Yo! Back in with Liz's end of the story!
Chapter 10 - Fatherly Lessons and a Black Hole
Liz glared at the puddle of water she was pushing around with her mop. Silver had asked her to swab the deck with Kairi and Sora, and she was beginning to feel a little frustrated with her job and was starting to think of it more as a punishment. The ship was large enough that even with three people it would take a couple hours to finish!
"Where's Maria when I need her?" Liz grumbled under her breath. Her older sister had come through with gusto for chores in the past that needed to be gotten rid of, but Liz had always preferred to be a bit more methodical. At least, if Maria had been there, she could have provided a short relief by taking shifts with Liz.
On one side of the ship, there suddenly was a loud noise. Doppler, still wearing his tin can suit, ran over to the rail in order to see what the source of the noise was.
"Upon my word, an Orctus Galacticus," he said in awe. The dog quickly took out a camera to get a picture of the large whale-like creatures that were "swimming" alongside the ship. "Smile."
Amelia looked over from where she stood at the railing of the upper deck. Seeing what was about to happen, she stared, "Uh, Doctor, I'd suggest you stand clear -"
Too late, Liz thought with a smirk. She watched with amusement as the space-whale spewed a mucus-like liquid on Doppler and his device. The dog's camera flashed a second too late to catch the space creature.
Silver walked up onto the upper deck and stopped behind behind Amelia. "Ah, 'tis a fine day for sailin', Captain. And look at you. You're as trim and bonny as a sloop with new sails and a fresh coat of paint."
Amelia glanced over at him with a stern frown. "You can keep that kind of flim-flannery for your spaceport floozies, Silver." Her words were short and to the point
"I speak nothing but me heart at all times," Silver replied, looking a little hurt at the captain's words.
"Nothing but me heart," Morph repeated in a cheery tone.
Amelia looked up in a casual manner, ignoring the little floating blob and the ship's cook. "By the way, isn't that one of your cabin boys aimlessly footing about up there?"
Silver nodded, looking proud. "Yep, it - oh..." He started to look a little panicked when he realized what the captain had said, but then he calmed himself. "A momentary aberration, Cap'n, soon to be addressed. Jimbo!"
Jim looked down from his perch near a solar sail. Liz thought he looked somewhat bored and maybe even comfortable up at that height.
"I got two new friends I want you to meet!" Silver continued.
Jim came down, looking like he was expecting to shake someone's hand and start talking about the ship's inner workings.
Silver instead showed him an identical set of tools of what he had already given Liz. "Say hello to Mr. Mop and Mrs. Bucket."
Jim's eager expression turned into a bored, annoyed expression. "Yippie." He grabbed the mop and the bucket, muttering, "Yeah, I got your Mr. Mop."
He started mopping vigorously, then ended up running into one of the crew members when he didn't watch where he was going. Liz had been purposefully avoiding that area of the deck just so that she wouldn't end up getting in danger to having her head chopped off.
The large, muscled man that Jim had run into let out a low growl. "Watch it, twerp."
Jim started to slow in his work as the rest of the crew turned to look at him with suspicious glares.
"What are you looking at, weirdo?" asked a man with a tentacle beard. The head then walked off, revealing that the rest of the body had a head in the chest area.
"Yeah, weirdo?" the chest repeated. The two body parts looked at each other and grinned maliciously.
There was a loud hiss as a figure stepped out of another group of pirates. Liz took one look at the red alien with his large pincers and quickly adopted a glare. This guy was someone who she was not about to trust - even more so than the rest of the crew.
"Cabin boys should learn to mind their own business," the alien hissed.
"What do you mean by that?" Sora demanded, coming over to stand next to Jim. He pointed his mop at the alien in an aggressive manner. "That you've got something to hide?"
The alien looked at him. "Maybe your ears don't work so well." He started to walk over to him in a menacing manner.
Liz, who was standing nearby, pinched her nose. She was starting to feel a little more bold after Sora had started to confront the alien, and decided to join in on the name-calling. "Too bad our noses work just fine."
The alien glared at her. "Why you impudent little -"
The crew took notice of the argument, and thought that a fight was starting to brew up between the cabin boys and the red alien.
"Go ahead!" one called. "Slice 'em! Dice 'em!"
The slug Sora had run into at the start of the voyage released a series of noises, probably saying something similar.
