Hello, all. Here is the sequal that I published a while ago, but took down. I have written a few more chapters on it, and is currently in the end of the entire story. The final, so to speak. I know that I maybe never shoulf have taken it down, so here it is again.
One week after RLS Legacy's return
The room is nearly black when the man enters, but for a small candle on a table. The man is that of a smaller body size, even for a man that is well beyond his forties. His shining years is behind him, as it is visible by his ragged face that the world have not been kind to him.
His face is faced much like a triangle, his skin full of scales and a pair of visible fangs sticks out from his thin mouth. He looks much like a snake on a humanoid body, with a long neck that sprouts two arms and two legs. He is thin as one, too. The clothes he wears are plain: a blue gray coat, with a black shirt and grey pants underneath.
The man fidgets a bit as he looks to the chair that are turned against him, the darkness conceals most of the details of it as well as the figure that sits in it. "What is it, Kinsley?" the man sitting in the chair asks. "You have the news I wanted?"
"Y-y-yes," the newly arrived man, Kinsley, sputters afraid. "The treasure planet is… is…" After that he gets quiet, as he dares not to end the sentence.
"Yes, the treasure planet is…?" encourages the sitting man.
After a long hesitation a conclusion comes. "…gone." Kinsley feels terribly small, as he fears the rage he know that is to come. The man in the shadow have killed in the cruelest of ways in cold blood, and Kinsley proves what he dreads this with his quiet, shaky tone.
There is another pause, but anyone can sense the cold gather. If you can figure sensing the grim reaper enter the room, this would be it. "Treasure planet is… gone?" The sitting man's voice is just as cold, the tone unforgiving and cruel.
"It is on everyone's lips," Kinsley speaks. "Of one lonely ship that escapes a big explosion out of thin air." He doesn't dare to say any more of it, but yet he figures that the other man knows that it is right.
"How could that have happened?" the unknown man asks, more to himself than anything. "If not for the map no one can find-"
The man interrupts himself, and he suddenly jerks up from the chair like his whole body have been hit with a bolt of electricity. The darkness is still concealing him even after this action. "Silver," comes a hiss, the name is spoken like a curse from the man's lips. "It is him. Got to be." His mood have turned into rage, an unforgiving thunder.
"Silver?" Kinsley pipes. "You sure?"
"Sure? I'm certain." It is now that the unknown man turns to finally face Kinsley. "He have been out after that map for the bigger part of his life." Light hits the concealed man's face, and reveals his identity in the process. "That map are mine by right. It was my forefather who built the treasure planet and littered it with the trove from thousands of worlds."
The face that comes into the light have a striking resemblance of that of Nathaniel Flint, one of the many great pirate legends. With six deadly eyes he locks Kinsley right where he stands, and on his skull shaped face is a highly unpleased grimace. As the man's body comes into full light more is to say of his looks.
This man before Kinsley is in his thirties. He is slightly bulkier from that of Nathanial Flint, with a few of his visible front teeth missing and his hair of a slightly darker shade of brown. What he wears is a uniform of unpleasable origin, with the dominating colors of dark brown and stormy grey. There is a hint of red and yellow in the form of the buttons in his coat and the smaller details in his hat, but otherwise there is just the brown and the gray.
"If not for that scoundrel and thief Billy Bones I would have been among mountains of gold and jewels by now," the newly revealed man continues. "I so hope that Silver have killed Bones when that damn cyborg went after Bone's life boat. But if he's not I will make certain that Bones wishes he is long dead. For Silver I am glad that I at least took some of his limbs when I did."
"S-so what are your orders, captain?" sputters Kinsley.
With his back straight, the man approaches Kinsley with long, strong strides. He puts his hand on the snake's shoulder, and bares all his teeth in an ill, dry amusement as well as revealing a red gleam in his eyes. It is with a mad voice the man speaks again.
"Now, my dear lieutenant, I think it is high time to remind dear, old Long John Silver that Maddox Flint is still alive and well… and that he owes me a trove from a thousand worlds."
2 month after RLS Legacy's return
The inn is on the way to be rebuilt, with workers and constructers already done with the foundation and the framework for the whole house. It will even be a bit bigger than it was before, even with some rooms on the second lever for any visitors that like to rent a room for a few nights. There will be a garden that people can sit and eat food in the outside air on one side of the house, something Sarah always have wanted. Sarah herself is always there every day during the construction, to oversee the work and to come with any wishes or changes to the captain of the working force.
