All Is Found

Chapter 20: Back to the Legacy

Night approached quicker than I thought. Amelia was in no better state, she got more tired as time went on. I rubbed the sore spot on my arm, feeling it burn and ache. I wonder if something had gotten itself in the wound. Jim nudged me in my side so I stopped bothering the area. We both stood near the captain with Delbert as B.E.N kept watch. "Everyone." She said. "We must state together and, and..." She huffed leaning back and closing her eyes.

"And what? What?" Delbert asked. He took off his glasses from worry and stress. "We must stay together and what?"

She opened her eyes for a moment. "Doctor, you have wonderful eyes." She fell back asleep with a smile.

"She's lost her mind!"

    I wanted to laugh from Delbert's response but knew that it wasn't the right time. "Well, you gotta help her." Jim said.

    "Dang it, Jim. 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!" His hands clenched his head in stress and fear. I went over and patted him on the shoulder.

    "It's okay Doc." I said. "It's okay." Jim walked over to the entrance of the place as B.E.N came over. I stood up and walked to the entrance to look out at the night sky.

    "Yeah Doc!" The robot said. "Jimmy and Emmie know exactly how to get out of this. It's just, it's just they have this knowledge of things." He walked over to us and leaned in close. "Guys, any thoughts at all?"

I looked at the shape of the Legacy, clear as crystal against one of the bright green rings of the planet. "Without the map, we're dead." I said. I glanced at Jim and saw him looking down. My gaze followed his direction to see a fire in the distance.

"If we try to leave, we're dead." Jim said. He turned away to think. "If we stay here..."

"We're dead!" Morph mimicked. "We're dead! We're dead!" Jim sighed and turned to look back outside.

"We need to sneak out." I mumbled. I saw the brunette boy giving me a look that screamed, 'How?'

"Well, I think that both Jimmy and Emmie could use a little quiet time. So I'll just slip out the back door." B.E.N said. We both turned around and looked at him.

"Back door?" We repeated. Jim sounded surprised while I sounded a little smug. I gave him a look that answered that question. We both saw him pushing a sphere in his home, on the other end was a hole with light shining. We went over to help him.

"Oh yeah, I get this delightful breeze through here, which I think is important. Because ventilation among friends..." He rambled. We both looked through the hole and pipes, walkways, and blinking lights in the depths of the planet.

"Whoa." Jim said. "What is all this stuff?"

"You mean the miles and miles of machinery that run through the entire course of the inside of this planet? Not a clue."

I gave him a look. "If you didn't have a clue then why did you answer?"

"I knew?"

I sighed and hopped on the edge. "Whoa, hang on a second." Jim said, grabbing my shoulder. "You're not going." I got confused. When does he act like he's responsible for me?

"Why not?" I asked.

"Your arm! It's injured, you should stay here with the doctor and captain."

"I'll be fine. If I can survive a supernova and a longboat crash, then I can handle this." I gave him a look that begged him to let me go. He sighed and let my shoulder go.