Serve and Protect

by Douglas Varnell

  Before they left, Paul and General Zarman explained the importance of the CIA roll in the operation. It would be their duty to carefully identify as many terrorist locations as possible. When General Z showed them the facial recognition programming built into the computer system and explained that when they returned from Verron with the trained terrorist unit they would also be bringing drones that will enhance their capabilities even more, most of those in the room finally began to realize just how deep the capabilities of Verron technology went and how thorough their war on terrorism was being developed. King Verron’s last comment was to help them realize how important their roll was going to be, as he declared, “We are giving the CIA the hardware and the software to search for and identify terrorists any place in the world. Our initial focus will be in Africa and the Middle East. There are simply too many of them for us to assume responsibility for searching for them. Your people will be responsible for that; my team will be responsible for eliminating them. I will personally command the first few missions; my grandson will assume that job as soon as he finishes with the training Agent Oswald has planned for him.” He turned to Agent Oswald, and added, “Keep in mind sir that Colonel Hall has been trained for the past several years by a former KGB Colonel and has already made numerous clandestine trips into Russia, Ukraine and Poland, been on one hostage rescue mission, kidnapped a major weapons supplier and commanded an army in a war that was outnumbered 40 to 1; they won using Russian manufactured weapons he personally confiscated from a weapons smuggler. He may be young, but he is not green. Oh yea, I might add he is also fluent in 23 languages and is a master of Jxansa Gha. That’s all the bragging I’ll do about my Grandson, I believe I’ve embarrassed him enough.”

  As they prepared to leave, Hunter got with Agent Oswald on where he wanted him to meet on Sunday and said their goodbyes. Then it was off to Great Britain, Germany and France to follow-up on the treaty arrangements with them. But first there was a short stop to make in NYC to follow-up on Ursula Enterprises and a pending contract with Fiat to supply batteries for the 500e. Paul left Michael behind in New York with Leona and Donald to make certain the financial arrangements were in place and to meet with several people who would be holding job fairs around the U.S. for the sole purpose of recruiting people for Verron, the first one to be held at Javits Convention Center in New York City. Paul smiled as he departed his Park Avenue condominium and reminded Michael, “You won’t be alone. Joshua and Renee and her staff will be joining you and so will Leona and Donald. I have no doubt you will have more people show-up than you will have time to interview. Joshua and his video presentation is first rate. Make certain to open with it and you’ll save yourself a lot of repetition. Renee will then make it perfectly clear just what moving to Verron requires of an individual and just who can move there and who can’t. If anyone will be unpopular, it will be my daughter. Oh, yea, don’t forget to remind everyone to wear their forcefield and I have made arrangements for two dozen Marines to be there in plain clothes.” Michael shook his head and asked, “Do you really think there will be trouble?” Hunter answered for Paul, “This is New York; there is always trouble.”

  With that Paul, Hunter and General Zarman headed out the door, when Jim asked jokingly, “I run your entire military, how come I don’t have a place this nice. It really pays to be your ex-wife.” Paul smiled and replied, “You’re too ugly to be an ex-wife and you cost me money, Leona and Donald make me money. You start making me as rich as these two are and I’ll build you a place just like it. Besides any woman that could stay married to me for almost twenty years deserves anything she can get.” Jim and Hunter did not disagree.

  Chapter 2

  Tala was miserable. Every part of her body was burned except the parts covered by her bathing suit and with the first skimpy two-piece she had ever owned, that included most of her body. A quick look in the mirror at the white raccoon circles from wearing her Oakley’s made her look even worse; even her hair hurt along the part. She arrived at breakfast in her bathrobe instead of her uniform and asked Katelyn to take a look at her back because it really hurt. Katelyn was shocked to see large water-filled blisters on her little sisters back. She wanted to harass her for being dumb enough to allow herself to get fried, but almost cried when she realized that her sister was really hurting. It was early yet and they still had a few hours before they had to be at the Battle Cruiser to begin training. Katelyn grabbed her sister’s hand and escorted her toward the upstairs bedroom, forming a gateway just as they stepped out of the hallway. When Tlase looked up from her work and saw Tala, she reacted as if she had never seen anything like it before. Her first words were, “Did the ship have a reactor leak. I’ve never seen anyone look so burned.” Then she suddenly realized what had happened and she gave Tala a stern look and said, “If you shaved your head and get a few tattoos, we could pass you off as someone from Alpha Centauri.” Tala turned around and lowered her robe, exposing the blisters on her back. Tlase walked over and couldn’t resist, she popped one then said, “An hour in a regeneration tank should make you good as new, unless you want to lather-up in an Xhondarian ointment and look like an oil slick.” Tala was actually shivering from her pain and only replied with one word, “Please.”

