Just after Paul had made his arrangements with his brother to attend to the needs of the man and his family, he saw the real reason he was hanging around the travel center arrive through the gateway. A casually dressed Robin Meade and her husband Tim Yeager came through the gateway accompanied by a three man, actually two men and one woman, camera crew. He waited until they were processed through the gateway by the black android with bright pink hair and swirls of gold adorning her perfect skin. The cyborg baggage-handler easily carried their luggage and headed toward the exit door. Robin and Tim had been invited as guests of King Verron to be the first reporter on Verron and he had promised her an exclusive interview with King Verron himself. They had never expected the man to greet them alone at the travel center. At first Robin didn’t recognized him without his commando gray uniform and dragon cap. Then when she realized the man in the black Wranglers and Honda T-shirt was King Verron, a big smile came on her face, saying, “You’re a man full of surprises. We never expected this.” Turning to Tim she added, “This is my husband Tim. Tim, this is King Paul Verron.”
She had said that last line just a bit louder than Paul had wanted. People were already staring at the pretty newswoman and her travel companions and they quickly began to snap pictures of Paul and a few greeted him with a hand-shake or a positive comment. He was courteous to everyone, but had no desire to stick around and greet thousands of tourists. He responded to Robin with, “Up until a minute ago I had gone completely unnoticed dressed like this. How about we get out of here; do you have any additional luggage?”
Robin pointed at one last piece of luggage that looked like a trunk on rollers. Paul grabbed it off the luggage transport and rolled it toward the door. Instead of the shuttle service to the various hotels in town, the Dragon Wagon arrived just as they were exiting the terminal. Metsis was sitting in the pilot’s seat and Lydia stepped out of the side door to greet her passengers. Robin had been following the story of the two children adopted from the refugees in Syria and turned to Paul, asking, “Is this who I think it is?” Lydia answered for him, “My name is Lydia and it’s alright to ask me. I am a member of the Dragon Guard and speak 23 languages. I believe I’ll understand your questions.” Paul was a bit shocked by Lydia’s terse comment, but realized she did not want to be identified as some poor little orphan girl; she now had her own identity and was proud of it. Paul turned to Robin and informed her, “Lydia is a citizen of Verron and not of Iraq. She prefers to be acknowledged for who she is, not what she was.” Robin extended her hand to Lydia and replied, “I’d like to know more about what you’ve become.” Lydia just nodded her OK and boarded the ship to take the copilot seat. They lifted off from the square as Paul, grinned his mischievous grin, and told Robin and her husband, “The rooms are booked on Verron by actual paying customers. Since you’re not contributing to the revenue of our local economy I have made other arrangements for your stay.”
The ship headed out across Sabrina Bay toward Mountain City. The CNN crew’s eyes grew wide as the ship entered the big hanger on the lower level of the city. Metsis couldn’t resist playing tour guide, saying “Welcome to Mountain City, home of the Dragon Palace, residence of King Paul Verron.” Paul smiled and informed his guests, “You wanted exclusive, I can’t think of anything more exclusive than living in my home while you’re here. My home and the people in it are at your disposal.” They exited the ship into a hanger filled with a whirl of activity and dozens of life-forms, all greeting King Verron and his guest. They took the elevator up to the Mansion as cyborgs and drones took control of their luggage.
