Royal Flush

Royal Flush

It was harder to cheat at poker than dice but mainly because she had no sleeves to keep cards hidden up. No wonder Spike had insisted on cards. Still, Faye had spent a good portion of time learning how to bluff and how to read her opponent, so she was fairly confident in her ability to beat Spike.

He had a tell, after all, and that was all she needed.

Then again, Spike was far too clever for his own good. She didn't put it past him to be feigning a tell just to get her to lower her guard in false confidence.

They'd been playing for hours already while the ship floated dead in space. It wasn't the first time nor would it be the last time that they ran out of fuel and had to drift along until they reached a starbase or a planetary outpost. This time they at least had a pantry full of food. Ramen cups, but food nonetheless.

Jet had folded in a previous round and subsequently bailed entirely. Ed had been cast out of the game for repeatedly trying to play according to different rules. Ein hadn't been included in the first place even though Ed had insisted on his skills. Now it was down to just Spike and Faye.

They were playing heads up poker which was a more fast paced and aggressive form of the game. Naturally this suited both Spike and Faye just fine. They'd decided to play for cigarettes originally since it was the one commodity both had in spades. Shortly after Ed passed out, Spike had suggested strip poker but Faye had shot that down since she had so much less to lose.

Though his casual suggestion had certainly put some wild ideas in Faye's head. Which was probably all part of his plot to throw her off. He seemed too chill about her initial outraged reaction and hadn't even bothered to push for it. Instead he'd acquiesced to her rebuttle of loser washing the winner's zip craft.

He had his chin resting in his left hand and a smirk on his face as he fanned his cards lazily. He looked like the cat who got the cream. There was nothing left to do but lay down her own cards but Spike's expression and posture didn't faze her in the least. She knew hers was a winning hand. And she hadn't even needed to cheat!

"Four of a kind, read 'em and weep!" Faye called out, laying her hand down.

"Mm, such a shame." Spike mused, putting his own cards face down on the table.

Glee spread across Faye's face as she greedily gathered up the loose smokes on the coffee table.

"Shame indeed! My craft got covered in bird crap on that last mission," She told him without a hint of compassion.

"No no no, Faye... A shame for you!" Spike reached out and slowly flipped each of his cards over to reveal... "Royal Flush."

"What!" Faye squawked. "But you didn't even slow blink!"

He snorted. "You thought I had a tell? Aww, poor Faye-Faye!" A grin stretched across his face. "Gotta say I'm looking forward to our next dock. Seeing you in a swim suit getting suds all over my... cockpit..."

Faye's cheeks burned red. "Why you dirty-"

"Well, it's my ship that's dirty but..."

"Ugh. I'm done playing." Faye grumped. She let the cigarettes spill back onto the coffee table and then snatched one up as an afterthought. "I'm bumming one of these."

Spike blinked at her slowly. "I'll spot you another... If you need one after a round in my quarters."

"Ohh you think I'm gonna play you again?" Faye purred at him. "I got news for you, buddy. I don't play games in bed." She stood up then and stuck a hand down to take his and yank him to his feet. "But I'm ready for a reeeeeal good workout. If you think you can make me sweat..."

Hitchhiker on the Space Highway

The girl twisted the knob with reckless abandon, shifting through static and stations without a care. Sometimes she'd stop to listen to what came through but mostly it just felt good to turn the little knob.

It had ridges all around which enabled her to grip it with her thumb and pointer finger with ease. All too often these days the buttons to push were smooth and seamlessly integrated into screens. How boring.

This little knob was a relic of the past. A past long forgotten and almost wholly abandoned.

Even here on Earth, a land where stubborn survivors repurposed and utilized everything available, it wasn't a commonplace bit of equipment. She'd scavenged the entire radio unit from a military base that had been heavily damaged by meteors. There were a lot of modern technological scraps on the base, but much more interesting to her were the devices stuffed into a small room at the end of an underground tunnel.

There had been all sorts of cords and cables and knobs and dials and other bits and pieces down there. Dust coated everything inside so much that she'd coughed and coughed and coughed as she grabbed as much as she could carry in her pockets and in the satchel she made with a threadbare towel she carried with her everywhere.

The towel was getting thinner and thinner as time went by. It had been in rough shape when she'd initially taken it from the orphanage and she'd used it plenty since then. It worked to dry her off, to keep her somewhat warm in lieu of a blanket or to cushion her head as a pillow (the usage depending largely on the temperature of the planet whenever she grew tired) and it worked well to bundle up treasures when she traveled.

