Chapter Twenty-One
AT TESSA’S suggestion to talk about business, Etru about choked on his drink, and Kahn tried to hide a smile. With Tessa around, dinner would never be boring. While Miri had apparently taken Tessa under her motherly wing, Miri would have loved anyone who had saved her husband’s life. And Shaloma, the poor kid had developed a case of serious heroine-worship, looking at Tessa like some kind of awe-inspiring goddess.
However hard Etru was trying to accept Kahn’s wife after she’d saved his life from the Endekians, his friend couldn’t conceal the disapproval in his eyes at her impudent suggestion. Kahn had once reacted to her in the same way. But no more. She’d repeatedly proven to him that she had good ideas. Although he found himself holding his breath, it was due to anticipation, as he eagerly awaited to hear what outrageous scheme she had in her creative mind.
Etru sipped his ale, then spoke firmly. “Women tend to home, hearth, and children. They don’t speak of business matters.”
Kahn spoke lightly. “We should hear her out, Etru. Tessa has a good head for business as well as tactics.”
Tessa spoke softly. “My business ideas focus around putting more food on the table.”
Somehow Kahn just knew she wasn’t talking about distributing supplies she’d bought on Zenon Prime, or cooking, or opening up one of those restaurants he’d seen on Earth. He stabbed a piece of octar meat in Jarballa sauce and savored the spicy treat, which put him in the most easy going of moods. “What are you thinking, woman?”
“You told me the growing season is too short to raise enough crops to feed everyone year round.”
“And?”
“What would you think about growing food inside Rian?”
“Underground?” Etru laughed. “Crops require sunlight for cultivation.”
“Actually, you are partially correct.” Kahn had to give Tessa credit as she ignored Etru’s sarcasm and kept her words diplomatic. Her face remained schooled to reveal none of her thoughts, but he caught a spark of agitation in her eyes as she continued, “Crops need light, but it needn’t be sunlight. On other worlds, farmers use artificial lighting.”
“To make those kinds of lights takes heavy metals and to power them would take—”
“Generators.”
“Which are not available—”
“Actually, they are, now.”
Kahn restrained a chuckle. He could see that he should have pursued his interest in his wife’s purchases, but watching her spring another surprise on the family was actually fun. She’d told him about the food she’d bought and about some of the machines, too—but obviously not all of them. “Tessa, what exactly have you done?”
“When you told me about the food shortages, I put Dora to work on the problem. She suggested our best bet was hydroponic farming.”
Kahn appreciated the our that indicated she’d made Rystani problems her own, and exchanged glances with Etru. While this had to be the strangest conversation his friend had ever had at their dinner table, his expression served to underscore just how much Kahn had changed since meeting his wife. Usually the men conversed about the hunt, the women threw in tidbits about their day. They didn’t discuss starting up a farming business with a name he couldn’t pronounce, and yet, as usual, Tessa had intrigued him. “Water ponics?”
“It’s a system of farming,” Dora explained. “It can be done underground with huge vats, lights, and proper nutrients.”
Now the computer was joining in the conversation. Kahn didn’t know what surprised him more, that everyone seemed to accept her as a new family member or how easily she fit in.
Etru shook his head at the computer. “But we don’t have—”
“We do,” Tessa countered. “We brought back enough equipment from Zenon Prime to begin a hydroponics farm.”
Kahn bit into a delicious piece of crusty bread. “Our resources are limited—”
“Dora can teach us the new skills,” she interrupted, expecting him to argue.
“—but this hydroponics idea sounds like it’s worth investigating.” Kahn backed her idea with enthusiasm.
“Who will Dora teach to farm?” Etru demanded. “The men must hunt or we will not last the winter. The women have their chores to do.”
Tessa kept her voice level as if she was deferring to Kahn. “If I see that the chores get done, can I organize the women to run the hydroponics?”
“I will help,” Shaloma added quickly, her eyes shining brightly.
Miri nodded. “As will I.”
“I don’t like it.” Etru took Miri’s hand. “You cannot exhaust yourself. You already do too much.”
“I will see that she eats enough and rests enough,” Tessa told them. She looked to Kahn, waiting his decision.
Stars help him, if he refused, the women in his household might revolt. And if he agreed, Etru would be none too happy. And yet, starving people couldn’t ignore the opportunity of creating a new food source.
