Author's Note: Thank you to all of those who have reviewed! It is very much appreciated—I'm glad you like this so far.

To Jackie99: Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad it reads like a classic novel—I take that as a sign that you're enjoying it. Keep reading :)

To Homeric-Simile: lol Don't worry, presenting new scenes is what I'd hoped to do. Of course, I won't be able to escape the TP plot itself, but there are a lot of parts where the Captain isn't in the scene, and I've always felt that exploring those absent scenes, and not just writing the movie again with some first-person narration, is what any re-write for a supporting character is all about. I hope you keep reading!

To CrazzyGurl: I luv that you luv it! rofl

To marbles :) I know! There needs to be some A/D fluff as soon as possible! lol Of course I plan to put some in—keep visiting and you'll see it soon enough.

To Princess Tiger Lili: Oh! Heh—you know, you're right. I never even thought of it when I wrote it, but it's true: Doppler is introduced to Silver during that first scene Silver is presented. But, for an answer to your question, perhaps Doppler hired Silver and the crew in this story through letters and telegrams and no personal communication, like he did when he hired Amelia. :)

All right; here's Chapter Five!

Chapter 5: The Doctor's Map

Upon entering my quarters I made a point of locking the door behind me. As doggedly and as obediently as they had performed their duties, there was something still that told me some of the men on this cruise were lacking in scruples. With the door locked, I felt safe to take the key to the weapons cabinet from my pocket.

With a click the two doors were sufficiently unlocked and opened, and from the interior I took the tin chest that concealed the map. Taking the sphere back into my hand, I deposited the chest into the cabinet and once more analyzed the copper ball for a few moments as I made my way to the chair behind my desk. The designs were, as I have said, intricate and small, detailed, and complex. I have never seen anything so mysterious in all my encounters on any voyage, and as I sat down with the map resting within both my palms, my eyes traced as many of the shapes as I could make them, taking in every detail, until at last I had to look away; the design was complicated and rather confusing.

Despite my studies I could not make any sense out of the shapes on the spherical map. What I did find, however, was that the map was segmented into about eighteen pieces, and that if I ran my fingers along the smooth copper I could perceive tangibly raised circles in the confusing design, which I considered might serve as buttons. I allowed myself a try at one of them and pressed; there was a whirr from inside, which encouraged me, and for perhaps five to ten minutes I occupied myself with pressing the buttons I found hiding about the entire surface. There were clicking sounds and hums that answered from within, but nothing else seemed to happen no matter what button I pushed and in what order I did so. Therefore I stopped and inspected it again.

I must have sat in my room for fifteen or twenty minutes studying that map and trying to get it to respond the way I wanted it to and open for me, but I attempted everything I could think of with little or no response.

Mr. Arrow came in after awhile to report that a minor confrontation had occurred on deck between Jim Hawkins and a spider-humanoid roper called Scroop that could have turned into a riot. He assured me that he had assuaged them all, and that Silver had come to the aid of his cabin boy, but I took little interest, still confounded by the map of which Doppler claimed had been opened before. When Arrow wrapped up his report, I bade him send for the Doctor.

Doppler had changed out of his suit. I didn't blame him; his suit had at last taken a nasty soaking and was probably worse for the ware. His knock was timid when he rapped upon my stateroom door, he was unsure the entire few minutes it took for me to unlock the door to let him come in, and when at last he had drawn up a chair at the opposite side of my desk to sit down facing me, he was cleaning his glasses rigorously, as if simply to have something to concentrate his eyes on. But when I revealed the map to him he seemed to feel more at ease.

"The map… W-why do you have that out? I was under the impression that we couldn't take it out and flaunt itUnless, of course, that only applied to…to me."

"Don't be ridiculous, Doctor, that command applies to everyone in charge of this trinket, not just you… The reason it is now being, as you call it, 'flaunted' is that I mean to inquire you upon its activation. Is there a specific button one presses, or a chronological order of steps…?"

I allowed the Doctor's mind to weave back to the moment the map was first opened, and it took him a few minutes before his glance fell tentatively back upon me. His hand twitched forward in suggestion, and I placed the copper ball into his palm, and, somewhat surprisingly, he too underwent each step I took in inspecting and experimenting with the map. After two or three minutes he handed it back.

"I…" he said slowly, "…don't actually know… how to open it. You see, Jim was the one who activated it the night we obtained it… If I may, I would say without much hesitation that he is the only one on this ship that knows how to use it."

