Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  Five hours later and two stops to the food court they were finally finished. Amber handed their packages to a porter service near the mall exit and he asked immediately, “The ranch or the Mansion?” Amber replied, “My guest and I will be staying at the Mansion for a few days, just deliver it there.” They spent the next few hours checking out the Klelta Palace, the Capital Building, Verron Pharmaceutical, Church Street, and then went across the river to tour the Transport factory and received a personal tour of the Weapons Plant from Kary Verron. The Admiral had little experience with military light arms, but these small arms carried more power than many missiles used by the Navy. She was especially impressed by the Advanced Body Armor being made and hopefully sold to the United States Army. They made it back to the Mansion a couple of hours before supper and Amber suggested a workout. Amber showed Samantha to her suite and seemed oblivious to the splendor of the accommodations. Samantha had stayed in some of the finest five star hotels on Earth and visited homes of some of the wealthiest people in America, including the White House, nothing compared to this room. She headed to the bathroom to change and as she opened the closet, all her purchases were pressed and hanging on hangers, even her T’s and jeans. At least her new under-things were safely tucked away in drawers. She slipped back into the commando grays and was soon headed for the workout room underneath the Mansion.

  Samantha had to do a constant double-take when she looked at the weight she was lifting. She was easily doing 275 on bench press. Her usual Max of 145 pounds wasn’t even good for a warm-up. Amber told her that people would be weak for days after a treatment, but because we have so many people going through them Paul and Tlase came up with a way to use electro-muscle stimulation the entire time you’re in the tank. You come out feeling more like you just had a hard workout than feeling muscle atrophy. Amber assured her that the more she stressed her muscles the faster they would respond to their maximum potential. They made a short trip to the Jxansa Gha workout room and managed to see Paul Verron sparing with Master Gljarne, Xhing Li and three fighting drones at the same time. They each used double weapons to Paul’s single 12 inch dagger. He always seemed to be in a perfect position to strike and never in a position to allow his opponent the use of both weapons. Neither Amber nor Samantha had ever seen anything like it. She realized that her Grandfather had been holding back, even with the Dragon Guard. It made her all the more determined to advance to his level.

  Supper at the Mansion was never a dine-alone occasion. The Mansion seemed to be the central gathering place for not only the Verron family, but also the Dragon Guard, the Xhondarians and many of the King’s staff. It was mostly due to the Queen Mother who treated everyone who entered their door like family. There were no guests in the Verron Mansion, only friends and family. The first thing Samantha noticed was the fact that they all congregated in the new larger eating area attached to the kitchen. She had seen the formal dining room large enough for over a hundred guests, the smaller room was good for at least 15 or maybe even 20 people. Samantha was introduced to everyone there by Amber; beginning with one of the two full time cooks. The Queen Mother made it perfectly clear that she had no intentions of cooking for the crowd that seemed to congregate there every night, not even immediate family. The cook for the evening had owned a family restaurant in downtown Oxford, Mississippi. He was a longtime friend of Justice Hall and had sold his restaurant and retired. After rejuvenation he decided to do what he loved and do it for a family that appreciated his good meals. Tonight he had prepared a meatloaf with tomato based topping, cut red potatoes with butter and parsley, fresh cut green beans, buttermilk cornbread and cherry cobbler. If 99 was eating a meal, and he usually was since he lived in the Mansion, he always made the sweet tea, his specialty. He also would not allow anyone else to make toast at breakfast, now that he finally got it right.

  It was not a formal affair. Samantha realized right away, this is not the White House, and Buckingham Palace would cringe at this crowd. Everyone had excellent table manners and the conversations were unique to say the least. Around the table was a wide assortment of people; of course Paul Verron sat at the head of the table and his mother sat at the opposite end. There were Xhondarians, Zimuel, Tlase, Bhlani, Dalhia, Xhing Li, Gljarne, and Yadvega, who lived in the palace and of course took their meals there. Then there was the Verron family, Amber Hall-Verron, Chase Verron, Daniel Verron, Tala Verron, Katelyn Verron, Cali Verron, Camil Verron, Kary Verron and his wife Theresa Verron, Michael Verron, Pavel “99” Verron, Dr. Joe Verron and Kenneth Verron. Of special note was an attractive blue lady with orange hair wearing a Calvin Klein gray sleeveless midriff hoodie with Powerstretched cropped leggings, introduced as Uduak, one of the Governors of Beriya-Haven.

