THE VROL TRILOGY (133 page)

"We should bring test groups to Vera, put
them in rooms together, assign them tasks and see if they kill each
other," said a monotone-sounding Gabriel. Jessica got an impish
grin on her face, finally having come to understand Gabriel's dark,
deadpan sense of humor.

Bagatelle raised an eyebrow and nodded his
head, actually agreeing with Gabriel's joking suggestion.

"Gabriel, that's actually an excellent idea.
Of course, we could never let them wantonly murder each other.
We'll have complete control, but yes - I believe we should try that
right away."

"Oh man, I never really thought either.
Isamu's troops probably don't speak English, German or Spanish.
We'll need to give them some language lessons," added Max.

"Definitely English. It's the standard
military language on all four worlds," said Jennie.

"Hey, just a minute! It takes months to reach
fluency in a foreign language, and besides, we don't even know if
the Samurai can read or write in Japanese," said Bagatelle, seeing
a potential issue.

"No, my dear Admiral," interjected Draagh,
"we shall take care of that. Even Max knows how to enlighten our
foreign guests with the gift of linguistics."

"Yeah, I improved Isamu's English in seconds.
I imagine the four of us can cover the entire samurai clan."

"Max, how can you do that? I don't
understand," asked the currently deposed rear admiral.

"Honestly, it's some sort of language pack we
inject into someone's head. Instant language lessons."

"Oooh! I wanna learn Spanish so Liliana and I
can tell each other things in secret!" blurted Pandy, causing
Jennie to give her an odd glance, while Liliana nodded her head
excitedly.

"Actually, we should never use it on our
friends, family or loved ones, young lady," stated Michael,
injecting himself into the conversation. "There can be certain…
side effects. It is best to study the old-fashioned way."

"I must agree with my son, dear girl. That
being said, I am sure that Liliana would be more than happy to
begin your instruction in either German or Spanish," added
Draagh.

"Oh yes, Grandfather Draagh, I would be most
willing to assist my friend!"

Jennie thought for a moment, and then
reminded herself that Pandy could be a fine friend and protector.
The young woman had no ill intentions towards her daughter, and in
a few short years they would both be adults - practically immortal
adults, and when they were hundreds of years old those first few
years of their friendship (and separation of age) would be but a
faint memory.

"Spanish, Pandy. I recommend that if you
study with Liliana you learn Spanish. It's more useful on Azul.
There are German-speaking areas, but they're mostly rural," stated
the beautiful dega, who then gave Liliana a determined glare and
said, "And Lili, no lisuras. Got it?"

"What's a leesooda," asked Pandy,
attempting (poorly) to mimic Jennie's pronunciation of the
Castilian Spanish word for
profanity
.

"Those are bad words I am not allowed to
utter, Pandy," responded the young lycan while wearing a face of
mischievous intent. "I shall teach you the proper way to speak the
language of my parents!"

"I can help too, girls," added Clarisa,
seeing an excellent opportunity to get in the middle and make sure
Liliana was not being improperly influenced by the older
off-worlder.

"Cool! Now that everyone's gonna get into
languages, why don't we start moving the Haida younglings into the
housing we built outside the castle?"

Max was referring to the recently completed
construction of an apartment complex in the meadow outside the
castle moat. It was walled off and actually resembled a smaller
castle, maintaining the same design motif as the older structures
in the area. The walls were for the safety of the children. Even
though they would have round-the-clock guards, there was still the
chance that a child could sneak out and become an unwitting snack
for the castle guardians in the moat.

All were in agreement that it was indeed time
to move the children and the elders who inhabited the castle and
the courtyard into better accommodations. The battle-aged Haidas
were already undergoing a strict training regimen on Vera, and
accustoming themselves to the higher gravity. Vera was slightly
higher than Azul, so they would fee a lift when they moved to the
main planet (if they did at all). Now all Max had to do was start
bringing Isamu's soldiers over.

And hope they didn't all murder each
other.

