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!
Sebastian has broken down and can no longer speak, move or paddle, leaving Navi and Alain alone on their raft in the middle of one of Earth’s oceans just as a storm approaches.
“A Pearl White Robot”
Within minutes the storm was full upon them. Rain so thick that Alain could barely see Navi right next to him. Crashing, thunderous breakers hounded the raft. He felt sick from the furious bucking of their precarious craft. His skin felt stretched taut, burned from the buffeting of wind and spray. Walls of hissing, foaming water struck him repeatedly.
The raft rode each wave, up one side before plunging sickeningly down the other. He clung with all his might to the raft’s straps. Although the harnesses kept him tethered, they could not be counted on to keep him aboard. Lightning flashed, illuminating a terrifying waterscape. Thunder drowned out his cries of fear.
Gigantic waves constantly submerged the raft in water, washing over him, forcing him to hold his breath. Each time he feared he might not be able to hold it long enough. Each time he feared the raft might flip over. He tried to keep his head angled so that he could see Navi beside him, afraid that if he looked away, the next time he looked, she would be gone. He did not know what he would do if that happened. He did know that if he survived this ordeal, he would do whatever he could to find his family. That desire alone made him want to survive the tempest even more than the fear of death.
Felix watched it all play out from high up in orbit, far above the clouds. He could not actually see Navi and Alain, but Azizun displayed their barely detectable heat signatures. Felix could hardly stand to watch but he could not take his eyes off the display.
The heat signatures had already gone down from three individuals to two. The third, the one that was no longer present, had been distinct, unique. Felix surmised that it had belonged to the robot Atul had identified as Grandfather, and that the robot was either no longer present on the raft or was no longer functioning. He was relieved that of the three the Maharani was obviously still present and alive, but he did not see how she could survive this storm without falling off the raft and drowning.
“There must be something we can do!” he exclaimed.
“There is,” Azizun told him. “We can shut up and relax.”
“I can shut up, but I certainly can’t relax,” Felix told the scorpion. “And to tell you the truth I can’t even shut up.”
This was bad. Bad because he could not return to Atul or Realm space without a living, breathing Maharani. Nor could he not return, because that would place his own family in peril, upon whom the Padishah could be counted upon to wreak vengeance. Also, he cared about the Maharani. He had looked after her since birth. He was, he suspected, more the Maharani’s father than her real one, in every way that mattered. He knew the child was damaged, spoiled, equal parts her mother and father, but the best parts of each of them. And he had seen her grow these last few weeks. He almost hated to admit it, but the Akkadian infidel had been good for her.
And now she was about to die, probably terrified, moments away from drowning, all because he had failed to do his job.
“We need to get down there,” he seethed. “You can lower me to the raft. I can get her! But we’ve got to act now.”
“Lower you with what? Fibre optic cable? I am not a rescue vehicle. I can shoot at the waves if you like. Would you like me to do that? Kill a few fish? Would that make you feel better?”
Felix responded with a burst of expletives, not the first time he’d done so in his time looking after the Maharani.
“Look,” Azizun told him. “I’m as anxious as you are. But the storm won’t last forever. The Maharani hasn’t fallen off the raft yet. That means she’s secured herself to it. We can still see two heat signatures so she’s still alive. When the storm abates, we’ll continue to follow her. Eventually somebody will pick her up, and when that happens, I will go down there, and you will get her.”
Felix knew that Azizun was right. There was nothing they could do but wait this out. If the worst came to pass and the Maharani didn’t make it, he would do his best to let every member of his family know to get out of Realm space before the Padishah found out. Then he would mourn.
After that he would seek employment elsewhere.
The Maharani did not drown. Neither did the Akkadian.
Navi awoke first, glued to the raft’s dimpled surface. Gradually, painfully, she pushed herself upright. Immediately she could tell something was wrong. It took a few seconds to put her finger on it.
Sebastian was missing.
“Robot. Robot!”
