George and Samantha were almost like a couple of newly-wed honeymooners. Neither had ever stayed in a hotel quite as luxurious as Klelta Palace. Samantha was a regular Chatty Cathy as she told George all about the exploits of the past several days. He couldn’t believe she had just visited five other solar systems and actually walked around with the human and non-human inhabitants of each. He was awestruck with her description of Xhondar I and mile high buildings housing 40 billion people. She had him laughing as she described the game of “catch me if you can,” the giant prince carrying the little Chinese kids and the Molnar trying to wipe the dirt off her face. He had an expression of total disbelief when she told him about the shiny rocks. They ate their meal in their room and got up early the next morning to go shopping. They ran into Camil in the mall. Samantha knew it was her because she figured the real Sofia Vergara was back on Earth doing photo shoots for Pepsi or Cover Girl. She asked her what would be something different she and her husband could do together. She directed them to the Travel Center. Pointing out that with King Verron’s gold dragon card they could access all the gateways. She escorted them over and pointed out gateways to Klelta, Tecalna, Xhondar I and Beriya-Haven, Molnar was not quite ready for visitors yet. They knew they didn’t have much time for visits, so George picked Xhondar I. The gateway opened on the ground floor of the building occupied by the Elders. The access code was triggered by the use of Paul Verron’s personal dragon card and before they had exited the building, Mahala greeted them by the door.
Samantha couldn’t imagine an elevator moving that fast and assumed he had actually just entered the building from the street. Evidently Master Mahala had not let his ability to jump get rusty. Samantha introduced her husband and for the next few hours they became the center of attention as they were personally escorted through the streets of Xhondar I by the most powerful man on the planet. When Samantha told her husband how old Mahala was he at first didn’t believe it, then he saw his reflection in a glass storefront and realized many things were possible here that no one could comprehend on Earth, like how they had traveled there in the first place. When they entered one of the department stores, George recognized the distinct sound of Stevie Ray Vaughn coming from a display to his left. George couldn’t resist checking it out. There was a counter with a display selling Verron Music Players. The person behind the counter had a long list of free music downloads with the purchase of the player. As he looked around he noticed another strange phenomena, the man selling the music players was drinking a Diet Coke. He shook his head as he looked at Mahala, who replied, “Paul Verron seems to have an influence everywhere he goes. They sell those things by the billions, I even have one. He also smuggles me Hershey Mini’s and Mountain Dew.” Samantha added, “You should see his motorcycle dealership.” George looked at his watch and replied, “I believe it’s time to go.” Mahala escorted them back to the travel center and welcomed them back any time, and asked that they give his regards to King Verron. The two of them stepped back through the gateway with several bags of purchases from Xhondar I and memories for a lifetime. George looked at Samantha and commented, “You realize they’ll be debriefing us for a month after we get home, don’t you?” She squeezed his arm and replied, “Yea, but it’s been worth it. I can’t wait to see those faces when they get a load of us.” She looked at George and added, “Bet ya I can guess what’s for supper tonight.” When they returned to the Klelta Palace and looked across the bay from their room, as they changed for the evening, they saw smoke rising from the east terrace; Barbeque T-Hog.
Bruce Lee picked them up in a Verron built personal transport, Samantha asked, “What happened to Sofia Vergara?” Camil responded, “Ninety-nine and I watched all 26 Bruce Lee movies in the past few weeks. He’s a lot more interesting than some model, besides the Queen Mother won’t be able to complain about this one. I was going to do Chuck Norris, but he was boring and I don’t like facial hair.” George laughed and said, “Personally I prefer Halle Berry.” After an elbow in the side, he added, “But she is nowhere near as beautiful as you.” They were greeted in the hanger by Tala and Chase who were practicing their knife throwing skills on a target mounted on the rear wall. They stood and watched the two of them for a while and couldn’t believe how skilled they were. Camil informed them, “Tala’s nickname is Blade and Chase is known as Bullseye. They are a close match in throwing skills, but you would never want to face Tala in a knife fight, she’s unbelievable.” Tala threw two knives at once, one with each hand, and the blades clanged together as they drove into the same spot in the middle of the target. Chase casually did a back-flip, throwing a knife left handed just as he landed; it stuck precisely between Tala’s two knives. George commented, “Oh, I remember sibling rivalries well. I’m glad my older sisters never had knives.” The contest ended with the two siblings arguing all the way up the elevator about which one was best. When the elevator opened into the foyer of the Mansion, George looked at his wife and asked, “So this is where you’ve been forced to stay while I was incapacitated. I’m surprised you remembered to come get me out.” She gave him a kiss and replied, “I did actually have other plans when Amber reminded me it was time to go get my husband.”