Right now, however, she is doing something completely else: saying her last goodbyes to her only child, the son she loves so, before Amelia will take him to his first year on the Interstellar Academy. It is there, in the barracks of the academy, that he will live during his studies for the whole year, and will not return until the end of the second term. So she will miss him very much.
"Now, be careful with any shifty characters that you might meet," Sarah frets. "Oh, let me look at your hair, it is a mess."
Captain Amelia straightens her shirt with stiff movements before her hands goes to rest behind her back as she observes Jim Hawkins gets his hair fixed by his caring, if not a little too worried, mother. Behind Amelia stands one officer from her new crew, a young man with a straight back and lean build. All the four of them are gathered on the pier next to Benbow Inn, as a ship waits for them at the end of the gangly dock. That small treasure that Silver have given Jim have been just enough to rebuild the house with all of its improvements, so nothing have been done to the pier. That have also been the only thing left standing since the fire.
"Don't stay up too late, even on the weekends – wait, what have you with your collar, Jim, it is all uneven!" Another second goes where Sarah fiddles with the collar on her son's jacket, a detail that she never really have minded before until now, oblivious on how uncomfortable she makes him. "I swear that I already have fixed your collar at least five times." Even Morph makes a restless sound from the teen's shoulder, as he too wants to get going to this new, fascination place called the interstellar academy, with surely a lot new things to morph into and mimic.
Jim knows why she fuss so much now when he just is on his way of. She wants him to stay as long as she can, as she will not see him for several months when he is off to study his first year on the interstellar academy. She have already lived without him for one and a half month during the hunt for the treasure planet, and she have never missed him more. He, however, don't have the heart to stop her.
"Listen carefully to everything the teachers tells you, and be polite," she continues. "Eat your vegetables every day, and brush your teeth's thoroughly. Don't you go off on your small adventures, and no breaking the rules. And don't you dare drink a single drop of rum!"
"Mom," Jim smiles, and takes her hands in his so that she listens to him… but mostly so that she would stop with her worried fiddling. "I promise, I will take care of myself. And I will send you letters every week, to tell you everything I do and learn. But then you have to do something for me, something you have to promise me."
Sarah smiles back. "And what might that be?"
"To stop worry about me. Mom, I'll be fine."
"I'll be fine," Morph copies his voice with a high pitch to it, and tries to hurry the process along the way. "Fine, fine, fine." Neither mother nor son pays him any attention, which only makes the pink blob even more anxious to get going.
Jim's mother observes him as her smiles turns particularly warm. She brings her hands up to cup his cheeks. "I sure hope so." And with that she plants a soft kiss on his forehead. Thereafter they hug each other closely, as they both know that they will not see each other for a bigger part of a year.
"I will hold you to those letters," Sarah says as they break of. "Remember; write me every week. If one of those letters fails to come, even by one single day, I will come to see you myself."
Jim gives a small laugh when a small idea pops into his head. "I promise to write, but how would you know that the postman won't have a bad day?"
"Then I find that postman and gives him a scolding he is not soon to forget," she promise as she fingers some small crease only a mother that tries to pull out the inevitable can see. "And then I scold some more to be on the safe side."
That only makes him laugh a bit more. "To have a bad day?"
"No excuse to not deliver my mail on time."
Not soon after Jim boards the longboat with Morph on his shoulder and together with Amelia and the officer by her side as well. The boat takes to the air, as Jim and Sarah wave goodbye to each other. And so, Jim's first year at the Interstellar Academy begins.
2 1/2 months after RLS Legacy's return
It have gone just a little more than a week since the schoolyear have started, and all goes well. The first introductions to everyone and the new premises have just been finished, but although Jim have surely met everyone he can far from say that he remembers them all. There is 15 teachers and more than 350 other students.
As for now, Jim is sitting in the school cafeteria and eats his lunch. Morph is off somewhere, still exploring the new environment. The boy have made the blob to come back before the lunch is over, which is in about 15 minutes now. There are already groups forming among the other students just after the first week, who all sits in different clusters at the tables.
