#captain starr

“Good, may I have the keys back?” I held out my hand, “Oh right! I almost forgot about them.” Ten Cents searched in his pockets

“Here you go sir,”

“Thank you,” I turned my gaze towards Sunshine.

“Anything you want to report to me as well, Sunshine?”

“Me? Uh no sir. Nothing to report”

I was feeling tired myself, so I didn’t bother asking anything else and let the two on their way, “Have a good night you two.”

“You too, sir” Ten Cents and Sunshine chimed together as I walked away, Ten Cents let out a sigh of relief, “Well that was almost too close for comfort,”

“You’re telling me,” shrugged Sunshine.

“Let’s just get something to eat and then hit the sack, ay?”

“I just hope someone got us good food this time.” Sunshine grumbled.

When they entered the cafeteria, they saw Big Mac, O.J., and Top Hat sitting at one of the tables chatting amongst each other about their day. O.J. turned and noticed Ten Cents and Sunshine.

“Welcome back lads. I hope you both aren't burnt out from your last job.”

“Meh, it was just storage cleaning. Nothing that we couldn’t handle.”

“Did ye find anything interesting in that old room?” Big Mac asked

“Well actually there is.” Sunshine soon reveals in his hands, the button-eyed dolls.

“What is that?” O.J. asks, having to look closer at the dirty dolls.

“And why do they look exactly like both of ye.” added Big Mac.

“That’s what we’ve been wondering too when we found them. Do you know who made them?”

“How should we know about some filthy old ragdolls from the garbage?” Top Hat remarked.

“Oh like how your head is full of nothing but garbage?” remarked Sunshine, insulted.

The crew all had a hearty chuckle at the joke except for Top Hat who was most offended but couldn’t think of a comeback for he was feeling tired.

“Speaking of garbage, where's Warrior? I thought we saw him walk past with you, Big Mac.” Ten cents asks.

“He already went to sleep. Don’t worry, he showered before then.” answered Big Mac

“Ah well we should go get our meals before-’’

“It’s just rations Ten Cents.” Sunshine groaned,

“What?! Again?”

“Sorry boys, with the constant busy work schedule we have this whole month we don’t have time to make meals so we resorted to using rations and other instant meals. It’s not much but it’s what we’re going to have to work with for now.” O.J. explained feeling sorry for them.

Looking back at the rations, Ten Cents sighed in defeat, “Well then, I guess we’ll just grab some and go back to our bunks…”

And with that, Ten Cents and Sunshine reluctantly grabbed a ration for the both of them and headed back to the barracks. O.J., Big Mac and Top Hat could only watch as they left until O.J. spoke.

“It’ll be alright boys, it won’t be like this forever.” trying his best to give them some hope from the situation but already left out of earshot.

Once at their bunks in their pajamas, the two ate their rations, they were as dry as the sand on the beach and not very appetizing.

“You see what I mean, Ten Cents?”

“About what?”

“About wishing that our current situation was better where we don’t have to work as hard.”

Ten Cents gulps and sets his ration aside. “I get what you mean, I know it’s been hard on all of us and they’re still doing their best, but I won’t lie, I miss when we had decent food and less of a heavy workload to handle.”

“You think that’ll ever happen soon?”

“Probably not for another few more weeks of this.”

Ten Cents looked over to the nightstand next to his and Sunshine’s bunk beds. Sunshine had placed the two old dolls right next to a framed photo of their whole fleet including their captain; When times were better, especially since they took it welcoming their new recruit, one who he was very fond of since they met.

Ten Cents yawned knowing another day of hard work awaited them in the morning. The two said nothing and threw away their rations into a nearby trash bin, and got ready to sleep.

“Tomorrow’s gonna be another busy day huh?” Sunshine yawned as he began to nod off.

“Yeah, another hard day of work...”

Ten Cents answered, shutting off the lights, the room now only being dimly illuminated by the moon outside their window shining down on the dolls. As the two slept however, a black silhouette of a cat overshadowed them and observed them beyond the window.

