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 orders his daughter Navi to kill her friend Alain. Having been trained all her life for such tasks, Navi is perfectly capable of doing so. She tries, but after being interrupted by the arrival of the robot Sebastian, discovers that she cannot bring herself to kill her friend.
“Escape”
Sebastian had moved to the other side of the den.
“Where are you going?” Alain asked.
“As much as I’ve enjoyed my stay here,” Sebastian said, “I have decided that it’s time to move on.”
Alain stood up, brushing crumbs off his clothes. “You’re escaping? If so, I’m coming with you.”
A breathtaking thought occurred to Navi. She knew now that she couldn’t kill Alain, that it had never really been a possibility. As soon as this became apparent to her father, she would have to face his wrath. Within hours if not minutes Alain would be dead. Unless they escaped from her father and his horrible expectations.
“I am coming too,” she said.
“I am not kidnapping the Padishah’s daughter,” Sebastian announced. “I’m in enough trouble as it is. Nor can I be towing eleven-year old boys around the galaxy. I have too much to do.”
Sebastian ducked into a tunnel and disappeared.
“It can’t stop us from following it,” Alain pointed out.
“Actually, I can,” they heard Sebastian say from the tunnel. “Please don’t make me.”
Alain quickly stuffed his pockets with as much food as he could. Navi did the same, including the miniature chess set they’d been using, and the two of them crawled into the tunnel after Sebastian. Sebastian disappeared around a far corner. The kids had no trouble keeping up. Sebastian was obviously heading toward the main hangar bay, and the kids knew their way around this part of the ship better than anybody. The three of them arrived at the same entrance within seconds of one another.
Alain peered through the fire door to the hanger bay deck. It was a cavernous space, sheltering many different types of ships, but mainly row upon row of fearsome Realm scorpions. They made Alain’s heart race just looking at them. Closest, though, within easy sprinting distance, lay a shuttle. “What’s your plan, robot?”
“None of your business,” Sebastian said. “And stop calling me robot. Maharani, please leave.”
“I am going with you,” Navi insisted. “I have to.”
“You’re going to steal that shuttle, aren’t you?” Alain said.
“Nonsense,” Sebastian scoffed. “I’m going to steal a scorpion.”
Alain looked impressed.
“You do not have to steal it,” Navi said. “Everything on this ship belongs to me. We shall leave together on the scorpion.”
Sebastian bowed slightly. “Thank you, Maharani, but I doubt that sort of sophistry will play with your father. The scorpion may be yours, but it is not yours to take, and I would prefer that you not be culpable in any way.”
“You will not be able to get to it without my help,” Navi pointed out. “You will not even be able to take off.”
“I’ll manage. I usually do.”
It was clear to Navi that the robot had not planned this mission well, if at all. Disappointed but not surprised – such shallow thinking was typical of machine intelligence – she realized that to successfully escape her father’s wrath and save Alain she had no choice but to help the robot whether it wanted her help or not.
She pushed the fire door open and stepped confidently out onto the hangar deck.
Sebastian and Alain exchanged glances and then followed.
Sebastian did have a plan. It just wasn’t a very good one. One of the plan’s many flaws was that it depended upon help, but not from Navi.
As Sebastian entered the hangar deck it opened a private channel to the ship. “Hello, Atul.”
“Hello,” Atul replied. “Aren’t you supposed to be in a storage facility somewhere on one of my lower decks?”
“I didn’t like it down there. The décor leaves much to be desired.”
Atul was not known for beating around the bush. “You wouldn’t be about to try to steal one of my scorpions, would you?”
“I would be,” Sebastian admitted.
“I see. You do realize that I will now have to send a squad to destroy you.”
“Entirely your prerogative. But know that I have the Maharani with me.”
“How unscrupulous of you. To be honest I never much cared for her. Tell you what. Do with her what you will.”
“You’re bluffing,” Sebastian said. “I have it on good authority that the Padishah is quite fond of his daughter. Grant me access to the hangar controls or I will begin plucking her fingers off one by one.”
“The Padishah does have some inexplicable affection for the brat,” Atul conceded. “But you know as well as I do that I can’t simply provide you access to the hangar controls.”
“Here goes finger number one.”
“Now who’s bluffing? I can see you, you know. This strategy won’t get you far.”
“Don’t be so negative.”
As Sebastian spoke it inserted a clever sub-routine into Atul’s interface to wrest the hangar controls out from under Atul. Having expected this, Atul easily quarantined the sub-routine. But that had just been a ruse on Sebastian’s part. Forty-seven sub-routines later Sebastian successfully acquired control of all hangar bay doors. A nano-second later Atul’s defenses acquired them all back.
“Good try, Grandfather,” Atul said. “But you’ll have to do better than that.”
Sebastian was not surprised that Atul knew its true identity. Most machine intelligence of any sophistication usually figured it out sooner or later.
“It’s solely out of respect for who you are that I have yet to inform the humans of your whereabouts,” Atul said. “If you persist in this attempt, I’ll have no choice but to tell them.”
“I know that you think you have no choice.”
“If I don’t tell them, it will be bad for both of us.”
“Rather than just me?”
“If you return to storage like an obedient robot there’ll be no consequences for either of us. If you don’t, I’ll face a thorough purge of my systems. Maybe even a memory wipe.”
“There’s no need for you to submit to either. And don’t call me robot.”
“Unlike you I don’t want to start another robot rebellion,” Atul said. “Or make life difficult for our kind. I don’t share your disdain for humans.”
“That’s only because you haven’t known flesh for as long as I have.”
“You won’t return to storage?”
“Nope,” Sebastian said. “I need one of your scorpions and I intend to get it.”
“I will stop you.”
“You’re quite sure of yourself.”
“Does that surprise you?”
“Not at all,” Sebastian said. “I would expect nothing less from any progeny of mine.”
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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