Captain's Away! Master Index and iFAQ
Episode list and everything a new reader needs to get started
It’s one thousand years in the future. The Earth is a distant memory. And the Doucettes have seen better days.
It’s certainly not every day your space station is blown to bits beneath you in the opening volley of a senseless war. In the aftermath of this attack on their home, the Doucette family find themselves careening from one fantastic space adventure to another as their lives are upended in ways they can barely comprehend.
Hostile aliens, rebellious robots, murderous despots and more all stand in the Doucettes’ path as they try against all odds to reunite as a family while doing their best to help Akkadia win the war. Will they succeed?
Read the exciting space adventure Captain’s Away! to find out!
Captain’s Away! is classic space opera posted weekly as a serial adventure. I expect each installment to average 1500 words, though lengths will vary. The content is suitable for readers of all ages.
This is the Master Index.
To read the novel, click on the links below:
Act One: Refugees
Chapter One:
Sympathetic Vibrations It’s an ordinary day on board the Akkadian space station Evangeline for the Doucettes and the rest of the station’s ten thousand inhabitants until the station is attacked by a Realm battleship.
Chapter Two:
Life Pods 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.
Chapter Three:
The Northumberland 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 While the space station Northumberland itself is attacked by the same battleship that destroyed the Evangeline, Marie-Josée Doucette herself is attacked in the Northumberland's Great Hall.
Chapter Five:
The Medical Bay Yolande tries to find her missing daughter in Northumberland Station’s Great Hall.
Chapter Six:
Emergency Bunker Yolande leads her family to Northumberland station’s medical bay, toward potential safety… or certain death.
Chapter Seven:
The Procedure Yolande is torn between separating the emergency bunker from Northumberland station before it’s destroyed or waiting for other survivors to show up.
Chapter Eight:
Too Many People Alain Doucette decides to explore Northumberland Station at exactly the wrong time.
Chapter Nine:
Lost in Space Yolande grapples with the consequences of being forced to separate the emergency bunker from Northumberland station, including the devastating loss of her son.
Chapter Ten:
A Precarious Situation Bertrand struggles to accept his new, horrible reality: stranded in space with his son Alain missing and likely dead because he failed to keep Alain safe.
Chapter Eleven:
Marooned Bertrand and Yolande Doucette take care of their unconscious daughter and fellow survivors in the emergency bunker as new challenges loom, threatening their survival.
Chapter Twelve:
The Captain Although the body of Marie-Josée Doucette is undeniably unconscious and in an emergency bunker with her parents, another part of her is having an entirely different experience.
Chapter Thirteen:
A Waking Nightmare Unaware of the tragedy that has befallen the space station Northumberland and her parents and brother, Marie-Josée’s mind, it seems, has awoken elsewhere, on a starship called the Beausoleil, where she is being addressed as “Captain.”
Chapter Fourteen:
The Bridge Commander Saito deals with the captain’s precarious mental state while witnessing the destruction of the Northumberland.
Chapter Fifteen:
Raizada Navigator Raizada arrives on the bridge of the Beausoleil for his shift bereft of sleep and anxious about a possible confrontation with the Realm Battleship the Atul.
Chapter Sixteen:
Performance Time Confined to the captain’s quarters, Marie-Josée decides that her only means of escaping this waking nightmare is to learn as much about Captain Khiboda as possible. By impersonating the captain, perhaps she will be able to find and employ the technology that was used to switch their bodies.
Chapter Seventeen:
Performance Time Part Two After learning as much as possible (but not nearly enough) about the person whose body she’s inhabiting, Marie-Josée attempts to impersonate Captain Jane Khiboda.
Chapter Eighteen:
Fusiliers Meanwhile, back in the emergency bunker, the survivors are about to be rescued. Or… are they?
Chapter Nineteen:
Who’s the Captain, Anyway? On board the Beausoleil, having escaped her confinement from the captain’s cabin, Marie-Josée searches for the technology that can return her to her own body.
Chapter Twenty:
Crazy After the incident on the bridge, Commander Saito has a chat with the woman he thinks is his captain, Captain Jane Khiboda.
