Venus Rising (27 page)

“He is not a Service officer at all.” Kalina
finished sealing the innermost of the two doors and approached her
irate husband. “I gave him those clothes.”

“By all the stars,” Tarik swore, “it’s
Gaidar. I know those eyes. What are you doing out of prison, and
with a clean face? And you, too, Suria, why are you here? Mother,
is this one of your famous arrangements? Have you prevailed on
Leader Tyre to let Gaidar go free?”

“I will not have my wife begging that
insolent, incompetent blot on the Assembly’s honor for anything,”
Almaric sputtered.

“Don’t blame Kalina. It was my idea,” Suria
announced.

“And I helped her,” Narisa added. “We
realized we had to rescue Gaidar before Tyre had him killed. You
and Tarik weren’t here, so we did it ourselves.”

“
You did what?”
Almaric looked like a
volcano about to erupt. “You left here after I gave my word to the
Assembly that you would not, and then you removed a prisoner from
Jurisdiction custody? Is that what you did?”

“What does it matter?” Gaidar put in. “If
Tyre is incompetent as well as perverted, you ought to simply kill
him and be done with it.”

“Silence, you Cetan animal!” Almaric roared.
“How dare you come here? Lieutenant Narisa deserves to be
court-martialed for what she has done. As for you, Suria, a
rehabilitation planet will be your fate if I have anything to say
about it.”

“You can’t do that,” Narisa cried. “Suria has
suffered enough already from the Assembly’s stupid laws and from
Tyre himself. I won’t let you do anything more to her.”

“Watch your words, young woman!”

“Don’t talk to Narisa that way.” There was
fire in Tarik’s eyes, and he actually took a single threatening
step toward his father.

“Stop it, all of you.” Kalina did not need to
raise her voice to restore order. “Almaric, I ask you to control
your anger until you have heard what these young people have to
say. I not only gave Narisa my permission to leave our house, I
helped her. My dear, you know I would do nothing to jeopardize our
position. Only let us explain and you will understand we could not
wait for your return.”

“You brought a Cetan here!” Almaric’s voice
was a little milder when he spoke to his wife. “A Cetan who is a
prisoner of the Jurisdiction.”

“A man to whom Narisa and I have given our
word that he would be safe if he would help us,” Tarik told his
father angrily. “Narisa would not act foolishly. She is always as
scrupulous in her obedience to the law as is my mother. Therefore,
there must be a good reason for Gaidar’s presence here.”

Narisa flashed him a grateful look. She was
deeply touched by his faith in her. She took advantage of a moment
of silence.

“Gaidar was no longer a Jurisdiction
prisoner,” she said, looking from Tarik to his father to observe
their reactions. “He had been moved to one of Tyre’s private cells
below his own house. It was a terrible place, with neither water
nor ventilation.”

“Such an action would be against the law,”
Almaric admitted grudgingly. “Tyre would not dare to do such a
thing.”

“But he did,” Suria declared, “and planned to
kill Gaidar tonight, and you, too, Almaric, and all your family
with you.”

Almaric looked as if he would loose another
barrage of angry words at Suria. His mouth was opened to begin, but
he stopped, hearing a sound at the door.

Kalina rushed to the entrance, checked the
security panel, cleared it and waited while the two sealed doors
opened.

Narisa had never met the man who entered, but
she would have known him without Kalina’s glad greeting. Where
Tarik, the younger son, closely resembled his father, Halvo, the
elder by seven years, was very like his mother. He was tall and
heavily built, with the beginning of a paunch. His uniform jacket
gleamed with gold and silver braid, and on the left arm it bore the
sixteen-pointed star of a full admiral. Only one Service insignia
conferred more authority, the twenty-four-pointed star of Admiral
of the Fleet. Halvo’s face was a masculine version of Kalina’s
strong features. His dark hair was lightly silvered at the temples,
his gray eyes cool and intelligent. They swept the group in the
secure room while he patiently endured his mother’s emotional
embrace.

“Welcome home, my son.” Almaric’s embrace was
somewhat more restrained than Kalina’s had been, but was no less
loving or proud.

When Tarik’s turn came, both men hesitated as
though something kept them apart, until Tarik grabbed his brother’s
shoulders and the two came briefly together.