Jim is unsure which one he should check out, he don't really want to spend the years in the academy alone, but there are so many to choose from. And to say the truth, he is a bit nervous to meet and mingle with all these new people. Since his father left he have been a bit secluded, even to all the visitors that have come to his mother's inn during the years. It is therefore with uncertain eyes he plays with his food in front of him, as he keeps his face low over the table and keeps to his own for now.
"So…," a voice suddenly says not that far away from him, and Jim turns to face whoever it belongs to. It is a human boy, somewhere in the same age as Jim himself if not a few years older, with light-yellow hair that falls backwards in a wave behind his back. He have dark blue eyes, an easygoing grin on his lips and have a few, gold colored hairs that is the beginning to a beard on his chin. "What's your story?" the boy asks, as a curious glimmer comes to his eyes.
"Nothing special," Jim answers, as he goes back to his food. Jim is not too keen to trust someone too quickly; the last person he have gotten to be friends with turned to be a pirate after all.
Without any invitation at all this new boy takes a seat beside him, and observes Jim closely. Honestly Jim starts to feel a bit uncomfortable, as to the amount of interest the newcomer gives him. "Nothing special?" the light-haired boy asks. "Nothing special like, you don't like to talk about it? Or nothing special like, it is seriously nothing special about it?"
"What is it for you?" Jim asks, uncertain.
"Yeah, maybe I am a bit too forward," the boy agrees with a smile and extend an open hand. "Jeremy D. Walkup at your service. Or unservice, whichever you prefer. But you can call me Jerry."
"James Pleiades Hawkins, but everyone calls me Jim," Jim greets and takes Jerry's hand. "What does the D stand for?"
"Davidson."
"Davidson?" A small laugh escapes Jim, something he tries to suppress but fails. "So you basically have two last names?"
"Laugh all you want," Jerry chuckles himself as he gives the hand a small shake before he lets go. "It brings double the fame once I'm a captain over my own ship."
"You are not that shy, I see," Jim observes, the initial tension losing up a bit.
"Yeah, that is what my mother always says. Both she and I wonder why I don't have more friends."
"I suspect you are coming on too strong, they get uncomfortable."
"You are probably right. Hey, you who seem to know these things, you might want to help me. You see those girls over there?" Jerry points discreetly over to a group of girls not that far away. "Care to help me get a date?"
Jim laughs a little harder, as he can't believe this guy. "You need all the help you can get." He barely needs to eye the girls to see that.
"Is that a yes, then?"
That have not been what Jim have meant at all, and his smile drops. "Wait, no, no, no! I didn't agree to that."
"I believe you did," Jerry says and puts an arm around Jim. "Now, tell me, how am I to begin when I walk up to a girl? Do I make a joke, or what?"
"You can't be serious."
A mischievous grin comes over Jerry, something Jim don't really catch as he looks at the girls with a rising heat in his cheeks of embarrassment. He is not that good with girls. He might not have interacted with them much, but isn't that proof enough? "So jokes it is, then! What comes after that?"
"You are asking the wrong guy here!" This is when Jerry starts to laugh at Jim's predicament, and therefor lets the brown-haired boy know that it have all been Jerry's way to pull Jim's leg. The younger of the boy's glares at him. "You utter idiot," Jim frowns, but then can't stop the chuckles of his own. That was pretty funny.
Jerry removes his arm from around Jim's neck, just as Jim realizes that the tension he have been feeling against this new face is gone. This guy might just be cool, after all.
"Sooo, what's your story again?" Jerry asks.
"Well...," Jim says, still uncertain if he should tell his new friend.
"Hey, if you are as boring as you sound and don't know how to talk to girls, don't let me say otherwise." Jerry is clearly coaxing Jim to answer, and when the older man gets an amused glare Jerry knows that he have succeeded.
"For your information, I have done something I know for certain that you find interesting," Jim starts. That gets Jerry's eyebrows go up a few inches in encouragement, and just like that the lonely boy from Montressor have gotten another friend. As Jim tells the tale of treasure planet he can't help to be glad that he now have four friends out in the world other than B.E.N, Morph and Silver.
5 month after RLS Legacy's return
"That shifty, double-crossing cyborg!" Maddox Flint screams. His fist that accompanies the curse hits hard onto the wood of the tabletop. "All our hunts dodged. All our traps evaded. I planned him to be bleeding and beaten like a pulp on my ship's floor, maybe even DEAD, by this point."
