Chapter Twenty-Four
AFTER A QUICK shuttle ride, Tessa stepped onto the strange world of Laptiva to face the Challenge with her suit, a knife, and a test kit that would allow her to know what was safe to eat and drink. Kahn had told her they would monitor her progress through the star fire necklace, and she should never take it off. Although she was sure the Challenge would not be easy, her instructions from Kahn had been simple. To succeed she had to reach an obelisk shaped much like the Washington Monument. She had three days to complete the task.
The morning was windless, the silver-white and gold summer sun shone brightly in Laptiva’s azure sky with hints here and there of high cirrus clouds, as if some celestial artist had brushed and feathered the scene with just the softest of strokes. The obelisk shined in the distance clearly visible, but between the pewter-sand beach where she stood and the distant obelisk were a chain of islands that appeared to be stepping stones through a calm emerald sea.
A boat with a paddle rested on the beach, as if awaiting her. Tessa looked behind her and saw nothing but endless sand dunes. No trees, no signs of life. She pushed the boat into the warm water, climbed aboard and paddled to the nearest lushly landscaped tropical island that seemed no more than a quarter mile from shore.
Already she missed Dora’s companionship. While she still wore her earrings, communication with the starship was forbidden during the Challenge. As for her husband, she wished she could go back to last night and repeat their time together all over again.
“I’m in the boat, paddling easy,” she reported but had no way of knowing if anyone on the starship was currently monitoring her through the star fire necklace.
She paddled for maybe fifteen minutes before she realized that her boat was no longer moving—although she’d kept paddling at a steady rate. Equi-distant between the island ahead and the beach behind, her stroking had ceased to propel her forward. Nor could she turn the craft around. And the distance was too far to consider using null-grav.
“I’m stuck. Looks like I’m going for a swim, but I’ll test the water first.”
Tessa dipped her kit into the sea. The water contained no poisons or acids. After making sure her kit and knife were firmly attached to her suit, she jumped overboard, expecting to swim. Except she sank to the bottom like bendar.
KAHN PEERED INTO the monitor, listening to Tessa’s play-by-play, his heart dancing up his throat, his fists clenched, his thoughts unsteady. Three quarters of the candidates who attempted the Challenge failed. The test was complex. While he had every confidence in Tessa’s abilities, one mistake could be her last.
“Breathe,” Zical teased him.
“She’ll do fine,” Dora agreed. “She’s very adaptable. And she . . . Purple alert! Ships dropping out of hyperspace.” Sirens blared. Warning lights blinked.
Kahn tore his gaze from Tessa on Laptiva and the monitoring device to count three ships dropping out of hyperspace. Those ships shouldn’t be here.
“Who are they?” Kahn demanded.
“Endekians.” Dora’s voice changed into the clipped tones of battle mode. “They are locking cannons on our communications and flight bay. They are firing.”
Damn. Normally, he’d order Dora to retreat, but he wasn’t abandoning Tessa.
“Shields up,” Kahn ordered. “Return fire.”
“Compliance. Brace for impact.”
Kahn used his psi to lock his body to the deck, used his shields to protect him from a sudden depressurization in case of a hull breach or from flying debris. Everyone on board did the same, except for the baby whom Miri and Etru secured between them.
Several explosions rocked them. “We’ve taken three hits. Communications are down. There’s a fire in the shuttle bay. Engines are damaged.”
“Estimated time to repair?” Kahn asked.
“Unknown.”
“Get on it. I’ll help.”
“Compliance.”
Kahn turned back to the Laptiva monitor. He could no longer see or hear Tessa. The screen had gone blank.
UNDERWATER, TESSA shut down her shield tight. She could hold her breath for maybe a minute, not enough time to walk to the island. Swimming was out of the question. She needed to induce her null-grav. Summoning up the proper frustration wasn’t so difficult with her life at stake.
She shot to the surface with her null-grav, gulped several deep breaths of air, then again sank to the bottom. She walked across the sand, until she once again used the null-grav to breathe. She had no idea if this was the process she was supposed to use or if a more efficient system was possible. However, she made slow but steady forward progress.
When hours later, she finally reached the shallow waters of the next island, she didn’t immediately crawl onto the beach. Watching from the water, she surveyed the place for danger. When she saw a boat like the one she’d abandoned pulled up on the shore, the hair on the back of her neck prickled.
