Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Then he had the pleasure of taking a group of scientists from Verron to Paradise. He had heard Lydia and others talking about how she had almost become lunch and how everything on the planet would try to kill you. His job, along with 50 Marines, was to protect the scientists, who eventually decided they were not desperate enough for the things available on Paradise to go through the torment of cultivating it. Metsis smiled, thinking, “Scientist had to see and prove everything for themselves; they couldn’t simply take a soldiers recon report as fact. They seemed to change their mind when he had to cut two of them out of the belly of some kind of giant lizard.”

  So here he was with his good friend Robert Lawson; he and Robert had been training together a lot lately. Most of the Dragon Guard were busy doing other things, even Amber was heavily involved with making changes to some of the policy and procedures in the Air Force, so Metsis and Robert had spent hours in Jxansa Gha, strength training, freestyle runs and weapons training, he was actually coming along pretty good and had recently made his first gateway. It was so small a toddler would have a hard time crawling through it, but it was still a gateway. The co-pilot on the mission was a crimson colored Grnardo named Herlani who was dating Fast Frank. She had a great sense of humor and the patience of Job. The Marines onboard were being commanded by a Cyborg from Beriya-Haven and his platoon was composed of just about every race living on Verron; two of the only humans were men from Hope who were determined to hunt down and kill every Volvs they could find, their parents and brothers and sisters were taken by the Volvs.

  As they got closer to Hoag’s Object they loved the unique appearance of the giant circle with a cluster of bright stars in the center – the outer ring forming an almost perfect circle. It was 100,000 light-years across the big circle, but where they were headed was now only a couple of light years away; should be there in no time at all. Herlani and Robert were at the ships controls and began slowing down from their speed of 3300 LS to keep from overshooting their target. Focusing in on the big ball of iron larger than the diameter of Saturn’s outer rings made finding what they were looking for a little easier, but the planet had a dozen moons and none of them were much larger than Earth’s moon. One million miles away from 4387, Metsis had Robert released two dozen exploration drones. He would hold his position for as long as it took for them to identify the one out of a dozen moons that could sustain life and scan said moon for any problems they may encounter. You never knew what you may run into out here.

  While they waited, Herlani challenged Metsis to a game of Tri-Chest. It was basically a game of Chest where you actually played three games at the same time. Robert watched in awe as two people, with an obviously higher intelligence than his, actually kept track of every move and made those moves with incredible speed. The game lasted under one hour with Herlani winning two boards to Metsis’ one. They were preparing for a second game when all the drones returned except for six. Metsis had Lucy download real-time video from those six drones and project them on the split screen monitors. What they saw was a pretty little moon covered in small vegetation of grasses and scrub brush. There were thousands of lakes but no oceans. It probably maintained a ¾ land mass to ¼ water mass ratio. Enough water to provide moisture for the small vegetation, but it would never be enough to support a large colony of people, unless there is a larger quantity of water underground like there is on Tramlaw and Molnar, where it is all underground. There were some small mountains, more like rifts, but nothing taller than 3000 feet and it didn’t look like there was a tree on the planet over 20 foot tall. The life-form sensors were indicating hundreds of small animals living the bushes and tall grass and a few larger ones in what had to pass for a forest; it could probably be cleared or laid bare in a day; just a few thousand acres surrounding a couple of the larger lakes. They continued to watch as the drones began to navigate the lower valleys and canyons between the rifts. They were evidently sensing more life-forms in the lower reaches between the low mountains.

