Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Outlaw Star or Trigun or anything affiliated with said shows.

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'


Melfina smiled as Gene told everyone the news. Apparently there was a town about twenty minutes to the north of where they currently were. "I didn't actually go into town." Gene said. "But I did check it out. They seem to be a little primitive technology wise, but we should be able to find at least most of our supplies there."

"Yeah!" Aisha said as she danced around, pulling Jim along with her. "Civilization here I come." And with that, she was gone and all you could see was a dust cloud forming in the distance.

Gene raised his hand and thought about calling her back, but decided against it. She could take care of herself. Looking at the remainder of his crew, he became serious and continued with his report. "Like I was saying, we should be able to get most of the things we need from that town. But while I was there I heard some people talking about this wanted killer. Apparently he blew up two cities and put a hole in one of the planet's moons. They claim that he's headed towards the town, so be careful ok."

"Aye, aye captain." Jim said as he gave him a mock salute.

"Now Jim." Melfina said softly. "Gene's right, we should be careful..." And then smiling, she grabbed Suzuka and Jim by the hand and they took off towards town. And the last words that Gene heard were "To not be left behind." followed by their laughter as they left him all alone with Gilliam.

ooooo

Aisha, who had decided to run all the way to the town, collapsed when she saw the first building. "Must…find…water." She said as she crawled pathetically through the streets. Suddenly she saw a bar and in an instant she was on her feet and headed towards the door.

WHAM!

Aisha stumbled backwards with her hand on her nose as a man dressed in black with sunglasses on and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, walked out the door he had just opened on her face. As the man brushed passed her, her hackles raised and she growled.

Needless to say the man was a little stunned. You don't usually run across someone who thinks they're a dog. 'Of course I thought my friend was a cat one time…but that's not the point.' He thought as he shook his head to dispel anymore crazy thoughts.

"Hey you." Aisha said as she grabbed him roughly by the arm. "Aren't you even going to offer to buy me a drink and apologize?"

"What for?" The man asked calmly, with the cigarette still hanging loosely from his lips. "The door was the one that hit you, not me, so it should do the apologizing."

Aisha blinked in confusion for a few seconds and then turned around to make the door say sorry. "Wait a minute." She said as the pieces started to fall into place. "A door can't apologize." Turning around to teach the stupid man a lesson, she was only mildly surprised to find that he had already fled. "I'll find him and make him pay." She said as she cracked her knuckles.

"Find who." A voice said behind her. Turning around, Aisha saw Mel, Jim and Suzuka staring at her. "Ehheheh…" She laughed as she scratched the back of her head nervously. "No one." Putting a smile on her face, Aisha held the bar door open and pointed inside. "I don't know about you guys, but I could use a drink."

They all walked into the bar and ordered their drinks before finding a table and sitting down. A few minutes passed in silence before Jim spoke up. "I think that we should split up." He said. "Melfina and I will check around for a place to buy electrical equipment and parts to repair the ship. Suzuka, you and Aisha can try to find a place that sells fuel. We're going to need a lot of it." Once everyone had their orders, they all finished their drinks and headed their separate ways.

ooooo

Jim and Melfina headed towards a repair shop he'd seen on the way into town. Walking in, he headed right to the counter and began to ask him about all sorts of technical stuff. None of which Mel understood. So while the two guys talked she began to wander around the store looking at all of the different items that were available. Turning a corner, she almost ran over a woman who was looking for something on a bottom shelf. "I'm so sorry." Melfina said as she bowed her head. "I didn't see you there."

The lady looked up and smiled. "Don't worry about it." Standing up, she straightened out her over coat, tucked some of her long brown hair behind her ear and stuck out her hand. "My name's Millie, what's yours?"

Shaking the kind woman's hand, Mel smiled. "I'm Melfina; it's nice to meet you."

They continued to chat until Jim came up. "Hey Mel, I got all the electrical equipment I should need to fix Gilliam." He said without bothering to look up from his computer screen. "So we should probably go and check on the other guys now."

