THE VROL TRILOGY (110 page)

Michael brought up an infoscreen and started
to tap some data into it, hacking into Len Johnson's personal
console, executing a subroutine in the back end of the operating
system. This subroutine created a direct wireless link between a
particular directory on the personal console and the massive vid
displays. As imagery started to appear, the lower-right corner of
each display showed details on the o6ner of the data.

Leonard Johnson: SN 15536664364

Directory: Children's Relief Fund

Content: Hot Chicks on Luna

Asian Girls on Fire

Dega Sorority Party

Vera Conference (personal)

Michael had basically exposed Len Johnson as
a pervert by playing out the chairman's risqué video collection on
public vid displays. People looked up unbelievably, mothers
screamed and covered their young children's eyes, college boys
clapped and pointed (especially at the Dega Sorority Party
vid).

The capper of the entire show was
Johnson's Vera Conference vid, where the
Chairman
, dressed only in undershorts, did
the
party boy
dance while
sandwiched in-between two women who looked very much like
dominatrix prostitutes.

Gabriel burst out laughing, causing a passing
young woman to jump, not having seen where the sound had come from.
Then, just for effect, Michael made the fountain in the center of
the plaza explode and shoot water in all directions, which, of
course, caused people to run screaming, and for little drones to
come out of hidey holes and start to clean up pieces of concrete.
He was dancing like a hippy as water shot out in massive streams.
Gabriel kicked a drone like a football, making it fly across the
plaza, as they both looked up to see Len Johnson standing with his
hands up against his large picture window, a combined look of
terror and rage on his ugly, pale face. Something was happening to
him and he knew it was anything but normal.

"
Michael, you
dance like a girl. Now let's go
!" teased the younger
of the brothers. They both regenerated their wings and shot off
into the sky, the concrete beneath their feet collapsing into
three-meter-wide indentations from the pressure of their concussive
ascent.

The brothers ported to the massive slip
chamber they had created in their base on Vera, as they needed to
use 4d coordinates (their previous location having been on a
different celestial body), and immediately made for the commissary.
Krynos had already assigned a rotating kitchen staff to serve the
needs of the few who worked there, so the brothers replenished
their resources and sat back laughing out loud. Then, without
having expected it, Jessica showed up with Pandy.

"My dear girl, how long have you been here
for?" asked Gabriel.

"Oh, we just arrived. How about you two?"
said Jessica.

"Same. Oh, hi Pandy! Welcome to Vera. Um,
have you been here before?" asked Michael.

"Hello Michael. No, it's my first time."

"Who brought you over? Draagh or Max?"

"Neither. Krynos showed us a private doorway.
He opened it and we walked through," said Jessica.

"Ah yes, his study is connected to the Hub,
and Father made a door to here. Quite ingenious, even for Father,
would you not say, Michael?"

"Absolutely. Oh, here comes food. Are you
girls hungry?"

The two lycan ladies nodded their heads and
took seats at the table. Pandy had spent the entire day learning
about her new skills and training up a bit with a katana, the
favored weapon of the Rhönen Dominion.

"So, what didja do today, boys?" asked
Pandy.

"We spied on the leader of Max's world," said
Gabriel.

"Woah! Like THE leader? That super bad guy?"
exclaimed Jessica.

"The very one, my dear girl. In fact, my
brother was mischievous enough to hack the chairman's personal
communications device and then display his entertainment vids on
large outdoor screens."

"Entertainment? What kind? Was it a live
band?" asked Pandy excitedly.

"No, it was entertainment of a… disrobed
nature. It appears that old Chairman Johnson has a penchant for
college girls and dominatrix prostitutes," said Michael.

"Ewwwwwww!!" the girls comically cried out in
unison.

"Exactly, ladies, exactly. Although I do
believe that Max, Jennie and Bagatelle shall find great humor in my
brother's machinations."

"Well then, let's tell them all about it!"
Pandy cried out, excited to try and use her new comm device.