-

The morning sun shone brightly as Ten Cents, Top Hat, Warrior, Big Mac, Hercules, O.J. and our new recruit, Tillie stood in the employee lounge waiting for me to give them their orders. Everyone except for Sunshine was present in the employee lounge.

Although it seemed all the older workers of my company were focused on getting their schedule for that day. Sunshine was trying to figure out how to bring his doll look alike to work with him that day, once he came up with a solution, he made a dash to the employee lounge.

“I’m so sorry everyone, I… nearly overslept,” lied Sunshine, “I’m not late, am I?”

“Nope you just came just in time, Sunshine.” Ten Cents assured him

“That’s a relief”

“Alright everyone settle down!” my voice rang out through the PA speaker.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do today, a tramp steamer is arriving into the port and we’ll need all hands on deck to dock and unload it. Hercules, you’re in charge of bringing the tramper in, Big Mac, Top Hat and Warrior, you three are to help guide it in,”

“Yes Sir.” Hercules, Big Mac, Top Hat, and Warrior affirmed before proceeding to their respective vessels.

“What about the rest of us sir?” Tillie queried.

“You three are to help anchor the tramper to the dock, O.J. will show you how.”

“Yes Captain Starr!” Ten Cents, Tillie, and Sunshine affirmed before following after O.J.

On their way to where the tramper was to be docked, Sunshine couldn’t help shake the feeling that they were being watched.

To confirm his suspicions, he looked behind himself and noticed something dark moving on top of some crates.

“Hey Ten Cents I think I see something?”

“Oh yeah, what's up?”, Ten Cents asked,

“It’s over there by the cra-” Sunshine pointed. But as soon as he returned his gaze at the crates, the thing was nowhere to be seen.

“What..?”

“You must've been seeing things. It's still early today but come on, there's work to be done”

They picked up their pace to catch up to Tillie and O.J. As they continued to walk past the glistening ocean, Sunshine couldn’t shake off his confusion.

He swore to himself that he wasn’t seeing things but he couldn’t figure out how even though the thing disappeared from his sight, why he still felt he was being watched.

The crew all suddenly stopped as they caught sight of Zorran, Zebedee and Zak, some of the employees of Zero Marine, our rival, were on their way to work as well.

“Well look what have we got here lads? Scrooge McDuck and his nephews?” Zebedee and Zak guffawed at Zorran’s remark.

“Shut up, we’re only just on our way to do our jobs,” Ten Cents said.

“What? off to get another contract?”

“We’re just on our way to bring in and unload a tramp steamer that’s all.” Tillie replied,

“Kindly leave us alone and we’ll be on our way-” O.J. retorted.

“Wasn’t trying to start any trouble with you, old man” oiled Zak, “Yeah, was only trying to make friendly conversation” Zebedee added sarcastically, “Also nice doll you got there Sunshine” Zebedee mused.

“What doll?-'' Tillie looked back at Sunshine and noticed in his binocular bag was a button-eyed doll that resembled him sticking out of it.

“Aw, you plan on having a tea party after your jobs of the day?” teased Zak

“Is your age now the number on your uniform, Sunshine? How cute.” Zorran joined in.

Sunshine’s face was as red as his hat as he tried to hide his doll.

“Oi leave him alone or else-!”

“Ten Cents, don’t even think about it”, snapped O.J.

“Or else what Ten Cents? You gonna fight me?” Zorran challenged

“Don’t you dare, lad” O.J. scolded holding back one of his arms.

“Let me at him, O.J.!” Ten Cents growled

“Hey calm down now… let's get going before you do something you’ll regret,” soothed Tillie.

“Yeah, listen to your little girlfriend Ten Cents!” Retorted Zorran, this was the final straw, Ten Cents won’t take any longer.

“Oh now you’re -!” yelled Ten Cents lunging at Zorran.

“That’s enough Ten Cents!” shouted O.J.

O.J. and Tillie tried to hold Ten Cents back from the Zeros, all the while poor Sunshine stood in utter silence afraid and ashamed to do anything when he turned his gaze to a rooftop of a building and saw the thing he saw earlier on the crates, which turned out to be a cat. He couldn’t believe it when he saw it clearly now as it stared at him.

