The Challenge (34 page)

“You are supposed to anticipate these problems,” Dora chided.

“Hush,” Tessa ordered, wishing Dora hadn’t outted herself in front of Kahn’s friends.

Zical, Etru, and Mogan spun around looking for the woman to whom the voice belonged.

As Kahn kept Tessa against his body and the warmth penetrated to her, raising her core temperature, she almost grinned at the men still hovering around her as if Dora was a threat. She placed her arms around Kahn’s neck and spoke quietly to him. “Dora, I need to learn to regulate the suit’s temperature. Kahn wouldn’t have let me freeze to death.”

“If you ask me—”

“Nobody did,” Tessa argued.

“Kahn played that too close.”

“Dora, hush.”

Kahn gently squeezed Tessa. “You will work on temperature control after you warm up and have some rest.”

Tessa sighed, imagining a long, cold journey. “Couldn’t you just tell me how to operate the device?”

“Psi powers cannot be explained.”

“Maybe you just don’t know the words,” she countered.

As Zical listened to their bickering, he raised his eyebrows and snickered. “Could you two stop arguing and tell me where I will find the lady with the sexy voice?”

“In my backpack.” Tessa spoke without thinking, forgetting the Rystani custom to let her husband answer when he was there to speak for her. She’d also forgotten not to “touch” Kahn in front of his friends. But with her arms twined around his neck, she pressed her cheek against his chest and snuggled into his heat, glad he didn’t seem to mind at all.

He’d come far, her husband and the changes he had made for her pleased her and gave her hope for a real future together. A future with give and take, mutual respect, and sharing.

Etru took a quick step backward and glared at Tessa’s backpack. “What demons can put a woman inside a pack?”

“Did you bring us a Coolangerite?” Mogan asked with excitement.

From her experience on Zenon Prime, Tessa recalled the tiny men from the planet Coolanger and assumed that if the women were smaller than their men, they just might fit into her pack. While Zical and Xander seemed happy to meet another alien, Etru and Mogan’s faces tensed, their muscles bunched as if ready to fight.

Kahn seemed resigned to the addition of Dora to their traveling party. “Dora is a computer. She needs reprogramming. Or a good spanking.”

“Now that might be interesting,” Dora purred. “I wouldn’t mind a nice pink bottom like—”

“Dora! Shut up.” Tessa flushed. If Dora continued this conversation there was no telling what she might reveal.

Dora sniffled. “Compliance.”

The men looked at one another uneasily and then to Kahn who shrugged. “Dora has become one of the family. You’ll like her once you get to know her.”

IN AN ENDEKIAN spacecraft on the way to his homeworld, Jypeg sifted through reports. The Osarian partnership with the Earthling was doing substantial damage to their profits. With the homeworld over leveraged to support their expansion within the Federation, the Endekian economy was hemorrhaging—all due to that damnable female’s usurpation of their most lucrative contracts.

Jypeg looked up from his reports and sneered at Trask, his second in command. “Rystan’s inhabitable area is small. Why have we not found their base? Where are they mining the glow stones?”

Trask tried to justify his incompetence. “The Rystani may not have much technology, sir, but they are cunning. They use different routes and remain in groups too small for our orbiting spacecraft to track.”

“I don’t want excuses. I want results.”

“Sir, we are no better than our technology. The snowstorms are hindering—”

“Didn’t you hear me?”

Trask turned pale yellow. “What would you have me do, sir?”

“Find Kahn and his mate. I want them dead. Preferably her first, so he can watch her die.”

“That may not be possible. Rystani men are most protective of their women.”

Jypeg’s glowered at Trask. “How dare you lecture me.” When Jypeg pointed to the scar on his face, his underling cringed. “Every day I look at this face and recall the protectiveness of Rystani men.”

“I apologize, sir. How do you expect our men to find Kahn and the Earthling if our machines cannot see through their thick winter storms and if the radiation distorts our readings?”

“Send men down to the planet. Let them search—”

“But the weather—”

“If the Rystani can survive down there, so can we.”

ON THE SURFACE of Rystan, a fifth man walked out of the snow, leading a line of huge gray beasts with beady mocha-colored eyes. The
masdons
possessed thick muddy-gray hair to protect them from the cold, and reminded Tessa of elephants, but walked on six massive legs.

The man leading the beasts bent against the wind. Older than the others and thinner, Tessa believed he was the eldest of them all. Recalling the life expectancy of people who wore the suit, she figured he would live for at least another century or two. His ancient eyes crinkled, and the lines deepened as he glared at her arms around Kahn’s neck.

Tessa dropped her eyes, but she didn’t remove her arms. If Kahn didn’t want her touch, her husband would have to tell her so himself. She didn’t need more men telling her what to do. Her husband was enough, thank you very much.

“Nasser, this is my wife, Tessa,” Kahn introduced her, ignoring the man’s disapproving glare. “While I settle her into position, you all should partake of the meal inside the shuttle. Tessa prepared her favorite Earth foods of pizza and beer for you. Enjoy.”

