Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  With his rather unorthodox style, Paul was now able to land a few blows to the droids body. It was amazing. The surface of the droid was covered with a self-regenerating skin of some kind. When it was struck with a slash or a stab the covering would look just like it would on real flesh, only no blood. It would then close itself without a hint of damage. It was far better than the clink of metal against metal that he had with Sir Lancelot. While moving in variable circle patterns around the droid, Paul had a sudden vision of something he thought would give him an edge. He considered the fact that he could gateway from any two points in the universe in an instant, and that he could jump from one known location to another. What if he could do something in between? He focused on moving not just fast, but instantly from one fighting position to another. He decided to use The Power in order to achieve a blend of dimensional travel and matter manipulation. In a sudden blur, he was behind the droid and striking it from the rear. By the time the droid could turn in response, Paul was back in his original position. He didn’t realize he was being noticed by the others in the room as he practiced this new skill. As Zimuel and Tlase watched in wonder, Paul and his droid put on an amazing show. The droid was swinging swords and daggers at incredible speeds, but Paul was never where the droid was striking. The onlookers could only see a sudden haze or blurred image as Paul would move around the now outclassed opponent.

  From the middle of this exhibition Paul commanded, “More!” The two droids who were being used by Zimuel and Tlase joined the action and for the next several minutes the room was filled with the sound of clanging metal, heavy breathing, the whir of servo-motors and blurring image of a man moving around three fighting droids. The action with the three droids couldn’t have lasted more than 5 minutes then stopped abruptly. Paul was totally drained and barely able to stand from the expenditure of so much energy. The self-healing skin of the three fighting droids was covered with numerous slashes and stabs. Paul slumped to floor and gasped, “Water.”

  As Tlase retrieved a bottle of water, Zimuel helped Paul to his feet and to a nearby bench. “Did I win?” he asked. Zimuel shook his head in disbelief and asked, “How the hell did you do that? I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been around a long, long time.” After a long sip of water, Paul shook his head and answered, “I’m not completely certain. I tried to achieve a state between a gateway and a jump, only using it to cover very short distances, repositioning myself continually for my next strike. I was never where the droid would strike, just like you move on a jump, but instead of covering a few yards or a few miles, I would cover only a few feet or even a few inches. I guess in reality I would disappear and then reappear over and over in a matter of seconds. It seemed to work, but it really wore me out. I think I need to eat, have you two had enough.” Zimuel chuckled, “I think even the droids have had enough.” Ninety-nine returned everyone’s weapons back to the rack, and reluctantly gave up his own. The droids re-racked theirs and returned to the storage facility. As a rubbery legged Paul walked to the much closer private elevator, Tlase looked at her husband and said, “You’re right, you know.” Zimuel looked puzzled and gave her a, what are talking about look. She continued, “He really is scary.”

  Paul ate everything he could get his hands on. He had never used so much of The Power for so long and so intensely. Ninety-nine ate another whole pizza and drank the last of the sweet-tea. Everyone wondered how someone so small could put that much food away. All Paul could think about as he headed for his suite was how good a shower and bed was going to feel. He finished his shower and headed for the bed, ignoring his guitar for the night, anxious for some well-earned sleep. Lucy spoke, “Your news reports and confidential downloads are ready.” Paul was not in the mood for this, but decided to view the information from his bed. If he fell asleep before it finished, he could always watch again in the morning. He propped a couple of pillows against the headboard and had Lucy begin the broadcast. The news from China and Russia were the typical state controlled garbage that a communist government feeds their population. Israel’s news was a little better but was almost as biased as Al Jazeera, though not quite as full of hate. It amazed him that people everywhere just accepted the media’s opinion on almost anything. The news out of Europe was dismal. Economically they were struggling and terrorist activity was continuing to be on the rise. The worst news was from the BBC. A terrorist group had set off a bomb on two moving subway trains. They of course detonated their Semtex and ball-bearing loaded vests simultaneously when the two trains were side-by-side. Hundreds were killed and due to rush hour crowds, thousands were injured. The subway system serving the busiest part of London would be down for months as it rebuilt. There was structural damage to the foundations of several buildings above the subway.

