Anything but Blue:
Disclaimer:I do not claim to own Cowboy Bebop in anyway.
1: A Rush of Blood to the Head
The Frisky Lady was a bar on the upside of the Martian landscape. However, it wasn't an upscale establishment, but a hole in the wall pit stop for the dregs of interstellar society and had been the man hideout in plain sight of some of the most notorious of wanted criminals since the early days of terraforming. Very few people without a substantial price on their heads walked through those sliding electric doors leading into the place and nearly everyone from Earth to Neptune knew what would be waiting for them behind those doors if they did: death.
The inside of The Frisky Lady was badly lit and what little light there was, was dimmed by the rise of smoke hovering around the bodies dealing at the bar or drinking beer at the billiards tables.
"Hey, Fernandez, pull the stick out of your ass and move it, we're thirsty over here!" Yelled a voice by the door.
"You boys must be new here. There's no table service," The bartender said calmly. "So if you want something you have to come up here and order it yourself."
"Fuck that!"
The voice belonged to a young man, thin, short with a villainous goatee and four gold earrings in both ears. He appeared as a shadow through the smoke and leaned over the bar counter like he owned the place. The thin man was followed by a group of companions, all similarly dressed, all wearing long overcoats and sunglasses to hide their eyes.
"You know who I am, Fernandez?" asked the thin man, "I know who you are, but do you know who I am?"
The blonde man didn't miss a beat, polishing a glass in his hand slowly as he spoke, "Edo Yenrai, son of Mao Yenrai, Capo to the Red Dragon Syndicate."
"Very good, man. I got to hand it to you. For a blind fuck up you're not so bad."
Fernandez set the clean glass down behind the counter with the others and slung the cloth he had been using over his shoulder. "Thank you," he said evenly.
"Yeah, yeah, now I'll have a tequila sunrise and my friends here will have four heady Mickeys and two brain fizzlers on the rocks."
Fernandez nodded and went about mixing the drinks without a word. He wasn't a tall man, but not a short one either and his hair was greased back over his head as slick as horse's fur beneath a saddle. A Thoroughbred, actually wouldn't be a bad analogy to what he was: a man of good breeding rotting in the shit with everyone else, but then again it'd been his own fault, hadn't it? Ah, well, shit happened. Fernandez closed his eyes. One had to roll with the punches.
"What is taking you so long, man?" Edo wasn't talking to his companions anymore, instead the focus of his beady little eyes was solely on Fernandez, "I could have had a woman, a cig, and a decent meal in all the time it's taking you to mix three simple types of cocktails, you know that, corn pone?"
Fernandez opened his eyes and for the first time, properly sized up the man in front of him. Edo Yenrai was a stick of a man who appeared physically to have no attributes any more threatening than an undersized puppy. However, there was a shade of stubble on his chin and a shadow in his eyes that promised it could, no would, someday be something more. But it was just a promise, from a boy with a name that people respected, who probably hadn't ever served prison time, or even killed someone yet. He was a puppet and Fernandez wasn't a man to be intimidated by a puppet dancing around on its own strings. Fernandez stopped making the drinks and set them down on the counter casually. Edo narrowed his eyes at this and his rowdy group of friends grew quiet.
"What's the holdup man?" One of them said after a few seconds.
Fernandez looked their leader in his beady little black eyes and asked in an even voice, "If you found out one day that you could have anything you wanted would it take away the thrill of having it, knowing that you could finally possess everything you've ever desired?"
Edo's expression became confused then angry, "Hey, how stupid are you? Are you retarded or something—"
Edo Yenrai's words died on an uneven current of red liquid and gurgled themselves into nothingness as their owner slumped forward onto the bar counter with a thud. There was a flash of silver behind the bar and the body of a knife disappeared back into its arm holder. Fernandez blinked and reached for a cloth to wipe a spot of blood off of two of the glasses he'd wiped clean only moments earlier.
The Frisky Lady closed its doors for the night at 3am and didn't reopen until near noon the next day. After every last bounty-head and common pickpocket had been forced out, the bouncers would come in to collect their pay for the day. Employment at the Lady was such that it was a day by day trial basis no matter how long someone had worked there. Bouncers and the general help weren't hired on the shoulders of their permanent records so all types had held a position there over the years: thieves, pickpockets, bounty hunters, ex-cops, murders, rapists, and syndicate members were among the usual guys The Frisky Lady owed a debt to every early morning and Fernandez was the man who paid.
Hart, one of the bouncers, approached the bar and sat down. He was of a large solid build as most bouncers were and was naturally bald at twenty-eight. His skin was rashly tanned as if he'd spent a little too much time in the Martian badlands or had been a windswept veteran of the conflict on Titan. He'd escaped from the high security prison satellite Brobdingnag and had been thrown off course by a rogue navigation unit on his ship eventually drifting to Mars. Like many proven criminals, Hart had changed his name after returning to the grid so it was hard to know exactly who he had been beforehand, but wasn't that the case with anyone. New name or old one, who could remember that person they used to be?
Hart rubbed the fatigue from his eyes.
"Been a long day eh Fernandez? Between Yenrai's boy and the local riffraff, we sure got in some honest money of it." He said. "Think I could be using my pay now. There are a couple brothels I need to spend it in on the way home, if you catch my meaning."
Fernandez nodded and punched the security code into the small safe box behind the counter. The little computer chirped in recognition and the lid opened with a flush of air like a cooler full of dry ice. Inside, a number of plastic cards were organized into individual slots. Fernandez pushed a button and one of the cards popped up. He typed in a few more numbers and handed the card to Hart.
Hart stuffed the card into his coat and sauntered toward the doors, "Thanks, Doc. See you in the afternoon."
The other three who had worked that night were also paid off before Fernandez grabbed his things and locked up. The walk to his apartment building was a short one if taken off of the main streets. Three back alleyways and one side street brought him to Kentari Plaza where his sixth floor apartment was situated. He unlocked the door, called the elevator, and by the time he was in his apartment he knew it was closer to 4:30 than he would've liked it to be. Sighing tiredly, Fernandez set his keys down on a table in the living room and peeled off his overcoat.
The consistent beep, beep of health monitors could be heard coming from the spare bedroom. It was the constant music of the apartment that made him glad to leave it every morning, but it was unavoidable. The electronic drone let him know he was alive in a different way that the snow pattering down on his head and shoulders did when he walked out in the city. It let him know how fragile life was how even the most vigilant, the most worthy of their lives could lose them.
Fernandez walked into the doorway of the spare bedroom and clicked on the light. The bed and the gaunt body connected to the life support system on it became visible. A wire support had been placed over the emaciated form to keep the sheets off of it. Voluntary breathing was something that had just started up again this week and was the one thing the body didn't need a machine to provide. Otherwise, the stranger was a mechanically motivated ghost with no name and no prospects. Fernandez wasn't known for taking in strays, but in this case he'd made an exception. Why, he wasn't quite sure himself yet, but the truth would reveal itself to him soon enough.
Continued...