In a search for the treasure

“Ah, there you are. Mr. Arrow, were you hiding from me?” Amelia laughed at those climbing out of the hold. “No way, ma’am…” Arrow was confused and wanted to lie something about checking the ship, but his whole being protested, because he had never lied to the captain. “Several crew members saw you thrown overboard during the storm. Is this true?” Amelia asked in a firm voice. “Yes, ma’am.” Arrow did not understand what this conversation was leading to. “Let’s go to my cabin. I need your incident report. Mr Scroop, you are free,” Amelia said. In her quarters, she allowed herself to speak directly. “Jim saw you falling off the yard. Tie two ropes next time, Sam, if bungee jumping is your thing. Ahem.” She suddenly became more serious. “He also saw how Scroop 'tried to throw you overboard'. Is this true? Did he try to cut the rope?” Her face was filled with worry and pain from the near tragedy. “Honestly, ma’am, I don’t know what Scroop was trying to do, but he dragged me onto the ship during the wave. If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have made it,” Arrow said. Amelia breathed a sigh of relief. “Great, the cabin boy was wrong.” Her look became playful again. “Is that why you hid in the hold? Did you thank him? You old ruin!” She laughed. The first mate did not know how to answer, so as not to lie. He did not know how to lie to the captain at all. “It’s a catastrophe”. “Yes, we… ahem… discussed what happened.” Poor Arrow didn’t know what to say. “Relax, Sam, I’m not serious!” She laughed. The next day Jim couldn’t sleep in the morning. Also, Morph stole his shoe. Jim ran after him to the deck, but Morph teasingly leaked through the bars of the mess. The cabin boy went to look for a pink blot, but Mr. Arrow stopped him on the stairs. “Mr Hawkins! Go to the captain’s cabin. She needs an assistant.” They went up to the captain’s office. In addition to Amelia, there was also a doctor. “Mr Hawkins, great, I need your help,” she said. “According to the coordinates we received from the map last time, the planet must be somewhere in this quadrant, but without an exact mark, we can search for it for a long time. Please open the map.” As Jim fiddled with the sphere, Amelia continued. “Gentlemen! We have come close to the goal of the trip, but we must not relax! No one knows what awaits us on this planet. There may be hostile native species, dangerous conditions, or anything. There may be an active pirate base! Therefore, Doctor, you remain on the ship. No complaints! In addition, the danger that the bandits you hired will try to take possession of the treasure cannot be ruled out. In this case, your goal, and the goal of all of us is to save our lives. We can send a fleet later to secure the treasure.” “But, captain!” Jim protested. “That’s an order, Mr. Hawkins.” At the same time, a pirate meeting was taking place in the mess. Silver was speaking. “Everything is going great! Yesterday the boy blabbed that we are approaching the goal. Everyone, listen to the plan! We land on the planet, find treasures, and tie everyone up.” “Tie them up? Silver, we don’t need any witnesses!” Hands interrupted him. “Shut up, Hands! Hostages will be useful for us to bargain with the fleet. For the captain’s life, they will agree on any conditions.” Silver tried to convince the audience. Scroop listened in silence, already fantasizing about what he would do with his hostage. Silver continued. “But first we need to make sure that the treasures are real and that nothing will prevent us from taking them! Is it clear for everyone?” There was a murmur of approval. “I’m talking to you, brainless insect!” The pirate leader turned himself to the mantavor. Scroop was standing in the corner of the room suspiciously quiet. Not good. “You promised usss treasuress, Silver, and if we don’t get them, only you will be to blame.” Scroop also thought that, from the pirates' profit point of view, killing the hostages was the best option. But with the prospect of getting a serious share of gold and a tied first mate, he chose to remain silent. “Arrow, of course, will not give up, but in exchange for the boy’s life, it may very well be. The main thing is to take what is mine, and then it will be possible to disappear, to hide myself for a while,” he thought. “The Planet!” The cry of the lookout came as a surprise to pirates. Everyone, who only fit into the boat and whom the captain allowed, descended to the planet. Even Silver climbed on the excuse that he was a good fighter, although he, as a cook, was not supposed to go ashore. Scroop used the same excuse as he didn’t