Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  Paul headed for the elevator and quickly went through his security protocol. The elevator opened onto the top floor and the light flashed on as soon as their feet touched the deck. President Hollanda immediately said, “Sacreꞌ bleu!” President Hensley simply whistled. Minister Barak relied, “oy gevalt!” Ambassador Braun and P.M Camber were completely silent. Paul was amused by this reaction and immediately assured them, “This little arsenal is a fraction of what I have. Rest assured it is for the protection of Earth and my allies. I know that one day I will be using them against those who will threaten the lives and freedom of people all over the universe. President Hensley laughed, and commented, “I can’t believe Director Jackson tried to intimidate you at the Cape with a few missiles.” Looking at Paul he asked, “They would have bounced off like raindrops wouldn’t they.” Paul laughed and said, “Sir this ship was less than a mile from a 150 megaton Nuke explosion and didn’t even budge. What do you think?” He walked them down the rows of missiles and briefly showed them FTL Antimatter missiles, Photon Torpedoes, Plasma Missiles and even Nuclear Missiles. By the time they reached the back of the ship and the elevator down to the reactors, they knew that they must make this man one of their most important allies. They were impressed by the whitematter reactors and the explanation of how an antigravity reactor works. A quick tour through the machine and maintenance area and they were soon back out on the hanger floor near the three ships.

  There was a crowd gathered near the front of the hanger and spread down the hall to the recreation room. Paul asked one of the excited sailors, “What’s all the excitement?” He turned to see Paul and his P.M. and quickly stood at attention, saying; “Dart game sir. Two German’s against two of the Verron soccer players. Paul knew if it was Chase in the game, the German’s were losing, badly. The crowd parted for the dignitaries to pass through and when they reached the rec-room, sure enough it was Chase and to Paul’s surprise, Camil, looking just like Sylvester Stallone. The two Germans had just thrown and were really good. Chase and Camil took their turn and only beat them by one point, since the Germans had already run a 99% perfect game. Chase decided to make it interesting and suggested, “OK, now let’s do it left-handed.” The two Germans thought he was nuts, but when he and Camil threw another perfect round left-handed they surrendered to their defeat. Chase, not wanting to go unnoticed, took a paperclip from his pocket, Paul had seen him practice this, and began to carefully unfold and straighten it. He then stood another 10 feet farther back than normal and threw the bare metal paperclip for a perfect bulls-eye. The news crews around were snapping pictures like crazy. The big German was a good sport and bowed in submission to his younger opponent.

  It was time for the President and his cabinet members to return to Washington D.C. Paul needed to remain behind and DDIC Sullivan decided he wanted to stick around for the interrogation of the smugglers. Paul decided to have Tala fly them back, accompanied by Daniel and Michael Verron, who needed to take care of financial transactions for the French fishermen and look after things on Verron until Paul returned. Katelyn, in an unusual moment of complaining, asked, “Uncle Paul, why is it, that Tala gets to fly and I’m stuck here to babysit a bunch of reporters?” He gave her a gentle squeeze on the shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Now think about it. If you were me, who would you choose to be around a bunch of news reporters, you or your little sister?” Katelyn smiled and shook her head, saying, “Tala escorting reporters around is a really scary thought. I never thought about it like that.” She smiled and turned to leave, saying, “Thanks for your confidence in me. I promise I won’t let you down.” Katelyn’s father, Marcus Verron, who was listening to the conversation, turned to Paul after she left and commented, “How did you do that. I would have been arguing with her for a half hour over how unfair it was.” Paul laughed and walked away, saying, “In my life with women I have gotten it wrong more often than I got it right, maybe my odds are changing. I have to get it right eventually.”

  Paul escorted the President and his people to the ship and shook hands in agreement to have a meeting one month from today on Verron. He asked, “What are the chances that you can have those involved in one common location so I don’t have to go to five different countries to round them up. I was thinking if you held a meeting at Camp David and invited the leaders of each country and maybe four more people of their choice. That would give us five people from each country for a total of 25. If I fly my ship myself, that’s exactly how many I can get on board.” The President was obviously beginning to feel relaxed with King Verron. The first words out of his mouth were, “I get first dibs on riding shotgun.” Paul laughed and replied, “You got it.”

  The looks on the faces of the President and his cabinet as they boarded and realized that they were about to be flown by a 15 year-old girl and an 18 year-old boy in an aircraft that could travel over 3000 miles in 36 minutes was not lost on Paul. At first he thought he would say nothing, but decided to attempt to comfort the passengers. He spoke loud enough for them to hear, when he told them, “Lieutenant Verron and Captain Verron have been flying and teaching others how to fly for almost five years. If you didn’t notice, the Lieutenant just took 24 people for a trip to the International Space Station while we were still in meetings. I think she will be able to find Washington D.C. just fine.” Admiral Samantha Sullivan added, “Darn kid can outfly me blindfolded.” Tala couldn’t resist saying something and added, “And to think, I’m not even old enough to have a Maryland driver’s license yet, and out flying the President around. Pretty cool, huh?” Paul and Michael looked at each other and grinned, Michael said, “Hey, she’s not my daughter. By the way, how old do you have to be to get a driver’s license on Verron?” Paul let him know it was 14, but don’t tell Earth that. President Hensley looked at Tala and demanded, “Young lady, don’t you dare tell my fifteen year-old daughter. I would never hear the end of it.”

