The Challenge (40 page)

“Actually, you are partially correct.” Kahn had to give Tessa credit as she ignored Etru’s sarcasm and kept her words diplomatic. Her face remained schooled to reveal none of her thoughts, but he caught a spark of agitation in her eyes as she continued, “Crops need light, but it needn’t be sunlight. On other worlds, farmers use artificial lighting.”

“To make those kinds of lights takes heavy metals and to power them would take—”

“Generators.”

“Which are not available—”

“Actually, they are, now.”

Kahn restrained a chuckle. He could see that he should have pursued his interest in his wife’s purchases, but watching her spring another surprise on the family was actually fun. She’d told him about the food she’d bought and about some of the machines, too—but obviously not all of them. “Tessa, what exactly have you done?”

“When you told me about the food shortages, I put Dora to work on the problem. She suggested our best bet was hydroponic farming.”

Kahn appreciated the
our
that indicated she’d made Rystani problems her own, and exchanged glances with Etru. While this had to be the strangest conversation his friend had ever had at their dinner table, his expression served to underscore just how much Kahn had changed since meeting his wife. Usually the men conversed about the hunt, the women threw in tidbits about their day. They didn’t discuss starting up a farming business with a name he couldn’t pronounce, and yet, as usual, Tessa had intrigued him. “Water ponics?”

“It’s a system of farming,” Dora explained. “It can be done underground with huge vats, lights, and proper nutrients.”

Now the computer was joining in the conversation. Kahn didn’t know what surprised him more, that everyone seemed to accept her as a new family member or how easily she fit in.

Etru shook his head at the computer. “But we don’t have—”

“We do,” Tessa countered. “We brought back enough equipment from Zenon Prime to begin a hydroponics farm.”

Kahn bit into a delicious piece of crusty bread. “Our resources are limited—”

“Dora can teach us the new skills,” she interrupted, expecting him to argue.

“—but this hydroponics idea sounds like it’s worth investigating.” Kahn backed her idea with enthusiasm.

“Who will Dora teach to farm?” Etru demanded. “The men must hunt or we will not last the winter. The women have their chores to do.”

Tessa kept her voice level as if she was deferring to Kahn. “If I see that the chores get done, can I organize the women to run the hydroponics?”

“I will help,” Shaloma added quickly, her eyes shining brightly.

Miri nodded. “As will I.”

“I don’t like it.” Etru took Miri’s hand. “You cannot exhaust yourself. You already do too much.”

“I will see that she eats enough and rests enough,” Tessa told them. She looked to Kahn, waiting his decision.

Stars help him, if he refused, the women in his household might revolt. And if he agreed, Etru would be none too happy. And yet, starving people couldn’t ignore the opportunity of creating a new food source.

Stalling, Kahn finished the last of his meat. “Where is this equipment?”

“Dora had robots store it in a safe place.” Tessa lowered her eyes. Obviously well aware she should have told him sooner, she’d nevertheless held back information until she thought she held the upper hand. Kahn realized that her caution was due to his past reactions and hoped that would soon change. He didn’t want his wife to be so cautious around him that she couldn’t speak freely.

“Where is the equipment?”

Dora sighed, just like a real woman. “I had Rob One and Rob Two dig out a cavern behind your quarters.”

“Rob One and Rob Two?” Etru asked?

“Robots who used their short-range sensors to find their way into a hollowed out cavern that is suitable for our purposes.”

Kahn could see the hope in Tessa’s eyes, the resentment Etru tried to hide. Kahn understood all too well that his people would be divided over the issue of women working outside the home, although women did help with the farming during the short growing season. He thrummed his fingers on the table, knowing that if the women failed, Tessa and he would lose much respect. And if Tessa’s plan succeeded, many would resent her because their lives would forever change.

Tessa had placed herself in a no-win situation and yet, she’d put the welfare of his people over any wish she might have had to fit in here. She didn’t seem to mind facing opposition, seemed sure she could convince other women to help her.

But, what choice did they have? Adapt . . . or starve.

Intellectually, Kahn knew that he should thank her for making a sensible choice, for attempting to feed his people. But he and the other men liked coming home from the hunt to a clean house, a warm hearth, with hot food on the table. Even more, they liked knowing their wives would be at home doing chores to make their lives comfortable, not working with some alien machines.

At the same time, he appreciated that Tessa had finally told him about her plan and had not tried to accomplish it without his backing. Although she’d bought the supplies and machines without his knowledge, that she would share her idea with him now proved that she trusted him more each day. And he liked having that trust.

“Are you sure you can pull this off?” he asked his wife, believing she could do almost anything she’d put her mind to. Her fighting skills with her suit had improved until she could almost give him a worthy match—except for the lack of null-grav. And while her temperature control remained shaky, she would fine tune that process, too. What she did not yet realize was that her skill now equaled most men. Thanks to the expertise she’d acquired on Earth, her agile mind and her will to work hard, she had come far in a short time. But he’d never have thought she could be so mentally tough, and remain so attractive. Despite her warrior ways, despite her lack of cooking skills, he took great pride in her accomplishments, and none more so than her winning over Miri and Shaloma to her side.

