Rattle The Stars

Chapter Twenty-One: Escape from Treasure Planet

They ran through the exploding core of the planet, dodging falling lasers and flaming balls of light. As they ducked through the triangular green door, they paused for breath near the green console.

“Silver.” Jim panted for breath. “You gave up?”

“Just a lifelong obsession, Jimbo.” Silver wiped at his eyes. “I’ll get over it.”

Morph burbled out from under Alice’s hair and snuggled up to Silver’s face.
“Aww, Morphy.” Silver nuzzled the little blob affectionately.

Jim put a hand on Alice’s shoulder. He avoided her gaze, but his jaw was set. “We need to get you home.”

Alice’s heart fell. Home. That’s why she’d come on this voyage, after all. Dinah was waiting for her, and her sister. They were worried nearly to death for her, she was sure.

Yet, she felt a crushing grief as Jim led her to the green console.

“Where’d you say you were from, lass?” Silver asked. His cyborg hand scratched his chin. “Didn’t sound familiar to me.”

“England.” Alice’s voice was barely a whisper as she stared at the whirling nebulas and galaxies in the green globe. “My planet is called Earth, I suppose.”

“Earth.” Jim’s eyes widened. “Earth. That’s what…that’s what Montressor used to be called.”

“What?” Alice stared at him, aghast. “Used to be?”

“Yeah. We learned about it in school.” Jim shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“You don’t think you…time traveled…do you, lass?” Silver offered. “A long shot, for sure…but perhaps you’re from the past.”

“Is that even possible?” Alice scoffed.

“Some say it is.” Jim shrugged. “Either way, I don’t know of anywhere named Earth.” He swiped through the planets and galaxies on the console, but the three of them glanced around in alarm as the planet beneath their feet shook and trembled.

“We’ll have to hurry this along,” Silver growled.

“But if we can’t find Earth…if it no longer exists…” Alice’s voice broke with disbelief. “How can I ever get home?”

A deep rumble sounded above them, and they glanced up in disbelief as the Legacy lowered to the ground.

BEN poked his head over the side, his blue eyes alight as he tapped something on his chest piece.

“Aloha, everyone! Hurry and get in—we got approximately four minutes and thirty eight seconds til planet’s destruction!”

Alice’s heart tore in two. “Oh, dear, me.” She turned back to the console, but she had no idea where to even begin looking for her planet. “Oh, dear, what do I do?”

Silver stilled her frantic hands as she swiped through the galaxies. “Come on, lass. If we leave you here, you won’t be going home either way.”

She exchanged a terrified glance with Jim and Silver. Silver’s eyes were comforting and grim. Jim’s gaze was sad, but it concealed a fiery hope, and even some hesitant joy, glimmering under the surface.

Alice took a deep breath and took comfort in that hope. Dinah would be alright. So would her sister—she’d made it clear her life would be so much better without Alice, anyway.

Alice had found her home, long before they’d ever reached the portal.

Jim took her hand, and he helped her run for the Legacy. Silver leapt up first and hauled the two of them in, and then they were off, racing away from the glowing green door as the planet shook and trembled with the force of the detonations within it.

At the helm, Alice was shocked to see Dr. Doppler instead of Amelia.

“Left!” Shouted Amelia, and Alice saw her curled up near the helm. “Left! Now right!”

“I know, I know!” Dr. Doppler retorted. “Will you just let me drive?”

Alice chuckled, then knelt beside the captain. Jim followed suit, his hand on Alice’s shoulder.

“Alice, dear girl! I’d wondered where you’d gone off to. And Mr. Hawkins. Good to see you again.”

“We’re both here.” Alice smiled with resignation, then glanced back at Jim.

He grinned at Alice, then glanced back at the Captain. “How are you feeling?”

“Could be better, if my assistant could make me a cup of tea.” Amelia winked.

“I’d hold off on the tea until we’re out of the woods,” Dr. Doppler remarked. “All this debris is making it hard to steer.”

Alice glanced around as explosions shot boulders, metal and trees high into the sky around them.