“Hey there it is again!” Sunshine shouted pointing up to the rooftop making everyone, even the Zeros look up. Tillie and O.J. took it as a chance to get both Ten Cents and Sunshine out of there before things could escalate further and grabbed their arms and took off.

“Hey what are you two doing?”

“Getting us away from them” O.J. groaned

Once they weren far enough from the Zeros, Tillie heaved a sigh of relief

“Now Let's keep going, we can't be late for the tramp steamer.”

“Yeah you’re right.”

“Be a lot more sensible, will you, Ten Cents?” shouted O.J., “If we hadn’t dragged you out of there, you could’ve gotten into even more trouble.”

“He was only trying to defend Sunshine, that’s all.” Tillie explained.

“Did you guys see it?” Sunshine chimed in

“See what?”

“The black cat, I saw it earlier on the crates. It was on the rooftop!”

O.J. stood in confusion.

“I didn’t see it, Sunshine, it was the heat of the moment that distracted us.” Said Tillie

“And if we did that’s something we shouldn't worry about. Ten Cents, please learn to keep your head on straight, will you? Last thing I want is something bad to happen to you.” OJ pleaded.

“I will in future, I’m sorry O.J.”

“Good, now let's head over to the dock, that tramper should be here at any moment.”

And so they did, but the thought of the black cat still played on Sunshine’s mind.

The sound of a chorus of tugboats blowing their hooters indicated that the tramp steamer was ready to be docked. Ten Cents, Sunshine, Tillie, and O.J. had arrived on time.

They watched as Hercules, Big Mac, Warrior, and Top Hat moved the ship close to the dock. A couple sailors aboard the steamer were at the bow and stern holding ropes.

“Right lads,” said O.J., "You must work quickly to safely secure this ship to the dock. Tillie, you’re with me in securing the bow, Ten Cents and Sunshine you two are in charge of the stern. Grip the ropes with both hands and tie them to the cleats, we must work together on this, should you lose your grips, this tramper could end up floating away from the dock, understood?”

“Yes O.J.!”, Ten Cents, Sunshine, and Tillie chimed together.

The young stars and O.J. took their positions at the ends of the ropes while Warrior, Big Mac, and Top Hat stood at their tugboats in case.

“Ready lads?!” called O.J.?

“Ready!” declared Ten Cents, Sunshine, and Tillie.

“Good, release the ropes!” O.J. shouted towards the tramp steamer.

The two sailors threw down the long ropes from their vessel and they landed down on the quay. Ten Cents, Sunshine, Tillie, and O.J. ran and grabbed hold of the ropes.

“Ready to pull!” Ten Cents called out.

All four Stars on the dock did their best to safely moor the vessel, Ten Cents and O.J. were holding strong to the ropes as Sunshine and Tillie tied their ropes to the cleat hitches.

But as they worked, Sunshine thought he heard the sound of a cat meowing behind him.

Turning to where he heard it, he saw the black cat yet again from the rooftop and the crates.

“Hey Ten Cents, I see the cat again.”

“Can it wait Sunshine, I’m busy here” Ten Cents strained.

“But Ten Cents it’s only over-...”

As Sunshine pointed over to where the cat was, the rope began to slip out of Ten Cents’ hands.

“SUNSHINE DON’T LET GO OF THE ROPE!!”

(To be Continued)

{End of Chapter 2}

(chapter 1)

.:: Into The Storm ::.

A tropical storm was approaching the port one windy day. The ocean had begun to rush and splash against the docks, choppily rocking barges against them in the waterways of Bigg City Port.

All sorts of vessels would pass by the estuary, having been carried by the storm across the sea ever since it started. The waters weren’t bad now but it would be crazy to go out for a swim in this kind of weather and waves.

During all this, Tillie, my newest Tug recruit in training, was trying her best to get her barge delivery done while in the storm.

The water splashed about as Tillie made her way to the deepest part of Bigg City’s waters, rocking Tillie as if she was a plastic toy boat. Some of my Star tugs returned safely to their dock, they all expressed to one another about how they struggled during the day.

