Act 1

Adelaine's birthday is due to come, and she sits at her table in her room with a list of everyone she is to invite. It is not a very long list, as it is only six guests on it. Four of them are sons and daughters to counts and countesses, but two of them are not. The two who aren't of high birth happens to be Jim and Silver. Adelaine wonders what her other friends will think of them.

Will they think that she is crazy to invite commonfolks to her birthday? She hopes not, as she have started to really like the two of them. They are really nice, and they are actually honest in everything they say and do. That is a much better treatment that most nobles give.

The four others on her list have been her best friends her entire life. Mostly they have been her only friends until now, and mind you that they are more of her acquaintances than really friends. Nobles seems to not get too close to each other that much as commonfolk, but there are also exceptions to that. And that is really telling how fast she have gotten to be friends with Silver and Jim. She have known the other four all her life but doesn't know them half as well.

Of the other four there is first Eric von Strauff, a 19-year old that is really quiet and to himself. In his younger teens he was quite rebellious though, but that seems to be over now. His parents are strict, like very strict. All Eric's time have been carefully planned by his parents, and if you want to invite him to anything you have to do it very long in advance. Was it really that strange to be rebellious once in his life, then?

Second there is Deadrick Westerly, a bookworm with thick glasses and weak physics. He likes to talk about theories that he have read, even when the one he talks to might not understand him. He also likes to come up with his own theories, that is even harder to understand. He is afraid of germs, and that makes him unwilling to shake hands with people. He wants to wash his hands often.

Then there is Anna and Danielle Goodfellow, who are sisters. Twin sisters. They often wisphers with each other and giggles quietly to themselves. They love to chat of the latest in fashion, and of boys. Especially about boys, which is quite wearisome sometimes. Adelaine fears what they might carry on to others about Jim. Will they say that he's simple? Which isn't true, he can be complicated and difficult when he wants to. They will definitely say that he's dirty, as he is handling greasy engineparts all the time.

Adelaine wonders how this might go. She have never invited commonfolk to her birthday before. Or to anything, really. Will there be disagreements between her noble acquaintances and with her new friends? Or will they get along? She can only wait and see.


Eric von Strauff stands there, 13 years of age, in his parents' livingroom with hos head bowed and his body stale as an tree. In front of him his parents discuss his life into the last detail.

"And at last, three months from now, you are to spend some time with aunt Samantha," Eric's mother tells him. "After her husband's death she is very lonely. You are to do everything she tells you to."

Eric doesn't like it when his whole life is planned for him, but what choice does he have but to obey? His parents have always the last say in everything in his life, and it is propably always planned three to four months in advance. Always. Once every month Eric's parents brings him to the livingroom to remind him about what have already been planned and tells him what have been added.

He doesn't know what to do about it, as he have been brought up to never speak up against his parents. He is angry and frustrated, but is to afraid to show it. What is he going to do?


Silver have moved out from Adelaine's house. He have bought his own little house which he have earned from working for Adelaine. It is a small, little house, but with a certain finess to it. Jim gets honestly impressed with what Silver have bought, although the cyborg haven't got much furniture to put in it yet. He have at least got a bed for the bedroom, a table and some chairs for the kitchen and a sofa and another table for the livingroom.

The two of them is now sitting in the livingroom and discuss what might be appropriate to have on them on the birthday. For Jim it is simple, as he have the uniform from the interstellar fleet. But for Silver it is a bit harder, as he doesn't have any fine clothes. He have some money left from working for Adelaine though, so something he have to be able to buy for himself.

"A dress suit, maybe," Jim jokes and laughts.

"Nah, too old-fashioned," Silver says with a smile.

"Then what are you to have?"

"What do you say about a captain's uniform?"

"Silver, you're not a captain. It's a birthday we are going to, not a masquerade."

"Then I don't know what to take."

"What about a regular suit?"

"Maybe."

The next topic is what they might give to Adelaine. It have to be something nice, something that impresses. The two of them tall about it for about half an hour before Jim gets an idea. "Maybe there is something in the library that can give me what I need, something I can build." And so he travels to the library of mechanical history, to see if he could find something to build for Adelaine.

The library of mechanical history is an old and big library, where there is hundreds of schematics to read thru. Most of the books Jim found with Daniel Crow have ended up here. There the boy sits for hours and looks thru different ideas, until he finally comes onto something. A watch that displays where the wearer is in space. And so he borrows the book from the library and starts to tinker with the armband shortly after. He even brings it with him on an expedition to work on it on the early hours when he have time.


