CHAPTER 3
"Oh, er, hello, Captain..."
Amelia, like Jim, had been staring into space and thinking about John Silver. Her thoughts were far less hopeful for him, and in fact she had been vehemently wishing a severe fate upon him for what he had done to her ship and crew. Especially Mr. Arrow, because it was Silver's cabin boy who had failed her on the lifelines. She shouldn't have told Jim to secure them. She could have done it herself, couldn't she? She glanced at Doppler, her thoughts masked evenly from her face. "Good evening, Doctor."
"It's, ah, er, a nice night for it, isn't it?" he stumbled over his words. "I mean, it's a nice night for being outside - er, that is if you're happy outside - well, I suppose you must be, since you are..."
Amelia stared at him for a moment, eyebrows raised.
"Finished?" she checked, only half teasing.
"Er, yes," Doppler said firmly, nodding. "But erm - you do seem to disappear an awful lot, Captain..." He was trying to be tactful, but Amelia knew he was trying to ask her why she seemed to be avoiding him like the plague.
Truthfully, Doctor, I'm bloody sick of your fawning. She toyed with the response, knowing she would never be so callous as to say it. He'd been at her side non-stop since they'd arrived back, and staying in the house was like waving a beacon at him: 'Please bring me things I haven't asked for, do things for me that I'm perfectly capable of, and keep me like a pet!'
Yes, there had been a connection between them on Treasure Planet. Forged there, and destroyed there, probably. When the portal had closed, it was back to reality. Something about Flint's legend was definitely cursed in Amelia's mind, and anything that went along with it.
"Yes?" she answered coolly, her eyes wandering to the sky above their heads again.
"Yes, and, er..." Doppler faltered, wondering where to go next. He gave a few low "ums" to buy some time before triumphantly coming out with, "You should really be inside, resting. You, er, don't want to make things worse, do you?"
Amelia let out a long sigh which sounded more like a hiss. In her mind, she was demanding, "How could things get worse?" but out loud she replied coldy, "I'll be inside shortly, Doctor, don't fret over me," and walked away.
Doppler watched her step briskly away from him and began to wring his paws nervously. She had seemed to walk away from him an awful lot these last few days. One would almost get the impression one's company was not desirable, and yet on Treasure Planet she had seemed so... different. So much warmer towards him. There had seemed a hope of requital - a hope? Why, she had practically written her vows! She had MADE him believe there was something between them, what with the way she smiled at him! That feline floozie! But now she was Captain Amelia again; no-nonsense and all work. Try as hard as he might, Doppler found it impossible to be angry at her. He liked her too much.
Things continued very much along the same lines as time went on. Days became weeks, weeks became months, and Amelia couldn't believe she had been at the doctor's home for so short a time; it felt like years had passed within his walls. While Amelia's burns healed, her mind fell further under the pressure of cabin fever, and she sought desperately to get out of Doppler's home and life. Everywhere she turned, he was there, reminding her of a hundred things she would rather forget - or if it weren't him, it was Rhonda Frost and her incessant microphone. The stories in the press were leaning further and further from the truth, and more and more towards the disgraceful, at least for her. Doppler's name, too, had been soiled by the press - or so he kept insisting. Truly, no one had ever heard of the doctor, despite his own opinion of himself, and his attempts at empathy were laughable.
Jim, it seemed, was the only one who had come out of the whole messy buisness on top of things, and yet he still looked gloomy. Even news of his acceptance at the Interstellar Academy couldn't wipe the teenage depression from his acned face. His mother, whom Amelia held little conference with, had become ecstatic at the news ("Oh, Jim, you did it! You're so clever, you're so wonderful, you're the best son ever, &c"), but Jim himself seemed neither pleased nor interested.
The news had certainly been suprising - he had been a failure in all his subjects at school and had never even tried to succeed academically - but he was by no means glad to be going. He had imagined, from the moment he watched John Silver disappear into the vast etherium, that he would do the same. Even as a child, his only dreams were of sailing his own ships, having his own adventures, and recent events hadn't quenched his thirst for excitement; rather they whet his appetite. Now, more than ever before, he wanted to live out his dreams. He had imagined that, once the Benbow Inn had been restored and he knew his mother was safe and happy, he would take what was left of the treasure to buy his own ship, perhaps hire a small crew. He would chart his own course and follow his heart's wild whimseys across the universe. But Doppler, and Amelia and worst of all, his mother, expected more of him. Dreams don't make your parents proud of you.
Jim knew he had to follow their expectations, even if he wanted much more from life. He just couldn't bear to disappoint them.
The new term at the Interstellar Academy fell shortly after his sixteenth birthday. The captain had bought all the supplies he could possibly need for nearly nine terms at the Academy, needing an excuse to get out of Doppler's house; his mother had bought him new clothes reminiscent of a Robo-Constable's wardrobe, still starchy and uniform to "make a good impression"; and the doctor had supplied him with the useful advice, "Tell your astrophysicists tutor you know me."
All seemed too excited over his acceptance for him to tell them his own plans for himself. So he went to the Interstellar Academy. Alone. Dreamless.
