Act 1
Jim is into his fourth and final year in the Interstellar Academy. He knows when the final exams is, which is in a few months, and he also know exactly what he is doing as a project. He is to make an boat, completely on his own. It is a step up from the solar surfer he built when he was eight, and it seems to be the perfect time to do it.
When it comes to the final exams, one of the rules for it seems to be for it to be a group project. He have the perfect person to ask for help; Jeremy D. Walkup.
"So, where should we begin?" Jeremy asks.
"We should begin with the hull," Jim answers. "And for that we need wood."
"That is easy; the academy have a lot of it in storage."
So they go get some wood, and starts to build the hull in one of the acadamy's workshops. It is maybe the hardest work to get the hull right, but Jim thinks that, with some effort, they will get it right in their first try. It will also maybe be the most timeconsuming part of their project.
As they work on the hull they usually talk, and that can be of varying things. "So, have you heard that Silver have broken out of jail?" Jeremy asks a few weeks in, as he hammers in a nail into the woodwork.
"Yeah," Jim says as he use some sandpaper on a piece of wood. "And I say that it was quite unavoidable; he doesn't like to be caged in."
"So, you know if he have gotten back to pirating?"
"No, not according to the letters he have sent me. And I'm glad if he really doesn't get himself back into his old ways. I don't want him to get himself into trouble, even when I know that he maybe can't help it sometime."
After a month or so they are done with the hull, but they need a sail, an engine and some other parts to make it flyworthy. Luckily they get to hear that the academy are to throw away some solar boards that doens't work. They get a hold of them and use them for spareparts to make an homemade engine and a rocket strong enought to propell the hull. They stitch smaller sails from the boards into a bigger sail, and mounts it onto the hull, and voila, it is ready for a testride.
It flies beautifully, and in good time, too. They have finished only a week short for the exams.
In the meantime Silver is in league with Daniel Crow, and the two of them are on a stealing spree thru the galaxy. He can't really help it, he is a pirate after all. He have been it all his life. He lies about it in his messages to Jim, as Silver can't bear the thought that the boy thinks anything else than an evil-turned-good Long John Silver.
Crow and Silver, together with a small crew, have worked themselves to a big mountain of treasures. Amongst them is the jewel of the amazons that the two of them have talked about in prison. And it is only made possible with a little device that they have scavaged from the treasure planet. With it they are able to come without a warning and go away without a trace, just like in the legends of the great Nathaniel Flint.
"Good thing that you remembered where it was, Silver," comments Daniel. "Too bad that it doesn't work that well. Doesn't takes us to the right place every time."
"I think I know someone that might be able to fix it," says Silver with a small grin. "And I think that he gets time to come visit us pretty soon."
"Are you sure? It took us about two years and a half to make it working as it does now."
"Yeah, I'm sure. I have the letter ready to send for him." On this Silver brings out a envelope with the letter inside of it, and waves a little with it. "In a week or so he will surely get it, and after a week after that he will surely come here." Silver puts away the envelope into his pocket. "Only one thing before he comes; I like you and the others to be away when he comes. In my letters I have told him that I have stopped with the pirate life. If he comes here and see you he might suspect something."
Jim looks at the letter that he have is in his hands with a small smile. He reads it in his room at the Interstellar Academy with the door locked, as he doesn't want anyone to walk into what he is doing and to ask questions. In his last letter to Silver he have told everything of his final exams project, and that he have scored almost as high as he could.
"Ahoy, Jimbo
I am fine as always. Living my life as best as I can, and that might be a little hard when trying to avoid the authorities. But they have not found me yet. I'm living in a small hideout of mine, and I think that I am quite safe here.
Congrats on passing the final exams. To have built an own boat must have been hard. And that it works as well is astonishing.
I have an own project that I have been working on. I like you to come and take a look at it, I think that you will be impressed. I don't want to say what it is yet, as I want for it to be a surprise.