“I’ve never seen the weather this bad, especially back when I was a young Tug” commented OJ.

“At least it isn’t a hurricane… I hope” added Big Mac.

“The storm shouldn’t last long,” I reassured my tugs, “However, in case it does get worse, I’d like all of my tugs back in one piece. Top Hat, Big Mac go find Ten Cents, Sunshine, and Tillie and tell them to return back here.”

“Right away sir” said Big Mac as he headed off.

“Oh great… And I was hoping to keep myself dry for the rest of the day” complained Top Hat.

Meanwhile Tillie was finally getting close to her destination for her barge delivery.

“Oh… will this storm cause any damage to the port? Should I hurry to get these crates to where they are needed? Should I just go back to the Star dock?” She thought to herself.

Suddenly Top Hat appeared. When he noticed Tillie, he accidentally splashed water all over her.

“I say, Tillie. So sorry, however Captain Starr wants us to return to our docks, there’s a tropical storm on the way and it may get worse, so he says” Tillie shook her head. getting some of the wet ocean water off her face to look over to Top Hat.

“Alright Top Hat I’ll just make my final delivery with these barges and I’ll get somewhere safe from this storm.”

“I do really think you should return to Star Pier this instant!” Top Hat cried after Tillie, but she was already out of earshot.

Suddenly a drop of rain landed on Top Hat’s monocle, startling him as it fell out of his eye. “Oh I say, I must get going, if I stay out while it rains then I'll never be dry until it ends!”

Tillie finally arrived at her destination and tied off her barges to the docks and made her way back to the Star pier.

The rain began to pelt down even harder onto poor Tillie.

“Oh dear I have to get going, I've never seen a worse storm like this than back on Sodor. Though I’m sure it won’t be hard to navigate through this storm.” Tillie reassured herself as she continued to make her way back home.

Tillie tried to make her way back to Star Pier but it was difficult to see and navigate through the fog especially without the light from Lillie Lightship.

Still even with all of this, Tillie’s mind was wondering. She had heard stories about storms like these that oftentimes take ocean travelers to places where they’ve never seen before.

This made her more curious and filled her with thoughts of adventures. But she suddenly remembered how the Star Fleet and her sister warned her about going off on dangerous adventures and with curiosity killed the tugboat.

But Tillie didn’t heed those warnings.

It wasn’t long until the current began trying to pull Tillie out to sea. Tillie tried to keep her course and tried her best to make her way back to the port. But she had already begun being dragged into the storm.

“Oh no…” cried Tillie, “Somebody help me!”

Tillie didn’t realize it but she was close to Dem Der Rocks. Rocks and pebbles were kicked up by the tides and they knocked into Tillie’s hull, pieces of debris swept past the small tugboat and scraped against her.

The cold winds seemed to called out to Tillie, “Go back! Go back!” The storm seemed to howl. Tillie however was struggling to do just that.

“I need to go back!” Tillie cried. Lillie’s light was nowhere to be seen through the thick mist.

Tillie tried to rev her engine to get moving but it had already cut out. The presence of Bigg City Port slowly began to drift away from Tillie’s vision. Left in a perilous situation all Tillie could do was cry out for help.

“Hello?! Is anyone out here?! Hello! Lillie?! Hercules?! Anyone?! Help me!”

The storm was drifting her very far out now until Tillie noticed Lillie Lightship in the distance. “Tillie!” A worried and panting voice came trudging in the mist, a bright colored hull and a large light could be seen of Lillie, she was still pretty far from Tillie though.

“What are you doing here?!” Lillie huffed against the tides, Tillie was almost about to reach the choppy border and if Lillie didn't do something quick, then Tillie could’ve been swept out into the unknown.

Tillie’s engine finally came back to life and she tried heading back to Lillie. Then it happened…

A monstrous wave swept Tillie aside towards the ocean and she was yet again in a perilous situation. Tillie was now in the hands of dangerous waters and whipping winds of the storm being carried out to sea. Tillie could only watch as Lillie’s light faded away until she couldn’t see it anymore as she was swept away.

“no...No! NO! Lillie Please help me! Lillie!” But Lillie couldn’t help Tillie.