want to miss out on all the fun. It was decided to leave Doppler on the ship. Jim opened the map and the whole company went along the green beam. When the beam suddenly broke, Jim did not lose his head and examined the rock under the end of the guiding thread. Inserting the map into a recess in the stone, he opened a portal to a distant part of space, to everyone’s surprise. Silver would have preferred him to open Flint’s gold vault, but it was interesting to see how that old dog, Flint, moved around unnoticed by the patrols. Having used ingenuity, surprising for a human teenager of his age, Jim finally opened the coveted teleport to the center of the planet. The pirates burst into an unhealthy laugh. They seemed to be ready to attack without orders and were only held back by Silver’s icy calm. The captain and her assistant also carefully controlled their emotions. The team rushed to the treasure unnecessarily hastily. No one noticed the barely visible laser beam at the entrance to the vault inside the planet. Seeing the mountains of gold, the pirates forgot all decorum and Silver’s plan and began to fill bags with jewelry. Arrow looked at this picture, figuring out how to protect the captain from the thugs. If earlier he had only suspicions, now the picture turned out to be a telltale. Amelia tried to wedge between Silver and Jim to push the cabin boy away from the pirate. Arrow doubted she was strong enough to deal with the cyborg. Scroop stalked after the boy, intending to pull him out from under guard. He needed the hostage alive, otherwise, there was no way he could get Arrow in his claws. The mantavor wasn’t sure who was protecting Jim more: Silver or Amelia. The captain, along with the head pirate and Jim, boarded Flint’s old ship, and Scroop sneaked up behind them. The captains quietly discussed how it happened that the old pirate ended his life here, thinking actually about something completely different. Their conversation was interrupted by Hands. “Silver! Traitor! You conspired with those imperial pigs! Brothers, kill them all!” Shouted the thug. “Oops, an unexpected twist,” thought Scroop, “I need to change the plan.” “What does that mean, Silver?” Amelia asked. Silver remained calm. “Hands, are you okay? Someone, take him to the ship.” The head of the pirates tried to defend himself. The team was no longer afraid of him. A bad sign. A minute ago, Silver himself was looking for a good moment to unexpectedly attack the captain and, most importantly, her guard. But the brainless team, as always, failed at the simplest job — rushed to collect gold instead of work, and the moment was lost. Bloodthirsty pirates rose from everywhere, besotted by mountains of treasures. Sabers immediately appeared in their hands, paws, and tentacles. “Drop your weapon, Hands.” Arrow walked slowly towards the ship so as not to overheat an already tense situation. “In the name of the Empire, I order you all to lay down your arms and surrender,” he demanded. Everyone turned to look at him. “Fool, who asked you,” Scroop thought. He guessed that the first officer was trying to draw danger away from the captain and Jim. Well, he definitely managed to divert all the attention to himself. It was necessary to urgently save the situation otherwise, in the end, there would be no first mate to take as a prisoner. “Handsss, you are a traitor. If before they were unaware of your intentionss, now it’s obvious for everyone,” the mantavor said. “I propose to divide the gold among all and drift apart peacefully.” With these words, Scroop was still stealthily sneaking up on the boy. “I agree,” Silver said, also imperceptibly pushing Jim behind himself. “Oddly enough, I also agree. We don’t need bloodshed.” Amelia agreed unexpectedly. Arrow looked focused. The unwillingness to let the pirates go and the concern for friends were fighting in him. The officer is always obliged to protect civilians. Silver continued. “The strengths are uneven, but we all don’t want a senseless massacre, do we?” He said. “There are heaps of gold! Fill the bags and drag them into the boat!” Some of the pirates obeyed and returned to the forgotten occupation of stuffing sacks with gold. “So that we share the loot with these rats? Where is your pride Silver? Are you trying for the boy? Or for this ragged cat?” Hands was deliberately warming up the crowd of bandits. Some no longer knew what to do and just waited for Silver’s answer. Others surrounded the heroes. They saw the numerical advantage and did not have to worry about the cabin boy’s life. “Listen, everyone! Those who now turn against me will die! With no