This was a shock to me. "But surely you, a man of such scholarly…" I considered the best term, "…apotheosis… can achieve something a teenage boy can?"

The Doctor scratched his nose with his thumb. "Ahm… I… I-I-I…No," and he sank into his chair. I lifted my eyebrows, unimpressed. "Very well, then, Doctor…" I said, rather derisively, and brought the map close to my face to inspect it again. The Doctor looked cautiously about.

"I…I enjoyed viewing the launch," he offered, almost hopefully. "Very, er… fascinating view, that view—of the launch, I mean—fascinating view. Thank you for… for letting me view it from the bridge. Very good… well, view," he managed to produce, coughing into his fist. I looked up at him silently from over the map. Allowing a subtle smile to pull at the right corner of my lips, I placed the map gingerly into my left hand and said genially, "Well, you're quite welcome, Doctor. And if I may be so bold, I've a thesaurus in here somewhere that you may view if you like. Wouldn't want to seem the fool by using a word more than six times in four consecutive sentences."

My smile grew just slightly; the Doctor cleared his throat again.

"All right," I continued forbearingly, "if I can't get into this map, I may still be able to get something out of it. Until, of course, it can be arranged that Mr. Hawkins come and open it for us. Tell me, Doctor… what did it look like when it was opened?"

The Doctor seemed fascinated by an individual wooden plank in the floor. He scratched his nose once more and glanced up.

"It was… incredible… A real surprise," the Doctor answered quietly. He looked at me, and took the map gingerly from my hand. He held it in both of his palms like an eggshell, and gestured around it. "An emerald grid…" he said, he eyes taking on a hint of excitement, "just… illuminated from the interior. It had split in… into segments, I think perhaps twelve—"

"Eighteen," I informed him. He looked up at me. I pointed a finger at the map and remarked, "Look there. The map is made up of about eighteen segments."

He inspected the sphere. "Eighteen," he confirmed. "…It had split into eighteen segments… and emitted a grid that acts like the longitude and latitude lines on a plain map. But-but… but it wasn't just a map, it was a hologram."

The Doctor rose from his chair, taking the map with him, and gestured about him tentatively. "Hologram planets. Perfect little hologram planets were formed inside the… the dome; the grid had taken the shape of a dome, and the small hologram planets were inside. And then, with a tap on the planet Montressor—whoosh—everything begins to move! The planets were arranged exactly… exactly accurate, corresponding perfectly to size and distance from one another. Here… right here was the Megallenic Cloud."

I raised one eyebrow and smiled. "Really? The Megallenic Cloud?"

"Yes, yes," the Doctor replied, engrossed, shuffling to the right. "And here, perfectly located, was the Coral Galaxy. Just… passing by…"

I was by this point quite engaged. "The Coral Galaxy," I repeated, rising from my seat. "That's fascinating."

The Doctor smiled, glanced at me, and fixed his glasses. He let his hand hover in front of him, indicating the landmark's location in his invisible hologram.

"Yes, and then the Cygnus Cross drifted in. Right here."

I analyzed the positioning of his hand.

"No… it must have been here," I commented.

"There?"

"Of course," I remarked. "If you say the Megallenic Cloud was here, then the Cygnus Cross must have been located to the—"

"Yes! That's right. It was there, I remember. And then the Karian Abyss came in through here," and the Doctor made a sweeping gesture to the left of him.

"The Karian Abyss as well?" I echoed. "That's astounding."

"I agree, considering that one hundred years ago, during the time Flint was terrorizing the Etherium, no one commonly traveled so far… But that's not all, we have to travel a distance beyond that point," the Doctor replied. "Whoever designed this map was a spacer quite unique to anyone else traveling at that time."

I was impressed by the Doctor's knowledge of the Etherium's history. I placed my hands behind my back and agreed. "Anything else?" I inquired.

"Yes, one more thing… the most important thing…" the Doctor stepped back, turning to the left wall of my stateroom. "It came after the Karian Abyss… the biggest hologram yet… as big and as fascinating as nothing I've ever encountered before: Treasure Planet!"

Doppler swept his hand across the air, discreetly tracing the shape and placement of the legendary planet, and, while facing the left wall of my stateroom and letting my imagination dictate the image of the hologram, I daresay I could nearly see it.