The Challenge

by Kearney, Susan

  She hoped the lockers in the aft section contained supplies. “Do I have enough food, air, fuel, and water to make it to Earth?”

  “Yes. The craft is fully stocked. If you lie down on the floor, I can navigate us out of here at a higher—”

  “I’m there.” Tessa sat then lay on her back, cranking her neck to see the viewscreen. She could have chosen her stomach, but then she couldn’t have seen four different angles on the viewscreen. The sight of the flight bay doors straight ahead, a sturdy wall of the starship to the rear and one to each side. The pressure on her sore bottom enhanced her determination to leave. There was no point in staying for a mission she wasn’t equipped to handle. She had no psi power. And staying would be like sending an astronaut into space without an oxygen supply. “Head for Earth.”

  “Compliance.”

  The huge flight bay doors opened, and Tessa’s ears popped as the shuttlecraft pressurized. Slowly, the ship lifted and floated toward the huge open doors.

  Warning lights suddenly flashed, alarm bells sounded, and Dora’s voice increased in volume. “Purple Alert. Purple Alert. Kahn is attempting to take computer control.”

  “How can I stop him?”

  “You can override his command by placing the ship on manual control.”

  “Do it.” Tessa’s stomach lurched. “And tell me how to fly.”

  “The flight stick controls our motion,” Dora instructed as Tessa shoved off the floor and raced to the console. “If you want to go right, push the stick to the right. Same for the left. If you want to go up, pull back on the stick. Down is the opposite.”

  She had no clue as to what made the ship go, but she mastered the uncomplicated controls within minutes, grateful to the engineers who had designed the ship so simply a child could have flown her.

  Maneuvering inside the tight space of the flight bay was tricky. Tessa edged forward slowly toward the blackness of space, careful not to scrape the ship against the bulkheads.

  “Flight bay doors are closing,” Dora reported.

  Tessa’s heart kicked up her throat. Kahn was trying to trap her and the shuttle inside the bay. Shoving the stick forward, she increased their speed, trying to beat the closing doors.

  The communications screen lit up with Kahn’s concerned face. “Turn the controls back on automatic and let the computer pilot the shuttle before you do real damage.”

  “Warning, Warning!” Dora’s official tone sounded another alert. “Stop engines, we are on a collision course.”

  Tessa’s hand tightened on the control, but she didn’t slow the ship. “Dora, plot maximum speed. Can we make it through the doors without crashing at full throttle?”

  “No.”

  “Is there an emergency overdrive?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Can I boot us into high gear?”

  “Not inside the bay.”

  “Outside the bay, the speed can be increased?” Tessa asked, her excitement leaping as adrenaline shot through her veins.

  “Once we’re outside and away from the mothership, warp power can be initiated.”

  “Why can’t we warp from right here?”

  “The mothership would suffer damage,” Dora told her.

  “How much?”

  “Estimated repair time: two days, three hours, and twenty-two minutes. Cost of repairs: two thousand Galactic credits. Loss of life: none.”

  She glanced again at the closing flight bay doors. “I can live with that. How do we go to warp?”

  Dora made a light on the control panel blink. “Push that button.”

  Kahn shouted at Tessa through the holoscreen. “Don’t—”

  “Turn him off, please.” Tessa couldn’t afford distractions. The bay doors were already almost too narrow for the shuttle to escape. “On my mark. Now.”

  The ship didn’t accelerate. It jumped out of space into another place. Hyperspace. An overwhelming sensation of dizziness washed over her, and Tessa clutched the console to steady herself.

  The viewscreen blurred into a crazy maelstrom of lights while her battered senses strived to perceive her surroundings. Gravity disappeared. A sensation of nausea arose as her stomach flip flopped in an effort to seek a fixed harbor. Viewscreen lights pulsed at irregular intervals, and Tessa’s ears throbbed at the humming static. At the same time, her sense of smell heightened. Enhanced by the sweet mustiness of the alien environment, the odor contributed to her feelings of nausea. When she thought she couldn’t stand the heightened sensations another second, the warp drive abruptly kicked off, and the ship returned to normal space.

