There were two dozen Beriya limousines awaiting the visiting dignitaries, driven by cyborgs. It was a short 20 mile drive to the Palace, through some of the most beautiful gardens any of them had ever seen. The palace was very close to Klelta quality, not quite as massive and void of the unbelievable spans and arches. As they exited the motorcade in front the palace doors, Paul looked up to see an incredibly realistic simulation of the Beriya sunset. Once inside, they were escorted to a conference room with a table large enough for the entire Verron contingent and a dozen representatives of Beriya-Haven. Paul made a point this time of introducing each member of his Dragon Guard, Colonel Hall and Colonel Zhdanov. It seemed strange that the first to speak was an android. Uduak was one of the most-well-spoken and polished diplomats any from Verron had had the pleasure of meeting. She began, “King Verron, I hope you realize that the proposition made by your brother and nephews seems so impossible that we are having a hard time taking it seriously. However, the fact that you can communicate instantaneously across a galaxy, travel 20,000 light years in an hour and have the ability to totally annihilate our best military, has helped us believe that if anyone can do what you propose, it would be you. We, as a nation, have made the best of a horrible situation, but never dreamed that we could have any lifestyle other than the one we have known for thousands of years. We have no intention of surrendering our sovereignty and independence to be ruled by a King we know nothing about, but we would very much like to hear what you have to offer our people.”
Paul paused a moment to collect his thoughts, but as usual decided that trying to sound like a diplomat would be a waste of breath for him and a waste of time for those sitting before him. He liked what he had seen so far, and felt fairly confident that a solid relationship could be developed between the two worlds. They both had unique needs that could be fulfilled by the other. Paul looked around the table at expectant faces on both sides. He began, “I may sound like a broken record to those here from Verron, because I have spoken some variation of what I am about to say to four other nations, with four different and completely unique sets of circumstances. I must make myself perfectly clear to you and the people of Beriya; I have no desire to be your ruler. It appears to me that those you have in place are more than capable of ruling your nation, just as the other nations we are allied with govern themselves in their own chosen way. The nation of Verron is looking for allies and trading partners, if our nations are strong economically, then it aides us in being strong militarily. There will come a day in the future when others who do not think as we do will attempt to conquer, enslave and possibly even destroy any nation that is not like them. These violent nations are advancing in their technology to such an extent that in the not too distant future they will begin to move through surrounding galaxies destroying anything that stands in their way. No one nation will be able to oppose them, only united and fighting together will our worlds survive. It is my intention to do everything I can to help your people be prepared for when such a time comes. In this world, just as I have in others, we will help strengthen your military, work with you to solve economic issues particular to Beriya, and develop economic trade between our nation and the other 75 billion people who are now our allies. I am only King of Verron; I am a servant to my people and to my allies. What is good for Verron will also be good for Beriya-Haven. I do not want to leave you in the middle of nowhere and vulnerable. If we can come to an agreement and if our technology will permit it, it is my hopes that you will be an even closer neighbor and that we will work together for the common good.”
Turning to Calanyo, Prince Hon IV and Zimuel, Paul continued, “Here today are representatives of three nations that have experienced the benefits Verron has to offer and are now vital parts of our nation. Princess Calanyo, how many people from Tecalna are being trained on Verron to use our weapons, spaceships and fighting methods?” Cali had never been called Princess in public before and was hesitant to speak-out, but stood up and spoke in perfect Xhondarian, “Our nation was dying from a parasite that had killed over a billion citizens. King Verron and his scientist saved the lives of every man, woman and child on my home planet. There are soldiers on Tecalna training our military and advisors there helping develop our planet economically. They helped us establish trade with Xhondar and Verron. I am now responsible for training 200 elite fighters from my nation on Verron.” Paul turned to Prince Hon and indicated for him to speak. He stood up, now grown another 7-8 inches, to just under 8 feet. And spoke in a deep guttural tone, “The Klelta were slaves to some of the very kind of people King Verron is speaking of. We don’t know from where they came, but we have no doubt, that if they were capable of invading and conquering our people, they could do the same to others. King Verron personally killed the leader who called himself a god, defeated his army and drove them from our planet. Since then we are military and economic allies. I am on the King’s Dragon Guard, 10,000 Klelta came to Verron for a one year contract to work for the King, more than 5000 still call Verron home. Klelta now has imports and exports, as well as a strong military. My father is King of Klelta and will remain king.”
Zimuel stood and made his statement brief, “I have known King Verron longer than anyone here other than his immediate family and the General. In the 3 ½ years that Verron has existed as a nation, they have become a supplier of ever increasing quantities of food to Xhondar, sole supplier of all crude oil, cotton, and beef, as well as established industry on Xhondar that now employs hundreds, while at the same time taking Verron from a population of one to a population of over 1.2 million in those 3 ½ years. They now manufacture spaceships, weapons, oil, steel, personal transports, farm equipment, construction equipment, whitematter reactors, whitematter batteries, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and employ hundreds of thousands in the most ambitious construction program ever attempted; every person on Verron that is not a student or a stay-at-home-mother, is employed. Verron has no crime and have the ability rejuvenate and regenerate. What King Verron has, he will put to good use to help others while at the same time building up Verron. I, and those here from Xhondar are not citizens of Verron, we are friends and allies and consider a close relationship between Xhondar and Verron our top priority.”
