Day Zero (ENDPOINT Book 1) by J.W. Griffin

Author:J.W. Griffin [Griffin, J.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: jwgriffin.us
Published: 2019-04-15T22:00:00+00:00

7

Busted

“Captain McBain, you seem to be destroying ships faster than our shipyards can produce them.”

Admiral Miers

Everyone remained standing, including the court clerk, as the panel of officers sat. “This general court martial is now hereby called to order.” Everyone sat except the accused and the court officers. “Captain Mitchell Ryan McBain, you stand before this court charged with willful destruction of government property—namely the loss of the destroyer ESS Adriatic as her captain—disobeying a direct order from your commanding officer, and general dereliction of duty for willfully putting crew and service members under your command in harm’s way.”

“Will the accused please state your name, rank, service branch, serial number, and the service assignment related to these proceedings and confirm the plea entered one week ago today for each of the charges.”

Ryan looked forward and spoke with a dispassionate, even tone. “I am Fleet Captain Mitchell Ryan McBain, service number one seven, one alpha, eight niner, three delta. I was commanding officer of the ESS Adriatic involved in the rescue of the ESS Allentown. I confirm the plea entered earlier on my behalf by counsel of not guilty of all charges.”

“Everyone may be seated, and this court martial is now in session.”

Ryan sat and gently sighed. His mind drifted back in time to a memory of a disciplinary hearing in his youth. Aunty Belle sat next to him in the lobby of the school office. She was wearing a bright red wool coat that looked more like a shawl. It was secured with a flap that wrapped across and off to the side with oversized black buttons. Narrow at the waist, it flared out and down just above her knees. Of the same length, her dress was a fine black fabric with a pattern of tiny wrens. She wore black tights, and her shoes looked like ones Ryan had drawn once illustrating a colonial Pilgrim dinner. She wore black cotton gloves, and her clutch was a darker red that complimented her coat. She wore a small black hat that was shaped like a beret.

A tuft of hair swept over the boy’s blackened eye. He tugged at the white collar of his shirt, bound by a narrow black tie. Belle gently put her hand on Ryan’s bouncing knee. “Mitchell Ryan, there’s no need to be nervous. You have the right words to say. Focus on those thoughts and be yourself.” With that, she smiled and ran the back of her folded hand lightly across his pale cheek.

Events within a matter of weeks had sublimated the original vectors shaping the trajectory of his life. Trouble and tragedy were the constants and catalysts that had directed his path toward the footsteps of this very day.

Ryan remembered later that night overhearing Aunty Belle. She was arguing over video chat with the other aunts. The light from the front room cast down the hallway and through the cracked doorway to the boy’s bedroom. Ryan was in the upper bunk, and Hadley lay on his side below.

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