Act 1

"So, you're Jim's dad," Jeremy says with something in his voice that Leland can't decide what it is at first. "I have heard a lot about you."

"Oh?" Leland thinks back on the meeting between himself and his son, and anticipates bad vibes. "Nothing good, I presume."

"That's right. He doesn't say much about you, but when he does-" Here Jeremy whistles. Leland now understand what it is in the younger man's voice. It is disbelief, surely about what Leland have done to Jim all those years ago.

"Enough about this," Leland decides, as he wants to move things along. He wants to prove that he isn't all that bad, and if he helps to rescue Jim - even a little bit - Leland might prove it. "Jim have been kidnapped."

"He have?" Jeremy is completely oblivious to this - it happened before he have come into the room. Even though the news starts to travel through the building there are people who doesn't know yet. "Then we have to rescue him."

"My thought exactly. But how?"

Jeremy starts to walk back and forth, with a hand at his chin in a thoughtfull manner. He looks to be thinking hard. "So he was here just a minute ago?"

"Yes."

Here Jeremy stops and puts up a finger in triumph. "Then he must have just gotten back from whatever he was doing. He might have reported something to someone."

The two of them looks around the whole of the interstellar fleet's headquarters for this someone, all the while Jeremy tells Leland of Jeremy's last mission together with Jim; when the two of them is to look for Jeremy's father, Seymour Walkup. "Jim told me that he was going to look something up," Jeremy ends his tale. "Since then I haven't seen him nor my father."

In the end they find the investigator that Jim have reported to, and what he have to tell them shocks them. "My dad, dead?" Jeremy exclaims with sadness. "I maybe should have known when he wasn't comming back in the end." As he have gotten the expression that Jim would work on getting Seymour back, and when his dad didn't come back Jeremy have worked himself on trying to find his old man.

"Jim working with pirates?" Leland says in distaste. "I didn't have any idea." Here he have imagine the perfect son, a boy that works for the interstellar fleet and seems to have succeded in everything he himself have failed. And yet he didn't know the friendship between Jim and Silver. Neither does none of them know that Silver have been one of Daniel's crew, as Jim have not included that knowledge.

After a few moments of pondering of this new information Jeremy turns to Leland. "So, it might be safe to assume that it is this Daniel Crow that took Jim. But how in the whole space could they have come by this portal technology?" That Jim have been the one that helped to get the portal working is a fact that Jim have left out from the beginning.

"That's a question for another time," answers Leland. "Right now the most important thing we have to do is to save Jim."

"Yeah, you're right. We can ask him when he's safe and sound."

They think for a moment what their next move is going to be. "The question is," Leland says. "Where do the pirates have their hidingplace?"

"I have no idea," admits Jeremy, but comes up with an idea. "Maybe we need a pirate to find a pirate?"

"And where are we going to find a pirate?"

"Well, I know one that might be able - and most importantly, wants - to help, but I don't know where he is."

"That's helpfull," Leland exclaims with irony in his voice.

"If we just look around a bit we might be able to find this pirate." With that Jeremy starts to walk towards the exit.

"And how long will that take?" Leland still have a bit of irony in his voice as he follows the younger man.

Jim is driven hard by Daniel, as much time have been wasted to build the wrong machine and to get Jim back. But as the boy refuses at first Daniel beats him sensless time and time again before Jim is willing to begin building again. It takes a few days before the actual work starts, and when it does Jim moves his body with great effort after all the misuse. If he refuse now, or gets it wrong, he gets promises to get even more thrashing.

Now he have two guards with him, even though there are only five of the pirates in total, who have been ordered to never leave the boy at the same time no matter what. He have to work from early mornings to late nights every day, with the sole companionship with his two guards. Sometime, however, Daniel comes to look how it goes.

"When are your machine ready to make the first test?" Crow asks everytime he comes to see Jim's progress.

As it is only the beginning of the boy's work there is obviously no chanse to test the machine yet; in the first few days he have to spend most of his time only to build a special made framework to hold the machines own weight to crush it. It is very heavy. He have atually no idea when the shield will be funktional, as, again like with the other machine, every part he have to make himself. It is extremely time consuming.

There is no short way to do it however. He have to do it, or he will get a whacking that he yet have ever seen.

They take Jeremy's ship with crew and looks for about a week before they find a trace of the pirate that Jeremy means; after looking in different bars and saloons they get hold of a rumor where this pirate might be. And after another pair of days of traveling Jeremy and Leland is there, and is looking for this man of piracy.

"Now, I haven't really met the man, but-"

"You haven't even seen him!" Leland couldn't believe his ears. "And you are telling me this now?"

"But," Jeremy raise his voice a bit. "I have been told that he is an ursid that just so happens to be a cyborg. How many of those is there?"

They have come to a town in a far away planet, a desolate place that doesn't seem to be anything special. After a few hours of looking they seem to have found their man.

"There," Jeremy points. "I see him." Leland knows that ursids tends to be big, but he didn't know that they can get this big. And with the cybernetic parts the pirate looks even more intimidating. "If this is the person I think he is," the younger man continues. "Then his name is John Silver, and are a good friend to Jim."

