InuYasha Fan Fiction / Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Space Hanyou ❯ Seven ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: Yeah, I know. Hell must have frozen over because I'm updating this story. Heh, it's only been a year! FYI…I've edited the previous chapters as well, no new content, just a few small changes. I'd like to thank everyone who has sent me emails and reviews, asking for this story to continue. You must be really patient people to wait this long!

 

 

Jet was mighty pissed off. Someone was firing at his ship, his ship, and didn't even have the decency to open comm and tell him why. Goddamnit, why was their luck always such shit?

 

“Who is it?” Spike demanded, leaning over the console as if by staring at the screens he could force answers from them.

 

Jet glared at him. “That's what I wanna know,” he growled, punching buttons with a sense of suppressed fury and desperation. He tried again to open a hail and had no luck. Something big and powerful had appeared on their six and Bebop's hull shook again as some kind of concussion weapon was fired.

 

The scan was blank, innocently informing him that despite the damage they were taking there was nothing out there. Jet ignored the lying screens, relying instead on the visual pickups he'd had mounted to Bebop's exterior. Something was jamming their electronics; they couldn't even open a ship-to-ship hail to ask what the hell they wanted.

 

Or beg for their lives.

 

Spike and Jet focused their attention on the grainy visuals. Jet had installed the cameras some months back as a rig for dockside security. If anyone was sneaking up on Bebop while she sat in port, he wanted to know about it. He'd never thought he'd be forced to rely on it in the deep dark of space.

 

All they could see was the blurry outline of some kind of craft, too large to get a positive id since the cheap cameras couldn't pan back far enough. They couldn't make out any kind of markings, not so much as the color of the paint that graced her hull. And Jet didn't need the visuals to understand their attacker was very well armed.

 

“Goddamnit,” he roared, slapping the useless mic even though he knew his trans was blocked. “At least tell me why you're trying to kill me!”

 

Spike snorted and threw a cigarette on the deck without even bothering to crush it out. “I'm going outside,” he said, glaring at Jet as if he expected his partner to try and talk him out of such a fool rash action. “We can't even get info to the outside guns, I'm not gonna sit here while some psycho uses us for target practice.”

 

The ship shook again and this time the screens flickered as if making a last, desperate attempt to convey information. Jet muttered to himself as he slapped at the controls, trying to find out how badly Bebop was hurting. What he discovered didn't make him feel better. She was hurt pretty bad, worse than he'd thought.

 

“Son of a bitch,” he cursed, rubbing his face with his hands. At Spike's silence, he glanced back at his partner and grimaced. “They're targeting our life support,” he explained. “Bastards are trying to open us up like a can of meat. When we're all dead or in no condition to fight, they'll come in and just take what they want.”

 

“I'm on it,” Spike muttered as he headed towards the passage. “If I can get the swordfish out of the cargo hangar, I'll at least make sure I pay them back. Maybe you can make a run for it if I distract them long enough.”

 

Jet opened his mouth to respond that he was crazy, that it was the most damn fool thing he'd ever heard, but he knew they didn't have any better options at this point. If the damage Bebop was already taking was any indication, Spike wouldn't last two minutes out there. Still, it might just give Bebop a shot at escape. If her engines didn't fail. If a hull breach didn't save them the trouble of even trying to run.

 

“How interesting. You didn't strike me as the type for a suicidal sacrifice, Mr. Spiegel.”

 

Spike turned at the major's dry comment and brandished a grin that had nothing to do with humor. “I'm not. If you've got a better idea, I'm willing to listen, Major.”

 

You'd think the one good thing about having a federal escort aboard would mean that they'd be safe from marauders. Jet snorted, folding his arms over his chest as Faye and the Hanyou followed Higurashi through the door. Faye's cheeks were flushed and when he sent his usual scowl in her direction, she dropped her eyes as if he'd just asked to see her private files. What was up with that? Never mind, they had worse problems. The last thing he wanted to think about was what Faye might be doing to pass the time with their `prisoner' who had just flopped gracelessly onto the couch and put up his feet like he owned the place.

 

“Well,” he sneered, catching the diminutive marshal's eye again. “I'd like to know what you're going to do about this. My ship is under attack; they're targeting life support and the engines in case you didn't notice. If you've got an armada of federal gunships in your back pocket, now would be a good time to bring them out.”

 

She raised a delicate eyebrow. “I'm very sorry, captain,” she said, her tone as crisp and by the book as any cop's he'd ever heard. “I must have left them in my other uniform.”

