CHAPTER ELEVEN
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.”
