Title: Pirate Law
Chapter Words: 2,956
Rating: T for some eventual romance and mild language.
Author: Quikksilver
Disclaimer: Kudos to Disney for this fantastic movie! Only Rose is mine.
~Chapter One: Keep Him Safe~
"Our siblings - they resemble us just enough to make all their differences confusing, and no matter what we choose to make of this, we are cast in relation to them our whole lives long." - Susan Scarf Merrell
She carefully swept the remaining pile of dust into a pan, and then emptied the pile into the trash. Sarah was talking to Delbert in a low, serious voice, and Rose had an inkling they were talking about Jim. With a sigh, she went over to the first table and began wiping it free of any spills. Candles were guttering low in candleholders on each table, and as she cleaned the stations she blew them out. Soon the dining room was in a low, hazy, dusky light, with shadows clinging to harsh surfaces. The fireplace was glowing red embers, the only light in the room except the low-burning candle on Delbert's table. Rose took the handkerchief out of her hair and ran her fingers through the light brown curls. Stuffing the handkerchief into her pocket, she went over to the kitchen and leaned against the sink, taking a few steadying breaths. Jim was right – following every little rule in the book wouldn't bring her father back. Massaging the nape of her neck, she began thinking about her precious book she had stuffed under her mattress upstairs in her room. Books were an unheard of luxury, mostly because holo-books were all the rage now. She preferred to read on her own, but the paper was expensive and the old-fashioned printing tools even more so. But the book was large and she wasn't even half finished with it yet.
Rose was playing her favorite game – trying to guess the ending of the book – when there was a resounding crash throughout the small inn. Hastily, she gathered her skirts and ran outside into the dining room, where Jim and some massive shape stood. Her hand flew to her mouth, and she froze, taking in the details of the stranger. It was a Tortian, an old species that lived for hundreds of years. A long, leathery neck was protruding from a oil-skin covered shell, yellow-and-orange eyes bulging as it gasped hideously for breath. Hot, moist air belched from its mouth, and the stranger was shuddering spasmodically. A weather-beaten tricorn hat was sitting on its scalp, and one claw pawed the air feebly. "James!" Sarah gasped, crossing the room and looking at the thing which was now sitting in her dining room. Jim tugged the Tortian a few more feet, and then gave up, slamming the door behind him.
"He's hurt, Mom," Jim said, dropping to his knees. A swatch of dark hair fell in his eyes as he examined the shuddering Tortian. "He's hurt bad." Rose shook herself and crouched next to the shaking Tortian, patting one of his calloused claws. The Tortian coughed, a deep, ragged cough that tore from his throat and sounded like a draft rattling through a dungeon.
"Me chest, lad!" The Tortian said, a cracked voice with a thick pirate accent. "Me chest...Don't wanna lose that..."
Jim pushed over a small chest, roughly the size of a cat, and settled it in the hands of the old pirate. The chest itself looked terrible – there were scorch marks and deep gouges where it had been forced open on numerous occasions, and what looked like desperate claw rakings along the side, as though it had been torn from someone's grasp. Four battered buttons with different symbols on them were settled beneath a keyhole, and the Tortian brushed a knuckle across them, opening the chest. The hinges squealed in pain, one of them quite rusted and the other snapped off completely, and the old spacer plucked out a ball of cloth, wrapped hastily around with twine. "He'll be a-comin' soon," The spacer hacked. "Can't let 'im find t'is!" The ball of cloth was shoved into Jim's hands, and the spacer stared wildly at him. Jim's brows knotted in concentration.
"Whose coming?" Jim asked, confused, his hands turning the lumpy ball of cloth in his hands. Suddenly, a wizened paw shot out and seized a handful of Jim's shirt, dragging him forcibly closer to the old Tortian. Rose automatically cried out and reached for Jim, but Jim heard the raspy words echoing in his ear.
