Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Lydia and Ibrihim had been to Xhondar I a number of times with their parents, Tlase and Zimuel, but approaching it in a Destroyer and negotiating the array of security surrounding the planet was a totally new experience for the brother and sister. They had no agenda for going to Xhondar I, but both Chase and Daniel felt it would be a good experience for them to familiarize themselves with the largest population in their neighboring galaxy. It was also important that the military of Xhondar be able to identify the newest members of the Dragon Guard. They did a low flyover of the Elder Tower and the most populated section of the planet but headed off five hundred miles from the nearest city to the now active Xhondarian Air Force and Marine Facility. They received permission to land and were amazed at the vastness of a training center that now housed 500,000 Xhondarian Marines and Aviators. Dalhia had done a tremendous job of remilitarizing Xhondar after 10,000 years of having no military. They weren’t expecting her to actually greet them when they arrived, but there she was along with a handful of her officers, smiling in greeting to welcome the new members of the Guard. When she met Lydia she hugged her like a long-lost relative. Daniel began to introduce them to Dalhia and she stopped him, saying, “To all these other people I’m Supreme Commander Dalhia Xhondar. To you, I’m Aunt Dali.” She turned to Chase and Daniel and added, “If you ever repeat that I’ll tell Kay and Fay you’ve found other women on Xhondar.” She smiled and continued, “Ha; didn’t think I knew about Kay and Fay. Sweetheart, half the galaxy knows about Fay and Kay.”

  She reached into the utility belt and removed her communicator, pushed a few buttons and turned it toward the boys, on the screen was the two of them dancing intimately with the twins while at Tala’s Birthday Party. She scrolled down the screen to reveal pictures of Tala and Brad, Amber and Robert and King Verron with Eu Meh. When she got to that one, she stopped and said, “These are all over Xhondar I, II and II, especially the one with King Verron. You and your family are becoming celebrities whether you like it or not. Nothing you do will go unnoticed.” The other officers with her smiled in agreement. One said, “My 16 year-old daughter was crushed to see those on the information channel. She has a large poster of Prince Chase with his shirt off playing some Earth game with a ball.” Laughing he continued, “I doubt she will ever recover from the shock. She does, however, still have the picture on her wall.”

  After a brief tour of the main Headquarters, where Lydia and Ibrihim were introduced as her niece and nephew and proudly told that they were the newest members of King Verron’s Dragon Guard, they boarded their ship for their next destination. It was obvious to Chase and Daniel that the visit had boosted Lydia’s and Ibrihim’s sense of acceptance.

  Ibrihim took control of the ship for the next leg and charted a course to Klelta. They felt that it was important to introduce the two new members in as many places as possible. Metsis had already been to most of the allied planets and was being instrumental in coordinating activities between his home planet Tramlaw and Verron. When he arrived home to visit his parents, there was a large reception held in honor of Metsis and his new position with the Royal Order of the Verron Dragon Guard. His parents were proud to put their son on display, he was embarrassed enough to almost have some color in his face. On Klelta the four of them felt like infants as they walked among the mammoth citizens. King Hon III gave the new members a warm welcome and had his personal Verron built hover craft transport them to the Chinese city of Philadelphia. The new citizens had wasted no time in establishing themselves. The existing military compound was full and new housing units were under various stages of construction. Chase noticed that many were already wearing Klelta Commando uniforms and training on the practice fields around the base. They were greeted by Eu Meh and Pastor Fu. Lydia couldn’t help but observe that she was almost as tall as this full grown woman. Eu Meh remembered the two from Tala’s party and her official announcement. She was thrilled to see these two new additions. They were informed that Hon IV was on a recruiting mission in China with Master Lin. As they were finishing their tour of the military base and admiring the size of the newly designed Klelta Fighter, one of the Klelta commandoes walked by carrying one of the 100mm anti-ship guns. Out of curiosity Ibrihim asked if he could see it. It didn’t take long to realize he would never wield such a weapon. It was longer than he was tall and weighed over 60 pounds fully loaded. He handed it to his little sister and everyone had a good laugh as she attempted to hoist the cannon sized rifle to her shoulder. They said their goodbyes and handed the amused Klelta back his weapon. It was Lydia’s turn to fly again.

