Commander Dark, we have reviewed the information you have sent us, and we believe that removing the inactivated cyborgs from Earth would be premature given the conditions you have described. We leave it to your discretion to activate as many as you need to restore order to old Chicago and build the Enclave.
Instead of sending a ship to retrieve the inactive cyborgs, the Federation has authorized a ship to bring you more troop carriers and farming machinery to the Enclave. Plans for a new starport on Earth have been revised. There is a city near the east coast of North America they have renamed Farringay where the starport will be built. Old Chicago will eventually have a shuttle landing station instead of a full-service starport.
You are ordered to activate three companies of cyborgs to go to Farringay and restore order there so rebuilding can begin once you are supplied with the transports vehicles to get them there. You may send additional troops as you deem necessary.
Keep us informed of your progress.
Vyken shared the message from Command with his brothers and waited for their feedback.
“Do you think we’re ever going to get off this world?” Matix said. “When we agreed to take this job, I thought maybe a year at the most. But this is a whole new war only we’re fighting thugs and criminal overlords instead of aliens.”
“I was looking forward to finding a female and settling on Phantom to breed and make a life for us,” Brekar said. “Now, that Kyden and Matix have females to bond with, I would like to be done with this mission, so I can find a female too.”
“We’ve given the Federation eighty years of our lives to save their asses,” Jolt grumbled. “Isn’t that enough?”
“I think we all feel the same way,” Kydel said. “But we all know their numbers have been decimated by this war. Because of it, not that many naturals are joining the space force. They have us. Somebody needs to take control of this chaos.”
“I know, but I don’t want to spend another eighty years here,” Jolt said, “I want to find my female and breed.”
“Nobody’s stopping you,” Matix added. “You can still do your job.”
“There is an end in sight,” Vyken said. “As I told you on my way back from Peru, we have eleven thousand inactive cyborgs available with the thirty-three hundred here and the eight thousand in Peru. We activate as many as we need---all of them if necessary and train them to take over. Then we are free.”
“That makes sense to me,” said Matix. “We, personally, don’t have to do it all. We just have to make it happen. By the time we leave, the Enclave should be organized.”
“That was my promise to Admiral Gregor,” Vyken agreed. “We aren’t committed to the rehabilitation of the planet. These other cyborgs can learn what we know and more.”
“We don’t have enough weapons for all of them,” Brekar said.
“I asked for a pod of the usual weapons with their shipment in my reply as well as body armor. We can fabricate some here on the ship, but our raw materials will only supply three companies here. That will be enough for now,” Vyken said. “We also have thousands engineered embryos if eleven thousand cyborgs are not enough. Peru has at least that many as well.”
“How long do you think we’re in for?” Kydel asked.
“Two years, at most,” said Vyken. “The newbies will be committed to ten-year increments with retirement after thirty. Those that serve the full thirty years will receive a colonial settlement stipend and the possibility of civilian work.”
“It’s a better deal than we got,” said Jolt.
“A lot has changed since we were created,” Vyken reminded. “We will awaken fifty more cyborgs to fill our three mission carriers. Get some of the newbies to help with that, and I will talk to Jacob Black about the situation.”
Vyken found Jacob Black walking down the corridor toward his office as he came off the elevator on level one of the Enclave. Black frowned when he first spotted the cyborg Commander, then pasted a welcoming smile on his face.
“Commander Dark, how can I help you today?” he said. “Come on into my office and have a seat.”
Vyken followed Jacob into the office and pressed the button to slide the door closed behind him. While the other man took his seat behind the desk, Vyken sat in a padded metal chair that barely contained him in front of the desk.
“I have news from the Federation via Cyborg Command, and I have some things to discuss with you.” Vyken began. “We have determined that trying to rescue the innocents in the city is inefficient because we are continually taking unfriendly fire from the gangs. We’re activating more cyborgs to root them and their overlords out so we can get to the people you want to bring into the Enclave.”
“More cyborgs activated,” Jacob frowned, not hiding his dismay. “Are you sure that’s wise? I’m not sure we need more cyborgs fraternizing with our women. We need them to breed with natural humans, not cyborgs.”