With regards
Long John Silver"
With the letter Jim have gotten a set of coordinates. He will of course go there, and what better way is there to go there in the boat he have built himself. He will pack everything he needs for the journey; money, food, clothes and tools. Jim can't barely contain himself, both as he want to see his old friend again and that he wonders what this project is.
"What is this?" Jim asks in wonder as he sees the device. It is as big as a boat and seems to work as a projector of sorts, but instead to show pictures it shows different places as clear as day. "It is almost like the big door back at treasure planet." At the look Silver gives him Jim gives a small gasp. "It is the door from treasure planet, isn't it? But only set to project a smaller opening."
"Right on the spot, Jimbo. I went back for it while you went to school. I thought that it would come in handy when on the run from the police. But I have a bit of problem with it."
"Well. Tell me all about it, and I'll see what I can do."
And that Silver does. When he's done Jim scratches himself on the head. "I think I know the problem, but I can't be sure; I'm better at engines. But let me take a look at it and we'll see."
After a few days of tinkering, pottering, thinking and swearing Jim thinks that he have gotten it. But it took alot of grease and sweat to get it working as it should. And after a bit of cheering and a big pat on the back Jim goes back home to get himself ready to go on his first mission in the Interstellar Fleet. And in the meantime Silver calls back Danile Crow and the small crew.
"So?" Crow asks when he comes back. "Could he fix it?"
"Yes, he could," Silver answers with shining pride. "The machine is working as it should."
"Thank God for that," Daniel sighs. Then he smiles cunningly. "You know, we could use a boy like that in our little gang. What if we should enlist him?"
At this Silver gets a little sour and testy. "We are to do nothing of the sort. Jimbo are to join the Interstellar Fleet, and that's the end of it."
"And waste such potential? Silver, with such a talent we could surely be able to steal the biggest treasures there is in the world."
"Don't you think that I haven't asked him to come with me? He turned me down. Daniel. He rather want to go with the Interstellar Fleet than to come with us and start stealing. So when I say no, I mean no."
"Oh, Jim, I'm so proud of you," Sarah says and hugs his son. "That you have finnished your training on the Interstellar Fleet, and now to get on your first assignment. It's so exiting!"
"Yeah, it really is, mom," Jim speaks and hugs back. "And have you guessed who's going to be the second-in-command?"
Sarah takes a step back, and holds him on an arms lenght. Her expression is shocked, but of a happy kind. "Don't tell me... they made you a lieutenant?"
"No, no, I didn't go that kind of education," Jim waves away with a smile. "I'm the technician. I mean Jeremy, the guy that saved us three years ago."
"Oh, him," sighs Sarah, a bit dissapointed. But then she smiles, as she thinks that it is fine with a technician as a son. She will always be proud of her son, as he have made the something great of his life. "I'm really glad for you, Jim."
"Me, too." They share a quiet moment together, where they just look at each other with affection as they share a deep, platonic love to each other. Then a wail interrupts them; one of Amelia's daughters wants attention and wants it now.
"Oh, duty calls," Sarah sighs and walks away.
Since the second fire of the Benbow Inn she have take to become a nanny and housekeeper for the Dopplers, as some kind of arrangement for letting her stay with them. That way Delbert and Amelia can spend more time on their work and with eachother. Not that they doesn't love their children enough to spend time with them - they love their four children more than life itself - but sometime it gets too much for them to take care of four kids.
"Anyway, Jim, I guess it is best for you to go and pack your bags," Sarah says as she walks back and fourht with the four-year-old girl in her harms, in a try to soothe her.
"Mom, can't I do it later; I am to go to the ship the day after tomorrow."
"I don't want you to forget anything," Sarah says in a motherly tone.
But as Jim is to get going with his bags he stops, and turns around to walk over to his mother. "Mom, I know that you miss the inn. And I promise that I will get the money to build it back up again." With that he kisses her on her forehead, and thereafter leaves to pack his bags.