 

The Hanyou snorted and Spike grinned, leaning against the wall as he reached into a pocket for a smoke. At least she hadn't lost her composure; he thought that might have actually been a joke from the uptight major. While her comment lightened the atmosphere temporarily, it did nothing to lighten the circumstances.

 

Bebop rocked suddenly, shuddering as she was hit by some kind of concussion weapon and her lights flickered ominously. Inuyasha sat up slowly, listening hard to the pained whine of the engines. The ship was doing the best she could, but he detected the sound of a dozen leaking valves and the slow hiss that means the air blowers were being taxed beyond their specs.

 

It didn't make him any happier to know that he alone might survive if there was a catastrophic breach. His enhanced physique meant that he could temporarily go without oxygen; even do an extended swim in hard vacuum if absolutely necessary. Not that he looked forward to the idea of freezing his balls off in a ship with no life support and a neg core temperature, but at least he might survive long enough for one of his father's ships to track him down.

 

His eyes were drawn to Faye, the woman looked outright frightened and he wondered again at her tough-girl act. Hard to be brave in the face of death, he decided grimly. Yeah, he would probably survive, but these humans…he'd seen what slow suffocation looked like when the environmental failed on a ship. And he'd also seen what a hull breach did to the human bodies that were unlucky enough to be exposed to harsh and unforgiving vacuum.

 

He'd take suffocation any day rather than go out with his blood boiling from the drop of ambient pressure. Bebop was going to be a tomb for these poor fools.

 

Inuyasha glanced up to see Higurashi giving him a speculative look. He wondered if she'd guessed what was going through his mind and flushed, looking away like it didn't matter to him. If she knew his personal history as well as she claimed, she knew damned well that the only one who might survive this attack would be him. Hell, maybe he should be looking forward to it, he didn't owe these cowboys a damned thing and as for that bitch marshal…

 

Jet jumped when Higurashi's gloved hand dropped to his shoulder. “I take it all of our communications have been jammed,” she said quietly. At his nod of assent, she stepped away, neatly inserting herself at the second's station beside him. He stared as the woman reached into an immaculate pocket and withdrew a small slip of plastic.

 

“Here,” she said, gesturing at the console. “Put these codes in. Your computer will be able to decrypt their signal. At least we'll be able to see who's attacking your ship.”

 

Suspiciously, he handled the slim piece of plastic as if it might turn and bite at him. “Wait a minute,” he growled, glaring at her. “I know what this is, I put this in my comm and you've got the overrides for every system on my ship. Any cop with authority to broadcast these codes can nail my hide to the deck. I won't do it!”

 

Higurashi glowered at him. “Don't be a fool,” she hissed. “We haven't got a chance of living through this unless we can stop these bastards. You think it's an accident that they're blocking your comm and targeting your life support? They know that the Hanyou is on board, just like they know he'd be able to survive a hull breach!”

 

All eyes turned to Inuyasha and he flushed again, staring up at the ceiling so he wouldn't have to meet any accusing stares. “Not my fault,” he muttered, hoping it was true. He didn't want to be responsible for anyone's deaths, not even Higurashi's. “I didn't say shit about it.”

 

Jet and Spike reached the same, unpleasant conclusion at the same time. Acting as one, Jet slapped the marshal's ident into Bebop's reader while Spike launched himself across the room to grab a fistful of silver hair. Inuyasha yelped loudly in surprised pain and cocked back a fist to punch Spike in the face, but he was dropped to the deck before it could contact.

 

“Sit!” Higurashi snapped, not wanting a fistfight to add to their problems. She smirked in obvious pleasure as Spike hauled Inuyasha's now limp form from the deck and dragged him over to her. Blood was flowing freely from his mouth; he'd bitten his damn tongue when he went down.

 

“You're really getting on my nerves, bitch,” he snarled, spraying the marshal's clean uniform with blood and saliva. Spike cuffed him hard across the head and the Hanyou growled menacingly at him. “Try that again, you bastard, when this bitch isn't around to get in my way.”

 

“Love to,” Spike said easily and shoved Inuyasha hard into a chair. Jet had produced a lethal looking pistol from somewhere under the console and aimed it right between the surly Hanyou's golden eyes. Across the room, he heard Faye's soft gasp of horror and thought smugly that at least one human in this room didn't want to see his brains splattered across Bebop's consoles.

