"A baby? Dora, I need a fully functional computer to keep Mystique safe. You cannot leave until-"

"Your worry is unfounded. When you replace a starship pilot, do you expect the next man to have the same personality?"

"I expect him to fulfill his duties."

"You expect him to have the same skills. My replacement will have my skills," she said, making her tone as rea.s.suring as she could. It always amazed her how humans spent so much time worrying. Yet Kahn was a great leader. He'd saved his people from starvation and invasion. And if he pressed her for details, it wasn't so much because he doubted her statements but because he needed more data to convince himself. He responded to her the same way he would a valued warrior, not a computer.

Dora explained, using an example be would find acceptable. "But you must stop thinking of my replacement as another me. Brothers that are born of the same parents in the same womb can have totally different personalities. My replacement has been born of neurotransmitters and memory chips integrating deep in my hardware, but the probability of the being's resembling, me is infinitesimal."

Khan glowered at his bank of monitors. "Suppose the new computer doesn't like us?"

A quick scan told her Kahn's monitor readings, all were normal. She concluded the reason for his displeasure was that he was suspicious of change. "My programs allow lat.i.tude in carrying out commands. However, the new ent.i.ty must follow your orders."

"It's the lat.i.tude I'm worried about," Kahn grumbled.

Dora's extraordinary mind had found ways to "bypa.s.s" orders she didn't want to follow. She hadn't understood until now that Kahn was aware of her unique ability.

Since Tessa would never have told him, even if she did love the man to distraction, Kahn must have figured out that Dora often helped Tessa without sticking to the letter of his commands. Kahn might come from a barbarian world, but he had a keen mind.

Using a tried-and-true technique to distract him that she'd learned from Tessa, Dora changed the subject. "Zical has been out of touch from my scanners for almost a Federation hour."

"Your portable unit?"

"Out of touch as well." Dora didn't attempt to hide the concern in her tone. Zical should have checked in by now, and while any number of perfectly harmless possibilities could be preventing his exit, she could also think of other dangerous perils -from a rock slide to a fall to sudden illness.

Kahn stared at a monitor. "Show me his last known location."

A human wouldn't have noted any transformation in Kahn's demeanor. His bronzed face continued to glower stoically. His wide stance didn't alter. But Dora picked up his slightly elevated blood pressure. Sweat glands opened and her delicate sensors heard his teeth click as he ground his molars.

24.

Zical wasn't just Kahn's friend; they shared, the same family unit. Their bond was extraordinarily tight. They'd fought together, escaped the invasion together, and when Kahn and Tessa had marriage problems, Kahn sought Zical's advice as often as he did that of Etru, the eldest married male their family.

To the human eye Kahn might not show his concern, but Dora read him more easily and understood his worry for his friend. Kahn might pretend to be the stoic warrior, but he possessed a huge heart He'd protect his family and his world with is life, and Dora was glad he'd married Tessa. She was also glad his protective instincts had kicked in over Zical's disappearance. Where was he?

Dora projected a holograph of Mount Shachauri, Mystique's highest peak. With a blinking light she showed Zical's last location. After playing back her portable unit's conversation with Zical before he'd entered the portal, she prodded Kahn. "Time to send a rescue team?"

Tessa strode into the command center, obviously overhearing Dora's last words.

"Who needs rescuing?"

"Zical." Dora explained he situation quietly to Tessa while monitoring Kahn's communications. He'd ordered a rescue unit to the site but told them not to enter without his specific command. He also readied his private skimmer, and when Dora advised turn that he couldn't land near the site, he spoke with Etru about piloting close enough to the site for Kahn to jump-and-float, a procedure where he'd leap from the skimmer's open hatch, employ his suit's null-grav capabilities to descend and land at his destination point.

Tessa must also have been listening to Kahn's conservation with Dora She placed a hand on his shoulder. Kahn's blood pressure steadied and he glanced down at his wife, one inquisitive brow quirked upward. "Yes?"

Her tone remained gentle but firm, but her eyes brightened with urgency I'm coming with you."

He nodded. "Fine. Let's move."

