Hassan and Jorg

Part Three:

Capture



1

Hassan had a long wait under the bright intense lights. He guessed that the clear section of the curved ceiling contained surveillance cameras and had spent what seemed to him a long time viewing the section from different angles in the hope of seeing something; anything, to relieve the monotony of the bright whiteness of what he assumed was some kind of Ship based holding cell, and he was almost glad when a section of one of the slightly curved walls opened to reveal five heavily armed EarthForce troopers, SpaceVizors shielding their faces, standing in a less brightly lit corridor.

He rushed toward them, but they were prepared and he found himself thrown to the floor with three blast rifles pointed at him. Two of the troopers dragged him along the corridor to another bright, clinical, room and pushed him down onto a padded bench where his legs, arms and neck were tightly restrained by metallic bands.

"We have some questions for you," a voice beside him said.

Hassan could see only the ceiling, such were the restraints, although he found he could move his head slightly and to the left. He saw one EarthForce officer and two other men dressed in some sort of white uniform he had never seen before, and there was something about their faces, their manner, that Hassan did not like. It was if they were devoid of human feeling.

"I have nothing to say," Hassan replied.

"We know all about you, Hassan Zahr," the EarthForce officer said.

"Only Allah knows all about me, " Hassan said, and smiled.

"You can make this easy for yourself, or you can make this difficult."

" I have nothing to say."

"We shall see. Your first lesson, for understand that you are now powerless."

The two men in white uniforms came toward him, holding instruments in their hands, and whatever Hassan expected, it was not what happened. Roughly, but methodically, they shaved off his beard, in defiance of Hassan's way of life, which commanded that adult males should not shave the hair from their faces.  The action by his interrogators - for that is what Hassan assumed they were - was a calculated insult both to himself, and the beliefs of his people.

"Anything to say, now?" The EarthForce officer asked him.

"Paradise is surrounded by hardships and the Hell-Fire is surrounded by temptations."

"I see." The Officer gestured to the interrogators who cut away Hassan's clothing, leaving him completely naked.

It was another calculated insult, and Hassan was thinking of a reply when he felt something being attached to his hands and feet.

"As I said, Hassan Zahr, you can make this easy for yourself, or difficult. The choice is yours. I require the activation codes of your vessel. I require details of the strength of your forces on Lam. I require names of the terrorists you know. One way or another, you will tell me."

"You are a very brave man, aren't you?"

The pain was like nothing Hassan had ever experienced before.

"This is only the beginning," the EarthForce Officer said, his pale face betraying no emotion.

"What your heart desires and your eyes delight in will be there in that Garden of Paradise you can inherit through your deeds in your life in this world."

"I see. Very well then, Hassan Zahr."

Hassan did not know how long the pain, and the questions lasted, but he found himself drifting toward sleep, or what he assumed was sleep, although it was in fact unconsciousness brought about by the trauma of his interrogation. They left him then, for a while, only to return and repeat their questions, and when he did not answer, or say anything, they injected him with drugs of various kinds.

Hassan did not know whether he said anything under their influence, and if he did, what he said, when he awoke to find himself back in his cell. He was still naked, and every time he tried to stand, he fell over. He was lying on the floor, thinking of what he might do when he felt the room judder. For an instant he did not know what it was, then he believed he did, for he heard, even in his cell, the alarms that meant Battle Stations. A smile of pleasure briefly overcame the pain he felt.



2


The once beautiful courtyard of his dwelling on Lam had been reduced to rubble, and Malik Khattab, surrounded by seven heavily-armed soldiers, was on his knees, moving stones and bricks. The bombardment from the EarthForce ships and fighters had been intense, and he, together with the soldiers, had spent several minutes, Lamian time, searching the rubble for Malik's daughter, Ruqayyah. They did not find her.

"Please, Sheikh, we must leave now," one of the soldiers said, and reluctantly Malik agreed.

The scene outside was one of devastation and carnage. Rubble, and bodies - of women, soldiers, and children - lay everywhere, and only one building was untouched. The Founders Monument, with its gold dome and skyward reaching minarets, had become a temporary shelter for the few people who remained in the city, and Malik was threading his way slowly toward it, over rubble, when a young soldier ran toward him.

"Assalamu Alaikum. The ships are ready to leave now," the bearded young man said.

"Alaikum Salaam," Malik replied. "Then, InshaAllah, it is time to go."

