He was frowning, she saw, when she finally glanced at him.
“There is food,” he said instead of acknowledging what she’d told him or responding to it in any way beyond the frown, which could’ve meant anything.
She didn’t know why it unnerved her.
She decided she wasn’t really up to another attempt to pry information out of him, though. It would be better anyway, she decided, to talk to Gideon and the others about it before she ran her mouth and, possibly, got them into trouble—or embarrassed herself. She needed to talk to them and make sure they hadn’t taken what she’d said literally.
He’d fixed food for both of them, she saw when she’d followed him back into the preparation area. Two plates full of steaming food, two place settings, and two glasses awaited them on the dining table. Taking the chair he pointed out, she studied the abundance doubtfully, wondering if he thought she needed that much food.
It tasted surprisingly good. She wasn’t certain if that was because she was so hungry, because she’d had nothing but reconstituted food or unseasoned wild game for so long, or if he was just a very good cook, but it was delicious and she ate far more than she’d thought she could. By the time she’d eaten all she could hold, all she could think about was crawling into the big bed waiting in the sleeping chamber.
Thanking him, she got up and did just that.
Chapter Twenty Two
“Guard!” Gideon bellowed when he ran out of patience. “There is news about my woman?”
The man standing at attention at the door that led from the cell block ignored him.
“Asshole!” Gideon ground out. The man turned to glare at him at that and Gideon parted his lips in a feline grin that lacked any humor. “I did not know that was your name!”
“We have been here ten hours!” Jerico snarled. “There would be news by now about my woman!”
“You do not have a woman!” the guard said coldly, curling his lips at them in a way that made all three men surge against the door as if they could reach him.
“Do not be an asshole!” Gabriel growled. “They took her to the med center to check her. Just tell us that Bronte is alright!”
The guard went back to ignoring them and after a few moments, Gideon pushed away from the door and began pacing. Jerico and Gabriel alternated between threats and bribes for a while longer and finally gave up, as well. Moving to the stacked bunks at one end of the general holding cell the three of them occupied, they sat down to watch Gideon pace.
“I have never cared for the brig,” Jerico said after a while to no one in particular. “It seems to me that they go to a great deal of trouble to make the cells as uncomfortable as possible. I can not imagine why anyone would manufacture beds designed to be uncomfortable. Does this seem logical to you?”
Gabriel stared at him thoughtfully. “The brig on Ben-Tavo was not half bad,” he replied after a few moments.
Jerico frowned. “That one was a pigsty!” he spat. “You are thinking of the one on Ralo.”
Gabriel glared at him. “I know which one I am thinking of!”
“Well you are light here,” Jerico retorted, tapping his head, “from too many blows to the skull plate! That one was worse than the brig on Paq-312!”
Gabriel punched him in the mouth. Jerico reeled backwards, caught himself, and sat up again, spitting a mouthful of blood on the floor.
“Knock it off!” Gideon ground out. “We agreed not to bring up Gabriel’s head wound and he is entirely recovered so there is no point in doing so!”
Jerico looked uncomfortable for a moment. “I still think it is Ralo that you were thinking of,” he muttered after a moment.
Gabriel frowned. “Why do you think they have put us in the brig, Gideon?”
Gideon stopped pacing and stared at him for a moment. “We wrecked the ship, Gabriel.”
Gabriel’s brow cleared for a moment before he frowned again. “That is not at all reasonable. We were not doing anything we should not have. It was an accident.”
Gideon shrugged. “I had thought it likely that we would end in the brig for convincing Bronte to contract with us, but they have refused even to acknowledge that, so it can not be that.”
“You did not say that before!” Gabriel said indignantly. “Did he tell you that we would have to spend time in the brig for his plan? Because I am sure he did not tell me!”
Jerico thought it over. “I do not recall that he did, but that is hardly the point, Gabriel! We almost always end in up the brig when we follow Gideon’s plans. You know that!”
Gideon stopped pacing and turned to glare at them. “We almost never end up in the brig because of my plans!”
Gabriel and Jerico exchanged a speaking glance.
Gideon’s lips tightened. “Name one!”
“Now,” Jerico and Gabriel said in unison.
“Besides now,” Gideon said irritably.
Jerico and Gabriel frowned thoughtfully. “There was the time on Lockmead when you thought that it would be a good idea to borrow the Major’s vehicle to visit the whore house in the village so that we could see what it was like to have a woman pleasure us for a change,” Gabriel said presently.
“And the time when you suggested that we see what getting drunk was like and ended up clearing the bar….”
“Never mind,” Gideon ground out, stalking to the door of the cell again. “Guard! Three months pay! Only call the med center and see what they have found out about my … Bronte!”
“Three months!” Jerico exclaimed.
Gideon didn’t glance at him. “One each.”
“You might ask!” Gabriel said indignantly.
Gideon turned to look at him. “You do not want to know about Bronte?”
“Yes, but....”
“Six!” Gideon offered when the guard didn’t even turn around.
The guard turned to look at him that time.
“We have four each coming to us. Just find out what the med tech discovered.”
