Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Tala’s Uncle Joe was there, and in his usual manner, he brought comfort to the patient by saying, “God, you’re a mess. I’ll bet you used to be fairly good looking; we’ll see if we can’t make a few improvements while we have you here.” Turning to the technician that ran the regeneration units, Tala spoke few words, but made the message loud and clear, “Give her a level two, if you have a problem with it take it up with King Verron, this is his favorite motorcycle racer. He has pictures of her on his screen saver and has used her accomplishments to motivate me and my sister for years.” Dr. Joe nodded his approval to the tech and Tala levitated Elena to the nearest chamber. She was already in a hospital gown, so preparation was quick and easy. She then made a jump to Uncle Paul’s office to inform him of her decision and to tell him who was in his hospital for treatment. He was proud of her initiative and ability to make good decisions on her own. He commended her for her choices and told her to make sure she told Elena’s parents what she had done with their daughter.

  Tala made a gateway back to San Diego just in time to come to Neil’s rescue. Neil smiled as Tala told the doctors and nurses to take a chill-pill and shut up while she explained. Suddenly, this sixteen year-old girl was in control of two surgeons, the head nurse, assistant hospital administrator and Elena’s parents. She got right to the point, “I have no doubt that you gentlemen are the best in your field. I know Elena’s parents would hire nothing less, but the doctors and medical technology on Verron is a thousand times better. Instead of patching her up and maybe leaving some scars, our doctors will have her better than 100% in a week, with no scars, no surgery, and no physical therapy. No offense, but your about like Theodoric of York – Medieval Barber compared to what we do where I come from.” Only one of the doctors knew what she was talking about and actually smiled at the reference to Saturday Night Live.

  Both of the doctors had in fact heard of the medical breakthroughs taking place on Verron, but decided that his child was just running her mouth about things she had seen or heard on the internet. The plastic surgeon looked at her and asked, “For a moment there I almost believed you. Just exactly who do you think you are coming in here and disrupting the medical care of a very badly injured girl? I demand you return her to this facility or I will have you arrested.” Tala in a moment of anger and frustration at the pompous jerks and the stressed looks on the Myers faces did something that she would probably regret later, but seemed like the right thing to do at the moment. She physically shoved the doctors and used a telekinetic push on the Myers and simultaneously opened a gateway behind them. The two doctors tripped and fell at the feet of Joe Verron, the Myers looked around the sudden change of surrounding and gasped. Uncle Joe looked at Tala and told her, “Gees, girl, is the care so bad at that hospital that you have to bring the doctors here too?” Tala got excited and began to explain, “I’m sorry Uncle Joe, but I was getting so frustrated with these idiots trying to explain how much better off Elena was here than with them. They threatened to have me arrested. I brought them here instead of making a gateway to Paradise.”

  The three doctors, who had just lost their dignity, asked Joe, “Who are you and just what the hell’s going on?” Joe looked at them and brought them down a notch, by saying, “I am Dr. Joe Verron AKA Prince Verron and this is my medical center. Tala’s little friend over there is now in my care and will be home in about seven days completely healed. Even that ruptured spleen that you missed and the bulging C2 in her neck.” The Myers gave the doctors a questioning look and turned to Joe, asking, “How do we know that you can do better than the best in San Diego?” Joe then proceeded to give the doctors a guided tour of the facility. There was a twenty-six year-old man who had cut off his hand while working on a piece of farm equipment; you could actually see the newly formed bones already formed and tissue slowly growing over the bones. Joe showed them a picture of the victim before they started. He told them, “Complete regrowth takes a little longer than repair and regeneration. This young man will be out in about two weeks. He has already been in for four days. We can completely regrow a leg in ten days. One day we hope to open facilities on Earth, but for now this is the only place to get it.” He paused and thought a moment, saying, “Come with me, I want to show you something.”