As George walked toward the east terrace he felt like he was at a family reunion instead of a state dinner. There were children of various ages running around the Mansion playing. At least a dozen members of the Verron family were gathered around playing guitars, dobro, mandolins, banjos, fiddles, bass and piano. At the moment they were doing some bluegrass gospel and the harmonies on the vocals were perfection. Then they realized that the singers were Paul Verron, Joe Verron, Kary Verron and Kenneth Verron. All four were singing and playing guitars. Tala scooted past them and complained, “Hey, you said you would wait on me.” She opened a mandolin case and quickly joined right in as Chase grabbed a banjo. Renee came over and introduced herself to George and informed them, “When this bunch gets together with their instruments, it will be a while before their ready to quit. We sort of self-serve and eat whenever we’re hungry, so help yourself if you’re ready or just enjoy the concert and the scenery.”
Samantha looked around and began to introduce her husband to the people she recognized; the Queen Mother was overseeing the table of food, 99 and the chef where putting the finishing touches on the BBQ T-Hog, roasting the entire thing at once. The Dragon Guard was all present except Hunter. Prince Hon had half a dozen small Chinese children with him to meet the Dragon. The King’s children were present and three out of five of Paul Verron’s ex-wives. Leona and Donald came over to introduce themselves and share horror stories of being diabetic amputees on dialysis. When George realized they lived in Manhattan he immediately made plans to meet them for dinner and a play in New York. Jesserrica Zhdanov apologized for her husband not being there and promised to get together with them when he returned home. General Zarman, his wife Barbara and his son, Colonel David Zarman, formerly of the United States Marines, approached the couple and made introductions. There was really no need for introduction with General Zarman and the Admiral. They had known each other for years and been involved in dozens of operations together.
Paul Verron finally broke away from the music and decided to be a good host, besides he was getting hungry. He took George over to meet Zeus. At first he was a little hesitant about it, but was not going to allow a hand full of pint-sized Chinese kids to show more courage than him. The three of them grabbed a table with a view of Mt. Alene and the valley below. Paul didn’t really want to spend the entire evening talking business and decided to keep it short and sweet, saying, “I know you don’t have much more time to be here with us on Verron. I’ve made sure that Samantha has been well-treated and shown a lot of things you will not have time to see. If you will be ready early tomorrow morning I will personally show you some of the more important aspects of Verron.
When you return home, please inform the President that I will be at the White House at 9:00 AM on Thursday.” He loo
ked at his old Ironman and informed George and Samantha that when they return day after tomorrow it would be Sunday in Annapolis. George shook his head at the audacity of this man informing the President of the United States when he would meet with him. He replied, “You realize the President is a busy man and schedules his appointments months and even years in advance.” Paul smiled and answered, “I have no doubt that when you and the Captain here explain what you’ve seen on Verron, he will be more than willing to adjust his schedule. Tell him if he’s not interested, then I’ll go see the leaders of Australia or Great Britain or Germany; I’m certain any of them will take time to talk to me. Ask the President to have his military and economic advisors there as well, in particular the Director of NASA, the CIA, Homeland Security, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Security Advisor, Director of the Department of Defense, Director of Transportation and Director of the FDA; that should about do it.” George looked at Samantha wondering if this man was serious or not. She commented, “George, King Verron does not do things the way Washington normally does. He makes the decisions for Verron that it would take all those people he just named six months just to get a Congressional hearing or a budget review to do. He no doubt already has a plan in the making and a good reason to request those people are present.”