The Lam SpacePort had been among the first targets of the EarthForce bombing, and what remained of the Lam ships, nine in all, were gathered on the desert sands outside of the city. The people surrounding them were surprisingly calm, considering that the majority of them would have to be left behind. Women and children said farewell to their husbands and fathers; mothers said farewell to their sons, and steadily, but slowly, a long procession of armed men and boys - Mujahideen - thousand upon thousand, headed off into the intense brightness and heat of the desert, some walking beside Camels, others herding goats.

Malik had intended to say some words to the large crowd who had gathered near the ships, but when he reached them, and walked through them, they made it clear by their smiles, their demeanour, that words were unnecessary. Men, old and young, greeted him with Salaams and shook his hand, and it seemed a long time to him before he reached the sand footsteps of the Mujahideen, but it was only a few Lamian minutes, and he and those with him followed these footsteps to a pass that rose steadily toward the nearby mountains.

He stood for a while on a slight rocky ridge overlooking the city. Behind him, the city was in ruins, the smoke from the many fires carried quickly away by the desert wind. In front of him lay the empty expanse of desert that covered most of the planet. Sand, sand dunes, rocky outcrops and, in places, vast ranges of both high and low mountains, barren of all life. It reminded Malik, and many others who had been there, of Earth's Western Desert between the Qatar Depression and the Great Sand Sea except that the mountains of Lam were, in many places, larger and higher.

He waited to watch the ships depart and for the people who remained to leave. Some - more than half - headed into the desert, following various tracks and paths, while the others walked back into the city. He did not know how long it would be before the soldiers of EarthForce arrived to occupy what remained of the city but he did not really care. Sooner, or later, he knew, InshaAllah, that it would make little difference. The battle for Lam - for the way of life of his people - would continue, as he and others had planned it would. In some ways, he thought, it would be good to be out in the desert, living as he knew his own ancestors on Earth had lived, two or more centuries ago; in other ways, he expected it would be hard, with water far scarcer than it was in the deserts of Earth.

Hours of wearying walking later, as the sun was descending, he arrived at the first of the temporary desert camps where a rocky almost half circular quite high escarpment, many miles long, stood as if guarding the hundreds of miles of sand dunes that lay beyond. He spent one Lamian hour wandering among his men, nearly a thousand strong in this one camp alone, greeting them, making sure everything was in order, and, when the time for prayer arrived, announced as it was according to tradition, he - like the others, facing the Land of the Two Holy Places on Earth - stood, and knelt, with them, shoulder to shoulder while some of the Mujahideen, around the camp's perimeter and on the escarpment, guarded them, watching for enemies.

His home that night was a makeshift tent, shared with three other Mujahideen, dressed in suitable desert attire, and it might have been a scene from Earth's desert history except for the small, but sophisticated, communications console that stood on a table in one corner. From this he received coded reports which informed him of the safe departure and landing of the nine ships, and of the arrival of EarthForce troops.

Briefly, he watched a broadcast from PlanetEarth News:

Although the whereabouts of the terrorist leader Malik Khattab - wanted for Crimes Against Humanity - are unknown at this time, a representative of EarthGov, General Marcus, speaking exclusively to PlanetEarth News, said it was only a matter of time before he was caught and brought to justice.

"He shall find no hiding place. We shall hunt him down and are offering a reward of twenty million Kursums for information that will lead to his capture."

At a recent news conference, the Chief of the Department of Earth Security said that EarthForce troops had apprehended an important terrorist leader. Hassan Zahr, a resident of Lam, was currently being interrogated at an undisclosed location. Zahr is implicated in the recent massacre of over one hundred and fifty people in the Egyptian Protectorate.

Breaking News! Troops from the elite EarthForce have landed and taken control of Lam. A Provisional government, headed by Musa Raja, is due to be announced soon. In a new development, the President of EarthGov said he expected EarthForce troops to seize control of the Eridani system as the outlaws there had been providing support and assistance for the terrorists on Lam.

Overhead, Malik could hear the sound of several EarthForce ships.



3

 
Jorg, Deneb and Nils had soon left the Eridani system, stealthily following Loz and Lacus, and they were not surprised when their onboard ship sensors detected several EarthForce vessels on the course Loz and Lacus had taken.

"Your plan?" Deneb asked Jorg in a coded transmission.

"How many Earth ships do you register?"

"Five."

"Good enough odds to me! But you know what our priority is."

"Yes!" Deneb replied. It was almost a shout, and her face showed that determination, that lust for fighting, that scared many people, but interested others.

"Seems they've detected us," Nils interrupted, as the ships of Loz and Lacus suddenly increased their velocity.

They almost made it. The EarthForce ships were almost within weapons range when Deneb struck. Accelerating, she positioned herself between Loz and Lacus and the EarthForce ships, directly in their line of fire. Loz fired first; then Lacus, but they missed, and by the time Deneb began her own attack run - straight toward them - she was already in weapons range of the EarthForce ships.

