INTRODUCTION The setting takes place in one of the moons of Saturn, Cosmos. Cosmos is one of the most faraway posts of the ISSP, however, it doesn't mean that place is safer than the rest of the Solars System. Several drug producing and dealing groups have been promoting Cosmos as the main hub of the "Bloody Eye" and other minor drugs applied through the eyes there. The reason is that the ISSP was spread too thin, and the officers all arund Saturn were "fixed". The nearest honest group of ISSP officers was two planets away. Due to that fact, Cosmos not only has the cheapest prices on the Bloody Eye and lower derivates, but also has one of the largest numbers of nightclubs and night-life places since the Earth was almost destroyed.
Down at the Zodiac Nightclub, the crowd was impatiently waiting their turn to get in. It was one of the nights with the most attendance in the last years and the merchandise was selling quickly. A nervous truck driver went inside the club through the backdoor Services entrance. He was squishing his small green cap with the logo of a Pegasus. Several minions instructed him to go foward, then to the right, then to the left, then foward again to reach the VIP Room number 3. There he would be received.
The Truck Driver nervously knocked before entering, just to be respectful.
"Come on in!" an unfamiliar voice to him called out. The Driver did so. The placed was guarded by some really stone-like guards, both in attitude and strengh. The man the voice belonged to was sitting near the farest edge of the room, next to the glass that showed the dance floor. "Have a seat, boy". The Driver did so. "Ok, so let's see. You must be Hiromi, am I right?"
"Yes, sir" Hiromi said weakly.
"Calm down, son" the Man said getting out a cigarette. He didn't make eye contact with Hiromi at all, he just got up and stepped next to the glass watching the people dancing through the lights. "There is nothing to worry about. Except, of course, about that cargo you delivered a day late. Does this sound to you?"
"Y-y-yes, sir."
"That material should've been here yesterday, son, not today. Sounds like a small difference, right? But not in this business, because if you bring the material late, the merchandise gets done late, and the selling, not to mention the distribution throughout the whole system, gets even latter. Did you know that, with your cargo getting here late, I may be delivering this lot late for, say, 3 days to a week?" The Man started getting more tense. "So tell me: What am I supposed to do while I wait, sing a ballad to my buyers? Apologize to those thousands of addicts in this damn city?!" he said turning suddently to Hiromi for an answer.
"Well--"
"Nothing is well! And who told you to speak again!" he barked out. One of his thugs slammed a pistol on Hiromi's face. Hiromi was cracking down, emotionally. "Boy, you better keep your yap shut until I tell you to open it! I handle the manufacture and distribution of drugs in this whole damn town, and you are making my business a whole lot harder. So tell me fella, what are we going to do here?!" he roared at the defenceless Driver.
"Please!" Hiromi fell to his knees, "please don't kill me!" he burst out in crying. The Man shaked his foot off as if he was stepping mud. He turned again to watch the dancefloor.
"I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll give you a try of the hardest product we got, the Bloody Eye. Maybe then, you will understand why I am so concerned about you, as one of my Truck Drivers, with the success of this business". One of the Man's thugs grabbed Hiromi, pulled him up, and opened wide one of his eyes. Another guy sprayed some red liquid over his eye. Soon, Hiromi started jerking moves and trying to get rid of the two thugs. He started shrieking, trembling, and then just fell to his knees again, exhausted. "You see, that's how it works. You got to be a tough guy to hold on this one, but once you can do it, you get something, you want more. Now you understand me, boy. Unfortunately..." the Man turned to Hiromi and pulled out a pistol, "our business here has been unsatisfacctory" he spelled out, "so it must be ended now."
The bullet went through Hiromi's face. Still with one of his eyes all red, he fell on his back to the floor. The two thugs backed off.
"Call in the Cleaning fellas" the Man said, "we got trash to throw out"
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Scientists still haven't determined the number of moons and satellites
of Saturn, so I'm developing this story in some that still hasn't been
found
CHAPTER 1: Hunting the prey "There is something good and something bad about living in space. Everything has a good and a bad side, that's the balance of life" Jet reflexed, no matter if someone was hearing him or not. "The good part is the endlesssness. Being in the real middle of nowhere can give you all the time to think, all the time to relax, all the time to rest. Why you have all the time? Because there is no time, it's endlessness. But endlessness is also the bad part, because there is no time. So when you are tired or rested? It's the endless day and the endless night, so you really can't tell when you have to be asleep or awake. That's a big problem" he continued whirling his heard in small circle patterns.
