(Happy Halloween, readers! I'll be aiming to update this piece daily leading up to Halloween itself, although hopefully this will only take a few chapters... to get good, at least. Keep coming back for more! - J)

Courtney sat in the nightclub on planet Daxx, with a glass of alcohol in one hand — not a drink, just robot-grade alcohol, the kind that would burn a normal being's digestive tract from the inside out — listening to the guitar player on stage, trying to center her circuits.

It'd been a good week on the planet — Dr. Nefarious had just finished working with her on her newest track, and everything was falling into place to make sure "Robots of the Galaxy" would skyrocket to the top of the charts, preparing the forces across the galaxy for the carnage to come. All she had to do was to make sure she stayed in the spotlight, and to deal with a few loose ends.

Especially one particularly squishy, furry loose end.

"Hey, Minx!" Courtney waved an arm at the Lombax on stage. "Come down here after your set!"

The player gave her a silent nod, continuing on. The girl was okay for a squishy — she did some strange things, like dying her fur brown and refusing simple things like a jacket to keep warm on Daxx's cooler nights — but that didn't mean she wasn't still a squishy.

Soon enough, though, the player came over to Courtney's table, her twin earrings in her left ear glittering as she sat down. "You rang, Miss Gears?" She spoke, smiling at the robot.

"The recording session went great!" Courtney smirked. "Of course, I know you're leaving the planet soon . . . you're not planning on trying to get out at the starport, are you? The Doctor tends to watch those . . ."

"I'm not afraid of the Doctor the way you might be, Miss Gears, but I don't need a starport." Another smile, and 'Minx' gave Courtney a slight show of her teeth. "I have my own transport."

Courtney blinked in mock surprise — the Doctor already 'knew' a few more things about Minx than she let on, and Courtney didn't want to let on that she knew either. "On your budget?"

"Me and my crew have had it for a few years." 'Minx' gave Courtney another shrug. "Anyway, not the point. Once we finish business with you, we'll be on our way; assuming you don't want to continue our business relationship . . ."

"I want to see how the song does first." Courtney smirked, passing Minx a fat envelope. "At any rate, here's your payment for the music rights. 10,000 bolts even, plus a pre-release copy of the song for your trouble."

'Minx' giggled, pocketing the envelope. "That's awful generous, Miss Gears. Sounds like it ought to be good."

Courtney grinned at the Lombax. "You have no idea . . . but hey, enjoy it while you've got it, you know?"

The guitarist nodded. "Suppose this is goodbye, then."

"Take care, Minx!" Courtney spoke, standing up and shaking 'Minx's hand. "Oh, and . . . let your ship-bot listen to that too. I hope she likes it."

"Oh, sur-. Wait, how'd you . . .?" 'Minx' blinked, looking at Courtney.

"Wild guess. I figured you had a house-ship of some sort." Courtney shrugged, trying to look as sheepish and nonchalant as possible.

'Minx' looked worried for a moment, then shrugged. "All right. See you, Miss Gears!"

With that, Minx darted backstage, protectively clutching her payment as she went. An evil smile crept on Courtney's face as Minx hurried off.

Jigsaw let out a sigh of relief as she saw Gangrel lowering itself to the planet's surface. She scurried aboard in short order, relieved to see a trio of familiar faces greeting her as she came inside.

"You're back!" Cypress perked up, instantly relieved. "We were worried about you!"

Adari'a darted over to Jigsaw, picking her up. "Yeah. For a moment there we'd thought the Doctor was going to get you for talking to robots."

"Robots, schmobots. I've got the goods!" Jigsaw held up the envelope. "10,000 and a souvenir!"

"Excellent work, Captain." Gangrel beamed, her doll form fluttering about the hangar. "That's enough to last us another three weeks!"

"You know, I remember near Annihilation Nation they've got a great meat market where we can turn that into five weeks' worth — including Jigsaw's usual blood order!" Addy grinned, looking back at Cypress.

Cypress grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me. Jigsaw, ready to head for Station Q9?"

