Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  He returned to his rooms to find Zimuel sitting at his table listening to his own Xhondarian version of an MP3 player. Computer had somehow produced a smaller, more powerful version, with more capacity and better quality wireless ear-buds. Zimuel also pointed out that his could receive music directly from Computer’s new music data base and now included thousands of song she had downloaded from something called Pandora. Paul wondered what kind of copyright laws he had encouraged Computer to break, but he was too thrilled by what she was doing to worry about it. As he was handing Zimuel’s new “Music Devise” back to him Computer announced, “The music devise is now ready for Tlase and the two Bhlani asked for will be ready shortly.” Paul shook his head at the can of worms he had opened. Thinking that before long he may start a business with Computer marketing these things on Xhondar I. He asked, “Computer, where and how are you making these players? How many of these could you make per day?” Computer replied, “On the 300th floor there is a prototype lab. It is completely automated and operated by drones. They can manufacture anything I give them specifications to produce. We should be able to make 50 music devises per day with existing capacity and available materials.” Paul pondered that information a moment and then asked, “What if, say, 20% of Xhondar I wanted one of the music devises? Could you put together a feasibility study of just what we would need to produce about 8 to 10 billion of them? I may just start a business here on Xhondar; what about it Computer, you want to be my business partner?”

  Zimuel had overheard the conversation and was already doing some calculations in his head, arbitrarily pricing the music devise at 50 Xhondarian cronz (about $40.00), he looked up at Paul and said, “I think you should have a couple of human business partners. After all, Tlase and I did take you to Earth to get it. At an estimated 50 cronz per unit and sales of only 8 billion units, that should be approximately 400,000,000,000 cronz in sales. Besides, you aren’t going to be around Xhondar I all that much longer. Someone will have to take care of business in your absence. If we increase the storage capacity of the Universal Computer, that’s sort of like Earth’s internet, except far more advanced; all the citizens have continual access to it. Universal Computer controls our traffic, operates the planets utilities, processes financial transactions, it can even prepare dinner for a family of four. Anyway, we wouldn’t even have to do a download to the music devise. The citizens of Xhondar I are never out of contact with Universal Computer, they could simply tell the computer what they wanted to listen to. That would eliminate the cost of the large capacity memory you have in your devise. We could reduce the price by a few cronz, but then we would probably sell more of them.”

  Paul laughed as he patted Zimuel on the shoulder, “My, my, aren’t you a little mercenary? I never pictured one of the Elders as such an entrepreneur. I do however believe your right, I could never handle it myself and no offense Computer, but music is a very human thing and it will require considerable human effort to get things going. I’m afraid I must leave you and Computer to work out the details for now. I’m due upstairs to begin weapons training with Xhing Li.” He grabbed a couple of cereal bars off the table and a Diet Coke from the fridge and headed for the door thinking, “Xhondar will never be the same.”

  Master Gljarne and Xhing Li were listening to ZZ Top’s, Sharp Dressed Man, as Paul entered the dojo for his Advanced Weapons Training. He couldn’t resist a chuckle as he watched the two of them doing martial arts forms to the beat of the music. When they finally noticed Paul, Xhing Li told Computer to stop the music and said, “This music may be a way to make practicing Jxansa Gha more enjoyable, however, it will be a distraction for what I have planned for you. We shall begin. Xhing Li handed Paul a pair of eye-protection and a blunt double-edged sword, telling him, “I know that in a world full of laser guns, photon rifles, plasma cannons and antimatter charges, a sword seems to be a fairly useless weapon, but I guarantee that learning to use one proficiently will increase your ability to use all other weapons available to you and create coordination, agility and endurance. In my experience, there have been times that a battle has come down to close combat and a sword or a knife is all that’s available. And soon I will introduce you to an Xhondarian Light Sabre. This weapon will cut through body armor like a knife through butter, even armor that will withstand the direct hit of a plasma-cannon. I get ahead of myself; are you ready?”

  Xhing Li raised her practice sword and took a swing at Paul’s head. He managed to dodge it, but just barely. His coordination was superb, his reflexes completely non-human, but his skill with a sword was horrible. They went at it for about 15 minutes, and Paul was beginning to feel the bruises all over his body from the numerous blows from the dull sword. When they finally stopped, Xhing Li, said, “We have a lot of work to do.” She began showing him the proper way to hold his sword, basic cuts, blocks, how to parry, various stances, basic overhead strikes, outside and inside body cuts, flat blade blocks, how to read his opponents moves, how to keep his own balance while moving in and out on his opponent, and how to target vital organs, nose, throat, kidneys, eyes, heart, and how to wear down a superior fighter by striking his legs and arms. After about two hours of instruction they took a short break for water. Xhing Li went to what looked like a closet and opened the door to reveal some sort of hideous looking droid. It floated out of the storage closet to the center of the training floor. The droid had two arms, both holding swords, and numerous openings with what looked like small gun-barrels sticking out. Xhing Li explained that Paul will be spending a lot of time with Sir Lancelot, saying, “He will help you develop the fast twitch muscles you will need to be good with close combat weapons. I will program him to move slowly at first and as you become better at your defenses and more lethal with your attacks, Sir Lancelot will adjust his pace accordingly. You can’t beat him; he will always be at least one step ahead of anything you do.”