  “Dora, can Kahn track us?” asked Tessa.

  “Not through hyperspace.”

  She had escaped!

  Elation swept over her at the thought of returning to Earth. With Dora’s help, she could go home and regroup. Earth’s engineers could analyze the ship, delve into the secret warp drive, and maybe replicate the design. Maybe they could even figure out a way to get off the damn suit, which continued to torment her but at lower levels than before.

  However, no way would she let anyone tamper with Dora. In fact, Tessa wasn’t sure if Earth should give back the shuttle at all. Perhaps they could use the shuttle to trade for the equipment to clean up their atmosphere.

  Although Dora had turned off communications, the light still blinked, signaling an incoming message. “Dora, if I answer Kahn, can he track me?”

  “No. Communication transmissions go through hyperspace, too.”

  Tessa pressed the blinking light. Kahn’s amber eyes narrowed on her in obvious irritation, and he pressed his lips together tightly, jaws clenched. He scowled at her, his tone clipped, his voice devoid of inflection, yet still demanding. “Are you all right? Have you sustained any damage?”

  “I’m fine, thanks.” Astonished that his first words to her revealed concern for her welfare, she answered with as much politeness as she could muster. “How about yourself?”

  “The ship will require repairs.” Kahn’s voice although annoyed, revealed no hint of the reversal he’d suffered.

  “I’m sorry about the damage, but I did check, and the computer informed me that there would be no loss of life.”

  “The damage to the flight bay doors is extensive.”

  “When you tried to trap me, you left me no choice but to warp into hyperspace,” Tessa reminded him, pleased at how nonchalant she sounded, when in truth his holo-image and voice set her heart hammering, reminding her exactly how much pleasure he’d once given her.

  “This is my fault,” Kahn admitted. “I thought you would fall asleep. Never before has a Challenge candidate learned to operate mechanical technology prior to mastering their suit’s biomechanics. I never expected you to flee to the shuttle without mastering your psi. I won’t underestimate you again.”

  She didn’t plan to give him another opportunity.

  He frowned at her, his head cocked to one side as if trying to figure out what made her tick. “Perhaps your reckless behavior is responsible for your continued failure to progress.”

  “I’m sorry I’ve disappointed you.”

  Kahn locked gazes with her. “Once repaired, my ship will travel ten times faster than your shuttle.” Oh, no. “And since I know your final destination, I can simply plot a hyperspace jump to intercept your flight.”

  Oh, God. She’d thought she’d escaped him, but apparently she hadn’t—unless he was trying to trick her. She turned away so he couldn’t see her talk to the computer. “Dora, is that true?”

  “Yes.”

  Tired, emotionally spent, but nowhere near ready to quit, Tessa faced Kahn, drumming her fingers on the console and thinking furiously. “Kahn, let me go. I’ll find a way to pay for the damages. Earth can send another candidate—one better suited to the task.”

  “I cannot.” To give the big guy credit, he really did look sorry, and his voice oozed sympathy. “It’s against Challenge rules to change candidates once training has begun.”
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br />   “Suppose I died?”

  “Then I would have failed.”

  “But there is no reason to continue. I have no psi power.”

  “That remains to be seen.” At his statement another shudder zinged up her spine. “And you must pay for the damages to this ship. That is the law, and by accepting The Challenge, you are bound by it,” he stated firmly.

  “I was not a rich woman in my own time, and in this one, I don’t even have clothes on my back,” Tessa countered.

  “Then you will pay me with the assets you possess.”

  At the glint in his amber eyes, she thanked her lucky stars that for the moment, his ship was damaged and couldn’t come after her. “Goodbye, Kahn, though I can’t say it’s been a pleasure.”

  “Can’t you?” Apparently, he couldn’t resist one last parting shot before she severed communications.

  Even beyond the spaceman’s current reach, she found the glint in his amber eyes unbearably disturbing, almost as disturbing as his commitment to find her. No way could she let that happen. She recalled every tormented moment of his touch, and her determination hardened.

