THIRTY-SIX: road trip

"So where the hell am I going?"

"Faye should've been back by now," Jet said as he slammed the trunk of the land-rover. "She only had a few hours worth of fuel on the Redtail, so it stands to reason that she ran out and got stranded somewhere to the north."

Spike glared at his partner. "Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds? She could be anywhere out there. The land-rover isn't exactly built for distance."

Jet sighed. Spike was right, of course. The damn thing had only gone a little over nine miles the last time, and it had been a struggle to get it back to the Bebop for repairs. The real problem was that there was no other option at the moment. Faye was gone and they didn't have a clue how far she had actually gone. They only had her location from the last time that Ed had tried to contact her.

He didn't argue with the younger cowboy. He still had a lot of work to do, and it was a necessity to get Spike out north to look for Faye. If nothing else, the Redtail was an essential piece of equipment toward establishing a base of operations if they were going to be stuck on this rock for as long as he figured they would be. Faye didn't seem to realize that things weren't going well as far as repairs to the Bebop. It was foolish to go taking off whenever she felt like it, and he was going to make that damn clear. If they could find her, wherever she might be.

"We have to find her, Spiko. I've done a lot of work on this old thing. It should increase your gas mileage and maneuverability."

"This is a real bad idea."

Jet sighed. "You already said that."

"It's getting worse by the second."

"And I couldn't be any more sorry. It's gotta be done, Spike."

"I'm not arguing that," Spike said. "It's just not gonna work."

The two men fell silent as they stood to one side of the land-rover, Jet trying to figure out the best way to convince Spike to head out, and Spike simply shutting each option away with simple yet resounding denial. Faye was out there somewhere, and the old man thought she might be in danger. Sure, it would be her own fault, but he didn't really want the Redtail to fall into the hands of just any scum that might be wandering the desert. Without a damn good reason that would suit Spike Spiegel, she'd be sitting out there alone for a long time.

Neither really cared all that much for the young woman. They were used to her presence, though that would never extend as far as friendship. Faye was more of a nuisance, a pest. Ed almost pulled her weight around the ship…almost…but Faye pretty much sat around and ate the food and spent the money without truly earning her place among them. Sure, she helped with the hunting down bounties, but getting her to split reward money was like pulling teeth.

Jet scowled. "Christ, your as bad as Faye. We need that ship."

"You get it."

"Spike!"

The younger cowboy pulled out a cigarette. "You know what, Jet…you're impossible."

"Me! Damnit, Spike!"

"Yeah, you. Look around you. We can't even help ourselves. Why should either of us go sticking out neck out for a girl who refuses to help us. There're too many unknowns. I'm not going out there."

"Spike, we can't just leave her sitting out there."

"We can and we will." He lit the cigarette and gave his friend a look. "She's a big girl. She can take care of herself."

"Damnit Spike, I want her back here!"

"Sorry. Nothin' I can do for ya." Spike started to turn away.

Jet grabbed his arm. "Hey."

"Hey what?"

"I can't fix the Bebop."

"Can't, or won't? Is this some kind of blackmail?"

"The damage is too extensive. This isn't a one man job. Plus, we don't have the equipment. We won't be getting off this rock."

Spike sighed. "We've been in tight spots before."

"Yeah, and you're about to get in a tighter one."

"Whaddaya mean by that?"

"Spike, you're going out there."

"Jet—"

"No, hear me out." Spike complied, giving him the dirtiest look he'd seen in some time. "I can't fix the Bebop and our emergency power supply is on its last limbs. We can't stay here much longer."

"That's why you're in such a hurry to get this thing running."

"That's right. I wasn't just sending you. I'm coming with you."

Spike had to smirk. "This has got to be my version of hell."

"Not quite. Faye's not here."

"Yeah, I guess."

"The supplies are packed. Now we just need to find—"

Before he could finish, the two of them were drowned in a thunderous roar of giggles and laughter as the wiry girl burst into the room, her laptop balanced on her head and arms outstretched, weaving and dodging through an imaginary obstacle course.

"Weeeee! Road trip!"

Ein followed right behind her.

"You were saying?" grumbled an annoyed Spike.