Chapter 10 - Move It!

Liliana sat looking out of the window
of her parents' apartment in Krynos' castle. She watched as a large
crowd of people carried belongings out of the castle courtyard,
over the drawbridge and toward the newly constructed living
quarters for the Saxman Haidas. Morning dew dotted the sill; she
drew little designs in the moisture with her index finger while she
looked on the throngs of people below. The child sighed lightly as
she noticed a number of friends who were now going to be close, yet
far, especially as they would eventually go to another world. She
had enjoyed the previous few days, dashing in-between classes to
see the new acquaintances she had made on her very first trip to
Alaska on Old-Earth. Sadly, she never really got along well with
the local lycan children. At first it was because she was a poor
orphan; later because she was adopted by Max and Jennie. She never
got to enjoy that middle stage - just being one of the kids. But
the Haida children were different. They were a bit wilder than her
local counterparts, and they didn't judge her by who she used to
be, or who she currently was. They were simply her friends. She
knew that one day they would move off to somewhere either in Azul
system of the 29
^th
century, or
relocate in her current world, but the majority of them would be
lost to her forever.

Spying her two very best friends down below,
she decided she would pop in for an unannounced visit. Her classes
still didn't start for over an hour, so she had plenty of time to
spend with them. Plus, she had an important question she wanted to
ask.

Liliana didn't have the four-dimensional slip
abilities of her father, but she did learn to perform local (3D)
slips, and had become quite proficient at them. Her
great-grandfather, Draagh, had created a permanent, protective
shield around her, preventing her from materializing inside a wall,
or, God forbid, in the moat (even though it was likely the sharks
would go to her rescue rather than eat her). Looking around to make
sure her parents weren't in the room, Liliana concentrated and
squinted her eyes, visualizing where she wanted to go. Her budding
skills put her exactly where she desired - at the entrance to the
castle courtyard - where she saw her two friends carrying duffle
bags.

"Janie! Are you not excited?" she asked as
her two friends gave her an astonished look. They were walking
towards the drawbridge and Liliana simply appeared in front of
them. They were aware she was a mage, but still hadn't become used
to seeing her appear and disappear at will.

"Hiya, Lili!" said Janie. "Yeah, I'm finally
gonna sleep on a bed again. How are you doing?"

"I must be off to classes within the hour. We
are to study weapons today, which ties into our meeting tonight for
the Youth Brigade. Speaking of that, have you given any
consideration to my offer of joining?"

Liliana had tried to recruit almost every
Saxman child into Krynos' new youth organization, but they all knew
they would be living elsewhere in the near future so they declined
- everyone except for Janie and Tommy Williams, grandchildren of
Jake Williams, the chief of the Saxman tribe. The Earth children
from an alternate dimension were fraternal twins, and were
approximately Liliana's age. They earlier said they wanted some
time to think it over, and Liliana was anxious to get her two
friends into her little squad of pre-pubescent lycan terror.

"We're in. Mom and Dad said it was okay. And
Grandpa actually got excited when he heard we would be hanging out
with you," responded Tommy.

"Oh, I am so happy! It shall be great fun!"
squealed Liliana.

"So, what are we gonna do, Lili? Have
meetings like old people and stuff?" inquired Janie.

"Oh, no. Quartermaster Ohiro is going to
teach us the basics of the crossbow this evening. It shall be most
informative."

Tommy looked at his sister and grinned. The
two more closely resembled people of the culture of Liliana's
adoptive mother, Jennie, than that of Liliana, as they were both
partially descended of the extreme north Amerindians; themselves
descendants of Eurasians that had migrated to North America some
21,000 years earlier.

"You mean a real crossbow that you can
shoot?" asked Tommy.

Liliana gave the boy an almost blank
expression. "Yes, of… course. Why would it not be?"

"And we're gonna learn swords and everything
too?" asked Tommy's sister.

"Oh yes! I believe I went over some of the
specifics with you earlier, did I not?"