Narisa, watching them, remembered then that
Tarik and Halvo had quarreled at their last meeting and had parted
in anger.

“It has been too long, Tarik,” Halvo said
with slightly forced politeness. “Too many years. I am pleased to
see you again.”

“My navigator,” Tarik said, presenting
Narisa.

“You are out of uniform, lieutenant,” Halvo
charged coolly.

“It’s my doing, Halvo,” Kalina interjected
before Narisa could defend herself. “Since she is not on active
duty just now, I thought private clothes would be a nice change for
her.”

Halvo was plainly not pacified by this
explanation, but his attention was diverted by the sight of
Gaidar.

“I see by your eyes that you are a Cetan. In
my old uniform. You needn’t explain; I can guess who gave it to
you. Will you reform the entire Service, Mother? Shall we add
recruits from outside the civilized Races?”

“I have no desire to join your Service,”
Gaidar stated firmly.

“Now, Halvo,” his mother said, “I want you to
sit down and listen to the story Tarik and Narisa have to tell. It
is why I called you home so urgently. They will tell you the truth,
and so will Gaidar. Then Narisa and Suria will tell us how they
freed Gaidar from Leader Tyre’s house.”

Narisa barely repressed a giggle as the great
Admiral Halvo overcame his amazement at this speech, sank
obediently into the chair his mother had indicated, and prepared to
listen.

He seemed to believe them as she and Tarik
spoke. He asked shrewd, penetrating questions of Gaidar concerning
Starthruster and the Cetans’ plan of attack, and expressed outrage
at the way Gaidar had been removed from the official Assembly
prison to Tyre’s cell. And he sat hiding a smile behind clasped
hands when Tarik, having finally learned what Narisa and Suria had
been doing during his absence, began to scold Narisa.

“How could you risk your life like that?”
Tarik began. “Narisa, you could have been killed. If you had been
caught, if you had fallen into Tyre’s clutches, I can’t bear to
think what might have been done to you, or what a terrible weapon
he would have had against us.”

“I didn’t think of that,” Narisa admitted.
“Gaidar’s life was in danger, we had given him our word for his
safety, and you weren’t here, so I did what had to be done. I don’t
regret it.”

“Where were you,” Halvo asked Tarik, “that
you could not go to Gaidar’s aid yourself?”

“Do you mean you approve of Narisa’s and
Suria’s mad expedition?” Almaric looked stunned.

“I regret to say I do, Father. Something must
be done about Tyre’s corrupt rule, and soon. Most of the other
Service officers feel the same way.”

“What, the renowned Admiral Halvo fomenting
treason with his cronies?” Tarik

laughed. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s about
time you understood the situation, brother. If you mean what you’ve
just said, perhaps we can forget our old quarrel and be friends
again.”

“You haven’t answered me, Tarik.” Halvo’s
tone was frosty, but he let the implication of treason pass. “Where
were you today?”

“Father and I and my old teacher, Jon Tanon,
went aboard the Cetan ship. It’s docked at spaceport and under
Service guard.”

“I saw it when I brought my own ship into
port. What were you doing there?”

“I was afraid Tyre might order the ship
destroyed, and I wanted to gather as much information from it as
possible before he could do that. Father agreed to go with me
because as a Member of the Assembly he’s empowered to go wherever
he wants and thus could get us onto the ship. Jon and I made
diagrams of Starthruster, and also sketched the design of the ship
and all its armaments. It’s a cargo vessel; a pirate ship really,
not one of their newer warships, but still the information should
be useful to us.” Tarik pulled a sheaf of papers out of his uniform
jacket. “Recordings might have been detected when we came through
security after leaving spaceport, so we used these. Ancient methods
sometimes work better than our own.”

“Still studying history, are you?” Halvo took
the papers. “For once I’m glad of it.”

“Tarik, where is Jon now?” Kalina asked.

“He stayed aboard to examine the ship
further. He was fascinated by it.”

“I hope he’ll have no trouble leaving
spaceport.” Kalina looked worried.