Jet shrugged. "I was wrong. This is hell."

Dawn spilled across the land soon after the team from the Bebop started the journey to the north. It was oddly quiet between the four of them despite the roar of the land-rover's engine as it kicked up trails of sand in their wake. Somehow, Spike was able to sleep over the terrible noise. Ed bounced about in the backseat, chittering away like an excited hamster. Ein was in the back, crammed as tight as he would go against the floorboard. Jet figured the little dog was scared shitless by the peculiarities of their trip across the desert.

It'd be better if they could find some kind of radio station, but Jet knew that would be a fruitless endeavor. He wondered if the people here had any decent communication technology that didn't involve some kind of domesticated animal hauling a messenger back and forth over the barren landscape. Anything would be better than nothing. They'd simply crashed too far from civilization to learn enough about the people of this planet.

He was bothered by what he had discovered aboard his ship. While the emergency power had supplied him with sufficient energy to run the basics onboard his ship, it would never be enough to get the blasted ship off the ground. Worse yet, he knew why the ship had gone down in the first place.

Logs showed that the Bebop, while traveling through hyperspace, had been blasted by a form of radiation unlike any he had ever seen. What he did know was that somehow that radiation ate through the ship's primary power cells, and eventually drained her of all power. He knew that either before or after the ship was being blasted by radiation, it had been sucked into a wormhole and thrown possibly across space and time. How far, he wasn't certain, but it was inevitably true. He believed that the Bebop hadn't decsended on the planet through its atmosphere because of the hull. Where typically the hull might be terribly scorched upon reentry, the Bebop had suffered no such damage.

That meant one of two things. Either the Bebop had exited with wormhole through already within the atmosphere, or she had been placed out here after the damage. He didn't see how the latter could be true.

"Where are we going, Jet-person?"

A peek over his shoulder revealed the girl leaning in close, watching the speedometer with interest. "North. We're looking for Faye."

"Hey, what's that?"

"Huh?" He followed the girl's arm as she pointed out to the northwest. He frowned as he saw what appeared to be a silver dome glinting in the early morning sunlight. After a moment, he replied back to her over his shoulder: "Some kind of building. I didn't think there were any people out this far."

"Nope. Don't think so." Edward fiddled with her goggles for a moment and snapped them on over her eyes. She grinned like an idiot. "We should check it out!"

"We're looking for Faye. This isn't all that far from where that old ship crashed. You would've been able to pick up some kind of signal."

"Maybe the bounty-person is there," the girl suggested.

"Huh? In there?" Jet peered up, again, considering the girl's suggestion. "You really think so?"

"They disappeared right after they left the seeds ship, right?" she asked. Jet nodded. "Stands to reason they went somewhere. If we can't find them, that's a place for to look-see."

The old man stopped the rover. He gave her a look. Edward had trustworthy intelligence, unlike a his other two partners. If she thought something was amiss, she was usually right. This was nothing more than an assumption, however, if a logical one. They were looking for Faye, and she had the ship connected wirelessly to Tomato. Vash the Stampede and his cronies didn't.

Jet Black was left with a tough decision. Faye had to be out there somewhere, but he was highly interested in whatever lay in the building Ed had discovered. They could always come back and check it out later. Then again, they could always check it out and continue on their way. They didn't have the first clue as to where Faye was—for all they knew, she was simply hiding out while there was work to be done on the Bebop. The whole scenario called for unwanted work, but at least the building on the horizon would prove interesting.

"I say we take our chances over there." He saw Spike make a gesture toward the building. The younger bounty hunter was pulling out a pack of smokes.

"You'd better take it easy on those things. Something tells me they don't make your brand out here."

Spike smirked. "Prob'ly not."

Jet put the land-rover into third gear and started northwest, toward the strange, domed building on the horizon.

Henry Starks eyed his two prisoners, grateful for the iron casket that held the Alpha Sample like a titanium vise. The sample was awake, glaring darkly back at Starks, but he felt safe despite the hate in the man's eyes. Even separated by three feet of steel, the man could be intimidating. The big girl next to him was tied to a chair, and no real threat to escape. Doc Gorsett stood off to the side, admiring the silver magnum they had confiscated from the plant-spawn.

