"We're all clear, Captain!" Onus, the squid-looking alien with at least six eyes called out from the crow's nest.
Arcadia couldn't stop the grin from sliding onto her face as she gazed out and over the bow of the ship. The launch was the most exciting part of the voyage. At least when you weren't in Protean Armada territory. Jim gazed around him in amazement as every ship hand was getting ready.
Right on queue Arrow's voice bellowed out from the main deck, "ALL HANDS TO STATIONS. Smartly now!"
Everyone began to scuttle up the masts, tugging on ropes and tying down parcels, but soon they heard Arrow call out again, "Loose all solar sails! Heave up the braces!"
The sails were unfurled in a flash of golden color as they caught the rays of sunlight. Dia felt herself begin to float upwards before a low hum filled the ship and everyone stood back on the ship under the amazing power of the artificial gravity drive.
Jim made his way over to the riggings and he climbed up, only to the second tier of ropes before stopping to lean out, ready for the take off. Dia raced over to join him. She stood on the deck, slightly behind him, not wanting to interrupt his view.
He turned to look at her with a smile wider than she'd ever seen and she heartily grinned back.
"Take her away!" Arrow's voice boomed from the deck again.
"I'd hold on tightly, Jim." Arcadia told him as she braced her own legs like Amelia had taught her long ago.
"Come on, it can't be that—" He was cut off as the engines started at full speed. He grasped onto the ropes as the ship blasted away from the spaceport. He whooped as the air blew around him, tousling his loose bangs.
Arcadia felt a warmth swirl inside her stomach at the sight of him being so happy. She smiled at him fondly as they both ignored the clang of machinery they both knew to be Doppler. They spared a glance at each other and rolled their eyes. The stars were flying past them as the ship left the port. Dia glanced to Jim when she heard him gasp.
Following the ship was a pod of Orcus Galacticus. Dia smiled at Jim's amazed expression and she called out to him, "They're called Orcus Galacticus. They're supposed to bring a ship good luck. At least, that's what the legends say." Jim looked at her with a grin so wide that she could barely remember the glowering boy she had seen on Montressor.
"Jimbo!" Silver's gruff voice called out to the lad, "I got two new friends I'd like you to meet." Arcadia turned and glared, there was no one else around, "Say hello to Mr. Mop," he tossed Jim said mop, "and Mrs. Bucket." The bucket soon followed and Jim caught them both and replaced his smile with a glare towards the cyborg cook as he laughed.
"Yippie..." Jim muttered before climbing down from the riggings to begin swabbing the deck.
Dia followed before beginning to walk over to Amelia, "Jim, I'll be right back." Jim spared her a nod of acknowledgment before continuing his chore.
She climbed up the stairs to the upper deck and addressed Amelia, "Captain, might I have a word with you?" Amelia looked at her with those cat eyes that missed nothing before nodding and walking over.
"Yes, Arcadia, what can I help you with?" Amelia asked curtly, keeping her main focus on the crew that was ambling along the masts.
"I wanted to share a few of my musings with you." Arcadia did a quick glance around them to make sure none of the crew members were nearby. "You and I both know this crew cannot be trusted. That's a fact. I'm more concerned with what might happen if we leave our financiers unattended. As you said, the doctor can be very loose tongued."
Amelia nodded her understanding before looking at Arcadia with a bit of amusement, "Of course I completely agree with you, however, now be honest, is this really because you fear for their safety? Or that you have a budding attraction for a certain young man?"
Arcadia couldn't have stopped the red hue from blooming onto her face, even if she tried, "I don't think my personal feelings matter in the slightest in this conversation, Captain."
"Well, despite your best efforts, I still got my answer." Amelia smiled at her young ward, "You may watch over the boy. Perhaps teach him the ways of the ship? When Mr. Silver does not require him for work, that is."
Dia nodded and did a short, informal bow, "Thank you, Captain." Before heading off to find where Jim had moved to mop.
She found him easily enough. He was currently being used by a Spidren as a rag to wipe the mast clean. Silver beat her to the punch, though and saved poor Jim from the rough brigand.
