Captain’s Away! is a long form, weekly serial. New chapters come out every week (more or less). Comments and suggestions welcome as we go along.
You can find the master index of all the chapters by clicking the orange Captain’s Away Index button below:
Previously in Captain’s Away!
The Doucette family have fled their space station the Evangeline along with a maintenance robot and the station’s other ten thousand inhabitants after the Evangeline is attacked by the Realm. After their escape pod deposits them at another Akkadian space station, the Northumberland, 17-year old Marie-Josée is attacked by a man wearing an Akkadian naval uniform wielding a mysterious ancient artefact. The man refers to Marie-Josée as “Captain” before rendering her unconcious.
When Northumberland station is also attacked by the Realm, Yolande Doucette decides to lead her family to the interior of the Northumberland where she believes the station’s specially reinforced medical bay may be capable of protecting them, and where she hopes to find medical assistance for her unconscious daughter.
There, the same man who attacked Marie-Josée introduces himself to Yolande and her husband Bertrand as a medical corpsman and offers to help Marie-Josée. Unaware of his connection to her daughter, Yolande lets him examine Marie-Josée. Yolanda quickly decides that he’s a quack, dismisses him, and returns her attention to the rest of the occupants of the Medical Bay just as the Realm attack intensifies.
She tries to separate the emergency bunker portion of the medical bay from the Northumberland but, due to a mechanical issue, she fails. She leaves the medical bay to see what the problem is.
Chapter Eight
“Too Many People”
There were too many people crammed into the medical bay. It made Alain feel claustrophobic. Panicky. A little sweaty. He couldn’t stop fidgeting.
“Sit down,” his father told him.
“Nowhere to sit,” Alain mumbled.
There was, though. On the deck. He just refused to sit there. He couldn’t have sat there even if he had wanted to. There was way too much nervous energy coursing through his body.
His mother had been gone for several minutes now. He wondered what she was up to, where she was. This space station was quite a bit different from the Evangeline, and there was nothing Alain liked better than exploring. He didn’t want to sit. He wanted to have a look around, see where his mother was.
He darted out of the waiting room before his father could say anything. Afterward, he heard his father calling his name but ignored him. He was too busy peeking in doors and peering around corners, looking for his mother. He had every intention of returning shortly, once he found her. He reasoned that the medical bay couldn’t be sealed off without her. So long as he was with his mother, he would be as safe as everyone else.
Unfortunately, this plan required finding his mother, which he failed to do. There were simply too many places to look, too many passageways, too many nooks and crannies, and everything looked strange in the emergency lighting. By the time Alain realized that he would never find her, and that he really ought to find his way back to the medical bay, he was good and lost.
He stopped to try to get his bearings. There were distant, unpleasant noises that sounded like explosions. Scared, he began running through the passageways, glancing in every open door, hoping to get lucky, to see someplace he recognized that would lead him back to his father and the medical bay, but every choice he made only took him farther away.
With the Northumberland’s help, Yolande found the problem easily enough: a blown power supply. The Northumberland’s avatar led her to an equipment closet around the corner where she located a replacement. She installed it as quickly as she could. When she got back to the medical bay there were even more people crowded inside, not all of them within the yellow lines. Yolande was grateful to see Reverend Therese Arsenault among the newcomers. A young man stood with Liette, his arm around her waist. Liette looked relieved and happy, but not so much so that she couldn’t manage a dirty look for Yolande. Yolande didn’t blame her. In Liette’s position she would have reacted the same. Worse, maybe. She smiled at Liette, who looked away huffily.
“Okay, everyone,” Yolande announced. “It’s time. Let’s do this. Inside the yellow lines please!”
Bertrand appeared at Yolande’s side. “I can’t find Alain.”
“Just make sure he’s inside the yellow lines.”
“That’s what I’m saying. I can’t. I have no idea where he is.”
“What do you mean you don’t know where he is?”
“I think he’s run off.”
Yolande couldn’t believe her ears. “You were supposed to keep an eye on him!”
“I know.” Bertrand couldn’t look at her. “He was gone before I noticed. You know what he’s like.”
“Well, just ask the Northumberland where he is.”
“I tried. It’s not answering.”
Panic stirred in Yolande. If they couldn’t find Alain in time it could be a death sentence for their son. Alain had been a handful the entire eleven years of his existence. Now it seemed like it might be his undoing.
“Station,” she said. “Station!”
The Northumberland did not appear.
The full implications of Bertrand’s words sunk in: the Northumberland wasn’t answering.
