He Who Dares: Book One (The Gray Chronicals 1)

by Rob Buckman

  “Naval Security, and I’m Captain Asher.” He said it as if stating the obvious, which it wasn’t.

  “I’d like to see some identification, SIR!”

  “Ensign Gray, we only want to ask you a few questions about your mission, nothing more.” Another of the four put in softly.

  “It's all in my report.” He said, noting no one offered to show him any ID.

  “Yes, I’ve read it, and very interesting reading, you’re from Kellman, aren’t you?” Asher slid the question in.

  “Yes, so?” Mike felling a little nervous.

  “Nothing, just checking a few facts.”

  “Why did you risk the life of the Lady Ann to retrieve those papers?” Asher asked.

  “Why?” He turned back, confused for a moment. “I didn’t, the Lady Ann insisted I get them.”

  “Why didn’t you just grab her and get out while you still had the chance?” Another asked.

  “Your grandmother is from Earth, isn’t she?”

  “Wait!” Mike snapped. “What is this, an interrogation?” Their question started making his a little uneasy as most of the answers he put down on his originally entrance form were false.

  “No, we are just cross checking a few facts, that’s all.”

  “Look, I don’t know who the hell you people are, nor have you shown me any form of identification.”

  “We don’t need to!” Asher snapped in a hard tone. “Sit down!”

  “Oh yes you do, and beside that, if you’d bothered to read my report and personal file, you would know all the answers to your question before you asked.”

  “We’re just cross checking them.” The woman answered. Asher looked grim, his lips pulled up in a slight sneer.

  “Bullshit!” Mike snapped, getting ready to start beating on someone. “Unless you intend to keep me here by force, or arrest me, I’m leaving.” He leaned slightly forward as he said it, and looked Asher in the eye. “Do you?”

  “You misunderstand Ensign…” Asher started to say.

  “I don’t think so, unless you show me some authority, I’m leaving.” With that, he turned and walked to the door, seeing two men move in front of it.

  “The Captain ordered you to sit down Ensign!” The beefy one snarled.

  “There is two ways we can do this,” Mike countered, preparing to launch himself into an attack. “You can either show me some identification, and your authority for asking me these questions, or...”

  “Or what!” Asher snapped. Just then his comm unit pinged.

  “Leftenant Vargas to Ensign Gray!” Mike keying his comm.

  “This is Ensign Gray.”

  “This is Leftenant Vargas, the Admiral’s flag officer. Where are you Gray?”

  “I’m in security being interrogated by four civilians. Are they here by the Admiral’s or the Captain’s authority?”

  “Civilians?” There was a pause, and some conversation in the background that Mike couldn’t hear. He turned and looked at Asher, seeing a surprised look on his face. It was obviously the one thing they hadn’t expected. A look of anger crossed the tall man’s face, and he shot a quick look at the others.

  “I know nothing about it, Ensign, who are they?”

  “The leader tells me his name is Asher, and he has the rank of Captain with Naval Security.”

  “I know nothing about it, Ensign Gray, as far as I know, you are to report to the Admirals ready room on the double.” Leftenant Vargas. At that moment the door to the interrogation room opened and three armed Marines walked in.

  “The Captain ordered us to check on you, Ensign.” A Sergeant said, stepping forward.

  “I’m fine, but you might want to find out just who these people are, I think they are Sirrien spies.”

  “What! That’s ridiculous...” Asher protested, his face turning a dark shade of pink. The moment Mike said that, the Marines whipped out their side arms and covered the room. The man calling himself Asher shot Mike a look of pure venom.

  “I have to report to the Admiral, who authority I do recognize.” Mike gave Asher a jaunty salute and departed.

  He left, hearing one angry Captain trying to explain to the Marines who he was. They immediately asked to see some identification, and Mike chuckled. They very well could be Naval Security, but he doubted it. More like Naval Intelligence if anything. A winded, less than presentable Ensign Gray reported to the Admiral’s ready room ten minutes later, having run all the way from the other end of the ship and bounced up and down elevators. The Admirals Flag officer sniffed when he saw him, eyeing the rumpled white uniform and dusty shoes.

  “The Admiral has been waiting to see you Ensign.”

  “Yes, Sir, Ensign Gray reporting as ordered!” He said belatedly.

  “Go on in.” The Marine guard didn’t bother coming to attention as he walked over to the door, they only did that for Captains and above.

  It was still a snub to Mike’s mind, but he put it aside and tried to concentrate as he knocked and waited for the ‘Come in’. He heard it and opened the door, breathing deeply as he did. He also muffed the greeting as he started to take his cap off after coming to attention in front of the Admiral’s desk. He stopped and changed it to a salute before removing his cap and placed it under his left arm.

  “Ensign Gray, reporting as ordered, SIR!”

