Verron_Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Paul left the NASA people and went to the Command Center to put on his body armor. He wanted to see the dead ship orbiting Verron for himself. He soon exited the building and climbed into a nearby Fighter parked nearest his exit point from the Command Center. The young Lieutenant assigned to the aircraft was about to say something to the man climbing into his ship, when a senior officers placed his hand on his shoulder and informed him, “Better let him fly it, since he owns it.” The young Lieutenant then understood who the man was. When Paul broke through the outer atmosphere he could still see the remains of the debris trail orbiting Verron. There were a couple dozen ships cleaning up the mess and loading it into the back of a large freighter. The 15,000 foot long ship looked like a cigar that had been bent in three. The long sleek craft was warped and twisted from the intense heat it had been briefly exposed to. He realized that it would have been a beautiful ship; almost three miles long, at least a half mile wide and ten stories high. It had communications and weapons arrays all over the outer surface. There didn’t seem to be one piece of portal covering that wasn’t blown-out. Paul aimed for the dark open bay of the hangers and was greeted by several dozen ships already there conducting their inch by inch inspection of the huge craft.

  It looked like half the Marcus Verron Space Center staff was on board the big ship. For a bunch of aeronautical engineers from Earth, this was going to be something they would talk about for years. Marcus Verron knew that it was a real opportunity for them to study how the Qualoc built their ships. He wanted to know every detail of how they did it and anything that they may do better. There was a lot of ship to search through and evaluate and Marcus was leading the team himself. He had a dozen men in the reactor rooms, another dozen attempting to analyze their computers and retrieve any data they could find and dozens more studying the weapons onboard and last of all he had his design engineers looking to see how they had built such a magnificent ship. It was a treasure trove of information. Paul headed for the reactor room and was intercepted by Chase walking with a man about six foot four at his side. Chase quickly introduced Jon Morgensson. He immediately recognized the name from his meetings with Jill and the fact that Fay and Kay Morgensson was all Chase and Daniel ever talked about. Paul extended his hand to the design engineer, but directed his comment to Chase, “Well, I’d say your Two Tap Gut Bomb worked. I can’t wait to use it against the Volvs.” Jon knew he was not supposed to know who the Volvs were, but couldn’t resist saying, “Your nephew is quite a man. I believe this just might even the odds a bit against those monsters.” Neither Chase nor Paul knew that Jon was aware of the Volvs, but Paul replied, “Jill?” Jon shook his head and smiled, saying, “We have some very interesting pillow talk.” Chase now realized that it was all out in the open and asked, “The girls don’t know do they?” Jon assured him and Paul, “No way.”

  Chase quickly changed the subject, saying, “Hey, Jon and I found something very interesting in the middle of the ship. It appears to be a safe-room for their navigational system. I need to get my sabre and see if I can get in. It appears to be encased in some sort of foot thick alloy covered with six inches of heat resistant tiles. It’s probably designed to survive a reactor explosion or a heavily damaged ship. Even a wounded ship could make it home if the navigation system still worked.”

  Paul reached for his body armor utility belt and removed his sabre. Without a word the three men exited the hanger bay and worked their way down the dark corridors of the ship. It seemed like a much longer walk than it actually was. Along the way they passed men disassembling weapons and going through every locked door to see what was on the other side. When they finally arrived four floors above, the three entered a mezzanine, sitting high above the decks below. Paul looked up and could tell that the opening went from top to bottom of the ten story vessel. Carefully crossing the bent and twisted metal walkway they made their way to the place Chase had described. He explained, “There is an access door one floor below, but the stairs are too twisted to descend, we’ll have to climb down.” Paul was raring to go, but Jon looked a bit apprehensive. Paul reassured him, informing him, “Don’t worry. If you fall, all your body parts will be neatly contained inside the suit.” As his eyes got big, Chase told him, “Mr. Morgensson, my sister crashed into the side of a mountain at Mach 3 wearing one of the suits and walked away. A five story fall would be nothing.” Chase couldn’t resist getting a little jab in and added “Besides there’s all kinds of stuff you’ll crash into before you hit the bottom. That should slow you down a good bit.” Chase was smiling as he leaped over the edge and floated slowly down to the next level. Paul and Jon climbed over the edge of the warped railing and gradually made their way to the floor below.

  The handles of the heavy steel and ceramic door were distorted beyond use. Paul didn’t intend to use them anyway. He took his sabre and jabbed it through the edge of the thick door and slowly followed the line that indicated the doors seam. In a few minutes he had cut all the way through. He then used his telekinetic powers to lift the door from its warped frame and throw it over the mezzanine edge, almost floating to the floor below. Jon looked in wonder at his King and wondered if this young man dating his daughter could do the same. Everything inside the sealed protection of the room was in perfect operating condition. Paul immediately contacted Lucy and asked what he needed to do to allow her to access the ships computer. She replied, “The main power supply was destroyed by the thermal that detonated inside the ship. There should be an auxiliary power supply for emergencies. I would venture to say it is on one of the lower levels.”