Stalling, Kahn finished the last of his meat. “Where is this equipment?”
“Dora had robots store it in a safe place.” Tessa lowered her eyes. Obviously well aware she should have told him sooner, she’d nevertheless held back information until she thought she held the upper hand. Kahn realized that her caution was due to his past reactions and hoped that would soon change. He didn’t want his wife to be so cautious around him that she couldn’t speak freely.
“Where is the equipment?”
Dora sighed, just like a real woman. “I had Rob One and Rob Two dig out a cavern behind your quarters.”
“Rob One and Rob Two?” Etru asked?
“Robots who used their short-range sensors to find their way into a hollowed out cavern that is suitable for our purposes.”
Kahn could see the hope in Tessa’s eyes, the resentment Etru tried to hide. Kahn understood all too well that his people would be divided over the issue of women working outside the home, although women did help with the farming during the short growing season. He thrummed his fingers on the table, knowing that if the women failed, Tessa and he would lose much respect. And if Tessa’s plan succeeded, many would resent her because their lives would forever change.
Tessa had placed herself in a no-win situation and yet, she’d put the welfare of his people over any wish she might have had to fit in here. She didn’t seem to mind facing opposition, seemed sure she could convince other women to help her.
But, what choice did they have? Adapt . . . or starve.
Intellectually, Kahn knew that he should thank her for making a sensible choice, for attempting to feed his people. But he and the other men liked coming home from the hunt to a clean house, a warm hearth, with hot food on the table. Even more, they liked knowing their wives would be at home doing chores to make their lives comfortable, not working with some alien machines.
At the same time, he appreciated that Tessa had finally told him about her plan and had not tried to accomplish it without his backing. Although she’d bought the supplies and machines without his knowledge, that she would share her idea with him now proved that she trusted him more each day. And he liked having that trust.
“Are you sure you can pull this off?” he asked his wife, believing she could do almost anything she’d put her mind to. Her fighting skills with her suit had improved until she could almost give him a worthy match—except for the lack of null-grav. And while her temperature control remained shaky, she would fine tune that process, too. What she did not yet realize was that her skill now equaled most men. Thanks to the expertise she’d acquired on Earth, her agile mind and her will to work hard, she had come far in a short time. But he’d never have thought she could be so mentally tough, and remain so attractive. Despite her warrior ways, despite her lack of cooking skills, he took great pride in her accomplishments, and none more so than her winning over Miri and Shaloma to her side.
“I don’t know if we will succeed.” Tessa’s brows drew together. “I’ve never grown crops. I don’t even know how to assemble the equipment, but Dora said she can teach us. I believe her.”
Kahn looked to Miri. “Will the women help?”
“Some will.”
“We’ll have to gather the women together.” Tessa looked from Miri to Kahn. “Is there a place large enough to hold all of us?”
Etru shoved his plate back. “You’re allowing them—”
“To try.” Kahn understood the risks, hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake. “Etru, two generations ago, we had to adjust to the suits, a change without which we might not have survived. Now, we must adapt again. I want your child to grow up with food in its belly. I want our people to have enough energy to fight the Endekians when the time comes. Make no mistake, they want our planet. They know glow stones can be placed into projectiles and the extreme impact turns them into nuclear weapons. We will have to fight them off, and men do not fight well with muscles starved for meat and bellies growling with hunger.”
Tessa bowed her head to him. “Thank you.”
“No.” Kahn took her hand. “We thank you.”
At his words, she lifted her eyes to meet his, and her psi reached out and wrapped him in a warm embrace, sharing a moment he’d never forget. They had come together as strangers, married under the most dire of circumstances, yet they’d formed more than a workable alliance. Always, he’d feared that giving in to her would weaken him, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. Bonds of mutual respect were forging and making them stronger together than either would have been separately. Although he had no idea where the future would take him, he was pleased that Tessa would be with him.
TESSA SHOULD have known organizing the efforts of over a thousand women would be a task of masdon proportions. And without the help of Kahn, who’d taken the hunters with him while leaving only perimeter guards, Dora who had sensors everywhere, Miri’s common sense, Shaloma’s enthusiasm, and Helera, Rian’s wise woman’s support, they wouldn’t have even gotten to this point.
