-
Meryl sipped the drink in her hands, gazing at Vash who sat across the table from her. Since the strange craft had passed over the town more than half an hour ago, he'd been unusually mellow. No, it was more than "mellow", he was broody. He was half-slumped down in his chair, food and drink left untouched, and he stared at nothing in particular on the floor.
"What do you suppose that was?" she asked, finally, after the lengthy silence.
He shrugged, not even bothering to look at her.
She frowned as she placed her cup on the table. "Aren't you concerned about it? You haven't said anything since it flew by." Her eyes narrowed at him as she leaned to her left, trying to get a good look at his face. "Are you even listening to me?"
"Yes, I am," he quietly replied, his brilliant green eyes met Meryl's. "It was a ship."
Great. Words. Finally! "Then what do you think about that ship?"
"What about it?"
Her brow furrowed. "Don't you think we should try to find it? The crew could still be alive."
He shifted his gaze back to the floor, further frustrating Meryl. She couldn't figure out which Vash was worse: the overly goofy dork or the stoic, mysterious stranger who sat with her now. She wanted to know what he knew and he wasn't talking. Her fingers drummed impatiently against the tabletop, waiting for a response.
He'd done nothing but think about that ship since it'd appeared in the sky. If he told her, Meryl would ask even more questions. Questions he wasn't sure he wanted to remember the answers to. Whoever they were, they were a long way from home, that he knew for certain. More than likely, they would end up dead in a few hours, if they weren't already. The idea of searching out that ship and its crew didn't appeal to him in the least. It dredged up too many painful memories of a different vessel, and the crew upon it he'd befriended. One woman in particular.
"You're better off if you forget about it," Vash finally told her.
She stared back at him, surprised. "I can't believe you, of all people, are saying such a thing." She clasped her fingers tightly around her cup when he offered no explanation for this out of character behavior. So she just demanded it. "What's the matter with you?"
Once more, his eyes met hers, but he remained silent.
Irritated, Meryl slammed her palms on the table as she stood up. "Fine. Stay here and do whatever you want. I don't care."
After Meryl stormed out of the saloon, Vash went back to staring at the floor. She couldn't understand. No one could. Even now, after a century's worth of time's passage, the pain was as fresh as it was that day. The day she died. The day she gave her life to save others.
Outside, Meryl folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the wall near the doorway to the saloon. What the hell is his problem? she angrily thought. Since when doesn't he care about people who are in trouble?
"Ma'am?" Milly joined Meryl then glanced around. "Where is Mr. Vash?"
Meryl jerked a thumb to the building behind her. "In there."
She frowned then asked, "Is he going to find that thing that flew overhead earlier?" She gestured to the thomases behind her, packed and ready for a long trip. "I'm ready to go, ma'am."
"He says it was a spaceship and he's not going, either, Milly."
The smile melted away from her face. "He isn't?"
Meryl shook her head.
"Why not?"
She shrugged.
"That isn't like Mr. Vash at all, ma'am. And if that ship really is from space, the people onboard will definitely need our help." She placed a hand on Meryl's shoulder. "Why don't you ask him again if he'll go with us? He'll listen to you."
"He never listens to me. If that were true, we would've never come to this town." She sighed, then her arms dropped to her sides. "It's pointless. He just doesn't care."
"Well," Milly said after a few moments, "if he won't go with us, we'll go alone. We have several hours of daylight left and the ship couldn't be more than twenty iles from here." She smiled brightly when Meryl looked up to her. "We can do it!"
Milly was dead set on finding that downed ship. More than half the planet saw it go down, too. Good and bad people alike. If someone didn't try to help out the survivors, they wouldn't be survivors for long. A sense of determination welling up within her, Meryl nodded her head as she pushed herself off of the wall.
"Let's go!"
-
"Are you sure you should go by yourself?" Jet paused in his work underneath one of the bridge consoles to look up at Spike. "We don't even know what's out there, let alone where we are."
"You said people lived here."
"I never said that."
"Yes, you did."
"I said there were 'clusters of civilization', not people."
Spike leaned against the pilot's seat, a smirk on his face. "I thought I was the only smart-ass on this ship?"
"Most of the time." Jet grinned and disappeared back under the console. "Either way, you should wait for me. I know how you operate, Spike. If there are people living in these towns, you'll annoy them without somebody around the rein you in."
"So ... how long is this gonna take?" Spike asked, gesturing to the console with one hand as he pulled out his pack of cigarettes with the other.
Jet grunted. "Another hour or so," he replied as Spike lit up a cigarette.
He choked on the smoke when he inhaled. "Are you kidding? You want me to wait around here for an hour? Maybe more?"
"It's an estimate. And, yeah, I do." He muttered a curse as one of the circuits shorted out, giving the fingers of his right hand a mild shock. "You'd better make it two hours, at least."
