THE VROL TRILOGY (14 page)

Jennie was referring to Josh, her roommate's
boyfriend, who was a frequent visitor to their apartment in New
Sydney. Becky and Josh both worked in the military scientific
complex.

Max instantly recognized the name, and wasn't
comfortable with giving people bad news. He lowered his eyes and
nodded his head again. "Yes, I know him. Good fellow. Pretty damned
smart, too."

"Why didn't you select him for your
team?"

Max gave his beautiful, potential assassin a
solemn gaze.

"He has a heart condition and not even years to
live. There is nothing the doctors can do. Nano-surgery has so far
failed on every attempt. We were unsure of the effects that side
space would have on his physical person so he was rejected. He was
always aware of this."

Escalante's eyes started to glaze over. "What?
Heart… condition? But… he never said anything about
that!"

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. Maybe he
just didn't want
you
to know," said Max, putting an emphasis on the word
you
.

Max then looked over to Bagatelle and prepared to
give a full explanation of his actions.

Jennie at once felt horrible for the way she
had treated Josh throughout the many months he had been with Becky.
She had no idea that he suffered from an incurable ailment -
extremely rare, given Azul's medical technology. This revelation,
along with Ryder's recent betrayal, caused her to subconsciously
reflect on how she tended to look at the exterior and not what was
inside a person, but she still had a job to do, and Gunnarsson
needed to be taken back to Azul - dead or alive.

"Um," Max continued, "Sir, I spent
the last five years of my life working on this project. It was my
pride and joy, and I based my entire future career on it. I put my
all into it, 100% - not only for myself, but also for all mankind.
I had no previous intentions of returning to Earth, that is, until
we were shut down from real-time testing in the field. I mean,
who
are
the
Security Council to keep us from defending our world? There's an
alien fleet on its way to Azul, and it's much, much worse than
anyone believes. I had my suspicions, but I didn't even realize how
bad it was until I arrived here and then met Draagh, who, by the
way, I'd never seen before. He confuses me as much as I'm sure he
is confusing you right now."

Bagatelle regarded Max with a slightly more
relaxed look on his face, and allowed him to continue.

"There is something seriously wrong here, sir.
Did you notice that there are no human remains? Anywhere? Do you
know why that is?"

Bagatelle shook his head, and Max
continued.

"There's an alien race called the
Vrol. They invaded Earth over 400 years ago and nearly wiped out
all fauna – all non-plant life, on this world, and now they're on
their way to Azul to do the same thing, but calling
themselves
Artusians
. Draagh brought me to an old computer complex where I saw
vid recordings of the invasion. They covered this entire planet
with a nasty, virulent amoeba that eats you alive once you are
infected, and even before I met Draagh I found traces of this
amoeba, fossilized and harmless at the present - but I have proof,
Sir. I have proof of what happened."

Max looked pleadingly into his superior
officer's eyes, but he wasn't finished speaking.

"Sir - please, we have to retrofit the entire
fleet and go vaporize the Vrol before they get anywhere near our
system. They don't negotiate. They don't care. They'll even kill
their own in order to decimate entire populations. The Vrol is a
hive mind that thinks nothing more of killing their own than you or
I would when clipping our fingernails. It's simply not a
consideration to them."

Bagatelle looked like he was considering what Max had
told them when Draagh interjected.

"My dear sir, what Max tells you is true, and
if you would like, I can prove it to you."

Bagatelle nodded his head, while Jennie sat
there, silent and taking in the entire conversation, still unable
to believe that Max was a commander. Then Bagatelle spoke, although
with a slightly less threatening tone to his voice.

"Commander - first, I know the definition of
fauna. Second, what you did was wrong. There are rules. If I am to
believe anything that you just said, I need to know one thing
first. If you simply didn't agree with the Security Council, and
had no information on the Vrol before, what prompted you to leave
Azul in the first place, knowing we would pursue?"

Before Max could answer, Draagh made a goofy
face and spun his index finger around, while saying, "Ooooh, sorry.
That was me!" and snickered under his breath.

Everyone gave him a glare of disbelief, as he
rolled his eyes back and poured another shot of whisky.

"Please. Everyone. Drink with me. We could all
use it."

Finally, Bagatelle put the glass to his lips
and took a sip, his expression showing that the taste of the whisky
was indeed agreeable. Jennie followed his lead, also cautiously
taking a sip.

Draagh then continued, "So, yes, I am afraid I
must admit it. Yes, it was I. Guilty! I planted little suggestions
in Max's head, but also in yours! Yes! Both of you! We were
destined to meet, as we all have very important matters of which to
take care - but first, I would like to share a bit of information
with both of you. You, Admiral - you bite your lip when you
experience stress, do you not?"

Bagatelle looked at Draagh, amazed, but nodded
his head.

"And you, young lady, do you not experience the
same recurring dream of chasing deer through the woods?"

An alarmed Jennie shot back, "How
did you know that? Oh my God! No one knows that! I've never told a
soul. You are
so
weird!"

Draagh smiled and said, "Well, my
dear, I
know
these things, and much, much more. Yes, I do. You see - it is
what I do. I observe, and sometimes correct, and at this time, we
need to seriously correct some things, lest the Vrol turn Azul into
a lifeless ball of noxious gases. Admiral, Lieutenant… May I call
you Lou and Jennie? You see, I have a fondness for shortening
names, like Max here. Why say Maximilianus when it is so much
easier to say Max? I have always had a particular fancy for
languages. I mean, were you aware that the Kartovian word for
dinner is actually 137 syllables long? Oh goodness, I never, ever
went there in the evenings. I would have never eaten!"