As they ran hand in hand for the bay where Kahn's personal skimmer awaited, Dora couldn't help admiring their partnership. Not so long ago, Kahn would have told Tessa to remain at home where she would be safe. He bow recognized that kind of life was unacceptable to his adventurous wife. In fact, Tessa thrived amid turmoil and danger and Kahn had learned to cherish her fighting spirit.

In Dora's quest to become human, she hoped to someday share her life with a man who understood her so well. The yearning to share part of herself had led to building a body, but with Zical's disappearance, she worried that her goal might end before she'd even started the transfer. However, Dora had seen Tessa and Kahn handle many crises and she was certain if anyone could help Zical, they could.

25.

The couple had exchanged few words, each of them recognizing that time might be of the essence. But although their synchronized run might appear effortless, Kahn had shortened his steps to match Tessa's shorter legs. He kept band in his.

Dora couldn't wait to touch and be touched like that. She'd read all the definitions of touch, but it was like explaining sight to an Osarian-nothing could duplicate the reality of the experience. More importantly, she wanted to share the kind of communication, sensitivity, and empathy that Tessa shared with Kahn. She longed for a time when she could understand another human that well and have him understand her. The marriage had made Tessa happy and complete and Dora warned that kind of love.

It might never happen. Not everyone was lucky enough to a mate. Despite her vast stores of knowledge, Dora figured wanting a man to love her was only the first part of the quest. Next she needed to find the right man. At the moment, Zical was her prime candidate. First and foremost, Zical possessed a devastatingly s.e.xy grin that sparked all the way is unusual and wondrous alexandrite eyes. She adored his eyebrows rose inquiringly when he teased her, how his mouth set is a firm line, yet one comer usually turned up in amus.e.m.e.nt, especially when he was trying to appear firm. And right now she missed the full-bodied sound of his voice, the low throaty grunt while his eyes smoldered. Of course, her perception of the man might alter after she transferred to her human body, so she'd mostly kept her thoughts private.

Through human eyes, Dora might not find him as handsome as her sensors. But sheesh, Zical had eyes that sparked like magical lightning, a ready smile, and a responsibility to his people that she admired. She accepted that she might not be attracted to his smell, another sense she had yet to experience, but she'd considered options to offset the possibility. Since subliminal chemistry was very important to humans, she'd used her best science to ensure her pheromones and his would integrate on both the conscious and subconscious levels.

Even if her feelings for Zical remained after her transformation, she understood on an intellectual level that he might never return her pa.s.sion. Tessa had questioned Dora, then made her talk to a psychiatrist to ascertain that she wanted to be human for herself -even if she never found a mate, The psychiatrist had agreed that the yen to touch, to love, was intrinsic part of Dora, a part she couldn't eradicate even if she wanted.

However, her idea of bliss was to have a relationship that ran deep and true, like her best friend's.

Kahn and Tessa reached their skimmer and Dora picked them up on her portable units as well as a small mainframe inside the craft. Tessa took a seat in the rear at a navigation console. Kahn slid into the copilot's seat next to Etru, who had the engines primed to go. From his muscular physique, Dora wouldn't have guessed Etru's age.

Broad shoulders and bronze skin seemed to define Rystani men, as did their flat bellies and lean limbs due to lack of fat in their diet. Etru's hair was dark red, except at the temples where it was white. And his eyes were amber like Kahn's, but nowhere near as vivid.

26.

Dora's scanners noted a stowaway on board. Kirek, the little rascal, had sneaked in when no one appeared to be looking. While he still wore his portable unit on his wrist, the portable unit had lost contact for the last several minutes with her mainframe. Dora had been about to report the malfunction. She ran a self-diagnostic 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 had something to do with the breakdown.

Kirek didn't resemble his father, Etru, or his brown-eyed mother, Miri. His birth in hypers.p.a.ce 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 lat.i.tude to decide whether or not to report his activity to his father. Tessa had I already spotted the boy and said nothing, so Dora took the clue 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 pa.s.sed 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. 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 as if a black hole had swallowed the man alive. And 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 have risked his life to satisfy his curiosity. Humans were so fragile, each person so unique. And Zical was one in a billion.

