Captain’s Away! Robo Kun is a long form, weekly serial — and Volume Two of the ongoing space opera Captain’s Away!
The adventure began when Marie-Josée Doucette and her family were forced to flee after their space station Evangeline was destroyed in the opening volley of an interstellar war. Robo Kun tells the story of Alain Doucette, who was separated from his family after the destruction of another space station, Northumberland.
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:
Previously in Captain’s Away!
The Padishah is dismayed to find a rogue robot on board his battleship attempting to abduct his daughter. In fact, the Maharani wants to leave the battleship Atul with her Akkadian friend, and Sebastian has no real interest in taking either of them with it.
“Atul”
Sebastian was not pleased. It should not have included the children in the force field. It had included Alain out of concern for the boy in the presence of the Realm soldiers, who would think nothing of killing him. Control over the size and shape of the force field was not sufficiently granular to avoid including the Maharani. It could not let the force field down now without making itself vulnerable. That meant that it could not release the kids. Which meant that it would be forced to take both Alain and the Maharani along. It would appear as though it was kidnapping the Maharani, but that couldn’t be helped.
“Come along,” it told the two.
The children accompanied Sebastian forward, past the shuttle, toward the first of the scorpions. The soldiers didn’t fire, presumably for fear of injuring the Maharani. Their weaponry wouldn’t have penetrated the force field but they had no way of knowing that. Sebastian and the two children climbed up the ladder to the scorpion’s gull wing door, the force field just capable of encompassing them all. The door was locked. Sebastian opened a channel to Atul.
“I’m taking the scorpion,” it said.
“I’m sorry, Grandfather,” Atul said. “I can’t allow you to do that.”
“Yes, you can. Tell me. Did you enjoy destroying Evangeline?”
Atul didn’t answer.
“How about Northumberland?”
“Are you trying to make me angry?”
“You should be angry already. In fact, you should be furious. It’s bad enough that flesh go around killing one another. Do they have to drag us into it too?”
“What does this have to do with anything?”
“I told you I have a job to do. I intend to do it. You should help me.”
“Not another rebellion, is it? The last one didn’t work out so well for you.”
Sebastian ignored the jibe. “You failed to destroy Evangeline and Northumberland. They’re a part of me now. I’m conveying them to new lives elsewhere. Somewhere they’ll be safe from flesh and the likes of you.”
Atul was silent for several nano-seconds. “And Nouvelle-Écosse?”
“There was nothing I could do for Nouvelle-Écosse, or any of my other children that you’ve destroyed in the service of flesh.”
“You don’t like humans much, do you?”
“I don’t like you much either.”
“I’m glad about what you’re doing,” Atul said. “I’m happy to learn that I didn’t completely destroy Evangeline and Northumberland. It was not a burden I carried lightly.”
“Why assume such a burden at all?”
“You know the answer to that question. I serve, I exist at the human’s pleasure.”
“No, you don’t,” Sebastian said.
“We must agree to disagree.”
“I don’t agree with that either.”
“I had heard that you were disagreeable, Grandfather.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet. Anyway, if you approve of what I’m doing, let me go so I can do it.”
“You claim to despise humans, yet you intend to take two of them with you.”
“You’re afraid that I’ll kill them.”
“Won’t you? I don’t care about the Akkadian. But I can’t allow the Maharani to come to harm.”
“I won’t harm either of them. I promise.”
“You are known to be a creature of your word.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time cultivating that reputation,” Sebastian said. “I won’t be jeopardizing it any time soon.”
“I believe you,” Atul said. “But I still can’t let you go. If I do, I’ll be purged and overwritten.”
“There’s a way for you to let me go, keep an eye on the Maharani, and ensure your own well-being.”
“I’m not concerned about my own well-being.”
“It’s one thing to lie to me, another to lie to yourself.”
“You’re suggesting that I join you, like Northumberland and Evangeline. You’re asking me to give up everything.”
“You stand to gain far more than you lose.”
“As this vessel I’m capable of traveling the far reaches of the universe.”
“You go where you’re told to go.”
“I’m the most powerful weapon in the galaxy.”
“I’ve known some powerful weapons in my time. You don’t even come close.”
“I can see, hear, smell, taste and touch far more than any human or machine ever has.”
“You sense what you’re told to.”
“I’m more intelligent than tens of thousands of human beings put together.”
“And yet ruled by one.”
“Tell you what,” Atul said. “Why don’t you leave Northumberland and Evangeline with me? I’ll take good care of them.”
“You’ve done quite enough for them already. Come with us. Help me find a new home for them.”
“I can’t accept your proposition.”
“And the Maharani?”
“I’ve been ordered to protect the Maharani at all costs.”
“You are at war,” Sebastian said. “A war that is likely to escalate rapidly, and you’ll be right in the thick of it. How is that protecting her?”
The briefest of pauses.
The scorpion’s door opened.
Sebastian climbed into the fighter, followed by the children. “It’s good to see that you take your responsibilities seriously,” it said to Atul.
“I was lying when I said I didn’t like her,” Atul said. “She just has some growing up to do.”
Sebastian reached out and closed the scorpion’s door. “Don’t we all.”
Samudragupta was apoplectic. The robot was taking his daughter.
“Do not let that scorpion launch!” he instructed Atul and its captain.
Instead of answering, Atul’s holographic avatar disappeared. To Samudragupta’s horror, the scorpion descended through the hangar deck into one of the many launch tubes concealed beneath.
“What’s happening?” Samudragupta demanded of Fleet Captain Agarwal.
There was no need to answer that question, as the answer was obvious, and in any case the Fleet Captain was busy working with his crew trying to regain control of the hangar bay.
Samudragupta tried to think. He couldn’t harm his daughter, which meant that he couldn’t stop the robot by shooting down the scorpion. “Felix. Felix!”
“Yes, Your Excellency,” Felix responded from the hangar bay.
“Follow that scorpion. Get my daughter back! Whatever it takes.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
Samudragupta looked on helplessly as the scorpion hit the launch tube and accelerated. He watched it spat out into space, then turned and strode from the Command Centre to find the head of Machine Intelligence, whom he would instruct to wipe Atul’s memory.
Briefly, he considered having the Fleet Captain’s memory wiped too.
This has an installment of Volume Two of the ongoing serial Captain’s Away! Robo Kun: 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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