Tillie was in a great deal of trouble and with no one to help her, she was all alone in the dark, rainy and frightening storm. Left in a state of panic Tillie blacked out.

( to be continued...)

[End of Chapter 1]

Ten Cents trudged slowly into the employee lounge, Sunshine flopped down on the couch with a sigh of relief, “Finally! I thought the day would never end.” Sunshine exclaimed, adjusting himself a bit.

“Get as much rest as you can when you get back to your bunk. Captain Starr said there’ll be more labor inducing work like this tomorrow and even the following weeks.” Ten Cents advised as he opened a bottle of lemonade from the icebox.

“Oh boy, more work…” Sunshine said very uncharacteristically.

“Cheer up Sunshine, if we do as we’re assigned in a timely manner, surely we’ll have some time for ourselves,” Ten Cents reassured, “But speaking of time for ourselves, let’s go to our bunks and recharge our batteries for tomorrow”

“Alright then…” Ten Cents pocketed the bottle cap from his lemonade and the two walked to their bunks.

Not much time had passed once my youngest workers lied down in their bunks when Sunshine decided to speak up.

“Hey, Ten Cents-”

“Yeah Sunshine?”

“I’ve been thinking… Have you ever wished for anything better than this?”

“Better than what?”

“Better than how things have been at Star Tug and Marine recently. We’ve been practically working our butts off. Don’t we deserve a break by now?”

“Sunshine, I know it’s been rough over the past couple of months but having worked for the company for sometime, I’ve gotten used to it. I don’t need to wish for a break, eventually we’ll get some vacation time to burn, although…”

Ten Cents paused, “If I’m being honest, I could do with a break working in the bustling port, a change in scenery would be nice”

“What would be nice, Ten Cents?” Both Ten Cents and Sunshine nearly fell out of their bunks, “Nothing Captain Starr, sir!” I slowly walked up to the two youngsters.

“I greatly apologize if I interrupted you both on anything, but I have one last job for you two today. I need you two to go to our storage room and clean it out. So that there’s more space for new equipment and supplies need to be stored away. Understood?”

“Yes sir”, Ten Cents and Sunshine replied together. I tossed them the keys.

“Anything that isn’t necessary, leave it next to the door but don’t block the hallway. Warrior and Big Mac will take them to the dump. Be sure to return them to me after you're done. Don’t lose them.” I turned and walked to my office,

“We will, Sir.”

Once I was out of earshot, Ten Cents let out a sigh.

“The Jinx strikes again.” Sunshine remarked,

Ten Cents glared, “Do you see a hooter anywhere? And last time I checked, Boomer resigned.”

“Jinxes stick like glue”, Sunshine said ominously.

“Oh shut up you little-” Ten Cents gave Sunshine a punch on his shoulder, “Let’s go the quicker we get this done, the sooner we can get some sleep.”

“Alright, I’m coming”. And with that, the two made their way to the storage room.

The storage room hadn’t been used in a very long time. As soon as Ten Cents unlocked the door and flicked on the lightswitch, the ceiling lights barely lit the room up, but both could see rows upon rows of boxes stacked upon metal racks with cobwebs and dust bunnies coating everything. Sunshine was suddenly hit by a waft of dust causing him to choke.

“There’s just so many of them. How long has it been since this place was organized?”

“Probably way before you and I joined the Star Fleet. I guess nobody bothered to clean up this place.” Ten Cents replied. The two walked deeper into the storage room.

“How were so many boxes crammed into such a small room?” Sunshine commented.

“No idea but let’s get to cleaning.”

“Right!”

Ten Cents and Sunshine worked hard cleaning up the storage room, looking inside each box for anything that was no longer necessary to keep. A couple hours passed as they worked, slowly the rest of my team returned from their jobs.

Warrior and Big Mac would’ve said hello to the duo but they were just too tired and trudged off to the showers. Ten Cents and Sunshine were nearly done cleaning out the junk in the storage room with many boxes now stacked neatly next to the wall before they started to speak to each other again.

“Hey Sunshine, ever thought of what the inside of Top Hat’s mind looks like?”