"Yeah, you did," said Tommy, "it's just so
new to us and everything is hard to believe. Like, how you just
appear out of thin air."

Liliana grinned. She liked it when people
noticed her performing magic.

"Well, now that you committed to our group,
how would you both like a little treat?" asked Liliana, gaining a
mischievous grin.

"Lili, we already saw you feed a vampire to
your sharks and… woah."

Janie was in mid-sentence when her
surroundings changed, suddenly finding herself in a tree house a
few hundred meters from the castle. Liliana had recently built it
with the assistance of her grandfather Michael. She became
intrigued and wanted one after hearing her father recount stories
of the tree house of his youth, and how much fun he had in it.
However, unlike Max's, her tree house was magic. It had running
water, sanitary facilities and special protections. Best of all, it
was invisible to the untrained eye. This was made possible by the
same type of cantus used by Draagh to hide Max's spacecraft, the
Machu Picchu, in 29
^th
century
Peru.

"Lili! When did you make this?" asked Janie,
as she watched the young lycan/mage grin, her brown eyes sparkling
in the artifical light of their new environment.

"This is our new secret hideout. You know,
like your cave in Saxman, but we're up in a tree. Here, look out
the window," said Liliana, as she moved over and brushed short
curtains away from the view portal.

"Wow. This is so… so," started Tommy, only to
have his sentence finished by Liliana.

"Cool. Yes, it is quite cool. But it is a
secret. Do you both understand?" She gave them her typical serious,
squinting expression. "No one can see this domicile. We are also
quite protected here. My grandfather made sure of it."

The twins nodded their heads in unison
as Liliana opened a cupboard near the window, revealing a hidden
refrigerator which contained a special treat - Inca Kola - a
carbonated beverage from Earth's past, and brought along on the
Exodus to Azul. Liliana's mother didn't care for it, but Max
definitely had a taste for the odd, near-fluorescent yellow
sweetened drink. The young girl only drank it sparingly, knowing
that
soda pop
, as it was
called, was not healthy and was only to be enjoyed on special
occasions. And this was definitely a special occasion, as the twins
had dedicated themselves to Krynos' Youth Brigade. Liliana now had
her first two minions, and they had no idea what was to come their
way. Perhaps if they did know they might have left, or maybe not -
the mind of a child is hard to map, and is prone to much more
rational thought than any adult may ever believe. Janie and Tommy
were children of the forest and feared very little, making them the
perfect companions for Liliana. Three brave lycan children, one
with magical abilities. Trouble was brewing.

The three tweens sat on comfortable pillows,
leaning up against the base of a wooden floor cabinet. The tree
house itself wasn't grandiose. Rather, it was quite plain. Four
meters by four meters by two and a half meters high, it could only
be entered via a 3D slip (being as its owner was a mage), and could
not be entered by anyone with vampiric genes nor the cannibal
virus. Further, no one could be inside if Liliana wasn't present -
unless she willed it and put an override on the protection cantus,
which she was able to do. One thing Michael installed in the tree
house that Liliana didn't request was a failsafe evacuation button.
Large, red and on the wall, it would activate a cantus that took
all tree house occupants and slipped them inside the castle
(specifically the castle's main commissary) no matter who punched
the button. Michael had become protective of Liliana as of late, as
had the rest of the family.

The lycan/mage child flicked her wrist for a
bit of effect and made a large, lit candle appear on the floor. She
had the curtains drawn, making it eerily dark inside. In reality
she could have done anything in there, so making it dark was quite
easy. In fact, she knew a cantus that would make the ceiling
transparent, exposing the night sky to the room's occupants. As it
was designed, it was small and cozy - the perfect retreat for
children.

They sat and slowly sipped their drinks out
of tin cups, savoring the indescribable flavor, but that was Inca
Kola. No one ever really knew what it was supposed to taste like.
Some said it was vanilla; others said it was banana. There were
even those who said it tasted like bubblegum. It was unique, in any
case.