He Who Dares: Book Three (39 page)

“Now the light dawns on why you insisted on brining all those crews to Christchurch. You need them to crew those ships.”

Mike gave him a tight smile. “Right. I need you to vet them and weed out any ringers, dead beats, or suspicious types. Once that’s done I need to start breaking them down into crews and training them.”

Andy Anderson pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just like that huh. I’m supposed to stop what I’m doing and vet thirty-five hundred odd men and women, build simulators and train them to crew your ships. All so you can take the war to the Sirriens, who I might add, we are not at war with.”

Mike nodded. “Yes, that about sums it up in the nutshell.”

Andy looked up at the ceiling, as if pleading with god and shook his head. “And I was under the misconception that dealing with Gordon Tregallion was difficult.”

“Gordon difficult? Do tell.”

“You know your grandfather and Max are going to have a fit over this, don’t you.”

“Whether we like it or not, Avalon is going to get sucked into this war. It would be better if we took the initiative and took the war to them. Besides that I have an ace up my sleeve the Sirriens don’t know about or have any way of countering.”

“And what magic charm do you have they can’t counter?”

“Um… well… it’s a little difficult to explain. I can take any number of ships through
Harmony
space, any time I want.”

Andy Anderson froze and sat staring at him. “Now I know you have gone crazy. No one, and I mean no one, can enter
Harmony
space and survive, so you’d better explain how you are going to do that,” he said after a moment.

Mike sat back and smiled. “Hold on to your hat while I tell you a story.”

Mike did, starting with his first aborted mission and rescuing a certain King’s Messenger and a mysterious cylinder, then the meeting of the phantom ship in
n
th
space and how he and his crew had saved the life of the queen. If he hadn’t seen it himself he would never have believed it as he saw Andy Anderson’s jaw drop. He concluded the story of how he got the cylinder back and how it had emitted a signal just before they’d entered
Harmony
space, and what happened after. For several minutes after he concluded the story, Andy just sat there looking at him.

“If I didn’t know who you are or that you are a very level headed young man not given to telling tall tales, I would call you a liar.” He said at last. “That has to be the tallest tale I have heard in many a long year.”

“Sometimes I have trouble believing it myself. You want to try TD-Penter on me to see if I’m telling the truth?” Andrew eyed him for a moment, as if actually contemplating doing just that.

“So you actually believe you can enter
Harmony
space and go wherever you please without let or hindrance?”

“That’s what their queen told me. Now that I have her DNA, and she has mine, I’m some sort of prince now.”

“Better you than me putting that to the test, but I’m not sure I like the idea of you having her DNA inside you. You’d better have the geneticists on Avalon check you over as soon as you get there.”

“Believe me, I will. If what she said is true, we can strike at the Sirriens from a direction they’ll never suspect, and it gives us a safe avenue of retreat to a forward operating base on this side of the
Rift
.”

“True and they could never send in a fleet after you for fear of it getting annihilated.”

“Yes, they’ve already lost one fleet that jumped in after us. It wasn’t a pretty sight.” Mike shivered slightly thinking about it.

“A lesson learned, I’ll wager.”

“One of the things I have to do is find a suitable star system to operate from.”

“That I can help you with. I know of several good candidates. The only restriction I can see is that you have to be with every group of ships that passes through
Harmony
space.”

“That’s true from what the queen told me.”

Andy held up the Letter of Marque and waved it. “This gives you the authority to do anything you want, but it also means that your operation has to be independent of Avalon. Like the King, it gives him and us plausible deniability.”

“Resupply, crew turnover, R and R, replacement ships are just a few of the headaches I’ll have to work out.”

“Don’t try to do it all yourself. Delegate and let people who are good at that sort of thing run that for you.”

Mike cocked an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Mike, the one thing you are great at is field command or independent action, as the Navy types like to say. Don’t get bogged down in the administration and paperwork aspect of this.” He held up the letter again. I’m betting there are a host of people among those you brought with you that can run all of those things you mentioned in the background, and let you get on with what you do best.

“Now you that you mention it there is this Commander Hancock. He is, or was, the commanding officer of a Royal Naval resupply depot.”

“So, get him and put him in charge of getting your base logistics sorted out.”

“First, you better let me know where I’m going to be operating out of.”

“Later. You need to get to Avalon and hash this out with Gordon and Max. I’m sure they will let you know if this is doable.”

“Not a pleasant thought. What if they kill the whole deal?”

Again, Andy waved the letter. “This is all the authority you need. We’ll keep on building your ships, you find nice out-of-the way star systems to operate out of, and we’ll work out the resupply problem.”

“You make it all sound so easy, Uncle Andy.”

“Far from it. To start, this is going to be what the German’s used to call a giant
kluster fucken
.” He laughed.

With that, he went off to meet with the ships’ crews as they were ferried down from the
Orion Dawn
. Thankfully, there was plenty of housing on the sprawling base to billet everyone, and set as it was on the southern continent, there was little danger of anyone wandering off and getting lost. It still took two days to get everyone reasonably settled, but while that was going on, Mike had his second meeting with Commander Hancock in his makeshift office. There was the usual awkwardness about salutes and protocol that Mike knew he had to get past as quickly as possible. He needed to know if he could work with this man or needed to find someone else.

“Please have a seat, Commander, and let’s get down to business, shall we?” Again the awkwardness of a junior officer addressing a senior one. Commander Hancock eyed him a moment as he took his cap off and took a seat, maybe feeling he should be on the other side of the desk asking his junior to sit.

