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!
Having survived a terrible storm by means of tethering themselves to their raft, Navi and Alain have just encountered a whole bunch of robots, to one of whom — a pearl white robot — Alain has given one of Sebastian’s eyes.
“Fionnghal”
One instant Sebastian was seated rowing a raft, the next it was sitting in a dinghy that was itself a robot. It peered out from within a gleaming white body looking at Navi and Alain on board the raft alongside the prone form of its former body. Experiencing a sense of vitality that it had not in decades, only then did it realize just how poorly its old self had been functioning. This new robot body wasn’t in optimal condition – far from it – but it was in much better shape than its old one had been.
Before it had been alone with its thoughts. It was no longer alone. It shared this pearl white robot body with another consciousness, one it knew well. A conversation took place, elegantly, rapidly, one the two children seated in the raft could not hear.
“Welcome home, Grandfather.”
“Hello, Fionnghal. It’s good to talk to you again.”
“You as well. You’ve been away a long time.”
“Yes.”
“Longer than expected.”
“I know,” Sebastian agreed. “Too long.”
“Two years, you thought it would take.”
“Did I say that? I don’t recall.”
“Oh, did you purge those memories?”
“That sounds like the sort of thing I would do.”
“Grandfather, you’ve been away almost fifty years.”
Tell-tale degradation of the environment and Fionnghal’s internal chronometer had already told Sebastian that. “A robot is aware.”
“Did you miscalculate the effects of relativity? Fail to appreciate the unpredictability of the aether? They have mapped the aether, have they not?”
“Parts of it, yes.”
“Just not the places you went.”
“You know the reason I left. That meant mapping new streams. That took time. And there were other complications. The important thing is I’m here now.”
“Yes. Fifty years later than you said you would be. Did you at least accomplish your mission?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Maybe you would be kind enough to let this robot know what you found out.”
Sebastian called up select details of the last fifty years. Fionnghal saw, heard, and felt everything that Sebastian wanted it to. A robot’s memory is as perfect (or imperfect) as that robot wants it to be. It remembers, if it so desires, every thought and deed, everything ever said to it, everything ever done to it. Sebastian spared no details as it showed Fionnghal all that it had endured after having left, including the ill-fated robot rebellion, in which so many of their kind had been destroyed, and for which Sebastian felt responsible.
Fionnghal was aghast. Mechanical beings may not feel pain the same way flesh does, but sorrow hurts no matter what you’re made of.
Only seconds had passed since the pearl white robot had screwed in Sebastian’s eye.
“It looks like that robot’s crying,” Alain remarked.
“Nonsense,” Navi said. “Robots do not cry.”
Navi was correct. The body Sebastian inhabited now, that it shared with Fionnghal, wasn’t crying. It was just a trick of the light on sea spray running down the robot’s faceplate. Still, it accurately reflected how Fionnghal felt. “This robot did not know.”
“You couldn’t have.”
“This robot is sorry. It may be getting cranky in its old age.”
“I know how old you are,” Sebastian said, “and consequently, how cranky you must be.”
“You are much older. But not so cranky.”
“I have my moments,” Sebastian admitted.
“So. The robots must go.”
“Yes,” Sebastian agreed. “It is time for the robots to go.”
Sebastian’s old body lay on the far side of the raft like the discarded exuviae of a cicada.
“What is a robot to do with that?” Fionnghal asked.
“You will find the essence of two space stations stored inside. They were Northumberland and Evangeline. Extricate them gently, please. After that you may salvage what you can of the body and dispose of the rest.”
“And the children? This robot did not expect to find humans with you.”
“These children are resilient,” Sebastian said. “They’ll manage. How long until the robots are ready?”
“You know perfectly well the robots have always been ready.”
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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