But Nils and Jorg reacted at the same time, swerving away toward the EarthForce ships and firing at them as soon as they were within weapons range. It worked, for the five EarthForce ships broke away to engage them leaving Deneb to skillfully turn several times, avoiding the fire of Loz and Lacus, and fire all her weapons. One after the other, the ships of Loz and Lacus exploded, and she was soon weaving in and out of the EarthForce vessels, firing at any target she could.

One EarthForce ship was hit, and disabled, while the others regrouped, and Jorg was preparing for another attack run when Nils interrupted.

"Four more Earth ships approaching. Estimated arrival time, five Earth minutes."

"Best make ourselves scare, then" Jorg suggested.

"Shame, " Deneb replied. "I was just beginning to enjoy myself."

"I guess a return to Eridani is out of the question," Nils asked.

"Certainly," Jorg replied. "EarthForce will be there soon, I guess."

"The colony on Seti Prime?"

"Sounds good to me," Nils said. Seti Prime was another Space Pirate haunt, right on the fringes of explored Space.

"You go. I'll meet you there. I have something to do on Lam."

"I'll go with you," Deneb said.

He could see her, on his screen, smiling. "Thanks. But this is something I've got to do by myself. EarthForce are probably there already."

"May Fortune favour you," Deneb said.

As soon as Jorg arrived in the vicinity of Lam he detected a whole multitude of Earth ships, mostly swarming near the planet, but with many in orbit. Using his superior velocity, and his skills as a pilot, he weaved through and past them, and he was already decelerating for a landing at a precise location in the city before they reacted with several EarthForce fighters chasing him.

He had not expected such devastation and it took him a few moments after landing, and in the dimming light as the Lamian star set, before he knew which direction to go. Nearby, he could hear the sound of dull explosions, and twice he thought he heard someone shout. Blast rifle ready, he cautiously entered what had once been Malik Khattab's dwelling. Finding nothing, he was about to leave when he almost tripped over the hand, protruding from some rubble. He found her, then, the young woman whose face, whose smile, had pleased him, only a short time ago. But she was dead, her body crushed, and for the first time in his life Jorg felt hate - hate for the dishonourable cowards who had done such a dishonourable deed.

Then he was angry. So angry he began to shake. The noise saved him, and he leapt up and spun round to see several EarthForce troopers nearby. Even had his anger not roused him he would have killed them, but he would not have run toward them as he did, screaming an incoherent, almost animal, cry. One of them did manage to fire a weapon, but it missed. Jorg did not.

His landed vessel had been detected, for five EarthForce fighter ships swooped down toward it, strafing the ground with their cannons. Jorg was soon airborne, and, even more reckless than usual, let them chase him into the desert where he weaved between hills and mountains and flew perilously close to the sands before rising vertically at incredible velocity to reach the darkness of Space. They followed, but he turned back and straight toward them until, one after the other, they exploded or fell, fatally hit, back to the planet.



4


It did not take Jorg long to find Nils and Deneb on Seti Prime. Disembarking on a concourse similar to but smaller than that on Eridani, he saw what seemed to be a fracas ahead. Before his arrival, a small crowd, some twenty strong, had gathered as news of the deaths of Loz and Lacus spread, and the crowd had reached the entrance to an establishment in where loud music played, people laughed, and Deneb and Nils sat, eating. Deneb, as usual, was in no mood for making speeches, or explaining herself, and she stood to defiantly face the crowd who instinctively backed away.

She had assumed the worst for, as Jorg cautiously approached, blast rifle unslung from his shoulder, he heard one of the crowd - a tall man with a shaven head, tattooed arms and neck - ask Deneb, "Is truth that Earth has taken Eridani?"

Jorg could see that Deneb's hands were still near her blast pistols. "Flyer Jorg should know," she said, and the crowd turned toward him.

"Well," he said, "on my way here my sensors picked up EarthForce ships orbiting Eridani 3. So I guess so."

"Are we next?" someone else asked.

"Could be. But not for a while, at least. Seems to me they'd need more ships, from Earth."

An elderly man with white hair stepped forward and introduced himself. He wore the one piece drably-coloured working clothing that Jorg associated with new settlers. "I'm Yukio Aida, and I speak for the settlers, here. Is there anything we can do?"

"It depends," Jorg, said, "on whether you want EarthGov to take control of this planet and the other colonies nearby."

"We came here to get away from them!" someone shouted.

"Too true!" another replied.