  The shuttle flew toward Earth, increasing the distance between them, but the likelihood of recapture remained at the forefront of her thoughts. “Dora, if we jump back into hyperspace and don’t go directly to Earth, Kahn can’t find me, right?”

  “Theoretically, that is correct.”

  She absolutely, positively didn’t want him to recapture her. Her bottom still stung, her pride was tattered. But worst of all, her body ached for him. Even now, she wanted his hands back on her. She wanted his lips on hers. She wanted his clever fingers performing their magic. She wanted completion. And release.

  Her body may have ached for him, but she hardened her heart. Kahn wouldn’t give her what she desired. He’d simply make the desire worse.

  Knowing this might be her best chance to escape, she couldn’t afford to waste the opportunity. Heart and mind in accord, she spoke with certainty. “Dora, put me in contact with Earth’s authorities.”

  “I cannot. Kahn’s jammed our communications systems.”

  “But we just spoke to him.”

  “The channel to the starship is still open.”

  “I’ll contact Earth later and let them try to negotiate for a new candidate to take my place. For now, please set a course for . . . Mars. We can hide in orbit behind the planet.”

  And then finally, Tessa slept.

  Chapter Eight

  KAHN SLEPT ONLY in short naps. Mostly, he supervised the robotic repair of the bay doors. Until they could once again close, he couldn’t warp through hyperspace and follow Tessa. However, after he engaged the starship’s big engines, he’d catch her in no time, tracking her with the device he’d placed in her suit for just such an emergency. So he had no reason to drive himself so hard, except that time was running out. She should have exhibited psi ability by now.

  When he still couldn’t get a handle on his churning gut, he retreated to Tessa’s chamber to lose himself in the only way he knew how. “Exercise program on.”

  “Choose your sport.” The computer directed.

  “Hand-to-hand combat.”

  “State the level.”

  “Ten.”

  “Ten is for experts.”

  “Command override. Alphex 1020.”

  “Medical monitoring required,” the computer informed him. At the first sign he was in distress or danger, the computer would automatically shut down.

  “Understood.”

  Kahn eased into a fighting stance and cleared his mind of the Earthling. With the program set on the maximum sparring difficulty, he would have to use every brain cell he had to avoid injury. He breathed in several long breaths and released them slowly and envisioned the clean white snow of Rystan.

  “Begin,” he ordered.

  His holographic opponent lunged. Kahn shifted. His foe faked a jab and then roared in with a spinning round kick to the head. Kahn blocked, countered, and . . . missed. Off balance, he altered his suit to null gravity, somersaulted, pushed off the wall near the ceiling, turned the gravity back on, and dived at the hologram at twice normal speed. His opponent spun, back fisted, and caught his shoulder. Pain radiated down Kahn’s arm. Pain he welcomed.

  For more than thirty minutes, he worked out his anger and frustration with Tessa, but mostly with himself and his untenable position. When he ended the program, his chest heaved, his lungs burned, and he needed a pitcher of water to replace the fluids he’d lost, but he still hadn’t found the peace or calm.

  Stars. Why hadn’t he watched her more closely? After the dreadful way he’d treated her, albeit with the best of intentions, he should have considered she’d try to flee. Now, she had broken the law, and they would both pay for the rest of their lives. He only hoped that Earth and Rystan wouldn’t also suffer consequences.

  Exactly two days and four hours later, the computer informed him, “The flight bay door repairs are now completed.”

  “Where’s the shuttle?”

  “Sensors scanning.”

  “And?” Kahn prodded, heading toward the helm.

  “The shuttle is not at the expected location.”

  “Damn, she must have warped into hyperspace again.” Kahn wasn’t worried. He couldn’t track the ship or communications through hyperspace, but once she dropped out of warp, her suit’s built-in transmitter would pinpoint her exact location.