 

“Jet, what are you doing?” Faye cried, rushing to her partner's side. “Have you lost your mind? He's worth nothing to us dead!”

 

Nice, Inuyasha thought sourly, contenting himself with a subdued leer at Faye's backside. It figured that she'd only care about his monetary value, but he did like a woman who had her priorities straight.

 

Jet didn't look at Faye, keeping his pistol trained on the Hanyou while Spike stood ready to knock his skull in if he didn't cooperate. “And I can't spend the bounty money when I'm dead,” he sneered. “Which is why this punk is going to do what we tell him.”

 

Inuyasha folded his arms over his chest and glared at the burly bounty hunter. “What do you want me to do about it?” The ship shuddered again and red lit the safety board, screaming that Bebop really didn't think she could hold it together much longer.

 

“As soon as the nice marshal's codes do their magic, you're gonna get on that comm and tell your daddy's people to stop trying to blow apart my ship!”

 

Inuyasha stared at Jet, realizing the man was perfectly serious although he couldn't know the absolute insanity of what he'd just said. “You think that's my father out there?” he asked incredulously.

 

“Not saying it ain't, are ya?”

 

Now he was pissed and he surged out of his chair to grab Higurashi by the arm. “It's not Inutaisho,” he snarled, digging his claws into her arm. “You know damn well that he never murders humans. He wouldn't do it this way!”

 

Her eyes were cold and she reached up to pry his fingers from her rumpled sleeve. “I have no idea what lengths he might go to in order to protect his son,” she said icily. “Whoever is firing on this ship knows that you're aboard and doesn't mind killing everyone else to get at you.”

 

He clamped his mouth shut, knowing what she was getting at. She was trying to get him to admit to it, and damned if he was going to spill his guts in front of these fools. He'd die before he did that, die with Jet's bullet in his brain before he'd betray his father.

 

“Listen to me,” he said quietly, catching everyone's attention with his subdued tone of voice. “Trust me, that's not my father. If it were, I'd just open up that comm and tell him to come and get me. You think he has to pry this ship apart by her welds just to take me out of here? He wouldn't kill everyone aboard just to keep me out of lock up.”

 

Spike leaned over his shoulder, his hand a warning on the Hanyou's shoulder. “Why should we believe you?”

 

The Hanyou's gaze was full of defiance but he didn't seem to be bullshitting. “I got no reason to lie,” he snarled.

 

A muted beeping sound drew everyone's attention from the tense stand off. Higurashi's codes were legit, Jet decided, grinning to himself as he started to pull data out of Bebop's sensors. What he found made him go pale and he looked sick.

 

“The life support is completely off line,” he said, not addressing anyone in particular. “I thought it was strange they'd stopped firing. Guess they know we're already dead because there's a partial breach in the lower decks where the environmental equipment is housed. We've been bleeding air and power ever since the first hit.”

 

“Shit!” Faye had barely been able to contain her agitation and now she wished to hell that she'd followed her instincts and ran for her own craft when the explosions had first sounded. She wasn't the target, hell; she wasn't even on the marshal's hate list. No reason they would have shot her down, she could have slipped quietly away instead of waiting here until their options were down to nothing.

 

Inuyasha grinned at her, catching the harried expression in her eyes. “Told ya you should have run away with me,” he said mildly, enjoying the flash of annoyance that made her eyes sparkle so prettily. “We could be having a good time instead of waiting for the air to run out on this bucket.”

 

“Hey!” Jet leaned across the console and glowered at the Hanyou. “This is your fault, brat,” he growled, tapping the kid on the head with the muzzle of his pistol. “I already told you that if we die, you die with us. Now put that fuzzy head of yours to work and think of who's desperate enough to murder us just to lay hands on your mangy hide.”

 

Inuyasha hunched his shoulders, looking more like a petulant child than an outlaw with a twenty million bounty on his head. “I told you I don't know,” he said sullenly, picking at his claws. “Could be anybody, I've pissed a few people off bad enough that they'd kill to get at me.”

 

“I don't think so,” Higurashi said quietly. She stepped over the pissed off Hanyou and slowly pulled her stun wand from her belt. “Tell me the truth, Inuyasha. Tell me where you're hiding it. If that's not the youkai Inutaisho out there, it's someone that wants what you have. I don't think anyone would go to this much trouble over a simple grudge. The Shikon no Tama, on the other hand…”

 

“Shut up!” He tried to get up and run at her, but Spike jumped behind him and clamped both hands down on the guy's shoulders to keep him sitting.

