Chapter 6
        Old Partners and Relatives



     As Ryoko was taking in her first few sights in over a week, Kiyone was 
stepping into the darkness.  Kiyone had at long last got what she had 
wanted for a very long time: a job going solo.  Against Mihoshi's many 
protests, Kiyone volunteered for the job of capturing a drug smuggler in 
the far reaches of the Jurain empire.  Kiyone was stepping into the 
darkness of the rank dump on the planet Jingual.  Jingual was about the 
size of a large city, and was fortified with separate little townships.  
The smuggler had been spotted flying around the sector only hours before.  
Kiyone was determined to show everyone just who was the number one cop 
around.
     The stench of a thousand rotting feces hit her like a brick wall as 
soon as she stepped inside the dump, and only got worse as she persisted 
onward.  The Jingual people had insisted on putting all the waste products 
of the entire planet at one particular point, putting the sewage, garbage, 
and gaseous waste right where Kiyone was digging around.  Kiyone's face 
mask was wrapped around her head, protecting her from the smell.  She 
rummaged around the extract for nearly an hour, looking for the culprit.
     A witness, a local bartender at the closest township of the dump, had 
told her that he had spotted the smuggler in an argument with a woman, 
white haired and slim figured in a black get-up made of spandex or some 
other clinging material.  He told Kiyone that the argument ended with the 
girl getting so peeved that she smacked him with a beer bottle and dragged the 
guy outside.  He followed, making sure nothing nasty happened and saw a 
huge ship that was kinda like the shape of a spider, white though, with 
green slashes in the paint.  Kiyone thought the description sounded a lot 
like Ken-Oki and asked if the woman the witness saw had funny-looking red 
shoes with little balls on the end.
     "Yea," he had said.  "Funny-looking suckers alright.  Any other girl 
or guy would've been laughed clear out of the bar, but this girl looked 
tough, like she was hidin' something behind that black cloak of hers, a gun 
or something.  This little furry thing was following her, looked like a 
cabbit, only way too scruffy lookin, like it had been run through a mud 
puddle one too many times.  Cute little guy though.  The girl walked in, 
ordered a drink and sat down next to the guy, the drug-smuggler or 
whatever.  They start talkin and pretty soon they start yellin, the girl 
mostly.  Next thing I know the girl's standin up, screamin at the guy, 
like 'Don't screw around with me, you smuggling crap!  I could turn you in 
right now if I wanted to!'  The guy looks up at her real scared like and 
nods, motioning for her to sit back down.  They talk quietly a little 
longer before she gets up, rips her cloak back and slams him with a beer 
bottle.  I didn't see it all that well, but George over there, he said she 
had a little cane thing, with a big red ball at the end.  It looked like it 
might break in her hand, but it didn't even crack when she slammed it on 
the bar.  That's what George said anyways.  Me, I say George is fulla shit, 
but you choose who to believe.  It don't make any difference to me.  Just 
tryin to be helpful."
     Kiyone had then been sure it was Nagi.  The bartender told her that 
the girl had beamed them both up in the ship, and he saw the smuggler fall 
out of the ship and into the dump from a few feet off the ground when the 
ship did a close run by of it.
     "No one could live in that shit, officer.  That is some deadly waste.  
Suffocate if you stay in there too long."
     And here was Kiyone, looking around in the muck like a field agent, 
which she outranked, and kicking up waste because she loved doing it and 
that's why she had become a police officer.  She looked for maybe five 
minutes before finding the poor guy laying on top of an especially large 
pile of feces.  The man was barely alive, toxins all up in his lungs.  She 
put the mask on him, letting him get a few gulps of fresh air before 
ripping it off his face and nuzzling it back over her own mouth and 
nostrils.  She carried the criminal, unconscious, wheezing all the air he 
could out of the stench, covered from head to toe with nothing but shit, 
his body a dark, shitty brown, ranking almost as much as his surroundings, 
all the way back to her ship.
     This was what Kiyone got into the business for: swift, simple 
justice.  She didn't mind the smell so much.  Without the whining of 
Mihoshi, it felt like a vacation.  She yelled towards the ship, "Yagami!  
Open up!"
     The ship obeyed obediently, reading her voice and passing the 
identification check.  Its circuits judged the command and the tone of 
which it was presented and deduced, very systematically, that its owner was 
impatient at the moment.  It made with the door opening post haste, 
admitting its pilot entrance.
     "Thank you," Kiyone rewarded Yagami, signaling for the circuits to not 
worry too much about making its duties go swifter, connecting the signal in 
a few less seconds which might make its master more comfortable.
     It judged the weight ratio of the load boarding and deduced, always 
systematically, that there was another patron inside its care.  "Open 
lock-in chamber," Kiyone ordered, and was answered by a swift whir as a 
solid steel door opened in the floor into a pit designed to hold up to 
fifteen prisoners, if they held their breath and sucked in their bellies 
that was.
