Chapter 4: "Reverence"

-

"Hi, Will," greeted the young blonde woman behind the counter as another customer entered the only saloon in April City. "How're you today?"

Will took a seat at counter, smiling as the woman served up his usual drink. "Town's gone half-crazy with talk of alien invaders, Ali."

Ali lifted an eyebrow. "Alien invaders? What brought that on?" She picked up a rag and began to wipe down the countertop.

"Bob Talbert came into town about an hour ago, talking about a spaceship he supposedly saw in the sky." Will slugged down his drink and paused while Ali refilled it. "Anyway, he and about a dozen other guys set out to find it. He says it crashed somewheres east of here."

"And they believed him?"

"Shoulda seen his face." He sipped the drink. "He obviously believed it enough to convince them." He set the glass back on the bar. "Personally, I think he's full of shit. A spaceship? Nobody's seen that kind of technology for a hundred years."

Ali laughed. "I'm curious as to what they plan to do with it if they do find it." She wiped her hands with the rag and laid it down. "Not as though any of them know how to operate it."

Will snorted. "There ain't no spaceship out there. They'll come back in a day or two and be the laughingstock of the town for a while."

"Probably." She looked past Will Harman to the only other person sitting in her bar that afternoon. "Anything else I can get you?" she called out to the man in black. She wished he was turned around, so she could see his face. He was awfully good-looking, something rare in April City.

The man raised his hand, a smoldering cigarette clutched between two fingers, then motioned that he was fine.

"Okay." She shrugged. He'd been slouched in that chair for the past thirty minutes; one hand resting on the large cross which was swathed in white cloth and buckled black belts and leaned against his table.

"Who's he?" Will asked, looking back to Ali.

"A priest."

"Really? Did the huge cross give it away?" he sarcastically replied.

She gave him a look. "He's been in town for a few weeks. Spends most of his time at the orphanage on the other side of town." She smiled a little. "Wish he'd spend more time on this side of town, though."

Will saw the glassy-eyed gaze in Ali's eyes. "Aren't you forgetting he's a priest?" He finished off his second drink.

She frowned. "That doesn't mean I can't dream."

He laughed then turned around on his stool. "Hey! Priest!" he called out to the man. When he received no acknowledgment, he tried again. "Priest, I'm talkin' to you!"

The priest's hand flicked the ashes from the end of his cigarette. "I heard you the first time," he casually replied.

Will's eyebrows arched. "Oh, so we got us a priest with an attitude?" he murmured.

Ali placed a hand on his arm. "Don't irritate him. He doesn't bother anyone and I'd like to keep him coming here."

He shrugged her hand off. "I ain't gonna start anything, woman. I just wanna talk to him. Never met an honest to God priest before. Not in a bar, at any rate."

Ali sighed, shaking her head. Why couldn't he leave it alone?

"You hear about this so-called spaceship that landed or whatever near here?" Will asked as he leaned against the counter, his gaze locked on the back of the priest's head.

"Thanks to your loud mouth, yeah, I have now."

Will narrowed his eyes briefly. Where did this guy get off talking to him like that? "What d'you think about it? Think we're being invaded by aliens?" he asked with a laugh.

"No."

"Oh? Why's that? You have it on confidence from the good Lord above?"

"No."

Will was becoming frustrated by the priest's short answers and disinterested tone. "Then why do you think we're not?"

The priest lifted up his glass, finished the last of his drink then placed the empty glass on the table. "Aliens wouldn't waste their time invading a shithole planet like this, genius. That's why."

After a few moments of silence, Will laughed loudly. He glanced back to Ali. "I like this guy!" He jerked a thumb at him. "He's pretty damn funny."

"Would you leave him alone?"

"Hey, priest. You're pretty funny. What's your name?" He waved a hand at the barmaid, trying to shush her. "I wanna know."

"Nicholas D. Wolfwood."

"Ah. So ... Father Wolfwood ... do you believe in aliens, then?"

"Stop it," Ali hissed.

"Sure, I do," Wolfwood replied. He flicked the ashes off the end of his cigarette before taking another drag.

