Chapter 5
Pirates attack
The next morning I awoke early. I found that the Doctor must of taken off my coat and boots, to make me more comfortable as I slept. There was no sign of Doctor Doppler, which was a shame, as I would of liked to thank the kind man. Well, enough of that! I arose, and put on a clean uniform. Fit for duty once more, I went to my stateroom proper, where I spotted something lying on my desk. It was a small present of some sort. Curious in spite of myself, I looked upon the card and read:
Dear Captain,
Happy Birthday! Had I known, I would of bought you a more fitting present. However, this tea set is the best I could do on such short notice, I'm afraid. Please consider it your birthday gift from me.
Dr. Delbert Doppler, PhD.
PS: If you should like to talk, please know that my door is always open to you.
Laying his lovely note down, I opened his present with the help of my thumb nail. It was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for me, and I freely admit I was quite charmed by the sentiment.
Donning my coat, I went out in search of my comforting acquaintance, the Doctor. I found him moments later on deck, where he was getting some air.
"Oh, Doctor," I called out after him.
He looked over, as I waved him to me. He smiled and moved beside where I stood by the rail.
"I just wanted to say thank you so much for your gift," I told him. I then looked warily around, and seeing no one about---and to show him just how much I appreciated all he'd done for me, I gave him a light kiss on the cheek.
The Doctor promptly went pink in the face, and grinned foolishly. Needless to say, I was quite charmed by his shyness as well as his reaction.
"Planet Ho!" the lookout, Mr. Onus then called. The Doctor and I both saw the eerie green, unmistakeable planetoid that could only be Treasure Planet. We looked at one another a moment, and both moved quickly to my stateroom, to get the map, you see.
"Treasure Planet," the Doctor said, shaking his head in excitement and disbelief. "So, Captain, what to do next?" he asked.
I began to answer him, when Jim Hawkins and Silver's pet, Morph, burst through my stateroom door, Hawkins panting like the bellows, his blue eyes huge.
"Captain!" he declared, his chest heaving. "We've got trouble. Big trouble!"
"Do we indeed?" I returned, frowning. "How so?"
"First, I just found out Scroop cut Arrow's lifeline during our escape from Pellucid. He killed him, not me," Hawkins said, ticking one finger up.
"And, the second thing," Hawkins said after a deep breath. "The crew are all really pirates, and they are preparing to mutiny…right now!"
My mouth opened, but I shut it quickly. Hawkins' revelation answered many of the things that had been bothering me this entire voyage. Pirates, was it? We'll certainly see about that! I made a beeline to my locker, yanked out my key and opened it up.
"Pirates on my ship?" I declared. "I´ll see them all hang!" I extracted a laser flintlock from my locker and tossed it butt-first to the most astonished Doctor.
"Doctor, familiar with these?" I asked, hoping against hope.
"Well, I have seen…well, I have read…" he stammered, but he didn't finish because he inadvertantly blasted my globe to smithereens. "No! No, I´m not," he finished, distinctly embarrassed. That would have to do, I suppose, I told myself.
I retrieved the treasure map out of the chest in my locker, and tossed it to young Hawkins. "Mr. Hawkins, defend this with your life!"
Morph intercepted the sphere in mid-toss, and Hawkins struggled with the pink-hued blob. Then Jim pulled it away and stored it in his jacket pocket.
I then pulled one of my plasma rifles out and activated it. "Avert your eyes, gents. I'm about to give us our way out of this mess," I told them both, and proceeded to burn a large hole in my pristine stateroom's floor.
"Come along, now," I admonished them, jumping down through the hole to the deck below. "Don't dawdle!"
I held my rifle at the ready, while Jim and the Doctor leapt down after me. No sooner had Doctor Doppler landed awkwardly, than we heard a muffled explosion above. Rather than have to explain myself, I simply took to my heels…forcing the two of them to follow after me. After a merry, invigorating chase, I led us to the stairway to the longboat bays.
Flashes of laser fire dogged our steps, as I led the two down the stairways in the nick of time. Doctor Doppler managed it on his stomach after he dashed down the stairs. The pirates began down the stairs and I noticed the Doctor was right in the path of their fire!
I dragged the Doctor through the door and closed and locked it in the pirate scum's faces.
"Thank you!" Doctor Doppler managed to say rather weakly, but sincerely. I melted the door's dogging mechanism with my plasma rifle.
"To the longboats…quickly!" I commanded loudly and emphatically. The Doctor and young Hawkins had made it in the bay, and we all piled into the port side longboat. I stopped for a moment to open the bay doors to facilitate our exit. Moments later, the pirates blasted down the door and entered, blasting away everywhere.
Crouching down behind the protective gunwales of the longboat, I returned their fire, while shouting defiantly, "Chew on this, you pus– filled boils!" Deadly streams of light filled the air, and chipped away at the wood of our longboat.
Much to my surprise, the Doctor beside me took aim, and with one shot, clipped some hunk of machinery neatly, which crashed down on the catwalk, spilling four pirates down to their deaths.
"Did you actually aim for that?" I inquired, not a little impressed. The Doctor looked at the pistol in his hand, then me, and replied, "You know…actually I did!"
I quickly pushed the Doctor's head down as a fusilade of new laser bolts whistled overhead and into our faithful little longboat.
It was then that I saw that rogue Silver shift the lever on the bay controls to close the bay doors. What wretched luck!
"Aw, blast it!" I growled aloud. It was then that I derived another plan. I looked up at the pair of cables that supported the longboat and decided to act.
"Doctor," I told him, quite seriously. "When I say now, shoot out the forward cable. I´ll take this one." That was when disaster---in the form of a playful pink blob of protoplasmic goo---sturck once more. Blast it all!
The pink blob had stolen the map from Mr. Hawkins' jacket pocket, and now that pirate Silver and Mr. Hawkins both were coaxing Morph to come to them with the map. The little blob was torn as to what to do, and so decided to jet down into a coiled up line. Silver seemed to have some sort of problem with his cyborg leg, so it was Jim who got the map before him. Young Hawkins sprinted toward us and the longboat, so as the boy leaped for our craft, I yelled, "NOW!" Both my and the Doctor's aim was true, and both cables snapped, dropping our longboat through the rapidly closing bay well and into the atmosphere of Treasure Planet.
As young Hawkins scrambled frantically aboard, with some help from the Doctor, I hastily initiated the launch of our boat as we free-fell away from the Legacy.
"Parameters met; hydraulics engaged," I said aloud, my fingers flying over the longboat's controls. I had just gotten the sail unfurled and us underway, when I heard the Doctor call out in near-panic, "Captain! Laserball at 12 o´clock!" Wonderful, bloody wonderful…
I heaved the tiller over abruptly in an attempt to thwart their attack. But the laserball was not to be denied, and it slammed into our faithful longboat, smashing its engine and snapping our mast. Some piece of the engine as well as the blast slammed into my left side with enough force to make me cry out in pain.
My side throbbed incessantly, but I had a responsibility both to myself as well as my crew (the Doctor and Mr. Hawkins, you see) to land this crippled longboat as best I could. Clutching the tiller with both hands, I somehow managed to pilot us down. With the assistance of a most helpful helium plant---which slowed us nicely, I slammed the longboat into the surface. We were still going much too fast, and at the last moment, our rugged craft flipped, sending us inverted, where miraculously we stopped with no more than minor injuries.