Except Sheila. She swallowed with an effort. "That's a damned lie!"
"Is it? Where the hell do you think he got it from? They didn't leave the base. And considering he'd already pitched Lt. Brown under the cave-in, I didn't think he'd have any qualms about making sure I didn't do any talking."
Shock rolled over Sheila and then disbelief and anger. "Is that what you've got planned as a defense? Murder and cannibalism? Because I'm not buying it."
"I don't give a fuck whether you do or not. It's the truth. Unless it was you that pitched Lt. Brown under the rocks? You and Felton were the only two close enough to have done it. I heard the scuffle. So, if it wasn't him, it was you."
She could see from Sheila's expression that she'd already had her own suspicions about Brown's death. After staring at Danika for several moments, she merely turned and joined the other women in the main holding cell. Danika waited until they'd calmed themselves and settled on the bunks.
"You are not prisoners. You have the option of staying in the barracks with the men if you prefer," she added for effect, wondering what she would do if any of them took her up on the offer--because Reuel certainly wasn't going to like that! "General Reuel thought that it would be best to separate the women from general population as a precaution--because these men are a lot like the ones you left behind--except with better manners. They're horny bastards and we're outnumbered about a hundred to one."
* * * *
"Reuel has said that Dane, Niles, and I can stand guard over the women's quarters if you are agreeable," Seth said, somewhat belligerently, as if he expected an argument.
Danika was sitting with them in the area of the complex set aside for the dining hall, or mess, as the military usually referred to it. She hadn't seen any reason to segregate herself at chow time even if the other women seemed inclined to. She looked up from her examination of the food on her plate with surprise and a good bit of pleasure and relief. "Great idea! I'll feel a lot better if you guys are watching my back."
Seth relaxed visibly. "I do not disagree that it is better that the women have separate quarters, but I do not like that those other women seem ... hostile toward you."
She'd noticed. She was a little surprised that the guys seemed to have noticed or maybe it was just that they'd deduced the womenwouldbe hostile because they'd not been particularly subdued captives, being soldiers, to start with?
She frowned as she speared a chunk of something meat-like and lifted it to examine it. "I think this must be Andorian rations. It doesn't look like that stuff we had before."
"It is beast not people and that is all that I care about," Dane said around a mouthful.
The reference made Danika a little queasy. She didn't dwell on it. She'd done her best to develop amnesia with regards to that horrible incident. Oddly enough, though, even as her mind skittered away from the horrific images of that episode, it leapt to the images emblazoned on her mind of the men that day she'd come upon them beside the bathing pool. Remembering, she was completely distracted for several moments.
Shaking the thoughts with an effort, she searched around until she found the thread of the conversation Seth had initiated. "I think you're right," she murmured thoughtfully once she'd taken a bite.
"About the beast?" Niles asked. "Of course he is right."
"Well, that, too. I meant about the women being hostile and me needing somebody to watch my back. Not that I'd worry about it if there were fewer of them. I can hold my own, but one against over a dozen aren't good odds and I'm not so sure I trust them enough to sleep next to them." She grinned at Seth wryly. "That's why I picked a separate cell. I can lock up when I sleep and not have worry about them deciding to smother me with my pillow."
Seth, Dane, and Niles all looked far more appalled than amused.
"I do not find that amusing," Niles said flatly.
Surprise flickered through Danika but then she shrugged. They were intelligent, far smarter than she was, but then again they never seemed to catch subtle nuances in a conversation. She supposed they just weren't 'equipped' for it. Or maybe it was something learned and they just hadn't had time to learn? "Graveyard humor."
There wasn't a lot to laugh about on Xeno-12 except morbid humor and she, for one, needed a dose of humor of some kind as often as she could get it. Of course, she'd discovered the guys were pretty funny a lot of the time--completely unintentionally--because innuendo seemed to go right over their heads, which made it sad-funny at best. And naturally enough that wasn't something she could share, if she'd had anybody to share it with, or even openly enjoy. In the first place, they wouldn't 'get' it. In the second it would only piss them off or worse, hurt their feelings, if theydidget it. And she doubted they would be any happier about her amusement if she tried to explain that it was only amusing because she was fond of them. If she hadn't been, it wouldn't be funny at all. It would most likely just irritate the fuck out of her.
She'd never been particularly amused by stupid.
They didn't have to look for Reuel to settle the matter once they'd finished eating and had returned their trays for cleaning. Reuel, they discovered, was waiting for them at the door of the mess hall. He looked grim.
Danika didn't have a clue why until they reached the women's quarters again.
"You are not captives of the cyborg people, regardless of the means of your arrival. You are welcome to stay or you will be escorted to a point near enough to one of the human bases to return to your own people.
"If you elect to stay, however, you must submit yourself to the sickbay to have your locators removed. Your presence herewiththose locators represent a threat to everyone else."
He paused, studying the women. "If you decide to stay, we will guard your welfare to the best of our abilities, but I am well aware that staying will put you in much the same position that we are in--death if we are caught." His expression hardened. "Of course in our case we are only regarded as machines, not citizens or soldiers, and cannot be tried or convicted as deserters. We would simply be decommissioned and destroyed.
"You have the benefit of being soldiers and citizens and beyond that, there are witnesses--if they survive--who could support a claim of kidnapping should you be caught and tried--which I believe reduces the risks to you if you did decide to stay."
He paused again, allowing that time to sink in. "You have until twelve hundred, EST, to make your decision. You must present yourself for removal of the locator chip or present yourself to me so that I can arrange an escort from this base."
Chapter Eleven