  They skipped Tecalna, since both had been there with Cali while she was spending time training them and familiarizing them with the Catmandoes that would one day be serving under their command. They had been warmly received there. Over two-thirds of the Tecalna military were orphans, including Cali herself. When they had been told the story of Ibrihim and Lydia and what the two had experienced on Earth, they were made honorary Catmandoes and each given the Mountain Tiger pin now worn proudly on their uniforms. The new Guard members were excited about their next stop. They had met the little Lyncardi several times when they made official visits to Verron and at Tala’s party. They were without a doubt the friendliest and most lovable citizens of Verron. The Lyncardi actually held a vote after having King Verron’s plans to make them part of Verron explained very carefully to them. He told them that if at any time they decided to declare their independence it would be granted without question, his greatest concern was the protection and prosperity of these helpless little creatures. They were the newest addition to the Verron Kingdom.

  When they approached the main underground compound they overflew two lush green valleys filled with crops almost ready for harvest. They had been doing pretty well with their terraforming, but when the scientists began to share technology with Tramlaw, they soon discovered the use of the Spider Silk canopies used there. The ones on Molnar were woven more loosely and looked like huge screened-in areas. It was just what the terraforming teams needed to allow just the right amount of sunlight in and still hold the moisture inside. There was now a small city in the valley where Chase had killed the giant snake. In addition to the locals, there were now over 10,000 humans from Verron and Xhondar helping develop the resources of Molnar. Titanium mines and TIO2, along with their centipede farms, mushrooms and grubs was making them very wealthy and no one had even bothered to mine the shiny rocks the Lyncardi loved to bestow on those they liked.

  When Lydia landed, they were quickly surrounded by dozens of Lyncardi in uniforms and carrying specially designed rifles and hand-lasers. The new body armor and head-gear no longer made them look like bobble-heads. The four Dragon Guard couldn’t help but smile when they looked across the valley and observed them being trained on scaled-down versions of Crotch Rockets and even saw a couple of Mini-Fighters exactly like Tala used to fly, except they found out later – the Molnar model was armed. The small city was covered by a forcefield and climate controlled using whitematter reactors to power the massive cooling system required. The four entered the pressurization chamber through the small access door and were greeted with a wonderful 76 degrees. The little Lyncardi inside were wearing coats, the humans were in perfect comfort. Chief Tu greeted them and was speaking very good English. He immediately directed them to the new school filled with thousands of little Lyncardi children and adults receiving an education then escorted by two Xhondarians, they toured the remainder of the small city of Saint Paul. Chase shook his head and Daniel smiled, knowing that King Verron had no idea what name they had chosen for their first above-ground community.

  Tu personally escorted them into the tunnel that led to their underground town. It had changed a good bit since they had been here last. The little children still played and danced in the streets, but now there were whitematter generators providing energy for lighting, pumping water and cooking their mushrooms and grubs. The Lyncardi were displaying a new fashion sense, as many had on colorf
ul clothing now being produced and sold on Molnar and there were also small hovercraft being used to haul mushrooms, grubs and centipedes from deep under the ground instead of crude wheeled carts. Chase presented Chief Tu with a 10 pound bag of Chocolate Covered Almonds, the little man’s eyes lit-up after his first bite. In typical Lyncardi fashion, he gathered around himself several of the people and divided the contents of the bag up equally among them. The Guard had never seen such an unselfish group of people. As they were leaving, it was no surprise that Lydia and Ibrihim were presented with a bag each of shiny rocks. Two of the little girls had latched on to Lydia with such affection and admiration that she hated to leave them behind, promising to return as soon as possible.

  Now it was time for some real adventure. The planet simply labeled Planet 17,677 was two galaxies from their present position. No one from Verron had ever visited this galaxy. Chase and Daniel decided to take control of the ship; at least until they had safely entered the star system they were seeking. Chase formed the gateway to within 400,000,000 miles of the destination star system. After flying into a ship full of Volvs in Tramlaw, the boys knew it was best to approach a new place with caution.