Paul gave her an admiring look, and told George, “Your wife has learned a lot about me and how I do things in a very short time. She is very perceptive and seems to understand how I work. I really don’t have time to run around trying to play games with all these people individually. It’s inefficient and a waste of my time and theirs. If the President has other guests already scheduled for the White House, invite them to the meeting as well, unless of course they may be in conflict with my agenda.” George asked, “What is that agenda?” Paul gave them both a serious look and answered, “The total elimination of terrorists on Earth, economic and military superiority for the United States and her allies, making inter-galactic travel possible, eliminating the choke-hold OPEC has on the world, curing every major disease that now take the lives of people on Earth; cancer, AIDS, diabetes, Ebola, Sickle-cell Anemia and more and unification of military efforts toward a common cause. That should be enough to begin with. You could also add developing trade and commerce between Earth and billions of people in other worlds.” Paul laughed and said, “I am a bit demanding aren’t I? They will get used to it.” With that, the subject was dropped and conversations switched to Samantha telling Paul about her exploits of the past few days.
There had to be over a hundred people coming and going during the hours of the BBQ; laughing, dancing, singing and just having fun together. George thought, “This is definitely not the White House.” George was introduced to one lady who claimed to be a Governor of Beriya-Haven. She was blue with orange hair and had on a pair of skin tight jeans, a white silk western style blouse, some beautiful turquoise cowboy boots and a white Lady Stetson. She was with a man taller than him and stick-thin, wearing a gray priests Cossack with white trim. Ninety-nine came around to meet his favorite Astronaut’s husband, as did Prince Hon, Michael Verron, Marcus Verron, Gail Morton and each of the Xhondarians and the remainder of the Guard. After dinner the mood shifted and the music began to play again. Paul joined his family on an acoustic guitar and the three brothers began to play Ain’t never seen no U-Haul behind no Hurst” with Amber on the drums and Chase on the String Bass. They then did, Chapel Hill Boogie. Soon they switched gears. Paul joked, saying, “Now that all the old-folks are gone, we’ll turn things up a notch.” The acoustics were put away and the electrics came out and for the next three hours George and Samantha were entertained with songs by Leon Russell, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin, Santana, Eric Clapton, The Eagles, and even Queen, the variety seemed endless. George realized that this family could sing and play well enough to do it professionally; Kary Verron was incredible to say the least and Paul and Joe weren’t far behind. But when Daniel played, New Coat of Paint on the keyboards, then Amber got going on the drums while they backed-up Katelyn, Tala and Chase, he began to wonder how these people got anything else done if they had time to practice for this many songs. About halfway through the classic rock set, Renee grabbed her two sisters and had the musicians switch to country music for a while; she and her sisters sang. When he asked the Queen Mother how they found time to learn all these songs, she replied, “It’s in the gene pool, besides we have 36 hours in a day and nine days in a week. We manage it well.”
As the evening was winding down, Paul put aside his guitar and was talking to a young man who looked as if he was definitely related. The two of them approached Samantha carrying two small boxes. Paul and the man sat down across from George and Samantha and as Paul asked, “Did she tell you about the bag of shiny rocks the citizens of Molnar gave her.” George smiled, saying, “Can you imagine what would happen if we took it home?” Paul had Robert present one of the boxes and replied, “This is my cousin Robert, Verron’s finest jeweler. He thought maybe this will be a bit easier to handle.” Robert opened the metal case to reveal a beautiful emerald necklace. It had a large center stone in a cushion cut and surrounded by diamonds, in a platinum setting. The emerald was as big as the thumb-nail-portion her husband’s large thumb. There were six more emeralds on each side, becoming progressively smaller as they extended around the neck, they also were surrounded by diamond; seven large emeralds and dozens of diamonds made into a cross between a choker and a necklace; there was also a pair of dangling emerald earrings; once again in a cushion cut emerald surrounded by diamonds. Samantha couldn’t believe this man had created such a masterpiece and in such a short period of time. She asked, “How did you do this so fast?” He confessed, saying, “The Molnar have been giving us shiny rocks enough that I already had some cut and sized. The diamonds are from Verron and so is the platinum. I had the idea in my head for a while now but no need to create it. It would have taken a lot longer if I had used the stones from your actual bag of gems. I hope you don’t mind.”