     Kiyone relieved herself of the smelly burden, dropping the smuggler 
into the pit.  She breathed a deep sigh of relief and walked to the bathing 
chamber on the opposite side of the ship.  "Plot course, Yagami.  Jurai.  I 
have something for them.  This is Jurai business, and it is our duty to 
leave them their own garbage to dispose of."  The last part was mostly to 
herself rather than Yagami.  The ship could care less why Jurai needed the 
smuggler.  It needed only her order.  Everything else, reason or spoken 
thought, was merely useless babble to it.  Kiyone was its master.  It 
followed its master and only its master.  Everything else was either 
ignored or destroyed, depending on its master's wishes.
     Yagami took flight and exited the atmosphere within the minute of take 
off.  It was on its way to Jurai immediately.  Kiyone was by then bathing.  
To Yagami, that meant to not bother her unless for emergencies.  Yagami had 
its own systematic intelligence, composing mainly of obedience and self-
defense.  So far, that was all that it needed.

     Washu was taking a bath at the time Kiyone was taking her shower.  She 
sighed a long pleasant sigh as the warm water engulfed her body.  She 
flinched as the water stung the scrape on her stomach from Nagi's kick and 
cursed silently under her breath.  She had been left powerless, bruised, 
weaponless, but that didn't mean she couldn't take a bath.  She was, of 
course, in a bathroom.  Quite a convenient place to be held capture in this 
little ship.  She actually felt a little sorry for the bounty hunter, 
having to hold it during the whole trip and all.
      She laid in the tub, letting the hot water caress her naked body, 
soothing her wounds.  She could feel Nagi watching her through the camera 
which was positioned above the tub.  Nagi must be really kicking herself, 
she thought.  Oh well, she thought again, her mistake.

     It was indeed a large mistake to put Washu in that bathroom.  Nagi 
really needed to pee.  She sat, cross-legged, staring at the video monitor, 
looking at Washu taking a bath.  She looks so smug, Nagi thought.  She 
stared angrily at the monitor for a few more seconds before punching it in 
disgust, almost breaking it.
     She really didn't want to do what she was thinking of doing, but she 
needed to go bad.  She wished again that her criminal's cross was small 
enough to hold Washu.
     "Oh well," she mumbled.  "I guess there's no putting it off."  She 
grabbed hold of a microphone on her desktop and mumbled, "Hey, Washu."
     "Yes?" she heard from the monitor.
     "How would you like to be free to roam around the ship?"
     "You need to go to the bathroom that bad?"
     "Answer the question."
     Washu put a finger to her head, as if brooding over a difficult 
decision.  "Nah," she finally said.
     Nagi restrained herself.  "I'm not asking you, dammit!  I'm telling 
you!"
     "Sounded like a question to me," Washu sang.
     "You have three seconds to get dressed," Nagi said, flicking off the 
monitor.
     Washu saw the camera go dead.  She jumped out of the tub and put on 
her clothes.  She was drying her hair with a towel when Nagi came in.  
"Out!" the bounty hunter shouted.
     "But you got to see me naked," the scientist teased.
     "OUT!" Nagi screamed.
     "Ok ok," Washu said, holding her hands out in mock defense.  "Don't 
get your panties in a-"  She was cut off as Nagi slammed the door in her 
face.
     Washu smiled.  That was easy, she thought.  Now to see what's around 
this ship.
     She made her way around the ship easily enough.  It wasn't big at 
all.  She looked at her wrist, and pushed on her a certain place on her 
arm.  Suddenly, a small wrist watch spread itself over her wrist, and it 
beeped softly.
     "She didn't take all my inventions," she said softly.  "I've still got 
a few.  Now to just track down my computer by using this Computer Tracker 
device, and I'll be able to get out of here."
     Suddenly, as she tried to walk through a passageway, a door suddenly 
appeared, letting her walk right into it, slamming her head on the double 
plated steel with a loud thump!.  "What the-"
     She was cut off by the loud sounds of the cabbit ship.  "Meow meow 
Meeeoooww," it scolded.
     "Blasted cabbit!" Washu yelled.  "Open this door!!"
     "Meow!" it said, angrily.
     "What?!  I only did that for a little fun!  I was going to free you 
later!  Honest!"
     "Meow meow!!"
     "Alright fine!!  Be that way!!"  Washu stormed off in a huff, but was 
stopped by the swift sound of the door opening.  Quickly, she turned around 
and headed for the door, only to smack her head again as it closed on her.  
"WHY YOU!!!" she screamed.
     She could hear the cabbits meows as it laughed in its cabbit way.
