Author's Note:

Wow that was a pretty great chapter (but then again, I'm biased) hee…hee… anyways, on with the story!

Chapter 21: The Shocking Truth

Jim gapped at Ariah as if she had said a foul word. "He…" Jim blinked bewilderedly, trying to form some understandable words. "He, likes you?"

Ariah looked on the verge of tears. "I think so." She bit down on her bottom lip and fought back her mortification.

Jim stared blankly at Ariah, as if not really seeing her. How could it be?

"Jim…" Ariah looked up at Jim with a pleading expression. "Say something." She shuddered with the sudden need to confide in Jim. "Please."

Morph glanced innocently from one teenager to the other. His guiltless mind couldn't really piece together the dilemma. But the tiny transformer could tell that something was indeed troubling both Jim and Ariah, which in turn was troubling to him.

The stunned cabin boy shook his head sorrowfully. "I… just don't know what to say, Ariah…" Jim admitted and then let out a long sigh. "I can't believe it…" He murmured.

Ariah turned away, breaking the stare down and continuing her assigned work. Her copper-brown eyes were glassy from the tears they yielded.

Jim sheepishly continued his work; avoiding eye contact with anything other than his own miserable reflection in the sudsy puddles.

"So what is it yeh need teh talk 'bout, Scroop?" Silver leaned casually against one of the walls of the dock house.

"I need you to separate Ariah and Cabin Boy…" Scroop stated directly.

"An' why should I do that?" Silver folded his arms over his chest and he raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the crimson alien. "They both get their work done more quickly together, an' they're both in one place so we don't have teh worry 'bout them figurin' out that we're pirates…" He pointed out with a raised finger.

Scroop frowned dangerously. "You're letting her get too close again, Silver." The arachnid hissed. "Just like last time."

"Are yeh implying that Jimbo's goin' teh cheat on Ariah?" Silver chuckled mockingly. "I highly doubt that, Mister Scroop…" He shook his head.

Scroop stood to his full height, his facial expression hardened. "You're making the same mistakes again, Silver." He growled dangerously. "She'll get hurt again."

There was a silence between the two sailors.

The angered arachnid turned his back to the older sailor. "Don't forget that we've kept Ariah clueless for this long," Scroop hissed. "And don't forget that we still have to plan not only something that blinds her from the truth, but also the mutiny itself."

Scroop glared at Silver over his shoulder with narrowed golden eyes.

"How's Ariah going to react when the crew tears apart her boyfriend, limb from limb while she's coincidentally out of the way?" Scroop snapped.

Finally, Scroop turned fully away from the older pirate and left the dock house; leaving John Silver with his thoughts.

Ariah and Jim silently placed away their cleaning tools in the galley after scrubbing and swabbing the deck until the wood gleamed miraculously.

There was an uneasy air between them from their previous discussion.

"Ariah, Jimbo…" Silver's familiar voice called to them as the sailor in question entered the galley from the main deck.

"We're in here." Jim called emptily across the mess hall.

"Good." Silver walked over to the two teenagers. "Ariah, yer teh scrape the barnacles off of the hull." He held out a metallic scraper, a utensil that would've usually been used to flip pancakes. "Start at the bow..."

"'An' work me way teh the stern, 'til those suckers are off the hull.'" Ariah finished the order she had heard Silver repeat many times as a sailor, while casually snatching the scraper/flipper from the cyborg's hand. "Not a problem."

The galley seemed to be extra stuffy any way…

"Morphy…" Silver commanded to the pink blob. "Yeh help Ariah." He stated.

"Aye-Aye." Morph saluted loyally to the cook and then zipped out of the mess hall to aid the scullery maid.

"What about me?" Jim enquired with a raised eyebrow.

Silver's cyborg arm spun around and a carving knife popped out of it. It spun in the air a few times before Silver caught it expertly and gave it –handle first- to Jim.

"We're peeling yuppi for dinner." The older cook stated blandly.

Jim sighed and dragged himself to the arrangement of fruit and vegetable barrels in the galley. He glanced down a half-full purp barrel and then located the quarter-empty barrel of yuppi beside it. The young cabin boy seated himself between the two barrels on a stool and began his work.

Silver slowly sat down beside Jim and gently plucked a radish-shaped yuppa from the top of the barrel with his human hand. His cyborg hand delicately whirled around it, carving the thick yellow skin from the vegetable.

Jim slowly worked away at his own yuppa with the carving knife. His mind seemed to be far from the interior of the galley.

"Jimbo…" Silver looked at the younger man beside him. "I've been meanin' teh ask yeh somethin'…" He simultaneously placed the shaved yuppa into a metal bowl that sat between them.

"Ask away." Jim glanced up momentarily from his half-peeled yuppa.

Silver snatched another yellow yuppa from its barrel and continued working. "Yer relationship with Ariah… how's that goin'?"

"Sheesh…" Jim rolled his pale blue eyes. "You're pretty protective of her, aren't you?"

