Part 19 (1/2)

Usually she zipped down the cord and Ranth met her three quarters of the way. This time Ranth's welcoming presence wasn't there. Alone in the circuits, she surged forward, past the socket, deep into the core where time had no meaning.

Coldness. Isolation. Empty, frozen circuits with no spark of life reminded her of a planet too far from its sun to feel any heat.

Ranth. Are you here?

Icy silence.

Dora forged onward past wiring and hardwire, plunging into the area of Ranth's self-awareness deep in the core. Steering by pure instinct, she veered toward the biomatter, preying for a spark of sentience. Where was Ranth? She sensed... no life.

Inky darkness, obscured her last glimmer of hope. Ranth was gone. Dead. His personality had had nowhere else to retreat. Although the living organism of his brain remained alive at a cellular level, she couldn't find one particle of intellectual activity.

Dora began to withdraw, spied a vault that jiggled a memory. Stopping her retreat, she circled the void, wondering if Ranth could have hidden here. She saw no way in.

No way to communicate. Had he locked himself down tight?

And if he opened for her, would the dampening field destroy what was left of him?

Once she would have known exactly what to do. But she'd been unable to keep all her knowledge. She needed data but couldn't access the correct area. Yet the vault tantalized and frustrated her with its presence.

Think.

The field vas disabling their electromagnetic drive and their suits, but the inner core was the oldest part of the oldest part of the computer, which had originated on Scartar and had once been powered by radioactive fuel rods that wouldn't cool for thousands of years. Technically, there was enough power in the core to preserve Ranth, but if he remained alive, how could she contact him?

On Scartar the builders had created this vault to protect the computer records in case a stars.h.i.+p crashed. The records needed to he preserved in order to discern if a s.h.i.+p went down due to an attack or from human or mechanical error. Obviously, the original engineers had a way to recover those records, and Dora needed lo discover their method.

112.

The key could be anything, DNA, a pa.s.sword, a retinal scan. Reluctant to give up, but stumped, Dora circled the vault again, but saw nothing that would permit her to enter.

Determined to figure out the puzzle. Dora considered mechanical and physical means to open the vault, but every one of them put Ranth at risk-if he was still alive.

Her loops began to loop, but she didn't mind. Perhaps she'd miss something the first go-round.

Ranth? Talk to me.

A strange sensation, like a breeze blowing through her hair, summoned Dora. At first she ignored the whisper of the breeze, but the wind plucked and pulled, strengthening to a hearty gale. Then gusting at tornado strength, the maelstrom forced her back. Back. Back.

Tumbling, mind spinning, buffeted, she retreated from the sucking core, stumbled amid a mind-blowing torrent of windy confusion. Lost in the storm, she had no anchor.

”Dora. Open your eyes. d.a.m.n it, Dora.” The voice p.r.i.c.ked and poked and prodded.

Dora opened her eyes to find herself back in her body. Zical was running his hands up and down her arms over her shoulders, skimming down her back, creating a sizzling sensation of pure desire. Oh my. His hands on her skin, the tingling, was oh, so lovely.

After the coldness of her mental journey, she ached to throw herself against his chest and revel in the warmth of life.

Eyes lull of concern, he glared at her. ”Are you all right?”

”I... think so.”

He stopped caressing her skin, but with her every cell stimulated to the max, she surmised he must have been touching her for quite some time Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s had swelled and her nipples had pebbled to hard little points. Everyone else on the bridge deliberately looked away, a sure sign they saw and pretended not to notice. She supposed she should be embarra.s.sed but she simply couldn't summon that human trait. Instead, she was glad her body reacted properly. The stimuli excited her with a nervous energy that made her want to kiss Zical again, but she reminded herself that his concern was friendly, not pa.s.sionate.

He locked gazes with her, a.s.sessing her frankly. ”You've” been gone for hours. I tried shouting at you, but you didn't even flinch.”

”I couldn't hear you.”

”So I started rubbing your skin.”

”So that was the breeze I felt.”

”Breeze?”