  Except when he scanned the area of space between his ship and Earth, she wasn’t there. His heart jammed up against his ribs. Had she crashed the ship? The suit’s transmitter wouldn’t work if she’d died.

  However, if she’d flown around the back side of her world, the planet’s mass would block transmission. “Prepare for hyperspace.”

  “Destination?”

  “Earth.” But before they left, Kahn scanned the rest of the solar system. Nothing. “Jump.”

  Braced against the heightened awareness of his senses that occurred in hyperspace, Kahn waited impatiently for the return to normal space. He checked the sensor readings. Nothing. He tried the suit’s locator. Nothing.

  Again he searched the rest of the solar system methodically starting with Mercury and Venus and then outward to the colder planets. Earth hadn’t been blocking her signal, another world had been. Once again he’d underestimated her.

  “Jump for Mars.”

  TESSA STARED out the viewscreen in the hopes her people had colonized Mars over the last three centuries. After multiple shuttle disasters during her lifetime, the space program had lost popularity. She suspected Earth’s leaders had been reluctant to spend funds on reaching another planet when the money could be better invested efforts to solve Earth’s critical environmental problems.

  She might be the first Earthling to have gazed at Mars from orbit, and while she marveled at the reddish mountains and crater-pocked deserts, she hungered for a hint of humanity. “Dora, didn’t our astronauts make it out this far?”

  “My sensors haven’t picked up any recent activity. A few probes crashed on this world several hundred years ago. But since then—nothing.”

  Tessa supposed she should feel some satisfaction in being the first Earthling to orbit Mars, yet she knew Kahn was out there hunting her. The man wouldn’t stop searching until the Challenge period or she expired—whichever came first.

  “Any sign of Kahn’s ship?”

  “He’s warped into hyperspace.”

  “How do you know?” Tessa turned away from the Martian landscape to the console viewscreen. During the last two days, she’d learned that the blinking green light signified the shuttle’s position. A blinking line showed their current orbit in relation to Mars, and on command, Dora could zoom out and show her Earth, too.

  “Going to warp leaves a telltale autograph in space and each engine leaves a different signature pattern. I collate the data and—”

  “Okay. Will we have any warning if—”

  “He’s here.”


  Fear galloped down her spine, but Tessa wasn’t ready to give up. “Go to warp.”

  “We can’t. He’s grabbed us with a clutch beam.”

  Tessa couldn’t feel the beam, but she imagined a fly didn’t recognize that a spider was pulling it into its web, either. “Can we shake loose?”

  “Not enough power.”

  “Come on, Dora. Search your data banks. How do we get away?”

  “A shuttle this size cannot escape a clutch beam.”

  Tessa didn’t like that answer. She had no idea how Kahn had found her, but now wasn’t the time to ask. She had more immediate problems—like escaping once more. “Do we have any weapons?”

  “I’m not permitted to fire on the mothership.”

  “Will our weapons sever the clutch beam?”

  “No.”

  “Are you telling me that there is nothing I can do? Nothing?”

  “I am sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Tessa slumped against the console, her pulse racing. She couldn’t stop Kahn from hauling her back into the flight bay. She couldn’t stop Kahn from boarding. She couldn’t stop Kahn.

  She’d been defeated in battle many times, but never had the consequences been so severe. She reminded herself that she’d escaped him once. He was not perfect. Maybe she could escape again.

  Probably ten minutes passed before the clutch beam pulled the shuttle back into the flight bay with its newly repaired doors. Those minutes flew by like seconds, and yet, it contradictorily seemed to take a lifetime.

  The airlocks recycled, and the pressure changed. The door opened, and Kahn strode inside the shuttle. In the short time she’d been away, she’d forgotten his height and mass, how he towered over her. But worse, his face could have been carved of Martian granite.

  Tessa forced back her shoulders, raised her chin, and tried not to think ahead. From the frosty glare in his eyes that took an inventory of her from her bare feet, up her naked torso to her eyes locked with his, she figured she might be better off if she remained silent. She most certainly didn’t want to risk loosening the temper he’d obviously reined in so tightly.