  Once the Secret Service Agents were on board, Tala lifted off for Washington D.C. Shortly after departing, National Director of Intelligence, James Grasper, asked Daniel, “Young man what do you do on Verron?” Daniel was usually quiet around strangers and answered, “I’m a Systems Designer.” President Hensley, who overheard the question, responded, “My son wants to be a System Designer. He is really good with computers and how they work.” Daniel quickly interjected, “Oh, I don’t design computer systems. I already know how to do that, I design weapons systems at the Verron Military Weapons Facility. My cousin Chase and I both work there. Tala is a Flight Instructor and Test Pilot. All the Dragon Guard has jobs.” Director Grasper smirked at the thought of this kid designing weapons and asked sarcastically, “And just what kinds of weapons have you designed?”

  Daniel vacated his pilot’s seat and offered it to the President. Changing seats placed him across the isles from the Director. He was excited to talk about what he was working on, and began talking immediately, saying, “Well the first thing Chase and I designed was a shoulder mounted 4-barrel 5mm laser Gatling gun that can fire 5,000 RPM and a ship mounted 8-barrel 10mm laser Gatling gun that can fire 10,000 RPM. When we had a shoot-out with the Beriya army they really worked great. We’re now working on a 20mm plasma Gatling and have built two prototypes. It will do a lot more damage. We designed all the new rounds we plan to use on Earth, we’re working on a more powerful plasma tipped, faster-than-light missile, we improved the life-forms targeting system built into the body armor and one of the coolest things we did was design the Containment Bomb. I know you guys got satellite pictures of the big hole in Armenia, the one where the smugglers warehouse vanished in a blinding light and left the big hole but did no damage to the surrounding area.” Before he could go on CIA Director Brannon, who was listening in on the conversation interrupted and asked, “Wait a moment. You’ve seen our satellite images of the warehouse?” Daniel answered very matter of fact, “Of course! Anyway, after all the damage the plasma grenades did in Somalia and Yemen, Chase and I invented a way to contain the
area to virtually any size we desire.” Susan Brice quickly replied, “So that was you in Somalia and Yemen?” Daniel made it clear, “No Mam, that was Uncle Paul, I mean King Verron.” As Daniel continued to talk about invisibility shields for space ships and having it one day for body armor, instant target acquisition and firing programs and whitematter Ship Buster rounds, he had the undivided attention of the heads of Intelligence and Military for the United States. Michael sat in awe of his son, who five years earlier had been autistic, living in his own private world. To think of what he was now accomplishing. He and his wife Rachel were looking forward to the release of the formula that would eradicate autism from Earth permanently, freeing millions of children and their families.

  While the President occupied the seat next to Tala, she immediately began to show him how to fly the ship, while asking questions about his daughter who was the same age as her. Tala was usually so involved in the activities of the Dragon Guard that she didn’t get out to make new friends very often. Cali and Katelyn were her best friends, but they were sisters, and that didn’t count. He told her about how his daughter was an excellent student at a local D.C. private school, played lacrosse and swam on the swim team and loved science fiction books and movies. Tala smiled, “She and I will make good friends. I can tell her about aliens and space ships and giant spiders and mole people and a four foot tall horned goat/monkey and Shapeshifters, Dragons, Androids, and cyborgs and it won’t be science or fiction. Think I can meet her when I drop you off?”

  President Hensley looked at this little red-head and thought, “So advanced, capable and intelligent, but still a fifteen year-old girl at heart.” He replied, “I have no doubt she would be thrilled to meet you, and I think my son would find your cousin extremely interesting. I’ll make it a point to introduce you when we land.” He looked back watching the admiring looks of Michael as he watched his son captivate the heads of intelligence for the U.S. and asked Tala, “What exactly does your Uncle do?” Tala was quick with an answer; “He was a CPA on Earth, whatever that is, and Uncle Paul put him in charge of all the money for Verron; everybody teases him by calling him Count the Money from some movie, I think. Uncle Paul has lots of money and people keep giving him more. I guess he’s pretty rich by now. I give him bags of jewels every time I come back from Molnar and I heard Uncle Mike telling my dad that he had to open another warehouse because there was no longer any room for all the gold. Uncle Paul, I mean King Verron, owns lots of companies on Earth and Xhondar I, and has a bank on Verron, one in Geneva, wherever that is, and one on some island in the Bahamas. Uncle Mike takes care of all that and handles the Verron family budget.”

  He asked, “Just what is that?” She informed him, “None of the Verron family gets a salary. If we need something, we just get it and Uncle Mike pays the bill. We like it because none of us is going around comparing paychecks and we don’t get bigheaded about being rich and stuff. None of us does without and we live better than most people, but Uncle Paul didn’t want us to get too big for our britches and think we’re better than other people just because we made lots of money. So, none of us knows if we make lots of money or not.” The President smiled and said, “Well, if my daughter asks you if you get an allowance, tell her no.”