"We are trying our best, captain," Kinsley ensures, with some of the crew behind him to back him up in his claim. All of them shakes a little from fright at the captain's growing anger, but they tries hard not to show their fear. "But whatever we do Silver seems to be one step before us."
Flint's eyes thins dangerously at that, his anger flaring so much that his eyes seems for a moment like two intense infernos. "And how, Mr. Kinsley, do you suspect he do that? Why is he able to stay away from us? To always have at least one hour heads up before my men are coming for him?"
Kinsley have no answer, and that is what the lieutenant tells his captain. Neither does any of the crewmembers behind Kinsley have any answer to give. A quiet murmur breaks out as the crewmen look each other up, checking if any of the others are to come with any suggestion to solve this mystery.
Maddox glares at them while they keep discussing among themselves, not believing that he is in charge of such a useless lot. Then he starts to think, to really think, and a suspicious look creeps into his face. He observes the others with growing mistrust, the people before him not noticing while they throw reasons and theories at each other before Flint's eyes in the end lands solemnly at Kinsley.
His lieutenant, that is the only one that knows all of his plans, the one that puts his orders into motion, which is the only single other person that knows anything beforehand.
While Kinsley have his back turned to the others Maddox slowly takes of his gun from the holster at his belt. Silently he cocked it ready and aims. In cold blood and in no thought of proving if his suspicion is right he press the trigger. The shot sends the group into silence, all of their eyes starring either at Kinsley or Flint. The second later the lieutenant falls, a smoking hole embedded deep in his back. With lifeless eyes Kinsley takes his last breath.
Flint looks down at the body as he puts the gun back into the holster, the corner of his mouth sloping in a disapproving scowl. "Problem solved," he growls.
7 months after RLS Legacy's return
In a dark alley, somewhere far away from the safety of justice and law that most honest people knows, a man with a cybernetic foot stomps unevenly down the street. It is late in the darker hours of the evening, and this cyborg is on his way back to his hiding spot after a day of gathering up both information and necessities, so both his backpack and his mind is full.
The buildings he passes are all closed up, but even so a few of the windows are lit up and provides a little light for John's path. John can imagine however that on the other side of those windows there is not some snug little family in the late bed hours, but he knows better. This is not a good neighborhood at all, and therefor it is with the most likelihood every tenth of those lights a meeting between thieves, robbers or other people of similar profession that sits in there and plots their next hold-up.
Silver hastens his pace, and is thankful that there is not a long way to go. But suddenly there is a loud voice, accompanied with a flash of light in the distance. Silver jerks, and turns to the explosion in horror. He didn't think that Maddox would be so close already.
So with that he turns down the street towards the direction he have been heading, and starts to jog with great effort from his metallic leg. He comes to his holdout in record time, as he bolts right thru the doors with such a force that he almost destroys their hinges. He don't take too long to pack everything he owns in one small backpack, all the while he gives out low mutters on how dark his hideout is. But there is no time to light a lantern, as he can't waste one single second.
"Damn Kinsley for not giving me any warning these last months," he mutters as he collects the last of his possessions.
Another explosion goes off not that far away just when he takes hold of his last belonging, maybe even in the same block where Silver is right now. He throws the object into his backpack and puts it roughly on his back when he gets out again.
"Silver!" the voice of Maddox screams somewhere. It sends a chill wave thru John's body as unpleasant memories resurface after such a long time of slumber, but he don't stop his stride. "Where are you, Silver?!"
He is lucky that he is able to escape that night, but it is not the last night where he evades Maddox Flint by a hair. But it is the first real close one, and the one that leads Silver to believe that Kinsley just might be dead.
10 months after RLS Legacy's return
"Come on, Jim, we must make the most of it," Jerry whispers.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," Jim whispers back.
It is late in the night, and the two friends are out of their rooms. They are on their way to the roof of the barracks for the students. Jerry have in his jacket pockets a pair of beers that he have successfully smuggles into his possession, and they are om their way to the roof to watch the view as they enjoy this rare treat. After them flies Morph and makes small mumbling sounds of interested of where the boys are going to, even though Jim have begged it time and time again to keep it down.