Both Morph and B.E.N., the only real friends he had ever managed to make, had to stay at Doppler's house. B.E.N. had given a largely melodramatic goodbye: sobbing, wailing, and clutching onto Jim as if a large enough hug would prevent him from leaving, but Jim was guiltless knowing he would be taken care of. Jim's mum seemed to have a soft spot for him, and he was always willing to make himself useful - although whether he actually helped stood to question. Morph, however, had no friends within the house. Captain Amelia especially seemed to find his presence irritative, and more than once someone had found him trapped within a glass jar - where he sat in the shape of giant, tearful eyes for sympathy - when she had not been in the mood to entertain company.
And his last friend, his best friend, was out there somewhere, living Jim's dream, while he lived everyone else's. As if the thought were a physical burden, Jim's head drooped pathetically as he boarded the space galleon taking him and a hundred buzzing, exciting new students to the the Academy. He turned to smile bravely at his mother, waving at him with tears of pride and happiness in her eyes, and he was once again reminded of why he had to go through with this. Sighing, he climbed aboard the ship and waited.
Captain Amelia, glad to have escaped the confine of the doctor's house, stood away from the others, readily breathing in the salty air. How she missed the etherium breeze! It felt wonderful to be back where she belonged, where she knew the order and way of things, rather than the disorder and confusion of Doppler's house. After wishing Jim a half-hearted good luck (the child seemed not to hear her, absorbed in his own ridiculous grief), she began to pace up an down the familiar port of Crescentia, remembering a hundred castings off and quests she had been in, although it felt they were years in the past.
She had enjoyed her short life: she had enjoyed the success she had achieved, and the accomplishments she had managed. Although she imagined she would never do such things again.
She had never really thought about a life outside of Interstellar Exploration, and it was impossible to think of one now. The Amelias were a long generation of captains and admirals, each obtaining success and glory in all of their conquests. At just eighteen, she had made her family proud by joining the Naval League, working her way to a high rank. That was, she remembered sadly, where she met Mr. Arrow. He had been a good friend to her, although she would never admit it. He knew her as well as she knew herself, and knew her silent appreciation. When she left the Navy to captain her own ship, he had come with her, happily taking the position of first mate at her side. For years they had worked together, hiring themselves and the Legacy to whomsoever asked (at the correct price, of course), and leading expeditions across the galaxy for obscure collectors, ambitious scientists, or disturbing doctors like Doppler.
Amelia was never one to go over the past and wish that things had gone differently, but the loss of Mr. Arrow had hit her harder than the death of her own father. She wasn't ashamed to admit it to herself, either. Mr. Arrow had been a friend, and an equal. Her father... well, he had been like an overlord, almost. Desperate to give everything to his little girl, but control her right down to which career she had chosen. For all her merits in the Navy, Amelia had left only a few years after her promotion. Much to Daddy's disdain, too... It was difficult to see what she would do, now that she was alone.
With a shake of her head, Amelia cursed herself for falling into a momentarily Jim-like depression. Disciplining herself not to do it again, she forced all thoughts of Mr. Arrow out of her mind.
From the corner of her eye, Amelia spotted the deplorable Rhonda Frost. Jim Hawkins, spaceport celebrity, had attracted quite a flock for his send-off, and the chameleon reporter had flushed a disturbing colour of fuscia-pink as she was talking to Dr. Doppler.
Amelia flexed her ears, taking a sudden interest in the rigging that had been abandoned over a pile of empty barrels nearby. Obviously, she couldn't help but overhear their conversation, could she?
"Surely," Rhonda slurred in a way Amelia supposed was meant to be seductive, "you'll be lonely when Jim's gone?"
"Oh, er - em...well..." The doctor was clearly as articulate as ever. "No, not really. I mean! I'll miss the boy, obviously, but I'm not alone - er, that is I live with a robot and two wome- Erk! I live with three friends!"
"Well, if you ever want to talk - about anything at all," Rhonda scribbled something quickly on a piece of paper. "This is my address."
"Oh, erm, yes - thank you," he stammered politely, folding the paper and slipping it into his front pocket.
"And," Rhonda added huskily, "my communication number." She tore another slip of paper from her notepad and, this time, slipped it inside Doppler's pocket for him.
Amelia narrowed her eyes to blue-green slits, ears flattening against her head as she turned towards them. Exchanging communication numbers with Rhonda Frost, after the way he treated her on Treasure Planet? Of all the insults! Part of her wanted to jump between the pair right then, an impulsive urge to defend her territory. Only, she reminded herself cooly, it wasn't hers - and hadn't she been wishing the doctor would find something to distract him from her? This was for the best, she told herself sternly. Amelia definitely didn't think she was in any fit state to be in a relationship. She liked the doctor, he was a nice enough chap, but she wasn't ready for anything important in her life right then. Her career had been destroyed, her ship confiscated, and her best friend lost in a black hole - frankly, she needed her space. But she wanted Doppler to wait for her.
With another shake of her head, she buried the feelings, and turned sharply towards Mrs. Hawkins, as if abandoning them at the space port forever.
