The Challenge (6 page)

“Of course I’m complaining. A man shouldn’t kiss a woman without her permission.”

“I don’t know. My female creators on Scartar spoke often about men. Haven’t you ever heard of being swept away?”

“Dora!”

“The symmetry in Kahn’s features combined with his muscular frame suggests that half the women in the universe would trade places with you in a nanosecond. Me included—that is if I had a body.”

“What kind of man would take advantage of vulnerable women with a sneak attack—”

“Attack!” Dora’s voice altered into an official cadence. “Warning! Warning. We are under attack.”

Tessa cursed under her breath as bells clanged, a siren screamed, and purple lights flashed. She’d intended to keep her conversation a secret, but now she’d accidentally set off the alarm. She wondered what else could possibly go wrong when a pair of invisible lips brushed her brow. Seemingly paying no attention to her, Kahn stood at a console and checked his monitors. “Alarms off.”

“Alarms off,” Dora repeated in an official tone, quite different from the one she’d used when speaking to Tessa.

When the alarms went silent, Kahn continued his conversation with a third party over his communications system. Odd how the man never quite reacted as Tessa expected. In her experience, most men would have been angry with her for setting off the false alarm, but Kahn had barely seemed to notice.

However, those warning systems were there for a reason and set Tessa on a new line of thinking. “Dora, what kind of enemies would attack this ship?”

“Endekians.”

“Are these Endekians part of the Federation?”

“Oh, yes. They are short and thick, yellow-skinned people with sharp teeth and a predilection for cold worlds with glow stones. Endekians take insult easily and live for revenge. They are not handsome or sexy like the Rystani men,” she added.

Tessa supposed she should be glad an Endekian wasn’t training her to take the Challenge. At least Kahn was easy on the eyes. With his muscular physique and height, he would attract female notice on Earth. But she’d been around many handsome men. Most were full of themselves, convinced a smile and a bit of charm would win over the ladies. She gave him credit that Kahn didn’t use his looks to get his way.

At the moment, Kahn tapped his fingers impatiently on his console. He no longer appeared to be speaking to others but stared at some kind of space chart, frowning in concentration. But even his frown couldn’t mar the attractive line of his jaw or his model-like cheekbones.

“There are no Endekians here. So why did you claim to be under attack?” Dora asked.

“It was a figure of speech. What I meant was that your Commander Kahn kissed me without my permission.”

“He didn’t. My sensors indicate that the commander has not moved from his seat since he entered the shuttle.”

“Maybe your sensors are malfunctioning.”

“I just ran a self-diagnosis. All systems are working at full efficiency. Perhaps your lip sensors are the ones that are damaged,” Dora suggested. “However, I don’t understand why you keep harping on this issue. Don’t you like kisses?”

“Whether or not I like kisses isn’t the point.”

Dora sighed. “It would be the point if you’d never been kissed.”

Never been kissed. Tessa remembered once feeling so naive and eager, so enthralled and wistful. She wished this artificial kiss didn’t have the same power to set her on edge as Mike’s had once done, and didn’t appreciate her body responding as if she were being kissed by a real person.

Tessa did her best to ignore the sensations. This might be her best opportunity to get answers about her situation. “What are the usual items humanoids request while on board the shuttle?”

“Food, water, medicine, navigational charts, communications, history, social and political customs of the major planets, emergency procedures, evasive maneuvers, trade rules, and regulations.”

Casually, Tessa asked, “Do you have information about the suit?”

“Only that all humanoids wear them, they are run by psi ability, and that they will help protect wearers in an emergency.”

“Dora, please be more specific.”

“If the cabin loses pressure, oxygen, heat, or gravity, the suit will compensate.”

“Does the suit do this automatically?”

“I do not have enough data to answer that, dear.”

“Dear?” Tessa was startled. “Did you call me dear?”

“Yes, dear. You said we are friends. Didn’t I use the correct honorific?”

“As a matter of fact, you did. Tell me about the translators.” Tessa hadn’t forgotten how easily she understood Kahn’s words and wondered if she could communicate as easily with others.

“Your suit translates other languages into your native tongue. If you speak to someone who doesn’t have a suit, your suit can be altered to emit the proper language.”

“Good to know,” said Tessa, wishing she had a hot cup of coffee to go with the friendly conversation. Earlier Kahn had said he couldn’t tell her more about the suit, but would the same rules hold true for the computer? “What else can you tell me about the suit?”