Bagatelle looked at Draagh, totally lacking any
expression.

"You can call me Luigi."

Jennie looked over at her commanding officer,
and thanks to the small sips of alcohol had obviously started to
loosen up a bit.

"Lui…"

"Shut up, Jennie."

"Yes sir."

"There! You see? Now we are on a first name
basis. This is brilliant, quite brilliant indeed!"

Draagh went to load his pipe, but Max grabbed
his arm and whispered, "Draagh, not here, please."

Looking considerably more relaxed, Bagatelle
regarded Draagh with a solemn gaze.

"So… Draagh, how is it that you know these
personal things about us, and how did you supposedly plant
suggestions in our heads?"

"It is what I do - but what if I could tell you
why you do these things, why you have these dreams? Max here
becomes incredibly strong when his stress levels get high. Would
you like to know these things about yourselves?"

All three nodded their heads in unison, so
Draagh continued.

"You three are from a very old and noble
subspecies of humanity. Throughout the ages, there have been many
subspecies. Homo Habilus, The Neanderthals, the Cro-Magnons, The
Atlanteans, and of course… you!"

Max looked around at Draagh and said, "Um, us?
Could you be a little more specific, please?"

"Why, Homo Sapiens Canis! You are what some
call… lycans."

Bagatelle, Escalante and Max all three sat in
stunned silence. Each one had the desire to laugh out loud, but the
events of the past half hour had been so strange that they would
have believed anything by that point and time. Draagh sat there,
looking at them and wearing a wide grin on his face.

"And I am a mage; a Primulus, actually, but you
may call me a mage, as my formal title tends to cause confusion
among those who cannot grasp the concepts of space/time. Yes I am,
and quite a good one too, I might add."

Chapter
9 - Learning Stuff

"What exactly
is
a lycan?" asked Max, stunned, but
relieved Draagh had stopped talking in circles.

"My boy," continued the mage, "a
lycan is a subspecies of Homo Sapiens that possesses the gift of
therianthropy - the ability to change into to the form of an
animal. Of course, we all know 'sapiens' comes from 'sapient',
which means
one who shows
wisdom
. Oh, but it is not enough to be
sentient, to be self-aware. No, no, no. Sapience is where it is at!
Then we add some modifications to the gene pool, and you are Homo
Sapiens Canis, with the canis part being of canine extraction. In
essence, you have the genetic qualities of an ancient form of wolf
in you. This provides you with a myriad of extra abilities, of
which you sadly cannot take advantage, due to the nature of your
world, or even here on Earth - anymore, that is."

Bagatelle raised his hand, as if
asking for permission to speak. "Draagh, please be more specific.
We have
extra abilities
, but we cannot use them? What kinds of abilities?" Bagatelle
always knew he was a bit different, and it was not the fact that
his teeth felt a bit sharper when his stress levels went up. He
could always count on his superior strength in times of need,
simply attributing it to adrenaline. It was also that he had an
effect on people - he could look someone in the eyes and
convince
them of his
noble efforts. He moved through military ranks using his
abilities
, but to think
he had more? That was unrealistic to him.

Draagh went on, saying, "On a world such as
this, and also Azul, there is a particular form of energy that
still exists to this day, but is inaccessible to man. Quite far in
the past, say 2,200 years ago, we… that is, my kind, decided to
change man's energy signature via a widespread trans-mutagenic
virus, eliminating his ability to harness this energy of which I
speak. We found it necessary for man to be reliant upon nothing but
his own basic skills and wits, as he was not progressing at all,
no, not at all. This process more or less took one generation, with
some rare exceptions, as is the case with all DNA-altering viruses,
so the majority of those people who could avail themselves of this
energy were rendered normal, even though they carried the recessive
genes of their subspecies. Supernormal abilities faded into legend
quite quickly, as they did not have instant communications and
detailed data archives back in those days. Oh, it was quite
difficult at first, quite difficult indeed, and it resulted in some
minor tragedies, but man forged on and eventually became what we
have on Azul!"

"What sort of tragedies are you talking about?"
asked Jennie.

Draagh looked like he was pondering something
for a moment, and then spoke in a fashion so nonchalant it stunned
the other three.

"Oh, the Dark Ages. The Black Death. The
Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. Little things like
that."

"Little things?" Max interjected in horror,
"Little things, like… the Dark Ages? The Plague?"

Max had studied Earth history, and
rather enjoyed the subject, making it a minor in his first
undergraduate degree. It had given him great comfort to know that
Man had come so far, and that despite his often violent history he
had conquered space and colonized a new world.



Draagh went further and waved a hand in the
air, creating a holographic series of images that appeared in the
space between the four of them and followed what he was saying.
Bagatelle, Jennie and Max stared with wonder, being amazed by the
ease in which the strange Viking-garbed man conjured holograms in
the air.

"Yes, sadly these things were necessary in
order to ensure mankind's advancement in the universe. And the
plague, well, that was unfortunate but unavoidable. I mean, that
infernal church was telling everyone that sex was forbidden! My
goodness! What do you think the people then did? Sex, sex, sex,
sex! Babies popping out all over the place!"

The three spectators waved their hands in the
air, attempting to swat away annoying holographic Cupid-like
cherubs that flew around their heads.

"O-ho! The European population exploded! 
Why, if we had interceded on man's behalf and wiped out the
Yersinia Pestis bacteria, well, you would have never emigrated to
Azul - your ancestors would have all died of starvation! Lovely
planet, Azul is. Yes, quite lovely. You have done a fine, fine job
there. We are all quite proud of you achievements."