Vyken Dark: Cyborg Awakenings Book One Read online

  OTHER BOOKS BY CHRISTINE MYERS:

  THE ALEDAN PSION

  OLTARIN

  SURVIVING ZEVUS MAR

  PSION FACTOR

  PSION’S CHILDREN

  Cyborg Vyken Dark is back on Earth after fighting for eighty years in the Procyon War against the Mesaarkans. He came to help restore order out of chaos in old Chicago USA. Every major city on Earth is in ruins. Most are now run by gangs of thugs ruled by overlords who take everything of value and prey on those who are just trying to survive. Vyken and his four brother cyborgs are all that's left of their starship crew of three hundred.

  He didn't want the job, but when his old mentor Admiral Carson Gregor asked, Vyken Dark could not refuse. If he could have chosen a man to call father, it would have been Carson Gregor.

  Vyken chose the name Dark because the darkness in his soul drove him to kill the enemies of the Federation with a ruthlessness that few natural humans possessed. Sometimes that darkness overwhelmed his humanity and made him weary of his life... Until he came back to Earth and found her.

  Vyken Dark

  Cyborg Awakenings Book One

  Christine Myers

  Contact me: [email protected]

  Copyright © 2018 by Christine Myers

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

  Author’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Vyken Dark /Christine Myers -- 1st ed.

  Contents

  ONE CHAPTER

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  EPILOGUE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ONE CHAPTER

  The city was in ruins as the cyborg Vyken Dark expected as he walked down what was left of the street. He had been walking about ten minutes when they heard a woman screaming. It took him only seconds to pinpoint the source. Stopping at the corner of the building, using it as a shield as he peeked around the corner.

  There were five men and a woman. One man held the woman, and two held a middle-aged man while the other punched him repeatedly. The woman was thin but wiry with long brown hair tied back with a strip of rag. A smaller man couldn’t have held her as she tried to wrench herself from his grasp, stomping at his feet and trying to smash her head into his face. She was screaming at them for hurting the man.

  Vyken strolled out from behind the building with his rifle aimed.

  “Let them go,” said the pale gray skinned hulk with the bleached blond hair cut barely an inch from his scalp. Two meters tall with muscles rippling beneath his tight black shirt, Vyken Dark would have been formidable even without his ion rifle pointed in their direction. “Don’t do it!” he warned, as the puncher drew back his fist to hit the older man again.

  Vyken fired a shot over his head. “The next time I won’t miss. Let them go.”

  The puncher stopped and turned to face the interloper then his eyes widened as the armed cyborg approached.

  Vyken stopped about ten feet from the group. “Let them go! I won’t tell you again.” Vyken growled.

  “They took our stuff, and they won’t tell us where they put it,” the puncher complained.

  “And what would that be worth beating a man twice your age?”

  “We didn’t take it,” the woman said moving away from the man. She paused, rubbing her upper arms where the bigger man had held her too tightly. “We were looking for our food stash and scavenging. They think we took their crystal bliss.”

  “What is crystal bliss?” Vyken asked while his databank searched for information. It sounded like a mind-altering substance that would probably be illegal if there were still laws and people to enforce them. That’s why Vyken and his cohorts came back to Earth. “The woman speaks the truth.”

  “How the hell do you know that?” asked punching man.

  “I know,” Vyken said. “Leave!”

  Punching man who seemed to be the leader looked at Vyken apparently calculating their chances---five of them against an armed cyborg. His cronies shook their heads. Unarmed, they knew the cyborg could take them all effortlessly. That convinced them, and the thugs left, letting the older man fall to the ground on his hands and knees. The woman ran to him and squatted down beside him.

  “Dad! Are you okay?” she asked.

  Vyken lowered his weapon and walked over to them. “Sir, do you require medical treatment?”

  “I don’t know,” he groaned. “I’m a little battered, but I think I will be okay.”

  Vyken looked at him and ran a scan from his internal computer. “You should let me help you. You have a concussion and injury to your liver. We have a Medic on our ship. Come with us, and we will help you.”

  “Cyborg, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be fighting the alien war?” the woman asked.

  “What is your name female?” Vyken asked.

  “I’m Danya Hill, and that’s my father James Hill,” she said. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

  “The war is over. My team was requested to return to Earth to restore law and order. I am Vyken Dark.” He gave his chosen name. His original designation was VKD-8463. “Our ship is just outside the city. My brother will bring our transport to take you both there. We have food and a medic.”

  “I didn’t know cyborgs had brothers,” Danya said.

  “We are of the same genetic line, thus brothers,” Vyken said.

  Looking down at Danya’s face into her solemn green eyes, something stirred in him. He realized she aroused him as his cock twitched. He hadn’t seen a female in a long time, but this one was different. No other female had ever caused him spontaneous sexual awareness.

