THE VROL TRILOGY

by SK Benton

  "Escape is not possible. Resistance is not an option. Submit to the collective. Our cause is just, our goals attainable. We shall not be defeated. Thank you. Thank us. We are one."

  "Where is my son? Where is my pilot? I must leave."

  "We have no son, we have one pilot, one mind. We are one."

  "Oh sharga, what have I done"?

  "We shall eliminate the humans from the galaxy. Thank us, we thank us."

  The slow, lumbering mass of millions of vessels, most more than a half kilometer in length, cruised along at speeds significantly slower than light. Joined techs, resembling beetles, worked furiously, attempting the integrate Johnson's tiny vessel into a massive, organic superstructure that would carry the entire conjoined fleet through side space. From there they would go onto Azulian space, enabling them to initiate an immediate attack on Mankind. Johnson, due to his impatience, had unwittingly ended up serving the entire human race on a giant silver platter to the greatest enemy man has ever known.

  "Where is X'than'dor? I must speak with him immediately."

  "Him? We have no gender; we are as one. X'than'dor describes Vrol to those not of the collective. Submit to Vrol."

  Johnson tried to clear his mind and to think of nothing at all. If anything, the man was a study in mental acuity. His mind, although sociopathic, was razor-sharp and he was keenly aware that he was not in control at the current moment. He just imagined seeing outside - just seeing blank space, ships, and then his own ship.

  He saw his craft, surrounded by a massive, organic structure that apparently had been grown around the vessel. The ship itself was buried deep inside a larger ship. Pulling his view back he determined it was the Brood Carrier - the largest ship in the fleet, and near the size of a normal moon. Whenever he saw something Vrol he imagined beautiful thoughts. He emoted pleasurable feelings. He attempted to keep his mental guardians off-track. He was Len Johnson, and he would be reunited with his beloved son Ryder, and together they would conquer the galaxy.

  ###

  "Yeah, right! Three aces! Three of a kind! I win!"

  Alicia slapped her hand down onto the wooden table top, displaying her three cards, while showing fangs. She was so excited at finally getting a winning hand that she involuntarily shifted to phase 2, her battle form. Bagatelle gently stroked the back of her neck, which was now covered in hair and functioning as a mane. With some deep breaths she calmed herself, and her body gradually shifted back to phase 1, her extra hair and fur retracting back into her body.

  "G, I finally win a hand and I go puppy on everyone," she said disappointedly, pushing a canine back up into her gum.

  "No, sweetie, don't be upset. I dropped my toothbrush the other day and nearly went phase 2.5."

  "Oh my god, are you serious?"

  "Yes, but don't tell anyone. We can't have the Admiral of the navy looking out of control now, can we?"

  "Hmmm, only if he's out of control with his soon-to-be wife."

  Alicia gave him a glare, suggesting he better start with planning their nuptials sooner rather than later. She was a military woman, and if she were to wait for every emergency to ever befall her home world she would die an old maid. And that was saying a lot, as she was targeted to live for thousands of years.

  They heard a knock at their door, and the scent told them it was Jennie. She frequently visited them during the daytime, as she was intensely involved in preparations with Azul's fleet. If it wasn't Max ferrying them back and forth, it was Draagh. However, he had created a permanent portal between the base on Vera and Bagatelle's private offices in New Sydney. If they were in a bind and needed to leave right away, yet could not find a Primulus, they had the option of using King Krynos' sub-dimensional office to get to Vera. Draagh had promised to create a direct portal for them, but had yet to do so.

  "Good morning, loves. Slept well?" asked Jennie.

  "Yes, we did, Hun. Check this out! I finally beat G at poker!" Alicia was still excited, so she excused herself, got up and went to the restroom in their quarters.

  "We were playing blackjack. Just don't remind her," whispered Bagatelle.

  "Oh, not a winning hand," Jennie whispered back.

  Her brother nodded and grinned. He wasn't one for smiles and such, but when he did show happiness it was real.