  The African terrorist group al-Shabab was proudly proclaiming how it had taken the war out of Somalia and right to those who were opposing them. Their leader, Amid Umar, was declaring war against the infidels and warned America that they would soon be next. A $10,000,000 pound reward was announced for information leading to the capture of this notorious leader. Paul was already seething with anger before he got to the MI-5 and MI-6 classified reports, along with INTERPOL and the CIA. There was some very good intelligence on the whereabouts of Amid Umar. It was reported that he never stayed in the same place for more than 2 days and there were numerous decoy convoys and lookalikes to make it extremely difficult to track him down for long enough to launch a Special Forces infiltration to seize or kill him. Lucy had acquired some highly classified satellite surveillance that positively identified Umar and where he was. Unfortunately for MI-6 and the CIA, it was taken from a Russian satellite and not being shared with the other nations. Paul got to thinking and ordered, “Lucy, I assume you have facial recognition capabilities and you don’t even have to tell me how much better you can do it than anyone else. So, I want you to keep very close tabs on this Amid Umar guy and keep me informed on his precise location and keep tabs on any encrypted messages that may be bouncing around that may involve him or his organization. I’m not certain what I intend to do, but these people need to know they can’t do anything they like and suffer no consequence.” Paul did finish off his evening, as requested, with Robin Meade from HLN. He managed to stay awake through the entire report, but was asleep as soon as he turned out the light.

  He was actually dragging a little when he walked into the kitchen the next morning. His decision as to run before or after breakfast was made for him when he smelled Kinfu omelets being prepared, along with potato cakes; he had shown Zimuel how to make them back on Xhondar I. There was a big bowl of Raison Nut Bran already prepared and waiting for him on the table with a grinning 99 sitting across from it. Tlase informed Paul, “99 got the bowls and spoons, poured the cereal and the milk, without spilling a drop, and was saying “aul” repeatedly the entire time. I believe he’s a one man fan-club” They ate their breakfast and decided to wait a bit before the run, so Paul decided to go down to the Armory and check out some of the cool stuff. The way 99 tried to imitate his actions he thought it was best that he accompany Tlase elsewhere. He suddenly had visions of 99 with a plasma rifle; better let him play with a staff for a while first. Zimuel accompanied Paul to the Mountain City Armory and took more pleasure in Paul’s marvel of all the “cool stuff” than he did in reviewing these unbelievably powerful weapons. Through his neurological connection with Lucy Paul was immediately familiar with each weapon. He would take them off the rack and hit the proper controls, check the live rounds, feel the balance and weight and give Zimuel a brief description of each.

  First of all, Paul explained, “Each weapon in this room is manufactured with what we now call Verron Steel. They are lighter and stronger than any previously manufactured weapons of their kind. The previous models of weapons, if struck by a plasma round, a laser cannon, photon grenade or most other live rounds, would be rendered dysfunctional, leaving the soldier defenseless against an attacking enemy. By being made of
Verron Steel, the weapons in this room can survive a direct impact from almost any enemy weapons fire and still function without limitations.” He didn’t explain the function or use of each weapon since Zimuel knew that from years of having weapons like these as a part of Xhondar’s military arsenal. After walking through and checking each model and style of weapon, Paul grabbed a 10mm Automatic Plasma Rifle (APR), a 30mm Shoulder Mounted Laser Cannon (SMLC), a small 5mm handgun designated, Whitematter Disintegration Dart-Gun (WDD). On his way to the indoor range he passed a row of the new Verron Steel body armor and decided to see what it could do. Zimuel looked at Paul and asked, “What’s that for?” Paul couldn’t resist himself and told Zimuel, with a completely straight face, “I want you to put this on so I can see how well it works against these weapons.” Zimuel took the armor and walked toward the range rather slowly, a few feet behind Paul. When they got inside, Zimuel actually was preparing to put on the armor. Paul had to quickly retract his request and it was Zimuel who got the laugh on Paul. He couldn’t help but laugh when he said, “If you think I’m stupid enough to put this thing on and let you shoot at me your nuts. Even 99 would have more sense.”

