Escape From Altera

Escape from Altera

[Note: This is not a "sexy story". It is a mix of WW II "The Great Escape" and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Achipelago"... set in outer space)

Chapter 9: The War Captain Takes Charge

The surprising thing was, they didn't return me to the camp. Not for long, anyway. I was briefly kept in confinement until a time when I was put, under armed escort, in a transport. Then I was driven under guard for several days and was taken to another facility. It wasn't long after that that I found myself in a familiar office, flanked by familiar guards, facing a familiar face.

"So, we meet again," said the beautiful blonde Redcap Major who had brutally tortured me. "What brings you back here, spy?"

I didn't say anything.

She hit me with an electrowhip, and I screamed.

"I asked you a question!"

"I tried to escape."

"Not very successfully, from what I gather," said the Redcap Major. She knelt down to face me. "What was your mission?"

"My mission?" I asked stupidly.

She hit me in the face with the electrowhip, and I screamed again, feeling agony all over my body. It was several minutes before I was able to get beyond the pain to even hear what she was saying.

"What was your objective?" the Major demanded.

"I was just trying to escape," I moaned. "I have no objective. I'm not a spy."

She hit me again with the electrowhip. I think I passed out this time because the next thing I remember is that I was in a cell.

The torture went on for a few days, I think. My memory was hazy, but I remember it was very painful. She asked me about Kantiprev, Bolshoy, and Raffen, and I freely admitted they were spies, but that didn't satisfy her either. Finally, too exhausted to stand, I was propped up in front of her desk.

"I trust we have taught you the perils of attempting to escape," said the Major.

I said nothing.

"I asked you a question!" the Redcap Major said sharply, raising the electrowhip.

"Yes," I said thickly.

"Yes what?"

"Yes Major," I said.

She nodded, looking satisfied. "Take him."

The next solid memory I have is returning to Labor Camp 94. Several days must have passed as I was transported back, but I don't remember those either. The first thing I do remember is standing before Major Colonel Tromov's desk in a daze.

"Do you realize what you have done?" he asked. "Do you?"

"Escaped?" I said.

He slapped me in the face.

"Take him to a cold cell," he said.

"Duration?" a guard asked.

Tromov looked me in the face as he said it. "Standard."

Standard.

That was one week.

Most prisoners froze to death or died of pneumonia in a week. It was probably a death sentence, and he knew it.

They took me to the punishment cells and stripped off all my clothes except my underwear. Then they dumped me in the cold cell. My tortured mind dimly felt the chill. My teeth started chattering immediately.

I think I started to freeze almost immediately. In my weakened condition, my resistance to the cold was even less than it had been the last time, when I had only been sent to the cold cell for two days. I was so weak that I didn't even have the energy to eat.

And then, the cell door opened, and something was tossed into my cell. My flight jacket and my trousers. Dimly, I put them on.

They weren't enough to keep out the cold, but they did keep me alive. I had to be careful of my feet, for they were still bare, but as long as I sat crosslegged I could get some circulation. Gradually, my mind started to return to me, and I found the strength to eat the meager rations they left me.

I survived the entire week, but when I got out, I could barely stand or even put on my boots. For some reason I was taken immediately to the camp hospital, where I spent the next week. In the relative warmth of the hospital and on full rations, I slowly started to recover.

As I recovered I wondered what was happening. How did I get clothes in the cold cell? How had I gotten a week in the hospital?

By the time I was released I had recovered somewhat and had figured out part of it. I went immediately to Kerensky. He didn't even look at me, paying attention to a datapad. He was always reading one of his many books.

"You're back," he said.

"I'm back," I agreed. "May I ask two questions?"

Kerensky didn't answer.

"How?"

"It took bribing," said Kerensky. "A lot of bribing."

"And my second question: Why?"

Kerensky put down the datapad. "Because although you made a mistake, you still have potential."

"Potential? Potential for what?"

Kerensky lowered his voice. "Potential for escape."

"What do you mean?"

"We are going to get out of here," said Kerensky.

"We? Who are we? I thought you said escape was impossible," I said.

"Not with the right people. We almost made it, last time."

"Who is we?" I asked.

