Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  Mountain City was bustling with people. Paul had Lucy provide hologram maps of the city so people wouldn’t get lost. He made certain that the spaceships were unable to fly or launch any weapons, and that the reactor rooms were inaccessible, since they had become a tourist attraction for the adults and a playground for the children. He had to make the Mansion and the executive offices off-limits. Yadvega and Tlase were doubling duties between running the rejuvenation tanks and getting people settled in their own apartments. Paul had already put Eric to work in the food warehouse. Everywhere he went there were people; the pools, workout rooms, the lower valley jogging and recreational area, and Lucy had even re-tasked some of the drones to open the big kitchen facility. He had given her about six cookbooks. The drones were not in the least creative, but they could follow a recipe to the letter. Lucy scanned the cookbooks and the army of drones was cooking around the clock. There were no custom orders, but no one complained about the quality of the food.

  It had been a week and most of the original 23 were back on Verron. There was a lot of getting organized to do and Paul had Michael, Mike and Les began interviewing people to find out just what each individual had for a job skill and what they would like to do if they could do anything they wanted. He knew a person enjoying their work would be a much more productive worker. He made certain everyone knew that there will be no unemployment on Verron, everyone except women with small children and children would be given a job to do. If they didn’t have a job skill, they would be taught one that fit their interests. There were now several school teachers on the planet and he had them organize the classrooms that were previously used for education and put together a curriculum. He informed them that there are some more advanced learning methods that will later be incorporated to improve both learning capability and retention. There was going to be a great deal more technology for everyone to absorb and he asked them to also begin putting together an adult education program. He reminded them that with a 36 hour day, people will have a lot of extra time to get everything done.

  Paul was headed from the hanger bay after greeting some more farmers Clark had recruited and heard someone behind him yell, “Papaw, we’re back!” He turned, as did everyone else in the hanger, to see who it was. Who else would call him Papaw? Hunter and Amber were standing next to Xhing Li, with big grins of satisfaction on their faces. Beside them was their father, 1st Sergeant Justice Hall, U.S. Army retired. He was undoubtedly Paul’s favorite son-in-law. Early in his Army career, when he was married to Renee and fathered Hunter and Amber, he was an Infantry Scout, had been to Ranger Training and was accepted to be in the Special Forces. That’s probably what ended the marriage. He retired as an E-8 1st Sergeant serving with Delta Force at Fort Bragg, NC. He was a soldier’s soldier and had seen action virtually everywhere the Army had been involved in the past 25 years. He had gotten his college degree and been offered OCS, but declined. He truly enjoyed the action of being in the middle of every conflict. His wife and two daughters was with him, as well as his mother, step-father, older brother, who had been a Marine and was now a Deputy Sheriff on the S.W.A.T. team. Justice and his family had grown up in the woods of Mississippi. The whole family, including their mother, bagged their limit on deer each season. All of them could shoot a bow, any kind of gun, or throw a knife, track a deer, and no fish was safe if they were fishing in their pond. Paul didn’t care if he was a super-macho Delta Force he embraced him with a fierce hug and welcomed him and his family to Verron. Hunter informed Paul that Xhing Li is scheduled to meet Renee and Joshua in a few hours, he was busy rounding up some of his family and Renee was helping Marie and her husband Glen prepare to come. Paul asked Hunter and Amber to get them settled and he would catch up to them later.