  As they approached Washington D.C., General Dorsey passed on the clearance codes to Tala for landing on the White House lawn. As they made a low approach across Washington, crowds below stared up in wonder at the beautiful white spaceship about to land at the White House. When they exited the ship, the President was greeted by his wife and two curious children, Bridgett and Gregory, who wanted to see the spaceship. As soon as the staff headed off to their offices to report on the events of the past few hours, the President escorted his wife and children to the ship. They were greeted by Tala and Daniel with warm smiles and friendly hellos. When President Hensley introduced her as Princess Tala Verron and told his daughter that Tala was the pilot of the ship and had flown them home, she immediately warmed to Tala with more curiosity than he had ever seen her show before. The two of them headed for the control console at the front of the ship.

  Gregory was a typical seventeen year-old, soon to be eighteen, questioning, cynical, rebellious and obstinate, and thought no one knew anything but him. He quickly changed his mind when the President introduced Prince Daniel as a weapons system designer, Fighter Pilot and computer genius. Of course Gregory assumed he already knew more than anyone else about computers, and he was considered exceptional by his peers. Unknown to his father, he was also a pretty advanced hacker. As he began to quiz Daniel, he soon discovered he knew very little compared to this young man who began to explain the AI ship-board navigational system and gave him a look at the ships hidden weapons systems. President Hensley and his wife did a double take when Daniel told his new friend that the ship had two of his new 20mm Prototype Plasma Gatling guns that could level a city in one pass. Michael could see the expression on the Hensley’s faces and told them, “When the President flies with King Verron, there is nothing on this Earth that can harm him; he could fly this thing directly to a war and stand his ground.”

  The President’s wife invited the three Verron’s in for dinner. Michael spent time conversing with the President and his wife, while the youngsters took off to their separate rooms with their new acquaintances. By the time Tala told Bridgett about her life on Verron the girl was ready to move there and when see told her that she had flown Prince Harry to outer space today, she was a bit envious, but wanted to be friends with this new girl. Daniel and Gregory immediately got on Gregory’s computer. Daniel began to show him things he had never seen before. He then took out his laptop and showed him that he could crack any code and even task foreign satellites, demonstrating by pulling up a satellite image over China from a Chinese military satellite. Having that much processing power actually scared Gregory, and Daniel was instantly his role model.

  Michael and the President got along great. They were close to the same age and both loved professional football. Michael told him it was about the only thing he missed about Earth and now that they were known to Earth, he would be attending a few games. When the President realized, from their conversation, just how stable the Verron economy was, he knew that this young man and King Verron had a very good grasp of how to run a country. Michael knew better than to reveal just how wealthy Paul actually was, but he did let the President know that Paul had been acquiring companies on Earth for several years, mainly to supply the people of Verron with products they didn’t yet manufacture themselves. The President was stunned to learn that King Paul Verron had a net worth that was more than the top three richest men on Earth. Michael didn’t say how much it was, but did say that it did not include his investments on Xhondar I or Verron; it was an Earth only net worth.

  The White House chef cooked a meal of grilled salmon and rice pilaf with a nice Caesar Salad. By the time the meal was over, Michael Verron, Director of the Treasury for the Nation of Verron had become good friends with both the President and his wife and they were invited to come to Verron as his guests. Their two children heard the invitation and immediately began to ask when they were going to go. After dinner Michael was given a tour of the White House, under the close scrutiny of the Secret Service, and invited to go deep sea fishing at the Presidents family home on the coast of North Carolina. By the time the Verron’s left that evening, both of the President’s children had become friends with a Prince and a Princess, had their pictures taken outside and inside the spaceship and posted them on their Facebook Page for their friends to view. Within 24 hours, a thousand more people would be acquainted with Daniel and Tala Verron. Tala and Daniel may not have been first choice for dealing with the news media, but they certainly did a good job winning over the White House.

  When they finally touched down in front of their two homes on the lake, Tala headed for the house and suddenly realized that no one was home but her Mom and MJ2. It was late and she slipped toward the backdoor to the kitchen
. Tigger was lying across her path, lonely for his adopted mother Cali. After scratching the big cats head for a while, he finally allowed her to go inside. Her mother Danyel was in the kitchen making hot coco with marshmallows. It was good to be home. Tala fell asleep at the kitchen table. It had been a very long 24 hours.

  Chapter 31

  King Darsai and his sister, Princess Tiffanis were on the fourth floor terrace overlooking the bustle of activity below. Neither could comprehend how this behemoth of a steel boat could float, much less carry so much inside its steel hull. The King and his sister could not figure out this man who arrived about a month ago and had freely given of his time in order to save King Darsai’s kingdom. Tiffanis had often tried to catch the handsome young man’s attention, but he seemed so focused on his preparation for battle that he hardly noticed her advances. She even found his friend Vladimir rather attractive, but knew he was happily married to a Queen from another kingdom. Young Prince Hunter had been full of many surprises since he arrived. He assured them that this ship contained everything King Darsai’s army needed to defeat the massive army that was on their way. He even assured them that he and those with him would do everything they could to prepare their people and would fight alongside them.