THE VROL TRILOGY (102 page)

Moments later the group of six were crossing
the drawbridge and entering the courtyard area. Citizens called out
Krynos' name and bowed, which was commonplace. The group split off,
with Bagatelle going to shower, Gabriel and Jessica going off to do
whatever they did when they disappeared (many had suspicions, but
no one truly knew), Michael going to Max and Jennie's chambers, and
Krynos of course going to his throne room to check messages.

Michael lightly knocked on the massive wooden
door, which was quickly opened by Liliana.

"Hello, Abuelito! Please come in. Papi is
about to awaken Abuelita."

"Thank you, Liliana," he said as he entered
and went directly to the side room where everyone was.

"How does Clarisa fare, my son?" asked
Michael.

Max still wasn't used to Michael
calling him
son
, and probably
wasn't going to start calling him
Father
or
Dad
anytime soon, but he took things a day at a time.

"She's fine. She'll be awake any minute
now."

The group sat around the large, wood-framed
bed and watched as Max's mother awoke from her sedated condition.
Groggily, she lifted up her head and looked at her son, and then at
Janice, who were the closest to her.

"Hiya, Jan. Max… where are we?" she asked
tiredly.

"Mom, just relax. Shhh. Remember how
you met my wife and daughter, and then we got you out of the prison
apartment? We're where
I
live
now. You're perfectly safe here, ok? Just remain calm."

Clarisa looked over and saw Jennie and
Liliana off to the other side of the bed and she waved weakly to
them.

"Oh hello, sweetie. What is your name? I'm
sorry - Liliana?"

"Yes, that is quite correct, Abuelita,"
responded the young girl politely.

Clarisa got a big smile on her face and
seemed to relax back into her massive pillow, but then saw Michael
standing in the entrance to the room. According to him, she wasn't
supposed to remember a thing about their relationship, but he was
wrong, and it was all about the salubots now coursing through her
system.

"You…you! How could… who are you? I remember
your face. I remember your smell. You left me with a… child," she
said with confusion in her voice.

Michael was shocked and backed away slightly
as Max detected a potential issue.

"
Michael, do
not move. She is regenerating. Her brain engrams are being
reactivated; overriding whatever it was you did to make her forget.
Come here and be kind. There is no avoiding this
," Max
said to his father, not over the comm, but directly via their
genetic mental connection.

Michael walked over with a calm smile on his
face and sat next to the bed. The last time he had seen Clarisa
Gunnarsson, she was called Clarisa Martinez, and she was extremely
beautiful - near on par with Jennie. Now, although she was slowly
being restored, she was much older looking than anyone in the
entire kingdom. Nevertheless, she was an immensely attractive
woman, even in her advanced years as a normal.

"Yes, hello Clarisa. You know me? I am
Michael - Mija-El. Tell me what you remember, please."

His voice was soft and calm, and there was no
distress in it at all. He was easing her back slowly. Restoring
memories was one thing and could be controlled, but hers were being
restored in an uncontrolled fashion, naturally, which one could
have considered being preferable anyway.

"Yes, Michael. Why did you leave? We were -
together. I remember. We were in love, and you left. You made me
forget, but somehow I know you did that. Why did you leave?"

"I am truly sorry, but it was forbidden for
me to have a relationship with a…" Michael started, but saw Max
with a panicked look on his face. "I was recalled to where I worked
and it would not have been comfortable for you. I did the only
thing I could - I found you a wonderful man, and you both raised
Max to be an amazing person."

Clarisa looked over at Max and smiled saying,
"Yes, he is wonderful. He is strong and he is… just a minute. Where
are we? And don't you start with any tall tales now, Maximilianus
Xavier Gunnarsson! I want the full story," she demanded, having
fully regained her senses.

So Max carefully told his mother everything
up to that point. There were a lot of bases to cover, and he made
his best effort to ease her into each and every concept; how she
was a lycan and was currently healing and actually becoming younger
in appearance and health. The best part, however, was when Max
exposed his wings to her and then Michael did the same.

