Read Journey - Book II of the Five Worlds Trilogy for Free Online Page A

ancient telescope. None of what she had seen had been as vivid as Screen images; dust had finally covered the instrument’s lens with a thin coat, and they had gone back into the dormitory.
    But the stars tonight were beautiful, and there were many more than she had imagined. As so often happened, when the dust storm ended a week ago it had drawn any moisture in the air with it; and when the winds had died, all the muck of the atmosphere had dropped to Mars’ surface in a cleansing dry rain that left the sky clean, clear and cold.
    There was Earth, a tiny blue smudge, over the horizon, with its white moon a nearby dot; and higher up what must be Jupiter, huge, a gibbous lantern whose bands of color she could almost see without optical aid.
    She wished she had that telescope now!
    And there—
    Venus.
    It was unmistakable, well below Jupiter and to Earth’s right, near the horizon. It was not large, but was nevertheless softly brilliant, unmistakably a planet. Visid had read that before the terraforming of Venus had begun it had been twice as bright, due to the constant cloud cover and the planet’s nearness to the Sun. In Screen images, the old Venus had looked yellow-white; now its color was more muted, a golden red with growing patches of blue-green.
    Beautiful.
    Home.
    Someday …
    She watched for what seemed like hours, until the rusty rose of dawn began to creep over the east.
     
    V isid’s waking dream was broken by the transport stopping before the school’s administration building; out front, barely illumined in coming morning light, was a lone, tall figure.
    Oh, no.
    The transport stopped; but to Visid’s surprise she was not told to depart; instead, the figure, which was that of the teacher of Culture, rail-thin and tall, stooped to step up onto the bus.
    The teacher’s eyes regarded her with a strange look; a mixture of disapproval and extreme curiosity—as if she were a bad new bug under a Biology microviewer.
    “The doors in these transports are not tall enough,” he said in preamble, then added: “For some reason, you have been chosen for the project we spoke of three weeks ago.”
    Visid’s heart leaped with excitement, but she kept her face stoic in reaction to the teacher’s continued scowl.
    “I used my position here as chancellor—yes, child, I am more than just an instructor—to try to prevent this decision’s implementation, but to no avail.” His scowl deepened. “However, I was given assurance that if you don’t work out, you will be returned here and I may institute the brain cleaning I so forcefully insisted that you require.”
    Sensing that no matter what happened in the future, she would be free of this man, Visid allowed a smile to cross swords with the chancellor’s frown.
    “You may not smile for long,” the chancellor said, turning to duck under the transport’s door. In a moment, as the door slid shut, he stood in his former position, sourly watching the transport pull away as red dawn rose.
    As her window passed his position, Visid said, “I will always hate you!” and was pleased to see his reaction of anger.
    “That’s one bridge burned,” she said to herself; but found an odd comfort in the thought, as the transport pulled away, leaving the school and the chancellor behind as only memories, shrinking in view.
     
    A n hour later found her within the outskirts of Lowell City, as dawn turned into a workday, with the concurrent crowding of streets.
    Visid had never been in traffic before. On her infrequent trips into the city, she and the other students had always been well chaperoned by attendants. The trips had been point-to-point affairs; they had traveled in darkness to a museum or off-school teaching facility, had spent the day in said facility performing specific learning tasks, and then had traveled back to their dormitory in darkness. Lowell had never been seen alive.
    But today, in bright morning light, the city fairly burst with energy. Transports