The alien turned to glare the children, raising a pincer menacingly. "Any last words?"
In the distance, someone called out, "Mr. Scroop!"
The alien, who was most likely being addressed, didn't notice. Instead, he turned his full attention to Jim. "You ever see what happens to a purp when you squeeze real hard?" He snapped his pincers again for emphasis.
Arrow suddenly thrust his way through the crowd. "What's all this, then? You know the rules. There'll be no brawling on this ship."
There was a unanimous "Aye, aye, sir." that sounded like no one wanted to say it or agree with the rule.
"Any further offenders will be confined to the brig for the remainder of the voyage," Arrow continued. He turned and glared at Scroop. "Am I clear, Mr. Scroop?"
Scroop glared back at the first mate. "Transparently," he hissed. He turned and started off for another section of the ship, the other members of the crew scattering.
"Well done, Mr. Arrow, sir!" Silver exclaimed as the crowd finished scattering. "A tight ship is a happy ship, sir."
Arrow looked at the cook cautiously, but then gave a nod of approval and walked away.
Silver turned around on one foot and glared at the kids. "I gave all of you a job to do."
"And we were doing it until that bug thing -" Sora started.
"Belay that!" Silver interrupted. "Now, I want this deck swabbed spotless. And heaven help ya if I come back and it's not done." He looked at Morph, who was floating beside him as usual. "Morph, I want you to keep an eye on these young pups, and let me know if there be any more distractions."
"O.K.!" Morph saluted as best he could in his blob bush form. "Aye, aye." He flew over to Jim and transformed into a giant eyeball, which then moved to look at each of them in turn.
Silver gave a nod of approval at Morph's form, then turned and started for the galley. Liz could have sworn that the man was smirking.
After about fifteen minutes of mopping, Jim let out a sigh. "Well, this has been a fun day..." He looked over at Morph and continued sarcastically, "Making new friends with that spider-psycho."
Morph transformed into a small version of Scroop. "Spider-psycho, spider-psycho," he chanted, grinning.
Liz grinned and let out a chuckle. "A little uglier," she suggested.
Morph inflated Scroop's head as he cackled. "Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
Jim smirked. "Pretty close."
"Well, thank heavens for little miracles," Silver remarked as he reappeared from who knew where. "The deck's still in one piece." He looked surprised, but Liz suspected that he was faking it.
Jim looked over at the ship's cook and started to stumble over words. "Look, I, uh... What you did... Thanks."
Silver walked over to Jim, giving him a curious look. "Didn't your pap ever teach you to pick your fights more carefully?"
Jim looked away from Silver, his silence probably providing a better answer than any words.
Liz's eyes widened. She knew that a lot of stories had something like this involved, but hadn't thought that it was in this world, too.
Silver seemed to get whatever message Jim was probably trying to convey. "Your father's not the teaching sort." The statement came out cautiously, like the old sailor was testing the waters.
"No," Jim replied. He started attacking the deck, cleaning more thoroughly with his mop than he had been. "He was more the taking off and never coming back sort."
"Oh. Sorry lad."
Jim shrugged. "No big deal. I'm doing just fine."
Silver gave him a curious look. Liz couldn't help but think that the cook was cooking up an idea.
"Is that so?" Silver finally asked. "Well, since the captain put you in my charge, like it or not, I'll be pounding a few skills into that thick head of yours." A grin spread across the sailor's face.
Jim looked at him in surprise. "What?"
"From now on," Silver continued, "I'm not letting you out of me sight."
"You can't do -" Jim protested starting to get angry.
"You won't so much as eat, sleep, or scratch your bum without my say so," Silver finished, talking over Jim, a proud expression on his face.
"Don't do me any favors!" Jim growled.
"Oh, you can be sure that I will, my lad, you can be sure of that," Silver muttered to himself. He turned to look at the other three, then frowned when he saw that Liz, Sora, and Kairi had been watching the argument rather than swabbing the deck. "Oi! Put some elbow grease into it."
The three looked at each other, the group looking somewhat sheepish. Then they started mopping again.
Over the next few days, Silver kept his word and watched Jim at all times. The cook ended up gathering all of his cabin kids together so that it wouldn't seem like he was leaving Sora, Liz, and Kairi out of any of the lessons Silver was giving to Jim. Usually, the group would end up in the crow's nest (after Sora had helped Kairi and Liz get up without falling and breaking something), learning something about ship knots and which ones were used in which situation.