"Oh, hi Jim." Melfina said smiling. Pointing to the woman next to her, Mel introduced her new friend. "Jim this is Millie. I accidentally bumped into her while I was wandering around the store."

Looking up, Jim nodded and slipped his computer back into his pocket. "It's nice to meet you Millie." He said as he shook her hand. Then he turned back to face Melfina. "Mel, we really need to go now. I don't really trust Gene with Gilliam so I'd like to get everything we need and get back to the ship as soon as possible."

Frowning, Mel nodded her head. "Well it was very nice to meet you Millie; maybe we'll see each other again sometime."

Millie laughed. "I'm sure we will it's a fairly small town after all." Waving to her new friend, Millie went back to looking for…um…well I'm sure she'll remember what she was looking for eventually.

"Did we really have to go Jim?" Mel asked sadly. "I would have liked to talk with her some more, she was nice."

"Sorry Mel, but we really should find the others." Jim said as he grabbed her hand and led her down the street. "Those two guys can get into a lot of trouble when they're not being supervised. And I really don't want to go into debt on this planet as well." He shuddered as he thought of the damage Aisha had caused at the last place they docked. It had taken a lot of negotiating to get them out of there and they were told to never come back.

The two walked in silence for a few minutes until Melfina spoke up. "So how do you know where to go to anyways?"

"Oh, I just asked the owner of the last shop where I could find a place that sold fuel and he told me to head out past the bar we stopped at and there's a shop about three doors down." Jim replied as they neared the bar.

The door to the bar opened up just as they started to pass, and when Jim glanced in he froze. There was Suzuka sitting at the bar talking to a woman with short brown hair. And if he wasn't mistaken, she was actually laughing. After he picked his mouth up from the ground, he dragged a very confused Melfina into the bar and straight up to where she was sitting.

"And then he flew us right into their territory and practically begged them to fight us." Suzuka said as she tried to calm herself, while the lady next to her just continued to laugh. "But the worst part is, he lost the fight and we had to crash land on this planet so we could make repairs."

"HAAHHAAAAHHAA!!" The unknown woman laughed as she listened to the story. "That sounds a lot like a friend of mine. The only difference is he doesn't go looking for trouble, it follows him around like a flea does a cat."

Clearing his throat to get Suzuka's attention, Jim waited for her to acknowledge him. Hearing the noise Suzuka turned around to see Melfina and Jim standing behind her. "Hi you guy's, what brings you here?" She asked as she tried to make her laughter subside. Jim looked like he was ready to explode, so Suzuka continued before he could. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Meryl. I was just telling her about our incompetent pilot and how we ended up on this desert planet."

Meryl waved her hand. "Hey, it's nice to meet you…um"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Melfina said with a small bow. "This is Jim and I'm Melfina. It's very nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." Meryl said as she stood up and stretched. Looking to Suzuka, she smiled. "That was fun; we should do it again sometime."

"Yes, I would enjoy that." Suzuka replied as she shook her hand.

"Well I've got to go and find my wayward friend, she always get's herself into trouble if I'm not there to keep an eye on her." With that Meryl gave a small wave and left the bar.

Jim turned on Suzuka as soon as Meryl was gone. "What have you been doing this entire time?" He asked with narrowed eyes. "I sent you out to find fuel for the ship and instead I find you drinking tea in a bar with some new friend. Did you at least start looking before you took a break?"

Suzuka glared at Jim. "Of course I did. I'm not Aisha. I already went to a place a few doors down that makes and sells fuel for some of the machines around here, and the owner said he'd have it delivered to the ship as soon as it was paid for."

Jim just blinked. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be that way it's just I feel like nobody cares about getting off this desert rock except me."

Suzuka nodded her head in acceptance. "You need to relax Jim." She said. "We'll get back up into space eventually so we might as well relax while we're here."

"I guess you're right." Jim said as he took several deep breaths. Once he had calmed down a bit he glanced around. "Where's Aisha?"

"I don't know." Suzuka replied. "I haven't seen her since we got to the store."

KA-BOOM!

"Oh no." Jim said as he dropped his head onto the bar. "Not again."