Captain Sullivan asked, “I couldn’t help but notice the protective gear your people were wearing. It looks exactly like some I’ve seen once in a security video shot in my husband’s office.” Paul gave her a questioning glance, with a small grin. She continued, “My security level is as high as my husbands, besides he brings work home from the office. Did you have anything to do with the one they call JUSTICE?” Paul smiled and answered, “I guess I may as well fess-up. The first few times I was working alone; Somalia, Yemen and the Iraq hostage rescues were all me and so was the capture made in Afghanistan that I dropped off in the FBI Directors office. However, my grandson Prince Hunter Hall, General Hall’s son and Colonel Amber’s brother, helped me with Nigeria, we’re the ones who were in the DICs office, to deliver your husband’s new Russian friend. That would be Hunter in the video from the office. He also is the man that stopped the three terrorists in New York.” Captain Sullivan paused and looked at Paul a moment with a somewhat envious look, saying, “I have family in Nigeria and I had friends who were leaving the Circus that night in New York. Thank you and please pass that on the Prince Hunter. Is everyone on this ship royalty?” As they continued toward the next elevator ride, Paul replied, “General Zarman is a good friend and retired Marine General. General Hall is my ex-son-in-law, ex-Delta Force, and one of my favorite people. Renee and Marie are my daughters, and also carry the title Princess. So I guess two are not titled. There are more on Verron, we have a large family.”
As they entered the elevator, Paul had to scan his palm and do an eye scan before it would proceed to the upper level. As they ascended he told the Captain, “Captain, as a military officer you know how vital it is to have a superior force and superior fire power. As I told you, I have had no time or interest in politics. There is going to come a day when Earth or any other planet in the Universe will not be safe from enemies you now know nothing about. My people have actually fought some of these enemies and they were the human enemies, the non-humans will be much scarier. I will soon ask the United States to be allies with Verron in our efforts to protect the freedom and the lives of citizens everywhere, not just here on Earth. What I am about to show you is for your eyes only. I have no doubt that you will reveal this as you are debriefed, but let it be known, what I have is for the protection of Earth and anyone else who is being unjustly treated.” They exited the elevator on the upper level of the R4. Paul immediately said, “Lights.” Captain Sullivan almost gasped, but maintained her composure, as she asked, “How many?” Paul said, “Lucy, the lady wants to know what’s on board.” Over a nearby com-unit a voice could be heard, “This is a Resupply, Rescue, Repair and Retrieval Ship; R4. Much of what you see can be used to resupply ships many miles from home during time of war. There are 4000 Photon Torpedoes, 5000 FTL Antimatter missiles, 3000 FTL Plasma Missiles, 500 Nuclear, 100,000 100mm Plasma rounds, 1,500,000 20mm Plasma rounds, 5,000,000 10mm Laser rounds …” Paul interrupted, “OK, Lucy, I think the Captain has the idea.” Captain Sullivan quickly looked at Paul, saying, “How many ships did you say you have?” He smiled, answering, “About 100,000 right now and no not all are armed, but 90% are, a few more heavily than my R4s.”
They walked from the front of the ship to the rear along rows and rows filled with racks of missiles, until finally reaching the elevators at the rear. Paul explained as they went down in the elevator, “This ship is designed to do exactly what I did today. If you had been one of our ships, we could even do the repairs onboard instead of going home. The reactors in the rear are very advanced whitematter reactors. This ship runs on 10 and has two back-ups, for a total of 12. We can operate for a thousand years without refueling and have the capacity to reach 1500 LS. By the way, the designation on the missiles upstairs with that FTL suffice, that stands for Faster-Than-Light. Not much can outrun one, but this ship can.” They toured one of the reactor rooms and the machine and repair fabrication shops. Just as they were about to exit and return across the 3000 foot hanger bay, Captain Sullivan turned to Paul with tears in her eyes saying, “I hate to change the subject, but something you said earlier has been on my mind this entire tour. You can actually replace severed limbs and cure most diseases. My husband is diabetic and just began dialysis, before I left on this mission he had his left leg amputated …” Before she could finish, Paul turned her by the shoulder and looked directly into her face, saying, “Consider it done. Before you leave this ship, ask Renee about her Step-father, my ex-wife’s husband Donald. He was also diabetic and had lost a leg. I didn’t mention we can also rejuvenate did I?” She gave him a strange look. Paul continued, “Captain, I’m 71 years old and so is General Zarman. I graduated high school before you were born. If you and your husband will come and visit me for a couple of weeks, you will both leave thirty years younger and with all your body parts, this will not be a prosthetic device, we actually grow a new one.” The Captain was now crying heavily. Paul gently squeezed her shoulder and asked, “Can you two get away one week from today. I’ll meet you at your house. Tell no one, especially not the people debriefing you. This is my gift to you and your husband, the others will find out soon enough when you return rejuvenated and completely well. Now Captain, try to control yourself, we have 3000 feet to walk and you’ll be back with your crew.”
