Doctor Asraf Al Aziz could hardly contain his excitement while watching the circular pressure door slowly swing open. A middle-aged man sporting a grizzled beard and a big smile appeared in the opening.
"As-salamu alaykum Asraf."
" Wa alaykumu s-salam Habib," Asraf replied returning the smile. "Permission to come aboard sir."
"Permission granted," the captain replied and grabbed his hand. "It pleases me to see you in good health old friend."
"You look well too Habib. Allah has been merciful to us both."
Asraf floated through the airlock into the main module of the Osama bin Laden. He was immediately struck by its sheer size. Usually space travel equalled crammed spaces and narrow passageways, but certainly not in this case. Several people were busy operating various instruments - he counted five in total - yet the room still seemed far from crammed.
"This place is truly amazing. How large is this module?"
The captain smiled proudly.
"It was made from two third-stage Russian boosters of their Mars program. The raw diameter is eighteen feet but fully fitted it's more like twelve. The length from airlock to airlock is one hundred and ten. Yes, the Osama bin Laden is quite a sight, isn't he? And this is just one module. Wait till you see the rest. It makes the NASA, ESA and Chinese stations look like garbage cans in comparison."
Asraf floated to the opposite wall and pushed back, enjoying the feeling of moving in a zero gravity environment. On the rebound he grabbed the center guide rope to kill his momentum before bumping into something breakable. He was still working on developing his space-legs.
"This is like a dream Habib. I still can't believe that I'm actually here. That I'm truly in space."
The captain smiled at Asraf's enthusiasm.
"Believe it my friend. You're here alright."
"But how in the name of the prophet did we pull this off? An actual space station in space?"
"Where else would a space station be?" Habib retorted with a wink.
"Come on. You know what I mean Habib. How did we build this? How can we be here without anybody on earth detecting us?"
"As to why we are not detected," Habib replied. "We are orbiting outside a large Israeli communications array. It has no sensors pointing outwards so it can't detect us. But it provides a radar shadow thus effectively hiding us from earth."
"Israeli?"
"The irony is not lost on you, I see. The very minions of the devil protecting us."
Asraf couldn't help laughing.
"And how was it built? I mean, surely you can't create something this big without at least the Americans spotting it."
"You are correct my friend. You can't. The Osama bin Laden was built in multiple smaller sections, each of which was sent into orbit disguised as a civilian communications satellite or left coasting as space debris. Remember the giant solar storm five years ago?"
"Sure do. Two entire days of communications blackout for anything in orbit. All our satellite phones were dead."
"Precisely," captain Habib continued. "And all electronic tracking systems were down as well. That was the opportunity we had waited for. In less than forty-eight hours the main module was assembled from parts already placed in orbit. The rest of the modules were added later under similar circumstances."
"Forty eight hours? Beard of Ishmael! Without use of communications?"
"Oh we had close range communication based on optics and we used laser ranging instead of radar. Bear in mind that we were planning on using an extended non-com window all along, so we had deliberately designed the system accordingly. There was plenty of redundancy of course, which was good since we lost several modules in the process. But through the grace of Allah we made it and here we are."
"And the Russians and the Chinese -- where do they think we are going when they launch our people?" Asraf wondered.
"We pay certain key people in both countries generously to list our launches as unmanned satellites."
"So the Osama bin Laden is as shadowy and elusive as the mighty holy warrior it was named after, eh?"
"Aye," Habib confirmed with a laugh. "So it is."
"Now my friend Asraf, are you finally going to tell me about... it?"
"In your quarters Habib. This is strictly for your ears only."
****
The two friends were strapped in a pair of seats in the captains section of the habitation module, soaking their pallets in a decades old Glen Fiddich from a high tech sippy cup.
"Most enjoyable Habib. We are not really supposed to drink this kind of alcoholic beverage though."
The captain took a sip of the precious fluid.
"I am sure the prophet makes allowances for his holy warriors Asraf. But now pray tell me of that mysterious secret weapon your people have been working on in our lab for the past three months. I understand it has truly awesome potential?"
Ashraf nodded.
"As you may know already it's virtually impossible to run any serious weapons development without getting discovered these days. Believe me, we have tried numerous times. The cursed American spy satellites and drones would find us regardless of where we set up base. Even in deserted areas or under-ground. They just kept shutting us down and destroying our facilities."
"Ungodly minions of Satan!" Habib cursed.
"So when we were offered the use of a remote facility outside the range of any scanner it was truly a gift from Allah. I immediately designated production of the new weapon to said place, but I always wondered about the location. Never in my wildest fantasy would I have guessed it was situated in space."
Habib nodded modestly. Asraf continued.
"Just like I haven't been privy to the location of this facility for security reasons, you have been excluded from the details about the weapon. But the time has come for both of us to see the whole picture."
Asraf touched a panel and the large screen came to life displaying the picture of a young woman. She was beautiful with the thick dark hair and aquiline features characteristic of Middle Eastern girls.
"A woman," Habib exclaimed. "Is she developing the weapon?"
"No Habib. She IS the weapon."
"Huh?" captain Habib exclaimed. "She doesn't look very dangerous to me."
"Remember long ago when infidel scientists thought they had discovered so-called cold fusion? Their peers ridiculed the discovery and everybody abandoned the concept. While I was studying physics in America I, of all people, realized that they had been on to something."
"So cold fusion actually works?"
