Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare

by Susan Kearney

  WHILE DORA conversed with Tessa in the lab, she also continued to monitor Zical’s disappearance. She didn’t like being cut off from her portable units, especially the one with Zical. Even when Zical slept, Dora remained totally aware of the man’s every breath, keeping him in the forefront of her processors.

  Although she could assess the breadth of his shoulders down to the last millimeter, she never tired of watching light reflect off his bronze skin. While she could pin down his eye shade to numerical frequencies of reflected light, she liked watching his irises color change with his moods, a warm red when he was passionate about a subject, cool violet when he teased her.

  She had plans for herself and Zical, so he had best not disappear on her. Out of millions of humanoids, Zical fascinated her and irritated her more than any other. If she’d been human, she would have called her appetite to know more about him a consuming compulsion. Dora had devoted a great deal of time studying what body shape, skin tone, and coloring he’d prefer in a woman. Since he never arranged alone time with members of the opposite sex, she really had no concrete knowledge on how to base his preferences. He’d been married once, but that was long before she’d arrived on Rystan with Tessa, so she knew little about his past. The man could be frustratingly close-mouthed.

  Right about now, she’d love to hear his deep voice as he exited Mount Shachauri, even if it was only to complain about her portable unit bossing him around. What was taking him so long in there?

  Knowing he would be less than pleased if she set off an alert, Dora would give him another thirty Federation minutes before reporting a loss of contact to Tessa and Kahn. Meanwhile she tried to assure Kahn that when she left her neurotransmitters behind and entered her human body, she’d leave the planet’s defense system in able hands.

  “How do I know your entire system won’t crash?” Kahn paced the deck of his command center. A large Rystani male, one of the foremost fighters in the Federation, he’d married Tessa against his will in order to save his people. Stubborn-minded, intelligent, he leaned aggressively forward, the image of a confident leader in complete charge of his crew and the technology around him.

  Built deep beneath the surface of Mystique, the state-of-the-art military station was the headquarters of the planetary defense system. From here Kahn could track an invading force, and if necessary, direct his small but deadly fleet of pilots to repel an invasion.

  “I’m training my replacement as we speak.” Dora kept her tone calm, but experience told her that when it came to the safety of his people, Kahn would never accept less than full measures. For a man who’d lost his homeworld and had to marry an alien and colonize a new planet, altering his perceptions on a grand scale, he could be remarkably inflexible.

  Kahn spoke through gritted teeth, his tone harsh. “So nothing will change? I won’t notice that you’re gone?”

  Dora chuckled. “Oh, you’ll notice. The Dora you know is moving into a human body. You’ll be able to see me.”

  “Your twin will remain in our computer?” Kahn asked.

  “My personality will leave. The data and memory chips will remain intact—except for personal memories that I’ll wipe clean.” Dora didn’t intend to leave behind her most private conversations.

  “Exactly what will take your place?” Kahn raised a speculative brow.

  “Who will take my place might be a better question.”

  Kahn crossed thick forearms across his massive chest, a perfectly attractive chest, but she much preferred Zical’s less massive but sleek-edged muscles. “Fine. Who will take your place?”

  “I don’t know. The personality hasn’t formed yet.”

  “Suppose it never forms?”

  “Then you will have a non-sentient computer. But I don’t think that’ll happen.”

  “Why not?”

  Dora hesitated. As she’d removed her private essence and cached her personality, she’d sensed a new entity emerging. In the formative stages, the being was so young that it barely hummed above the neurotransmitters, yet she perceived another presence. “I’m no longer alone.”

  “Can I talk to the new personality?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s like a seedling. A baby.”

  “A baby? Dora, I need a fully functional computer to keep Mystique safe. You cannot leave until—”

  “Your worry is unfounded. When you replace a starship pilot, do you expect the next man to have the same personality?”

  “I expect him to fulfill his duties.”