  One hour and twenty-five minutes later the two sisters came out of the upstairs bedroom dressed in their charcoal-gray commandoes and ready for breakfast. The cook had called their name when he arrived, but got no reply. He almost dropped the container of fresh squeezed orange juice when they suddenly came out of the bedroom door laughing and joking with each other. Katelyn’s first words to the man assigned to attend their needs were, “After breakfast, would you please go buy the strongest sun block available? My sister here does not handle this Australian sun very well.” The young Petty Officer took a long look at the little redhead and thought she looked a lot redder the night before. His only comment was, “Got it mate” then, “ow bout an omelet?” The girls suddenly realized they were starving, especially Tala, she knew it was the regeneration process that had her ready to eat everything in the house. She quickly responded, “Make mine a five-egg with everything you can find to put in it, with double cheese.” The Petty Officer watched in amazement as Tala ate the entire omelet and grabbed two bananas as she headed out the door drinking a Mountain Dew. Petty Officer Sloan asked Katelyn, “She always eat like that? I guess I better stock-up on a few more groceries.” Katelyn headed for the door after her sister and replied on the way out, “Good idea. Don’t forget the sun screen.”

  They found two fat tired bikes in the beach house garage and rode them to the awaiting Battle Cruiser. No one expected to see their two trainers riding across the field on bicycles and the sight of a little redhead in braids riding a bike, only served to emphasize her youthful appearance. They were greeted by two Commanders, two Lieutenant Commanders, two Lieutenants, and four Sub Lieutenants, proudly wearing the wings of Navy Aviators. There was a crew of 800 Royal Navy seamen ready to be trained. At first the girls thought they were late and double checked the Earth watches that King Paul had given them before they left Verron. The Verron Marines were already onboard prepping themselves for the day of training ahead. One of the Commanders saluted the girls and commented, “Tomorrow morning I will have a car at your residence to pick you up. It is inexcusable that you should be riding a bicycle.” Tala was afraid that someone was going to get in trouble for not picking them up and quickly replied, “At home I ride a mountain bike 60 to 100 miles any day that I have the time. I prefer the exercise, but these bikes really are slugs. Do you know where we can get some better ones?” A sub lieutenant shyly spoke-up, saying, “Mam, I ride a bike myself and will be pleased to take you to the shop where I do business.” Tala decided he was kind of cute and quickly answered, “Good! Can you do it when we finish training today?” He saluted and with a respectful, “Mam, yes Mam.” Katelyn and Tala couldn’t help but smile at the spit and polish of the Australian sailors. Things were much less formal back hom
e.

  Everyone climbed aboard and was immediately greeted by the Marines. They quickly sorted out the men by their Royal Navy job designation and headed out in small groups to give a tour of the ship. Katelyn took half of the officers and Tala took the other half and played tour guide as well. When Katelyn escorted her group into the huge hanger bay and had the ships computer open the hanger doors, Commander Briskoll, who was a Commander of 16 Harrier Jump Jets, turned to Katelyn and asked, “No one mentioned that this ship could handle aircraft. What flew from here before?” Katelyn proudly replied, “Twenty Fighters, Two Light Destroyers and four Marine landing Transports. You should have no problem operating your Harriers and Helicopters from here. There is an aircraft maintenance bay as well.” Every man in her group smiled a satisfied smile. It was almost an hour later before they made it to the command bridge of the big ship. Katelyn entered to a room already occupied with Tala and her group. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw that her sister had already rigged the teaching helmet and gloves to one of the Commanders and seated him in the copilot seat and was occupying the pilots seat herself. She looked at the officers in her group, saying, “It looks like we will be first to fly tomorrow. But don’t worry. Lieutenant Verron will be rotating those in her group to be sure everyone has a chance at the teaching controls. I’ll be doing the same tomorrow. If you like, we can split up then beginning tomorrow, conduct training in two shifts.”