"Friend to Jim?" This is the first time Leland hears about this, but to Jeremy it is old news. Jim have told Jeremy so in good faith. "What else doesn't I know about him?" Leland asks with a frown.

"A lot, it seems. We should go ahead and say hi." And that is what they do. " You don't happen to be John Silver?" Jeremy asks the ursid, as casual as he can be. Which Leland thinks is a bit odd, as Jeremy now is speaking to the biggest pirate Leland have ever seen and who might have a concealed weapon in his cybernetic arm.

John tenses up, and gives the two of them a good look over. His eyes clings at Jeremy's uniform for a small moment."What is it that you want? Are you with the interstellar fleet?" Silver answers carefully. Leland couldn't stop to notice how the cyborg's metal hand goes behind his back, surely to transform into a weapon if things start to go sideways for him.

This is when Leland discovers that neither he himself nor Jeremy have anything to protect themselves with, except for one single pistol that Jeremy have in his belt. Leland doubts that it will help that much, with Silver's mechanical hand already transformed into a weapon and all. His heart starts to beat a little harder, and he holds his breath.

"Well, I am, he isn't." Jeremy points first at himself, then towards Leland. "But don't worry, we aren't here on the interstellar fleet's accord." This seems to not calm John that much, as his metal arm doesn't come out from behind him. "It's about Jim."

It is first now that John's entire stature and attitude changes, from being hestitant and tentativ to worried. His metal hand comes out from behind him, and to Leland's big relief it is not a weapon but a hand. Leland breathes out. "Jimbo?" Silver asks. "What about him?"

"He have been kidnapped by who we believe to be Daniel Crow," Jeremy answers. "And we have no idea where he have taken Jim. So we thought that you could help us."

"So he have told you that I was with them? That I was one of Daniel's crew?" In Silver's mind there is no other reason why they asks for his help. Leland and Jeremy looks at each other, then they both observe Silver with confused expressions. Silver sees that they seem to not follow him and get a confused look himself. "I take that as a no."

"We only thought that a pirate could find another pirate better than us," Jeremy says. "But have you really been in Daniel's crew?"

"Enough with questions," Leland cuts in. "We have spent too much time to find you. We need to save Jim. Now, will you help us or not?"

"Of course I help you," Silver speaks with honesty. "I know where they are hiding, but it will take some time to get there."

Daniel Crow comes into the room where Jim works on the machine and where the two guards watches the boy carefully. In Crow's hands there is a plate with a bit of food on it. He puts it down on the floor beside Jim with a high clatter.

"Eat," Daniel commands.

Jim does as he is told, and begins to eat. The food isn't much to look at, but it is better than nothing and the boy is starving after working with the machine as much as he have. Crow turns to leave the same way he have come when he is stopped in his tracks by Jim's voice.

"What are you going to use it for?" he asks with his mouth full of food. "The shield, I mean."

"Isn't it obvious?" Daniel turns his head a little without turning around. "To protect the ship."

"Yeah, I got that. But against what? What do you need protection from?"

It is first now that Crow turns to look the boy in the face. Daniel have a bit of a thoughtfull expression, as if he contenplates if he should really tell. "We are to raid someplace very well protected. And to do that we need that shield."

"What is this place?"

"Oh, you really like to know that, don't you?" Daniel gets a bit sarcastic tone in his voice. "You don't even want to be one of us, and yet you want to know our plans?" Here he turns his back to the boy. "Just eat and get back to work." Then Crow gets out thru the only entrance there is in the room and slams the door shut after him.

Act 2

Jeremy and Leland, led by Silver, are on their way to the hiding spot of Daniel Crow and his crew. Leland is starting to get really worried for his son's stafety, as it have now gone more than two weeks since Jim's kidnapping. They have taken the ship that Jeremy and Leland have come with, and are now riding it straight to Daniel's hiding spot. Silver have to stay low, and act like a good man and not like a pirate, so that the rest of the crew doesn't understand his true occupation.

"So, if he is from the interstellar fleet," Silver suddenly says one day and first points at Jeremy. Therafter he points at Leland. "Then who are you?"

"I am Jim's father."

"Jimbo's dad, eh?" Silver's eyes goes to two thin lines. "He have told me one thing or two about you."

Leland wonders instantaniously if it is the same things that Jim have told Jeremy. "Oh?"

"Yes. And it's nothing good." Leland's thoughts are true. "Is it really true that you left him and his mom without a word?"

"Yes," he answers honestly. "But it sounds worse than it is."

"Don't try to reason this away. What you did effected him greatly, and not for the better. You shouldn't just leave a child like that. It can ruin it forever."

Silver says it in such an adult way that Leland couldn't help it to feel a bit guilty about it. That's when it hits him. How he speaks about Jim in such a responsible way. "Don't tell me..." Leland says, almost whispers, but doesn't finish what he is about to say. The thought that have hit him is so absurd to him that it can't be real. It is that Silver might have taken over the father role over Jim.

"What?" Silver asks, a bit angry now. "Cat got your tounge?"

