Chapter Four

"Pirates on my ship?!" exclaimed Captain Amelia "I'll see that they're all hanged!"  Amelia pulled out guns from her cabinet and pulled out the map.  She tossed it to Jim.

"Guard this with your life," she said.  Just then, Morph snatched it and spun around chirping. 

"Morph, no!" yelled Jim as he yanked it from the critter's mouth.  The captain then tossed a gun to Doppler.

"Doctor, familiar with these?" she asked.

"Well, I seen, uh, I've read-" he began to stutter but was cut off by the gun firing into the wall "no, not at all."

Suddenly, there was a bang at the door.

"Step back," said the captain as she pointed her gun at the floor.  She fired is and created a hole in the ground just big enough for a person to fit through.  The captain went first, followed by the doctor, then Jim.  I was the last.  I jumped through, but my sleeve on my jacket caught on a piece of wood sticking out from the hole.

"Jim, help!"  I screamed "I'm stuck!"  Jim ran over and began to pull me down.  One of the pirates that had broken in grabbed my arm and began to pull me back into the stateroom.  If it were a tug-of-war game, Jim would have lost.  I was almost completely back in the stateroom.  Without thinking, I pulled my boot off hit the pirate with it as hard as I could.  The pirate dropped me and I fell to the floor.  We ran to the longboats, trying to make an escape.  The captain and Dr. Doppler were already inside one.  I jumped in, followed by Jim.  Morph suddenly took the map and raced away.

"Morph, no!" Jim yelled as he went after him, running into Silver.

"Come 'ere Morphie!" Silver called out.

"Come on, Morph!  Come here!" Jim begged.  Morph was confused and upset so he dropped down into a pile of ropes.  Silver's hurt leg kept him from moving very far, so he reached over to it.  Before he could grab the map, Jim beat him to it.  Jim then ran off, back to the longboat as Silver pointed a gun at him.  But he couldn't bring himself to it, and let Jim run off with the map.

Jim dove for the boat just as we pulled out.  He barely made it and was hanging off the edge.  I pulled him up, just in time.  The ship fired its laser cannon at us, hitting the engine of our longboat.  It exploded, forcing us to head straight toward the planet.  We swerved and turned, trying to keep from crashing, but there was nothing we could do.  We hit the ground with a loud thud and dragged along against the grass before coming to a complete stop.  Jim and the doctor crawled out; the captain and I were still trapped inside.  Jim then pushed the boat over to its side.  We came out, and from what it looked like, we were both okay.

"One of my more gossamer landings," said Captain Amelia "ahh!" she exclaimed, suddenly clutching her side.  The doctor ran to her side, but she rejected the help.

"Oh, tish-tosh.  It's just light bruising, that's all.  No need to fuss, just a cup of tea and I'll be right as rain," she assured, turning to Dr. Doppler "Mr. Hawkins" she stopped, squinted, and then turned to Jim "the map, if you will."

Jim reached into his pocket and pulled it out.  The map floated above his hands as its pieces slowly came apart.  Thinking it was going to do something, we all stared in amazement.  Then, the map turned out to be Morph.  He started to laugh and giggle, thinking he was very clever to have pulled off such a trick.

"Morph!!" Jim hollered "where's the map!!"  Morph transformed into the map and a small pile of ropes.  The map part of him floated into the pile of ropes.

"What?!?  It's still on the ship?!?" Jim continued to yell.  Another lifeboat passed by, above our heads.

"Mr. Hawkins," began the captain, handing Jim a gun "you and Miss Flint will scout ahead for a better cover."  Jim looked down at the gun for a second.  I bet he had never had used a gun before.

"Aye Captain," he amswered.

We headed on through the jungle-like forest.  Walking and searching for something to take shelter in.

"So," Jim began "your last name's Flint."  I didn't answer, what would I say anyway?  "It makes sense why you didn't want to tell me your last name in the begging."  There was a moment of silence, and then Jim began to talk again.

"Is that why your parents died?" he asked.

"How did you know?!" I demanded.

"You talk in your sleep, you know.  I heard you in the middle of the night a lot.  And you were always really quiet, not wanting to talk to anyone or make a friend," he explained.  He must have lost someone special to him, too. 

"You seem to know a lot about this," I commented.

"My dad left when I was young.  But I'm doing just fine," he told me.  I said that before myself.  I told everyone that I was "doing just fine", but I never meant it.

"It hurts, doesn't it?  Feeling that you have no purpose in life," I commented.  No one said anything for a while; we were both deep in thought.

"So, is that one of the things you lost in life?" Jim asked thoughtfully.  I took a deep breath.  Thinking about this brought back painful memories and it almost made me cry.