The room was void of all other distractions. The prisoners were his own, for the moment. Morgante was back in the City of Yesterday, fittingly named for the past civilization that had ruled this world, no doubt helping Ariel to prepare the largest army this godforsaken world had ever seen. Starks wasn't so sure he was eager for this war to take place, but Quinn wanted to see it done, and he trusted Quinn.

It had taken less than ten hours to transfer the prisoners to the Millennium Arc, the same strange vessel where Vash the Stampede had imprisoned his own brother. Now, it was controlled by the Gung-Ho Guns, the same vicious gang of criminals that had joined Knives in his pursuit of the Humanoid Typhoon for nearly a quarter of a century.

Taking his eyes from his prisoners, Starks shuffled his tattered deck of cards and lay them out to play solitaire. Soon he was enthralled in his game, the two captives were forgotten.

Gorsett sauntered over, the magnum set firmly in his grip. "It's true," the young Gung-Ho Gun said quietly. "Just like they say. This isn't just a revolver. It's a weapon of mass destruction."

Starks grunted and lay out three new cards from the deck.

"I mean it, man. Look at this." He took a pin from the top of the gun and pulled it loose. Two metal plates along the barrel fell away to reveal a crystal glowing within. Starks gave the weapon a quick glance and went back to his game. "Come on, man. This is fucking trilithium. How that bastard got a hold of trilithium is beyond me."

"The plants feed off trilithium," Starks answered. "And be careful with that. If you're not careful you'll turn this whole complex into a smoldering crater."

"Hey, I am careful. I know exactly what I'm doing." He collected the two plates and refitted them onto the gun, replacing the pin. He set the big gun on the table next to Stark's game. "They hired me for this kind of shit, remember?"

Starks nodded. "Course I remember."

Moments later, a door slipped open, and two samples entered. From behind, Starks heard the two prisoners stir, no doubt to see who had come into the room. No doubt they were in for quite a surprise. He grinned but didn't pay the two any attention. Instead, he rose and looked to the samples.

"You have a good reason to disturb us, I trust."

The lead sample nodded and spoke in the exact identical voice that all the samples spoke in, a voice he knew mirrored that of the original, Vash the Stampede. "We have company, Mr. Starks."

"And?"

"It's the off-worlders."

Spike rose from the land-rover and pulled his sidearm. He peered about the strange gorge, with what appeared to be a massive metal starship poking out through the desert floor and ascending several stories high. It was massive, with a smooth surface that made it impossible to climb. It meant they would have to circle the thing until they found an entrance.

"Woah…" Edward giggled and leapt out of the backseat with Ein in her arms and Tomato balanced squarely on her head.

"Ever seen anything like it?" Jet asked.

"Not in a place like this," Spike replied. "Come on. Let's have a look around."

The four of them started around the giant structure, searching for an entrance. Spike watched with the massive structure with an intensity that he rarely displayed. Truth was, he was excited. This was something that he knew without a doubt was far too complex for the people of this world to know, so he had determined even without Ed's analysis he was looking at something that would only help them get off this rock.

"Hey Ed, why didn't you pick up a place like this on your scanners before?"

"This isn't a seed ship, Jet-person. There are no seeds here, so no signals bounce up to the satellite."

Spike looked to her. "So what're you saying? How long has this thing been here?"

Ed looked to him and shrugged.

The bounty hunter nodded.

"So," Jet said. "What next?"

Before anyone could answer, the roar of four engines ripped the still air and four dirt-bikes tore into view, two from either side of the massive structure. Desert sand filled the air with a dark haze, making it difficult to see. The three of them turned on their heels, eyeing the oncoming bikes with concern. Of the riders, all were men, and all of them held rapid-fire assault rifles.

They circled the team, coming to a halt around the four. They didn't aim, but their presense was menacing enough.

Ed clung to Ein, forcing herself between and behind the two men.

Spike had to smirk. "Would you look at that," he said. "A welcoming committee."

"Just watch your back," Jet replied.

They waited for the bullets to fly.