You Had It Coming by B.M. Carroll (best fiction novels .TXT) 📕

Jerico left her alone in here,” he pointed out, “or she would have had no opportunity to sabotage the ship. You did something you should not have when you caught her or you would not have been so anxious that you had hurt her. Do not tell me you will not lose control! You have not been in control since we brought her onboard!”

Gideon massaged his chest at the reminder of the pain that had shot through him when she had wilted to the floor like a crushed flower. He was not certain what had caused it, or the jolt of knee weakening adrenaline that had followed it, but he thought that had more to do with his anger than anything else that had happened. He frowned, but thoughtfully. “I have not seen that either you or Jerico have behaved any more rationally,” he said coldly.

“You are certain we did not hurt her?” Jerico asked uneasily.

Gideon shrugged. “I could find no damage and she felt well enough to threaten to kill me when I left. I do not think so.”

“Why would she do that?” Gabriel ground out.

Ignoring the challenge in Gabriel’s voice, Gideon thought that over. “I am not entirely certain. She did not like the method I used to interrogate her, I think.”

Gabriel considered that and finally relaxed. “What else are we to do when she is so fragile, and more than our lives are worth besides? She has no room to complain,” he said resentfully. “She has tortured us far more than we have tortured her. I am almost ready to cut my genitals off and toss them into the incinerator. You two, at least, have had some relief. I have had none!”

“It is worse afterwards,” Gideon said morosely.

“How would you know?” Gabriel snarled angrily.

“Because I felt as you do before, and now it is worse!” Gideon growled back at him. “You should pleasure yourself to relieve the pressure.”

“I have!” Gabriel said indignantly. “Else I would have lost my mind long before now. It helps for a short while and then I feel worse! I begin to think the more I empty this thing, the more it produces! I am up to six times per cycle now and I am sure my balls are getting larger.”

“Precisely my point,” Gideon retorted.

“I can not think that our plan is going at all well if she is trying to think of a way to escape,” Jerico put in thoughtfully. “I was taken completely by surprise. She has shown no aggression at all—only fear, though it has not seemed to me that she is nearly as fearful as before. And I still am stunned that she would be so bold that she would seize the first opening to try something. I think we must concede that she is not at all like any opponent we have come up against before. I am not at all certain how to proceed with someone who appears so passive and attacks without any warning whatsoever.”

“She knows that she is not strong enough to challenge us. She is waiting for us to kill ourselves for her so that she can return home. She was trying to familiarize herself with the controls and plot a course back.”

“She told you that?” Gabriel demanded.

“Not in those words, but she inadvertently revealed her plan while I was interrogating her.”

Gabriel smiled faintly. “She is very clever. I would not have thought that she would be any challenge at all … not in that way.”

“You have lost your mind or you would not be smiling like a moron!” Jerico snarled. “She wants us dead! I am as certain as I can be that that means she will not consider a contract with us!”

Gabriel glared at him. “A man wants to feel pride in his woman!” he shot back. “I was only thinking that I am more convinced that she is perfect even than before. She is beautiful and desirable and clever and brave. I do not mind saying I feel far better to think of getting offspring on her. They will only be stronger for having a mother such as her … even if they are not cyborg.”

“I think you have missed a crucial point,” Gideon said dryly. “She does not want us. I am convinced, but if we can not convince her then we will only be that much more miserable when the others take our woman!”

“I will kill anyone who looks at her!” Gabriel snarled furiously.

“You are a formidable warrior, Gabriel, but you are not that good! There are still far more who have no woman than have,” Gideon pointed out. “We can not kill them all and the council would not stand still for wholesale slaughter of our kinsmen—by us. The idea is to create a society, not to finish what the humans set out to do and wipe ourselves out.”

They fell to considering the situation for a few moments. “What about your plan to present the notion to her in a tactical sense?” Jerico asked finally. “I did not think much of it at the time, but it is clear that all this time we thought she was coming to accept the situation she was merely plotting to use our weakness for her against us. If she is of that bent, then she is surely more likely to appreciate the advantage than I had thought she might.”

Gideon cupped his mouth and chin in one hand, thinking. “I am not as certain as I was that that would have the desired effect. We can not point out the merits of it without also pointing out why it would have merit and then she is liable to decide to wait and let the others kill us to get to her. I begin to think she may be holding a grudge over the fact that we are the ones who captured her. It is unreasonable when we were only following orders, but I do not think she properly appreciates our position in