It had several holes these days so she knew it wouldn't hold up much longer. Nothing on Earth lasted forever and things in her life seemed especially impermanent. Adults came and went - or else she herself was the one to move along.

Uprooting her own life had become something of a pastime. There was too much to see and do and experience to stay in one place for ever and ever and ever. How dull!

Lately she'd spent a lot of time staring at the stars. She'd spent daysweeksmonths journeying from here to there on the planet. Usually on her own two feet but sometimes hitchhiking if the opportunity presented itself. That was usually dangerous though. People who gave her a lift - whether by plane, train, or automobile, or even on a boat! - they seemed to want to bring her home. Give her a place to learn and grow and live.

It was sometimes a tempting notion. But there was something inside that kept her too ansty to settle down. Too distractible to hold still. She'd tried it a time or two and it never really took.

Maybe it was because life here was so stagnant. So stale.

Life amongst the stars though...

There was a poetry to the thought.

A hunger had been slowly building within her, one which could not be sated by sustenance. She had met plenty of people here on Earth and had seen a lot of the planet in her quest for adventure and excitement. She was curious now about everywhere else. Moons, planets, asteroids, space stations... there was so much yet to discover! So many people living lives she couldn't even imagine.

"Haaaaaalloooooooo out there!" She cried into the microphone she'd recently affixed to the radio. "Testing, testing, one two THREE!" As she spoke, she spun the knob a few more times for good measure.

"Hello?" A crackling over the line. A response!

"Ahoy hoy!" She replied jubilantly. "Who goes there?!"

"Uh... who goes where? This is Love Machine, on Moon Angel. Who is this? What's your ship?" The voice answered.

"It is I! Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the 4th! Hailing from EARTH!" The girl grinned madly, though there was no video feed to project her visage outward into the universe.

"Earth? Humph. Nothing good comes from Earth." The voice muttered. "What're you doing on this line? What do you need?"

"Need? Ed wants to hitch a ride! Far away to the stars, up and up and up! Don't be afraid to come to Earth - we're mostly harmless here!"

"Ed... you sound too young to be hitchhiking. The galaxy is a pretty dangerous place, kid! Anyway I'm not about to steal some child from their home even if you're trying to run away. You mosey along back to your folks and grow up a bit more and then come looking for a way off the planet, hey? Take it from Love Machine, it's a wild wild world out here and you can't get by just on a smile. You take care now, okay?"

The radio returned to silence. Ed sat blinking in confusion. "Too young to fly to the stars? Ohh no! Edward wants to go!" She crossed her arms and crossed her legs and tried to cross her eyebrows but a serious frown was all she could manage there. "No home, no folks, no way out? No no no, this will never do! But maybe the funky love machine is right... Ed isn't prepared to leave just yet... ooooooh, Ed knows what to do though! Research and investigate and LOOK DEEPER. There's got to be good people who would want to bring Ed along on their trip around the sun. But whooooooo? Yay! Ed has a mission now! Look out, outer space! Ed is going to find her way one of these days, yup yup yup!"

Honesty Hour

"Up next on Honesty Hour: these three old men will compete for a chance to win--"

Spike sat up to hit the mute button as the camera panned over to three crotchety looking older men, two of whom seemed to be arguing while the third stared aimlessly off into the distance.

"What, you don't like that show?" Faye asked, looking up from her perch on the ledge as she filed her nails. "Myself, I've been thinking of applying to appear on it. The prize is 50 thousand woolongs, you know."

Spike snorted, lying back down to continue taking up the whole couch. "Yeah right, you couldn't tell the truth for five minutes let alone an entire hour."

Faye straightened up, setting the nail file aside. Ein moseyed up the stairs to sniff at it curiously as Faye got to her feet to stand with her hands balled into fists on her hips.

"Oh yeah? Like you're one to talk. Just because I don't know what the truth about my own life is doesn't mean I go around lying all the time!"

"Are you trying to say I lie all the time?" Spike demanded, not bothering to acknowledge Faye's indignant stance as he let his eyes follow the slow revolution of the ceiling fan overhead.

"And just who ate the last piyoko?" Faye retorted.

Ed, lying on the floor near the ladder to the bridge, gasped.

Nodding, Faye addressed the hacker. "That's right, Ed! I heard him tell you that Ein must've found the box but before that I saw him stuffing that little treat into his lying lips!"