  Fortunately there was a room to one side of the indoor range that was filled with targets and target dummies. They placed the body armor breastplate and headgear on one of the target dummies, sent three more dummies down range unarmored, and mounted several normal sized silhouette targets. Paul first took the APR and fired at a target dummy. A single round blew a perfectly round hole six inches across right in the middle of the chest from 100 yards. Paul was pleased with the balance and the accuracy of the weapon and decided to flip the switch to automatic. In this position it would fire 6-shot bursts repeatedly as long as you held the trigger. Paul only used one 6-shot burst; there literally was nothing left of the dummy to shoot; it simply was not there. He switched to the SMLC and fired only one round at 100 yards at the center of a target dummy and all that remained was the feet and shins of the dummy. He went to the next dummy and drew the small WDD. He fired one round at 50 yards, there was a flash of light, and the target dummy simple vanished. None of the weapons had any recoil. Zimuel pointed out how critical that was when fighting an enemy in a zero gravity environment; like a boarded ship, an asteroid and many planets.

  They saved the partially armored dummy for last. In the same order, he fired the Plasma rifle. When he fired, the plasma round deflected into the ceiling above, with not even a dent in the armor. He fired the Laser Cannon next, with the very same results, except the cannon ricocheted off three surfaces before dying at the back wall. Paul held up the little WDD, took careful aim at center mass and fired. In a flash of light he heard the breast plate and headgear hit the ground with a metallic clank. The entire dummy had disappeared, even the portion that was inside the armor, however, after taking a closer look, the armor was unscathed. They both fired a few rounds at silhouettes just to get the feel of the weapons, but the dummies were more fun to shoot. Just as they were about to leave, Paul had a wild idea. He unclipped his force-field unit from his belt, went back to the target room and brought out one more target dummy. He attached and activated the force-field and sent it down range about 75 feet. Each took turns firing at the dummy with all three weapons, fully automatic, multiple cannon shots and even the WDD had no effect. The rounds were repelled and the dummy remained completely stationary. Both men were very impressed. Paul collected his force-field and put it back on his belt, put away the new toys and headed upstairs to begin his run.

  Since Tlase and 99 were gone to parts unknown already, Paul and Zimuel decided to combine their run with Paul working on his powers. They once again took a look at the hologram map of Verron and quickly agreed that it would be nice to see the biggest canyon on Verron from the ground instead of flying over it. They did a close-up terrain map of an area at about the mid-point of the canyon and projected themselves to a clearing on the north side of the only named river on Verron. The canyon floor was lush with vegetation in between some of the most interesting rock formations either of them had ever seen. There were rocks jutting out of the ground like chimneys, rising hundreds of feet into the air, gigantic natural bridges and arches that often crossed the entire width of the rivers running through the valley floor, monstrous slabs of rock protruding from the side of 5000 foot canyon walls, some sticking out several hundred yards with so support from underneath. But what made the canyon a great place to run were the ravines and boulders that covered the entire area. Many of the boulders were situated in the path of several raging rivers flowing down from the higher mountains above the canyon. You could not travel more than 50 feet without encountering some kind of obstacle.

  They took off on their morning run and had not traveled 100 feet before Paul was bitten by a snake of some sort. When they both paused to take a look around, Zimuel was bitten as well. It stung like a pin-prick and was very annoying but not fatal or hazardous. The antipoison really did work, and it was a good thing. The two were bitten by more snakes than a tourist in the Everglades gets bitten by mosquitoes. There were so many snakes in the wet tropical canyon that Paul decided to name it the Snake Canyon. Unlike the Snake River back home, so named because of the twists and turns, this place lived up to its name by the sheer number of snakes. So Paul made a game out of it. He thought, thank God we have no environmentalist on Verron yet. As the two would run, leap and climb from obstacle to obstacle, Paul would try to find the snakes before they found him, and while still at a run, blow them up, turn them into flames, sling them across the canyon into the rocks, strike them with lightning or fireballs and toss large rocks on top of them. It was a great place to run. Far better than the path behind Mountain City, but he doubted he would ever bring 99 here. He wasn’t certain if the antipoison would work for him. Several times while flying hundreds of feet through the air across ravines and river boulders, Paul would spot snakes on the opposite bank as if waiting for him. It took a lot of focus to kinetically propel himself 200 feet while blowing away a family of snakes waiting for their next bite.