Liz couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Jim during these times; the boy would get through the knot and slip out of the crow's nest even before Silver had started to explain about how to put the knot together. When the cook would see this, he would just shake his head and go back to teaching the other three.
Over time, the group of other-worlders would watch as Jim and Silver started to develop a student-mentor bond that would normally be found in father-son pairs. The two started sneaking out in the middle of the night, after most of the crew had gone to bed, and look up at the stars while Silver pointed out constellations.
The only reason Liz knew that was because she snuck out after them one night out of curiosity.
While she did find the stargazing fun, there was something about them that caused her to wonder where her sister was out among them.
Time Break
Liz sat down in a corner near a open hatch at the bottom of one of the ship's holds, watching through the opening at the starry scape as she waited for Silver and Jim to return. The two had started to take out a small skiff whenever they had the chance, which usually meant that Liz, Sora, and Kairi had to take care of whatever the two bonding sailors had left undone. While they were relieved that they didn't have to cook half the time, doing the dishes after the meals wasn't particularly fun, either.
While Liz was lost in thought, the skiff came up into the hatch. Jim and Silver were grinning and laughing at their latest excursion out into the final Frontier. Morph, who was always with them, was adding his own chittering noise as a delightful accompaniment.
"Oh, Jimbo," Silver said as he mopped his brow, "if I could maneuver a skiff like that when I was your age, they'd be bowing in the streets when I walked by today." He stepped out of the skiff as the hatch closed underneath the small boat. The cook looked somewhat relieved to be on relatively solid ground again.
"Bowing in the streets!" Morph repeated in a delighted chirp.
Jim jumped out of the skiff with ease and started to tie it down with one of the knots that Silver had taught him. "I don't know about that. They weren't exactly singing my praises when I left home."
Liz blinked, then cocked her head slightly in confusion, wondering if Jim was a troublemaker back on his home "world".
Silver let out a sigh as he leaned against a wall, probably releasing a pent-up breath from the ride. He slid down the wall into a relaxed sitting position. Morph quickly did the same, collapsing into a puddle on the floor.
"But I'm gonna change all that," Jim continued, not so much as looking up from his knot as he finished it and moved onto the next one.
"Are you, now?" Silver asked, intrigued. He looked over at the boy with a curious expression. "How so?"
"Uh...well, I got some plans," Jim replied carefully.
Liz nodded quietly from where she sat in agreement. At least he isn't going to reveal anything.
"Gonna make people see me a little different," Jim continued, sounding more confident.
Silver's face became downcast. "Oh. You know, sometimes, plans go astray." He rubbed the back of his neck with his non-robotic hand, looking over at Jim.
Jim shook his head as he finished tying up the second knot. "Not this time."
Silver started to slowly get to his feet, only to suddenly moan in pain. He bent down to examine his robotic leg with a look of concern. Morph, seeing that his friend was in trouble, flew down to get a better look, then chittered before transforming into a wrench.
For some odd reason, seeing the wrench sent shivers down Liz's spine.
"Oh, thank you, Morphy," Silver sighed with relief. He took Morph in one hand and tightened a bolt on his robotic pegleg.
"So, how'd that happen, anyway?" Jim asked, motioning to the leg.
"You give up a few things, chasing a dream," Silver replied without looking up. He finished tightening the bolt, let Morph go, then stood up.
"Was it worth it?"
Silver let out a short laugh, then sighed. "I'm hoping it is, Jimbo. I'm hoping it is."
Above them, there was a sudden scream from some terrified, high-pitched crew member.
"What was that?" Liz asked, jumping to her feet and looking up in alarm. "It sounded like someone stepped on the lookout!"
Jim and Silver looked at Liz, then at each other. A moment later, all three were dashing up to the main deck.
"What the devil?" Silver asked as the trip got up onto the deck.
"Good heavens!" Doppler exclaimed. He pointed at the great flash of light that had caused the screaming to start from the lookout. "The star Pelusa has gone supernova!"
Liz swallowed when she saw the exploding - or imploding - star so close to the ship. She was getting the feeling that there was something that was going to go wrong.
