Captain's Away! Chapter Seventeen
"Performance Time Part Two"
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!
Marie-Josée’s parents, Yolande and Bertrand Doucette, are trapped in an emergency bunker floating aimlessly in space with thirty-five other survivors. Her brother, Alain, is missing and presumed dead. But although Marie-Josée’s body is unconscious and in the emergency bunker with her parents, another part of her is having an entirely different experience.
Unaware of the tragedy that has befallen the space station Northumberland and her parents and brother, Marie-Josée’s mind has awoken in another body on board a starship called the Beausoleil where a man named Commander Saito believes her to be his captain, Captain Jane Khiboda. Deeply concerned about his captain’s state-of-mind, Commander Saito confines Marie-Josée to the captain’s cabin where she works with the Beausoleil’s holographic avatar to learn as much about Captain Khiboda as possible with the intention of impersonating her.
Chapter Seventeen
“Performance Time Part Two ”
Marie-Josée memorized as much information about Jane Khiboda as she could. Afterward she felt that she could confidently answer at least the most basic biographical questions. She still had no real idea how Khiboda behaved other than a few personal holograms in which she seemed reserved and quiet. One might even say brooding. Did the captain laugh much? Or ever? Did she joke? Tell personal anecdotes? Marie-Josée didn’t know. There were no two ways about it: she was going to present as a completely different person than the captain. How to explain the personality change? Would the accident with the force or the field or whatever it was be enough of an explanation? Maybe she could tell people she’d hit her head. That resulted in personality changes, didn’t it?
She lay back on the captain’s bunk, which was about as comfortable as a steel girder. She stood back up. Full of nervous energy, she started pacing and found she couldn’t stop. She was just starting to wonder what people on this ship did for food when the Beausoleil appeared before her.
“Commander Choki Saito is outside your cabin requesting permission to enter.”
Marie-Josée’s heart gave a little flutter. Performance time. “Okay.”
The door opened. Saito came in carrying a tray full of food. He had brought her supper personally. Nice of him. The door didn’t close all the way behind him. He looked over his shoulder at it. “Beausoleil, close the door.”
“The door is not functioning properly,” the Beausoleil said.
“Create a work order,” he ordered.
“Yes sir.” The avatar disappeared.
“Not a good time for the ship to be falling apart,” Saito said.
Marie-Josée remained standing. She regarded the alleged food skeptically. She didn’t recognize anything on the plate and couldn’t quite place the faint odour arising from it.
“We’re still a little short on supplies,” Saito told her. “But it’s fine. Perfectly edible.”
Marie-Josée pushed the tray aside. “Maybe later. What did you mean about the ship falling apart?”
“Nothing. I talk too much. How are we feeling?”
Marie-Josée wasn’t feeling well at all. Anxiety bubbled within her like insects crawling under her skin. She hadn’t sat down because she knew that if she did she’d pop right back up again. Earlier she’d tried to get the Beausoleil to tell her what was going on with the Northumberland and the survivors and the Realm, but although the ship appeared to accept her as captain, it knew that she had been relieved of command. That made some information off limits. Now, more than anything else, Marie-Josée wanted to ask Saito about the Northumberland, but she felt that doing so would undermine her efforts to present herself as Captain Khiboda.
Instead she said, “I’m feeling much better. More myself again. You were right—a little time in my own cabin did me a world of good.”
“I’m relieved to hear that, Captain. Have your memories returned?”
“Sure. Yes. Absolutely. I remember my family and stuff.” Marie-Josée winced inwardly. She couldn’t imagine Khiboda using the word “stuff.”
“I see. What else?” Saito’s expression didn’t change but Marie-Josée suspected that she’d already blown it.
“What do you want to know?”
“I’d be interested in discussing the current command structure. I was forced to make a couple of changes in your absence. I would love your opinion.”
“Right. Of course.” Marie-Josée had spent so much time on Khiboda’s personal details that she hadn’t given any thought whatsoever to the captain’s command responsibilities. Apart from a superficial understanding gleaned from popular culture she had only the vaguest notion what those even entailed.
Saito seemed to read her mind. “Don’t worry about it. It’s only natural that it would take some time. I’ll arrange for some tests when Doc’s back on board to help us figure out what’s going on. Then we can decide what to do about it.”
He went on, but Marie-Josée wasn’t listening. She was distracted by the partially open door. Somewhere on board this ship was tech that could get her back to her own body. She couldn’t stand this horrible old body one second longer. Saito, seated, could not possibly move fast enough to stop her. Or could he? He might be faster than he looked.
Marie-Josée was not inclined to overthink things. She leapt from her chair and dashed for the door, making it to the passageway in seconds. From within the cabin, she heard Saito curse. Then: “Security. Deck L2. Locate the Captain—”
She bolted down the passageway.
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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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