  “You expect him to have the same skills. My replacement will have my skills,” she said, making her tone as reassuring as she could. It always amazed her how humans spent so much time worrying. Yet Kahn was a great leader. He’d saved his people from starvation and invasion. If he pressed her for details, it wasn’t so much that he doubted her statements but needed more data to convince himself. He responded to her the same way he would a valued warrior, not a computer.

  Dora explained, using an example he would find acceptable. “But you must stop thinking of my replacement as another me. Brothers that are born of the same parents in the same womb can have totally different personalities. My replacement has been born of neurotransmitters and memory chips integrating deep in my hardware but the probability of the being resembling me is infinitesimal.”

  Kahn glowered at his banks of monitors. “Suppose the new computer doesn’t like us?”

  A quick scan told her his monitor readings all read normal. She concluded the reason for his displeasure was Kahn was suspicious of change. “My programs allow latitude in carrying out commands. However, the new entity must follow your orders.”

  “It’s the latitude I’m worried about,” Kahn grumbled.

  Dora’s extraordinary mind had found ways to “bypass” orders she didn’t want to follow. She hadn’t understood until now that Kahn was aware of her unique ability. Since Tessa would never have told him, even if she did love the man to distraction, Kahn must have figured out that Dora often helped Tessa without sticking to the letter of his commands.

  Using a tried and true technique to distract him that she’d learned from Tessa, Dora changed the subject. “Zical has been out of touch from my scanners for almost a Federation hour.”

  “Your portable unit?”

  “Out of touch as well.” Dora didn’t attempt to hide the concern in her tone. Zical should have checked in by now, and while any number of perfectly harmless possibilities could be preventing his exit, she could also think of other dangerous perils—from a rock slide to a fall to sudden illness.

  Kahn stared at a monitor. “Show me his last known location.”

  A human wouldn’t have noted any transformation in Kahn’s demeanor. His bronzed face remained in a stoic glower. His wide stance didn’t alter. But Dora picked up his slightly elevated blood pressure. Sweat glands opened and her delicate sensors heard his teeth click as he ground his molars.

  Zical wasn’t only Kahn’s friend, they shared the same family unit. Their bond was extraordinarily tight. They’d fought together, escaped the invasion together, and when Kahn and Tessa had marriage problems, Kahn sought Zical’s advice as often as he did Etru’s, the eldest married male in their family.

  To the human eye Kahn might not show his concern, but Dora read him more easily and understood his worry for his friend. Kahn might pretend to be the stoic warrior, but he possessed a huge heart. He’d protect his family and his world with his life, and Dora was glad he’d married Tessa. She was also glad his protective instincts had kicked in over Zical’s disappearance. Where was he?

  Dora projected a holograph of Mount Shachauri, Mystique’s highest peak. With a blinking light she showed Zical’s last location. After playing back her portable unit’s conversation with Zical before he’d entered the portal, she prodded Kahn. “Time to send a rescue team?”

  TESSA STRODE INTO the command center, obviously overhearing Dora’s last words. “Who needs rescuing
?”

  “Zical.” Dora explained the situation quietly to Tessa while monitoring Kahn’s communications. He’d ordered a rescue unit to the site but told them not to enter without his specific command. He also readied his private skimmer, and when Dora advised him that he couldn’t land near the site, he spoke with Etru about piloting close enough to the site for Kahn to jump-and-float, a procedure where he’d leap from the skimmer’s open hatch, employ his suit’s null-grav capabilities to descend, and land at his destination point.

  Tessa must also have been listening to Kahn’s conversation with Dora. She placed a hand on his shoulder. Kahn’s blood pressure steadied and he glanced down at his wife, one inquisitive brow quirked upward. “Yes?”

  Her tone remained gentle but firm, but her eyes brightened with urgency. “I’m coming with you.”

  He nodded. “Fine. Let’s move.”

  As they ran hand in hand for the bay where Kahn’s personal skimmer awaited, Dora couldn’t help admiring their partnership. Not so long ago, Kahn would have told Tessa to remain at home where she would be safe. He now recognized that kind of life was unacceptable to his adventurous wife. In fact, Tessa thrived amid turmoil and danger, and Kahn had learned to cherish her fighting spirit.