"Sasha, myself, one or two others... and the other Richman."

"The other Richman?" I asked. My mind raced.

"He is taken from camp to camp, he is only here for short periods of time. He has been here for over a week. I have persuaded him to delay our escape attempt until you were well. When I told him about you, he agreed."

"What other Richman?" I said. "Someone else, someone from the League?"

"Yes," said Kerensky.

"A soldier, like me?"

"Yes," said Kerensky. "He is brilliant, but he is one of their trophy prisoners, under constant guard and interrogation."

"Why didn't you tell me about this other Richman, ah, League soldier?"

"He is not often here," said Kerensky.

"Wait," I said, getting a bad feeling. "You say he's one of their trophy prisoners. And he's brilliant. What is his name?"

"His name?" said Kerensky.

"Yes, his name," I said.

"North," said Kerensky promptly

"North? Norman North?" I said.

"North," said Kerensky, looking slightly puzzled.

They had captured the Battle Admiral! How could that be possible? They had him here, and I never even knew it! Maybe they had been telling the truth about destroying the fleet. Maybe-

I had to see him.

"Where is he?" I said.

"Barracks Four," said Kerensky. Then, frowning, "Or was it three?"

I fast marched to the barracks in question.

I raced to Barracks Four. I'd search all of them if I had to. I was going so fast that I didn't stop and think why the Battle Admiral would be put in a labor camp. All I knew was that I had to see him.

I ran into Barracks Four. It was dark and crowded. I started moving down the rows of wooden planks that served as beds.

"North," I kept saying. "Admiral North."

I went from one row to the next. The prisoners looked at me like I was a madman. I kept repeating the name, over and over, as I walked rapidly, scanning the faces in the dim light.

I was moving so rapidly that I almost missed it. A back of the head, with that familiar dark black hair. And on the edge of the shoulders in the dim light I could barely make out military epaulettes on his jacket!

"Battle Admiral," I said.

The figure, which was lying faced away from me, didn't move.

"Battle Admiral North," I repeated.

The figure stirred, as if coming out of a light sleep. In the darkness I saw eyes staring at me.

"Who...?"

"It's me, sir, Lieutenant Took."

The man sat up in the bed, and his face came into the light.

"Who?"

The man wasn't Battle Admiral Norman North.

I was so excited that I didn't feel the immediate shock of my disappointment. Now that I could see him better, I could see that this was a military man, a League military man. But his uniform wasn't navy blue; it was army light green.

I looked at his faded rank insignia. A captain. No, a War Captain. War ranking wasn't given out easily, even at the Captain level. Just who was this man?

The man's eyes studied my face rapidly, taking in my expression, and then he looked down at my tattered navy uniform. Instead of saying something obvious like "You're military" he simply asked, "What unit were you attached to?"

I hesitated, a dozen thoughts coming to my mind.

He seemed to anticipate, quickly looking left and right. "Come on," he said.

He took me outside behind the barracks. It was cold there, but at least we would have some privacy.

"You're wondering if I'm a spy," said the War Captain. "Put here to get information from you. That means you must be of special interest to them."

How had he arrived at that conclusion? But he was right.

The War Captain nodded, even though I hadn't said anything.

"Navy officer," said the War Captain, glancing at my flight jacket. He studied my bearing. "No, not quite. Navy fighter pilot."

"How...."

"You were probably shot down," said the War Captain. "But why are you here in a labor camp?" He paused. "You were captured in civilian clothes?"

I nodded.

"You mentioned Admiral North. You probably thought I was him," said the War Captain. He stared me in the eye. "You don't just know of him, you personally served under him. Am I right?"

I was speechless. How did this officer know so much about me?

The answer was quickly forthcoming.

"Allow me to introduce myself," said the man, coming to a decision. He stuck out his hand. "War Captain Emmett North."

"Emmett North?" I asked, extending my own hand automatically.

"Admiral Norman North is my uncle."

When I managed to close my mouth I suddenly realized the truth of it. This man had the same skill that Admiral North did, to size up a situation instantly. He even had a slight resemblance to the Battle Admiral, the same straight black hair, the same high cheekbones....

