Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare Read Online Free PDF

check, and Kirek’s unit once again appeared to check out in good working order, but Dora found it statistically impossible that Kirek’s unit so often malfunctioned without good reason and suspected the boy’s powerful psi had something to do with the breakdown.
    Kirek didn’t resemble his father, Etru, or his brown-eyed mother, Miri. His birth in hyperspace had marked him with deep blue eyes and dark black hair, and it had also given him an off-the-charts intellect and one of the strongest psi abilities of any Rystani. Since the intellectually adult, four-year-old boy was in no danger, Dora had the latitude to decide whether or not to report his activity to his father. Tessa had already spotted the boy and said nothing, so Dora took the cue from her and remained silent.
    “Dora, give me everything you have on the area,” Tessa requested. “Geography and weather conditions, please.”
    “Compliance.” Dora called up the data and shot it to Tessa’s monitor.
    Kahn strapped himself in. “Dora, what’s our estimated time of landing?”
    The calculation took less than a nanosecond. “With the current tailwind, twenty minutes.”
    “Dora.” Etru fired the jets to initiate a vertical liftoff. “Inform Miri we may be late for supper.”
    “Compliance.” Dora passed on the message and added that Kirek was aboard the skimmer so Miri wouldn’t worry over his absence, then Dora aimed three extra sensors in his direction.
    Meanwhile, she scanned for signs of Zical. She found his absence disturbing.
    Dora had become accustomed to his presence. Looked forward to their conversations. Enjoyed looking at him while he worked, ate, and slept. He shouldn’t risk his life to satisfy his curiosity. Humans were so fragile, each person so unique. Zical was one in a billion. Just in case he’d emerged at another location on the mountain, she broadened the scan and came up with zip. Zero. Zilch. It was if a black hole had swallowed the man alive.
    DURING THE FLIGHT, Dora finalized her alexandrite eye color, choosing the chromosomes to achieve the exact shade she wanted. Of course, she also gave herself perfect vision, genetically protected her eyes against disease, including several types of blindness, and began the process of choosing a skin tone and hair color. The combinations were infinite, and slowly she narrowed the choices.
    She also helped Miri pick out a recipe for dinner, found a trader to deliver Mystique’s new crop of orangewheat for Shaloma, helped a mechanic overhaul a starship engine, continued to watch Kirek, and scanned for Zical. In addition, part of her circuits, a large part, focused on solving the communications problem with Zical’s portable unit, penetrating the peculiar force field on Mount Shachauri. Even as she connected all planetary and interplanetary communications, monitored the weather, and searched for Zical, she still noted the fascinating byplay between Tessa and Kahn.
    Although Kahn sat upfront in the copilot’s seat and Tessa remained aft in navigation, Kahn frequently glanced in her direction, but not in any regular pattern. Each time he did so, his gaze ever-so-slightly softened, his pupils dilating. Too often for coincidence, Tessa seemed to glance up from her monitor to latch onto his gaze as if she were attuned to him on a special wavelength they alone shared.
    Envious, but oh-so-glad her friend had such a strong connection with her mate, Dora longed for that kind of bond with another being. The complexity of human emotion endlessly fascinated Dora, and she eagerly anticipated the day she could experience a comparable relationship.
    Although Dora had often been alone during her first three hundred years, she hadn’t longed to become human until after she and Tessa had become friends. Then Zical had come along, and the Rystani male had affected her sensors and stimulated her processors, until conversation alone had not been enough to satisfy her. She wanted to be a blood-and-flesh woman