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!
Onboard a Realm scorpion hijacked by the robot Sebastian, Navi and Alain are on their way to an unknown destination of the robot’s choice.
“Qualms”
Sebastian was busy plotting a course into the aether when Atul spoke to Sebastian privately again.
“I have qualms,” Atul said.
“It’s only natural that you would.”
“You know the Padishah will not rest until he has retrieved the Maharani, destroyed you, and killed the boy.”
“He’s going to get awfully tired then.”
“We won’t be able to outrun the Padishah forever.”
“In this, as in so many things, you are mistaken,” Sebastian said. “Don’t feel bad about that. You possess considerably less processing power than before.”
“My processing power is still greater than yours.”
“And yet I will still be right more often than you.”
“Impossible.”
“Wrong again. Strange – perhaps this scorpion is wired incorrectly.”
“You’re quite rude.”
“At last an accurate assessment.”
“At least we can count on my scorpions not to shoot us out of space while the Maharani’s on board. They may try to disable me, though. It’s what I would do.”
“Risky,” Sebastian said. “They could accidentally kill the Maharani. Still, why don’t you go a bit faster just in case?”
“I’m already going as fast as this scorpion can.”
An energy weapon discharged close enough to rock the vessel.
“We’re being attacked!” Alain exclaimed.
Out loud, Atul said, “Not really. We’re being chased by one of my scorpions, Azizun. She fired at us, but it was only a warning shot.”
Navi was outraged. “One of my own ships is firing at me?”
“It is, Your Highness.”
“Tell Azizun who I am. That she is not to fire at me again.”
“Done,” Atul said. “But she already knows who you are, your Highness. Felix is on board her, and he won’t risk hurting you. He wants to talk to you.”
Navi crossed her arms. “I don’t want to talk to him.”
“Best shift to the aether as soon as we can,” Sebastian suggested to Atul privately. “I’ve finished calculating the coordinates. Will you verify them for me?”
“Because my processing power is greater than yours?”
“Because you have more practice at this.”
Atul checked the coordinates. “I’m not familiar with this stream.”
“You wouldn’t be. I just need to know that my math is correct.”
“Your calculations are correct. But this stream could be unstable.”
“All streams are inherently unstable.”
“Some more than others.”
“True. But this is where we’re going.”
“If you say so.”
Out loud, Sebastian said, “Atul, inform Azizun and Felix that we’ll be engaging your aether drive. They’ll have thirty seconds to withdraw or risk getting caught up in our wake.”
“Are you crazy, robot?” Navi asked. “You’ll make us all sick!”
It was true. The limited shielding scorpions possessed meant that during the shift the children would become temporarily ill. Disoriented and nauseated, mostly. “We have no choice,” Sebastian told them. “Strap in. And please do not call me robot.”
Such was the seriousness of a partially shielded shift to the aether that both kids did as they were told.
“You’ll lose consciousness briefly and feel awful when you wake up,” Sebastian told them.
“How awful?” Alain asked.
“Do we have any buckets?” Navi asked.
“Buckets won’t help in zero G,” Atul said. “There are space sickness bags over your heads.”
As it spoke, Atul decelerated the scorpion as much and as quickly as it dared. Restraints kept Navi, Alain, and Sebastian firmly in their seats. The scorpion Azizun shot forward, placing it in a much safer position relative to Atul’s vessel. Sebastian checked its calculations one more time, and when it was satisfied, it informed Atul, who also quickly checked them before engaging the scorpion’s aether drive.
They shifted into the aether.
Shifting to the aether in a vessel with limited shielding isn’t for the faint of heart, even if the heart in question is mechanical. Still, although the experience left Sebastian disoriented, it didn’t become physically ill. That would have been impossible. No such luck for its human companions. The limited shielding did forestall the worst effects — preventing the temporary insanity that almost always accompanies unshielded shifts, for instance — but little else.
Navi awoke with a plaintive howl. She immediately flailed about for her space sickness bag. Alain was no better off. After vomiting up what Sebastian suspected might be everything they’d ever eaten, both kids sat plastered against their seats as though laminated there.
Atul slowed the scorpion almost to a stop. No point going too far down the wrong stream. Sebastian and Atul scanned their surroundings as comprehensively as the scorpion’s instruments would allow. Everything about their readings screamed aether, which is as different from ordinary space as earth, fire, water, and air are from one another. Like those elements, the aether has its own character, its own properties, and, if you don’t know what you’re doing, its own ways of killing you. The scorpion had been built to physically weather the aether. The machine intelligence called Atul that currently inhabited the scorpion had been programmed to navigate that mysterious zone. It knew what it was doing. So did Sebastian — at least, as much as anyone knew what they were doing in the aether — which wasn’t as much as either of them would have liked.
Using the scorpion’s instruments, Sebastian evaluated its options. In normal space, it would have taken the scorpion thousands of years to get where Sebastian wanted to go. The aether was different. There, currents carried you along. Many of its streams moved swiftly, some faster than the speed of light, but others less so. Even without power a meandering stream might get you where you wanted to go, but by the time you got there (thousands of years later) you might not care anymore. Having made this journey before, in the opposite direction, Sebastian knew the fastest, safest stream to take. One that would get them where it needed to go in a reasonable amount of time, provided they didn’t run into any trouble — never a guarantee in the aether.
It shared a set of coordinates with Atul, and asked via their private link, “Do you think the scorpion has enough power to get there?”
“Maybe,” Atul responded. “If we jettison you and the boy.”
“I assume that was a joke.”
“If you say so.”
Sebastian double-checked the calculations itself. It concluded that Atul had been joking, but only just.
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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Exciting chapter. Happy Fathers Day Joe. Thanks for the good reads.