We exchanged stories. The War Captain had been captured relatively early in the war. He was part of an expeditionary brigade on Caronol when the brigade's support fleet was ambushed and had to pull out under heavy fire. Caronol was subsequently invaded and the brigade was assaulted by overwhelming numbers. Most of the survivors surrendered within the first week; but the War Captain's company had lasted nearly a month, and was only captured when the Slurians saturated the area with troops.

When the Slurians discovered who they had, they offered to trade him for several Slurian Admirals. But the League wouldn't agree. They threatened to treat the War Captain as a spy, with the implication that he would be shot, if the League didn't agree to the trade. But the League still didn't give in.

They didn't carry through on their threat and execute the War Captain, but they did put him in the labor camp, and they let the League know it.

"So how long have you been here?" I asked in a low voice.

"Nearly three years," said the War Captain.

"How have you survived so long?" I asked.

"It hasn't been that bad," said the War Captain. "Half the time they take me away for interrogation. The food and living conditions in the interrogation cells are usually better than what we get here."

How could he be so calm about it? My interrogations were terrible. Surely they must have tortured him too.

"All the information I have is, of course, long out of date," said the War Captain. He winced involuntarily, as if from some hidden pain. "But the Slurians do try to be thorough."

I tried to understand the implications of what he was saying. Then I thought about my own interrogations. How I had revealed the location of the fleet. Of the Battle Admiral.

The War Captain looked at me, as if sensing I had something to tell him.

"I may be responsible for your uncle's death," I said grimly.

The War Captain's expression didn't change in the slightest. "Explain."

I told him the entire story, my mission, how I had been caught, and the basic details of my interrogation. Yes, I was revealing classified information. Even if this were some sort of trick, even if we were somehow being monitored, the information the Slurians would be receiving would be concerning battle plans which were two years old. There was no way such plans could be useful to them now.

The War Captain sat silently as I told him how the Slurians had informed me that the Battle Admiral was dead and the

Glory

was burning in space.

He sat still for a moment, making me nervous. Then he turned to me and said, "And you believed them?"

"I don't know what to believe."

He fixed me with a stern gaze. "Well, if you want to believe anything, you can believe you're not responsible for the death of your Admiral, or, of even greater consequence, the destruction of the Seventh Fleet," said the War Captain.

"How so?"

"You were interrogated with truth serum. You aren't able to resist that. You had no choice but to tell what you knew, and from what you said, you resisted as long as possible," said the War Captain. "So even if you told them anything, it wasn't your fault."

"It was beyond my power to prevent," I agreed. "But if what they said is true, then I am the unwilling cause of the destruction of the fleet." I depersonalized it as the War Captain had done, referring to the

fleet

rather than the Battle Admiral.

"If what they said was true," said the War Captain calmly.

I stared at him. "You don't think it's true."

"If it were, they would have told me so during one of my many interrogations," said the War Captain. "I am repeatedly taken in for interrogation, and if they had managed to kill Battle Admiral Norman North, I think they might have mentioned it to me." He was smiling now. "And then there's something else."

"What?" I said.

"During one of my interrogations, one of my interrogators made a slip of the tongue, a rather important one," said the War Captain.

"What?" I said again.

"My interrogator referred to Norman North as the 'War Admiral'."

The War Captain paused to let that implication sink in.

"This only happened once, but if it's true, that would mean that Admiral North did not die during the attack," said the War Captain. "Furthermore, if he were now a War Admiral, then not only did he survive, but he had been promoted. That furthermore implies his attack must have been successful."

"So, I'm not responsible...."

"Mind you, this is all theoretical, but based on what I heard-"

"Wait a minute," I said. "I got a censored letter from my mother. She made reference to something with the word War in it. The 'W' in 'War' was capitalized. Maybe she was referring to-"

"War Admiral Norman North," said the War Captain. He thought about it, then smiled. "It must have been quite a victory."

"If it was quite a victory, what are we still doing here, as prisoners, two years later?" I asked.

"The Slurian Union has a large navy and one battle could hardly be decisive, unless all their ships were massed together against all our ships, which as you know is hardly the norm for space battles," said the War Captain. "Also, Altera is in the far hinterlands of Slurian space. It is very possible that the War Admiral has been gaining ground over the past two years, but his fleet hasn't reached here yet." And then he gave a brilliant smile. "Now it all makes sense."