  “At ease Ensign.” By tradition, as the Admiral was sitting, and without his cap he didn’t have to return the salute. He looked up for a moment, his eyes traveling downward over Mike’s uniform. Then he turned his chair so he faced him.

  “I’ve just finished reading your report, and it doesn’t read well.”

  “Sorry, Sir, I’ve been told about that. I did what I thought was best under the circumstances.”

  “No doubt, but the Admiralty isn’t at all happy with you Mr. Gray.”

  “May I ask why, Sir?” It seemed that no one was happy with him today.

  “You may, but you might not like the answers, by the way, what happened to the papers you grabbed in the Hacienda after the document case blew open?”

  “Paper, Sir.”

  “Yes, the paper. You failed to include their disposition in your report.” Mike winced inwardly. That was another thing he’d forgotten to include, but yet again, there were a good many things he’d fail to include.

  “Prince Philip asked me about them as well, Sir. I burned them, Sir, as I didn’t want them to fall back into the Sirriens hands should we be recaptured.” At the edge of his vision, Mike saw the Admiral wince and shake his head. Conner had guessed right, this mission stank worse than week old fish, but why?

  “Well, so much for the carefully laid plans of mice and men.”

  “I’m sorry, Sir, I don’t understand.”

  “I know you don’t, Mr. Gray, and I will enlighten you to some degree.”

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  “You see, we wanted the Sirriens to get those papers, and your rescue mission was supposed to fail.”

  “I’m… I’m not sure I follow Sir.”

  “I’m sorry that Leftenant Kelso didn’t fill you in on the details of your supposed rescue mission, but it was supposed to add authenticity to the paper and make it look as if we were desperate to get them back.” The Admiral paused and took a long drink from the glass beside his hand. “You, or I should say, Leftenant Mike Kelso was supposed to make a dashing but useless attempt to rescue the downed survivors from the life pod and then come home again empty handed to a hero’s welcome. Big brass band, medals and all that.”

  “Oh, I see.” The whole situation was as clear as mud now.

  “Yes, I suspect you do, that’s why we picked him for the job.”

  “I understand, Sir.” That he did understand. If anyone could screw up a mission, Kelso could.

  “No one anticipated he’d be killed and you might take over command.” A slight smile flashed across the Admiral’s face, “and it didn’t occur to the Admiralty that you might be cut from a different cloth
than Leftenant Kelso and succeed.” A bass chuckled followed the remark.

  “No, Sir, I was only doing my duty as ordered.”

  “I think that’s why everyone from the First Lord down is so upset.” He chuckled again. “Damn it! Against incredible odds you pulled off one damn fine rescue operations, it’s just a pity you will never get credit for it.”

  “What!” Mike blurted it out before he could stop himself. The Admiral held his hand up.

  “Officially that is, as far as the Navel is concerned, it never happened, and that’s that. Unofficially, I and a few others will be watching your progress with great interest.” The Admiral smiled, hoping it helped.

  “Thank you for that at least, Admiral.”

  “Oh, don’t thank me so quickly, you will probably be given every dirty assignment that comes up as a reward.”

  “Oh.”

  “Don’t sound so glum. What that means is independent action, which you seem to have a knack for. There will also be assignment that we don’t feel anyone else can handle. At least not the normal run of the mill officers, we have now.”

  “I’m not sure if I should retract that ‘thank you’ or not Admiral.”

  “Well, we’ll see, dismissed Leftenant, and oh, by the way, we are letting your field promotions of Leading Seaman Blake and Marine Corporal Rice stand.”

  “Yes, Admiral, thank you, Sir.” With that he placed his cap on his head, saluted, turned, and left the cabin, pleased about that at least. It was only when he was three desks down and halfway to his quarters that it dawned on him that the Admiral had said. He stopped and looked back.

  “Leftenant?” He remembered nothing of the rest of the walk to his bunk, lost in a fog of question with no answers.

  The story the Admiral gave him made sense, but there were so many holes in it, it looked like Swiss cheese. Who was Harwood? Why had they risked the lives of so many people, especially the Lady Ann? He had the feeling there was a lot more going on here than he suspected. He entered the cabin to the redolent snores of three other Ensigns, but even that didn’t stop him from sleeping like the dead. His last remembered act was to check for messages. He should have saved himself the disappointment. There were no messages from the Lady Ann.

  In the morning, he did find the message light flashing, but it wasn’t from the Lady Ann, but Naval Intelligence. It requested him to report to the security office 09:00 for de-briefing. Mike sighed, checking the time before climbing into the shower. He just had time for breakfast, and several hours later he was glad he did. The de-briefing went on, hour after hour as the two people coaxed additional information out of him. This time, the two people, a man and a woman, presented him with valid identification in the presents a Captain from Naval Police. One of the first things they asked him was about his encounter with the four people the day before. He told them what he knew, describing each in detail, and what question they asked. He wasn’t given any information on who they really were, or what happened to them.

