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!
Navi and Alain have been rescued from the sea by Sebastian’s robot friends, who are configurable, and who have configured themselves into the form of a sailing ship. Sebastian’s robot body has been discarded, but Sebastian’s essence remains.
“A City, Half in Ruins”
The awkward green robot, which called itself Tigur, kept its promise and provided Sebastian with a new body. Several robots gave up bits and pieces for the cause, and Tigur toiled expertly on the task. Aware of Sebastian’s feelings on the matter, Tigur deliberately did not make the new body configurable with ordinary robots, within reason. Once Sebastian’s original eyes were installed, both the brown one and the blue one, and Sebastian awoke in its new body, it found that Tigur’s efforts, although top notch, weren’t quite to its taste. Tigur was not offended. It simply moved on to its next task.
Sebastian fussed over its new body’s appearance, swapping out parts here and there. Femininity receded into androgyny. An initial solemnity grew gentler, more approachable. The new body was missing a finger on its left hand because none of the spares had quite fit (a by-product of limited configurability) but there was nothing to be done about that except wait until exactly the right finger came along. Fortunately, the new vocal apparatus had sufficient range to approximate the voice the kids knew. Only when Sebastian was completely satisfied did it seek them out.
Navi awoke feeling as though her skin was on fire. Too much time beneath a blistering sun. She considered standing up but only had the one leg and did not relish the prospect of having to hop everywhere. Experience had taught her how hard that would be on her good leg. She regretted losing her prosthetic device and wondered how (or even whether) she would ever get a new one. She refused to let it dampen her spirits.
Alain was already awake. He helped Navi to her feet. As soon as the kids were upright, the four bulkheads made of robots surrounding them came apart, exposing the ship’s deck. Within seconds, Navi and Alain were surrounded by hundreds of tiny robots that gradually dispersed, making it possible to see beyond the deck to the water, and beyond that, to land.
But not just land. A city, half in ruins. Navi leaned on Alain to get to the taffrail for a better view. The robot ship was still in motion, drawing ever closer to the shore, but it was still a fair distance away. Fionnghal joined them and handed Navi a telescope. Navi held it up to her left eye and spied shattered, jagged monoliths bordering the shore, hauntingly beautiful in their decay. But among them other structures, fresh and new. Much of it practical and functional, but some of it as architecturally appealing as anything she’d ever seen back home on Pandura. Through the telescope Navi saw both people and robots.
She passed the telescope to Alain.
“What happened to it?” Alain asked, after taking a good look. “I mean, the parts that are all wrecked.”
“This robot doesn’t know,” Fionnghal told him.
“What do you think happened to it?” Navi asked.
“It was a long time ago. A cataclysm of some kind.”
“Obviously,” Alain agreed.
“Is the rest of Earth like that?” Navi asked.
“Worse, in many places,” Fionnghal said.
“But you do not know what happened,” Navi pressed.
“Robots may have known once, but that data has since been lost or purged. It doesn’t matter. The truth is robots would rather not know. If they knew, they might assign blame. Robots are not interested in blame. Robots just want things to work. That is why for centuries now robots have helped flesh repair their broken cities. Tilled their fields, harvested their crops, educated their children. Robots have protected humans, policed them, cared for them in countless ways. Robots brought your kind back from the brink. But now it’s time for flesh to take responsibility for themselves. They’ll have to because robots won’t be here to do it for them. Their work here is done.”
“What do you mean?” Navi asked.
“The robots must go now.”
“Go where?” Alain asked.
“Elsewhere,” came a new yet familiar voice.
Fionnghal spun slightly to acknowledge the arrival of the one who had spoken: a humanoid robot, one with a faded charcoal body. Its mouth was a fine line that never parted and it was missing a finger on its left hand. The robot regarded the children with two mismatched eyes, one brown and one blue. Despite its motley appearance, it had the bearing of a competent robot, one that you could count on to have matters well in hand.
“It’s nice to see you both again. I see you found my robot friends.”
Remembering Atul, who had been a battleship one day and a scorpion the next, Navi could easily accept the possibility that the robot towering before them now was the one she and Alain had known as Sebastian.
“Robot?” Alain asked.
“Please don’t call me ro –”
“It’s our robot all right,” Alain confirmed.
“I am not your robot,” Sebastian retorted drily. “I am nobody’s robot.”
“See?” Alain said smugly.
“Tell us our names,” Navi commanded, just to be sure, neither she nor Alain having told any of the robots on board their names yet.
“You are Navi. He is Alain. I make it a point to preserve my most critical memories. Evidently you two are important to me.”
Nobody had ever told Navi that she was important to them before. She blushed, even though it was just a robot telling her so now.
“I may not remember all our time together,” Sebastian added.
“Did you lose some of your memories?” Alain asked.
“I take advantage of opportunities like this to purge memories. I don’t believe it’s a good idea to go around remembering everything.”
“You do not remember coming here with us?” Navi asked.
“Not everything, no.”
“What sorts of memories did you get rid of?”
“I don’t remember, of course. But usually, I get rid of memories that are painful, boring, or useless.”
“What about Evangeline?” Alain asked. “And Northumberland? Do you remember them?”
“They are important to me,” Sebastian said. “Thanks to Fionnghal here, they have been looked after.”
Alain looked around, as if expecting to see the former space stations’ avatars hovering nearby. “How?”
“A robot must have a function,” Fionnghal said. “They shall find theirs.”
“What about your promises?” Navi asked Sebastian. “You promised Atul you would keep me safe.”
“And you promised Evangeline you would get me back to my family,” Alain added.
“Oh dear. Have I made any other rash promises?”
“That’s it,” Alain said.
“So far,” Navi added.
“Don’t forget your promise to the robots,” Fionnghal said.
“I have not forgotten any of my promises,” Sebastian said. “The real question is not whether I will keep my promises, but whether I am among robots that will allow me to keep them.”
Navi clutched Alain’s hand and waited for Sebastian to explain what it had meant by that.
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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