Chapter 4

The Comets

. . .

Jim walked down the gravel road with the broken board under his arm. He'd had a little trouble with keeping it in place since the sails were loose and the rest was close to fall off every second. So he constantly moved the old piece of orchestrated metal around in his arms, trying in vain to find a comfortable and effective way to carry it on his way back home.

Since he couldn't fly, he had to walk from the whole other end of town to get there. Luckily for him, the town of Benbow wasn't the largest and most inhabited town on the planet. It was closer to the opposite. But there was still a good walk ahead of him, even though he had gotten halfway through the main street.

Benbow town was located close to one of the many famous canyons on the planet, so there were only houses and shops on his right side. On his left side, the thousand foot wide canyon stretched out like a magnificent crack through the landscape. Even though it was about as many feet deep as it was wide, the edge was only shielded with an old wooden fence, that anyone could crawl under if they pleased. Of course people didn't do that, not even the ones that had houses located on the canyon side. Either they had pathways down to their home, or else they had made an underground tunnel. When you lived on a mining planet, it was about exploiting the rough landscape and environment as good as possible. Even the old disused mines were offend renovated and used for living. Maybe because people had nothing else to do, other than digging holes and hallowing out the rugged canyon walls.

Yes, Benbow was a cozy town, that Jim couldn't deny, but it could get a little boring for a young man like himself. Sure, it was nice having people live side by side, and everyone knowing each other some way or another, but it was in serious lack of excitement. If it wasn't for his solar surfing, he would be hanging around the Benbow Inn constantly, and that was definitely not appealing! Just yet another reason for him to get that junk box of his fixed in a hurry.

The boy was dragged back out of his thoughts when he suddenly bumped into someone, that had walked out from one of the sideways. "Ow! Hey, watch where you-" he snapped and rubbed his nose, since the board had hit it. However, hee stopped himself before finishing the sentence when he realized who he had walked into. "Doc?" A smile spread across the young man's face at the sight of his mother's old friend.

"Jim!" the dog-looking astrologer seemed to be almost relieved to see him. Maybe because he was in need of help carrying all the stuff he had in his arms. "Boy, am I glad to see you," Dr. Doppler said and tried to fix his glasses, but by doing so, failing in keeping control of the stuff in his arms.

Jim's reflexes were quick and he just reached to catch the telescope when it tipped out of the clumsy doctor's arms. "Woah. Hey, you need help with all that?" Jim asked, not able to smile a little at the doctor's situation.

However, though he looked like his knees soon would give up on him from all the extra weight, Delbert shook his head. "No, thank you my boy, but I think I've got it," he said.

"You sure?" Jim asked with a raised brow, but laid the telescope back on top of the pile in the astrologer's arms.

"Yes, I will be just fine. It will not be the first time I've had a lot of packing with me," Dr. Doppler assured with a slight chuckle, though the pile seemed like it was going to fall apart as soon as he began to walk.

"Well, if you say so Doc," Jim said. "But let me at least follow you to... Wherever it is you're going with all that stuff?" he said and looked wonderingly through the pile. He wasn't able to see everything in it, but what he did see was a telescope, a stand and a few books he couldn't read the titles on, along with some other weird gear he couldn't place in the drawer of things he recognized.

"Now that you mention it, I was actually on my way back to the good old Inn of yours," Dr. Doppler said as the two of them resumed their walking down the lightly populated street, now side by side.

"Really? How come?" Jim asked, having one hand in his pocket while he walked. He was actually beginning to be a tall young man. Not the tallest through, but he slowly began to catch up with the dear astronomer.

"Well you see Jim, Montressor is expecting a very rare shower of comets in just a few days. The comet Moirai and its followers will pass by late night just above Benbow city. A phenomena that only happens once every two hundred years," The astrologer explained, not able to hide the excitement in his voice. Not that he even seemed to try. "I'm testing weather or not the view will be best from my observatory or from the top of the Benbow Inn. With less instruments, if that is the case," he explained.

"Wow, I didn't know that. That's actually pretty exiting! For a change." Jim said, muttering the last part and let a smile spread across his face.

"Jim, my boy, astrology is always exiting," Dr. Doppler assured, making Jim chuckle a little.

"Yeah you say that," the young man said with a small laugh. Though he found the etherium and its secrets very fascinating, he wouldn't agree upon the statement, that it was exiting all the way through. "So um," Jim began and needlessly wiped his nose with his hand. "Do you need-.. Do you need an assistant for this observation? Wherever you chose to watch it that is," he then asked and smiled down at the man, who was like an uncle to him. An awkward, nerdy and socially ineptitude uncle.

Dobbler's face lit up in a surprised smile when the boy came with his question. "Why of course Jim! It would be an honor to have such a sophisticated young man like you to keeping me company through such an extraordinary event!" He said, sounding more excited than Jim had expected. In fact, the elder gentleman's reaction made him laugh a little.

"Alright. That's a deal then," Jim said, continuously having the bright smile plastered to his face.

"Now, you see we have a lot of things to prepare before the meteors arrive and I will not want to stress you, but we are in a bit of a hurry," The astrologer said, already babbling about everything they would have to do in that short amount of time.

. . .

From a corner of a sideway that laid in shadow from the faint sun, that slipped through the heavy clouds, the two's conversation was secretly overheard by a pair of carefully listening ears.

The dark-haired Dustin peeped his head out from the corner, only to watch the astrologer and the solar surfer walk down the street. He had heard and remembered every detail of their conversation. He had stopped and stayed behind the wall as soon as he had realized the dialogue's context. Now his brilliant memory came in good use.

A smug smirk spread across his lips, and the young man dragged the hoody of his jacket over his head, as he continued his lonely walk down the sidewalk. Everyone that knew him just a little would know that that smirk could only mean one thing. He was devising another cunning plan.

. . .