All was not as it seemed. Was she alone here?
Thirsty and hungry, she realized that she needed to drink soon or risk dehydration. Food she could do without for the entire three days if necessary, but after her exertions, her body was demanding nourishment and liquids. The moment she rose from the water, a table laden with food and drink appeared on the beach out of nowhere. She’d suspected the Challenge might have been constructed by the same race that had invented the suits, but the technology still astounded her.
“How convenient. I think up what I need and it appears.” Cautiously, Tessa strode past the sumptuous repast into the tree lines beyond, snagging a drinking vessel and a piece of fruit on the way. While it appeared the food was her reward for reaching this stage, she didn’t make any assumptions. Kahn had taught her that much. And more.
Thanks to him, she’d survived the water test. The foliage reminded her of Puerto Rico, but instead of tropical palms and dense underbrush in shades of green, here the dominant colors were henna, fawn and hazel. Tortoise-shell colored birds nested in the trees and cawed to one another. She saw no insects, but tiny lizard-like creatures sunned on—
“What the hell?”
The fruit in her hand vibrated. Tessa dropped the fruit and moved back several steps. A tiny bug-like creature ate through the dun-colored rind, it’s sharp teeth ripping the fruit and devouring it in slurping gulps.
“Well, I’m glad I didn’t eat you.” She imagined that ravenous bug biting her face, or worse, suppose she’d swallowed the creature and it had eaten through her stomach to get out?
The bug finished its meal and slithered away, leaving nothing behind. Thirsty after the long “swim” and with the hot sun drawing moisture from her skin, she had to replace the body fluids she’d lost. Reluctant to abandon the beverage container without further examination, Tessa set it down and eyed it. “Are you another trick?”
Strengthening her shields, she unscrewed the cap, waited for something nasty to crawl out. But nothing did. So she poured a few drops into the tester, waited the requisite thirty seconds and when the light burned bright purple, signaling it was safe to drink, she allowed herself one swallow.
“Tastes fine, but we’ll give it a few minutes in my stomach before drinking more.” She carefully recapped the weird-shaped vessel that reminded her of a mix between a canteen and a thermos, attaching it to her suit. With no desire at all to return to the feast and the possibility of more bugs, she headed straight across the island’s interior.
Along the way, she spied some fruit growing within easy reach and popped them into the tester. The yellow fruit tested green, poisonous to her system, and she threw them away. However, the red fruit were okay, but she remained cautious, taking just a few bites and washing it down with more water.
Two hours of solid walking brought her to the farthest beach where she could clearly see the next island in the distance, which she hoped to make before nightfall. Another boat waited there for her use, but this time, she saw no paddle. She supposed leaving the other paddle behind was her first mistake, but one she could overcome. After a half hour of scrounging through the jungle, she found a short wide branch that would do. However, when she returned to the boat, it was no longer there.
And the next island now appeared twice as far away.
“KAHN, WE’VE got another problem,” Zical’s face was grim, his purple eyes fraught with worry.
“What?” Kahn snapped as he perused the damage reports as they came in.
“We struck two of their ships that appear dead in space, but the other one is operational and—”
“They’re about to attack again?”
“Worse.” Zical peered at his instruments, his eyes drawn together in a frown. “The Endekians are focusing sensors on Tessa. Dora says there’s a high probability they may try to interfere with the Challenge.”
“Stars!” Kahn dropped the damage reports onto the console. He’d figured Jypeg was after him—not her. “We have to warn Tessa.” The Challenge was difficult enough for the candidate without hostile interference. Stress kicked adrenaline into Kahn’s system, and he ached to fight someone, smack his fist into Jypeg’s yellow face. But he had to think, suppress the rage erupting in him like a volcano. “We need to warn Tessa,” Kahn muttered. “But how?”
“Even if we could warn her, won’t that break Challenge rules and cause her death?” Zical asked.
“We should contact the Federation,” Etru advised as he came onto the bridge with Azrel, Corban, and the Osarian.
Kahn shook his head. “Communications are still down.”
“I’m working on it,” Dora informed them.
“We must get Tessa out of there,” Osari said in his flat voice.
Dora again inserted herself into the conversation. “While the shuttle isn’t damaged, the flight hatch is fused shut from the fire. A rescue operation isn’t possible at this time.”
