Yeeeah, I'm not forgetting the copyrights this time! Hah! I own none of the characters. If
it's in this fic it was inspired or created by Disney. I's not makin' monies from it.
Another note: In the movie they call it the Interstellar Academy. In 'Jim's Journal' they
call it the Astro Academy or the RGAA. So. . . I have no idea which you prefer, but I'm going
with the movie in the fic, just because I assume most of the people reading this have seen the
movie, rather than simply read 'Jim's Journal'. And if you've read 'Jim's Journal' but haven't
seen the movie: A) That's kinda weird, and B) . . . okay, I've got no B.
*****
Delbert Doppler paced nervously at the docks, waiting for the Legacy to put into port. He
had said his good-byes to Sarah, B.E.N., Morph, and his children several hours ago and had then
caught the next ferry to Crescentia. He was anxious to get going and not enjoying the wait. He
thought to himself as he paced.
'Did I pack my- yes, okay, I did. I wonder if I forgot- no, got that. . . good God, Delbert,
you're as bad with thoughts as you are with words.' He continued his quick circles, when all of a
sudden he heard a whistle from above him. He looked up and grinned brightly.
"HEEEEEY, DOC!" shouted Jim from the Legacy as it swooped grandly overhead. He
and Aaron waved down at Doppler, then the Legacy was past. It make a smart turn and pulled
gently into its dock.
The crew laid the astral anchor that kept the solar galleon from sliding out of port, and
had the gangplank put in place. Doppler quickly made his way up it, eager to see Aaron, Jim, and
Amelia. Mostly Amelia. Alright, so he didn't care if he saw Jim and Aaron right away. They
could wait.
As soon as he spotted his catlike wife, he made his way to her, swerving and dodging
various crew members at work. He came upon her and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting
her up off of the deck and swinging her around. "Oh, my dear, I *missed* you, it's so good to
*see* you, I could hardly-"
Suddenly Amelia was no longer in his arms. He blinked for a moment at the empty space
he seemed to be embracing, and then looked up to see the captain chuckling at him. "Save that
for later," she said with a smirk. Doppler blinked again, then a look of realization came upon his
face, and smiled nervously.
"Intercourse. . inter. . . OF course, Captain!" He stood up straight suddenly. "You must remain
in your position as authority on the ship! I understand completely!" He nodded and watched the
crew finish with the sails. He realized, after a moment, that he didn't see Jim or Aaron. "Amel-"
He caught himself. "Captain, where'd the boys get off to?"
"Off helping someone or other, I assume," replied Amelia curtly, smiling at Doppler's
attempt to remain all-business after her little insinuation. "Perhaps in the galley helping the cook
or the sick bay rechecking the longboats. They may even be roaming about Crescentia, stretching
their legs a bit. They have my permission to do so, of course."
"That's giving them an awful lot of freedom, wouldn't you say?" asked Doppler, a bit
surprised.
"Oh, I think they can handle themselves. They know that we're leaving port at eleven-
hundred hours, sharp. That gives them approximately. . ." She pulled out a pocket watch and
glanced at it. "Half an hour."
***
"When are we leaving port, again, Jim?"
"I dunno."
***
Jim and Aaron arrived forty-five minutes later, soon enough to see the very angry Amelia
impatiently pacing the deck and Doppler watching nervously. As Jim and Aaron ran up the
gangplank, they were laughing and joking with one another, obviously having enjoyed their brief
time on Crescentia. Then they noticed Amelia's face.
They stopped laughing.
"Uh, h-hey, Captain!. . ." Jim said nervously.
"That's 'Captain, ma'am' to you, neophyte!" snapped Amelia. "Late arrival is intolerable
on this ship! I won't have you two-"
"Uh, Amelia, dear-" Doppler interrupted meekly. Amelia whirled around and glared at
him venomously. He took an involuntary step backwards. "Alright! Er, never mind! Finish what
you were saying!"