  Vyken breathed in her scent as he got closer. Amid the smells of sweat, there was an underlying subtle sweetness. She reminded him of a female who had been kind to him when they were learning social skills at the beginning of their training. That woman was probably long dead judging from the devastation of the city.

  But, it was more than that. Everything about Danya touched off a primal attraction in Vyken that shouted: Mate!

  Vyken could hardly take his eyes off her as she squatted down beside her father who was now sitting on the ground. She had her arms around his shoulders and leaned her forehead again his. It was obvious that she cared very much for the man, not unlike Vyken had cared for his friend and mentor Admiral Gregor.

  A few minutes later, his team’s hover transport arrived, landing in the street at the end of the alley. Vyken slung his rifle over his shoulder and helped Danya get her father on his feet and walk him to the vehicle. His team had collected two females with four children already in the transport.

  Two of his team members were sitting in the front, and the third was in the last seat in the back of the passenger section. The transport was designed to carry up to twenty-five people, but they were all that was left of their team. Vyken took a seat in the back with his second in command Jolt Somber. His skin color was
closer to white than gray, and he had close-cropped red hair.

  Matix Tell piloted the craft lifting it high into the air above the tattered city that had once been Chicago. Vyken wondered if the city could be salvaged, but that was not his job. His job was to retrieve the people to rebuild the civilization and eradicate those that would hinder the process. Other teams had been sent to other cities, but Chicago was his city, the city of his birth.

  The city may have been ruined, but the cyborg project center was still intact underground on a former dairy farm outside a small town South of the city. That’s where they would establish the enclave for those who wished to revive civilization in that part of North America. It was a massive facility with four levels. The small block building that resembled an ancient milk house still stood. Inside it were the elevators that led to the three of the lower levels.

  It was almost an underground city, definitely big enough to hold a small town of people. This was where they would create a pocket of civilization. The cyborgs would find individuals who would come there voluntarily. Those people would build a community using the ancient founding principles of what used to be the USA.

  Most of the tech in the center was old, but their AI still worked. It was filled with the knowledge humanity collected before some overzealous planet surveyors got stupid and tried to take a colonized planet from aliens. It was akin to how the Europeans took North and South America from the natives in an earlier age.

  Even though the incident was not Federation sanctioned, the Mesaarkan Confederation was wholly unforgiving for the massacre of their people on New Procyon Three. Because the corporation responsible was based on Earth, the Mesaarkans reeked destruction over the whole planet in a war that lasted over a hundred years.

  Two dozen planets in the United Galactic Federation were left in ruin. If not for the Wholaskans, an ancient alien race negotiating peace, the war might still be going on. A few hundred Mesaarkan people were killed on New Procyon 3. The Mesaarkans killed billions. The Wholaskans had a way of making them see their dead had been avenged millions of times over.

  The only space force Earth had left were the cyborgs. But with the Mesaarkans peace treaty, there was no one left for them to fight. Earth wasn’t a place Vyken thought he wanted to stay forever, just until he had carried out the Admiral’s last wishes.

  The cyborg forces had officially been released from duty by the Federation. Vyken and his team were mainly on their own, with their activities being followed by Cyborg Command. Most of the cyborgs released were already on their way to settle a world they found in their travels during the war. There would be room for Vyken and his brothers if they decided to actually go there. There was time to decide on that later.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The cyborg transport hovered in front of the landing bay of their starship sitting in a field nearby the secret entrance to the Human Enhancement Center. They were using it as their base of operations while they were on Earth because all their supplies, weapons, and transport vehicles were contained within. Otherwise, they would have left it in orbit because it took up an old football field’s space. The ancient cow pasture was more than big enough to accommodate it.

  Matix had signaled ahead, so there was bot stretcher waiting in the landing bay for Mr. Hill. When Vyken had relayed his scan to the medic, he agreed with Vyken that the man should not be walking around until they injected him with nanites to repair the damage. Vyken accompanied Danya and her father to sickbay while the other cyborgs went to the mess hall to give the other women and children something to eat.

  Their medic Kydel Bar was also a cyborg but well versed in human physiology as cyborgs were also human though many random-bred humans didn’t think of them as such. Even though they carried a fully integrated biocomputer within their bodies and nanocybots in their bloodstreams, they were human beings. Unenhanced humans didn’t always see them that way.

  The bot stretcher transferred James Hill onto the treatment lounger. Kydel then shooed Vyken and Danya out into the waiting room. The two stood looking each other over for a few moments. Danya wasn’t the first female that he had seen in the last few years, but the only one who had sparked an attraction that stirred his loins. Even dirty and disheveled, dressed in rags, he still found her looks pleasing. He scented her desire for him as well.