  That afternoon, not only did Marie and Glen show-up with Joshua and Renee, but most of Leona’s family as well, Joshua’s family, who Paul had never met and Glen’s mother and father, who were both retired FBI. Paul didn’t want to be overbearing with the two sons-in-laws so he had Xhing Li and Renee get them settled and to schedule, those who needed it, for the rejuvenation tanks. Paul shook his head. He now had tanks being used all over Verron. The Xhondarians had done a good job of instructing a hand full of people to operate them, but they were being kept mighty busy. He knew he could really use the other family of people Renee had recruited and brought with her. Beside Renee was her best friend of over 25 years, Rebecca and her husband Brad, Rebecca’s mother and father, along with her older brother and younger sister. Rebecca and her mother were BS degreed RNs, her brother was an unemployed ex-Navy Seal and her father was an independent stockbroker caught up in the financial crunch of a bad economy, all were very welcome here. Just before dinner, Joe arrived with his family and his lifelong friend Benny. To his amazement, Benny had his family and his two brothers with him as well. Benny had been almost part of the Verron household since Junior High School. He went to college with Joe, but chose a career as an Architect instead of medical school. His two brothers were manufacturing engineers. They explained they both were working for Volkswagen, but the economy had slowed and there had been a lot of lay-offs. The weak economy of Earth was no doubt going to end up being a benefit for Paul’s plans. He assured them that he could use all of them and already had a few cities for Benny to design.

  He told Joe to get busy organizing the medical operations. “Everything medical is yours to run; get Zimuel and Tlase to get you up and going.” There were 25 people in the Mansion for supper that night. Paul’s Mom had returned with some more of her family, as did her brothers. Most everyone was settled into their own place. They were finishing supper when Bhlani escorted in Gail, her daughter and family, along with Gail’s brothers and their family. Paul greeted them warmly and made certain they got fed. He had a lot of reminiscing to do with Gail’s family. On his way to his suite for a much needed rest, he smiled as he thought, “Three out of five ex-wives are on Verron, and I’m still alive.” Things were looking up.

  The past eight weeks had been like none Paul had ever experienced. With nearly 20,000 people, trying to get things organized, had been a logistical nightmare. He was glad he had such good people to get things in order and to handle the typical grumbling and complaining that went with 20,000 people trying to determine what to do and attempting to determine the pecking order. He had held meetings in the auditorium at Mountain City, and introduced the people who would be in charge of various functions. Kenneth had pulled together everyone dealing with construction and had organized them into a pretty solid group of workers. They had already begun sight work on the Capital City and were clearing some land for the future industrial and manufacturing complex across the river from it. Joe had some excellent people with medical training to get things organized and running smoothly. Clark had drastically increased the number of farmers and had already been loading freighters from Xhondar I with wheat that had already been harvested. The wheat farmers were beginning to adapt to combine harvesters with almost twice the capacity of the biggest John Deere or New Holland that hovered inches above the ground and had no wheels to get stuck or trample the wheat and required no refueling, since they had an antimatter drive system. The drone driven wheat transports had replaced the typical tractor-trailer system used back on the farm. The hover-trucks could handle 10 tons of wheat per load and delivered it directly to the cargo hold of the waiting freighters. Even running three twelve hour shifts they were barely putting a dent in the millions of acres of wheat. They needed more farmers and more equipment to meet the demand. They were bailing plenty of straw for feeding the 40,000 head of cattle now on Verron. Paul still hadn’t figured out exactly how Clark pulled that off. Clark had also located a group of Arkansas cotton farmers who had been wiped out by the spring floods. Four dozen farmers and their families were on Verron harvesting cotton nearly eight feet tall.

  Marcus now had several thousand people in training for the Spaceship Factory. At this point there was very little production going on, mostly learn
ing. He had decided to begin with finishing the ships that had already been started before even attempting anything new. He planned to have them practice on the Fighters and Destroyers before beginning on the Verron Man of War. He was also about to complete the Speeders. Michael took Gail and Robert, with Paul’s permission to the vault. They were speechless as they walked around trying to figure out where to begin their inventory. Robert claimed that in his nearly 40 years as a gemologist he had never seen so many perfect stones. Gail, joking with Michael, said, “Is it too late to have my 40 year-old divorce settlement renegotiated?” Robert laughed, “I’d look for a loophole. Maybe you’re still married.” Then continued; “Well, he wasn’t joking when he said he had something for me to do. There’s more diamonds here than Antwerp. I’ll never be able to count and grade them all.” Tlase had reopened the research center. Marie was an excellent laboratory technician and hoped soon her other sister Desiree would be there. She had a PhD in Research Chemistry and worked for the CDC in Atlanta. Marie knew she would go nuts with all this advanced technology. Right now they were busy manufacturing more of the nanotechnology designed chemicals needed for the rejuvenation and regeneration tanks. Others were organizing the warehouses and food stores. Paul’s brother had ended up bringing in 50 men from his old Army unit. They had been having reunions ever since Desert Storm and several had even formed a motorcycle club. These men combined with the ones Justice and General Zarman had recruited, made the total military almost 1500 men. Paul had insisted that Justice be made a Colonel. He didn’t want to force a second in command on General “Z”, as he was called by his men, and after looking at his record, General “Z” asked why he wasn’t made a Colonel before. The two of them became very close very quickly, especially when they realized that they had both been working together in several countries.