Exiting the elevator, they were greeted by the Queen Mother; then the sound of children laughing as two screaming MJs raced through the house being chased by Finley and his Burka, one running, the other flying in Burka’s arms. The Queen Mother yelled, “I told you two not to fly in the house, you’re going to break something.” She then turned backed to the fascinated guests and said, “Welcome to Verron, I hope you will enjoy being our guests.” Just as she was speaking to her guests, MJ2 began shouting, “Me too! Me too!” Finley wrapped his arms around his little playmate and leaped into the air following behind Burka and MJ as she flew up the wide staircase carrying her gleeful passenger. Paul turned to Robin and Tim and said, “As you can see, the Queen Mother is highly respected and receives unquestioned obedience from her subjects.” About that time there was a crash from the upstairs corridor. Everyone smiled as one of the MJs yelled, “It’s not broken Grandma-ma!” followed by a growling sound of, “So-ka gimma.” Paul looked at the puzzled expressions on Robin’s face and informed her, “Finley and Burka are actually married. I performed the ceremony myself. They are both extremely playful and the children adore them, and yes, that was one of them speaking from upstairs. They really speak very well and have a vocabulary equal to most 14 or 15 year-olds, but with a slight speech impediment. By the way, they live here in the Mansion, not as pets – as family. Before I show you two to your rooms and give you a tour of where you will be living for the next two weeks, let me introduce you to one other member of the family. Robin got excited and asked, “The Dragon!!! I heard President Hensley talking about it to someone at a press luncheon. So it really does exist?” Paul smiled and replied, “Dragons, unicorns, flying monkeys, and a herd of Wooly Mammoth, perfectly normal on Verron.” The Queen Mother said a polite good-day and headed up the stairs to see what had fallen as Paul escorted his guests to the terrace.
By the time they arrived, Finley, Burka and the MJs were wrestling around all over Zeus and trying to hide from each other under or on-top of his wings. Zeus looked up as the six people entered the terrace. Robin paused in utter disbelief as she looked at a creature over 100 feet long curled-up in one corner of the large terrace. Paul escorted her closer and told her, “Your fear will go away if you touch him.” She hesitantly reached over to pet his extended snout, pulling back in amazement. Then reached over and touched him again with a big smile on her face. She turned to Tim and pulled him over to Zeus and placed his hand on the dragon for him and held it there. The two conversed with Zeus for nearly twenty minutes before they finally decided they needed to find their rooms and get settled. As they were leaving the terrace, Paul introduced the group from Earth to Finley, Burka and the MJs. She got hugs from all four.
For the next half-hour King Paul Verron escorted his guest through the Mansion to familiarize them with where they would be living for the next two weeks. A large part of the time was spent admiring the views of the Alicia Falls and Sabrina Bay on one side of the Mansion and the Robert’s Range on the other. When Paul told them that the mountains were actually hundreds of miles away and what they were seeing was the 80,000 foot Mt. Alene and the tops only of the remaining 40 to 70 foot mountains, the photographers of course had to take pictures. And Zeus, in a rare moment of pride, swept by low over the trees in the valley, affording the camera crew a rare opportunity to film him in flight. Paul informed them that everyone took their meals in the large eating area off the kitchen that had a mountain view and overlooked the valley below. He let them know that it was open 24-7 and there was almost always someone there eating or cooking. As they entered the kitchen, at what was lunch time on Verron, Robin, Tim and the news team were greeted by the staff members who took most of their meals there. Zimuel and Tlase were the first to stand and greet Robin, with Tlase saying, “I apologize for my daughter’s rudeness. She told me about it and was upset at herself for being so short with you. She is now Lydia Xhondar and proud to have one of the oldest and most respected names in the Universe. She’s really not arrogant; she just refuses to identify with the hungry and abused child that arrived here two years ago. We’ll take you to the settlement where the refugees chose to settle. You’ll find that none of them consider themselves to be Iraqi, Syrian or Kurdish, they all consider themselves Verronian. None of them wants to dig up their past. Verron is a place filled with second chance stories, from King Verron on down.” Lydia came over beside her moth
er and added, “Metsis and I will be flying you around Verron while you’re here. I’ll be glad to talk about what has happened to me and my brother since we left Earth. And I’ll even be nice about it.”
