CHAPTER 1
Long John Silver watched, involuntarily grinning, as Jim Hawkins was met by cheers, hugs and thanks from the depleted crew of the RLS Legacy. He found himself chuckling, proud of the boy's success as if Jim were his own son, while the nagging thought of the sentence that awaited him in Crescentia was pushed out of his mind. The boy was a genius, a true ruddy genius! Fifteen years old and already a hero! Imagine risking his own life to save an old space-dog like John Silver!
Yet, after all the work and effort, all the risks Jim had faced, John Silver would be the first of the pirates to hang. Jim would have parades in his honour after docking in Crescentia, while all Silver had to look forward to was the noose. It would be a terrible shame for the boy to have accomplished so much just to have it taken away from him. Jim was a good lad, and he deserved his glory. Who was he to stop the celebrations? With a discreet silence he was well-accustomed to by now, Silver stepped into the shadows of the deck and disappeared without a whisper.
Creeping towards the hangar bay beneath the deck, Silver couldn't help an audible sigh. He wasn't such a bad guy; at least, he'd never wanted to be. As he had watched Jim up there, he had noticed the gleam of determination in his eyes. They lit up with hopes and dreams; a million adventures waiting to be sought, a million treasures waiting to be found. And he knew that Jim would find them all. Silver had had that gleam once, Silver had had those dreams. But you have to sacrifice a few things, chasing after a dream. Sometimes, more than you can bear.
Growing up in the small community of Pelsinor wasn't easy for Jack and John Hund. No easier than it had been in Noruega, Astramina, or Perlo. Their parents busy merchants, the Hund brothers often found themselves more at home on a trading ship than in any of their small, almost-forgotten houses. It seemed they had never settled down before they had to move again, and poverty stuck to them like a barnacle. John's earliest memories were blurred collections of new homes, new faces, none of which made a lasting impression. His only friend, his only proper memory, was his elder brother Jack.
There was no thought of a life on shore for either of them; even their childhood games involved nothing but leading the most daring quests, fighting cosmic storms, and battling fearful pirates. They were destined for the etherium, for the stars. They would catch a wave and, together, ride towards whatever adventure they found. Just John Hund and his elder brother Jack...
Silver forced himself back to the present as he entered the hangar bay, hurriedly releasing the last longboat of its rope. He wished he could have said goodbye to Jim and explained a few things, but that would be suicide. It would be easier this way, leaving the child to his praise and slipping away while no one was looking.
"Morphy," he whispered, swiping at the creature buzzing merrilly around his head, "we gotta make tracks."
As he tugged at the last rope, preparing himself for another rat-like escape, a voice came clear and unsettlingly loud behind him: "You never quit, do you?"
Even without turning round, Silver knew the voice as Jim's. The lad was sharp, he'd grant him that. Forcing a smile, he turned to greet him warmly. "Ah, Jimbo!" he laughed, as if the boy had caught him trying to escape after mutiny a hundred times.
Jim's face was stone.
Silver sighed, considering his weak options of explanation. "I was... merely checkin' to make sure our last longboat was safe an' secure." It sounded pathetic, even to his own ears. Jim's expression never changed as he took the rope in his strong hands and fastened a painful knot. "Well, that should hold it."
Silver smiled despite himself, reflecting, "I taught you too well."
Jim said nothing.
"Now, if ya don't mind, we'd just as soon avoid prison," Silver explained grimly. There was no more use in pretending. "Little Morphy here," he said, catching the creature in his cyborg hand, "he's a free spirit. Bein' in a cage, it'd break his heart..."
For a long moment, they looked at one another, and Silver didn't think he was going to get away. The boy was too sharp for his own good, and he didn't take too kindly to betrayal. What Silver had done to him must have hurt him badly. Tears now, not glory, were shining in his eyes. Slowly, Jim made a fist and punched the hatch release, letting the bay doors swing open. Silver was forgiven. With a hearty laugh, Silver swung one arm around Jim's small shoulders.
"What say ya ship out with us, lad?" he asked, for once meaning it. "You and me, Hawkins and Silver! Full of ourselves, and no ties ta anyone!"
