Gwen might have slept late the next day, but the noxious snores of her Flatulan bunkmate, Sluff, made that impossible. She got up, padded across the deck in her sock feet, and claimed an empty hammock on the opposite end of the room. This one was hers now.
When sunlight made the deck glow golden, Gwen got up. She stretched, cracking her back and her neck, then slid into her boots. She'd taken off her vest to sleep; she could probably get away with not wearing it at all, since there were no human men onboard to notice her breasts, but moving around was more comfortable with less jiggling.
Gwen unbraided her hair, brushed it, then rebraided it and pinned it across her head. No point in having it flying around.
Satisfied that she was more or less put together, Gwen ascended to the main deck. The rest of the hands were already bustling about; they were set to launch that day, after all.
Gwen found Mr. Arrow on the poop deck, supervising the activity. "Do you have any work for me, sir?" she asked.
Mr. Arrow's stony brows lowered. "No. Dr. Doppler is late."
"Dr. Delbert Doppler?" Gwen said. "Is he—who did—are you saying that Doctor Delbert Doppler is our employer?"
"You've heard of him?"
"Psh—duh! He's one of the top astrophysicists in the galaxy! Sweet Etherea, I'll get to meet him! I can't believe this, Mr. Arrow. This is amazing."
"If you've nothing better to do," said Mr. Arrow pointedly, "you might help Mr. Silver in the kitchen for the time being. He's shorthanded."
Gwen stared at Mr. Arrow, but couldn't tell if "shorthanded" was intended as a joke or not. Mr. Silver was, after all, missing one hand. "Yes, sir," she said. She'd get to see the Morph again.
When Gwen got downstairs, Silver was fuming at nobody in particular. "Blasted feline, thinks I can turn up three meals a day for a crew and wash the dishes and keep the kitchen clean without any sort of help."
Gwen cleared her throat loudly. Silver whirled and glared at her. The cyborg eye was particularly intimidating, since it glowed red with anger.
"I'm the help, for now," Gwen said.
"What about for later?" Silver growled.
"I don't know. I'm sure the Captain has something in mind."
"Your faith in her is heartwarming," said Silver sarcastically.
Gwen sighed. "Look, I'm not taking sides. I'm not an officer, but I'm not crew, either. I'll do what's asked of me, and keep my mouth shut and my head down. In exchange, you lot don't bother me. Savvy?" She'd found on past voyages that it was best to set these ground rules early. She was a floater on any ship's crew and didn't quite fit into either category. Maybe if she could afford to go to the Interstellar Academy, and train to be a proper Navigator…
"Fine," said Silver gruffly. "Keep your trap shut and we'll get along fine, lass. Now, can you chop up these turnapples for me?"
"Sure." Gwen rolled her sleeves up to the elbow. "Knife?"
Silver pointed with a finger that was currently serving as a knife. Gwen fetched the utensil, cleared a space on the counter, and got to work. She asked Silver few questions, mostly about how he wanted the turnapples cut, and they worked in silence.
After a while, Silver began nonchalantly whistling. It was a tune that Gwen recognized, and she hummed the bassline under her breath. Silver noticed, and made his melody more complicated. Gwen matched him.
Their musical interlude was interrupted when Onus, the many-eyed lookout, poked his head downstairs and said, "Cap'n wants to see the missy."
"You good, Silver?" Gwen wiped her hands on a damp towel.
"For now," said Silver, mollified.
Gwen followed Onus to the main deck. The Squidward immediately climbed back to his perch in the crow's nest, leaving Gwen to spot the Captain on her own.
At that precise moment, Captain Amelia somersaulted out of the rigging, landing squarely on her feet maybe a meter to Gwen's left. Gwen started.
"Captain?" she said.
"Walk with me," Amelia said.
Gwen followed the captain to where Mr. Arrow stood with two new shipmates. One of them was a boy, around Gwen's age but slightly shorter. The other was clad in a ridiculous yellow "spacesuit" of the variety sold to tourists, but Gwen recognized his canine face under the mask immediately.
"Doctor Doppler!" she burst out.
Captain Amelia approached the Doctor. "Hello? Can you hear me?" She tapped on the glass dome covering the Doctor's face.
Doppler waved her hands away. "Yes I can! Stop that banging!"
"If I may, Doctor," said Amelia, "this works so much better when it's right way up and plugged in." As she spoke, she extracted a long cord from the mess on the Doctor's front, whirled him around, and plugged the cord in on the back.
Gwen resisted the urge to giggle.