  They walked down a long hall and took the elevator up two floors. Joe told them as they exited the elevator, “This is the VA floor. King Verron has vowed to regenerate and even rejuvenate Disabled Veterans. I’d like for you to meet someone who is about to go home.” He led them to a handsome man of about 25 years, with short black hair and an obvious Hispanic heritage. He turned to greet Dr. Joe with a brilliant smile of perfect teeth and a gleam in his dark-brown eyes. Joe did the introductions, telling the visitors, “This is Captain Juan Mendoza. Juan was a fighter pilot in Vietnam and shot down just before he reached his base. He crash landed and the plane caught fire. Juan, you still have that picture?” Juan reached for his wallet and withdrew a tattered photo taken in the VA hospital before he started with his years of skin grafts. As he showed it, Joe told them, “Juan was burned over 60% of his body. As you can see, most of it was from the waist up and there was virtually no hair or facial skin left. I might add that Juan is 77 years-old.” Juan gave Joe an impromptu hug and said, “If it weren’t for this man and King Verron, I’d still be a deformed invalid in a wheelchair. There are six other Vets here, want to meet them?”

  When the Myers and their doctors returned to the chamber where Elena was fast asleep, Mrs. Myers walked over to view her daughter through the observation window. She gasped and began to cry. Her husband thought that something was badly wrong with his daughter. He and the doctors joined her by the chamber. The cuts and bruises on Elena’s face and lips were already gone and only a slight pink of the skin was visible where the worst cuts had been. The plastic surgeon mumbled, “I stand corrected, this is amazing. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it for myself. From behind them, a voice said, “Would you two like to stay here on Verron while she is undergoing treatment? I’m sure I can arrange for you to have a comfortable place to stay.” The four turned to see King Verron standing beside Tala. He smiled, “My niece sort of overstepped the bounds of what we consider very sensitive information. I hope you will consider keeping it to yourself that she can transport five people across 40,000 light years of space. She has access to a prototype portable gateway, like the ones we use at our Mississippi facility. Fortunately, she can also take you back.” Tala mumbled, “I’m sorry Uncle Paul, they wouldn’t believe me when I told them Elena was OK.” Paul squeezed her shoulder and replied, “Don’t worry about it. If they go back and tell their friends what happened, they will be declared mentally insane and have their license suspended.” The two doctors suddenly realized that they could tell no one. Dr. Levitz asked, “I really would like to learn more about what you can do here.” Paul thought a moment and answered, “Tell ya what. You make a reservation and travel to Verron the same way everyone else does and I will personally arrange for you to see our entire medical facility and discuss our technology with you. But for right now, I would prefer to keep this incident just between us and the Myers’. Now, there is nothing you can do here and I believe your satisfied that your patient is doing fine. You can give her a complete physical when she returns in about a week. Good enough?” Turning to Tala, he told her, “Take them home. I’ll put the Myers’ up at the Mansion, the Klelta Palace and everything else is booked solid.” Tala approached the two doctors and they actually flinched. She smiled and told them, “Just follow me. I can’t have you falling down in front of your colleagues.” With that she made a gateway and escorted them back to Elena’s room. Neil was sitting in a chair reading a six-month old copy of People magazine. Tala gave him a hug and told him, “We’ll be ready to practice when she gets back, in about a week.” With that, she was gone. The doctors looked at Neal and asked, “You knew all about this, did ya?” Neil smiled, saying, “I’ve learned not to let her surprise me.”
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  Matt and Anita Myers stood looking silently at Paul Verron. He broke the ice by saying, “I started following your daughter’s career and reading her monthly articles in Roadracing World years ago. As the father of three girls, grandfather of one and uncle to so many, I’ve lost count of how often I held your daughter up as an example of what a girl can accomplish and that none of them should ever feel like they are inferior to a man. As you can see, Tala is not intimidated by anyone, regardless of age or gender. The rest of the women in my family are about the same. It makes life interesting.” He extended his hand to shake theirs and continued, “Now, unless you just need to go back to California, I will be glad to have you stay at my home so you can be near your daughter, but as you can see, she will be pretty much out of it while in the chamber. Still, it will be nice for you to be here when she comes out and to monitor her progress.” Anita Myers was the first to speak, saying, “We appreciate your hospitality and what you’re doing for Elena, but we hate to impose on your home.” Paul laughed, and responded, saying, “Mrs. Myers, half the time I’m not completely certain just who is staying in my house. It’s a big house.”

