Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Hunter walked out of the office to the exuberant faces of Ibrihim and Lydia. He couldn’t believe how much they had grown since coming to Verron. It was amazing what a well-balanced diet and plenty of exercise could do for a person and it didn’t hurt that they had been enhanced to the same level as the other Dragon Guard. Lydia ran to give Hunter a hug and immediately said, “Watch this! Hunter turned to see the large desk in front of Inga levitating a foot off the ground in front of the flustered assistant. She calmly told Lydia, “If that doesn’t go back exactly where I had it I’ll have your telekinetic license revoked young lady.” Lydia focused hard on her object and carefully lowered the desk exactly where it had been. Hunter gave the adorable 13 year-old a squeeze and let her know how proud he was of her. Ibrihim smiled and said, “I can make a wicked-bad fireball, but I guess I should wait until we’re outside to show you.” Hunter shook his head and smiled, saying, “That would probably be a good idea. Let’s go for a run later and you two can show me what you’ve learned.” The excited brother and sister followed Hunter out of the office talking a mile a minute competing for his attention. They headed upstairs to the kitchen and found the Queen Mother and Tlase having lunch. Tlase smiled and told Hunter, “I’m so glad your home. These two have been driving me mad asking me when they would be able to show you their newly developed skills and I can no longer keep up with them when we run. So please, take them off my hands.” The two rolled their eyes and responded with a typical, “Oh, Mom. You’re just getting old. We understand why you’re so slow and we still love you.” Hunter couldn’t help but notice the title Mom. His two new friends were adapting well to their new home and new family.

  Ibrihim and Lydia literally drug Hunter from his chair and downstairs to the Jxansa Gha room. Quickly grabbing their training swords, the two began to fight with each other. Hunter was impressed and was soon joined by Xhing Li. She informed Hunter, “With the rest of you gone so much, King Verron has been trying to attend to as much of their training as he could. He runs with them and trains in here with them twice a week. They really are doing well under his instruction. I think they strive harder to impress him than they do me, but they also are two of the most motivated students I’ve ever seen. The rest of you had each other when you trained; these two have been mostly alone, except for when Metsis is around and Chase or Daniel help out. They still look to you as their leader.” Hunter grabbed his two favorite swords and joined Ibrihim and Lydia on the training floor. They had been going for about a half hour when they heard a voice say, “I hope you two can teach him something, I personally think he has a learning disability.” The two teens looked up to see who would say such a terrible thing about their hero, to see Amber walking toward the weapons wrack for her sword and sword catcher combo. Hunter looked at his students and informed them, “Better move out of the way, she really does have horrible control and you never know just what she may do next.” Brother and sister were cheering on brother and sister, both hoping the member of their same gender would beat the other. Neither could believe the speed and reflexes of this pair. In their opinion they were better than Xhing Li. They were finishing their efforts to outdo each other when applause was heard from the door to the gym. Paul Verron was leaning against the door shaking his head; he looked at his grandchildren and told them, “We really do need to find a way for you two to get to the gym more often. You stay away much longer and you’ll forget how to use those things.” Ibrihim and Lydia couldn’t believe he was insulting the best fighters they had ever seen. Paul turned to Ibrihim and asked, “Grab the dagger set I use. While you’re at it, you and Lydia get your swords as well.” Hunter knew the four of them were about to receive a lesson in humility. Xhing Li came out of the office to watch the show and was immediately told to join the fray. Paul laughed as he positioned himself in the middle of the floor and smiled, saying, “Five to one; that evens the odds up a little better, it’s a shame there aren’t more of you.” From behind Paul came a voice saying, “Seven to one, now it becomes more interesting.” Katelyn and Tala walked across the room and immediately grabbed their swords and daggers, with Tala saying, “Let the games begin.”

