Captain's Away! Chapter Five
"The Medical Bay"
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.
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Previously in Captain’s Away!
It was an ordinary day on board the Akkadian space station Evangeline for the Doucettes and the rest of the station’s ten thousand inhabitants until a Realm battleship attacked the station.
While their space station Evangeline is under attack, the Doucettes wait for their chance to board an escape pod, but they’re last in line, and there may not be enough escape pods.
The Doucette’s escape pod takes them to another Akkadian space station, The Northumberland, where they join hundreds of other refugees. While exploring this new space station, Marie-Josée and her brother Alain have a strange encounter with a uniformed official.
While the space station Northumberland itself is attacked by the same battleship that destroyed the Evangeline, Marie-Josée Doucette herself is attacked in the Northumberland's Great Hall.
Chapter Five
“The Medical Bay”
A blast of sparks near the observation deck made Yolande jump. Something caught fire near the bulkhead. Dammit—there would be smoke. They would all asphyxiate. But sensors detected the problem almost immediately. Localized fire retardant smothered the flames, assisted by a couple of small, wheeled robots. When the lights went out and klaxons began sounding and emergency lighting took over and it became apparent that something was seriously amiss, Yolande’s first instinct was to check on her family.
There was Alain, right at her side. He had worked up a spit, and it looked like he was going to hork right there on the deck of the Great Hall.
“Don’t you dare!” Yolande warned him.
Alain froze and swallowed his spit.
Bertrand was there too, right in front of her, his eyes glued to his L'Akkadie Nouvelle as usual.
“Can you not take your eyes off that thing for one minute?” Yolande asked him.
“What?” Bertrand said innocently. “I’m just—”
Yolande didn’t care. There were more important matters at hand. Her eyes landed on the spot where Marie-Josée had been sleeping, but it was bare. Marie-Josée was no longer there. Yolande spun three hundred and sixty degrees looking for her daughter but could not see her anywhere in the now barely illuminated Great Hall.
Her daughter was missing.
“Bertrand. I don’t see Marie-Josée.” She massaged her forehead. “Put down that damned device and look for our daughter. Marie-Josée! Where are you?”
“What?” Bertrand asked.
“Our daughter. Where’s our daughter?” Yolande struggled to keep a rising tide of hysteria at bay.
Bertrand looked around. “She was just here.”
“Alain, have you seen her?” Yolande asked.
“Seen who?” Alain asked.
“Your sister! Where’s your sister?”
“I don’t know!” Alain appeared outraged that his mother would have the gall to ask him a question, let alone expect him to answer it.
“She can’t have gone far,” Bertrand said reasonably. “There’s no place for her to go.”
Looking around frantically, Yolande’s eyes fell on one of the observation deck’s most prominent windows.
She clutched her husband’s arm. “Look!”
A Realm battleship hung outside the Northumberland, distant but instantly recognizable, poised (no doubt) to do to the Northumberland what one just like it had done to the Evangeline the day before. Or was it the same ship? Yolande couldn’t tell.
Bertrand looked. “There goes my mood.”
Yolande tried to keep her voice from trembling. “We need to get off this station. But first we need to find Marie-Josée.”
“I’ll go look for her,” Bertrand offered.
Bertrand couldn’t find a pair of glasses sitting right on his own nose.
“You stay here,” Yolande told him, and left before her husband could object, forcing him to remain with Alain.
Yolande had never been this afraid before, not even on the Evangeline before its destruction. She hadn’t had time then. Nor had it seemed necessary—the evacuation had been relatively orderly, and never in a thousand years had she imagined that the station would be destroyed. Now she knew only too well how dire the situation could get.
Through the observation window, Yolande watched as the Realm battleship moved steadily closer. It was a foreboding sight. Yolande knew with absolute certainty that the enemy ship wouldn’t stop until it had destroyed the Northumberland just as it had the Evangeline. In the gloom of the emergency lighting the throngs of survivors were rushing the doors that led to the rest of the Northumberland, shouting and beating on the doors with whatever they could find: chairs, tables, knapsacks, fists and feet. But the doors were reinforced titanium and could not be breached that way.
Despite a growing pit in her stomach she forced herself to think logically. Bertrand was right: Marie-Josée couldn’t be anywhere other than in the Great Hall. There were only a finite number of places to look. Still, the hall was enormous. It would take forever to find her daughter. And forever might be too late.
“Station. Station! Help me find my daughter!” she cried out in desperation.
To Yolande’s surprise, for she hadn’t really expected a response, Northumberland Station’s avatar materialized before her. Having not visited the Northumberland in a while, she’d forgotten how absurdly handsome its avatar was. Bertrand had always hated it.
“Your daughter’s name is Marie-Josée Doucette?” the Northumberland asked.
“Yes,” Yolande answered breathlessly.
She realized that she might owe the official who had welcomed them to the Northumberland an apology. The woman might have been overly officious, but it appeared that she had entered them into the station’s database as citizens, granting them access to the station’s core services.
“Follow me,” the Northumberland said, striding quickly along the deck, its feet, crafted of lasers and light, never actually touching the ground.
The Northumberland led Yolande toward a dark corner that she would never have found on her own. She found her daughter sprawled on the deck, unmoving.
“Don’t be alarmed,” the Northumberland said. “Your daughter requires medical attention, but she’s alive and stable. Unfortunately, my physical resources are stretched to their limits right now. There may be a bit of a wait before help arrives. Under the circumstances, I strongly suggest you convey her to my medical bay. I will open the doors to the Great Hall shortly, when it is prudent to do so.”