"Please, Morph, you will get us caught," Jim finally says and is able to fetch the pink blob out of the air with one hand. It successfully keeps Morph quiet the rest of the way.
Jerry takes the lead and Jim brings up the rear, as they work their way up the dark staircase in the otherwise sleeping house. They are careful with listening to all the sounds there is and watch out in every corner so that they don't get taken on the bed by the night guard or a teacher on a nightly walk.
They don't meet anyone all the way up, and even luckier is that the last door up to the roof, the one supposed to be locked, have been overlooked and not bolted shut as it should.
"Well, here we are," Jerry says as he walks to the edge of the roof. He picks out the beers from his pockets and takes a seat on the roof. He lets his legs hang out over the edge, and the gentle breeze tugs a bit in his hair and clothes. Morph finds the wind too cold to his liking, and therefor flies inside Jim's pocket for the warmth.
Jim don't really braves out to the edge, but takes a seat a bit from the drop. He guess that his fright of heights are still with him, and always will, even how manageable it gets. "That they didn't have someone look at that door seems a bit odd," he agrees. "Someone might just get in thru there from the outside."
"Someone can definitely do that now," Jerry comments and nods at the completely open door and the busted lock. Both of them laughs a bit at that before the older of them starts to speak again. "I bet we need to tell someone about that."
"And how it got open in the first place?" Jim asks, his tone going up a bit more than necessary to ask if they should tell the whole story just by the voice.
"Ok, maybe not that part," Jerry smiles and holds out one of the beers. "Here."
Jim takes it and opens it, thankful that it is a beverage with just a low percentage. He don't want to repeat the last time he got alcohol into his system. Jerry opens his, too.
"Cheers," the fair-haired boy says, and they brings the cans together. "A perfect way to end the first year of academy, don't you think?"
They take their first sips at the beer. Jim frowns a bit at the taste, as he finds it quite bitter for his liking. He likes sweet tastes more, like orange juice. Jerry seems to like the taste of the beer, though. Then they look out at the view before them as they now and then takes more of the beer in small sips. Once Morph tries the beer out, too, and takes a small taste right out of the can. It instantly finds it disgusting and retreats without further ado back into Jim's pocket.
A few lights shines with dim beams on the main building of the academy, a building with old architecture and classic decoration to it. The round cup at the top looks alien from how it looks at daytime, with the darkness of the night above it and with the beams from below. Faint stars shines in the sky, blinking at them from far, far away.
"So...," Jerry begins. "Is it back to your mother's inn now for the summer?"
"Yep. Home to old Benbow Inn. Or new, depending how you look at it. I will probably help take care of the business for the whole summer."
"If only I was so lucky. Me and my dad are to take a camping trip for most of the leave. Dad have planned the whole thing, of course." Here Jerry rolls his eyes at his father's ludicrous plans, and Jim snorts. "You should have heard him last night, going on and on about it. What we are going to do every day, how nice it will be to get out of his office and how good it will feel to have a break from the classes."
As Jim have learned during the year, Jerry's father is one of the teachers at the academy. A Mr. Seymour Walkup, teacher in galactic mapping and navigation by stars. The Walkups lives near the academy in a smaller house together with another small family, a mother and her two small kids that are currently 3 and 5 years.
"You will at least not be stuck somewhere crowded with constantly new faces and serve drinks," compares Jim.
"I tell you, I'll take anything, only if I can skip the whole trouble to share a tent with the old man." Jerry leans in a bit towards. "He farts in his sleep," the older boy whispers. "Like, a lot."
Jim chuckles at that as Jerry leans back. "Okay," the younger agrees. "Maybe I'm the luckier of us two."
"You definitely are," Jerry says just as he takes a big swing of the beer. Then he abruptly takes his legs under him and stands up, as the can hangs loose from his hand. "Wait here, I'll go get something." He leaves Jim to sit there alone and look after him. It don't take long before Jerry comes back with two big objects under his one arm that Jim recognize all too well.
"Solar surfers?" Jim asks, his big surprise showing a long way.
"Yeah, a small surprise of mine. I was thinking that we can share a flight now, and have a bit of fun before the torture starts back home."
