I am Iron Man

by Colin Cook

  deployment. They tried to keep these instances under wraps and out of sight from the rest of their respective Companies as much as possible, but every now and then

  they would un-deniably show through," Moira read out with a wide grin that only grew wider and wider the more she spoke, now feeling like she was reading a light

  romance story. Chellick was grinning also, and even Bailey had a slight smile to his weathered face.

  "Axel, you dog! Does it say who this mystery woman...or, man, was?" asked Chellick, his grin dropping as he added in the other sex option since he didn't truly know if

  Axel was gay or not.

  Bailey cocked his head and regarded Chellick with a bewildered frown.

  "Hey, we don't know what his preferences are. Maybe…you know, maybe it was a man!" Chellick defended with an awkward shrug, quickly looking to Moira for help in the

  argument.

  "Uh huh…" Bailey stated in an over the top unconvinced tone before turning back, deliberately but jokingly give the Turian a hard time.

  Moira was chuckling softly at Chellick's distress.

  "Calm down Chellick, it mentions here that the officer in question was definitely a woman. However though, other then a brief note on their gender it doesn't give us

  anything else, the files are just too damaged. There's no name, no description, not even a rank, its as if Axel's lady friend almost never existed," she explained, somewhat

  disappointed at not being able to find out the complete identity of Axel's mystery lover. Bailey rubbed his chin for a few moments before rumbling out a 'hum'.

  "Alright so we now know about his background, skip ahead to the incident involving Jarrod and the village. After he allegedly gunned down François, what did Lieutenant

  Sorenson do?"

  Typing in to her keyboard, Moira flipped through several more pages of faded or broken text until she came to the last set of reports added before Axel's file was closed

  for good.

  "After Jarrod was killed Axel's Company was on the verge of being taken off active service. It had already lost over a dozen men within a three-week period; but now it

  had no commanding officer to lead it and most of its lieutenants that had been eligible for the position had been killed off…" Moira began again, but suddenly Chellick

  reached out a hand and gently grabbed her by the shoulder, making her stop in mid-sentence and look back at him.

  "Hold on. You both said Lieutenant Sorenson right?" Chellick asked both of them. Moira and Bailey nodded with slight frowns.

  "Yeah…you heard it too Chellick, he was named as such in the earlier files we just read," Bailey stated with a nod down to the terminal, now confused by Chellick's

  behaviour. Chellick nodded with a strange puzzled look to his eyes.

  "Yes, in the earlier files. But if Axel's Company was in danger of being taken out of service because it had no commanding officer, why then is his file clearly labeled as…"

  Chellick began as he turned toward the massive wall-screen and crossed out from behind Moira's desk toward it.

  "'Captain' Axel Kaae Sorenson," he finished as he came up under the displayed file and outstretched his arm over his head, using his natural Turian height to reach far up to

  the top of the screen and tap the section that held the terrorist's name and rank with the tip of his index talon.

  Bailey blinked after reading the rank placed next to Axel's printed name, looking between Moira's terminal and the wall screen, seeing that the flaw Chellick had just noticed

  was indeed written within the file.

  "He's right. When then did Axel make captain?" Bailey asked down to Moira, now very interested to hear this little story. Clicking a button, the page shifted downward to

  the last group of paragraphs before the file ended abruptly.

  "Actually it explains some of that right here. After the Company was moved back to Kandahar's capital city and put on standby, Axel was immediately extracted from

  Afghanistan and returned to Canada to give his account of what happened in person. He was brought before a Military Board of Inquiry in a classified section of the

  Parliament Building in Ottawa…"

  "That doesn't sound like a great way to give a promotion," Chellick commented with a wince. But right away Moira held up a hand to interrupt him.

  "NO. This is where it gets really interesting. After giving his report and retelling the events that happened in the village, the Board actually commends Axel for his heroism

  and comes to the decision to promote him to the full rank of Captain, since apparently he was the only officer left with the skill and knowhow to fill the role. They placed

  him in charge of Cormier's Company and asked him to return to Afghanistan as soon as possible to take command and continue offensive operations."

  "So how then did he…" Bailey began saying, but Moira held up her hand again to silence him this time.

  "Wait! It doesn't end there. According to eyewitness accounts when they gave him this promotion, it seems to say something about Axel actually trying to refuse it.

  Unfortunately because he was their only candidate within the Company and was already an accommodated officer with several citations for bravery, the Board actually

  orders him to accept and forces the promotion onto him," she added. Chellick raised his brow-ridges in surprise at that detail.

  "They can do that?" he asked, looking somewhat nervously between the other two.

  "In response to their decision it seems that Axel accepted the promotion, but in a noticeable state of anger. It then goes on to say that in return for this he asks to be

  granted an extended leave-of-absence without pay for unknown reasons. The Board denies his request and orders him back to Afghanistan. But before he has a chance to

  leave the country he gets examined at the last minute by a military physician. In their report the physician apparently discovered that Axel had undergone a startling, even

  damaging, change to his psychological state of mind. It was such that the physician immediately recommends Axel be given a three month leave-of-absence and be put

  under periodic medical observation."

