Treasure Planet: The Real Treasure

Chapter 20

Captain Amelia's pain grew worse throughout the night, and we couldn't stop worrying about her condition and our bleak situation.

"Everyone," she said at one point, "We must stay together and... and... ohh."

"And what? What?" Delbert demanded, removing his glasses and looking crazed from all the anxiety he must have been feeling, "We must stay together and what?"

"Doctor, you have wonderful eyes!" she exclaimed, before her body went slack and she lost consciousness.

"She's lost her mind!" Delbert cried.

"Well, you gotta help her," I pleaded.

"Dang it, Raphaelle, I'm an astronomer, not a doctor. I mean, I am a doctor, but I'm not that kind of doctor. I have a doctorate. It's not the same thing. You can't help people with a doctorate. You just sit there and you're useless!" Delbert angrily ranted. I knew he wasn't angry at me. He was angry at himself because he couldn't help Amelia as much as he wanted to. He looked just about ready to burst into tears, but he held himself together.

"It's okay, Doc," Jim said. "It's all right."

Jim walked over to the entrance of B.E.N.'s home and leaned against the edge, staring outside. I knew he was trying once again to come up with some sort of plan.

"Yeah, Doc," B.E.N. said. "Jimmy knows exactly how to get out of this. It's just...Jimmy has this knowledge of things. Jim, any thoughts at all?" he whispered the last sentence.

"Without the map, we're dead," Jim mumbled.

"If we try to leave, we're dead," I added, regarding the pirates camped down below.

"If we stay here..." Jim began.

"We're dead," Morph exclaimed. "We're dead, we're dead, we're dead."

Jim sighed and Morph's face fell. I pet the little shape-shifter to make him feel better.

"Well, I think Jimmy and Ralphie could use a little 'quiet time'. So I'll just slip out the back door," B.E.N. said.

"Back door," Jim and I repeated in unison, our heads whipping around to look at B.E.N.

B.E.N. was rotating one of the large metal domes on the ground, revealing a circular opening.

"Oh, yeah. I get this delightful breeze through here, which I think is important because ventilation among friends-"

"Whoa. What is all this stuff?" I asked upon seeing all of the pipes and machinery below.

"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that run through the entire course of the inside of this planet? Not a clue!" I looked at him strangely.

"Hey, Doc," Jim called. "Doc, I think I found a way out of here. Raphaelle, you stay here with the Captain and Doc."

"Oh no, I'm coming with you," I declared.

"No way, it's too dangerous," he replied.

"You promised I could come next time," I said, reminding him.

He attempted to glare at me, probably so I would back down, but this time I glared back just as fiercely. He gave in.

"Fine, but please try and be careful," he said. I nodded as we got ready to depart.

"No, no. Jim, wait. The Captain ordered us to stay-" Delbert started.

"I'll be back," Jim said before we jumped down the hole, holding hands.

"Cannonball," B.E.N. yelled, following after us.

***

We walked through the tunnel of machinery, following it in the general direction of the pirate's camp. I found it odd that the inside of the planet was metal. It made me wonder how there could be vegetation on the planet if it wasn't even organic to begin with. And this of course led me to wonder why anyone would build a planet when they could use any old remote and abandoned one. Before I could contemplate this further, we came to the end of the tunnel and opened another door like the one in B.E.N.'s home.

Turns out the other side was smack dab in the middle of the camp. We were surrounded by sleeping pirates.

B.E.N., unaware of our precarious location, shot up and shouted, "So what's the plan?"

Jim used his hands to clamp the robot's mouth shut and told him to be quiet. I glanced warily at the pirates, but none of them moved, except for Silver, who turned around in his sleep and faced the other direction.

"Okay, we're gonna get on the ship, get the map, and disable the laser cannons," Jim explained in a whisper.

"That's a good plan! I like that plan! The only thing I'm wondering is-um, how do we get there?" B.E.N. mumbled, his mouth still being held shut by Jim.

"On that," I said, pointing to a longboat that was tied to a tree. Jim smiled when he saw it.

We quietly snuck over to the longboat, untied it, and flew up towards the ship.