Spike dropped his head, sighing. He wanted to get the hell off the ship more than anything else. The feeling of uselessness irritated him. Jet knew everything about repairing the ship, Ed had her own skills with the computer that she applied in trying to figure out where they were, then Faye ... Well, she was in her quarters, recovering from her mild concussion.
"Jet!" Ed bounded onto the bridge. "Found something on the computer!" She poked at him then grabbed a hold of Spike's hand. "Come and see! Ed knows where we are!"
-
Down in the living area, Ed clicked away on the keys of her computer as Jet and Spike stood behind her, watching as the hacking program zoomed through the system of another computer. Humming a tune, Ed navigated the semi- alien computer system until she found what she'd wanted to show them.
"Ah! Here it is!" She pulled up her goggles and pointed to the screen. "Found another working computer, full of information, too."
Jet and Spike both leaned over, reading the information scrolling across the screen. To Jet, it appeared to be the mainframe of another spaceship. To Spike, it didn't look like much of anything.
"Where's this other computer?" asked Spike as he looked down at the top of Ed's head. She responded by pointing up at the ceiling. "This ship is still in the sky, hanging over the planet," she replied. She tilted her head back, meeting Spike's gaze. "Many people live there. Have for over a hundred years! Ed found all kinds of records and maps and things."
"Anything about the people living on the planet itself?"
Ed clicked the keys. "Hmm. Not much."
"What do they have?" Jet prompted.
"They stay away from the surface people, the ones on the ship, that is." Ed rested her chin in the palms of her hands as she watched the computer spit out mounds of old coordinates and details of its original mission.
"Wait ... what's that?" Spike pointed to one of the planetary graphics that had come up on Ed's screen. He waited for the girl to access the information. If he was forced to guess, he would've said that planet was -
"Earth!" She clicked another key. "Ship came from Earth. Says here, it wasn't the only one, either ... "
"What were they doing?" Jet was now crouched on one side of Ed, reading the information on her computer.
"Colonization."
"And they picked this shithole of a planet to do it on?" Spike incredulously replied, his eyebrows raising.
"Nope. Crashed. Something went wrong. Most ships were lost, some managed to survive the atmosphere and make it to the surface." Ed continued punching her keys. "This one ... it stays in the air because the people make it stay there."
"I don't understand this," Jet said, shaking his head. "How can ships that weren't even on Earth one hundred and thirty years ago be in deep space now?"
Ed glanced over at him. "That's the other part I found. It's not only where the Bebop is, it's when it is." She hit the last key and pointed to her screen. "See?"
Jet shook his head. "No," he whispered. "No, this is impossible! Your computer made a mistake, this can't be right."
"Computers don't make mistakes," Ed matter of factly replied.
"Then you did."
"I make no mistakes!" she huffed, putting her hands on her hips as she scowled at Jet. "Bebop went over twelve hundred years into the future!"
Spike collapsed onto the couch. Luckily, it was directly behind him or else he would've landed on the floor. The future? They'd gone into the future? And over a millennium, too? "How in the hell is this possible?"
"Anomaly ripped a hole in time and space," Ed explained. "Then ... here we are!"
Jet sighed as he hung in head. This was too much. It was more than enough when they only believed themselves to be lost in space, now they were lost in time as well. "What could've caused such an anomaly in the first place?" he asked, more thinking aloud than asking anyone in particular.
"Lots of weirdy-weird things happen in the gateways. Bebop's engine problem mighta contributed to an already existing unstable element in subspace."
"I'm not an astrophysicist."
"Neither is Ed." She shrugged. "Just guessing!"
Jet shook his head again then looked over his shoulder to Spike. The other man was laid back on the couch, his eyes closed. "Hey, Spike. This isn't the time to be sleeping. We have a real problem here."
"I know. We can't fix a hole in time and space, can we, Jet?" he replied, eyes still closed.
"That may be, but we have a ship that can be repaired. We have ourselves, too. If we're gonna be stuck on here for a while, we'll have to do business with the people, if there are any." He paused. "I seriously doubt they'd take woolongs, Spike."
Spike opened his eyes and propped himself up on his elbows. "What're you saying? I'm supposed to get a job here?"
"It's a start."
He narrowed his eyes at Jet. "What about you?"
Jet rose up to his feet. "I have a ship to repair."
"I'm failing to see how this arrangement is fair."
"You're the tagalong on this adventure. Plus, it's my ship, and what I says goes." He looked down to Ed, who'd been listening to the exchange with great interest. "See if you can't find any information on these towns in that computer of yours."
"Aye-aye!" Ed sharply saluted him.
With one last glance at Spike, Jet left the room and headed back up to the bridge.
"Shit," Spike grumbled as he placed his feet on the floor. He fished through the inner pocket of his jacket, pulled out his pack of cigarettes and took inventory. Only six left. And it was his last pack. He'd planned to buy more as soon as they reached Mars. Fate was a real bitch today. He shoved them back into his pocket, determined to save them for when he absolutely needed a fix.