Paul had a sudden flash of fear; scared that he would somehow disappoint those who depended on him and believed in him so much. He did not want to paint a picture of perfection, but he did want to increase the trust and confidence the Beriya had in his ability to deliver what he promised. He felt proud of those who had spoken. He was about to speak, when Hunter jumped into the conversation, saying, “If you don’t mind my being a part of this conversation, I would like to make a proposal. While you give King Verron and our representatives a tour of your planet and capabilities, I would personally like to offer to take your three Governors and perhaps General Klrxno to Verron. You would be able to see firsthand just who your allies will be and stand under the first real sun and clouds you will have seen in thousands of years. I can show you the highlights of Verron and have you back by the time your people have shown ours around Beriya.” To everyone’s amazement it was an excited General Klrxno who spoke out, “Excellent idea. I’m sure I speak for our governors when I ask, how soon can we depart?” There was a small smile on the blue face of Uduak, and nodding heads of acceptance from Paki and Sekai. Hunter looked at his proud grandfather and answered, “As soon as we decide which ship to take.” Looking at General Klrxno and knowing his answer before he asked, he asked anyway, “Which would you prefer the Light Destroyer or the Executive Starship?” Still in command of the situation, Klrxno replied, “By all means the Destroyer. Will I fit?” Hon smiled and answered, “Ever since I joined the Dragon Guard we have made some adjustments to the pilot seats in several of our ship, this is one of them.” If a cyborg could smile he would have. An android can, and did.
The meeting dismissed with the governors giving their aides final instructions, Sekai then told Hunter, “I’ll have the land vehicles pick us u
p out front, but we will have to wait a short time for the transport. Hunter looked at Paul. Reading his thoughts, he simply nodded. Hunter gathered the three governors and the General together and told them, “I can get us there faster; if you’ll please follow me. They followed Hunter out of the conference room door and directly into the hanger bay holding the Light Destroyer. The Marines had grown used to sudden arrivals of the Verrons, but still snapped to attention quickly, as Hunter told them “Captain, you and your men feel like taking a ride back to Verron for the afternoon. You’re free to rotate squads while we’re there.” The Marines quickly saluted and boarded the ship. Hunter made certain the governors were seated and led the cyborg general to the newly modified Klelta-sized seat. In moments the hanger doors opened and they were on their way. They quickly moved away from the sphere and Hunter immediately made a gateway home, exiting with a beautiful view of Verron and two moons before them. He heard gasps from the governors seated behind him. The General looked around in amazement, saying, “This is the first time I’ve seen anything but our star system. It’s beautiful!”
Hunter decided to show them the Spaceship Factory and ship yard first, since he was already on the right side of Verron for an easy approach. He would then drop off his Marines and rotate squads, allowing the General to see some of the different nationalities training together, followed by a trip to Capital City and Farmington. He decided to make a quick stop at Mountain City and do a flyover the Robert’s Range. He knew that a walk on unfrozen ground and a stroll through the shopping mall would make an impression on those who had not been outside in their entire life. While Hunter was making a favorable impression on his guests, Paul Verron and the others were being shown things that were truly amazing, even compared to the technology on Verron. The first stop was the cyborg/robot manufacturing facility. One line was actively building replacement soldiers destroyed by Chase, Daniel and the Marines. The other was building a variety of companion robots. These were used for everything from household chores to babysitting and manufacturing replacement cyborgs. Paul had seen a lot of drones and droids used on Verron but these were almost human. His first response was to envision them doing the labor intense part of farming; weeding, picking fruit or anything else that needed to be handpicked. Marcus was watching the line beside this one, where they were building construction and maintenance robots. Thinking, if these things can build this sphere, they could just as easily build spaceships and orbiting missile stations. General Zarman could envision soldiers just like the easily destroyed cyborgs, but manufactured with Verron Steel and with a force-field, perfect for fighting in inhospitable planets or hazardous environments, where humans would struggle to function properly.
What amazed Paul, Tlase and Zimuel was the next stop on the tour, the Android facility. These human like androids were all steel underneath and housed an artificial intelligence that was equal to or better than the smartest of humans. The muscles, skin tissue and the vital organs were replicated from human DNA. It took over six months to develop a fully functional android. They had chosen in the beginning to make the androids with different skin color, unique eye color and hair color, in order to differentiate them from humans. But after a few centuries they actually preferred to stand out and be unique. As hard as it was to believe, once the structure and AI was complete, most chose their own color scheme before they were finished in the tissue tanks. When they left there they had decided that these were some of the most unique citizens they had ever met and felt like nothing else they saw could surprise them, until their next stop. The cloning tanks of the Chikondi. They soon discovered, that the reason all the Chikondi looked so much alike was because they were indeed alike; in every way. They did not have a male/female gender or reproductive organs. Every single Chikondi in Beriya-Haven was cloned. They were able to perfectly control population growth and genetically engineer each Chikondi to be capable of living in virtually any environment. They were the ultimate survivors. It wouldn’t matter if they were on a gas giant, in outer-space with no oxygen at all, on Beriya, with 240 below zero or on a desert planet with 800 above, they could live there and prosper. Their big eyes could even see in the dark, so they could easily live underground if necessary. Their minds were unbelievably advanced and could communicate with each other telepathically; on top of that, they ate no solid food, simply some sort of nutrition mush they drank every few days, if needed.