Morph, excited at the prospect, repeated the words happily before shaping himself as a pirate hat, much like Silver's, and fell on to Jim's head. Wistfully smiling, Jim removed Morph and let him transform back into his own form.
"You know," he confided, "when I got on this boat, I would have taken you up on that offer in a second... But I met this old cyborg and he taught me that I could chart my own course. And that's what I'm going to do." He stopped, staring at the sea of stars twinkling peacefully beneath them. It was hard to remember the fear he had felt just hours before at the hand of this man. The mutiny under Silver's control, the crash onto the planet, the planet's triggered explosion... Now he was standing at his side like a father, prompting him to continue.
"And what do ya see off that bow o' yours?" Silver asked quietly, placing a loving hand on Jim's shoulder. Jim turned to face him. "A future."
"Look at ya," Silver exploded in a howl of affection, "glowin' like a solar fire! You're something special, Jim; you're gonna rattle the stars."
They fell into each other's arms then, and for one innocent moment, Silver wasn't a criminal, he was a man with something to live for.
"Got a bit o' grease in this cyborg eye o' mine," he said, his voice full of emotion as he broke away.
Sniffing, Jim turned to Morph who was nuzzling him affectionately, just as affected by the events as they were. "Ah, Morph... I'll see you around, okay?"
Silver looked at them together, smiled, and said with some resolve, "Morphy, I got a little job for ya. I need ya to keep an eye on this here pup." The expression on Jim's face, he thought, was worth the loss. "Will ya do me that favour?"
Silver climbed into the longboat, alone, and looked back on his only friends as it began to descend. "Oh, one more thing." He reached into his pockets and pulled out a handful of treasure he had managed to grab before escaping the planet. He knew he had enough for himself to last him a while, and the expression on Jim's face as he threw it into his hands was worth all the treasure he could chase after. "For your dear mother," he explained as the longboat pulled out of the bay. "To rebuild that inn of hers."
"Stay out of trouble, you old scallywag," Jim instructed warmly.
"Why, Jimbo, lad," Silver exclaimed, feigning suprise, "when have I ever done otherwise?" His laugh echoed through the hangar bay and through Jim's mind as he watched Long John Silver disappear into the etherium, forever. He and Morph stood frozen for a moment, watching the stars pass by beneath. Then, with a mutter of, "A future," Jim closed the bay doors and began tracing his journey back to the deck, where he would have to prepare some brilliant excuse to cover Silver's escape for Captain Amelia.
Katherine Amelia, under Doctor Doppler's command, was lying inbetween thick blankets on the bow, supposed to be resting while the ship eased into the spaceport Crescentia. She was instead criticising every movement the doctor made at the helm of the unsteady ship, making commands of new recruit B.E.N. to read navigational systems he could barely comprehend as he glared at them in jealousy, and demanding that her orders were followed right to the last word - which, for two who had little or no knowledge of steering the ship, was difficult.
"Ah, Mr. Hawkins," she smiled as Jim crept on deck, "just the gentleman I wanted to see. Two degrees to the right, Doctor, you have a very shakey grip. Did you tie Mr. Silver up - three degrees to the left now, Doctor - with the others in the brig? Doctor, it's a ship you're steering, not a -"
The glare from Doppler halted her mid-sentence, and she turned huffily towards the nervous cabin-boy - one eye trained on Doppler's hand movements.
Jim hesitated guiltily, and Amelia's attention was suddenly focused entirely on him. "Mr. Hawkins?"
"He managed to get to the hangar bay, Captain," Jim said quietly. "He's gone."
Author's Note:
The authors would like to you to note the following: as the title may well imply, this fic takes place before the end of the film as a means of explaining what happened in the time between getting off the Legacy and the opening of the new and improved Benbow Inn (a period of about two years, what with Doppler being such a slow walker). None of this is based on fact, nor even hear-say, simply our sick and liquidating minds.
Much technical information and character detail was nabbed from 'Treasure Planet: A Journey of Exploration' and the media pack released for the film. Yes, Captain Amelia is actually referenced as Katherine in there. It's a truly bad pun, but we're glad it's not ours.
We own no copyrights, but if we did, we'd be crueller than Anne Rice and stop you all from writing fan fiction about our story!
Flame if you will, but there's no guarantee that you won't be hunted down.