She should’ve been used to being the pariah. She’d been ‘the freak’ growing up and the reputation of the hunters was such that civilians generally gave them a wide berth and, of course, the hunters themselves were encouraged to be loners.
Now, however, she didn’t even have the comfort of knowing she was among her fellow soldiers.
She was human, the only human in the barracks, the only human on a ship loaded with cyborgs and bound for a planet inhabited and ruled by them.
She was pretty sure she knew what it felt like to be the only guppy in a tank full of sharks.
Chapter Ten
Amaryllis’ internal clock, attuned to her uneasiness about her surroundings, woke her periodically. She’d considered staying awake, but she had to sleep sometime or she wouldn’t be able to defend herself even if she was attacked and since the only alternative was sleeping while everyone else was awake and that seemed far more dangerous she composed herself and slept with one eye open and one ear cocked for trouble.
Under the circumstances, she was surprised she got any rest at all, but the past weeks had worn at her, frayed her nerves and exhausted her both physically and emotionally.
The events of the night before had wrecked what little composure she had left.
She didn’t want to think about Dante.
It was like having a sore tooth. She couldn’t resist touching it, but the moment she did excruciating pain replaced the dull, throbbing ache that was her constant companion.
She didn’t want to think about Reese either, but it was as difficult to block him from her thoughts as Dante. Consciously dismissing them from her mind and refusing to think about them by focusing on something else did very little good. Erotic dreams of both Reese and Dante tormented her nights.
Nearly a week passed before she saw Reese again and by that time she’d arrived at some fairly unpalatable conclusions.
Despite Robotics, Inc.’s claims about the cyborgs, these were beings. Strictly speaking, they might not be human beings, but she thought that was debatable—they certainly weren’t the spawn of alien DNA. As far as she could see the only thing that made her any different from them at all was the fact that she’d been conceived ‘naturally’. Physically, they had no greater ratio of mechanics to biological material than she did. Mentally—except for being well above average intellectually—their thought processes didn’t seem to differ a great deal, and emotionally--they were capable of pretty much the entire range of nasty human traits.
Psycho might’ve been the only one to vocalize her feelings about Amaryllis fraternizing with the ‘enemy’, but since pretty much everyone else treated her like the invisible woman she had a fairly clear idea of what their feelings were on the matter. And being tried and convicted by one’s peers on nothing more substantial than a rumor was certainly a very human situation.
When she added to that the fact that both Reese and Dante had betrayed her, she had to admit the differences between human and cyborg were blurred to near indistinguishable.
For a solid week after she’d been placed with the other female hunters, they were confined almost exclusively to the barracks, even taking their meals there and it dawned on her after a while that nothing had changed a great deal from her previous situation, except that now she was surrounded by people who ignored her. The only break in the monotony was when they were lined up and taken to the facilities for showering.
Excitement rolled through the barracks when they discovered the following week that they would be allowed to leave the barracks during wake period to mingle in the rec room. Any break in the monotony was welcome, but Amaryllis didn’t see what there was to get so excited about. When they reached the rec room, though, she saw that the male hunters had been allowed access to the rec room, as well.
After weeks of confinement, she supposed it was only natural that everyone would feel as if they’d been released from prison. It wasn’t much of a release in her book. Guards still watched them from windows in the deck above them. Guards escorted them to and from the barracks. Once they reached the rec room, they couldn’t leave until they were escorted out again, under guard.
Dalia, the huntress who’d supposedly gone ‘rogue’, remained with the group of hunters, as much a prisoner as the rest of them. Despite the fact that their bunks were on opposite ends of the barracks, Amaryllis had caught several glimpses of her in the past week, along with the rumors that Dalia was a plant, there to spy on them and report everything they said and did to the cyborgs.
Amaryllis didn’t know whether to believe it or not. There didn’t seem to be much point to it when the cyborgs could as easily survey them and collect intelligence through electronic means, but she wasn’t the least surprised that the rumors persisted. It was just the sort of thing that ‘people’ did when they were bored and/or scared—search for a target to take out their frustrations on. Unlike her, however, Dalia was neither ‘invisible’ nor ostracized.
Mentally, Amaryllis conceded that that was most likely because Dalia was the best of the best and there probably wasn’t one among them, the males included, who didn’t suffer just a tiny bit of hero worship where she was concerned.
Regardless, as tired as she was of having nothing but her own thoughts for company, of being alone even in a crowded room, she knew better than to attempt to change the situation. Any overtures on her part would almost certainly be resoundingly snubbed, and she thought she might as well spare her pride at least.
To Amaryllis’ surprise, she discovered on the third day that either the hunters hadn’t heard the rumors the huntresses were speculating on, or they simply didn’t care, or the rumors intrigued them rather than repelled them. One of the hunters, Cain, who’d actually been her recruiting officer, approached her. She eyed him warily, wondering if he’d merely come to see if he could discover any juicy tidbits to pass along to the others pertaining to the rumor that she’d taken a cyborg lover.
They were bound to be getting bored with what they had and had managed to invent by this time.
“I didn’t realize until the other day that you were among the captured.”
Amaryllis felt a blush rising in her cheeks in spite of everything she could do, but, even if he was alluding to the rumors about her, she wasn’t going to acknowledge it. “My partner and I were close enough we were called in to take part in the mission.”
He looked uncomfortable for several moments and she thought he was going to leave again. “Do you think there’s any truth to what they told us?” He asked after a moment, and then shrugged. “I suppose anything’s possible, but it’s hard to accept that nothing I think I remember was real.”
Amaryllis relaxed fractionally, realizing he wasn’t referring to her time with Dante. She wasn’t a great deal more comfortable with the conversation he’d chosen, however. “I don’t know, but it’s hard to argue with their logic,” she responded. “No matter how well trained, it seems unlikely a human would be a match for a cyborg in strength, speed, or agility.” The comment prompted a line of thought that hadn’t occurred to her before and she frowned. “But if it’s true, it makes me wonder what Robotics, Inc. had in mind for us when we’d finished cleaning up for them. I’d assumed we would be reassigned to security, but….”
Cain studied her assessingly for several moments. “Actually, it’s fairly clear what they had in mind.”
Amaryllis looked at him in surprise. “You must know something I don’t.”
