As the cruisers disappeared behind them the crew let out a shallow sigh of relief as they were being hurdled around this giant planet fast enough to make it difficult to stand.
"Don' breath easy yet boys they'll be waitin for us on the other side!" Silver called out.
This was the wrong thing to say as the crew started to panic and run for the life boats only to find that most of them were destroyed in the fray.
"Jim we need a plan this course will put us in their way in just a few minutes!" Silver stated in a hoarse whisper.
Jim couldn't think of anything as the blue and red swirls of the nearby planet distracted his gaze.
"Wow you guys sure know how to throw a party!" Ben called out clanking his way up to the bridge, "You know this reminds me of the time Flint threw a huge party with some of his pirate buddies around Thados, have you ever been there? Great planet spectacular view..."
"Will you shut yer yap!" Silver yelled at Ben who cowered a little
"No, Wait!" Jim said and turned to Ben, "Tell me all about that 'party'!"
Ben straightened up and brushed himself off, "Well Flint had told some of his buddies that he was searching for the Lost Fountain of Life and he must've liked them a lot because he invited them to come along. We were at the edge of Thados, lovely planet by the way, have you been there?"
"Come on Ben What happened?" Jim said curtly
"Oh yeah, well his buddies started throwing a big light show and soon Flint was trying to get out of their way so he could join in the fun he actually traveled inside the ring of Thados! Can you imagine that inside the ring," Ben chuckled, "of course you'd need to see Thados to know what I'm talking about, it's a lovely planet, ever been there?" Ben asked and Jim ran towards the anchor, "Oh look it's Thados..."
"We need to pull ourselves down closer to the ring!" He yelled at the four large aliens that had control of the anchor winch. They nodded and put their backs into turning the wheel. Slowly, but steadily, they descended to the Metor.
Jim ran to the wheel and took control, he looked around and saw exactly what he was searching for a large hole trailing a giant meteor just a couple hundred feet under the topmost layer of debris. He fought hard against the gravitational pull of the planet as he pulled the ship down in line with that hole.
"Jim...!? Jim... what are you... JIM!" Silver yelled as the bottom of the ship began to be pelted with the high velocity dust the covered the rings of Thados. Silver held his cap as the ship shook violently against the pelting of the meteors as chunks of the vessel came flying off and marred by the dust. One large meteor scraped across the surface of the vessel flinging a couple spacers out into the depths of space.
Alia held on for her life as the high velocity sand marred her knuckles causing them to bleed.
"We're going to get killed!" Silver yelled against the storm but Jim held a straight course. One of the meteors cam and knocked Ben's leg off to the side of the ship where he went after it only to fall on his face as the storm suddenly stopped and the crew found themselves in the trail of that giant meteor.
"We need to hurry that Anchor won't last long through the ring." Jim told Silver who looked and saw the metal literally start to glow red hot against the pounding of the dust.
"Launch the harpoons!" Silver commanded and from the front of the ship two large poles with metal stakes on the end embedded deeply within the rocky surface just as the main links of the anchor broke off.
The center of the ring was like the eye of a hurricane all around them the crew could see the scattered debris of other ships that had sank in this unearthly graveyard.
"How long till they find us?" Jim asked
"This cover will buy us some time but not a lot I'd say maybe twenty minutes maybe less." Silver said caressing Morph who was cowering in his pocket, "But even if they do find us it'd take a lot more than a couple cruisers to break through this ring."
Jim looked around to see any possible escape from this predicament, "Ben how did Flint get out of the ring?"
Ben who had just reached his leg and was busy welding it back on looked to Jim and accidentally put his welding torch up to his head, "Now let me think," He started as his head grew red hot, "Oh yeah! He reopened the portal to Treasure Planet, His ship was mostly destroyed though and after that he removed my memory circuit... or did he remove my memory circuit then return to Treasure Planet?" Ben said quietly folding his one welding arm over the other causing his arm to heat up.
"Well that's out of the question!" Silver said annoyed turning again to Jim who looked around the barrier seeing nothing but a vortex of destruction on every side when something caught his eye.
"Look!" Jim pointed to the object and Silver came and grabbed his spyglass.
"Well I'll be... I don't believe it!" He said handing the spyglass over to Jim
Jim looked through the glass to see another ship anchored to the same meteor. It was old and very torn up but still together and it's lines still held fast to the meteor. On the side Jim could still read the name of the ship.
He put the eyeglass down, "It's the Candice!"
