Unable to prevent Seth from pitching him off, Niles used the momentum to roll up onto his feet and then surged toward Seth as Seth got to his feet.
Dane found a place to rest while he waited for his turn with Seth again. He was winded--no surprise when the atmosphere was thicker than he was accustomed to. He was still too angry to be very aware of the pain Seth had inflicted, but neither could he completely dismiss the pounding in every area where Seth's fists had connected. Some satisfaction filled him, though, that his fists were also pounding with pain and the reflection that he'd inflicted, not merely received.
By the time Seth had managed to beat Niles to a standstill his pain had receded. Curiously, his anger had, as well and he made no attempt to get to his feet to resume the fight even though he'd intended to when he'd settled to rest. Seth, after staring at him for a few moments to see if he would get up, looked around a little vaguely and finally staggered to another tree, planted his back against the trunk, and slid down to sit and catch his breath.
* * * *
Despite her distraction, it didn't take Danika long to figure out that her entire squad was missing. Deciding that they might have gone down to the stream to collect water to finish the job they'd been assigned the day before, she headed in that direction. She'd reached the trickle of water before she heard the sounds indicating a fierce fight. Her heart leapt into her throat. Her first gut reaction was to sound the alarm, but there was something about the sounds that gave her pause.
There was no gunfire, nothing but grunts, growls, and meaty thuds.
It sounded like a fistfight, the sort of brawl the troops had indulged in fairly regularly when discipline had begun to deteriorate at the base on Xeno-12.
Herguys wouldn't be fighting, though.
After a few moments, she decided she at least needed to check it out to see what was going on. Shifting her rifle from her shoulder, she began to move stealthily toward the sounds she could hear. It took her a while to work her way to the area, partly because of her certainty that she didn't want to announce her approach just in case it was the natives and partly because it was difficult in the jungle to be absolutely certain of the direction the sounds were coming from.
By the time she finally arrived, she discovered that Dane, Seth, and Niles were all sitting. Feeling perfectly blank, she scanned the men and then the area. It was clear not only from their condition but from the condition of the forest that she hadn't been mistaken about a fight in progress but she didn't see anybody but her guys. "What the hell happened here?" she demanded as the first shock wore off.
Seth, Dane, and Niles all looked at her with a mixture of guilt and something else she couldn't quite fathom and then they looked at one another as if searching for an answer.
"We decided that we had need of practice at sparring. We have been idle for far too long," Seth said, sending a glare in the direction of the other two men as if daring them to dispute his claim.
Danika gaped at him in disbelief and then surveyed the other two men. "Sparring?" she responded doubtfully, crossing the clearing they had made to ascertain the extent of the damage. All that backbreaking work the day before hadn't been enough to relieve their boredom from inactivity? "Look at the mess you've made! We haven't even finished ...." She broke off abruptly as she caught a glint of something through the brush perhaps fifty yards or so from where they were standing. Focusing on it, unnerved at first by the fear that she'd caught a flash of sunlight on metal--as in weapon--she finally realized that it was water. "Hey! I think there's a lake over there!"
Dismissing the problem with the guys for the moment, she began pushing her way through the jungle toward the body of water she thought she'd spied.
Seth watched her departure with a mixture of weariness, uneasiness, and indignation. If he had notknownbetter, he would have thought that he had only dreamed what had passed between them the night before! He was certain that she should behave differently toward him now. He was not certain in what way she should behave differently, but they had sexed one another the night before andhedid not feel the same, thereforesheshould not feel the same!
He had been certain that he had pleased her. She had reacted just as his simulations in his programming had described orgasm. Actually, not precisely but she had displayed behavior thatsuggestedorgasm ... except she had not seemed to experience post coital lethargy or warmth toward him, her partner.
That part had been bothering him since and he found himself unable to dismiss it as immaterial, particularly now that time had passed and she did not seem more warm and friendly toward him than she had before. She did not seem to be exhibiting any behavior that indicated that she had either enjoyed it or had interest in repeating the experience and he had the uneasy feeling that that meant she hadnotenjoyed it andhadno interest in repeating the experience.
He wascertainthat he had done all the things that were known to stimulate pleasure.
He wasalmostcertain. There was nothing in the simulations to indicate that he would feel pleasure himself and he had felt a very great deal of it, so much, in point of fact, that he could not recall very clearly what he had done.
He had kissed her lips and caressed her to arouse her. He recalled that very clearly because he had more than half expected that she would punch him in the gut when he attempted it and had been both very surprised and very pleased when she had not. He had waited to see if she would push him away or otherwise indicate that she was not willing to proceed and she had not so he had continued to caress her and kiss her.
He frowned, trying to recall what else he had done and finally recalled that he had kissed her breasts. His programming indicated that to be an erogenous zone with most women. Some were more sensitive than others, but most found it highly arousing and he thought her behavior had indicated that Danika did.
He had not mounted her until she had displayed behavior indicating that she found the idea acceptable and he was certain he had not misread her behavior. She had clung tightly to him and actually helped him rather than screaming or fighting.
He frowned. He had replayed the memories over and over throughout the night and hestillcould not find anything to indicate he had done something wrong.
And yet, hefeltas if he must have.
Mayhap the problem was that he had only the basic sexdroid programming which only included two very short simulations?
When he emerged from his latest attempt to collate the data he had gathered into a comprehensible report, he realized that he could no longer hear Danika very well--which meant she had moved further away than he had expected her to.
Despite his weariness from sparring and his sense of ill-usage, his uneasiness moved to the forefront. He surged to his feet then, straining to catch sight of her in the high brush. All he could actually see, though, was the movement of the brush to indicate where she was and that indicated that she had indeed moved further away than he had expected that she would.
Quelling the urge to call out to her, he started after her, moving quickly to close the distance since some unnamed fear had gripped him. Dane and Niles both got to their feet and followed.
He had closed perhaps half the distance that separated them when he heard a series of screams that seemed to electrify him and chill him to the bone at the same time. Almost simultaneous to the screams, he caught movement and saw creatures swing from the trees on vines. He did not stop to analyze the trajectory and ascertain their objective. He knew what it was--Danika!
Uttering a challenging roar, he burst into a full run. The creatures clinging to the vines responded by whipping startled, open-mouthed looks in his direction but naturally enough they were committed once they had swung outward and could not halt. Instead, they dropped from the vines and disappeared into the high brush within yards of Danika.