  Paul had managed to get his seven Dragon Guards off Verron for a little over a week. The toughest sell was Rachel letting her only child go to Xhondar I with Paul and Zimuel. Paul wanted to present the gang to Elder Mahala and the rest of the Council and explain what his plans were for building the future leadership of Verron. He felt that having the enhancement process done on Xhondar I, away from parents who might want to look in on them, would be best and he wanted them all to meet the people who have possessed The Power for years and had learned how to use it only when needed. They decided to fly in the Executive Starship instead of just taking a gateway in order to help the Dragon Guard get used to space travel. On their way there, Paul was discussing having names put on the office doors so visitors could find them more easily and having calling-cards printed. He asked, “Zimuel, I’ve known you and the others for over two years now and some of the members of the Council for just as long, yet I don’t know anyone’s last name. So may I ask, do you have a last name, and if you do, what is it?” Zimuel couldn’t help but be amused. Something that had been very obvious to everyone on Xhondar I was not known by his new best friend. He smiled at Paul and answered, “Everyone on the Council has the same last name. For a few thousand years we have used nothing but first names to avoid the confusion. If you walked into a room at the Council meeting and asked for Mr. Xhondar everyone would respond. Everyone on the Council is either a Xhondar by blood or married to a Xhondar; some, like Gljarne and Xhing Li are both. When Xhing Li said you were the only person who could out fight her father, it was an unbelievable compliment. Her father was Illinasos Xhondar’s son; he and his father had to be the best fighters in Xhondar history. Gljarne is actually the fourth Gljarne Xhondar. His brother General Gljarne was the third. The family had a thing for calling all their sons Gljarne. Yadvega is Mahala Xhondar’s twin sister, she is widowed now. I am Mahala’s great-grandson." Paul thought a moment to soak in the fact that the Xhondar’s were the ruling family of Xhondar. He looked at Zimuel and commented, “Well, I guess having almost all Verron’s in leadership positions is not much of an adjustment to the Council.” Zimuel smiled, “Mahala would have done it no other way if he were running Verron.” When your planet was founded, it was ruled by two Xhondar’s, now it simply has a new ruling family.”

  The ship came out of the gateway just beyond Xhondar I’s gravitational pull. As they approached the missile emplacements orbiting the planet and called in the security codes that would permit them through the force-field that protected 40 billion people, the members of Dragon Guard were looking out every available window. They would be the first residents of Verron to visit Xhondar I. Even from this far out, they could make out the monstrous cities covering the planet. Once they were through orbital security, the approach to the building that housed the Council was simple; all they had to do was aim for the tallest building. Paul had flown in and out of Xhondar often enough to identify exactly where he was immediately after entering the lower atmosphere. The closer they got to their destination the more chatter Paul heard from his passengers. Everyone except 99 had been to some cities like Atlanta, L.A, New York or Miami, but they were not prepared for what they saw. In their greatest imaginations, they had never believed something like this city existed. Hunter remembered being obsessed with reading about Earth’s skyscrapers and the new tallest building in Saudi Arabia; 167 floors, 3300 feet high. It would be one of the short buildings here. They were going to land on top of a building 500 floors high. It was three times the height of Kingdom Tower and housed as many people as many cities on Earth. As they touched down on the roof-top landing pad, they were greeted by Mahala and four other Elders. The youngsters headed for the edge of the building to look at the view as soon as they exited the ship. Their greeters couldn’t help but be amused. Tala and 99 were barely tall enough to see over the low wall around the roofs edge. After a thorough investigation of the park, flying traffic jams and surrounding buildings, they turned to meet their welcoming committee.

