Tale 2: A Blast from the Past

Chapter 3

Robin made her way down a long corridor as she was looking for Jim. When her father left the gallery, she knew Jim had disappeared and escaped back into the school. They both didn't want him to get caught, so Jim gave her his schedule so she could find him during his free time so he wouldn't have to skip class; though today was a slight exception.

As she walked through the dorms, she thought about her little outburst before Jim disappeared. Why would she say something so insensitive to him knowing how he felt about that certain topic? She didn't mean to hurt him; she was just upset, and whenever she was upset, she couldn't control the things that came out of her mouth. But that didn't excuse her behavior. Jim said he understood, but she saw the pain in his eyes. She didn't want to be the one to make him feel that way. All she wanted to do was forget it ever happened, but the only thing she could picture at the moment was the pain-stricken look on his face.

As she continued to ponder on one of the most embarrassing moments in her life, Robin finally found her way to Jim's dorm. "Jim," she said as she knocked on the door softly. "It's me. May I come in?"

When the door slid open, instead of being welcomed by her best friend, an excited blob flew up to her and licked her face relentlessly. "Okay, Morph! I'm happy to see you, too." Hearing his name, Morph purred against Robin's cheek. A little ferret's head popped out of under her hair and watched the morph in jealousy. Seeing this, Robin petted her head. "Be nice, Rune."

Suddenly, a scruffy-haired Eddie came out of the room. "Looking for me?" he said with a suggestive smirk.

Robin rolled her eyes. "Eddie, what are you doing in here? Where's Jim?"

"Marina just got him. She said something about your dad wanting to speak with him."

"What? He wasn't caught for skipping class, was he?"

"No, I think it was about something serious. They weren't going to his office."

Robin frowned. If he didn't want to talk with him in his office, there was only one other place…

"Thanks, Eddie." With a grateful nod, Robin sprinted away, oblivious that Morph was in tow.

Headmaster Smyth only liked to talk to his cadets in the privacy of his office, but this was different. Because Robin had so little access to the inside of the Academy, she knew that whenever her father was going to punish a cadet severely, he and the other administrative staff would come together in the council chambers to devise a very special punishment of their own. She wondered why Jim was summoned there. He couldn't have done anything wrong.

Once she arrived at the infamous double doors, Robin found Lionel patrolling the entrance. "Lionel, what's going on in there?" The Feralis Felinid eye's flickered from her to the thing floating right next to her head. Robin did a double take when she saw Morph. "Morph! You can't just…! Ugh! Never mind him, Lionel. Why is my father talking to Jim?"

"I'm afraid that's classified, Miss," he said.

She sighed. "Of course." When she stepped forward, Lionel followed en suite. "Lionel, it's not like I can hear anything they're saying. Those doors are soundproof." He grunted at her dismissively. "Fine. We'll just wait over there." She only received another grunt as she and Morph headed towards a pillar to wait.

A moment later, Jim exited the room quickly, not bothering to acknowledge Lionel or Robin or even Morph as he passed them. "Jim?" He walked on even as she called his name. "Jim, wait!" He stopped when she grabbed his arm. "What happened? Is everything okay?"

Jim's face remained grim. "Jim?" She placed a hand on his cheek tenderly. "Jim, look at me. Please tell me what's wrong."

He took her hand off his cheek and looked into her eyes. She had never seen such sorrow in those big blues before. "I'm sorry, Robin. I won't be seeing you for a while. I have to leave."

"Leave? Did my father assign you another mission?" Robin's heart leapt for a short while in excitement, but seeing the look on Jim's face, her heart placated back into anxiety.

A mission wouldn't make him look so sad, stupid.

"No, he didn't. I'm going back home."

Her anxious heart beat a bit faster. "Home? But, what…?"

