After about 15 minutes of swabbing, Jim angrily slapped the mop against the deck.
"Yeah, I got your Mr. Mop," he muttered scornfully. "This is unbelievable. I find a treasure map, and then I'm put on mop duty."
"I mean, what did you expect? Did you think you would just get to kick back and relax on our way there? This is a big ship, and everyone needs to do their part in order to keep it running," I explained.
"Yeah, whatever," Jim answered, realizing I was right.
A large crew member with four arms walked by, shoving Jim towards the side of the boat.
"Watch it, twerp," he threatened before walking away.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," he answered, seeming distracted.
I turned to see what he was looking at. He was staring at a few other crew members who were whispering to each other. Then one of them noticed we were staring at them and motioned for the others to be quiet.
"What are you looking at, weirdo?" the largest asked.
His head then crawled off his body, revealing a face on his chest.
"Yeah, weirdo," the torso finished.
My eyes widened. Okay, that's creepy. Suddenly, I heard a hissing sound coming from above. I slowly looked up and saw a red spider-like alien crawling down the mast towards Jim and I.
I tightened my grip around my mop. This can't be good, I thought.
"Cabin boys should learn to mind their own business," the spider-thing said, moving in on Jim.
"Why? You got something to hide, bright eyes?" he taunted.
What are you doing? I screamed in my mind. I gave him a look that said he should shut up, but he wasn't looking at me.
The spider picked him up by the shirt collar with its claw.
"Maybe your ears don't work so well," the spider hissed.
"Yeah. Ahem. Too bad my nose works just fine," Jim grumbled, turning his face away from the spider's mouth, which apparently didn't smell very nice.
"Why, you impudent little..." the spider started before slamming Jim against the main mast.
"Jim!" I exclaimed. A sudden burst of courage caused me to run towards the spider instead of going to get help.
"Let him go!" I ordered as I tried to pry the spider's claw off of Jim, but it just pushed me away.
The other crew members were cheering and egging the spider on, so I knew they would be no help at all.
I looked around for something to use as a weapon. My eyes found the discarded mop on the ground. I picked it up and used it to swipe the spider's spindly legs out from under him. It fell over and dropped Jim. I hurried over to him to make sure he was alright.
I got down on my knees on the ground next to Jim, turning away from the spider. Big mistake.
Suddenly, I felt a searing, red-hot pain on my arm. I gasped, turning to see a bleeding gash on my arm and a red claw in my peripheral vision. Then it grabbed me and threw me up into the air. He shot his claw out and pinned me to the mast by my neck.
"I'll teach you some manners, you little wench!" he growled.
He tightened his claw around my neck, cutting off my airflow. I struggled, trying to get him to release me, but it was futile.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" Jim shouted, lunging for the spider. But another crew member grabbed him and held him back.
"Any last words, girl?" he asked menacingly.
I squeaked, trying to breathe in, but of course I couldn't. He chuckled evilly. Darkness was starting to cloud my vision, and I knew I wasn't going to last much longer. Just as I gave up hope, I saw Silver walk up and put a clamp around the spider's other claw.
"Mr. Scroop," Silver said, pausing to bite into a purp. "Y'ever see what happens to a fresh purp when yeh squeeze real hard," he said, squeezing Scroop's claw, causing him to wince in pain and let me go.
I fell to the ground and gasped for air. The other alien let go of Jim. He rushed over to me and put a hand on my shoulder, reassuring me that he was there.
"What's all this then?" Mr. Arrow asked, coming down the stairs and onto the deck.
"Are you okay?" Jim asked quietly. I didn't respond, just took deep breaths as I waited for the black spots in my vision to go away.
"You know the rules. There'll be no brawling on this ship. Any further offenders will be confined to the brig for the remainder of the voyage. Am I clear, Mr. Scroop?" Mr. Arrow explained, stopping in front of the alien-spider.
Scroop looked like he was going to fight back, but then I guess he thought better of it and backed down.
"Transparently," he answered.
Mr. Arrow walked away and everyone disbanded.
"Well done, Mr. Arrow, sir! A tight ship's a happy ship, sir," Silver called, giving the departed first mate a salute. Then he picked up one of the forgotten mops.
