Chapter 1 Prologue

John Silver

The pirate watched from a distance from his longboat as the flames burst from the large ship and lit up the night sky of space. A smile crossed his lips as his mind processed the meaning behind this. All according to plan. He was sure to run across a large sum of treasure this time despite the fact that he had to share it with his new crew. But they did work quite well together…..Silver making the plans, but careful to stay hidden because he was still a known fugitive….his crew acting as hired hands but working from the inside to carry them out. Sharing whatever treasure they ran across would have to do. He wondered what unlucky passengers on the ship had crossed his crew, but quickly dismissed the thought when he felt a pang of guilt.

Yes, pirating was still the joy of his life…but it had never been the same since meeting Jimbo. Silver often wondered how the "pup" was getting along, but never visited his home planet Montressor because he would be captured for sure….well….if he were still a "pup". But the pirate still saw those searching, justifying eyes of his every day. He was the closest to a son the pirate had ever had. He shook his mind clear as he used his cyborg eye to zoom in on an approaching longboat speeding its way to him. He knew instantly that it belonged to them when he spotted the pirate flag flopping in the air. When he saw who was operating it, however, he almost dreaded the meeting. It was Miss Scroop. The spider-like alien was different from her lover, but still terrible as ever.

When John Silver first ran across her, the last thing he had wanted to consider was that that bloomin' Scroop had a lover. Well, if anything he hoped that another like that murderous, dangerous looking space spider didn't exist. But there she was…responding to his call for a crew. He hadn't even wanted to take her on his crew, but it wasn't like there were many takers for being a pirate. And she had experience; she was strong, dangerous, and handy with the same cruel spirit that kept the crew going in his absence. She was persistent, which lead to him finally taking her on, and he knew why. It was a known fact she was still searching for Scroop, even more for who had caused his death, so she could take her revenge.

Silver knew why she had sought him out among the other pirates; she knew he had been the last to know and hire Scroop…he knew she knew. And it was for this unspoken reason that he kept her in the dark when Scroop was brought up, with sayings such as "Lost in space, I t'ink."s or "Enough, back to your job now"s, or simply "Shut your yap"s. He could never reveal what he knew about Scroop's death, so he kept his distance. He didn't even know her by any other name than "Miss Scroop", didn't care to.

He kept a hard, indifferent expression as she pulled up beside him and reached down to pull up a small chest from under the seat. When she tossed it over, he opened it up to examine the contents as he listened to her high, hissy voice. "As we thought; there was treasure on board."

Silver examined the large, fancy ship and got angry. He could feel his cyborg eye burning red when he addressed the spider. "That's all? There's hardly enough gold to get them through a voyage, by t'under!"

She laughed her sickening, dangerous laugh. "There is more. The others will bring it in as soon as they finish off…." She was interrupted by the sound of an explosion from the ship. Someone on board had fired a cannon at a longboat trying to make its escape from the damaged ship. The other long boats filled with escaping passengers from the big ship were going in another direction. A smaller explosion erupted from the area where the escape boat had launched from only moments ago. Someone had blown the control systems, he guessed. He and Miss Scroop barely managed to avoid clashing with the disintegrating, flaming stray boat as it plummeted to the wild terrain of the planet they were hovering above. When it landed with a crash, Silver immediately lit into Miss Scroop.

"I told ya not to blow our cover by countless murders! You're to stay focused on the treasure and not interfere with the flight of the passengers!"

She fought back, angry. "We did! Most evacuated the ship right away. I don't know who shot…."

Silver interrupted, not caring about her defenses. "Better go down and see to it they are dead. Bet ya anything they know who ya are."

When they reached the remains of the boat, the chance of survivors looked doubtful. Parts of the solar boat were strewn all over the place. It had been a bad crash. They found the middle aged alien officer laying about a few yards from the boat, killed by either the cannon or the crash…it was likely due to the crash since he at least managed to steer until there was nothing left to steer with. Just when Silver and Miss Scroop decided there was nothing to pick through and turned away, a shrill cry sounded from behind them. Silver whipped around, the built in gun on his mechanical arm ready for fire. They looked around in confusion at finding nothing. Then his eye focused in on a kicking basket. The cries were coming from the basket! "What the devil…."

The pirate kept his gun at the ready as he slowly moved to peer inside it. He let the weight of his mechanical arm fall to the side when he caught a glimpse of it. A baby….a human baby girl. "Oh…you look just like…..no!" He took a few deep breaths before checking again to make sure his eyes hadn't tricked him. They hadn't. There she was…no longer crying, and staring back at him with….wide blue eyes. He leaned forward in disbelief. "It can't be!" Those eyes were his…..Jim's. He turned his head back to the large ship just as it was consumed by explosions; passengers were still striving to escape it. Many were killed for sure. At some point he fell to his knees. No! It can't be true!

He didn't notice that Miss Scroop had crept up behind him to peer over his shoulder. Her hissing voice ran through his head as a cruel smile crept across her face, his pinchers were at the ready. "Well..well…if it isn't the First Officer's daughter."

She didn't have time to close her pinchers together before Silver grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground. He couldn't process her words. "WHAT?"

She began to struggle and grope at his hand as she croaked out her answer. "The young couple that were the Captain's Head Officers…she is their daughter….."

In his shock, Silver lost his hold and let her slip to the ground, ignoring the wretched choking noises she made. His next words were forced. "Are the parents alive?"

Miss Scroop snapped at him, angry with him for choking her. "I don't know! They're not with her!" Silver felt as if the realization had knocked the wind clear out of him when he glanced at the infant again. Miss Scroop was getting to her feet now. "What will you do with her?"

Silver didn't answer; he just gazed upon the helpless baby as he tried to hide the gasping breaths that threatened to escape him. Now this was a pup. She had his eyes, his nose, the curls were not his…but the color of her hair was. He assumed the unknown features belonged to the mother. She was defenseless…couldn't be more than three months old. She was even too young to eat. What am I going to do? Without thinking, as if by reflex, his mechanical hand closed around the handles of the basket.

..Oh, I really hope this has your attention so far. I hope you enjoyed the prologue and would love to hear what you think about it so far. Please feel free to review if you will. It could be a while before I post again because it's a new idea and I am still working on another story. I believe I will continue this one, but would love to hear what you think so far while I am working on more chapters. I plan to write a few chapters before posting so you will have plenty to read. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you! –Angelwriter84…