Seeing her daughter lying there unconscious, a great lump formed in Yolande’s throat. Unable to speak, she nodded. The Northumberland’s avatar returned the nod and disappeared.
Yolande approached her daughter and touched her gently. Marie-Josée was warm to the touch but perfectly still, her eyes closed. Yolande wondered whether she had been electrocuted or struck by flying debris. She couldn’t see any visible marks and her clothing was intact. She was trying to decide whether to pick Marie-Josée up and carry her when she looked up to find Bertrand, Alain, and Sebastian all standing around her.
“Is she going to be okay?” Alain asked.
The lump in Yolande’s throat did not permit her to answer.
“Whatever happened to her—is it going to happen to me?” Alain asked.
“Could,” Bertrand said.
Yolande glared at her husband. She regained sufficient control of her voice to say, “No Alain. It’s not going to happen to you.”
She rose and took Bertrand aside. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
“We should get her to a doctor,” Bertrand said.
“The Northumberland is sending help, but it could be a while.” Yolande looked around helplessly. “It said we should take her to the medical bay.”
“I possess some medical capacity,” Sebastian said. “I can assess her if you like.”
Yolande regarded the mechanical creature skeptically—it was only a maintenance robot, after all. But she was desperate. “Please,” she said.
Sebastian produced instrumentation from beneath its torso. It knelt and began examining Marie-Josée. After about a minute it stood up again.
“What’s wrong with her?” Yolande asked anxiously. “Is it a concussion?”
“Something is wrong but it’s not a concussion.”
Yolande was horrified. “What?”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian said. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do. She may come out of it on her own. In the meantime, try your best to keep her comfortable.”
“That’s all you have to say? Scare the wits out of me and tell me to keep her comfortable?”
Bertrand rolled his eyes. “Robots.”
With that, Yolande dismissed Sebastian’s opinion utterly and resolved to find a proper doctor as soon as she could.
Glancing up, she could see through the observation windows a handful of Akkadian Renards swooping gracefully around the enemy battleship, every single one of them piloted by fools. The single-seat fighters were tiny alongside the battleship, and there weren’t anywhere near enough of them. Their weaponry would be almost completely ineffectual against the Realm vessel’s armour and shields. Soon every one of those fighters would be snuffed out of existence.
Although the ships involved were kilometres away, the battle was still taking place far too close to the Northumberland for comfort. Stray fire, disabled ships, or shrapnel could easily strike the station, and judging from the sparks earlier probably already had. And when the Renards inevitably lost, the Realm battleship would bring its full might to bear on the Northumberland.
Elsewhere in the Great Hall the survivors, unwilling to wait for the Northumberland to open the doors, had begun tackling them from a more technical perspective, removing metal plates and futzing with the wiring. Eventually this approach paid off. One door opened. A stream of survivors began stampeding the interior of the station, where, Yolande knew, most of them would try for the life pods. Through the observation windows she could already see pods being jettisoned. It was extremely unlikely that any functioning pods would be left by the time Yolande and her family reached them.
A yoke of responsibility settled squarely upon her shoulders. It was up to her to get her family out of this predicament. Why was it always up to her? Could not Bertrand step up for once? But that would be like asking a cat to do the dishes. Her husband had many fine qualities—he was calm, loyal, and infuriatingly reasonable, but one did not look to him for initiative.
Yolande forced herself to concentrate. The Northumberland had suggested that she take Marie-Josée to its medical bay. It was a good idea, and not just for Marie-Josée’s sake.
“Listen up,” she said. “That battleship out there is going to tear the Northumberland apart just like it did the Evangeline. Except that this time there won’t be any life pods left. There’s only one chance—the medical bay. On stations like this one it can be set up as a separate bunker. Once sealed off it may—just may—be able to withstand an attack by a ship like that.”
“I’ve heard rumours of that,” Bertrand said. “I didn’t know it was true.”
“It’s not supposed to be public knowledge. It’s for Command. And it’s only on this class of space station.”
“Are you sure about this?” Bertrand asked.
“It may not be functional,” Yolande admitted. “It depends if it’s been maintained. But it’s our only chance.”
She turned to check on Alain. You never knew with that kid. But there he was, safe and sound at Sebastian’s side. Sebastian scooped up Marie-Josée in its mechanical arms and they all set out, passing through the door to the interior of the Northumberland, where they parted ways with the rest of the survivors. Everyone else was heading towards the perimeter of the station, toward the life pods. The Doucettes made for the heart of the station.
As they trudged along, Alain tugged on Yolande’s blouse. “Are we going to die?”
Not keen on lying, Yolande didn’t say anything.
“I’m too young to die,” Alain said. “I can’t die. I’m only eleven.”
“Eleven-year olds can die,” Bertrand informed him.
Yolande shot Bertrand a look that could have peeled the paint off the steel bulkhead. “You’ll be fine, Alain. We all will.”
“What about Marie-Josée?” Alain asked. “Is she dying?”
“We don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Yolande replied honestly.
The passageways were less populated in this part of the Northumberland. What people they met were all heading in the opposite direction. Alarms continued to whoop. From time-to-time Northumberland avatars appeared reminding people that the station was being evacuated, but to remain calm and proceed to the life pods in an orderly fashion. Had it just been the day before that Yolande had gotten up expecting a nice, relaxing day off? It seemed a lifetime ago.
The Northumberland’s avatar appeared directly before her. “I see you are proceeding to the medical bay as I suggested. That’s good. Would you like me to show you the way?”
“We could use a little help,” Yolande admitted. The Northumberland was laid out quite a bit differently than the Evangeline.
“Follow me,” the Northumberland said, and led the way from that point on.
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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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