  The battle went on for at least 20 minutes. If it had not been for forcefields being worn, everyone but Paul would have been dead or critically wounded five minutes into the fight. Hunter, Amber, Katelyn and Tala had forgotten just how dangerous Paul really was. Xhing Li knew exactly what he was, because she often had to make repairs on the fighting droids after one of Paul’s middle of the night frustration relief sessions. She would then watch the surveillance video of what had happened. The droids were supposed to be indestructible, she had certainly never damaged one, and there was King Paul Verron actually hitting them so hard and so fast that he broke two of them and damaged one more. She sent them back to Xhondar I for repairs and the owner of the small company that had manufactured the droids for over 4000 years put the worst one on display in a small museum, two of its six arms had been severed. Xhing Li would never want to face Paul Verron when he was angry. She knew that he was just having fun as he taunted and toyed with seven of the best martial arts experts on the planet, she was reminded of what she and Zimuel had said about him years before “Paul Verron is a scary man.”

  The battle ended with Paul tossing his sword and dagger aside and disarming his opponents. Hunter may have been out of practice, but he was still the best swordsman of Paul’s seven opponents, followed by Tala, then Katelyn. Ibrihim and Lydia soon realized that they still had a lot to learn. As Paul left the gym, he stopped and turned around, saying, “Oh, I was having so much fun I forgot why I came down here. See if you guys can find everyone else and let’s have the entire Dragon Guard go on a run in the morning, if you four haven’t gotten to use to sleeping in while you were away.” After he was gone, Katelyn looked at the others and asked, “Think we’ll ever beat him?” Everyone shook their heads with a resounding; No.

  For the next several days it was like old times. It was the first time all fourteen of the Dragon Guard had been able to train together since the new members had been added: Hunter, Amber, Katelyn, Chase, Daniel, Tala, Pavel, Ilna, Hon, Cali, Camil, Metsis, Ibrihim and Lydia. Paul was enjoying every minute of it as they ran in the mountains, practiced Jxansa Gha, went to the high plains to practice their use of The Power and play follow-the-leader in Fighters instead of Speeders. The Speeders, formerly used by the Dragon Guard, had been refitted to accommodate the Lyncardi. To them they were a big ship and now that they were armed and the restrictors removed, they were also very fast and dangerous little ships. The new members showed the greatest improvements in their use of The Power as they had an opportunity to see and learn a wider variety of The Power being used. Their imaginations had not conceived of the multitude of things they could actually do, now their minds had been expanded and soon Lydia threw her first plasma ball and Metsis formed a tornado that could pick-up a 2 ton boulder. Ibrihim seemed to have a real talent for repelling every object in a path a hundred yards wide, every tree, rock, or person who was in the way, would be hurled a half mile away with the wave of his hand. It was good information as they shared the variety of things they had done. The others looked on in awe when Katelyn and Tala told them about healing people, then Amber joined them and told them about Andre. Paul told them about himself and Zeus. He wondered how many others would one day develop the talent. They sat speechless as Camil told them about her transformation in Cocoa Beach. She formed herself into the hideous creature she had become during the attack and Ibrihim and Lydia truly looked disturbed that she could become such a beast. She transformed back into Melanie Iglesias, it was an image much easier on the eyes.

  Paul was proud of the original members of the Dragon Guard. They were spending time each day with the new members of the team when they could have been off doing things on their own. Even Chase and Daniel put the twins on hold so they could train together with the others. Ibrihim, Lydia, Ilna and Metsis were progressing much faster working with
their piers than they had been being instructed by Fathers, Mothers and Husbands. Paul got a real kick out of how competitive Ilna had become with 99 and the sibling rivalry of Ibrihim and Lydia was a lot like the ones going on with the rest of the Guard. Metsis was without a doubt the most level headed and unemotional member of the team. It didn’t matter what he was doing or even failing to do, he always stayed calm and under control. Paul would often push him to his limit just to see if he would get flustered, no matter how hard he tried, Metsis remained steady, the other members of the Guard had begun to call him Spock, he did after-all have pointy ears, remained calm under every circumstance and was probably as smart and as strong as a Vulcan, if there were actually any Vulcans. Being an only child, he didn’t seem to be effected by the sibling rivalries or even the feeling that he had to prove himself to others, even King Verron. He had accepted the fact that he was what he was and never pretended to be something he was not. He knew his limits and worked around them to use his best abilities. He was blessed with genetically enhanced night vision and ears that worked like sonar. Since he was already stronger per pound than any of the others, after being enhanced he was remarkably strong for his size and Paul soon realized he was an intellectual equal to Daniel and Chase and had become almost like a brother to the two boys while living with them on Verron. The new members were doing far more flying during the two week holiday than they had ever done before and even they were excited by their use of The Power. At the beginning of the second week, Paul took the last members to the weapons vault and issued them Light Sabre’s, daggers and the forcefield that went with them. They wasted no time donning their new equipment and practicing with the deadliest weapon in existence.

