Author's Note:
Well… here are some more movie-oriented scenes. Thanks to Whisperwings for betaing!
Chapter 24: Light Spectrums and Dark Truths
Sleep came easily to the crew, as the majority of them were already unconscious from consuming large amounts of alcohol. Few people were up before the galaxy's faint starlight began to shine from behind the rotating space matter.
Ariah groggily awoke a few minutes before the specific galaxy's dawn. She silently reached down under hammock, wanting her full body harness but instead she grabbed her solar glider. The young woman didn't bother making the exchange and strapped her invention onto her back.
Slowly, she made her way down to the galley, searching for Morph in the pantry. The slumbering morph awoke the moment he recognized Ariah's footsteps. He hurriedly guided her back onto the main deck, in order to make it on time to see the rainbow effect on the crystallized space matter.
The exhausted and relatively sober scullery maid hardly protested against Morph's phenomenal strength. The two spectators soon reached the main deck and hurried to the bow to watch the natural event.
The three nearest white dwarves -Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri, and Gamma Centauri- shone identically through the space matter. Their positions in the Etherium resembled an equilateral triangle and gave the frozen space dust a crystallized appearance.
Morph and Ariah watched with batted breath as the starlight slowly increased in luminosity as passing obstructions moved from the three stars momentarily.
Finally the light spectrum shone through the space matter and bathed the main deck of the RLS Legacy in a multi-coloured rainbow. Ariah closed her eyes and felt the Legacy's artificial atmosphere gently warm up from the starlight.
Morph giggled as he played around in the bands of rainbow light that hit the glimmering deck. He changed colours appropriately and camouflaged in the bright light.
Ariah smiled widely as orbiting planets and asteroids slowly eclipsed the natural phenomenon. The rainbow light slowly faded and the RLS Legacy's main deck returned to its light oak colour.
The scullery maid sighed and turned away from the bow. Then an idea sprung into her mind and she smiled mischievously. Whistling innocently Ariah ambled down the length of the main deck.
From curiosity, Morph cautiously followed the black-haired teenager. When Ariah abruptly halted at the entrance to the lower decks, she managed to catch Morph in her hand before he could crash into her face.
"Shh…" Ariah pressed an index finger against her smiling lips. She released the tiny transformer and looked around. "Morphy…" Her sly smirk widened. "I have a little job for you." The young woman winked playfully.
The inquisitive morph obediently transformed into an ear; to listen closely to Ariah's hushed commands.
Jim mumbled peacefully in his sleep. He had no idea that a silent morph was currently transforming into one of his boots while a sneaky scullery maid snatched one of the originals.
Ariah gently tiptoed from Jim's hammock, carefully avoiding contact of any of the other crewmember's hammocks. She was especially cautious of the alien sleeping in the hammock above Jim's –Mister Zoff- as his light peach tentacles were dangling from the side of the makeshift bed.
Periodically, the flatula alien would exhale a series of nauseating noises, which bellowed from his tentacles with an accompanying blast of hot air. It was difficult to not laugh aloud or groan in disgust at this, but Ariah managed to contain herself.
Ariah stealthily wove through the jungle of hammocks and slumbering aliens, and she waited at the doorway to observe Jim's reaction as Morph took his commanded position in her plan. This was going to be entertaining…
Mister Zoff emitted a large flatulent breath right into Jim's face, disgusting the young cabin boy more than he wanted.
The brunette teenager waved the hot air from his face and pushed past the larger alien's tentacles. He dropped out of his hammock and tiredly reached for one of his boots. After pulling it over his socked foot he noticed that his other boot was hopping away.
"Morph?" The half-asleep teenager grumbled. "Morph, knock it off. It's too early for this…" He sighed tiredly.
Jim pawed at the bouncing boot, unenthusiastic about retrieving it and more keen on returning to his hammock. The floating boot agilely manoeuvred around the sluggish cabin boy and gave him a hard kick in the backside. Jim fell onto his face and cast aside his temporary slothful ways.
"Morph!" Jim's head snapped up, one hand held back his messy brunette bangs as he glared forward at the little boot.
The boot sprouted a tongue at its toe and it blew a loud raspberry at the cabin boy. Then Morph shifted back into his regular form and laughed childishly at Jim. The tiny transformer zipped over to a now laughing Ariah.
Jim glared sternly at the duo of tricksters. Ariah smiled mischievously and waved Jim's boot around in the air, as if offering a treat to a pet. She giggled at Jim's angered expression. Ariah swiftly hopped to her feet and ran out of the crew's quarters towards the main deck. Morph immediately followed her, still giggling jovially at Jim's expense.
"Come back here!" Jim leapt to his feet and bolted towards Morph and Ariah.
"Come back here!" Morph mimicked happily.
Jim ran quickly after the two schemers with one boot on, intending to retrieve his other stolen boot as soon as possible. Ariah skipped happily up the steps to the main deck, now immersed in golden starlight. Morph was at Ariah's shoulder; half keeping an eye on their pursuer, half looking towards where they were going.
Ariah quickly shoved Jim's boot into Morph's waiting mouth as the aforementioned cabin boy's arms encircled around her waist and she was pulled backwards.