"The cyborg! Beware...the cyborg!" The old spacer released Jim's shirt and fell back, eyes slowly dimming. Rose was staring, stricken, at the dead body, and then let out a little squeak of horror, scrambling backwards on the floor.
"He's d-dead!" Rose said, eyes wide and swimming with tears. "Oh, gods, he's dead!"
Everyone heard it – the distinctive whine of an engine pulling up to dock. But this wasn't steady and controlled, as most spacers were when they pulled up to a port – this crashed straight through the docks and rammed itself on the shores. They all looked up, and Jim shot to his feet, jumping easily over a table and standing at one of the windows. Using a finger, he tipped the shades backwards to look outside. A dark, ominous shape was smoking on the docks, and shadowy figures were leaping ghoulishly out of it. A large shape, indistinguishable through the slashing rain and driving winds, was approaching rapidly. "We gotta go!" Jim said, hauling Rose to her feet by the arm and pulling her upstairs. Rose broke free, panicked, and backed up, allowing Sarah to follow Jim. Delbert was hot on their heels, a singed slipper sitting like a wounded animal on the stairs.
Rose had one bewildering thought – to get her book. Delbert was forcing open a window, and Jim was peering over the banister. Assorted people had smashed through the door and were ransacking the dining room. He spun around to see Rose disappearing down the hallway. "Rose! Wait! Don't!" He shouted after her, but she took no notice. She slammed into her room and snatched her book from her mattress, along with her handful of pictures of Leland. She stuffed them into her pocket and held the book tightly in her arms. Smoke was rising from the downstairs, and Rose looked, horror-stricken, over the edge of the stairs. To her terror, a pirate looked up, and they locked eyes. She would remember those eyes for the rest of her life – huge yellow orbs, slitted in anger, red irises, and ragged gray hair around them. Those scant details branded themselves into her memory, and she hardly noticed Jim yanking her towards the window.
They tumbled out the window, landing in Delbert's cart, bruising themselves a good deal along the way. Rose held on tight to her book, cradling it to her chest, and yelped when Jim landed on her ankle. Sarah pulled her only son through the cart and risked a look behind her, staring at the red flames licking around her precious inn. Rose stared, watching the ashes rise into the night sky, the flames devouring the only place she had to call home. Sarah buried her face in her hands and sighed, letting a few tears roll down her cheeks. Jim pulled the sphere out of his pocket and unwrapped it, examining the dull brass sphere curiously, his head cocking to one side. It was grooved oddly and there were a few arrows and symbols on it, but the light was too poor to see much else. Rose hugged her book and wished fiercely to be inside it, wishing against all hopes that this was just an awful dream and she was really a princess, locked in a tower, waiting for a handsome prince to rescue her.
Delbert's house was huge – a mansion, left behind to him from his incredibly wealthy father and distinguished mother. He had updated and added a large astronomy tower, thousands of shelves all crammed with books, and a large quantity of tea. Delbert was known for his tea, because he imported it specially from the Kinopis spaceport, where the best dried tea came from. A cup of this was held in Sarah's hand as she sat in Delbert's armchair, close to his fire. Her hair was still halfheartedly pulled back in a ponytail, but Rose had abandoned all pretense and was staring out the window at the stars. Her legs were tucked beneath her as she sat on the cushioned window seat, breath fogging the windows. Delbert was standing by Sarah. "I just spoke with the Constabulary," he said quietly to the grief-stricken woman. "Those blasted pirates fled without a trace. I'm sorry, Sarah – I'm afraid the old Benbow Inn has burned to the ground."
