Beginnings Have An End
Chapter Two: Plans To Live By
*smiles* Have fun. Vonnie's going nuts.
Eva looked at the fifty new children, all sleeping in the beds which were far to big for them. Von Reichter stood behind her, hands on her shoulders. They're wonderful, aren't they? he murmured.
They're beautiful, she answered, and traced her fingers over the foot of the bed, which had been labeled with a six. But why did you make so many?
Plans, Eva dear. I'm going to make the world a better place, and these children will help me.
They're so young. She turned and took her husband's hands. They can't help you now.
No, they'll have to grow first. That's where you come in. You're their mother, after all.
What do you mean, where I come in?
This is the first and only batch of them you'll see. I'm going to send you and these fifty to my estate in South America. You'll have several of my servants to help you raise them. I'll send the other batches to my facilities all around the world, so that when the time comes, I'll be ready.
Vonnie, please, don't make them do anything too horrible. They're so...innocent. Eva turned back to the sixth bed and tucked in a corner of the female child's blankets.
You love her, Von Reichter said, unnaccusingly.
I'm not sure why. She's just like all the others, but somehow, she seems different. Like she'll somehow rise above the rest.
Her husband was silent. Perhaps. Come along, Eva, let them sleep. I need to book arrangements for you to go to South America, and I need to get some servants to go along with you. You'll be all right.
Eva returned to the warm, quiet room later that night and looked at every sleeping child. They were perfect, in every single way. She hadn't approved of the names Von Reichter had given them. The numbers, as if they weren't human beings, now. You are children, she told the quiet forms, whether he dubs you so or not. My children.
She reached the sixth bed, and found herself looking into the deep black eyes of the small female. Eva breathed a sigh of relief as the child, , smiled a toothless smile at her. Eva touched the little girl's cheek softly. You're special. I can tell. You're not like the others...you'll be different, somehow...you'll be the one to change everything.
The airplane which was taking them to South America unnerved Eva quite a bit. It was cold and metallic, with only a small couch for her to rest on. The children had been placed in-there was no other word for it-glass boxes and given a small shot, which kept them unconscious. Von Reichter had arranged for the sixth Cyber to be placed out of order near Eva. as the woman was now beginning to call the child, rested where Cyber 30 should have been, beside her right hand.
Eva had been reluctant to step onto the plane. If Von Reichter was created other children, other , why could she not be there to see each batch? They were, if not her flesh and blood, at least her moral offspring. Vonnie meant to give me a child... but he's twisted it, it's all wrong now. Love and confusion warred in her breast, causing her to lay a hand on Six's box and look at the sleeping baby girl. Would the children here ever know about their faraway brothers and sisters? Would they wonder? Eva sighed dejectedly. Would those other Cybers call another woman, Mother?
She didn't think she could bear it. Eva rested her forehead against the glass of Six's box, closing her eyes in exhaustion.
End of Eva's Story