“Why do you find that a problem? Cyborg offspring with naturals will be a combination of both. They will carry our nanocybots, but they will not have our processors. Those are integrated into the fetus as it grows to maturity. That won’t happen to fetuses carried in the female’s womb. They will be superior humans. I don’t see the problem, and neither does cyborg command.”
“They wouldn’t,” Jacob muttered. “The gene pool will be contaminated with genetically engineered offspring. It will impede the process of natural selection. Cyborgs were made to be killers. We don’t need killers here, we need farmers and craftsmen, builders and the like.”
“We were programmed and conditioned to be killers before we were born. Genetically we are more alpha than a lot of naturals. Again, offspring grown naturally in the womb will not receive that programming.”
“That’s not going to happen here,” Jacob asserted. “I will not have cyborgs mating with the females in the Enclave, and I will take it up with the Federation if I have to. I will also inform them that you have taken James Hill’s daughter as your concubine and are keeping her from her father.”
Vyken raised his eyebrows at Enclave manager’s outburst. “Inside the Enclave, you are in control. Will you also determine who these females may breed with who are not cyborgs?”
“No, of course not, but you cannot keep Danya from her father. Who do you think will have her after you are finished with her?” Jacob persisted.
“I am not holding Danya against her will. She is my female, and I am her male.” Vyken was losing patience with Jacob Black’s utter bigotry. “I will not be finished with her until I breathe my last breath.”
“Well, her father hasn’t been allowed to see her in days since you took her.”
“Is that what he told you?”
“It’s what I have observed,” Jacob admitted.
“They have spoken on their coms. James is busy teaching and helping your new people settle in, and Danya has been busy with me.” Vyken said. “She is free to come see her father or anyone else here and her father is welcome on our ship, so there is no problem here.”
“Of course, you would think that. When are you going to remove the rest of the cyborgs from level four and gather materials to convert it into living space?”
“Command is sending a ship with machinery and supplies so that we can send some of them on a similar mission to Farringay. We will be activating more of them to prepare for that mission, and more to bring order in old Chicago. We need a place to for them to stay before we can remove them from your facility,” said Vyken, far calmer than he felt.
Attitudes like Black’s were what started the war with the Mesaarkans because some bigoted colonials refused to live peacefully alongside humanoids who were different from them. The humans killed them all in an unprovoked massacre. Their stupidity cost the lives of billions of humans.
Vyken accessed his memory of Admiral Gregor and found no reference to Jacob Black’s bigoted attitude toward cyborgs. Gregor must not have known. Vyken hadn’t known until now. Black was no more fit to lead this enclave than the thugs from whom Vyken had taken Danya and her father. Next, he would probably choose people to join based on the color or their skin. Cyborgs came in many colors, even more than natural humans.
Black himself might not be alive if it weren’t for the cyborgs. Even before the Wholaskans negotiated peace with the Mesaarkans, the cyborgs were the ones keeping the aliens from destroying the entire planet. The Earth could have been just another asteroid belt orbiting the sun instead of a world that could be rehabilitated.
Not only that, but the few hundred people brought to the enclave so far would not be able to prepare the soil and plant crops in time to harvest them by winter. They would need help from the cyborgs who would have to do most of it by hand because the machinery would not arrive soon enough. They would probably have to fabricate the picks and shovels to even do that.
Vyken balled his hands into tight fists as his side resisting the extreme temptation to reach across the desk and choke the life out of Jacob Black. Only the fact that he had no legal justification stopped him, this time.
Black was one of those eugenicists that believed only specific people should be allowed to breed. Apparently, cyborgs were not included in his list. This was not the purpose of the Enclave according to Admiral Gregor. It was supposed to restore the population to rebuild civilization on Earth---not decide who gets to procreate and who doesn’t.
Attempts had been made before on Earth to eradicate certain strains from the human genome, killing millions, under the mistaken belief their elimination would make the world a better place. That didn’t happen, and it wasn’t going to happen now.
Cyborgs may have been bred in test tubes and spawned in nurturing tanks, but that didn’t make them less human than those born naturally. The fact remained their genetic makeup was entirely human. Their cybernetic enhancements didn’t change that.