Captain's Away! Chapter Two
"Life Pods"
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.
Chapter Two
“Life Pods”
They were last in line for the life pods. Marie-Josée shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She wished she’d thought to bring her entertainment cube, or a toy, or a stick, something, anything so she wouldn’t have to listen to her parents squabble. Even church would have been preferable to that.
“Did you lock the door?” Yolande asked Bertrand.
“No, I didn’t lock the door.”
“You were the last one out.”
“I was in a hurry. Nobody’s going to get in because nobody’s back there, and even if there is somebody back there, it doesn’t matter because they’re going to die anyway.”
“Don’t say that,” Yolande said. “Nobody’s going to die.”
Another tremor shook the station, forcing everyone to hang onto columns and railings and one another to retain their balance.
“Are you sure?” Marie-Josée asked anxiously.
The annoying boy with whom Marie-Josée was somewhat acquainted spoke up. He was, in fact, Marie-Josée’s eleven-year-old brother, though she refused to accept that they could be genetically related. “It’s the Realm’s new secret weapon. A sonic laser pulse that tears space stations apart.”
He made dramatic gestures with his hands apparently intended to represent space stations being torn asunder. “That’s what’s happening to us right now. We’re being torn apart.”
Marie-Josée suspected that Alain (Annoying Boy’s name, though Marie-Josée rarely called him that; you don’t bother with the names of ticks or fleas) wasn’t taking the situation seriously enough. “That doesn’t make any sense. Sound can’t pass through a vacuum.”
Bertrand was studying his L’Akkadie Nouvelle. “I don’t get it. I’m not seeing anything about this. The Realm isn’t supposed to be anywhere near this part of space.”
“It’s a sneak attack,” Alain said. “You’re not supposed to know about those.”
“No, I don’t suppose,” Bertrand said distractedly.
“Or maybe it’s the Necronians.” Alain added. “According to the Galactic Enquirer they’re back.”
“Not that rag,” Bertrand said. “There’s no such thing as Necronians. At least not anymore.”
Necronians being the legendary (long since presumed extinct) alien race that once upon a time had nearly destroyed the cat-like T’Klee that constituted the only other sapient race human beings had thus far encountered in the galaxy.
The line inched forward. Marie-Josée peered around to see if she could see any of her friends. She spotted a couple of acquaintances from school, way ahead in line, but they didn’t see her. And then she spied the one she was most interested in: Evelyn Gallant, of the pixie cut and blue eyes and warm smile. Evelyn was about to step into an escape pod with her mother. As Marie-Josée watched, Evelyn turned around to scan the launch bay. Their eyes met. Evelyn waved. Marie-Josée’s heart skipped a beat. She grinned foolishly. By the time she thought to wave back, Evelyn had already turned around to enter the pod. No matter. Marie-Josée would catch up with her later, on one of the other stations, when they would both have exciting stories to share.
Butterflies in her stomach mingled with the pleasure of spotting Evelyn. She had yet to tell her parents that she was gay. She was pretty sure it wouldn’t be a problem for her mother, but her father was a question mark. She very much cared what he thought, though she wished she didn’t. Her mother often described Bertrand as “Nouveau Catholique to the bone,” and although the church preached “love” per se, it did not officially approve of same sex relationships. Neither did many Akkadians on board the Evangeline. Marie-Josée considered the fusty old station hopelessly old-fashioned, despite its youthful avatar. More than once Marie-Josée wished she’d been born elsewhere. In the Realm, maybe, where, it was said, they were much more liberal about sexuality.
Of course, the Realm had its own problems.
She forced herself to think about something else. “Are there going to be enough life pods for everyone?”
“Good question,” Bertrand said. “Let’s ask Station.”
“I don’t think Vange is working properly,” Marie-Josée said.
Bertrand posed the question anyway. “Evangeline, will there be enough room on board your life pods for everyone?”
The station’s holographic avatar appeared before them. This time sound accompanied the image of the young woman. “Hello, Mr. Doucette. I have twenty-four hundred life pods for twelve thousand inhabitants. Each of my life pods can carry five people at capacity. So theoretically, yes, there is enough room on board my life pods for all of you.”
“Except that at least one hundred of those life pods are busted,” Yolande said. “I ought to know—I was the one trying to fix them. So, I wouldn’t count on it.”
“And we’re last in line,” Marie-Josée observed.
“You mean you’re last in line,” Alain remarked, cutting in front of her.
Marie-Josée glared at him. Alain backed away from his sister, who had been known to give him a smack from time to time.
Bertrand began pushing his way through the throngs ahead of him. “Out of the way!”
Marie-Josée and her mother looked at one another, then began to follow him. Alain trailed along behind them.
Bertrand sweet-talked their way onto one of the last available life pods. It was several minutes before they could board, though. First, they had to get into their pressurized suits, which were generic and bulky. Marie-Josée was not at all happy about hers. She thought she looked fat in it. Her brother was equally unimpressed.
