Venus Rising (16 page)

“You say, ‘they,’“ Narisa said. “You are a
Cetan, too.”

“Only half Cetan. My mother was Demarian.
Another reason for my shipmates to dislike me. Help me to rise,”
Gaidar told them, “and I will send whatever message you want, and
thus satisfy the Cetan crew.”

“No,” Narisa cried. “We know what Cetans are.
You can’t expect us to trust you.”

“Nor should I trust you,” Gaidar countered.
“But I recognize when I have no choice. Perhaps you should do the
same.” He closed his eyes.

“Tarik,” Narisa appealed to him, “don’t let
this creature near the communicator.”

“I don’t see how he can do more harm than you
did,” Tarik responded, causing Narisa to wince at the barb. “Don’t
forget, lieutenant, the birds left him behind when they took the
other Cetans away. Suppose they did it deliberately?”

“Why would they do that?”

“The others had murderous thoughts in their
minds. This one, unarmed and scheduled to be a victim, did not.
Perhaps the birds thought he could be of use to us.”

“It’s possible,” Narisa admitted, “based on
what we know of the birds. But I still don’t trust him.”

“Neither do I, not completely, but I think we
have to take the chance. We haven’t much time before the captain of
the Cetan ship expects a message.”

Narisa did not agree with Tarik, but she did
not want to alienate him any further.

“I withdraw my objection,” she relented.

Tarik looked pleased. Gaidar opened his
golden eyes and stared at her.

“I promise I will not disappoint you,” he
said.

“You won’t have a chance,’’ Tarik told him.
He handed the vial of medicine to Narisa, then assisted Gaidar to
the computer-communicator. The Cetan gave a short laugh when he saw
it.

“This is an old machine. Very old. Cetans
have better, even on that bad ship up there.” Gaidar glanced
upward.

“This one works well enough,” Tarik remarked.
Then he grew deadly serious. “Gaidar, you will say exactly what I
tell you to say. Be aware of my lack of trust in you. You still
need to prove yourself to me. It you deviate in any way, Lieutenant
Narisa here will use her force-gun on your most sensitive parts. Do
not expect her to show mercy. She has just cause for wishing all
Cetans dead.”

“What shall I say?” Gaidar slumped in one of
the chairs at the console. Narisa could tell by his white face and
clenched jaw that he was in considerable pain. She almost felt
sorry for him.

“You will make your voice sound like the
leader of the men who came in the shuttle,” Tarik ordered. “You
will report that Gaidar is dead, and you have killed two people you
found on the island. You are now beginning to search this building
for booty. Is there a specified time for a second message after
this one?”

“Not until the shuttle is ready to return to
the main ship. Communications are arranged that way to keep other
Cetan ships from taking our loot if they should intercept a
message, or possible rescue ships from interfering with a raid. An
approximate length of time is agreed on for the men on the shuttle
to finish the job and be ready to return, but sometimes the captain
grows impatient and simply destroys the planet whether his own men
are on it or not. He always fears a trick if his men are captured.
I don’t think he will do the usual thing this time, though. This is
the only shuttle he has left. He wants it back.”

“A charming man, your captain. Tell him it
will take time down here because this is a large building with many
locked rooms. Say you believe there are many valuable things stored
here. That should hold him in orbit and keep him relatively
patient.”

Tarik dialed the frequency Gaidar had told
him to use, and Gaidar spoke into the communicator. A harsh voice
rasped back at him, and Gaidar nodded at Tarik to end the
transmission.

“Now,” Tarik said, “while you can still walk,
we go into one of the personal rooms. You will lie down on the bed,
and I will give you the medicine.”

“Will you untie my arms?”

“No, but we will make you as comfortable as
possible with pillows.”

Gaidar stumbled as he walked, but he made it
to the bed Tarik indicated. He opened his mouth and took the
medicine from the vial, swallowing it without protest. He was
asleep before Narisa and Tarik had finished piling pillows around
him to support his back and shoulders.

“What next?” Narisa asked.

“I will inspect the shuttle, while you stand
guard here. I don’t think Gaidar has tried to trick us. It wouldn’t
be to his advantage to help people who want to kill him as his
former shipmates do, but just in case I have misread his character,
I want you to stay alert while I’m gone.”