“Yeah what?”

Ten Cents pointed to a bunch of boxes simply labeled as “garbage”

“Ha, I thought it was that!” laughed Sunshine.

The two started cracking more jokes at the expense of Top Hat to pass the time. If Top Hat was there, he would’ve wrung Ten Cents and Sunshine’s necks. Their laughter was soon cut short as a small metallic thud echoed throughout the room startling them.

“Sunshine… Did you bump something off one of the racks?”

“No; Did you, Ten Cents?”

“No.”

Ten Cents walked towards the direction of where the sound came from. The side of the room was much darker so Ten Cents searched the ground with his flashlight drawn.

“I found it!”

“What is it?!”

Ten Cents returned holding something large wrapped in decaying newspaper. Sunshine was perplexed as Ten Cents proceeded to rip the newspaper off.

“Feels like there’s a-”, Ten Cents dropped the wad of newspaper out of utter shock.

“Feels like there’s a what?” puzzled Sunshine.

Ten Cents didn’t reply and just held out the objects in his hand. Sunshine was in disbelief. What was inside the newspaper wad were a pair of filthy, stuffed dolls with buttons sewn where the eyes would be. Ten Cents quivered, “They look exactly like us…”

Sunshine grabbed the dolls and examined them in admiration.

“The amount of detail put into these is quite impressive. The only question is… who made them?”

Ten Cents shook his head, “beats me”.

Ten Cents then noticed something wrapped around the neck on the doll that resembled him. He snatched the doll out of Sunshine’s hands to get a better look.

“Mine’s got a key on it”

“Any idea on what it’s for?”

“I haven’t the slightest clue, Sunshine. But let’s not focus on that right now. Once we are finished then we can ask the others about them.”

Sunshine sighed, “Oh alright, but can I hold onto them? Until we find out who made them, of course.”

“Yeah sure. Well I think we’re just about finished, let's get cleaned up and get some grub at the cafeteria. All this work has made me hungry”, Ten Cents replied, rubbing his stomach.

“A bite sounds good as well to me”, Sunshine agreed. Ten Cents closed the storage room door, locking it behind him, and the two set off to the cafeteria.

{End of Chapter 1}

“I got it!” Sunshine called out, “Ten Cents give Sunshine a hand and pull the tramper back!” OJ commanded.

Ten Cents ran behind Sunshine and grabbed onto the rope. Both did their best to pull the rope back. The other Stars in their tugboats all did their best to push the tramper back to the dock. In a panic, Tillie let go of her rope and ran over to help Ten Cents and Sunshine.

“Wait, Tillie!” called OJ, who was now beginning to lose his hold on his rope. But Tillie wasn’t listening, she grabbed onto the rope from the stern of the tramper and aided the other younger Star members, “C’mon we got this, keep pulling!” strained Tillie, and slowly but surely they gained control and it wasn’t long before they managed to tie the tramper safely to the dock.

Meanwhile OJ was still struggling to keep his grip on the bow’s rope, before he could fall into the ocean, the young members of my company came to his aid, “Don’t worry OJ, we’ve got you”, Ten Cents assured him, OJ didn’t reply, but eventually the four managed to get the front of the tramper secured to the dock.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, “See, I told you we had this,” Ten Cents proclaimed.

O.J. for a moment didn’t say anything, he let go of the rope and limped off to a nearby bench clenching his back. “O.J.?...” the port had seemingly gone quiet.

-

I wasn’t pleased when I heard what had happened at the port that day, and I had a stern word with my youngest members. “I’m very disappointed in you, Sunshine, you’re usually a lot more careful with your jobs”

“I’m very sorry Captain,” Sunshine said, taking off his hat, “You should be, thanks to your actions, O.J. won't be able to return to work with us and now the Zeros are going to have to help us.”

“But at least we didn’t lose the contract to that tramper, Captain,” pleaded Tillie, “That's besides the point,” I snapped, “We could still potentially lose the contract now that the Zeros are helping, And they could take it beneath our noses, you know how they can be.”