"Evasive action, Mr. Turnbuckle!" Amelia shouted at the alien at the wheel.
"Aye, aye, Captain!" Turnbuckle replied, starting to turn the wheel. The ship started to move under Liz's feet, then shuddered when it was hit with a wave of energy from the star.
"All hands, fasten your lifelines! Mr. Arrow, secure those sails!"
"Secure all sails!" Arrow called as the crewmen ran about, securing their lines and going up the rope ladders. Silver, Jim, and Sora were among them, while Liz and Kairi stayed close to the main mast, occasionally double-checking to make sure that none of the knots came undone.
"Reef them down, men!" Arrow continued.
One of the crewmen was having a fun time taking out the meteors of star that were hurtling towards them by utilizing a cannon that was mounted on the deck. "Yeah, baby! Ba-boom! Hah hah hah hah!" Another wave hit the ship, but that didn't stop him.
Liz, when she heard him, wondered if the alien was somewhat mental.
Silver, tying down one side of a sail, suddenly lost his balance high above the deck. "Aah!" He started to fall off his perch.
"Silver!" Jim exclaimed. He grabbed his lifeline and hauled the cook up.
"Thanks, lad," Silver said.
"Captain! The star!" the lookout screamed, pointing frantically.
"It's devolving into a..." Doppler let out a gasp as the bright flash was suddenly sucked into itself. "Black hole!"
"We're being pulled in!" Turnbuckle called as he tried to turn the ship away from the space whirlpool. However, the pull from the black hole was too strong, and he was suddenly thrust back, leaving the wheel unattended. It started to turn rapidly as the ship started to tilt in the direction of the pull.
"Oh, no you don't!" Amelia snapped as she took the wheel. Liz suspected that the cat was referring to the black hole rather than Turnbuckle.
The ship was then blasted by another energy wave from the black hole, causing everyone to stumble.
"Blast these waves!" Amelia cursed. "They're deucedly erratic!"
"No, Captain!" Doppler called out. "They're not erratic at all! There'll be one more in precisely 4.2 seconds, followed by the biggest magilla of them all!" He waved around a device that was in one gloved hand, as though he was trying to prove his point.
Amelia seemed to be struck by an idea, and her eyes widened in realization before a grin spread across her face. "Of course! Brilliant, Doctor! We'll ride that last magilla out of here."
"All sails secured, Captain," Arrow reported as the crew started to come down from the masts.
"Good man!" Amelia called back. "Now release them immediately!"
Arrow looked confused. "Yes, Captain." He turned to the crew. "You heard her, men! Unfurl those sails!"
"What?" Silver demanded.
"But we just finished..." Sora started.
"Tying them down!" another alien finished.
"Make up your bloomin' minds!" one of the crew shouted as everyone started back up the rope ladders.
"Mr. Hawkins, Miss Liz, make sure all lifelines are secured good and tight," Amelia ordered before Jim could start back up again.
"Aye, aye, Captain," the two said together, giving Amelia a nod. They went over to the main mast and started pulling on the ropes and double-checking the knots to make sure everything was secure. A couple knots looked loose, so Jim tied those more tightly while Liz finished off on the other knots.
When they were done, Liz called, "Lifelines secured, Captain!"
"Very good!" Amelia replied. The ship was then blasted by another wave, forcing everyone to scramble for something to hold onto.
"Captain!" Doppler yelped as he looked at his device. "The last wave! Here it comes!"
"Hold onto your lifelines, gents!" Amelia called with a Cheshire-like grin. "It's going to be a bumpy ride."
The lookout let out a whimper as the ship fell into the darkness of the black hole.
Liz couldn't blame him; the idea of falling into a black hole wasn't all that pleasing to her, either. The darkness became do complete so quickly that Liz couldn't see her hand in front of her face, and she started to feel like someone had trapped her in a bear hug and was continuing to squeeze even tighter.
Right before the hug could start to get painful, there was a flash of light from deep within the darkness, and a wave of energy was thrust out and hit the ship, sending it flying out of the black hole at high speed.
There was a general, loud cheer from the crew as members climbed down from the masts, shaking their fists at the black hole that was now far behind.