  "Brother, we need to get back to Azul and start working. I am more than comfortable with leaving Liliana in the care of Clarisa and Draagh. As long as they're here I'm good."

  "Let's go this afternoon. I need to check out Portlandia. They've been acting like retards lately. Johnson had them so strung out on free mind-meds they're all in a state of perpetual idiocy."

  "Did the Haida troops manage to clear out the abandoned warehouses where the kids and the gen-vamps were squatting?"

  "To a certain extent. We stopped short of bombing them."

  "It would only take one. We could have Max project infoscreens in all inhabited buildings and show them the destruction of one. They would scurry like rats."

  Bagatelle liked his sister's thinking. He wasn't fond about using arms against the populace, but Johnson had created such a mess it couldn't really be avoided. He determined he would do so, in limited fashion, and hope for the best results.

  Alicia exited the restroom, a smile of her face and flush from her recent victory at poker. Bagatelle took the deck of cards and stowed it away with the chips. He then stood up, indicating he was about to great ready.

  "Ali, have you already showered and stuff?" asked Jennie.

  "Yeah, a bit ago. Why?"

  "Let's go have breakfast while Mr. Muscles here gets ready." Jennie winked at her brother and took his fiancé by the hand, leading her out the door and on to the main dining hall.

  Jennie had been under Alicia's command for a number of years, and although Vasquez knew Jennie was the younger sister of her secret lover, she wasn't able to say a thing. She even found it unjust that Jennie was also a junior officer. Commander was the first level in the senior officer bracket, and they were both now of equivalent rank. As an added benefit, they could be friends without the formalities of rank submission.

  The two rounded a corner when they were suddenly approached by Liliana, who was wearing a concerned look on her face.

  "Good morning Tía. Mami - I need to feed my pets. Please let me go feed them," she pleaded.

  "Sweetie, you know Prime Commander Donus and his team are taking care of them."

  "I know, and he promised he would capture some more ghouls for me too! But I miss them so…"

  "Oh yeah, Lili. How did you experiments go? Which vampires were the fastest?" asked Alicia.

  "Oh the ones of the lower castes for certain, Tía. They moved much more quickly as the sun was cooking them with every step they took. I believe it was almost an involuntary reaction."

  "And the one from Azul? How did he do?"

  "Oh, quite poorly, I must say. He was almost jogging along the path. Hermes toyed with him a bit, and then breached beautifully and swallowed the fetid wretch whole."

  "I just hope he didn't turn anyone before Draagh got him," said Jennie. Liliana got a small look of concentration on her face.

  "What's the matter, sweetie? Everything all right?" asked Alicia.

  If he did turn any, I will find them, once we have eliminated the insectoid scum from the galaxy, the girl thought to herself.

  "Oh yes, Tía! Everything is quite all right! Shall we enjoy breakfast together?" Liliana grabbed the women's hands and led them down the stairwell to the main dining hall.

  ###

  Admiral Luigi Bagatelle looked in the steamed-up mirror, trying to decide whether he should shave his beard off completely, trim it down, or make it into a goatee or a mustache. In the end, he decided to keep the beard. It made him look bad-ass, as Max had previously said.

  The entire system is back under control, aside from Portlandia. I hate that place. I wonder why they are so difficult.

  Bagatelle finished cleaning up and set ou
t for the main dining hall. Upon arrival, he saw Jennie, Alicia and Liliana all half-finished with their meals. Summoning a servant, he was presented with a plate of duck eggs, chorizo sausage and hash brown potatoes. He pulled a bottle of hot sauce out of his pocket - something he brought along from Azul. Even though his culture customarily avoided spicy foods, he had come to enjoy some heat with his meals, being a fan of ancient Peruvian cuisine. Generously pouring the red sauce over his eggs and potatoes, he noticed Liliana watching him with a gaze of fascination.

  "Tío, why do you always put hot sauce on your food? Does your tongue not function correctly?"

  Bagatelle smirked and looked over at the ladies, both having expectant expressions on their faces. "Well, Lili, it's not that. I simply like my food to be more powerful."