Amelia quickly turned around, a dark look on her face. Jim and Aaron instantly and
instinctively stood at attention. Amelia began her tirade. "I would have expected better from two
cadets in the academy!" She began pacing again as she talked to them. "The doctor and I have
put our good names at stake for you, Mr. Hawkins, to rescue some common *criminal*! One, I
might add, that carried out a mutiny on myself and this very ship, and then threatened all of us
with murder! You should consider yourself lucky that I am even *considering* taking on this
ridiculous assignment from a boy no older than seventeen!" She stopped pacing and stared at the
two boys, who were both doing their best not to bolt instantly. "Is. That. *Clear*?"
They both nodded, and Jim managed to get out, "Aye, Captain!"
Amelia narrowed her eyes at him.
"Captain, ma'am!"
She nodded. "That's more like it. Now! My stateroom, immediately!" She glanced at
Doppler and nodded. "You too, Doctor!"
"Aye, AmmmmMa'am!" Doppler nodded and followed quickly behind her, with Jim and
Aaron tailing him.
As soon as they were all paying close attention to Amelia, she began to speak. "Alright,
gentlemen. . ." she passed her eyes around the room, stopping at each of them. "This is going to
be tricky. Which is, perhaps, why I'm doing this. I'm a bit tired of the everyday tedium of
escorting merchant ships through some abandoned area of space that a *supposed* pirate was
sighted in more than a decade ago."
All three nodded. Amelia nodded back. "So long as we understand each other. Know that
I am perfectly willing to put an end to this voyage. . . this *madness*. . . at any moment." Jim
and Aaron nodded. Doppler simply watched the exchange as they waited for Amelia to speak
again.
"And now. . . we must discuss exactly *how* we are going to go about this. . . lunacy."
She stared at Jim. "I trust, Mr. Hawkins, that you will have some suggestions for us?"
"Yeah, we uh. . . we talked about it some." Jim nodded and shrugged.
"Alright. As you all know, we'll be reaching the Madrigal Nebula where we shall change
ships in approximately one week. From there, we shall head straight to the prison, and attempt to
assist the criminal in an escape, of sorts. What concerns me, though, is the steps involved in
doing just that. We can get into the prison easily enough, and even get to the cell in which Silver
is being kept. . . but getting him out will be the difficult obstacle."
"Well, we figured you and the doc would distract the guards. . ." said Jim, glancing at
Aaron for support. Aaron nodded as Jim continued. "And I could get the lock code while you
were both doing that. . ."
Amelia frowned. "The electronic surveillance and alarms?"
Here Aaron jumped in. "We figured I could do that. Y'know, bug the system, or wipe it
out altogether." He shrugged. "Might as well put some of that technical training to good use."
"I would hardly call this, 'good use,' Mr. Doppler."
Aaron looked embarrassedly down at the floor. "Oh. . . yeah. . . I guess not. . . but, uh-"
Amelia cut him off with a sharp sigh. "Never mind that. We *will* need you, if we want
to avoid being locked into that wretched place ourselves." She rubbed the bridge of her nose as
though a headache of massive proportions was coming on. "This is certainly going to be
*interesting*. . ."
***
Two days into the voyage, the Legacy hit an asteroid belt that had been unexpectedly
thrown into the line of their voyage as the result of a red giant changing into a sun nearby,
drastically shifting the gravitational pull on said asteroid belt. Jim and Aaron were put to the test
that day.
"FORGET THE ACADEMY!!!" yelled Jim as he worked feverishly to keep the energy
flowing properly into the plasma cannons. He was quickly getting covered in plasma discharge
and grease. "A FEW MORE VOYAGES LIKE THIS AND WE'LL KNOW EVERYTHING WE
NEED!!!" The roar of exploding asteroids and the raining showers of gravel from them caused
almost enough noise to drown him out.
"GOT THAT RIGHT!!!" replied Aaron distractedly. He was doing his best to hold onto
the rigging and sort out the ropes that the crew needed to tie off the solar sails. He handed three
up to a rigger quickly and then started making his way down to the deck. He ran over to Jim.
"Need a hand?"