"Really now?" Will's eyebrows arched in amusement. "You believe in alien lifeforms?"

A pause. "You're here, aren't you?"

His eyes darkened, all joviality gone from his manner. "You're pretty damn disrespectful for a priest," he snapped. His expression became even harder when Wolfwood ignored him. "Aren't you people supposed to love thy neighbor?"

"I'm from a different order."

"Are you going to leave him alone now?" Ali asked as Will turned back to the bar.

"Yeah," he muttered. He wasn't finished with this so-called priest, however. They'd continue this discussion later ... when Ali wasn't around to save his holy ass.

On the other side of the room, Wolfwood lit up another cigarette. Apparently, this Will had become bored with harassing him. Good for him, he thought. He didn't want to make a nasty mess of this nice young lady's establishment. It was a miracle he'd managed to keep his cool as long as he had. No more nine months ago, he would've stopped the conversation before it went beyond the initial 'Hey, Priest!'.

He blamed Vash the Stampede for that.

And this idiot, Will, should thank the outlaw for it.

-

"It's so hot out here," Faye moaned. She dragged a hand over her forehead, wiping away the sweat. She looked over to Spike, who was perspiring just as much as she. "Doesn't it bother you?"

"Not really." He had his jacket slung over his shoulder and trudged along as though he were back on Mars, without a care in the world.

Faye held her own jacket over her head for shade. "Could it get any hotter on this planet?" She peered at him from underneath her makeshift umbrella. "I don't understand why you wanted to land so far from town. Who cares if they don't have any spaceports? Maybe they just don't need them. You ever consider that, Spike?"

"I did. And it doesn't make sense."

"I'll tell you what doesn't make sense." She gestured to the world around them. "This. Us being here. And a thousand years in the future. This is what doesn't make sense. I don't want to be stuck here."

"Like I do?"

Faye tucked her jacket tightly around her head until only a slit was left, so she could see where she was going. "The town's not much farther," she muttered after a few minutes of silence.

"I see it."

-

The townsfolk of April City had seen many strangers in their time, more than many of the other small towns on Gunsmoke, but never had they laid eyes on a pair like the ones who strolled down Main Street that afternoon. Spike kept an eye on the people, even more curious about them. The way they dressed, it was out of an old Western movie. Even the buildings and the town's set up mirrored the time period.

"Is it me or are these people staring at us?" Faye asked as she lowered her jacket/umbrella from over her head.

"They're staring," he replied.

"Good. Then I'm not paranoid."

As they moved to the wooden planked "sidewalk" which ran in front of the old buildings, most of the people stepped aside or went back into their shops before Spike and Faye reached them. The murmurs went ignored by them both. It wasn't the first time they'd been talked about in such a manner.

"What exactly are we looking for here?" Faye asked.

"A way to make money. And fast."

"You think these people will let us work for them?" She paused as they passed by a few older men sitting on a bench. She didn't like the way they oogled her. "This place freaks me out."

Spike was about to reply when something tacked onto the outside of the next building caught his eye. A cluster of papers, fluttering in the wind, adorned a bulletin board. As he tilted his head back, he smiled. The word above the door, he recognized it and he knew they were saved. 'Sheriff'.

Faye side-glanced at Spike, but he was no longer beside her. "Hey, where did you -" She saw him standing in front of one of the buildings, reading something. "What are you doing?" She followed his finger when he pointed to the papers. "What ... "

The papers turned out to be old fashioned Wanted posters. The local sheriff needed help apprehending outlaws, just as the ISSP did back in their own time and space. The bounties were listed in a currency neither knew but the higher the number, the better.

"We've found ourselves a job here," Spike said, grinning.

"You two bounty hunters, then?" a man asked as he stepped out of the Sheriff's Office. The gold sheriff's badge glittered on his shirt as he leaned in the doorway, studying the two young, strangely dressed people before him.

"Yeah, we are."

Faye was too busy scanning the price tags on the heads of the lowlifes on the bulletin board to notice the sheriff.

"Ya don't look it," he replied with a short laugh. "And you're definitely not from around here." He glanced at Faye. "So, you're interested in catching some of these bastards, huh?"

