THE VROL TRILOGY (127 page)

She didn't look back as she passed the
training soldiers, but if she did she would have seen nearly the
entire contingent staring as she sauntered off. Clarisa's
regenerated beauty rivaled that of her daughter-in-law, Jennie, and
the younger of the two knew it. However, Jennie didn't see it as a
form of competition - rather, she viewed it as a camaraderie
between the two. They were the
hot
chicks
wherever they went, and Jennie enjoyed frequent
lunch dates with her
suegra
.
They would discuss makeup and beauty tips, and the civilization
process of Liliana, as well as crushing the dreams of approaching
men while they flashed their wedding rings (Jennie wore Clarisa's
ring, while the latter had somehow acquired a new one, Jennie
believing it to be from Michael).

Heading over to the mess hall, she met up
with her longtime assistant (and now best friend) Janice Wong.
Janice, who had been Max's nanny during his youth, was a wily and
smart woman of Asiatic ancestry - Chinese, to be precise, but more
recently, her last ancestors on Old-Earth came from Peru, so the
two women had South American blood as a bond, even though they were
of different heritages in a manner of speaking (Clarisa was of
Argentine extraction).

"Good afternoon, dear. What are we having for
lunch?" asked Clarisa, as she casually took a seat next to her
friend.

"Hi Clari - ham sandwiches, if you can
believe. I almost feel like taking the slip back to the castle and
having whatever it is they're eating over there."

"Well, why don't we ask?"

"
Max, Max, are
you there, sweetie?
"

"
Oh, hi Mama,
what's up?
"

"
The usual
sweetie. It seems the lunch selection here is rather… light. What
are they serving in the castle today?
"

"
Choripan! And
it's off the charts!
"

"
Excellent,
then Janice and I will be right
… oh my. Max, it is so
disconcerting when you do that!"

Max had quickly slipped over and spirited his
mother and former nanny to the main dining hall in Krynos' castle
before Clarisa could even finish her sentence, causing everyone
seated to snicker.

"Hi Abuelita! Please sit with me so I can
tell you of my lessons while we enjoy our lunch!" pleaded the young
lycan girl.

After giving everyone a kiss on the cheek (a
customary dego greeting), Clarisa sat down next to her beloved
granddaughter and listened to the little girl ramble on about
computers and Kyle, and then a bit more about Kyle, followed by
some more Kyle and how good he was on computers. Jennie had to keep
her head turned to keep Liliana from seeing she was about to burst
out laughing, and when she almost did Max grabbed her and pressed
his lips up against hers, giving her a long, sensuous kiss - not
quite appropriate at the dinner table, but well-timed in any case.
Melting a bit at her husband's touch, it was enough to calm her
down so she could prompt Liliana to finish her meal.

Janice merely sat, eating her sandwich while
she watched everyone as if she were analyzing them, which was what
she was usually doing anyway. She had a rather dry personality, but
to know her was to love her, and it was a sure thing she was
bellowing with laughter inside.

"Janice," began Clarisa, in an attempt to
steer conversation away from Kyle, computers and more Kyle, "how is
your training with Ohiro coming along?"

"Oh you know, the usual - a bit of this, and
a bit of that. Well, we have actually been studying hiragana script
lately. It is quite different from the Chinese script I was forced
to learn as a child. When properly written out it is quite
beautiful."

Max nodded his head in agreement. He had
always maintained a fondness for the extinct Japanese culture, and
thought it was great that at least someone was perpetuating its
memory in a small manner.

"Mrs. Wong, you know, when we get all of this
mess taken care of I think it would be great if you could maybe get
Ohiro to assist in teaching Japanese culture - the language and
history - at the university. It is definitely a rich part of our
heritage as humans," said Max.

"Oh I don't know, sweetie. I would love to,
but I am certainly not all that qualified to teach alone, and I
have no idea if Ohiro would want to leave his home in the Dominion
for something as silly as being a teacher in a university. And Max,
my name is Janice. Not Mrs. Wong. You're making me feel older than
I look now, young man."

