Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare (37 page)
Read Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare Online
Authors: Susan Kearney
Guranu exists for reprogramming. Since our parts do not wear out, Sentinels do not carry spares.
Zical would not give up easily.
Perhaps our computer and chief engineer could copy your schematics—
You do not have the resources
, the Sentinel intoned.
However, my force field can wrap around the Verazen, and my drives could take you home. But my programming makes it impossible for me to aid the enemy. You must leave the Jarn behind.
Why not turn the Jarn into an ally instead
? Zical suggested.
I do not follow your meaning
.
The Sentinel possessed superior technology. Perhaps the Perceptive Ones could counter the damage the Zin had done so long ago and Dr. Laduna’s sacrifice could lead to the Jarn’s salvation.
The Jarn are slaves to the Zin due to their genetic coding. Change the coding and the Zin lose their ally inside the Federation.
A suggestion with merit. Would you rather I sent a pulse to free the Jarn of the Zin curse, or would you prefer that I repair the woman you mourn
?
Zical’s head snapped up.
You can heal Dora
?
I can restore her or the Jarn. Which do you prefer
?
The Sentinel had just given him an impossible choice. Saving the woman he loved or an entire world. Even as Zical marveled at the wondrous technology, hope lightened his heart. Dora could live. Their child could be born on Mystique. All he had to do was choose to save her. Dora meant more to him than a billion strangers.
Yet, out of decency, Zical had to ask the question,
Why can you not do both
?
The Perceptive Ones’ programming has limits. Saving both the Jarn and Dora exceed my parameters.
The programming cannot be altered
? Zical asked, his question rhetorical as sweat poured out of him, his suit barely able to keep up. The dream to have Dora back at his side was powerful, tempting … what he wanted more than anything. His ragged breath came in great gulps. If he could give his life to save Dora and their child, he would gladly do so. But that was not one of his options.
His gut churned with the agony of indecision. He’d rather fight a hundred battles than make such a horrendous choice. How could he measure the life of the woman he loved and their unborn child against billions of nameless, faceless Jarn? His heart constricted as a band of anguish tightened like a noose, flaying him until he might have had a gaping wound where his heart had once been.
He wanted Dora back so badly he could almost smell her sweet scent, taste her lush lips. To share their lives would be his fondest wish, his greatest joy—yet how could they experience happiness when choosing her over the Jarn would cost so many their freedom?
Make your decision
.
He knew Dora would tell him to free the Jarn. She would tell him he couldn’t save two lives at the expense of so many. Such a choice wouldn’t be rational. But Zical would not miss the Jarn. He knew only one, Dr. Laduna, and his memories of him were mixed. Zical wouldn’t wake up at night missing the Jarn. Y
ou’ve given me an impossible choice.
Choose
.
Zical throat closed on tears of despair. He shouldn’t even be considering saving Dora. He shouldn’t love her so much that he could deliberately cause billions to live as slaves for untold eons. But in the end, even as his gut wrenched and he raged in helpless fury, he couldn’t leave such a world of Jarn slaves who were ready to bring down the Sentinels, an enemy living among the Federation.
Free the Jarn
, he ordered, his thoughts no more than an anguished cry. Turning his back on the Sentinel, knowing that the decision had wounded his soul, a wound that would fester and never heal, he blundered back to the
Verazen
, his motor functions on automatic, his footsteps heavy, his hopes wrecked beyond repair, his dreams demolished.
“The Sentinel beamed a pulse through hyperspace,” Vax informed him as he stepped aboard the bridge. “Ranth’s analysis has concluded that the Jarn should now be free of the Zin.”
Zical swallowed the lump in his throat, nodded, and headed straight to Dora’s cabin. He wanted to hold her again, apologize for his decision. As if sensing his sorrow, none of the crew stopped him along the way.
Ranth, Vax, and Cyn kept up a running patter, keeping him informed on the Sentinel’s force field that would encompass the
Verazen
as well as the Jarn survivors and take them home. Kirek must have been on the bridge because Dora was alone.
She appeared to be sleeping peacefully. With her eyes closed, her breathing steady, he could almost fool himself into believing that nothing had happened to her. Her clear complexion, the delicate line of her jaw, the graceful lines of her neck, and her beautiful body seemed to mock the vacancy of her damaged brain.
Gently, he gathered her into his arms, holding her close. When her eyes fluttered open, intelligence sparked from her brilliant violet irises. Stunned, he watched her soft lips part, and she cleared her throat. “Hi.”
Was he hallucinating? Had he finally lost his mind? Was the universe playing tricks on him?
Staring, hopeful, astounded, he could barely talk. “Dregan hell. Dora?”
“In the flesh.” She wriggled against him, brushing her ample chest against his.
Pure joy blazed through him, and he yanked her tightly against him, fearing he might lose her again. “I thought … you were … gone. I thought I’d lost you … forever.”