"Hey now!" Spike abandoned his reclining position to shoot up to a sitting position. "That's rich coming from the woman who stole an entire carton of cigarettes from my room and then tried to convince me that I'd smoked them all in a whiskey stupor the night before!"

Faye preened a little at that. "Must not be out of the realm of possibility considering you bought that story."

"You blatantly lied! You'd be shit at that show!" Spike shouted.

Faye gasped. "I am the epitome of believable! I am the very image of innocence!"

Jet, who was sitting on the yellow chair as he stitched up Spike's suit jacket for the billionth time, laughed out loud.

Faye turned to glare at him, an eyebrow twitching in suppressed outrage. "Got something you wanna say, old man?" She asked in a dangerous tone. "Because I'm pretty sure I know who took the batteries out of Ed's noisemaker..."

The hacker child gasped again, looking with a stricken expression at Jet who studiously ignored her.

Though he did pause in his work to give Faye a decidedly wicked grin. "I don't think you want me to jump into this conversation considering I know you and Spike were both lying about your whereabouts last week when the shower got broken. So unless you want me to divulge my suspicions about how the shower got broken... And what happened to the bottle of Ed's bubble bath, not to mention her edible paints..."

Faye blanched and Spike looked alarmed too. Jet's grin broadened. Ed wailed.

"Why is Edward always the victim of these lies?!" She cried, flailing her arms in the air. Ein hurried over to lick at her face.

Faye and Jet looked contrite but Spike took her tears in stride.

"Oh are you though, Ed? Was it really Ein who ate all of Faye's lipstick tubes?" He asked calmly.

Ed's movements stilled abruptly and she faced Faye with a sheepish grin. "Ehehehehe... Tooty fruity tastes nothing like fruit at all! Why do they all have such yummy nummy names if they all taste the same? Yucky ucky!"

"Ed! You ate all my lipstick?"

The hacker pouted. "Spike-person said it was distracting how often you licked your lips. Ed figured the tubes must be tasty! Makeup is a lie!"

"Well, she's not wrong there," Jet muttered.

"All right, all right... So we're all guilty of passing the blame or stretching the truth..." Faye allowed, shrugging as if it were all inconsequential.

"Except Ein. But just because he can't speak doesn't mean he gets a pass. Sometimes he looks awful shady... I bet he's done some stuff that we've each chalked up to someone else being responsible for."

Everyone looked towards Ein, who sat next to Ed with as close to a grin as a dog can have. He let his tongue loll from his mouth and tilted his head slightly to the side, affecting a truly guileless pose.

"You're absolutely right." Faye agreed.

"That's a guilty mug if I've ever seen one." Jet concurred.

"He's told me some tall tales," Ed added then.

Ein frowned and made a whiny noise.

"Hey, it looks like that show is over. Big Shots is about to air!" Faye realized. She shoved Spike to the side so she could plop onto the couch. "Scoot over, let's see whose up for grabs!"

"Bounty time! Whose done the crime? Punch and Judy serving up justice!" Ed sang.

"Well, they broadcast about it..." Jet said.

"But we're the ones actually bringing justice!" Spike added on.

Ein barked affirmatively, glad the conversation had moved on from the honesty of dogs and one another.

Alone Together

"You've been coming here every night." It's the fourth night that he's seen her and he's finally been unable to deny his own curiosity any longer. He's on a set break, or, well, he could just be done for the night. It's not as though the bar is full of patrons demanding an encore. In fact, aside from the bartender and the pianist, it's just him and her.

"Perhaps the music keeps bringing me back." Her voice is coy and playful but there is a sadness in her eyes.

"Women are an unusual sight here on Callisto, you know." He feels oddly protective of her, yet something tells him she can handle herself just fine, even here.

"It seemed like a fitting place to come to. A woman, all alone. It's good to be alone sometimes, you know." Despite her words, something about her seems not just alone but lonely too. Solitude can eat away at a person after a while.

"Are you asking me to leave?" He doesn't want to go home. Something about her is compelling him to stay, but he won't if it disturbs her.

"I'm asking you to play it for me... that song from the first night I walked in." Her gaze is wistful, her request intrigues him further.

"You're familiar with that tune? I'm surprised, no one else seems to know it." It's the truth. He's never heard it prior to the music box and no one else has ever seemed to recognize it when he's played.

"I'm an unusual woman." A Mona-Lisa smile touches her lips. "There's a certain sentiment it evokes for me. I wonder where you learned it." Her eyes trace over his instrument.