They walked across the massive open bay with Captain Sullivan constantly looking up at the monstrous overhead cranes and the tractor beam system. Paul told her that this ship was unique in one other respect, saying, “Did you know that a nuclear explosion can be completely contained inside this bay with no damage to the rest of the ship. I know I had a hard time believing it myself and I’m definitely not going to try it out. But the ship was designed to retrieve damaged ships during wartime. Those ships often had damaged reactors and the possibility of a nuclear or antimatter explosion was a possibility during retrieval or repair. I wish I could take credit for inventing the system, but there are people much smarter than me who actually know how it works. In fact, ask Colonel Amber Hall-Verron, I’ll make a bet she can build one herself by now. She is going to make a great commander of my army one day. Right now she is executive officer to the commander of my Air Force.” The Captain looked at the floor and shook her head, “And I thought I was doing well to be commanding a spaceflight. Now you’re telling me a 19 year-old Princess commands a whole fleet of these things.” Paul couldn’t help but smile as he told her, “None of my Dragon Guard is what you would call average. Prince Hunter and Princess Amber are the two oldest and leaders of the Dragon Guard. You’ve met the rest of the human members. The Guard also includes an 8 foot tall 500 pound 16 year-old Klelta, a five-foot three inch cat-woman, a Shapeshifter and a four foot tall goat/monkey; who also happens to be one of my best fighter pilot instructors. Like I said, Verron has a unique mix of citizens; oh did I mention the mole-people and the androids?”
The Captain was elbowing Paul in the ribs, thinking he was joking as they reentered the dining area. Everyone was gone except Marie, Renee and one Japanese officer who wasn’t adjusting to gravity very well. Renee informed Paul, “Dad, I saved you a Pizza and a couple of Diet Cokes. You need to eat something; you’ve not eaten all day.” He thanked her and headed in the direction she had pointed. After one bite he knew that Tala had made the right decision in her food choice. He sat down next to the Japanese scientist and said, “Lucy, we need some travelling music.” In a few seconds Aerosmith’s – Walk this Way came over the com-system. Renee and Marie knew every word as they sang along. They had been listening to Paul’s oldies for decades. Paul looked at Renee and Marie and told them, “The Captain here has a husband who just had a leg amputated and is on dialysis. Tell her about Donald.” While Renee and Marie took turns bestowing the virtues of Verron on Captain Sullivan, Paul asked Dr. Kawasaki, unfortunately no relation to the motorcycle company, if he would like a short tour of medical and the bridge. It wouldn’t be long before they were approaching Earth and he assured the Doctor, in excellent Japanese, that he would have
a better view from up top.
Tala and Amber were bobbing their heads to Joan Jett – Barracuda and singing along, when Paul and Dr. Kawasaki entered the bridge. The good doctor with a PhD in Physics and Celestial Mechanics, also known as Navigational Mechanics, was amazed to be greeted in very good Japanese when he entered the bridge. As soon as he explained what his mission was on the trip, Amber took him aside and began to explain the navigational system used on the R4. Paul smiled, realizing that it was actually over his head. Doctor Kawasaki knew what she was talking about, but it defied every principle of quantum mechanics and astronomy he knew. The man stood looking in awe when Tala jumped into the conversation and broke it down to where it made sense, finishing with, “Amber is so smart, but she expects everyone else to think like her, us simple folk try to keep it understandable.” Dr. Kawasaki smiled to think that this child wearing braids was thinking of him as simple folk. Lucy came over the com-link and announced, “In-coming message from Johnson Space Center, requesting Captain Sullivan be put on the line, requesting reaffirmation of ETA, requesting identification of Rescue Vessel, requesting landing at Vandenberg AFB.” Paul shook his head, stating, “That’s a lot of requests. It might be easier to just tell them what we’re going to do, then do it. Call down to the dining hall and have Captain Sullivan join us on the bridge. Meanwhile, I’ll take the call. No sense in allowing them to tell us what to do; we did, after-all, do them a favor.”