She did as he ordered. Tarik returned an hour
later.

“We can fly the shuttle,” he reported. “The
controls are nothing unusual. All we have to do now is wait until
Gaidar wakes up. I want all the information he has about the crew
and the layout of the ship.”

At his suggestion, Narisa tried to sleep, but
found she could not. She remained too apprehensive about the second
part of Tarik’s plan, which was to try to capture or destroy the
Cetan spaceship, and thus put an end to the danger they were in.
Narisa feared they would not succeed, but if they should, what
would happen then? If she did her part well, would Tarik forgive
her for what he called her betrayal? She ached for his touch and
wanted desperately to know he still cared about her. And what of
Gaidar, what would they do with him? Her mind was filled with so
many questions and possibilities that she hardly knew what to hope
for or expect, and tossed restlessly on her narrow bed. She had
just begun to drift into a half sleep when Tarik shook her.

“Gaidar is awake,” Tarik said. “He’s much
improved. Come and hear this important information he claims to
have.”

“Will you believe what he says?” she asked,
swinging her feet to the floor.

“I’ll know that after I’ve heard him. He has
good reason to side with us against his former companions. They
will kill him on sight, while we at least will give him a chance to
fight for his life.”

Tarik had moved the still-bound Gaidar to one
of the cushioned chairs in the central room. There was food on the
table, along with a pitcher of the hot herbal brew Tarik liked.

“I have told Gaidar,” Tarik said, indicating
that Narisa should take a seat on the couch, “that we will untie
him and let him eat, but I will have a force-gun aimed at him every
second. Knowing how you hate Cetans, I’ll do the job so you won’t
have to touch him.”

“I will not attack you,” Gaidar promised. “It
would be foolish for me to do so.”

Tarik gave his force-gun to Narisa to hold
while he untied Gaidar. Then he settled comfortably into the second
cushioned chair and took the gun from Narisa.

“Go ahead and eat,” he said to her. “You,
too, Gaidar.”

Narisa poured herself a cup of the herbal
brew and sat sipping it while Gaidar rubbed his wrists and flexed
his shoulders and fingers. After a while he picked up one of the
round loaves of flat bread and began to eat it.

“I want information.” The prod was verbal,
but the way Tarik held the force-gun constituted a silent backup to
his cool words. “We made a bargain, Gaidar.”

“So we did, and whatever you say about
Cetans, we keep our word. I regret making you wait, but I was not
fed for three days before we landed here, and I am hungry. The
captain saw no sense in wasting valuable food stores on one who
would soon be dead.” Gaidar took the cup of steaming liquid, which
Narisa had filled and pushed across the table toward him. He raised
it, saluting her with it before he drank. `’I thank you again,
lieutenant, for your kindness. Commander Tarik, I think perhaps I
should first tell you a little about my life. It will help you to
believe me.”

“We don’t have much time,” Tarik
objected.

“It will not take long.” Gaidar picked up
another loaf of bread. “As I told you before, I am only half Cetan.
My mother was a Demarian slave. She lived long enough to teach me
that there are other Races with more peaceful ways of living before
my father killed her. I was nine Cetan years old when he broke her
neck. I saw him do it. There was nothing I could do to help her.
She had made me understand that to survive among the Cetans I must
pretend to be like them in every way, so I did not attack my father
for what he had done. I pretended I did not care. I went on to
become a mighty warrior, and my father was proud of me.

“As I grew older, I began to hate myself, for
I saw the damage Cetans do to innocent Races that have not harmed
them in any way. I then tried to change my father’s methods, to
convince him to treat his captives better. For my efforts I was
degraded and punished further by being made to serve on that pirate
ship up there in orbit, whose crew are the scum of the Cetan
worlds. My father thought it would break my pride to be subject to
that captain. He underestimated my endurance. I was determined to
survive and eventually to find a place where I could live in peace.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of suggesting we ransom you
instead of killing you. You know the rest.”