“Yes sir,” Ten Cents, Tillie, and Sunshine agreed in unison, “As punishment, starting tomorrow morning, I’m putting you three to work with Skuttlebutt Pete, scraping barnacles at pier 3.”

“Oh no not Pier 3 sir,” moaned Ten Cents

“My orders are final Ten Cents, if you complain any longer, I’ll come up with an even worse punishment,” now I can tend to be hard on my employees when they mess up, but as they walked out of my office to the employee lounge, I couldn’t help but feel I had been a little too hard on them.

Sunshine looked down at his hand still stinging rope burn and sighed, “I really messed up big time today guys, I’m sorry.”

“Sunshine it’s not…” Tillie paused for a moment being careful with her words, “Well… It's my fault as well. I saw you two were in trouble and I wanted to help but I left O.J to his own devices. H-He’s badly hurt now and…” Tillie went quiet, having to feel very guilty to the point where she felt like she was drowning in a sea of her own words.

“Tillie…” Ten Cents tried to comfort her

“No this is really all my fault”, whimpered Sunshine, “I got distracted by that cat, if i wasn’t so absentminded none of this would have happened.”

“Okay enough with the pity party, I know it's been a really bad day for us because some mistakes were made but we can’t let our guilt get to us… I know you tried to help, Tillie and that’s okay. I'm sure O.J. will get better soon and things will improve as well, I’m sure of it.” Ten Cents reassured, Tillie gave a small smile, but Sunshine was still not convinced, he had a lot still on his mind.

He only gave a sigh of distress as he walked upstairs leaving Tillie and Ten Cents behind.

“Oi Sunshine, where are you going?”

“I’m going to my bunk… I want to be left alone…” Sunshine quavered.

Tillie and Ten Cents looked at each other feeling worried for their friend.

“You think we should..?” started Tillie

“I know he wants to be alone but… we shouldn’t leave him feeling sorry for himself.”

“Right,” agreed Tillie.

Both headed up to check up on Sunshine. Once they reached the doors to the barracks, Ten Cents knocked quietly not wanting to alarm Sunshine.

“Hey Sunshine, I know you wanted us to leave you alone but we wanted to be beside you to comfort you.” Tillie spoke softly as they waited for an answer yet there was none. Ten Cents tried knocking again.

“Sunshine, are you okay?” Tillie asked, sounding more worried but what they didn’t expect was the sound of pacing from inside the room like someone was searching for something.

“Sunshine?” Ten Cents asked, grabbing the doorknob and was surprised, realizing that it was open. As he and Tillie entered, they saw Sunshine searching throughout the entire room for something.

“What are you doing?” queried Tillie, “Ten Cents!” Sunshine turned to face Ten Cents

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Ten Cents, the other doll is missing!” Sunshine exclaimed frantically

“What?! What do you mean it’s gone?”

“It’s not on the nightstand where I left it.”

“Did you look everywhere?”

“I did before you guys arrived, but it’s just not here.”

Tillie stood in confusion, “I’m sorry but what’s this about another doll?”

“It’s something me and Sunshine found in the old storage room.”

“You think it could be somewhere else?”

“What are you suggesting? The doll got up and walked around the Star Fleet Headquarters?” snapped Ten Cents

“I don’t know, maybe, but it doesn’t hurt to try searching for it elsewhere.”

At first Ten Cents was reluctant to find his doll look alike but decided to go look for it.

“Alright let's split up. Sunshine you’ll go in the locker room, Tillie you’ll look in the cafeteria and I'll go look in the worker’s lounge. Now let's hop to it”

“Got it!” the two said in unison before they all went down stairs splitting off to go look for the doll.

Ten Cents looked over and under the furniture in the lounge until he came to a table when he noticed it hiding in the shadows.

“There you are.’’ Ten Cents said as he moved the table aside to reach for the doll, then he noticed something. It looked like the outline of a small door on the ground. Curiously, Ten Cents examined it, he then felt a keyhole beneath the wallpaper.

He grabbed the doll and saw the key held to it. Could this key belong to this door? Should I open it? Ten Cents thought to himself.