The two teenagers crashed back first onto the glimmering deck. Ariah was sprawled across Jim's lap with her waist in his arms. Her head rested against his shoulder and they were both panting from the short morning run.
"Gotcha…" Jim whispered shortly into Ariah's ear.
Ariah giggled. "Good morning, Mister Hawkins."
The look Jim gave Ariah told her plainly that he wasn't in the mood for small talk. She turned around in Jim's arms, lifted herself above him and looked down at his face with her hands planted at either side of his head.
"Now what are you going to do to me?" She batted her eyelids innocently at the cabin boy but the seductive undertone in her voice suggested otherwise.
Jim chuckled and sat up, meeting lips with Ariah's. The tips of Jim's fingers gently brushed the side of Ariah's face as the scullery maid wrapped her arms around Jim's neck and pulled him closer.
A muffled -yet obnoxious- giggle interrupted their embrace and the two teenagers looked at the entrance of the mess hall. Morph held Jim's boot in his mouth with a look in his eyes as if to say 'you know you want it'.
Both Jim and Ariah quickly leapt to their feet and began the pursuit once more, this time for the sly shape-shifter. Morph dove below the grated window that allowed light into the galley from its ceiling, dropping Jim's boot as he fazed through the holes.
"You little squit…" Jim snatched his boot and played whack-a-mole against the tiny transformer with his boot. Morph had changed into an image of Jim's head and repeated the young man's phrase over and over as while splitting into heads fit for each hole.
Finally Morph disappeared into the confines of the galley through the grated window while Jim batted his boot against the deck. Jim looked curiously down through the grated window, searching for the pink blob.
Jim glanced over his shoulder at Ariah, who rolled her copper-brown eyes at his juvenile behaviour, but not in a disproving way. Then Jim noticed a glint of metal, just around Ariah's neck.
"What this?" Jim walked up to Ariah, fishing out a small piece of metal attached to a woven rope of braided leather.
Ariah chuckled. "It's my good luck necklace." She smiled. "I made it recently, since I've had such good fortune."
Jim smiled up at Ariah and allowed the necklace to slip from between his fingers. The pendant of metal was without a doubt the same makeshift lock pick she had used to get out of the brig.
"C'mon…" Ariah gave the cabin boy a quick peck on the cheek. "We've got a morph to catch." She motioned for him to follow her down into the galley.
Jim did so, while simultaneously pulling on his boot, of course.
The cabin boy tripped over the last step and fell flat on his face when he successfully pulled on his boot. Ariah chuckled lightly at Jim and then looked around the mess hall for the hiding morph.
The RLS Legacy's scullery maid listened closely for familiar chirps and squeaks to no avail. She searched under tables and benches for a small patch of pink or a quivering camouflage.
Finally, Jim shouted "Busted!" and dove headfirst into a barrel of purps. Obviously he had located Morph.
Ariah smiled and then suddenly heard some angry shouts above the deck and some lumbering footfalls coming down into the mess hall.
The scullery maid scrambled to her feet only to trip over a loose board in the galley's once immaculate flooring and fall through the doorway that led into the RLS Legacy's pantry. She landed on her left, uninjured shoulder on the first step of the stairway into the dark pantry.
Moaning softly from the minute ache, Ariah pulled herself to her feet. The sounds of more sailors approaching grew, but a feeling of hostility scented the air thickly.
Ariah hid behind the half-closed pantry door and listened carefully to the sailors that had recently entered the mess hall. A small slit between the pantry's door and its frame allowed her enough space to see what was going on in the mess hall.
Jim looked out a hole in the purp barrel at the gathering sailors. He held Morph tightly between his hands, concealing the young transformer from the conversation.
"Look. What we're saying is that we're all sick of this waiting, Silver…" A loud complaint reverberated through the crowd.
"Why can't we just throw the dead weight overboard and take what we can get?" Another voice demanded agitatedly.
"There are only three of them left."
"We're wanting to move."
"We won't move 'til we got the treasure in hand." The dangerously intimidating voice of John Silver barked at the gathered pirates.
Jim gasped inwardly as he squinted through the small hole. Ariah reacted similarly and then she listened closely to the conversation.
"You've already had thirteen weeks to plan this mutiny!" The banshee-like shriek of Birdbrain Mary echoed loudly. "Why can't you make up your blooming mind?" She screeched impatiently.
Many sailors grunted in agreement to the two-armed female's comment.
"Listen teh me, all of yeh." Silver's voice deepened as he spoke gravely. "Yeh know the terms I ask for plannin' mutinies."
"Aye…" The low voice of the head section of an alien –named Oxy- agreed. He climbed onto the table using his brown tentacles -which appeared to be dreadlocks- off of his other half. "Thirteen weeks and we're to keep our mouths shut around Ariah and other dead weight." Oxy stated bluntly.
Ariah's hands balled up into fists as the reality of being played by pirates –who she had thought of as friends- came crashing down upon her.
"Exactly." Silver stated firmly. "This is the thirteenth week… an' I guarantee that we'll 'ave moved in, before it's ended."
