Rattle The Stars

Chapter Fifteen: BEN

Alice crept through the dark, alien forest with Jim. She held her notebook out in front of her, sketching in a rough map of where they’d been, and where they were going, noting important landmarks as they walked along.

“You think Doc’s got a thing for the captain?” Jim asked once they’d been walking in silence a while.

“A thing?” Alice repeated quizzically. “Whatever do you mean?”

Jim sighed. “You know. A thing, like… a crush. Or maybe he fancies her.”

“Oh. I see.” Alice remembered the tender look in Dr. Doppler’s eyes and smiled. “Perhaps. He does seem to look at her differently now.”

Jim snorted. “Never would have pegged him for a cat person.”

Alice grinned. “I have a cat, back home. Her name is Dinah.” Her grin dropped a bit. “I do miss her.”

Morph chirped merrily by Alice’s face, then tucked himself under her chin and purred like a cat. She laughed and stroked his gelatinous head.

“Yeah, I know how it is with pets,” Jim replied. “You start to love them like family. Mom would never let me keep one for long. To be fair, I never could remember to feed them, so she’d end up doing all the work.” He chuckled, his eyes lit up with nostalgia.

“The poor dears,” Alice scolded with a laugh.

Something moved in the grass, and the levity fell from them in an instant. Jim yanked Alice down into the grass and put a finger over his lips.

They peered together over the strange, trumpet-shaped plants in front of them. Nothing moved, and even the gentle wind that had been blowing ceased.

“Do you see anything?” Alice whispered.

Jim shook his head. He reached for the weapon in his pocket and kept it at the ready as he sat up and glanced around.
“We’ll keep moving,” he whispered. He got slowly to his feet, and after turning in a full circle to examine their surroundings, he extended a hand to help Alice up.

They crept onward, now silent and tense with fear. Even Morph kept quiet, curled up on Alice’s shoulder with his little eyes round and fearful.

Alice noticed a shadow near a grove of trees up ahead and froze. More of those trumpet-like flowers carpeted the forest floor near the trees, and though there was no wind, something moved through them.

“There,” Alice pointed with a whisper.

“It’s probably an animal,” Jim noted, though he kept his hand on his weapon as he crept closer to the flowers.

“HI!”

Alice shrieked as a coppery robot with yellow eyes jumped out at her and knocked her to the ground.

“Oh, I’m so happy to see you!” Its voice seemed male, though it was grating and somewhat high-pitched. “A carbon-based lifeform, come to rescue me at last!” The robot threw its steely arms around Alice. “I’m so happy, I could kiss you!”

“Please don’t!” Alice protested, shoving against the robot. “Dear me, you gave me a fright.”

“I’m sorry, I’m just so excited!”

“Who are you?” Jim demanded. He hauled the robot away from Alice, but the ecstatic machine threw its arms around Jim instead and seemed to weep with joy.
“There’s two of you! Oh, happy day. Can I hug you? Let me hug you.”

“Sheesh, would you stop touching us?” Jim shoved away from the robot with an incredulous look.

“I’m sorry, I really am. It’s just, when you’ve been…marooned..for as long as I have…close to a hundred years,” he added with a mutter. The robot draped its arm around Jim’s shoulders and shouted, “YOU GO A LITTLE NUTS!”

Alice winced at the robot’s sudden outburst, and Jim gave the creature a wary, sidelong glance.

“Sorry.” The robot stepped back from Jim and brushed off his clothes, then lowered himself into a bow. “I am… uh.” The robot scratched his metal head. “My name is…” His expression morphed to one of alarm, and he grasped his head, at a loss.

Morph, on Alice’s shoulder, formed himself into a figurine of the robot, then made a noise like a cuckoo clock while Jim and Alice exchanged puzzled glances.

Jim gave Morph an amused grin and clamped a hand down over his head to quiet him.

“BEN!” The robot shouted. “Of course, I’m BEN. Bio Electronic Navigator.” His chest piece came loose, and he tucked it back in with a bashful expression. “Oops.” He turned to Jim and Alice. “And you are?”

“Alice,” Alice replied, “and this is Jim.”

“Al and Jimmy!” BEN exclaimed. “What a beautiful couple. Pleasure to meet you both.”