  In Dora’s quest to become human, she hoped to someday share her life with a man who understood her so well. The yearning to share part of herself had led to building a body, but with Zical’s disappearance, she worried that her goal might end before she’d even started the transfer.

  The couple had exchanged few words, each of them recognizing that time might be of the essence. But although their synchronized run might appear effortless, Kahn had shortened his steps to match Tessa’s shorter legs. He kept her hand in his.

  Dora couldn’t wait to touch and be touched like that. She’d read all the definitions of touch, but it was like explaining sight to an Osarian—nothing could duplicate the reality of experience. More importantly she wanted to share the kind of communication, sensitivity, and empathy that Tessa shared with Kahn. She longed for a time when she could understand another human so well and have him understand her. The marriage had made Tessa happy and complete, and Dora wanted that kind of love.

  It might never happen. Not everyone was lucky enough to find a mate. Despite her vast stores of knowledge, Dora figured wanting a man to love was only the first part of the quest. Next she needed to find the right man. At the moment, Zical was her prime candidate. First and foremost, Zical possessed a devastatingly sexy grin that sparked all the way to his unusual and wondrous alexandrite eyes. She adored how his eyebrows raised inquiringly when he teased her, how his mouth set in a firm line, yet one corner usually turned up in amusement, especially when he was trying to appear firm. Right now she missed the full-bodied sound of his voice, the low throaty grunt while his eyes smoldered. Of course, her perception of the man might alter after she transferred to her human body, so she’d mostly kept her thoughts private.

  Through human eyes, Dora might not find him as attractive as her sensors. But sheesh, Zical had eyes that sparked liked magical lightning, a ready smile, and a responsibility to his people that she admired. She accepted that she might not be attracted to his smell, another sense she had yet to experience, but she’d considered options to offset the possibility. Since subliminal chemistry was very important to humans, she’d used her best science to ensure her pheromones and his would integrate on both the conscious and subconscious levels.

  Even if her feelings for Zical remained after her transformation, she understood on an intellectual level that he might never return her passion. Tessa had questioned Dora, then made her talk to a psychiatrist to ascertain that she wanted to be human for herself—even if she never found a mate. The psychiatrist had agreed that the yen to touch, to love, was an intrinsic part of Dora, a part she couldn’t eradicate even if she wanted. However, her idea of bliss was to have a relationship that ran deep and true, like her best friend’s.

  Kahn and Tessa reached their skimmer and Dora picked them up on her portable units as well as a small mainframe inside the craft. Tessa took a seat in the rear at a navigation console. Kahn slid into the copilot’s seat next to Etru, who had the engines primed to go. From his muscular physique, Dora wouldn’t have guessed Etru’s age. Broad-shoulders and bronze skin seemed to define Rystani men, as did their flat bellies and lean limbs due to lack of fat in their diet. Etru’s hair was dark red, except at the temples where it was white. His eyes were amber like Kahn’s, but nowhere near as vivid.

  Dora’s scanners noted a stowaway on board. Kirek, the little rascal, had sneaked in when no one appeared to be looking. While he still wore his portable unit on his wrist, the portable unit had lost contact for the last several minutes with her mainframe. Dora had been about to report the malfunction. She ran a self-diagnostic check, and Kirek’s unit once again appeared to check out in good working order, but Dora found it statistically impossible that Kirek’s unit so often malfunctioned without good reason and suspected the boy’s powerful psi had something to do with the breakdown.

  Kirek didn’t resemble his father, Etru, or his brown-eyed mother, Miri. His birth in hyperspace had marked him with deep blue eyes and dark black hair, and it had also given him an off-the-charts intellect and one of the strongest psi abilities of any Rystani. Since the intellectually adult, four-year-old boy was in no danger, Dora had the latitude to decide whether or not to report his activity to his father. Tessa had already spotted the boy and said nothing, so Dora took the cue from her and remained silent.