  Paul stepped forward and took a swing at Lancelot. It was immediately parried and countered with a blow from the droids left sword, which Paul blocked only to be caught in the head with a blow from the right sword. He back up as he realized just what a challenge this was going to be. He proceeded to circle to the droids right trying to eliminate its ability to use his left sword. He swung at the droids side and was shot in the chest by a laser burst from one of the protruding barrels that extended from the droid body. It felt about like when his older brother had shot him with a BB-Gun; not lethal, but painful none the less. He backed up and looked at Xhing Li, as if to ask a question; she told him, “Not everyone fights fair. In fact few do. You must always be prepared for the unexpected.” Xhing Li walked over to the droid with two swords in her hands, took her fighting stance and began to take swings at Sir Lancelot. The blur of action almost made Paul’s head spin. He had never seen anyone move so fast; not only was she hitting the droid and blocking its attacks, she was deflecting laser round after laser round as if she knew they were coming before the round was fired. This display went on for a good ten minutes with the pace quickening with each passing minute. By the time they stopped, Xhing Li was moving so fast that Paul could no longer see the blades flash by. After she put her two swords back on the rack, she went to a computer console on the opposite wall and removed what looked like a small flash drive. She handed it to Paul and told him, “This is video footage of your fighting Sir Lancelot and also the footage of mine. You should study this footage in slow motion this evening and then have Computer interface with your neurological feed to download weapons training programs. I will see you tomorrow.” She turned and left a sore and frustrated Paul standing in the middle of the room with Sir Lancelot. Paul reached over and patted the droid on the head and said, “Looks like you and I are going to be spending a lot of time together.” The droid turned and went back to its closet and Paul left the room, picking up the faint sound of Joan Jett’s, I Love Rock-n-Roll, being played in Xhing Li’s office as he closed the door.

  The beating his body had taken made him move slowly
toward his rooms, wondering once again if he would ever get the hang of everything he was expected to learn. As he entered his assigned suite, he couldn’t help but pause at the sight of Elder Yadvega, Elder Mahala and Zimuel sitting around his kitchen table listening to Ricky Skaggs sing, Don’t Get Above Your Raising. Even in his state of exhaustion he couldn’t help but get a lift at seeing the oldest living human tapping his foot to Ricky Skaggs and Elder Yadvega trying to explain the English dialect being used in the song. As he got closer, Paul realized that they were all studying the Xhondarian made music player and a set of technical drawings spread across the table. He asked what they were doing and Mahala answered, “Master Zimuel came upstairs to the Elders council room and showed us his new toy. He then had Computer play some of this Earth music over the building audio system. All but a few who were tone deaf loved it. He explained about your business plan and we two liked it so much that we immediately came down here after the council meeting to discuss it further with Zimuel and you. I hope you don’t mind, we have located a suitable building to meet your manufacturing needs, Computer has already designed the robots and droids to manufacture them and we were just doing some projections on how many we will need and when. Zimuel felt we should start out with an initial run of one million, however Yadvega and I feel that is pointless and that one billion is a better initial number.”

  Paul shook his head and sat down beside them, saying, “You Xhondarian’s don’t waste very much time getting a business started. On Earth it would take a year or more to do what you plan to do in what, a few months?” “Actually it’s more like a few days; 10 to 15 working days to put the first units out the door. We will have Computer begin to play this music in the public places and make it available to the home computer system, sort of like Earth. We will at the same time be advertising the Verron Music Player at a price of 40 cronz. The manufacturing cost and operating expenses applied to each unit will be 7.85 cronz. That leaves a profit of 32.15 cronz per unit. We estimate that the first billion will be sold out in approximately 45 days. That will give us enough time to produce 3-5 billion more units.” Paul was beginning to get nervous at such large numbers. He had been in sales for many years and even dealt with multi-million dollar customers, but this represented dollar amounts that were greater than the top Fortune 500 corporations. As he opened his mouth to discuss it further, all that came out was, “You’re going to name it after me?” Zimuel smiled and told Paul, “I told you that we would make this worth your while and not to worry about your finances, well now you will have no worries. It was your love for music that brought it to Xhondar I, so why shouldn’t you get some recognition? Do you know that the prototype lab is making the things non-stop as we speak and we even had to special order additional raw materials to meet the demand just in this building; why if I had them, I could sell 50,000 units right this second. Computer has been playing your music through this building almost all day and we have more inquiries than we can count from residents and guest alike.”

