Author's Note:

HURRAY! Chapter 12.


Chapter 12: Let's Invent Something

"Ready?" Ariah looked over her shoulder at Jim.

Jim obediently nodded, his hands on the throttle of the longboat. Morph whimpered slightly. Ariah silenced the tiny transformer with a determined look then she hopped off of her seat.

Ariah cautiously climbed onto the small point of the bow. She perched on her boots at the outer gunnels of the longboat; her hands were at the arms-length controls of her invention.

"Fire away." Ariah said quietly in her mechanical voice. She was solely focussed on staying crouched at the bow of the longboat. Her bungee chord was securely bound to the bow, slightly below where she was crouched.

Jim eased the longboat into drive. Slowly at first, so Ariah wouldn't be thrown back into his face, then he hesitantly sped up the longboat. He also made sure that he didn't turn abruptly, or else Ariah might've fallen off from the G force.

Morph hid behind Jim's shoulder for the majority of the flight, occasionally peeking over to apprehensively look at Ariah.


Most of the way was a straight path; any asteroids that floated in their way could be easily seen and avoided. Ariah used the muscles in her legs to gradually pull herself up from her crouching position with the uppermost caution.

Eventually Ariah was standing at the bow. The young sailor girl moved her weight onto her left foot as she shimmied her right foot beside the other on the port side of the longboat. She was completely absorbed in staying on the gunnels of the longboat and staying perfectly balanced.

Without warning, Ariah leapt from the side of the longboat, her bungee chord freely allowing her to drop through the empty air of space. She only fell from the sped of her leap and the slight gravitational pull of a nearby asteroid.

Judging by the minor pull and change in direction of her bungee chord, Jim was flying the longboat under her, as instructed.


Ariah flicked a switch with her right thumb and waited. Two pairs of solar wings folded slowly out from the bundle attached to her back. They gradually changed from dark amber to a bright gold as they charged up with solar energy.

She continued plummeting from the force of her launch. The system on her back slowly booted up with solar power. Her fingers itched to press the throttle at the index finger of each hand, but her mind controlled them to wait.

Suddenly a large array of asteroids came up fast in front of her. At this speed, and without much control, she would likely crash. Ariah's mind racked, protesting against the instinct to power up.

Then Ariah realized that the currents of the solar winds also had a certain amount of directional properties, much like normal wind. Ariah looked up at the tip of her solar glider, it was slightly glowing, but she still needed more time.

Ariah huffed, taking into account the direction of the solar winds, and dipping the left point of her triangular glider. She swiftly swerved out of the way of the asteroid. Though she missed the asteroid, the invention wasn't working as planned.

She hastily glared up at the topmost tip; it was shining the identical gold as the remaining panels installed into her glider.

"Yes!" Ariah hissed in victory. Her index fingers slammed tightly over the two buttons.

Rather than the expected blast of solar energy, much like the dramatic launch of a tall ship, the rockets installed at the end of the solar glider popped a minute puff of energy.

"Oh great." Ariah cursed.

BLAM! The tiny rockets at the end of the glider exploded, damaging the bottom edge of the solar sail, and sending Ariah more or less flying into the side of the longboat.

"Ouch." Jim and Morph cringed identically. Jim reached over the side of the slightly dented longboat and yanked at the bungee chord.


The cabin boy grinned smugly as he seen Ariah's annoyed expression through the clear visor of her helmet. She slowly floated upwards, still extended from the longboat with her bungee chord.

Ariah brushed at some of her charred clothing, flicking a switch on her harness. It retracted most of her bungee chord until she reached the aura of artificial gravity surrounding the longboat and she dropped below the level of the longboat's gunnels.

Jim reached down and pulled her back into the longboat. The two teenagers sat across from each other. Ariah was at the bow facing Jim and Jim at the stern facing Ariah.

The brunette teenager seemed to be controlling an urge to burst out laughing. "Good thing you were wearing a helmet." Jim stifled a snicker.

"You don't seem so concerned." Ariah stated sarcastically. She wrenched off her helmet and wiped the sweat off of her face, leaving long streaks of black charcoal smeared across her face.

Jim couldn't take it and neither could Morph. They both exploded into fits of laughter as Ariah swiftly grabbed her bandanna from her head and removed the lines from her face.

As the two males continued laughing, Ariah slipped off her solar glider, withdrawing what was left of it, and then waiting patiently for them to calm down.


Eventually Morph and Jim settled down, Ariah glanced up at Jim. She was unusually silent, her hands clutching her knees tightly.

"Oh." Jim leaned forwards and looked Ariah over. "You are alright… right?"

Morph squeaked frantically, realizing that Ariah could possibly be injured. He shifted a circular doctor's headband onto his head and zoomed around Ariah, looking for injuries.

"Yeah." Ariah sighed, halting Morph with one of her hands. She paused and gnawed her bottom lip. "I just don't know how long it's going to take until I get this right." She huffed in exasperation.

"Well that's why I'm here…" Jim smiled weakly, shutting off the main engine of the longboat and reaching for the toolbox and the charred invention.

Ariah smiled back gratefully locating her invention's original blueprints and spreading them out on the seat between them.


"All right we have time for one last test until we have to get back to the Legacy." Ariah hastily pulled on her helmet and stood up at the bow. "Ready?" She asked in her mechanical voice.

"You're not going to crash into the longboat again this time?" Jim raised his eyebrows. "I don't think it can handle another dent."