Tessa had called the women together in the chamber Rob One and Rob Two had dug out. From her position on a raised ridge of rock inside a rust-colored cavern that flickered with glow stone lighting, Tessa had told the women and children that Kahn had given his blessing to the massive undertaking of establishing a farm inside Rian. She explained how they’d brought equipment and supplies from Zenon Prime. How with Dora’s help they could help feed their people.
Questions from the audience came fast and furious, the women speaking up as if they’d attended town meetings all their lives. “My husband,” complained a woman in the second row, “expects to come home from a long hunt to a good meal, a glowing hearth, and a clean household. If I work for you, how will I keep my husband happy?”
The women in the audience murmured agreements. Many had the same questions.
Tessa raised her hand for silence, so she could be heard. She’d chosen to wear a traditional Rystani dress, cropped short to show leggings beneath. Even in her clothing, she’d wanted to portray a merging of customs both old and new. “We have also brought cleaning and cooking machines.”
“Enough for all?” asked another woman.
“Enough so that we can make do.” Tessa lowered her voice so the audience would have to subside their murmuring to hear her. The acoustics inside the huge cavern were surprisingly good and carried far. “We will have a communal feast for our men when they return. Some of us will prepare that meal. Others will watch the children of those who work on the farm. We will each do what we do best.”
“What we do best is stay home and take care of our families.”
“We don’t want to adopt alien ways.”
“Would you prefer to go hungry?” Tessa countered, hands on her hips. She didn’t want the debate to become confrontational, but it appeared she would have no choice. So far Dora had remained silent, but Tessa had her eavesdropping to find the natural leaders to put them in charge of different areas. She also had her noting the trouble makers, to send them home or at least isolate them from one another once they broke into groups.
At her strong words, Tessa heard many protests but no clear voice rose up from the audience. Helera floated next to Tessa on her right side, and the women quieted again. The wise woman was their unofficial leader and spokeswoman. The many lines of her face drew respectful silence; once again the women quieted.
“When I was a small girl, there was plenty to eat in Rian. The winters were not so long or so harsh. The men came back from the hunts triumphant, and the women took traditional roles of caring for hearth, home, and children. That was our way for generations and it served us well.”
“And so it shall always be,” said another elderly woman in the audience.
“I will not give my child to another to watch,” shouted a woman up front.
Helera speared her with a chilling look that would have frozen a glow stone. “Now our children go hungry. They may not grow properly. Worse, what will happen in another generation if we go on as we have? Suppose the weather worsens?”
Grumbles and whispers of fear washed over the crowd. Tessa had known she needed support. She’d expected to find it among the women just a few years older than Shaloma, since younger people usually embraced new ideas more easily. Instead, the oldest and wisest of them had embraced her alien idea and had made her feel that these people might eventually accept her.
“This might be the best opportunity we ever have to intervene in our fates.” Helera spoke slowly, giving the women time to calm their emotions and think. “We can go the way of the licaseum to extinction or we can act to save ourselves. Change is never easy. But Rystani women are strong people, and we can make changes.”
Cheers and applause came sporadically from the audience. Tessa estimated maybe one third of the women might be convinced. Not enough.
“I will not follow that abomination.” A thin woman pointed at Tessa. “My husband says that she fights like a man.”
Tessa was about to defend herself, but Miri came to float by her left side. “Tessa is different from us. She comes from another world with customs that permit a woman to work and fight or to stay at home and raise children. On her world, her job was to protect a great leader. And because of her skills, she saved the life of my Etru, as well as Kahn, Xander, Zical, Mogan, and Nasser.” Miri placed her hands on her extended belly. “Because of Tessa’s alien skills, my child shall grow up with his father. Yes, her talents are different from what I know, but that does not mean we should fear what she can offer.”
More murmurs grew. Heated arguments sprang up in several areas, including several shouting matches.
Tessa stepped forward and held up her hands for silence. “No one will be forced to do anything that makes them uncomfortable. And if our grand experiment fails, you can return to the old ways. I ask that you take a chance for a better future for yourselves, your husbands, and your children. Those who want to try, please stay. Those that don’t wish to participate are free to leave.”