Faye, who'd lingered in the corridor while Ed explained what happened to the ship, leaned against the wall and bowed her head. What was it with Faye Valentine and losing decades of time? First, she'd lost over fifty years in a cold sleep. Now, she was over a thousand years further into the future because of a freak tear in the fabric of space and time. Her head lifted when she heard the sound of someone approaching.
Spike stopped in front of her, his hands shoved into his pockets and a look of utter defeat in his eyes.
"I heard everything," she softly said before he could speak.
A few uncomfortable moments of silence passed before Spike asked, "How's your head?"
Her hand went to the gauze bandage patch covering the minor cut. "I'll live," she answered, a little surprised he'd even asked. The dizziness and nausea passed long ago, thanks to a pill Jet administered to her.
"You shouldn't be walking around."
Her hand lowered to her side. "I know." She regarded him with a curious expression. What was with all of the sympathy and caring coming from him? "It's only a bump on the head. It's nothing."
He finally looked her in the eye. "We can't lose you, Faye. Not now."
She blinked. Maybe I wasn't the only one who took a blow to the head. Before she could reply to his concerned words, Spike spoke again.
"Because if I have to get a job on this goddamn dirt rock, so do you."
Faye's eyes narrowed at him as her hands clenched into fists at her sides. "Well, I don't plan on being stuck here for long!" With that, she headed for the bay where her Red-Tail was lying in storage.
-
Ed, who'd dragged her computer up to the bridge, paused in pretending to fly the Bebop when the roar of engines rattled the ship. At that moment, Jet popped up from underneath the nearby console. He growled lightly as Faye's Red-Tail tore away from the Bebop. Spike's Swordfish was right behind her.
"Goddamnit! Neither one of them knows how to listen!"
Ed leaned over the side of the chair to look at Jet. "They better bring back souvenirs!"
-
"Ma'am?"
"Hmm?" Meryl looked to her left to see Milly offering the water canteen to her. "Oh. Thanks!" She accepted it, took a long drink then sighed. They'd been riding for an hour, covering quite a bit of ground in that time.
"I wonder what kind of people they are," Milly said as she glanced over at Meryl. "To have something like a spaceship ... they have to be pretty special. Don't you think?"
"I suppose." Meryl shrugged. Truth be told, the people on that ship hadn't been on her mind. Vash had never been so disinterested in anything before. During her entire life, Meryl hadn't laid eyes on an actual working spacecraft. Just about everyone on the planet hadn't. Why was Vash the only person who didn't seem to care?
"April City isn't far off," Milly commented when Meryl offered nothing in the way of conversation. "Isn't that where Mr. Wolfwood said he was going when we saw him last?"
"I think so."
Milly clasped her hands together, smiling. "Oh, I hope he's still there! Then we would already know someone in town."
Meryl smiled at her associate but that smile quickly faded when she saw two dark blotches against the northern horizon. Soon, the two craft, much smaller than the one they'd seen earlier, zoomed overhead. They're headed for April City, she thought as the ships banked to the left, heading to the east.
"Someone did survive!" Milly's gaze left the fading specks in the sky and fell on Meryl. "At least we know where they're going."
"Let's hurry. Maybe we can catch them before they town." Meryl urged her thomas into a faster gait. If these strangers did end up in April City, who knew what kind of reception the locals would give them? Not every town on Gunsmoke was full of warm, kindhearted people. Especially in this area of the world.
"I wish Mr. Vash would've come with us, ma'am!" Milly called out as they raced across the barren desert before them.
"So do I, Milly! So do I!"
-
"Have you noticed something about this planet, Faye?" Spike asked as he watched the copper-colored ground whisk by outside of his windows.
"No, what is it?" Faye's voice crackled over the comm in his Swordfish.
"I haven't seen anything resembling a spaceport around here," he replied. He looked to the consoles in front of him which offered little information beyond the status of the ship itself. "In fact, I haven't noticed a hell of a lot of industrialization, period."
"So? What does that mean to us?"
"It's just curious, that's all," he replied, shrugging. "How can people a thousand years in our future travel this far into deep space and be living in the Dark Ages?"
"Who knows? I really don't care, either. I'm so hungry right now, I could eat some of those rocks out there. This town better have an open door policy towards wayward travelers."
Even though Faye could dismiss it, he couldn't it. Something didn't feel right here. "Let's land well outside of town, Faye."
"What? Why?"
"Just do it, would you? It won't hurt to walk a while, anyway."
"Is that some kind of crack about my weight?" Faye angrily shot back.
Sighing, he shook his head. If he had to be stuck on this planet for the rest of his life, he'd need to get away from her. The woman drove him insane.
More To Come ...
Song Title Used: "Across The Universe" by The Beatles