CHAPTER SIX
Altogether, Vyken’s team brought back twenty-eight more people including children back to the enclave. Only three adult males, eight women, and seventeen children. One woman’s mate had been killed, and two others had been raped by the different men that fathered their children. The other two had been abandoned by the men who fathered their children.
All of the children, as well as the adults, were undernourished. Jolt and Brekar passed out protein bars to the group before they flew them back to the enclave. The smell of unwashed bodies filled the passenger hold, and some of the children had to sit on the floor. Nobody seemed to mind the crowded conditions as they munched on the bars they were given. They were getting out of the hellhole where they had merely existed with little hope. Now they had the promise of something better than they had ever dreamed.
Matix commed the enclave to let them know they were on their way back so they would be ready to receive their new members. Jacob Black seemed thrilled with their success.
Vyken didn’t entirely trust him, partly because he never mentioned the cyborgs in stasis on level three of the facility. Black never offered an explanation of why he hadn’t shared that information. Would he have told Vyken about them if he hadn’t found them? He didn’t seem pleased that the cyborg commander had discovered them. No one would stop him from activating them.
Although the cyborgs had been bred and born to be warriors, they were capable of other types of work. Star, the ship’s AI could upload subroutines to their onboard computers on collecting material and building shelters for the people they were bringing into the Enclave. Plus, they had three more transport vehicles they could activate with the additional men to staff them.
Jacob had staff ready to do intakes on the refugees from the city and assign them quarters. As each of them was recorded and checked in, enclave staff took them to the medical clinic for health assessments after which they were guided to an apartment to settle in.
Before they returned to the Enclave, Vyken had taken Danya aside and told her about the cyborgs in stasis at the facility. He wanted her to trust that he wasn’t keeping secrets from her. So, when he asked her to help Jacob’s people with the intakes while he went to activate and move some of the cyborgs to the ship, Danya understood what was happening.
Vyken also knew the cyborgs were all naked in their stasis chambers. He didn’t want Danya looking at them before she ever sawhimnaked. Not that he was worried. She had already been exposed to his pheromones and knew she was his female. But it was also common for cyborgs to be disoriented and lash out when they first came out of stasis. Vyken didn’t want to have to kill any of them for hurting her accidentally. He knew he wouldn’t be able to help himself.
Kydel met them at the elevators to the facility after all the refugees had been taken down to intake. Once they got to Level One, they took the stairwell to the third lower level. The medic had accessed the archives Star had on the facility and discovered there was an alternate exit stairwell that led directly to the surface at the back corner of the lab. The access was buried three feet underground. There was also a fourth lower level that was only accessible from the same elevator at the back of the lab.
Vyken decided to take Matix, Jolt, and Brekar down to the next level to investigate. Clearing out level three and possibly four would give the Enclave more space to house its members before they would have to begin building shelters on the surface for them. The lower level was divided into about sixty rooms with a corridor running down the middle between the two rows of them. There were windows in the doors, so they didn’t have to go inside to see what was in them. They were stunned to find more rows of stasis chambers containing inactivated cyborgs.
The dozen or so on each side were empty. On up the rows, the rooms had empty stasis chambers lined up in rows.
Commander, this room is filled with cyborgs in stasis!Jolt exclaimed.
This one too!said Brekar
After that, they ran from one room to the next looking in every window down the hall, and each room was filled with cyborgs in stasis chambers.
What the hell? We thought we had three hundred cyborgs and now we have three thousand three hundred.Vyken related.We have to contact the council. We can handle the three hundred but three thousand…
They’re safe for now. Kydel related.The chambers are all powered and working at optimum levels.
I’ll have Star send a message to the Cyborg World Council. We can’t turn all of these unsocialized cyborgs loose. They are ready to go to war. It’s going to be enough work to orient those upstairs for peacekeeping. Vyken said.Let’s go upstairs and start working on the first thirty.
Commander, in one of those rooms back there, one wall was lined with shelving loaded with clothing for the cyborgs. Jolt said.Do we need to get that, or is there stock, upstairs?
It took Vyken a split second to access his memory as he had not consciously noted such a room.Yes, there is. We can use that for the cyborgs upstairs.
Vyken led the way up to the next floor and into the first stasis room that was directly off the stairwell. Kydel refreshed them on how to deactivate the stasis chambers and bring the cyborgs online. The five of them made quick work of opening the chambers and bringing the thirty cyborgs to awareness.
The first thing they did as they stepped from their chambers was to stretch and look around. They stood in front of their cubicles waiting for orders.
Vyken connected with them through their silent network:
Welcome to your life cyborgs. I’m am Vyken Dark, and I am your commanding officer. We are not currently at war, but you have been awakened to aid in our mission to build a settlement and secure people from the nearby city of Chicago to join the Enclave.
Now you will follow Brekar to the fourth room down the hall on the left where you will secure clothing and shoes and dress. Then we will take you to our ship, Starfire Nemesis to upload updates to your memory banks with Federation history since you were spawned. You will also be briefed on our mission and uploaded with maps of the city.
Tomorrow, we will divide into teams and travel by air transport into the city.
Privately to his team members:I’m going up to see if Danya and her father are ready to return to the ship and take them there. When our newbies are ready, take them to the ship.
When Vyken returned to level one, the new group of refugees had been checked in, and about half of them had been checked out by the medic. He found Danya talking with her friend Belle outside one of the apartments down the hall from the medical clinic. Almost as if she sensed him coming she turned and looked up at him with a welcoming smile. It made him want to run and scoop her up into his arms and kiss her senseless.
But, instead, he continued walking toward her at a leisurely pace. No other males present would compete with him for her attention even if he hadn’t already marked her with his scent and his nanocybots.
“Hello,” Danya said and slipped her small hand into his when he came to stand by her. “Belle, this is Vyken Dark, he is commander of the Starfire. Vyken, this is my friend Belle Forest.”