Robin and her crew were invited to have a bite to eat as they sat down at the table with Inga, Zimuel, Tlase, Xhing Li, Gljarne, Michael Verron, Alene Verron, General Zarman, General Hall, Jill Morgensson, Renee Verron, Finley, Burka, both MJs and of course Uduak, Metsis and Lydia. Also present were some of the less frequent diners, Gail Morton, Paul’s first wife, Professor Gohanna Gznor from Alpha Centauri, Chief Tu Lyncardi, eating a bowl of Peanut M&Ms for lunch, Jesserrica Zhdanov and Eu Meh. Tlase saw the questioning looks on Robin’s face and told her, “When we first arrived on Verron there were only three people in this place, me, my husband Zimuel and Paul. Soon we were joined by Pavel “99” Verron, who had lived here for several hundred years before we arrived. Now there are always people buzzing through this place at all hours of the night and day. It may look like a palace, but life here is more like a large family instead of a group of employees, and we definitely have a lot of variety, wait till you see the Klelta and meet Cali and Camil.” Robin asked, “Isn’t that the giant, the cat-woman and the one that, last time I saw her, looked like Brook Shield? I at first wondered what Brook Shield was doing on a Verron space ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.” Alene Verron leaned over to Robin and whispered, “They keep telling people that they will get use to the things that happen here, I was one of the first people to come here after my son and I’m still not use to it.”
After a lunch of home-cooked Southern-style chicken-fried-chicken, hash-brown casserole, sweet young carrots, green-beans and turnip-greens, Chief Tu offered the pretty lady some of his M&Ms. She graciously accepted them and was then invited to visit Molnar. Michael laughed, saying, “Chief Tu, you don’t have to give every visitor to Molnar a bag of shiny rocks or centipedes. If Ms. Meade comes to visit it will be to take pictures and see the wonderful people who live there. It’s OK, to let her leave empty handed.” Chief Tu didn’t quite get the implications of what Michael was saying and left the table with Finley, Burka and Renee. Finley and Burka, just because they had become friends, Renee because she had some business to discuss with the little Chief who really didn’t realize that he and the Lyncardi were very wealthy and Renee was looking for ways to make him even richer. After they left, Paul turned to Robin and smiled saying, “Aren’t you glad that my nephew saved you from having to politely receive a bag of squirming centipedes, which actually taste pretty good. Tim responded by saying, “Robin can’t even tolerate a few bugs, she would panic over centipedes big enough to eat.” Gail Morton, quickly added, “I know Robert will sure be glad. He’s still counting the last few bags of precious stones from when Tala and Brad went to visit them.” Robin looked up questioningly, Paul finished with a grin, “Now Gail, you know someone like Robin has no need for a few million dollars-worth of shiny rocks. Why, I bet CNN pays her in uncut emeralds, diamonds and rubies and it would be such a bother to have to deal with more.” Robin held up her hand for the others to let her speak, saying, “You mean my M&M eating little friend would give me a bag of jewels if I come visit him?” Tlase jumped in, saying, “Don’t forget the bag of centipedes and grubs that usually go along with it.” Paul then explained the tradition of the Lyncardi children who played with shiny rocks and gave them to the visitors to Molnar that they liked. To them, they were pretty toys with no real value. They did use gold-nuggets as a method of barter, but placed higher value on grubs, centipedes and mushrooms than the rocks.”
Michael informed them, “Ever since we began relations with them we have been filling the vaults with gold and jewels from Molnar. Between that, the centipedes, grubs and mushrooms that often sell for $100.00 pound, they have become very wealthy. Now we are mining salt, TIO2 and Titanium on their planet. They have no concept of wealth and freely give away jewels. My Uncle does not like for us to take advantage of them, so he puts everything in the Molnar Treasury and uses their funds for making improvements to their planet and for their defense. I’m certain you will be given a chance to visit.”
