Author's Note:
Sorry for the wait, and thanks to my beta: Whisperwings.
Chapter 11: Giving Him a Chance
The crew prepared themselves for the launch from Winterchill's surface. They had shovelled almost all of the snow that bound them to the snowy planet from the main deck and had repaired the solar sails from the blizzard's minute damages.
Jim and Silver had re-tested the stoves, and then prepared them –and the rest of the equipment in the galley- for the scheduled planetary exit.
However they couldn't find the galley's double doors that had been blown off but the stoves' explosion and decided not to search through the mile-high snow drifts for them.
All in all, the RLS Legacy was more than ready once Mister Arrow and Captain Amelia ordered them to prepare the launch. After restoring the artificial gravity and the summer-like artificial environment, the sailors hurried to their stations.
Ariah climbed up the mainmast, her fellow sailors slightly behind her swift moves. She handled the topsail of the mainmast for a second time on this particular voyage. Scroop and Birdbrain Mary were just below her at the bottom of the sail.
"Did you have fun below deck with Cabin Boy?" Scroop hissed in pure slyness, he skittered across the rigging to the bottom starboard corner of the sail.
Ariah scoffed, tying off the sail. "Shove off Scroop, you make it sound like something actually happened." She narrowed her copper-brown eyes smugly.
"You hate programming." Scroop stated. "The question is; why were you so cheerful when you came out from below deck?"
"Are you kidding?" Ariah scoffed. "It's because I had successfully reprogrammed the stupid thing." The female teenager huffed, waiting patiently for the Captain's orders.
"And you were blushing." Scroop said more quietly, not as though Ariah was dominating him –never likely- but his whisper seemed to increase the tension.
"Why it was for the mere victory of the event." Ariah said in self-pride.
"And the…" Scroop smiled viciously. "Singing?"
Ariah blanked, the hatch into the lower decks was opened. But she kept her cool and stated nonchalantly. "It was simply something to do to avoid snapping under the massive de-coding and re-coding process, Mister Scroop."
"Open All Solar Sails!" Mister Arrow's voice boomed to the crew before Scroop could open his crimson mouth once more.
Ariah yanked on her rope at the top of the solar sail, keeping it taunt as Birdbrain Mary and Scroop fanned it open on either side. Slowly the shimmering sails opened, filling up with the solar winds' energies.
The black haired sailor secured the topsails' rope and she braced herself against the mast for the launch.
"Fire Away!" Captain Amelia yelled to the alien below deck, and the power generators of the RLS Legacy hummed as they were re-energized. The tall ship rose from the surface of the frigid planet and was turned towards the heavens.
They cleared a runway of melted snow to exit the planet Winterchill once and for all.
Their journey was finally back on its original course…
Ariah rappelled from the mast down to the deck. Captain Amelia and Mister Arrow had retreated to their quarters for some tea along with Doctor Doppler.
Sooner than expected, Jim was sent up onto the deck to clear any puddles of melted snow, and to give the deck a thorough scrubbing. The black haired sailor left the upper deck to the crews' quarters.
Ariah peeled off her ivory coat, as the environment of the upper deck was returning to its usual summer-like warmth, and she retrieved her clothes from the bottom of the duffel bag. She then changed into a pair of tawny trousers; a black blouse, red vest, and a ponytail and her red bandanna replaced her fuzzy earmuffs.
Ariah rubbed her tired eyes and stretched out any kinks that bracing her body against the mainmast had given her. Then she slipped on her full body harness, coiled the thick bungee cord and headed down to the galley to visit Silver.
"Hey Silver." Ariah hopped into the aroma-filled galley. A large cauldron of stew for lunch bubbled over on the main stove.
"Don't tell me yeh are back teh double-check these blasted stoves." Silver chuckled, stirring the stew with a large wooden spoon and then covering it.
"No way." Ariah laughed aloud. "I've had enough of testing stoves for the day, if not the entire voyage." She smiled.
"Good." Silver sat down at one of the small tables in the galley. "So what is it that brings yeh down 'ere?" He paused. "Besides the food."
"Well." Ariah sat down on the bench across from the cook. "I've been thinking about what you said last night." She paused. "I guess I could give Jim a chance." She shrugged.
"Is that so?" Silver rubbed his chin, trying to conceal his smile with his good hand.
"Also." Ariah leaned back and snatched a purp from a nearby barrel. "I think I'll have Scroop be my slave soon." She bit into the purp, wiped some of its juice from the corners of her lips and swallowed the bite of sweet fruit. "He's starting to get on my nerves, well, more than usual."
"It'll be his hell." Silver smirked, pulling himself back up from the bench to add some more ingredients to the stew.
"Have you seen Morph around?" Ariah hopped back onto her feet.
"Can say I 'ave, darling…" Silver chopped some fresh vegetables and sprinkled them into the stew. "I'm guessin' that he's with Jimbo."
"Yeah." Ariah shoved an extra purp into the pockets of her trousers and bit into the purp she was holding. "He probably is." She exited the galley, heading for the upper deck that Jim was swabbing.
Silver chuckled, adding a pinch of spices for flavour and covering the stew once more with its cast-iron lid. He then sat at a bench and began inspecting his cyborg equipment; the gears in his leg were stalling from the change of the environment's temperature.
"Morph!" Ariah called out across the main deck.
As soon as the sound of his name exited Ariah's lips, Morph came zooming from Jim's shoulder right to her. He splat softly against her face, from lack of flight control, but peeled himself off of her and giggled.
"Morph." Ariah whispered to the little transformer. "I've got a job for you to do." She whispered her message into his newly formed ear and smiled. "Can you do that?"
"Uh huh." Morph nodded.