“Oi! Sunshine! Tillie! I found it!” he called out and they immediately rushed over to the employee lounge

“You found it?” Tillie asked,

“Where was it?” Sunshine added,

“Hiding underneath the table, but you won’t believe what else i found”

“What? What is it?” both asked as they walked over.

“There’s a door hidden in the wallpaper. See?”

Tillie and Sunshine squatted down to get a better look at the door.

“Why would a building have a door so small in it? It’s something straight out of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland” Tillie questioned.

“Don’t be silly Tillie, small doors like this usually are for a crawlspace.” Sunshine answered, “I should know, my orphanage had one.”

“I think the key belongs to this door” Ten Cents held out his doll, showing the key to Tillie and Sunshine.

“How do you know?” Sunshine skepticized

“I don’t, but it wouldn’t hurt to try I guess.”

Taking the key off the doll's neck and getting low to the door’s level, Ten Cents started ripping the wallpaper through the door’s jamb with the key’s blade. This made Tillie visibly anxious.

“Ten Cents, is it a good idea to rip the wallpaper? I really don’t want any of us to get into more trouble for vandalizing the wallpaper.” Tillie said, concerned.

“Don’t worry I don’t think anyone will notice… I hope.”

To Ten Cents’ surprise the key fitted the keyhole. Tillie and Sunshine grew anxious wanting to know what was on the other side of the small door. The key clicked, and with his heart beating out of his chest, Ten Cents turned the doorknob and pulled open the door revealing… a brick wall.

“…What?” stammered Sunshine,

“That’s it?!” Tillie exclaimed, they were all at a loss for words

“Why is the door sealed off? Even more so what's the point in keeping the door in place?” Ten Cents groaned, shutting the door and pulling the key out of the keyhole.

“Let’s put the table back in its original place before someone sees what we did, what a waste of time.”

Tillie and Sunshine nodded as they helped get the table in place and Ten Cents did his best to cover up where he ripped into the wallpaper.

“Well I think it’s time for me to go, I can’t keep my sister waiting for me any longer. She’d be worried sick if I didn't get back home on time.” Tillie said as she checked her watch.

“Alright guess we’ll see you tomorrow morning huh?” Ten Cents inquired

“Yeah… scraping barnacles, but it’ll be okay hopefully. See you guys then”

“See ya Tillie.”

“Tell your sister hi for me!” added Sunshine

Tillie nodded and waved goodbye as she exited the building.

“So what now?” asked Sunshine

“I don’t know but I find it mysterious how this doll left the barrack and appeared next to that small door. Heck it doesn’t even make sense for why it had a key for a door that went nowhere” Ten cents held out the doll and scowled at it.

“You think someone’s trying to mess with us?”

“I don’t know Sunshine, honestly I don’t want to think about this any longer.”

“Well I'm feeling pretty hungry now, shall we get something to eat?”

“Sure... another day of eating disgusting rations, yum” Ten Cents said with forced sarcasm as they walked to the cafeteria.

Night fell over Bigg City Port, some of my employees were still working while my young recruits, already in their pajamas, were getting ready to sleep.

Sunshine looked at his hand again, the rope burn still imprinted on his palm, while the stinging feeling had gone, yet Sunshine’s guilt still weighed heavy on his conscience. Ten Cents seemed to notice this and tried comforting his best friend.

“Hey I know you still feel bad about today, but just know that once we finish with our community service, Things will only get better here on out. Sure it may be still rather hectic with jobs to do but everything’s gonna be okay. O.J will recover and this whole incident will be forgotten about in due time, there's no need to beat yourself up over it,” Ten Cents said, laying his hand on Sunshine’s shoulder.

“Well I guess you’re right, Ten Cents, I just hope tomorrow goes well.”

“It will, Sunshine, It will…”

Ten Cents assured Sunshine again, both climbing into their bunks, both of their dolls were had been placed on their nightstand again.

“Goodnight Ten Cents.” yawned Sunshine,

“Goodnight Sunshine.” Ten Cents replied, and they both slowly drifted off to sleep. Unbeknownst to them, the small door Ten Cents unlocked was far more than what they initially thought.

{End of chapter 3}