”Never mind.” She didn't want to tell him that the breeze had grown into a whirlwind of need. That if not for his touch, she might still be inside, trying to figure a way into the vault. Even as she recognized her own physical desires, she understood now was not a good time or the right place to pursue her need ”If Ranth is there, he's 113.

hidden himself so deep I couldn't reach him. But the good news is that if we stop the dampening effect, be may be alive. Has our situation changed?”

Zical handed her a gla.s.s of water, avoiding a direct answer hiding his feelings behind the wall he'd carefully built to keep her out. ”We're rationing water. Life support continues to function. Without the computer we're flying blind.”

She sipped, appreciating the cool liquid on her parched throat, satisfied that she'd spied a telltale glimmer of intensity revealed he'd been more concerned about her than he cared to let on. ”Sorry, if Ranth's there, I couldn't find a way to reach him.”

Two days later the dire situation aboard the Verazen hadn't changed. One of the scientists had found gold cloth to be used for trading and they'd used glue and ingenuity to cover their nudity, the men wearing loincloths, the women togas. Dora had taken to wearing her link too Ranth over her shoulders like a necklace in case she had occasion to plug in fast.

A chemist had found a way to mix the nutrients for the materializers into the water, so no one was starving, and he'd created primitive batteries to power water recyclers so they could use as much as they needed far drinking and was.h.i.+ng. Theoretically, they could survive until their captors towed them to their destination. But the mood on the s.h.i.+p remained somber, the tension high, as they all wondered what would happen to them.

The inability to escape the tractor beam and their captors wore on everyone's nerves. Zical and Cyn had worked with a team of engineers and Dr. Laduna's scientist's to come up with a scheme to break the tractor beam. Nothing worked. Although the crew reported to their stations, there was nothing for them to do.

Zical had everyone training to resist an attack, but Dora suspected that his orders were more to keep people occupied than fight off their captors. Any ent.i.ties with enough technological superiority to neutralize their s.h.i.+p and their weapons were unlike to lose a battle of hand-to-hand combat.

With Zical busy a.n.a.lysing, a.s.sessing, and keeping up morale, Dora spent much of her free time with Kirek. Since Ranth was no longer present to help with the boy's studies, she tutored him in computer science because that was one subject she knew much more about than he did. Kirek proved to be an excellent pupil, his interests eccentric and far-ranging. When his lessons ended, they pa.s.sed many enjoyable hours discussing philosophy, religion, and politics, and ethics. Most of all, Dora liked being needed.

Kirek might have the intellectual capacity of a genius, but he was also a small boy, far from home and without none of the people who loved him most-his parents. With the hyperlink down, he missed communications with them, and she tried keep him busy. They played cards, chess and Kirek's favourite, Farmat. The child loved to gamble, and between his love of numbers, luck, and Dora's preoccupation with freeing Ranth 114.

from the vault, the child often won, showing an apt.i.tude, for complex and skillful playing.

Dora had thought he'd prefer his own room, but she soothed Kirek's sudden awakenings in the middle of the night due to nightmares by cuddling the little boy until fell back to sleep. Taking care of him, spending so much time with him over just a few days, brought them closer together than she'd have thought possible.

Until Kirek, she'd thought only in the abstract about someday having children. But she was just beginning to understand the many ways that people loved and how this kind of bond enriched her life, so despite their captivity, Dora was content on several levels.

Although impatient to continue their mission, although inpatient to form a different and deeper bond of friends.h.i.+p with Zical, she appreciated this time with the child more than she believed possible. His sweet innocence combined with his extraordinary abilities made him a compatible roommate. Both of them didn't quite fit in with the others on board Accepted but set apart, Dora and Kirek had much in common- including a fierce desire to complete their mission.

The s.h.i.+p had been in tow for five days when a solar system appeared on their vidscreens. Seven planets four of them with cities large enough to be visible from s.p.a.ce.

A cla.s.s four sun. Busy s.p.a.ce traffic between the three inner three worlds.

Zical rapped on the door, interrupting a story Dora was telling Kirek. ”Can I come in?”

”What's up?” Dora's pulse sped at the sight of him, but she kept her glance composed. Zical looked as if he hadn't slept since they'd dropped out of hypers.p.a.ce.