  Upon introduction, Tala asked Mahala, “Are you really the oldest man alive? You don’t look old enough to be a dinosaur.” Mahala actually knelt to be face to face with Tala and told her, “I am in fact older than Earth. I’ve seen more things in my lifetime than almost all the Elders combined, but in that entire time, there have been only four people fly at Level 14 on an Xhondarian flight simulator, you make the fifth and none of them wore a pink ruffled shirt, pink jeans and pink Nikes with pink ribbons in their hair.” She twirled like a model; her sister rolled her eyes, Amber laughed. The boys just thought it was stupid. Mahala asked, “So you seven want to be like Paul, is that right?” They politely replied, “Yes sir.” “Well, Paul believes that you will all grow-up to be future leaders of Verron. We’ve never enhanced anyone as young as this one” Indicating Tala. “And, Ninety-nine will be the first non-human life form to be enhanced. Paul is the first person who was not a member of the Xhondar family. It seems Paul has introduced more changes to Xhondar than music players, motorcycles, and Diet Coke. I do believe he is doing the right thing by selecting future leaders and preparing them while young, I want to warn all of you, The Power must only be used to protect yourself or others, not to impress your friends.” Tala looked at Mahala and replied, “We are our friends. Is it OK if we try to out-do each other. ‘Cause I want to beat my brother and sister at swords, they always beat me now, I can hardly lift a sword, so I have to use daggers, and daggers aren’t much good against a big person with a sword. Will I be able to lift a sword so it will be a fair fight?” Chase told Mahala, “She’s just jealous that Katelyn and me won the Light Sabre competition at the Sci-Fi Festival and we’re like way better than her since she’s so little.” Mahala and the others were smiling at the honesty and innocence of children. There had not been any children in the Elders presence for hundreds of years. Mahala looked over Paul’s Dragon Guard and simply replied, “You’ll be amazed at what you can do with just two daggers. I’ll show you when you finish the enhancement.” Before they headed into the building, Paul removed a case of fillet mignons and twice baked potatoes, while Zimuel removed the ingredients for a fresh salad. He intended to feed the Elders a Verron
meal, but had an ulterior motive of creating a market for beef on Xhondar. He looked at the Guard and joked, “Your last meal that isn’t liquid.”

  Paul was proud of his Dragon Guard as they mingled with the 24 leaders of a Nation seven times more populated than Earth. Some of these people have been around since the day of the Great Flood, a few were older, yet they treated his seven like they were their own grandchildren. All of them were dressed in identical military style uniforms of Xhondar design, except Tala. Her outfit looked just like theirs except, it was pink. Paul realized just how bright and well-adjusted these kids were and what an excellent job their parents had done raising them. He had no intentions of letting his family down as he took responsibility for changing these youngster’s lives. They even had good table manners. Ninety-nine was nervous until everyone he met spoke to him in Cronari. He soon became the center of attention when he revealed where he came from and how he was created. The rest of the evening Cronari was the only language used. The fillets were a big hit. Paul felt like one of those men that used to cruise his neighborhood selling beef out of a truck. He had several of the Elders placing orders for more. Zimuel was close by with a digital note pad. It seemed like every one of the Elders gave the same lecture, but all the kids took it well, and responded politely. Tala later told Paul that she liked old people that aren’t old better than old people that are old, because they aren’t as grumpy. A few of the Elders heard her say it and couldn’t help but appreciate the observation. Growing old is something none of them had ever had to face, they couldn’t quiet grasp the concept of only living 70-80 years and being in poor health the last 20 years of it. It made them appreciate their eternal youth and how much Verron was going to change the lives of millions. The Elders ended the evening making a toast to King Verron and his Dragon Guard and gave words of encouragement for all seven of them before they went into the tanks in the morning and their lives were changed forever.