Kitty followed Amelia into the next room. Inside this room, there were four rather attractive women gathered, talking quietly.
"Good morning, girls!" Kitty called heartily. They all looked up, and smiled at her.
"Hello, Kitty! What can we help you with today?" A lovely Chinese girl asked, her dark hair long and sleek.
"Well, girls… this is Amelia," Kitty told them all, and Amelia nodded politely to them. "She just arrived here," Kitty added. "So give her the whole works, if you would be so kind. Oh, Amelia… our Doctor and our Dentist will be along in two hours."
Kitty handed them a slip of paper. "Enjoy," Kitty simply said and walked out of the room.
"Well, Amelia… why don't we start with our names," the girl who had taken Kitty's note began. "My name is Jasmine. The cute little redhead over there is Ariel. She's usually a mermaid---you know, with fins and all that---but she likes to change into a human now and then."
Jasmine paused, then indicated the next girl in line. "The pretty Chinese girl there is Mulan, while that blue-eyed brunette beside her is our Belle."
Amelia nodded back to everybody, acknowledging them. The girls moved up around Amelia, who was feeling just a bit out of place.
"So… what shall we start with?" Ariel asked sweetly, linking arms with Amelia.
"I-I'm afraid that I don´t know what you are talking about," Amelia said honestly, as Ariel guided her along.
"Well, Amelia… every time Kitty gets a new 'guest' she always takes them down here," the pretty Belle told her. "An invigorating shower, a relaxing massage, plus all the girls get a pedicure and manicure, followed up with a fresh set of clothes."
"Clothing?" Amelia arched a eyebrow. "Last I looked, I am completely dressed, thank you."
"Well, yes, you are," Jasmine chimed in with a smile. "But Kitty prefers to see her guests in the clothes she remembers them by… you know from the movie you're from, you understand," Jasmine told Amelia.
"That's all well and fine, of course. But I don´t even know which ruddy film I'm supposedly from!" Amelia protested.
"Oh… but we do!" all four girls said at once, giggling softly at their own cleverness.
"Oh, really? And, how, may I ask, do you all know?" Amelia asked.
"Silly! Because Kitty has been drooling all over that movie ever since she's had it," Ariel explained.
"And… I ask you again… which movie?" Amelia asked in irritation.
"Treasure Planet," Belle informed her, and Mulan nodded in agreement.
"Oh, after that it was always 'Amelia this' and 'Amelia that'," Mulan said with a chuckle.
"Very well. Back to this clothing issue," Amelia said. "Do correct me if I'm wrong, but are you saying that since I am from this movie, Treasure Planet, it means that I shall have to wear my Captain´s uniform?"
The two girls nodded, and Belle looked up at the clock on the wall. "Well, if we're to be finished with you within the hour and a half we're alloted, I suggest we start right now."
An hour later, Amelia had been showered, massaged, her nails done… the whole works, that is except for her new clothes. "Well, that was certainly invigorating," Amelia admitted, her hair freshly brushed, her skin gleaming healthily.
Belle appeared a moment later, a package in her arms, and made her way to Amelia. "Here you are, Amelia," she offered, handing her the package. Amelia quickly unwrapped it, and gasped. It was the same uniform she had worn for years, yet it was somehow different.
"Ooh! Those clothes were hand made by Kitty Petro herself," Mulan gushed when she saw Amelia's expression. "It's all made of silk, you know. Cooler and more resilient than your usual one, I should imagine."
Amelia was surprised at first, but she finally had to agree. Even the boots were soft and supple leather, unlike the ones that had taken her years to break in.
Suddenly, the door opened, and Amelia looked up from her inspection of her uniform. To her surprise, future Silver, future Amelia and future Jim all ambled in, and headed right for her.
Amelia scowled at Silver, the mere sight of him making her hackles rise. "You!" she accused, her green eyes going flinty.
"Ah, ladies, would yeh be so kind as to leave the lovely Cap'n here in our care for a while?" Silver asked of the four women.
"Sure, no problem, John," Belle replied, and she and her friends waved good-bye to Amelia, and promptly filed out of the room.
When the four had finally departed, future Amelia softly closed the door and locked it with a rather forbidding click.
"What is the meaning of this?" Amelia demanded, moving into a slight crouch, feeling a bit defensive. "What are you doing here?" Amelia asked Silver.
"Well, you see, Cap'n… it's like this. In Kitty's world, I'm a doctor," Silver informed her with a slight bow. "Twere just somethin' that Kitty thought to teach me, you see."
