The Lost Stories: A Series of CoSmic Adventures

Lost Show

In the face of obstacles and challenges, a true leader shows initiative and courage.

As I dialed up some tea and settled into my comfiest chair to watch the latest Captain Courageous, and saw that once again it was a repeat, I stared dumbfounded at the viewscreen on my wall. “No,” I said, though of course no one was around to hear me, except Winston. “Not again. This can't keep happening to me. I prayed! I didn't even bother to check the listings! I prayed!”

Winston got up.

"You're leaving?”

“It's a repeat,” Winston said, heading for my quarter's doors. “I've seen this one. I'll be on the bridge if you need me.”

Iwanted to tell him to watch it again—Winston still hadn't come to appreciate Captain Courageous as much as I needed a first officer serving under me to—but I knew he was right. Repeats were well and good when one had a few hours to kill; it was a yearly ritual for me to book my annual health checkup as late in the year as possible, then spend the rest of the day hiding in an air duct with a portable viewer, watching episodes until the next day, when a new year had begun and it was too late to file a checkup report for the old year. But repeats were not well and good when one was expecting a new episode.

Did I allow the depression to overwhelm me? Did I allow the crushing disappointment to squeeze out all the energy and life from me?

No. I took the UpUGo to the bridge (incidentally, my grandfather knew the inventor of the UpUGo and even tried to get her to change its name on the basis that it went up, down, and all around, but apparently UpDownAndAllAroundUGo was too cumbersome for her tastes; he was so insistent that his name for it was better, though, that they broke things off and two generations later I wouldn't inherit an embarrassing family fortune. On the other hand, no family fortune meant I had to work for a living; and my work put me in charge of considerable resources. And where some men can do no more than shake their heads in impotent frustration, I am not some men; I am the captain of a warship).

“Captain on the bridge!” I said, before anyone else could. A true leader doesn't wait around for others. “Pat, set a course for Yoo immediately. Full power.”

Winston moved over to the first officer's chair. When I sat down in the captain's, he leaned over and whispered, “Sir, are you sure this is wise? We're supposed to be on patrol.”

I ignored him, and eventually he sat back in his chair. No new Captain Courageous meant that none of my prayers had worked. Marie would stay with Jack, I'd stay a captain, Winston wouldn't commit treason and I wouldn't be the hero who, despite personal feelings, captured and turned him in due to my unassailable integrity.

But God helps those who help themselves, I told myself. It was possible this latest setback was a test.

“I won't fail, Winston,” I said, but of course Winston just gave me a quizzical look. Sometimes his lack of understanding, and need to have everything spelled out in minutest detail, stupefies me.

Yoo is a studio planet, where most of the actors and actresses of most of the shows beamed throughout the galaxy live and work; it is an artificial planet with snow-covered plains in the north and tropical jungles in the south, with underground villages and old-town cities of tall skyscrapers and road vehicles. Captain Courageous had its own city in the southern hemisphere, where Winston and I landed our shuttle.

"Hello!” a chipper young man said, walking toward us. “Mr. Brillig will see you whenever you're ready.”

I stepped off the ship's ramp and onto the tarmac. “Now,” I said.

Mr. Brillig's office was much larger than my ready room and quarters combined, which set me on edge as soon as we were ushered in. I saved lives (on our side) and destroyed lives (on the Other Side); he directed a holodrama—but hisoffice is bigger than mine? Such is the topsy-turvy world we live in.

“Gentlemen,” he said, as we sat in the chair opposite his desk. “I'm very pleased to meet you. Captain Kollins, your letters have been a source of hilarity for many of us who work on the show.”

“Of hilarity?” I said, speaking through clenched jaw.

“Well—yes, we get the joke of course. Surely you weren't being—”

“I meant every word,” I said. “Though of course I must say—as a matter of professional respect and honest criticism—that the show under your predecessor was in some ways smarter, funnier, and cleverer—and in all other ways better.”

Mr. Brillig looked down at his desk and seemed to be holding back something, perhaps tears. After a moment, he pulled himself together and said, “Well, anyway, that isn't why you're here, is it? Tell me about the emergency situation.”

I couldn't help but notice that Winston's head snapped to the right so he could stare at me with his judgmental eyes. Yes, I'd lied to get us immediate permission to land on the planet; yes, I said that there was an emergency, life-and-death situation and that I had to speak to the director of Captain Courageous personally. Yes, I'd “abused my power” and “caused a panic needlessly,” but Winston could only judge me because he's never loved anything as much as I love Captain Courageous.

“You're not asking the questions here, Director.” I fixed him with a suspicious glare. “Why haven't you been releasing new episodes of Captain Courageous?”

For all his smarminess and largess of office, Mr. Brillig was speechless.

“There's no emergency,” Winston said. His knack for stating the obvious never failed to astonish me. “The Captain just really likes your show.”

Mr. Brillig looked from one of us to the other. “I—really, you came all the way over here just to ask about the show?”

“I have a ship,” I said. “Just like Captain Courageous. And I don't pay for my own fuel. So, yes, we came all the way over here. Now answer the question.”

A tenseness seized Mr. Brillig's features. He put his hands in front of him on the desk. “Ken Treme is sick.”

“By ‘sick’ you mean ‘good,’ right?” I said hopefully. Treme had played Captain Courageous since the first season of the show, and I already knew he was good, very good—as did anyone who watched the show. But I hoped the director liked stating the obvious as much as my first officer.

“I mean ill. Very, very ill. We keep hoping to see a change for the better, but . . . it doesn't look good.”

“That's very sad,” Winston said.

Ignoring Mr. Obvious, I said, “We wish him a quick recovery. In the meantime, you must have new material that you can release.”

“No, nothing,” Brillig said. “We've aired it all. We even stitched together a bunch of outtakes of past shows and pretended it was a drug-induced dream Captain Courageous was having.”

“Very powerful episode,” I said, turning to face Winston. “Very important message.”

“Anyway, we're done,” Brillig said. “We're empty. We don't have a single new scene with Ken in it.”

I sat up straight. “Not a single scene, you say?”

“No, not one.”

I sat back and smiled. “Perfect, then. I know just what to do.” I turned to Winston. “We're going to Eden.”

“Eden? There's nothing left there.”

"Not quite nothing,” I said. “I have a friend there who may be willing to help us out.” I stood, stuck out my hand. “Take heart,” I said to Brillig. “Things will get better. Remember—blessed are those who believe, yet have not scene.”