Captain's Away! Chapter Twelve

The Captain

Dec 28, 2024

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:

Captain's Away! Master Index

Previously in Captain’s Away!

Yolande and Bertrand Doucette are trapped in an emergency bunker floating aimlessly in space with thirty-five other survivors after Yolanda successfully severs it from the Northumberland space station moments before the Northumberland is destroyed by a Realm battleship. This after already having fled from the space station Evangeline after it too was destroyed, likely by the same enemy ship.

The Doucette’s son, Alain, is missing, presumed dead, and although the body of the Doucette’s daughter, Marie-Josée, is undeniably unconscious and in the emergency bunker with them, another part of her is having an entirely different experience…

Back to Chapter One

Chapter Twelve

“The Captain”

Marie-Josée snapped to consciousness. It was quiet—too quiet. She opened her eyes. She was no longer in the Great Hall. She was lying on her back on a bed hemmed in by equipment she didn’t recognize. It looked like a medical diagnostic room, but not one she’d ever been in before. She had no sense how long she’d been unconscious. Parts of her body chafed—her wrists, ankles, thighs. Straps, bands, and electronics surrounded her, some of which she suspected she had been attached to recently. Where was she?

A woman wearing medical scrubs bustled about the small space. A man in uniform stood near her, as still as the woman was busy. His jet-black hair was cut down to a bristle. He looked well put together, if a bit chubby. He regarded Marie-Josée with what may have been a permanent frown etched into his forehead.

“She’s awake,” he said, sounding relieved.

The woman stopped what she was doing, moved to Marie-Josée’s side, and gazed down at her benevolently. “Welcome back, Captain. How do you feel?”

Not being a captain, Marie-Josée didn’t think the woman was talking to her. For this reason, and because she wasn’t quite sure how she was feeling, she said nothing.

“You’re sure she’s okay?” the man asked.

The woman’s eyes regarded something above Marie-Josée’s head. A holographic display monitoring her vital signs, Marie-Josée guessed.

“Looks pretty darned healthy to me,” the woman said.

The man looked relieved. “Good. I’d like a moment with her alone, please.”

“Of course, Commander.”

The woman left the room.

Marie-Josée felt heavy, as though her body had been transformed into a slab of concrete. Slowly, gingerly, she forced the concrete slab to sit up.

“Don’t try to get up,” the man said. “Take it easy.”

Marie-Josée sat up anyway.

The man’s features softened just short of a smile. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have you back, Captain. It’s been a very long month.”

Marie-Josée looked around. They were alone. “Are you talking to me?” Her tongue felt as though it were made of cotton.

The creases in the man’s forehead grew slightly more pronounced. “Of course, Captain.”

“Why are you calling me captain?”

“What should I call you?”

“You should call me Marie-Josée, which is my name.” Her voice sounded deeper and hoarser than it should have. She wondered if she was coming down with a cold.

“Captain, I think you’re a little confused. It’s to be expected, considering what you’ve been through. You’re back on board the Beausoleil. You’re yourself again.”

“Wait—what do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re Jane Khiboda again. Remember?”

When Marie-Josée continued to stare at him blankly, he prompted, “Captain Khiboda. Of the Beausoleil.”

It was Marie-Josée’s turn to frown. “I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about. Who are you, anyway?”

“You know my name.”

“I do not know your name.”

“Saito. Commander Choki Saito.”

The name meant nothing to Marie-Josée. When she failed to react, Saito unlocked his hands from behind his back and stepped closer to the bed. “Captain, what’s the last thing you remember?”

The last thing Marie-Josée recalled was being confronted by the man in uniform on the Northumberland. She was about to tell this man that when she realized that he was wearing the same uniform. Although Evangeline had been a civilian station, she had seen plenty of military. “Why should I tell you anything?”

Saito opened his mouth but didn’t speak.

Marie-Josée did not have that problem. “What am I doing here? Where is here? Who are you? What the heck happened?”

“How do you feel?”

“Answer my questions first.”

“Of course, Captain. I told you. You’re back on board the Beausoleil.” Saito was speaking carefully now, delicately. “We were lucky to have found you in time.”

What did he mean by “back on board”? Marie-Josée had never been on board anything called the Beausoleil, at least that she could remember. What even was a Beausoleil? Where were her parents? The Evangeline—her home—had been destroyed. The Northumberland was being attacked. Had she been injured? If so, how badly?

She tried to summon an interface. “Station.”

No response. Just her luck—the Northumberland probably only responded to its own citizens.

“You’re not on station, Captain,” Saito said.

Oh right. She was on the Beausoleil, whatever that was. Had the Northumberland been destroyed? The thought sent a chill down her spine. “Where are my parents?”

“I’m not sure what you mean. Your genetic parents?”

“Of course my genetic parents! Where are they?”

Saito seemed bewildered.

“This shouldn’t be a hard question,” Marie-Josée added.

“I’m sorry, Captain. It’s my understanding that your genetic parents are—well, that they’re dead.”

The words struck Marie-Josée with the force of a sledgehammer. “What? No. It’s not true! My parents are alive! I was just with them!” She felt like crying. The only thing that prevented her from doing so was the knowledge that her parents weren’t dead, she had just seen them. They were alive. This man was wrong. It made her angry that he would say such a thing. To be so cruel he had to be from the Realm. She had been taken prisoner somehow. It made her defiant.

“Tell me what’s really going on.” It came out like a snarl.

Instead of answering, Saito said, “Captain, stand up.”

When Marie-Josée didn’t move, he repeated the instruction more firmly.

Slowly, Marie-Josée stood up. Again, she felt inexplicably heavy, cumbersome.

“Look in the mirror,” Saito said.

Marie-Josée spied a mirror hanging on the bulkhead a step away. “Why?”

“Just do it, please.”

She took one step forward and faced the mirror. “Oh my God.”

“What do you see?”

“It’s a trick! It’s not a mirror at all. It’s a screen.”

“It’s not a trick, Captain.”

Marie-Josée whirled. “Stop calling me that! Tell me what’s going on! I need to wake up. That’s all—I just need to wake up.”

“You’re not asleep.”

“Then how is this possible? How,” she took a deep, shuddering breath, “why do I look like that?”

“That’s what you look like.”

“I’m seventeen years old,” Marie-Josée shouted. “Not seventy. I don’t have a huge scar on my face. I don’t have any grey in my hair. And I’m not this big!”

Saito glanced toward the door, perhaps afraid that her shouting could be heard outside. “You’re forty, not seventy. Yes, you’re big, but it’s all muscle. And you’ve always had that scar, at least as long as I’ve known you.”

She pointed at the reflection in the mirror. “This,” she said with conviction, “is not me.”

“What is you? Who do you think you are?”

“I don’t think I’m anyone. I know I’m Marie-Josée Doucette.”

Saito was shaking his head. “You were Marie-Josée Doucette, for a while. A few weeks. But that was an accident, one we’ve just corrected. Now you’re yourself again. Captain Jane Khiboda of the Beausoleil.”

“That’s crazy. You’re crazy.”

He stared at her hard for several long seconds. “Don’t you remember anything? About this ship? The experiment? Your life as Jane Khiboda?”

“Of course not.” Marie-Josée was scornful. “Why would I?”

Saito grimaced. “Dammit. We can’t let anybody see you like this. Come with me. We’ll go through the back ways.”

“Why should I go anywhere with you? I don’t even know you!”

Saito raised his eyebrows. “Would you rather stay here?”

Marie-Josée surveyed the small room’s harsh, clinical bulkheads. She didn’t want to go with this man, but there didn’t seem any point staying either. “I guess not.”

“Didn’t think so. Let’s go.”