THE VROL TRILOGY (32 page)

Bagatelle continued, "Honored Council,
we found it necessary to divert resources to finding Lt. Ryder
Johnson, who murdered -"

"Preposterous! Absolutely without
merit!" Councilman Johnson screamed, his pale face almost turning
red with fabricated rage. "You would use missing my son as a
scapegoat to cover for your incompetency? How dare you! He has been
faithfully serving Azul forces for years, and yet, in an attempt to
get out of accepting responsibility for your total failure as the
commanding officer on the most important mission this planet's
military has ever undertaken, you drag his, and MY name in the mud?
Rear Admiral, I will see you up on charges before you leave these
chambers!"

Bagatelle sighed, knowing his only
chance would be to get the rest of the Council to believe that the
vids from Earth were real.

"Honored Council, please hear me out
completely. This is critical to the survival of our worlds. The
approaching aliens who call themselves Artusians are actually the
Vrol, the same species that decimated Earth and killed nearly
everything with a virulent, genetically-engineered
amoeba-"

"STOP!" roared Johnson. "This is beyond
the pale, and this so-called amoeba of which you speak was
engineered right here, in your scientific research
facilities."

Bagatelle looked up at the leering
Johnson and said, "That is completely untrue! How can you even say
that?"

"Bring him in!" demanded Johnson, and
as Bagatelle turned around he saw a meek-looking man in a science
division tech uniform brought in, surrounded by numerous security
personnel. Wearing shackles, he stood, his head hung low and not
looking up. Johnson peered over the edge of the tall and imposing
structure upon which they sat, and spoke to the tech while
maintaining a hateful glare.

"Tell us, Tech Olson. Tell the council
how you created that fake amoeba, and how you manufactured the
videos of the supposed invasion of earth."

"It is all true, as the honorable
councilman said," stated Olson. Bagatelle looked at the man,
shocked, as Johnson interjected.

"Tell the council who gave you the
orders to manufacture this traitorous garbage!"

"Rear Admiral Luigi Bagatelle,
honorable councilman."

Bagatelle stood frozen in place, mouth
agape, unable to speak. He had never seen this man before in his
life, and all of the evidence he had brought back from Earth was
being twisted and used against him by Johnson, who was much more
sinister and dangerous than he had ever before believed.

Johnson looked over at his fellow
council members, who had remained, for the most part, silent during
the hearing. Then, speaking to them, he said, "My friends - not
only has Rear Admiral Bagatelle lied and falsified evidence to
support his claims, my son - my own dear boy has been listed as
missing in action thanks to this disgrace to a uniform. So, I'll
tell you what I believe - I think that Admiral Bagatelle was
working with Gunnarsson, and had invented this whole preposterous
scheme in order to create a military armada on Earth, with the
intention of returning here and making Azul into a military
dictatorship, with Bagatelle himself installed as emperor! So I
propose - with the evidence pointing against Rear Admiral Bagatelle
- I propose that we immediately assume control over Azul Military
Scientific Research and remove the SSCC technology from the
Revolution. I have already identified a group of experts who can
quickly do this. Further, I demand that Rear Admiral Bagatelle be
stripped of rank and immediately placed in detention before he can
do further damage or contact any traitorous underlings."

Johnson leaned back and looked out into
the black chamber halls, gloating and waiting for the final act to
play out. The other council members met in murmured whispers,
conferring with each other. Finally, one member, a female, stood
and addressed the chambers.

"Rear Admiral Bagatelle - while the
evidence submitted against you is overwhelming, we have procedure,
and no matter the crisis, we must stick to procedure, for that is
the law, and the law is final." Then, looking at Johnson, she
continued, "Councilman Johnson, we appreciate your efforts looking
into this apparent failure of a mission, but the council cannot act
alone and simply take command of this planet's entire military. It
is for these reasons that Rear Admiral Luigi Bagatelle shall be
taken into custody and placed under house arrest, with a technology
lock over his quarters, precluding him from communicating with
anyone aside from his representative council, until such a time as
we are able to investigate further into this tragedy. However, he
shall retain his rank, and The Revolution shall remain equipped as
is. Further, the council shall not take over military operations.
There are three branches to our government, and we are only one of
the three. This separation of powers is specifically provided for
in the Constitution, to which we must always be faithful, lest we
fall to tyranny. This is the will of the court."

Johnson bolted upright in
his seat and screamed, "What!
What
? You dare allow the evil fruits
of this ingrate's labor to continue on, putting every man, woman
and child on this planet in jeopardy? You are blind! Don't you see?
Sometimes we must take control - this time we
must
take control, as Bagatelle has
gone too far! My son is most probably dead, killed by the hand of
this pathetic excuse for a man, all in order to further his agenda
of taking over an entire system! Fools! All of you!"

Johnson stormed out of the chambers as
the other members of the council stood up. Bagatelle looked
concernedly over at Tech Olson, but surprisingly displaying no
malice.

"Son, why? You know that everything you
said is untrue."

Olson kept looking down, avoiding eye
contact with his superior officer and said, "I'm sorry Sir. I'm
truly sorry."

He was then led away in his shackles,
while security agents bound Bagatelle with the same type of
chains.

Chapter 21 - Jennie Betrayed

Darkness slowly turned to a dull light
as nothingness gradually became existence. Jennie Escalante opened
her eyes, seeing with difficulty, as her hair was hanging in her
face, matted with clotted blood and obscuring her vision. She had
been beaten in the head, and could feel the pain in her ribcage.
She saw her bruised legs, due to her already revealing tango dress
having been shredded. As she became aware of her surroundings she
felt a dull panic, but at the same time gained her reason and tried
to remain calm.