If she couldn’t access the Northumberland directly it would be much harder to isolate the medical bay. If she couldn’t isolate the medical bay, they were all doomed, not just Alain.
“I’m going to go look for him,” Bertrand said.
The look in his eyes told Yolande that he was in emotional agony. She wasn’t much better off herself.
“You can’t,” she said, her voice catching. “I could lose you too.”
First Marie-Josée, then Alain. If Bertrand disappeared and Marie-Josée didn’t regain consciousness, Yolande stood to lose her entire family. In a matter of hours, she had gone from having everything—everything that mattered, at least—to potentially having nothing. How was that possible? What deity had she angered to make that happen? It dawned on her that there was nothing unique about her situation. It was happening to countless families all over Akkadia right now. What was so special about her that she should she be spared such misery and grief?
Sebastian had been eavesdropping on their conversation. “Why don’t I go look for your son?”
“Would you?” Yolande was almost weak with relief. She didn’t mind risking Sebastian. Sure, it did have its uses, but at the end of the day it was just a robot, taking up space.
Sebastian’s expression was inscrutable. “I don’t mind at all.”
It strode out of the medical bay on its mechanical legs.
“Not in such a hurry now, are you?”
Yolande turned slowly to find Liette staring her down.
It was all she could do not to punch the pregnant young woman in the face.
Someone had programmed the monitor wall to display live feeds of the station inside and out. On one feed several people scurried about the interior of the station looking panicked. Another displayed a small group looting one of the station’s three malls (for all the good it would do them once the station was obliterated). Elsewhere life pods launched while on the other side of the station the Realm battleship loomed, maybe five kilometres out. It was surrounded by a small cloud of debris—the remains of the Akkadian Renards.
Flashes of light appeared on the battleship’s hull. An instant later the Northumberland shuddered beneath Yolande’s feet. Two exterior feeds revealed explosions on the Northumberland’s surface, swaths of which glowed molten hot. Bits and pieces of the station curled off into space. Ominous sounds reached Yolande’s ears, yawing and creaking, the sound of steel and titanium being tortured. It sounded to Yolande like the station screaming.
Francis laid a hand on her shoulder. “It’s time.”
Yolande just plain didn’t know what to do. So many lives at stake, balanced now against the life of her son. She turned to Bertrand in her distress.
“Just a few more minutes,” he pleaded. “Just a few more.”
Yolande looked toward the passageway, willing her son to return, certain that any second now he would poke his head around the corner with a great big goofy grin.
The station shook and rattled so hard that it knocked some people off their feet. Bertrand steadied Yolande or she would have fallen too. When she regained her balance, she saw that all the video feeds were dead.
“Station,” she said.
“Honey,” Bertrand urged. “We can wait a bit longer. Just a bit.”
The Northumberland’s avatar did not appear.
“Station!” Yolande shouted.
She had already waited too long. Northumberland Station had been damaged too badly. She would not be able to do this through the station’s avatar. She might not be able to do it at all. Desperate, she scanned the medical bay. There would be a physical panel tucked away in a closet somewhere. There, by one of the diagnostic rooms.
She shouldered her way through the crowd of people and yanked the closet door open with such force that it slammed against the bulkhead and bounced back, hitting her in the arm. She barely noticed the pain. Breathing heavily, she peered into the dark space. She could just dimly make out the panel. She rushed in and ripped the cover open. There was a keypad inside. She rapidly typed a series of alphanumeric figures onto the keypad and hit enter. It beeped obnoxiously, not accepting her credentials.
She shut her eyes, trying to calm herself. When she opened her eyes again her vision was blurry. Her eyes were watering. Was she crying? She didn’t even know. Slowly, she tapped her credentials onto the keypad. This time it worked. She let out a long, slow breath. She entered more commands, selected a series of options. Dimly, she heard a series of distant slams. Text appeared. Do you really want to do this? No, she thought, picturing Alain’s mischievous face. I really don’t. Now she really was crying. She selected yes. A horn blared somewhere, accompanied by the sounds of heavy machinery working, grinding, steel and metal coming together confidently, with authority.
And it was done. She had successfully sealed them off.
She had successfully sentenced her son to death.
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This has been an installment of the ongoing serial Captain’s Away! A Strange Dimensions book.
Also by Joe Mahoney: A Time and a Place
An unlikely hero travels to other worlds and times to save a boy who does not want to be saved in this unique and imaginative adventure, by turns comic and tragic.
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