Vyken watched Danya wrap her breasts in with a long strip of fabric to support them under her standard issue t-shirt. He liked them bare under her shirt, but they were full enough to need some kind of support during strenuous activity. He felt a need to talk with her, yet he was having a hard time knowing what to say.

“I am glad you are coming with me today,” he told her. “I have not planned any special duties for you; I just want you with me.”

Danya smiled at him after she pulled her t-shirt on, tucking it into her cargo pants. She went to him, slid her arms around him and hugged him, pressing her cheek to his chest. “I want to be with you, too.”

Vyken closed his arms around her, stroking her hair, and rubbing her back.  “I’m happy when I’m with you. I long for you when I’m not with you. I’ve learned this is normal, but it doesn’t feel normal for me. I have known fear I’ve never felt before---since I have claimed you.”

“I feel all those things, too, Vyken,” she said and looked up into his eyes. They were dark, almost midnight blue. “You have never had a relationship like this before, have you?”

“No. I never desired one before I found you,” he said cupping his palm against her cheek.

“It’s always kind of scary when you care for someone. I’m kind of new at this too, so I guess we’ll figure it out together.” Danya slid her hands up his firm chest and put her arms around his neck. “How about one more kiss before we go?”

He grinned then bent his head to meet her lips with his. Once they connected, he couldn’t resist slipping his tongue into her mouth for a sensual dance with hers. He didn’t pull back until the cyborg escorting them signaled the space dart was ready for flight. Even then he reluctantly pulled his mouth from hers.

“We better go AFJ-081 is waiting.”

 

Vyken took Danya and one cyborg from the first group they’d activated with him in the six-passenger dart he was flying to the other cyborg production facility on Earth. This was a fast air and spacecraft that could fly like a plane, make vertical landings, make short flights into space, or cruise on water if necessary. Taking the additional cyborg was for training as well as security, although he believed this excursion would be perfectly safe. Yet, when they were together, Vyken didn’t know what to say to her. He never felt compelled to make small talk. His attachment Danya had grown exponentially in days so that he yearned to be with her when they were apart. Searching through his archives, he knew this was a natural occurrence in mating.

But not for cyborgs whose emotions had been suppressed both chemically and electronically. It was probably one of the main reasons the naturals treated them like machines. Over the years, the suppression became overwhelmed by the hormone surges when strong emotions broke through like a loss when their comrades both naturals and cyborgs were killed or sent on suicide missions.

Yes, cyborgs were harder to kill and could continue to function with grave injuries, but they could be killed, and many were killed alongside the humans that fought with them. Many were people Vyken cared about---friends. So many were lost that he learned to suppress his feelings without the aid of his cybernetics because the loss was painful and unpleasant. The greater the attachment, the greater the pain of loss would be.

As those thoughts stirred in the back of his mind, Vyken pushed them back. They intruded on his purpose and his mission and hampered his logical thinking.

The facility they would inspect was carved out of a mountainside in what was once Peru. The trip by dart took an hour to launch into low space orbit and re-enter the atmosphere over the South Pacific and land in the Andes Mountains near Machu Picchu. It was even bigger than the facility where Vyken was created. His attempts to have it scanned from space failed because of the unique shielding built into it. He had the coordinates of the facility and its architectural map in his memory bank so finding them was not a problem.

Carved out of a remote mountain, flying in was the only way to get there as there were no roads to the secret facility. The landing pad was grown over with vegetation that Vyken removed with the onboard laser weapon on a low setting. The entrance was blocked by huge metal doors covered with a fake rock face to blend in with the mountain terrain.

The flight was routine until they landed at the facility.  They exited the vehicle and started toward the entrance when two cyborgs fired as soon as they were all on the ground.

“Back inside, now!” Vyken shouted, shoving Danya behind him. He and AFJ-081 took positions on opposites sides of the dart entrance with their rifles poised and ready.

Stand down immediately! This is Federation Space Force Commander Vyken Dark, and I am acting under orders from the Cyborg High Council on Phantom to assess this facility.

We do not recognize the Cyborg High Council of Phantom.

Well, you damn well better recognize my authority under the Federation Space Force! Vyken asserted. I am acting under orders from them as well. Stand down, now! Or we will fire on you. No answer. Do I need to call in a full company to take this facility by force? They can be here in an hour from the Starfire Nemesis.

What is your command code?

Vyken gave it. I was a binary code known only to the cyborgs.

My apologies Commander Dark. Standing down. You and your associates may enter the complex. Mr. Blaze will greet you as you enter, sir.

With that Vyken and AFJ-081 shouldered their rifles by their straps and came back out of the dart with Danya behind them. The two cyborgs that had fired on them stood on opposite sides of the open entrance with their rifles shouldered. Vyken and AFJ-081 both rested their hands on their sidearms as they walked in to find an innocuous-looking natural human dressed in black waiting to greet them at the interior entrance.

“Commander Dark, I am Edward Blaze, manager of this facility,” he said. “What brings you all the way to this godforsaken place? What news do you have of the war?”