Paul spoke from where he was into the com-link, saying, “Houston Center, this is Verron R4 rescue vessel, Paul Verron speaking. Do you read?” It still took a few minutes for the return signal to travel from Houston to the ship. “Houston reads you five-by-five rescue vessel. Confirm NASA Ship Mars crew is alive and well.” Paul responded, “All eight present and accounted for; will be in Cape Kennedy – ETA one hour; Ship, Lander and Crew on board. Request ground transport for ship and lander.” A few minutes later a different voice came on the frequency, demanding, “Negative on the Cape, you are ordered and cleared for landing at Vandenberg. Do you read” Paul responded, and got a puzzled look from the Captain who had just entered the bridge. “Houston you can place your order with Pizza Hut. This ship is landing in Florida at the Cape. Or I could just take them all back to where I found them.” He looked over his shoulder to the Captain and mouthed, “Just kidding.” It took a few more minutes for an irate man to come on the line demanding, “As Director of NASA and representative of the President of the United States, I demand that you fly directly to Vandenberg and give a full explanation of who you are.” Paul was enjoying himself too much. He did not take orders from anyone and suddenly realized he is more of a world power than any country on Earth. He shook his head and informed the Director, “Perhaps you don’t understand. I do not take orders from anyone, I give them. I have decided to land at Cape Kennedy and that is exactly where I intend to land. If you don’t like it, I will take your ship and crew and drop them all off in Kazakhstan, and you can figure out how to get them home; over.”
Paul handed the com over to Captain Sullivan, saying, “Their all yours. I warmed them up for you.” She replied, “I can see that. They don’t sound warm, they sound hot.” Paul knew they wanted them at Vandenberg for security and privacy reasons. There were too many eyes at the cape and they had very little military force for security. He was not going to play their game. He really didn’t care where he dropped them off. But he refused to have these people who should be thanking him, making demands of him. Captain Sullivan reported with, “Houston this is Mission Commander Sullivan. The ship, crew, lander and all samples taken from Mars are on board. Up to impact with the meteorite the mission was a complete success, will land at Cape ETA 50 minutes. Verron ship commander has chosen destination and is in command of this mission. Ship will do low overfly of Vandenberg and continental U.S. on approach to Cape, over.” A very disgruntled voice came on the line; “Read you five-by-five” contact Cape on final approach.
Tala moved out of her seat and offered it to Captain Sullivan, saying, “I think the Captain should be at the controls when she returns her ship and crew. Besides, there just might be some more pizza downstairs.” Amber took the controls next to Captain Sullivan and instructed her on their usage. She was amazed that this big ship could virtually approach from any direction and reenter the Earth’s atmosphere wherever it chose. It still had to respect angle of impact and speed of that impact, but it was much less critical when they could stop the ship completely and even change direction at any time during the approach. They could even change their mind and turn around and go the opposite direction half way through reentry. Sullivan and the crew members with her were completely confused when they realized this ship disobeyed every law of gravity, centrifugal force, aerodynamics, and physics. When Amber brought the ship to a complete halt, hovering over the Pacific Ocean, about 200 miles off the coast of Los Angeles she turned to Paul, saying, “Should we give them a show?” Paul nodded his approval. She brought the ship to 6000 feet and calculated a speed of 3200 mph; she didn’t want to be late. Smiling at Sullivan, she said, “This will be fun, especially when the news people get ahold of it.” The g-force compensator kept the acceleration bearable as they soon hit their cruising speed and altitude. Amber couldn’t help but notice the dozens of Air Force fighter jets disappearing from her sight as they blasted by the much slower jets. Paul knew the sonic boom going across the continent would be hard to ignore. It took precisely 47 minutes to reach the final approach to Kennedy Space Center.