  Bailey and Chellick reared back in shock slightly, startled by this eerie change in Axel's persona.

  "Okay that's a bit scary. What were the changes the physician recorded?" asked Chellick. Tapping another button, Moira brought up a small screen off to the side of Axel's

  file that she quickly scrolled through.

  "It doesn't say exactly, parts of the medical report are also corroded. From what I can reconstruct it says physically he was fine, and while undergoing the questioning

  period of the exam Axel displayed a great deal of calm control, personable exchanges, and even witty humour. But eventually when asked about Jarrod, the events in the

  village, or anything related to those subjects, it gets rather vague. I can't tell if it says he either suddenly clammed up or became visibly irritated, along with a bunch of

  other odd responses. And this was just his first interview; later during the course of his leave and the subsequent examinations that came with it, the reports from other

  physicians who checked up on him mention that when asked those same kinds of questions Axel's condition had deteriorated beyond his original diagnosis. He seems to

  be cited as having developed aggressive mood swings that were on the verge of becoming violent. He even begins confessing to the interviewers at having thoughts of

  depression bordering on the suicidal."

  Chellick shook his head slowly, almost sadly even, after hearing the tragic transformation in Axel's promising character.

  "No doubt Luc and Jarrod's deaths wounded him very deeply, its no wonder he began to go off the deep end."

  "Mhmm, and then the file just ends with his disappearance a week after the last check up," Moira concurred with a nod.

  "His disappearance? Y
ou mean he suddenly vanished before he left Canada?" Bailey asked. Moira nodded again, typing into the keyboard and scrolling down to the final

  paragraph in the dossier, one that was marked at the end with a black stamp stating 'FILE CLOSED'.

  "The file ends with a short description of his sudden disappearance at the end of the three months. According to what's written here Axel was scheduled to report to the

  Army detachment stationed in Thunder Bay and then take a military flight back to Kandahar to accept command of the Company. But it says that he never showed up.

  Many people tried contacting him afterward but he didn't respond, eventually leading to the Ontario Provincial Police being sent to his family home to see if he was okay.

  Instead they found his house empty, with no trace of him or his four-wheeler that he would usually use to travel locally. Immediately he became the subject of a nation

  wide search-and-rescue that lasted several months, in which the authorities were able to find the crashed wreckage of his vehicle deep in the surrounding forest but with

  no signs of a body or any evidence that would explain where he'd gone. After every attempt to find him was met with failure, he was finally declared as Missing Abroad.

  The police investigation was closed as unsolved, while his military file here labels his Date of Death as 'Unknown'."

  Chellick scoffed in annoyance with a quick shake of his head.

  "That's it? He just up and goes off the grid the day he's to re-enter active service? That's got to be the most annoying cliffhanger I've ever heard! It doesn't say at all if he

  was discovered years later? Or what happened to the Company after his disappearance?" Moira shook her head and shrugged her shoulders with an amused chuckle.

  "This is all I've got Chellick, he vanished and they never found him again. End of story."

  Chellick scowled in disappointment as he folded his arms, uttering out a gruff 'Humph'.

  "But hey look at it this way, doesn't this support your theory that he's…" Kealoha began adding supportively, abruptly lowering her voice and taking a look over her

  shoulder before leaning toward the Turian.

  "That he's from another universe? If he suddenly vanishes from the history books in one reality, doesn't that mean the same thing'll happen in the other realities as well?

  The day he's suppose to have disappeared could very well be the day he suddenly fell into…" Moira continued quietly before looking all around the office and raising a hand

  slightly to indicate their surroundings.

  "Our universe. That would explain the suddenness behind his disappearance and why no trace of him was ever found afterward."

  "Pulling a Jimmy Hoffa by falling down the Rabbit Hole and never coming back out again eh?" Chellick posed down to her with a small grin before giving a sigh and shaking

  his head thoughtfully.

  "We're putting together wild conclusions that are centered around magic and pseudoscience. Everything we've discovered here fits with what we believe happened today,

  and yet we still don't have any concrete evidence to back it up or any reasonable explanations that would have the remotest chance of standing up in a court." Glancing

  over at Bailey and then back at Moira, Chellick spread his hands out to indicate all three of them.

  "Nobody'll ever believe us if we come forward with this."

  Moira gave a thin conceding smile to that, knowing full well it was true before glancing over at the other lieutenant standing beside her. Bailey hadn't spoken a word since

  hearing the mention of Axel's disappearance, and was right now regarding the wall screen with deep piercing eyes, once again rubbing his chin deeply in thought.

  "What do you think Bailey? You haven't added your two cents to this yet?" she asked up to him with a curious cock of her head. Moira's voice seemed to snap Bailey out

  of his thoughts, making him blink in surprise.

  "Don't get me started on that whole Alternate Universe thing again, God knows my head's spinning enough as it is. But there is something that's been nagging me just

  now," Bailey answered.