"Nah, I got- OW!!!" A spark flew down and landed on Jim's arm.
"Alright?"
"Yeah. . ." Jim clenched his teeth and quickly swabbed away the grease from the
swiveling cannon head. "Just a little sting."
"Tell me about it. . ." Aaron held his hands palms-up at Jim, showing off his lovely new
set of rope burns. "Man, those things slide in your hands, say, 'Bye-bye, skin'!"
Suddenly the Legacy lurched with the impact of a small chunk of asteroid that the gunner,
a three-headed Calyan, had missed. Two of the heads swivelled to look back at the crew and the
gunner shouted out of the left, "Sorry about that!" The right one added, "I'll be more careful!"
Both heads turned back to the asteroids and the gunner started firing with new spirits, catching
most of the asteroids easily. Aaron and Jim turned as they heard Amelia shouting orders from the
bridge, Doppler, reading off reports from the radar, behind her.
"MR. MERRISS!!!" called Amelia. The mate paused in his work on the sails and looked
at her.
"CAPTAIN?"
"BE A DEAR AND *GET US OUT OF THIS BLOODY HELLHOLE*!!!"
"AYE, CAPTAIN!" Merriss quickly dropped the rope and made his way to the thrusters.
The gravitational engineer was assigned to them, but he was currently doing everything in his
power to keep the Legacy's crew from floating of into the etherium. He quickly readjusted the
power intake to come from the farthest-aft sails that were left open for emergency power, and
kicked the thrusters into gear. They sparked smartly and the Legacy pulled through the etherium,
suddenly moving faster than any of the crew could have anticipated. Many were thrown off of
their feet, and a good few were quite happy that they had their lifelines on tightly.
Jim and Aaron ran quickly to begin pulling the few that had fallen overboard up. Several
crew members helped, and as soon as all of the crew was back on the deck, they looked around,
all a bit surprised that the lurching had stopped. The burst of speed from the thrusters had pulled
them away from the worst of the asteroids, and the helmsman could easily guide the galleon
around the few that remained.
"Good work, boysss!" Mr. Merriss' slithery voice came from behind them. They turned
around. "Where would we be without you?" He smiled at them. It was a creepy smile, true, but it
was sincere. Jim and Aaron glanced at each other and grinned.
"Thanks, sir!"
"Uh- well. . . yeah! What he said!"
Merriss smiled. "Keep up these exemplary disssplays, and I'm sure you'll do sssplendidly
at the academy." He then scuttled over to Amelia and Doppler at the bridge. Jim and Aaron
simply watched as Amelia gave what seemed to be a good deal of praise to Merriss.
***
"Commendable work, my man!" Amelia gave a small salute to Merriss, who simply
nodded.
"And the sssame to ye, Captain!"
Doppler smiled. "As usual."
Amelia smirked. "Oh, you be quiet, you mangy mutt."
Doppler muttered to himself. "Eh, uppity-"
Amelia whirled around. "What was that?!"
"Er, uppit. . . up . . . reputable work, dear!"
"That's what I thought. . ." she smirked again. "Good God, Delbert, stand up for
yourself."
"That's not what you were saying when we-"
"ALRIGHT! I believe that we have some repairs that need to be attended to!" Amelia cut
in quickly. "Let's get the crew rolling! Boys!"
Jim and Aaron came closer. Both were doing their best not to laugh at what Doppler had
been saying. Amelia noted this and frowned, but continued. "Mr. Hawkins! Mr. Doppler!" They
both stopped laughing and stood at attention. "You two will want to get started. . ." They looked
at her, confused. "Two acquaintances of yours, I believe, Mr. Hawkins."
Jim's mouth dropped open. "No. . . c'mon. . . Captain. . ."
***
"Mr. Mop-" Jim thumped the mop onto the deck. "-and Mrs. Bucket." He dropped the
bucket. It clunked hollowly on the wooden deck.
Aaron looked down at the bucket, then moved his eyes up to look at Jim skeptically.
"You can't be serious."
"I am serious like Amelia on a bad day. I am serious like Doc talking about astrophysics.
