🪐Lucy's POV🪐

The sun was starting to set by the time we brought Mr. Delbert and Ms. Amelia to B.E.N.'s home. Mr. Delbert was carrying her in his arms since her injuries had made it too excruciating to walk. "Uh, pardon the mess, people," the robot said as we entered his home.

"You'd think in a hundred years I would've dusted a little more often but, you know, when you're batchin' it, you tend to, uh, let things go." I chuckled as B.E.N. frantically tried to move and hide some of the junk.  Mr. Delbert set Captain Amelia down, resting her against a metal dome on the floor.

"Aw, isn't that sweet! I find old-fashioned romance so touching, don't you? How about drinks for the happy couple?" B.E.N. asked, holding out two cups filled with oil, grease and who knows what else.

"Oh, uh, ooh. Uh, no. Thank you. We don't drink and, uh, we're not a couple," Delbert answered, removing his jacket and looking down at the Captain. She gave him an interesting smile. They so like each other! I thought.

"Look at these markings," he said, changing the subject. He adjusted his spectacles a bit as he gazed around. "They're identical to the ones on the map. I suspect these are the hieroglyphic remnants of an ancient culture."

Jim and I looked up at the ceiling, inspecting the markings curiously. "Mr. Hawkins and Miss Lucy," the Captain said, "stop anyone who tries to approach." She winced and leaned back in pain. Mr. Delbert made a pillow for her out of his jacket.

"Yes, yes. Now listen to me. Stop giving orders for a few milliseconds and lie still," he told her. "Very forceful, Doctor. Go on. Say something else," she urged him.

The chemistry between the two of them was undeniable and I couldn't help but smile. [It's like Newt and Thomas all over again!] I then noticed that B.E.N. was by the entrance of the shelter. "Hey look! There's some more of your buddies! Hey, fellas! We're over here, fellas!" B.E.N. hollered.

The pirates, who probably hadn't known we were there until B.E.N. gave away our position, immediately started shooting at us. B.E.N. narrowly dodged a few shots before I tackled him down from the ledge and Jim started firing back.

"Stop wastin' yer fire," Mr. Silver ordered. The gunshots ceased. Jim reloaded his gun as Mr. Silver called for him, raising a make-shift white flag. He said he wanted a word with Jim.
"Come to bargain for the map, doubtless. Pestilential..." Captain Amelia said, trying to sit up before grunting in pain.

"Captain.." Delbert warned, reminding her that she needed to take it easy. "But that means... that he thinks we still have it," Jim deducted, a smirk playing on his lips. "What are you going to do?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Buy us some time," he said, walking out the entrance. "I'm coming with you," I said, following after him into the open. "No, you need to stay here," he said, grabbing my shoulders and looking me in the eyes.

"I'm coming with you," I insisted, staring straight back at him. "Next time, I promise," he said, giving me a reassuring smile. After a few moments of staring at each other, I broke first. "Fine," I rolled my eyes.

I turned back around and re-entered B.E.N.'s home. Jim walked down the hill to meet Mr. Silver and they began talking. At one point, I saw Mr. Silver  gesture up towards me. Jim turned around to look at me as well. He  was too far away for me to see his facial expression.

His head turned back around to face Mr. Silver again fairly quickly. After a minute or two, it looked like they were getting angry. "That treasure is owed ta me, by t'under!" Mr. Silver shouted. "Well try and find it without my map, by t'under!" Jim yelled back.

I didn't hear what happened next, but I definitely heard when Mr. Silver yelled, "I'll use teh ship's cannons ta blast yeh all t' kingdom come!" With that, he stormed off, and Jim walked back up to us. "Sounds like that went well," I said sarcastically.

"He wants the map by dawn or he'll-" Jim started. "Blast us all to kingdom come," I finished for him. He nodded solemnly. "What are we going to do?" I asked. Jim rubbed the back of his neck. I thought this was a good sign; that he was thinking and coming up with something.