     Washu walked away again, over to a window looking out at space.  She 
could see the stars, and, for a while, she stared at the spectacles of the 
universe.  Then something caught her eye.  A small, non- twinkling star 
that seemed to move ever so slightly.  She stared at it, and found that it 
wasn't a star at all, for it didn't shine and it only seemed to be 
reflecting light off the nearest sun.  She stared for awhile longer, fixed 
on this new spectacle.  It couldn't have been a planet because, when she 
saw another angle of it, it seemed to move and change shape.
     "It's a ship," she whispered to herself.  She could see the ship seem 
to grow in the distance.  It was heading their way.  She could now see some 
of the parts of the ship more clearly as it came closer.
     Suddenly, she heard a sound behind her that made her jump.  She 
twirled around and saw her captor staring out the window alongside her.  
"There's a ship," the bounty hunter whispered.
     Washu nodded and turned her attention back to space.  They both looked 
as the ship came closer and closer.  Washu saw, as it came into view, a 
black symbol on it, a cross with a line through it, like a double barred 
't'.  She needed only a second to remember where she had seen that symbol 
before.  It was the mark of a space pirate.  Space pirates often liked to 
mark their ships, for some strange reason, making their capture all the 
easier for their pursuers.  She turned and looked at Nagi.
     Nagi's face was dead pale, her hands hanging limp at her sides.  She 
made small swallowing noises in the back of her throat.
     "It's the Mah-Jong," Washu said.  "Do you know of them?"
     "Ken-Oki!" Nagi screamed, cutting Washu off.  "Get us the hell out of 
here!!"
     But it was too late.  The larger ship was already in range to put a 
tractor beam on the tiny cabbit ship.  Usually, Ken-Oki was small enough to 
slip out of a regular tractor beam, but this was an illegal tractor beam, 
with such a high magnitude that it could pick up anything in space.  It was 
deemed illegal because larger ships often sprung air leaks under the huge 
pressure of it, destroying them instantly in a huge implosion.  But legal 
issues held little meaning to space pirates, especially the Mah-Jong.
     Washu knew them from the news from seven hundred years ago.  They had 
been wanted for theft and murder, acting as a unified unit.  All of them on 
the huge ship were probably going to be charged with at least six life 
sentences each, assuming they were ever caught.
     Nagi, however, knew them much more personally.
     Neither of them could do anything to prevent themselves from being 
captured, however, and they could only watch as they were pulled in, 
slowly, proceeding meter by meter to the huge mammoth.

     Kiyone got dressed quickly and went to check on her prisoner.  She had 
the report in her hand and was looking it over as she went over to the 
prisoner's chamber.  She walked in the outer holding area, and looked 
through the cage bars.  The smuggler had regained consciousness.
     "Hello, uh," Kiyone looked down at the smugglers file.  "Laurence.  
That's a cute name.  How ya doin?  Bet you'd like a shower."
     "Shut up, pig!" he coughed.  "Hey, wait a minute!  You're Kiyone!  I 
know you!"
     "You do?" Kiyone mused.  Her reputation had obviously out grown her.  
"From where, Mr. Laurence?"
     "You don't remember?!  From Jurai!  You caught me for smugglin!  You 
and that partner of yours!  Jamie Murdock!!"
     "Oh yeah!  I remember you now!  Put you away for a good many years.  
So this is you second offense?!  Boy are you screwed."
     "Not as much as you and that fink Murdock are!!  I'm filin a report 
for harassment on the both o' yas!"
     "WHAT?!" Kiyone laughed.
     "Murdock dumpin me in that shit hole!  That's brutality!!"
     "Murdock's dead, idiot!  The bounty hunter Nagi just dumped your ass 
in that filth!"
     "Yeah, that's what she was callin herself, but I'd never forget the 
either of yas!  That was her, and I just bet you two set me up for that!!  
You be damn sure I'm telling everybody!!"
     "Read my lips!  MURDOCK'S DEAD!!  THAT WAS NAGI!!  She just likes 
throwin trash like you in your proper place, and frankly, to see you behind 
bars, it just makes all that muck digging worth it"
     "Bullshit!  Don't give me that!  I know who that was and that was damn 
Murdock, you stupid bitch!  She even recognized me, the bitch.  Said how 
ya doin Lawr, like we was ole friends, then she dumps me in that shit 
hole.  YOUR BOTH GONNA PAY FOR THAT!!"  Suddenly Laurence eyed the 
detective suspiciously.  "You didn't know that?!"
     "HEY!  IF THAT WAS MURDOCK I WOULD'VE NOTICED!!"
     "You really didn't know!  HA!!!  HA HA HA HA!!!!"  The criminal almost 
exploded into a fit of giddy laughter.  "You don't even know who your own 
partner is!  HA! HA! HA!"