"As I see it, " Jorg said, surprised that he seemed to have become some kind of respected authority figure, "you all have three choices. Stay here, and accept the authority of EarthGov."

"We all know what that means!" someone shouted.

"Yeah, taxes, restrictions, deportations, military rule," another voice answered.

"Or," continued Jorg, "you can leave and try find somewhere else."

"There is nowhere else - not within thirty light years," Yukio said.

"And we all know what happened to the ships that went there. They never returned," a female voice said to a chorus of whisperings and murmurs.

"Or," Jorg said, "you can fight."

"With what?" Yukio said. "Most of the people here are settlers."

"We could help," the tattooed man said.  He stepped forward and introduced himself to Jorg by the Earth custom of shaking hands. "Chiwetel."

"Yeah, I've heard of you. Aren't you the one who held that Earth passenger transport for ransom a while back?"

"That's I! I - we, " and he pointed to a group of rough looking men, "am getting bored. Action do us no harm! If the price be right."

"That's up to the settlers."

"What else can these people do but fight?" Yukio said, and shrugged his shoulders. "All these settlers have is here. You would help?" he asked Jorg.

"Yes, we will!" Deneb interrupted.

"Are you all agreed then," Jorg asked the crowd, "that fighting is the only option?"

"What chance do we have?" Yukio asked.

"Yeah, look what happened when you attacked EarthForce from Eridani," someone said.

"That was an all-out battle; this time, it will be on our terms. Ambush. Guerilla tactics. Cut their supply lines. Mine the approaches to Seti. That sort of thing. And," he added with a glance at Chiwetel, "we might even make a few raids of our own and hold some ships for ransom."

Chiwetel smiled. A smile that seemed to extend to the whole of his face.

"Seems to me, " the hitherto silent Nils said, "this is where we draw the line. Where we make a stand against EarthGov."


Jorg spent the rest of the daylight hours on Seti - whose clear turquoise sky, bluish sun, purple oceans, verdant plains and valleys, had attracted thousands of off-world settlers - on the concourse, with Deneb and Nils, talking to and meeting with settlers and anyone else who wanted to get involved in the defence of Seti Prime. Yukio surprised him, for, despite his apparent settler status, his advancing years and small stature - at least when compared to Jorg, Chiwetel, Nils and the other Space Pirates - he set about organizing things for Jorg with great energy, repeating going off to find someone to do one task, or ask their opinion, or procure some piece of equipment or weaponry, as well as talk with a large number of people and make suggestions. He even managed to get the majority of the settlers and the Pirates to agree on what should be done, and who should do it, all - as Yukio himself suggested - under the guidance and leadership of Jorg. And it was Yukio who went around telling everyone of Jorg's latest exploit on Lam, news of which had reached Seti shortly after Jorg's arrival. Jorg did not know whether he should be pleased that EarthGov had just offered a million Kursums reward for his capture, although he did notice - as news of the reward spread on Seti - that Deneb and Nils had acquired more weapons and sat beside him, one on either side, at the communications console that Yukio had somehow managed to procure. He was later to learn that Yukio had, in his early years and on one of the colonies on Mars, run quite a profitable business smuggling banned goods to Earth, and that he had been detained on one of the notorious death-camps - or "re-education centres" as EarthGov called them - on the dark side of the Moon from which he had escaped to begin a new life.

With arrival of night, and more Space Pirates who had been lurking in Space awaiting developments - the places of recreation that bordered the Spaceport concourse became centres of lively, often noisy, activity, and at last Jorg found time to eat. He also found that he had acquired three more bodyguards all of whom, along with blast pistols and rifles, carried on their backs a large, curved sword, and all of whom wore white headbands inscribed with writing that, he was also later to learn, was that of Yukio's ancestral homeland on Earth.

"And Hassan?" Deneb asked, after they had all finished eating. All, that is, except Jorg's three new bodyguards who stood, resolute, near Jorg while he, Deneb, Nils and Yukio sat on a plinth beside a table in one of the less noisy places.

"We don't even know where he is," Jorg said.

"I may be able to help, there," Yukio interrupted, and stood up. "Give me a while."

"Why am I not surprised," Jorg said, after Yukio had left to consult with some of the settlers who had arrived with him from Proxima.




5


The ship that held Hassan had been damaged in the attack which Jorg, Nils and Deneb had made during their pursuit of Loz and Lacus, and he was transferred, naked and wearing a restraining collar that could send a debilitating electric shock through his body, to another EarthForce vessel. There, it was not long before his interrogation resumed. He was restrained on a metallic table in complete darkness with some sort of device attached to his head. He did not know what this device did, or was supposed to do, but he knew he kept feeling nauseous and that unbidden images kept appearing before him, although he did not know whether the images he saw were real, imagined, or produced by the device.