exceptions.” Silver said confidently. “Listen to your leader, I don’t think he’s kidding!” Amelia screamed. Unfortunately, the gang, warmed up by the pirate, was already unstoppable. “It is useless to convince such people,” Silver decided. The cyborg fired at Hands with his laser cannon and he fell dead. Many things happened at the same time. Amelia pushed Jim behind the chest of gold and prepared to fire back at the pirates. Silver took a position on the other side of the chest and had already begun to repel attacks of the first, most zealous bandits. Several pirates rushed to Arrow. Scroop covered half the distance between him and the first mate in one leap. He needed the XO alive, so Scroop planned to slaughter the pirates while they had their backs turned to him and fought the officer. Fortunately, Arrow wasn’t made of wax and could survive serious injuries. And finally, the pillars of the vault exploded, collapsing the shell of the planet directly onto the golden core. Amelia and Silver fired back shoulder to shoulder. Arrow, surrounded by four enemies, fought off attacks with a saber. He did great. A couple of times the officer managed to counterattack the enemy, but the battle dragged on. Four pirates did not let him maneuver. Arrow struggled to keep his composure at the thought that the captain was left without his support. Suddenly, two of the four opponents fell dead, cut down by Scroop’s saber. They killed the other two together. Arrow hesitated, thinking about what to do with the crab. On the one hand, he was also, obviously, a pirate. On the other hand, he came to the rescue. Arrow once again did not understand the meaning of mantavor’s actions. “What are you looking at? Let’ss run from here!” Scroop shouted. The two of them ran to the ship. While the others fought, Jim fixed the old vessel that had once been Flint’s ship. The attackers were dealt with very quickly. The last pirates were dragged under the energy beam, along with a wave of gold. Arrow climbed aboard, followed by Scroop. Everyone, including Silver, looked askance at his presence, but the mantavor pretended not to notice this. With a roar of engines, the leaky trough passed through the portal. By the time the heroes reached the Legacy, the planet was already burning with oceans of molten metal. An excited Doppler met them at the boat deck. It turns out that he had already calculated that the ship would not have time to leave the planet’s orbit before it exploded, which meant certain death. Then the captain sent the ship to the portal. Who would have thought that a boy would save them? Risking his life, Jim switched the portal to the Montresor spaceport, allowing the ship to leave the danger zone in time. Several unfortunate pirates who remained on the ship were tied up by the heroes and sent to the hold. There were no fighters among them, so they did not descend to the surface. The captain led the Legacy to the Crescentia, and others had a short time to catch their breath. Mr Arrow found Scroop on deck looking thoughtful. “What will you do?” The mantavor asked. “You will be taken to the imperial court. The court will examine your case…” Arrow lowered his head. “I will not testify against you,” he said. Scroop chuckled. “Don’t think that I did anything for you.” “Really?” Arrow narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “Silver just didn’t give the order.” The mantavor said softly and turned towards the stern, indicating that the conversation was over. Jim got down to the boat deck at the wrong time. The two pirates were just about to leave. They wanted to take Flint’s ship in tow, full of gold, but it was impossible to get away with it. The old vessel barely made it to the Legacy. “Look at him, Jimbo! Morphy can’t live in a cage.” Said the cyborg pitifully. Jim knew perfectly well that this was not about Morph. Then he untied the boat, releasing the pirates into the wild. And even Mr. Scroop looked at him this time as if without hatred. “I don’t know what it was, Scroop, and I don’t want to know. In the port, we will part in different directions and never cross again, is that clear?” The cyborg said irritably as soon as they set sail. “What could be unclear here? You got attached to the boy.” Scroop couldn’t help but chuckle. “You know, it looks like I’m not the only one who has become attached to a crew member.” Silver countered. “Got him out of such an obvious 'accident'. And how did you rush to save him in the vault?” He teased. Scroop’s face twisted at those words. “Oh, Mr. Arrow, don’t think that I did thisss for you!” Silver mimicked the mantavor. Scroop had nothing to say.