Jim kissed her on the cheek. Shocked by such a bold gesture—and in front of Lionel of all people—Robin just balked at him. Although this wasn't the first he'd ever kissed her (just on the cheek, mind you), this kiss was different from the other ones she had received from him; it was sad, like a permanent goodbye. "I'll write to you as soon as I'm on Montressor, I promise. Goodbye, Robin."

"Jim…"

The former cadet smiled at her one last time before leaving her with no answers. Morph, confused and uncertain, followed close behind.

This was right. Jim couldn't just leave. Whatever his father thought Jim did, he had to be wrong. She had to know why he did it.

The young woman brushed past Lionel and entered the room. It was vaster than she imagined, but it didn't scare her one bit. Once she was at the center of the arched table, her fixated glare was only pointed at the older man seated at the center.

"Robin, what are you doing here?" inquired Headmaster Smyth.

"What did you do?" she answered with her own question.

"Robin, how I conduct the cadets is none of your concern, even if one of them is courting you."

"We're not courting! And this has nothing to do with that! I'm not leaving until I get an answer!"

Headmaster Smyth looked about his colleagues. One of the professors, Lieutenant Arrow, gave him a nod of approval. "Jim is… convicted of treason."

The sudden tension in the room became suffocating, and the silence even more so. Robin tried to say something, but she could only croak out a, "… What?"

"Three months ago," he continued, "when we were finishing up the mission report from your rescue, we found something interesting in Jim's file. It turns out, during the voyage to Treasure Planet, there was a coup d'état led by the notorious Long John Silver. All of the pirates that were involved in the coup we arrested, except for Silver."

"What does this have to do with Jim?"

Robin watched as her father looked over some files in front of him. One was obviously Jim's, but the other… "When word of his escape came to pass across the Interstellar Quadrants, the mission report for the Treasure Planet Voyage was sent to each capital. According to the report, the only reason he wasn't arrested was because he was able to escape. There were no signs of a struggle, so the only way he was able to escape without notice was if someone helped him. And from what I was told, Jim seemed to have formed a close relationship with Silver."

"Do you even hear yourself?" Robin cried, outraged. "You're accusing Jim of helping known fugitive escape. If that were true, he would've told you."

"Not if he wanted to steal a spot in the Academy," said an amphibious board member by the name of Ranoldo Bufonius. "No surprise from such riffraff." Robin glared at the Ranidor.

Her father clearly didn't appreciate the comment, either. "The Interstellar Academy welcomes applicants from all walks of life. Anyone who forgets does not hold the same integrity as the institution, right Professor Bufonius?" The Ranidor knew better than to talk back and simply nodded in reply. "As I was saying, Mister Hawkins had plenty to time to confess such misconduct, and now he has to face the consequences."

Robin's eyes widened in realization. "You kicked him out."

Headmaster Smyth closed his eyes and sighed deeply, as if recounting the meeting prior to his daughter's dramatic entrance. Expelling on of his most exemplary students and now sitting amongst his colleagues as his daughter undermined his authority—it was no wonder he looked so exhausted. "It had to be done."

"Father, that's not fair! He's about to graduate! Can't you just—?"

"What's done is done. I cannot make exceptions for cadets. Jim was an excellent student and I'm sure he would've made a fine spacer, but trust is one of the many values we uphold here and lying about something like this… Well, it just puts Jim into a whole new perspective."

"You're punishing him based poorly tossed information? Shouldn't the ones responsible be punished instead?"

"That has already been taken care of. I'm sorry, but Jim is no longer a part of this institution."

Robin huffed. "This is ridiculous! You can't just—!"

"That's enough, Isabel," he said more firmly, using her real name to emphasize his low tolerance for her rebellion. "You are not anymore a part of this institution than he is. Now this conversation is over, and you are not to bring it up again. Is that clear?"

She answered him with a scathing scowl before turning around swiftly and leaving the room with sharp vexation. This was not the end. Jim didn't deserve this. She needed to bring him back, prove her father wrong, and then maybe he'd finally see that she was capable of becoming a spacer. And she wouldn't do it alone.

