Beginnings Have An End
Chapter One: Losing Him
Get ready...this fic will definitely NOT be lighthearted. Bring your tissue box as we explore...HOW IT ALL BEGAN...tons of improv. Do NOT flame me. I warn you.
Eva Sanchez put her hands on her husband's shoulders. Vonnie, please, just leave it for one night. Her desperate brown eyes focused past his shoulder, at his reflection in the computer screen.
Dammit, Eva, he swore softly. I'm this close to finding a way to create the perfect child. Do you really want me to stop?
Eva's emotions tore at her heart. She'd been born sterile, unable to bear children, and Von Reichter had promised to help her. After all, he was a young scientist. True, his visions were...odd and distant, but she so wanted a child, just a young one to love and care for, someone who would depend on her for a change. Vonnie, it's late. I hate going to bed without you.
His chair swiveled. Eva clasped her hands in front of her, watching him sadly.
Von Reichter sighed. There's always the morning, my dear.
A small smile crossed her face. Please, then, come to bed.
All right.
Morning. The sunlight fluttered across Eva's face, mirroring her eyelids. Her hand reached out to touch her husband's sleeping form, but instead brushed the cold sheets. Oh, Vonnie, she sighed, and shed the covers.
Clothed in her pink robe, she made her way to his basement, where the large, dusty cylinders had been dragged against the wall, hooked up to his computers with crisscrossing wires and switches. Have you done it, then? she asked tiredly.
he replied, and sat down at his console. Some side effects, of course, Eva, but we had to be prepared for that.
What kind of side effects? she asked with motherly concern, moving to stand beside him.
They'll depend on a form of nutrient, and they won't be able to look much different than the next, but they'll be stronger, Eva, and more powerful than any human born child.
Oh, but Vonnie, I wanted a human child. You're creating....monsters.
No, no, my dear Eva! Not monsters at all. They'll simply be different, different is all.
Eva fell silent, watching Von Reichter type in commands. As she watched, the tanks each filled with a pulsating, glowing green substance. No, Vonnie, not that. You can't make them dependent on that.
Eva, please. It was not, however, a request. He was simply telling her that she could not decide how the children would be brought about. He brought a DNA strip onto the computer screen. Eyes, hair...black, do you think?
Black hair, yes. Can the males have brown eyes, like mine? The females can have black eyes.
If you wish it, love.
Eva blushed. She couldn't remember the last time Von Reichter had called her that. He'd been so absorbed in his work, he hadn't had time for pleasantries.
She thought. Vonnie, how many are you creating?
One. Just to test this. As his fingers rapidly flew across the keyboards, Eva watched a tiny lifeform grow in the first cylinder, floating in the green liquid. Boy or girl? he asked.
Oh, a boy, she responded.
Von Reichter keyed in another command and leaned back in his chair. Just think, Eva. The possibilities of these children...strong, athletic, endurant...Eva, they could rule the world.
You wouldn't dare, Vonnie.
But his eyes were distant, thinking of new plans, and how many children he might need.
Eva shook her head, kneeling in the garden, pulling at stubborn weeds. It's no good, she mused, because he simply is power hungry. Greedy and selfish. I knew that when I married him; oh why did I? Those poor children he brings into this world are going to be tools for him. Oh, somehow I know it. I'm losing him.
Von Reichter pressed his hand against each tank in turn, watching the small lifeforms grow inside. They were perfect, in every muscle and every bit of brain capacity. The only flaw was their dependence on the sustenance, as he'd begun to call it, but as long as they remained loyal, there would be no need to enunciate that flaw.
They would grow up at his South American estate, however many he chose. After all, there were roughly 6 billion people in the world to contend with. He would need an army of these children. Male and female alike...and they could, on their own, produce children just as special as them-once they got older, at least.
He had fifty tanks at his disposal. Fifty children were now developing. They need a name, a designation. I can create variations, but these will always be the originals. A series...of cyber-genetically enhanced children. That's it...you, he told the tanks, you are the Cyber Series.