"Actually, Miss Forte, I would recommend heading towards the Obani Moons in Zygan System." Gangrel spoke, a slight hint of worry on her digitally painted face. "I've taken note of some fracturing in my drive system."

Adari'a piped up immediately. "Come on, Gangrel; I've been watching the calendar for way too long now. If we don't head to Station Q9 immediately, we might miss the shipment! They only give those kinds of discounts right when the meat comes in!"

Cypress nodded, in agreement with Adari'a. She glanced at Jigsaw with a knowing look. "And besides, by the time we go from here to the Obani Moons to Q9, the only meat left'll be Kine. You remember what Kine look like, right? Those little Lombax-sized cows . . ."

Jigsaw winced at the thought, just as Adari'a added on, "Yeah, and I hear that when they're really getting desperate to sell the Kine, they'll bring out some of the live samples they brought along to try and sweeten the deal with fresh-!"

"That's enough!" Jigsaw hissed. "All right, all right, we'll go to Q9! Gangrel, chart a course!"

"Yes!" Cypress and Adari'a both hissed at once, pleased with themselves. Gangrel looked disappointed, however.

The little doll held her tongue until the two larger predators were out of hearing range. "Captain Forte, I really need to get some new parts for my drive engines. If they fracture while we're out in deep space, we might be stranded and left waiting for the authorities to come pick us up, or worse."

"I know, but . . . hey, we do have a little responsibility to make sure those two stay fed — and if it's worth going to Q9 first so those two don't end up buying 1500 kilos of Kine meat later, it's worth it, right?" Jigsaw shrugged. "I mean, seriously, that's a lot of Lombax."

"1500 kilos?" Gangrel paled. "Captain, I need about 2,000 bolts of your payment to be set aside for my drive system! There's no way you'll be able to buy that much food and pay for my repairs!"

"Come on, Gangrel, you know I can make 2,000 easily enough. Besides, what are the odds your system will break before we can get the meat and get an extra 2,000 to repair you?" Jigsaw remarked.

"There's a ten percent chance. But that's still far too likely for my tolerances!" Gangrel huffed. "I thought you cared about me, Captain!"

Jigsaw picked up the doll, cuddling it for a moment. "Aww, Gangrel, you know you're important to me . . ."

"Then set aside the money now and stop worrying about the meat!"

"Sorry, Gangrel. You know my priorities; I've got to keep myself and the girls going so that if you run into trouble, we're not completely screwed." Jigsaw let Gangrel go to float, smiling at the doll. "You understand, right?"

"I guess . . ." Gangrel responded, looking like she'd just been scolded.

"Cheer up, Gangrel. I've got a surprise for you." Jigsaw smirked, pulling out a small disc from her envelope. "Look! It's a song from your favorite — Courtney Gears!"

"Really?" Gangrel perked up, zinging over to the disc and snatching it up. "But I already have all of her collection!"

Jigsaw grinned. "I know — this one's brand new! It's not even been released!" She saw Gangrel's smile, before adding on, "That's why I got paid so well this time. I helped her make it."

"Wow!" Gangrel looked absolutely hyper. "So you got to work with Courtney in the studio?"

"Well . . . no." Jigsaw admitted. "I just wrote the music and lyrics. Still, it's one of hers!"

"Thank you, captain!" Gangrel spoke, flying in corkscrews and barrel rolls now, before pausing. "I still want to go to the Obani Moons . . ."

"I know. We'll go there right after we top up our food supplies, okay?" Jigsaw smiled, waving to her little AI.

"Okay! We're heading to Station Q9 as we speak. Good night, Captain Forte!" Gangrel replied, before flying off with visions of sweet robot singing embedded among her usual CPU cycles.

Jigsaw put her hands on her hips, satisfied, before walking to catch up with Cypress and Adari'a. "Damn that was a good song . . . shame I had to sell it, but that's the afterlife, eh?" She said to herself, before belting out a few of 'her' lyrics. "I see the future, and what do I see-e . . . Media deception across the ga-lax-y . . . hiding the truth, lying to you and me . . . why can't they see that in-for-mation must be free . . ."