Tessa expected very few people to stay. But only a few dozen out of maybe a thousand women left the chamber. However, she saw doubts, fears, and much hesitation on the faces of the ladies who remained. “I thank you for your support. More important, I hope the entire community will thank you when we succeed. Those who wish to work on the farm, please move to the right. Those who want to cook for the workers, go to the left. And those who will watch the children please step to the back.”
As the women picked and chose where they wanted to be, Tessa saw they’d actually divided into thirds. She had too many cooks and child care workers, not enough people to labor on the hydroponics, but it was a start. And they would make do.
KAHN PLANNED to hunt for four full days. He figured Tessa could use a break from her training. He didn’t want her to go stale, and more importantly, he intended to keep the men out of the women’s way until they worked out a system to tend to the children, the cooking, and the hydroponics. So the men broke into three large groups with a plan to converge at a preappointed place to clean their kill.
Unfortunately, one group ran into Endekians almost immediately. They escaped through a mountain pass. The second group met up with hunters from a neighboring village who had wandered into Rian’s hunting territory due to their own lack of game. Threats were shouted, but no blood spilled. Kahn’s group found several octar, barely enough to feed the hunters and keep them going, with little left over to bring home.
At camp for the night, discouraged men sat around glow stones discussing their options, protected from the wind by their suits and their sleeping masdons which surrounded them. Mogan and Xander pressed their argument to go farther south. Etru and Zical, fearing an Endekian attack, wanted to head back to Rian to protect the women. Kahn remained undecided until a psi shriek, unlike any he’d known, had him leaping to his feet. The shrill cry had broken into his mind with a thunderous blow and a hammer strike that made his ears ring and his heart pound.
Etru stood also. “What’s wrong?”
“Tessa’s in trouble.” Kahn prodded his masdon awake.
Zical exchanged a long glance with Etru, then angled his head in disbelief. “Kahn, how do you know?”
“She called out to me with her psi.”
Nasser shook his head. “That’s impossible. We are two day’s ride from Rian.”
“I heard her,” Kahn insisted, floating onto his masdon. It mattered not if his men followed. It mattered not that it was night. Or that Endekians might stand between him and Tessa. Not for one minute did he doubt that she needed him. Knowing her spirit as well as he did, he knew she would not have called unless a life was in danger.
With an urgent psi command to his masdon, he prodded the beast to top speed. He sensed men following, their voices pleading with him to slow down, but he didn’t heed their words to take cover, to avoid leading the Endekians straight to Rian. At the journey’s end, he would hide his approach, but not yet.
With every lumbering step, he could only think that Tessa needed him. He must hurry.
When a shuttle dropped out of orbit and landed in front of his masdon, Kahn wondered if the Endekians had found him. And if they already had Tessa. But he had no time to consider the merit of that idea before the hatch popped open.
Kahn reached for a stunner. As did his men who guarded his flanks and rear. He was just about to order his men to circle the ship, when Dora’s familiar voice called out to him. “Kahn, is that you?”
“What’s wrong?” Without hesitation, he floated off the masdon toward the shuttle’s hatch.
“I need to get you to Rian,” Dora told him. “Fast. I’ll explain on the way.”
Etru and Zical came with him. Kahn left Nasser in charge of the remainder of the hunting party and headed inside the shuttle. The moment Kahn, Etru, and Zical entered, the hatch closed behind them and the craft soared into the sky.
“Dora, is Tessa still alive?” Kahn asked the question that burned like a painful brand.
“She’s in a coma.”
He stiffened but didn’t lose hope or he would fall into a panic and would be no use to anyone—especially his wife. Lael’s death had torn him apart with grief, but losing Tessa wouldn’t just have devastating personal consequences. If she died all of Rystan would mourn . . . and suffer. “What happened?”
“Tessa went through the ice into a water pocket. She struck her head and couldn’t protect herself from the frigid cold. Helera is unsure if she will recover.”
Dora flew the shuttle straight to the cave and popped the hatch. “Go. Go. Helera thinks only a healing circle can bring her back.”
Kahn raced out of the shuttle, his heart thudding, his mind silently screaming. He didn’t know where the shuttle had come from. He didn’t know how Dora could be on it. Right now he didn’t care. His thoughts were on Tessa. She would not die. She could not leave him. She meant too much to him and to both Rystan and Earth.
