abandoned/derelict atmosphere created by the ship.

The ship is later revealed to be a secret facility of the Galactic Federation containing many different lifeforms with the purpose of turning them into bioweapons, as well as breeding an army modeled after the Zebesian Pirate forces. The program is falsely indicated under Adam Malkovich's name. The facility eventually abandoned the Space Pirate-inspired army after the crew managed to breed a Queen Metroid and propagate Metroids in Sector Zero and interfaced with them via an A.I. in an android body named MB. The A.I is modeled after Mother Brain's and is able to communicate with Metroids through telepathy. However, at one point, MB went rampant and controlled the Space Pirate Forces to murder every Lab Worker except Madeline Bergman, the development director, who hid somewhere in the Bottle Ship. The rogue android, claiming that all humans must be "judged", pilots the ship on an intercept course with the Galactic Federation as an attempt to attack and destroy it, but this plan was crushed completely when Samus and Adam intervened.

Shortly after Samus leaves, the Federation decides to destroy the Bottle Ship. Samus returns to retrieve Adam's helmet, and escapes suitless from the exploding ship. When Samus first met MB (while she posed as Madeline Bergman), she had a vision of weapons being fired at the Bottle Ship, creating a much more violent explosion than what is depicted in-game. Interestingly, this "vision" plays if Samus fails to escape in time.

It would seem that some of the specimens from the Bottle Ship were transferred to the Biologic Space Laboratories research station and reappeared in the sequel, Metroid Fusion. This transfer would most likely have taken place when The Colonel and his soldiers arrived on the ship. Among the specimens that were moved were the bodies of Ridley's clone and Nightmare.

EtymologyEdit

The Bottle Ship likely refers to a Ship-in-a-bottle which consists of a model vessel assembled in a transparent glass bottle. This could be a reference to the feeling of entrapment or possibly to the mechanical puzzle aspect, in which the initial reaction to the object is a sense of confusion in regard to how the ship could have been placed into the bottle. These are commonly assembled, piece-by-piece, within the pre-made glass container. Or it might also refer to the ship's actual appearance, which is that of a sports or baby's bottle, where the "ringed" section represents the nozzle, and the larger section the container.

The Bottle Ship being in the shape of a baby's bottle may also play into the theme of the baby's cry and possibly be a source of irony as the "Baby's Cry" distress signal came from within the baby's own bottle. Connecting to this theme, the Bottle Ship houses MB, designed by the Federation to act as a nurturing mother figure toward the Metroids on board.

BiologyEdit

The Bottle Ship contains many different species of creature and also quite a few mechanisms. While many are well known by Samus, there are many that are new to her as well. Most of the life forms were brought from Zebes, while others were found in previous planets visited by Samus, like Bryyo.

There are also several harmless species that are stored in the ship that serve no major role.

AreasEdit

Areas of the Bottle Ship
Areas	Main Sector • Sector 1 / Biosphere • Sector 2 / Cryosphere • Sector 3 / Pyrosphere
Sub-Areas	Bioweapon Research Center • Experimental simulated desert area • Sector Zero
Rooms	Main Sector: Bottle Ship Control Room • Bottle Ship Residential Area • Cargo Hold • Control Bridge • Main Elevator System Management room Biosphere: Biological Experiment Floor • Biosphere Test Area • Breeding Room • Exam Center • Observation Room Scrap Block • Subterranean Control Room Cryosphere: Experiment Floor • Materials Storehouse • Materials Transfer Lift • Nightmare's Room • Sector Generator Room Pyrosphere: Blast Furnace Observation • Crater Interior • Desert Refinery • Environmental Test Floor Floor Observation Room • Geothermal Power Plant Bioweapon Research Center: Room MW

TriviaEdit

The Bottle Ship bears a resemblance to the derelict G.F.S. Valhalla. The latter was also surrounded by similar-colored debris clouds.
The fact that the Bottle Ship appears to be comprised of sectors mimicking various environments through holograms and seems to have been built to hold several species of creatures, make it seem very similar to the Biologic Space Laboratories research station in Other M's sequel, Metroid Fusion. However, unlike the BSL, the Bottle Ship was designed to produce bioweapons and its sectors are simulated and not real environments at all.