Kahn’s frustration peaked. “There must be something we can do.”
Dora spoke hesitantly. “I can contact her through the earrings and the Federation need not know.”
“Do it,” Kahn didn’t hesitate.
Corban lifted an eyebrow and put his arm over his wife’s shoulder. Azrel nodded agreement. “Some rules are meant to be broken. If—”
Dora interrupted, “The Endekians have just launched a shuttle to Laptiva.”
“Dora, patch Tessa through the speaker so we can all contribute,” Kahn ordered.
“Compliance.”
“Tessa, can you hear me?” Kahn kept his voice level, but his fingers gripped the console so hard his bronzed knuckles turned a sickly tan.
Everyone on the bridge stopped talking and waited to hear Tessa’s answer. There was nothing.
“Are the earrings still working?”
“Yes. Either the Endekians are jamming the signal. Or, she’s simply not responding.”
TESSA RECALLED the amount of emotional energy required to null-grav her to the surface to breathe, rechecked the distance to the next island and figured “swimming” that expanse of water would tax her limits. And using her psi to go that far was out of the question. She might not have a boat, but she could float partway on a log. But she saw no handy logs floating around or nearby, and she couldn’t hack down a palm with just her knife.
Returning to a shady spot on the beach, she took a swig of water from her canteen and ate one of the red fruit. The golden obelisk in the distance seemed farther away than when she’d began her journey earlier this morning.
Obviously, other candidates completed the Challenge, so there had to be a way to get there. She couldn’t swim, didn’t have a boat, had no way to build a boat. If only she had a flitter like the one Kahn had used on Zenon Prime.
Tessa blinked.
On the beach in front of her—which had previously been empty—now sat an enormous creature that had a head like an giant squid, a body like a whale, and too many tentacles for her to count. Part of the celadon-pearl creature was on the beach, but she had the impression that most of the body remained in the water. Two huge periwinkle eyes on the massive head stared at her. She sensed nothing from the creature, no hostility, no curiosity, no interest. “Hello there.”
“Hello there,” the creature repeated her words, in her voice.
She tried to communicate again. “Do you live here?”
“Do you live here?” the creature mimicked, its impersonation of her perfect.
She had no idea if the creature was trying to communicate or not. Parrots on Earth could talk, even sing songs, but they had no idea what the words meant. Then again, the creature might be repeating her words in an attempt to learn her language.
Tessa pointed to herself. “Tessa.”
“Tessa,” the creature obediently repeated.
She pointed to the sand. “Beach.”
“Beach.”
She pointed to a tree. “Tree.”
“Tree.”
Tessa pointed to the creature. And didn’t say a word. She waited, curious to see what it would do.
“Zar.”
She pointed to it again. “Zar?”
“Zar.”
Okay, it was intelligent, trying to communicate. Now what? Tessa stood up and walked. “Walking.” She halted. “Stopping.”
Each time she said the word, Zar repeated. She had no idea if he understood. However, when she stopped, he said, “Zar stopping.”
Zar had obviously come out of the sea. She wondered if the creature might be amenable to giving her a ride. Tessa walked down to the water until it was waist high. Then she walked parallel to the creature. “Tessa swim.”
Zar backed his massive body into the water. “Zar swim.”
Tessa slowly approached the huge beast. “Zar. Tessa. Swim.” And she pointed to the Obelisk.
Zar nodded his head. She didn’t take that for a yes. A nod could mean yes, no, or I don’t understand.
Tessa held up one hand and said, “Zar.” She held up her other hand and said, “Tessa.” Then she clasped her hands together. “Zar. Tessa. Swim.”
Zar turned in the water, and the tentacles signaled to her in an unmistakable gesture to climb onto its back. Since the island held no viable options, Tessa didn’t hesitate. Either the creature would eat her, or it wouldn’t. Either Zar would give her a ride or drown her at sea.
When she neared close enough to Zar’s body, his tentacles grabbed her. She didn’t struggle, allowing the appendages to advance her until she sat right behind Zar’s neck. She pointed toward the golden obelisk. Zar headed out to sea, aiming for the next island instead.