  The most interesting diners were friends of Camil. When everyone was seated it became a bit of a distraction looking at a Wookiee, a Predator and an oversized Rocket Raccoon. The Queen mother immediately expressed her displeasure, saying, “Camil, if you and your friends can’t be more presentable dining companions then I will have Paul take away all your science fiction movie privileges” Turning to Samantha she said, “Last night they all three came as that dreadful Alien creature, disgusting.” The three Shapeshifters immediately turned into taller versions of 99. The Queen Mother responded with, “That’s more like it; I wish there were more like Pavel. He’s easy on the eyes and a perfect gentleman.” Ninety-nine was smiling proudly, but a bit embarrassed looking across the table at three images of himself. Uduak got in on the conversation, asking her, “Now that you mention it, why is the Count the only member of his species on Verron?” Tlase responded, informing her, “We determined that Ninety-nine was created through biological engineering done on the planet when it was still under Xhondarian control. When everyone else died or returned to Xhondar, he and a few other genetic experiments were set free. Unfortunately he is the only one in existence. That’s why Paul always refers to him as Verron’s oldest resident, as best as we can tell, he is almost 400 years old.” Uduak looked at 99 for a moment and replied, “Pavel, you are a male aren’t you?” He nodded his head in agreement. “How would you like to have a girlfriend?” Ninety-nine looked at her as if she had lost her mind, but indicated he would with a wide toothy grin. Paul immediately jumped into the conversation, asking, “Uduak, what is it you have in mind; I don’t want to get my friends hopes up and end up hurting him.” Uduak smiled and continued, “King Verron, if we had the technology to make Androids from scratch and Chikondi from clone tanks for over a thousand years, I see no reason that if we have DNA samples of Pavel and a complete biological work-up on his gender that we can’t genetically engineer a female version of your good friend and mine. We have the technology to make a duplicate of anyone at this table, including you.” The Queen Mother gasped, saying, “God no; please, one of Paul is enough.”

  Ninety-nine was looking at Uduak in wonder. He understood every word she said but didn’t quit know how to respond. Uduak looked at him, saying, “If you have a few hours tomorrow morning for the medical work-up and DNA tissue gathering, I’ll have our people get right on it; my gift to you. We can’t have you running around for the rest of your life alone. You know us women; we can’t stand to see a man happy and single.” With that comment she gave Paul a very seductive look. He hoped no one else noticed.

  By the time they finished dinner, Camil and her friends decided that being 99 was to boring. They soon became Miley Cyrus, Brad Pitt and Emma Watson. Camil was still Miley Cyrus when after dinner Paul suggested, “I think our guest would enjoy a game of “Catch Me If You Can.” I’m it.” He turned to 99, asking, “You have the trainer downstairs?” He informed Paul that he did. “Do you mind letting Amber and the Captain use it and you use Ambers Speeder, I’ll use Hunter’s since he isn’t here.” They all got up from the table and were headed out leaving everyone else nibbling on cobbler or enjoying their last sip of coffee, when Samantha asked, “Are you going to leave them to clean-up?” The Queen Mother laughed a
nd responded by saying, “Watch this.” She laid a piece of meatloaf on the floor. In an instant a droid came out of nowhere and cleaned it up. She then added, “They do dishes too, and dust, fold laundry, even pressed and hung all your new clothes this afternoon.” Samantha left with the others, commenting, “I gotta get me one of those.”

