Page 98 of Hot Zone

Twenty-Four

Rustam held his breath. Everything depended on this. His life, his love, his future happiness. He eyed the time-travel booth and calculated the odds of getting there with Tessa before they were seized. Not good, curse it.

“We will let her go…”

His heart surged in his chest until he thought it might explode right out from behind his ribs.

“But we have a few conditions.”

He bottled up his exultation to hear their conditions, nodding cautiously. “And those might be?”

Athena held up one finger. “First, I implant a crystal under Tessa’s skin where it cannot be removed. She must always have the option of returning here at her discretion.”

The professor held up a second finger. “The child must be allowed to return to Earth to learn of his or her human heritage. You must swear not to prejudice the child against humans in any way prior to his or her return.”

Tessa swallowed hard beside him, as if it was just starting to hit her what all he was asking her to leave behind.

Athena held up another finger. “Third, Tessa must be fully trained as a star navigator…and she must be allowed to visit Earth to bring that knowledge to us.”

His first impulse was to roar in outrage. He couldn’t give away his people’s monopoly on star travel just like that! It wasn’t within his power to give, and even if he could, he wouldn’t.

Athena’s hard voice intruded upon his anger. “Think before you say no, Lord Commander. Mankind hovers on the brink of discovering it for ourselves, anyway. Your people have failed to erase the star navigator gene from our race. It’s too prevalent in human females for you to ever obliterate it completely, shy of eradicating our whole race. And if you were to do that, you know as well as I do that the entire Centaurian race would be annihilated in punishment.”

He snapped, “You do not need to quote galactic law at me, madam. I am well aware of the penalty for genocide.”

The professor stared him down, as uncowed as Tessa would have been in the same situation. Gods, these human women were something else. Reluctant admiration filled him for all of them.

“Fourth, you will give us your most solemn vow never to reveal the time-place of this lab or any of the nature of our work or scientific progress to anyone outside this room. Tessa will be responsible for enforcing your promise.”

“If I give you my word, nobody will need to enforce it,” he snapped, aggravated.

“Do you agree to these conditions?” Athena demanded implacably.

He didn’t bother to ask what the alternative was. He already knew. He would be imprisoned and experimented upon until he died because of their ignorance, or illness or else old age claimed him.

“I agree to your conditions. But the real question is, does Tessa agree?”

He turned to face her and said gently, “You will be leaving behind everything and everyone you’ve ever known. My culture is vastly different from yours and not particularly friendly to women in general. You will be a star navigator, which will grant you a certain special status among my people. But you will be an oddity at best and an outcast at worst.”

She turned over his words, obviously weighing them carefully. Out of respect for her, he did not probe her mind to see what she was thinking. Besides, knowing her, she would tell him soon enough.

She blurted out, “Will you stop sleeping with other women? I don’t want to share you.”

A crack of laughter escaped him. She never did or said what he expected. But that was part of why he loved her. He replied honestly, “I haven’t thought about another woman since I first laid eyes on you, let alone bedded one, and I have no desire to do so. There has never been another female even remotely like you in my life, and I highly doubt there will be another. And besides, with all our children guaranteed to be star navigators, I’m certain my government will give the two of us strict orders to…how does your kind say it…multiply and be fruitful with one another.”

A blush climbed her cheeks. “That would be how we say it, yes.”

He looked around the room. “Any other conditions any of you would like to set upon this venture?”

Tessa turned to her superiors and surprised him by asking outright, “Do you expect me to spy on the Centaurians for you?”

Beverly Ashton answered frankly, “Anything we can learn of them would be immensely helpful to mankind. We will not ask you to betray your lov—Lord Commander Rustam. But if he will agree to let you report back to us, that would be outstanding.”

“My government will want to review any official reports she sends.”

He and the general traded knowing looks. The Ashton woman had caught the nuance in his words. He hadn’t put a limit on any unofficial reports Tessa might send back.

Beverly Ashton replied with a tight smile, “Understood. Do you think they might be open to some sort of diplomatic communication at some point?”

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