That was really a problem, Jet had been awake for 2 days and a half. Not having time really let him confused. Well, some liters of coffee also claimed their share.
"Jet, for crying out loud, get to sleep" Spike moaned, "I'm getting sick of that 'endlessness' crap you've been saying for the last hours. Give me a break". He threw him a pillow to his head, but Jet almost didn't react. He just stayed freezed with the pillow over his head. The coffee had really a nice share of Jet's brain twisted, insomnia was draining him out. "Why don't you watch some TV, that will get you asleep" Spike said turning on the screen over the table. "Infomercial, infomercial, news, news, kids' hour, kids' animé. What time is it?"
"How could I know? You can't tell if its night or day in space. There's always a sun, but it's always dark anyhow. Who knows if there is day or night in space? It's endlessness, Spike..." said Jet in slow motion until he finally pounced down on his pillow. Spike drew off a cigarette.
"They say you need five days awake to get mad, but you sure did the job quick, Jet" Spike muttered as he lighted his cigarette. He patted Jet's shoulder, "That's my partner". He kept zapping through channels. The way it looked, it was still very early. Then, the program he would least expect came on air.
Big Shot for the Bounty Hunters.
"How are my bounty hunters doin'?" said Punch.
"It's time for your favorite program, and today we got this flash for you" said Judy and she made a shooting gesture with her hand.
"Our news today are the hottest. Maybe some of you cowboys have only gone as far as Jupiter for money, but today we're in the bounties of Saturn."
"Yes, many of the bounties are in for big bucks!"
"Since many of these guys are dangerous, if you deliever them by today, you get your Double Bonus!"
"But only for today. Tomorrow you will only the number we show here."
"The top bounties in..."
Spike just hated when those guys took so long to announce bounties. Most of the time it was because the bounties were not suitable for the time they were airing in, like in this case. So Spike just went to the bounty list of Saturn's moons by himself. Indeed, it seemed like there were many cases in the list, but the top ones ranked in Saturn's most faraway moon, Cosmos.
"Stop right there" Spike said when he looked at the top bounty. "Aldebaran" he read, "drug producer and dealer. Reward: 6,000,000 woolongs. Nice." But then he gazed to the sleeping beauty he was seating over. "This guy's not opening his eyes until christmas" he thought, "But I think I can handle it by myself. We were going near Saturn anyway."
Spike got to the command post. It took him some time, but he re-
programmed the auto-pilot to go to Cosmos. "You will be routed to your
new destiny as soon as possible. An extra of 7,500 woolongs will be added
to your travel fare for unespected travel route change" the computer
ringed, "thank you for using the Space Gate."
"Thank you for stealing me that cash" Spike muttered as he went to check on his ammo supplies. The rest of the trip was very smooth and slow, Spike was starting to feel sleepy himself.
Finally, Spike decided to have a quick nap, until Jet woke up suddently and started babbling again about endlessness and a new subject, the way machines were taking over humans. "Jet, you need some sleep" Spike warned with the last bit of his patience.
"No, I don't" Jet practically yawned, "and if I go to sleep, the auto-
pilot could take us to the Sun instead of Ganymede."
"Talking about that, we will make a litte detour to Cosmos" Spike grinned.
"Cosmos! That's too far away, Spike. Don't tell me you already traced the route" Jet whimpered slamming his forehead.
"Alright, I won't tell you. Besides, I found a 6 million woolong prey for it."
"Let me guess, Aldebaran."
"How do you know that?"
"Bob. Always going for the biggest bounty on the table, aren't you?"
"Just trying to get money for next meal, Jet."
"Spike, we can't go for a druglord. He's probably walled up with thugs. It's not worth it" protested Jet as he sneaked a thermos flask with coffee towards one of his legs.
"You can 'sleep' this one out if you want. I need to get far from you before you start a new theory. By the way, you're contradicting yourself" pointed out Spike as he took a glance at the thermos flask.
"If you listened me carefully, I neved said endlessness didn't let you think" predicted Jet while he helped himself a cup of coffee.
Spike snapped the cup and the thermos from him. "Okay, Jet, no more coffee for you".