The ground crew at the cape was prepared for a 250 foot long ship to take a long low approach and come in without power to hit the long runway and roll to a stop with parachute dragging behind. They did not in their wildest dreams consider a 4000 foot long, 2500 foot wide and 800 foot high ship hovering in at low altitude, sitting in one position until it chose a good drop off spot, then proceeding at no more than 20 mph across the field to where the reception crew was waiting then hovering over the drop-off point. There was a heavy transport parked on the reception ramp awaiting the damaged Mars and a smaller extra wide flatbed waiting for the Lander. Several large cranes were in position to load the damaged ship. They never expected what happened next. Amber maneuvered the R4 into position 3000 feet above the surface, leaving enough room for the massive doors to swing down and open. Using Chase and Daniels visual alignment, she adjusted her position a few yards and once again held her position. The first to be lowered by tractor-beam was the Lander. Chase and Daniel did a great job with the controls, positioning it in a perfect position to balance the load. Amber then adjusted her position and once again, Chase and Daniel lowered the 250 foot long shuttle craft to the awaiting transport vehicle. People on the ground were snapping pictures and videotaping every second of the ships arrival and unloading. After the two ships were unloaded, the mammoth recovery doors were closed.
On board there were handshakes, hugs and goodbyes exchanged as Captain Sullivan and her crew was escorted to the personnel beam chamber. They stood in a 12 foot circle in the middle of the floor and waved goodbye, expecting a large elevator or lift device. There was an initial look of panic when the floor disappeared from beneath their feet and they were looking down at the ground 3000 feet below. People underneath them were still taking pictures as they slowly were lowered to the ground by the tractor-beam. Paul looked out the window at the crowd below, he recognized FBI, Homeland Security, Air Force Security Police, and what was probably a local National Guard Unit surrounding the landing sight. A voice came on the radio demanding, “By the order of the President of the United States, you are commanded to land your vessel and be boarded. We are authorized to use force if necessary. The airspace above you is guarded by Air Force fighters and Army Gunships.” Paul actually laughed and as he replied, “Tell your President I will contact him and make an appointment at my convenience and right now is not convenient. Tell him that King Paul Verron and the Nation of Verron is glad we could be of service by rescuing your lost ship and he will not h
ave to wait long for me to contact him. Don’t waste your time using those peashooters on me and hurting innocent people around you. Be glad I do not take your threat seriously. Give my regards to the President.” With that he indicated for Amber to take the ship to altitude then make her exit up the east coast over Washington DC, low enough for everyone to see. She continued all the way to New York City then headed home. Paul didn’t wait for them to exit Earth’s atmosphere before forming a gateway; patting Amber on the shoulder as he said, “Let’s see them try and track us on radar. I wish I could see their faces when a 4000 foot long ship disappears.” The crew had gathered back on the bridge. He looked around and smiled at them, saying, “You did a great job. I guess it’s safe to say we no longer need to be concerned about keeping Verron a secret. By this time tomorrow our name and pictures of this ship will be in every newspaper and network news broadcast in the world. Things are about to change for Verron and Earth. I just pray it’s for the best.”
As the R4 touched down back at Verron Paul pulled Renee and Marie aside and told them, “We just changed the way we do things and you two are going to be up to your necks soon in new markets and people interested in Verron.” Looking to Renee, he continued, “Make sure we have plenty of Kahlan and vaccine available, double check housing and make sure we increase security. Not everyone interested in Verron will necessarily be interested in what’s best for Verron. Get with your mother and Donald. We should be able to come out of the closet, so to speak, and improve our import export position. We’re large enough now that few companies will be able to take advantage of us, but believe me, they will try.” He turned to Marie, “You and Desiree make sure we have plenty of the serum and vaccines ready. When we announce that we can cure AIDS, Cancer, Diabetes … well, you get the picture. The people with diseases will love us, but those who have spent their entire life making their living off these illnesses and diseases, will not be as thrilled. How would you like to be an oncologist who went to school for over 20 years, spent millions on diagnostic equipment and treatment equipment and then find that cancer can be cured by a 3 day injection through an IV? We can’t hold it back; the world needs what we have. The doctors will just have to find something else to do.” “Renee, have Josh put together a media campaign for the internet, television and magazines and triple our internet networks capacity. There are going to be a lot of curious people checking up on us. Make certain that our website is up and working, it’s going to be high demand very soon. Oh, and tell your Mom, to close any deals she has cooking ASAP, before people decide to start renegotiating, that is unless she believes we could gain a more favorable position by waiting.”
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