Jim is home at the Doppler's resident and packs his bags. Since the second fire of the Bendbow Inn the Doppler's have let him and his mother live at their house. It is the night before he is to depart to the ship he have been appointed to, an explorationship called RLS Lucky Star. He is about done when he hears a noise, and suddenly there is a triangular hole in one of the room's four walls. And thru it walks a man Jim never have seen before.
Jim recognizes the doorway, the portal that so suddenly have appeared in the wall. It is none other than the one from treasure planet, the one that he himself have fixed about a week ago. But what have happened for it to come into the hands of this man, this Daniel Crow? Have Silver been attacked or something?
"Ah, James Hawkins," the man begins. "A pleasure to meet you. Name's Daniel Crow."
"Do... I know you?" Jim asks with a hesitant voice, and carefully takes a few steps back.
"No, you don't. But I know you. Silver have been speaking so much about you."
That perks Jim's interest. "Silver? You know Silver?"
"Know? Lad, I work with him. And I have a proposition for you from the both of us."
"And what might that be?"
"To join our crew, a fine pirate pack, and help us plunder the galaxy. Think on it, lad, with your knowledge we could be the most successful pirates since the time of Nathaniel Flint. It will get you much richer much faster than on a puny pay that the Interstellar Fleet provides."
Jim can't believe what he is hearing. "Silver? A pirate? Since when? As I know it, he have turned away from stealing."
Daniel is on the verge of laughing, as he can't believe that the boy is so gullible as to believe that. "And you believed him? Once a pirate, always a pirate. He couldn't stay away from the pirate life even if he wanted."
"No, I don't believe you. Silver would never lie to me."
"But he does. If you want proof, you can only walk thru the gate and I show you the loot that we have gathered. You can even ask him yourself. He is on the other side, sleeping away."
Jim ponders for a bit. Is it really wise to go thru the gate with this stranger? He peeks thru the portal to see if he can catch a glance of his friend from this angle, but Silver is nowhere to be found. How can Jim be sure that Daniel tells the truth? "I don't think I should follow you anywhere," Jim says in the end. "If it is true, then he will tell me when I ask him in my next letter."
This makes Daniel visibly dissapointed. He have thought that the boy would jump on the chance to see Silver, but it turns out that he is wrong. But then he turns his back to the boy in anger. "As you wish, lad. But I'm telling you, Silver is a pirate. He have been stealing and looting all the while you were to school. But, remember, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me, as I am wherever Silver is." And with that Daniel crow walks thru the gate, and the portal dissapears into thin air.
Jim stares on the part of the wall that the gate have been. He begins to wonder if the offer have been real, and if the man and the portal have really been there. It all seems so surreal. Then he starts to wonder if piracy really is the better option if he wants money fast. He have promised his mother to get her inn back up, and that costs a smaller fortune.
But in the end Jim decides that it is the Interstellar Fleet for him; he have begun to walk on the right path and he will not go back to breaking the law. But he promises than he will not rest until his mother's inn is built up again.
Act 2
The pen hovers in the air, as if it was just as unsure as Jim to put something onto the paper. The boy have tried for fifteen minutes now to write the first few words of the letter to Silver, but he just can't. He know what he want to ask, if John really have become a pirate again or if Daniel Crow have lied, but Jim can't seem to find the right words for it.
Jim puts down the pen and leans back in the chair that he is sitting in. "Unbelieveble," he mutters to himself. This is the first time he have got such a hard time to write to his old friend. He wants to put the question in such a way so that Silver can't really deny it. But then again, what if John really isn't a pirate?
Jim thinks on it for a while, then he decides that he will hold off this letter for a while, so that he can think more on what to write. Maybe after he have come back from his first mission with the Interstellar Fleet.
Jim stands on the pier and looks in awe on the exploration ship he is assigned to. It is a bit smaller than RLS Legacy, but with just as many sails and with just as big rockets, and surely therefor a little faster than her sister ship.
When he is done admiring her he gets onboard. Well on the ship he is greeted by a familiar face. "Hello there, Jim," Jeremy says with a proud smile, in his new red uniform.