The guard’s lips curled. “You crashed the ship—one of the fastest we have. They are not going to pay you.”
Gideon frowned and turned to look at Jerico and Gabriel. “Do you have any credits saved?”
“I have a month,” Gabriel offered.
Gideon looked at Jerico. Jerico shrugged. “I do not have more than half a month.”
Gideon’s lips thinned. “What have you spent your money on?” he demanded.
Jerico gave him a look. “You know that I was courting Rose.”
“And look where that has gotten us!” He turned to the guard again. “Four months credit,” he offered.
“You are wasting your breath,” the guard said. “You are to have no outside contact at all until they have finished debriefing you.”
Gideon stared at the man in disbelief for several moments and finally slammed his fist into the door. Turning away from the door, he began to pace again.
“It is her belly?” Jerico asked after watching him for a while.
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 to talk to and come to the med center and found out where she was?
It was daylight outside. She couldn’t begin to judge the time of day, but it didn’t look like weak early morning light.
“You are awake?”
Jolted from her thoughts, Bronte sat up, discovering in the process that she didn’t have a stitch of clothes on. Grabbing the cover, she yanked it up and eyed Caleb suspiciously. “I don’t remember undressing!”
“You did not.”
He didn’t even have the grace to look the least bit embarrassed or contrite!
“Then how did I get undressed?” she demanded.
“I undressed you.”
She gave him a look, wondering how she could possibly have slept through that. Jog her mind though she might, however, she couldn’t really recall anything after she’d eaten except crawling into the bed. “Why did you do that?”
He tilted his head curiously. “You did not wish to wear your uniform to sleep?”
Her lips tightened. “I would’ve taken it off if I’d wanted it off!”
He nodded. “This is an Earth custom? It seems unnecessarily restrictive.”
“It is not an Earth custom—at least … Well, some people sleep in sleeping clothes.”
“Do you?”
“Ordinarily not.”
“Then this is no problem.”
“It is a problem!”
“Why?”
“Do you always undress women while they’re too out of it with exhaustion to defend themselves?”
A slow grin curled his lips, making it impossible, despite her irritation, to ignore the fact that he was really exceptionally handsome. He was fair, though, like Gideon, and she decided it was because he reminded her of Gideon. Not that he looked anything like Gideon, but he was fair. “I have not had the opportunity before.”
“I thought you were supposed to guard me?”
“Yes.”
She frowned at him. “Did they tell you just to help yourself and do anything you wanted to?”
His dark brows drew together thoughtfully, as if he was vaguely confused by her question. Finally, his brow cleared. “No. But they did not say I could not look.”
Bronte pursed her lips irritably. “Well! I hope you enjoyed it!” she said indignantly.
“I did, thank you.”
She reddened, trying to decide whether to laugh or throw something at him. She decided it would be better to ignore him. Flopping back onto her pillow, she pulled the cover over her head. “How long did I sleep?”
“Twelve hours, seventeen minutes … more or less.”
Bronte sat up again and stared at him. “I was asleep that long?” she gasped, staggered by the information.
“More or less. You roused, but you did not wake. There is food. Medic Brent said that I must see that you eat and drink as much as you can and rest. You have rested. You must eat now.”
She didn’t want to eat now. She’d been asleep for twelve hours! Gideon and the others should’ve been back by now. “Where are my companions?”
He frowned. She wasn’t certain if it was because she’d called them her companions
and he didn’t like it, or if there was something he didn’t want to tell her, but she was afraid it was the latter.
“They are being debriefed.”
That had to be wrong. “Still? Do you know that? Or do you just think they must be?”
He crossed the room and opened her clothes locker, studying the clothing inside. “I know this,” he said coolly, selecting the feminine garments she had ignored the night before.
“I’m not wearing those!”
“All women wear these … unless you wish to return to the med center to work?”
“I want to go and find my companions!”
“You can not. They are being held.”
That sounded worse than the debriefing. “Held?”
“Yes.”
“Define held, damn it!”
“They are prisoners until it is decided whether command is satisfied with their report or not.”
Bronte stared at him in dismay for several moments before she could even think of anything else to ask. “What for? Have they been charged with something?”
“Yes,” he answered, handing her the clothes he’d selected for her.
Bronte glared at his hand for a moment and finally snatched the clothes from him. “I’m going to see them. I need to talk to them.”
“You will not be allowed to speak with them … or to enter the brig to see them.”
Bronte wrestled with that information for several moments and finally drew a shaky breath, trying to fight down her anxiety and think. “Is it about the crash?”
“That is one thing.”
“But … that was an accident! Something hit the ship! How could they be blamed for that?”
“Command will decide if they are to blame.”
“I was there! I know what happened. Couldn’t I talk to whoever is in command and explain?”
“You will be called upon to do so.”
Relief flooded her. “When?”
“I do not know. When they are ready, they will summon you.”
She wasn’t happy with that. She wanted to go right that moment and clear everything up.
She needed to talk to Gideon and make him understand she hadn’t meant it about breaking contract.
Cyborg Nation Page 29