“It’s Jim,” Jim grumbled as he tucked his weapon into his belt. His ears burned, and he glanced sidelong at Alice as he added, “And we’re not a couple.”

Alice stifled a laugh with her hand, though she felt a bit of heat on her own face.

“Aw, no need to be shy about it, Jimmy,” BEN teased, leaning over onto Jim.

“Look, we’re kind of in a hurry,” Jim deflected as he pushed BEN away. “We have to find a place to hide, and there’s pirates chasing us…”

“Oh! Pirates!” BEN shouted. “Don’t get me started on pirates! I don’t like them.”

Jim jerked his head at Alice, beckoning for them to move on while BEN lapsed into a reverie. They walked ahead, Morph burbling along behind them.

“I remember Captain Flint,” BEN went on. “This guy had such a temper.”

Alice and Jim paused and exchanged glances. “Flint?” Alice whispered. “Isn’t he the pirate that brought the treasure here?”

Jim nodded and stepped back toward BEN.
“Wait, wait. You knew Captain Flint?”

“I think he suffered from mood swings,” BEN went on, seemingly oblivious to Jim’s question. “Personally. I’m not a therapist. Anyway. But I—“ BEN glanced at Alice. “You let me know when I’m rambling, Al.”

“But that means…you gotta know about the treasure?” Jim asked hopefully.

“Treasure?” BEN repeated.

“Yeah. You know. Flint’s trove? The loot of a thousand worlds?”

“The reason this planet exists?” Alice added.

BEN got up, his expression thoughtful, but sparks were firing from the loose wires in the back of his metal head. “Well, it’s all a little…little…little…fuzzy.” His eyes twitched as something glitched inside his robot brain. “Wait. I re-re-remember.” He stuttered as gears whirred wildly in his head. “I do. I…TREASURE! Lots of treasure. Buried in the…centroid—centroid—CENTROID of the mechanism.”

Jim and Alice looked at each other in confusion.

“And there was this big door, opening and closing, and opening and closing…”

Alice gasped as she recognized the picture displayed on BEN’s electronic eyes.
“The green door. The door I came through!”

“What?” Jim stared at her, flabbergasted.

“And Captain Flint wanted to make sure nobody could ever get to his treasure, so I helped him…”

Alice backed away as long, static sparks of electricity began to stretch out from the back of BEN’s head.

“AAAH! Not accessible! And—-reboot. Reboot. REBOOT!”

“BEN. BEN!” Jim slapped the robot, hard, and Alice clapped her hands over her mouth.

BEN gave a little cry, but the sparks coming from his head ceased. He glanced at Jim quizzically. “And you are?”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Jim waved his hands. “What about the treasure?”

“I want to say Larry,” BEN replied. Apparently, he’d lost Jim’s name during his episode.

“What about the centroid of the…mechanism, or whatever?” Jim waved his hands in the air, trying to remember.

“I’m sorry. My memory isn’t what it used to be,” BEN replied. “I’ve…lost my mind.” He twirled his fingers around his ears, then whirled Alice around and searched her pockets. “You haven’t found it, have you?”

“Dear me, whatever are you doing?” Alice shoved BEN away.

“What are you looking for?” Jim demanded, hauling BEN away from Alice once again.

“My missing piece?” BEN offered. “My primary memory circuit?” He pointed at the back of his head, where an empty space with dangling wires gaped.

“BEN.” Alice put her hands on her hips. “We have found no such thing…and we need to find a place to hide, so we must be on our way.”

BEN gazed at Jim sadly as he nodded.

“Yeah. We’ll just be moving on now.” Jim rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, then took Alice’s arm and headed away.

“Oh, well. I, uh. I guess this is goodbye.” BEN noted sadly.

Alice glanced back, but Jim pulled her arm and jerked his head in a forward motion. The message was clear: just keep moving.

“I’m sorry that I’m so…dysfunctional,” BEN added softly.

A pained expression crossed Jim’s features, and he glanced at Alice, then paused.

“Oh. The poor dear. He has been abandoned here for a hundred years,” Alice noted, touching Jim’s arm gently.

“Go ahead,” BEN said. “Please. I do understand.” He fell to his knees on the ground. “I do.” He looked as if he were about to cry. “Bye-bye.”

Morph whimpered and pouted. Alice frowned and touched her chest sympathetically.