George helped her put them on as Robert continued, “The platinum is tempered with the same additives we use in Verron Steel; no way it will ever break. No one on Earth would be able to work with it if it did.” Robert’s assistant walked to the table with a large mirror. While Samantha admired the perfection of the jewelry, Robert continued, actually speaking to George, “If your wife is like my wife she can have a necklace like this and still claim she doesn’t have a thing to wear, so for those occasions I also made you this.” He opened another metal case to reveal a ruby necklace consisting of six equally sized oval stones forming a crescent shape and surrounded by diamonds ranging in size from 3 carat to a ½ carat, the smaller ones making up the chain around the neck; once again there were matching earrings, each with a large ruby surrounded by diamonds dangling from a 3 carat diamond stud. Robert apologized, saying, “I was going to do matching rings for both, but I didn’t know your size and like I said, no one on Earth would be able to cut and size it. It’s that tuff.” Before he got up to leave he suggested, “I’d have them appraised and insured as soon as you get home. You could probably retire on what they’re worth.”
George nearly spoiled it all by saying, “King Verron after all you’ve already done for us, we can’t accept a gift like this from you.” Paul smiled and replied, “I got an entire bag of stones from your wife. As far as I’m concerned, she paid for them herself with funds she earned herself. As I recall the bag of gems she gave us was valued at about 6 million dollars. That jewelry is nice, but I can assure you, I came out ahead on the deal.” Samantha was thrilled with her new prize and there was no way Admiral George Washington Sullivan had the nerve to standup against this woman and deny her what she more than deserved.” He looked at Paul and simply said, “Thank You!” It was getting late when George and Samantha finally left. The music had mellowed out and someone had added a trumpet and saxophone to the mix. George and Samantha felt like they were on Beal Street in Memphis or Bourbon Stre
et in New Orleans. Renee volunteered to take them back to the Klelta Palace. When Samantha opened the terrace doors to let in some of the breeze from the bay, she could still hear the Verron’s playing music together late into the night, as it echoed across the bay. She wore the emerald necklace and nothing else to bed that night. George didn’t complain. The following morning, he left her in bed as he slipped out to meet Paul Verron in the lobby of the Klelta Palace. He couldn’t believe what a new lease on life had done to him, 60 years of knowledge and experience, now housed in a body healthier than when he was in college. He felt ready to take on the world. He was just finishing a breakfast buffet when Paul arrived accompanied by General Zarman and Brigadier General Hall. He for some reason thought he recognized Hall, when he asked he was not surprised by the answer, “Delta Force 2014. I worked with your CIA guys. I was a sergeant back then. Paul made me become an officer against my will.”
As they left the hotel, Paul declared, “We have a busy day planned for you. We think you’ll be impressed by what you see. Our first stop is with my brother Kary. He and several others have been developing weapons and ammo that can be used by the U.S. Military with minimal training and maximum effect.” General Hall picked-up the conversation, saying, “What we’ve done is develop some special rounds that can be used in any of your existing military weapons, 5.56 NATO, 7.62 mm, 9mm and 12.7 mm. They are like nothing you have ever seen, so we will give you a brief demonstration as soon as we get to the range. We also have some very unique body armor. General Hall and I both have seen enough young men and women killed or wounded. With this armor, it will never happen again. We also have a new design for weapons made of Verron Steel. It’s lighter and more durable than your existing weapons and can take the same kind of impact as the body armor. We pretty much used the design of a Beretta ARX 100 5.56 and SAKO TRG M10 Sniper Rifle. The barrels are interchangeable from 5.56 to 7.62 on the Beretta and 7.62 to 12.5 on the SAKO.”
Verron: Birth of a Nation: Book One (Verron Series 1) Page 102