  The three made their way through a tight spiral staircase that descended to the levels below. Three floors down Paul hit pay-dirt. Chase figured out how to operate the emergency power supply and it came to life. Everything in the center of the ship began to glow brightly and servo motors and circuit controls began to hum. Paul received word over his headset that all over the ship there were emergency lights and controls coming on. Apparently the ship was not completely dead, even though all but 104 of its passengers were. As Paul, Chase and Jon were making their way up the catwalks to return to the hanger bay, Chase got a call from one of the Marines escorting the scientists around the ship, saying, “Major Verron, Sir, you need to get to the reactor rooms. These things are coming back to life.” Jon had a hard time keeping up with the King and the Prince.

  Chapter 11

  Amber hated to return to the Academy with so much happening on Verron. She felt like she was abandoning her duty to leave everyone else to do her job. Paul reminded her that she had already done her job. She had commanded the Verron Air Force and Marine Corp in the successful defense against the first invasion of Verron airspace. Now it was his duty to make sure they learned everything they could about this enemy and their capabilities. He assured her that it could be done without her. Amber and Robert left together and escorted the Sullivan’s and the NASA people back to Earth using a gateway instead of a spaceship. Samantha and Robert had the pleasure of doing it before. The other six were speechless as they realized that they had just stepped from Verron to Cape Canaveral, thousands of light years apart, instantly. Samantha gave Amber and her young man a hug goodbye and they disappeared. As Samantha turned to see the expression on the six astronaut’s faces, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “Believe it or not, you almost get used to it, but you’ll never understand it or believe it.” The seven headed for the Operations Managers Office to brief him on the soon to arrive Space Shuttle.

  Robert and Amber kissed each other goodbye at her front door and Amber entered her apartment smiling as Robert told her how much he loved her and would have been devastated if anything had happened to her while she sped off to fight the invaders. Amber took a shower and quickly read the Astrophysics book for her class the next day. She fell asleep without even thinking about the fact that she had just been in a battle with a few hundred Birds of Prey and witnessed the destruction of thousands of lives. All she could think about was how mu
ch she loved Robert and anxiously anticipated every moment they had together. She got back to her routine first thing in the morning. She had established a schedule of rising early and making a gateway to Verron for her morning freestyle run, often accompanied by one of the Dragon Guard. This was not one of those mornings. It was 31:45 on Verron and everyone was sound asleep. She made her run through the mountains under the light of Verron’s second sun. It cast dark shadows under the high mountains, but she had grown accustomed to it over the years. She got back home and drove her Porsche to school. Her new workout partner was always there waiting for her at the staff gym. Andre had become a good friend and a good workout partner. They didn’t usually talk much during workouts but what conversation they did have was usually interesting. Andre greeted her with, “Good morning sunshine. What did you do during your short summer break?” Amber smiled, and told him, “I can tell you did something interesting or you wouldn’t have asked. So you tell me first, what did you do?”

  The big man smiled and told her, “A friend of mine is into professional wrestling. One of his masked men called the Black Assassin was injured in a motorcycle crash. He needed a substitute for the evening and paid me $5,000 for one evenings work. You may think all us black men look alike. Well, when you’re wearing a mask it’s pretty much true. We weren’t scheduled to win, only give the audience a good show. It was the most fun I’ve ever had making money, except for when I was thrown out of the ring by one of the good guys and an old lady hit me with a folding chair.” Amber was laughing hysterically at his animation during his tale. Both were still laughing about how he took the chair from the little 70 year-old woman and bent it in half, then handed the weapon back to the woman, as they started warming-up on bench-press.

  They were finished with flat bench and preparing for inclines when Andre said, “You never did tell me what you did. Is it too intimate to talk about?” He raised his eyebrows like a lecherous old man. Amber informed him, “It was nothing like that. It’s just a bit more than you can probably deal with.” Andre puffed out his chest and told her, “You might be surprised just what I can deal with.” Amber knew Andre was the best friend she had on campus besides Robert and decided, what the heck, saying, “Well, I fought in an outer orbit dogfight with a few hundred alien Birds of Prey and destroyed a 15,000 foot long spaceship. Well, actually I was busy shooting down enemy Fighters, Chase and Robert killed the big ship.” Andre looked at her and smiled, “Yeah, right. If you don’t want to tell me your business just say so, you don’t have to treat me like a mushroom.” Amber had heard the mushroom expression about keeping someone in the dark and feeding them something very disgusting. She reached into her gym bag and pulled out her communications device. Laid it on the gym floor and said, “Lucy, video of the Qualoc invasion please, beginning with the attack on Tala.”