A sudden crash behind them made them all turn and gape.
A fireball had crashed into the solar sails, ripping the mast down with them.

The ship shuddered, then slowed.

“No! Blast it!” Captain Amelia growled.

“Thrusters at only thirty percent of capacity, Captain,” BEN reported as he tapped into his chest piece.

“Thirty percent?” Doctor Doppler’s gaze widened as he calculated in his head. “That means…we’ll never clear the planet’s explosion in time.”

The wind left Alice, and she and Amelia exchanged worried glances. Jim met Alice’s gaze, but he looked back toward the portal, then at a glowing, sputtering piece of engine that the mast had crashed into.

“We have to turn around,” Jim declared.

“What?” Captain Amelia’s feline eyes widened.

“There’s a portal back there.” Jim leapt down from the helm and ran to the broken engine. “It can get us out of here!”

“Pardon me, Jim,” Dr. Doppler snarked, “but doesn’t that portal open onto a raging inferno?!”

“Yes!” Jim grunted as he pulled a piece of siding off the ship. “But I’m gonna change that. I’m gonna open a different door.”

“Captain, I just don’t see how…” Dr. Doppler began, but Silver cut him off as he traipsed toward Jim.

“Listen to the boy!”

“One minute, twenty nine seconds til planet’s destruction!” BEN announced.

“Oh dear, oh dear.” Alice hurried down to help Jim as he threw together his makeshift solar surfer.

“What do you need, lad?” Silver asked.

“Some way to attach these two pieces.” Jim pushed the engine and the metal panel together.

“The scarf, lass,” Silver urged.

Alice handed him the fabric, which she’d stuffed into her pocket. He looped it around both pieces, and as Jim held it taut, Silver flipped his cyborg arm and welded the metal pieces together, and he and Jim lifted the contraption onto the side of the Legacy. Alice lifted with them, and Morph did, too, with an adorable little grunt.

“You are a helpful little thing,” Alice teased.

Jim leapt up onto his makeshift surfer while Silver held it steady.

“Okay.” Jim glanced back at Silver and Alice. “Now. No matter what happens, keep the ship heading straight for that portal.”

Silver and Alice exchanged sad glances.

“Fifty-eight seconds!” BEN screeched from the helm.

“Oh, dear,” Alice choked. “Do be careful.” She gave Jim her scarf, and he tied it around his waist and patted it.

“I’ll try my best.” Then, with one last, pained glance at her and Silver, he sped off toward the portal.

“Well, you heard him!” Silver shouted up to the helm. “Get this blasted heap turned round!”

Amelia’s cat ears lowered in surprise. Then she turned to Dr. Doppler.
“Doctor, head us back to the portal.”

“Aye, captain.” The doctor spun the wheel, and they made a 180 turn.

Alice limped around the deck, trying to keep Jim in her sights as he flitted deftly through the protruding rock and debris. She smiled, though her veins raced with adrenaline, watching him fully in his element.

He’d been right. He was born to fly.

*

Jim raced through the falling debris and clouds of fire, his body falling into a familiar rhythm as he navigated the makeshift surfer. Rock jutted up in front of him, but with a subtle shift of his weight, he skirted around it. He kept his sights on the glowing green door up ahead.

This was just like the industrial park, just like all the machinery there. That had been his training ground.

He was made for this.

His engine sputtered, but Jim stepped back onto a little flap of metal, a pedal he’d made, to reignite the spark. It flamed back to life, and he grinned and grasped Alice’s scarf around his waist—his lucky charm.

He’d come this far. He wouldn’t let himself fail her—and the rest of the crew—now.
A metal wall rocketed up in front of him, and he skated against it, sending a shower of sparks up behind him. As he got free, he caught sight of the door again and revved toward it.

His engine died suddenly, and he stepped on his pedal several times, but the engine stayed dead.

“No!” Jim slammed his foot down as he began to spiral down towards the planet. “Come on!” Further and further down into a crevice he fell, down towards a river of flaming magma.