  By the time the holidays were over, new assignments had been given. General Hunter now had four Transports under his command and an additional 500 Verron Marines. He would still maintain his two ship team in the Indian Ocean and the other part of the team would operate out of the Verron compound in Mississippi. Paul reminded Hunter that the Mississippi crew would also be responding to Katelyn’s needs as she began to conduct operations in South America, Central America and Mexico. Katelyn had pointed out to them both that according to Bart and his FBI contacts, the area controlled by the major drug cartels had also become a new haven for Islamic terrorists. Paul had intended to maintain a military presence on the property and already had a capacity for 1000 soldiers. There was still plenty of room in his warehouses to keep the two transports out of sight and with the gateway opening on January 1st, he felt much better about having the increased security around the travel center. Both space-flights and gateway trips were going to be offered to Verron. The monetary exchange system was now in place, thanks to Michael, and Earth credit cards could be used on the planets accessible from the Verron Travel Center.

  Beginning on day one, they were booked to capacity on both Space Flights and Gateway Travel by thousands of tourists and those businesses looking for an opportunity to import and export with a new market of almost 100 billion people. King Paul Verron would make a percentage on every penny of it. Two hundred Verron citizens would be employed at the Mississippi Embassy and Travel center. None would live there except security and military personnel, everyone else would take the gateway to work from Verron. Renee and Michael had done a great job of organizing the visa and passports to be issued and everyone wanting to travel to Verron would be inoculated for any diseases they may catch on one of the allied planets and for anything others may be exposed to from the people of Earth, that injection would also contain a low dosage of Kahlan to help screen out those travelling with a wrong intent. A list of questions had been prepared by Vlad, King Verron and their security staff; one wrong answer on the questions and there would be no trip to Verron. Paul knew that he had plenty of enemies on Earth and he had no intentions of allowing them on his planet.

  On the day they were leaving to go back to their Earth assignments, Chase and Daniel arrived at Mountain City to inform Hunter that they would be assigned to his Terrorist Elimination Unit. Hunter realized that King Verron did in fact intend that he not try to go on every mission, it would be good experience for his two cousins to lead assaults on the terrorist strongholds. In addition, Lieutenant Ibrihim Xhondar arrived to be Hunter’s assistant. That left Metsis and Lydia as the only two members of the Dragon Guard still on Verron. They would soon get over their disappointment; Paul Verron already had a plan on how to use the two of them. The night before everyone left for their assignment, there was a celebration for everything that had been accomplished in the first year of activity on Earth. Millions had been cured of fatal diseases, especially in Africa. Terrorist were so busy trying to survive the constant attacks from the Elimination Unit that they had little time to plot and plan other activities. Trade was flourishing with every allied Nation, commerce and agriculture was being established in previously unstable countries and the oil from Verron was fast replacing the OPEC oil that had previously been used by the allied countries, with much of the profit being used to support Islamic terrorist groups. Paul made sure to give the credit for the things accomplished to those who had been actively involved with the work and to everyone’s surprise awarded substantial bonuses to each of them. With a cashless society on Verron, he announced, “If you will check your bank statement, you will find out how much the Nation of Verron appreciates you. I won’t promise bonuses like this every year, but you are the ones who have made this transition possible; the best laid plans and ideas are only as good as the people who implement them. You’ve done an excellent job and I thank you.” No one was disappointed; bonuses were given to everyone from managers in the banks and hospitals all the way down to the soldiers who served security at the Mississippi compound. None of the Royal Family or the Dragon Guard was a part of the bonus system; they were the ones who issued them.