"Sure. We're in need of money. What better way to do it?"

"Where you folks from?"

Faye and Spike exchanged a glance, unsure of how to answer that question. The man probably wouldn't believe the truth; they hardly did themselves.

"Way y'all are dressed, I'd imagine you're from the other side of the planet. We don't get many folks from that far away in April City."

Faye nodded, relieved the man had given them a cover story. "Yeah, that's right. The other side of the planet." She smiled at him. "It's been an extremely long trip, too."

The sheriff extended a hand which Faye accepted. "I'm Maxwell Morgan. And you're -?"

"Faye Valentine."

"Spike Spiegel." He shook Morgan's hand.

"Huh. Different names," Morgan commented. "Suppose that's how it is on that side of the world." He crossed his arms over his chest and gave them a knowing look. "Only one thing could bring two bounty hunters to another hemisphere."

Spike glanced at Faye then said, "What would that be?"

Morgan laughed loudly as he slapped Spike on the back. "Ha! That's funny. The dumb act won't work on me, friend."

Spike frowned as he used his right hand to massage his back where the sheriff had whacked him. "I guess not," he muttered.

"You're after what every other bounty hunter on this planet is - that sixty billion double dollars, for the notorious Vash the Stampede!"

Faye's jaw dropped. She couldn't control it. The sound of sixty billion of anything would've garnered a similar response. "Did you ... say ... sixty ... billion?"

Morgan nodded, puzzled by the reaction of the young couple. Vash was legend and they looked as though they'd never heard of him before. Unless the clueless stuff was part of some cunning plan of theirs.

Spike shook his head, the daze of hearing sixty billion wearing off finally. "What exactly did this Vash do to earn a sixty billion bounty on his head?" he asked. Off the suspicious look on the sheriff's face, he added, "You hear all of these stories, I mean. You never know what to believe."

"'Bout thirty years ago, he leveled an entire town. Not a soul survived," Morgan answered, looking from Spike to Faye. "Since then, many towns have been destroyed. Some call him the 'Humanoid Typhoon'. Let's put it this way: if he ever walks into your town, you'd do well to pack up and run. I gotta tell you, though, many bounty hunters have gone after him ... none have come close to catching him."

Faye grabbed the sheriff by the shirt, yanking him closer. "Do you have any idea where this guy was last seen?" she eagerly asked. The thought sixty billion double dollars had taken hold of her. She hoped they had casinos on this planet. Or some form of gambling. What she could do what all that money - should she happen to stay - the possibilities were endless.

"Well, I ... I'm not really sure." The sheriff tried to back away but Faye had him in a death grip.

"Then what does he look like? Where has he been? What types of places does he go?" She shook Morgan as though that would make him rattle off everything she wanted to know. "Tell me!"

"No one knows what he looks like - other than that he's blonde and wears a long red coat."

Faye released Morgan, frowning. That was a whole lot of nothing to go on. A sixty billion dollar bounty, the authorities should have a better description than that to work with.

"If you are after him, I wish you luck." Morgan looked at each of them. "He's impossible to track and the most cunning criminal mind to ever exist. Period."

"Thanks, Sheriff," Spike said as he watched Morgan retreat back into his office. He shifted his gaze back to Faye. "What the hell was that? You almost choked him to death."

Faye sighed. "I'll put it into two simple words that even you can understand, Spike." She leaned up towards him, eyes steady on his. "Sixty. Billion."

In a tone which matched hers, he replied, "Hell. No."

"What do you mean, 'No'?"

"It's a wild goose chase, Faye. Did you listen to a word that man said? Or were you distracted by the woolong symbols in your eyes?"

She scowled at him as she folded her arms across her chest.

"We deal with somebody we have a chance of finding. So forget about this Vash the Stampede."

"All right," she said with a frustrated sigh. She gestured to him with one hand. "You're in charge, Spike."

He eyed her. Something wasn't right with this picture. Faye, giving up on a 60 billion bounty so easily? And conceding that he was in charge? This woman is up to no good, he thought. "Let's figure out which of these guys will pay out a decent amount then head back to the Bebop."

