Curiosity (and what it brings with it)

(DDD) Ditching Doctor Doppler

Captain Amelia will be aged down 10 years to 25 along with Jim being 18 instead of 16. This is a story that I've wanted written but have never found. Guess I'll do it myself. Enjoy

As soon as Jim's mother agreed that he and Dr. Doppler could go to Treasure Planet Jim began planning. Dr. Doppler knew that Jim would probably try something. He attempted to convince Sarah to accompany him to keep Jim in check, but she refused stating that "Someone has to keep the Inn going while you two are gone.". She did however, give Jim a stern warning to not leave Dr. Doppler's side until they were both on the ship. Jim, heeding not his mother's empty words, did the exact opposite as soon as the ferry docked at Montressor Spaceport.

Before the ferry even got within 50 feet of the dock Jim was getting a running start to launch himself across the gap. He knew that the ferry would be close enough in a couple seconds for him to be able to clear the gap. There it was 50 feet away. Then 40...he started hopping from one foot to the other hyping himself up. 30... he glances at Dr. Doppler who is preoccupied being awestruck at the spaceport's beauty. Jim's seen it hundreds of times so it's nothing new to him. 20... Delbert looks down from ogling the spaceport and back up to Jim and sees him staring at the edge of the dock, and it clicks in his mind that Jim's about to run. Doppler has no chance to catch the young man as Jim is 6"-8" taller and therefore has a longer stride. He can only hope to persuade Jim to not run.

"J-Jim please don't run. Your mother will never let me hear the end of it if I let you out of my sight." Delbert pleaded.

  Jim only scoffs at him and starts his run up. He's already in a sprint and clears the remaining 10 feet with some space left to spare.

"Jim come back here!" Delbert shouts.

Jim hears him but doesn't listen. He's been to Montressor Spaceport many times and knows that the small ferry is a long ways away from where they dock the larger ships like RLS Legacy. He did some reading up on it. Apparently the ship has a female captain. And a Cragorian as her First Mate. Of course not all of this information is public knowledge and he had to exchange some favors to get it but he knows the information is accurate.

  The ferry's docking number was in the triple digits and Jim knows, via Dr. Doppler that RLS Legacy's docking number is 28. He's not sure exactly what time it was but he knew that he and Dr. Doppler were late when they got onto the ferry. Perhaps he would arrive on time without Dr. slowing his pace down. As he's passing by a corner shop he hears a voice behind him say

"Hey kid"

Jim, turns around and looks down slightly to see a dark green lizard man with yellow eyes.

He replies with 
"what is it? I'm kind of in a rush."

The Lizard-man says " You look like you know your way around. I just need sssome directionsss."

  Jim figured the guy was alright and walked up to him. Unbeknownst to Jim there were 2 thugs in a nearby alleyway waiting on the signal. Their co-conspirator had picked a target. A rather tall human male. Jim's instincts were telling him something was wrong. He turned around to see 2 more lizard-men approaching him and the first one. He then realized that he'd been had. He didn't bother sticking around to find out. Knowing that he was outnumbered 3 to 1 he chose to run. He didn't see any weapons on them, but it's best to assume that they are armed. Judging by the laser bolts that had begun to whizz past him then he was correct in his assessment.

He spared a quick glance at the ground and saw that through all his running he had reached the double digits and was now at number 48. He dove behind some wooden crates and looked behind him to see if he could spot the RLS Legacy from his hiding spot. He could not. Laser bolts continued to rain down on his cover. He reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out his own laser pistol. He began to return fire much more accurately than his aggressors. He fired 4 times and 3 struck his target once in his left leg and twice in his chest. Swiftly reducing the number of attackers from 3 to 2.