"I'm just bein' careful for her sake, Jimbo." Silver put up his organic hand defensively while his mechanical hand simultaneously worked away at peeling the yuppa.

Jim shrugged. "I guess it's going pretty smoothly." He carefully carved off the last bit of yellow skin from the vegetable. "I don't know… but." The brunette teenager dropped the carved yuppa in the metal bowl. "I think I might love her, Silver." He quickly grabbed another yuppa and focused his attention to slicing the skin off of it.

Silver raised an eyebrow, keeping mind of his cyborg arm's functions so he wouldn't drop the yuppa he was peeling in surprise.

"Is that so?" He stated level-headedly, placing the shaved yuppa into the metal bowl.

"Look." Jim sighed nonchalantly. "Just drop it, alright?" He frowned. "I mean… it's nothing, really."

"Now just wait one t'underin' moment there, Jimbo." Silver stood suddenly from his stool and pointed a finger accusingly at the young cabin boy. "Love's not a matter that's simply teh be dropped." He stated firmly.

"Oh yeah?" Jim immediately stood from his feet, challenging the cyborg.

The carving knife slipped from his fingers and clattered upon contact with the galley's wooden floor and the half-skinned yuppa hit the floor with a soft thud.

"Well…" The brunette teenager glared frankly at the cyborg cook. "Exactly how would you know?" He demanded furiously. "Have you ever been in love?" Jim narrowed his pale blue eyes. "'Cause I sure haven't, so I really don't know what this is and…"

Jim tried to search for some appropriate words but failed. He grumbled angrily and looked away from Silver.

"What the hell's wrong with me anyways?" Jim fumed, folding his arms over his chest and turning away from the older sailor.

Silver chuckled lightly, his temper cooling off. "Nothin' is wrong with yeh, Jimbo." He reassuringly placed his human hand on Jim's shoulder. "Yeh are just probably goin' through a rough time…"

Jim exhaled slowly, calming down the last of his anger. "I don't know what to do, Silver…" He shook his head glumly and rubbed the bridge of his nose in thought. "These kinds of feelings are a bit new to me."

The emotional teenager bit his bottom lip and slipped past Silver's comforting hand.

"And I don't want to hurt Ariah." Jim forcefully sat down on the stool and held his head in his hands miserably. "Not like that other guy…" He stated tightly. "I don't want to break her heart." The young man mumbled into his palms while shaking his head.

Silver looked at the moping teenager with concern. Obviously the young man had had quite a while to think out his feelings, however new they were to him.

"Jimbo…" Silver sighed after a moment's pause and sat down on his own stool. "Yeh just 'ave teh be careful." He stated simply.

The cook picked up another yuppa.

"Love's a delicate thing teh work with…" The mechanical blades in his arm carefully sliced the thick yellow skin from the yuppa. "Yeh don't want teh go fast or yeh'll ruin what yeh already 'ave."

Jim furrowed his brow in thought as he looked up from his hands. "So basically…"

He half-heartedly grabbed the fallen carving knife and the half-skinned yuppa. He cleaned off the yuppa with a nearby towel and looked at Silver.

"You're telling me to go slow with Ariah." He raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the older sailor.

"It's just friendly advice, Jimbo." Silver shrugged, placing another shaved yuppa on the growing pile in the galley. "It wouldn't hurt teh follow it…"

Jim sighed and continued to unenthusiastically peel the yuppa.

Ariah merrily hummed the tune to her fabricated song; pausing only to wrench another round barnacle from the RLS Legacy's wooden hull. She spun carelessly from side to side on the swing-like mechanism used to access the ship's bottom.

The tips of her boots tapped against the ship's hull rhythmically, usually followed by the pop of a space barnacles' suction-like grip being tugged out of place.

Morph hovered around Ariah's shoulders and transformed into a pink space whale. The young morph hiccupped jovially from the large amount of sugary purp juice he had consumed during the day. Morph's space whale form changed colours every time he hiccupped, causing Ariah to giggle slightly.

The eighteen-year-old looked across the hull of the ship and sighed. The afternoon breeze was gorgeous. The starlight was just warm enough to not be too uncomfortable. And yet… there were at least one hundred more space barnacles that needed to be detached from the hull of the Legacy.

Suddenly there was an irregularity in the solar winds, causing the ship to speed up without warning.

"Woh!" Ariah quickly grasped one of the ropes of the hull-accessing swing. Her other hand clasped the barnacle scraper tightly.

The wooden swing spun around in circles rapidly as Ariah fervently waited for the disturbance to pass. Morph childishly cowered behind Ariah's shoulder.

After a few moments of jarring tremors the solar winds eased up to their regular speed and the platform slowly unravelled the twists in its ropes.

Ariah sighed with relief, glad that she hadn't been blown out into the depths of space. She double-checked that her bungee chord was secured to the outer railing of the ship, though it had become tangled with the swing's ropes. She tugged on her bungee chord a couple of times until it finally came untangled, though was still secured to the outer railing.

With a sighed of relief, Ariah looked up at the hull and smiled contently at the sight she could see. All of the space barnacles had been knocked off by the irregular solar winds.