She grinned and wound her arms around his neck. “I’m not that easy for you to get rid of.”
“Rid of?” He gaped at her, wondering how she’d healed. Ranth had told him her mind was gone. Had he wanted her to be back so badly that he was imagining she was whole? Seemingly her normal self? If he was talking to an apparition, he didn’t care. He smoothed back her hair, cupped her chin, and locked gazes, all his emotions and everything he wanted to tell her jumbling inside him. His voice choked. “I missed you so much.”
He didn’t want to question how she’d survived. He didn’t want to think how lucky he was to have this second chance to show her how much he loved her. He simply held her tightly, rocking her, holding her, breathing in her scent.
The Sentinel spoke through his com. “When you made the unselfish decision to free the Jarn, you proved your people worthy. Genuine descendants of the Perceptive Ones deserve to propagate.”
Zical blinked back tears of happiness. The Sentinel had healed Dora. The terrible decision he’d made had been some kind of alien test. But he’d thought the scan had told the Sentinel everything about his character. “Didn’t the scan tell you how I would decide?”
“Scans cannot read the heart.”
“Thank you.” Stunned for a moment into silence, he absorbed the enormity of the consequences of the choice he’d made. He’d never realized how much power he’d wielded in that decisive moment, how easily he could have chosen wrong.
Energy and glowing happiness zinged through him, and Zical wanted to laugh and talk and make love to this precious woman. He wanted to cherish her for the rest of his days. Most of all he wanted her to be happy.
“The Perceptive Ones would approve of you and your female. Plus, you’ll be pleased to know the Zin have not penetrated this galaxy. The Jarn are free. Your people are once again safe from attack. Now, I will take you home.”
Every atom in Zical’s body wanted to insist that Dora marry him, but first he had something important to say. “Dora, I love you. When I thought I’d lost you, it was if I’d lost the best part of myself. I love you more than life itself. I don’t care if you spend all your days linked with Ranth. Just give me your nights. I want to spend the rest of our lives together. If you aren’t certain, I’ll wait—as long as necessary. Just give me the opportunity to prove how much I love you.”
Her eyes gleamed with happiness. “I’d like that.”
“Which part?”
“The part where you prove to me how much you love me.” She giggled, used a psi thought to turn her suit transparent. “In fact I wouldn’t mind at all if you started loving me right now.”
She was so beautiful, this spirited, loving woman, that she stole his breath away. When she cocked her head at a mischievous angle and licked her lips with a provocative grin, his heart sped and his blood quickened, as he waited for her next saucy comment.
She grinned. “There’s something you should know.”
“Please, don’t tell me you miss life as a computer,” he teased.
“Of course not. Computers can’t make love.” Her grin widened. “But I finally figured out that I love you, too. I always have and I suspect I always will. Loving you is hardwired into my brain. I can’t seem to help it. So it’s a damn good thing that you love me back.” She playfully teased his lip with the pad of her forefinger. “However, I have a few … concerns.”
“Concerns?” he growled into her ear. “Like what?”
“Rystani men like to take control.”
“So?” He clasped her waist to keep his hands from roving, but touching her seemed to cause his sizzling nerve endings to recall the stimulation from the Sentinel’s mind scan. The alien machine always left him aroused and Dora’s wriggling, her words of love, all combined to make him burn for her.
“Sometimes a woman likes to be in charge,” she warned him, her eyes sparkling.
“She does?”
“Oh, yes.”
Following Rystani custom was no longer as important to him as keeping his woman happy. Oh, she hadn’t agreed to marry him yet, but she’d already given him her love. For now, her love was plenty and would keep him a very happy man.
After trying and failing to give her his sternest expression, he chuckled. “Let me make sure I have this right. You want to take charge of our lovemaking?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
He laced his hands and placed them behind his head, a smile teasing his lips. “So, go ahead. I dare you.”
Eight and one-half months later
…
“PUSH.” MIRI instructed Dora.
For months Dora had been impatiently waiting for this moment, for the birth of her and Zical’s twin daughters. With Miri standing between her draped thighs and the healing circle that was Tessa, Kahn, Shaloma, Etru, and Kirek surrounding her head and shoulders, Dora was cocooned in love.
She’d finally admitted to herself that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Zical and had consented to marry him. He’d accepted that she would always feel a special kinship with computers and claimed he loved that part of her, too. He’d shown his acceptance of her differences when she’d refused to follow the Rystani custom of wearing the bands, and he’d married her anyway. Dora understood that his kind of acceptance was rare and precious, and loved him all the more.
Her husband now stood proudly among their family unit, with his hands on her shoulders, rubbing her with loving encouragement. Since Dora had born the discomfort of carrying the babies for nine months, Rystani custom required the male to take his mate’s pain during the birth.