  The Dragon Guard was in high spirits. They had been so busy lately that, although they had been flying, it was rarely with each other. There were a lot of new pilots to train and more to come. As they exited to the hanger floor, Amber escorted Samantha to a two-seat Fighter Trainer. She helped the Captain get situated in the front seat then she explained the purpose of the equipment she was about to wear. She first applied an elbow length glove with a tiny transmitter on the back of each hand, explaining, “These are teaching gloves, I will be wearing a pair as well. When you place your hands on the ships control lever you will feel every move I make while I pilot the Fighter and your muscles will remember every sensation as if you did it yourself.” She next placed the headgear and told her, “Everything I think and do will be downloaded through the teaching probes in our two helmets. Now it will seem strange at first, but just relax. This is how we teach all our pilots. With this training technology the person being trained will soon imitate what the best pilots are doing. After a short while, my actions become your actions. Don’t fight the handle and concentrate on trying to relax no matter what is going on, we do some pretty intense flying around here. You’re in for a treat.”

  As soon as everyone was fired-up and ready to go, Paul Verron headed for the hanger door. To Samantha’s shock, but no one else’s, he hit max acceleration while still inside the hanger, leaping away from the others. Instead of heading across the Sabrina Bay as was usually done, he pulled a 90 degree climb before he was completely out of the door clearance, shooting straight up the side of Mountain City, with the top of the Speeder mere feet from the rock face of the Mountain and with six Speeders and a Fighter in hot pursuit. He did a quick roll-over just as he reached the mountain top and almost instantly dove for the valley on the other side. Samantha had never done anything like this. She had flown many hours in an F-14 Tomcat, but nothing had prepared her for what she was experiencing. The Fighter was faster than the much smaller Speeders and Amber quickly closed the gap, since they were the last to exit the hanger. Samantha’s head was spinning with all the input she was receiving from the neuro-stimulators that connected her with Amber. At first it scared her to feel every muscle twitch, every hand movement and sense every motion, regardless of how subtle. Just as they were tight on the tail of Camil’s Speeder and had a good view of Paul up ahead as they skimmed across the trees tops of the thick forest, Paul dove almost straight down, disappearing into the triple-canopy forest below. Samantha almost panicked until she saw six other Speeders diving in right behind him. Amber increased her speed and headed at a 10 degree angle across the tops of the green below. She quickly explained, “You ever drive down a narrow road in the forest or gone boating on a creek with trees forming a tunnel overhead? Well, down there is a creek that runs under the trees twisting and turning for miles until it comes out on Lake Arnold to the northeast. The Fighter is too big to fit. It’s all part of his evasion tactics. He has to either exit up through an opening in the trees or follow it to the lake. We will hopefully be there when he comes out and be ahead of the others. In minutes Samantha could see a lake miles across just beyond the forest. Without warning, just as the Fighter was above the lakes edge, Paul shot out of the woods and across the lake, only inches from the smooth surface. Amber followed suit and was soon joined by the six Speeders close behind. With her more powerful ship, she had no problem keeping up with Paul as he crossed the open lake at over Mach 4. Samantha almost started to get over excited, but managed to follow Amber’s instruction; stay calm no matter what happened.

  At this speed there was little time to appreciate the scenery, but Samantha couldn’t help but notice a low mountain coming up fast in front of them backed by mountains so tall they defy understanding. It soon became apparent that Paul was headed for a narrow river flowing into the lake from the low mountains. Without slowing his speed he began to twist and turn his way up the winding river with rock cliffs perilously close on both sides. As she viewed Paul and his Speeder in front of them, almost scraping the cliffs, she cringed at the thought of just how close Amber was in her larger Fighter. She was relieved to see Paul begin to slow down, until she looked ahead of him, up the river, and saw a beautiful waterfall less than three miles ahead. Paul was headed directly for it. She was about to panic until Amber said, “Look at the thermal targeting on your monitor.” She immediately saw the wall of water, but could also clearly see a cavernous opening on the other side, behind the falls. She responded with, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Amber laughed, “You ain’t seen nothing’ yet sweetheart.” Paul disappeared through the heavy wall of water. Amber shot through right on his tail. The windshield before Samantha’s eyes quickly changed into a very unique night vision screen. Instead of the usual green or a red thermal image, the inside of the dark cave looked like it was a football stadium at night. Amber said, “Paul calls these “Bat-eyes” what you see is actually an extremely sophisticated sonar projected image. This is the photographic image being created by the sound vibration.” While they twisted and turned through the cave Samantha could occasionally feel and hear the scraping of the Fighters metal skin against the walls. Just as the cave grew a few feet deeper, a pink Speeder shot out from underneath Amber’s Fighter and blazed ahead in hot pursuit of Paul. Amber’s only comment was, “Tala.” Samantha couldn’t imagine the skill and precise timing required to do what she just did; a 15 year-old kid in pig-tails, who would ever guess. Samantha then realized that they had never gone below Mach 2 through the cave.