I am serious like-"
"Okay, okay, you're serious! Fine!" He grabbed the mop and leaned down to pick up the
bucket. "So. . . you want first or second shift?"
"Whatever."
"Fine. You go first."
"Your call," Jim shrugged as he took the mop and bucket. He filled the bucket with water
from the basin next to the storage cabin. Aaron headed off to their bunk for a quick rest, and Jim
began the practiced motions from almost two years ago. After an hour or so, Jim was suddenly
very lonely. Silver would not be coming up to talk to him this afternoon or tonight. He wished
that he could look down and see Morph, a tiny miniature mop squeaking and sliding around the
deck.
He looked up to his right and muttered. "Kinda brings back old memories, huh, Morph?"
Morph burbled back happily.
"Yeah, too bad you're back at home with-" Jim suddenly stopped mopping. Slowly. . .
slowly. . . he looked up again. "Morph?"
Morph suddenly broke into small pieces of protoplasm, then quickly reformed into a
miniature Jim holding a mop. "Back at home! Back at home!"
Jim rubbed his eyes with one hand, certain that he was just tired from the storm. . . he just
needed rest, that was all. . . but. . . Morph wasn't fading. "No way!"
"No way! No way! No waywayway!!!"
Jim laughed out loud. "Oh, man! But. . . how could you have. . ."
Morph suddenly rearranged himself to look like a very tiny Dr. Doppler. "Sarah, this is
about Jim about Jim about Jim!"
"Ohhh. . . hitched a ride with Doc, huh?"
Morph suddenly shifted into Silver. "Nuttin' but me heart!" He shook and was suddenly
his gelatinous, pink self again.
Jim laughed again. "So. . . I guess this is gonna be a bit of a reunion for you, huh?"
Morph simply flipped once over in the air, and was suddenly a small mop. "Reunion!"
*****
Quoth B.E.N.: "Awww, i'n't that sweet?!"
Sorry this took so long to get out. It was finals week at school, and of course. . . studying
sucks. That's all I'll say. *twitch*
it's in this fic it was inspired or created by Disney. I's not makin' monies from it.
Another note: In the movie they call it the Interstellar Academy. In 'Jim's Journal' they
call it the Astro Academy or the RGAA. So. . . I have no idea which you prefer, but I'm going
with the movie in the fic, just because I assume most of the people reading this have seen the
movie, rather than simply read 'Jim's Journal'. And if you've read 'Jim's Journal' but haven't
seen the movie: A) That's kinda weird, and B) . . . okay, I've got no B.
*****
Delbert Doppler paced nervously at the docks, waiting for the Legacy to put into port. He
had said his good-byes to Sarah, B.E.N., Morph, and his children several hours ago and had then
caught the next ferry to Crescentia. He was anxious to get going and not enjoying the wait. He
thought to himself as he paced.
'Did I pack my- yes, okay, I did. I wonder if I forgot- no, got that. . . good God, Delbert,
you're as bad with thoughts as you are with words.' He continued his quick circles, when all of a
sudden he heard a whistle from above him. He looked up and grinned brightly.
"HEEEEEY, DOC!" shouted Jim from the Legacy as it swooped grandly overhead. He
and Aaron waved down at Doppler, then the Legacy was past. It make a smart turn and pulled
gently into its dock.
The crew laid the astral anchor that kept the solar galleon from sliding out of port, and
had the gangplank put in place. Doppler quickly made his way up it, eager to see Aaron, Jim, and
Amelia. Mostly Amelia. Alright, so he didn't care if he saw Jim and Aaron right away. They
could wait.
As soon as he spotted his catlike wife, he made his way to her, swerving and dodging
various crew members at work. He came upon her and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting
her up off of the deck and swinging her around. "Oh, my dear, I *missed* you, it's so good to
*see* you, I could hardly-"
Suddenly Amelia was no longer in his arms. He blinked for a moment at the empty space
he seemed to be embracing, and then looked up to see the captain chuckling at him. "Save that
for later," she said with a smirk. Doppler blinked again, then a look of realization came upon his
face, and smiled nervously.
