Page 10 of My Tiny Giant
“Let me do it.” The system didn’t spot anything larger than a small fish in the water. However, I knew that some fish on this planet could easily bite through the leather of his pants. “The fish may be dangerous—”
He didn’t let me finish, jumping into the water and moving across the creek in two long leaps.
“I’m faster than the fish!” he boasted from the other side. “Bigger than them, too.”
He was big, I had to admit. When standing next to me, Agan was nearly as tall as my suit. I doubted he would even fit into my armor if he tried. Whereas I’d had to have the exoskeleton adjusted to suspend me inside the suit, with plenty of room to spare both in height and width.
“Okay then.” I waved him off, giving up on trying to talk any sense of caution into the man. “Do what you want. I’ll sleep right here.”
I slid out the thin roll of my sleeping pod from the armor on my thigh and unfurled it between the two metal tripods that I had staked into the ground.
That was the easy part.
Now, I faced the dilemma of what to do next. I really disliked the idea of giving up the cover that my armor provided for me. Agan would sure have a word or two to say if he learned that his “battle brother” had been a woman all along.
Sleeping inside the armored suit would be extremely uncomfortable, however. It had been designed for action in an upright position, not for resting.
Besides, I really needed to go to the bathroom. Although the suit could accommodate me in case of an emergency, hiding my identity from an arrogant lieutenant did not constitute one. I preferred to keep the suit in its best shape with all its functions at their full capacity for whatever we might have to face tomorrow. Tonight, there was no good reason I couldn’t pee in the bush.
Meanwhile, Agan had returned to my side of the creek.
“I’ll sleep here in this spot,” he said cheerfully, hacking off a few leafy branches of a tree on the jungle edge and dumping them in a pile on the ground to make a sleeping pallet for himself, I assumed. “You’d better get out of that tin can, Eleven.” He tipped his chin at me. “As great as these things are in battle, I’ve heard they’re not good for getting any rest in them.”
For once, I fully agreed with him. I’d get no rest if I stayed in the suit.
Drawing in a bracing breath, I made the decision to come out.
I disconnected the helmet, then opened the hatch in the front, climbing out of the armor. I did everything deliberately slow, giving Agan the time to realize who I was, and hopefully adjust his perception and behavior accordingly.
Yet when I finally turned to him, shock was still plastered all over his face.
He had obviously assumed I was a man, and I had done nothing to prove him wrong until now. I understood his surprise at seeing a short, skinny blonde climbing out of the seven-foot-tall armor suit when he had obviously expected someone bigger and...well, male.
“Hi,” I said, giving him a small wave.
My gesture seemed to have snapped him out of the dumbfounded stupor. He raked his fingers through the thick waves of his mane.
“What the fuck, Eleven?” he spat out the curse sharply.
The longer he stared at me, the more his shock felt like an insult.
“My name is Emma,” I said in an ice-cold tone that hopefully left no doubt his reaction hadn’t impressed me. “My friends call me Pixie. You can call me Lieutenant Nowak.”
He still looked annoyingly flabbergasted, not even trying to school his expression into anything remotely polite or politically correct.
“So, it’s true then?” He gaped at me. “Humans make their women fight for them?”
After having walked on eggshells around this insufferable prick all day, I finally lost it. He was the one in the wrong, after all, not me. Why did I have to make any effort at all to spare his feelings?
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I yelled, flipping my hands in the air. “What is your problem here? I am a soldier, Lieutenant, just like you are. I fight for my country and my planet, just like you do.”
“War is not a woman’s job,” he muttered stubbornly.
“But it is literally my job!” My irritation flared into anger. “I’ve spent years training to get here. I’ve studied more than you have, I bet. I’ve worked hard, and I will not put up with anyone’s judgement and opinions on what I should or shouldn’t do based solely on my gender. Definitely not with yours .” I stabbed my finger through the air his way. “You’re not any better suited for your job than I am for mine.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, giving me a long once-over.
“If you truly believe we’re the same, you’re blind,” he bit out.