“David, bring me the map, would ye?” Archie said as he looked down at his map of Crescent Rim Galaxy.
“Aye, Captain,” a low voiced short man with a bald head said and joined Archie at the digital map table, a small ball in his stubby fingered hand. “Here ye go, Cap’n.”
Archie took the ball from his First Mate and touched a button on the bottom. He placed it on the table and it synced up with his digital map on the table. Archie pointed at the main map and then traced the path to where they need to go. “We be here on Hugo. It’ll take a few more hours yet, David, to get to Sunstone.” He glanced at his most trusted mate and smirked. “Do ye think the lads will be ready to leave yet, David? Or will we be draggin’ them back to the Angel of Death?”
The two pirates laughed as Archie turned off the small orb and stored it in the inside pocket of his worn navy blue coat. They walked out of the map’s room together and climbed the creaky wooden stairs to the top deck. The two men stood by the side, their eyes searching the planet’s surface for the crew. They listened, but they heard nothing that told them where the men were.
“It looks like we are goin’ ashore, Mr. David.” Archie fixed his captain’s hat and headed down the ramp with David at his heel. “Where should we look? At the crystal caves? Or maybe the midnight pools? They always seemed to love soakin’ in the waters of the pools.”
“I’d say the pools. They be tired and worn out from the trip so far. Relaxin’ their weary bones in the pools sounds more like what they be doin’ now,” David said, and pointed to the trail that led to the midnight pools.
Archie stretched and cracked his neck. “That sounds nice.” He chuckled, and the two walked down the trail headed for the relaxing pools that sat under the midnight black skies. No matter the time of day it was on the planet, it would always be midnight black skies. The further they walked, the louder the sounds of laughter floated to their ears. Archie and David stepped out from behind some yellow bushes and stopped beside the midnight pools.
“Cap’n! David! Come, join us,” one of the bulkier pirates roared and splashed them.
Archie laughed and shook his head. “No, not this trip, Jones, maybe on the way back.” He clapped his hands. “All right, lads, it be time for us to be shovin’ off. We still have more hours yet to get to Sunstone. And then we be journeyin’ back here for the night.” He laughed and waved his hands when he heard his men groan. “I know, I know, but we be closer to the treasure.”
“Treasure!” his men cried in unison and climbed out of the pools. They scrambled back into their clothes after they dried themselves in the whispering winds right beside the pools and stood in front of Archie.
“Are we ready to go, lads?”
“Aye, Cap’n,” they said in unison, and fell in behind Archie as Archie and David led the way back to the ship.
Everyone climbed aboard, raised the anchor, and the ship sailed up into the clouds away from planet Hugo.