"It was a gift... a music box. From a comrade-in-arms." He hadn't told his story to anyone else. Who was there to talk to? But he felt a kinship to this stranger. This mysterious woman who somehow knew the song no one else knew.

"Ahh." She took in a deep breath, held it for a long moment, then let it out slowly. "I don't suppose you're in the mood for some company? I'll admit I'm tired of sitting on barstools and breathing smoky air."

He sensed there was something else she'd wanted to say. He wondered if she'd be more forthcoming if he invited her to his apartment. It was a place no one else had been. Did he want to bring her there? Her query seemed to suggest a coupling, but he was positive that wasn't what she was offering. Something about her seemed untouchable.

"I could be done here for the night." He admitted.

"Then... if you don't mind... it's just that I'm tired of being alone. For one night it would be nice to have someone to talk to."

He wondered if she felt the same draw to him that he felt to her. What was it about this woman? On a gut impulse, he nodded his head.

"I will honor your song request when we get to my place. And, truthfully, I would appreciate having someone to talk to as well. Just, promise you won't go telling my stories to anyone else?"

She laughed softly. "There's no one else in my life. I've chosen solitude as my companion, you see."

"Then, let me just put my sax in the case. She doesn't like the cold weather so I try to keep her safe. And then, we can spend some time alone - together."

Free Fall

I don't feel a thing...

and I stop remembering...

the days are just like moments turned to hours...

Shattered glass caught a thousand reflections of a defeated man plunging in a free fall towards the unforgiving ground.

Eyes stared blankly up at the sky, unseeing.

The only images playing in Spike's vision were ghosts of the past.

A woman - neither angel nor devil, merely inherently human - who may as well no longer exist.

A man - a friend, a comrade, a partner - who had become an enemy.

No. He was the one who had changed. He had spurned his bosses and betrayed everyone he'd known and stood beside for so many tumultuous years.

And now he was falling...falling...falling into an uncertain infinity.

Vicious was within the cathedral still - perhaps caught in the explosion from the grenade Spike had lobbed back inside before his weightless plummet began.

Weightless, formless... Back to the beginning, to be born again. Start over, start fresh, do better this time. Except...

He could feel the weight of his own body dragging him towards the ground. The weight of his conscience pulling him guiltily towards personal truths he'd rather avoid.

His body was in free fall but so too was his mind.

Was this a dream then? Was anything ever real?

(featuring dialogue & description from a transcript of the Wild Horses session of Cowboy Bebop)

Sacrifice

It happened so fast. Then again, that's how most things went wrong in his life. The majority was spent idling time away in a haze of smoke or an alcohol-induced stupor, lazing around the Bebop. Those long hours were often interrupted by high stakes bounty chases and that's where it all tended to unravel in spectacular fashion...much like today going up against the space pirates...

Earth space. Spike continues chasing the pirates.

SPIKE: So let's see what ya got...

GEORGE: He's here.

HARMAN: Waste of time.

Spike hides under the haul and fires at the harpoon.

HARMAN: He's after the arm...

GEORGE: He's not taking us seriously! Ruth!

RUTH: Ready to go anytime.

GEORGE: Take that!

George releases the haul. Behind the truck are dozens of harpoon guns.

RUTH: Welcome...

Spike dodges them.

SPIKE: Excellent!

Harman locks on to Spike.

HARMAN: Bingo!

Spike barely dodges Harman's harpoon shot.

RUTH: He's holding up pretty well.

Spike is finally hit by a harpoon.

JET: Cut off the mono-system!

SPIKE: I'm doing it!

RUTH: That idiot cut off his mono-system!

HARMAN: Hey... George...

RUTH: And he's in Earth's gravitational field...

The pirates truck are hit by a harpoon.

Doohan's office. Miles runs in with the radio.

MILES: Old man! Here, here!

They overhear Spike and Jet's communication.

MILES: This is pretty bad!

JET: Align the D7. Ya did it before, right?

SPIKE: Like I remember!

Earth space. The pirates are being pulled into Earth's atmosphere.

GEORGE: No good... There's nothing we can do...

HARMAN: You idiot! Hurry up and do something about this!

GEORGE: Dammit... Move! MOVE!

RUTH: Falling... We're falling!

Spike rewires Swordfish.

JET: Spike, I'll be right there. I'm calculating an interception course. Until then, keep control manually somehow. Even if everything was normal, it'd be tough to get outta here.