Paul spent the next hour escorting them around Mountain City to see the indoor recreation areas, food court, shopping and even the executive offices, where Inga was now back at work setting King Paul’s schedule for the next few days. When they finished, he took all five members of the CNN team upstairs to their suites. He turned to Robin and her husband and asked, “Mountain view or ocean view?” Tim replied ocean – Robin at the same time replied Mountain.” Paul shook his head and informed them, “How about ladies first. We’ll put you in a mountain side room for the first week and an ocean view room the second week. We’ll rotate the rest of you as well.” He led them to a set of big ornate double doors and opened them to reveal a suite that was almost as large as her apartment in Atlanta. It was still in the original Xhondarian design, filled with lush woods and cultured stones, thick rugs and very modern styled furniture. When Paul said, “window” the heavy curtains slid aside to reveal windows sixteen feet high overlooking the mountains and lush valley behind Mountain City. Paul informed them, “You will probably get a good bit of use from the curtains. Just remember, our days are 36 hours and it rarely gets completely dark. It may take a little time for your bodies to adjust. We’ll have dinner about 7:30. I thought I’d take you someplace special to eat, away from the Mansion. You’ll be spending enough time here; I want you to see the rest of the Verron. Just meet me in the foyer at 7:30 and we’ll see if we can’t find someplace interesting for you to dine.”
Paul then left with the rest of the news crew, who expected to receive rooms of a considerably lower quality than Robin Meade’s. They were totally blown away when their rooms were just as impressive as their bosses. Paul told them, “If you need anything, just speak it. The palace computer system and the droids will supply anything you need. Please don’t be alarmed if a small robot or droid suddenly appears in your room. They are what keep’s this place going.” Paul walked over and wadded up a piece of stationary that was sitting on a workstation in the room, throwing it to the floor. As the news crew watched, a little housekeeping drone came through an opening under a table and snatched it off the ground, looked around the room for more and then disappeared. Paul smiled, and told them, “Don’t get upset if your clothes disappear. When you shower, just throw everything on the floor. It will be returned cleaned, pressed or neatly folded. You should see the ones in the kitchen. Your other two rooms are to the left and right of this one. You don’t have to bunk together. See you at 7:30.” Paul turned to leave and as he exited, told them, “And, no, you cannot take one home with you.” All three smiled, that was exactly what they had been thinking.
Paul was already standing in the foyer wearing a pair of black Dockers, a thin redish-orange pullover, a pair of Nike hiking boots and leather Bomber Jacket. He pointed to the foyer closet and told them, “If you don’t already have something with you for a bit colder temperature, please help yourself to anything in the closet. Tim and one of the crew rushed back to their rooms to get the coats they had brought along. The other two crew members checked out the closet. As soon as everyone was properly dressed, they took the elevator to the hanger. Benny Barry and his wife Litta, General Zarman and his wife Barbara, Dr. Joe Verron and wife Sharon, Marcus Verron and his wife Danyel and Vlad and Jesserrica were already at the Dragon Wagon, accompanied by a beautiful Eu Meh, who was Paul’s escort for the evening. This evening, Paul would be doing the flying, Metsis and Lydia would be busy enough over the next couple of weeks as the news crew visited Verron and her sister planets. Taking an exit route across the bay and viewing the rainbow that formed every evening about this time over the falls, Paul then turned back across the forests and headed in a Northwestern direction and the Robert’s Range. He kept his flight low enough to give a good view of the forests, lakes and rivers below as he headed for their dinner destination. From this lower vantage poi
nt, the approaching mountains could not be comprehended. They were beyond belief to even to those who had traveled the Alps, Himalayas and the Rockies. Instead of going over the tall wall of mountains, Paul headed west along the face and just above the much smaller 6 to 10,000 foot foothills. He turned due north through a wide river pass and entered a valley on the other side. The view was breathtaking. It reminded those on board of a cross between St. Moritz and Megere. There were some of the most challenging ski slopes in this valley that any of them had ever seen; the village of Saint Litta bore the name of the woman from Switzerland who had inspired Benny Barry’s design. Paul informed his passengers. “This valley was carefully chosen by dozens of my French, Swiss and Norwegian residents, several of whom are former Olympians and ski instructors. Benny designed everything you see; in fact he designed everything in Capital City and pretty much everywhere else on Verron.
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