“Mine doesn’t fit right,” he complained. “It pinches. Why do I have to wear this thing anyway?”
“First rule of space,” Bertrand told him. “Pressurized suits whenever there’s a chance of depressurization.”
It was a bit of a joke. There were many so-called “first rules of space,” such as “don’t throw up in your spacesuit” and “always pee before a spacewalk.” But, like many of the other rules, it also happened to be true.
Everyone was much calmer now. There had been no scary tremors in a while. The few families remaining in the hangar bay took their time getting ready. After plenty of fuss and bother the Doucettes finally managed to get every strap and button of their suits figured out, and one by one they stepped into their assigned life pod. It was cramped and smelled funny. Marie-Josée wrinkled her nose. Bertrand prepared to close the hatch. As he did so, the maintenance robot Marie-Josée had seen earlier rushed up and clanked into the pod with them.
“Hey!” Marie-Josée stepped out of the robot’s way.
“What’s that thing doing in here?” Bertrand asked. “Don’t people get priority over equipment?”
“Not to sound immodest,” the robot said, “but I happen to be an important piece of equipment.”
“That’s what you told them to let you on, is it?” Bertrand scoffed. “And they bought it?”
The robot assumed a sullen silence.
“Buckle up, everyone,” Yolande said. “We need to get going.”
Bertrand closed the hatch.
“Put your helmets on,” Yolande instructed her kids.
They did so.
The life pod detached from its berth with a jolt. As the pod left the space station’s artificially induced gravity field, its occupants all became weightless. They would have floated freely except that they had strapped themselves in—all except for Alain, who floated with his feet dangling in the recycled air in front of Marie-Josée’s face.
Marie-Josée snorted in disgust and pushed him out of the way. He bounced off the side of the pod.
“Ow!” he exclaimed. “Watch it!”
“Get down here and strap yourself in,” Yolande barked.
Bertrand hauled him down so Yolande could help strap him in.
Marie-Josée turned her attention to the life pod’s single porthole. The Evangeline had dwindled to the size of a peanut. “Where are we going? The Nouvelle-Écosse?”
“Each life pod is programmed to head for different space stations,” Bertrand told her. “To avoid overwhelming any one station.”
“I know that,” Marie-Josée said, exasperated. Did her father think she was a complete ignoramus? “I mean, which one are we headed to?”
Her mother glanced at the pod’s serial number, stencilled above the door in blocky red numerals. “This one’s headed for the Northumberland.”
The Northumberland was the nearest space station, similar to the Evangeline, though larger and more sophisticated.
“We should arrive in approximately twenty-four hours,” the robot added helpfully.
“I’m hungry,” Alain complained.
“Marie-Josée, see if you can find something to eat,” Yolande ordered. “You can take your helmets off while you’re eating, as long as you’re quick about it.”
Marie-Josée sighed and removed her helmet. Rooting around within reach, she found containers of water, tubes of yogurt, and some dried food stuffs. She began divvying it all up, sticking each one to a table tray beside her so that it could be evenly distributed. To her surprise, Alain helped her.
“I do not require sustenance,” the robot informed them.
Alain checked the labels. “Good, because I don’t see anything called sustenance here.”
“It means that it doesn’t need food,” Marie-Josée explained.
Alain snorted derisively. “Of course not! It’s just a robot.”
“I don’t like this,” Yolande said. “We need autonomy here, and some means of communication.”
Marie-Josée glanced around the pod, which was completely devoid of any control surfaces. “How do you work this thing?”
“You’re not supposed to work it,” Yolande said. “It’s supposed to work itself. It’s completely automated. That being said—” She turned to the robot. “Show me your interface.”
The robot drew itself up stiffly. “I beg your pardon?”
“I may be able to control the pod through you,” Yolande explained.
“Go on, robot,” Bertrand said. “Make yourself useful.”
“Please do not call me robot,” the robot said.
Bertrand looked the mechanical being up and down. “What should I call you? A duck?”
“Bertrand, dear,” Yolande said. “Please don’t antagonize the robot. The last thing we need right now is another robot rebellion.”
Bertrand chuckled, evidently finding the notion of a lone, slightly battered robot conducting an uprising in an escape pod amusing, though really there was nothing funny about the prospect, the last robot rebellion some forty years earlier having resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people.
“I have a name,” the robot said. “It’s Sebastian. And I am perfectly capable of controlling this pod myself.”
“Good,” Yolande said. “Please take evasive action as required.”
“Of course.”
Marie-Josée looked out the window at the rapidly dwindling Evangeline. The pod changed orientation. She gasped as an enormous Realm battleship hove into view.
“Omigod,” she breathed. “Omigod—we really are under attack.”
Clutching the side of the life pod, she felt as though all the air had been sucked from her lungs. The sight of the Realm vessel transformed this from a slightly irritating experience to a whole other level. A life-threatening level. Alain hadn’t been the only one not taking this seriously enough.
