TEN: if

"Sixty billion what?" Spike muttered as he stared at the crumpled paper in his hands. A face scrawled in pencil, eyes hidden behind glasses, stared back at him, hair standing on end. "What the hell as he done to warrant a bounty that big?"

Faye shrugged. "Well, the clerk was sure freaked out."

"And what kind of name is Vash the Stampede?" Jet asked.

"Not a clue," Faye replied. "But that's all I saw of him. That, and the fact he was there. Actually took me into the general store and bought our groceries."

Spike gave her a look. "Excuse me, Faye, but that doesn't exactly sound like something a sixty billion bounty would actually do."

"Tell me about it."

"Yeah. A girl like you would be lucky to get out of there with all your clothes on," Jet added. "How the hell did you get away from a beast like that?"

"I told you! He was really pretty nice. He bought our fucking groceries!"

The three of them sat in silence for a moment. Ed looked up from her blank computer screen, a grumpy look on her face. She hadn't said much of anything since she'd lost Tomato, and until Jet got back to work on the ship's electrical wiring, she was likely to be as foul as the rest of the team. That was a little disappointing, but Faye figured there really wasn't a hell of a lot to smile about anyway.

"Anyway, I say we go get ourselves a bounty."

Jet leaned back, crossing his arms as he gave her a look. "Faye, we know next to nothing about this place, let alone what this man is really like. There's got to be a reason the man has sixty billion double-dollars on his head."

"What the hell's a double-dollar, anyway?" Spike asked.

Faye threw up her hands in disgust. "Who gives a shit? There's a sixty billion attached to it. That's got to be a lot on any planet."

"I don't know, Faye. It's not like we have anything on this guy." Jet gave a look at the poster in Spike's hands. "I wouldn't exactly call a sign on a wall sufficient background information for a bounty."

"We need money right?"

"It'd probably be easier to get a job," Jet replied.

"Hate to say this Jet, but I agree with her."

"I'm not surprised. There's a bounty involved."

Spike gave Jet a look. "Well, she's right about us needing the money. We can't buy shit with what we've got, you know that."

Jet shook his head. "The Bebop doesn't have a power supply, Spike. Nobody's going anywhere until we get one."

The young bounty hunter gave him a look. "Well, then let's get it done. Sitting around here is driving me up the wall. It's a damn pressure cooker in here."

Faye leaned back and smirked. "Yeah. I don't see how you boys manage it."

"Okay, okay. We can get to it right away." Jet leaned forward and rubbed his chin. "I think we can replenish the backup power supply if we can get some extra wiring. That way, we can at least get enough power to the laptop." He saw Ed's eyes light up at the prospect. "The faster we get power, the faster we get off this rock. Otherwise, we're stuck here."

The two men soon rose and were off, Jet leading a slowly trodding Spike out of the Bebop's living room. Meantime, Ed peered into one of the bags Faye had brought with her from the town she had visited.

"Did Faye-Faye bring something good for Edward?"

"If you think food and a big time bounty is good, then sure."

Ed's eyes lit up. "Ramen! They have Ramen here?"

Faye shrugged and gave the girl a small nod. She'd been surprised too. Apparently, whoever these people were, they had come here from Earth's solar system. As surprising as that was, it wasn't too surprising. Apparently sometime in the past, as she had lay in a cryogenic chamber, several group of ships had left Earth to seek a better life for the human race. Apparently, the people here had been in on one of those missions. Seemed reasonable enough.

But the man back at had said there hadn't been any working starships on this planet for a very long time, since he had arrived here. That was enough to let her curiosity roam.

Ed grabbed several packs of the uncooked noodles and tore them open, eating them raw. Faye watched as she wolfed down both packages without a second thought. "Hey, watch what you're eating, Ed! It's all we've got for now."

"But Ed is hungry!"

"We all are." Faye sighed and shook her head, picking out a couple packs for herself. "Just save some for the boys, all right? Jet'll be pissy if we run out."

Edward grinned. "Jet-person is always pissy."

"True enough." Faye leaned back and stretched. "Jeez, I haven't slept in ten hours! I think maybe I should get some rest, don'tcha think?"