SPIKE: I can see that. And I just had it overhauled...

Meteors crash into Swordfish.

SPIKE: Oh well. Whatever happens, happens.

Spike dodges meteors.

JET: Spike, above you.

Spike sees the Bebop above him.

SPIKE: Your tattered ship looks like a goddess!

The pirates' truck crashes into a meteor and explodes, harpoons fly upward.

SPIKE: Shit, the virus...

It wasn't even a conscious thought. It was merely a knee jerk instinctive reaction to intercept. Self-sacrifice to save his companions. And why not? He'd died before anyway, what was another death to him? Particularly one that would keep the others alive and well. Even if he'd had the time and capability of considering an alternate option, he'd choose to put himself between them and danger any day of the week.

Spike flies low and uses Swordfish to block the harpoons from hitting the Bebop.

JET: Spike!

SPIKE: I'm still alive!

JET: We have to start over!

Doohan's hanger.

MILES: No way! Old man, ya gotta be kidding! Are you really gonna move this ancient piece of -

Miles laughs.

DOOHAN: Do you think I'd do this as a joke? Don't just stand there! Hurry up and get me some fuel!

MILES: All right!

Earth space. Swordfish slowly falls into Earth's atmosphere.

JET: Spike, can you hear me? I got a calculation. It'll take another 7 hours for us to rendezvous.

SPIKE: Come on, you're joking, right?

JET: We're too close to Earth. The orbital paths I can take are limited!

SPIKE: Isn't there a  way for you to just swing on by?

JET: If I plunge in at this angle, both the Bebop and the Swordfish will burn to nothing!

Swordfish's underside begins to burn.

There was still no regret over his choice. He'd always lived a fatalistic life, it was bound to catch up with him one of these days. Of course the others would no doubt be upset over his sacrifice - though they'd be alive and well to rue his absence so it was still a win in his books.

SPIKE: Jet... I have some booze hidden behind the fridge. Feel free to drink some.

JET: Something wrong?!

SPIKE: I'm outta gas. Nothing I can do now.

Doohan communicates to Spike through the radio.

DOOHAN: How about I go there and tow you back, in exchange for that booze? I heard the conversation. Give me the Swordfish's coordinates.

SPIKE: Doohan?! How the hell do you - ?!

Doohan's hanger. Doohan prepares to launch the old space shuttle.

DOOHAN: Spike, I don't care how ya do it, but slow down using an air-brake.

SPIKE: Slow down?

DOOHAN: If you slow down within Earth's atmosphere the gravitational pull will accelerate you instead which will give you enough speed to escape. However, you have to maintain the ship at a certain angle. Too far either way, and you'll be thrown out to the other end of the universe.

SPIKE: Unfortunately, I'm not one for delicate controls.

DOOHAN: Spike... I know you can do it. I didn't give you the Swordfish for nothing.

SPIKE: Don't you start crashing, either!

In the shuttle.

MILES: Maximum propulsion.

DOOHAN: You didn't have to force yourself to come with me.

MILES: You know how Blue Sox fans love to party!

DOOHAN: Let's go!

MILES: All right!

The shuttle takes off.

MILES: We're flying... We're REALLY flying!

Earth Space.

JET: Lower the nose by 0.6 degrees.

Spike lowers too far.

JET: You're in too deep! Spike, you'll burn to a crisp!

Spike spots Doohan's shuttle. The back of the shuttle opens up.

DOOHAN: This is the last chance!

Spike breaks off Swordfish's wings and falls into the shuttle.

MILES: It went in! It went in! That was perfect!

SPIKE: Doohan, you saved me.

DOOHAN: Not quite. Most of the heat-resistant tiles have peeled off. The temperature is rising...

MILES: T-The landing gear isn't coming down either!

DOOHAN: Oh yeah, and the #2 nozzle won't work either.

MILES: WHAT!? Is that for real? What are we gonna do? We can't land without them!

SPIKE: Oh well... Whatever happens, happens.

MILES: I KNEW I shouldn't have come up here! I'm still too young to die!

Spike spared a flash of sympathy for the younger man. He and Doohan had lived lives full of success and regrets, neither man cared overly much about their own survival in the grand scheme of things. But chatterbox Miles was basically just a kid. Far too young to sacrifice himself in an attempt to rescue a fool like Spike.

Fortunately for the lot of them, a crash landing was all that they had to worry about. Self sacrifice didn't have to end in death, after all!