  No one wanted to believe what they saw and Metsis re-tasked the little cloaked drones to concentrate on the pass between two 2000 foot rifts with a small river flowing through the middle. It had to be one of the most inhabitable areas on the planet and it was already inhabited. The dead end canyon with steep rock walls and a waterfall feeding the river below made a perfect coral. The large herd living in the narrow valley had to number over a million. The people in the herd were being guarded by half a dozen Volvs on top of the ridge above and two dozen more living in the narrow entrance to the canyon. Metsis had the drones switch to dual-heart impulse readings, new programing installed in the exploration drones ever since they began to encounter Volvs, and make a sweep of the valley and ridge again. He sent four of the drones in an expanding circle to search the surrounding area and sent a dozen more from the ship to check and recheck the little moon for more. After a thorough search, the final count was 32 Volvs; two more had been located in the rocks in the narrowest part of the canyon opening. Metsis called Commander 21 and his two sergeants to the control room. After reviewing the surveillance video and reviewing it again, it was decided to launch a surprise attack through a gateway. Right now the Light Destroyer was too far away for their sensors to detect them. The drones were too small and had very good jamming devices built-in, so they had never been detected. The pressure was now on Robert to make a decent gateway, at least long enough to place Marines on top of the canyon walls. Metsis would make one for the rest of their force directly into the edge of the Volvs mobile camp. They had to act fast since they had no idea when the Volvs supply ship may arrive to pick-up fresh meat, or deliver more.

  The Marines suited-up in their body armor and loaded their weapons with whitematter rounds, having already learned that just blowing an arm or a leg off or punching a hole as big as a grapefruit through a Volvs didn’t even slow these guys down. With 5.56mm whitematter rounds they may leave behind a few feet or hands, but everything else would vanish in a flash of light. Twenty-six humans against 30 Volvs; no one liked the odds, but knew they did have the element of surprise. Just before they made ready to make their gateways, with six men going with Robert to the ridge and the rest going with Metsis to the camp, they had Herlani send out a call to explain the situation and to request that Verron send a ship big enough to hold the people stranded on this planet and to give back-up just in case more of the Volvs showed-up uninvited. Robert saw Metsis mouth the word “Concentrate” just before he made the best gateway he had ever formed; Robert and six Marines were soon on the ridge.

  At the same time, Metsis made a gateway large enough for the Marines with him to hurry out eight across. Even as he and his men were firing on the startled Volvs, he heard gunfire coming from high on the ridge. In shock from seeing their fellow Volvs vanish right in front of them, the desperate Volvs began to fire relentlessly with their heavy blasters. This time their force-field disruptors had no effect on the newly designed forcefields and their heavy ordinance glanced off the armor; some even hitting their own men. Commander 21 and one Marine raced toward the two Volvs guarding the canyon entrance and was greeted by heavy automatic fire from the two 50mm laser blasters mounted at the entrance. The heavy weapons were designed to discourage a stampede of humans from racing for freedom, but were never intended to stop a seven-foot tall Cyborg made from Verron Steel and an angry Marine who had just lost his family to Volvs. Commander 21 took his target out with one neatly placed shot center torso, just like the book taught. Private first-class Zuin shot-up everything in sight, weapons, sleeping modules, radio equipment and when he saw a set of feet left behind from his target, he shot them for good measure, then turned and raced back to the fight in the camp. He got to shoot two more Volvs on his return and blew away their communications trailer just because it was there.

  On the ridge, Robert was shocked when his gateway opened less than two feet from a big Volvs. The beast reached to grab hold of the man in body armor and was vaporized by a young Corporal as he fell to the
ground on top of Robert. Robert was thankful to be in Verron body armor or he would have vanished with the Volvs. He was on his feet quick and managed to shoot one more Volvs before the other Marines had a chance to shoot it. The Volvs never knew what hit them. Robert then made another gateway down to the campsite; he was on a role. He just hoped he could manage one more gateway to get them back to the ship. The campsite was a mess. The big mobile communications unit and the mobile housing units used by the Volvs were nothing but a few jagged pieces of metal lying on the ground. The Volvs bodies were gone. Robert thought, “This is much better than Darsai, we were cleaning up Volvs parts for weeks and those things really stink.”

  The band of 22 men, 3 women and 1 Cyborg spread out across the narrow end of the canyon and headed for the herd of humans. They had no idea what they would find. Then they heard hysterical screaming from the right and the left of them as two men in body armor retracted their headgear and ran for the terrified men and women in the wider portion of the canyon. The Marines had found what was left of the people from Hope. It was only a partially blessed reunion for the two PFCs, one had lost his mother and father but his two sisters were still alive. The other lost his mother but his father was still alive. The shocked people from the planet formerly called Kwaor didn’t care that it was now called Hope as the two excited boys tried to explain everything that had happened during the past nine years all at once, they were just glad to see humans.