Eric is now 15 years of age, and he have finally gotten enough of his parents constant planning. At first he deviated just a little from the plans, and his parents shows just the tiniest bit of irritation by his action. Then he suddenly drops everything, and goes of on his own small adventures. He makes his own decisions where to go and what to do, and gets punished whenever he gets home. He have never felt so free, even when he gets hard time for it.

In his adventures he gets friends from the most unlikely of directions. He befriends children of merchants, seamen, servants and bakers, as well as children of nobles. Before he had just the friends that his parents accepted and allowed, which was just a handfull. Now he suddenly have 20 - 30 oh them.


All the guests that have been invited to Adelaine's birthday have been directed to Gregory's estate, which fits better for a event such as this. Gregory's estate have no equal. The house is adorned with different faces and figures, and on each side of the entrance there grows pine trees in two rows. It is a pure dispaly of rished and power, and it is surely a boasting construction like no other.

Adelaine wears her regular pink dress with jewels, together with a few jewerly. Erik von Strauff wears a red suit with a white shirt underneath and with a black tie. Deadrick Westerly wears a dress suit with a tophat on his head. Anna and Danielle Goodfellow wears matching violet and blie dresses, and they, too, have some jewerly on them.

When the party well starts and all the quests have arrived the festivities can begin. As Adelaine have feared ger noble acquaintances eyes the new arrivals with a bit of suspicion. Even though Jim looks like a military man in his uniform you can still see the dirt and grease on his hands and feet. Hard to wash it off, Adelaine guesses correctly. And even though Silver looks dashing in his new suit he seems a little out of place.

Anna and Danielle starts to whisper among themselves, and after a moment they start to giggle. Adelaine suspects it all is about Jim, and wonder what they have said. When they talk hushed with each other again Adelaine asks herself if they are to be like this all evening. How annoying would that be?

"How is it in the interstellar fleet," Deadrick asks with caution. "I guess that you see quite a lot of the stars."

"Yes, but maybe not as much as you think from where I work on the ship."

"So what, you're not a captain?" Danielle, the more refined of the sisters, wonders.

"No, I'm a mechanic."

A collective gasp comes from the four highborn teens. Never in their lifes have they expected to meet someone that actively works with such dirty things. At first they are appalled, but then, to Adelaine's happiness, they start to get interested in what he does. What kind of work do a mechanic do? A little of everything, but mostly he fix broken things or modifies stuff to a new purpose. How much does he make on the jobb? Not that much, but if you like to build stuff it's worth it. Does he make any important decisions? No, not that often. Is he a good friend with his captain? Well, maybe not that good. What's the name of his ship? RLS Lucky Star.

Jim gets showered with different questions. Technical from Deadrick, generall from Eric and even intimate from the twin sisters Anna and Danielle. Silver gets a lot of questions, too, and it turns out that the four noble teens are just as interested in an ex-pirate than in a mechanic. Have he ever killed someone? Yes, but I tended to avoid it. How have he been pardoned from his crimes? With the help of Gregory, Adelaine's father. How was the life of a pirate? Hard and timeconsuming, and barely ever lucerative. On the last answer Silver gives an evil eye to Jim, surely for past deeds.

After all the questions have been answered it is time for lunch. Jim and Silver have never seen such a fine and well made table in their lifes, with is with a white table, white roses and silver cutlery. And never have neither Jim nor Silver ever been served by servants. And the food! The food! It is amazing. And the dessert is hard to top.

After the lunch it is time to play a few games, and for that they goes to the backyard. What a backyard it is. The flowers are exquisite, and the statue in the middle of the yard is of a fine, young woman in a dress that holds up a big seashell. First they played cricket for an hour on the green grass, then they played tennis for an hour on the tenniscourt that is in the back of the yard.

"What a day," Silver puffs to Jim just when they are done with the tennismatch. "I can't remembers when I had so fun."

They then gather in the grand livingroom when Adelaine turns to speak to them. "Time to open the presents," she says.

They all gather around the table in the livingroom to observe the birthdaychild unwrap the gifts. From Eric she gets a new pair of leather gloves of excellent quality, adorned with pearls on the back in a most beautiful pattern. From Deadrick she gets a book to write down notes in, in a silk wrapping that are of the colour rouge red. From Anna and Danielle she gets a book about poetry, where the words within it describe the world in the outmost beauty.