  "Oh? Like what?" asked Moira as she and Chellick turned their full attention to him.

  "Axel was made captain so as to lead the Company in the absence of Cormier. But he was only put in command after Jarrod was killed, right?" Bailey asked the other two,

  his eyes still focused on Axel's file. Both Chellick and Moira nodded between each other.

  "Right. Luc, Axel, and Jarrod made up most of the officers that would have been placed in command in the event of Cormier being put down in action. Since Luc and

  Jarrod were both dead, Axel was the only one left to take the job," Moira answered.

  "That's what's throwing me off. Axel was promoted after Jarrod was killed; both of them were still cited as being Lieutenants at that point, which means neither of them

  took command of the Company after Luc and Cormier died. So in the time between Captain Cormier's death and the death of Lieutenant François…" Bailey began,

  gesturing back and forth with one hand to indicate the events in chronological order.

  "Who was leading the Company?"

  A long silence descended between the three of them.

  Bailey looked between his two stunned colleagues, letting his question sink in. Chellick blinked, looking back over to Moira for clarification since he couldn't find an answer.

  Moira was frowning to herself in confusion, she too clearly just as puzzled by this new piece to the mystery of Axel's past.

  "Uhh…wait! It actually mentions that a little further back!" she began hesitantly before suddenly snapping her fingers as the answer came to her, immediately spinning her

  swivel chair around and manipulating her terminal to flip back through the sections of Axel's file. Bailey and Chellick maneuvered themselves around the desk until they

  were standing at her backside again, both of them leaning over her shoulders toward the terminal screen, inching closer until their heads were lined up on either side of

  hers. After several more keystrokes, Moira abruptly stopped on one page not too far away from the file's end.

  "This is it! This was the report filed shortly after Cormier was killed."

  The words on the page were still just as broken or faded as the others had been up to this point, which made Chellick glance over at her.

  "You can still read this right? Cause I'm getting nothing from it," he stated to the screen with a shake of his head.

  Moira looked back at him slyly out of the corner of her eye before giving a dramatic sigh of disappointment.

  "Men. Always never willing to go the extra mile to get the job done," she said in an equally disappointed voice with a small shake of her own head, her words causing a

  surprised expression to turn her way from both Chellick and Bailey.

  "It says that after Cormier was confirmed killed by the Company's doctor, the Commander of Field Operations for the entire province didn't want the captain's original

  orders to be put on hold. To keep the function of the Company running as smoothly as possible, he ordered it to be immediately placed under the command of the next

  highest ranking officer." Bailey cocked an eyebrow after Moira finished reading the almost unintelligible text.

  "So Axel wasn't the highest officer under Cormier. Who then did the Commander put in charge after the captain's death?"

  "An officer by the name of Lieutenant-Commander Sydow was Cormier's official number 2; after his death this Sydow guy was given a field promotion to acting-captain

  of the Company, and from then on it was business as usual," Moira explained with a flick of her hand that scrolled the page down a few inches.

  Chellick cocked his own brow-ridge.

  "Just Lieutenant-Commander? No Mr. or Mrs. with that Sydow?" he commented with an inquisitive look. Moira shrugged.

  "That's all they ever refer
to him as, just Captain Sydow or Sydow. They mention him a handful of times but never give a first name or imply a gender, so we really have

  no idea if this person was even a man in the first place. Any other paragraphs that talk about him in detail have deteriorated beyond even my skill to read," she answered

  while scrolling farther down the page to the rest of the paragraphs that made mention of this anonymous 'Sydow' character.

  Chellick scoffed with an obvious roll of his eyes.

  "Women, always…" he began in a very nasal imitation of Moira's voice, but he was suddenly interrupted by her jabbing him in the ribs.

  "Don't start with me Bird Boy cause' it'll be a bloodbath!" she warned, pointing up at him with a wide grin and a barely contained laugh.

  "Kids, can we get back to the matter at hand. So Sydow was given command of the Company up until Jarrod's death, what happened to him after that that gave Axel the

  opportunity to take his job? Did he get reassigned or was he killed in action," Bailey interrupted their little batch of playful banter.

  "It doesn't say any of that actually, this is where the story gets kind of confusing. After Jarrod's death Captain Sydow is said to have travelled back to the provincial capital

  with the rest of the Company, but then after that he's listed as having accompanied Axel on the same flight back to Canada where Sorensen was to give his eyewitness

  report. It doesn't explain why though, whether he was journeying there to speak in Axel's defense or to attend to some other matter," answered Moira, snapping back

  into her professional persona.

  "Its more then likely he was ordered back to give his own account of what happened so the Board could see if his and Axel's stories matched up," Chellick remarked.

  "But then why send Axel at all? If Sydow was still the highest-ranking officer in charge, shouldn't he have been the one to get selected in the first place since he would

  have been responsible for the well-being of the men and women under his command?" Bailey posed over to him.

  "Like I said it doesn't say why he went back, it just ends on a rather abrupt note. Once their plane landed in Ottawa, Sydow and Sorenson went their separate ways. As I