Resistance: Hathe Book One (10 page)

She
didn’t bother to turn her head in answer.

He
waited until he saw it was useless, and stood up. “I have to leave
you for now, but I strongly urge you to reconsider. And don’t think
that means I’ll let you sleep. After two days without any, the
field cloaking this apartment is probably no longer strong enough
to stop you falling off, but this headband will keep you awake.” He
strapped a metal band around her forehead, the purpose of which was
only too soon revealed when she nodded off. A sharp pain jabbed her
head, yanking her painfully awake. Desperately, she stayed silent,
fighting back the tears she must hold in.
Remember what is at
stake. Remember the lives you hold safe. Don’t give
in.

Hamon
watched her, but there was no breach in the wall of her resistance.
Give in, please give in, he pleaded wordlessly. She only stared
back at him, defiance still strong in every tautly held muscle of
her beautiful body. He kept his own face rigid. She must break
soon.

He
left then. He had work to do, a duty to fulfill. The lives of
millions of his people depended on him. He marched into the lab,
hoping against hope that something had been made of the strange
patches. Marthe asn Castre had stamina, but she was no Amazon.
Without results, how long before Johne ordered him to pass her over
to his own, delightful soldiery and their barbaric
methods?

No,
never that.

And
you are so civilized?
jeered an inner voice.

Sanity
demanded he ignore the taunt. Perhaps the lab could give him the
breakthrough he needed. Something had to, soon. He passed through
to the room housing the technical staff, only to be greeted with a
disappointing negative from the chief communications technician,
Ferdo Braddock.

“
Sorry, Hamon, this stuff has us beat. We don’t even know the
substance it’s made of but can only postulate it to be synthetic.
Nor can we open it up. It’s resistant to everything we’ve
tried.”

“
What about signal activity?”

“
Not
that we can detect. We’ve been through the whole range of known
particle and energy types and can find no trace of a transmission.
Either it’s as harmless as the girl says or, more likely, it’s
something beyond our technology. This planet was rather advanced at
one time, believe it or not.”

“
I
know. I was here then.” Hamon’s fist crashed onto the bench,
setting the monitors jumping and Ferdo staring.

“
Hold on there. I mean, you wouldn’t think so to look at them
now.”

“
Sorry,” said Hamon. “Things are piling up a bit at the
moment. They must be getting to me. Are we off record?”

“
Just a minute.” Ferdo sealed the doors, checking the screen
as he did so. “Now, what’s up. You look like you’ve been asked to
execute your own mother.”

“
I
feel rather like that,” admitted Hamon ruefully, throwing himself
into a disgruntled heap on a nearby seat and staring at his feet
for a long moment before lifting his head to meet his friend’s
troubled gaze. “Do you never wonder why we’re here?” he asked.
“Before we came, this place was one of the most advanced Alliance
planets, and now look at what’s left of its people—a backward,
peasant race—all so we can get unlimited quantities of one mineral,
and that we can’t even do without the technology this peasant
planet once owned, four short years ago.”

He
looked down, seeing the staccato of restless tapping his fingers
insisted on beating out, and clamped down hard to stop
it.

“
Where is that technology now?” Hamon demanded, glaring at his
friend. “Vanished, in one stupid month. Stars! That simple first
battle against the Hathians cost us this war. A trivial holding
action, we thought. They didn’t have the ships to take on even one
of our starcruisers, let alone a whole fleet, but guess what? They
did manage to stop us long enough to let their elite escape—the
ones who had the knowledge we needed—and that won them the war.
Well, I say good on them. What right have we here anyway? We’re
barbaric!”

Hamon
saw Ferdo’s eyes rest on his drumming fingers. “Your problem,” his
friend said, “is that you think too much. You know as well as I
what will happen if we don’t get the quantities of urgonium we
need, and damn soon at that. Have you seen the latest reports from
Earth? Food production is down so badly that we soon won’t have a
people to go home to. In fact, I guess you
would
be killing
your own mother if you don’t become a barbarian, as you so nicely
put it.”

