Chapter 21
The next few weeks Kitty stayed, as much as was possible, with Arrow. She took to ofttimes sitting inside within Amelia's cabin, drawing and singing softly to herself. Amelia thought this strange herself...that Kitty would act this way when it was plainly obvious that she had some rather important secret she wouldn't share with nary a soul. It was if she didn't want anyone else to know about this secret, or perhaps it was just that she was in a very somber, sad mood.
Much to Kitty's dismay, the day she most loathed on her journey toward Treasure Planet arrived. Kitty felt a lump in her throat that she was hard pressed to ignore, knowing what she did. Kitty bravely stayed with both Arrow and Amelia, telling the both of them about how she felt about the crew, when suddenly the whole ship lurched dangerously, heeling over from some unknown cause. Amelia and Arrow, both trained spacers, got immediately to their feet and dashed out on deck.
"What in blazes?" Amelia questioned crossly, seeing chaos and uncertainty on deck. That was when she heard the Doctor gasp, from his position on the bridge, "Good heavens! The star Pellucid...it´s gone supernova!"
Amelia shot Kitty a quick glance of concern, before dashing off, bellowing at the top of her lungs to the helmsman, Turnbuckle, "Bring us about, man! Quickly!" The pale-faced spacer reefed the wheel sharply away from the light pulse and roaring debris field headed toward the ship..
Arrow, a paramount spacer, turned and ran to do his job; to help his Captain save the ship. He dashed past Kitty, tipping his hat hurriedly at her as he whisked past. Kitty who could only sadly watch him... sniffing, a small tear rolling down her smooth cheek.
She heard Arrow bellow to all hands, "Fasten your lifelines!" She quickly fastened the stout rope of her lifeline, then headed up towards her post on the bridge.
Amelia watched in horror as bits of solar debris began to blast holes through their solar sails. Her green eyes large with concern, she boomed to Arrow, "Mr. Arrow! Secure those sails!" They simply had to be furled, before the debris from the new supernova ruined them all, dashing any hopes they might have to escape its fiery influence.
Amelia, who had more things to do than time to do herself, shot a glare at Kitty, about to relay an order to her, when suddenly the bridge was cast in shadow. Amelia found this deucedly odd, and looked up. It was then that she gazed in mute horror at the huge star chard---a piece of Pellucid that was more than ten-fold times the size of her Legacy---loom sickeningly closer to her beloved ship! Amelia stared defiantly at the huge piece of stellar flotsam, cursing it and its timing, when...amazingly enough, it began to slowly back away!
Amelia could only lift one auburn eyebrow, curious, before she heard her lookout, Mr. Onus, yell plaintively for her to look at the star. She turned toward it, casting her eyes its way, when she saw Doctor Doppler move up beside and announce, "Captain! It´s devolving! I-Into a...black hole!"
Turnbuckle, the eight limbed helmsman, was having a definite problem with holding the ship's wheel steady, and cried out, "We´re being pulled in!" Then, he was thrown away from the now rapidly spinning wheel.
Amelia responded quickly, and grabbed hold of the wheel, pulling it tight with all her strength, saying stubbornly, "Oh no you don´t!" The Legacy remained on course.
An blast wave washed over the Legasy then, causing both Kitty and Amelia to thrown back tumbling on the bridge. Amelia quickly regained her feet, complaining aloud, "Blast these waves! They're so deucedly erratic!"
Delbert, standing before the bridge instrument panels, turned and bellowed over to Amelia, "No, Captain...they´re not erratic at all!" He then shouted again, adding, "There´ll be one more in precisely forty-seven point two seconds, followed by the biggest megilla of them all!"
Something clicked just then in Amelia's mind, and her green eyes became huge with glee. "That's it! Of course," Amelia cried ebulliently. "Brilliant, Doctor! We´ll ride that last megilla out of here!"
Arrow, satisfied that the spacers had finally reefed the solar sails properly, turned and shouted up to Amelia and Kitty, "All sails secured, Captain!"