     Kiyone, confused, stormed out of the cell area.  "Should've let that 
pile of shit in the dump," she mumbled.  Once back in her pilot's chamber, 
she sat in her chair, and thought.  She looked over to her computer, and 
stared at it for a few seconds.  "She's dead, you idiot!  You were there!" 
she mumbled to herself.  She glanced at the computer again.
     "OH FINE!" she screamed, getting up from her chair and storming over 
to the computer.  She punched in a few keys, transferring to the criminal 
records.  She then transferred to the bounty hunter section, and, under 
most wanted, was the name, picture, and status of Nagi Burwald.  The stats 
were mostly question marks, seeing as how no one had ever gotten any 
information on the bounty hunter.  She then pushed print, and heard the 
buzzes and whirs of the printer processing and printing, as a piece of 
paper with the statistics slowly printed out..
     As it printed, she remembered back to her partner, the late Jamie 
Murdock.  She remembered when they had first met, the way her shirt had 
been untucked and untidy.  She had been a novice, alright.  Pure and 
simple.  Kiyone had been her first partner, and they both were fresh out of 
the academy.  Kiyone had actually gone on cases before her graduation, 
earning extra credits at school to graduate sooner, but this new partner of 
hers was certainly wet behind the ears.  Their first together case had been 
to pick up the smuggler Laurence, and Kiyone couldn't believe she had 
forgotten that scumbag just a few seconds ago.  Jamie had pure black hair, 
like her own, Kiyone remembered, and the detective seemed competent enough.
     Kiyone's thoughts were broken as the printer finished, giving itself a 
congratulatory whir of success.  Kiyone then transferred to old detectives 
in the galaxy PD files, scrolling down to the M's as she arrived at the 
appropriate list.  After a few seconds, she came to rest on Jamie Murdock's 
file.  The sight of the detective almost brought tears to Kiyone's eyes as 
she remembered those brown eyes and that blue head band she always wore.  
She then picked up Nagi's picture and compared it with Jamie's which was 
displayed on the monitor.  She had to admit that they did look similar.
     But then, Kiyone noticed something that made her heart leap into her 
throat, something that made her almost believe the smuggler's words.  She 
saw the blue head band on both their heads.
              Then, something else caught her eye: the place where the 
black marks covered Nagi's cheek.  The positioning of them brought back the 
memory full front.  She remembered back to the day when Jamie had died, 
laying there, looking up at Kiyone, scars down her cheeks, blood pouring 
out of punctures in her chest and stomach.  Kiyone also had punctures in 
her stomach, but they were only grazes, where as the shots which hit 
Murdock hit straight on.  But it was the black marks on Nagi's cheek.  They 
were in the same place where Murdock's wounds were on her face.
     Kiyone gasped at the final realization.  She tried to shake it away 
from her mind immediately, turning her face from the pictures.  She 
desperately didn't want to believe, but the similarities were just too 
strong.  She finally couldn't hide from the truth.
     Jamie Murdock was Nagi Burwald, the most feared bounty hunter in the 
universe.
     Kiyone felt sick.

     It had not taken long for Washu, Nagi, and Ken-oki to be captured.  
There had just been too many of the Mah Jong pirates to fight.  And now, as 
Washu strained against the ropes which kept her restrained to the cross, 
she, for almost the first time ever, was afraid for her life.
     She looked across from her and saw Nagi, a look of fear which looked 
totally out of place on the bounty hunter's face.  And that made the 
scientist even more frightened.  She also saw the cabbit, again restrained 
in a cage.
     Nagi was also tied to a cross, although she did not try to get away.  
She knew this day would come sooner or later, that these people would find 
her.  That she would be caught by her-
     Suddenly the door to the room swished open, and in stepped three men, 
all in uniform.  Behind them came a large man in a more magnificent 
uniform, dressed with uncountable metals across his chest.  As he stopped, 
the others stopped, and as he went, the others went.  They all moved 
simultaneous with their leader, until he put up a hand, motioning them to 
stop.  He then walked up, looking up at Nagi, tied high on the cross.
     "Well hello, Nagi," the man said.  "Long time no see."
     "Hello Danner."
     "Everyone around here knows me as Mah-Jong, Nagi.  I will talk to you 
by your alias, so please return the favor."
     "I never asked you to do anything, Danner."
     "You'll never change, Jamie.  Always the head strong bitch of our 
family."
     "Bitch!" Nagi screamed.  "You're the one who disgraced our family!  
Don't you call me a bitch!!"
     "Who is this guy, Nagi?" Washu asked.  "And why did he call you 
Jamie?"
     "That's my name, Washu.  Jamie Murdock.  Meet Danner Murdock, my 
brother.  You should be honored.  He's the most powerful piece of shit in 
the galaxy.  This is his organization."