"If you don't mind," said the Doctor indignantly, "I can manage my own plugging!" He ripped the cord out of its socket and shook it admonishingly in Amelia's face.
Amelia took that hand and shook it. "Captain Amelia. Recently had a run-in with the Protean Armada—nasty business, but I won't bore you with my scars. You've met my first officer, Mr. Arrow. Honest, tough, sterling, dependable, brave, and true!"
"You flatter me, Captain," said Mr. Arrow with a slight chuckle.
"Oh, shut up, Arrow. You know I don't mean a word of it," Amelia said.
"Excuse me?" said Dr. Doppler. "I hate to interrupt this lovely banter, but—may I present Jim Hawkins?" He nudged the boy forward. "Jim, you see, is the boy who found the treasure—"
Captain Amelia sprang forward and clamped one paw around the Doctor's muzzle, effectively silencing him. She and Arrow scanned the deck nervously. Amelia's gaze rested briefly on Gwen, who shook her head very slightly to say, I won't say anything.
"I'd like a word with you in my stateroom," said Captain Amelia. "You too, Miss Bowman."
The five of them filed into Amelia's lavish stateroom, and the Captain locked the door behind them. "Doctor." She spoke slowly and emphatically. "To mewl and blabber about a treasure map in front of this particular crew demonstrates an ineptitude that borders on the imbecilic. And I mean that in a very caring way."
"Imbecilic, did you say?" The Doctor said indignantly. "Foolishness, I've gotten, but-!"
Amelia interrupted. "May I see the map, please?"
The Doctor looked to the boy, Jim, who shrugged and tried to look innocent. Dr. Doppler frowned, and jerked his head in the Captain's direction. The boy removed his hand from his pocket. His fingers were wrapped around a small, brassy sphere.
"Here." Jim tossed it wide of the Captain, but Amelia reached out and snatched it effortlessly out of the air.
"Miss Bowman." Amelia handed the sphere to Gwen. "See what you can make of this."
The sphere was covered with strange, circular markings. Gwen stared at it, baffled.
"I can open it," said Jim smugly.
Gwen didn't appreciate his tone. "Do it, then." She tossed it at his face, harder than was strictly necessary.
He caught it, damn him. Gwen watched his hands carefully. Poke there, twist that way, back that way, turn, and—
The sphere came to life. It opened up, very slightly, and glowing green lights spread through the room and turned it into a three-dimensional galactic map.
Gwen gasped. "This is amazing!" Her eyes met Jim's, briefly, and the boy's expression mirrored her own. "How does it work?"
Dr. Doppler pointed. "This is Montressor. If I touch it, like so—" He did, and the map started moving around them. "It is directing us, I believe, along our course."
"Hm." Gwen watched it closely as the galaxies spun by. "Is this like a need-to-follow route? Because I can get us from the Magellanic Cloud to the Coral Galaxy much quicker than this thing has us doing."
"Can you?" Dr. Doppler looked at her with interest. "Who are you, exactly?"
"Gwen Bowman." The fake name already slid easily off her tongue. "Navigator. If you just give me your final destination, Dr. Doppler, I can chart a course that'll get us there fast and safe."
"Keep watching," Dr. Doppler said. "Our destination approaches."
The virtual tour of the universe entered a galaxy, then a solar system. Gwen watched closely. Finally, the map honed in on a single planet with two intersecting rings. Whatever its topographical formations were, their shape matched the etchings on the map sphere.
Gwen recognized the planet from her favorite childhood book. "We're going after Flint's treasure?"
"You recognize this place?" said Captain Amelia.
"I mean, I've only ever seen it in a book, and who's to say that it wasn't just a rendering, but that looks like Treasure Planet to me."
"That is what we believe," said Dr. Doppler.
"I'm sorry, we're chasing a fairy tale?" Captain Amelia said. "Dr. Doppler, I must object."
"How can you doubt it?" Jim interjected hotly. "Pirates burned down my mom's inn for this thing! It's real!"
"I agree with Jim," said Dr. Doppler. "I have checked the coordinates of this planet, and while there's nothing mapped there, the gravitational forces suggest that there is."
"There's the possibility that the pirates were chasing a fairytale, too," said Mr. Arrow.
"But the treasure had to go somewhere!" Jim said.
"Jim, calm down," said Dr. Doppler. "I will handle this." He cleared his throat and said, "While you may have a point, Captain, the fact remains that I have hired you to take Jim and myself to these coordinates, and that is what will happen."