"Intercourse. . inter. . . OF course, Captain!" He stood up straight suddenly. "You must remain
in your position as authority on the ship! I understand completely!" He nodded and watched the
crew finish with the sails. He realized, after a moment, that he didn't see Jim or Aaron. "Amel-"
He caught himself. "Captain, where'd the boys get off to?"
"Off helping someone or other, I assume," replied Amelia curtly, smiling at Doppler's
attempt to remain all-business after her little insinuation. "Perhaps in the galley helping the cook
or the sick bay rechecking the longboats. They may even be roaming about Crescentia, stretching
their legs a bit. They have my permission to do so, of course."
"That's giving them an awful lot of freedom, wouldn't you say?" asked Doppler, a bit
surprised.
"Oh, I think they can handle themselves. They know that we're leaving port at eleven-
hundred hours, sharp. That gives them approximately. . ." She pulled out a pocket watch and
glanced at it. "Half an hour."
***
"When are we leaving port, again, Jim?"
"I dunno."
***
Jim and Aaron arrived forty-five minutes later, soon enough to see the very angry Amelia
impatiently pacing the deck and Doppler watching nervously. As Jim and Aaron ran up the
gangplank, they were laughing and joking with one another, obviously having enjoyed their brief
time on Crescentia. Then they noticed Amelia's face.
They stopped laughing.
"Uh, h-hey, Captain!. . ." Jim said nervously.
"That's 'Captain, ma'am' to you, neophyte!" snapped Amelia. "Late arrival is intolerable
on this ship! I won't have you two-"
"Uh, Amelia, dear-" Doppler interrupted meekly. Amelia whirled around and glared at
him venomously. He took an involuntary step backwards. "Alright! Er, never mind! Finish what
you were saying!"
Amelia quickly turned around, a dark look on her face. Jim and Aaron instantly and
instinctively stood at attention. Amelia began her tirade. "I would have expected better from two
cadets in the academy!" She began pacing again as she talked to them. "The doctor and I have
put our good names at stake for you, Mr. Hawkins, to rescue some common *criminal*! One, I
might add, that carried out a mutiny on myself and this very ship, and then threatened all of us
with murder! You should consider yourself lucky that I am even *considering* taking on this
ridiculous assignment from a boy no older than seventeen!" She stopped pacing and stared at the
two boys, who were both doing their best not to bolt instantly. "Is. That. *Clear*?"
They both nodded, and Jim managed to get out, "Aye, Captain!"
Amelia narrowed her eyes at him.
"Captain, ma'am!"
She nodded. "That's more like it. Now! My stateroom, immediately!" She glanced at
Doppler and nodded. "You too, Doctor!"
"Aye, AmmmmMa'am!" Doppler nodded and followed quickly behind her, with Jim and
Aaron tailing him.
As soon as they were all paying close attention to Amelia, she began to speak. "Alright,
gentlemen. . ." she passed her eyes around the room, stopping at each of them. "This is going to
be tricky. Which is, perhaps, why I'm doing this. I'm a bit tired of the everyday tedium of
escorting merchant ships through some abandoned area of space that a *supposed* pirate was
sighted in more than a decade ago."
All three nodded. Amelia nodded back. "So long as we understand each other. Know that
I am perfectly willing to put an end to this voyage. . . this *madness*. . . at any moment." Jim
and Aaron nodded. Doppler simply watched the exchange as they waited for Amelia to speak
again.
"And now. . . we must discuss exactly *how* we are going to go about this. . . lunacy."
She stared at Jim. "I trust, Mr. Hawkins, that you will have some suggestions for us?"
"Yeah, we uh. . . we talked about it some." Jim nodded and shrugged.
"Alright. As you all know, we'll be reaching the Madrigal Nebula where we shall change
ships in approximately one week. From there, we shall head straight to the prison, and attempt to
assist the criminal in an escape, of sorts. What concerns me, though, is the steps involved in
doing just that. We can get into the prison easily enough, and even get to the cell in which Silver
is being kept. . . but getting him out will be the difficult obstacle."
