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

Gideon stopped to stare at him absently for several moments. “She was afraid,” he said finally. “She would not tell me what she was afraid of.”

“You think it is something very bad?” Gabriel asked.

“She would not be afraid unless it was!” Gideon snapped angrily.

“You do not think the med tech could fix this problem?” Gabriel pursued worriedly.

Gideon considered it for a moment. “Yes,” he responded after some thought, looking mildly relieved. “She was not as worried. She believed that it was something that could be repaired, and she would know. I am certain of that. She will be alright,” he muttered to himself.

“You may be easy in your mind then,” Jerico said.

Gideon glared at him. “I would be easy in my mind if I knew. I do not like only thinking a thing is something but not knowing!”

“Logically....”

“Do not speak to me about logic, Jerico!” Gideon growled. “Not when it concerns Bronte! You know she can not be trusted to do the reasonable or logical thing! One can only trust logic when it pertains to things that have no will to behave illogically! And even if not for that, there is always chance.

“What were the odds, do you think, that we would be struck by a meteor that would do so much damage to the ship? One in a million? One in ten million? Or that the proximity censors would fail? Or the alert? I am not certain which failed, only that there was no warning and no reason that either should fail at all! It is no wonder that they believe we are responsible for the crash.”

“I do not like leaving her alone,” Gabriel put in after a time.

“I do not like that she may not be alone!” Jerico retorted heatedly.

Gideon seized him by the throat and hauled him off the bunk. “What do you mean by that?” he demanded.

Glaring at him, Jerico tried to pry his hand lose. When that failed, he punched Gideon in the gut. Taking advantage of Gideon’s slackened grip, he slammed his forearm against Gideon’s and broke his hold altogether. “I mean that she is out there and we are in here and we can not prevent anyone who pleases from courting her!”

“She would not consider them. She is contracted with us!” Gabriel said angrily, bounding off the bunk himself just as Gideon, who’d abruptly remembered that Bronte had suggested breaking the contract, slammed his fist into Jerico’s mouth.

Jerico staggered back several feet, caught himself and swung at Gideon. Gideon ducked and Jerico’s fist connected with Gabriel instead. Within moments the three of them were trading insults and fists. The stamp of a dozen running feet penetrated the red haze of battle moments before the cell door was jerked open. Gideon, Jerico, and Gabriel exchanged a brief look of triumph and, their eyes filled with unholy glee, turned on the guards detached to break up the brawl.

The melee lasted a good twenty minutes, but since the men had already expended a good bit of energy on each other and the guards outnumbered them two to one, the outcome wasn’t unexpected. Gideon, Jerico, and Gabriel were dragged from the general holding cell and tossed into individual cells.

Jerico wavered on his feet for several moments after he’d been thrust into his cell and finally fell face down on the narrow bunk. “This is good,” he muttered against the mattress. “Now that I am relaxed, I believe I can sleep.”

Gideon settled on the edge of his bunk, massaging his jaw with one hand and his bruised mid-section with the other.

Gabriel looked around his cell and finally staggered to his bunk and fell in it. After a few moments, he muttered, “I would sleep better if I could cuddle Bronte.”

Gideon turned his head to glare at his friend across the way but finally decided to ignore him and lay down on his own cot. Staring at the ceiling, he tried not to think about whether or not Bronte had meant it when she’d spoken of breaking the contract.

* * * *

Bronte roused every time she heard the unfamiliar tread close by. Sometimes, if she couldn’t see who it was, she’d lift her head and look around. If it took no more than cracking an eyelid, though, she didn’t bother to move. She was too groggy to feel like wrestling with why Caleb might feel the need to check on her, or to check the windows, but since she recognized him she wasn’t alarmed.

She was thoroughly disoriented by the time she woke.

As she drifted lazily between total awareness and the urge to go back to sleep, she realized she felt better than she could remember feeling in a very long time. She just didn’t know why. Her mind began to churn with memories, though, and finally brought her fully awake.

The room she found herself staring at looked completely unfamiliar, and she allowed her gaze to wander over the unrecognizable features and furnishings until she finally recalled … everything.

She wasn’t dying from some life threatening growth in her belly brought about by confused nanos. She was pregnant!

A tentative joy budded inside of her at the thought before it wilted under the sudden realization that the medic had said three.

Maybe she’d misunderstood him?

That was taking the good news just a little too damned far!

It would explain why she’d had a noticeable bulge so quickly, though.

He’d definite said three, she thought, trying to decide whether that was good news or not. She’d wanted a baby—emphasis on a—not a—litter!

She couldn’t believe she’d been so caught up in her relief to discover the news wasn’t what she’d expected that she hadn’t really registered what the medic had said about the babies.

Her lips curled slightly. Gideon, Jerico, and Gabriel were going to be stunned.

The smile fell. They hadn’t come back from the barracks yet. It seemed to her that they would’ve had time, that they would’ve been anxious to find out about her. Surely, they would’ve finished talking to whoever they had