There was a murmur about the crowd as they quietly discussed the matter.
"Why do we 'ave to keep out traps shut 'round Ariah?" The nasal voice body section of an alien –named Moron- enquired, contradiction his other half's comment. "We've all seen how good she can fight, she'd be as good a pirate as any of us…" He stated.
There were scattered grunts of agreement in the crowd.
Silver sighed in frustration, his cyborg eye changed from its usual amber colour to a bright red because of his growing anger.
"How many times do I 'ave teh tell yeh pea brains?" The cyborg growled, balling his mechanical hand into a fist. "I say what's teh say, an' if I say that Ariah's not goin' teh be a part of this, then she won't be part of this… no questions!" He enforced his point by smashing his mechanical fist onto the mess hall table, denting it deeply and causing some of the nearby pirates to jump in fright.
Ariah bit down on her bottom lip and her fingernails were pressed firmly against her palms to keep back the urge to scream in frustration.
This was why she never made it through the thirteenth week in all of her years as a sailor… she'd had the wool pulled over her eyes from a trick created by a sailor she had come to trust immensely.
The betrayal felt as painful as if someone had stabbed a sword through her and pinned her in place against the pantry's wall. Ariah's copper-brown eyes watered slightly as she continued to listen closely to the talking pirates.
"I say we kill them all…" Scroop's noticeable voice echoed emptily through the mess hall, silencing the other sailors.
Silver turned towards the shadowy arachnid. "I say what's teh say!" He snapped, furious that the rebellious arachnid hadn't gasped the concept. "Disobey me orders again… like that stunt yeh pulled with Arrow…" Ariah and Jim's eyes widened simultaneously at this shocking comment. "…An' so help me, yeh'll be joinin' him!"
The pirate captain forcefully shoved the crimson alien against the purp barrel containing Jim and Morph, jostling it against the wall of the mess hall.
Ariah flinched; she hoped desperately that Jim and Morph were all right and more fervently that the bloodthirsty pirates hadn't yet discovered them.
A sickening mental image of Jim being torn apart by furious pirates –similar to when she was attacked by the canine aliens in Gyrogga- flashed momentarily through her mind before she managed to shake it off.
Jim quickly snatched Morph out of the air, clutching the tiny transformer closely so he wouldn't yell out from the jolt.
"Strong talk," Scroop hissed at the pirates' leader. "But I know otherwise." He reached his left pincer into the nearly emptied purp barrel. Ariah covered her mouth so she wouldn't shout out in fright.
Jim dodged Scroop's reaching red and black pincer and he quickly handed the arachnid a purp, without being too suspicious.
"Yeh got somethin' teh say, Scroop?" Silver demanded.
"It's that boy…"' Scroop held the purp between his pincers. "Methinks you have a soft spot for him." Scroop's crimson pincers pierced the skin of the purp at 'spot'.
The mutinous pirates jeered in agreement, turning on their leader.
Silver thought for a moment –realizing the tight corner he had been pushed into- and then he quickly fabricated a reasonable comeback.
"Now, mark me, the lot of yeh." John Silver barked angrily. "I care about one thing, an' one thing only!" He pointed his cyborg hand. "Flint's trove." Silver's eyes glimmered dangerously at the mention of the legendary treasure. The leader scowled bitterly. "Yeh think I'd risk it all for the sake... of some nose-wiping little whelp?"
Scroop cast aside the purp and turned to face the captain. "What was it now?" He smirked maliciously. "'Oh, you got the makings of greatness in yeh…' " The arachnid mockingly mimicked the cyborg cook from a time that Ariah couldn't recognize but one that Jim knew clearly.
"Shut yer yap!" Silver retorted sharply. "I cozied up teh that kid teh keep him off our scent." He pointed a cyborg finger at the arachnid. "But I ain't gone soft."
The pirates' discussion strayed no further as the heard Onus's loud voice called out through the RLS Legacy.
"Land ho!"
The crew of ruffians jeered with excitement as they eagerly rushed from the mess hall up to the main deck.
Jim's heart sank to his stomach as he released Morph from between his palms. The tiny transformer quickly whizzed from the interior of the purp barrel to go see what all the excitement was about, having not heard the conversation and realizing the problem.
It occurred to Jim that Ariah was also hidden somewhere in the mess hall. He quickly climbed out of the purp barrel and searched the mess hall for the black-haired teenager.
The young man finally located Ariah behind the pantry door. She had sunk down from the wall to the ground. Her arms were curled around her knees and her face was buried in her arms. The young woman was undoubtedly crying.
Jim did the only thing he could think of. He knelt down to Ariah's level, wrapped his arms around Ariah's shoulders and pulled her close against him.
The sobbing scullery maid buried her face against Jim's chest and allowed her feelings to continuously flow through her medium of tears.
No amount of rib jabbing was going to control this powerful emotion. It was the emotion that was the product of a betrayal; and one that made the teenagers feel more lost than they had ever expected to be.
Author's Note:
Um, I guess that this story's coming to a close, much faster than I anticipated.
Well this should be fun!
MG#6