He studied the metal wall of the crevice. He knew it was risky, but he had to try.
He kicked the surfer around so that the engine faced the wall, then slammed it against the crevice, letting metal screech and scrape against metal, hoping it would be enough to reignite the flame in the engine.

After a few seconds, the engine caught fire, then sent him rocketing straight up.

“Yes!” Jim soared up, noting the Legacy sailing past overhead. He pulled out of his ascent and leveled out just in front of the Legacy with a graceful loop.

Tucking his arms in and his head down, he barreled as fast as he could go towards the door. He had to reach it ahead of them.

The green globe materialized as he sped closer and closer, and he leaned out, reaching his hand out as BEN hollered out a countdown from the ship above and just behind him.

“Seven! Six! Five!”

Jim made himself even smaller, then leaned a little further to the side. His eyes locked onto the crescent moon shape of the Montressor Space Port.

“Four! Three! Two! One!”

Now or never. Jim reached out, aiming for the Space Port, and held his breath.

*

“Hold on, lass!” Alice felt Silver’s arms close around her as they both watched in terror from the side of the Legacy.

Jim shot past. His fingers brushed the tiny image of the space port, and the portal, which had been churning with fiery explosions, opened out onto clear, safe space…with the glowing crescent in the distance.

Alice could barely catch her breath as they sailed through the portal. A huge explosion burst behind them, but now they were sailing through the calm stars. Bits of charred debris blasted past them, then dissipated as the portal went down with the planet. The glowing green door blinked out of existence, and the crew burst into raucous shouts and cheers.

“Oh, my stars,” Alice patted her heart. “He did it!”

“You done it, boy!” Silver pumped his cyborg arm into the air as Jim screeched in triumph and surfed a victory lap around the Legacy. “Didn’t I say the lad had greatness in him?”

Morph burst into fireworks, and Amelia and Dr. Doppler hugged. Alice laughed as they pulled back from each other and smiled.

Even the captured pirates tied up in the brig were cheering and whooping, happy to have their lives.

“Way to go, Jimmy!” Shouted BEN, waving his chest piece in the air.

Jim sailed in and landed on the deck. Silver scooped him up into a huge bear hug, then laughed and ruffled his hair.

“I’d be proud to recommend you to the Interstellar Academy,” Captain Amelia remarked, smiling proudly at Jim. “They could use a man like you.”

“Just wait til your mother hears about this!” Doppler cried, pulling Jim into a hug. “Of course, we may downplay the life-threatening parts.” He laughed nervously.

“Jimmy! That was unforgettable! I know you don’t like touching…but get ready for a hug, big guy, cause I gotta hug ya!” BEN jumped into his arms, and Jim laughed and hugged him back. “Oh! You hugged me for once! Oh, I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.” BEN broke down into sobs on Jim’s shoulder.

“Hey, BEN. It’s all good.” Jim chuckled as he set him down, then glanced up with a broad grin as Alice approached. “Hope you weren’t too scared, Miss Tea Cozy.”

“You were brilliant,” Alice gushed. “Absolutely brilliant.”

Jim untied her scarf from around his waist, then kissed it and handed it back to her with a wink. “I had a good luck charm.”

Alice grinned. “Nonsense. It was all your amazing talent and brains.”

“And the fact that I had my people to fight for.” Jim stepped closer and took her hands. “I couldn’t take you home, and I’m sorry.” His smile faded. “I don’t think there’s any going home now.”

Alice smiled. “Of course there is.” She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “My home is with you, and your wonderful mother, and that inn we have to rebuild for her.”

Jim’s blue eyes widened. “You…you mean it? You’re gonna come back with me to Montressor?”

“Where else would I go?” She gave him a shy grin. “Besides. I’ve yet to have that solar surfer ride. After seeing the way you fly, Mr. Hawkins…there’s no way I could miss out on that.”

Jim smirked, then swayed on his feet. Alice hugged him tight, not letting him fall. “Tell you what,” he mumbled sleepily. “We get back and have a cup of your tea and a nap, and I’ll take you out first thing.”

“It’s a deal,” Alice laughed.





AlyCatAuthor