Venus Rising by Flora Speer Read Free Book Online

into a quickly repressed smile, “I do believe you are
human and not the machine you appear to be. If the story you have
told me is true, you admit to breaking a few rules yourself.”
    “Only because I feared you would die.”
    “It’s comforting to know you are willing to
bend for my sake. Now, I want you to tell me once more everything
you remember about that bird.”
    Narisa went over the story again, including
every detail she could recall.
    “The bird made no effort to communicate with
you, no sound at all except for that one cry?”
    “That’s right, sir.”
    “Yet you knew, it was quite clear to you deep
in your mind, that the creature meant us no harm, and later that
there was juice in the fruit and it was safe for you to give it to
me.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “While I, out on the desert, was perfectly
certain, deep in my own mind, that the birds would lead us to
water. What does all this suggest to you, Lieutenant?”
    “That we are very fortunate, sir.”
    “You disappoint me. I suppose I should have
expected a lack of imagination. You can’t help it; it’s the way you
were trained. I have a different theory. I think the birds have
telepathic power.” He watched her reaction, a glimmer of humor in
his eyes. “Any comment on that, Lieutenant?”
    “Are you suggesting those creatures are
intelligent?”
    “Haven’t they been acting intelligently?”
    “I would say it was instinct.” She was
determined to resist his idea.
    “Indeed?” A cynical glint replaced the humor
in his gaze. “Helping an unfamiliar species is instinctive
behavior? Not in any Race I’ve ever encountered. Why do you find it
necessary to resist my theory, lieutenant?”
    The question took her by surprise. She could
almost have imagined he had strange powers and had read her
mind.
    “Because,” she said, “telepathy is
illegal.”
    “I doubt the birds know that,” he responded
dryly. “They have probably never had contact with the Service, or
the Assembly, or any of the idiotic laws of the Jurisdiction.”
    “It’s not only illegal, it’s immoral,” Narisa
insisted. “And for very good reason. Telepathy invades the mind of
another being, and that is immoral. All Races practicing telepathy
were outlawed centuries ago and their representatives banished from
the Assembly.”
    “Of course,” Tarik countered mildly, “they
had to be banished. Because of their abilities they were too well
aware of what those in power were trying to do. Telepaths would be
dangerous to those regulations you love so much, and which the
Assembly imposes on all of us. And the Service, which was
originally formed solely to keep the peace, too often uses certain
of its branches to repress dissent. Telepaths would understand
that, too, and perhaps protest and insist upon changes. Change is
terribly upsetting to the Assembly.”
    “Commander Tarik, I believe you are speaking
treason.”
    “I’m talking about freedom, Narisa. The right
to decide the simplest things for yourself. What, when and where to
eat. Or read. Or live. Or work, whether in space or on some planet.
Have you never been free?”
    “On Belta, when I was a child, I did as I
pleased.” Narisa was becoming very distressed by this conversation.
Tarik was saying things that had occasionally crossed her mind,
things she had always thrust away from conscious thought, finding
them unworthy of a loyal officer of the Service.
    “You were free as a child, yet you left Belta
to join the Service. Why?” Tarik demanded, and Narisa, trained to
truth, answered honestly.
    “For my father. He wanted a son, but he had
been assigned to Belta, and on Belta choice of gender for a child
is not permitted. So he had two daughters. I chose to join the
Service, to become a navigator to please him. To make him proud of
me.”
    “Was it what you wanted to do? Are you proud
of yourself?”
    “Of course.” She could not tell him the
entire truth, that she had not known what she wanted to do and