"Prepare a boarding crew we need to get there now!" Silver said
On the boarding crew Jim added the four larger aliens that had controlled the anchor, Ben, Mr. Pokros (to see the workability of the ship), himself and Silver and Haversham. Leaving one of the larger deck hands in charge of the Donovan.
They boarded one of the skiffs that had not been damaged by the fray or the meteors and descended slowly towards the Candice.
The solar sails were shredded but Pokros mentioned that they might still be salvageable, Jim wished they didn't need Pokros but he was the only one on board with any familiarity with the solar riggings. The ship was a faded grey lending to an eerie feeling.
"If dis weren't no ghost ship you'd never see one!" Silver said as the shadow of the comet against the sun plunged them into a grey atmosphere.
Every step creaked and dust spat out from under the boards as a hollow wind blew through the sails. They walked over and saw the bridge where a part of the wheel was missing, presumably from the meteors. Pokros walked down one entrance towards the engine room while the others continued forward towards the captains cabin.
Suddenly from behind them they heard a death rattling scream and they whipped around to see two figures in a jumbled mess from an open door. They ran over with their pistols out as the four large aliens grabbed the two figures and held them up.
"Alia!?" Jim said as before him was Alia and her father
"You realize this can be considered mutiny!?" Silver stated angrily with his gun against the fat alien's chest.
"Please sir it was all Alia's fault! She threw me onto this skiff saying you were all going to die anyways."
Alia gave her father a glance of hate
"An you expect me te balieve a little girl like that could throw somun like you onto a skiff?" Silver stated as the grey alien began to sweat, "We'll deal wit you two when we get back to the ship."
The larger aliens tied up Alia and her father and carried the ropes with them. While her father started to cry uncontrollably Alia walked beside Jim.
"Please don't allow him to do this!" Alia pleaded
"He's the captain, there's nothing I can do." Jim stated hesitingly
"Please at least try to save my father!" Alia pleaded more desperately
"Your 'father' just tried to save his own skin by pinning this on you and you want to save him?" Jim said annoyed
"He's my father!" She said as if that was the proper response
"Well he sure doesn't act like it!" Jim stated
"Please there must be something you can do!?"
"You took it out of my hands." Jim said sadly
Alia stepped back as a small tear formed and fell down her cheek, "Father was right about you. Just doing your job! You don't really care about any of us, just your position. Well I hope you choke on it!" She said with contempt.
Jim opened his mouth to say something but decided against it as Alia fell back in line with her father. They approached the captains cabin as the lights shot on and the ship made a loud hum.
"Looks like Pokros fixed the power!" Silver said as they entered a fully lit cabin
Inside were all the furnishings of a small home definitely the cabin of a wealthy captain. In the center was an old holo deck used for making a log or receiving transmissions. These older ones released a dust suspension that allowed the projection to be displayed.
At the center of the screen a cloud of dust was released and there stood Captain Amadeus as the old radio system crackled on and his voice came to be heard.
"In hopes that someone may someday find it and forever stop their quest. I have found a small wormhole that leads to an as of yet unexplored sector of space. My crew and I will never be able to make it through this field on a ship this size so I must leave them. It kills me to do as such, each of them so promising but for such a discovery there can only be sacrifices. I go now to the Daeus Cluster, alone I am sorry to my officers and crew if you should find a way meet me for the discovery of a lifetime. Should you receive this message and be not a member of my crew know this, You will not survive! Stop this quest and go home The fountain has many dangers... rock... mindless... spark of life..." The transmission began to fade as a scratchy voice came over the speakers
"Hello... hello... my name is Theseus," At this Jim stared intently on the screen but nothing could be seen, "I left my family on a distant planet to come and look for the fountain, I didn't heed Amadeus' warning and now I am suffering his fate, beware the spark of life. if you find this please return it to my family they are... on... it must get... let them know..." and then the transmission cut out entirely
"What was that?" Jim asked Silver
"We weren't the first to discover this boat." Silver said quietly and looked around he saw something golden on the floor, he bent down and picked it up looked at it for a second then looked at Jim and put the golden object in his pocket and smiled, "who says there ain't still treasure to be found!"
Suddenly there was a loud explosion on the outside. They ran out and looked towards the Donovan and each let out a gasp.
Thanks for reading folks I hope you noticed the large hint I put in here for the inquisitive minds. I like to thank those that are providing me with feedback as it helps to enhance the story. Keep me updated as to what you think. Thanks Ultima S. Next, Daeus Cluster.