"I always knew you were my little angel,
Max," she murmured. And then looking at Michael said, "I must look
hideous to you, all old and wrinkly," which caused Michael to drop
down onto a knee by her bed and take her hand into his.

"No, not in the slightest. It is the soul
that is essence of one's beauty. And your soul shines like the twin
stars in Azul's system," he kindly said, as he gazed into her still
beautifully-piercing green eyes.

Max sat back and rolled his eyes, making sure
neither of his parents saw. Then, the second-best part of the
reunion happened:

"Abuelita - would you like to see a
demonstration of my magical skills?" asked Liliana with a voice of
pure innocence, as her mother started to say, "Oh my god, Lili,
no-"

The little girl released a feral castle cat
in the room and started to pelt it with unspoken electrocution
cantuses. The cat screamed with shrill howls as it flew out into
the main room of the chambers, scrambling up the curtains. Michael
was about to berate his granddaughter until he saw that Clarisa was
clapping her hands in delight.

"Oh yeah Michael. I didn't tell you. Mom
doesn't care much for cats. She's lycan, remember?" said Max, as he
laughed and flicked the cat out of the room with a gesture, and
watched Jennie scoop Liliana up in her arms.

"I guess I can get used to the cats, and the
sharks… and the occasional, horrifically burned castle staffer,"
said Michael.

"Yup, she's a love. Gotta admit it," added
Janice.

Chapter 28 - Mr. Chairman

"Sir, you asked to be notified immediately in
the case of anything that seems odd, or… supernatural," said Coby
Worthington, Chairman Len Johnson's Chief of Staff. There was a bit
of a tremble in his voice, as there usually was with anyone who had
to deal directly with Johnson.

"Yes, what is it? What do you have to
report?" demanded Johnson as he sat in his plush, leather office
chair, while looking out the window over the central plaza in New
Sydney.

"There were two incidents, apparently
related. An individual under surveillance, and another in
our
guest
apartments are now
both missing."

"How does that make them related incidents?"
he inquired, as he spun around in his chair to face his
employee.

"They are the mother of Commander Gunnarsson,
and their house servant - both women are now missing, and there
appears to have been some scrambling of the surveillance vids."

Worthington definitely had Johnson's
attention, as the newly-minted dictator gave him a direct glare
that caused the subordinate's blood to freeze.

"Let me get this right. Both the mother and
the servant of Commander Gunnarsson are missing, having somehow
escaped. Surveillance has been compromised. And this happened
when?"

"Two days ago, sir."

"Were there any witnesses to anything at
all?"

"Yes sir. We have been interrogating the
military team that was sent to question Janice Wong, the
Gunnarsson's housekeeper. Apparently, she was inside her home, and
then exited from a shed out on the property with no vid to show her
having gone there in the first place. It was like she simply
appeared in another location. Once this had been determined, the
team was sent out, but they all claim they were questioning her in
the living room, and then they woke up on the ground and she was
already gone. Every soldier and the commanding officer recounted
the same exact tale. Unfortunately, two of the soldiers we were
questioning did not survive our techniques."

Len Johnson didn't really care that the women
had escaped, except for the possibility that it was Commander
Gunnarsson who had assisted them. There was no proof that he had
even survived his attempted trip to Old-Earth, but in the case that
the young scientific commander was indeed alive, Johnson wanted him
- for a number of reasons. First, to force him to replicate the
SSCC hook drive technology he had invented, and second to find if
he had seen Johnson's son, Ryder, on Old-Earth. Then he wanted to
kill Gunnarsson. Johnson subscribed to more of a Mao Tse Tung-type
of political philosophy; confiscate, control and then kill the
experts, while keeping all of the knowledge and riches. The other
thing that came to mind was that Rear Admiral Bagatelle also
disappeared a few weeks prior, and it seemed a bit suspicious that
people, who were connected - no matter how remotely, would simply
be poofing into nothingness.