"Good man," Amelia congratulated him, then directed an excited gaze at him. "Now, release them immediately!"
Arrow looked perplexed, giving Kitty a look of confusion. Kitty just nodded in the affirmative at the willing, but still bewildered Arrow. Kitty knew it was the only chance they had to sail clear of this catastrophe. The weary spacers complained in response to the order, but two indentical glares from both Kitty and Amelia forced the issue, and up they went into the rigging again.
Kitty watched warily as Amelia shouted to Jim to check the crew's lifelines were 'good and tight' before she returned to concentrating upon their course.
"Lifelines secured, Captain!" Jim bellowed back to her.
"Very good!" she yelled back, congratulating the youth.
Kitty smiled then...just before she looked up to see Arrow loose his grip on the sail. As he came to the end of his lifeline, Kitty had to suppress the urge to blot the evil Scroop into nothing, turning away sharply as the villian cut the Arrow's line, ensuring Arrow's death. Kitty's bright blue eyes gleamed from her tears and her rage.
She brushed away her tears, heard Delbert yell, "The last wave...here it comes!" Kitty grabbed hold of the sturdy mizzen mast, pressing her face into the comforting solid wood of the mast. She then heard Amelia telling everyone to hold on to their lifelines, it was going to be a bumpy ride.
The light on the deck faded into darkness as the Legacy entered the event horizon of the black hole that once was Pellucid. Just when Kitty began to wonder if all was lost, she felt the terrible thrust of the ship's powerful engines essentially slingshot them free of the crushing danger of the blossoming black hole.
Once again in the more placid Etherium, the weary but relieved spacers gave their Captain a rousing chorus of cheering. Kitty could only hold on to the mizzen mast and cry softly at Arrow's loss. She couldn't believe the warm genial man was really gone...even though she had seen him perish. She heard the cheering die off, and then swallowed hard as she heard Amelia ask for Arrow. Kitty blotted out her pain, focusing on her anger in hearing Scroop walk up towards Amelia clutching Arrow's hat.
Kitty could only just stand there mutely, as Amelia filed past her woodenly, looking all the while like she had just gotten out of a cupboard. Kitty cringed inwardly as Amelia cast a meaningful glance towards Kitty, her now stunned eyes pleading with her. How could this happen? she seemed to say. With all your magic, why couldn't you keep him alive?
Kitty felt for her friend---her grief for Arrow was bad enough, and she'd only known him for a short while, unlike Amelia, who had known him nearly her entire life---but could only shrug her shoulders, wipe her tears, and send her a look saying , I couldn't change anything. Whatever was meant to be, had to be.
Amelia blinked repeatedly, willing away the tears she could not afford to shed. She hung her head, willed her expression back to impassive once more, and said the words that had to be said for her lost friend. After that, she turned on her heel and walked in a daze back to the comfort and privacy of her stateroom.
Kitty released her hold of the mast, dried her eyes, and then headed deliberately toward the saddened Delbert, who was headed towards his cabin once more. "Doctor? Might I have a word with you?" she said after him.
The kindly canid turned around, and smiled a sad smile. "Ah, hello there, Ms. Petro," he said rather glumly. "I´m dreadfully sorry about your Mr. Arrow." The Doctor's warm, compassionate brown eyes made Kitty's heart ache.
"Yeah," Kitty managed to get out roughly, swallowing hard. "Ahem, yes. Listen, could I beg a favor of you?"
"Of course. You need only ask," he responded, which made Kitty smile.
"Could you please talk with the Captain. I mean, Amelia. She might not look like it, Doctor...but she could really use someone to help her. And, frankly, just now, I don´t think that I'm that someone."
Delbert thought about her request. But, after a moment or two of indecision, his big heart responded. "Very well, I shall do it, Delbert said, squared his shoulders, and moved toward Amelia's stateroom.
"Oh, and Doctor?" Kitty said after him.
"Yes?" he said over his shoulder.