Bertrand looked out the window too. “Well that’s a hell of a thing.”
“Language dear,” Yolande said, without conviction.
“I sure hope everyone got off Evangeline okay,” Marie-Josée said, thinking of those dawdling about the hangar bay. Thinking of Evelyn.
“Unlikely,” Bertrand said.
“Dear!” Yolande admonished her husband again.
“I just mean—”
Alain was goggling at the Realm vessel. “Wow! Look at that! It’s huge!”
“That Realm ship you’re admiring is attacking our home,” Marie-Josée told him. “Killing our people!”
She said it, but she didn’t really believe it. The Realm vessel was probably just there for show. To threaten the Evangeline, but not actually hurt anyone.
“At least we’re safe,” Alain said.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Marie-Josée growled.
“Apart from the danger you face from your sister,” Bertrand said, “we’re also in danger of being attacked by that ship.”
Turning back to the window, Marie-Josée was stunned to see the battleship’s weapons array on its starboard side open fire on the Evangeline. Explosions dotted the surface of the space station. Massive chunks of Marie-Josée’s home splintered off into space. She watched in horror as the emergency hangar bay, from which they had only just emerged, collapsed.
“This isn’t good,” she whispered, in perhaps the greatest understatement of her seventeen years of life thus far.
The entire Doucette family watched in disbelief as the Realm battleship obliterated their home before their very eyes.
“Sebastian,” Yolande said. “Can you make this thing go any faster?”
“It’s already going as fast as it can.”
“Will they shoot at us?” Alain asked. “Or launch scorpions?”
“Do you see any scorpions?” Bertrand asked his son. “We’re not worth the trouble.”
Yolande’s voice was tight. “Costs money to launch scorpions, keep them powered. They won’t spend one more cent on us than they absolutely have to.”
“What’s that?” Marie-Josée pointed at a glowing orange spot on the battleship’s hull. It got brighter the longer she watched.
The ball of energy became too bright to look at, then detached from the battleship and shot towards them. Yolande swore. At the last second Sebastian swerved the pod dramatically out of the way, jerking its occupants hard against their restraints. The Doucette family held tight as conflicting gravitational forces pushed and pulled them this way and that. Gradually the Realm battleship diminished in size.
Bertrand breathed a sigh of relief. “That was way too close for comfort.”
“I hate being so helpless,” Yolande said. “If only there was some way to fight back. Defend ourselves.”
“How?” Marie-Josée asked.
“I don’t know. Hack into them somehow. Permanently lock all the doors to their washrooms. That would serve them right, don’t you think?”
Marie-Josée was too stressed to find her mother’s joke funny. She did not understand how her mother could be so calm and controlled under the circumstances. She thought she might have a nervous breakdown herself. She returned her attention to the observation window just in time to see the battleship wink out of existence. One second it was there, the next it wasn’t. All humans on board the life pod cried out simultaneously. The world no longer made sense. Marie-Josée didn’t know whether she was upside down or right side up. Afraid she might be sick to her stomach she snatched a space sickness bag from the side of the pod, just in the nick of time. For several minutes the life pod was filled with the sound of its flesh and blood occupants violently emptying the contents of their stomachs.
“Those bastards,” Yolande spat. “Shifting right in front of us!”
Marie-Josée had experienced side effects from aetherium drives in the past—mild nausea, headache—but nothing like this. Every other time had been in a properly shielded environment. Here in the escape pod the only mitigation was distance. The Realm battleship had been far too close.
“I doubt they cared what it would do to us,” Bertrand observed weakly. “Considering what they just did to our home.”
“And now they’re off to destroy someone else’s home,” Yolande muttered.
She was probably right. Although not the most reliable or pleasant way to get around the galaxy, the aether was by far the quickest. The Realm battleship had probably shifted to the aether to reach as many targets as possible before those targets could arrange to defend themselves properly.
Outside the pod’s window pieces of twisted and torn metal that once had been the massive space station Evangeline tumbled and cartwheeled through space, some of it coming perilously close to the life pod. Sebastian expertly steered through what had become a massive debris field.
Marie-Josée tried to come to terms with the devastation she had just witnessed. It was inconceivable. It couldn’t possibly have just happened. But it had. Her home, where she had lived all her life, had been mercilessly destroyed for no reason that she could fathom. She had no words. She would have burst into tears had such a response not felt so wholly inadequate just then.
What had happened to Evelyn and her family? Were they safely en route to another Akkadian space station? Marie-Josée found that she could hardly bear to contemplate the fate of her crush. In the distance, she saw a field of lights too dim and mobile to be stars. Huddled together in their fragile metal pod, the Doucettes followed their fellow survivors to Northumberland Station, and whatever came next.
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Chapter Three of Captain’s Away! The Northumberland
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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