As they walked down the wide corridors, the four Verron’s felt like they were walking through the sterile environment of a hospital or research lab. Everything was bright and white and spotless. Every door was painted dark gray and were plainly labeled in whatever language they used in Beriya-Haven. At the end of the long passage, a wide double-door whooshed open to reveal a tram capable of seating at least 50 people. They stepped inside, Finya pushed a few buttons on a control console and the tram sped away. It suddenly dawned on Chase and Daniel that they were in a place that was the equivalent of travelling through the middle of the Earth. He tried to picture 3 billion people living under the surface of the Earth and no one on the surface. He couldn’t quit grasp just how big this place was inside. They exited a long tunnel and the train was speeding by a lake so large he couldn’t see the other side. It was surrounded by tall trees and there was an artificial sky overhead. There were even sail boats in the distance. Zhuge saw the look on their face and proudly told them, “We use the reservoirs for recreation. All of them are surrounded by parks and forests. There is even some of the wildlife, mostly birds and smaller animals, in the forests; our zoo has two of almost every species of animal from Beriya.” Kary looked out the window and thought of what Noah could have done with this arch. This one was big enough to save two of every animal and all the citizens on the planet.
Shortly after leaving the lake and recreation area, they passed through what seemed like several hundred miles of two-way tunnels with trains flying by, going the opposite direction. Marcus felt like he was visiting New York City again. They could see a light ahead and in seconds they were zooming overhead looking down at a massive city. There were wide streets with vehicles traveling in what looked like rush hour traffic; tall buildings, at least 30 to 50 stories high and people busily traveling along moving sidewalks, with shopping bags. What amazed Marcus was the obvious mix of tall skinny Chikondi and short humanoid Abioye mingling with an equal number of cyborgs and androids. The androids were intentionally unique in their color. Otherwise you would never be able to tell the difference between the androids and Abioye. It was obvious that these people had some unique technology and would be a real asset to Verron.
They continued past the city and through an industrial complex. The tram actually passed through one of the factories, completely manned by robots and cyborgs, manufacturing more robots and cyborgs. Chase thought, “They’ll be in need of a few hundred more after what happened in the hanger.” A sly, but satisfied smile crept on his face. Finally they came to another open space full of forests and several smaller lakes, in the center of the forested area stood a Palace that was at least a half mile wide and surrounded by a wall 100 feet high. Zhuge informed his guests, “This is an exact duplicate of the Royal Palace on Beriya. Every piece of art and every artifact, some over 50,000 years old, are in exactly the same location, all the furniture was transported from Beriya as well. We have no King; the palace is shared by one official from each of our races. We have three leaders that act together as our Governors.” The tram came to a halt on a side connector and the party of three Beriyan’s and four Verron’s were greeted by a military escort. They took elevators to ground level and entered ground transports the size of Earth limousines. There were two vehicles; General Klrxno entered one along with Kary and Marcus. The other was occupied by Chase, Daniel, Zhuge and Finya. Those from Verron were impressed by the speed and smoothness of the ride. It wasn’t a flying transport, but they were way more advanced than anything any of them had experienced on Earth. The interiors were lushly appointed; it was driven by a cyborg.
The Palace was one of the most automated any of them had ever seen. As the transports approached the 100 foot high gates, they quickly slid aside, disappearing into the thick walls. The vehicles raced across low bridges that crossed beautiful crystal clear streams flowing through the palace grounds, each stocked with some kind of fish. As they pulled into the round drive, two cyborgs stepped from the left and right of the double doors and opened them before they were even out of the vehicle. To their surprise, as soon as the doors opened, two very well dressed men and one woman, stepped out of the entrance and awaited them at the top of the stairs. Zhuge spoke softly, “Our governors come to greet you. Word travels fast in Beriya-Haven, especially when we have had no visitors in over 5000 years.” The four guests wore body armor with a whitematter powered exoskeleton. Chase and Daniel felt as if they were not properly dressed, but King Verron had warned his people, “Never let their guard down, even when the people appear friendly, and never, ever turn off your force-field, and remember that we never surrender our weapons, never allow ourselves to be bound in any way, and never bow to anyone but our God, with the exception of a polite bend from the waist bow used by many nations as a respectful greeting.” When they reached the landing, the three Governors bowed from the waist and welcomed them to Beriya. Each Governor spoke Xhondarian with a heavy accent, but it was obvious that the people learned the language like American’s learn French or Spanish in the school system; not perfect, but proficient. The three governors introduced themselves, ladies first, telling them, “I am Uduak, leader of the androids and cyborgs, welcome to Beriya-Haven.” This beautiful woman, if not for the pale blue skin and bright orange hair, would have passed for a human back on Verron. None of them could believe that anyone could make such a real-life creature. The next one was more obvious; he looked exactly like Finya, even the same height. The only difference was the bright red robe he wore, with some sort of crest embroidered on the front. “My name is Paki, I am the leader of the Chikondi; welcome.” The last person looked exactly like anyone else on Xhondar or Verron. He looked human in every way; five-foot-ten, 180 pounds, 55 years-old, dark brown hair, wearing a two piece suite with a small bowtie. “My name is Sekai, leader of the Abioye. My ancestors were born on Xhondar. In fact, our family name is Xhondar. Welcome to our Haven.”