"You care about him deeply, doesn't you? You are acting like a father to him." Leland's eyes goes down to the floor. "The father he never had." That Jim is friend with a pirate is bad enough, but to view one as a father is even worse.

"So what? Isn't it better to not have a father at all? And besides, I did what you couldn't. I made a good and honest lad out of him."

That hurts Leland deeply. For the rest of the journey he stays quiet and thinks this over. Maybe he have acted really badly after all.

The progress of the shield is very slow, and Jim have barely done with half of it in more than two weeks. And Daniel starts to get impatient.

"It have to be done soon, boy, or it will go very bad for you," Crow promises. "You get one more week on you, and if the shield isn't done by then I will personally see to it that you get skinned alive and find someone else to finnish the job."

The threat makes an very deep inprint on Jim, as he really believe that Daniel is able to carry it out. In the same time the boy realizes that there is no way that he is able to finnish the jobb in this rate. He have to work night and day for the whole week if it is going to work, and that is impossible.

He starts to really see how hopeless his situation is. There is only two ways out of this; either he himself have to be forced to escape, which is as impossible as to work night and day for a whole week, or he have to be saved by someone from the outside.

Leland, Jeremy and Silver, together with the crew that are under the command of Jeremy, are finally there. The hiding spot of Daniel Crow and his crew is before them. It turns out to be a building right beside the rockface of a mountain.

The rockface bends outward, a little like a shallow cave, and makes a stony roof for the building. That way it is impossible to see it from the air. A few meters away from the shallow cave where the house is there is a far deeper and bigger cave, where they have their ship.

"Here we are," Silver says from their place over the hill half a kilometer from the house, out of sight from the other pirates. "What's the plan?"

"They are clearly not expecting anyone to know where they are," begins Jeremy. "With the portal they doesn't leave any trace, and with the mountain protecting them from view from above they think that they are untoutchable from a suprise attack. So that is exactly what we are going to do."

"Sounds like a plan," Leland says. "I suggest that we are to attack them at night. That's when we are bound to get the least recistance."

"So we wait for now," Silver speaks, and looks up at the sun that is high above them in the sky. It will take a few hours before it will get dark, and who knows what will happen to Jim before then.

The night have fallen, and the darkness our here in no-man's-land is as black as tar. The tension is as thick as tar as well. Silver, Leland, Jeremy and Jeremy's crew approaches the house. The lights in the windows have been out for nearly an hour, and everyone should be asleep inside.

Silver change his metal hand into a pistol, as he and Jeremy puts themselves by the front door. Jeremy's crew stands by the different windows, ready to bust through on their captain's command. Leland, the only one that is unarmed, stands back and lets the others do their handywork.

On Jeremy's countdown, they make themselves ready and finally to break in with a several, simultaneous crashes as they break thru the door and the windows. Everyone gets into the house with weapon raised and with lighted lanterns above their heads. Leland comes in after then, but stays near the entrance. The inhabitants gets a surprise to say the least.

The pirates is taken on their beds. They get up by instinct, with any weapons that they have at hand ready to be used, but they are a bit confused at what is going on. When they see that they are far outnunmbered they put down their weapons and surrenders.

"Curses," one of them says, and Leland recognices him as the one that have taken Jim thru the portal. It is Daniel Crow. "Silver, you sly dog. I didn't expect you to be working with the interstellar fleet."

"I'll do anything to save Jim, Daniel," Silver answers. "Even this. Now, where is he?"

That's when Leland see what Silver see, or rather, who they don't see. Jim is nowhere to be found.

"Locked in the cupboard in the back," Crow says and points with his thumb further back in the house.

And that turns out to be true. In the smallest cupboard they have ever seen is Jim. He is sitting down on the floor, with his legs folded before him in a strange angle, sleeping after the day's grueling work.

The pirates are locked in prison, and they put in extra guards so that Daniel Crow doesn't break out. In the meantime Jim gives both the completed machine that is able to make illusions and the half-done machine that makes the shield over to the interstellar fleet. He also gives then the book with the schematics over both of them.

The interstellar fleet takes back all the treasure that the pirates have stolen, and gives it back to the right owners. It is a humongus pile of gold, silver, jewels and pricy museum artifacts. The pirates have been rich, but now they are just as poor as when they begun.

Silver isn't locked in, however; as far as the interstellar fleet is concerned, he is still at large. Jeremy keeps his involvement a secret, as thanks for his help.

"Are you sure that you are alright?" Silver asks with a frown, surely for the twentieth time.

"Yeah, I am," Jim says, even though he is covered by bruises from Daniel's treatment of him. "Silver, stop worrying. My health isn't going to change just because you ask a hundred times."

Leland looks on the scene with sad eyes, as he knows that he have lost his position to call himself a father. This cyborg, this pirate, have acted as Jim's dad in Leland's absence for, well, he don't know how long. He is a bit hurt that he have been replaced, but maybe he haven't been so good a father to begin with.

He therefor leaves the room without a word, and doesn't look back as he dissapears from Jim's life once more. The boy doesn't need him, and haven't for a long time.

For good and bad, Silver is Jim's father now.