Jim glanced at her, then at Morph, and sighed. “Look,” he told BEN. “If you’re gonna come along, you’re gonna have to stop talking.”

BEN leapt up with a twirl. “Huzzah!” He gave an exuberant laugh, then ran to Alice and twirled her around in a circle. “Oh, thank you, thank you! This is fantastic!” He ran and jumped into Jim’s arms next, and Alice laughed at Jim’s unamused expression.
“Me and my best buddies, Jimmy and Al, out looking for a…” BEN faltered as Jim glared at him. He gave a nervous chuckle. “Sorry. We’re being quiet.” He finished with a whisper as he patted Jim’s cheek.

Jim raised an eyebrow. “And you have to stop touching us!”

“Touching and talking,” BEN noted as he leapt down with a chuckle. “Those are my two big no-no’s. Got it.”

“Okay.” Jim brushed off his shirt and beckoned Alice closer. “Listen. I think we should head—“

“Hey, before we go out on our big search,” BEN put in, ignoring Jim’s incredulous glare, “would you mind if we made a quick pit stop at my place?” He crossed his legs, stepping awkwardly to the side and peeling back some tall, tubular brush. “It’s kind of urgent.”

As Alice and Jim peered through, they saw a rough home built out of the rock, in a tall spot, high above the terrain.

“It’s perfect,” Alice whispered.

“BEN,” Jim declared. “I think you just solved our problem.”


*


A while later, Jim, Alice and BEN had led Dr. Doppler, carrying the captain, into BEN’s hideaway.

“Uh, pardon the mess, people!” BEN hurried in ahead of them, knocking away cobwebs hurriedly as the doctor laid Amelia down gently on the floor. “You’d think, in a hundred years, I would have dusted a little more often. When you’re a bachelor though…you tend to let things go.”

He gave a laugh full of nervous energy, then examined the doctor as he fussed over Amelia. “Aw, isn’t that sweet? I find old-fashioned romance so touching, don’t you?” He nudged Alice with his elbow. “Hey, why didn’t Jimmy carry you?”

“I’m perfectly capable of walking,” Alice protested with a laugh. “The captain, however, is not.”

BEN rummaged around and came back with some odd looking drinks on a tray. “Wasn’t expecting honeymooners to come knocking on my door, but how about some drinks for the happy couples?” He offered the beverages to the captain and doctor first.

“No thanks, we don’t drink,” the doctor replied. He glanced back at Amelia, exchanging a tender glance with her. “And…we’re not a couple.”

“Yeah, neither are we,” Jim asserted. He flicked a nervous glance toward Alice, then grimaced as BEN shoved the tray towards him. “What’s even in those things?”

Alice laughed. “I was going to ask the same thing.”

Dr. Doppler stood after he’d gotten the captain settled, then peered around the cavern they were in, his eyes round and wondering. “Look at these markings,” he noted. “They’re identical to the ones on the map.”

Alice and Jim looked around, too.

“I think you’re right,” Jim confirmed.

“I suspect these are the hieroglyphic remnants of an ancient culture.” Dr. Doppler adjusted his spectacles and turned in a slow circle, taking it all in.

“Mr. Hawkins,” Amelia rasped as she tried to sit up. “Stop anyone who tries to approach. Ow…” She trailed off, clutching her side.

Dr. Doppler knelt beside her and took her hand. “Yes, yes. Now listen to me. Stop giving orders for a few milliseconds and lie still.”

Amelia gave him a tired smirk, her feline eyes glittering with mischief. “Very forceful, Doctor,” she teased. “Go on. Say something else.”

Dr. Doppler opened his mouth to reply, but closed it and smiled tenderly at her instead.

Alice grinned as she watched their exchange. There was definitely something going on between them…but how much of it was Amelia’s wooziness talking, and how much was reality, she didn’t know. Still, the doctor seemed to be enjoying it.

“Speaking of the map,” Jim sighed. “We still need to find it.” He glared at Morph who burbled by innocently. “Thanks to you, you little squid.”

“How do you suppose we’re going to do that? We don’t have a functioning longboat to get back to the Legacy,” Alice pointed out.

“They do, though.” He jerked his head toward the entrance to the cave. “The pirates brought it down here. If we can figure out how to steal it away from them…we could get back to the ship.”

Alice nodded. “That’s going to take a lot of planning.”