“The war is over. I am here to learn if you have cyborgs stockpiled in stasis and how many activated cyborgs are present,” said Vyken.

“If the war is over, why do you need to know?” Blaze asked.

“Because Federation Emancipation Act of 2620 states that cyborgs are human and therefore free beings. Cyborg command will be taking all of those still in stasis to the cyborg colony on Phantom, and all activated cyborgs are released from duty to the Federation. They are free to stay on Earth or go anywhere they wish. I am here to enforce it.”

“You’re taking our cyborgs?” Blake murmured in disbelief. “I don’t think I can let you do that. I’m responsible for them.”

“I am not taking them; Cyborg Command will be taking them---only the inactivated cyborgs. The active cyborgs are free to stay or leave as they wish.” Vyken explained. “The production of cyborgs has been suspended.”

“But then what will I do?” Blake asked, still looking shell-shocked. “I’ve been making cyborgs my whole life.”

“How many do you have waiting to be activated?”

“Eight thousand. Ten in nurtury tanks.”

“You must bring them to maturity, but you may not start anymore,” Vyken told him. “Are you the only human living here?”

“I am not a natural human,” he confessed. “My predecessor was the last natural human, and he was here alone with a cyborg female as his mate. They were unable to produce children, so they made me from a cyborg embryo but without the nanocybots enhancements. In that respect I am natural. My growth was not accelerated, and I came out as a baby. They raised me as their child. My mother is still alive, but my father is dead. He died about ten years ago.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Vyken said respectfully. “But since the cyborgs in stasis have been born at maturity, the High Council has decided they have the right to their lives, and they plan to give that to them. May I inspect your facility now?”

Vyken got all the info he could from the Peru plant’s AI, but he wasn’t sure that the information was complete. He decided it was necessary to see the state of the facility first hand.

“All right,” Edward said with a resigned sigh. He clearly wasn’t happy with the situation, but Vyken’s code was verified. If he denied him access, the commander would likely come back with a company of cyborgs to force the issue, and the Peru cyborgs were preprogrammed to recognize him as their commander.

The Peruvian facility was at least twice the size of the Chicago facility. The fact that it and the other three remained intact was a testament to how well built and how well hidden they were. Bringing people to live there could work as it was already set up as a self-contained community with six levels, one level devoted to hydroponic farming because it was needed to support the human scientists, staff, and their families.

The second level held the eight thousand cyborgs in stasis, and the third level contained the labs, the nurtury, and the liquid nitrogen embryo vault. The fourth level was the cyborg quarters, and the fifth level was the residential level where Edward and his cyborg mother lived among thirty-four male and female cyborgs.

Hydroponics was on the sixth level, and that’s where they met Edward’s mother and other resident cyborgs. She was working with male and female cyborgs harvesting vegetables that were ready. They finished the inspection of the cyborg production facility in about two hours and left Edward with assurances that all activated cyborgs could choose to stay or go when cyborg command came for those in stasis.

“It looks like they build their community here with cyborgs and Edward is the only natural human left,” Danya whispered to Vyken as they were leaving.

“That’s exactly what they have done. They will probably need the embryo vault to keep it going if they plan to stay here,” he said.

“This has been a real eye-opener,” she whispered back. “I’m glad I got to come here with you today. When we leave, can we fly over those ruins we saw on the way in? I’m surprised they are still there. I just can’t remember what they are.”

“It’s called Macchu Picchu and was said to have been built by the Incas…” Vyken stated as he accessed the information from his memory banks.

“Okay, now I remember reading about it in one of Dad’s books,” she said. “I am glad it wasn’t destroyed in the war.”

“Probably because there are no large population centers nearby,” said Vyken. “The Mesaarkans were trying to exterminate the human race from Earth and many other planets. It was a job they were good at.”

“Did you ever see Chicago like it was before the war?” she asked

“Only in holovids. It was destroyed before I was created,” he replied. “But it was a great city before the Mesaarkans. I can show you on Starfire.”

“It was already ruined before my birth as well,” Danya said. “Dad said after the war started the government failed and the gangs took over. We were living at the outskirts of the city but came in for food when we heard that it was being delivered by aid workers if we were desperate. Then those guys found us when you showed up.”

“You have never spoken of your mother,” Vyken said.

“She died I was little. She got sick, and we had no medics or medicine. I don’t really remember her, except that it was the only time I ever saw Daddy cry. He never talks about her except that he said I look like her,” Danya said.

“If that’s true, she must have been beautiful,” Vyken observed.

“Well, I think you are too,” Danya openly flirted with him. “And you don’t look a day over thirty.” Of course, she knew he was eighty in human years, but cyborgs didn’t age. Square-jawed with a strong chin and stark blue eyes, he was as handsome as the day he was activated.

Danya didn’t have much experience with men and relationships, except her father. She had a good relationship with him. She was totally enamored with Vyken, but she realized that there was still a lot she didn’t know about him. Sometimes he seemed aloof, but then he would look at her with such passion and longing that she knew he was feeling more than he let on.