"Please don´t tell her who sent you, could you?" Kitty said, before heading down to deck. Delbert nodded to her, and continued on toward the grieving Captain's stateroom. Kitty, once on the main deck again, saw Silver and Jim talking to one another. She knew what was going on---better than most---and knew better than to interupt them. To get her mind on something else, she sighed and starting to softly sing:
We were strangers
Starting out on a journey
Never dreaming
What we'd have to go through
Now here we are
And I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you
No one told me
I was going to find you
Unexpected
What you did to my heart
When I lost hope
You were there to remind me
This is the start
Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey
I'll be there
When the world stops turning
I'll be there
When the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
We were strangers
On a crazy adventure
Never dreaming
How our dreams would come true
Now here we stand
Unafraid of the future
At the beginning with you
Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey
I'll be there
When the world stops turning
I'll be there
When the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
I knew there was somebody somewhere
Like me alone in the dark
Now I know my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
Nothing's gonna tear us apart
Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey
I'll be there
When the world stops turning
I'll be there
When the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
Life is a road and I wanna keep going
Love is a river I wanna keep going on....
Starting out on a journey
Life is a road and I wanna going
Love is river I wanna keep flowing
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you.
She finished, then sighed again. As she looked up she spotted the villianous Scroop. She had to take a deep breath to calm herself, so that she wouldn't do something precipitous...like killing the wretch. She saw Silver take his leave of Jim, and amble away. Kitty decided to take her mind off of her desire to slay Scroop, and went over to talk with Jim.
"Hello ther, Jim," she greeted the youth.
"Hey," he said, not even looking her in the fact.
Kitty sighed, and move beside him, leaning against the railing. That was when Jim said, "You must hate me now, don´t you?"
Kitty was a bit surprised, and said so. "No, I don't hate you, Jim," Kitty said.
Jim appeared unconvinced. "Hmm. I don't see why not," Jim stated dully. "After all, my bungling killed the Captain and your best friend."
Kitty sympathiszed. "You're wrong, actually. You didn't," Kitty said bluntly, but then softened that with a smile. "I saw everything that happened. It was that wretch Scroop that severed Arrow's lifeline, not your knots. You had nothing at all to do with it."
Jim looked up, glancing over into her eyes, and saw a profound sadness. Kitty saw his sympathy, and had to look away. It was then that she saw Delbert coming out of Amelia's cabin. She took her leave of Jim just then, and headed off to speak with Delbert.
The Doctor looked tired...yet, there was something else in his expression when he looked into Kitty's eyes. "She´s fast asleep, poor thing," he told her. "She's having a hard time with things just now, my dear."
"Trust me, Doctor...I know," Kitty said.
Delbert gasped softly, realizing that Kitty was suffering too. "Oh dear, I do apologize, Ms. Petro," he told her with heartfelt compassion in his soft voice. Kitty bit her lower lip so as to not break down and cry again. She cleared her throat, and took her leave of the good Doctor. "Well, Doctor...I bid you a good night."
"Yes, good night, Ms. Petro," he said, then impulsively reached out a hand to pat her shoulder gently. "Again, I'm sorry for your loss."
Kitty nodded, her eyes glistening with tears again, and made her way hurriedly inside the quarters she shared with Amelia. She scarely could believe her eyes, the normally pristine room was in shambles. Kitty decided to be kind, snapped her fingers once, and in the blink of an eye, everything was sparkling and ship-shape once again.
It was then that her emotions caught up with her, and she wept anew for poor Arrow...as well as for Amelia, who'd just lost her best friend, mentor, and the nearest thing she had had for a father figure. Kitty quickly regained control of herself, and yawned. She needed sleep...rather badly. She crept inside her and Amelia's sleeping quarters, and saw Amelia curled up, sleeping fitfully. Kitty sat down beside her friend, and felt her heart lurch, as even in her dreams, Amelia was softly crying. Crystal clear tears rolled down on her friend's cheeks, and Amelia sniffled and whimpered in her sleep.
Kitty just sighed, changed into her night clothes, then laid down beside Amelia, and put a comforting arm about her poor friend, and eventually fell sound asleep...