  “You say, that this man Murphy told you that the men in black uniforms were Sirrien State security?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “And that they were clones?”

  “Yes, Sir, he didn’t sound very happy about it either.”

  “I can imagine. This is the first we have heard of this, and I’m glad you included it in your report.”

  “I can’t give any evidence to the validity his observation.”

  “But you say that as far as you could tell, all those you saw were identical?”

  “Yes, Sir, it was spooky in a way, like looking into multiple mirrors.” From the look the Captain gave his partner he wasn’t at all happy with the information.

  “I thought cloning was outlawed, Sir.” Several nations had tried it for different reason, all ending in disaster.

  “So did we, and as far as I know, this is the first case in over two hundred years.”

  “But it doesn’t make sense, why clone? The Sirriens have over 80 Billion people to draw on.”

  “True, but if you wanted a special unit, say personal bodyguard, or strike teams, it might be a way to go.” Mike nodded, seeing the logic. “The Nazi’s in World War II formed the SS with a similar intention.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know that.”

  “Not clones, but they picked the best of the best of the best, so to speak, indoctrinating them when they were young to complete loyalty to the leader.”

  “I’ll have to look that one up, seems like the Sirriens have picked up on the idea.”

  “They also had whole regiments of special troop, Storm Trooper they called them, tough, resourceful, and dedicated to the extreme.”

  “I’m beginning to wonder just how many of these clones they have.” The Captain wrote something down on his computer pad.

  “It's a frightening thought having to fight a whole army of identical soldiers.”

  “Not something I care to think about, now tell me anything else you can about this man Harwood.”

  It went on like that for several hours as Mike went over each detail of the events in his mind, occasionally adding addition facts, or observation. One thing they didn’t ask, unlike the other supposed Naval Security people, were questions about himself, or his home planet, for which he was thankful. He had the feeling that this subject was off limits, but who might have the authority to order that, he didn’t know. He might have been surprised had he known just how far up the chain of command his report went.

  CHAPTER SIX: Leftenant Gray.

  The King sipped his Brandy, dabbing his lips with a white napkin as he finished reading the Admiralty reports on the aborted intelligence mission. His frown indicated he was less than satisfied. On the surface, the report looked authentic enough, but it left much unsaid as to what went wrong and why. He looked up over his old-fashioned half glasses as his Private Secretary walked in.

  “Good Evening John, up a little late tonight?” Smiling in greeting at his tall, dapper, aristocratic looking private secretary. The King always had the odd impression that John Cromwell looked more like a King than he did. It was an old joke between them, going back to their school days together.

  “Good Evening your Majesty, and yes, I am, but I felt that you needed to see this report from, Lady Ann before you retired.” He said, bowing slightly as he held out the data pad. The King smiled and took the pad.

  No matter how many times he told John Cromwell, he didn’t need to do that, he always did. When asked some time ago, he finally admitted that it wasn’t a question of him needing to, but wanting to. Now the King just smiled tolerantly and accepted the homage.

  “Yes, I’m looking forward to reading that.” Leaning back in his chair, he took the offered digital pad as he put the other aside.

  “She apologizes for the delay, but having only arrived at the Palace this afternoon with her dispatches, she was in the process of writing her report until now.”

  “Really?” The king looked up, somewhat surprised.

  “Yes, your Majesty.”

  He’d expected her to clean up and get a night's sleep before preparing her report. That meant that she had something important she wanted him to see, as normally he couldn’t expect her report this soon. Lady Ann was meticulous where her reports were concerned. Taking the message pad, he pressed the start button and began reading. John Cromwell refilled the King’s coffee cup and Brandy balloon, seeing the King point as he read indicating the he should pour one for himself. With a slight smile and a nod, he poured a small one and sat by the window. Publicly he displayed all the pomp and protocol his position as the King’s Private Secretary required, but in private, the King demanded a less formal atmosphere. After sitting, he sipped his drink and looked out the window, waiting patiently for the King to finish reading. Looking out, he eyed the lights of London reflect back from the low hanging clouds. It made it appear a dome covered the city, and he idly wondered if that wasn’t a bad idea. They'd be able to control the weather, and get all the benef
its of the sun without the rain and fog. In his mind, he idly thought about the engineering problems involved in such a project, and its feasibility with the current level of technology. Reaching the last page of the report, the King was about to put the message pad down, when the last line of the report caught his eye.

  ‘...Your Majesty, please read the attached report, as it is more enlightening than my own...’ That was unusual in the extreme, but even so, he almost didn’t read it. The first few lines of text were full of errors and mainly concerned with, ...according to the King’s Regulations, and standing orders, section 16, paragraph 8, subsection...’ and skipping passed he read on. A few times chuckling to himself and shook his head. Finishing the last part, he placed the pad on his desk.