  Metsis had Herlani remain in orbit instead of come to the surface. He wanted her eyes in the sky just in case there were other Volvs they may have missed or others nearby scouting surrounding planets for food. She told him that two R4s were in route and that King Verron was coming on a Beangagarrie ship just fitted with new whitematter reactors. King Verron should be first on the scene since he was already pretty close and standing inside the new ship prepared for its maiden voyage.

  Paul noticed Alkawara race away from the ship and hurry back carrying a bag about like a bowling-ball bag. He hopped aboard the ship and they took off. Paul wasn’t thrilled about heading into potential Volvs territory in an unarmed ship with a group of civilian technicians and engineers onboard. He was however anxious to see these people who would soon be going home. It would be a bit of a shock for them to return to the changes that had taken place on Hope but he had no doubt they would adjust to their new environment. As soon as the little Beangagarrie ship exited the heavy gravity of their planet and was clear of the gaseous atmosphere, Paul made a gateway to the edge of Hoag’s Object. He reminded Alkawara that gateway travel cannot be accomplished by every ship and only the Dragon Guard could form one without a very powerful ships computer. Alkawara was simply speechless as he realized he had just covered a span of 60,000 light-years within seconds. He immediately let out an ear-piercing alarm to those onboard when he realized he was facing a 20 mile-wide Volvs mother ship on the other side of the gateway.

  Paul and Marcus were as shocked as the Beangagarrie onboard. Before he had time to make another gateway out of there, he had no desire to face a Volvs mother-ship in an unarmed plastic sphere, Alkawara asked, “Can you make a gateway that will place us above their ship?” Paul nodded yes, “The excited Lizard man replied, “Do it.”

  The little plastic ship probably didn’t even show up on the Volvs sensors. They most likely had a reading from the reactors, but the plastic hull would have been difficult to recognize and with it being so small, no Fighters were dispatched from the Volvs. Paul did notice just before he made his gateway, that the missile batteries on the upper deck of the ship were swinging in their direction. Marcus and Paul watched as Alkawara grabbed the bowling-ball bag and ran at Lizard speed toward the nearest airlock. He stepped inside and as quickly as the lock indicated it was sealed, he opened the outside exit portal. No human could have done what he just did without a survival suit. Paul and Marcus hurried to the viewing port just in time to see the Commander remove what looked like a water-balloon filled with dirty gray water. It even wiggled like a water-balloon when the Commander held it out the portal opening and let it go with a slight push downward. He quickly closed the exterior portal and began to scream, “GO! GO! GO!”

  Paul knew there was a real sense of urgency that they split the scene, so he once again made a gateway off in the distance of about 500 miles behind the mother-ship. What he had not seen was the basketball sized water-balloon, assisted by a slow push in the direction of the ship below. Nor did he know that the metal-eating microbes inside the ball could sense a metal object a thousand miles away and instantly locked onto the mother-ship. No one saw the ball move so slowly that it was not even deflected by the force-field, nor see it splash like a paintball against the hull of the ship. But even from 500 miles behind the twenty-mile wide ship, it was obvious something was very wrong. The metal eating microbes created by Beangagarrie Chemists had the reverse effect of the chemistry that bound things together as one. These microbes grew and reproduced exponentially as they consumed any metal object. In seconds there was a hole in the top of the Volvs ship large enough to be seen even from where they were. Then, like a wildfire out of control, the microbes spread deeper into and farther across the surface of the ship.

  Commander Alkawara dared to approach closer when he realized how effective his invention had been. He knew he was safe in his plastic ship, but still didn’t want to get too close. By the time they had closed the distance to 100 miles, all that remained were the floating bodies of dead Volvs and about 5000 humans that had been onboard for food. They were probably on their way to resupply. Weapons, body armor, missiles … everything metal onboard the ship was gone. There were bundles of wire, plastic wraps, and a few other ship accessories drifting in the void between galaxies, but no ship existed and neither did a living Volvs. There had to be 400,000 of them floating through space. Paul looked at Alkawara and smiled, saying, “Well, I’ll have to admit that the weapon worked very well, but I can’t say much for the delivery system. That definitely needs some work.” If a Lizard could laugh, then that is what he just did.