"Jerry!" Jim cries, and offers his hand. "Glad to meet you."
Jeremy accepts the hand gladly. "So, are you ready to go onto a new adventure?"
"If I am. You know where we are going?"
"Our first mission is to find the sunken city of Atlantis."
At that Jim is surprised. He knows that this is not only their first mission, but that of the ship as well. She is newly made, and this is going to be her maiden voyage. What a splendid first mission! "And is there any signs to where it is?"
"A recent finding suggest as much," confirms Jeremy.
"Cool."
"As cool as it can get."
"Mr. Walkup," a female voice breaks in. The two of them turns to see a woman close in on them. "Is everyone onboard?"
Jeremy stands up a bit straighter and clears his throat. "Yes, caprain. Jim is the last one to come onto the ship."
The woman, the captain, turns to Jim and smiles. "Captain Cassity Martinsson at your service," she presents herself. "Welcome onboard, Mr. Hawkins, the RLS Lucky Star." With that she walks away and starts to bark orders to the other crewmen to get the ship into the air and on the right course.
"So," Jim says and turns back to Jeremy. "I just want to put one question before I go to my post. Is my boat onboard like I asked of you?"
"Onboard and ready to be used," Jeremy answers, grinning all the while. "I have to say, the captain was very impressed when she saw it."
"Good," Jim grins back. "Well, Jerry, I let you to get this ship up and about."
The RLS Lucky Star heads on towards new adventures. On their first exploration they are to voyage to the far end of the galaxy in search of the legendary Atlantis City, a city that have been lost for several hundred years. On the journey there Jim fixes many things onboard the ship, little problems as well as big ones, and in doing so impresses the captain quite much of his know-how.
The journey takes some time, so Jim and Jeremy take on to play different cardgames and talk on different subjects, like their plans for the future and their luck of life. But there is other subjects between them as well.
"Did you know that captain Cassity is a good friend to captain Amelia?" Jeremy asks as he looks over his cards one day.
"No, I didn't," Jim answers with a bit of surprise. "Have they been friends for long?"
"Yes. They was on the same class in the Interstellar Academy, and have worked together on many missions. They are close, they are basically sisters."
A month goes by, where the only thing that Jim does is either to fix broken stuff or to play cards with his good friend Jeremy. But in the end they come to their destination, a waterfilled planet with only a few small ilands. The RLS Lucky Star goes in for a landing and comes down onto the water with barely a splash. Then there is only to maneuver to the coordinates that they have been provided. But there is only one problem; once they´re there they can't see any ruins.
"Where is it?" one in the crew asks.
"Underwater, obviously," answers Jeremy.
"But how are we to get to it?" asks the same crew member. The whole crew looks at each other in a clueless fashion, unsure how they are to resolve this problem.
"I think I can fix it," Jim perks up.
"That is what I expect of you," captain Cassity says. She turns to him, and he turns to her. "Do what you have to do to get us down there."
And he does just that. Jim takes his tools and some scrap metal, takes them to his homemade boat and starts to work on his homemade boat. He takes away the rockets and adds a pair of propellers in their place, then he puts a roof on top of it and makes sure that it is waterproof.
He also puts on a small, waterproof door, so that people can get in and out of it. In the end he puts on a small window in the front of the boat, so that the driver can see where to go. After Jim's hard work for two whole days the boat have been transformed to a small submarine.
On the third day they tests the submarine, and it works just as it should. It can propel itself both forward and backwards, and it doesn't leak a single drop when they test to dive with it.
Captain Cassity sends away a three man strong away team to look for the ruins of Atlantis City, where none are Jim. But Jeremy are going with the three men, to lead the expedition and for captain Cassity to test his ability to be in command.
In the meantime there is a bit of talk between some of the crew on how they will part on the treasure from Atlantis City fairly. When hearing this discussion Jim remembers his talk with Daniel Crow, on how little he is going to get as a pay from the Interstelar Fleet. Seems that he was wrong, Jim ponders. Surely the treasures from Atlantis will be a great pay, even when divided among the crew. But he couldn't have been more wrong.