"Yeah," I answered.  It's like Jim knew exactly what I was talking about.  He was the first person who I had ever talked to that had gone through the same thing I had, kind of.

"I could never trust anyone, after my parents died, I mean," I said.  I didn't want to ever tell anyone this, but I had kept this inside me so long, I had to let it out sometime.

"And I felt like I had nothing left.  There wasn't anyone who cared about, or would think twice about me.  I felt," I paused, hating myself for sounding so dumb "alone."  I stopped walking, staring at the ground.  I was crying now, but I didn't want Jim to know so I hid my face.  I was usually able to hide my emotions really well, but I couldn't help it this time.  Jim walked up to me.

"Chris, are you okay?" he asked in a very caring way.  I didn't answer and continued to hide my face in my hands.  Jim probably knew how upset I was, and how good it felt to let these emotions out of me.  He gently wrapped his arms around my body.  I began to sob even harder, and it seemed like that the more I cried; the tighter Jim held me.

"It's okay," Jim whispered quietly "you're not alone anymore."  I felt peaceful, for the few moments I was in Jim's arms.  He was so kind and gentle, no matter how corny I sounded, or how weak I must have seemed.  Right then I realized what I felt when I was with Jim.  I didn't want to admit because I thought Jim wouldn't think of me the same way, but I knew very well what it was.  It was something I had never felt before, as I mentioned, and never thought I would in my life.  Jim eventually let go, long after I had stopped crying.  We were both silent, neither of us expecting what had happened.  I took another deep breath, and smiled at him weakly in a way of saying "thanks".  He smiled back, and I knew that everything would be okay. 

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble, but then it stopped.  I looked around, trying to figure out what the heck just happened.  I looked up at Jim, who shrugged and glanced behind him then turned back.  We were about to move on when it shook again.  This time I could tell that it came from the ground.  It shook one last time, then fell, bringing Jim and I with it.  We both screamed as we toppled to the ground.  It was a pretty hard fall, so it took a couple seconds before I pulled myself up. 

"What happened?" I said as I rubbed the back of my head.  Jim sighed and stood up, but tripped on a vine.  We were on a very steep hill, and apparently, it was slippery too.  I grabbed his hand, but I ended up sliding down the hill with him.  It was like we were two kids sliding down a plastic slide at an amusement park, but we didn't find it amusing at all.  We went faster and faster, until eventually, the slide stopped, shooting us up into the air and back down with a very painful landing.  I forced myself up, barely able to move.

"Is it over this time?" I complained.  Jim staggered to his feet.

"I hope we don't get anymore surprises like that," he groaned.  Suddenly, the bush beside me moved.

"What was that?" asked Jim.  I looked closer at a pile of bushes that was next to me.  Unexpectedly, something jumped out and hugged me.

"Oh, this is fantastic!  Carbon-based life forms here to rescue me at last!" it announced "I just wanna hug you and squeeze you and hold you close to me!"

"Will you let go of me?!"  I demanded, prying his arms off me.

"Oh, oh I'm sorry, I'm sorry.  It's just that I've been marooned on this planet for so long.  I mean, the solitudes fine, don't get me wrong, but for heaven sakes, after a hundred years, you go a little nuts!!" it screamed.  Jim and I stared for a moment at the crazy robot.

"Oh, I'm sorry.  Let me introduce myself.  I'm, no wait, I'm, uh, my name is……" it stopped, scratching its head and straining to remember its name.  I turned to Jim with an irritated look.

"I hate this planet!!!" I thought.  Morph transformed into a small robot with the cuckoo bird from a clock coming out of its head.  I smiled, giggling at the cute little creature.

"B.E.N.!  Of course, I'm B.E.N.!  Bio-electronic navigator!" he spelled out "and you are."  He looked at me funny, as if he was trying to figure out who I was, but I had never met him in my life.

"Chris, and this is Jim," I answered.

"Pleased to meet ya, Chrissy and Jimmy," it said, shaking both of our hands really hard.

"Look, we're kinda in a hurry.  We have to find a place to hide and there's pirates chasing us," Jim began.

Pirates?!?  Don't get me started on pirates!!  I don't like them," B.E.N. interrupted and then turned to me "speaking of which, you look strangely familiar.  You aren't by any chance related to Flint, are you?  I remember him, but this guy had such a temper."

"Wait, you knew my great-grandfather?"  I asked, shocked that this android new Captain Flint.

"I think he suffered form mood swings, personally, I'm not a therapist.  But I- you let me know when I'm rambling," B.E.N. rambled on.

"But wait, that means, but then you must know about his treasure!" I shouted.

"Treasure?" said B.E.N.

"You know, Flint's trove, the loot of a thousand worlds?" I encouraged.