"What does?"

The War Captain gave me a piercing look. "The Slurians evacuated you rather quickly off of Volvograd, where you were captured, didn't they?"

"Well, yes," I said.

"Did you ever wonder why?"

"I just figured they wanted to interrogate me further somewhere else," I said.

"Really?" said the War Captain. "Really? There was no one on the entire planet capable of interrogating you? I hardly believe that."

"Then why do you think I was taken off-planet?"

The War Captain spoke in a whisper. "Because I believe the League was about to take over Volvograd. It's probably been in League hands for the past two years."

"But... Volvograd was supposed to be a feint. We were only supposed to make the Slurians believe that we were going to attack there."

The War Captain gave me a calculating look. "You told me the War Admiral sent you to make this feint in a squadron of Harmony fighters. Why?"

"Harmony's have the extra range we needed to get there," I said.

"But the standard fleet fighter is a Wildcat. The Slurians know that the Harmony is a longer ranged fighter."

"But we jettisoned our external fuel tanks before we got in-system-"

The War Captain shook his head. "It was a double feint. The War Admiral was using you to convince the Slurians that he wanted them to think he was attacking there, while he would be attacking somewhere else. In reality, I think, the War Admiral was planning all along to attack the exact same place where you did, only two or three days later, enough time for the Slurians to shift the bulk of their fleet away from the Volvograd system."

I quickly thought of the implications of this. "So... the War Admiral lied to us-"

"Did he tell you exactly where he would be making his attack?"

"No, but he clearly said that the Volvograd maneuver was a feint," I said. "Do you think he planned for us to get captured and reveal-"

"No," said the War Captain. "I don't think capture, torture, and interrogation was a part of his plan. But on the other hand, he was certainly aware that capture was a possibility. Perhaps the deception of attacking with Harmony fighters would be enough to convince the Slurians that the

Glory

was going elsewhere. But if you were captured, yes, I can see the War Admiral giving you disinformation to pass on to the Slurians."

As the theory began to make sense I could barely contain my excitement. "So he's alive! The fleet wasn't destroyed!"

"Quiet!" the War Captain whispered harshly, looking around. "Don't attract attention to yourself."

"You don't understand what I've been carrying around for over two years-"

"I understand, but we all have to do our duty," said the War Captain, giving me a sharp look.

I suddenly thought about the constant interrogations he had been subjected to. They must have been awful. But he had endured it, staying calm and levelheaded. I'll bet the Slurians never got any information out of him.

The War Captain watched me calm down, and nodded slightly, approving.

"So... what do we do now?" I asked.

"We escape, of course," said the War Captain.

Of course. Of course?

"But if the fleet is on its way here-"

"I've said no such thing," said the War Captain.

"But-"

"I've presented a theory, nothing more," said the War Captain. "I believe this theory to be true, but even if it is, it could take months or even years for the war to end. Even if I'm right and we were victorious at Volvograd, the war might have been stalemated after that. Either way, I'm not going to sit around and simply wait to be rescued. An officer's duty is to escape and return to friendly lines."

"Then why haven't you escaped earlier?" I said. I knew he had been here for several days already.

"I've been waiting for some time to be transferred back to this camp."

"What so special about this camp?" I asked.

"There are individuals here whose skills can help us successfully escape."

"Like who?"

The War Captain looked me over. "You'll be introduced to them shortly. We've been waiting for you to get out of the hospital before we began."

"Why?" I asked. "You didn't even know me."

"I knew you were a League military officer. That was enough for me," said the War Captain. "I won't leave a member of the service behind."

Just like on Caronol, I thought.

The War Captain continued. "And your own special skills can be put to use as well."

"My own special skills? I didn't do too well on my last escape attempt," I said.

"You made a poor choice of colleagues to escape with," said the War Captain. "Kerensky has been filling me in on your, shall we say, colorful history here. I can use a man like you on our team."

"Yes sir," I said, feeling a glow inside.

We resolved to meet two days later to plan our escape.