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!
After informing Navi and Alain that it is about to break down, leaving the two of them alone on a raft with limited supplies and little hope of rescue in the middle of one of Earth’s vast oceans, Sebastian does just that.
“The Coming Storm”
Navi became aware that Sebastian had stopped paddling. Her limbs stiff from lack of movement, she crawled closer to have a look at the robot’s dented silver body, its worn metal face, its perpetually solemn expression. “Sebastian?”
Sebastian held the paddle in its frozen mechanical hands, its head tilted slightly to the right.
“Alain!”
“What?”
“The robot has stopped working.”
Alain drew closer and confirmed Navi’s diagnosis. “Stupid robots, always breaking down just when you need them the most.”
Navi was furious. Furious with the robot for abandoning them. Furious with her father for having forced her to flee. Furious with Alain for looking all serious and scared. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum as she might once have done, though, she tried to think what to do.
“Grab that paddle,” she ordered Alain.
Alain ignored her and began pushing and pulling at Sebastian’s limbs as if he could somehow jostle the robot back to life. Navi sighed in exasperation, shoved him aside, and tried to pry the paddle from Sebastian’s motionless hands herself, but she couldn’t.
“We couldn’t have paddled long anyway,” she admitted.
“What’ll we do now?” Alain asked.
Navi looked around uncomfortably. If there was such a place as the middle of nowhere, this was it. “We will just have to wait until Sebastian’s friends find us.”
“Who ever heard of a robot having friends?” Alain asked.
The probability that Sebastian had no friends, that no one would be along to save them, was all too likely. Navi sat quietly alongside Alain wondering how it could be that every decision she’d made over the last few days, that had seemed eminently sensible at the time, had somehow led to calamity.
“Why does your father hate Akkadians so much anyway?” Alain asked after a while.
Navi took her time answering, there being no rush, not on a raft drifting aimlessly along in the midst of a boundless sea. “Because Akkadians killed my mother.”
Alain straightened up. “Your mother’s dead?”
“Yes. Akkadians killed her. That is why my father does not like you. Now that I think of it, I do not like you much either.”
Alain recoiled as though struck. “I didn’t kill anyone. I don’t know anything about your mother.”
They sat in uncomfortable silence.
“When?” Alain asked.
“A while ago.”
“How do you know it was Akkadians?”
“I was there. It happened right in front of me.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“I try not to think about it.” Navi closed her eyes. The raft drifted gently on. A breeze rustled the canvas tarp.
“Your father. He’s not going to stop until he wrecks everything, is he? We should stay away from him. As far away as we can.”
Navi opened her eyes to vast waters and endless sky. “I would say we are doing a pretty good job of that.”
Alain heard the wind pick up before he felt it. In the distance, a dark mass loomed. The sea stirred. Before becoming marooned on Earth, Alain had only ever seen the tops of clouds. Seeing such angry looking ones now from below made him deeply uneasy. The sky grew dim. The raft began to pitch and roll atop swelling waves with ominous white crests. Afraid that Sebastian would fall out of the raft, he shouted over the gusting wind, “Give me a hand!”
Together they rolled the robot onto its back in the middle of the raft. It was easier to move than Alain expected but heavy enough to remain in place. He tried to move Sebastian’s arms and legs into more sensible positions, but they wouldn’t budge. Navi fitted a harness over Sebastian’s torso and attached it to the raft’s jackline, then did the same for herself. Alain followed her example.
Placing his face close to Navi’s, he shouted, “What now?”
“We hope,” she shouted back.
“For what?”
“Help to come.”
“What if it doesn’t come?”
“We agreed to hope.”
Alain looked fearfully at the grey sky, felt the first drops of rain. Navi was right. There was nothing to do now but hold on tight and hope, for help and dear life.
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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