Last, but not least, it is the gift from Jim and Silver. When she have opened it she shows the armband that have been within to everyone, and all are amazed by how beautifull it is. It is of a bronze alloy, which have been polished to such a degree that it shines as bright as gold. On it there is decorative symbols of stars and planets, giving a small clue to what it does.

"Try that button," Jim says when everyone have gotten a good look at it and points to a button on the armband's side. When Adelaine pushes it an orb is created out of thin air right over it. In the orb is a small version of the planet that they are on. It zooms in on the point of the planet which the estate is and, with a thin ring, shows their position.

"Oh, decorative and handy," Adelaine observes as she pushes the button again to let the orb disappear.

There is a sudden knock at the front door. "Strange," Adelaine comments. "No-one is to come here now."

"Maybe it is your father," Deadrick guesses.

"Then why should he knock? It's his own house, he have a key. And all the guests are already here."

Adelaine goes to answer the door. At it stands a man she doesn't recognize. "Adelaine?" he asks, and she nods. "You and your friends are to come with us."

At that moment people, all armed with rifles, comes in both thru the front door and the open backdoor that leads to the backyard. They quickly surroundljud the guests and brings Adelaine back to the livingroom.

"Who are you?" Silver demands, with his built-in gun out.

"Does that matter?" the leader asks. "All you need to know is that you are being kidnapped. Now, put the gun away or you are all gets shot."

Silver have no other choice than to obey. After the cyborg puts his gun away he and the others are backtied so that they can't do anything and provided with sacks over their heads so that they can't see anything.


Act 2

When Eric is 17 he meets up with an entirely new kind of people. He befrields a petty criminal, and soon after he have several contacts in the criminal world. Not worried at all over his chockens he feels entiteld to make any choice he wants. After so many years under the wield of his parents he feels he deserves it.

He starts to make deals with these shady characters, and starts to supply them with things in exchange for money. Mostly it is about guns and rifles, which he can get very easy thanks to his contacts with the nobilities. He never told his parents about it so they never knew anything, at least not from him.


They travel for two days, and for the whole time they have the sacks on their heads and their hands tied behind their backs. They tried to talk to their kidnappers, like asking where they are going and such. But they barely get any answer, so in the end Jim and the others doesn't ask anymore questions. They can only pray that they will be okay.

When they finally get their heads uncovered they are in a room that they don't know. By the looks of the room they seem to be in an abandoned officebuilding. There are no windows, so they can't confirm where they are.

There they are left alone, locked in and still backtied.

"Hey, where is Eric?" Deadrick asks, and true to his question Eric is gone.

"Maybe he's in another room, but I can't imagine why they would keep him in another place than us," Jim answers.

"What should we do now," Anna asks, worried.

"What can we do," Danielle answers her sister. "We can only wait."

And that they do. Two hours later three of the armed kidnappers comes into the room. In their hands they have plates of food.

"Dinner time," one of them says. They put the food down on the floor, then one of them proceeds to untie Jim's rope.

"You can untie the rest, army boy," the kidnapper says, and thereafter they all three leaves the room and locks the door after them.

Jim does as he is told and unties the others. They eat in silence until Adelaine suddenly speaks up. "I think I have an idea," she says.

"What's that?" Jim asks, honestly.

"That ventilation." She nods towards a ventialtion drum. "I think I can fit in it. It is bound to lead outside, right?"

"Yep."

"I think I can lift you up to it," Silver says and puts his plate down. He and Adelaine walks up under the drum, then Silver takes her under her arms, like the little doll she looks like, and lifts her up so that she can stand on his shoulders.

"It's stuck," she speaks when she tries to take op the grid. "I think it is screwed shut."

"Not for long." Silver takes forth his built-in gun. "Watch your fingers." He aims and shots where the four screws are. They melt away from the electricity, and soon the grid falls off. Thereafter Adelaine can climb into the ventilation system.

"Good luck," Silver wishes her as she dissapears thru the hole.

"Eugh, how many germs it must be up there," Deadrick speaks, disgusted. "I would never get up there."

"Good thing you didn't volonteer, then," Danielle rolls her eyes.


When Eric is 18 he start to do as his parents tell him to again, only to get less punishment and to make them believe that his rebellious time is at an end. But in reality he still makes the deals with the criminals, only that he hides them very well.