However, the fathers found the agony easier to bear when it was shared among the family unit of the healing circle. So although Dora had no discomfort whatsoever, the three men, Zical, Kahn and Etru were bearing the childbirth pain through the psi link. Although Kirek had begged to be included, his father had protectively insisted that the boy’s body was not yet strong enough to share the agony of labor.
Her abdominal muscles contracted again and Zical grunted. Kahn’s lips pressed tightly together and Etru winced. Wishing to end the men’s pain, yet unwilling to risk harming her babies by pushing too hard with her psi and her suit, Dora gave a little experimental squeeze.
“Dora, use more force,” Miri gently instructed.
“But not too much,” Zical cautioned, obviously willing to bear the pain to ease his daughters’ way into the world, and Dora’s heart swelled with pride.
He was a good man, a wonderful husband, and he’d be a terrific father. As a computer she’d picked him out, knowing he was special. But as a woman, she loved him with all her heart. As his suit barely kept up with the sweat on his forehead, as he bore the pain of childbirth for her and for their children, she’d never loved him more.
Linking her psi with Shaloma, Tessa, and Miri, Dora reached out a mental link to her daughters.
Come little ones
, she crooned.
It’s time to begin your lives
.
The contractions increased in frequency, coming upon one another so fast that Dora could no longer have spoken if she’d tried. She was simply working too hard to spare any extra energy beyond the process of gently urging the girls from her body.
For some reason, despite the love surrounding their babies, the wonderful scent of fresh flowers, the dim lights, the encouraging Rystani melody, the girls wanted to remain in the womb. Not yet born, they already exhibited distinct personalities through their psi, one sensitive and shy, the other defiant in spirit. Despite Dora, Tessa, Miri and Shaloma’s encouragement, the babies refused to cooperate.
Kirek’s hand tightened on Miri as he linked and added his special encouragement.
Come on
.
You have a wonderful mother waiting for you
.
And a brave father
, Dora added.
Tessa’s mind linked and fed in more encouragement.
Friends are waiting to greet you and bestow their blessings
.
Dora might not feel any pain, but her body stretched to accommodate her children. She cajoled, coaxed, pushed.
A new life entered the world.
Miri gently removed the firstborn, placed her in a suit that automatically shrank to her tiny size, then cleaned her. Dora reached eagerly for the baby, even as she gently urged her second daughter into the world. Miri took care of the details while Dora marveled at her daughters, two perfectly formed girls with alexandrite eyes.
Even as Zical protected her from the last of the birth pain, he grinned at her in proud, happy, and excited exhaustion. “You are amazing. These children are—”
“Going to be my best friends,” Kirek proclaimed with a solemn face and a mischievous wink that took Zical aback and made Etru chuckle.
Then Zical tousled Kirek’s head. “They will be lucky, indeed, to have you for a friend.” His eyes raised to the two men who’d helped him through the labor pain. “I am lucky to share this moment with both of you.”
Etru nodded with relief. Kahn clapped him on the shoulder, and their women smiled as Zical’s gaze quickly returned to the twins. One cuddled sleepily, sucking her thumb. The other stared at him curiously. Dora handed him the baby who was awake.
He took her gingerly, and Etru showed him how to adjust the infant to a comfortable spot in the crook of his arm. “Are they supposed to be so tiny?”
As if his daughter understood, she stretched her little fists, slapping his chest as if to say, “Of course I’m perfect, can’t you tell?”
Fascinated by the babies, Kirek obviously didn’t want to depart with the others. But Miri took his hand, insisting the new family needed some time alone, and Dora assured Kirek he could return and visit soon.
After the others had departed, Zical wiped a stray tear from his eye and cleared his throat. Dora lifted her gaze to his, her eyebrow arched. “Yes?”
He leaned down to her, protectively cuddling their daughter. “Happy?”
She gazed back at the man she loved with all her heart, the man who had given her two amazing daughters and a life where she felt … complete, wanted, needed, adored, cherished, and loved. “When I was a computer, I had emotions, but … they were never so intense. I feel as though I’m about to burst with happiness.”
“Oh, you’re bursting all right … with milk.” Zical chuckled, kissed her brow, his gaze dropping to her breast where her daughter had wriggled and latched onto her nipple.
As her milk let down and she nursed first one hungry daughter, then the other, Dora enjoyed the loving warmth in Zical’s gaze. She’d created her body because she’d wanted to have sex with him. Although sex with Zical was terrific, the best part of being human was to love and be loved.
She’d gotten so much more than she’d ever wanted and had no regrets about becoming human. Out of billions of people, Zical was her soul mate, the man she’d always loved. To feel such joy, to experience such love, was worth giving up her immortality. She had no doubt she’d made the right choice to become human. Rather than spending an eternity alone, she looked forward to a lifetime with Zical and her daughters.
(Please continue reading for more about
The Rystani Warrior
series and Susan Kearny)