The humans on Beriya were descendants of the Xhondarians and Abioye. The Abioye were from a high gravity planet with a 3g gravitational pull. They were typically short and very strong. Over the years of Xhondarian influence they were taller, but seemed to maintain a substantial amount of that strength. It seemed every Abioye was required to learn Xhondarian in their schools and still followed a great many of the Xhondarian customs, in particular their belief in one God. They didn’t worship exactly the same way, but the fundamental belief system was identical. They were responsible for the well managed and massive farms inside Beriya. Paul couldn’t believe gardens so large and so lush could be grown inside a metal sphere floating around outer-space at 6000 mile per hour as it orbited a frozen ball of a planet and a dead sun. Their agricultural expertise was unquestionable; feeding a billion humans with 100% greenhouse grown foods. They had no animals to butcher for food, all meat, or at least pretend meat, was manufactured in tanks similar to the tissue producing android tanks. The entire sphere functioned much like a long range spaceship, complete with atomic water purification systems, nuclear garbage disposals and antimatter powered air scrubbers. Their antimatter reactors were the most advanced any of them had seen. It wasn’t quite where Verron was with whitematter reactors, but by far better than other reactors any of them had seen.
Hunter had to almost drag General Klrxno away from the Spaceship Factory. He was doing pretty well until he saw the Gljarne Class Destroyer, it took so long to get him away from it Hunter almost didn’t take him to see the Man of War. When the three dignitaries stepped into the hanger and saw the almost completed 6000 foot long Battle Cruiser, Hunter asked, “I need a hundred more of these, do you think your cyborgs and drones can help? We actually plan to build a few even bigger, plus orbital missile platforms. It would be very helpful to have the talents of someone who could build a ship as big as a planet. There are now over 70,000 spaceships on this planet; we will one day need 10 times that number. We can’t do it alone. Your people would be piloting many of the ships you help build. Like King Verron said, ‘we want allies, not subjects. We’re all in this together.’” He gave them a tour of the huge ship; when done, he took them for an over-flight of the ship storage yard. He was even impressed by the precision flying of the Air Force, as they flew in and out of the base they had established in the valley around the factory. Next they headed for the Marine base to drop off the Marines and get another group prepared to depart after the tour. As they approached the mountain valley General Zarman had chosen for their headquarters, Hunter slowed the ship to allow a birds-eye view of Marines training in the mountains. He next got clearance for an over-flight of the firing range. If a cyborg had emotions, the General would have been delirious at the sight of huge chunks of rock literally disappearing before his eyes. His only comment was, “I’m pleased you did not use these inside Beriya-Haven. When the young prince said he would blast his way out, he obviously knew he could.” The ship detoured along the mountain valleys and glaciers and went southwest towards the farmlands of Verron. While viewing the endless miles of wheat-fields, Sekai was actually emotional, when he said, “My people have only dreamed of lands like these.”
Hunter decided to forego the tour of Mountain City. He felt like that was King Verron’s home and it should be his prerogative to decide who he showed it to. He did give them a view of Alicia Falls and an over-flight of the Klelta Palace, landing directly in front of the Capital Building. A brief tour was appreciated by the three Governors. Hunter felt as if they were surprised that no one was shocked or even distracted by the sight of alie
ns walking around with Prince Hunter. Of course, they did see several Klelta in the area and even a few Tecalna roaming around preparing to meet with various department heads on Verron. Sekai was more impressed than anyone by the Medical Center, the thought of his people being able to live as long as the androids or Chikondi once again brought forth a great deal of emotion.
With everything political completed, Hunter decided to take them across the town square to the Market Place. Everyone except the General was quickly addicted to shopping and the wide variety of goods to choose from. As Crown Prince of Verron, Hunter had certain privileges others in the Guard did not; namely, permission to buy anything from anyone and have the bill sent directly to Michael for payment, no questions asked. He never abused it; in fact his closet looked a lot like Paul’s old closet. Today he decided to allow his guests anything they desired. He did get a few more curious looks in the Mall, especially at Uduak as she went from clothing store to clothing store looking for outfits to go with sky-blue skin and orange hair. Hunter had been shopping with his mother, his sister and grandmother, all of them career shoppers; Uduak was by far worse. He finally did the diplomatic thing; he called his mother Renee to come shop with the lady while he shopped with the men. All he had to do is mention shopping and she was out of the Capital Building and in the Mall in less than 20 minutes. He next headed for Zirtouni’s. Fortunately he had some influence with the management. Zirtouni personally took Sekai for a fitting of a Tazio Business Suit.
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