They were escorted into a lush sitting room with enough sofas and chairs for everyone. General Klrxno, Finya and Zhuge each explained the incidents of the past few hours, with great detail about how the men from Verron had so easily destroyed every Beriya defense that they came against, except for the two unarmed and unshielded drones. Chase made a mental note to eliminate that problem. The three governors explained in more detail about the death of their sun and what had once been a beautiful planet then explained more about Beriya-Haven. They were originally living in a structure no more than 2200 miles in diameter, about the size of Earth’s moon. They had continued expanding for the past 3000 years and were now just over 4700 miles in diameter, a bit larger than Mars. Virtually all the construction had been accomplished by the cyborgs and androids, along with various robots, drones and droids. The Chikondi and Abioye were responsible for everything inside the structure, the machines worked in the more hazardous environment of outer space.
When Governor Uduak informed them that several times a year Beriya-Haven had to maneuver the mammoth spherical ship in order to keep it in proper orbit, Daniel had an idea. He knew it was rude but he spoke quickly to Chase in Cronari, “If this is a ship, couldn’t it fly through a gateway? And why couldn’t it orbit Verron instead of some snowball. We could use the technology these people have. Its stuff we do a little, but nothing like them, there is no way our scientist could even come close to making an android.” Chase looked at the three governors and told them, “I apologize for our rudeness, but we had an idea that was more clearly communicated in one of our languages. I’m sure you could express ideas more clearly in one of your local tongues than you could in Xhondarian.” They nodded their agreement. Daniel continued as they often completed one another’s sentences and expression of thoughts, “You told us earlier that you had originally desired to relocate to another solar system, but did not have a ship large enough and didn’t feel like it would be feasible to wonder around in space until you found a suitable world.” The governors and their original greeters expressed agreement. Chase took over, “Wha
t if you could use this ship to travel to another more hospitable world, where you would have access to unlimited natural resources, could travel to or live on a nice unfrozen planet, and share in the protection of a military capable of what you’ve seen us do?” Sekai shook his head, saying, “Impossible, we can only maneuver enough to maintain our orbit. Our maximum speed is only 50,000 miles per minute. At that speed, it would take us thousands years to reach even the next star system, and we know it is not inhabitable.”
Daniel smiled and once again completed the train of thought, “Excuse me, but no one from your planet has asked us how long it took us to travel from Verron, 20,000 light years away, to Beriya. Would you like to know?” The three governors looked at each other, somewhat embarrassed that they had not bothered to ask, especially since these young men were barely teenagers and that their ship was nowhere near large enough for prolonged intergalactic travel. Paki spoke for the first time, asking, “Exactly how long did it take you to get here young man?” Marcus couldn’t let the boys have all the fun and jumped into the conversation, saying, “My ships have special technology used by no one in the universe that we know of. I built our Light Destroyer in my facility with the capability to cover those 20,000 light years in less than an hour, actually less, but we have to allow for the ships acceleration and deceleration.” He looked at his son and nephew and asked, “Are you boys thinking what I think you’re thinking?” They both nodded yes. Marcus looked at Kary and back at the two Guards, as he said, “I think we need to have King Verron make a trip out here to see what we’ve seen. Let’s go back to the ship and give him a call.”
