Chapter 2
 
Ol' Billy Bones Last Few Words
 
Jim sat alone on the roof outside that night, tossing pebbles to the ground 
below. Whenever he needed to get away from the world he would climb up to 
the roof and watch the sunset.
It was also a good spot for eavesdropping, as Jim heard voices below.
"I really don't know how you manage it, Sarah," Delbert said, "trying to run 
a business while raising a felon... al, fellow... fellow, like Jim."
"Managing it?" Sarah said, "Uhg! I'm at the end of my rope. Ever since his 
father left... well... Jim just hasn't recovered. But you know how smart he 
is- he built his first solar surfer when he was eight! And yet he's failing 
school, he's constantly in trouble, and when I talk to him he's like a 
stranger to me. I don't know Delbert, I've tried everything..."
 
CRASH! Jim jumped. A damaged ship had crashed near the docks.
Jim leapt off the roof top and hurried toward the ship. It was a strange 
looking ship- shaped like a spear with spades poking out of it and emmiting 
clouds of curling gray smoke.
He hammered down on the window.
"Hey Mrs?" Jim called, "Mr. You're okay in there right?"
A clawed hand slapped itself against the window and Jim jumped back in 
surprise.
A door fell open and a tortoise-like alien fell out, taking a heavy sea 
chest with him. His skin was dry and wrinkled, and bore several scars 
indicating that he must have endured many battles. Some silvery white hair 
was tangled and
The old alien looked up at Jim, grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him 
close.
"He's a comin'!" the alien choked, "Can hear 'em. Those gears and gyros 
whirlin' like the Devil himself!"
He coughed and returned to his chest.
"Uh... Hit your head there pretty hard didn't you," Jim commented.
"He's after me chest," the alien said, pulling the chest with him, "That 
fiendish cyborg and his band o' cutthroats! But they'll have to pry it from 
ol' Billy Bones cold dead fingers before I-"
He gripped his chest and coughed as he was thrown to the ground in a 
wheezing fit.
"Here," Jim said, helping the alien up, "Give me your arm."
"Good lad," Billy Bones wheezed.
"Mom's gonna love this," Jim muttered.
 
Thunder crashed and lightning flashed. Sarah flipped a switch on the wall a 
few times, the blinds changed from a tropical sunset, to a mountain setting, 
and then finally settled on a field of brightly colored flowers.
"Thanks for listening, Delbert," she said, sitting down, "It helps."
"It's going to be alright," Delbert assured her, patting her shoulder, 
"you'll see."
Sarah smiled.
"I keep dreaming that one day I'll open that door and there he'll be just 
the way he was," she said, opening her locket.
Small animated photos of Jim as a child played in front of her.
Sarah laughed.
"A smiling happy little boy holding a new pet and begging me to let him keep 
it."
Delbert opened the door and a flash of lightning tore trough the sky, 
illuminating two figures in the doorway- Jim and an old alien sagging on his 
shoulders.
"Um... In the dream," Delbert said, scratching his the back of his neck, 
"was the pet dead?"
"James Pleiades Hawkins!" Sarah exclaimed, "I-"
"Mom," Jim stopped her, laying Billy Bones on the floor, "he's hurt- bad."
Billy Bones let out a choked sigh.
"Me chest lad," he wheezed, reaching out with a clawed hand.
Jim pushed the chest toward him.
"He'll be comin' soon," Billy Bones said, punching in the combination.
The chest opened and Bones pulled out a spearical object wrapped in a plain 
cloth.
"Can't let him find this," Billy Bones said, hugging the object to his 
chest.
"Who's coming?" Jim asked.
Billy Bones grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him close.
"The cyborg!" Bones whispered in Jim's ear, "Beware the cyborg!"
And with those last words he sank to the floor.
His chest stopped rising and his face went still. Sarah put a hand to her 
mouth. The thunder roared and a shadow passed overhead. Jim went to the 
window and opened the blinds just an inch. Between the slates he could just 
make out the many armed figures heading towards the inn.
The tallest one held a cutlass.
"We've got to go!" Jim said, grabbing his mother's wrist and pulling her up 
the stairs.
Delbert made to open the door but a laser blast exploded through, just 
narrowly avoiding his legs.
"I believe I'm with Jim on this one!" he said, following Jim and Sarah up 
the stairs.
They weren't a moment too late.
The pirates burst into the kitchen and tore through the house.
"Find it now!" a deep voice roared.
Delbert threw the window open.
"Delilah!" he called down to a lare sluglike creature hitched to a cart, 
"Delilah!"
The slug creature looked up at him and jumped up and down, barking happily.
"Stay!" Delbert said, "Don't move!"
Jim watched the shadows as the pirates climbed the stairs.
Delbert helped Sarah to the window.
"Don't worry Sarah," Delbert assured her, "I'm an expert in the laws of 
physical science, on the count of three we'll all jump. One..."
"No I can't," Sarah pleaded, "I can't."
"Two," Delbert continued.
"THREE!" Jim cried, shoving Delbert and Sarah out the window and jumping 
with them.
They landed with a thud and Delbert seized the reins, cracking them loudly 
and the slug creature broke into a run.
Pulling the carriage away from the burning inn. Sarah looked back and buried 
her face in her hands. Jim looked down at his hands where the parcel Billy 
Bones had given him lay. He unwrapped it to reveal a golden orb.