"Whatever you say," she said with a shrug.

Those three words, coming from her, scare the hell out of me.

-

"Vrrroooom!" Ed watched through her goggles as her hacking program zipped through another computer's system that she was able to connect with. These systems were all kid-at-play compared to what she was used to dealing with back home. Her joy-riding had a purpose, though. Jet instructed her to find out all she could on the towns of planet Gunsmoke.

In her travels, she'd discovered a lot about the place and the life there. It wasn't easy to survive, much like it wasn't easy on old Earth. Every town relied on generators for everything - food, the main priority. Technology was severely limited. Computer systems were simple. Modes of travel were even simpler. The longer distances between towns were done by something called a 'sand steamer'. Regular vehicles existed, but nothing highly evolved, however.

"La la la la," she sang to herself as she continued to delve into the computer files of Bernardelli Insurance Company.

Ein lifted his head as he watched her surf through the claims files. Suddenly, he barked.

Pulling up one side of her goggles, Ed looked to the dog. "What is it, Ein?"

Ein barked at the screen scrolling through files.

She turned back to it then noticed what the data dog had. "Hmm. This is weird." She clicked away on the keyboard. She paused and read through the files as they rolled through her goggles at a slower speed. "Lots and lots of money being paid out to people because of ... hmmm."

"Find out anything?" Jet entered the room. It's taken a while but he'd managed to get everything recalibrated and back online on the bridge. The rest of the ship needed various structural repairs, and those would be the most difficult. The jolt through time and space had knocked the Bebop to hell. He only hoped he could get the ship back in the air again.

"I found lots!" she answered, still reading the list of insurance claims.

"Like what?" Jet sat down on the couch behind her, glancing from the back of the girl's head to the computer screen. "What's this?"

"Insurance claims." She rested her chin in her palms, bopping her head from side to side as she continued to hum.

"Why're you looking through those?"

"Ein saw something weird."

"Ein?" Jet looked over to the dog, who sat at the other end of the couch, panting. "What was weird?"

"All these claims are filed because of the same reason."

"What's the reason?"

"A man!"

Jet blinked then focused on the screen. One man was the source of that many claims? Soon, the screen came to a halt. The list was done. "Does this man have a name?"

"Uh huh." Ed pulled up her goggles, rested them on the top of her head then pointed to the name that appeared on her screen countless times. "Vash the Stampede!"

Vash the ... Stampede? Jet sat back on the couch. What kind of planet had he landed them on? One man did that much damage? No wonder the place was a barren wasteland. "Did you find anything on the guy himself?"

"Haven't looked yet." She cracked her knuckles. "I'll start after I eat and take Ein outside." Ein jumped up at the mention of his name and going outside.

Jet nodded. "Don't wander away too far," he admonished as he watched Ed prepare to leave. "We don't know what's out there." Well, we know of one thing ... he added in his head as he looked back to Ed's computer.

"Don't worry!" Ed called out as she and Ein vanished around the corner.

-

"Milly, look!" Meryl reigned her thomas to a stop and hopped out of the saddle. "It's those ships we saw earlier!"

Milly stopped by Meryl's thomas and slid down from her own saddle. "I told you we'd find them, ma'am!" she called out. She ran to catch up to Meryl. "I hope they're okay."

"They don't seem to have crashed," Meryl said as they reached the two smaller ships. She circled around one while Milly checked out the other. "No one's here. You see anything?"

Milly climbed up to the cockpit of Faye's Red-Tail and peeked inside. "Uh- uh. Empty!"

Meryl put her hands on her hips. "That's odd," she murmured. "Why would they land here and desert their ships?" She looked up as Milly rejoined her. "Where do you suppose they went?"

After considering the options, Milly said, "April City isn't too far from here. Maybe they walked the rest of the way?" Or so she hoped. The idea of meeting the people who'd piloted these things made her a bit giddy. "I'm sure that's where they are."

"Let's hope you're right."

More To Come ... Song Title Used: "Reverence" by The Jesus And Mary Chain