The governors were shocked enough to hear that these people from Verron could travel in minutes what would take others ten lifetimes, but when Zhuge and General Klrxno accompanied them back to their ship and witnessed a conversation over a span of 20,000 light years, that took no longer than a communication from one side of Beriya-Haven to another, they both were speechless. They routed the communication directly through Lucy, who instantly connected with Paul’s implant as he was running through the mountains on his morning run. Chase and Daniel explained the situation they had found in Beriya and what they would like to try, but felt like it would take a lot more than them to accomplish it. Before he ended the communications link, Paul asked, “How large is the tunnel into the sphere? Will the Executive Star Ship fit?” Chase confirmed that it would. Paul then had Lucy contact General Zarman, Colonel Hall, the rest of the Dragon Guard and the Xhondarians, informing her, “Tell them to prepare for a trip. We will leave in two hours.” After returning to the Mansion, he headed directly for his suite to shower and change. When he entered, he heard voices coming from his dressing area by the shower. He walked through the double doors to find Zirtouni and Vlad placing clothes in his closet. He couldn’t help but be amused that he now had a considerably larger portion of his closet filled with clothes than before. Zirtouni looked as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but Vlad smiled and told him, “If you’re going to be a Czar, you must look like a Czar. We will only play valet this once, now get showered and we will choose something Kingly. Paul turned to leave for the bathroom and replied, “No ties!”
Paul came back to the dressing room and there was a perfectly tailored light gray Brioni Vanguish II Suit, Gucci Alligator Shoes and matching belt, a Louis Vuitton Tambour Essential CMT watch; there was no tie, but there was a Stefano Ricci shirt. Paul dressed himself, no valet, and didn’t even want to guess what this outfit cost. He exited the dressing room to be greeted with applause and camera flashes from his Mother, his brother Joe, Vlad, Zirtouni and Zimuel. He smiled and did a turn to model the entire outfit. He looked in the dressing mirror. He actually did look Kingly. He could probably buy a Kingdom for the price of this get-up, but he was pleased with his appearance. He had broken down and gotten a haircut shortly after Vlad had harassed him about it. He began to exit his room to head for the Executive Ship and told Vlad and Zirtoni, “Thanks, but please, no more clothes. Let me get used to the ones I’ve already bought.” Zirtouni looked disturbed, but Vlad never got nervous. He patted Paul on the back and said, “We just have two more racks in the hanger to bring up and we’ll be finished. After that, we’re done.” Paul turned to Zirtouni and replied, “Well, I’m afraid Zirtouni will need to get some other help to do it, you’re coming with me.” He looked at Vlad; he always looked like he had just left the local tailor anytime he was not in a military uniform. Paul received stares from everyone he passed on his way to the ship. The Dragon Guard was in their usual commando gray and couldn’t believe Paul’s fashionable appearance. General Z and Justice were all smiles as General Z told him, “A King should always look better dressed than his subordinates. You make me proud sir.” They boarded the ship, as Hunter and Amber piloted it out of Verron airspace. They set the navigational aids and shot through the gateway only 20,000 miles from the orbiting sphere. They had made the trip in less than one hour. It was time to be Kingly.
King Verron’s approach to Beriya-Haven went much better than Chase and Daniel’s; first of all they received a communication from Beriya-Haven, spoken in very understandable Xhondarian, welcoming them and clearing they’re ship for landing. The dozen drone fighters that flew out to greet them were in fact escorts for the much larger ship. As they drew closer to the planet surface, the large spiral doorway opened to reveal a brightly lit, mile wide concourse leading to the center of the sphere; this time however, they did not detour after a few hundred miles. The Executive Ship cruised slowly behind the escort for almost 2000 miles. The massive hanger door revealed before them was obviously their main transportation center and was occupied by several ships of various sizes, most appeared to be freighters of some kind. Hunter and Amber were the first to see the massive gathering awaiting them along the sides of the landing pad. They called Paul to check out the warm welcome. As he looked out the front windshield of the ship, he wondered how they had accumulated such a large crowd in such a short time. To his right were no less than 100,000 tall stick-like Chikondi, all wearing identical pale green robes. To the left were an equal number of humanoid Abioye in brightly colored ceremonial suits of black trousers with red jacket, with what appeared to be gold trim, in the center were an equal number of military cyborgs standing behind at least 20,000 various colors of androids. There was actually a beautiful blue carpet rolled out for the King and his diplomatic party. At the end of that carpet stood the colorful trio of Governors: Uduak, Sekai and Paki, dressed in their diplomatic finest. Paul was glad he was wearing an outfit worthy of the occasion.
