Outlaw Star: Forgotten Dreams 10- Some Interrogation With a Little Plotting on the Side

Wow. Long title. Hey, hey, hey! I'm going to be on a commercial! Yay! Let's party! Okay, no, but seriously, I am going to be on a commercial, so wee.

Last time Jim got a few bruises and broken bones- nothing compared to what's to come- and Gene met his totally un-burly, feminine crew. Some people may be wondering where Melfina is, hmm? … :walks off:

"All systems go, Genie!" Aisha Klan-Klan cried excitedly. Gene made the same exasperated face that had been plastered across his formerly goofy veneer for the past day and a half.

"I told you, Cat-woman- stop calling me 'Genie'! It's degrading and humiliating…" he muttered.

"No one here but us girls, Genie!" Aisha wailed again, grinning victoriously.

"Please, can we just go?" Sazuka pleaded with dignity. "Mr. Lowe was kind enough to give us the coordinates of the most recent Kei Pirate hide-out. It would be rude never to even take off." It was apparent she had put up with the two infantile crewmembers' squabbling for long enough. It took a day to teach them how to operate their respectable functions on the banged ship and another twelve hours to convince Aisha that it was safe to fly.

"Some duct tape and chewing gum doesn't always work, you know," she had told them.

Oh, and when I say "convince", I really mean Fred reluctantly raised her pay by two thousand woolong.

"Alright, ladies, let's get the hunk of junk off the ground!" Gene ordered and he pushed a series of buttons and pulled a series of levers.

"Are all those really necessary to take off, Mr. Starwind?" Sazuka asked, observing intently.

"No, I just don't remember which one makes it go," said Gene. He was cut off the hum of the great engine. "Ha! I knew it was somewhere!"

Jim opened his eyes and instantly felt a sharp pain searing through his skull. Out of instinct, he hand went to his head and he felt blood. He recalled his slight beating yesterday. It was his second day and his third interrogation. When he once again refused to forfeit the information he had, the self-proclaimed leader, whom the others called Do-sama, had punched him across the face out of sheer impatience. Jim remembered flying across the room from the incredibly strong attack and hitting his head against the hard wall.

Then nothing.

As his keen blue eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he realized he was no longer in the tiny room. He was now in a spacious, dank cell. It was a dungeon.

A shiver ran down his spine.

He had to devise an ingenious plan to get out. He knew there was a reason for his being in the orphanage- he got all that practice trying to escape. Then, however, he drifted back to reality as it dawned on him that none of his plans ever actually worked. He always ended up getting caught.

'And that was just the orphanage with the evil nuns. This is like a high-security prison. I bet there's guards right outside,' he reminded himself. He glanced around in what he hoped was an inconspicuous manner, searching for rouge video cameras.

He was sure he was being watched.

Jim counted a total of five video cameras in the large room. There was one angle he inferred none of the cameras could reach, and that was a tiny corner by a window. He could head there periodically so not to be suspicious to put his plan in motion. Hopefully there minimum of light in the area would suffice.

Next order of business- coming up with the plan.

Unfortunately, that would have to wait, because he could hear the click of the cell lock being opened. He wiped the blood from his hand to his T-shirt and straightened up.

Do-sama walked in with that smug look on his face. Jim couldn't actually see the menacing man's face, but he assumed he was grinning down at him devilishly.

"You ready to talk, Jimmy?" he asked, grabbing Jim's arm and leading him out. He got no response, as usual. "Come on, kiddo. If you'll just tell us what we want to know, we can let you go and spare you all this pain."

"I'm not going to tell you anything," Jim said defiantly as he sat down in the wooden chair in the small room he had been led to. It was the only piece of furniture in the room, if you didn't count the video camera peering down at him, and it was nailed to the floor.

"Why don't we start with the same question as last time- why were you researching the Kei Pirates?" Do-sama asked, leaning against the wall. Jim turned his head away from the man.

"No reason."

"No reason? Just got curious?"

"Yep. Just got curious, is all."

"Okay, how about this one- how did you get access to those pages? Did you hack into them? Did someone E-mail them to you?" asked Do-sama.

"It's like I told you yesterday- they I didn't have to hack into anything. I just typed in 'Kei Pirates' on a search engine and they popped up," insisted Jim. His response was a sharp slap to the face.

"You're lying to me, Jimmy, I know you are. Those pages you read were confidential. A lot of my men don't even have access to them. How come you do?"

"I don't know. I was just surfing the Internet on my laptop one day and I stumbled upon your secrets. I don't know how it happened! It just did!"

Do-sama stared at him before gruffly wrenching him up by his arm. They walked down the hall and he tossed the petit boy back into the dark cell.

"You'll stay in there without any food until you confess," Do-sama warned before marching off.

But that was all right. Jim had devised his miraculous plan.

Yay! Okay, people! I'm going to advertise here! Check out my Xanga! I'm ChocolateUsagi! Who would've guessed?

Any-who, I'm done with the tenth chappie! Yay! Let's celebrate! Next time- some stuff will happen.

Oh, yeah, about Mel…

…