"I, I re-remember.  Treasure.  Lots of treasure, all buried in the cen-centroid, centroid of the mechanism.  I remember a big door opening and closing and opening and closing.  And Flint wanted to make sure that no one could steal his treasure so I helped him" he faded off, sputtering, then started up again "data inaccessible!" he screamed.  B.E.N. began yelling "reboot" over and over again.  Finally, Jim slapped him and he stopped.  I guessed he was short-circuiting or something.  He froze for a moment, and then woke up again.

 "You know, you look strangely familiar.  Are you related to Captain Flint by any chance?" he turned to Jim "and you are?"

"What was that you said earlier about the treasure?  Something about the centroid of the mechanism, or" he stuttered, trying to restate B.E.N.'s words.

"I'm sorry; my mind's not what it used to be.  I've lost my mind, I've lost my mind!!  You haven't found it, have you?  My missing piece?  My primary memory circuit?" B.E.N. asked as he pointed to a few loose wires on the back of his head.

"Look, B.E.N., we really need to find a place to hide, okay?  So we're just gonna be, you know, moving on," Jim told him as he began to walk away.  B.E.N.'s face dropped down as if he was upset.

"So, uh, oh, well then, I guess this is good-bye?  I'm sorry I'm so dysfunctional.  I do understand, I do.  Bye-bye," said B.E.N. softly as he fell to the ground.  Jim looked at Morph, who whined, then turned to me.  I looked at him and smiled in a way of saying, "let him come along."  I almost felt bad for him actually.  Jim sighed.

"Look, if you're gonna come along, you'll have to stop talking," Jim gave in.

"Hazzah!" yelled B.E.N. in joy "this is fantastic!  Me and my best buddies out looking for a," he stopped for a moment, and then whispered "being quiet."

"Now, I think we should head this way," Jim began, pointing back the way we came, but then turned back realizing that we'd have to climb up a slide.

"Hey, listen, before we go out on our big search, would you mind if we made a quick pit-stop at my place?" asked B.E.N., pulling aside some plants.  Behind them was stone building on top of a hill.

"B.E.N., I think you just solved our problem," I commented.

We came back a while later with Dr. Doppler and the captain.

"Sorry for the mess people.  You'd think that in a hundred years, I would have dusted a little more," B.E.N. admitted "but when you're batchin' it you tend to let things go."  Doppler walked in carrying Captain Amelia.

The doctor laid Captain Amelia on the ground and looked around at the inside of the building.  He looked astonished to see all the strange markings all over the place.  I, thought you're not going to believe this, could read what it said.  I began to move my lips as I read all that was sculptured onto the metal walls.  Jim noticed what I was doing.

"Hold on," he began "you can read this?!"  I nodded sheepishly.  I didn't like to brag.

"What does it say?!" demanded Doppler, suddenly interested in what Jim and I were talked about.  I looked harder at the walls, making sure I had read it right.

"Follow the beam of light, for it will lead you to the centroid of the mechanism," I read.  It was a lot like what B.E.N. had said, only more defined.

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Jim, just as confused as I was.  I shook my head in reply and continued to read.

"It says that those who enter the centroid will perish and never see light again," I summarized "sounds pretty brutal."

Then, B.E.N., who wasn't paying any attention whatsoever, began to shout in the door, calling down to the pirates that had found us.  They began to fire at us, so Jim shot back.  When they stopped, Silver yelled up to us.

"Hello up there!  Jimbo?" he called, holding up a white flag "if it's okay with the captain, I'd like a short with ya.  No tricks, just a little palaver."

"Come to bargain for the map, don't listen," Captain Amelia choked out.

"Wait, that means, he thinks we still have it," said Jim hopefully.

Jim walked down, and they were so far away that I couldn't make out any of their words.  But after a couple minutes, I heard Silver start to scream.

"If I don't have that map by dawn tomorrow, or so help me, I'll use the ships cannons to blast ye' all to kingdom come!" he yelled.  The talk must not have gone so well.  Jim walked back up, as I sat in the back, trying to find a way to gat that map.  I wasn't paying much attention to what everyone was saying.  I leaned back onto something that stuck out of the ground and it moved. 

"What the," I thought as I looked closer at it.  I felt air coming from the bottom, so I pushed it over to find a hole on it.  It must have caught everyone's attention because they stopped talking.  Jim walked over, followed by B.E.N.

"What is it?" I asked as I gazed down into it.

"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that run through the course of the whole planet?  Not a clue," answered B.E.N. 

"This is our way out!" I shouted.

"Wait, the captain ordered us to stay together," recalled the doctor.

"I'll be back," was all that Jim said as we jumped down into the hole.