He Who Dares: Book Two (The Gray Chronicals 2) (14 page)

“Not accepted.”

“And why not?”

“Because you are a damn fine officer, and too good to lose, especially to someone like that prick Heartmore.”  Mike growled, feeling heat rising as he thought about what Heartmore tried to do.

“So, you know about that.”  She looked at the bulkhead, clenching her fists.

“Yes, I had a chat with the Admiral.”

“I’m sorry, Mike, I want out, this isn’t the life for me.  It’s not what I expected.”  For a moment, she felt like crying, her reserve breaking down.

“What did you expect, the red carpet treatment because of your family connections?”  Mike sneered.  It was a deliberate needle.  It shook Janice like a bucket of cold water, and she straightened up, feeling angry now.

“Well, no, sir.”  She said, hesitantly, but in a way, he was right.  Her slight flush gave her away.

“Titles are ten a penny in this fleet, Janice, hell my XO probably has one, although he won’t tell me.”

“Makes, no difference, Mike, I’ve had it.”

“I won’t accept that, this isn’t the best of commands, and I can only offer you the chance at promotion on merit.”  Janice looked at him a moment, hesitating, then sighed.

“I wish I could, Mike, but it's...  I don’t see how my staying in the Navy would change anything.”  The constant harassment and assignments to petty, meaningless jobs had taken their toll.  It was Heartmore’s assumption he could rape her and get away it that finally drove the last nail into the coffin.  It dawned on her then that he could, like many officers before him, and there was nothing she could do about it except resign.  All her dreams of commanding a ship of her own faded away like the morning mist.

“If that’s your decision, and I’ll approve your request for discharge, but first, will you talk to one other person for me, before you make up your mind?”  It was only at that moment the idea struck him.

“I don’t see how anyone could change my mind right now.”

“Would you talk to them?”  Janice thought about it for a moment.  She was sick and tired of talking to people, but this was Mike Gray, not some pencil necked officer with a title and rank.

“Yes, Mike, all right,” she nodded at last, “I’ll talk to whomever you want, but I won’t make any promises, but I doubt I’ll change my mind.”

“None needed, just hold on a second.”  Mike swung his computer around so she couldn’t see the screen and tapped in a number.

“Hi, is she there?”

“Yes.”  A disconnected female voice answered.  “Hold on.”

“Mike!  Glad that you called, but I’m mad at you...”

“Lady Ann, I have someone here I need you to talk to.”  Mike said, cutting her off.

“Oh, who?”

“An Ensign, Janice Fletcher, who wants to resign.”  He quickly briefed her about the circumstances.

“Oh, I see, please, Mike, put her on.”  She blew him a quick kiss as he stood up.

“I’ll leave you two to talk.  I have a few things I need to take care of.”

“Promise to call me later?”  Ann asked, grinning.

“Yes, I promise.”

“All right, but I’m holding you to it, put her on.”

“Janice, I am going to leave the room, so this conversation is between you and, um, the ‘Lady Ann’”

“I understand, sir, but who is Lady Ann?”  Mike smiled at her and said nothing.

“You’ll see.”  He moved towards the door and put his cap on, giving her a wink as he left.

Janice came round the desk and looked at the screen, but for a moment, she couldn’t see anything.  The person at the other end had moved out of video pickup range.  Janice sat in the Mike’s chair and waited.

“Hello, Ensign Fletcher, may I call you Janice?”  She jumped slightly at the sound of the voice, then stared in shock.  The face and shoulders of the Princess Royal filled the screen.  For a moment, she felt she should stand or something, then Ann smiled at her.

“Yes, your Grace.”

“Oh, cut that out, please, just call me Anna, or Ann.”

“But... but I can’t do that!”  Janice felt out of her depth, how could Mike Gray be on first name's terms with Princess Royal?

“Yes, you can, now tell me in detail why you want to resign your commission?”  Haltingly at first, then with a steadier voice she told the Princess the story of her life aboard H.M.S. Sutherland and the attempted rape by her Captain, James Heartmore.

“Not a nice story, Janice, and one not unfamiliar, and I can understand why you’d want to get away.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Would you give it another try under Mike’s command if I asked you to?”

“I... I don’t know.”

“You have to agree, he is a little different from other officers?”

“Yes, Ma’am, he is, but... but how do you know him… I mean, if it’s not a personal question, Ma’am?”  Princess gave a soft laugh.

“To start with, he came to my rescue, and now I’d trust him with my life.”  Her smile said more than words, but she didn’t elaborate.

“I see.”  She wasn’t sure she did, but didn’t press the point.  The more they talked, the more relaxed Janice became.

“I can tell you, that Mike has a very difficult task ahead of him, one that will require the help of people he can trust, will you help him?”

“Me, I’m just an Ensign, Ma’am, what can I do?”

“Support him, protect his back, and keep him safe?”  There was something else behind the Princess’s words, but Janice couldn’t tell what.