Sarah closed her eyes and tried to focus on the scent of the tea. Raspberry, orange, and some sort of other citrusy smell that danced elusively away from her. A hot tear stroked a damp trail down her cheek, and she tried to block out the painful memories of when she first bought the Benbow. Leland had thought her mad, buying such an old, rundown old inn and pouring so much money into it. But Sarah had fallen in love with it the moment she saw it, loved all the creaky stairs and the drafty hallways, the hollow walls and vaulted ceilings. She had felt at home whenever she walked through the doors. Delbert cleared his throat, evidently trying hastily to change the subject. "Whoever they were, they went through a lot of trouble over that odd little sphere," he said, looking at Jim who was standing by himself. The teen was toying with it, tossing it from hand to hand and pressing buttons at random, twisting it and trying to juggle it a little. "Even with my vast knowledge of all minutiae and superior intellect towards unknown objects, it would take me years to even – hey!"
Thousands of blue and green pixels were pouring out of the sphere, and Jim held the globe uncertainly. Rose looked up, startled, from her perch on the window seat and came a few tentative steps closer, watching the beads sketch out long lines of blue marks. It encircled them, spreading around the room like a dome, sketching out a web of latitude and longitude. Delbert adjusted his glasses, examining the scale map with interest. "Why – it's a map!" he said, examining the holographic pixels with curiosity. "Wait, wait, wait, this is us! Montressor!" He tapped a small planet timidly with his thumb and yelped in surprise when the map began to shift. Stars, planets, and galaxies began to move and twirl. Delbert couldn't help pointing out a few objects of interest – the Kerrian Abyss, the Megalanic Cloud, the Coral Galaxy. But his scientific chatter stopped completely when he saw a large planet looming in front of them, star dust crossed in an X formation over the planet. "It's...No! Can it be?" Delbert said, staring awestricken at the planet. Jim's blue eyes were round as saucers and they reflected the planet.
"Treasure Planet!" He said. "That's Treasure Planet!"
"No!" Delbert said, taking off his glasses. "Flint's Trove? The Loot of a Thousand Worlds? Do you know what this means?"
"It means," Jim said, tossing the ball once in his palm, "That all of that treasure is just a boat ride away."
"Whoever brings it back," Delbert said, arms outstretched, caught in his own fantasy world, "would be hold an eternal place among the pantheon of explorers! He'd be able to experience – wait, what just happened?"
Jim closed the sphere, twisting it and locking it in place. He stood in front of Sarah, his blue eyes brighter than she had seen them before, his face open and alive with exhilaration. "This is it, Mom! This is the answer to all our problems!" Sarah looked at his brilliant, hopeful face, his cheeks flushed, thick dark bangs cutting a line across his jawline, his earring gleaming dully in the crackling firelight. She released her breath slowly, shaking her head.
"Jim, there is absolutely no way –" She began, preparing her arguments even as she was speaking. Jim cut her off, heedless of his mother, his excitement frothing over him in an elixir of exuberance.
"Don't you remember? All those stories?" He said eagerly. Rose came up behind him, her arms folded tightly across her chest, her teeth set, her brown eyes cold.
"That's all they were, Jim. Stories. And for all we know, that map is a fake. What, so an injured Tortian crashes into our inn, pirates burn the place to the ground, and you expect us to just follow this map heedlessly? If those pirates burned our inn down for that little ball, then you can be certain that we're all in a hell of a lot of danger! If they're willing to burn an inn down, they won't hesitate to kill a child." Rose snapped. Jim turned to her, blue eyes going hazy and dark, flickering.
"I'm not a kid!" He shouted. "And this can help us, Rose! We know it's real – those pirate wouldn't be looking for it if it wasn't! Right, Mom?" He asked, turning to his mother. Sarah fell back in the armchair, rubbing her eyes.
"This is just – I mean – wait, just a moment- you can't be – Delbert, help me out here!" Sarah said helplessly. Delbert tucked his thumbs into his vest and straightened his glasses.
"It's completely preposterous, traversing the entire galaxy alone," Delbert said, looking formally at Sarah. Rose threw up her hands and sat down on the piano bench.
"There, you see? Thank you, Doctor!" Rose said. Delbert snatched up a carpet bag and beamed at Jim.
"That's why I'm going with you."
