Storm's a' Brewin' -Part Two

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of Treasure Planet: Jim Hawkins, planets that features in the film, characters etc. OC, however are mine: Ralph, Emma and Bill.

Yey, part two! I've been writing as much as I can cause exams are this month so my focus has to be elsewhere. Wish it didn't but … I've done my best. Please read and review, and of course,

Enjoy!

The fog had lasted all of the previous day and at least half of the night. Now the third day had arrived and vision had finally returned to the crew. Jim had sent most of the crew to get some sleep as they had been up for half the night and on alert all the day before. Now only the skeleton crew was on deck.

The end of the test, and race, was today. They had to be back at port by nightfall. It was still early morning so they still had many hours, almost half a day, to make it back and complete their tasks. The fact however did nothing to reassure Jim. The stars had reappeared slowly as the fog dispelled and now shone brightly up above the horizon where dawn had begun breaking. The bright orange glow shone painfully in his eyes but he made no attempts to shield them. He was troubled and even worse he was very unsure. The view that he laid his eyes on that morning was wrong, their positioning was wrong, the whole journey had gone … wrong.

Half of the ships sails had been let down before the crew turned in. They were the small ones nearer the top of the mast so the ship was drifting slowly, but every inch they moved Jim knew could quite possibly be taking them even further in the opposite direction to what they wanted. The planets surrounding the ship were more plentiful than they were on the proper course, larger too. That in itself was a problem. Multiple large planets meant careful manoeuvring. Being careful rarely went along with being swift and Jim knew the crew couldn't waste time being slow. The damn fog had made them lose their course.

"Under my nose. I was stood at the helm and didn't notice!"

Slamming his fists down on the side of the ship Jim fell to his knees. Despair and anger washed over him.

"This can't be happening. The time to show my worth and it goes wrong because I couldn't keep the helm still ..." Jim muttered to himself under his breath, a feeling of uselessness creeping up inside him. He knew the feeling all too well and immediately began to suppress it. It had been with him long before his journey on the 'Legacy', the feeling that he couldn't do anything right. Maybe it was still true? Maybe he couldn't.

Jim laid his head against the side, bumping it on the wood harder than he intended, but he didn't notice. It was a trivial problem compared to the one he and the others were facing at that point. Hearing footsteps behind him Jim looked sideways to see a pair of boots beside him.

"We're lost." Ralph said. His voice was quiet, his words only meant to be heard by Jim. He gave a wry smile at Ralph's bluntness. Standing up slowly he rested his elbows on the side.

"Yeah … we're lost."

"Any ideas what we do?"

Jim shook his head. He knew the Solar space they had accidentally drifted into; it was part of the training to know. Everyone who wanted to command or even man a ship had to have a firm knowledge of the different galaxies and realms of space. Jim had that. The problem was he had no idea how far into solar system they had travelled or which direction they were facing. He sighed heavily rubbing his face with his hands.

"If we just start sailing we could end up sailing in completely the wrong direction," he said. "This is not going to be an easy day."

"Well it wouldn't be much of a test if it was easy."

Jim and Ralph turned round to see Emma walking up behind them. She had been on the night shift. Emma was fairly petite but had a loud set of lungs on her. That and a surprising amount of upper body strength. But then that wasn't surprising. With the amount of climbing and pulling on ropes needed to sail a ship, it was remote you would find any crew member with weak arms.

Standing next to Jim she took a long contemplating breath.

"So, that's Kinapis," she said after a moment. Her eyes watched the large planet that loomed beside the ship. The two boys followed her eye line, resting their palms on the side. Jim however leant on his hands, his shoulders hunching as he did.

"Yeah that's Kinapis. And no where on our exam route is Kinapis," said Jim.

"Don't worry, we'll figure it out. I don't know about you but I'm not walking away from this thing with a fail."

Suddenly a cry from above startled the three recruits.

"Asteroid belt! Surrounding the planet Kinapis. It's a revolving belt, heading down upon us from above. It's approaching fast!"

"We'll figure it out later," Ralph said as the three began running across the deck. Grabbing onto the bell handle Jim rang it as loud and hard as he could, his arm beating furiously. Almost immediately people began emerging on deck, sprinting up the rigging to take in the solar sails. Smaller parts of rock had begun to rain down on deck, one every now and then catching the sails. Jim let go of the bell and sprinted as fast as he could to the helm, yelling out orders as loud as he could.

"Evasive manoeuvres! Tie off the sails before they get ripped to shreds. Bill, make sure the engines are as fuelled as much as possible before the sails are taken in completely, we need to fight our way through it."

Grabbing onto the helm Jim pulled it towards him causing the ship to tilt upwards.

"Ralph, lifelines!"

"Already sorted. Everyone's tied off as tight as possible, with the exception of one," Ralph responded. Jim looked down to see a life line being thrown his way. Nodding to Ralph he quickly attached it to his waist, tying it securely. The examiner ran up the stairs and arrived at Jim's side, prepared to shout orders, but Jim gripped the helm and looked at the man.

"This is my test."

The ship was tilted upwards as far as it could go safely and heading straight towards the asteroid belt. Holding fast Jim yelled at the crew, who were hanging onto parts of the ship.

"Brace yourselves!"

With that the ship slammed into the belt.