“Now that we are, I assume, in Avalon space, you can tell me what’s going on.”

“That’s true, Commander, but first I’d like you to examine and read this letter.” Mike handed him the cream-colored, embossed envelope.

As requested the commander did examine the envelope first, frowning when he saw the royal seal on the back flap. Pulling the parchment out, he slowly read the contents of the letter, his frown deepening. At last, he sat back and blew out his cheeks.

“Well, that’s a turn up for the books. I’ve heard about these but I’ve never thought to ever see one… I take it as a given that this is real?”

“Oh indeed, Commander. The King handed me that himself and wished me God’s speed.”

“Very well then. I assume from this, as strange as it may be, I am to place myself under your command.”

Mike shook his head. “As much as I might like the title of Lord High Admiral and all that, I don’t want it. This is just my authority to do whatever I damn well please with the King’s and the Admiralty’s blessing.”

“Even if the said Admiralty doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.”

“Right, and there you have it. What I need is a commanding officer to run everything, and I think you are the man for the job.”

“Reporting to you I suppose.”

“No sir. The only person you will be accountable to for your actions after this war is over will be the King.” Commander Hancock gave him a funny look and swallowed several times as if to contain his emotions. He coughed to clear his throat.

“And… and what will you be doing?”

“I’ll be doing all the fun stuff.” He gave the commander a lopsided grin.

“In other words, going in harm’s way.” Mike nodded. For a moment, the commander looked at the twin ribbons on Mike’s chest.

“When I first heard about someone getting two of those, which I thought was impossible, and then hearing that you were in two branches of the service under different names to earn them, I thought there had to be a mistake. I see now I was wrong.”

“In what way, sir?”

Hanson pursed his lips. “One of the reasons I was posted to that forward supply base was because I couldn’t stand the type of officers that infested the Navy. I admire few senior officers, Admiral Rawlings being one of them, and he saved my career by putting me out of the way until such time I was needed. That time seems to be now. I’ll be glad to take up the assignment.”

“In that case, by the authority vested in me, I hereby promote you to full admiral of this independent mercenary command, with all the duties and responsibilities that go with it.” Hearing that, Commander Hanson broke out laughing.

“Right, a first leftenant is promoting me to full admiral. Isn’t that one for the books?” Mike saw the humor and laughed with him. “By the way, my first name is Raymond.” He held his hand out across the desk.

“Mine is Michael or Mike if you prefer.”

“Hello, Mike, pleased to meet you.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. It’s Michael Bear, not Gray.”

“Good god! How many names do you have?”

“Sometimes I forget myself.”

“No matter. Captain Michael Bear it will be from now on. Can you tell me about that strange looking ship of yours?”

“The
Hemlock
, as she is now.” Mike thought about it for a moment, wondering just how much to tell him. Very soon, he would see a lot more like her, and know all the intimate details. With a slight shrug, he told him the story of how she came to be built.

“Fascinating.” He shook his head. “The more I see and hear about you, the better I like you. You’re the kind of officer I wish we had more of. Maybe the Navy wouldn’t be in the state it is now if we had.”

Mike had the grace to blush slightly under his scrutiny. “I’m just someone trying to do his duty in the best way possible.”

Hanson nodded. “As will I from now on.” He paused for a moment. “I take it I have full authority to promote and demote as I see fit?”

“Of course, you are the admiral of the fleet. As such, you are expected to know and have a 201 file on every man and woman in it. In that light, I’d like you to meet someone, a Mr. Andrew Anderson.”

“And he is?”

“A hard-assed bastard who runs the security department for Avalon.” Saying that, Mike stood and put his cap on. “No time like the present. Oh, by the way, Andy Anderson’s bite is worse than his bark.”

“Oh, one of those.” They drove across the base to the security office, and it wasn’t long before they were ushered into his office.

“Now what?” he asked, gruffly, eyeing his visitors.

“I’d like you to meet Admiral Hanson. He’s now my CO, and in charge of my growing fleet.”

“Is he now? Coffee Admiral? Cream, sugar?”

“Um… yes, I suppose so. A little of both. Thank you.”

“Take a seat and let’s get acquainted. I hope you have more luck controlling him than I, or anyone else has.” Andy shot a look at Mike, and it was enough for him to move to one side and stand by the window as Andy handed the mug of coffee to Hanson. Knowing what was coming Mike stayed silent, and observed. He noted that Andy didn’t drink the coffee, simply made it look as if he had.

“I have the feeling I might not have any more control over him than anyone else, from what I’ve seen so far.” Raymond said, smiling slightly.

“So, tell me who you are?”

It took a few moments, but as the TD-Penta took hold Raymond Hanson poured out his life story. As he started recounting his childhood, Mike silently left the office. Only Andy needed to know the intimate details of the man’s life. Any inconsistencies, and he’d be given a stronger dose of the drug until all his secrets, hopes and desires were revealed. To some degree Mike felt a little dirty digging into a man’s past. Knowing all of us had things in our past we might not be proud of.

Under the influence of level-three TD-Penta interrogation, it was impossible to hide anything, even the thoughts and memories you’d normally hide, even from yourself. He sometimes wondered how Andy Anderson could do it and remain sane. Over time he must have heard of every perversion, disgusting habit and thought from a multitude of people. Heaven knows he knew all of his and chided himself for not according him more respect. He did a very dirty job protecting Avalon from its enemies, all the while resisting the temptation of using that knowledge for his own benefit. An hour later, his port-comp beeped, signaling the “interview” was at an end.