Captain's Away! Chapter Four
"Saito"
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.
Chapter Four
“Saito”
Saito stood on the Bridge of the Beausoleil fretting. He was taking a hell of a risk. He knew it was a risk the captain would have taken if she’d been there in his place, but he was also certain that she would dress him down when she got back. Do as I say, not as I do. That was her style.
“What’s the quickest you can get us out of dock?” he asked the pilot.
“Five minutes if you don’t mind breaking a few things.”
Saito couldn’t remember the pilot’s name and briefly regretted asking the Beausoleil not to show him holographic IDs, which he considered a distraction. In Saito’s defense, the man had only been promoted to ship’s pilot a few weeks ago, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Memorizing names was low on Saito’s priority list. He wished he could just call everyone by their function. “Just make sure you’re ready to get us out of here on a moment’s notice.”
The pilot made no effort to conceal the swagger in his voice. “I was born ready, Commander.”
Saito strove to keep the irritation out of his voice. “Good. Then we ought to be fine.”
The pilot chuckled. “Right up until the Atul gets here.”
Saito saw nothing funny about that prospect. “Beausoleil to Javad.” His voice did not sound as calm as he would have liked.
Divining his intent, the ship opened the appropriate channel.
Javad’s voice sounded in the air before him. “Commander.”
“Status, please.”
“There’s a problem.”
“I don’t want to hear about any—” Saito sighed. “What problem?”
“The captain doesn’t recognize me.”
A knot formed in Saito’s gut. He wasn’t sure how much more bad news he could take. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“We’re almost out of time.”
“I know.”
There wasn’t much Saito could say. Javad knew the situation every bit as well as Saito did. “You know what’s coming. We need to be long gone before that happens. And we will be, whether you two are on board or not.”
“Of course, Commander.”
“Doc—”
“Yes?”
Saito struggled to find the right words. He was terrible at finding the right words. He hated that part of the job. “Good luck.” That simple phrase would have to do. They both knew the odds were stacked against them.
“Thank you, Commander.”
“The instant they’re back on board I want us out of here,” Saito barked at the pilot.
He was better at those kinds of words.
Back with their parents and Sebastian, Marie-Josée and Alain accepted water, cheese, and bread from a group of charitable Northumbrians. Afterward, bored, Marie-Josée lay down and fell fast asleep. She slept fitfully, dreaming of Earth. All her subconscious had to go on was a handful of historical photos and the work of artists who had never set foot on Earth. She dreamt of rolling hills and mountains higher than the eye could see. She dreamt of a menagerie of animals that she couldn’t identify and that had probably never existed. She dreamt that the animals elected her President. That was when she knew it was a dream. She had seen precious few animals in her life, most of those in cages, and not even one that would have voted for her.
She woke up to a muffled crunch accompanied by a discharge of electricity and cries of fear. She opened her eyes just as all the main lights went out. An alarm began an annoying caterwauling. Amber lights flashed around her. A swell of concerned voices erupted throughout the Great Hall. Marie-Josée climbed to her feet, struggling to understand what was happening. She started walking. In the distance, through one of the massive observation windows, she caught a glimpse of what looked like the battleship that had destroyed the Evangeline. Fear coursed through her body. This did not bode well for the Northumberland or anyone on it.
In the darkness a man approached her—the man in uniform who had confronted her earlier.
“I’m sorry, captain,” he said. “We’re out of time.”
Frightened, Marie-Josée began backing away. She looked around frantically—there was no one else within meters of them. Everyone was distracted by the presence of the Realm battleship. “I don’t know what—”
A subtle motion on the man’s part and Marie-Josée’s consciousness shut down as though someone had flicked it off with a switch.
There is technology in the universe so complex that most people couldn’t even tell you what it’s for, let alone how it works. Technology so ancient that nobody remembers when it was conceived, or how, or why, and that remains inscrutable no matter how much time and ingenuity is thrown at it. The Field was such technology.
Javad himself comprehended only a fraction of its potential. Having used the Field a few times now he thought that he was getting the hang of it, grasped something of its fundamental nature. If you asked him, he would have told you that he believed he understood how to use the Field, more or less. He was wrong. It wasn’t his fault. The Field defied understanding.
He adjusted the Field’s parameters, trying to make it do something that even those living in such advanced technological times would have considered impossible: rip the captain’s consciousness free of its current housing and fling it back where Javad thought it belonged. He managed, but with such an utter lack of finesse that it was a miracle it didn’t kill the host. That it didn’t had nothing to do with Javad’s facility with the Field. That was due solely to the clever engineering of the Field, constructed with stringent safeguards eons earlier by beings that cared about and understood such things. Who had anticipated ignorant users like Javad.
The entire process took but a fraction of a second. Afterward, Javad shut off the ancient apparatus and slipped it back in his pocket. He regarded the girl, slumped on the deck of the Great Hall. She would come to any second now. She would rise and wonder where she was and how she had got there. She might wonder what had become of the last few weeks. Probably she would be disoriented and scared, but aside from that she would be fine. Apart from being dead shortly, but that had nothing to do with Javad or the Field. That would be the Realm’s doing. Javad considered picking her up and taking her with him but decided there was no point. Odds were he wasn’t going to make it either.
He began walking to put some distance between himself and the girl.
“Javad to Beausoleil,” he said aloud.
“Beausoleil,” Saito responded almost instantly in his ear.
“Mission accomplished. I’ve retrieved the captain. You should have her now.”
“Good. What’s your status?”
“I think you know that as well as I do.”
Silence briefly. There was no going back to the Beausoleil for Javad. Not now at least, maybe not ever. He was locked in the Great Hall with the rest of the survivors. Even had he not been trapped the Beausoleil would no longer be docked. Saito would have made sure of that, departing well before the Atul showed up. Thanks to the Field the Beausoleil hadn’t needed to be docked to receive the captain.
“Understood,” Saito said.
Briefly, Javad considered using the Field to transport his own consciousness elsewhere, but his scruples prevented him from doing so. Nor did he want to leave his body behind. It wasn’t perfect, but he was partial to it.
Awkward silence. Javad knew that Saito didn’t know what to say. Very likely this exchange was excruciating for him. Staring death in the face, Javad was not inclined to let him off the hook.
“Beausoleil out,” Saito said finally.
Javad was not surprised. Saito was inexperienced at command and not that good with people. Yet one more reason to get the captain back where she belonged.
“Northumberland,” he said.
The station’s glowing avatar materialized, appearing as a handsome middle-aged man greying at the temples. “Yes, Corpsman?”
“There’s a girl back there, Marie-Josée Doucette. She’s unconscious but otherwise fine. She’ll wake up shortly. Keep an eye out for her, please. Maybe help her family find her. They’re around here somewhere.”
“Marie-Josée Doucette. I know her family. What happened?”
The Northumberland would have seen his brief exchange with the girl. Although the station would have concluded that Javad was somehow responsible, it would not be familiar with the Field and couldn’t possibly know what he had done. Under the circumstances it was not likely to take any further action.
“It’s complicated. Please look after her.”
“I will do as you suggest.”
“Thank you.”
Javad left the girl in the Northumberland’s capable albeit virtual hands.
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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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