"Jim got kicked out of school?"

"Shhh!" Robin glared at Eddie. "Could you be any louder?" She and the boys were currently occupying Richard's room, which was much closer to the Smyth mansion and the last place her parents would seek her out if they found her missing. Jim had left that afternoon during his free period, so no one noticed that he was already on his way back to Montressor. It was only a matter of time before people started drawing conclusions about his disappearance, so Robin took the liberty of informing his friends first and getting their opinion on the matter.

"Why was Jim expelled?" asked Richard.

"My father believes he was working alongside Long John Silver, and that he helped him get away after they left Treasure Planet."

The boys looked at each other for a moment before laughing. "Jim, working with pirates?" Eddie cackled. "And Silver of all people! Please tell you're joking!"

"I wouldn't have come to the boys' dorms in the middle of the night to talk to you two if I was joking."

The boys stopped laughing when they realized she was serious. "But… this doesn't make any sense," said Richard. "If that were true, how did Headmaster Smyth come about this information so late?"

"Someone probably tipped him off," Eddie suggested.

"Wait a minute. Are you saying someone could've set Jim up?" Robin asked. "But that's nearly impossible. In order to do that, someone would have to sneak into my father's office to get to the cadets' records and sabotage the documents to make them look official. But that study is like a steel vault; no one can get in!"

"It must not be that hard, since they were able to sabotage the records without leaving any trace of intruders behind," quipped Eddie. As a notorious prankster, he was quite astute at escaping hairy situations.

"Or put in records that were already official," Richard added.

"What are you saying?" asked Robin

"I know it sounds ridiculous, but if those records were able to convince your father, maybe they're not as bogus as we think."

"That does sound ridiculous," Eddie murmured. "By the way, wouldn't your aunt have said something about this? She was on the Treasure Planet voyage, too."

"Aunt Amelia told me Silver just slipped away. And Jim doesn't like to talk about it often. I figured it was because so many people have asked him about it he was tired of retelling the story, but if he was friends with Silver—"

"Hey! Who said anything about him 'being friends with Silver'? Richard, you can't seriously think Jim would do something like that, would you? It's Jim were talking about! I mean, the thought of him getting chummy with that guy?"

Robin silently agreed. Jim befriending pirates? If that were true, Amelia Smollet wouldn't have even recommended him to her father. "Regardless, I'm not going to let Jim go back home without attesting this my way. That's why I came to you guys. I need your help. I can't do this on my own, and you're Jim's best friends."

"I don't know, Robin," Richard said. "Sneaking off campus? That's going AWOL. We could also get kicked out of the Interstellar Academy."

"Yeah, but by the time they realize we're gone, it won't even matter," Eddie said. "Besides, Jim needs us. I'm in."

"Richard, please. You know Jim; you know this isn't right. He's worked so hard to get here, and if anyone deserves to be a spacer it's him."

The Felinid sighed. "I know that… Fine. I'll come with you, just to make sure Eddie behaves," he added with a smile.

"Hey! You don't need to worry about me. So where are we going, girly?"

Robin frowned at the nickname before answering. "Montressor. We're going to get some answers from Jim first, and then maybe we'll find out what really happened."

"So we'll squeeze the truth out of some people. Then what did you plan on having us do after that?"

"Well… I was just going to play it all by ear. I don't exactly have a solid plan." Richard and Eddie gave her a disbelieving look. "What? I never said this was going to be simple."

"I hope you know what you're getting us into, Robin," said Richard.

"Don't worry. If anything happens, it'll all be on me."

"I feel so much better," Eddie sarcastically added. Robin punched his shoulder. "Ow!"

"Just meet me at the dock tonight at ten sharp. I'll have a sailing vessel ready for us so we can just fly straight to Montressor."

"Wait, what about Lionel?" asked Richard.