  Paul and Zimuel finally stopped for a break after 3 hours of running through the canyon. They took the break on the top of a large column of rock sticking up in the middle of a river, simply because there were no snakes. Paul joked as they sat and ate a cereal bar and drank some water, “If we do this often enough and collect the skins, we could start a new business making cowboy boots and belts.” Zimuel looked at him, wondering what a cowboy was. Paul didn’t bother to explain because as he looked down there were no less than four snakes crawling up the side of the rock from the river below. Zimuel shook his head saying, “I really like this place, it’s beautiful and a great place to run, but I really do hate snakes. I understand why it was a top priority to develop the antipoison. I’ve never asked Tlase how many times she’s been bitten. She was on this planet for more than 15 years doing research, I can only imagine. Paul killed the now seven snakes coming up the column and the two of them jumped to the canyons plateau some 7000 feet above. The view from the canyon rim was spectacular and the running along the canyons edge most challenging and dangerous; at least they saw no snakes. Zimuel called for a halt when they crested a large outcropping that stuck out over the canyon thousands of feet below. They could see for miles as two of the rivers ran side by side and then converged in a 3000 foot waterfall. Zimuel looked at Paul and said, “Target practice.”

  Paul knew what to do by instinct. He had never hit targets at this distance. Most had been no more than a couple hundred yards away. He began to spot potential columns of rock, or a tall dead tree, a clearing that he recognized as having a snake den with several thousand snakes in a cave under a boulder. As Zimuel looked on, Paul began to throw lightning bolt after lightning bolt, each stronger than the one before, at trees and other targets below. He then switched to throwing fireballs at boulders and columns of stone in the rivers, not wanting to cause a fire in the thick forest. He paused a moment, thinking about the plasma rifle he had
fired that morning. He then looked back at his mentor and held out his hand. A small bright glowing object began to form just above the palm of his hand. It grew from golf-ball size to soft-ball sized, and then Paul threw it across the canyon at a forty foot wide stone column, rising 200 feet above the flowing river. The ball grew larger and larger as it flew across the valley at the target in the distance. The ball of plasma was growing in size and intensity as it approached the column. On impact, the plasma ball was at least ten feet in diameter. It hit the column dead center and the column was severed in two. A section of stone 40 feet wide and forty feet tall simply disappeared. The top section fell with a loud crash to the river below; the remaining column was no more than 80 feet high. Paul turned with a grin, like a kid wanting his daddy’s attention, and asked, “How’s that?”

  Zimuel nodded his approval, then immediately demanded, “See if you can make one explode from this distance.” Paul picked the remaining 80 foot column and in seconds it exploded in huge fragments that went flying in every direction. Zimuel then said, “Levitate.” Paul selected a large rock the size of a two story house in a clearing by the waterfall. He focused on the object and it trembled slightly at first, with smaller rocks falling away from it as it began to rise. He held it there for a moment and looked around. He picked an outcropping directly across the canyon from where he was standing and the house sized boulder began to move to its new home nearly five miles away. Paul actually placed the rock down so gently it didn’t even create any dust as it hit the dry soil along the canyon rim. They were preparing to head back home for the day, when Paul suddenly turned back towards the rock he had just moved. An unbelievably intense white ball, no larger than 3 inches across, went flying across the canyon at an amazing speed and hit the boulder Paul had just carefully placed on the canyon rim. On impact, there was light so brilliant it could blind you if it lasted any longer, when the light disappeared, so had the boulder. Zimuel looked at Paul with his mouth hanging open in utter surprise. Paul had just created an explosion exactly like the WWD; whitematter. They both silently formed a gateway back to Mountain City. Neither one was certain they were ready to accept what had just happened.