“I gave him a pass,” Almaric assured her.
“There will be no difficulty. Now, Halvo, what are we to do? As I
see the situation, we have three problems. The most immediate is
the threat of a concerted Cetan attack, which could come at any
time. The second problem is how to deal with whatever punishment is
meted out to Tarik and his lieutenant navigator for their defiance
of the Assembly. Whatever is done to them will affect the status of
our family and thus our ability to act as a rational balance
against Leader Tyre and his friends. Our third problem is what to
do with this Cetan warrior who, I am forced to admit, deserves some
consideration for warning us of his fellows’ plans.”

“I agree with your assessment of the first
problem, but not the others,” Halvo said. “It seems to me our
second problem is how to remove Leader Tyre and his accomplices
from power. That would solve the other problems by nullifying the
case against Tarik and Narisa, and by making Gaidar a hero when we
defeat the Cetans.”

“Halvo is right.” Tarik stood behind his
brother’s chair, with one hand on Halvo’s shoulder. “We are finally
in agreement. The Assembly must be reformed, and the sooner the
better for the Jurisdiction and all the Races.”

“Aren’t you forgetting,” Narisa asked, a
distinct edge to her voice, “that while you sit here and calmly set
forth problems and reasonable solutions, Leader Tyre plans to kill
all of us tonight? He should be delighted, Admiral Halvo, to catch
you in his net as well as us. You must have seen all the guards at
the door when you came into the house. Tyre will have been told by
now that you are here. What with trying to locate his missing
prisoner, wondering where Suria has gone, worrying if you and your
father are plotting against him, and deciding how to dispose of
this family without destroying his own position, Tyre may be ready
for the worst kind of violence, and upon a great many people, not
just us. There is no time to lose. Tyre has to be stopped now, and
every world belonging to the Jurisdiction should be warned about
the Cetans.”

Halvo regarded her with cool gray eyes. Once
Narisa would have been frightened by his scrutiny and worried about
her own position in the Service. No longer. The Service was not the
primary force in her life anymore. She was free. She might die at
Cetan hands, or at Tyre’s. If she survived those perils, she might
still be severely punished by the Assembly for daring to defy its
Members. But nothing anyone did to her could ever again imprison
her mind and heart, or stop her from loving Tarik. Or stop Tarik
from loving her. He was looking at her now, tenderness flooding his
purple-blue eyes. She could almost feel his arms around her, though
he was on the opposite side of the room.

“We will stop Tyre,” Halvo promised, rising
from his chair, “and the Cetans, too. Mother, I need to use your
transmitting equipment. The first thing to do is notify the
Service, and as Narisa has rightly suggested, warn all the worlds,
especially those sectors lying between Belta and the Capital. After
that, I’ll demand an emergency meeting of the Assembly.”

“Won’t Admiral of the Fleet Momuri have to be
told?” Tarik asked. “He is Tyre’s man.”

“Momuri is desperately sick, has been for
some time, and will likely retire soon. He won’t be a factor in
this. Most of the other senior officers feel as I do about Leader
Tyre. With them behind me, I believe we can oust him and select a
new Leader.”

“I would nominate Almaric of Demaria,” Tarik
said.

“So would I, but it’s against the law to
nominate family members,” Halvo responded. With a sudden smile he
added, “We will just have to get someone else to do it for us.
Lieutenant Narisa, I’m returning you to active duty. Go put on your
uniform.”

“What about me?” Suria asked. “I want to
help, too. I have my own reasons for wanting Tyre removed from
office.”

“You are no longer an officer of the
Service.” Halvo regarded her shrewdly. “However, I will assign you
to private security duty. Almaric will provide you with a
regulation weapon. You are to remain in this room with my father,
my mother and Gaidar and guard them all with your life until I
return or send Narisa to get you.”

“Arm me, too,” Gaidar said, and after a tense
moment of deliberation with himself, Halvo nodded.

Narisa felt a curious distaste for donning
the uniform she had once worn so proudly. It had come to symbolize
for her all that was wrong with the Jurisdiction, all the
unnecessary restrictions the Assembly placed on the lives of
ordinary people. It took a considerable amount of self-discipline
for her to fasten the jacket clasps and pull on her boots when she
would rather have worn her Beltan costume. In a strange gesture of
defiance, she folded the robe and sandals together and took them
back to the secure room where she gave them to Kalina to hold for
her.

“Until I return,” she said, and Kalina nodded
understandingly. “Where are Tarik and Halvo?” she then asked.