Kane was silent for several moments. “I do not understand your reasoning. You are saying you understand why she tried to provoke a fight with you?”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “I’m going to guess that it’s the fact that I’m human and also a woman. That’s two reasons for her not to like me.”
“That is not a reason,” Kane said tightly. “It is not reasonable at all.”
“Of course it is,” Chloe said, shutting the shower off and turning to look at him. “All of you have every reason to consider humans your enemies. It’s not exactly just when we aren’t, but you’ve learned to be wary and distrustful and you have to be to protect yourself. I understand that. The problem with that is that when you expect a person to be your enemy and treat them that way, then you make an enemy of someone who might have been a friend.”
He frowned. “And you will begin to see cyborgs as enemies because that one has shown herself not to be a friend?”
She glanced around and discovered that Jared had disappeared, although the others had stayed. Unhappiness made her throat tight, but she didn’t want to dwell on their misunderstanding at the moment. “I trust you … and Jared.” She looked at the newest members of her crew. “I’ve seen no reason not to trust any of you guys … and I like you. I want … I hope we’ll be friends. Her, I don’t trust, but that isn’t going to change the way I feel about you guys.”
She supposed it would’ve been more accurate to say that she was open to friendship with anyone and more inclined to like the men she’d picked up with Damon because Jared and Kane seemed to have accepted them and she trusted their judgment. By the same token, although Jared and Kane seemed to have a great deal of respect for Reuel, the bad vibes she was getting from Salina were beginning to make her wonder if she’d made a mistake in offering hospitality to Reuel and his group. To an extent, she liked Reuel. He was intimidating, but he was also courteous and friendly. She hadn’t felt any sense of threat from him. She just didn’t know how much faith she could place in his ability to control the people under him.
She could see that he was angry and uncomfortable when she met him on the bridge deck.Shewas unnerved and uncomfortable and she hated having to start a conversation that had the potential of escalating into a confrontation, but she didn’t think she wanted to hide her eyes and hope for the best. Even if she could completely trust the new men who’d joined her crew, that only made seven against three times that number. She didn’t like the odds.
“Are we going to have a problem?” she asked, trying to keep her voice neutral.
Reuel’s lips tightened. “I had feared that you would interpret Salina’s behavior that way. I would have prevented it if I could have. We … need your friendship.”
She gestured for him to take a seat. She didn’t want to have to crane her neck to talk to him. “The question is, when you don’t need it anymore, what then?”
Anger flickered in his eyes. He tamped it. “We want your friendship—true friendship.”
Chloe relaxed fractionally. “Do all of them hate humans?” she asked unhappily. “Will I not be welcome if I do find this world you hope to colonize? I want you to know that Iwilltry regardless—for your sake—and for theirs, even if they don’t like me, because I think it’s the right thing to do. I think that it would be much better for everyone—humans and cyborgs. But … I’d hoped to find a place there for myself. I guess what I’m asking you to tell me, up front, is if you think it could work. I don’t expect everyone to like me. I don’t expect everyone to want to be my friend, but I’d hate it if I had to live with people that hated me—for no other reason than because I’m not the same.”
Reuel frowned thoughtfully. “I could not say for certain, but I do not believe that any of them are inclined to despise humans. If we were, then we would be more willing to stay and fight than to leave and search for peace. You should not judge all of us from her behavior. And you should know that your own men are intensely loyal to you.”
Chloe frowned. “I don’t doubt them. I’d trust Jared and Kane with my life—I have, and I trust their judgment. They would’ve told me if they had doubts about any of the new crewmembers.”
Amusement flickered in his eyes. “They are not particularly fond of Damon.”
Chloe felt her face redden. “Yes, but I knew Damon before. I don’t need them to vouch for him.”
He studied her thoughtfully. “If I may address you as a ship’s officer?”
Chloe blinked at him in surprise. “You weren’t?”
He smiled faintly. “The discussion was friend to friend.”
“But you want to discuss something officer to officer?”
“You are not military and never were. However, you have lived in deep space much of your life. You are aware of the Maritime Sex Act?”
Chloe felt her jaw go slack and color rise in her cheeks. “Oh!Ooooh! What you’re saying is … uh … you’re saying ….”
He chuckled. “That is what I am saying. They have ….” He paused. “Wehave been fighting a running battle since we left the battlefield on Xeno-12. There has been little time for any of us to … uh … attend certain needs.”
Chloe frowned. “But ….”
“We are cyborgs.”
The color that had barely left her face flashed again. She cleared her throat, trying to think of a polite way to voice her doubts.
“You have a great capacity for empathy,” Reuel said almost gently, “but although you hate what has been done, you do not truly believe that we are as we believe we are?”
“I believe you believe.”
He chuckled wryly. “I will not try to convince you. If you are laboring under the belief that we are delusional, then it is unlikely that I can convince you otherwise. Instead, try to understand this—that our delusion has led us to a point where we believe that we have the same needs as humans. As unflattering as it may be to us, imagine us as having reached puberty—the point where our bodies are raging with hormones and we spend a very great deal of time battling them and the urges that come with them.”
