Chapter Three
Rescue
Earlier on, when the two gangsters had forced their way onto the Jeanette and into the galley area where Harry and Jean were seated, Harry had moved across the galley to put his body between the gangsters and Jean, only to be forced aside as the two gangsters entered into the small cabin.
“What do you two think you`re doing on board my ship. Get off now before I throw you both off?” Harry boomed from the side wall that he had been pushed against by the larger of the two men. He was named Gorilla by his friends and it was not too hard to understand why. He was big, he was hairy, he was strong, oh, and he was a dumb animal.
“Do you hear Gramps over here George; he is going to throw me off his ship?” Gorilla laughed while picking Harry up and forcing him down into a chair next to Jean who in turn had been pushed back into her chair by George.
George was smaller than his friend but what he lost in sheer size he made up for with brains and a sadistic nature that he liked to parade for anyone unlucky enough to meet up with him.
“Shut up Gramps and we will be out of your way soon enough. All you need to tell us to make that happen are two things. Firstly why you went around to the Lyre import export offices yesterday; we will come to the second part of the question if you answer the first part correctly?” George looked from Jean and then to Harry.
“We are searching for Jean`s brother, that is all, he has gone missing. Why do you know something about his disappearance?” Harry said angrily. “Cause if you do you can tell us where he is.” Harry demanded of the thugs.
“I am asking the questions Gramps so here is the second part of my question. If you are so innocent like why did you break into my friend`s office last night?”
“We didn`t do any such thing, just what sort of people do you think we are? “Harry said trying to sound wounded by the very idea.
“You`re upright honest citizens are you well what are you doing with this here map on your computer, this is amongst the things that my boss thinks may have been photographed in his friends office last night?” George decided to add a little muscle to the conversation; he swiped Harry across the face, and then asked Harry some more questions.
“Tell me what you are doing with the map here and you can also tell me where your buddy is and what he plans to do next?”
Harry kept quiet and got another slap for his silence, but Jean screamed at George to stop hitting Harry and so George hit her too and repeated his question to her. Harry now decided that the time had come to flex his muscles and catching Gorilla unawares he shrugged him off and made to grab his Phaser pistol from the belt that was laying upon the table but he was not quite quick enough as Gorilla was surprisingly quick for a man of his size. Gorilla thrust out an arm that put extra speed into Harry`s moving body thrusting him head first into the nearby metal bulkhead knocking Harry unconscious with a sickly thud. Jean on seeing her friend treated so roughly screamed out his name in fear. She turned angrily and launched a punch into George`s face, but as Jean was not all that strong George merely shrugged it off with a grin. He then walked towards her and pushed the barrel of his Phaser pistol into the soft underside of her neck, forcing her head backward and bringing a moan of pain when her head was stopped by another of the ships bulkheads. George even then didn`t lessen the pressure and the hard metal of the barrel pressing into her neck was making it very difficult for Jean to breath. His face was just inches from hers as he smiled down at her, she could smell garlic on his breath and she almost puked on him.
“You, me and Gorilla here are going for a walk to see my off world friends, because I am sure that they will want to talk to you. If you come quietly I won`t kill Gramps here, it is your choice girly.”
Jean`s eyes went from the thug across to the prone body of her friend, she couldn`t speak because the pressure from the pistol prevented her from doing so, so she nodded causing the Phaser to dig further into her neck while silently pleading with her eyes for him to stop choking her, which at last he did. The three of them left an unconscious Harry to be found just a little later by Ray.
The thugs took Jean across to a small terrestrial shuttle craft parked alongside of the Jeanette and entered, George went forward and sat next to the pilot while Gorilla took Jean to the rear where he threw her inside the passenger compartment and forced her into a seat, then he sat down opposite her.
“Be a good little girl and I won`t have to hurt you none.” Gorilla said to Jean and then proceeded to ignore her as he looked around the compartment.
George liked flying in shuttles, he had dreamed of it ever since he was a boy. The pilot was only waiting for his passengers` return, so on seeing Jean being bundled into the rear section of the shuttle, and after a brief word with George, he took off and headed deep within the continent`s land mass to the far off mountain range and the Dylithium mine.
The area around the mine was filled with long wooden dormitory buildings for the miners, plus a few individual cabins which were for the use of the mine`s bosses. The mine itself was a square hole set into the mountain side with wooden uprights framing its entrance and a railway track going from inside of the mine and leading down towards the huge starship of the Lyren Federation. Jean was bundled out of the shuttle and taken to a small building used as a store, here she was roughly pushed inside, and the door to the building shut and locked. Jean was in here for hours that to her seemed to stretch on for days as she imagined all the horrors that could befall her, so she was terrified when Gorilla finally opened the door. He told her that she was boarding the Lyren ship now, the long walk across the hard compacted ground that stretched all around the mine entrance seemed far too short for Jean. Her last view of New Terra was of George grinning across at her before she was taken to another small storage room, but this time one aboard the starship. The Lyren officer who took her ignored her pleas for help, and so she once again found herself being locked away as a prisoner, this time by an evil nation whose only desires were to rule over the planets that they had conquered and enslaved, and to do the same to any other free worlds that came their way.
Galaxy Spies Page 4