“Too bad we don’t have some coffee to drink while we think about it.” Jim shrugged. “Kinda wish I’d finished my mug earlier.” He winked at Alice.

“That was delicious coffee,” Alice agreed with a shy smile. She dug in her pocket. “At least I still have my notebook, though.” Alice pulled out the book and stick of charcoal Amelia had given her. “I can write out our ideas as we think of them. I also have the map I’ve been drawing.” She flipped open the notebook, then sketched in BEN’s hideaway at the end of the trail she’d been creating across the double-page spread.

“Alice…this is brilliant!” Jim took the map and studied it. “So this is where our longboat fell. And this is the path we took through the forest, and where we found BEN. This is great!” He grinned at her, his blue eyes wide with wonder. “Out of all the people to be shipwrecked with, I couldn’t have picked someone better.”

Alice laughed, her heart swelling with pride. “Well, Mr. Hawkins. The feeling is mutual.”

“Good thinking, Alice,” the doctor concurred, peering over Jim’s shoulder. “Seeing as we’re without the actual treasure map at the moment, this is a very valuable tool. It’ll enable us to forage for supplies and not lose our way.”

Alice flushed a bit with pride. “Happy to help.”

Amelia cried out in pain again, and Dr. Doppler hurried back to her side. “BEN! Where is that talkative robot? I need water.”

“Coming!” BEN hurried into the room, carrying a bucket sloshing with water. “You need anything else? I got tons of tools. Wrenches, shears, wire-cutters…”

“That… won’t be necessary,” Dr. Doppler assured him as Amelia’s eyes widened in worry. “Though I could use some fabric to wrap her side.”

“Oh!” Alice pulled the scarf from her hair and knelt beside Dr. Doppler. “Will this do?”

“Yes. Yes, this will do nicely, Alice. Thank you.” Dr. Doppler wrapped the scarf gingerly around the captain’s abdomen, tightening it near the injury. Amelia winced, then sighed in relief. “It seems she may have broken a rib or two.”

“That sounds very unpleasant.” Alice dripped some cool water onto Amelia’s sweaty forehead.

“Oh, don’t fuss,” Amelia insisted, pushing her hand away. “I’ve had worse.”

“If only I could make you some tea.” Alice smiled sadly at her.

“I’d kill for a good cuppa about now,” Dr. Doppler agreed.

“Did I hear someone say ‘tea’?” BEN came hurtling up out of the spherical hole near the center of his home, wearing a chef’s hat and bearing a steaming kettle.

“No way,” Jim laughed. “You have tea?”

“Captain Flint was rather fond of it,” BEN noted as he poured them all a cup. “And I mean, what’s a robot gonna do with a bunch of tea?”

“Thank you.” Alice took her cup and sniffed the tea gingerly. It had a nice aroma, and she could tell it was aged, but something was far better than nothing. They all sat in silence a moment, and even Captain Amelia seemed to smile as she sipped the warm brew.

“Told you. Cup of tea, and I’d be right as rain,” the captain noted as she sighed in relief.

“You still don’t need to be going around giving orders,” Dr. Doppler scolded.

“I do so love it when you put your foot down,” Amelia teased as Dr. Doppler gazed at her.

Jim groaned and rolled his eyes. “Could you all flirt a little more? Geez.”

“You’re one to talk, Mr. Hawkins,” Amelia shot back, piercing him with her feline eyes. “I know you were up early with my assistant this morning. Coffee date, no doubt?”

Dr. Doppler snorted a surprised laugh, while Alice blushed deeply, her mouth falling open a bit.

Amelia smirked at them both, one of her eyebrows raised as if daring them to argue.

Morph giggled and zipped around Jim’s and Alice’s heads as if to emphasize her point, while Jim crossed his arms and grumbled, his cheeks beet red.

“Hey, look!” BEN went to the mouth of the cavern. “There’s some more of your buddies!”

The four of them exchanged terrified glances. Jim’s teacup clattered to the floor as he leapt toward BEN, who’d begun to shout and wave.

“Hey, fellas! We’re over here, fellas!”

“Get down, you idiot!” Jim tackled him to the floor, but as Alice peered over them, she saw a red cyborg eye glinting in the sunlight.

Her heart fell to her feet.

They’d been found.



AlyCatAuthor