  Andre sat spellbound for the next half hour as he watched missiles being launched and ships bursting into flames, bodies being blown out of orifices too small for an entire body to fit through and a monster of a spaceship turn glowing red and warp like a tin can.” When the video finished, Andre looked at her and asked, “That wasn’t Hollywood special effects; that was the real-deal wasn’t it?” Amber told him yes. He continued, “You do this sort of thing often, do you?” Amber smiled and answered, “A lot more often than I would like too, but there are a lot of people out there in the Universe that are not overly friendly. My grandfather and his military stand against them whenever possible. It happens a lot more often than you’d like to know about. One day I will be commanding that Verron Air Force. That’s why I’m here, to learn as much as I can.” Andre gave her a squeeze on the shoulder and said, “Looks to me like we should be learning from you. Thanks for sharing that with me. Now I understand you and this Grandfather of yours a little better. Tell him I said thanks for what he does, but I can’t believe you would go to so much effort to one-up me.” They both laughed as they resumed their workout.

  That evening Robert didn’t call or show-up at her apartment like he usually did. About 8:00 PM an assistant from Robert’s office knocked on her door. She greeted him expecting that something bad had happened to Robert. The young Lieutenant handed her a letter he had received over a secure fax line. He made a point of telling her, “Colonel Lawson is fine, don’t worry. He asked me to bring this to you so you wouldn’t worry about him.” She closed the door and slumped onto the sofa. Robert never sent letters. He was more of an up-close-and-personal kind of guy. She tore it open and began to read, “Dear Amber, I was ordered to Washington early this morning and flew out immediately. Admiral Sullivan is here with me and all the NASA people as well. Needless to say we are doing a very involved debriefing on everything that happened. King Verron gave me a flash-drive with the whole thing on it. We’ve watched it till I have it memorized. They really liked the rear-firing missiles and the plasma mines and are envious of the ships and firepower at your disposal. I know that it comes as no surprise to you that I had to come to the Pentagon right away. However, this next part of my letter came as a total surprise to me and no doubt will be a shock to you as well. I got promoted today to Brigadier General; that’s the good news. The other half of the news is not so good. I have been reassigned effective immediately. My new assignment is classified so secret that only General Dorsey and the Chiefs of Staff will discuss it in front of me. I am ordered to be at my new assignment first thing tomorrow morning. Lieutenant Lewis is packing my things and they will be picked-up by a Department of Defense Courier classified to move Top Secret information. I cannot contact you until after I have been thoroughly debriefed at my new assignment and understand the security details of the new position. I know by now you are probably crying. I wanted to myself, but it might not look good in front of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs. Please don’t worry. I will be able to explain everything in a week or two. Then you will completely understand what is going on. I love you and want you to be my wife. Don’t ever think I’ve deserted you. Ain’t gonna happen, no how – no way!!! Love Forever, Bobby” Amber grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. She picked-up the letter and ignored all of it but one line, “I love you and want you to be my wife.” She held the letter to her chest and cried a happy cry this time and wondered what her Bobby was doing and where he was.

  A week had passed and Amber was changing her schedule to fill the big empty space in her life with her evenings now free. She decided to go play tennis with some of Robert’s friends and surprised the men on the Air Force Tennis Team with her aggressive style of play. She didn’t play like a typical female player. Her serves were far more powerful and her strokes were strong and precise. What got to them the most was the way the girl would charge the net and drive a shot right down the alley or directly between her opponent’s feet. The ball went exactly where she wanted it to go and nothing got by her. It was pretty obvious she was taking out her pent-up frustration on the tennis team. Their egos soon shattered and they began to avoid her requests to play. She then decided to go to the athletic center and work on the heavy bag, speed bag and some of the gymnastic apparatus’ located there. It was her third time to the gym in as many days and people were beginning to notice the absence of Colonel Lawson. When asked, she simply informed them he had been promoted to Brigadier and reassigned along with the promotion. She was getting tired of people commenting, “Well, I guess the Air Force can’t have a general babysitting a cadet even if she is a Princess.” Amber would just smile and pretend she agreed, but wanted to choke the ones who said it. She usually ate lunch with Andre and supper consisted of the other half of whatever she didn’t eat the night before, mostly take-out Chinese or Pizza.

  Amber had just finished her fourth nigh in a row with a good heavy-bag workout and was feeling a lot of tension released. She was toweling off when a couple of the men attending the mixed martial arts class, being conducted in the same area as the bags, approached her saying, “You look pretty good on those bags. But it’s a different story when there is
someone fighting back instead of holding still for you to hit them.” Amber really wanted to ignore the two clowns and go home, but they then stood in her way and insisted, “Why don’t you come over to the mat and let’s see how you do against someone who knows what they’re doing.” Amber looked over at the dozen male and female cadets being instructed by these two standing in front of her. Every eye was on her and their ears were listening to their instructors challenge. Amber once again tried to placate these two and allow them a way out with their masculinity intact. She once again, spoke, saying, “I’m sure you will find the style of martial arts I’ve studied and the one your teaching will not be very compatible. You two are no doubt very capable of teaching and performing your style very well, maybe some other time.” She began to walk forward hoping the two would move aside and offer no resistance. They did not budge. Instead the other one who had up till now been silent, boldly spoke loud enough for his admiring students to hear, “I believe the Princess is afraid she may get hurt if what she fights fights back.”