"Coby, I want our best vid experts to form a
team. Bring the surveillance vids from Luigi Bagatelle's quarters,
from Commander Gunnarson's home and from his mother's detention
apartment. I want every bit of data scraped. Go deep; try to see if
anything had been overwritten. This is too much of a coincidence.
We cannot have anything disrupting the celebrations we are soon to
have, welcoming the Artusians. This is an important moment in human
history and I won't have it ruined."

Johnson waved Worthington off with his hand
and spun back around on his chair. Once he heard the door shut, he
turned back around and pulled out his private phone. Putting the
small device in his ear he said, "Operation Outback."

"Yes sir, how can I help you?" answered the
voice on the other end of the transmission.

"I need SSCC status reports sent to my
personal console," he demanded.

"Of course, sir," said the voice. "But I can
tell you that we are still at least two years out from a complete
retrofit. There is too much to complete while working in
clandestine fashion. If we could simply be open with our tasks and
material manifests it could help to massively decrease the
estimated time of completion."

"I am attempting to circumvent the
Senate in order to make that happen, but until then you
must
ramp up production. I cannot
stress how critical this is. I also need a report on the gene-lock
that is in development. It is for the safety of all
involved."

Johnson was a dictator, but he still had to
deal with certain elements of the government, including the
bicameral legislature. And even though he had forged some alliances
in the military, for the most part Naval leadership didn't trust
him. The gene-lock was simply another one of his personal safety
guarantees. The retrofitted hook drives would not activate without
his personal living presence on the Capital Barge.

"Very well, sir. We'll do what we can to
increase productivity. While we are speaking, I still haven't
received my guarantee notification that my family will be included
in the New Exodus. Should I be expecting that soon?"

"Yes, yes, of course. I shall personally make
sure of it. I'll expect the status report on my personal console
before day's end," Johnson said tersely, before hanging up without
even bidding a good day to the other end of the call. He then
pulled out his other ear piece, using it to call in the captain of
his security detail.

"Chairman - here as you requested," said the
large, muscular man of Old-Earth African extraction, dressed in a
black business suit, as he entered into Johnson's office roughly
thirty seconds after the call had been made for his presence.

"Yes, I need for you to take care of
something," said Johnson, looking as though he had something on his
mind. Jotting some information down on a piece of paper, he handed
it to the captain.

"Tonight."

"Even the children?"

"All of them."

"Very well, sir. As you command," said
the security officer as he departed the
chairman's
office.

Johnson turned to a framed photo on his
desk. It was an image of he and his son, Ryder, who was still
listed as missing in action on Old-Earth. After all those months he
still held out hope that his boy would make it back home. Mere
seconds later his personal console made a beeping sound, indicating
a data feed. It was the SSCC status report from the call he had
made earlier Scanning over the report he saw that fleet completion
would be perilously close to the
visitors'
arrival, and if previous
communications with the Vrol had done anything, it had proved that
they had absolutely no morals, patience nor a desire to wait until
his New Exodus was ready and had departed. They would arrive and
simply bring death for Azul, Luna, Sienna and Vera.

I do dislike deleting good servants, but he
should have learned - never ask for anything.

###

Outside, approximately a half kilometer
from the Chairman's offices, Lt. Commander Alicia Vasquez sat alone
in a café near the central plaza in New Sydney, sipping her
cappuccino as she watched hundreds of people walk by, all going
about their daily activities. She was running the razor's edge,
maintaining an underground network of military operatives who were
completely against the unconstitutional activities of Len Johnson
(and his
manada de boludos
,
as she called them), while performing her required military duties
at the same time. Dipping a biscotti into her hot, caramel-colored
beverage, she scarcely noticed as three individuals suddenly
appeared in the empty chairs at her table. Then, nearly gasping,
she was stopped, as Luigi Bagatelle put his hand over her mouth and
a finger to his pursed lips.