Doppler, in a fit of pure joy, ran over and hugged Amelia. "Captain! That was -" He suddenly caught sight of something and released the Captain with a yelp alarm. "Jim! It's those dark things again!" He pointed, panicked, at the dark creatures that had suddenly started to appear on the deck. The crew scattered to areas that were safer for them, while the lookout looked down from the crow's nest with wide, terrified eyes.
"They're called Heartless!" Sora called back as his Keyblade materialized. Kairi's Keyblade appeared at the same time, Liz's sword appearing not too long after.
"Let's get 'em, guys!" Sora called. The three charged at the group of dark creatures, weapons raised.
The Heartless turned their heads when they heard Sora's voice, then started towards them. Liz, Sora, and Kairi were unfazed, however, and started hacking at them. Within a few minutes, not a single Heartless remained on the ship.
"They must have caused that star to go supernova," Kairi remarked as their weapons vanished.
"We probably picked them up when we were pulled in and then shot out," Liz added, nodding in agreement.
Amelia blinked, looking surprised at the fight that had taken place before her eyes. However, she still managed to keep her composure. "My, my. What did you call those creatures? Heartless?"
Sora nodded. "That's right We've got a feeling that they may be after..." He hesitated, but then continued, "...something on this ship. Doppler let us tag along because of them."
Liz and Kairi nodded in agreement.
Amelia turned to look at Silver. "Well, I must congratulate you, Mr. Silver. It seems your cabin boys have been training quite well under your care. They did a bang-up job with those lifelines." She gave a smile, and the cook chuckled out of thanks.
"Everyone accounted for, Mr. Arrow?" Amelia asked, looking around. When there wasn't an answer, she repeated, "Mr. Arrow?"
Scroop walked through the crew, which parted in front of him. The red and black alien was carrying the hat that Arrow had worn. "I'm afraid Mr. Arrow has been lost," he said quietly. He glared over at Liz and Jim. "His lifeline was not secure."
Uh-oh, Liz thought.
Jim shook his head, a panicked look on his face when everyone turned to look at him and Liz. "No, no. We checked them all." Noticing the suspicious looks, he repeated, "We did. We checked them all. They were secure."
He and Liz ran over to the main mast, where the lifelines were still tied. One was missing.
"I swear," Jim said quietly. "They were secure."
Liz didn't say anything, looking shocked at the missing rope. "They were tied. I double-checked." She looked over in Scroop's direction, and her eyes narrowed when she saw that the alien had a more snide look on his face than he had carried before.
Amelia ignored them. Instead, she stated while holding the hat, "Mr. Arrow was a...a fine spacer. Finer than most of us could ever could be. But he knew the risks, as do we all." She started to walk over to her stateroom, saying, "Resume your posts. We carry on."
The crew dispersed. Silver, however, walked over to where Jim was standing. The boy was clearly decimated.
"It weren't your fault, you know?" the cook asked, putting his non-robotic hand on Jim's shoulder. "Why, half that crew would be spinning in that black abyss-"
"Don't you get it?" Jim demanded, turning on Silver. "I screwed up! For two seconds, I thought that maybe, I could do something right, but -" He let out a noise of frustration, pushing Silver's hand off him. "Forget it. Just forget it."
Silver frowned. "Now you listen to me, Jim Hawkins. You have the makings of greatness in ya, but you gotta take the helm and chart your own course. Stick to it, no matter the squalls, and when the time comes, and you get the chance to really test the cut of your sails, and show what you're made of, well I hope I'm there, catching some of the sun coming off ya that day."
Jim looked over at him and, surprisingly, started to cry.
Silver started to comfort him. "There, there, lad. It's all right, Jimbo. It's all right." He glanced around nervously. "Now, uh, Jim, I best be getting about my watch, and you'd best be getting some shut-eye." He looked at Liz. "And that goes for you, too. None of this was your fault. You did what ya could, and there wasn' anythin' else."
Liz gave a nod. Her eyes were a little teary-eyed, but she was able to hold the tears back.
"Now, how about you four get some shut-eye, huh?"
The four nodded. Sora, Kairi, and Jim started to walk towards the entrance to the lower deck. Liz started to follow after them. As she went, she heard Silver mutter quietly, "Getting in too deep here, Morphy. Next thing you know, they'll be saying I've gone soft."
There. Didn't think things were goigm to be easy on Liz's end, did you? It never is when Heartless are inbolted.
Next week, Maria will be back for her next chapter!