Hi. Not much to say, except I felt guilty for writing so late recently so you get an early update this week. Terse responses below:
Tallemera: Yup. Totally great. Wait until the Scroop scene later. That'll be fun too.
SB1007: the ice charge thing was something the directors cut out and mentioned in the commentary. The rest of the fic is gonna have a lot of fulfillments of stuff that didn't make it. Yay.
Fox Child: thanks. If you like suspense, see Secret Window. Suspense movie of the year.
Pippin: thanks for the review, the ice gun does come back later. And I'm confused as to what you mean by Skye mimicking what Jim does, could you explain that a little more? But I'm sure you'll like the Scroop thing later.
Mermaid Ninja: Lol, thanks for the suggestions. I'm definitely not having them get married (they're 15!) but I am gonna have something cute/romantic happen during that whole gravity thing. But thanks anyway!
Dreaming: haha, thanks. And this is of course the best chapter. Until the next one, anyway. Lol
Angel: you'll like this chapter.
I forget who was concerned about how funny BEN was going to be. Well, he's still funny, plus some. Just a quick note- this chapter is rated, like, PG-12. Just b/c there's some…suggestive dialogue, whether it's implying a stronger word or just…something else. You'll see. Enjoy.
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Spongy mosses sunk under Jim and Skye's feet as they made their way towards the forest on the quest for a shelter. Perhaps forest wasn't exactly the best word- the planet's surface seemed more like a huge moldy piece of bread that nobody wanted to throw it out for fear they'd have to touch it. Still, they didn't know of a word for a cluster of fungi the size of trees, so "forest" was the most accurate description to use.
And what a forest it was. Huge mushroom like caps towered above them, and Skye tripped more than once while craning her neck to see the tops. Beneath their feet sprung lichens and mosses, with colors ranging from the palest sea-green froth to the richest, smoothest emerald velvet. The sound of whistling wind and melancholy birds echoed around them, giving the planet a distinctly deserted atmosphere.
The two teens slid down the slippery, mossy bark of a warped-over tree, landing softly on the lower ground beneath them, a cushioned sunken valley of spore pods and green pitcher plants.
Jim and Skye picked a path through this lush grove, Morph chattering absentmindedly. Skye began to walk along a raised ridge of firm branches, balancing herself with arms spread out, when she heard a faint noise from behind that made her pause.
A louder noise caused Jim to turn quickly, and Morph let out a tiny gasp as they caught sight of something rustling back into the underbrush behind them.
"Shh," Jim warned Morph, as he charged up his pistol, approaching the bush in question with caution. He leaned over a pitcher plant, saw the rosy hint in the belly of the depression, smelled the sweet, rain-washed nectar pooled inside-
When a robot screamed in his face.
"AHHH!" it yelled, spazzing out.
"AHHH!" Jim yelled, falling backwards with the robot on his chest.
"AHHH!" Skye yelled, slipping and falling off her perch on the branches in surprise.
"Oh, this is fantastic!" the weathered robot cried, prodding Jim as if inspecting a specimen, "A carbon-based life form come to rescue me at last! I just wanna hug ya' and squeeze ya' and hold ya' close to me!" The copper robot pulled Jim to his feet with an enormous bear-hug, clinging to Jim in affection.
"Okay, okay, will ya- will you just let go of me?!" Jim exclaimed in frustration. Skye, who had regained her footing and was now sitting on a log, laughed in spite of herself at Jim's predicament- an ancient piece of machinery clinging to his middle.
"Oh, I'm so- I'm so sorry," it stumbled, as Jim brushed himself off. "It's- it's just that I've been marooned for so long, I mean, solitude's fun, don't get me wrong. You know, all that free space, the chess tournaments you never lose, and you can always leave the seat up, but I mean after a hundred years, YOU GO A LITTLE NUTS!" it babbled, laughing, and slinging an arm around Jim's shoulders.
Jim just stared. The robot apologized quickly.
"I'm sorry. I am, uh..." he paused, apparently "deep" in thought. "My name is...um..." he clutched his head.
Skye arched one eyebrow and muttered, "Don't strain yourself." Morph, at Jim's shoulder, formed a smaller version of the robot, and a cuckoo clock bird popped out of its head. Jim smirked, and forced the bird back into Morph's head, who swirled back.
"B.E.N.! Of course, I'm BEN!" the robot called out, proud it had remembered, "Bio-Electronic Navigator!" BEN gave the dial on his chest plate a spin, and the whole mechanism sagged outwards.
"Oops!" BEN said, pushing it back in, then turned to Skye, who was still sitting on the log. "Your name is, lovely lady?"
"Since I'm the only lady here, I'd have to assume you're talking to me, lovely or no."
"Since you're the only lady I've seen in about a hundred years," BEN replied without a single hint of offensiveness, "I'd have to say you're the most lovely I've seen in a long time. At least I think you're the only lady I've seen, although Bob was questionable..." he trailed off into confusion.
"That's reassuring, really," Skye replied, "and I'm sure later I'll regret telling you, but my name is Skye."
"Fantastic! And your escort?" BEN turned to Jim, who was bending to pick up his pistol where it had fallen.
"Jim," he said simply.
"Oh, what a pleasure to meet you, Jimmy," BEN said, grabbing Jim's hand and shaking it violently.
"It's Jim," he corrected, removing his hand and grabbing the gun, as BEN leaned on Jim's head.