  "Powerful? Oh, it gives you strength? I shall try it then!"

  "Lili! No!" yelped Jennie, but it was too late. The little girl had taken Bagatelle's bottle and dumped a massive splotch onto her potatoes and quickly ate them up. The ladies looked at her, only to see a delayed reaction. She sat there for a moment, wearing a pleasant grin, when suddenly her face turned beet red and she started gasping for air.

  "Ahhhhhhhhhh, shit!" howled Liliana, as she jumped up and ran to a different table, pulling a water mug out of a soldiers hand and downing it like a frat boy on pledge night.

  "Gahhhhhh! That does not give one strength! It is most vile!" she bellowed, before turning away from the table and vomiting her breakfast onto the open floor.

  "Oh baby, here, try this," said Jennie, quickly going to her daughter and giving her a mug of milk. "The alkali in the milk will neutralize the capsaicin. You need to ask before trying things, Lili."

  Liliana sipped the milk, which brought instant relief to her burning mouth and helped to settle her tiny stomach - for a moment.

  "Tío is truly a warrior. Anyone who can ingest that burning sauce is… is…"

  And up went the milk, layering over the same spot where her breakfast had gone. Jennie started to look worried, but Draagh fortunately entered the hall and immediately tended to his adopted great-granddaughter.

  "Liliana, my dear child, we must take care with what we put into our mouth. Now sip on this," he said as he handed her a small vial. Liliana drank the clear liquid without hesitation.

  "What was that, Pops?" asked Jennie.

  "I have a number of remedies readily available. Do you not remember my cure for the hangover you suffered when you first came to this world?"

  Jennie nodded her head, remembering the evening she had first experienced jealousy over Max. Alea, the former (and traitorous) lycan skills instructor had whispered something into his ear at dinner, causing him to blush. She had felt instantaneous rage, so instead of fighting with the woman, she jumped over to a table full of lycan soldiers. They then proceeded to do shots of the Rhönen's signature distilled beverage, unfiltered schnapps. She had experienced hangovers before, but never one of that magnitude. The following morning Max found her, nearly incapacitated in the hallway near her door, but instead of chiding her, he helped her up and kindly took her to his grandfather for a cure.

  "Yup, and I haven't tried schnapps since then. Nasty stuff."

  "Jennie, you don't like schnapps? It has a better taste than that horrible Fernet Branca you like to drink," said Alicia.

  "Yeah, well, I think I'll have a Fernet and Coke when we get back to Azul. Speaking of that, are we ready to go once G finishes his breakfast?"

  "I'm almost done, little sister."

  "Mami, I am so sorry for ingesting Tío's hot sauce. I feel much better now."

  "That’s okay, sweetie. Now you know not to put strange things on your food."

  Liliana nodded her head enthusiastically and took her seat next to her uncle, watching as some servants cleaned up her mess, covering their mouths and noses as they did so.

  "Sorry!" she yelped, sincerely feeling regret. She had come to have more respect for the castle servants, especially as she was fortunate enough to have been adopted by Max and Jennie. If not for them, servitude would have most probably been her career path within the confines of the Rhönen Dominion.

  "Jennie, just so you know, I have created a barrier around the moat and the feeding cages that will prohibit young Liliana from getting anywhere near the sharks. You may go to your world in peace," Draagh kindly informed his granddaughter-in-law.

  "Thanks, Pops. That's a real relief. I get so worried. I mean, if she's trying to chug hot sauce who knows what else she'd be willing to try?"

  Max entered the dining hall, mate gourd in hand and dressed in his standard blue camouflage naval field uniform, now sporting quadruple gold stripes on his shoulder, denoting his new rank of Captain.

  "Ooh, baby! Don't you look official now?" Jennie cooed.

  "It's just one more stripe, Love. No big deal," he responded as he sat down next to her. "Hey Lili! Good morning!"

  "Good morning, Papi. I tried Tío's hot sauce on my potatoes."

  "Oh, really? And did you like it?"

  "No. I blew chunks."