She didn't wait for a reply. She kicked her feet up onto the couch and lay back to relax. Dark hair with blue highlights fell over her cheek as she rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. Ed watched as her friend drifted off into a restful slumber as she finished the one last pack of raw Ramen, and then she curled up into a ball at Faye's feet and dozed off herself.

Meanwhile, Ein had his nose in the bag, and the girls didn't even have a clue.

----------

Shining his flashlight into the gaping breach in the side of his ship, Jet cursed. He still couldn't get over all the damage. Wires severed, metal twisted and blackened, far beyond the possibility of salvaging. He heard Spike's even breathing beside him as they inched deeper into the hole.

"Oh hell."

"Lighten up, Spiko. If we get the ship working, and if we manage to get that big bounty Faye discovered, we might be able to come out of this place smelling like roses."

"If we aren't a gazillion lightyears from Earth," Spike added.

If. That was a pretty big word, considering it consisted of only two letters. Jet scratched the back of his head and peered about the wreckage. "Just bear with me awhile," he told his friend. "It's not like you have anything better to do."

"I could be out there looking for a bounty worth sixty billion double-dollars, whatever the hell that means."

Jet smirked.

He bent down and shone the flashlight into his toolbox. After a moment, he picked out a wrench and slipped a little deeper into the breach. Spike followed.

"So what're we looking for?"

The old man looked about but didn't see it, whatever it was. "You'll see it in the ceiling. A loose bolt. There's a wire hanging free that I think is still charged. Just keep an eye out; let me know if you see it."

Spike peered up and looked about.

Nothing.

"Shit, it'd be easier to wire up a whole new battery."

Jet grunted. "Right, and where'd you suggest we find this all-powerful super battery you keep dreaming of?"

Spike smirked and was about to comment when something brushed against his ear, sending a bolt of energy rushing through his system. "Damnit! I think I found it!"

Jet turned and shone the light toward his partner. "Spike? You alright?" He peered at his grousing friend, who was holding his ear and glaring at the wire hanging down from the ceiling. "Christ. You should try to be a little more careful."

Spike glared at the old man. "Screw you."

Jet grinned. "You're fine."

"Now what?"

"That wire just happens to connect the entire ship to the backup power supply," Jet replied. "It was shredded in the crash. We have to tie the line so the power flows accordingly." He scratched the back of his head and inspected the wire for a few more moments. After a time, he pointed to a mass of metal at their feet, including three huge slabs that seemed to have caved in from the outer hull. "And the other end is right there somewhere. We've gotta move those slabs, and it ain't gonna be very fun."

Spike groaned. "Sonuva bitch."

Jet smirked. "Since when did Faye have children?"

The two had a good laugh, and then turned back to their work. For a brief moment in history, Jet wished he were back on the force. Hell, anything would be better than this.

----------

Nearly a half hour passed before Faye's eyes fluttered open, and she found herself staring at the ceiling in the Bebop living room. Something wet rested against her bare feet. Her eye twitched in annoyance. She knew what it was, though she preferred not to even look. Instead, she gave the annoying mutt a light kick on the nose; Ein yelped in surprise and slunk deeper into Ed's arms.

Sitting up, Faye peered about. "Next time you lick my feet, you're going to find yourself in Faye's edition of Jet's 'special,'" the young woman mumbled. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. "So, where are the guys?"

Ein just stared at her.

"That's what I thought."

She rose to her feet, slipping on her sandals. She gave Ed a look, deciding not to wake her, and trudged out of the room. She headed for the breach Jet had shown them the day before. Sure enough, the two were there, cursing like sailors as they fought with a large section of the hull that had caved in during the crash.

"This isn't getting us anywhere, Jet!"

"News flash, Spike. We aren't going anywhere anyway!"

Faye rolled her eyes. "Figures," she muttered. She leaned against the bulkhead and watched the two glare at her for several seconds before she glanced away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "So, what's the news? When are you gonna be done? I want to get off this Godforsaken rock."

