Cyborg Nation by Kaitlyn O'Connor (english readers TXT) 📗

table top while he waited impatiently for her to finish. She threw him a frowning reproach, glared at his fingers for several moments and finally sighed.

He instantly had the uneasy feeling that sigh was somehow significant.

“This contract is for seven years. They’re usually only for five.”

He bared his teeth at her in the best approximation of a smile he could manage. “It is the standard contract.”

She frowned.

He felt a cold sweat pop from his pores and resisted the urge to glance toward the forward vid screen only by a supreme effort. Finally, she shrugged and reached for the stylus. Gabriel and Jerico, hovering on the opposite side of the table, leaned forward to watch.

Gideon glared at them. “You are blocking the vid,” he pointed out coldly.

Bronte slid the tablet to him. Grabbing the stylus with a sense of relief, he quickly scrawled his own name in the appropriate box—Gideon CS46721. He discovered when he replaced the stylus that Bronte was frowning at his signature. He sent her a questioning look as he handed the tablet over to Gabriel and Jerico to witness. “There is something wrong?”

He couldn’t quite interpret the look in her eyes when she met his gaze but it made his chest feel uncomfortably tight. She shook her head, turning to look at Gabriel and Jerico in much the same way.

It disturbed him that he couldn’t understand what that look meant but he resolutely dismissed it as Jerico handed the tablet back. “Now it is Gabriel’s turn,” he said, flipping to the next screen before he rose and changed places with Gabriel.

Jerico looked as if he would object, but when Gideon shook his head, he settled into fuming silence, glancing behind them at the forward vid as Bronte scanned the second contract.

They had just settled to sign Jerico’s contract when the communicator squawked. Bronte jumped and Gideon, Jerico, and Gabriel stiffened, their heads swiveling sharply in the direction of the speaker.

“Approaching craft, identify!”

There was a brief pause and then the command was repeated.

Gideon and Gabriel exchanged a speaking glance. “Finish!” Gideon said sharply getting up and striding quickly toward the bridge. “Command center!” Gideon hailed the speaker. “This is Black Hawk tango two bravo six niner zero!”

“Identify!”

“Lieutenant Gideon CS46721, Cyborg Forces.”

“Mission status?”

“Target extracted. ETA forty six minutes.” He paused. “Mark.”

“Target status?”

Gideon glanced toward the group at the table, meeting Bronte’s gaze briefly.

“Take….”

Before he could finish what he’d been about to say, the proximity alarms went off. “Proximity alert! Proximity alert!” the computer announced.

Gideon cut the alarm off. “Direction? Speed?”

“Starboard, sub light,” the computer responded.

Even as Gideon dove into the command seat and grabbed the controls, however, something slammed into the craft so hard it pitched Jerico off the bench and flung Bronte over him. He caught her, wrapping his arms tightly around her as he skidded along the floor with the pitch of the ship.

Bronte felt the shudder that rippled through the ship even perched on top of Jerico. Gabriel picked himself up and staggered toward the bridge, half falling into the communications seat as he reached the control center. “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Home base. This is Black Hawk tango two bravo six niner zero! We have been damaged! I repeat, we have been damaged.”

He glanced at Gideon after a lengthy pause. “Communications are gone.”

Gideon gritted his teeth. “The whole fucking tail section is gone.” He glanced back at Jerico and Bronte. “Get her into the emergency seat before we hit the atmosphere. And then get back there and try to get the emergency lock down over that rear door. It is not responding.”

Gabriel bolted out of his seat. “Get the emergency lock. I will help Bronte.”

“Put her in my seat,” Jerico said as Gabriel dropped to his knees and opened a small hatch, pulling a fixed seat from beneath the floor—the one they’d strapped her in to when they’d blasted off from Earth, Bronte realized.

Gideon turned to look at Bronte. She saw the indecision in his eyes and she knew what it meant. The emergency seat wasn’t nearly as safe as the others. “I’ll be safer if Jerico is where he’s supposed to be,” she said quickly.

He didn’t argue with her and that scared her worse than she already was. She felt no better once Gabriel had strapped her into her seat. Even she could see that it wasn’t nearly as sturdy as the other chairs, and besides that she had the pit beneath her the thing had been pulled out of. It didn’t matter that Gabriel had shoved a floor plate over it and locked it down. She knew the hole was there and all she could think about was being sucked out of it.

She managed to smile at Gabriel weakly, however, when he finished strapping her in and briefly touched her cheek to reassure her before he went back to his own seat.

She hoped that was what he meant by it and not ‘good bye’.

“Atmosphere!” Gabriel barked. “In ten!”

“I have got it!” Jerico bellowed back at him to the tune of a sudden metallic bang that made Bronte’s belly clutch in terror. Whirling toward the sound, more than half expecting to see the ship disintegrating before her eyes, she felt a measure of relief when she saw that Jerico had pulled a pair of doors from the walls that looked far more substantial than the sliding door of the cabin and locked them together.

Or … where the cabin used to be. The wall and door were substantial or they would’ve crumpled already, she told herself.

Unless Gideon had been exaggerating, she thought hopefully.

She had a bad feeling that wasn’t a ‘trait’ Gideon had either. The entire ship was shaking so hard she had to clench her teeth to keep from biting her tongue and they hadn’t even hit the bad part yet.

She wondered what the chances were of actually managing to land the ship with nearly a third of it missing.

It probably didn’t matter where she was sitting.

“Three!” Gideon yelled. “Get up here!”

He didn’t have to