“The most delicate mechanism will wear out in four hundred years. I do not carry replacements, but they can be purchased on Tran, Mycan, Ikton, Blair, Zzss, and Zenon Prime.”

“Dora, enough.” Either Dora didn’t have the kind of information about the suit that Tessa was seeking or the computer had been programmed not to reveal it. “How many planets are there in the Galactic Federation?”

“Two million, five hundred, forty-two thousand, seven hundred and eighty-eight, dear.”

Tessa whistled in appreciation at the mind-boggling number. Millions of inhabited planets were out here, and Earth had been invited to join. This Challenge appeared to be an endeavor worth undertaking. “How many planets are humanoid? Does the Federation have any enemies? Dora, give me a brief summary of its history, please.”

“The Galactic Federation began thousands of millennia ago. Its beginnings go so far into the past that they are cloaked in mystery. Legends about the Perceptive Ones are sketchy, but it’s speculated that the older star systems have long since passed into dust along with their original inhabitants, but the evolving membership slowly expanded outward to the younger galaxies.

“The Galactic Federation is a governmental body with its own rules of interstellar trade. The body decides who can colonize and where. Each planet sets its own laws, religions, and customs, so long as they don’t interfere with another planet’s wellbeing.

“Three-quarters of the Federation sustains humanoid life of one kind or another. Other life forms vary from the crystal people of Macarobiana to the telepathic cloud runners of Ceylinnz. Trial membership is offered to planets after nuclear or space flight capabilities are developed.”

We had nuclear weapons in the 1940’s.”

“We want stable worlds in the Federation. We wait to see if you’re going to blow yourselves up before issuing our invitation. The Federation presently has no enemies. The vast distances of intergalactic space usually make war economically unfeasible and impractical. The occasional inter-solar system flare-ups are arbitrated by the Council of Zenon Prime, and there is no appeal. There are sporadic problems with ambitious pirates who prey on the slow interstellar cargo ships, and the Federation is attempting to police the threatened areas. The most critical current problem is the Endekians’ overpopulation and coveting of other worlds.”

Another shivery kiss started at her collarbone, skimming a path to her throat. Tessa placed a hand over the spot, but the sensation of warm lips trailing between her breasts lingered. “Stop it,” she hissed.

“Stop what?” Dora asked.

“I wasn’t speaking to you. These kisses are . . .”

“Are what?”

“Becoming more intimate.”

“Oh, how very lovely.”

As those lips teased the curves of her breasts, nibbling and licking until her nipples pebbled and heat flared straight to her core, Tessa began to tremble. “Can we continue our conversation later?”

“This was just getting interesting.”

“Dora, please.”

“Compliance.”

Tessa waited for the sensual kisses to cease then rose shakily to her feet and marched over to Kahn. “Excuse me, are there any creatures aboard that I don’t know about?”

“Are you concerned over the alarms? That was merely a faulty circuit.” Had Dora sent him a false reading to cover up Tessa’s mistake? Was Kahn lying to her to see if she’d confess?

“I’m concerned that there might be someone else on board besides you and me.”

Kahn’s amber eyes stared at her in puzzlement, and his mouth frowned, then he checked his controls. “We are alone. Why?”

“Someone is touching me.”

“Ah, I was wondering when you would bring up that little matter.”

That little matter?
That little matter wasn’t so little to her, and his comment revealed he was aware of the kisses. Only her self-discipline from years of martial arts training kept her anger from causing her right fist to jab his throat.

As if reading her thoughts he lifted one challenging eyebrow. “Your suit is touching you?”

“Well, it must be broken. It feels as if someone is kissing me, and I don’t appreciate being fondled. Can you fix it?”

“There’s nothing to fix,” he replied with a sincerity she no longer believed.

“Make it stop. Come on, the joke is over.”

“I assure you the suit is working perfectly.”

She stared at him, flabbergasted. Either he was completely dense or the translator wasn’t working properly. She was about to restate her problem when the sensation of two tongues simultaneously licking each of her nipples verified his candor. The man had only one mouth. He couldn’t be creating the exquisite sensations that rocked her back on her heels. “What the hell is going on?”

“Your training has begun.”

“My training?”

“I’ve already told you that information about the Challenge cannot be explained.”

“But you didn’t tell me why.”

He hesitated, then spoke grudgingly. “Additional explanation will hinder your training.”