"Great." Ariah's copper eyes lit up. "But only when Jim has finished swabbing the deck."
"Aye-aye!" Morph then obediently zoomed off to obey Ariah's orders.
Ariah shoved her hand into her right pocket, heading down to the lower decks as she munched on her purp.
About an hour later, Jim had finished swabbing the deck. As he put away his mop and bucket into the tiny closet off of the aft he noticed a sharp, continuous prodding in the middle of his back. He turned around, but didn't see anybody. The prodding persisted.
Jim swiftly snatched the finger from his back and captured it within his palms, all ready knowing whom it was. He glared at the little transformer through his fingers.
"What do you want, Morph?" He asked irritably.
Morph giggled, swiftly slithering through Jim's fingers and biting him by the front of his shirt. Morph then tugged Jim towards the lower decks with considerable strength.
Jim reluctantly followed Morph, trying to stay on his feet while he was dragged down the stairs. He stumbled down the hallway of the lower deck until Morph had tugged him all the way to the lower docks for the longboats. Then Morph released Jim, whizzing across the dimly lit room to chirp to a shadowed figure.
"Good job Morph." Ariah's recognizable voice answered as she reached over and lit a lantern. "Hey Jim." She smiled; the end of her bungee chord was clipped onto the side of the longboat. "Hop in." She gestured to the seat beside her.
Jim weaved through the docks, opening the hatch to the longboats' exit with a slightly suspicious hesitation. Perhaps there was something different between them both.
"C'mon Jim." Ariah read his thoughts. "I need your help for something." She paused, seeing his uneasiness. "Well, you're quite the mechanic, Jim." The black-haired teenager smiled knowingly. "I could tell how quickly you repaired the stoves this morning…"
Jim's eyes lit up slightly, "Yeah." He smiled. "What can I help you with?" He enquired with genuine interest.
"I have this new invention I'm working on and I need some help testing it." Ariah pointed at the large metallic pile of scrap metal and a toolbox.
"You're an inventor?" Jim raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, well, sort of…" Ariah shrugged. "Besides being a mechanic, you probably know how to drive this thing better than me."
"I do?" Jim hopped into the longboat beside Ariah.
"Well, yeah." Ariah said, as if it were the obvious. "If there was ever one thing that Silver never taught me, it was how to drive one of these things..." She looked away and eased the bow's rope through her palms. "He probably didn't want to risk losing me." She sighed half-heartedly.
"I've never driven one of these before." Jim stated.
"Well then." Ariah paused and smiled. "We'll just have to figure out together."
Jim untied the stern's rope and eased it at the same rate as Ariah. The longboat slowly left the docks through the bottom of the ship.
"Hey, Ariah." The brunette teenager briefly looked the female sailor over. "How come you're with Silver?" He asked. "I mean." Jim paused. "Where's your family?"
Ariah spontaneously released the rope and the longboat violently dropped from the Legacy's lower dock. Jim and Morph both yelped as the tools and scrap metal bounced at the bottom of the boat. Ariah stood still as the tiny boat continued falling.
Then the longboat hit empty space and floated soundly, jarring its occupants. Ariah limply prodded at some of the tools that had landed back into the boat.
"My." Ariah cleared her throat. "My mother died when I was young." The young sailor twirled a screwdriver around between her two index fingers. "She only told me that my father left once I was born. So I don't know much about him." Ariah stopped the screwdriver in mid-twirl, watching it meaningfully. "She didn't say why. Only that he gave me my name and then left." The troubled teenager set down the screwdriver half-heartedly and shook her black-haired head. "I never heard any names or seen any photos... nothing. I thought that his last name would obviously be 'Clarke' but…" Ariah sighed with a weighty pause. "It was my mother's maiden name, so she and him probably were never married." Ariah weakly smiled back at Jim, who was everything but slightly stunned about this revelation. "What about your family, Jim?" She enquired.
"Um." Jim cleared his throat, trying to shake off his surprise. "My dad ran off on some adventure when I was twelve." The brunette teenager opened the small solar sail of the longboat listlessly. "My mom raised me afterwards. She owned the Benbow Inn, but it was burned to the ground by pirates, just before I started this voyage." Jim leaned against the mast of the longboat and stuffed his hands into the outer pockets of his jacket. "I've never heard of my dad's existence since he left and…" He sighed, blowing away a stray bang of brunette hair from his forehead. "I guess I was pretty hard on my mom." Jim looked at the scuffed-up tops of his boots and then blinked. "Anyways." He shook his head from past memories and looked back at Ariah. "You wanted my help with testing your invention?"
Ariah stared at the pile of tools and scrap metal, examining it for something. "Yeah." She picked up a backpack-shaped bundled and strapped in onto her back. "It's a solar glider, well, that's what I'm trying to make at least." The young woman stated as she reached to her feet to retrieve a fully masked helmet. "I'm trying to perfect the invention and I need you to help me with some kinks and such." She slipped on the helmet and flicked down the clear visor over her copper-brown eyes. "You don't mind. Do you?" Through the helmet, her voice sounded slightly mechanical.
"Um." Jim processed the information. "Not really."
"Excellent." Ariah pulled on the bungee chord attached to her body harness, double-checking that it was secured to the bow of the longboat. "Let's get underway. We have a couple of hours until we're needed back." She stated.
"Okay." Jim powered up the engine of the longboat. "Hold on." He warned.
"Gotcha." Ariah responded, gripping her seat in anticipation.
Jim smirked and fired up the engine of the longboat. It soared at full speed from under the hull of RLS Legacy and out towards an asteroid field.
Ariah smiled with delight the entire way.
Author's Note:
The next chapter is already written, however betaing must proceed.
MG#6