"What is this ruckus all about then?" Her voice raised in tone and carried a commanding air. The crew parted for her as she stepped through them towards Mr. Scroop and Mr. Silver. She carried herself straight as a board and her hands were held behind her back, "You lot know the rules, no brawling is allowed on the Legacy. If any of you wish to test that rule further, I will be glad to send you to the brig for the remainder of our voyage. Is that clear?"
Scroop was the main target of her speech and she glared at him with steely eyes. "I said, is that clear, Mr. Scroop?"
He glared, but with a look from Silver he was singing a different tune, "...Transparently..." He muttered before crawling off to perform his other duties.
"Well done, Miss Williams! A tight ship's a happy ship, ma'am!" Silver called out before turning to Jim accusingly. "Jimbo! I gave you a job."
"Hey! I was doing it until that bug thing—" Jim tried to get in.
"The correct term is Spidren, Jim." Dia said, amused.
"That Spidren guy-thing—"
"Belay that!" Silver called out, leaning in close to Jim's face, "Now I want this deck swabbed spotless...and heaven help you if I come back and it's not done." He then turned to the pink morph, "Morph? Keep an eye on this pup...and let me know if there be any more distractions."
He stomped off and back towards the galley.
Dia looked over a Jim and had to stifle a laugh at Morph who had enlarged his eyes dramatically to 'keep an eye' on Jim. Almost literally.
"So, Mr. Scroop rub you the wrong way or something of the like?" Dia asked Jim as she sat on the rail of the ship and watched Jim work. "Spidrens are usually an angry breed."
"He just..." Jim muttered something before turning back to his chore.
They stayed on the main deck, Jim cleaning and Dia following him around, and Dia learned about Jim. They talked about almost everything before Dia made up her mind.
"Jim." She called out to get his attention.
He turned and looked at her with his pale blue eyes that were the same as his mother's. "Yeah?"
"I have a proposition for you." She hopped off the railing and walked to stand directly in front of him. "How would you feel about learning how to fight? Properly that is." Jim looked at her confused. "I'm only offering this since you seemingly can't handle yourself against those you pick fights with. May as well teach you how to back up your words."
Jim looked at her with a dubious expression. She glared at him, lightly.
"I gave you a black eye not so long ago, if you'd care to remember." A smirk grew on her face as Jim glared at her.
"That was a surprise attack! It doesn't count." He still huffed and went back to mopping.
"Do you want to learn to fight or not, Jim?" She asked, watching his movements with an admiring eye.
"Sure. Why not. There won't be much for you to teach me anyway." His voice was smug, though Dia knew he'd be regretting it later. "Well, this has been a fun day, huh? Getting taught how to fight by a girl, making new friends like that spider psycho."
"Spider psycho, spider psycho!" Morph called out as he turned into an exact replica of Mr. Scroop and proceeded to hop around.
Jim and Dia let out a laugh, "A little uglier." Jim said. Sure enough Morph, true to his name, made his face even uglier and then let out an evil, but high pitched, laugh.
Dia laughed at the scene before quieting herself as a figure loomed closer to them.
"Well, thank heavens for little miracles. Up here for an hour and the deck's still in one piece." Silver walked up to them with a dish of scraps to be thrown overboard. He kept an eye on Jim as he did so. Just as Arcadia did to Silver.
"Um, look, I, uh..." Jim was trying to get something out, but was obviously struggling with the words, "What you did...thanks..."
Silver watched him with a close eye, "Didn't your pap ever teach you to pick your fights a bit more carefully?" Jim's face hardened, making Dia just want to give him a hug. "Your father's not the teachin' sort." Silver said as more of a fact than a question.
Jim turned to continue mopping, but still spoke to Silver over his shoulder. "No. He was more the taking off and never coming back sort."
Dia's eyes softened as she turned her gaze over to the boy who was glaring at the deck ferociously.
"Oh..." Silver scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Sorry, lad."
"Hey," Jim called out, "no big deal. I'm doing just fine." Dia resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that statement. She clearly recalled the night he was brought back to the inn by police escort.