"WHAT?" Rose and Sarah burst out at once. Rose was on her feet, Sarah was sitting up, and Jim punched the air. Delbert began stuffing things into his carpet bag; books, maps, scrolls, a toothbrush, all the while looking like a child at Christmastime.
"I'll hire a ship, and a captain, and a crew," he said excitedly, digging around inside the piano to find a certain book he was looking for. "All my life I've been waiting for an opportunity like this, and here it is, screaming at me!" He emerged, dusty, disheveled, and wholly excited, his carpet bag bulging strangely with items. Sarah massaged her temples.
"Enough! Both of you, be quiet and let me think!" Sarah said, and sat back, shaking her head a little. There was a long moment of silence, and then Jim spoke, his voice breaking slightly as he kept his eyes on his mother.
"Mom...I know I keep messing up," Jim began slowly, one hand automatically going behind his head to play with his braid, "and I know...That I let you down." He paused, his blue eyes dropping to the floor. The hard, cutting lines around Rose's eyes softened subtly. "But this is my chance to make it up to you," Jim said, eyes capturing Sarah's. "I can make things right. Just – just give me one more chance. Please."
"Sarah? Ahm, if I may?" Delbert said, gesturing off to one side. Sarah went over to him and folded her arms. "You said yourself, you've tried everything. Why not try this? With the right captain and a good person to watch over him, he'll straighten out his rough edges. There are much harsher remedies that a few character-building months in space. Space changes people, Sarah – you and I both know that."
Sarah felt her ruffled feathers smooth, and she looked at Delbert with a knowing look. "Are you telling me all this because it's the right thing for Jim, or because you really want to find this treasure?" Delbert shrugged a little, a sheepish grin toying with the corner of his mouth.
"I really, really, really, really want to find this treasure," Delbert said. "And it's the right thing."
Sarah turned and walked slowly back to Jim, tucking his thick bangs behind his ear, her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. She sighed. "Jim...I can't lose you."
"You won't, Mom. I'll make you proud." Jim said, that puppy-dog light coming back into his eyes. Rose finally spoke up.
"This is stupid," Rose said frostily. "Mom, you can't be serious about letting him go alone. This is all nice, and everything, but Doctor, you can't keep an eye on Jim all the time. I grew up with him – it's impossible." Delbert looked chagrined, and Jim growled at her. Sarah stepped between them easily.
"An excellent point, Rose," Sarah said. "That's exactly the reason you're going with them." She jerked her head towards Jim and Delbert. Rose looked shocked.
"No, what?" She spluttered. "Mom, don't, you can't!" She pleaded. She hated space – she lived in constant fear of it. Sarah kissed the crown of her head, pushing her thick fringe of chestnut hair away from her brown eyes.
"Rose, you said yourself that Delbert can't manage Jim," Sarah said. "Besides, someone needs to take care of these two boys." She offered a little smile to her oldest daughter. Jim spoke up, sounding more than a little hurt that his sister and mother were talking about him like he was five years old.
"But Mom," he complained. "I'm fine on my own. I'll stay near Delbert – right?" He said, looking to Delbert for support. Delbert nodded a few times, but with subtle reluctance. Rose ignored them and turned to Sarah.
"What about you?" Rose said. "I can't leave you here on your own." Sarah smiled at her daughter – a real, genuine smile that showed Sarah's natural warmth.
"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. You and Jim need to see something for yourselves. This will be good. You'll see."
And then, just the barest whisper in her ear when Sarah bent to kiss Rose on the cheek -
"Keep him safe, Rose. I'm counting on you."
A/N: I won't be able to update for about a week or so, because midterms are looming over me and cramming is a must.
Special Thanks:
TMNTdisneyfan2013: Sorry about the paragraph spacing - I tried to cut down on the descriptions in this chapter; tell me what you think!
Day-Of-The-Dead-TattooGal: Thanks for putting me on Author Alert! I was so flattered I made this little fangirly 'eep' noise! :)