Jim and Josh were still talking to red Josh at the inn, interested in what he had to say about Sarah and where she ended up. "She's staying with who!" Jim and Josh said simultaneously. "I told you. Sarah is staying with Tristan. He's a friend of mine; she'll be perfectly fine." Red Josh said. "To think, she ended up in the hands of one of the people we hate most." Jim said, with an infuriated toned.
"What is it that you guys have against Tristan anyway? Di he do something to you?" Red Josh asked inquisitive. "It's a long story that you probably wouldn't believe. Putting that aside, we need to figure out how we are supposed to get Sarah out of that mansion." Josh said poking at his breakfast, with a thoughtful expression. "Why don't you just go pay him a visit?" Red Josh said, completely serious. "Come on, it can't be that easy." Jim said with a questioning face.
"It is that easy. Tristan likes to have guests so anyone who wants to talk to him is completely welcome." Red Josh said. The two friends looked at each other, contemplating what they should do with this information. "I guess we have no choice we have to go visit Tristan." Jim said rubbing his neck. "I wish you luck then. I hope you succeed in your mission." Red Josh said, getting up from his table and leaving for the mechanics garage.
Jim and Josh walked down the crowded streets towards Tristan's mansion, pondering what his impression of them would be. "I bet he will be as arrogant and insulting as ever." Jim said, disgusted by the thought of him. "You have to remember that this is a completely different reality. Tristan may not even know who you are. He may even act differently than usual." Josh said proving a point. "I guess we'll see won't we."
The two of them entered a large ornate entrance into a main hall almost as elegant as the one Jim and Josh saw at the academy. "Master Tristan will be with you shortly." said a butler, who walked up stairs and entered a room. "This is really over the top, isn't it?" Jim said, slightly impressed. "Well of course. He's the son of aristocrats. His parents govern this planet." Josh said, having been in Tristan's house before.
"Actually, since my parents died in a pirate attack a couple years ago, I govern this planet now." said Tristan from the balcony above. He descended down the stairs to where Jim and Josh were waiting; at his new age he towered over them by a number of inches. Jim started, "Hello, we're here about…" "About Sarah; I know she told me all about your little encounter yesterday. Follow me and we can finish talking." Tristan said, walking towards a door to their right. Jim and Josh were slightly befuddled as they gave each other confused looks. They turned back and followed Tristan into the room.
It was a personal office decorated with paintings of Tristan as a child and of his late parents. "Sit down please. It's bad luck to linger in doorways." Tristan said sitting down. The two puzzled spacers sat down in large velvet chairs opposite the hand carved wooden one that Tristan was sitting in behind its matching desk. "Let's get down to business. From what I heard you know Sarah, but she clearly doesn't know you. So, what is it you want with her?" Tristan asked directly and, to their surprise, politely.
"We're here to take her back." Jim said, getting right to the point as he intended. "Take her back? Where?" Tristan said, sitting up straight with curiosity. Jim paused; he didn't know how to respond to this. "Um…you probably wouldn't believe us if we told you." Josh said jumping in for Jim's lack of explanation. "Try me. I know more than you think." Tristan said confidently.
Josh thought that a straight out answer wasn't the best idea, but Jim knew that Tristan wouldn't believe any lies that he could come up with. "We came from a different dimension. Sarah came from that same dimension 2 months ago through a wormhole. We're her friends and we were sent to bring her back home with us." Jim said without any apprehension in his voice. Josh pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking about Jim's reckless answer and about how they were going to be thrown out by the security.
"Well, that wasn't the answer I was expecting." Tristan said bluntly. Jim and Josh looked at him peculiarly. "What exactly were you expecting?" Josh said, wondering what exactly Tristan meant by his statement. "Well I'm not sure, but this paper may help explain my surprise about you knowing Sarah and about you being here, Jim Hawkins." Tristan said politely handing them a 3 month old news paper.
Jim and Josh were perplexed. How did Tristan know Jim's name without them even telling him. Jim snatched the paper from his hand and Tristan said, "Go to the fifth page." Jim turned to the page Tristan had specified and found an outrageous article in the top left-hand corner. It was an article about Jim (from this dimension)… he had been arrested. "What…" Josh said, speechlessly reading over Jim's shoulder.
"It's interesting. You said you've known Sarah for more than a year and that you were there when she disappeared and ended up here, but according to this paper you were arrested for illegal piloting of a solar surfer a month before her disappearance. Quite a contradiction." Tristan pointed out plainly. Jim crumpled the newspaper angrily.
"I can see that you are upset by my reasoning. It only makes sense since I won't be letting you take her knowing the record that you have with the interstellar police. Though we couldn't find anything on you fish boy, I suspect that you are an accomplice of some sort. I'm sad to say that as intriguing as your story is, you will have to leave." Tristan said, signaling a pair of alien butlers.
Jim and Josh stood up in alarm as the muscular men put them in brace-like holds. They struggled to escape, but they weren't nearly as strong as the people holding them. Jim knew that any form of fighting that he had learned would be useless in the position he was in. "You can't do this! You don't know what your doing!" Josh protested, still struggling to get free. "I know perfectly well what I'm doing. I'm keeping my friend safe from the likes of you and Jim." Tristan said, standing up from his seat. "Friend! You?" Jim said in an outburst.
"Of course I'm her friend! The day she crashed on the outskirts of town, I was the only one who went and looked for any survivors. I found her unconscious with burns, cuts, and a sever blow to the head. A day after I brought her here she woke up hardly knowing where she came from or how she got here. I let her stay here when she had no where to go." Tristan finished his explanation and Jim and Josh were still as they listened.
He walked over to Jim and stared him directly in the eye, looking down at him. Jim glared up in discontent not one bit surprised that he was in for something that would humiliate him. Tristan took hold of the bandage coving the swollen area on Jim's face and tore it off in one fluid motion. Jim grunted in pain as he shut his eyes only to reopen them and see Tristan's smug face examining the swollen mark. "Hmph…That's defiantly Sarah's handy work." With this final statement, Tristan turned back to his desk and Jim and Josh were carried out.
Sarah was standing bewildered and stunned on the second floor balcony in the main hall. She had heard everything pour out of the wooden doors of Tristan's office. Both stories sounded so real…she didn't know which to believe. She was drawn from her thoughts by the shouts of the two boys being dragged out of the office. She gripped the railing and leaned outwards to get a better look at them. "Who are they? They seem like they've known me for a long time." Sarah said to herself.
Sarah watched as the boy in the Montressoran clothing kicked the butler holding him in the shin causing him to be released long enough to escape. The boy tried to run back to the office to attack Tristan one last time, but the butler grabbed him by his short braid, which surprisingly didn't get torn off. Sarah suddenly reached for where her braid used to lay over her shoulder, but nothing was there. "Why…why do I feel like I was in a similar situation?" Sarah said. (Remember when Tristan pulled her braid?)
She looked back down for one last look at these strange boys. Just as the one with the braid was turned around, their eyes met. Sarah was surprised and she felt a pit in her stomach. The boys were forced out of the front doors of the mansion and in that moment, Sarah knew she had to find out more about this boy and …about Jim Hawkins.