Pluto Correction Facility

Pluto

Spike and Jet set their respective ships down inside a massive cavern that had been carved out from Pluto. The cavern could hold at least a dozen ships and was designed with an airlock to keep out the bitter cold of Pluto's atmosphere as they entered. Due to its distance from Earth, Pluto's atmosphere was cold, -387°F to be exact. At such temperatures, Pluto's atmosphere literally would freeze when it was not in direct view of the sun. The prison facility was in reality mostly a honeycomb network of rooms, cells, and living facilities. There were several buildings on the surface of Pluto, but they of course were only a part of the underground network.

Life in the planet was hard, the prisoners were put to use as a sort of slave labor. The prisoners were used to process shipments of ore that were mined from the outer fringes of the Solar System. While the mining companies could have shipped ore to the facilities in closer to the sun, the companies chose to send their ore to Marcus, who of course didn't need to pay the prisoners and charged the companies about half what normal processing facilities would charge. This helped keep the price of various goods that were made from the ore, down while Marcus got to pocket most of the profits. Thus, the mining companies, Marcus, and the consumer were all happy in the deal. Which is why no one ever made a stink about what went on here, of course it also helped that Marcus bribed government officials, news agencies and individuals to keep the whole thing hushed.

Spike climbed out of the Swordfish and waited while Jet got out of his own ship and walked over to him.

A guard wearing a dark blue uniform strode up to the pair of bounty hunters; he had a pistol in its holster, a baton, and a taser. His boots where a highly shined black and he also had on a soft cap on his head that read in bright yellow letters "PLUTO CORRECTION FACILITY."

"The boss called ahead of you guys saying you needed to talk to a prisoner," the guard said.

"Yeah, we're looking for Tobias Craven," Spike said.

"Tobias Craven? You're kidding right?" the guard said, his bushy eyebrows rising in surprise.

"No, why would we be?" Jet responded.

"Craven is one of our 'difficult' prisoners, he doesn't blend well with the inmates, in the past six months alone he is responsible for the deaths of four other inmates. He also beat the hell out of two guards in one incident that earned him a two month trip to the hole."

"The hole?" Spike asked.

"A place where people like Craven go when they do something bad, normally a week or two breaks most inmates."

"And did he break?" Spike replied.

"No, not yet."

"And he spent two months in there?" Jet asked incredulously.

"Yeah, but don't worry though, everyone breaks…eventually," the guard replied with a cold smile. He turned and said, "If you two will follow me, I'll take you to where you will be directed to the meeting room with Tobias Craven."

The Cerberus

Orbit of Pluto

Faye glanced around the dark room uneasily.

Even though she still had her pistol on her, which did little to ease her mind. She didn't know who this Marcus character was or what he wanted. If he was like most men he wanted one thing and Faye was determined to make sure Marcus Miró would sorely regret it if he tried anything.

Faye had landed on the Cerberus and had been quickly ushered to this room, with no word of instruction or anyone to greet her, here she had been left. They hadn't even bothered to search her or try to take her pistol from her which was odd.

"Those two idiots, I can't believe they threw me to the wolves," Faye muttered to herself.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, however, you must understand that it has been some time since I've laid eyes on such a lovely specimen of the female species." A voice spoke from the deepest concentration of shadows.

Faye looked towards the direction the voice had come from she answered, "Flattery will get you nowhere, unless I can see you."

"Of course, how rude of me," several lights suddenly turned on, filling the room with a dim, soft light.

Marcus Miró was seated at a large wooden table, two candles burned slowly on the table, various trays of food were scattered on the table. Marcus himself was dressed in the same expensive suit he had been wearing while he spoke to the Bebop crew.

"So you just think you can throw some nice ambiance at me and get something from me? How like a man." Faye threw the barb at Marcus to see his reaction.

Marcus put on a slightly pained expression, "You misunderstand me. I'm not trying to get anything from you other than your company."

Faye raised a skeptical eyebrow. Marcus attempted to soothe her concerns by standing up slowly, he walked with his hands in plain sight to another chair which was at the table opposite the one he had been sitting in, he slide the chair out from the table slowly and said, "Would you care to sit down? I only have an hour or so to converse with and admire you and I'm sure you could do with some decent food."

Faye smiled at Marcus; this sort of gentlemanly behavior was a welcome change from Spike and Jet, "I would be glad to."

Pluto Correctional Facility

Pluto

Spike and Jet followed the guard to a large control room where there were dozens of guards at various monitors. Some monitors showed prisoners in blue uniforms shuffling about doing various tasks while others showed empty halls and views of cell doors.

The guard leading them turned to both and said, "Alright, only one of you will get to visit with Tobias Craven, we do this to prevent any escape measures, you will be searched of course before the meeting, we do not allow firearms, knives, tools, or any other foreign object that can be used as a weapon or an escape device into meetings with a prisoner. You," the guard pointed at Spike, "Will be the one who will get to speak with Tobias Craven, your friend will have to fill out some paperwork pertaining to the meeting."

Spike didn't care much for walking through a prison filled with convicts and armed with nothing but his dry humor, but the guard seemed to sense this and said, "Don't worry, we have guards patrolling the place, nothing will happen to you."

Spike gave his pistol to Jet, turning to the guard he said, "Lead on."

The guard shrugged in response, "Oh, I won't be taking you; you'll find your own way there. I need to make sure your friend here fills out all the paperwork."

"You're going to let me wander the facility without an escort?" Spike asked, "Very handy security measures you guys have here."

