CHAPTER FOUR
“What can you tell us about this Enclave?” James asked Vyken. “What are their plans for the people we bring into it?” He sat with Danya, and Vyken at a table in the mess hall where he had just finished eating.
“The ultimate goal is to rebuild a democratic society worldwide, starting with the farmland here and the underground structure. They plan to give everyone an education and teach them skills to help build a community around the farm.” Vyken explained. “That’s the information we were given with our final invitation.”
“Can we trust these people?” James wondered. “We have struggled for years with no one to help us, and it’s only gotten worse instead of better. Why didn’t they start helping us before this?”
Vyken shook his head. “Those are questions I can’t answer. I’ll comm Jacob Black ask him for a tour and have him explain their overall plan for the Enclave. Those details weren’t included in our communication with them.”
“Forgive me if I am skeptical about this plan,” James said. “Unlike a lot of people these days, I learned how to read and write, and Danya learned as well. Her mother and I scavenged books wherever we could because we had no electricity or batteries to run any tech that we found. We read a lot of history, social science, and even fiction. There are so many ways a thing like this can go wrong with even the best of intentions.”
“I am familiar with the history of this world as well,” Vykan said. “This mission was the last request we received before our commander died. We have outlived all of our human forces and all but the remnants of the Earth government. There is no one left to force us to do anything.”
“Then why did you come back here? You have a starship, you can go anywhere,” James said. “Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful when you showed up when you did.”
“I was made here,” Vyken said. “This is my homeworld, too. My brothers and I decided it was worth trying to save it before we went our own way. We also thought we might find mates, as I found Danya.”
“Danya?” James looked at his daughter, eyebrows raised.
“We’ve got sparks, Dad. That’s all I can tell you.”
“I know she is the one,” Vyken said. “I just have to convince her of that.”
There was a great deal of heat in his gaze as his eyes met Danya’s.
“And when you leave?”
“I won’t leave without Danya; however, our leaving is not decided. You would be welcome to come as well,” Vyken said, meeting her gaze as he said it. “There is a world the cyborgs have built---a colony called Phantom. Only cyborgs know the location.”
“We haven’t even talked about it yet, Dad,” Danya quickly pointed out. “I have not consented to be his mate.”
“Your father asked my intention. What you want matters very much to me. Just think about it for now, and I will ask when I need your decision.”
“That’s fair.” She nodded, blushing at his appreciative gaze.
As they chatted about the Enclave, Vyken linked with their com center to request a tour for James and Danya. Jacob Black answered almost immediately inviting them to come right over.
Jacob Black met them at the elevator in the block milk house. He was a dark-haired man of medium height and a bit stocky. His amber eyes lit with interest as they focused on Danya. The khaki cargo pants and a black t-shirt that was just a bit snug over her ample breasts emphasized her sexy figure. Her long hair was now neatly braided down her back. One look at Vyken’s dark look cooled his interest almost immediately. There was something about Black that needled Vyken’s human side, and it was not just his interest in Danya.
They entered the elevator together and took it down the equivalent of three stories to the first underground level of the old cyborg facility now dubbed The Enclave.
“Vyken Dark, at last, we meet,” Jacob Black said as the doors closed behind them.
Jacob would have offered his hand, but cyborgs shunned the practice. Instead, he shook hands with James and Danya. “Come, let me show you around.” He led the way out into the corridor. James fell into step beside Jacob and Danya walked with Vyken.
Vyken didn’t exactly need the tour because this was where he was born over eighty years before. He knew the corridors in the facility as well as he knew the ship he’d served on since he left the facility. The colors were a little brighter, but the place hadn’t changed that much.
There was a block of offices near the elevators then the staff apartments. Whole families lived there in the days when the facility was growing genetically engineered cyborg embryos in tanks on the third level lower. That’s what Vyken wanted to see, and he didn’t plan to ask permission.
James and Jacob chatted animatedly as they headed for an apartment. Vyken leaned down and whispered in Danya’s ear, “Go with them, I’ll catch up with you. I need to check on something.”
She nodded and gave him a look that let him know she wanted to know about it later.
Vyken turned and ran back down the hall with the silent stealth of an assassin. Instead of taking the elevator, he turned to the right and quietly opened the door to the stairwell. He leaped from the top landing to the next landing until he reached the third lower level.
The corridor was dimly lit, but Vyken’s enhanced vision allowed him to see just fine. He first stopped at the embryo lab and nurtury. The door was open, so he went inside. The nurturing tanks were all empty, and the room smelled dusty. In the corner, the liquid nitrogen vault where the frozen embryos were stored was still operational. Vyken connected with the unit monitor and discerned that there were still ten thousand viable embryos contained within. He frowned. What are they going to do with these?
Vyken walked from room to room, rooms that used be labs where the cyborgs went through different processes throughout their development. Those were obviously abandoned decades before. It was actually the last chamber he was interested in. That was where the cyborgs ready for deployment were stored in stasis. The door was locked electronically, but that didn’t stop him.