  “Thank you for helping us,” Danya said, looking up into his eyes. She was a little over medium height, but Vyken was still head and shoulders taller.

  They both knew what would have happened had he not been there. They might both be dead, and they probably would have raped Danya before they killed her.

  The thought made Vyken clench his jaw and wish he had killed them for the human waste of resources they were. On the other hand, females were valuable to replenish their race. It was against their code to harm females who were not involved in armed combat against them.

  “It wasn’t a fair fight,” Vyken said. He stepped closer and reached out to stroke her cheek with his fingertips. He searched his memory bank for an appropriate thing to say. He had no experience flirting or courting a woman. “I am attracted to you.”

  “That’s certainly straight to the point,” she smiled at him faintly. “You’re not very good at this, are you?”

  “No. My experience with women is limited to my service with them during my training and the war. I know how to give sexual pleasure…”

  “I just bet you do,” she chuckled.

  “But I never learned the courtship process,” he admitted.

  Danya gave him a full smile. The big cyborg was gorgeous---handsome face with a strong square jaw, piercing blue eyes, cropped blond hair and ripped muscular body. Danya could easily imagine pleasure in his arms once she got to know him a little better. She felt her core come to life for the first time in a long time.

  “Well, these days, I don’t know as people bother with that anymore,” she said. She put her hand over his as his fingertips rested against her cheek. “I think the attraction is mutual, but I think we have to know each other before we get to the sexing, Vyken.”

  She took his hand and held it in both of hers. “Helping my dad and me out of that jam, sure earned you some serious consideration.”

  Momentarily, Kydel emerged from the treatment room. Danya let go of Vyken’s hand and turned to the medic. “Is he going to be okay?”

  “He will,” Kydel stated. “He will sleep now for a few hours while the nanites do their work. In the meantime, Vyken will take you to the mess to get some food. Your father said you were looking for food when you were attacked.”

  “Food would be great,” she said, “A bath and clean clothes would be nirvana.”

  “We’ll get your food first, and then we can probably find clothing in the storeroom to fit you like we are wearing,” Vyken said. He was wearing khaki green cargo pants and a black t-shirt under a khaki green jacket. “We used to have women serving on the ship’s crew, but they have all passed on or were killed in battle.”

  “Pants and a shirt will do me just fine,” she said.

  “Come, I’ll take you to the mess. Our selection is limited, but the meal bars are nutritious.”

  Vyken led the way, and Danya fell into step beside him. They emerged from sickbay into the light gray metal corridor. He measured his stride, so she didn’t have to strain to keep up with him, sensing she was weakened by malnourishment. The door to the mess hall opened automatically when they approached, and Vyken showed Danya to the hand cleaning station by the entrance. He took her to a table away from the others then went to the dispenser and got two meal bars for her and one for himself.

  “The normal serving is one, but you look like you could use an extra one,” he said handing her two of them as he sat down at the table across from her.

  Despite her hunger, Danya opened the first one carefully and took a bite, chewing it slowly. It was lightly sweetened peanut butter flavored and tasted delicious to her. Hungry as she was, she ate slowly, chewing each bite careful
ly.

  “Mmm!” she murmured. “I haven’t eaten in a couple days. This tastes delicious.”

  The other women were sitting at a table with their children eating meal bars with the cyborg called Jolt. Danya looked at them but didn’t recognize them. They didn’t seem much older than her twenty-five years. For that matter, Vyken didn’t appear much older than she, but Danya guessed he must be. Cyborgs didn’t seem to age at the rate regular people did. All of them were later models, and they could have been as old as seventy-five years.

  That was the word on the street, perhaps more legend than fact. The cyborgs definitely were impressive. Danya was hard pressed to stop herself from drinking him in with her eyes. Vyken did not seem at all self-conscious under her keen observation. He knew he was a superior being in looks and ability as a warrior and as a man. He liked the appreciation that gleamed in her eyes.

  “Is there water or something to drink?”

  “We have plain water and flavors lightly sweetened.”

  “Just water is fine.”

  Vyken got up and went to the water dispenser and filled two recyclable glasses with cold water then brought them back to the table placing one in front of Danya and one at his place at the table. He noticed the bruises on her arms from where the thug’s fingers had pressed into her flesh. It made him angry. Mine!

  He felt like ripping that worthless piece of humanity apart with his bare hands. Even more, he wished to lick the marks on her arm so his nanites could repair the damage that caused the bruises.

  “If you don’t mind,” Danya said, “I will save the other one for later. If I eat them both, I might not keep them down.”

  “If that’s what you want. We have an ample supply of food for many years to come. You can have more anytime you wish,” he told her. “We have space for three hundred people on this ship. I want you and your father to stay here with us. You’ll be safe here.”