Max blushed slightly, having always known
then woman as his nanny, housekeeper, and simply as Mrs. Wong. But
he was adjusting bit by bit. Then, the hybrid lycan/Primulus leader
came up with a great idea.

"Hey, I just thought of something. I'm going
to check out the Japanese Islands. How's that for an afternoon
project?"

"That sounds quite cool, Papi," said Liliana,
"and I would accompany you on such an important mission but I must
return to my computer classes. I am sure Kyle is waiting for
me."

Max stood up, and swooping his wife up in his
arms, said, "Hold the fort while I'm gone, love. I have an idea,
and if I'm right, we could have a whole slew of awesome ground
forces at our command."

Max waved goodbye to everyone and went to the
Quartermaster's chambers, where he intended on having a discussion
with Ohiro.

Chapter
5 - Frozen

"So, Mr. Draagh, you're going to make it so
our wristbands work on Azul too? That's going to be so helpful,"
exclaimed Pandy, as she sat on the ancient Primulus' massive oak
table, her legs swinging back and forth.

"Pandy and I have always worked as a team,
assisting Dons whenever there were fights, so we're kinda out of
our element a bit here, if you know what I mean," added Jessica,
who had been recently wondering how she was going to fit into the
whole battle scheme. She knew she could take on Vrol ground troops
one-on-one, but she and her virtual sister were an excellent team
and she really felt they would serve a better purpose doing what
they did best, which was fighter support.

"Oh, do not worry, my dear girls, no, please
do not worry at all," mused Draagh, as he tinkered with the small,
almost unnoticeable bracelets the girls wore. "All will be revealed
soon enough, and you will both not only serve an excellent purpose
in defending this world, but also be quite safe. That reminds me,
you both claimed that you had never before tasted gelato, am I not
correct?"

Both girls shook their heads, which then
prompted Draagh to get a mischievous look on his face.

"Everyone is training now, or sleeping, or
eating. That much is certain. I believe that you two deserve a
field trip for some delicious gelato."

"But where can we get it, sir?" asked
Pandy.

Jessica and Pandy found themselves in
Draagh's apartment in the Hub for just a moment, where he grabbed
something out of a drawer in a desk, and then were standing in an
alleyway in a city during daylight hours. It was an ancient city,
compared to Azul, with buildings made of brick and covered in
plaster. Looking at their mentor they noticed that he had modified
his appearance. His hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and
his beard appeared to be closely trimmed. Most striking of all, he
was wearing a slightly shiny, dark blue suit consisting of a
jacket, matching slacks, a black collared shirt and a silver
necktie.

"Girls, this is my
guido
look, so as to not attract so much
attention," stated the grinning immortal mage. "Please come with
me. We are in what was called Venezia - Venice in your
language."

"And we speak English, right?" asked
Pandy

"Yes, that is correct my dear girl. Anyway,
it is here where I have encountered the most delicious gelato, and
the atmosphere is perfect for an afternoon break."

Pandy couldn't be blamed for rhetorically
asking if English was her native tongue. In her world no one even
knew there were any other languages, so spread out was Mankind.
Although she maintained a bit of clueless innocence, she was a
quite bright.

She and Jessica both noticed something -
Draagh's choice of attire seemed to be having the opposite effect
that he had claimed it would have - everyone was staring at him.
Looking around, they noticed there was no one else dressed like
him, and anyone would know that the best camouflage for blending
into a crowd was to dress like everyone else. He failed at this in
epic fashion.

"Ummm, Draagh, everyone's checking you out,"
said Jessica.

"Well, I think he looks very dignified
and handsome," chimed Pandy, as she hooked her arm around his,
eager to try the much-vaunted
gelato
of which he had spoken on so many
occasions in the past.

After making their selections at a frozen
dessert counter, the three sat at their little cafe table, Draagh
barely fitting into his seat, as they slowly savored the delicious,
Italian ice cream. Jessica selected chocolate, Draagh had coconut
and Pandy chose spumoni, which had nuts and fruits in it.

