The air was warm and humid on the spaceship Bebop, as they approached the asteroid gate that would take them to Mars. Jet Black stood at the controls of the spaceship with his eyes fixed looking out the window. He was concentrating on strategy for when they arrived on the surface of Mars. His focus was completely shattered by an annoying female voice.
"Jett! I thought you promised me that you were going to fix the air conditioner! It's too hot in here and I can't take it anymore!" It was the voice of Faye Valentine, part time gambler, and full time bounty hunter, who had basically invited herself to take up residence on the Bebop with the rest of the crew.
Jett was in no mood for Faye or any of her complaining. He did not care if she was in a bad mood over the air conditioner, or anything else for that matter. He was in too much of a bad mood himself to care.
It had been a frustrating week for the crew of the Bebop. They were pursuing a 20 million woolong bounty head named Ticamo Wang. Wang was a professional con artist who had cheated hundreds of people through false financial investment opportunities. He was also very smart, and although the Bebop crew had considerable skills in bounty hunting, Wang somehow always managed to stay one step ahead of them. They first caught up with him on Ganymede, but he managed to escape. The Bebop crew then chased Wang to Earth, then to Mars, and now they were returning to Ganymede based on a tip Jett had received from an old friend at ISSP.
Normally, they would not have gone through this much trouble to catch a bounty worth that much, but not much else was available. More importantly, the ship needed repairs, and its crew needed food.
"JETT! Are you even listening to me?" Faye screamed at Jett.
"I heard you the first time, Faye. Now listen! Once we get through this asteroid gate we'll be landing in fifteen minutes. Be ready to head out. We're gonna catch this guy tonight." Jett said with determination in his voice.
"Jett, why must you men be so insistent all the time?" Faye whined.
"Because if we don't catch this guy soon and get the bounty, there won't be another scrap of food left on this ship for your dinner!" Jett sharply replied.
"Hey! Can you guys keep in down in there?" Spike yelled from the couch in the living room area. "I'm trying to sleep!"
Both Faye and Jett rolled their eyes, but did not say anything.
Several minutes later, Jett prepared to navigate the ship through the asteroid gate. Just then, he could hear Ein whimpering.
"What's the matter buddy?" Jett asked, lifting his eyebrow as he studied the dog. "Is the poor old boy sick? Or maybe he's just hungry," Jett wondered to himself as he reached into his pocket to see if he had any dog biscuits for Ein. What Jett failed to remember was that animals can sense situations of danger long before humans can do so. This was especially true for Ein, who was an impeccably intelligent canine due to the fact he was a cyberdog. But unfortunately, for as intelligent as Ein was, he could not speak. If he could, he would have been able to warn Jett that something was about to happen.
Upon entering the asteroid gate, Jett could immediately tell there was something wrong. Something was very, very wrong. The ship violently shook as Jett tried to man the controls. Faye held onto the door handle to keep herself from being hurled across the room. All objects on the ship were sent flying in all directions. Spike's nap was again interrupted as he was thrown from the couch. Ed could be heard off in the distance yelling "WHEEEEE! This is FUUUUUNNNNN!"
Jett had often heard about the occurrence of gate accidents, but they were reported to rarely ever happen. Jett wondered if the gate was malfunctioning and if the Bebop would be torn apart as a result. "Could this be it?" Jett wondered as he desperately tried to stand upright at the navigation controls.
Suddenly an array of colors flashed like lightening before them.
RED! YELLOW! GREEN! BLUE! RED! YELLOW! GREEN! BLUE!
Then it felt as if an explosion rocked the ship. And the entire crew was sent falling to the floor. Then, there was silence.
