Page 57 of Whispers of the Deep

Fucking... No, the droid wasn’t masculine in any nature. It wasn’t feminine either. The droid was merely stating the obvious, rather than insulting her emotional state because she was female.

Her brain stuttered, and she thought maybe this was the right time. Roughly. “I don’t even know how long I’ve been missing.”

“Perhaps you should check.”

“Exactly how do you expect me to do that? Do you want me to shove my hand down the wetsuit and show you the blood?”

Byte rocked side to side. “I don’t need to see it, thank you very much. My function is not in healing.”

Muttering under her breath how all droids must have been created by men, and it was very clear how inappropriate that was, she shoved her hand underneath her wetsuit. Maybe if she embarrassed the small droid, it would leave her alone. Because this was inappropriate to even ask someone to... to...

Her fingers came out coated with blood.

“Fuck me,” she hissed. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

She had literally no options here. Sitting in a bubble of her own blood that was just... pushed around through her wetsuit wasn’t an option. But there was nothing else for her to wear. There was a blanket in the original cave, but they weren’t anywhere near that as far as she knew. So that meant she had to sit in her own blood until Arges came back, and who knew when he was going to get back?

This sucked.

This royally. Fucking. Sucked.

“Mira?” Byte inquired.

“I’m fine,” she said, which apparently was her mantra these days. “Just bleeding out of my vagina and into my wetsuit. It’s fine.”

She leaned forward to wash her hands off, only to freeze when Byte shrieked, “Don’t do that!”

“Why?”

“We are very near the disphotic zone. You are lucky to even withstand the pressure down here, but there are plenty of sea creatures who will smell that blood and there is nowhere for you to hide. If a giant squid, or whale, or shark decides they are interested in the scent of your blood, where will you go?” Byte rattled again, very upset about this. “Do not let that drip into the water.”

Right. She had a feeling this might be one of its dramatic moments, but also didn’t want to risk it. So. Shit.

Holding her hand away from her body, she stared at the blood and tried hard not to cry now. “So what do I do?”

“Just let it dry and then wipe it off. I don’t know how humans work.”

So she was just supposed to... sit here? With period blood on her fingers and... “Nothing could make this day better,” she muttered, flopping awkwardly onto her back with her hand in the air.

“Well, I am pleased to report the dialect of the People of Water is at seventy-two percent.”

Seventy... She sat straight up, ignoring her hand now. “Seventy two?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll take my damn chances with that.” She staggered to her feet and then walked over to Byte. She grabbed the small robot with her clean hand and set it on a much higher rock. “Give me the translation chip.”

“There are a lot of their conversations that you will not understand. Particularly the nuances of their languages, their gods, and many other uncertainties. It is best if I continue to listen and provide you with a complete translator first before I?—”

“Nope,” Mira interrupted. “I can’t stand not understanding him anymore. This would all be so much easier if we could just talk. I fully understand the risks of implanting a translation chip that does not have the complete language, but languages are always growing and evolving. I’m sure there are things I’ve even said to you that you don’t understand.”

Byte grumbled. A little tinny noise echoed inside its box before it muttered, “There have been a few things, but I have updated my database accordingly and now I understand the language fully again.”

“Then you will continue to update your database the more we are around the undine. But for now, I want that chip in my head so I can at the very least understand where he is taking us and why.” She held out her hand expectantly. “Don’t make me use protocol, Byte. I will order you to do it.”

It grumbled again, but this time, she heard the slight whine of a translator chip being created. It might be the last one that the robot had, in which case, she would be stuck not knowing the entire language for the rest of her life. But still.

Seventy-two percent was a lot of a language to know.

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