  He escorted them to the roof where he had parked his small local commuter styled by BMW. Matt was excited by the prospects of a flying car. Anita looked at it with questioning looks, but finally climbed in. Paul took a small detour over Capital City and headed across the bay to Mountain City. If Anita Myers was amazed at the flying car, she was dumbfounded when Paul hovered into the hanger. Since Mountain City is the temporary or transitional housing location for most new arrivals on Verron, it has every species of alien life-form in the allied planets living there. Matt smiled and commented, “George Lucas needs to see this. I feel like I’m on the set of Star Wars.” Paul told his guests, “Some say you’ll get used to it, and to some extent you do. But I am constantly intrigued by the wide variety of citizens we have here on Verron. I’m sure you’ll get to meet some of them.”

  The Myers’ couldn’t begin to take-in all the sights as they crossed the hanger to the elevator; spaceships, robots, cyborgs, giant aliens, crimson aliens, multi-colored ones and little short fuzzy ones, it was more than they could digest at once. Exiting the elevator into the foyer of the 100,000 square foot Mansion, the first thing they saw was Finley and Burka anxiously awaiting Paul’s return to tell him the exiting news. Finely was hopping up and down with excitement when he came off the elevator, scaring the poor Myers’ into withdrawing back into its safety. Once they realized Paul was friends with the strange looking creatures, they slowly stepped into the foyer. Finley couldn’t stand to wait, saying, “Burka make baby! Finley be daddy!” Paul looked at a bashful Burka standing behind her husband and she just smiled and replied, “Is true. Dr. Tlase say so. I thought I was sick. She say I make baby.”

  Paul gave them both a big hug of congratulations and then escorted the Myers to their rooms, saying, “I believe this suite in empty, unless someone moved in while I was gone.” He opened the double doors to the most luxurious and modern looking suite they had ever seen. It had to be 1000 square feet or more. Paul told them, “I hope you like the view, I put you on the bay side; if you prefer mountains I can move you. If there is anything you need just speak it out-loud and it will be provided, like this. ‘I need fresh towels and a pot of fresh coffee with two cups.’” He paused a moment and a housekeeping drone came out of nowhere, laid fresh bath-towels across the foot of the bed, a moment later a kitchen drone arrived with a silver tray service with a pot of coffee, two ceramic cups and cream and sugar, placing it on the table by the window. He then told them, “They can do the same thing with clothes, but if you don’t like their taste in style, the mall is open 36/8, closed on Sabbath. Don’t be upset if you throw your clothes on the floor and they disappear, they will be returned, cleaned, pressed and in a prompt manner.” He looked at his watch and told them, “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll stop by later to show you where we eat most of our meals. Supper is in two hours, if you prefer, you can order in, but you may want to meet some of the other interesting folks who live here.” With that he turned and left the stunned Myers’ looking around the room wandering what other surprises it held.

  A knock came on their door two hours later and there was an attractive and very proper looking red-headed woman in her mid-thirties standing at the door. She introduced herself, telling them, “I’m Alene Verron, Paul’s mother. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to meet you earlier; I was visiting the ladies on Restoration for the afternoon. I hope my son told you we eat about this time each evening.” She laughed, and continued, “Actually the kitchen here never closes. You can eat anytime you like.” The Myers’ followed her down the hall to the massive staircase, then down another hall to a small elevator. One floor below they exited into a kitchen that looked to be 5000 square-feet, at one end was a large dining area that overlooked the mountain range behind the Mansion. Matt and Anita approached the table cautiously, recognizing only Finley and Burka at the far end of the table. The Queen Mother quickly took charge of the introductions, telling them, “Let me introduce you to tonight’s crowd, keep in mind, it is usually a different crowd every night. You’ve met the expecting couple, Burka and Finley, this is Cali Verron and Camil Verron, Tala’s sisters, Pavel Verron, also known as 99 and his wife Ilna, Hon IV, Metsis, Lydia, Tlase, Zimuel, Vlad Zhdanov and his wife Jesserrica, Uduak, Gohanna and CIA Director George Sullivan, Paul is running a bit late. He had some business to take care of with his three daughters. They should be joining us shortly.