"Well, it is after dinner, and I am sure that
Bagatelle is meditating, as I am told he does at this hour, and
that Max and Jennie are with Liliana as she does her homework,"
said Michael.

The four had plates of food set before them,
with coarse bread pieces and chunks of butter on plates in the
middle of the table. Then they got to try what they liked most -
honey mead. Pandy had yet to taste it, and Jessica didn't imbibe,
so there was plenty for the three. Jessica usually either drank
water or milk, but Gabriel had conjured non-alcoholic ginger beer
for her on more than one occasion.

Archangels generally found it difficult to
become inebriated. However, if they concentrated they could reduce
the effects of the alcohol-nullifying salubots coursing through
their systems, making themselves light-headed. This time they had
no such desire, and merely went about eating their meal, after
which they would return back to Krynos' castle and get a welcomed
night's rest.

The following morning Draagh, Michael,
Bagatelle, Gabriel, Jessica, Pandy, Max and Jennie gathered at
their favorite table in the main dining hall. In fact, no one ever
tried to sit at that table - ever. It was as if the table was only
for Max's family.

"So Johnson was actually having textual
communications with what you believe is the Vrol leadership?" asked
Max, his curiosity piqued.

"Yes, my son. But from what I am to
understand from Father's investigations, there is no Vrol
leadership. He was communicating with all Vrol, more or less, as
they are a hive mind."

"And you took his smut vids and posted them
up on the main displays in the plaza de armas? Seriously?"

"Seriously," Michael responded with a smile,
and causing everyone to burst out laughing.

"Oh, I wish I could have seen that!"
exclaimed Jennie.

"But you can, Jennie!" said Michael, as he
conjured a massive vid display, showing a recording of the chaos in
New Sydney.

Numerous soldiers in Krynos' forces piled
into the dining hall, and the castle was filled with boisterous
laughter. Two-dozen soldiers volunteered to defend Azul after
seeing the recording of Michael and Gabriel picking Johnson's nose
and stealing his Scotch, and another dozen signed up after seeing
Johnson's vids, each claiming he would personally hunt the dictator
down and take possession of his personal console.

After the revelry had ended, the team got
down to some serious conversation. Mainly, they needed to figure
out how deeply embedded Johnson was in the whole New Exodus effort,
and how to unravel all of the damage he had done. Max figured that
if they could peacefully unseat Johnson and get the Constitution
reinstated, then the military would maintain its integrity and be
able to fend of the Vrol. However, if a war broke out it, could
prove to create factions on Azul and the moons, which could be
devastating, as a 100% cooperation would be necessary in order to
defeat the oncoming alien armada. Their worlds had always been
deeply connected through a federation, so a fracturing of Azul
System society would most likely prove fatal.

Alicia Vasquez arrived, albeit with
Michael's quick help, to provide recon on the barges. She reported
that Johnson was not only keeping families on the ships, but he had
scientists create a totally new control lock mechanism, called
a
genelock
, which required a
particular person's DNA in order to operate the barges in side
space. And in this case it was Johnson's DNA, and not just any - it
had to be live DNA - nothing frozen, or merely fresh.

"Then why do we not simply eliminate the
dictator and solve the whole problem? Those ships were not meant to
fly again anyway," said Gabriel.

"I wish it were that easy, sir," responded
Vasquez. "You see, ALL hook drives and their accompanying
subsystems have been redeveloped to require the genelock. That
includes the Revolution and other ships that had been previously
retrofitted."

"What a bastard. I mean, I was a rear
admiral, but never a control freak on that level," said
Bagatelle.

"So you are saying that if we kill Johnson,
then the entire fleet will be helpless?" asked Jennie.

"I'm afraid so, Lieutenant. At least for a
while."

"I'm going to Luna for some recon. I want to
see what the scientists are up to and how to reverse what they've
done. We've got four years, after all," said Max.

"You shall need an escort, son. Remember,
Johnson already suspects that you are alive, or at the very least a
spirit capable of doing damage," cautioned Michael.