“Yes, your Gra...  Ann, I could.”

“As others under his command have found, you take care of him, and he will do everything in his power to help and protect you, if you doubt me, go talk to Conner Blake.”

“I don’t doubt you, I noticed that about Mike at the Academy.”

“So, you’ll stay?”  Ann smiled at her.

“Yes, I’ll stay, for a while and give Mike a chance.”

“Good, you won’t regret it.”

“I hope not, Ma’am.”  Janice gave her a wistful smiled, wondering if she was doing the right thing.

“Off you go then, and give your new Captain my regards.”

“Yes, Ma’am, I will.”  Then she was gone and Janice sat there looking at the blank screen. 

Nothing made sense.  How on Earth did Mike Gray know the Princess Royal personal comm number, and what was this wreck of a ship all about?  In the end she sighed and stood up, straightening her damp, now dirty uniform and putting on her side cap.  It didn’t take long to find the XO, and she came up, she came to attention and saluted.

“Ensign, Janice Fletcher reporting for duty, sir!”

“Good to have you aboard.” Pete gave her one of his blinding smiles, “as of now you’re acting Second Leftenant in charge of sorting out the mess on the Bridge.”

“Sir?”  She asked, somewhat surprised.

“You heard me, we have a mess on the Bridge, and need someone up there to take charge and get it sorted out.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, what are you standing there grinning like an idiot for, Leftenant, are you laughing at me?”  Pete growled, giving his best imitation of a grumpy bear.

“No, sir, which way is the Bridge?”  She asked, looking around, beginning to see that his bark was worse than his bite.

“Find it.  Just as the rest of us have to, every day, damn it!”  He shook his head.  “They keep adding more steel to this bucket overnight, and it takes me half an hour every day to find a new way up there, so go! Shoo!”  He snapped, waving his hand, then smiled at her.

“Yes, sir.”  She saluted again and took off.

It wasn’t as hard as the XO made out, but she got the idea.  Knowing she’d need to find her way around this ship until she knew it by heart. 

CHAPTER SEVEN:

On leaving the cabin, Mike made his way down to the hanger deck to look at the new arrivals, and one look told him what Admiral Rawlings cryptic remark meant. Of the nine people standing there, all but two were female, just like the last draft.  Conner walked up as he came in, a grim smile on his face.

“I have the feeling, Chief, that we should start painting this ship pink!”

“Yes, sir, that makes 32 females out of the 41 crew, we were expecting, Captain.”

“Chin up, Conner, it could be worse.”

“I don’t know how, sir.”  Conner answered morosely.

“Well, we could be in a Sirrien prisoner of war camp?”

“That might just be an improvement, sir.”  He smiled and shook his head.

“Get them sorted out and working, Conner.”

“Right, sir.”

At least the work speeded up as more of the ship’s crew began working alongside the yard crew.  Even they seem to pick up as well, so the female crewmembers did have one positive effect.  The New Year rolled around and passed without anyone ever noticing it, but they did stop to celebrate a bit as they welded the last anti-radiation plate in place.  Now the ship was space worthy, with all hatches and air locks in place and tested. At least manually.  The drive and AG system were up and working, but without the new computer program they checked out the systems manually.  As it turned out, that was a blessing, as now the controls hooked directly into the helm, instead of the computer.  Work inside was gradually coming to a halt as they sealed the last of the conduit, or plasma welded the last pipe and coupling in place, x-rayed and pressure tested them.  Even the inside of Mike’s cabin started to look better and not the doghouse he was used to.  He now had a working shower and a bunk at least.  Then Cynthia arrived with the initiation crew in tow.  Mike had forgotten about that, although it was one of the most important items on his checklist for getting into space.

“My crew chief told me that several areas of the ship are ready for imprinting.”  She gave Mike a hug, then looked around.  “Bit of an improvement since the last time I was here.”

“God, yes!  But we still have a ways to go.”

“Not as far as you think, Mike, my lad, but we need to get as much of this bucket imprinted as soon as possible.”

“Go for it Cynthia, she’s all yours.”

“I’ll get the crew set up in the bow and work back from there.”

The imprint crew set up their equipment as the crew emptied the first compartment of loose equipment and furnishings.  In theory, what they did sounded exotic, but to watch them work was boring as Mike found out went he went to see.  Once the compartment was empty of all moveable objects, they polarized the floor.  Using the ship's keel as the South Pole they aliened the Ag coating on the floor surface and imprinted it.  This meant, that once in space out of Earth’s gravity the deck would always be the deck, and the bulkheads would always be the bulkheads and so forth, even in a power down condition.  The second part of the operation was to initialize the inertia-dampening field to absorb the energy produced during acceleration and de-acceleration.  Coupled with the energy sump people inside the field felt very little inertia, even at very high speeds, at least in a forward motion or slowly.  Inertia only became noticeable turning sharp turns, or combat manoeuvring.  The greater the forward speed and the sharper the turn the more the crew felt the sideways pull.