by Aoi Kami Sarah

Chapter One

*Thunk*
      Faye raised a brow. "What was that?"
      "What was what?" Jet moaned.
      "Sounds like this hunk of shit hit something. Didn't you hear that?"
      Jet scowled at her. The Bebop may have been a crappy ship, but it was his crappy ship. He went back to repairing his bionic arm. "We hit things all the time, Faye. It's called space junk."
      Faye watched him manipulate the fine tools with his remaining arm. Floating through space on empty was a typical occurrence on the Bebop. She slumped her shoulders and lazily got up. "Maybe watching Ein will be more interesting. I could watch paint dry, I'm so bored!"
      "Sorry I'm not entertaining enough. Why don't you check Bigshots and see about making some money!"
      Faye grit her teeth and spun around. "Are you kidding? If my ship wasn't outta gas too I would have blown this popsickle stand days ago!"
      Jet ignored her as she stormed off.

      Faye found a window and watched the space junk bobble past. She saw her own reflection and pulled her eyelid down. "Nlah!" she moaned and fogged up the glass. "Wait, was that a wrinkle!?" she quickly rubbed the glass clean with her red shirt and examined herself again. "Oh.. come on, it can't be! I'm only 22!"
      "You're really 76."
      Faye spun around. "Spiiiike," she threatened. He grinned, but the smirk soon faded. He looked out the window past her. Faye turned to look too.
      "What is that?"
      Faye squinted. "...Space junk?..."
      Rotating slowly towards the Bebop was what appeared to be a body wearing a space suit. What was so odd, was that its blond hair flowed around it as if it were underwater. As they watched it come closer, they saw her face; her perfectly preserved face.
      Spike ran for the hatch.
      "Wait, Spike! What do you think you're gonna do!?" Faye yelled after him. "Bring a dead body in here?!"
      "It can't be a dead body," he called back. "It's face hasn't imploded from the effects of the vacuum."
      "Then... what is it?"
      "That's what I'm gonna find out. Maybe it's worth something to someone."

      The crew gathered at the decompression chamber and watched the mechanical arm pull the body in. Faye stood behind the others and kept her eyes on the action. Ed bounced up and down trying to get a better view.
      "No one go near this thing for 8 hours. It's too radioactive to be safe." Jet set controls in the airlock to detoxify the body. It rested on the floor awkwardly, still frozen in a semi-fetal position.
      "That's a pretty old suit," Spike commented. It was ruined in several places, but there was no blood on it. In one place on its arm the fabric had been completely ripped open, revealing skin. "She's been out there for a long time."
      "How can that be a person!" Faye yelled. "She's not even affected!"
      "Maybe it's a mannequin?" Jet suggested.
      "Maybe it's a 'horrible alien'..." Spike monotoned.
      "Maybe it's an android!!!" Ed chimed.
      Everyone looked at her funny. Jet bent down and wagged his finger at her. "No playing with it, whatever it is, got it?"
      "An-droid, Cy-borg, Jinzou-nin-gen!!!" she sang and ran down the hallway.

*
      Later that evening, Faye was going into the bathroom as she saw Ed disappear around a corner. She had her Tomato on her head and Ein at her heals. Faye knew Ed was going to investigate the body, but the idea of a bath suited her better.
      Almost a half an hour later, Faye emerged just as Ed was running back down the hall, giggling like mad. 'Maybe she's just playing with the dog," she thought and went to get changed.
      Faye put her yellow hot-pants ensemble on and poked her head out of her door. She sneaked down the hallway. As she passed the bathroom, she heard the water running. She could also hear Jet humming to himself as he trimmed his bonzai. Thinking the two men were pre-occupied, she grinned and went to check out the body herself.
      Faye puzzled over what it could be. She was convinced that it had to be real: a dead body. Why else would it be wearing a space suit? She came up on the little window that looked into the airlock and went pale. The lock was empty.
      Faye stuttered and turned to run back down the hall. She slammed into Spike.
      "So curiosity got the better of ya, huh?" he grinned.
      "But but but..." she pointed. "It's GONE!"
      "What?!"
      He too looked in and made a face. "Shit. Ed?!" he called. The two charged down the hall in search of the girl. They stormed past the bathroom. "Ed!?!" She giggled as she ran after Ein towards them.
      "What?" she asked dreamily.
      "Where's the body?!"
      "Body? Body, Body! Anybody, Somebody!"
      Spike groaned and pushed her aside. Faye was getting more nervous with each passing moment. They stormed into Jet's room.
      "What'd you do with the body, Jet?"
      "What the hell are you talking about?"
      "It's GONE!!!" Faye wailed.
      "Why do you think I'VE got it!?" he asked defensively.
      "It's dead," Faye reminded him. "It can't just get up and walk away!" Jet got up and stomped down the hall to prove them wrong. Ed was still seated in front of the bathroom. The sound of water flowing stopped all of them in their tracks. Their heads turned slowly to face the door. Jet was silently and begrudgingly elected to be the one to open it. Spike drew his gun. Faye bit her nails. They burst in.
      She was in the bathtub, still wearing her space suit. Her eyes were closed and her mouth hung open, but as they made their entrance, her head came up and her eyes flickered. "So... cold...."
      "WAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!" all three adults screamed and ran to the other side of the ship to get more weapons.
      Ed poked her head in. "Oh! Juujuu. You scared them good!" she laughed and helped the android get out of her wet clothes.