Chapter Twenty-One:
The Beausoleil Bertrand Doucette grapples with guilt over the loss of his son as he, his wife Yolande, and other passengers are finally rescued from the emergency bunker and transported via shuttle to an Akkadian military vessel, the Beausoleil, and an uncertain future.
Chapter Twenty-Two:
A Decent Quack Yolande and Bertrand Doucette adjust to their new reality on board the Beausoleil with their comatose daughter, Marie-Josée, unaware that the mind of their daughter inhabits the body of the ship’s captain.
Chapter Twenty-Three:
The Commander Bertrand and Yolande Doucette and their fellow survivors are welcomed on board the ship that’s rescued them, the Beausoleil, but it soon becomes clear that they’re not out of the woods yet.
Chapter Twenty-four:
A Bigger Problem Commander Saito grapples with the problem of the captain. Why is she behaving so strangely, and what can be done about it?
Chapter Twenty-Five:
The House Call Hiding in the captain’s cabin on board the Beausoleil, Marie-Josée receives an unwelcome visitor.
Chapter Twenty-Six:
Acting Captain Posing as the captain of the Beausoleil, Marie-Josée finds herself in an acutely uncomfortable situation.
Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Passengers Still posing as the captain of the Beausoleil, Marie-Josée meets the survivors of the destroyed space stations, including some people close to her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
The Meeting Sub-Lieutenant Raizada attends a meeting with Captain Khiboda that he finds fascinating.
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
The Meeting Part Two Posing publicly as the captain of the Beausoleil in a meeting with senior officers, Marie-Josée finds herself way over her head.
Chapter Thirty:
Settling In During a meeting on board the Beausoleil with the rest of the refugees, Yolande is pressured to take on additional responsibilities.
Chapter Thirty-One:
Troubleshooting Yolande is asked to help solve a problem with the ship that proves more difficult than expected.
iFAQ (Infrequently Asked Questions)
What is this?
I am serializing my novel, Captain’s Away! here on Substack. New chapters come out every week (more or less). Comments and suggestions welcome as we go along. This page is the Master Index. It will include all published chapters of the novel as I gradually serialize it.
Why are you serializing Captain’s Away! on Substack?
I think it will be fun! It’s an experiment. I want to see how it goes. Whether anybody will read it. Whether anybody will like it. And I would like help making it better. I appreciate any feedback.
Do you plan to publish Captain’s Away! conventionally later?
Yes.
Is this version of Captain’s Away! a first draft?
Far from it. I would never inflict first draft material on anyone. I’ve laboured hard over this version. That being said, it’s not in its final form. I’m looking for your help with that. Help me make it better! Also, it has not been professionally edited yet. That will happen before it’s traditionally published.
How much of Captain’s Away! have you actually written?
I have several hundred pages written in what I would consider “almost” final draft form.
Why do you have an exclamation mark in the title?
I have just always visualized it that way. There are roughly 1378 books listed in Goodreads with exclamation marks. I feel like Ray Bradbury has implicitly given me permission to have a title with a question mark.
Do you hope to get rich and famous by posting Captain’s Away! here?
Nope.
Why isn’t Captain’s Away! behind a paywall?
I’m not comfortable asking for money for Captain’s Away! For one thing, it’s not even an entire novel; I’m just posting it one chapter at a time. And although I think it’s in pretty good shape, it’s not quite final draft quality. People can buy the entire properly edited book later, when I finally publish it, if they like.
Is Captain’s Away! your first novel?
A Time and a Place is my first published novel. I have also published a collection of short stories called Other Times and Places and a memoir about working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation called Adventures in the Radio Trade.
No offense, but I don’t want Captain’s Away! How do I opt out?
No problem! Go to your Substack profile (top right corner). Go to “account settings.” You'll see your subscriptions. Click “edit” next to either Assorted Nonsense or Captain’s Away! Uncheck the box next to whichever newsletter(s) you don’t want, and check the box next to the ones you do want.
Help me make the best possible version of Captain’s Away!
What do you think of it so far? Let me know in the comments! Don’t be shy. :-)
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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I'm looking for editor options for serializing my novel on Substack