Jet glared. "This is tough work, Faye. I'll be at it twenty-four-seven until it gets done. I may stop to eat or sleep or take a dump every once in awhile, but that's about it. Even then, it'll still take three weeks just to finish the patchwork on the hull." He ran his fingers along his sweaty forehead and gave her a look. "Give you plenty of time to follow up on that sixty billion you were tellin' us about."

"Yeah, I guess so," she replied, rubbing a sore spot where she'd slept awkwardly on her shoulder.

"Great. Does that mean I'm stuck here working with you on this scrap heap?"

"Relax, Spike. You're just stuck here until we get power back to the ship. That'll make my job a helluva lot easier. But until then, give me a hand with these goddamn slabs like I asked you to." He bent down to grab the last chunk of metal covering what you thought was the connector to the backup power. "Can't do it on my own."

Faye yawned. "Anything I can do?" she asked.

Jet gave her a look. "What was that?"

"Anything I can do?" she repeated with a roll of her eyes. "It's called an offer. Take it or leave it."

"Well yeah, if you want. See that toolbox at your feet?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there's about twelve feet of wiring and some electrical tape in there. I need it to connect these two wires."

Spike bent over and grabbed the slab. "One."

"Two," Jet echoed.

On "three" the two men stood and lifted the last slab off of the connector.

Jet grinned when he saw what he was looking for. He helped Spike dump the slab overboard and on top of the pile of scrap in the sand below. Meanwhile, Faye picked out the supplies Jet had asked for and handed them over.

"Go tell Ed we'll have power back in about three minutes," Jet grinned. He looked over to Spike. "And you go into the kitchen and start boiling water. It's spaghetti and with tomato and mushroom sauce tonight."

"You mean macaroni," Faye said.

"Shit, what's the difference?"

Faye grinned. "Yeah, it's all food, I guess."

The two of them left Jet to complete his little chore.

----------

By the time they arrived in the living room, the power was already restored. It apparently had been like flipping on a light-switch, because Edward was already sitting in front of Tomato, her goggles pulled down over her eyes, watching a flood of information filling the screen. It wasn't as much as usual, but it was more than she'd had since they'd lost power.

"Lookie, Faye-Faye! We have power!"

"I see that."

Spike slunk off into the kitchen to do what Jet had asked. Meanwhile, Faye leaned over Ed's shoulder.

"Do you think you can figure out what this 'Vash the Stampede' character has on his record?" Faye asked. "I don't think he's the kind to stay in one place for long. Maybe we can figure out where he's going based on that information."

Ed gave her a look. "Edward can't look for anything on this stupid planet. There aren't any computer networks here!"

"Oh, right." Faye flopped down on the couch and groaned again. "I'll probably have to patrol the desert to find him, won't I."

"Maybe."

After a few moments, Spike reemerged from the kitchen, wiping his forehead. "It's so damn hot in this dump."

"Maybe Jet'll get us enough power to run the air conditioners."

"Yeah, dream on.

"Hey, Ed, what're these?" Spike was rummaging through one of the bags Faye had brought back from the town and was picking at a package with what appeared to be several strips of old, ruined leather.

"Jerky jerky!" the girl replied, never taking her eyes from the computer screen. Suddenly she hopped up onto her hands and started moving back and forth, her knees bent at a ninety degree angle over her head. "Oh! Oh! Edward found a seed!"

"What?!" Faye started.

"Huh?" Spike gave the scantily-clad woman a look and the two of them leaned over Edward's shoulder.

A moment later, Jet stepped into the room, watching the three of them hovering over Tomato. "What'd I miss? Did Ed discover transdimensional time travel?"

"Don't I wish!" Faye grinned. "But this is just as good. Ed found a seed."

"Say what!? Where the hell is it?"

"Ten miles southwest!" Ed cried with a shit-eating grin on her face.

"Well I'll be goddamned." Jet shook his head with a big smile. He couldn't believe their luck. He glanced over at Faye. "As soon as we get a little food in us, you get some sleep. As soon as you're well rested, you have another mission."

Faye grinned. "Anything, so long as we get off of this stinkhole as soon as possible."

"It's a deal," Jet said. Things were slowly starting to look up. Maybe they'd even start to get along better.

Unlikely, but this was a good start.