“I don’t know if we will succeed.” Tessa’s brows drew together. “I’ve never grown crops. I don’t even know how to assemble the equipment, but Dora said she can teach us. I believe her.”

Kahn looked to Miri. “Will the women help?”

“Some will.”

“We’ll have to gather the women together.” Tessa looked from Miri to Kahn. “Is there a place large enough to hold all of us?”

Etru shoved his plate back. “You’re allowing them—”

“To try.” Kahn understood the risks, hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake. “Etru, two generations ago, we had to adjust to the suits, a change without which we might not have survived. Now, we must adapt again. I want your child to grow up with food in its belly. I want our people to have enough energy to fight the Endekians when the time comes. Make no mistake, they want our planet. They know glow stones can be placed into projectiles and the extreme impact turns them into nuclear weapons. We will have to fight them off, and men do not fight well with muscles starved for meat and bellies growling with hunger.”

Tessa bowed her head to him. “Thank you.”

“No.” Kahn took her hand. “We thank you.”

At his words, she lifted her eyes to meet his, and her psi reached out and wrapped him in a warm embrace, sharing a moment he’d never forget. They had come together as strangers, married under the most dire of circumstances, yet they’d formed more than a workable alliance. Always, he’d feared that giving in to her would weaken him, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. Bonds of mutual respect were forging and making them stronger together than either would have been separately. Although he had no idea where the future would take him, he was pleased that Tessa would be with him.

TESSA SHOULD have known organizing the efforts of over a thousand women would be a task of
masdon
proportions. And without the help of Kahn, who’d taken the hunters with him while leaving only perimeter guards, Dora who had sensors everywhere, Miri’s common sense, Shaloma’s enthusiasm, and Helera, Rian’s wise woman’s support, they wouldn’t have even gotten to this point.

Tessa had called the women together in the chamber Rob One and Rob Two had dug out. From her position on a raised ridge of rock inside a rust-colored cavern that flickered with glow stone lighting, Tessa had told the women and children that Kahn had given his blessing to the massive undertaking of establishing a farm inside Rian. She explained how they’d brought equipment and supplies from Zenon Prime. How with Dora’s help they could help feed their people.

Questions from the audience came fast and furious, the women speaking up as if they’d attended town meetings all their lives. “My husband,” complained a woman in the second row, “expects to come home from a long hunt to a good meal, a glowing hearth, and a clean household. If I work for you, how will I keep my husband happy?”

The women in the audience murmured agreements. Many had the same questions.

Tessa raised her hand for silence, so she could be heard. She’d chosen to wear a traditional Rystani dress, cropped short to show leggings beneath. Even in her clothing, she’d wanted to portray a merging of customs both old and new. “We have also brought cleaning and cooking machines.”

“Enough for all?” asked another woman.

“Enough so that we can make do.” Tessa lowered her voice so the audience would have to subside their murmuring to hear her. The acoustics inside the huge cavern were surprisingly good and carried far. “We will have a communal feast for our men when they return. Some of us will prepare that meal. Others will watch the children of those who work on the farm. We will each do what we do best.”

“What we do best is stay home and take care of our families.”

“We don’t want to adopt alien ways.”

“Would you prefer to go hungry?” Tessa countered, hands on her hips. She didn’t want the debate to become confrontational, but it appeared she would have no choice. So far Dora had remained silent, but Tessa had her eavesdropping to find the natural leaders to put them in charge of different areas. She also had her noting the trouble makers, to send them home or at least isolate them from one another once they broke into groups.

At her strong words, Tessa heard many protests but no clear voice rose up from the audience. Helera floated next to Tessa on her right side, and the women quieted again. The wise woman was their unofficial leader and spokeswoman. The many lines of her face drew respectful silence; once again the women quieted.

“When I was a small girl, there was plenty to eat in Rian. The winters were not so long or so harsh. The men came back from the hunts triumphant, and the women took traditional roles of caring for hearth, home, and children. That was our way for generations and it served us well.”

“And so it shall always be,” said another elderly woman in the audience.

“I will not give my child to another to watch,” shouted a woman up front.

Helera speared her with a chilling look that would have frozen a glow stone. “Now our children go hungry. They may not grow properly. Worse, what will happen in another generation if we go on as we have? Suppose the weather worsens?”

Grumbles and whispers of fear washed over the crowd. Tessa had known she needed support. She’d expected to find it among the women just a few years older than Shaloma, since younger people usually embraced new ideas more easily. Instead, the oldest and wisest of them had embraced her alien idea and had made her feel that these people might eventually accept her.

“This might be the best opportunity we ever have to intervene in our fates.” Helera spoke slowly, giving the women time to calm their emotions and think. “We can go the way of the licaseum to extinction or we can act to save ourselves. Change is never easy. But Rystani women are strong people, and we can make changes.”