Captain Amelia pursed her lips. "Very well, Dr. Doppler. Our departure will be within the half-hour. Mr. Arrow, please escort these two to the kitchen. Mr. Hawkins will be working for our cook, Mr. Silver."
Jim, who was fiddling with some of Gwen's instruments, said, "What? The cook!"
"We are in need of a cabin boy," Captain Amelia said. "Our navigator did the dishes this morning. That is unacceptable."
"Aye, Captain," said Mr. Arrow. "Come with me, gentlemen."
"Before you go," said Captain Amelia, "a warning: this map will be kept under lock and key when not in use. Miss Bowman and I will determine our initial heading, but then I will lock the map away. Do not speak of it outside this room. Understood?"
"Aye, Captain," said Gwen, Mr. Arrow, and the Doctor.
"Mr. Hawkins?" said Captain Amelia. "In the future, you will address me as Captain or ma'am. Is that clear?"
Jim rolled his eyes.
"Mr. Hawkins?" Captain Amelia waited.
"Yes, ma'am," said Jim.
"That'll do," said Captain Amelia. "Gentlemen, I will see you later."
Mr. Arrow, Jim, and Dr. Doppler left.
"That boy's got a chip on his shoulder," said Captain Amelia. "A few months in space as a cabin boy will fix that."
"Aye, Captain," Gwen said. "Shall we look at the map again?"
It took Gwen a few minutes to figure out how to work the virtual map. She rewound its sequence and started again. Captain Amelia moved slowly toward the target coordinates, and Gwen took notes in her personal code.
"Okay, so we'll begin by heading for the Magellanic Cloud. We'll want to avoid the Tyrian Asteroid Belt, and the star Urania recently went nova. So we should begin by heading south-by-southwest out of the system. Two hundred and ten degrees, to start."
"Good work, Miss Bowman," said Captain Amelia.
"We can hold that course for about a week," Gwen said. "That'll get us out of the galaxy and headed in the right direction. Then we'll take stock. I'd like to look at the coordinates again. I bet I can get us there faster, and with fewer turns and slowdowns."
"We'll discuss that later," Captain Amelia said. "For now, we should get back on deck."
"Can I write down the coordinates, Captain?" Gwen asked. "I can work out the route on paper maps, and we'll never have to use the globe."
"I confess, I rather like that idea," said Captain Amelia. "But don't work too far ahead, all right? Like I said, I do not trust this crew as far as I could throw them."
She could probably throw them a fair distance, Gwen thought. "Aye, Captain."
They deactivated the map and went on deck. The captain locked the stateroom behind them. Gwen didn't see where she put the key, which was probably what the captain intended.
Mr. Arrow and the Doctor were waiting by the helm with Mr. Turnbuckle, the helmsman.
"We are ready to cast off, Captain," Mr. Arrow said.
"Very well," said Captain Amelia. "Are we ready to raise this creaking tub?"
"Aye, Captain." There was a hint of amusement in Mr. Arrow's voice. "Cast landlines!"
There was little more than tethers holding the Legacy to the dock. Once she was cast off, she began to rise.
"Begin charging engines, Mr. Arrow," said the Captain.
"Loose all solar sails!" Mr. Arrow bellowed to the crew.
Gwen looked up and watched the elegant solar cloth unfurl. The electrodes embedded in the sailcloth glowed when the sunlight hit them.
The ship rose slowly. Once she reached a certain height, they would be ready to activate the engines.
The gravity of the spaceport lost hold after a little while. Gwen was used to the sensation, but it was still an enjoyable one. She liked to do flips in the zero-gravity interlude. Her record was three before the gravity machine got turned on.
She was halfway through her second flip when Captain Amelia called, "Mr. Sluff! Engage artificial gravity!"
"Aye-aye, Captain," said Sluff in Flatula. Flatulans made good zero-G mechanics because they could stick to things with their sucker feet. Sluff flipped the switch, and Gwen landed on the deck and rolled. She stood up, and found herself eye-to-eye with Jim Hawkins. He backed away immediately.
"Sorry," Gwen said.
"Don't worry about it." Jim had shed his brooding façade, and just seemed plain excited by the ship's launch.
"Is this your first time in space?" Gwen asked him.
"Yeah."
"Well, they're about to turn on the engines," Gwen said. "The start'll knock you over if you're not careful."
"Thanks."
Gwen elected to hold onto the railing for the actual launch. She still wasn't great with jumping from zero to seventy knots in a matter of seconds.
The ship sprang into motion, and Gwen slid along the deck. She tightened her grip on the railing and smiled in spite of her discomfort.
They were under way.