But when he looked at me and I saw the worry in his eyes, I knew we were in trouble. "I don't know."

🪐🪐🪐

Ms. 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?" Mr. 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, Lucy, 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!" Mr. Delbert angrily ranted.

I knew he wasn't angry at me. He was angry at himself because he couldn't help Ms. 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 Lulu 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. Luc, 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. [I had an amazing teacher.]

"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 Mr. 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.

☄️🪐☄️🪐

Jim pulled the longboat right up to the side of the ship. He tied it to one of the ropes of the shrouds to keep it from floating away. He climbed over the side of the ship, helping me up after him. B.E.N. fell over the side of boat with a crash, muttering sorry as we told him to be quiet.

We knew the pirates probably left someone to watch over the ship, and we definitely didn't want to deal with them. When we were down the steps, Jim whispered, "Okay, I'll get the map. You guys stay here."

"Roger, Jimmy. I'll neutralize laser cannons, sir!" He saluted and I gave a small smile, but he ran off in nowhere particular and Jim and I were left calling after him. "I'll go fetch him. You stay here," I said, flicking his forehead. (I'm thinking of Audrey and Milo again. God I miss Maddy.)

Before he could argue, I was already running off to find the century-old robot. "...is the big deal?" I heard B.E.N.'s voice echo to my right, and stepped into a dimly lit room. "Oh!
Hi, Lulu!" His voice was raised by my presence, and I shushed him.

"Right, right, sorry! Anyway, all we gotta do is find that one little wire." I walked over to a cabinet in front of him, assuming the power outlet, and opened it.

Inside were hundreds upon hundreds of wires all tangled together and plugged in several different holes. "Oh, mama." "Great," I whispered. "Where do we start?"

"Well, it's been a few decades, so let's start with...you!" B.E.N. reached over my shoulder and unplugged a red chord. An alarm started blaring through the entire ship, and he started scolding himself. "Bad, B.E.N. Bad." "Seriously, B.E.N.?" I snatched the wire from his rusting hand and plugged it back, silencing the alarm.

"I'm pretty sure it's-" I pulled a blue wire this time, but then everything turned pitch black, "-not this one." "Woops. Okay, don't panic. Breathing in, breathing out..." The shine of his eyes allowed me to spot the hole and I placed the wire back in its correct spot and took another one in its place.

Now, the floors were shining a reddish color outside, causing the scene to be a bit more creepy. If you add music to the eerie silence, it would make this scene seem even more scary.

"This has gotta be cannons," the machine said, and pulled another wire out of its socket, still the red glow shining. Suddenly, I was weightless. Literally. My feet were hovering over the ground and my hair was once again flying lazily in all directions. "Maybe not."

"Hurry, B.E.N.! I don't think I can hold on for much longer-" I covered my mouth, my stomach churning. I just loathed zero gravity. Sure, it was fun for the first few seconds, but then it becomes all havoc in a matter of moments.

I gasped, but it didn't come from me. I mean, yes, it did come from me, but I wasn't feeling as scared as I was. Which could only mean... "B.E.N.!" I screamed, panic filling my voice. "Jim's in trouble!" My chest was racing, and I was positive that my own surroundings couldn't cause this much worry.

(Fun fact: Jim and Lucy were so close as kids, that they could tell what the other was feeling.)

"Back you go, you naughty plug!" The robot jammed the wire back in its place, and I landed with a thud and B.E.N. was now tangled up in a ton of wires.

We rushed to the deck (me assuming that B.E.N. had pulled the correct plug), and hurried to the deck. When we made it to the top, the robot gave another salute to Jim who was on a pole high above us. How did he get there?

Well, one thing's for sure, we're certainly not on Earth. "Laser cannons disconnected, Captain Jimmy, sir! Gee, that wasn't so tough." I rolled my eyes, but started untangling him from the mass of strings on him. "Yeah, sure."

phoebe has something to say!

lucy and b.e.n. are such a chaotic duo and i live for it.