Captain's Away! Chapter Twenty-Two
"A Decent Quack"
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!
Yolande and Bertrand Doucette are refugees after escaping the destruction of two space stations, first the Evangeline, and then the Northumberland. Their son, Alain, is missing and presumed dead, and their daughter Marie-Josée is comatose for reasons they don’t understand.
Unaware of the fate of the rest of her family, as well as the circumstances that left her body comatose, Marie-Josée Doucette’s mind has awoken in another body on board an Akkadian military starship called the Beausoleil. Commander Saito, the ship’s XO, believes Marie-Josée to be his captain, Captain Jane Khiboda. Even though it’s obvious to Commander Saito that something is seriously wrong with the captain, he has no choice but to allow to continue to function as the captain because she’s a critical part of an upcoming mission.
Now on board the same starship, and completely unaware that the mind of their daughter inhabits the body of the captain of the Beausoleil, Yolande and Bertrand Doucette attempt to adjust to their new reality along with their fellow refugees.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“A Decent Quack”
Yolande helped the fusilier lay Marie-Josée’s inert form on the loading dock’s metal deck. Her condition hadn’t changed. She was breathing and her colour was good but she was still unconscious. There was the saline (a proper drip now that they were under gravity) but Marie-Josée couldn’t eat or drink or do much of anything in this state. Yolande was afraid for her only daughter. The fusilier trotted off to find a blanket and see what was going on. Yolande sat down beside her daughter and began stroking her hair. Bertrand sat down too and placed a protein bar on Yolande’s thigh. She ignored both bar and husband.
Bertrand opened up a bar of his own and took a bite out of it. Before long he was checking out his beloved L’Akkadie Nouvelle, only to close it seconds later. That meant he still couldn’t connect. Yolande knew it was driving him crazy.
He still wasn’t talking. Yolande knew it wasn’t just her. He hadn’t spoken a word aloud to anyone in days. It wasn’t normal. Trauma, obviously. It would have to be dealt with eventually. But right now, horribly, Yolande didn’t mind. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, and she didn’t want anyone talking to her. She just wanted to sit there, hold her daughter, stroke her forehead, and coax Marie-Josée to wake up.
But they couldn’t both be mute. Her anger had subsided enough to allow her to at least speak to her husband. “They must be running silent. Trying to keep their position a secret. That’s why there’s no aethercom.”
Bertrand nodded and placed his hand on her arm. She let him keep it there.
There was a commotion at the entrance to the loading dock. Uniformed personnel entered. Javad was one of them. Accompanied by an attendant pushing a gurney, he came straight to Yolande, Bertrand and Marie-Josée and knelt before them. “I’ve been looking for you. I’ve arranged to get your daughter some help, like I promised.”
He was a quack, Yolande thought, but a decent quack, maybe.
“We have top notch medical facilities on board,” Javad said. “I’d like to take your daughter there. Give her the attention she needs. Okay?”
Yolande nodded. There, she knew, they could hook Marie-Josée up to medical paraphernalia that could keep her alive, and not just alive, but that could prepare her for when she was well again. That could feed her nutrients and exercise her muscles. The sooner she got well and out of there the better, though. If the ship got into trouble, if any of the crew were injured and medical equipment became a scarce commodity, Marie-Josée would be removed without a second’s thought so that a crewmember could be treated in her place. Yolande had no illusions: on board this ship, the survivors were second-class citizens.
Javad helped the attendant place Marie-Josée on the gurney. Yolande stood up to follow her daughter wherever they took her.
“It’s okay,” Javad said. “She’ll be fine. We’ll look after her. They’re making space for you in the gym. I’ll come for you later.”
“No,” Yolande said. “I need to be with her. I need to know she’s safe.”
When the attendant started pushing the gurney forward, Yolande tried to follow, but a fusilier stepped forward to block her way. He was young, barely more than a kid. Yolande was about to give him a piece of her mind when Javad interceded. “Let her come.”
“Can’t, Doc,” the fusilier said. “It’s in a restricted area.”
“She’s been through a lot,” Javad said. “She just needs to know that her daughter’s going to be okay. Have a heart, will you?”
The fusilier looked uncertain. “I’ll need to check if it’s okay.”
“Go ahead.” Javad said. “You do that.”
The fusilier nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
As soon as he was gone, Javad took Yolande by the arm. “Come on.”
After a quick glance back at Bertrand, who nodded encouragement, Yolande allowed Javad to escort her down the passageway after her daughter.
As they walked, she said, “Before you said you thought you knew what was wrong with Marie-Joseé.”
Javad coughed politely. “Did I?”
“Yes. I know you know. Why aren’t you telling me?”
He didn’t look at her. “You’re mistaken. I have no idea. How could I?”
“She didn’t get hit on the head, did she?”
He glanced at her but didn’t slow down. “Look. I promise you this. I’m going to do my best to help your daughter. Okay?”
“No. Not okay. If you know what’s the matter with Marie-Josée you need to tell me.”
Which just made him walk faster.
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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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