Stolen Treasure

Chapter 12

When the ship stopped moving, I knew we must have reached our destination. I didn't know what planet we were on, only that it was in The Coral Galaxy. Alex escorted me out and I expected to see another bustling market. But instead, I saw an isolated and completely barren planet.

Why on earth would he bring me to this dump? I thought.

I couldn't see anything but rocks and dust for miles. Grabbing my upper arm tightly, Alex dragged me around to the other side of the ship. When we rounded the corner, I saw a large but very dead tree. It appeared to be the only one on the small planet. He released me for a moment and circled the tree, searching for something. He seemed to have found it, because he grabbed me again and brought me over to it. I saw a small hole in the dead tree, maybe just barely large enough to fit my hand. But it was dark inside and I couldn't see very far into it; who knows what could have been inside.

"Put your hand in that hole," Alex ordered me.

My head whipped up to stare at him incredulously.

"Are you insane? I'm not sticking my hand in there! Who knows what could be in there! It could crush my hand or something could bite me! Why don't you stick your hand in there?" I shouted, determined not to put my hand anywhere near it.

"Better you than me," he replied, pulling his sword a few inches out of the sheath hanging at his hip.

I realized I really didn't have a choice in the matter. I took a deep breath before anxiously inserting my hand into the hole. It was a tight fit at first, but the hole started to widen out the deeper it went. I kept waiting for something horrible to happen, so when my hand bumped into something, I gasped in fear and froze. But when I didn't feel any pain, I started to investigate the object. It was long, felt like metal, and I could completely wrap my hand around it. Piecing together what it might be, I pulled it back and felt it move. There was a click within the tree, and a panel, which had been disguised and gone completely undetected until now, opened up in front of my face.

I let go of the lever and quickly pulled my hand out of the tree before some kind of secret trap could trigger. Luckily, it appeared there was no such thing.

Alex reached into the panel and pulled out a small holograph projector. He pressed the only button on the small metal disk and a green holographic image appeared. It was an image of a planet that I didn't recognize, and around it were lots of coordinates and other symbols that I had never seen before. I suspected it was the writing of an alien language.

The few members of the crew that Alex had brought with us crept closer to examine the holograph, leaving me on the outside of their little huddled circle. While they were distracted, I quietly snuck off. There were lots of large rocks on the planet, so I darted from one to another and hid behind them as I ran. I came upon a group of rocks that were all piled up and leaning against each other. There was a small opening between two rocks, and when I peeked inside I saw that the boulders had created a kind of mini cave. I squeezed through the opening into the small space and hid there, hoping that no one would find me.

I'm not sure what I was doing. There was no one on this planet that could help me, and there was no way I could get off of it unless it was on Alex's ship, but I didn't care. I would rather be stuck on this lifeless planet than spend another second with Alex.

Through the opening, I saw some of the pirates dash by. I held my breath, praying that they wouldn't think to look through the crack in the rocks. I listened carefully and could just barely hear their footsteps fade away. I released the breath I had been holding, thinking that I was safe. But when a shadow blocked part of the light that was coming through the opening, my heart started pounding. I looked up and saw Alex peering at me.