Alain pushed himself upright. “What’s going on?” His voice was hoarse.
Navi traced the jackline. The robot’s harness was still attached. Sebastian was in the water, mostly submerged. Weak from battling the storm, she could only pull their mechanical companion back aboard with Alain’s help.
“Is it all right?”
“It was not all right to begin with,” Navi reminded Alain.
They set Sebastian in the middle of the raft where it lay silent and still. Only then did Navi remember her artificial leg. A quick check of the raft confirmed it was gone.
“What’s the matter?” Alain asked.
“Nothing,” Navi told him, but she saw Alain look at the part of her leg that was missing and saw that he knew. There was nothing to be done about it, though.
An hour passed. Or maybe two – it was hard to tell anymore. She became aware of Alain staring over her shoulder. Looking behind her, she was shocked to see a ship approaching, one unlike any ship she’d ever seen in the Realm, about ten times the size of a scorpion and much weirder looking. But it wasn’t her imagination, it was real: an unholy combination of tangled metal, wood, plastic, and God only knew what else cutting quietly through the sea toward them. Shading her eyes from the sun, she watched the ungainly vessel approach, hopeful that it meant her ordeal would be over soon but also afraid of the future because she could not see any easy path back home.
Unusual sailors lined the bow of the ship, no rail between them and the sea, no two alike, and not a one made of flesh. Fear coursed through Navi’s body. “Alain! Do you see?”
“All I see is a bunch of robots,” Alain answered.
A small craft parted from the ship near where it met the sea. Save for the splashing of water it closed silently on the raft. When it drew closer, Navi saw that the small vessel itself was a robot, its bow a humanoid torso equipped with arms and a slender metallic neck that led to a solemn, sphinx-like face. The robot-boat bore within it a passenger: another robot, this one pearl white with high cheekbones and red, unsmiling lips. The pearl white robot neither sat nor stood in the boat; its lower half consisted of a single large ball. At one point, the robot rolled to the side of the small craft, plucked something from the sea and deposited it into the boat. When it got close enough, the robot boat grabbed the raft gently with its two arms and held it fast. On the deck of the small boat, dripping wet, was a piece of garbage, something plastic, deformed now from long exposure to the sea, salt, and sun. This was what the robot had plucked from the water on the way to the raft. Navi could not imagine why.
The pearl white robot rolled forward slightly and motioned for the kids to join it in the boat.
Navi shook her head. “Not without Sebastian.”
The pearl white robot shifted its gaze to Sebastian lying motionless in the middle of the raft. It reached up to touch one of its eyes, then pointed at Sebastian.
“I think it wants to know what happened to Sebastian’s eye,” Navi said.
Alain touched the eye pendant beneath his chiton.
The pearl white robot saw him do it. It pointed, rotated its hand upside down, and curled an index finger.
“It wants the eye,” Navi said.
“I can see that,” Alain said. “So what? It can’t have it.”
“What if it can help Sebastian? These must be Sebastian’s friends.”
“I don’t care. Sebastian gave me the eye, not anyone else. I don’t trust these robots.”
Navi eyed the pearl white robot and the robot boat with suspicion. “They could probably just take the eye from you if they wanted to and they are not doing that.”
“No, they couldn’t,” Alain said.
“Yes, they could,” Navi insisted. “A two-year old could take the eye from you.”
The robot boat and the pearl white robot listened to them patiently. They did not make any threatening moves, nor did the pearl white robot attempt to board the raft.
“Do you promise to give Sebastian’s eye back afterward?” Alain asked.
The pearl white robot regarded the two children impassively.
Navi tried speaking to it in her own language. Still no response. She tried a few words in a couple of other languages. Still nothing.
Alain crawled forward on the raft. He slipped Sebastian’s eye over his head and gave it to the white robot. The robot accepted it wordlessly. It unscrewed one of its own eyes with startling rapidity, tilted its alabaster head, and screwed Sebastian’s eye in place of the eye it had removed.
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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