  Chapter 19

  There was a bustle of excitement as 200 interstellar commuters filled the travel center on Verron to head to their first day of work at the new Verron Embassy and Commerce Center. Renee led the way since she would maintain an office there. On the other side, she was greeted by Leona and Donald who would also maintain a business office there, as well as New York. Michael had an office for the Department of Finance and Vlad maintained an intelligence operation there as well. King Verron’s office was there for meeting with heads of state and business leaders, but he intended to spend most of his time on Verron. At 8:00 AM, when the Embassy and Commerce Center opened their doors, the lobby was packed with hundreds of individuals who wanted to apply for travel visas to Verron and who wanted to meet with Renee, Leona, Donald or Michael on business and economic issues. It didn’t take long to realize the balance of trade was definitely going to be in Verron’s favor. King Verron had given strict guidelines on his economic policy; he did not want to do anything to abruptly interrupt the economy of Earth. The technology stream was by intent going to flow very slowly from Verron to Earth.

  Michael and Renee were tasked with the assignment of partnering with Earth corporations to manufacture Verron products. There had to be a fine balance achieved, Paul had to grow the economy of Verron, while at the same time inflicting as little harm as possible on his allies. Renee had staff representatives for each major industry: automotive, aerospace, communications, defense, energy, medical, petro-chemical, metal fabricating and manufacturing, construction, retail and distribution of food and clothing.

  While there were thousands trying to meet the staff in the Embassy and Commerce Center, the line of first-time Verron travelers were boarding their Spaceship for a three Galaxy, three day tour, or the five hour express shuttle that orbited Earth, the Moon and Mars before departing for the Whirlpool Galaxy and Verron; others simply walked directly from Mississippi into the Travel Center at Capital City to be greeted by multicolored androids at the gates, robot looking cyborgs to handle the luggage and of course humans to make them feel more secure. It had been Paul’s idea to have an alien greeting at the travel cent
er, saying “These folks are paying a lot of money just to travel here, let’s give them more than they ever expected.” That first day in January would see 15,000 tourists from all over Earth depart for the greatest adventure in their lives; Paul did not want any of them to be disappointed. Even if he did think that the cyborgs looking like Terminator without his skin was a bit over the top.

  He stood in the travel center and observed the expressions on the faces of both young and old as the cyborgs reached for their luggage and greeted them with a Southern accent, Renee’s idea. None knew who he was as he loitered around the terminal giving people directions or helping them with their baggage. He actually received a tip for helping a lady escorting a man in a wheelchair. He carried their luggage to the Klelta Palace shuttle and acted as a tour guide when she asked questions about good places to visit and where the Medical Center was located. He placed her luggage in the back of the shuttle and pointed across the city square to the Medical Center. Someone on the shuttle must have recognized him. When the lady had tipped him and was leaving on the shuttle, the other passengers turned around to wave at him.

  The man in the wheelchair was carrying a cranky toddler in his lap, and being pushed by his pre-teen daughter. Paul took the chair from the young girl and easily lifted the chair and man onto the shuttle. The woman, who had brought her disabled husband to Verron in hopes of a miracle, was going to be in for a shock when she got a knock on her hotel room door from Dr. Joe Verron. Paul had Lucy contact his brother as soon as he helped the man in a wheelchair onboard the shuttle. The man had on a Marine T-shirt and looked as if he had been run over by a truck. Paul later found out that what he assumed was a disabled war veteran had in fact been run over by a truck. Master Gunnery Sergeant Eugene Johnson had served four tours in Afghanistan and two in Iraq during his fifteen years of service and though wounded, had never been debilitated. Then early one morning he was running on a road near his home in Jacksonville, NC and was hit by a drunk driver in his pick-up truck, breaking his pelvis, femur, ribs, puncturing his lungs and inflicting a traumatic head injury. People have been hurt less by road-side bombs. Of course the Marine Corp discharged him since he could no longer perform his duties, and since he wasn’t eligible for retirement and his injuries were not military related, he was sent home to Tennessee homeless and disabled, with no source of income. His wife had saved and borrowed enough money to get him to Verron, where she had heard of other disabled veterans being healed. When the man returned home, he would be able get on and off the shuttle unassisted and play with his children, instead of having them play nursemaid to him. As the shuttle pulled away, Paul smiled at the lady whose lips were mouthing, “I’m sorry;” obviously embarrassed about giving the King of Verron a $5.00 tip.