It seems some of these environments were created in the image of places Samus has been before. Their purpose is most likely to replicate the natural environment of the creatures (most of which have been previously encountered by Samus) and can thus survive naturally.
Anthony Higgs also mentions how one area looks strangely similar to the Federation's training grounds. These said grounds on the Bottle Ship could have been designed as an area to test the station's biological weapons.

The shape of the Bottle Ship slightly resembles the design of Samus' Arm Cannon in the original Metroid.
In the Metroid: Other M Art Folio, there are areas referred to as "intentionally flooded." Many fans believed this referred to an aquatic "-sphere" (such as Aquasphere), however, this was proven to be untrue.
The Bottle Ship is the fourth of five space stations to be destroyed, the other four being Frigate Orpheon (although it was technically a spaceship rather than a space station), Oubliette, Ceres Space Colony, and the Biologic Space Laboratories research station.
All of the Bottle Ship's doors are automatic. It shares this trait with Ceres.
Anytime the name of the Bottle Ship appears in the game's captions or the story option, it is written in all caps. It is the only name to have this trait. However, during the training sequence at the beginning of the game, when the Head Quarantine Officer asks Samus to use Concentration, the name of the move is also in caps in the subtitles.
Text shown when looking at the terminal in the Exam Center seems to indicate that the Bottle Ship explored ingame was one of three, before two of them had an unknown fate and the explored one was given to the Galactic Federation, however, some of the text is cut off by Maurice Favreau being in the way: "The terraforming capsule colony designated as BOTTLE SHIP is currently under the administration of the Galactic Federation. The ship supports animal specimens from various [text cut off] the purpose of biological-weapon research. There were originally two other BOTTLE SHIP, designed for use by interplanetary colonists by the Space Development Corporation. After long years of use, the first two ships were retired, and the remaining ship was given to the Galactic Federation. After extensive refitting, the ship was made able to sustain three distinct closed habitats, each designed to preserve various specimens collected from different planets for research and development in military-technology applications."^[1]

Metroid: Other M Art FolioEdit

The Bottle ShipEdit

"A distress signal known as a "Baby's Cry" drew me to this facility, which is listed as decommissioned. Its purpose is shrouded in mystery, although it's clear that its original design was to sustain and study life-forms in a variety of environments. Something has gone terribly wrong in this place."

ReferencesEdit

^ Metroid: Other M ~ Game Transcript. Metroid Recon. Retrieved on 2011-10-14.

GalleryEdit

Planets visited in the Metroid Series
Zebes • Tallon IV • Aether • Dark Aether • Alinos • Arcterra
Norion • Bryyo • Elysia • Pirate Homeworld • Phaaze • SR388
Other locations visited in the Metroid Series
Frigate Orpheon • Celestial Archives • Vesper Defense Outpost • Oubliette
Samus Aran's Gunship • G.F.S. Olympus • G.F.S. Valhalla • Leviathan Battleship
Ceres Space Colony • Empty Training Room • Bottle Ship
Biologic Space Laboratories research station

Space Stations in the Metroid Series
Note: Italicized stations were visited by Samus Aran. Underlined stations were destroyed.
FS-176
Metroid \| Sidehopper Station
Alimbic Cluster
Celestial Archives \| Vesper Defense Outpost \| Oubliette \| Head Shot \| Outer Reach

Cosmos region A47
Bottle Ship
SR388 system
Biologic Space Laboratories research station
Messina System
Nextima
Unknown location
Ceres Space Colony \| Diesel's Junk Shop \| The Locker

[0] Metroid: Other M ~ Game Transcript. Metroid Recon. Retrieved on 2011-10-14.

[1]

Wikia

Bottle Ship

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