"And yet, being human, you had a choice ...."
Danika snorted. "That just shows how little you know about the situation!Isure as hell didn't volunteer. Ididn't have a choice and I'm guessing not a lot of the others did, either. We were conscripted--the majority of us. I don't even agree with the damned politicians about this war, but if they'd asked if I was willing to protect my home world and family to the best of my ability, I would've been willing to try. Inthatsense, I wasn't unwilling to risk getting my ass shot off."
"But they are notourpeople orourhome worlds," Reuel pointed out coolly. "We have no home, no people, no rights. In time, the gods willing, if you survive, you will be released and you can return to your home world and build any life you please. We were built to be soldiers and there will never be anything else for us so long as we belong to the confederation. When this war ends, they will either destroy us or they will send us to another.
"I would have accepted that I was created only to fight until I was destroyed or the government had no further use for me if they had not betrayed me. I willnotaccept that I must be destroyed when I did nothing more than follow the orders given to me, only because of one insane human and the unwillingness of another to admit that I acted under orders!"
Danika frowned. "You don't know that. Seth said that you were all more than half biological. Under the law, that should make you human, with the same rights as everyone else." Well, not human, because they weren't exactly human even if human DNA was used to make them, but sentient citizens. There were plenty of citizens of the confederation that weren't human. The cyborgs certainly qualified as sentient beings and they couldn't be considered non-beings, as in manufactured, if they were more than half biological.
"You are naive if you believe we would be given the chance to argue that in a court of law. The government will not allow it and the company will do their utmost to bury their 'mistake'. We had no choice in this."
She wasn't as naive as he seemed to think. She knew he was probably right on all counts, but it seemed to her that going AWOL wasn't going to strengthen their case.
On the other hand, Brownhadlost it and she was as certain as she could be that he would've ordered the cyborgs executed--well, hehad. She was as certain as she could be that the others would have done as ordered without question.
And then there was the matter of Master Sgt. Felton having ordered the men to regard the cyborgs as a handy source of food ....
She still felt nauseated every time she thought about that, not the least because she had a horrible fear in the back of her mind that that might not have been something she had stumbled upon that was a 'new' situation. She didn't want to think that Felton had been secretly feeding them human flesh for weeks. She was almost positive that he hadn't, but she wasn't as positive as she wanted to be.
"I do not require that you agree with me on every point," Reuel said finally, breaking into her thoughts. "You must believe what you will and you are still welcome to stay with us. However, I must insist upon the removal of your locator."
Chapter Eight
That comment brought Danika back to her own personal situation with a jolt of dismay.
She hadn't considered thatshewas a deserter just as they were. Her instincts had told her that she wasn't going to live long if Felton got the idea that she might be a threat to him and she'd acted on them, but at no time had she consciously acknowledged that she was a deserter--in a wartime situation that would mean swift execution if they caught up with her.
She supposed, somewhere in the back of her mind, she'd had some idea that she could report to another battalion and get the misunderstanding straightened out.
She wasn't going to be able to do that if she allowed them to remove her personal locator, she realized in dismay. That would be an act of treason in itself and she didn't think she would get the chance to explain or that they would accept her explanation anyway.
"You cannot stay here if you will not allow it to be removed. It is doubtful that they would be able to track you here under the current circumstances--or will even attempt it--but we must assume that they will eventually reestablish supply lines and communications. At that point you would be a danger to everyone with you and we cannot know how much time we might have."
She would never be able to go home again, Danika thought, feeling a knot of misery form in her throat. That was pretty much all she'd thought about since she'd left--going home again when they were done with her. That was what had helped her through training. That thought was what had kept her firmly fixed on surviving.
She wanted to go home!
But she'd already made her choice, she realized. She'd deserted. The chances weren't good, at all, that she would be able to prove she had good reason to flee. For all she knew everybody that had been dropped on the planet were in the same shape, or worse, than her own battalion had been. That wasn't going to be a good enough excuse even so. In fact, the situation was so bad, as far as she could see, that there were probably people deserting right and left in an effort to survive and the military would take action if they lost the war because of desertions.
Her family would be disgraced because she was.
Even if they would allow her to come home, it would endanger them.
Seth abruptly settled a hand heavily enough on her shoulder that it made her jump and whip a quick look at his face. He wasn't looking at her, however. He was staring challengingly at Reuel. "We are a team. We stay together. We will leave."
As much as it warmed her to know Seth was willing to remain loyal even if it meant all of them would likely die, she didn't want that on her conscience. "Go where?"
He looked down at her. "We will find a place."
It was almost tempting. For a few moments Danika allowed her imagination to make her hopeful, but they certainly couldn't go back--not now--none of them. Seth, Dane, and Niles had helped her escape, had run with her. That made them deserters, too--If it was established that they weren't machines but rather beings who'd made the choice to desert.
She shook her head. "No. He's right. I'm sorry for getting you guys into this, but there's no going back now." She managed to dredge up a ghost of a smile. "In for penny, in for a pound. Who's doing the removals?"
Reuel escorted them to an area that had obviously been set aside for that purpose since it was equipped as a battlefield hospital. It didn't make her feel any better. The cyborgs were all soldiers. There'd been no non-human medics and although everyone, including her, had been trained in battlefield first-aid, they knew only the rudiments of it. She doubted the cyborgs even had the 'programming' she'd had since they had nanos to repair their damage.
Fortunately, the enemy, the Andorians, were humanoid beings and the equipment had been designed for use on beings much like her.
Unfortunately, the Andorians weren't human even if they were similar, and none of them knew if their medicines were safe for humans.