The men departed, heading for the hatch. While she wasn’t hungry, she would have preferred to join them instead of climbing atop the
masdon
. She’d grown up in cities and had never even ridden a horse. This beast looked huge, and from Kahn’s arms and through the falling snow, she couldn’t even see the animal’s full height.

“Kahn, why don’t we use null-grav to travel?”

“The suits don’t have that kind of energy.”

However, Kahn used null-grav to float them to the animals’ back where an armored saddle awaited riders. Tessa only saw one seat and Kahn raised his leg to settle into stirrups. Then she parted her legs, and he floated her in front of him, fitted her feet into her own set of stirrups.

He pointed to a blanket and pillow. “Lie on your stomach. Place your head on the pillow.”

“Why can’t I sit up?”

“Because Rystani women don’t like heights. They travel lying down behind the armor where they are protected from Endekian sniper attacks.” He pointed to metal plating that would block her view.

“I won’t be able to see anything.”

“There’s nothing to see besides snow.”

“Are we likely to come under attack?” Cowering behind armor while unable to see the enemy or fire back struck her as cowardly.

“Recently, minor skirmishes have occurred all too frequently. We fear Endekian patrols are scouting ahead for the best way to make a major attack.”

Tessa laid down on the blanket and found her perch surprisingly comfortable. Warm and cozy and tucked in for the journey, she figured to catch up on some well-earned rest. In preparation for the Challenge, she and Kahn had spent an arduous week training. Her skills were improving but not fast enough. She wanted to learn to use null-grav and to control her suit’s temperature. Kahn had pushed her hard during their days and they’d spent the nights making love. A few hours of sleep would be welcome.

When Kahn pulled canvas over the top of the armor, she was in the dark, hidden from view, enclosed in a dark cocoon. Kahn removed the pack from her back and slung it into a side compartment. “You didn’t tell me about bringing Dora with us.”

“I was waiting for the right time. How long will it take to reach Rian?” she asked, trying to distract him from keeping a secret from him.

“A full day and night. And I’m glad you found a way to keep Dora with you.”

Tessa was about to tell him about her arrangement with Osari when his friends rejoined them. Then the
masdon
suddenly began to move in a gait that was surprisingly soothing. In no time the pleasant motion rocked her to sleep. Dreaming, Tessa floated on a sliver of time, unaware of the actual minutes or hours that passed but when she awakened, something was different.

She couldn’t feel Kahn’s psi, didn’t sense his presence. “Kahn, what happened?”

When he didn’t answer, the hair on her nape rose. “Kahn. Answer me.”

She listened intently but heard only the mocking keen of the wind, the slow thud of the
masdon
trudging onward and the flapping of canvas above her head. Reaching out with her psi, she stretched to her limit, searching for him. And met emptiness.

He was gone.

And one thing she knew for sure. He wouldn’t have left her alone—not voluntarily.

No, Kahn had promised to tell her when that time came. So, where was he?

Not about to move from the
masdon’s
back without a plan, Tessa wondered how Kahn had steered the animal. With the size and bulk of a small dinosaur, the beast paid absolutely no attention to Tessa as it slowly uprooted a frozen log with its tusks and searched beneath for frozen grass to stuff into a wide mouth with many sharp teeth.

She saw no way to steer the beast, no reins or harness. While the
masdon
might take her to Rian if she just waited for it to finish foraging for food, it might also break for freedom and the opposite direction of civilization.

Tessa reached into the side compartment and pulled out her pack. “Dora?”

“Where did everyone go?”

Unfortunately, to conserve the power in the computer’s limited batteries, Dora had been in sleep mode since their last conversation. She had no more idea about what had happened than Tessa who quickly filled her in.

“We’re lost?” Dora complained.

Tessa searched another compartment for a ladder to dismount. “It’s Kahn and his men who are lost, not us.”

“Very funny. You have no food, and I have a limited supply of power. We could die out here.”

“You wanted an adventure. Now quit bitching and help me think of a way to get to the ground.”

Dora sighed. “I don’t suppose you figured out how to work your null-grav yet? Leave it to me to make friends with the only person in the universe who has no idea how to operate her suit.”

“Hey, if you have nothing constructive to say, you might as well quit wasting power and return to sleep mode.”

Tessa twisted around and stared at the tracks the
masdon
had left in the snow, tracks so wide and deep a child could follow them. “Perhaps we should retrace our steps.”

“Good idea. Maybe they’ll lead us to Kahn and that handsome Zical. Ooh, how I adore those violet eyes of his. Did Kahn mention if he was single?”

“No, he didn’t.” Tessa had more important things to think about than Dora’s fantasy life. “Any ideas how I can steer this beast?”

“Did Kahn use verbal commands?”

Tessa had been sleeping then. “I don’t recall any.”