"Is that so?" Even Silver sounded doubtful about the boy's claims. "Well, since the captain has put you in my charge, like it or not I'll be pounding a few skills into that thick head of yours to keep you out of trouble."
Silver kept a smug look on his face as Jim snapped his head in the cyborg's direction in shock, "What?!" Jim called out.
"From now on, I'm not letting you out of me sight!" Silver bent down to Jim's level, looking the boy straight in the eye.
"You can't do—"
"You won't so much as eat, sleep, or scratch yer bum without my say-so!" Silver interrupted. Dia glared over at the man.
"Don't do me any favors!" Jim yelled back.
"You can be sure o'that, my lad. You can be sure of that." Silver said with what seemed to be an almost mocking sort of grin.
"Mr. Silver, you'll excuse me for saying so, but I will also be teaching Jim to fight, and if your schedule interferes, I shall over ride your orders." Dia's voice was so different from before. Jim glanced at her from the corner of his eye. Whenever she spoke to him, her voice was warm with a measure of caring behind it, but whenever she spoke to Silver she spoke with a tongue lined with razor wire.
"Ah...of course Miss Williams, wouldn't be havin' it any other way." Silver said with a nervous chuckle.
Later that night Jim had finally finished swabbing the deck. He was headed down to the sleeping quarters to finally get some rest when he bumped into someone. He looked up, exhausted, and was about to apologize when he saw who it was.
Arcadia looked at the tired boy with an amused smirk. "Not watching where we're going, Master Hawkins?" As Jim opened his mouth to respond she cut him off, "Well, no matter, down to the brig to train, shall we?" Before the boy could voice even a second of protest she grabbed his hand and pulled him through the sleeping quarters and down more stairs to the brig.
The brig had a ring of keys at the base of the stairs and two cells where one could lock up prisoners. The room was supplied with light by three lanterns, one hanging on the hallway ceiling and two by the entryway. She grabbed the keys as she dragged Jim to one of the large cells. She released him as soon as they reached the room and he felt a yawn escape from him.
As he yawned Arcadia unbuttoned her jacket quickly and began to slide it from her shoulders by the time that Jim stopped yawning long enough to register just how little she was now wearing. She stood in front of him in her boots, shorts, and spaghetti strap tank top. The tank was also slightly too short on her and it was pulling tightly across her chest and showed off about an inch of her well toned abdomen.
"U-Uh, Dia...What...just what are you doing...?" Jim couldn't help the blush that spread across his face as she turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't honestly expect me to ruin my new jacket, do you?" She grinned at the bashful look on his face. "Well aren't we a modest one." She rolled her shoulders slowly before facing Jim in a sturdy stance, one foot braced behind her and the other ready to move.
"Let's get started shall we?" Dia smirked as Jim looked at her dubiously. "Oh come on, I dare you to try and land a blow on me."
Jim still didn't seem to like the idea of trying to hit a girl. "Arcadia, is this really so necessary?"
"Do you want to learn to defend yourself? Because if not, I have much needed sleep to catch up on." She moved to pick up her jacket, but was stopped by a warm and well calloused hand resting itself on her bare shoulder. She'd never admit it, but she could feel the blush spread across her face.
"Wait...Okay, I'll learn what you have to teach..." Jim said reluctantly.
"Well alright then. First lesson," She moved faster than he could keep track of. She grabbed his wrist and turned, using his weight against him and throwing him to the floor with ease. He felt the air whoosh out of his lungs painfully. "Expect the unexpected." She looked down at his shocked face with a wide grin.
He glared up at her and pushed himself up from the ground. He stood in a stance that could easily be offset and Dia 'tsk'-ed at him.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." She moved over to him and he flinched slightly before taking in her amused look. She moved behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. She pushed lightly and he wouldn't move. "I'm correcting your stance, go with it Jim." Only then did he allow her to mold his stance. She pressed against his shoulders again and he bent his knees to stay up right. She placed her foot behind his forward leg and pushed it slightly further forward. She stayed, her body pressed up against his, and she took her back foot and pushed his slightly further back.