  As soon as the ship exited the gateway Chase knew they were in trouble. He hit the throttle to full power immediately when the ships sensor alarm began to blast a warning for exceeding the hulls temperature limits. Even at 100 million miles from this star systems glowing energy source the censors were reading 10,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Accelerating to 5 LS even for a brief five minutes placed the Destroyer at a safe distance to orbit the giant fireball. It was huge. As they traveled through other galaxies there had been plenty of giant stars observed and documented. Even the Sun that Verron orbited was five times larger than Earth’s sun and her second sun was twice as big as the one they orbited, thankfully it was light-years away and Verron reaped the benefits of longer days filled with light from the distant star. This thing was like nothing they had ever seen. They had studied R136al, Betelgeuse, and Canis Majoris, the biggest seen by telescope from Earth, at 1500 times the size of Earths sun. After maintaining a safe distance for taking readings of this colossus, it was determined by the ships computer that the Sun was 2400 times the size of Earth’s sun, and had surface temperatures in excess of 16,000 degrees. Any planet even within 200 million miles of the thing would be a hot glowing ball. Based on the orbit of their destination planet, it was located a safe 500 million miles from the star systems center. There were several planets in-between and at current orbital velocities the computer calculated that it would take their allegedly inhabited planet over 2½ Earth-years to orbit their sun. After readjusting his navigational computer to compensate for his sudden flight in the wrong direction, they got a heading that indicated the planet they were seeking was now on the opposite side of the star, hidden from their view.

  Maintaining a safe distance from the glowing blue ball, Chase began to make his way around the sun; taking readings on the half dozen other orbiting rocks he encountered along the way. One of those, closets to Planet 17,677 was a huge gas ball, about twice the size of Jupiter. What surprised the exploration team was that the ships computer determined that the center was solid, unlike Jupiter, and that some form of life exited on the ball enshrouded with hydrogen, helium and methane gas. The computer also determined that the atmosphere was extremely acidic and not compatible to any known lifeform. The exploration team made a note in the ships log to someday take a closer look. But it would be a very low priority to bother exploring such an inhospitable place. Lydia laughed at the thought of running into anything that could actually live inside the shroud of poisonous gases.

  While Chase was flying the ship, Daniel and the others were closely monitoring the sensors for any ships that may be in the area. No one wanted to run into the Volvs or some other equally unfriendly vessels. So far it had been safe and clear for proceeding to the planet they could now see as they made their way around the sun. It was a large planet, almost as big as Verron. Daniel released a dozen exploration drones to enter the atmosphere and do low altitude reconnaissance in order to determine exactly what was under the heavy layer of clouds that covered the planet. While they awaited the transmission of the information obtained, they flew an orbital pattern 5000 miles above the planet’s surface. With such a thick cloud cover there was not much to see. The ship sensors determined that they were in fact rain clouds. Using the pulsating frequency mapping system, Daniel began to scan the surface topography to determine just what the terrain was like; even if he couldn’t actually see the surface, he now knew that it was very mountainous and had large areas of deep oceans.

  It didn’t take long for the images from the drones to start coming in. What lay beneath the clouds was one of the most beautiful places any of them had ever seen. The entire planet appeared to be a tropical rainforest, filled with triple canopy jungles and trees 300 to 400 feet high, some of the tallest even registered as 1000 feet. There were wide rivers, billions of smaller creeks and streams, waterfalls, lakes and massive oceans dotted with thousands of islands. The tall mountains were covered with trees all the way to the top, with the exception of one 30,000 foot range that was jagged rock. There were no snow covered peaks and no polar ice caps that could be seen. Once again, there was no energy source identified, but the drones photographed a wide range of animal life scattered from one end of the planet to the other. Every place the drones flew was being drenched in heavy rain.