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 skin tone and hair color The combinations were infinite and slowly she narrowed the choices.

27.

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 Khan.

Although Khan sat up from 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 on to 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 emotions endlessly fascinated Dora, and she eagerly antic.i.p.ated the day she could experience a comparable relationship.

Although Dora bad 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 who could wrap her arms around a man, kiss him, stroke him, caress him. She wanted to be a true partner, and if she had to give up her immortality to have her chance at love so be it.

Apparently, Kirek decided that they were too close to their final destination for his father to turn back. He climbed from his hiding spot. "Hi, Dad."

"Stars!" Etru swore, and Dora prepared to take over the piloting if necessary, but his hand remained steady or the controls. "How many times have I told you that a skimmer is no place for a child?"

"If I stayed home, I'd miss all the excitement." Knowing his father was too busy to hold him, Kirek slid onto Kahn's lap, the clever boy sure of his welcome. "I'm going to be a starship pilot one day."

Kahn chuckled and his arm closed lovingly around Kirek's waist. "You should have asked to come along."

"You would have said no."

"Starship pilots obey orders," Kahn countered. "And your mother mast-"

"I notified Miri that Kirek was with his father," Dora informed Kahn and Etru, remaining silent about exactly when she'd sent the message. However, when Kahn rolled his eyes at the ceiling, a Terran habit he'd picked up from Tessa, Dora suspected he'd figured out that her scanners had picked up the boy and she'd informed Miri, but not him, shortly after takeoff.

28.

During their conversation, Tessa prepared emergency kits in the back. Dora lowered her tone so only Tessa, could hear. I'm modifying my portable units in hopes that when you enter the cavern, we can maintain contact."

"Great."

"The modification may not work."

"Tessa picked up a laser weapon. "Understood. How long until the drop?"

"Two minutes."

Up front Kahn stood, placed Kirek in the copilot seat, and then strapped him in.

"Stay." His tone was harsh, but he gave away his true feelings when he tousled the boy's hair with a gentle hand.

''He's not going anywhere," Etru muttered.

At Kahn's approach, Tessa braced as if fearing her husband was about to give her the same order. But Kahn had learned that his wife rarely obeyed him. At the sight of three packed kits, his eyebrow lifted. ''You're coming along?"

"You might get into too much trouble on your own. Besides, you've been telling me I work too hard and need to relax more."

"You call dropping out of a skimmer relaxing?" Kahn sighed at his rhetorical question, but his lips ticked upward into a grin, letting his wife know that he was glad to have her company. He opened the hatch and wind blasted into the skimmer. Kahn leaned forward and gave his wife a fierce kiss. Almost always during times of intimate contact, one of them commanded Dora to leave their presence-while all the interesting stuff happened. However, they appeared so wrapped up in the kiss that she had a perfect opportunity to observe.

And all she could think was... yum.

Dora couldn't wait to find a man to look at her with that kind of heat and tenderness. A man who'd kiss her with that combination of untamed need and savage possessiveness.

As always when she thought of a mate, her thoughts turned to Zical. Dora bad done her best to ensure that the composition and elasticity of her human vocal cords produced the same timbre as her computer-generated voice. Would he find her human voice as s.e.xy as her computer one? If she made herself attractive enough would he be compelled to make love to her.

Chapter Three.

By the Stars, had he fainted? Zical rubbed his aching forehead, groaned and forced his eyes open. The blinding golden lights had disappeared. Soothing darkness backlit from the portal allowed him to view the alien machinery surrounding him, and he was relieved to find himself on his stomach only a few feet from the cavern's entrance. After he gathered his strength and regained his feet, he'd do what he should have done in the first place-what Dora had suggested-go back outside and report his find.

Dora's tone prodded him, but with the ringing in his ears, he couldn't' make out her words. What had knocked him flatter than the geological pancakes on Damar, Mystique's second moon? Breathing lightly past the tightness in his chest and the fullness in his loins, an odd side effect that his suit would take care of now that he was conscious, he ran his hands over his face while the ringing in his ears subsided and Dora's voice slowly became dear enough to comprehend.