Sheila’s brows rose. She studied Danika speculatively for several moments. “Their behavior back there didn’t strike you as the least bit odd?”
“It struck me as welcome,” Danika said flatly, wondering if it wasn’t that incident that suddenly made it seem important to protect them—because they had protected her—more than once, actually. The reminder did give rise to another concern that had been eating at her and it was more because she’d become deeply uneasy than simply because she wanted to divert the sergeant that she decided to discuss it. Because the truth was that she’d become far more alarmed about the behavior of the human males than she was about the cyborgs. “If I could speak plainly about another concern? Well … related?”
“What is it this time, Corporal?”
“The men are horny, Sergeant, and it’s starting to scare the hell out of me,” she said bluntly.
The sergeant glanced around and then grabbed her arm and ushered her a little further from the cavern. “One of the men made unwelcome advances?”
Danika blinked at her. “Not directly, no.”
The sergeant frowned. “Then what’s your problem?”
Anger flickered through Danika. “My problem is that they look at me—all of the women—like they’re hungry and we’re steak! My problem is that it’s like a … powder keg in there waiting to explode and I don’t want to be in the middle of the explosion!”
Sheila’s lips tightened. “Exactly what do you think I can do about the way they look at you, soldier?”
Dismay flickered through Danika. She hadn’t actually thought beyond reporting what she saw as a potential problem, she realized. She hadn’t considered that the officers were already having problems controlling the men—well not in the light of being unable to control them if they had rape on their minds.
She supposed shehadfigured they would take some kind of action—at least speak to the men since she didn’t suppose they had anything in the way of drugs that could ‘tame’ the beasts.
“Unless you’re suggesting we should initiate the Maritime Sex Act?”
Horror swept through Danika. “Oh my god! The women are outnumbered twenty or thirty to one!”
“Exactly! I think it would create more problems than it would solve or I would already have suggested it.” She hesitated. “In point of fact a number of the men already spoke to Master Sergeant Felton about it. He wasn’t comfortable about the odds and we had a meeting and decided that it wasn’t likely to help morale and would place an undue burden on the female troops.”
There was anger in her expression that made Danika wonder if she hadn’t argued with the others. Her next comment seemed to support that suspicion.
“I informed them that I damned sure wouldn’t be taking on three or four squads and I wouldn’t ask the other women to do something I wouldn’t do.” She frowned angrily. “As casually as you can, I want you to inform the women that they are to close ranks. Hereafter, they are not to travel alone, for any reason. If they have to use the latrine, they take their squad with them … A cyborg escort ought to be enough to discourage the men from trying to waylay them on the way there or back. They are only to bathe as a group. I might have to put a cyborg guard on watch for that, but I’d rather not draw attention to the fact that we’re worried if you know what I mean.”
Danika nodded, vastly relieved. “Yes, sergeant!”
Chapter Five
“Where are they going?” Lt. Brown demanded when he spied around a dozen cyborgs ascending the pass up the ridge. He glanced around when nobody volunteered an answer, surveying the flat plane that lay before Slaughter Ridge where they’d encamped for months. “Where are all the damned ‘borgs?”
Danika, who’d just returned from a perimeter check, sent Seth a speaking look, wishing she’d simply turned around and left again when she’d noticed the lieutenant had decided to leave the cavern for one of his infrequent ‘inspections’ of the camp. The non-coms had accompanied him and she knew damned well they had a good idea where the cyborgs were since it had been Master Sergeant Felton that had ‘invented’ tasks for them away from camp. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem inclined to jump in and inform Lt. Brown that he’d been commanding the troops, the cyborgs anyway, sending them out on various daily excursions that kept them away from camp more than they were in it.
“Hunting,” Sgt. Hill said after a brief hesitation.
“Hunting for what?” Lt. Brown demanded furiously. “And who the fuck ordered it, that’s what I’d like to know? Nobody tells me a damned thing andI’mthe commanding officer here!”
“Food?” Danika volunteered uneasily.
Brown gaped at her and then reddened with anger. “Where the hell are they going to find food? Was there a supply drop that nobody told me about?”
“No, Sir.”
“Then how the hell could they be hunting food?Whywould they be?”
“Animals. Meat, Sir,” Danika clarified.
Lt. Brown looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. “Have youseenany damned animals? Because I sure as fuck haven’t seen any damned animals! And what would we do with them if they managed to catch one? We ain’t gotanydamned supplies! How would we cook it?”
Danika was tempted to point out that he wasn’t likely to see anything since he spent most of his time inside the cave playing games on his personal computer. He called them battle simulations, but nobody believed he was actually boning up on battle strategy. He was as bored as everyone else and simply searching for a way to entertain himself.
She resisted the urge. He was as short on patience as he was irrational.
