“Sweetheart, it’s good to see you,” James Hill said hugging his daughter. “I’ve missed you.”
Danya had come to see him while Vyken was supervising the training of the new batch of activated cyborgs a few days after his encounter with Jacob Black.
“Me, too, Dad,” she replied, hugging him back. “We’ve both been busy, and I like to be there when Vyken has time to spend with me.”
“Are you happy with him? Cyborgs are not exactly like us, you know,” he said. “Jacob makes no secret about his feelings against their mating with naturals. He’s forbidding the woman members of the Enclave from fraternizing with them.”
“How can he do that? Would he rather have them fraternizing with the thugs like the ones Vyken rescued us from?” she said with a touch of irony. “I don’t know about you, but I was more than happy to be rescued. They would have killed you and probably me too.”
“Do you think some of your feelings for Vyken are gratitude?”
“I am grateful, but I also am completely attracted to him, and we care about each other,” she told him. “We have a unique bond that I’ve never felt with anyone else.”
“Jacob thinks I should make you come live here in the Enclave.”
“Of course, he does,” Danya sneered. “Did he also tell you he has been approaching the women we brought here to breed with him?”
“What?”
“Yes, some of them have told me, and they’re none too happy about it. He told them it was their duty to procreate with natural males of substance. A few actually did,” she told him.
“That’s disgusting!” James exclaimed. “I know he is adamantly against the women here taking cyborgs lovers, but this is even worse. I can’t believe the Federation could support his leadership if they knew this.”
“They won’t. Vyken has already contacted them. Only his friendship with Admiral Gregor got Jacob Black this position. Vyken is sure the admiral didn’t know these things about him,” Danya asserted. “He never would have supported this kind of behavior. I sure hope you don’t either.”
“No, of course not. I’ve been hearing things that made me suspicious. I understand better than anyone how important it is to protect and help the women and children. With more women than men here, a man could easily have more than one lover, but to coerce them to have sex with him…”
“What about you, Dad? Have you met anyone special?” Danya asked with a hopeful smile.
“Kind of---Maree and I connected a few years back, and I lost track of her, but she is here now. I want her to be my wife, to marry her the way people used to.”
“That’s great, Dad! If you’re happy, I am happy,” Danya smiled rubbed his upper arm affectionately. “I don’t remember meeting her.”
“You were pretty young when you met her the last time. Your mother had been gone about two years. I wanted her to stay with us but she was looking for her sister who was taken but one of the overlords.”
“Did she ever find her?”
“She did, but when Maree found her, she wouldn’t leave the overlord because he took care of her,” James said. “Maree said she looked healthy and seemed happy, so she left her. If she tried to force her to leave, the overlord would have taken her as well. The cyborgs brought Maree in two days ago.”
“How is she?” Danya asked.
“She’s underweight and exhausted from being on the run. She went to see her sister. Maree’s sister’s overlord wanted her to stay but Maree refused, She escaped and he sent runners after her. The cyborgs drove them off. She’s resting now, but when she’s feeling up to it I will com if I don’t see you and we’ll get together.”
“That’ll be great, Dad. I’m so glad you have someone too…and don’t worry about me, Vyken is very good to me,” Danya assured him. “How are things going otherwise?”
“The reading classes are going slow with the adults, but the kids are taking to it,” he said. “There are only about half a dozen adults who can read and do simple arithmetic. It’s going to take years to get back to the educational and technological level that Earth was at before the war.”
“It’s like the whole world is in ruins. Last week we flew over many cities, and they were just as bad as Chicago. Even small towns were in ruins. That so many people survived is incredible…and partly thanks to the cyborgs.”
“The war’s been over on Earth for thirty years, but things haven’t improved,” James said. “We need all the help the cyborgs can give us.”
“Tell Jacob that. He seems to like you and respect you. Maybe he will listen to you, where he won’t listen to Vyken or me,” Danya said.
“I will work on that, sweetie.” He hugged her and kissed her cheek. “See you soon.”
Danya left her father to head back to the Starfire to find Vyken to tell him what she had just learned from her friends at the Enclave. She had made the rounds on level one and two to see how her friends liked their new home. The things they had told her about Jacob Black had greatly disturbed her. It wasn’t the fact that he approached multiple women for sex; it was how he did it. A couple of them told Danya that he implied that they would be evicted from the Enclave if they didn’t accept his advances.
Of course, as Danya was striding toward the elevator alcove just past Jacob’s office, he popped out and asked Danya if he could talk to her in his office. Only because his office had a glass wall front so anyone could see what was happening in there, did she agree. After the things she had learned, she didn’t want to be in close quarters with him.
Jacob Black was classically handsome with dark hair, amber eyes and a square jaw, full mouth, but the calculating way he was looking at her made her suspicious of his motives.
“It’s good to see you, Danya,” he said with an appreciative smile. The look in his eyes made her feel that he was mentally undressing her.
“What can I do for you, Jacob? I was just leaving.”
“To go back to your cyborg?”
“That’s right,” she admitted, not liking the way he said it.
“Is that why you won’t join us because you are with him?”
“I am where I want to be,” Danya said without elaborating.
“About that… I need to ask you not to encourage the other women to pair off with any of the cyborgs here,” he said. “I understand that you may feel grateful to the commander for rescuing you and your father, but it is not appropriate for the women of the Enclave to be mating with the cyborgs.”
“That sounds like you are biased against them when they are here to help us recover our humanity from the chaos left by the war. We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for the cyborgs fighting for us.”
“Cyborgs are genetically modified humans, and they will pollute the natural gene pool in ways we can’t even predict. We have to keep the human race pure and natural.” He insisted.
“Is that why you are trying to spread your genes around among the women we brought here for sanctuary from the gangs? Did you think they wouldn’t tell me? Some of them have been my friends my whole life,” she said, unable to completely hide her disdain.
“If you haven’t noticed, there is a shortage of men in the community here. How else are we going to increase the population? Each man will need more than one wife.”
“That will only further narrow the gene pool. There won’t be enough diversity because too many of the children will be half-siblings,” Danya pointed out. “The scientists used only the best genetic material for the cyborgs. They have already proven their superiority. Allowing them to mate with the women here---if they so choose---would only improve the gene pool.”
“I don’t know how you can let that half machine fuck you!” Jacob hissed. “He should stick to his own kind. They have females in stasis right here in this building. Commander Dark and the rest of those machines can fuck them.”
“That’s it! I won’t listen to you insult Vyken. That man has more humanity in his little finger than half the men I know. Who I fuck is none of your business. It sure as hell won’t be you!”
Danya did an immediate about face and stalked out of his office, barely missing walking into the door before it automatically slid open. She went straight to the elevator and pressed the button for the surface. She lunged through the elevator door and shoved the door of the concrete open and ran straight into Vyken.
He caught her upper arms a split second before she smacked into him. Dany gasped, startled then looked up at him. Vyken looked down at her with a touch of humor glinting in his eyes. Danya smiled and shook her head.