But after a lot of chitter-chatter about it the captain calls for a meeting. "Most of the treasure will be handed over to the Interstellar Fleet," she tells them. "To be handled with care and to be turned to the rightly owners like museums. Some of the treasure will go to the crew who found it, but not more than necessary."
This brings many groans of dissaointment from the crew. "How much is necessary?" asks Jim after some thought.
"Not much, but enught as pay for your troubles."
Three hours Jeremy and the other three crewmembers are gone, and when they come back they are still in good health as nothing have come to harm them down there. They tell that there is a ruin down there, but that it doesn't seem to be the ruins of Atlantis City. It seems to be a watch tower or something of that kind. But in their search of clues they found a tablet with some kind of scribbles on it, which they turned over to the historical experts that they brought along to decipher the text.
"So, how did it go?" Jim asks Jeremy.
"We had some troubles with the submarine," Jeremy answers honestly. "But apart from that it went well. You should have seen it, Jim, it was amazing."
After two days of deciphering the tablet the experts comes up with a new heading, a way to the real Atlantis and not some kind of watchtower. The RLS Lucky Star starts to head that way, plowing thru the water much like a ordenary ship. In the meantime Jim tries to write that letter he tried to write before he got onboard.
"Hi, Silver
I have been out and seen things, as I have been on my first assignment. You can never believe where we went to. Atlantis! It was a blast. The ship's name is RLS Lucky Star, and it's captain is Cassity Martinsson. And the second-in-command is Jeremy Walkup, the boy who saved us from Maddox three years ago.
But there is something that happened before I went on my mission. Someone who claims to know you visited me, a man called Daniel Crow. He told me that you have gone back to being a pirate. Why haven't you told me?! I'm not mad, Silver, I'm just suprised, that's all.
Anyway, I like to ask some advice. I like to build up Benbow Inn again, and that costs a lot. But as it turns out the Interstellar Fleet doesn't give much of the treasures they find to the crew.
I will have to work for a long time, if not for several years, before I'm able to pay for the inn. I have promised my mom to built it up again, and I think that she deserves to have it as quick as possible.
Therefor I only want to ask you if you think that it is better if I turn to pirating instead. I know that you asked me to come with you all these years ago, on our way home from treasure planet, and I begin to think that I made the wrong decision.
With regards
James Hawkins"
Jim looks the letter over, and wonders if he shouldn't rewrite the whole thing. But he don't. He folds it together and puts it amongs his belongings. Maybe he is to just send it as it is when he comes home again. He doesn't intend to say anything about this to anyone, especially not Sarah, Delbert, Amelia or B.E.N.
As they come closer to the second location they get the little submarine ready. An away team is choosen, and this time captain Cassity takes command of the small group, and leaves Jeremy to be in controll of the RLS Lucky Star. Jim is among the choosen ones, as his job will be to keep an eye on the submarine and see to it that it runs smoothly.
They go down to the deep below, and what they find astounds them. The big ruins of Atlantis City looks almost newly made in the protective waters of the deep ocean. The buildings are ritchly ornate, carved out from the face of a big underwater mountain.
"How beautiful it is," Cassity breathes and looks at the buildings with big eyes. "I have been on many explorations, and I have rarely seen such fairness. I wonder how it looks inside."
"Maybe we can take a look," Jim says and points to an opening to what looks like a cave or a passage in the mountainface. "We can surely squeeze thru there."
They goes ahead and steers the submarine into the opening. It turns dark pretty quick, but luckily Jim have thought on that and have mounted a pair of headlights onto the submarine.
"Carefully does it," Jim wisphers as he sits at the helm and tries to steer the submarine without blundering into a wall.
But as they explore an little further into the cave the light from the outside is suddenly completly gone. It turns out that the entrance becomes blocked by some rocks. They are trapped, and with limited oxygen they will not make it for long if they can't another way out.