“
What a logician you are.”

Ferdo
chuckled. “It helps in this place. You should try it.”

Hamon
smiled wryly. Then stopped. “You’re not in my position,” he said.
“We’ve captured a Lieger. The daughter of one of their Councilors,
no less. I have the honor,” his teeth gritted on the last word, “to
be her interrogator.”

The
technician whistled in appreciation. “A Lieger. By all the stars
above! Why the glum face? According to report, they were a
remarkably cruel bunch.”

“
This particular one has brown eyes you could lose yourself in
forever, hair just asking to be touched and the most beautiful face
you are likely to see on a woman anywhere. Worse still, she’s as
brave, staunch and fine as could be, damn her.”

The
technical officer stared, an amused grin lighting up his features
as understanding came to him. “So the impregnable Major has finally
been caught in one of his own webs.”

“
Caught?” Hamon grunted. “I’ve been half in love with the
woman since I first saw her more than five years ago, on the night
of her Presentation—the Hathian coming of age ceremony,” he added
by way of explanation. “They had to give a speech, she and her twin
brother, and you should have heard her. So bright and full of the
future.”

“
She
must’ve been surprised to meet you again in such changed
circumstances.”

Hamon
shook his head. “She didn’t know me. I never got a chance to meet
her that first time. I couldn’t get near her, thanks to that
brother of hers. One night, he actually had me thrown out. Would
you believe it? I was there on official business, the son of
Earth’s representative to the Alliance; but it was as little use to
me then as it has ever been,” he finished with a
grimace.

“
What’s the problem then? The brother isn’t around now. You
have her all to yourself.”

“
She
just might be the key to the whole mystery of this planet. So she
must be questioned, by me at least rather than that band of thugs
Johne employs. But I must still deny her sleep and food, and think
up every ruse imaginable to make her talk, before it’s too late and
Johne forces me to hand her over anyway.” Hamon looked down,
watching his fingers pluck at his trousers. His face felt like a
smudge of cold clay and his voice dropped to a whisper, barely able
to admit his thoughts. “It’s not pleasant to watch a woman fade,
day by day. Oh, at first I was angry enough to think revenge would
be sweet. But it’s not. Stars, it’s not. What in hell am I going to
do?”

He
slumped forward, burying his face in his fingers. Ferdo sat silent.
There was nothing he could say that would help, and both of them
knew it. They had been on Hathe long enough to know that the only
choice on offer here was the degree of cruelty Hamon must
employ.

It was
Ferdo who broke the silence. “You want me to say it? You have to
give her a session. Or let her escape, thereby signing your
family’s death warrant, along with every other
Terran’s.”

Hamon’s mouth opened in denial, but Ferdo jumped in before he
could speak.

“
If
you don’t give her one, Johne’s gang will, or worse, and she may
die at the end of it. Even if she lives, she would probably rather
be dead. Their little refinements aren’t too nice. I watched them
in action once on some rebels on Earth.” A harsh light entered his
eyes as memory yanked him painfully back. Then Hamon saw him
realize what he’d said. “Don’t worry about her,” Ferdo promised
gently. “I’ll take personal control, and I guarantee it will only
be an illusion. But keep trying your methods for another day or
two, if you like. Who knows, you may break her.”

“
Have you ever had a session? I did once, in my not so
illustrious youth, and it’s the most damnable experience.” A
shudder rippled through Hamon at the memory of it, even now, after
so many years. “To have to subject another person to it, especially
one for whom I have a fondness…”

Ferdo
snorted in derision, but refrained from further questioning. Just
as well. He had told Ferdo more in these last minutes than he’d
told anyone before. His private life was usually that—strictly
private. It saved a great deal of trouble. For now, he was grateful
that Ferdo was considerate enough to change the subject, asking
instead why Hamon had been on Hathe before the takeover. He was
certainly the only Terran among the occupying troops to have done
so.