A good example of these dealings is when he have turned 19 and is out on one of Adelaine's little trips. He hides a bunch of weapons in a box that is otherwise full of Adelaine's furrs. He gets almost discovered when the box crushed the cybernetic arm of her new guide, named Silver.

Lucky thing Adelaine ensured everyone that it was only furrs in the box and didn't let anyone open it up.


It is dusty in the ventilation, and many times Adelaine gets disgusted by how many Spiders it lives here. My dress will surely be ruins by the time I get out of here. At many times she comes to a dead-end, and have to crawl back the way she have came in. In the end though she sees some light ahead of her, and she believes it to be the exit. But as she comes closer to the grid that the light comes thru it turns out that she is wrong; it leads only to a room.

But as she comes near she hears a voice that she recognices. "Have they been feed?" the voice asks, and when Adelaine comes to the grid she sees that it is Eric, untied and without a sack on his head.

"Yes, they have," one of the kidnappers answers.

Eric? Adelaine wonders, and feels a sinking feeling in her stomach. Is he in league with them?

"Have their parents and relatives been informed?" Eric asks.

"Letters with demands have been written and sent to everyone except for the big one."

"Good. Now we can discuss how to cut the ransom."

If the others only knew! Adelaine doesn't stay to keep on listening on the conversatin, but keeps on crawling. In the end she finds the way out, and to her happiness she feels the grid to the outdoors are loose. She brings forth her feet and kicks the grid a few times with all the force she can muster before it comes loose.


It is time for Eric to get completely free from his boring life as a highborn child to two nobles. He have decided to cut all ties from the honest world, and to become a criminal. No more rules for him. No more plans in several months advance. As soon as he have gotten the ransoms, he will escape with his criminal friends in an hidden ship and live his life to the fullest.


The days crawls by, and the kidnappers comes into the room only when it is time for the prisoners to eat and when it is time for anyone in Jim's group to go to the bathroom. If it is the former some of the kidnappers brings in the plates as others comes in with rifles to watch the prisoners. If it is the latter the kidnappers, armed with rifles, takes them out of the room and accompanies them to a small, cramped WC.

Many times Jim and the others wonders if Adelaine really have escaped, or if she have been captured and killed. The thought of her being dead makes them often nervous, and they wonder if they ever may get out of this. The kidnappers doesn't speak to them more than necessary, and they aren't happy to share their plans. And what have they done with Eric?

"Well, this brings back memories," Silver says out loud one day.

"What, to get kidnapped?" Jim asks.

"No, to be locked in. I have been in jail a few times, lad."

"Was the food in jail as foul as what these people gives us?" Danielle asks with a frown.

"It's about the same."

A few days later all of the kidnappers comes into the room and under gunpoint ties them up. The kidnappers leads them then out of the room, thru some corridors and then out into the sunlight. There, outside the house which indeed is an old officebuilding, stands a bunch of people, but it doesn't take long for any of Jim and the others to figure who these new faces are.

"Mom?!" Deadrick says. "Dad?!" The two he speaks to sighs of relief, happy to see their only son alive and well.

All the parents to the kidnapped teens are there, even Jim's mother, but no-one is there to greet Silver. But they understand that they can't go to their relatives yet, ot else they all will get shot.

"Have you all gotten what we asked?" one of the kidnappers asks the parents.

They all nods. "Good," a new voice says, and suddenly there is Eric, unscaved, and walks towards the parents.

"Eric?" Deadrick asks and voices the shock and confusion that all but the kidnappers surely feels. The most shocked is Eric's own parents. "What are you doing?" Deadrick keeps on going.

"What does it look like, Deadrick, old friend," Eric answers and turns to look him in the eye. "I'm selling you off."

"But why?" Anna asks. "Why would you do this?"

That's when Eric tells them what he have been doing since hos early teens, and of the deals he have been making with the criminals. He even tells them about the guns in the box that have sbapped Silver's arm off.

"I knew it!" Exclaims Jim. "I knew it had to be something else than furrs in that box."

Silver leans over. "It's not the time to brag, lad," he warns.

"So, now you know the truth, all six of you-"

Eric stops himself in the middle of the sentence and have to make double-take. It isn't six person that stands before him, but five. And pretty soon he makes out who's missing. He turns to the kidnappers with an enraged expression. "You idiots! One of them is missing. Where is Adelaine?"

In that second a ship appears in the sky and stops not that long from them, casting its shadow over them all. It is the RLS Lucky Star, and on it is Adelaine.