Johnny followed Spike's Swordfish II with his own zip-craft. He called it Emily.
Its design was reminiscent of old ideas of alien spacecraft. A silver dish-like ship, augmented with pincers protruding from the bottom (It was originally designed after an alien war machine from a very old pre-Gateway movie).
Used to be a construction ship, Johnny heard from the salesman. Used secret government hovercraft technology or some such.
Johnny didn't really care for the techniques the salesman had used to gouge him for money, so he just "borrowed" the vehicle from the impound lot after turning the man in on a 2 mil bounty for running an illegal chop shop.
The Ganymede police just eventually let him keep it.
The Bebop was just as much a junker as it had ever been, but that's what gave it the charm few other ships had. No matter how messy and obsolete it got, it'd never let you down.
Emily's radio crackled loudly as she pulled into view of the Bebop.
"Johnny? That you?" Jet asked, quizzical.
"Damn straight it's me, Jet. Who else would be flying a ship this silly?" Johnny replied, laughing.
"That's true! Welcome back, ol' buddy." Jet laughed, too. A big, hearty, warm laugh. Johnny had forgotten how welcoming that laugh was. How great it was to have been missed.
"Whose ship is that in my damn spot, Jet?" Johnny asked, noticing a spherical zipcraft parked in his old spot.
"That'd be Faye." Spike answered.
"Wait, a woman on the ship? Man, Spike, how'd you let that one slide? Next thing you're gonna tell me is there's a kid on board."
Spike groaned, no doubt facepalming.
"Yeah..." he said.
Johnny laughed. Then realized Spike wasn't kidding, which made him laugh harder. He laughed until he docked.
As he got out of Emily, he wiped a tear from his eye.
"I assume my bed is still here?"
"Shit, we sold that the day you left." Spike mumbled.
"The mattress, too?" Johnny asked, in disbelief.
"We needed the Woolongs." Jet said, mumbling.
"God dammit, guys, my mother gave me that mattress before she died! That was the only thing I had to remember her by!" Johnny yelled.
"Sorry, Johnny." Spike shrugged. "Didn't know it meant that much to you."
"It didn't, I'm just screwin' with ya. Found it in a dumpster, honestly." Johnny admitted, laughing. Spike smacked him on the back of the head and headed to work out on the bridge.
"Well, you won't mind finding another one, I hope, because all we've got is the floor." Jet said, rolling his eyes.
"Damn, how many people are on this ship now?" Johnny asked, lighting up a smoke.
"Just the six of us, including you." Jet said.
"So this is the new guy?" A sultry voice echoed from the hallway.
A woman stepped in, sizing Johnny up.
"Looks like a wimp. What good can he be?"
"Well, Jet, aren't you going to introduce me to this lovely lady?" Johnny asked.
The woman rolled her eyes practically out of her head.
"Please, buddy, keep it in your pants." she said.
"Johnny, this is Faye. I don't know why we keep her around, but I guess she does prove helpful at some times. But most of the time it's a waste of time. Faye, this is Johnny. I've known him since he was born. Which means I can trust him more than you." Jet said.
"Johnny, huh? You got a last name?" Faye asked.
"Hey, you got something to call me, don't you? You got all you need with "Johnny"."
"Oh, please. Is that even your real name?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It's realer than the one my parents gave me."
At this, Faye left the room. Johnny headed for the bridge.