She tried to move, but found she was
chained to a wall. The putrid-smelling dungeon cell gave off a
feeling of dark sickness, worse than the most disgusting dysentery
one might imagine. The rotting scent of vampire was everywhere, and
sharpening her hearing, she heard the wails and moans of prisoners
- all normals - who had been taken to the castle to be perversely
used as living food sources.

Trying to clear the blood-encrusted
hair out of her eyes, she detected footsteps approaching. She
scrambled back, only to be stopped by the wall behind her as she
pulled at her iron arm cuffs. Jennie realized that it would take
more than a few minutes to get free of her bonds, if she was able
to at all, so she sat back and waited for her visitor, whom she
smelled quite clearly - Ryder Johnson.

"Oh my, my, my, how are we, Jennie?"
sneered Johnson, his face having become even more disgusting
looking since she had last seen him. "I must say, that was quite a
nice dress. I never took you for one who was into indigenous
performances, but then again, all degos are trash."

"Go screw yourself, Johnson," she
commanded, "and take a look in the mirror when you do. It'll be
sure to shrivel your di-"

"
Shut up
!" he screamed, interrupting
her. "I am in control here, and you're my bitch. I may not be able
to drink you, but I can make you suffer. Oh, by the way, it was
nice seeing those again," he hissed, pointing at her partially
exposed chest. "It seems like God did something right. They have a
nice feel to them."

"You sick puke," she growled, but
became momentarily alarmed while she concentrated on her enhanced
lycan physiology. To her relief she couldn't detect that she had
been violated - yet.

"What do you want with me? Can't win a
battle on your own, so you have to go and kidnap a drunken girl
from a party? And speaking of that, who took me? The last thing I
remember was talking to… oh damn," she trailed off, remembering
talking to Alea.

"Hmmm, hey bitch, figured it out yet?"
snorted Johnson, turning to the side and motioning to someone.
"Come, my dear. Show Jennie who helped to bring her
home."

Alea walked out from the shadows,
wearing a face of slight remorse. She was unable to look Jennie in
the eyes, but still said, "They have my husband, Morgus. He still
lives, and they said if I-"

"
Ha-ha-ha-ha
!" Johnson interrupted
with maniacal laughter, "you actually believed that bunch of
bullshit?"

Alea almost fell back, and would have
if there were not two lower-caste soldiers behind to apprehend
her.

"No! Siegfried said that my husband
would be released if I helped bring the girl! This cannot be
true!"

Ryder Johnson stood in front of the
cell and appraised Jennie's injuries He pointed at the cell next to
Jennie's and said, "Lock her up. Right here in this cell, so they
can be girlfriends. Maybe they'll get it on and we can
watch."

Alea started howling as the soldiers
forcefully pushed her into the cell, not even bothering to chain
her to the ground. Johnson turned to leave, but paused for a
moment, saying, "You know, Lord Vladros wanted to execute you and
send your head back as a gift, but I convinced him to hold off a
bit. The fun has yet to start. We never did finish what we started
on the ship."

Backing off, Johnson disappeared back
into the darkness and out of view, but not out of smell.

Locked in her cell, with little hope at
the present, Jennie just sat on the cold stone floor. She stared at
a facing wall for a few minutes, only hearing the moans of the
normal prisoners. Then, without even turning to Alea she said, "You
bitch."

###

The entire chamber in Krynos' castle
was in a state of absolute chaos, with everyone yelling over each
other as more and more soldiers filtered into the room. Krynos
attempted to call everyone to attention, but to no avail. Without
warning, a large crackling sound thundered throughout the hall,
Draagh having slammed his staff to the ground. Everyone fell
silent, and Draagh motioned for Krynos to address the attending
lycans.

"It appears that we have been betrayed,
and that Jennie Escalante has been abducted." Looking at Draagh,
Krynos asked, "My friend, is there anything that you can do to help
determine her location?"

Draagh looked out at the ever-growing
crowd of lycan soldiers, and then at Max, saying, "Oh, I already
know where she is, my son. Vladros has her in his
dungeon."

Max looked at his grandfather,
horrified. "Vladros? The vampire leader? How do you
know?"

Draagh solemnly nodded and continued,
"Max, my boy. Those clothes you wear, did I not conjure them for
this evening's festivities?"

Max looked down at his white military
uniform and nodded his head, still maintaining a look of extreme
concern on his face.

"As I made them, they have a very
particular connection to me. In fact, I detected her change of
location not long after she was taken, though there was little I
could do at the time. It was a devious 3D slip out of the castle.
In fact, I was going to change my clothing and look into this
situation, but you had responded so quickly that I came here with
everyone else."

Max looked at his ancient
grandfather and pleaded, "Then what
can
we do?"

"Why, we rescue her, of
course!"

He went on to explained to Max, and to
the uncharacteristically quiet lycans, that Vladros' castle had an
ancient protective cantus that prevented anyone from entering via
magic.

"We will have to enter like we would
into any other building in lesser situations," said the ancient
mage.

Max's eyes shifted right
and left, as he tried to figure out what Draagh meant, when Donus
boomed, "We shall dig a tunnel! Lycans specialize in
tunnels!"



"A… tunnel?" stammered Max, who was
starting to become even more confused. "We dig? How long will this
take?"

Donus replied, "Not long at all. We
shall make preparations right away," to which Draagh added, "Max,
my dear boy, please do not worry. Though I am unable to breach the
castle's defenses with a 3D slip, once inside we can quickly locate
Jennie and slip out. The protection is not a two-way
defense."

"But what if they kill her? Oh my God,
what are they going to do?" Max cried out in anguish.

Draagh rested a hand on the young man's
quivering shoulder and said, "Calm yourself, my boy. She yet lives.
I am able to see her, and although she has been roughed up a bit, I
can do some things to help keep her from being further
damaged."