  Tala nodded her agreement. The officers on board agreed it was a good idea as well and began to discuss among themselves who would be the early shift and who would be the late. Then one of the Lieutenant Commanders commented, “We could run a double on the rest of the crew if your Marines would be willing to split as well.” Tala thought a moment and responded, “I’ll make arrangements to have another crew of Marines. They will be spread pretty thin as it is. I should be able to have them here by tomorrow. Will you have any problem housing fifty more?” The officers looked at each other in wonder that this freckled faced redhead could activate fifty Marines on her own.” As the Commander acknowledged that he could house more from Verron, Tala spoke into the com unit. Lucy, contact General Hall and have another training team of Marines sent here to assist us in the training.” Katelyn and Tala couldn’t help but smile when Lucy answered, “As you wish.”

  Katelyn and her group of officers shuffled around with the ones in Tala’s group to determine what best suit their schedules. Katelyn left the ship with the group of officers that would be flying later in the day and Tala waved them goodbye as she lifted off and headed out toward the Pacific Ocean. Tala knew that Katelyn would head for the beach and some volleyball to occupy her day and that she would now be free of her big sister during the late afternoon and early evening. Besides, she didn’t care if she ever went to the beach again, it was just too painful. The forty year-old Commander hooked up to the training gear looked shocked that he was sensing every thought and feeling every twitch of muscles from the young girl next to him. He had doubted her ability and wondered why the higher ranking officer with her had so freely allowed this child to take command of a multi-billion dollar craft. It didn’t take him long to figure out that she was very competent at what she was doing. Since this was as much a shakedown cruise and a training mission, she put the ship through various maneuvers at altitudes ranging from sea level to 100,000 feet. The crew members were struggling with a battleship that could fly higher and faster than a commercial airliner. Tala circumnavigated the entire Nation of Australia. Then flew out over an isolated bombing range used by the Royal Air Force and Navy; it was now going to be the crews turn to check out a few of the weapons onboard. They were headed back to South Head after four different officers had been through the flight training and the crew had been given a chance to blow a few things up. All-in-all it had been a very good day.

  Tala was about to call in their final approach to the Sydney Air Control Zone, when they picked-up a distress call from a capsized dive ship on the Barrier Reef. With it being completely on the other side of the country from where they were, the officers just assumed it would be handled by local rescue crews. To their surprise, Tala changed the heading of the big ship to almost due North and accelerated to Mach 5. The ships computer had already isolated the distress call and Tala was backing off speed at such a rate that some of the men onboard lost their lunch. She suddenly came to a complete stop about 100 yard away and 50 feet above a capsized 150 foot long dive boat. People were clinging to the hull, while others flailed around in the water in their dive gear. It was obvious that the dive ship Captain had over-booked his ship and drastically exceeded the ships capacity. Like the finely trained crew that they were, at Tala’s command, over the ships radio, “Prepare hanger doors for water rescue and recovery” the Verron Marines were standing at open doors and Tala lowered the 2500 foot long Battle Cruiser all the way to the surface of the water only a few feet from the sinking ship. Those in the water swam to the doors edge like it was the side of a swimming pool and either climbed or were pulled onboard. She then hovered directly beside those clinging to the hull and they easily jumped or where assisted aboard.