"He checks up on me and my sister before he goes to the cadets' dorms, so you won't even see him. By the time he reaches the cadets' dorms, it'll already be ten o'clock." Robin huffed at the skeptical looks the boys were giving her. "Just do as I say, and it'll be smooth sailing from there. I promise."

They both sighed resolutely. "Alright," said Richard.

"You're the boss," concluded Eddie.

The three went their separate ways to prepare for their next journey.

Later that night, Robin lay under the covers of her bed as she waited for Lionel to come and check on her. When she saw the shadow of the Feralis Felinid pass her room twice, Robin sighed in relief and went to her window. Rune crawled out from under her hair and chirruped vehemently, as if she were against this whole operation. "It'll be okay, Rune. We'll be back before you know it." Rune whistled in reply, and Robin could have sworn it was sarcastic. After grabbing her satchel, Robin opened her bedroom window and climbed out.

It was surprisingly easy to sneak past the Smyth soldiers—it was no wonder she had been kidnapped—and she was able to get to the docks in no time. She saw two cloaked figures standing idly by.

"Eddie? Richard?"

"Who else?"

Robin rolled her eyes at Eddie's sardonic reply. "Good. Now let's get ready to embark." She led them to ship she prepared for them. On the side it was the name, SRL Destiny. The ship was small compared to the other sailing vessels, so Eddie and Richard couldn't help but gawk at it.

"What the hell is that?"

"A boat," Robin replied casually.

"That's not a boat."

"Barque, boat, same difference."

"It's not the same," the boys said in unison.

"Look, it was the only one I could get on such short notice, and it's small enough for all of us to manage by ourselves. Besides, my father barely uses it, and it's so tiny compared to the others he won't notice it's gone."

When they all walked up the gangplank, they saw that they weren't the first ones aboard. The silhouette slowly approached them, until they could finally make out who it was. "Marina," Robin gasped out. "What are you doing out here?"

"I figured you guys would want to help Jim once you found out about his expulsion."

"You're not going to rat us out, are you?" asked Eddie.

"I can't rat on you if I'm not here." The Aquatican wore a leather vest with a white blouse and a scarlet bandana on her head. There was a bag on her shoulder. She was already prepared to join them.

Robin smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Marina."

"Don't mention it. Now let's move before anyone catches us."

Robin went down to the engine room to prepare the launch. She turned the gravity back on as they floated away from the dock. In the communication tube, she heard Marina shout to her, "Ready for launch!"

"Aye!" Robin pulled back the notch that ignited the engine. She felt it purr and the floors rumble as the ship flew into space. She could feel Rune shrunk back into her neck in discomfort, chirruping up a storm. Robin petted the ferret to soothe her unease until it was over. She went back up to join the others on deck finding Eddie and Richard gawking at her once again. "What?"

"Since when did you become so great at engineering?"

She shrugged in response. "When you're stuck in a mansion for so long bored out of your mind, you have a lot of free time for hobbies."

"Well, you did a good job," said Marina. "We're right on course to Montressor."

"How long do you think it'll take to get to the Montressor spaceport?"

"As long as we stay on course without any obstacles, we'll be there by tomorrow."

"Then we should rest up before we get there," said Richard. "And if we want to get there without any interference, then someone should stand watch. I volunteer for the first shift."

"That's very noble of you, Richard, but I'll take the first shift," said Robin. "I know this ship up and down, and this was my idea. I'll show you guys to your cabins."

Luckily for them, there was just enough cabin space, so boys and girls could share separate rooms. Marina did not hesitate to retreat into her temporarily solo cabin, and Richard dragged Eddie along before he could sneak off after her.

On the quarter deck, Robin stared out into the Etherium as she thought about Jim. She wondered how he would react once they were on Montressor. No doubt he'd be surprised. She felt chills through her body as she walked up to the bowsprit. This was her first adventure. Sure, getting kidnapped was filled with all sorts of excitement, but this time she wouldn't be a damsel in distress. Hopefully, this trip would prove to her father Jim wasn't the only one capable of being an exemplary spacer.