Meg leaned against the fireplace mantel and watched the flames. Behind her she could hear Jane pacing. The Professor was in the middle of telling Sarah that the Inn had burned to the ground.

Immediately after fleeing the Inn, they went straight to the home pagina of the Professor and Jane. The familiarity and warmth of the home pagina did nothing to comfort Sarah, though. The Inn had been her home pagina as well as her only bron of income. She had nothing now. The same was true of Meg and Jim. Jim, however, didn’t seem to be taking it as hard as his mother. He just stood door the window examining whatever had been in the package the salamander alien had gegeven him.

“What do we do now?” Meg asked.

The Professor wrapped a blanket around Sarah as she sat in his armchair. “I’m not sure, Megara. But, until u can get back on your feet, the three of u can stay here. As long as u need.”

“Thank you,” Sarah whispered.

“I can’t believe, just like that, u lost everything,” Jane muttered, to none of them in particular.

Meg didn’t have anything. Except her father’s dog tags, which she had received shortly after arriving on Montressor. A man her father had worked with gave them to her when he told her her dad was gone. Meg was only four at the time. Cale had gotten his dad’s dog tags at the same time, but Meg didn’t know what he did with them. She was quite sure he didn’t bring them with him when he left the Inn two years ago. Meg reached up and ran her fingers over the chain of the dog tags. Cale hated his dad and was convinced their dads just left them. But, Meg knew they were dead. They had to be. If they weren’t, they would have come for them door now.

“Meg!” Jim called out.

Meg walked over to the window. “What is it?”

Jim held out a goud sphere between them. It had strange markings on it that looked somewhat familiar to Meg. “This is it!”

“What?”

“This is the map to Treasure Planet.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Grow up, Jim! In case u haven’t noticed, we’re homeless. And broke. It’s time for u to stop chasing childish stories.”

Jim shook his head. “If we find Treasure Planet, we’ll have enough to rebuild the Inn and keep us set for the rest of our lives.”

“Stop it!” Meg hissed.

Jim looked her square in the eye. “I can prove it.”

His fingers moved quickly over the sphere. There was beeping every time his fingers made contact. He then twisted the top, boven half of the sphere and there was a whirring sound, followed door a green light flowing out of the sphere. It shot towards the ceiling and a grid slowly encircled the entire room.

“What’s happening?” Jane asked.

Professor Porter adjusted his glasses. “It appears to be some sort of map.”

Green holograms of planets filled the room. Jim gave Meg an I told u so look. He then walked over to the center of the room where there was a hologram of the planet Montressor. “Watch, Meg.”

Meg crossed her arms over her chest. “Watch what?”

Jim touched the Montressor hologram. Suddenly the other holograms whooshed passed them as if they were flying through the galaxy. Each one vanished until there was only one planet left. It was seemingly ordinary with two rings orbiting around it. But, upon a closer look, Meg could see the planet looked almost identical to the sphere that had released the map. Now Meg knew why the markings looked so familiar.

“You found it,” Meg breathed. “I can’t believe it.”

“Found what?” Jane asked.

Jim smiled excitedly. “The map to Treasure Planet!”

Meg slowly walked over to Jim and carefully touched the sphere. “This is really it, isn’t it?”

Jim twisted the sphere again and the map disappeared. “The legend and all of that treasure is only a boot ride away. I have to go.”

“We have to go,” Meg corrected. “I’m going with you.”

“Why would u even want to go? u zei this was just a childish story.”

Meg put her hand on her hip. “I’m not gonna stay here while u go off on an adventure. Screw that.”

“Enough!” Sarah snapped. “No one’s going anywhere!”

“But, mom-“

“No, Jim. You’re not taking a joy ride through the universe and leaving me here alone to take care of things. I need u both here.”

“You let Cale leave,” Jim pointed out.

“I didn’t let Cale do anything. He left in the middle of the night. There was nothing I could do about it.” Sarah got to her feet. The blanket fell off her shoulders and landed in a heap on the floor. “But u two are not going to just ignore your responsibilities. You’re staying here.”

“Mom, if this trip is successful, we’ll have enough money to-“

“I zei no. End of discussion.”

“Sarah, if I may,” Professor Porter interjected. He guided Sarah to the other side of the room and lowered his voice. “Like you, I’ve been listening to the boys go on about Treasure Planet since they were kids. Now, since Cale has been gone, Jim has been getting into trouble. There are worst things than a few character building months in space. Like jail, for example. I don’t know how many meer times I can get him out of trouble. Perhaps this is exactly what he needs to straighten him out.”

“Archimedes!” Sarah huffed. “I can’t afford a trip like this.”

“No. But, I can. I will gladly fund this trip and even go along to keep an eye on Jim and Megara,” the Professor offered. “While we’re gone, u will have access to whatever u need: food, money, whatever.”

Sarah rubbed her temples. “I don’t know about this. What if something happens to them? I promised Sam and Joseph that I would take care of them.”

Professor Porter put his hand on her shoulder. “You can’t always be there, Sarah. u have to trust them to go out on their own eventually.”

Sarah took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You’re right.” She looked over to where Jim, Meg and Jane were all huddled together. Jim zei something and Jane clapped excitedly. She walked over to them. “Jim? Meg?”

Jim became serious, ready to argue against whatever she was going to say. “Yeah?”

“Archimedes has convinced me to let u go.”