Narisa never took her eyes off Gaidar during
this recitation. She believed he was telling the truth. For the
first time in her life she felt a stirring of sympathy for a Cetan.
She glanced at Tarik when Gaidar had finished, to see if she could
discern from his expression what he thought of Gaidar’s story. She
knew Tarik’s family was from Demaria. He might feel some pity for a
Demarian slave who had tried to teach her child peaceful ways, and
thus be sympathetic to that child. Tarik’s face revealed nothing of
his feelings, nor, when he spoke, did his voice.

“This is not the important information you
promised us,” Tarik said.

“I come to that now,” Gaidar told him. “The
Cetans are massing to attack the Jurisdiction at its Capital. For
once the Cetan leaders will work together. Their joint desire to
destroy the Jurisdiction may keep the old hatreds among the various
warlords under control long enough for them to succeed.”

There was silence when Gaidar finished
speaking. Narisa and Tarik both sat staring at him, each of them
thinking what this information would mean.

“Where are they massing these ships?” Tarik
demanded at last. “What type of ships? How many? When?”

“Even now,” Gaidar said. “In the old Beltan
Sector which was so decimated by Cetan attacks years ago that it is
still under-populated. Much of it remains in Cetan control. It is a
safe place for Cetans, with the advantage of being just within
Jurisdiction borders. There are fifteen great warlords who have
agreed to fight together. Each has at least ten large ships in
addition to many smaller ones, and every ship will be equipped with
a Cetan invention that will make interstellar travel both faster
and safer than it has ever been before. With the new Starthruster
device, it will take just three days to move the entire fleet from
Belta to the Capital, moving so quickly that no Jurisdiction vessel
will be able to see or stop them.”

“That’s impossible,” Narisa cried. “I can
think of a dozen problems such speed would cause to the ship’s
structure, to human bodies, to navigational instruments and
communications. It can’t be done.”

“It has been done and tested,” Gaidar said.
“That is the other part of my information, and the reason I know so
much about this new device. The ship above has been equipped with
Starthruster. When we intercepted your rescue call, we were on a
trial voyage. Like you, the captain was skeptical. He wanted to
test Starthruster before joining his warlord at Belta.”

“I still can’t believe what you say. It’s too
incredible,” Narisa insisted.

“This planet is located far inside the Empty
Sector, lieutenant. How do you think we reached you so quickly
after your rescue call went out, if Starthruster does not work?
And, incidentally, we were not traveling at full speed.”

“It would explain the remarkable speed
registered while we were tracking your ship,” Narisa admitted.

“How does it work?” Tarik interjected.

“That,” Gaidar said with a smile, “will
remain my secret. I will tell your Assembly, after I have been
given my freedom, and my life.”

“You are very clever,” Narisa breathed.
“Tarik -”

“Yes,” Tarik said. “I know my duty. We must
capture the Cetan ship without destroying it, or damaging this
Starthruster device, and then we have to take it to the Capital.
The Assembly must be warned, and Starthruster turned over to
Jurisdiction scientists. We have no choice. We have to return to
the Jurisdiction at once.”

Narisa should have been pleased to hear him
say so. Instead, she was suddenly uncertain she wanted to return to
her old life.

“You need fear no punishment from the
Assembly since you are the one who warned us of the coming attack,”
she said to Gaidar, but she said it as much to reassure herself as
to placate his concern. She regarded him with deep and increasing
interest. He had a wide, pleasant face, with a square jaw evident
beneath his unkempt beard, and a nose that looked as though it had
been broken once or twice and never reset properly. She looked at
his large square hands, now holding his cup while he drank. The
last joint of his left little finger was missing. Gaidar saw the
direction of her glance.

“It was a punishment,” he told her. “Cetans
begin by removing the fingers, one joint at a time. Then they
progress to the toes, later to more sensitive parts. Most Cetans
have at least a few fingers missing. I was fortunate. My mother was
not. When she died, she had no fingers on her left hand.”

“`No wonder you feel no loyalty to them.”

“I do not, lieutenant, but I must confess
that I do not completely trust in your Assembly, either. I would
like some further guarantee that they will not take Starthruster
and all the information I can provide about it, and then take my
life, too. I want to see more of our galaxy before I die, and I
want to die honorably in battle, not as a broken prisoner.”