  The Myers’ were seated near an empty chair and correctly assumed it to be King Verron’s. Before they could exchange some pleasantries with those around them, Paul arrived accompanied by three of the prettiest women they had ever seen. He introduced his three daughters and sat next to Matt. Anita almost left the table when she turned to see who had just asked her what she wanted to drink. There stood a shiny metal machine that looked like CP-3-0 with a tray of various beverages. She began to calm a bit when a half dozen more of the serving robots surrounded the table with platters of rotisserie chicken, bowls of mashed potatoes, green beans, baby carrots, hot fresh dinner rolls and a choice of tomato and cucumber salad or garden salad.

  Marie and Desiree hardly touched their food. When the Queen Mother asked what was wrong, Marie answered, “Grandma, we just came here to have a meeting with Dad. Desiree and I have been all over Africa during the past year. It’s a place where life is hard, but we were appalled by the conditions in the desert regions. Did you know that the Sahara Desert in as large as the United States and that almost 300 million people live there. It’s pitiful Grandma, to see how they live and how high the death rate is, especially among children. We’ve been talking to Dad about increasing the desalinization plants along the coast to help pump more water inland. We also want to build some domed oasis cities complete with farms and clean water. Then we want to begin terraforming. We read that the entire area used to be fertile forests thousands of years ago; we want them to be that way again. We know it will be a slow process, but with the work Hunter and his Terrorist Elimination Unit are doing, combined with the humanitarian aid we’ve done over the past year, things are slowly beginning to stabilize and the people are starting to have hope for their future for the first time in generations. Areas that lived under constant fear of Islamic terrorists are now planting crops and herding cattle, building schools and several small industries have begun to pop-up all over the countries we’ve been helping. We know it’s far from over and there is no point in making improvements just to have them fall into the hands of a bunch of radicals, but we want to do what we can, where we can.” The Queen Mother gave her son the look that only a Mother can get by with giving a King, and asked, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

  Paul told her that he already had plans to send his construction companies from Mississippi to Africa in the safe areas. He had already spoken with the leaders of Xhondar III about additional terraforming and additional desalini
zation plants. He pointed out that the demand for the plants by paying customers was driving production to new levels and that he had to compete with people who were willing to pay high dollars for the plants. He was going to see about building his own on Verron or possibly put a plant on Darsai to stimulate their industrial base and help them with their own water problems. The conversation drifted from there to the terrorist units, the drug elimination efforts, both of which were why George Sullivan was there, the Mars space center, the Restoration and what they were going to do with 1000 Volvs. The Myers’ watched and listened as the people at this table dealt with major military and economic issues over supper. It was obvious that King Verron was the ultimate decision maker, but he was not a control freak, he usually answered questions with statements like, “Do whatever you think works best, if it looks like it will be over 6 billion dollars let Michael know” or “You know more about the situation than I do, just keep me up to date on what you decide to do.” The U.S. Senate and politicians in Washington would have taken years to decide what was decided over a dinner of rotisserie chicken. However, no business was discussed over desert, strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. Over dessert Paul made sure everyone knew who the Myers were and why they were visiting Verron. Matt was amazed at how many of the people at the table knew who Elena was and had been following her career back on Earth. Cali finally said, “Your daughter has been a household word with Tala and Katelyn. They have always been competing with Daniel and Chase on dirt-bikes and everything else with wheels. They constantly hold up Elena as an example. Tala has a big poster of her on her bedroom wall. She doesn’t show it, but she is really elated about being on a racing team with her idle.”