"The cell doors are all connected to our central computers here in the control center, if you attempt to open any of the doors, the system will detect that. Also most of the facility is monitored so any actions you take will be noticed by us immediately, besides, the meeting room isn't too far from here so you'll do fine."

The guard walked over to a nearby screen and pulled up a map of the prison. Judging by the map, Spike could tell Marcus had vastly expanded the place since he and Jet had last been here, the prison virtually covered the entire expense of Pluto's underground. Well, when you had a solar system full of criminals, you needed all the space you could get Spike mused.

The guard pointed at the turns Spike would need to make in the halls, there were only a couple, Spike would have no trouble getting there.

The guard promptly handed Jet a stack of papers that appeared to be about three feet high, Jet groaned.

Chuckling, Spike turned on his heel and made his way out into the hall to go to the meeting room where he was assured by the guard, Tobias would be there waiting for him.

Walking down the corridor, Spike was slightly awed by the sheer size of the facility. Coming out of the control room, which had been closed off and filled with equipment into the Spartan confines of the prison itself, was quite amazing. A massive hollowed out cavern housed a majority of the prisoners, they were confined to their cells most of the time. The cell doors themselves appeared to be solid metal, but at any moment, they could be seen through by a small video screen on the outside of the door, this way the prisoners had no way of knowing when they were being viewed and when they had privacy. Next to the viewing screen was the name of the prisoner inside the cell. Each cell had concrete walls that had two inches of steel behind it. Not that one could tunnel outside the prison. Pluto's atmosphere prevented anyone from tunneling out, even if they could get through the concrete and steel wall.

The cavern itself had several "layers" to it. There were at least ten layers that Spike could see across from him, the distance between the walkway he was on and the one across from him appeared to be about three hundred feet. In between the distance were a multitude of automated security bots. The bots were the heavy support for the guards if needed; they could be called to subdue either a single prisoner or a good portion of the population. They were armed with two mini-vulcan machine guns along with two tasers that could put out enough of a shock to take down a group of men at once. The guards could call the machines to them with a device that was attached to their wrist which could then identify the guards from the convicts due to the device on their wrist and act accordingly.

Spike recognized several of the names on the doors as he walked along, a few made him inwardly shudder, some of these guys were BAD news. Spike turned a corner that would lead him out of the cavern and into a hallway that led off of the main prison cells where the meeting room was.

He and a guard promptly ran into each other.

The guard and Spike stumbled backwards both of them nearly falling over. The guard immediately smiled apologetically and said, "Hey, I'm sorry about that, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm sorry too."

The guard smiled again and waved a hand dismissively, cheerfully adding, "Hey don't worry about it! I'm sure glad I ran into you and not one of the convicts that got out of their cell!"

Spike raised an eyebrow, "You seem rather cheerful to be a guard here."

"Well, it's nice to find work. Even if it's all the way out here on the edge of the Solar System, I mean, it's hard to make an honest living ya know?"

Spike nodded. The guard was about his height, maybe an inch or two taller; he had gray eyes that seemed a total contrast to his cheerful personality. Even though he wore a guard's uniform Spike could tell the guy was lean but muscular. He had blonde hair that was buzzed all around his head. "It's difficult to make a living these days," he responded.

The guard nodded, "Hey, you're not a guard and you're certainly not a prisoner, why are ya here pal?"

"Visiting someone," Spike curtly replied.

The guard's eyes widened incredulously, "Really? I don't think I've ever heard of ANYONE coming all the way out to Pluto just to visit someone. This person must be real important to you."

"You could say that."

The guard nodded, "Well, I've been away from my route too long, it was nice talking to you Mr..?"

"Spiegel, Spike Spiegel, likewise and you are?"

"Oh!" the guard seemed to forget to introduce himself, "I'm Ray Gerund." he said, pointing at his nametag which read, sure enough, GERUND.

The guard went off down the way Spike had come, whistling a pleasant tune; Spike watched him go and shook his head. He had a prisoner to talk to.

Deric Ashtin turned his head over his shoulder and watched the man continue down the hall, the man said he was here to meet someone. The real Ray Gerund was dead of course, his neck cleanly broken and his body deposited in an empty cell. Deric had stripped the guard's body, taking his uniform and equipment. Of course eventually a scan of the cells in the area would detect the guard's lifeless body, but that wasn't to happen for another two hours and by that time, Deric would be long gone.

Deric's entry on Pluto had actually occurred two days ago. Using a small ship that he had launched from his command ship in hyperspace, he had slipped under the radar so to speak and landed on Charon. Using techniques that he had honed in his years of service, he had snuck aboard one of the supply ships that were bound for Pluto. He arrived and through his knowledge of the security system, had managed to evade Marcus Miró's security forces constant patrols and scans. The planning of his operation that led up to his assault on the installation on Mars had also plans for this.

Tobias Craven was a loose end and loose ends needed to be tied. While he could have easily eliminated Tobias before he had attacked the Martian installation, he hadn't wanted to risk alerting anyone of his plans before they had come to fruition. Now that the primary operation had succeeded, it was time to complete his secondary objective.

The man said he was here visiting someone, coincidence? Deric never believed in coincidence. He knew that Tobias was here; no doubt others did as well. He would follow this man, whom he had little doubt was a bounty hunter. If this Spike Spiegel led him to his target then he would eliminate both him and Tobias Craven, if not?

Well, it wouldn't matter if another body would be discovered by the end of the day.