The heat radiating off of his body wasn't unpleasant to Dia as she snaked her arms around his torso. She could feel his muscles tighten at her touch and she noticed just how much muscle the boy had on his lean body.
Her arms moved up to his own slowly and she gently moved them to a defensive position, blocking anything that could come at the face and the chest. She leaned up to his ear and decided to tease him just slightly. Or a lot.
"This is your defensive stance, Jim." She could feel him shiver as her breath flowed against his neck and ear. "Always remember it."
Jim glanced at her from over his shoulder and Dia could see his blue eyes glittering in the lantern light.
She reluctantly moved away from his warm body and walked around to face him. "Alright, now if someone threw a punch from your right, how would you block?"
Jim looked at her with confusion, "With...my right?"
She grinned at him, "Yes, but what's better than blocking?"
"Uh..." Jim thought about it for a second before grinning at her, "Dodging!"
"Exactly. I'm going to come at you; I want you to dodge everything." With that said Arcadia moved to attack Jim without giving him time to prepare. She moved at half the speed she could and Jim frantically dodged her blows.
He also learned quickly that her attacks weren't limited to just fists once she landed a kick to his thigh that managed to numb everything below it.
The 'training' that Jim officially thought of as 'torture' continued for another half hour before Jim finally couldn't dodge anymore and Dia kept landing hits on him. Luckily for him, although he didn't know it, she kept pulling her blows back slightly once she saw they were going to hit so she didn't do any major bruising.
When she had landed six hits in a row she stopped attacking.
"Well, how do you feel, Jim?" She asked, barely sweating.
"Like I'm going to die." He muttered holding a sore spot on his side, the last place she had managed to hit. "Isn't there a less...violent way to do this?"
She looked at him as though he lost his mind, "Jim, this is fighting. Not picking daisies. Captain always taught in more of a hands-on method. Learn fast or die you could say."
Jim just let out a groan as he swayed on his feet. "So are we done?"
She sighed as she looked at him. He really was exhausted from swabbing the deck and her beating. "Yeah, go get some sleep. Tomorrow I'm going to show you some weak spots before we move back to dodging." As she slipped on her coat Jim asked a question she was surprised he hadn't asked earlier.
"Why are you only teaching me dodging? Why not offense?" They had made it to the stairs. Arcadia hung up the keys before turning to him.
"Sure if you attack, your opponent will ultimately fall as long as you don't first..." She trailed off a bit, "But...let me ask you this, Jim, if your opponent can't hit you, how is he supposed to beat you?"
"Got it." Jim muttered as he headed up the stairs slowly, sore from the lesson.
"Jim," At Arcadia's call he turned around and looked down at her from the higher steps, "You did better than I thought you would tonight." He told him with a kind smile on her lips.
He spared her a grin, "So it was low expectations from the start?" He teased.
"Well, seeing you with Scroop today," He winced at the memory, "There wasn't so much going for you in the fight."
"Point taken." He said.
When they reached the sleeping quarters it was the place where they would part. Dia explained about how the female bunks were separate from the men's and that she was about to head towards her own when a hand around her wrist stopped any further movement. She turned around and Jim looked away bashfully.
"I...I wanted to say thanks...for earlier, with the spider psycho." She gave him a grin and a nod before starting to move off to her bunk again, but was stopped by the hand still around her wrist, "And..." She turned to see him look her straight in the eye, "Thanks for teaching me to fight...and all..."
She grinned at him, her purple eyes looking into his blue ones. "Jim, it's not a problem at all. Really." She was about to go again when she turned on her own. "Wait, Jim." Jim stopped again and turned around to face her. She smirked at him with an amount of amusement and mocking that he had never seen, "So what was that about being taught to fight by a girl?"
He blushed and glared at her playfully. She laughed at his expression before walking to him and mussing his hair slightly. "I'm just playing, Jim." She grinned normally and then sauntered off to her own quarters, leaving Jim there with a silly grin on his face and attempting to fix his hair.