"A spirit? Like a ghost? Are there really
ghosts?"

"No," said Gabriel, prompting him to laugh,
along with Michael and Draagh.

"Well, my boy, sometimes, yes, sometimes,
there is a rift between dimensions, and certain sensitive
individuals are able to detect a presence on the other side, but
that has historically ended up in a permanent psychosis for the
poor soul. On ancient Earth, people such as psychics, palm readers,
and those who claimed they could communicate with the dead were
simply liars. Nothing more. Nothing more at all," added Draagh.

"So, in all your life, has a human ever,
like, seen you when you were not meant to be seen?" Jennie asked
Michael.

"Oh sure! It's happened a lot. It would
usually happen with someone who had recessive mage genes, but a
girl with lycan recessive genes once smelled me. In fact, I had to
keep an eye out on her for a while. Her genome had mutated
throughout her family's lineage and she was near activation."

"Activation, as in becoming a lycan?" asked
Bagatelle.

"Yes, well, at least a mild one, like Pandy
and Jessica were before coming here. I am aware of that which my
brother speaks - enhanced strength, senses, and feeling a mild
euphoria during the full moon. It was nature's way of getting back
to where it originally was. Roughly the same thing happened on
Jessica and Pandy's world. In fact, that is why the Vrol did not
murder their planet - humanity was basically saved by health
particles that counteracted the Vrol amoebic infection. They had
tried experimental patches and had found that the amoebas were
destroyed upon entering Earth's atmosphere. So the insects merely
abandoned the planet, stranding many of their own kind, who then
hunted humans for sport," Gabriel explained.

"And how do you know this?" asked
Jessica.

"I have done some… deep research, as your
world interests me."

"And… why… does it interest you, Gabe?"

"I was promised a world as payment for
assisting in this mission. I believe that you world is the one I
would like. Think about it, Jessica. We could repair a world
together. The things we could do, my dear friend. We could wipe out
that Vrol infestation, and then reinstitute civilization in pockets
and watch as man rebuilds his world, with our gentle prodding of
course - "

"No, Gabe. Not at all. I could never - "

"What? I thought you would…?"

"Why not choose a new world, one where life
needs to be brought to sentience? Not a wrecked planet to rule
over. I could never be part of lording over the world of my birth.
I'm sorry, sweetie."

Everyone else sat stunned, watching as
Jessica turned down the chance to be a goddess-like sovereign of an
entire world. Luckily, Draagh interrupted the conversation string
and moved the agenda forward.

"So, my son. We can discuss your world later
on. Right now we need to concentrate on the here and the now. Max,
you would like to perform some recon on Luna and see what your
peers are doing. I am fine with that, but I would ask that you take
your father with you. You have already been detected, in a manner
of speaking, and it would be wise to have someone of Michael's vast
experience at your side. Would you not agree?"

"Yeah, Pops. I agree. Michael, would you
accompany me to Luna? I could use the help."

"Certainly, my boy. I believe this shall be
our first trip together," responded Max's estranged father.

"Don't go getting all emo on me now, Mikey.
I'm not about to go on moonlit walks with you, and complain about
how I didn't get a date to the prom quite yet, ok?"

Jennie snickered at her husband's sarcasm. It
was well timed, but she was comforted by the fact that his powerful
father would accompany him. Michael, on the other hand, looked at
Max as if he was being a petulant child, but quickly put it in the
back of his mind.

"Max, sweetie, I'll take care of Mom and
Janice today, so don't worry about that stuff," said his lovely
wife.

"And I shall continue over on Vera, alone if
need be," added Bagatelle.

"No, Luigi, we shall go over together. There
is much to be done. Jessica, please continue to assist Pandy with
her training. Speaking of that, you both shall experience your
first change next week, as the moon waxes, approaching its full
phase," said Draagh.

The two nodded enthusiastically, with Pandy
asking, "Jennie, when do you think Liliana will start changing on
the full moon?"

Jennie gave her a forlorn look and said, "I'm
certainly not looking forward to it."