"Uh-huh," Amelia retorted, not believing that scalawag for a minute. Ignoring the pirate, her glare next went to Jim. "And, you, Mr. Hawkins… what would you be… if that scoundrel is a doctor?"
"Dentist, ma'am," he told her with a shaky sort of smile.
"I see," Amelia replied, still scowling. She then looked over to her future self.
"And… you are…?"
"Oh, I'm just here to make sure you don´t do anything you might later regret, dear," she said sweetly, but her gaze was like steel.
Amelia returned her scowling to the rather clean and professional-seeming Silver again. He smiled at her, then snapped his thick fingers sharply, which caused a chair to appear seemingly from out of nowhere.
"Please… sit down," he said kindly, yet commandingly.
Amelia continued to scowl, but reluctantly did as she was told. She watched him like a hawk. She startled a moment later when Silver opened a case, and began to lay out an assortment of medical devices and some rather frigthening looking instruments. "And… what precisely do you think you are going to do with those?" Amelia demanded.
"Why, Amelia lass," Silver replied in a calm sort of voice. "It's my responsibility to make certain that yer right as rain, fit as a fiddle, as it were…"
Amelia looked to her future self. "He's not going to hurt me with any of that lot, is he?" she asked furiously.
"Heavens no!" her future self declared quickly. "No, our John here is a top-notch physician, dear girl. He knows his stuff." Future Amelia then rested her chin on the back of her hand and added, "Plus, if he even tried it---which he wouldn't---Kitty would make him rue the day he was ever born. And, he knows it!"
"Right you are, Amelia," Silver agreed. "So, lass," he said to present Amelia. "Open up, and say 'ah', like a nice girl…"
Silver professionally ran a battery of tests: hearing test, vision test, tests of her reflexes, and a few other tests as well.
"No doubt about it," Silver declared as he began to stow his gear away. "She's as healthy as an ox… an' I mean that in as complimentary a way as I can, Cap'n." His gear finally stowed away, Silver gave Amelia a teasing kind of wink, and left the room.
"Well, now that Silver's done," future Jim said and smiled, moving up to where Amelia sat. "Let's take a look at those lovely, sharp pearly whites of yours, hmm?"
Amelia sighed, but allowed herself to be leaned back in the complex chair, and opened her mouth. After a remarkedly short amount of time, Jim sat back and shook his head, grinning.
"So… everything in order, Doctor Hawkins?" Amelia asked, teasing the future version of her young friend.
"Perfect. I wish most of my patients were this easy," Jim told her. "Ugh! Some of those soldiers from Mulan's movie! Gah, what a nightmare. They can invent gunpowder, sure… but a toothbrush, oh no!" Jim shook his head, and packed his gear into a small bag. "See you, Captain!" He then left her with only her future self remaining in the room.
"Well, I am finished, am I not?" Amelia ventured. Future Amelia nodded, a smug smile on her face. "Well, then… we are going to see Kitty, I take it?"
Future Amelia nodded again, then waved her present self to follow. Amelia began to walk in the footsteps of the future Amelia. After several minutes of walking, the future Amelia guided her into a big room. A very big room. A room that more than five hundred ships the size of her Legacy could fit into quite handily.
But, be that as it may, what Amelia noticed first was standing in the precise center of the room. There a towering statue of herself, nearly five meters high, stood with her hands firmly clapsed behind her back. The statue was of her in her uniform except for the hat, and surprisingly enough, she was smiling. The statue was painted, in all the appropriat colors to make it appear rather life-like. Not some ordinary boring bronze statue, oh no… but a statue in vibrant living colors.
It was moments before she realize that Kitty was standing down at the base of the statue, waiting for her.
"Good afternoon, ladies," Kitty called as the two Amelias made their way to her. Kitty explained to Amelia that this room was called the Staircase Room, after the fact that there was one large sweeping staircase in the back that swept up to a balcony of sorts where millions of doors lined the back of it.
"Those doors are rooms or homes of all those that live here with me," Kitty informed her charges. "Now, let's go see where you'll be staying, Amelia."
Future Amelia followed in Kitty's footsteps, followed by the present Amelia, bringing up the rear of the procession going up the stairs. Kitty soon halted the two felines before an immaculate gleaming wood door. "Here we are. Home at last," Kitty said, opening the door. "So… good night, and sleep tight, dear…"