"Jimbo, Raphaelle, I gave yeh a job," he said, pointing to the mop in his hand.
"Hey, we were doing it until that bug thing-" Jim defended.
"Belay that! Now, I want dis deck swabbed spotless! And heaven help yeh if I come back and it's not done. Morph? Keep an eye on these pups, and let me know if there be any more distractions."
Then he noticed I was still on the ground, and he saw the red stain slowly spreading on the arm of my white shirt.
"Raphaelle, come wit' me. We'll take care o' dat arm of yours," he said, motioning for me to follow. He still had a stern look on his face, but he didn't look so angry anymore.
I slowly stood up, but staggered and had to lean on the mast as I almost fell over. The black spots were still swimming in front of my eyes, disorienting me. Jim was immediately at my side, ready to help support me.
Silver walked over and gently held onto my uninjured arm as he led me down to the galley. I turned and gave Jim a fearful look. I was afraid to be alone with the cyborg. He gave me a blank stare and then resumed mopping like he had before.
***
I sat on a counter in the galley as Silver examined the still bleeding gash Scroop had made on my arm.
"Don't look too bad," he said. "I'll jus' bandage it for yeh."
He rolled the sleeve up on my shirt and started to wrap it in bandage tape. I winced as he put pressure on the wound.
"Sorry 'bout dat, lass," he said, giving me an apologetic smile.
"It's alright," I said, sighing. "I'm disappointed about the shirt though. It was one of my favorites."
"Don't worry 'bout dat; I know a way ta get teh stain out. An' sewin' it shouldn't be a problem," he said, giving me a smile.
"Thanks for helping me out there. I would've been in big trouble if you hadn't shown up," I said.
"What were yeh t'inkin', lass? Gettin' into a fight like dat? Didn't your parents ever teach yeh it t'ain't becomin' for a girl ta fight?" he asked, looking at me sincerely.
I turned my head away. This was a very sensitive subject; it made me sad and others uncomfortable.
"I don't have parents. I was raised in an orphanage," I said, staring down at the ground and fiddling with my hair.
"Ohh, I'm sorry lass. I didn't know," Silver said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
I looked up to smile at him.
"It's alright. I'm doing fine. I'm just glad I'm out of there," I said. "And I don't normally go picking fights. I usually run away from them actually. I don't know what compelled me to help Jim back there, but before I knew what was happening, there I was, caught up in all that madness."
"Well, next time be a little more careful b'fore chargin' into t'ings," Silver suggested.
"Oh trust me, I will," I said, laughing as I rubbed my hand over the bandage. Silver chuckled as well.
"Do yeh t'ink yer strong enough ta help Jimbo finish swabbin' teh deck?" he asked.
I slid off the counter and stood on my own, not feeling faint or dizzy in the slightest.
"Yeah, I think I can," I said smiling.
"Off wit' yeh then," he said, gently nudging me towards the door.
I was halfway up the stairs when Silver called me.
"Lass! I t'ink yeh dropped somet'ing," Silver said.
I came back and saw that he was holding my locket. I felt around my neck, and sure enough, it wasn't there.
"Yeah, that's my locket. Thanks," I said, taking the necklace and putting it back around my neck. It doesn't ever fall off, and the clasp wasn't broken, so I don't know how it could have fallen off now.
"T'is beautiful. Teh color reminds me of yer hair," he said.
"Thank you," I said, then headed back up the stairs.
When I walked back up on deck, Jim was swabbing only a few feet away from where I had left him. As I walked over to him, his face lit up, but then hardened.
"What were you thinking?" he scolded.
"You're welcome," I replied sarcastically, picking up my mop.
"You could have been killed!" he exclaimed. I guess we're fighting again, I sighed.
"You could have too!" I said. "You just had to be a smart mouth! You could've just walked away, you know!"
"I would've been fine," he grumbled, walking off to swab a different part of the deck, far away from me.
"You don't know that," I muttered.
Recalling my inexplicable loss of memory concerning the plot of the movie, I added to myself in a whisper,
"And neither do I."