  The ship headed for the little moon and was greeted by two R4s that had no clue what had just happened. Marcus asked, “What are you going to do with all those bodies we left back there?” Paul thought a moment and turned to Alkawara, asking, “How hard would it be to make a flesh eating microbe?” He immediately replied, “We have dozens of those.” Paul then requested, “After you drop me off on that little moon over there, how about you go home and get some and see what you can do with the mess we left behind. Even without a gateway, you should be able to make the trip in a day or two.” Alkawara agreed to do it and headed for the little moon, feeling really good about getting some payback for those who had lost their lives when the Volvs came to visit his home.

  One at a time, the big R4s landed on the small moon. As soon as one ship was full, the other landed to be loaded as quickly as possible. Paul did not want to stick around to see if more Volvs showed-up. He immediately let his people know how proud he was of them and asked Metsis if he was bored on this trip. He replied, “Give me bugs anytime. But it did feel good to kill a few of those things. I know that sounds cold, but I still have nightmares about when they came to Tramlaw.” Paul patted him on the shoulder and agreed. He boarded an R4 piloted by Amber and Robert, who had soon joined her with excitement about his two gateways during their battle. Metsis headed home in the Destroyer and the two PFCs came to King Verron and asked if they could be reassigned to the squadron on Hope. Without hesitation he agreed to do so and would instruct General Dumas to promote both of them and help them work on their self-control.

  Of the 1.3 million people in the canyon coral, 854,000 of them were originally from Hope. No one knew where the remaining 450,000 people belonged; not even them. Most of them had been born into the herd and had no recollection of a home planet. Over two million people from Hope were unaccounted for. Since the group of unidentified people had come to know those with them and were rescued by people from Hope, or so
they thought, every one of them decided to make Hope home. Suddenly there was a population explosion on the little plant. Paul had no idea where he was going to house these people, but Marcus pointed out that for the past several years, the people had been living outside under the stars just like cattle. Anything Verron would be able to do for the people would be worlds ahead of that. He then remembered the huge spider-silk canopies that covered massive valleys all over Tramlaw. He got with Metsis as he was headed back to Verron and asked him to detour and go see his father on Tramlaw. After a brief discussion of what he wanted, he knew that the people returning home would soon have food and shelter aplenty.

  Paul decided to stay on Hope until everyone was settled. He would use the two R4s for temporary housing until the canopies arrived from Tramlaw. As he went to work organizing the relief efforts, his problems with Earth were soon forgotten. While Paul stood having a conversation with Governor General Dumas, two ships arrived with thousands of aid workers ready to help the rescued people. For some reason he remembered a quote Jesus made, in Matthew 25, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me … I will tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” He wiped a tear from his eye and joined the volunteers from Verron.

  Chapter 31

  Paul Verron was in his study being interviewed by Robin Meade. It was the week of Verron’s 10th Anniversary and this Founders Day celebration was going to be an event to remember. He had promised Robin that she would be the only news reporter he had any intentions of working with. He didn’t hate other reporters and he knew they all had a job to do, but for some reason he just didn’t trust other reporters to tell his story the way he told it. He wanted the world to know just what the people of Verron had accomplished in 10 years. He wanted it to be made clear that it happened because of the people involved, not because of him; one man may make a difference, but one man cannot do it by himself, the Verron story is about the citizens of Verron. As he sat in his office with Robin, a camerawoman and a lighting assistant, Paul told her a condensed version of everything that had happened in the past 10 years and how Verron had grown from one planet with three people to five planets and almost 14 billion citizens serving as the foundation of allied planets that numbered 300 billion citizens, Beangagarrie alone had doubled the numbers, all working together for the common service and protection of the known Universe. The most amazing part of the story was that it was actually working.