Jim puts away his beer and stands to closer inspect the boards. It is then he sees that it is two of the academy's, as they use on different classes outdoors. "Where did you get a hold of those?"
The older man puts one end of the surfers down on the roof they are standing on and lets the objects lean up on him with one arm around them to keep them there as he scratch his neck with his free hand. "Heh... I've 'borrowed' them." A smile is on his lips, which is just a tad nervous. Jim suspects it is not because Jerry mines about whatever trouble he might get into, but rather how much Jim will care.
The younger boy knows very well that borrowed is not the right word. "Seriously!?" Jim chuckles. "You stole them?"
"Hey, now, it is not stealing if you intend to give them back within the night, as good as new," the older of them excuses and holds his hands in front of him.
"Yes, it is. Especially if you haven't asked first."
"You want to do this or not?" Jerry asks and feigns to get a bit offended. "Or else I have dragged them up here for nothing."
"How did you get them up here in the first place?" Jim asks a bit confused. "The door up here were lock-" He interrupts himself as he remembers that the door haven't been locked that well when they got up here. He puts two and two together, and he stares at Jerry who only smiles back innocently. "Oooh, you will get in sooo much trouble."
"Not if they never finds out," Jerry smiles and hands over one of the boards. "Come on, let's take a quick ride around the area. We will be back in bed before anyone notices. It will just be some harmless fun."
It sounds like a wonderful idea in Jim's ears, the promise to her mother before he left all but forgotten at the moment. He have focused the whole year on schoolwork, and his whole being is now itching to feel the freedom on a solar surfer. So it is with happiness he takes the offered solar surfer, folds the small sail up and puts the board in the right position by the edge of the roof before he stands on it. Jerry does the same beside him.
Jim glances down at the ground below, meters and meters down to the safety of solid floor. He gulps a bit, but let's not the fear take control. He have once loved to fly around in the sky, to do tricks and take risks, and he still wants to love it and experience it now. So he looks right ahead, on the big cup that is the roof of the academy's main building, and concentrates. Morph pokes out of the pocket a bit, and makes a worried sound. Jim pets it slightly to calm it down, and the action proves effective on them both.
"Race you around the main building and back?" Jerry proposes, before he takes off with no warning.
"Hey, that's cheating!" Jim calls after him, and sends the surfer roaring to a start before he is off right after his friend. A small shriek comes out of Morph, who have not been ready at all.
One hour later they both are sitting inside the headmaster's office, with the headmaster himself in his dressing-gown and in a sour mood to have been woken to finds the two boys breaking the academy's laws and violation. Jim and Jerry gets a few weeks detention for this, and several other liberties was taken from them during this time such as no more use of the surfers. But both of them agrees that it was worth it.
When it comes to the promise to his mother, of not going on those adventures of his and break laws, Jim guess that he can keep quiet about it in his letters home until he gets back to the inn for the summer. Although he can't help himself to just give a few notions here and there that he might have done something that he shouldn't have.
11 months after RLS Legacy's return
The Benbow Inn steams with life, happiness and joy. A happy tone is played by old lady Dunwoody, with no sign of growing tired in her arms from all the playing. Jim finds it a wonder that the old woman can go on playing like she does for two hours when she is in her senior years. He himself is exhausted from all the dancing and mingling.
It feels good to be home after so many months in the academy. It have been ten months of studying, and it is first today that he gets his first leisure of one week back at the inn, to see how the newly built house looks like and to see all old faces again. His mother seems more happy and carefree, a big uplift from her worrying mood before the adventure to treasure planet. Amelia and Doppler have gotten married and have now four kids. The newly made parents are in high spirits, taking the troubles with the young with smiles.
And Jim himself is more hopeful than ever for what the future have to give him. He have now meaning in his life, he sees a future amongst the stars over his head. He learns new, useful things in the academy every day, and he have gotten new friends over there that he likes. But there is one single thing that he feels is missing in his life.
He looks out the window from where he stands in his new, white uniform. He slowly stops clapping his hands in time with Dunwoody's tune, to let them then fall down. The music and the laughter from the crowd is pushed back into the background as he observes the dark sky up above, seeing that there are just a few clouds on the otherwise star filled blackness above. And in one of those clouds he believes himself to see a face he recognize.
Jim smiles slightly as he sighs, as he wish that John Silver will one day come back.