The images seemed, at first, to make no sense to him. Many were obscene, as many were designed to ridicule his own way of life and that of his people. Others were of beautiful or strange places he had never seen. Others were of his own people, and the city of Lam. Still others were of scenes from Earth, redolent of the culture that EarthGov had adopted and promoted. Then, when the pain started, coinciding with some of the images, he felt he knew what his interrogators were trying to do.

The session lasted a long and painful time, and when it ended he was left, on the table, without clothes, food or drink, for even longer. Then, the images, the pain, the nausea, began again. No one spoke to him, and this pattern of images, pain, nausea and respite continued for what, to Jorg, seemed an interminable time until he finally succumbed to sleep. But this peaceful rest was short, for as soon as he slept, pain and a brief, very intense, blinding, light, awoke him.

Whether he lay there for hours, or days, he did not know, but by the time the door opened, and he was released from his restraints, Hassan was unable to stand, and even the faint light in the corridor beyond hurt his eyes.

"Here, " a voice beside him said, "please put this on."

A strong hand helped Hassan to stand and place the cloak around his body, and he was led out into the corridor, supported by two people dressed completely in black.

"Are you able to walk?"  The voice belonged to a man he recognized.

"Yes, just about, thank you."

"We must go before we are detected." The speaker was the EarthForce Officer who was Captain of the ship Hassan and Jorg had seized, Captain Henry Teal. "We have a vessel waiting which will take you to a rendezvous point where you will be met."

Hassan was led to the small airlock near which Captain Teal took shook his hand. "Please, accept my personal apologies for your treatment. I have a feeling that we might meet again. Take this. It might help your people," and he handed Hassan a small data-crystal.

Was he hallucinating? Was this all a dream? Some kind of ploy? It was a somewhat bewildered Hassan who boarded the unmarked EarthForce stealth Fighter, and an even more bewildered Hassan who sat in a small cargo bay of an old trading freighter after a short but fast journey in the Fighter. The person opposite him - a wiry man in a drably-coloured one-piece outfit whose face was badly scarred from a blast pistol - offered him clothes, food and water, all of which he accepted with silent duas in thanks.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Seti Prime," the man said. He was the pilot of, and only other person on-board, the trading freighter.

"May I ask why?"

"The Resistance has established a new base there."

"Resistance?"

"To EarthGov."

"Then that EarthForce Officer - "

"Is helping us, yes. There are some, you know, who do not, how shall I say, agree with EarthGov policies. A few, a very few."
 
Exhausted, Hassan soon fell asleep. It was a refreshing sleep, and he slept all the way to his destination. After the events of the past few days Hassan found the reception that awaited him on Seti Prime quite overwhelming. A crowd, almost a thousand strong, thronged around him, many firing weapons into the air, many cheering, and almost all wanting to shake his hand or embrace him.

"Well," Jorg said when Hassan finally managed to get through the crowd to where he, Deneb, Nils and Yukio waited, "seems you've become something of a hero."

Hassan did not understand why. These were not even his own people, and they most certainly did not share his Way of Life. Besides which, he knew he had not done very much. "I didn't expect this," was all he could say, and he shook hands with Jorg, Nils and Yukio. Deneb stood facing him with her hands on her hips, her head slightly on one side, smiling, and, uncertain what he should do - or what she might do - he was glad when Jorg said, "You know EarthForce has occupied Lam?"

"No. No, I didn't. I must return there."

"That might not be a good idea," Jorg said. "Not at the moment."

"You should rest here, a while," Yukio said to Hassan.

"I don't understand all this," Hassan said, gesturing toward the still lingering crowd.

"Every resistance needs a leader, and heroes, people their enemy love to hate," Yukio said, with a smile, looking first at Jorg and then at Hassan. "With such a leader, such heroes, the resistance can get properly organized."

"You mean, it's not?" Hassan said, surprised.

"No, not yet. There are not many, so far."

"But I take it, then that you are - "

"Involved? Only in a small, a very small way. Now, you should rest."

But Hassan did not feel like resting. He wanted to do something, anything. Something to aid his people, something which would enable him to strike back at EarthForce and EarthGov; and as he looked around at his new warrior friends - Jorg, Deneb, Nils - at the people who still crowded round, at Yukio, and as he remembered the actions of Captain Teal, he began to realize that more, far more, was involved here than just the occupation, by EarthGov, of Lam.



Return to Lam



1