*
      Twenty minutes later, the crew of the bebop assembled on the bridge and waited. Faye tapped her foot. "She coulda told us," she grumbled.
      "Everything's a game to Ed, you know that," Jet muttered. He leaned back against the stairwell with his arms crossed.

      Their eyes locked on the woman as she rounded the corner. She blinked bashfully and took a seat on the couch. Jet and Faye began to ask questions at the same time. They cut each other off three times before she spoke. Her eyes were trained on the ground. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."
      Jet and Spike were stunned into silence, Faye was not. "Just what the hell are you that you were floating around in space like that!?"
      She brought her head up and stared at the petulant woman with her icy blue eyes. "I'm a Jinzouningen."
      "See, Ed was right!" Ed chimed and flopped down next to her. "Juuhatchigou," she introduced her, "Spike, Faye, Jet and you already know Ed and Ein!"
      They all raised a brow. "Number 18?"
      She nodded. The crew of the Bebop was quiet as Juuhatchigou told her story.

      "Ed woke me up. I was in shutdown. I really don't know what I was doing in outer space..." she hugged the blanket Ed had given her tightly to herself. "The last think I remember there was a commotion in this little town. I was going to see what it was..." Her brows came together. "And now, it's 2071..."
      "That's a surprise to you?" Jet asked.
      "It was 1999."
      "Impossible!" Jet shouted. "How the hell did they make cyborgs as advanced as you that far in the past?!"
      "I'm not a cyborg," she frowned. "I'm an artificial human."
      Faye sneered back. "Political Correctness went out 70 years ago, sweetheart."
      "It's not PC," she glared back. "A cyborg is a man-made machine. My body is artificial, my soul is not."
      "Machines don't have souls!" Faye barked.
      "I am not a machine..." Juuhatchigou sighed and looked back down at the floor.
      Faye huffed and turned her back on the stranger.
      Spike sat down across from her, but said nothing.
      "So, you were on Earth before the gate disaster," Jet mused.
      "Gate disaster?"

      Juuhatchigou's mind reeled as they filled her in on the last 70 years of history. The Earth was a wasteland. So much time had gone by now that even her grandchildren were probably dead. Juuhatchigou had walked away from everything all those years ago. All she wanted to do now was go home and there was no home to go back to.
      Ed watched her with an uncharacteristically sad look on her face.
      "I suppose I should thank you for rescuing me..." she whispered. "Perhaps there is some way I can pay you back?"
      "Got any money?" Jet asked. She shook her head. "Of course not."
      "Maybe she's worth something..." Spike mumbled as he stared at her. Juuhatchigou looked up, shocked and offended.
      "Spike! She's a person, not a thing, we can't... sell her!"
      "That's not what I mean. Why were you.. created?" Spike asked.
      Juuhatchigou hung her head.
      "You're a weapon, aren't you?"
      Faye looked over her shoulder.
      "I was."
      "I figured if you were that old, you must have been a covert military project or something. And that's the fastest way technology gets developed."
      "I hope you're not going to ask me to kill. I won't do it. And I don't recommend using force on me. If I don't want to do something, I won't."
      Spike nodded.
      "We're bounty hunters, Juuhatchigou, not assassins."
      "Interesting..." she stood up. "Maybe I CAN help you then."
      Faye snorted. "Yeah, right. A 70 year old robot girl..."
      "I'm actually about 100 years old. My last memory is 70." Juuhatchigou walked over to Faye. "Put your arms out like this," she asked, bending her own elbows and holding her forearms out. Faye hesitated, but under the glares of her ship-mates, she agreed.
      The android gently put her hands around the underneath of Faye's elbows. "Now tense up," she advised and raised her arms till she had lifted Faye three feet into the air as if she were nothing. When she put her down, Faye was pale.
      "I'm strong, fast and I can fight. If you'd like, set a price. I don't know the value of money now..."
      The men stared, slack-jawed. "Sure!" Jet chimed.
      Spike clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "How bout 500,000 Woolong?"
      "Woowhat?"
      Jet laughed. "You help us take down a bunch of bounties, giving us a bigger cut till you make up 500K. That sounds pretty fair."
      "I'm telling you guys," Faye scoffed. "You're making a big mistake trusting her." She walked leisurely back to her room.
      "Don't listen to that," Jet hooked his thumb at the retreating diva. "She's just miffed there's someone better lookin' around than her."
      Juuhatchigou blushed.
      Embarrassed, Jet tried to rephrase that. "Uh! That is... she's just jealous... you know? Ughhhh."
      "YAY!" Ed screamed as she saw the smile that was growing on the android's face. "Juujuu is a Cowgirl!"

NEXT: The Android's Blues Chapter Two

Write to Aoi Kami Sarah