"Please… the longboats I've been on can handle much more than a few dents." Ariah rolled her copper-brown eyes. "But I'll try not to. Nor will I crash into an asteroid or blow up half of the glider." Ariah assured with a warm smile.

"Okay." Jim sighed. His hands went to the throttle and he eased the longboat into the slowest driving setting.

They went through the same routine. Once Ariah was perched at the port side of longboat she leapt off. She soared through the empty space.

The wings of the solar glider fanned out, much more quickly due to Jim and Ariah's improvements. The panels on the glider filled up with renewed solar energy, mostly deposits of solar energy had been saved over the course of the evening's tests.

Ariah waited, the glider's charging was taking less time to change the panels to a glimmering golden colour. She took a deep breath and pressed her index fingers down on the tiny buttons.


Down in the longboat, Morph and Jim watch Ariah closely, trying to drive the longboat under her, in case of the worst.

The golden solar panels charged up on her glider, as she fired up the rockets. They both had their fingers crossed tightly in hope.


The rockets did not explode. As a matter of fact, they fired up properly and propelled Ariah through the empty space at full speed.

The young sailor howled in victory, weaving through the asteroid field and doubling back to circle the longboat. She would've jumped for joy, had she been on a flat surface.

Her only restraint from escaping into the mysterious reaches of space was her safety bungee chord. She exhaled and slowly cut the power of her rockets as she hovered over the bow of the longboat.

Ariah adjusted her wings so they wings only folded halfway, to steady her short fall back onto the longboat. She shut down the system, the golden wings folded away completely and she pulled off her helmet.

Morph and Jim were cheering in victory, applauding the invention's success.

"It seems to work." Ariah could help but smile. "No explosions this time."

"Yeah." Jim smiled back. "That was incredible!" His pale blue eyes seemed to glow from excitement, and he hadn't even been the one using the solar glider.

Ariah rubbed the back of her neck nonchalantly and she giggled.

Jim waited a moment for Ariah to unclip herself from her harness and then pull off her solar glider.

Ariah sat down next to Jim at the stern of the longboat. The bright smile of victory was still plastered on her face.

Jim fired up the engine and soared them at a moderate speed back through a small galaxy to reach the RLS Legacy.


The opened hatch below the Legacy was still opened. Jim slowly flew the longboat up to the dock. Then he felt something against his left shoulder and looked beside him.

He was at the mercy of his mind's will not to awe or laugh at the sight. Ariah was sleeping peacefully next to his shoulder; Morph was curled up in the crook of her neck, using her black ponytail as a blanket.

Jim shook his head in disbelief, Ariah was so strong-willed and self-confident, but here she lay sleeping soundly like an exhausted baby.

The brunette teenager carefully wrapped his left arm around Ariah's torso, his right circled under her knees. He used his legs to smoothly lift them both up.

Jim had hardly and issues with Ariah's weight, back in Montressor he had often carried many pounds of scrap metal at a time to constructed his solar surfers, but it was the fact that she was asleep that troubled Jim. He tried extra hard to avoid waking her, and was fortunate in doing so. Ariah wasn't the lightest of sleepers.

The young cabin boy lifted Ariah out of the longboat and laid her on the dock. Then he hopped back into the longboat and tied off the boat.

Morph awoke soundlessly, helping Jim with pulling up the longboat and retrieving Ariah's invention.


Morph carefully nudged Ariah awake as Jim pulled the lever to close the hatch. The hatch rumbled closed until there was no starlight emitting from the floor. The lanterns inside the dock house lit up one by one as Ariah sat up.

"Man, I guess testing inventions is more tiring than I thought." Ariah yawned, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Crashing into random space matter is more likely the case." Jim stated flatly.

Ariah pulled herself back onto her feet. She shook any exhaustion from her body and looked back up at Jim, smiling.

"Well, I should probably get to bed to avoid any injuries." Ariah stretched. "You know, so I don't trip over my own feet." She chuckled. "Good night Jim."

Jim snorted at her remark. "Good Night Ariah." Jim answered with a little wave.

Ariah climbed the wooden steps back to the upper deck, swaying lightly from fatigue.


The moment she exited the lower deck she noticed the oddly numerous amount of the crew, still awake and their eyes on her suspiciously.

"What?" Ariah asked bluntly.

"You were gone." Birdbrain Mary screeched loudly, hopping towards Ariah.

"Yeah, so?" Ariah shut the door to the dock house behind her and dragged herself towards the lower entrance to the crew's quarters.

"You missed dinner." Onus replied.

"So?" Ariah repeated in her bored tone.

"And you were with Cabin Boy." Scroop stated. The crew grunted in agreement.

"Ah… I was looking for you, Scroop." The young woman looked up from the deck at the golden-eyed arachnid. "Just for your information..." Ariah smiled smugly. "You're going to be my slave as of tomorrow." She narrowed her copper-brown eyes at him. "So, I suggest you start minding your own business, Mister Scroop, and get a good night's rest."

The young sailor exited the main deck and entered the crew's quarters, leaving her fellow crewmates on the deck, bewildered.

The entire crew cringed at the poor luck of Scroop. The crimson alien snorted, brushing off their comments and clicking towards the crew's quarters to do as Ariah suggested.


Author's Note:

MUHAHAHAHA slavery. Personally I don't support real slavery, but this is just a joke. REAL slavery is not a laughing matter.

However, if you have any suggestions for any, Ehem, orders Ariah could use against Scroop, I'll say you name, and take those suggestions into consideration.

Hugs Not Drugs Ladies and Gentlemen!

MG#6