Tessa sighed. She supposed having the creature swim straight to her final destination would have been too easy. And she was beginning to appreciate the cunning of whoever had set up this Challenge. Each problem that she’d had to overcome required different skills, both physical and mental. The lack of food and water were survival skills. Swimming after the boat stopped proved she could use her psi well enough to reach the next island. This time she’d had to conclude that Zar wouldn’t hurt her, that she should make use of him instead of attacking or fleeing. Each task seemed more complex, requiring increasingly intricate mental processes.
She was wondering what awaited her on the next island when Zar spoke. “You must find two keys to open the door to the obelisk.”
So the creature could speak. Her pantomiming had simply been another test. “Where will I find the keys?”
“One in your head. The other in your heart.”
That was real helpful. “Can you be any more specific?”
Zar didn’t answer. He didn’t speak again during the journey.
But Tessa spoke to him. “Thank you, Zar. I appreciate the ride and the information.”
Zar swam onto the beach. Before she could slip off his back, the tentacles gently deposited her on her feet.
She patted the creature. “I hope we see one another again.”
“If we meet again, one of us must die.” Zar began to back toward the water.
Tessa followed. “I don’t understand.”
“Find the keys.”
Tessa liked straight-forward problems. Put a hostile subject in front of her, and she’d fight. Give her a business to run, and she’d assess and analyze. But she didn’t understand what Zar had told her. She was supposed to find two keys, one in her heart, one in her head. And why if she met Zar again, did one of them have to die? What the hell did that mean?
She watched Zar disappear under the dark green waters with a sinking clench of her gut. The high cirrus clouds she’d noted earlier had burned away with the setting sun. So she had no difficulty spotting a white exhaust trailing through the troposphere.
No one was supposed to be here.
Was something wrong? Or was this another test?
While friends might be coming to this island, Tessa wasn’t taking any chances. She walked backward from the water to the palm trees so that it appeared from her footprints that she’d walked into the sea. After using null-grav to disguise her weight distribution, only an expert tracker would read what she’d done from the signs on the beach.
The shuttlecraft hit the sound barrier with one echoing boom that startled the wildlife. Tessa headed into the island’s interior, stopping at a pool of water, drinking and refilling her canteen after the liquid tested potable. Her rumbling stomach reminded her that one piece of fruit wouldn’t keep her body sufficiently fueled, but she had no time to hunt for food, not with the shuttle roaring down.
She needed a place to hide and wished for the cover of darkness or the dense underbrush on the last island. She had no time to bury herself in the sand. The shuttle landed all too quickly, dead center on the island.
Tessa used null-grav to lift herself into a palm tree. She didn’t have to wait long for the hatch to pop open. Endekians ran out, three groups of three in different directions.
Damn! The Endekians had broken the Challenge rules. Complications ran through her head. If the Endekians killed her, the Federation would assume she’d failed the Challenge. No way could she allow this new wrinkle to ruin her efforts. Before she finished assessing the situation a group of men rushed directly her way, their feet stomping the underbrush. Heart thudding, knife drawn, Tessa held her breath, remaining absolutely quiet in the tree.
“Tessa?” Dora spoke to her through the earrings, picking one hell of a time to talk.
“Shh.” She didn’t dare say a word about privacy mode, not with the Endekians thirty feet below her precarious perch.
“Endekians have landed on Laptiva,” Dora whispered in privacy mode.
“Duh.”
Tessa waited until the first group passed under her palm tree before speaking again. “Why are we talking?”
“We just got the communications up.”
“Aren’t we breaking Challenge rules?”
“Since the Endekians broke the rules, Kahn said we could break them too.”
“Okay. Come rescue me.”
“We’re working on it.
“What’s wrong?”
“The Endekians attacked us.”
Damn. Tessa hated being down here when Kahn and her family were in danger up there. “Anyone hurt?”
“Just minor stuff. But they fused our flight bay doors. We can’t—”
Kahn’s voice came through loud and strong. “Tessa, I want you to hide.”
“Hello to you, too.”
“There’s no time for pleasantries. You’re being hunted.”
“No kidding.” Slowly and silently, she lowered herself to the ground. If she remained in the tree, sooner or later the Endekians would find her. If Kahn wanted her to hide, she had to find a better place.
“Just stay out of sight,” Kahn ordered.
“Look, it’s getting dark. I don’t know the terrain. With Endekians overrunning the island, I figure the safest place for me to go is inside their shuttle.”