  When the crew and divers were all safely onboard and 100% accounted for, the excitement really began. Two of the Marines maneuvered a machine suspended from the overhead supports of the hanger. It looked like a car-sized hairdryer. They extended the front edge out of the hanger bay door and aimed it directly at the hull of the ship. At first nothing seemed to happen, then little by little the 150 foot long dive ship began to lift up out of the water; everyone onboard, except Tala and the Lieutenant in the copilot seat, gathered in the hanger bay to watch this unbelievable sight. As the ship rose higher above the water, tanks, clothes, and even furniture began to fall from the upside-down ship’s deck. Soon, after the water was drained, the ship was hovering over the large hanger floor. Ten Marines then threw ropes with hooks on the ends and manipulated the dive boat into the upright position then locked it off with a holding beam. The Australian seamen soon joined the efforts and began to fish the remaining floating debris out of the water as the Marines aimed the portable tractor beam at the mess on the surface and brought it to the side of the Battle Cruiser.

  Tala was ready to head for Port Douglas to return the ship, crew and customers to their destination when a radio call came in from Katelyn wanting to know why they weren’t back yet. Tala, annoyed at her sister’s tone of voice, simply answered, “Well, next time I’ll just let them all drown.” She then handed the radio to her co-pilot and left the hovering ships command deck to go see how everyone was doing. She entered the hanger bay to cheers and applause from those she had just rescued. Then they stopped and stared in wonder that this kid was the commander of this flying marvel. When the Australian seamen verified that it was in fact her that had led the rescue, they once again swarmed her to shake hands and thank her one-on-one. Tala was two hours late getting back to the Navy Base. By then, Katelyn had gotten the details about why she was late and was the first to tell her how proud she was of her. There were newspaper photographers and a TV crew waiting to take pictures and interview the rescue team and to get a closer look at the wonderful addition to the Australian Navy. Under the circumstances it would now be impossible to keep the new ship a secret. By the time Tala was interviewed by a dozen people, both civilian and military, Katelyn and the second shift crew had lost almost three hours of their training time.

  Tala left with Sub-Lieutenant Egan and the two of them headed for the local bicycle shop. She found exactly what she was looking for and had Egan load it into his SUV, with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the vehicle. Then, just as she was about to climb back in the SUV, she looked across the street and saw something that made her heart go ca-thump, ca-thump. She slammed the SUV door and headed across the street. There in the showroom window of the KTM dealership was a brand new KTM 690 Duke. She headed inside and climbed aboard, much to the salesman nervousness, as she could only get one foot on the ground with the 3
1 inch seat height. Tala reached into her wallet and handed the man a credit card, having him charge the entire amount of 4500 GBP for the Motorcycle and 600 GBP for a new Shoei Helmet. He hesitated at first, looking at the very young girls appearance, then he took another look at the credit card with the name, Princess Tala Verron, with a Red Dragon seal of the Nation of Verron. He showed the card to his manager who quickly opened a website full of pictures of the Verron Royal Visit. It was covered with pictures of the little redhead now sitting on the motorcycle in their show room. He soon had her sign the receipt and handed her an advertisement for a track-day at Phillips Island the following weekend. She looked at the paper then added a set of leathers, riding boots, gloves and chest and spine protector. Lieutenant Egan put all her extra purchases in his SUV and followed her back to the beach house, as she rode her new KTM.

  As soon as Lieutenant Egan dropped her off and she changed into her jeans, denim jacket and knee high boots, Tala took off to see Sydney. From Watson down Rose Bay, then to Darling Point, through town to the famous Opera House and then off across the Cahill Expressway to see North Sydney. It was getting pretty late by the time she decided to start back and finally rolled into the garage at 11:20 to a worried Petty Officer Sloan and Katelyn. Tala was grinning from ear to ear and ignored their scolding looks. Once Sloan realized that Katelyn was mostly concerned and not upset, he suggested, “What say, tomorrow I grab me bike and show ya the good places to ride?” Both Tala and Katelyn looked at him in surprise. He seemed so reserved and conservative; they couldn’t imagine him riding a motorcycle. He could tell they were questioning him and added, “I’ll ride slow for ya. No way that little thing will keep up with me Gixer.” Tala gave him a challenging look and declared, “Well, that will depend on where we ride, now won’t it. With all the straight, flat roads around here, it would be a shame if you couldn’t out run my little 690. But I’ll cook dinner tomorrow night if you can beat me through the twisties.” Katelyn quickly joined the conversation and added, “If you’re smart you’ll let her win, I’ve eaten her cooking before.”