"Are you sure? Because I like Jimmy better, I had a friend on Latraus named Jimmy, he was such a clever fellow, great with chopsticks-"
"-it's Jim, and we have to get going," Jim interrupted.
"I dunno, Jimmy, suddenly I'm liking the new nickname," Skye taunted, aware at how much this was bothering Jim and thoroughly enjoying it, even though she suffered too.
"Look, we're in a hurry," Jim retorted, grabbing Skye's wrist and pulling her to her feet, "we've gotta find a place to hide and there's pirates chasing us." Even before Jim finished his sentence, BEN was talking again.
"Pirates! Don't get me started on pirates! I don't like them!"
"Funny," Skye whispered as they started walking away, "neither do we."
But BEN's next comment made Jim and Skye stop in their tracks so suddenly they didn't collide.
"I remember Captain Flint! This guy had such a temper!"
"Wait, wait, wait," Jim asked, "you knew Captain Flint?"
"I think he suffered from mood swings, personally, although he might have had an Oedipus complex, he was mighty touchy about his mother. I asked him one day about her and he went all red like a beet, unless he was hyperventilating, I'm not a therapist, and anyway...but I- you let me know when I'm rambling!"
Skye slapped her forehead into her palm and shook her head.
"But then that means...you gotta know about the treasure?" Jim asked hopefully, "you know, Flint's trove, loot of a thousand worlds?"
"Yeah, who's wasting time now?" Skye interjected, but Jim shushed her.
BEN stood slowly, thinking.
"Wait...it's, it's all a li-li-little fuzzy...wait, I r-r-r-re-remember...I do, I- treasure! Loads of treasure! Buried in the centroid-centroid-centroid of the mechanism! And there was this big door opening and closing and opening and closing! And Captain Flint wanted to make sure nobody could ever get to his treasure so I helped him- aah!"
Sparks of electricity snapped from BEN's head, which spun around and short-circuited. "Aah! Data inaccessible! Reboot! Reboot! Reboo-"
Jim slapped him hard across the face. BEN blinked.
"And you are?"
"Wait, what about the treasure?" Jim asked, stressed.
"I want to say Larry."
"No! It's Jimmy and Skye, what about the treasure?" Skye leaned in, but it was too late. BEN was gone.
Jim tried a different approach. "You know, buried in the centroid of the machine or something..." He realized how stupid and meaningless it sounded, especially when he said it.
"I'm sorry, my memory just isn't what it used to be, I've lost my mind! Ha ha, I've lost my mind. You haven't found it, have you?" BEN grabbed Skye and pushed her face first against a tree, patting down her pockets for something.
"Hey!" Skye yelled, not thinking about what came out, "There's only one person here allowed to search me and it isn't you!" A split second later, she hated herself for those bold (and she prayed, misinterpreted) words.
BEN rambled on, ignoring both Skye's comment and Jim's startled response to it.
"Come on, my missing piece? My primary memory circuit?" He pointed to a spot in the back of his copper head where loose wires played about and a chunk was clearly missing.
"Look, BEN, we really need to find a place to hide, so we're just going to be, you know, moving on." Jim took Skye's arm (avoiding looking at her face, she noticed), and pulled her away from the tree. BEN, however, stayed where he was, gloomy.
"Oh, uh, so, well, then, I guess, uh...this is goodbye, huh? I'm sorry, that I'm so dysfunctional. So, uh, go ahead, and I...I do understand. I do. Bye-bye, lovely lady." He collapsed into a tiny folded form on the ground, completely playing on sympathy.
Skye spoke next to Jim, sarcastically but honestly.
"You see, we have on the one hand my warm, maternal instincts to help a sentient being and not deprive him of the company he apparently craves. And on the other, he really annoys the piss out of me. What to do." She turned to Morph, who gave a pitiful look that clearly said the former.
Jim sighed, knowing he would pay for this.
"Look, if you're gonna come along, you're gonna have to stop talking."
BEN stood up and spun in jubilation, crying, "Huzzah! Ha ha ha, this is fantastic!" BEN leapt into Jim's arms, shouting, "Me and my best buddies are looking for a..." Jim's glare silenced him. BEN "cleared" his throat, and said, "Being quiet."
"And you have to stop touching me!" Jim said, dropping BEN.
"Right, talking and touching, my two big no-no's."
"Good," Jim mustered his courage to then say, "because there's only one person here allowed to touch me and it isn't you." He didn't wait for a response, hoping to gloss it over. "Now I think we should start heading this way-"
"Say, listen," BEN interrupted, "before we head out on our 'big search,' um, would you mind if we made a quick pit stop at my place?" BEN parted a tall stalk of weeds to reveal, in the distance, what looked like a hollow ship covered in Spanish moss, with a large overview of the clearing and a secure hiding place.
BEN kept rambling about it being urgent and something about "leaking oil," but Jim just grinned and said, "BEN, I think you just solved our problem."
Jim turned to Skye and said, "Look, you go with BEN, make sure everything's okay, I'll head back and get the Doc and the Captain." Skye only nodded. She may have imagined the wink he gave her before he turned and ran off, but she went with BEN, almost numbly. She drowned out his chatter by turning the last few minutes over in her mind, and hoping her hearing was still as good as she had thought.
Jim, on the other hand, was running to drown out the roaring in his ears that came with the pounding in his chest. What he had just done took more risk than he had ever encountered, pirates included.
Thank God BEN never shuts up, he thought, or he might have been forced to explain his words.
And he certainly wasn't ready for that. He wasn't even sure he knew what they meant.