"Well, we figured you and the doc would distract the guards. . ." said Jim, glancing at
Aaron for support. Aaron nodded as Jim continued. "And I could get the lock code while you
were both doing that. . ."
Amelia frowned. "The electronic surveillance and alarms?"
Here Aaron jumped in. "We figured I could do that. Y'know, bug the system, or wipe it
out altogether." He shrugged. "Might as well put some of that technical training to good use."
"I would hardly call this, 'good use,' Mr. Doppler."
Aaron looked embarrassedly down at the floor. "Oh. . . yeah. . . I guess not. . . but, uh-"
Amelia cut him off with a sharp sigh. "Never mind that. We *will* need you, if we want
to avoid being locked into that wretched place ourselves." She rubbed the bridge of her nose as
though a headache of massive proportions was coming on. "This is certainly going to be
*interesting*. . ."
***
Two days into the voyage, the Legacy hit an asteroid belt that had been unexpectedly
thrown into the line of their voyage as the result of a red giant changing into a sun nearby,
drastically shifting the gravitational pull on said asteroid belt. Jim and Aaron were put to the test
that day.
"FORGET THE ACADEMY!!!" yelled Jim as he worked feverishly to keep the energy
flowing properly into the plasma cannons. He was quickly getting covered in plasma discharge
and grease. "A FEW MORE VOYAGES LIKE THIS AND WE'LL KNOW EVERYTHING WE
NEED!!!" The roar of exploding asteroids and the raining showers of gravel from them caused
almost enough noise to drown him out.
"GOT THAT RIGHT!!!" replied Aaron distractedly. He was doing his best to hold onto
the rigging and sort out the ropes that the crew needed to tie off the solar sails. He handed three
up to a rigger quickly and then started making his way down to the deck. He ran over to Jim.
"Need a hand?"
"Nah, I got- OW!!!" A spark flew down and landed on Jim's arm.
"Alright?"
"Yeah. . ." Jim clenched his teeth and quickly swabbed away the grease from the
swiveling cannon head. "Just a little sting."
"Tell me about it. . ." Aaron held his hands palms-up at Jim, showing off his lovely new
set of rope burns. "Man, those things slide in your hands, say, 'Bye-bye, skin'!"
Suddenly the Legacy lurched with the impact of a small chunk of asteroid that the gunner,
a three-headed Calyan, had missed. Two of the heads swivelled to look back at the crew and the
gunner shouted out of the left, "Sorry about that!" The right one added, "I'll be more careful!"
Both heads turned back to the asteroids and the gunner started firing with new spirits, catching
most of the asteroids easily. Aaron and Jim turned as they heard Amelia shouting orders from the
bridge, Doppler, reading off reports from the radar, behind her.
"MR. MERRISS!!!" called Amelia. The mate paused in his work on the sails and looked
at her.
"CAPTAIN?"
"BE A DEAR AND *GET US OUT OF THIS BLOODY HELLHOLE*!!!"
"AYE, CAPTAIN!" Merriss quickly dropped the rope and made his way to the thrusters.
The gravitational engineer was assigned to them, but he was currently doing everything in his
power to keep the Legacy's crew from floating of into the etherium. He quickly readjusted the
power intake to come from the farthest-aft sails that were left open for emergency power, and
kicked the thrusters into gear. They sparked smartly and the Legacy pulled through the etherium,
suddenly moving faster than any of the crew could have anticipated. Many were thrown off of
their feet, and a good few were quite happy that they had their lifelines on tightly.
Jim and Aaron ran quickly to begin pulling the few that had fallen overboard up. Several
crew members helped, and as soon as all of the crew was back on the deck, they looked around,
all a bit surprised that the lurching had stopped. The burst of speed from the thrusters had pulled
them away from the worst of the asteroids, and the helmsman could easily guide the galleon
around the few that remained.