  She could see light up ahead and two distant Speeder’s almost side-by-side as they exited the cave into the bright sunlight. That kid had actually caught up with him inside the cave. Once again flying between mountains, the speed increased and they were joined by the other five, flying inches from their wing-tips, and they were very short wings. Samantha could actually see 99 smiling through his windshield. They exited the mountain pass and Samantha once again cringed. Directly in front of them was a mountain like she had never imagined. She had viewed Mt. Alene from the Mansion and admired the 80,000 foot height. She soon decided that if they didn’t drastically change the angle of their climb, they would be a part of the mountainside. Now travelling once again at Mach 4, the mountain loomed before them. That’s when she saw Paul’s Speeder look like it had literally slammed on the brakes and dive into a cave opening large enough to drive an aircraft carrier through. The entire pack had cut their speed to Mach 2 and headed in after him. Samantha wasn’t as concerned this time. The cave was much larger, so she actually began to relax, until she saw how much it narrowed after they had traveled a fast hundred miles into the cave. As Amber shaved off a bit of speed to prepare for the narrow opening both Ninety-nine and Katelyn shot around them on opposite sides. How they found room to pass was beyond her. This cave was even narrower than the one under the waterfall. Amber then explained, “This two-seat Fighter Trainer is a bit larger than a standard Class X Fighter. They blast through here on a regular basis and never scape the sides. I hope it doesn’t make you nervous.” Samantha replied, “If you are OK with banging into rock walls at Mach 2, then I guess I am too.” Once again, just as the tunnel opened into a wide cavern, two more Speeders flashed by aiming for the small opening on the opposite side of the cavern. Cali and Chase were now in front of them as well. Samantha had never been as relieved as she was when see noticed the light ahead of them.

  They exited above a large glacier and were able to use some of the Fighters extra speed to catch-up with the others. Amber pushed it to Mach 6 and easily closed the gap, but they soon ran out of wide open spaces and dropped into a lush river valley. It had to be 100 miles wide and covered with trees, lakes and mountain st
reams as far as the eye could see. She quickly realized that this bunch knew every River, cave and mountain-pass on Verron. They had managed to get ahead of everyone but Paul and Tala, but were about to lose their speed advantage. The way the valley was beginning to narrow and the mountains began to close in around them Samantha knew it was going to be a tight one. It was like nothing she had ever seen on Earth. This pass was covered with natural bridges all along the path. They were constantly diving under a bridge above or climbing to clear one below. Finally Amber found an open spot and shot upwards, just as it became too narrow for her Fighter. She held that vertical climb until she had cleared the 40,000 foot peaks on both sides of the ravine. She headed northeast over the tops of the mountain range and suddenly dove into another valley on the other side just as Paul, with Tala and 99 hot on his tail, shot from the bridge covered river below. Amber quickly dropped in behind them. Once again it was open and clear and they managed to close ground on the others up front, but since they still couldn’t use full power, the rest of the Speeders once again were bunched together around the Fighter. Samantha was suddenly overwhelmed by the fact that she had indeed felt every move made by Amber. She wasn’t by any means ready to fly one of these ships where they had just ventured, but she knew that she could fly one. Her burst of confidence shattered as she heard Amber say, “The Needle, Great, I should have expected it.” Samantha looked ahead at a 40,000 foot wall at the end of the river valley and seeing nothing but rock, asked, “Where.” Amber was already beginning to reduce speed and the others shot by, never slowing from their Mach 3 speed. She continued to look ahead and noticed that Paul, Tala and 99 were nowhere in sight. The rest had slowed to Mach 2 and headed for the mountain face at about 20,000 feet. Then she saw it, and asked, “Will this fit through there?” She didn’t particularly care for the answer; “Just barely.”