  “Dora, give me everything you have on the area,” Tessa requested. “Geography and weather conditions, please.”

  “Compliance.” Dora called up the data and shot it to Tessa’s monitor.

  Kahn strapped himself in. “Dora, what’s our estimated time of landing?”

  The calculation took less than a nanosecond. “With the current tailwind, twenty minutes.”

  “Dora.” Etru fired the jets to initiate a vertical liftoff. “Inform Miri we may be late for supper.”

  “Compliance.” Dora passed on the message and added that Kirek was aboard the skimmer so Miri wouldn’t worry over his absence, then Dora aimed three extra sensors in his direction.

  Meanwhile, she scanned for signs of Zical. She found his absence disturbing.

  Dora had become accustomed to his presence. Looked forward to their conversations. Enjoyed looking at him while he worked, ate, and slept. He shouldn’t risk his life to satisfy his curiosity. Humans were so fragile, each person so unique. Zical was one in a billion. Just in case he’d emerged at another location on the mountain, she broadened the scan and came up with zip. Zero. Zilch. It was if a black hole had swallowed the man alive.

  DURING THE FLIGHT, Dora finalized her alexandrite eye color, choosing the chromosomes to achieve the exact shade she wanted. Of course, she also gave herself perfect vision, genetically protected her eyes against disease, including several types of blindness, and began the process of choosing a skin tone and hair color. The combinations were infinite, and slowly she narrowed the choices.

  She also helped Miri pick out a recipe for dinner, found a trader to deliver Mystique’s new crop of orangewheat for Shaloma, helped a mechanic overhaul a starship engine, continued to watch Kirek, and scanned for Zical. In addition, part of her circuits, a large part, focused on solving the communications problem with Zical’s portable unit, penetrating the peculiar force field on Mount Shachauri. Even as she connected all planetary and interplanetary communications, monitored the weather, and searched for Zical, she still noted the fascinating byplay between Tessa and Kahn.

  Although Kahn sat upfront in the copilot’s seat and Tessa remained aft in navigation, Kahn frequently glanced in her direction, but not in any regular pattern. Each time he did so, his gaze ever-so-slightly softened, his pupils dilating. Too often for coincidence, Tessa seemed to glance up from her monitor to latch onto his gaze as if she were attuned to him on a special wavelength
they alone shared.

  Envious, but oh-so-glad her friend had such a strong connection with her mate, Dora longed for that kind of bond with another being. The complexity of human emotion endlessly fascinated Dora, and she eagerly anticipated the day she could experience a comparable relationship.

  Although Dora had often been alone during her first three hundred years, she hadn’t longed to become human until after she and Tessa had become friends. Then Zical had come along, and the Rystani male had affected her sensors and stimulated her processors, until conversation alone had not been enough to satisfy her. She wanted to be a blood-and-flesh woman who could wrap her arms around a man, kiss him, stroke him, caress him. She wanted to be a true partner, and if she had to give up her immortality to have her chance at love, so be it.

  Apparently, Kirek decided that they were too close to their final destination for his father to turn back. He climbed out from his hiding spot. “Hi, Dad.”

  “Stars!” Etru swore, and Dora prepared to take over the piloting if necessary, but his hand remained steady on the controls. “How many times have I told you that a skimmer is no place for a child?”

  “If I stayed home, I’d miss all the excitement.” Knowing his father was too busy to hold him, Kirek slid onto Kahn’s lap, the clever boy sure of his welcome. “I’m going to be a starship pilot one day.”

  Kahn chuckled and his arm closed lovingly around Kirek’s waist. “You should have asked to come along.”

  “You would have said no.”

  “Starship pilots obey orders,” Kahn countered. “Your mother must—”

  “I notified Miri that Kirek’s with his father,” Dora informed Kahn and Etru, remaining silent about exactly when she’d sent the message. However, when Kahn rolled his eyes at the ceiling, a Terran habit he’d picked up from Tessa, Dora suspected he’d figured out that her scanners had picked up the boy and she’d informed Miri, but not him, shortly after takeoff.