 

“Maybe you should listen to the marshal,” he said quietly. “In case you didn't notice, she's got that toy of hers set to max, more than enough to scramble whatever you call brains. Just answer the question, man. We're running out of time.”

 

Inuyasha looked like he wanted to throw up all over the petite enforcement officer, but he swallowed his disgust and muttered a name that meant nothing to Spike or Jet, but Kagome Higurashi suddenly darted forward and grabbed one of Inuyasha's ears in a torturous grip.

 

“Naraku?” she shouted, her eyes filled with immeasurable fury. “You let the Shikon fall into Naraku's hands? You stupid, ignorant fool!”

 

The Hanyou made a sound that was somewhere between a whimper and a whine. “Let go of my fucking ear! It wasn't my fault; I didn't know she was working for him. I thought she was just some hot programmer, said weapons tech got her all kinds of wet. I just showed the specs to her, I didn't know she was gonna steal it!”

 

“Shikon?” Spike asked in a quick aside to Jet. His partner glowered at him, his face dark with anger. “I've never heard of it.”

 

“I don't care if it's the goddamn holy grail,” Jet snarled. He moved forward, shoved Kagome hard against the console so that she had to let go of the guy's ear. Spike hadn't moved from behind Inuyasha either, keeping a hard grip on the enraged Hanyou as he snarled and tried to get at the woman to tear her apart.

 

“Enough of this shit,” Jet bellowed, bringing everything in the room to a standstill. “I don't know what this thing is and I don't care. We are about to die, people. We got less than an hour on emergency power. After that, it's gonna get really fucking cold in here, but we'll suffocate before we freeze to death.”

 

He pointed a finger at Inuyasha. “You, punk,” he said, making sure the Hanyou knew he was done with fucking around. “Whatever you got, you're gonna give it to these guys before they decide to hit us again. One more shot and we're a grease spot.”

 

“I can't do that,” Inuyasha muttered, making no attempt to get away from Jet's anger or Spike's grip on his shoulders.

 

“For once, I agree,” Higurashi said. Fury still sparkled in her eyes and her mouth was a thin line of annoyance. “Better to destroy the ship and everyone inside it than to risk having this fool fall into Naraku's hands.”

 

Jet sighed in disgust. “I'm not ready to die yet, lady,” he said, catching a defiant grin from Spike. His gaze fell on Faye's angry face and she nodded sharply.

 

“Me either,” she said, moving to stand behind Spike and glare at the major. “I'm not ready to die, and I for sure am not going to die over him!”

 

Spike nodded slowly. “Give him to them,” he said calmly. He let go of the Hanyou and leaned against the wall and looked bored. “It's not worth dying for, if they'll let us go, maybe we can patch the breach long enough to get to the nearest port.”

 

Kagome's hand had strayed to her stun wand again and this time it was Jet who put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Don't, major,” he advised, realizing that even if they did survive she was most likely to put them all in a deep, dark cell for this. “Admit it when you're beat.”

 

Her eyes widened and Jet was startled to see honest fear in them. “I don't think you understand,” she whispered. “If that's Naraku out there, you're as good as dead even if you hand the Hanyou over to him. He's a monster, far worse than any Syndicate gangster or petty thug.”

 

Spike found himself grinning, he liked it when the odds were against him. More than that, he liked to prove to the powerful and the sadistic that they didn't own the universe. They didn't own him.

 

“Maybe we should find out who we're dealing with before we all commit ritual suicide together,” he said and made a lazy gesture at the console. “Comm's up, suppose we give them a call and see if they're willing to negotiate. Remember, we've got something they want bad enough to kill for. Let's find out how much this Hanyou is worth.”

 

Inuyasha grunted, looking over his shoulder at the lanky bounty hunter. The guy smirked at him and he sighed, sinking back in the chair. It was time for him to take a little bit of the initiative. Like it or not, his father wouldn't be happy to hear that he let a bunch of humans die at Naraku's hands. Not if he could find a way to prevent it as long as that way didn't include handing over the Shikon no Tama.

 

“All right,” Inuyasha muttered, feeling fatalistic as he was giving in. Again he was cornered like a rat in a trap and again he was going to have to talk his way out of it. Sometimes when brute force wasn't the answer, all you could do was try to dazzle them with bullshit. He sighed heavily and reached out a claw for the comm, meeting the major's eyes with an expression every bit as grim and serious and the situation itself.

 

“Let's find out who the fuck we're dealing with.”