"Girls, did you know that the word gelato
comes from the Latin gelātus, which is also used as a verbal cantus
for freezing objects? Yes, it is quite interesting. And this view -
quite lovely, it is." He paused and looked out over the Grand
Canal, with its myriad of boats and gondolas transporting tourists
down the waterways of the slowly sinking city.

"Speaking of that, where, I
mean,
when
are we, Mr.
Draagh?" asked Pandy.

"Oh my dear, we are in the year 2006, roughly
800 years prior to your timeline."

"I like this place. It's hectic, busy,
and yet friendly. I can
feel
the friendliness. Oooh, I take that back. There's a vampire.
He gives off super-bad vibes," said Jessica.

Looking over, the three saw a pale, skinny
man arguing with a local merchant over a product. It was obvious
that the two weren't getting along, and the pale man, correctly
identified as carrying the recessive vampire gene, was beginning to
get out of line with the lone merchant. Suddenly, the vampire
knocked over three racks of postcards in anger and stormed off.

Sighing, Draagh turned around to look at the
girls, but noticed they were already up and over helping the
merchant to pick up his cards. He watched the two, smiling, as he
was yet again reminded of the beauty of humanity. The girls were
unable to communicate with the merchant, but once they had assisted
getting his stand in order they each gave him a hug and ran off,
this time alarming Draagh.

"
Girls, do not
interfere - we are in the core timeline and you cannot do anything
that would affect future events
."

However, the girls ignored him and caught up
with the unpleasant person.

Trapped on a small bridge crossing a canal,
the pale man snarled at the two seemingly innocent girls blocking
his way.

"
Ragazze
stupide, che cosa volete
[
Stupid girls,
what do you want]?"

"Don't know what you're saying, Vlad, but you
blew it big time messing with that poor merchant back there,"
growled Pandy.

"Americana? Ah yes, always put your nose in
where no belong. You wanna piece of me, then you come now!"
screeched the defiant Italian gen-vamp.

"Silence!" commanded Draagh, suddenly
appearing and causing all time and space to remain still. Birds
were frozen in the air, water droplets didn't move, boats stopped
in place, and the only the things that even had any sort of motion
were he and his two companions.

"Ladies! I took you here for relaxation and
to observe, not touch, another point in time. You were about to
make a tragic error - one that could have seriously jeopardized our
entire mission, or at least changed it completely."

"Oh, sorry, Draagh, What were we going to do,
besides giving this smelly-ass vamp a beat-down?" responded
Jessica.

Draagh sighed and looked kindly at his
lovely companions. "This man will have 7 children, one of whom will
grow up to be quite a nice person - quite unusual for an inactive
vampire. And one of
his
descendants will give a job to a person who will then get to
board the Exodus fleet for Azul - that person, being Max's direct
ancestor. If you were to kill this man, or alter his destiny, you
would create an alternate timeline - one that is not properly
connected to the Hub. It could have serious
repercussions."

He felt badly for having fibbed to the girls,
as their actions wouldn't have actually changed Max's timeline, but
in reality would have created an alternate reality. It was
something no Primulus wanted to see happen, as
randomly-instantiated alternate timelines turned into schisms,
which then offset the balance of space/time. But Draagh always had
a reason for everything he ever did.

"Oh wow, that's heavy," responded
Jessica.

"Over my head, but I'm with ya. Sorry, pops!"
said Pandy, with a bit of apology to her tone.

"Come here and stand next to me, girls. You
will be able to witness something that only I can do. I am going to
rewind time."

The two excitedly jumped to Draagh's side as
he conjured his infoscreen, and splaying his four fingers and thumb
out onto a circular dial-like graphic on his semi-transparent
device, started to slowly rotate his hand counter-clockwise. As he
did so, they girls saw ghostly imagery of themselves going in
reverse motion, until they were just finished helping the merchant
clean up his postcards. Stopping there, they found themselves
standing in those very places, wearing stupid grins, with a
smirking Draagh still seated at their tiny café table.