Chapter 2

Who are You?

Hours continue to drift by as Sam Beckett had gone around the red ship that sat in the parking lot. Even though the ship looked beaten it was far beyond anything he had seen before.

            As Sam observed the engines. He by some strange nature reached into his jacket and fished out a pack of cigarettes. He then produced a strange looking lighter and lit the cigarette. He paused there as he deeply inhaled. This was strange for Sam as he was never a smoker. It was yet another thing that crossed into his Swiss-cheesed mind.

            "Al where are you?" Sam asked himself.

            "Why I'm right here, Sammy boy!" The familiar voice of Al called out.

            Al appeared and walked through the ship as if it were nothing. He was there and both himself and Sam looked relived.

            "So enjoying the habit you used to ridicule me about." Al said as he chomped on his cigar.

            Sam looked down and quickly drop the cigarette and crushed it under his foot. A part of him wished he didn't do that. It was as if he was destroying a part of himself. But Sam quickly turned to face Al as he wanted to know what's going on.

            "What's going on?" Sam demanded

            Al reached over and quickly punched in commands on the hand-link. Well what has happened Sam has never in the history of this project. I mean this is unbelievable Ziggy can't even handle the info."

            "Just tell me the year, okay."

            "Well and believe me this is going to throw ya way off. According to Ziggy you're in the year 2071. And not only are you in the future but you're on all things, Mars.

            "Yeah the red sky kind of proves that. Any idea why I'm here?"

            "Ziggy has no clue. Hell we have no clue how this happened. But there is one piece of good news."

            "What?" Sam asked as he was going about to light a cigarette.

            "I spoke to the guy you leapt into at the waiting room. From what I can gather your name is Spike Spiegel and you're out to capture some guy named Archer."

            "Any idea why?"

            "No clue. But I do know what you do for a living Sam."

            "What's that?"

            "You're a bounty hunter."

            Sam took a long drag on his cigarette and then exhaled. "Oh, boy."

            Things on the Bebop had been going smoothly as they could be. With the fact things kept breaking down and the fact there were no funds to pay for anything. But surprisingly practically all of the crew was there with the exception of Spike.

            For raven haired and yellow short-shorts wearin' bounty hunter Faye Valentine. Life drifted by slowly, very slowly when one doesn't have money. In the meantime it was the usual routine of chain smoking and sitting on the couch watching tv which was what she was doing now.

            The image of an old style revolver appeared on screen and old western music blared. It was the show 'Big Shots' the show for bounty hunters wanting to keep up on the latest bounties.

            After the opening image disappeared, two people appeared. One was a dark-skinned man with a huge mustache dressed in a cowboy outfit. The other was a beautiful blond, blue eyed woman who wore a jacket that just covered enough skin. They were Punch and Judy: The hosts of Big Shots.

            The two appeared back to back.  Punch opened with his signature line.

            "HI AMIGOS!. The three hundred thousand bounty hunters in the solar system. How ya'll doing?" Punch yelled to the camera. "Today we got some HOT news on of out latest suspects."

            "Who would that be?" Asked Judy

            "Why that's a good question. The fact is no one has been able to capture our top fugitive."

            Another image appeared on screen. That of a somewhat wiry, young looking man with long blond hair. With his information on the bottom of the screen. Punch's voice was heard over the image.

            "Our top bounty still belongs to that mean hombre known as Archer. Word has it he maybe up to no good. He already has killed, robbed and blown up."

            Punch and Judy returned to the screen.

            "Is there anything he hasn't done?" Judy asked

            "Probably jaywalking" Punch chimed in. "But he may have done that. The fact is there is an eight million woolong bounty on this rascal. Hopefully someone will find him before he strikes again!"

            As the two hosts continued to prattle on. Ed continued to tinker with the supercomputer known as Ziggy.

            "Oh Ziggy what else can you tell Ed?" Ed said to herself

            Ein barked in agreement.

            As everyone was transfixed on what they usually did. Sam walked into the main room. It had taken him awhile to pilot the ship but just like the smoking they somehow came naturally to him.

            Sam looked around and noticed the back of someone who had purple hair. He also noticed a girl sitting of in a corner who had wild red hair and coppery skin. Her hair was wilder than that of the guy he had leapt into. All Sam hoped was that he maintained his cool.

            "Yo" Sam said the first thing word that popped into his head.

            Faye turned her head around to look at Sam. "Where have you been?" She demanded

            "I've been looking for Archer."

            Faye then rose up from the couch to face Sam. Then Sam was completely surprised at what he was looking at.

            Not only was this woman have purple hair but they she was dressed caught Sam completely off guard.  She was wearing yellow short-shorts with a matching top that left very little to the imagination. She also had a red sweater that was wrapped around her shoulders. Sam was enraptured but something in his swiss-cheesed mind told him otherwise.

            "So you've been looking for Archer huh?" Faye asked

            "That's right."

            "That took longer than it usually does, Spike."
            Sam continued walking through the main area of the ship and walked closer to the wild haired girl at the computer.

            "Well it's the nature of being a bounty hunter. Things take time."

            "Well it's taking too long for me. I'm going to drop out of this unless we hit something big."

            Just as Sam approached the wild-haired girl. The Welsh Corgi known as Ein picked his head up. But he didn't bark, he just looked at Sam with a curious expression. Sam knew that the dog could see who he really was. But Ein didn't bark, he just got up and walked over to Sam's leg. He was trying to be friendly to this stranger of the Bebop.

            "Why hello." Sam said to the dog as leaned down to pet it. "How are you?"

            Ein let Sam pet him and Ein looked happy as Sam pet the dog.

            As Sam was petting the dog, everyone in the room looked at him. This was strange they never had seen Spike pet the dog. In fact Spike never liked dogs and especially the one that lived on the ship. This was strange, too strange even for this group.

            "Hey Everyone!" Jet called out. "Dinners on."

            Ed shot up from her computer and rushed out of the main area. "Ed need food, Ed love food."

            Sam and Faye just looked at the girl as she ran out. Ein followed leaving Sam and Faye alone.

            Sam looked at Faye and Faye looked at Sam. There was silence in the ship. Both stared at each other. It was as if Faye was seeing something she wasn't used to seeing. That even in this strange world she could even be surprised.

            "You hungry?" Sam asked

            "What?" Faye asked as if she were snapped out of hypnosis.

            " I said are you hungry?"

            "Yeah I guess."

            "I heard it was bell peppers and beef. Sounds good." Sam said as he started walking out of the room.  

            Faye sat alone in the main area. "You'll be surprised Spike, quite surprised."