  The young lycan's colloquial response nearly caused Max to snort yerba mate out through his nose, but he maintained his composure, wanting to appear compassionate.

  "Hmm, well, that happened to me the first time I tried some too. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Anyway, I believe you classes, am I not correct?"

  "Yes, Papi. Are you and Mami and Tío and Tía going to Azul today?"

  "We are, sweetie. We'll see you tomorrow. While we're gone you are to go to classes and then directly to your abuelita," said Jennie. Clarisa was an excellent caretaker, and had been working at civilizing the young girl, with some success.

  "Of course!" Liliana jumped back up and kissed each of her relatives on the cheek before bounding off to her morning lessons.

  "Wow, what a handful. But I'm sure she's totally worth it," said Alicia. "I'd like to have a child one day, if I ever get married, that is." She gave Bagatelle a look with one eyebrow cocked up, as if expecting some form of a response. The Admiral merely grinned and went about finishing his meal.

  Chapter 28 - Portlandia

  The four Azul naval officers were seated at a round table in Admiral Luigi Bagatelle's office in New Sydney, going over a digital, tabletop map of Portlandia. It had numerous dots of light on it, denoting the locations of illegally inhabited warehouses, long ago abandoned. The city, despite its beauty and numerous salt-water ports, was an economic mess. It was the one place in all Azul System where fiscal irresponsibility was not only tolerated; it was actually encouraged. Johnson had taken a bad situation and made it worse, virtually drugging the population into submission. It was something that the new Azul government would have to address sooner rather than later.

  "So I think we should destroy this warehouse here. There is no one inside, but I can drop infoscreens into the populated ones and give them a show they'll never forget. That should cause them to vacate pretty quickly," said Max, pointing to one of the dots.

  "That was my idea, you know," added Jennie. "Actually, I wanted you to hit one with a few losers in it. Nothing like a bit of carnage to awaken the sensibilities."

  "Jen, I can understand your intentions, but we really can't go about wantonly slaughtering innocent civilians," said Bagatelle, who received an approving nod from his fiancé.

  "But what if they were gen-vamps? Or even activated ones? God help us if that clown we captured had turned anyone," responded Jennie.

  "We have ways of detecting them, Jen," said Max, adding a bit of finality to his tone.

  "Very well, then. How shall we get there? A shuttle or the Gunnarsson Express?" asked Bagatelle.

  ###

  Max slipped the group to the stairs leading up to City Hall in Portlandia. Garbage was gently blowing in the streets, and it was obvious the city had previously experienced a complete meltdown. There was no one walking on the streets, and bringing up an infoscreen, Max showed his group that most everyone was inside the
ir homes. Even City Hall was empty. Businesses were closed, which was unfortunate, as Portlandia wasn't an agrarian town - it was based on government-supported and sponsored commerce. That meant there was going to be a lot of hungry people. No open stores equaled no food. None.

  "Man, they sure screwed this place up," said Max. "It reminds me of Athens after the riots in the early 21st century."

  Graffiti was everywhere, on nearly every building. Phrases like Power to the People and Free Food is a Human Right were frequently used, along with archaic gang writings, nearly indecipherable to the officers.

  "Man, they just don't get it, do they?" asked Alicia.

  "This place? They want everything for free and to sit around making crap art while drinking coffee," Jennie responded.

  "I've seen some pretty good pieces of art from here before," said Max.

  "Yeah Max, but how many artists created those pieces? Two? Maybe three? Just because art is something anyone can do doesn't mean it's good. You have to provide a sellable and marketable product, not just piss in a jar with a crucifix in it and then demand 5,000 pesos,"

  Max was pleasantly surprised at his wife's response. She was a product of military life, and being such, had previously lacked market sensibilities or a grasp of commerce. Plus, he enjoyed her reference to a 20th century art display that had nearly half of the former U.S.A in an uproar.

  "Okay, team. Let's get moving. Max, we have troops coming in at 0900 hours. That's 15 minutes from now. We need to get everyone out of those warehouses right before they arrive," said Bagatelle.