  Paul was excited but too tired to show it and groaned as he got up from his seat to get a Diet Coke and a couple of cereal bars from the kitchen. As he returned Yadvega asked, “Are you feeling alright? You look like your about to fall over. What have you eaten today?” Paul lifted the cereal bars and the Diet Coke and replied, “Xhing Li pretty much worked me over. I don’t think I have any place on my body that isn’t bruised. And by the way, this makes my 4th cereal bar and my 3rd Diet Coke today.” Yadvega looked at Mahala and Zimuel shaking her head, saying, “Zimuel you know better than this. At this stage of his training and development Paul should be getting 4 times that many calories. No wonder his body is slow at healing itself, he isn’t getting enough to eat for the rebuilding cycle.” Paul, with a look of confusion, asked, “Self-healing – Rebuilding cycle; what are you talking about?” Mahala looked at Zimuel and told him, “Show him.” Zimuel picked up a knife from the kitchen counter and sliced it across his forearm. Paul could see that it was cut deep enough to require stitches. To his amazement, in seconds the blood ceased flowing and the wound began to close. Before his very eyes, after no more than a few minutes, the wound disappeared. Paul looked at Zimuel and stated, “No one ever told me about this. You mean these bruises will heal that fast if I have enough nutrition to sustain the process?” Zimuel quickly apologized to Paul and the Elders, “I guess I have taken some of the things we can do for granted. I’m ashamed to say it never even crossed my mind to tell Paul about it. I will personally make certain he has everything that he requires to be able to always operate at his peak performance. I’ll start by having Tlase make-up some of her Energy Drink. That’s what she gave you the day you came out of the tanks. I know it taste awful, but you should have been drinking one or two a day since you don’t seem to have a large appetite.”

  Paul smiled and looked at the three Elders, saying, “I mean no offense, but my appetite is just fine, the problem is your food taste like crap. I’d kill for a bottle of Heinz Catsup or a bottle of Country Bob’s Sauce, or some Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce; maybe a little garlic powder and a few other seasonings like sage, paprika or some Mrs. Dash. While I’m on a roll here, I’d drink less of these (holding up his Diet Coke) if you people had some decent tea. How do you live without iced tea? Red Rose is my favorite but Lipton will do just fine. Oh, and before I forget, since I’m on a roll, how about some chocolate syrup or some Pineapple Juice to mix with that nasty energy drink so I don’t gag trying to get it down!” They all looked at Paul, wondering where that came from. Paul realized that he was more frustrated than he wanted to admit. That he was in fact missing some of the simple pleasures he had back on Earth. He apologized for his outburst and sat down, too tired to move. It was pretty obvious that he was suffering from exhaustion and that only inflamed his frustration. He did not have a single regret about coming to Xhondar, but he now understood that he had not slowed down for even a moment since he got there. Mahala turned to Zimuel and said, “Have Tlase take care of him immediately and see what you can do about making his food more eatable. He needs to live on more than cereal bars and Diet Cokes. I’m certain we would feel the same way if we had to drastically change our diet; I know I would.” He turned to leave the room as he added, “I will see you tomorrow Paul. I plan to take a more active part in your training from now on.” Yadvega excused herself and left with Mahala. Paul felt bad for Zimuel. He was his closest friend on Xhondar and he had just been reprimanded in front of Paul. Zimuel looked at Paul and said, “Get yourself a shower. By the time you get out I’ll make certain you have some of our more eatable food waiting for you. For tonight at least you will have to tolerate the crappy tasting energy drink, but it will get you back on your feet. He left the room as Paul headed for the shower.

  When Paul got out of bed the next morning there was not a single bruise on his body and he felt absolutely no sore muscles or stiffness. Evidently the food and energy drinks from the night before had done their job. After getting dressed he entered the kitchen to find a ham, egg and cheese omelet waiting on the table. Beside the plate was a bottle of Heinz Catsup and a cold Diet Coke. Paul looked around but saw no one who could have prepared it. “Computer, how did this get here, and who cooked it so perfect?” The answer came through his neuro feed, “Tlase went to the store and bought all the ingredients I requested. I downloaded several cook books from the Earth internet and the cooking droids followed the recipe precisely. I hope they are satisfactory. Tlase was quiet confused by the many food options available at Publix. She could not find Country Bob’s Sauce, but managed to get the other items you requested, along with many other items that were required in the recipe book. There is Red Rose iced tea in the refrigerator. I have Turkey melts planned for lunch and a baked chicken for your evening meal. Perhaps you can instruct me on how to mash a thing called potatoes.”

  Paul made a mental note to be sure to thank Tlase and no doubt Zimuel for his soon to be improved diet. He went to try out the iced tea before he left for his
run, and to his surprise it was very good. He was even more surprised to see a bottle of Hersey’s Chocolate Syrup, fresh bananas, a bunch of seedless grapes, some Golden Delish apples, a gallon of 2% milk, a carton of orange juice, a new jar of strawberry preserves and some Land-0-Lakes real butter. He grabbed a hand-full of grapes instead of his morning Diet Coke and headed for the door, feeling better than he had in days. Zimuel met him downstairs wearing his Verron Music Player and they took off at a brisk pace for their 20 mile run. Paul’s new 100 pound backpack felt lighter than usual today. Before they had run more than a couple of miles Paul had notice at least a dozen other people he had never seen before wearing Verron Music Players; obviously those people in his own building who managed to purchase the first ones made in the prototype shop. As he ran, he wondered what it would feel like to be a billionaire.

  Chapter 5