Chapter 1--Breaking Orbit

A/N: Let's hear it for ILuvHim, our first reviewer! (blows on a party favour thingy) In response to the other reviewer, yeah, Mrs. Hawkins could be a little OOC--but this is as Jim sees her, not necessarily as she actually is. Anyhoo, here's chapter one. (blows on party favour thingy again)

OoOoOoOoOoO

All right, I thought, so working at a chandlery isn't all that hard. Just get the customers' stuff and mop the floors. Easy, right?

Wrong.

It was get customers' stuff, mop the floors, and a boatload of other stuff I wish I could forget.

For one thing, some of the customers were evil. They believed that if you didn't give them the exact item they wanted, at the price they wanted it, and in the right colour, the world would blow up. I knew they'd been shopping there for years and they deserved to get their orders, but they could've been less pushy about it.

Swabbing the deck of the R.L.S. Legacy was tons easier than mopping the floor of Barnes and Hodges's Ship Chandlery. What never ceased to amaze me was that the water Mr. Hodges had me mop with was dirty. I would think, "Oh, yeah, dirty water! That's gonna make the floor sparkle!" But I couldn't say that out loud; when you're an apprentice, you don't smart-mouth your master.

Then I found out about the hidden clause in my indenture--bookkeeping, which involved math.

Suffice it to say that words couldn't describe how I loathed math.

What wasn't so bad was when Mr. Hodges sent me to Halyard's Tavern every day to pick up our supper. While I waited for them to finish our orders, I watched ships dock at the Montressor Spaceport. Maybe that wasn't so smart; I always came back to the chandlery more determined than ever to get away from my indenture.

At night, Mr. Hodges would lock up the chandlery and go to his own home. This pretty much made me security guard, since I lived in a loft above the chandlery.

I had my clothes, some books, and about twenty dozen boxes of candles in my loft. It was actually a nice place--quiet, free of evil customers. A skylight was just above my bed, so I would go to sleep staring at the stars, wishing I could be among them.

But that would have to wait nine years.

OoOoOoOoOoO

I know, many people have worked quite contentedly in one place for almost thirty years. I, however, am not like those people. After two years at Barnes and Hodges, I was sick of my indenture.

And I was sick of Mr. Hodges, too. He had already shouted at me four times for a "mistake" in the record book I'd been scratching in all morning. I tried to be patient as I showed him that they weren't mistakes, but places where the ink dried in my quill. Mr. Hodges just snorted, like he always did when proved wrong, and I went to the front of the chandlery to take a customer's order.

Mrs. Dunwiddie came in at one point and ordered eight thrirty-foot lengths of rope. (Lord knows what she was going to do with them.) Just as I'd asked her to excuse me while I looked for the ropes in the back, Mr. Hodges slammed the record book open with a papery snap and trumpeted, "JAMES! Another mistake in the records!"

I sighed and looked over his shoulder at the records. This time, I really had made a mistake. "Sorry."

"Well, sorry doesn't fix it if I overcharge someone! Pay attention to detail; stop making mistakes!"

My patience worn to the thickness of an onion skin, I shouted back, "One mistake is not going to kill us all!"

"Oh, really?" Mr. Hodges grabbed a quill and scratched out the price I had written, but his dirty glare didn't leave me. "Well, that's the kind of attitude I can expect from a teenager."

Before I could snap back, Mrs. Dunwiddie sang from the counter, "Mr. Hawkinnnnns! Myyyyy rooooopes!"

"Yeah, coming right up," I called back, and I threaded my way through the chandlery to the back room, clenching my fists.

The back room was almost impossible to completely enter, as it was crammed with stuff. Stacks of wooden crates towered to the low ceiling, smelling like tar and mold. And with the luck I was having today, the ropes were probably buried under those crates in a back corner of the room. Grunting with annoyance, I pushed some crates out of my way.

A pair of blue lights popped up from behind the other crates, flashing in my face. "JIMMY!" a mechanical voice blurted out.

I yelped, stumbling backwards. As I landed on my rear, a skinny copper robot bounced over the crates and grabbed my hand.

"Holy mackerel! Glad I caught you here, Jimmy!" the robot shrieked, tugging me to my feet. "Break out the party favours, because today's your big day!"

I snatched my hand away. "B.E.N., what are you talking about?"

"Your big day!" The Bio Electronic Navigator emphasized those words by blinking a picture of falling confetti on his eyes. "You're bustin' out of your little cage! You're going to SEIZE YOUR FREEDOM!"

"No thank you," I said simply as I started pushing through crates again.

B.E.N. deflated. "But--but I thought you wanted to leave..."

"Look, I do, okay? I'd like nothing better. But I can't just waltz out of here."

"Why not?"

I ripped a paper out of my pocket--a page from the Montressor Gazette--and waved it in front of him. "Read this."

B.E.N. grabbed the paper and made a great show of reading it, stuttering when there were too many letters in a word. "Hmm...'Thirty dollars reward...ran away from subscriber...indented apprentice...all persons are forbid harbouring or trusting said runaway..."

"Don't you get it?" I sighed, sitting down on a crate. "Even if I could get out of here, eventually someone would catch me and drag me back here--not to mention Mr. Hodges would kill me."

B.E.N. dropped the paper and stared at me.

"Now, you should just go home. I've got work to do."

"Well...okay...if you're sure you want to stay here..." With that, B.E.N. crouched on his wheels and rolled slowly away.

I wasn't sure I wanted to stay--but what were my other options?

OoOoOoOoOoO

Late at night, I was still awake. I lay on my back, staring up at the skylight and thinking about my options.

One: Wait out the last seven years of my apprenticeship and endanger my sanity.

Two: Try to run away and get my butt whupped, after which I'd wait out the last seven years and endager my sanity.

Was there an option that didn't involve insanity or butt-whupping?

I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw through the skylight one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen

For a few months now, Comet Beckett had been trapped in orbit around the planet Acceleranda. Some of Montressor's scientists, observing the comet, predicted that it would eventually break orbit--and now it did. Blazing crystals of ice shot from the comet, and bounced off Montressor's atmosphere. Comet Beckett, glowing brilliantly, spun away from Acceleranda and into the blackness of outer space.

As the comet soared away, I closed my eyes again, trying to fix that image into my memory.

I remembered my dreams of enrolling in the Academy.

I decided it was time to follow Beckett's example.

Time to break orbit.

I tumbled out of bed and snatched my greatcoat and hat up.

OoOoOoOoOoO

I shivered; even under my thick greatcoat, I was cold.

"I KNEW you'd come around eventually, Jimmy!" B.E.N gushed, dragging me through a dank back alley. "I knew you'd want to get off this rock soon enough! Now here we are! B.E.N. and Jimmy! Two hapless bachelors seeking to respirate our fortunes!"

"Renew," I corrected, and I stopped to face him. "Now, B.E.N., listen. I got one thing I want you to do."

"Anything! Just say the word!"

"Shut up," I replied simply, and continued walking down the alley.

B.E.N. trailed behind me. "Oh, right. Okay, I'm good at that! I'll be as silent as the grape!"

He kept babbling like this. I thought about returning to peace and quiet.

But I remembered the comet.

I kept walking.