The scullery maid slowly pulled herself upwards towards the main deck. Morph finally removed himself from his hiding place upon discovering that the chaos had stopped.

Ariah stepped off of the platform onto the main deck. She looked around, expecting a few of the sailors to have noticed the fluctuation of the solar winds.

However, most of them hadn't moved from their positions much less noticed her arrival onto the main deck or any changes in the solar winds.

The black-haired teenager furrowed her brow in thought. It was strange finding out that such normal things in the life of a normal sailor was actually something entirely different from another person's point of view. She had discovered the startling differences from being a prisoner in the RLS Legacy's brig and from working out at the bow.

Ariah stuffed the barnacle scraper in her back pocket and she began walking towards the mess hall. She wondered inwardly if perhaps she should try metaphorically putting herself into someone else's shoes; or perhaps, into someone's pointed feet…

Hours passed, Silver managed to keep the two teenagers preoccupied and separated with their individual tasks until dinner came around.

Silver allowed Ariah and Jim to prepare the crew's dinner together while he lumbered down to the dock house. He had a feeling that Scroop was down there, and likely wanted to talk once again. This time his mind was set…

The wooden door to the longboats' storage room creaked uneasily open as Silver pushed on it. Most of the dock house was darkened by the evening's shadows; the only sounds to be heard was the subtle settling of the ship, the soft slap of the door closing and the eerie creaks of the swinging longboats on their davits.

"So you came…" Scroop's voice echoed bluntly through the darkness. "I don't recall telling you I was here." The arachnid's voice had a slight undertone of bitterness in it.

"I 'ad a hunch yeh'd be 'ere, Scroop." Silver folded his arms over his chest; he scowled a bit. "Knew yeh'd want teh continue our earlier conversation."

Scroop's golden eyes seemed to glow through the shadows of the dock house, giving the crimson alien a more menacing appearance than usual.

"Have you come up with a plan to keep Ariah in the dark?" He hissed softly.

Silver's brow furrowed. "I was thinkin'… perhaps we should just let the lass go." He gestured with his cyborg arm a bit. "Yeh know, a clean slate an' perhaps she'd 'ave more of a future in store for her."

Scroop stepped into the dim lantern light. "So basically, you want to give her a 'happily ever after'?" The crimson alien narrowed his eyes. "And what of Cabin Boy?"

Silver sighed. "Firstly, we need teh figure out exactly where we are goin', before we can both plan the mutiny, an' figure out what teh do with the dead weight." He narrowed his eyes determinedly. "Tonight's the first night of the thirteenth week, an' I doubt the captain would allow such a celebration teh slip her mind."

"You also realize that you have the thirteenth week to plan the mutiny," Scroop folded his muscular arms across his chest. "As always..."

Silver nodded. "We'll need a way teh weasel the voyage's bearings from at least one of the three people who know it; the Captain, Jim, or Doctor Doppler."

Scroop exhaled. "I'd say the doctor would be most likely." He muttered. "The fool nearly blabbed the bearings the first day he stepped onto this voyage."

"I'd say it's somewhere important." Silver rubbed his chin experimentally. "Else he'd 'ave told us when he hired us."

Scroop's mouth flattened into a frown. "Any particular ideas come to mind?"

Silver sighed. "Just some crazy dream that I 'ave been chasing for a long time."

"Flint's Trove." Scroop stated.

Silver looked up at the alien. "We'll 'ave teh see." He paused. "Spread word teh the crew of the plan; an' make sure our dead weight doesn't hear 'bout it." He stated. Then the cyborg shrugged. "I doubt Ariah will think much of it, however if the others hear 'bout it… they'll suspect something."

Scroop nodded obediently then he looked John Silver hard in the eyes. "But know this, Silver…" He stated. "If you want to release Ariah into the universe -free of us dragging her down- then you're going to have to sacrifice the secrets we've kept from her. And I don't only mean about us being pirates." The arachnid turned away and disappeared once more into the shadows.

"We'll see 'bout that, Mister Scroop." John Silver frowned bitterly, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "We'll just see…" Then he left the confines of the longboat's dock house to see how his two workers were coming along with dinner.

Author's Note:

Thanks to Whisperwings for editing! So… here are a few facts for the vegetable I made up (just because…):

-Yuppa (pl. Yuppi)-

Pronounced: You-pa (pl. You-pie)

A galactic vegetable grown commonly in shady areas and can grow in a confined shape if given the appropriate amounts of water. Shaped much like a radish with a thick yellow skin and a pale yellow edible flesh. Contains a black elliptical pit which -if ground up into a powder- is a basic ingredient for healing tonics/ointments. When eaten cooked tastes mildly tart. When eaten raw tastes very bitter. A common healing tonic, taken orally, is a ground yuppa pit usually mixed with water (or raw purp juice if the drinker wishes to slightly mask the powder's bitter taste). When in ointments, the powder of the yuppi gives off a mint-like scent.

MG#6