"Good work, boysss!" Mr. Merriss' slithery voice came from behind them. They turned
around. "Where would we be without you?" He smiled at them. It was a creepy smile, true, but it
was sincere. Jim and Aaron glanced at each other and grinned.
"Thanks, sir!"
"Uh- well. . . yeah! What he said!"
Merriss smiled. "Keep up these exemplary disssplays, and I'm sure you'll do sssplendidly
at the academy." He then scuttled over to Amelia and Doppler at the bridge. Jim and Aaron
simply watched as Amelia gave what seemed to be a good deal of praise to Merriss.
***
"Commendable work, my man!" Amelia gave a small salute to Merriss, who simply
nodded.
"And the sssame to ye, Captain!"
Doppler smiled. "As usual."
Amelia smirked. "Oh, you be quiet, you mangy mutt."
Doppler muttered to himself. "Eh, uppity-"
Amelia whirled around. "What was that?!"
"Er, uppit. . . up . . . reputable work, dear!"
"That's what I thought. . ." she smirked again. "Good God, Delbert, stand up for
yourself."
"That's not what you were saying when we-"
"ALRIGHT! I believe that we have some repairs that need to be attended to!" Amelia cut
in quickly. "Let's get the crew rolling! Boys!"
Jim and Aaron came closer. Both were doing their best not to laugh at what Doppler had
been saying. Amelia noted this and frowned, but continued. "Mr. Hawkins! Mr. Doppler!" They
both stopped laughing and stood at attention. "You two will want to get started. . ." They looked
at her, confused. "Two acquaintances of yours, I believe, Mr. Hawkins."
Jim's mouth dropped open. "No. . . c'mon. . . Captain. . ."
***
"Mr. Mop-" Jim thumped the mop onto the deck. "-and Mrs. Bucket." He dropped the
bucket. It clunked hollowly on the wooden deck.
Aaron looked down at the bucket, then moved his eyes up to look at Jim skeptically.
"You can't be serious."
"I am serious like Amelia on a bad day. I am serious like Doc talking about astrophysics.
I am serious like-"
"Okay, okay, you're serious! Fine!" He grabbed the mop and leaned down to pick up the
bucket. "So. . . you want first or second shift?"
"Whatever."
"Fine. You go first."
"Your call," Jim shrugged as he took the mop and bucket. He filled the bucket with water
from the basin next to the storage cabin. Aaron headed off to their bunk for a quick rest, and Jim
began the practiced motions from almost two years ago. After an hour or so, Jim was suddenly
very lonely. Silver would not be coming up to talk to him this afternoon or tonight. He wished
that he could look down and see Morph, a tiny miniature mop squeaking and sliding around the
deck.
He looked up to his right and muttered. "Kinda brings back old memories, huh, Morph?"
Morph burbled back happily.
"Yeah, too bad you're back at home with-" Jim suddenly stopped mopping. Slowly. . .
slowly. . . he looked up again. "Morph?"
Morph suddenly broke into small pieces of protoplasm, then quickly reformed into a
miniature Jim holding a mop. "Back at home! Back at home!"
Jim rubbed his eyes with one hand, certain that he was just tired from the storm. . . he just
needed rest, that was all. . . but. . . Morph wasn't fading. "No way!"
"No way! No way! No waywayway!!!"
Jim laughed out loud. "Oh, man! But. . . how could you have. . ."
Morph suddenly rearranged himself to look like a very tiny Dr. Doppler. "Sarah, this is
about Jim about Jim about Jim!"
"Ohhh. . . hitched a ride with Doc, huh?"
Morph suddenly shifted into Silver. "Nuttin' but me heart!" He shook and was suddenly
his gelatinous, pink self again.
Jim laughed again. "So. . . I guess this is gonna be a bit of a reunion for you, huh?"
Morph simply flipped once over in the air, and was suddenly a small mop. "Reunion!"
*****
Quoth B.E.N.: "Awww, i'n't that sweet?!"
Sorry this took so long to get out. It was finals week at school, and of course. . . studying
sucks. That's all I'll say. *twitch*