When Paul was drinking a Diet Coke in flight, Vladimir warned him not to spill any on his outfit. He then informed him that he was wearing about $60,000 worth of clothing. After that, Paul was almost afraid to sit down. The twelve thousand dollar watch was nice, but absolutely worthless on Verron with a 36 hour day. He jokingly asked Vladimir what he thought Louis Vuitton would charge for a special 36 hour watch for each of his staff. He thought a moment and told him, “I really do appreciate what you and Zirtouni have done for me, but in the future, I want all my clothes to be made on Verron by our own citizens. I’ll just bet you know a few people back on Earth who are capable of doing custom tailored cloths. What would you think of a suit like this one made entirely of bullet proof and indestructible Verron Steel Fabric? I am already preparing to make our Marine and Aviator uniforms from it, why not other things?”
Paul stepped off the Executive Ship with General Zarman on one side and Zimuel on the other; the rest of his party followed close behind, with the Dragon Guard directly behind Paul. It amused Paul that a nation with three entirely unique races of beings were so confused by a security escort that included an 7 foot- 6 inch Blue/Gray Giant, a 4 foot-11 inch girl that resembled a Panther, and a 4 foot tall Goat/Monkey, complete with hooved feet and short nubby horns. The ones staring the hardest were the androids, who came in a variety of skin colors ranging from pastel blue to fluorescent pink, and hair color o
f every possible combination imaginable. Hopefully they were feeling like they were not the only unique creatures in the universe. The three Governors walked forward to greet the King of Verron. Behind them walked Chase, Daniel, Marcus and Kary. Paul was glad to see that they had at least gotten out of their body armor. When the first governor extended her hand to Paul 300,000 voices raised a loud cheer. Paul waved with his empty hand as he shook the firm grip of his first android. He was amazed that she looked-like and felt-like a real human, with the exception of the blue skin and orange hair, which actually looked sort of cute. Finya was next introduced and Paul felt like he would crush the long skinny fingers as they wrapped snake-like around his hand. Last to speak was Sekai, he was to be the spokesperson for the group, as he shook Paul’s hand; he informed him, “I am Sekai Xhondar, Governor to the Abioye. It is a great honor to have you visit our planet. It will be our pleasure to show you everything our world has to offer and look forward to developing a long and prosperous relationship with your people. We have had no contact outside this star system for over 5000 years; it’s nice to know there are others who are concerned about the welfare of our people.”
Paul wanted more than anything for these people to know that they are not alone, he said, “I and the people with me represent almost 75 billion people who want you to know that we all share the same common goals throughout this Universe, and will do everything we can to promote the common good of every nation. I am a King who desires to serve my people, not have them serve me. I came here to see what I can do for you, while hopefully determining how we can assist each other.” Paul then put his hand on Zimuel’s shoulder and said, “Sekai Xhondar, allow me to introduce Zimuel Xhondar, Ambassador of Xhondar I to Verron.” He turned and indicated for the other Xhondarians to come forward, saying, it is also my pleasure to introduce his wife Tlase Xhondar, Gljarne and Xhing Li Xhondar, Bhlani and Dalhia Xhondar and Yadvega Xhondar.” Yadvega stepped forward saying, “I was one of the last from Xhondar to visit your world, and have no doubt that I knew your ancestors, since I most likely am one of them.” Sekai’s eyes grew wide at the impossibility of such a statement, but simply said, “I look forward to getting to know each of you.” Paul next introduced General Zarman as the Commanding General of the Verron Air Force and Marine Corp. Uduak turned and had General Klrxno come forward, he was an imposing figure, towering over everyone present, Paul and General Zarman were completely blown-away when he spoke in perfect Xhondarian, “It is a pleasure to meet the man that commands such an outstanding force. I look forward knowing more about how you can do the things you do.” Paul realized that these people had artificial intelligence so advanced and miniaturized that they were commanding their entire military with it. Lucy would be jealous. Without warning, Paul got a communication on his implant, “I’m not jealous, but I am impressed.” Paul couldn’t help but chuckle, as others looked at him to comprehend what was so funny.
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