“
I
just happened to end up here once. I liked the place and stayed on
for a couple of months. Father took advantage of my presence and
arranged for me to be seconded to the team negotiating to buy more
urgonium. Mostly to keep him informed fully on what was happening,
I suspect, but at least it gave me entrée to the houses of the
ruling classes, even if only as a type of poor cousin. As far as
our delegates were concerned, I was a very junior member of the
negotiating team, and expected to act accordingly.”

“
Did
you get any more?”

“
Urgonium? No.” He felt his mouth tighten at the memory. “They
just stared and showed us the door. A more patronizing pack I’ve
not met before or since. Yet … their civilization was amazing. I
guess we were rather like the country cousins. They had so much:
pure, clean air, beautiful homes, an abundance of food, and the
time and leisure to indulge in an orgy of the arts. As for the
discussions. They talked and argued constantly, with a gift of
freedom you never find on Earth.
How
they talked!” He smiled
at the memory then it was wiped abruptly away. “I never saw this
part of the planet, though. Would never have guessed that such a
bleak wilderness existed. Maybe they did only let us see their
best. Maybe the peasants are right and their society was as they
claim. Only it’s strange that I saw no sign of it at the
time.”

“
What about the girl? You never got to meet her.”

“
No.
Not for want of trying, but she was always in the middle of a large
group of friends, and I couldn’t get near her. Her brother’s
attitude didn’t help either.” He saw Ferdo’s attempt to hide his
curiosity and relented. “I had beaten him to a certain, delightful
lady in a local shop, and he took strong exception to what he
called my poaching.”

Ferdo
hooted with laughter. “Trust you, Hamon. There’s always one
somewhere.”

Hamon
rightly ignored this. “It was before I saw Marthe. If I had known…
But that’s pointless. Anyway, he made sure I couldn’t get near his
sister.” He grimaced, then remembered images chased it away. “You
should have heard her speak,” he said. “She loved a good argument,
and usually came out the winner. That family was one in which
intelligence was definitely inherited. Her elder sister was already
looking to take up her father’s work. You may have heard of him; he
worked in your own field: Dr Sylvan an Castre?”

Ferdo
sat up suddenly. “An Castre! I’ll say I have. Even on Earth, we
heard rumors of his studies. You don’t mean to tell me this girl is
his daughter? What a catch!”

“
That is exactly what I’m telling you,” snapped Hamon sourly.
“And if you don’t mind, she’s not a hunting trophy.”

“
Oh,
yes, she is. And if I remember rightly, that twin brother you
tangled with was involved in energy research. We never learnt more
than the barest outline of the work of his group. For some stupid
reason, no one thought it relevant to Earth at the time, but I bet
it was, and that sister would know all about it. Hamon, you have to
break her. Now isn’t the time for you to turn romantic over a
pretty face. You have a duty to your own people first.”

They
were the worst words possible, echoing as they did his own inner
turmoil. “I am fully aware of my duty,” he snarled, rising to
leave, “and am not about to forget it.”

“
Did
I say any such thing?”

Hamon
stopped, his back stiff. Then slowly, his shoulders came down and
he turned back. “My apologies.”

“
Accepted,” said Ferdo quickly. “Bring the girl down tomorrow.
Even if she can last longer, your temper won’t.”

Hamon
grunted, forced to concede the truth of the words and the good will
that prompted them. Ferdo’s next words were less
palatable.

“
If
it doesn’t work, we can give her a repeat session the next day.
Though the threat alone should make her talk. Sorry, but I can’t
think of a kinder way, and at least with us she will still be alive
at the end of it.”

What
could he say to that? Hamon left, feeling little better than when
he had entered. At least he’d given his friend something to think
about. As well as affording him a great deal of amusement, he
thought sourly. It didn’t feel amusing to Hamon. Neither Earth’s
plight nor his own.