Kahn sprinted to his quarters, shocked to find the hallways lined with dozens upon dozens of weeping women. They parted, their eyes brimming with tears, their sobs ringing in his ears as he rushed inside to find Tessa lying on a tapestry before the hearth. Helera, Shaloma, and Miri had their hands locked in a healing circle around Tessa.
Kahn, Etru, and Zical joined the circle, adding their heat and their psi to the women’s. Tessa still breathed, but her pink skin was tinged with blue, her lips purple. She didn’t shiver. Her breathing was light, her chest rising and falling with a shallowness that frightened him. He ached to take her into his arms, but knew that if she were to recover, her chance was best inside the healing circle. Kahn fought to keep his voice steady. “What happened?”
Helera spoke softly as the four of them shot psi healing to Tessa. “One of the children fell through the ice into a water pocket. Tessa dived in after him.”
Stunned that she would risk her precious life in such a foolish way, Kahn almost broke the circle. “What! She tried to kill herself?”
Shaloma shook her head. “She floated through the water with skill and purpose—like we float through air. She scooped the boy into her arms and brought him back to the surface. Her skin turned blue, and we tugged both her and the boy to safety.”
“Then she collapsed?” Etru asked.
“Not right away.” Miri spoke sadly. “The boy didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. He was dead.”
Shaloma continued the story. “Tessa shoved the boy’s wailing mother aside, struck his chest with her fist. Then she breathed into his mouth. He coughed and spit out water. She saved his life.”
“And then?” Kahn sensed the women didn’t want to tell him what occurred next. Something horrible had happened. He sensed it from their psi, saw it in the shadow of disgust and sadness in their expressions.
“Several women claimed that Tessa was . . . unnatural. Evil.” Helera sounded tired and exhausted as if the years weighed heavily on her thin shoulders. “Those hostile women panicked and shoved Tessa back onto the thin ice. Your wife wasn’t even scared. She tried to explain, to reason with them. Although she was somewhat cold and shivering, she was handling her suit’s control well enough to avoid serious hypothermia. The women were too afraid to listen to her words. Then the ice broke under Tessa’s weight. Again she fell through the surface. For a long time she didn’t come up. When she did, she was . . . like this.”
Miri filled in the gap. “We think she hit her head and was unconscious while under the water. I saw blood on the ice after she disappeared and heard a terrible thud as her head smacked. Perhaps she was too cold to use her shield. But she fought through it, came back to the surface and climbed into Miri’s arms before she again collapsed.”
Was that when she’d fired off that psi scream? When she was cold and frightened and alone? When she’d been slipping from consciousness?
Kahn should never have left her. With her aptitude for stirring discord, he should have known better than to let her out of his sight. And he was sick with grief over such an avoidable accident.
“Kahn, she called out to you.” Helera drew him from his thoughts. “I heard her psi scream your name. Now you must find a way to bring her back,” Helera directed, “or it may be the end of all our people.”
“What must I do?” he asked.
“The two of you share a rare connection that is older than Rystani history. You must find a way to ease a path for her back into the light.”
Kahn sent out his psi. “She’s closed to me.”
“Find a way to slip through or she dies,” Helera warned in a voice fierce and ferocious. “She’s fading.”
“Tell me how to do more,” Kahn pleaded, having no idea how to reach her.
“I cannot tell what I do not know. I’ve only heard the legends that say a psi mate must be willing to risk all to bring back the other.” Helera’s eyes found his across the healing ring. “You may have to stretch yourself so thin that we lose you, too.”
“I’m not important,” Kahn told them. “Tessa is. She must win the Challenge.”
“Kahn, we will be here for you,” Shaloma promised. “Use our strength to add to your own.”
“We could all die?” Kahn asked Helera for clarification and read the answer in her eyes. As much as he wanted to save Tessa, each person must take that risk of their own free choice.
Kahn’s gaze sought out the men and the women who meant so much to him. “Are you sure, my friends?”
Each of them nodded in turn. That Tessa was Earth’s champion and Rystan’s only hope of a final Challenge win outweighed all other considerations, but it didn’t hurt that in the short time she’d been with them she’d touched their lives in manners both significant and small.
Dora chimed in, her tone somber. “I will add my psi, too. Let us begin.”