Cyborg Nation by Kaitlyn O'Connor (e novels to read TXT) 📕

Bronte felt so weak with sheer horror that she thought for several moments that she would faint or be sick. “You told them that?”

“The med tech reported it,” he said tightly. “I did not. Though I would have had he not.”

Her chin wobbled. “He was wrong! That wasn’t it at all! He didn’t understand! Oh god!”

Chapter Twenty Three

How to explain to people who didn’t experience the ravages emotions could visit upon you that they’d completely misinterpreted hysterical relief for hysterical trauma? Another woman would’ve understood. She thought maybe even the cyborg women would’ve been able to understand the mood swings associated with pregnancy. Compound those with what she’d been through and surely any woman could completely relate to that kind of breakdown. Even if they were better at controlling themselves, they’d understand the need to let it out, the difficulty of holding all that in.

If she’d tried to explain it to a human man he wouldn’t have understood.

She thought the cyborg males were even less likely to understand.

It didn’t help that they didn’t seem to experience fear and had no reason to understand health issues since they didn’t really have those either.

How was she supposed to have known they’d interpret it that way? It hadn’t occurred to her--at all--or she would’ve said something before, tried to do something about it. She certainly hadn’t said anything to make them think any of her companions had hurt her in any way!

She’d thought they were being held for fairly basic questioning procedures. She hadn’t liked it. She’d thought it was going on far longer than it should have, but she’d still thought it was the sort of thing pretty much any pilot and crew would be subjected to if they’d crashed such an expensive and hard to replace piece of equipment.

“It wasn’t that!” she said tearfully. “It wasn’t anything they’d done—at least not with the intention of hurting me! I would’ve died in the crash if they hadn’t given me their nanos. There was nothing else they could’ve done except just let me die. I knew that, but I also knew the nanos weren’t designed for humans. When the wound healed but the knot started growing in my stomach I thought it was something horrible wrong with me and I was scared silly. But all I could do was worry about it. I couldn’t do anything, and they couldn’t do anything to help me if it was a tumor of some kind.

“And when I found out it wasn’t something horrible at all, but babies, I just … lost it—lost control of everything I’d been trying to be strong about. I know you probably don’t understand and it probably sounds crazy, but it’s true.

“Can’t you go to them and explain that? I don’t care what you tell them. Tell them I’m crazy! Tell them I’m stupid! Tell them it’s because I’m pregnant and pregnant women just go to pieces for silly things that don’t mean anything. Just don’t let them think they hurt me, because they didn’t!”

He listened, but she didn’t think he believed her. She knew he didn’t when he spoke. “You are afraid of them.”

“I’m afraid for them,” she disputed angrily, “not of them! This is a nightmare! Please! Can’t you talk to someone and try to get this straightened out? It’s just a misunderstanding.”

He shook his head. “I will try, but I must tell you that it will do no good. They will summon you to speak when they are ready to hear more, and not before that.”

A mixture of hope and dismay filled her. “But they will let me speak? They’ll give me the chance to straighten this out?”

He sent her a wry glance. “They will question you until they are satisfied that they have the truth … Just as they are questioning your companions now and examining the wreckage. They are well aware of the human propensity for lies and deceit. They will not merely listen and accept whatever you choose to tell them.”

That sounded ominous and it scared her more, but she had told him the truth. They’d never done anything she didn’t want them to.

Well, maybe they’d gone just a little overboard with teasing and she hadn’t actually liked that, or rather she hadn’t liked them teasing her and then withholding the release, but she’d still enjoyed it right up until they’d left. She’d forgiven them for that when she’d finally understood the big lugs thought they had to go to those lengths to convince her to contract with them.

As she worked the first shock off she remembered Caleb had said they hadn’t produced the contracts. Had they disposed of the contracts because of the argument and now had nothing to back up a claim that she’d been willing? Or had they disposed of the contracts because they thought she was the one accusing them of all those things?

She wasn’t allowed to see or talk to them. They might have been too angry to talk to her even if she’d been allowed, but as it was she certainly couldn’t even try to work things out.

She shrugged that off. It didn’t matter. It was something they could work out after they got out of the brig. All that mattered was convincing their superiors that they’d done everything they should have and nothing they shouldn’t have.

She would have to control her wayward emotions, no matter how afraid or upset she got when they questioned her. They weren’t going to be impressed, at all, if she broke down and cried. She could see Caleb just thought her emotionalism was more proof that they’d traumatized her, not proof of their innocence.

* * * *

“Do you think that Bronte is alright?” Gabriel asked for perhaps the hundredth time.

Gideon gritted his teeth and held onto his temper with an effort. “I do not know any more than you do, Gabriel.”

“Yes, but what do you think?”

Gabriel scrubbed a hand over his face and turned to pace his cell again,