  As they watched one of the drones flying along a waterfall that appeared to be three miles wide and cascading over a 3000 foot cliff to a large lake below, the clouds opened long enough for a touch of sunlight to break through, forming a rainbow over the massive waterfall. Lydia looked at the beauty of this water drenched world, and after living her entire life in a parched desert, whispered, “Paradise!” Ibrihim put his arm around his little sister and agreed saying, “I have never seen anyplace so beautiful and green.” Both Chase and Daniel had to agree, the beauty of Paradise rivaled that of Verron. The big Marine Major who was observing the surface along with them commented, “Reminds me of Vietnam during the monsoon. I wonder if it ever stops raining.” The four turned to look at the former Green Beret Captain who had spent four tours in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, took another look at the smiling Major and nodded their agreement. The Major finished by adding, “It may be beautiful, but if it rains like that all the time, it would not be very hospitable.”

  The four members of the Dragon Guard reviewed the drone videos along with Major Hudson and his second in command, Lieutenant Zorkov. It was hard to determine exactly what was roaming the surface of the planet because the foliage was so thick the only thing visible were flying creatures and those that dwelled high in the trees, there were plenty of both, ranging in size from small spider monkey type animals in the high trees to a wide variety of flying creatures that ranged in size from sparrow sized to almost as big as Zeus. The drones did get a short glimpse of two or three large surface dwellers that had to be 30 to 40 feet long, but there was not much else that could be determined without actually getting under the coverage of the thick trees. The Destroyer took its time and orbited the planet for another entire day before finally finding a place where they could land. The vegetation was so thick the only open spaces large enough to land the ship were on the water. The Major eventually spotted a unique structure of solid stone protruding from the middle of the dense jungle. It had to be over 2500 feet high and five miles long and almost three miles wide. The only concern was how to get down to the jungle below with the steep sides looking impossible to negotiate. Ibrihim told everyone on board, while they sat parked on the top of the rock, that he felt like Noah when he released one of expedition drones to be certain the surrounding atmosphere was compatible with the 30 human occupants. Everyone remembered the Arch being stuck on a high rocky mountain and Noah releasing a dove to see if the land was dry. Major Hudson commented, “I’ll bet ya the ground was drier after the flood than it’s gonna be down the
re.”

  It was almost dark by the time everyone was convinced that the planet was safe. They decided to remain inside the Destroyer until morning. They had no desire to venture out in the dark, body armor or no body armor. Lydia had curled-up in the pilot’s seat to sleep, she was small enough to fit almost anyplace comfortable, and was awakened by a scratching sound on the Destroyers windshield. Her first thought was that it was a tree limb, but it dawned on her that there was no tree on this rock. She slowly opened her heavy eyelids and peeked up without moving her head. She then leaped out of her seat and screamed in a shrill girl scream that would wake the dead. Half the ship came running to the cockpit to peer out at a huge set of jaws with teeth a foot long gnawing on the front of the ship. The scrapping sound had been the teeth, sounding like fingernails on a chalkboard, grinding against the indestructible Verron Steel. The frustrated beast didn’t have a loud roar or growl; it simply made a deep rumbling throaty sound. As everyone watched, the agitated animal began to slam his huge head into the glass in an attempt to break through to get the treats inside. The ship began to shake and rattle with each impact, but when the beast began to slam into the ship walls with enough impact to make the Destroyer slide a few feet toward the mountains edge, Chase and Daniel decided enough was enough. Chase was about to hit the thing with a round from the plasma cannon it was currently chewing on. Lydia quickly asked, “Why are you going to kill it. It can’t hurt us in here.” Daniel reminded her, “Lydia, in a couple of hours we will no longer be in here. If we just scare it off, it will return when we leave the ship. Either way it’s got to be dealt with.” Suddenly the ship was scrapping across the rock ten to fifteen feet each time the thing outside slammed his big head against the hull, knocking those viewing him through the window off their feet. Lydia was first to get to her feet and slammed her little hand immediately on the trigger switch that activated the 50mm plasma cannon. In a bright flash of light the big creatures head disappeared. The remaining 70 or 80 feet of body convulsed for a moment then lay still.