THE VROL TRILOGY

by SK Benton

  Max was about to respond, but was interrupted by a substantial thump on the floor. Sitting up quickly, they both noticed that Liliana had rolled off the bed. Max scrambled to the front of the bed and peered over the edge - where Liliana was on the floor, still asleep and still snoring.

  "Wow, she's out cold," he said. "I'm gonna put he in her room. Be right back," he finished with a devious grin. Jennie smiled and wiggled her eyebrows, and as soon as Max dropped down to the floor and popped out of view, Jennie ran to the sink and furiously brushed her teeth, getting the taste of hamburger out of her mouth.

  I think I'll take my time getting to the office today.

  A couple of hours later, the pair walked into the main dining hall, where Bagatelle was eating his breakfast, accompanied by Jessica, Gabriel, Michael and Clarisa.

  "Morning, Max, Jen. Slept well?" asked the former rear admiral.

  The couple looked at each other and smirked, and after Max kissed his mother on the cheek they all sat down together, passing on breakfast, and instead only drinking their beloved yerba mate.

  "So, when Draagh shows up let's discuss how we can get the new comms made and installed in your agents," said Max.

  "Yeesh, Max. Installed - that sounds so… impersonal, but I get the idea," laughed Bagatelle.

  "What do you guys mean - installed? What comms are you talking about?" asked Jennie.

  "We're going to make techno-organic speakers that are implanted into the cochlea of the user's ear. Then, on an awesome suggestion by G, we'll put the activation switch right here," Max explained, as he held up his hand and pushed his thumb into the middle of his first finger.

  "Oh, so will the comms be telepathic?" asked Jessica.

  "No, sadly we can't do that. Most agents are normals, and even if they had recessive lycan genes, we couldn't activate them or they'd go nuts during Azul's two-day full moons," Bagatelle informed the cute lycan woman from an alternate timeline. "They will need to speak, albeit in a whisper, but they'll hear communications inside their heads, through their inner ears. It's the next best thing. Plus, the devices will be untraceable, and won't use electromagnetic wavelengths for signal transference."

  "Nice. I'll pretend I understood all that," quipped Jessica, with a certain amount of self-effacing humor.

  Ok, then. Let's all get to our tasks. G and I are going to the old guy's office. Gabriel, are you coming with us?"

  The archangel nodded and got up to go to his father's quarters. Max kissed his wife, and then looked down at her left hand. He hadn't noticed before - she was wearing his mother's wedding ring.

  "Jen, how did you - when did you?" he stammered, looking over at his mother.

  "Oh, Maxie, I thought it was about damned time. Your father, well, Charles - he died years ago and I simply have no use for it. It is where it belongs now," Clarisa said with a huge, warm smile, as she scooted over and kissed her daughter-in-law on the cheek.

  "Ok, sounds good to me!" he responded, but then looked down at his own ring finger, which was without any ornamental jewelry. Quickly, he smiled, spun his hand around, much like a magician of old and said, "Ta-da!" and was displaying a simple wedding band made of gold.

  "I want all of the ladies to know that I'm taken. You know, it is tough getting hit on all the time and stuff…"

  "Oh shut up, you dork!" Jennie jokingly scolded him, slapping his posterior as he passed by to go to start his day.

  ###

  Max, Bagatelle, Gabriel and Michael sat in Draagh's study as the old mage rummaged through books and scrolls, apparently searching for something. They were there to formulate a plan to eliminate the barges, or at least make it impossible for any retrofitting of FTL hook drives to be possible.

  "We'll need to first make sure that Johnson can't jump on a military vessel and flee," said Bagatelle.

  "He's a coward for sure, so it's the first thing he would do. Damned vamps - even when they're inactive they're dicks," Max added, secretly wanting to be the one to remove Johnson from power. "G, you need to make sure that none of these ship captains are in Johnson's pocket. They have to be 100% against him."

  "I can't read minds, Max. All I can do is trust."

  "There is something we can do," said Gabriel. "Although we do not have the time to sit around and spy on personal thoughts, we can determine individual subspecies."

  "Such as?" asked Bagatelle.

  "It is rather easy to see if one is normal, lycan or vampire. If vampire then you simply do not trust, as they have a genetic propensity to band together and subconsciously protect the interests of their own."

  "Yes, then we simply eliminate them with extreme prejudice," added Michael.

  "What? Kill them? Just like that?"

  "They will ally with each other in order to murder entire worlds, G," said Max.

  "Ok, I understand, but what about the families on the barges? They have trackers and removing the devices will throw off alarms. So Gabriel said we'll take them here instead of Vera Base."

  "That's the idea. However, we'll need to go and analyze the families also. Any vampire-potentials will need to go elsewhere. Probably Old-Earth."

  "Why would they need to go there?"

  "If we take them here they will turn to their natural state, Luigi," said Draagh.

  "And they would be enemies of mankind," Michael stated emotionlessly.

  "But can't we take them here just for a bit, and then put them back on Azul when we're done? There's no magic or anything on Azul, so they'll go back to the way they were, right?"

  "Well, yes and no, my dear boy. Yes and no. You see, once they have been activated, their bodies shall enter into their natural state of being in a permanent battle against rot and decomposition. The only things that keep vampires alive are what Max lovingly refer to as salubots - or health particles. After this change has been made, to take them back to Azul would in essence be a death sentence. As the salubots are not attuned to their particular frequency, there would be nothing to hold their rotting bodies together. They would die in a matter of days," Draagh stated quite eloquently.

  "They would decompose, then?" Bagatelle queried.

  "Precisely," Gabriel affirmed, completely emotionless.

  "We should have eliminated that subspecies millennia ago," Michael said menacingly. He was starting to get back into the swing of being the Taxiarch.

  "After seeing what Len Johnson is capable of, I would have to agree with Michael," said Bagatelle.

  "I disagree. Look at Hollywood where I was stranded. The vampires there are actually nice, and the lycans are the assholes. Why the paradox? There is a difference," said Max.

  "An aberration - an alternate timeline where things merely worked out that way," said Gabriel.

  "I have an idea," Max said excitedly. "Let's take them to Lima, Peru. There's a lot of housing and no one to bother them. They won't be able to get back or make any trouble. No magic particles, and we can give them plenty of supplies. It's humane. And man, they have kids. I can't kill kids."

  Draagh looked around and all seemed to be in agreement.

  "Very well then, as soon as we determine which of Luigi's friends are lovers of death, if any indeed are, we shall export them, along with the families occupying the barges to Lima, Peru."

  "First, we scan the ship captains."

  ###

  "Luigi Bagatelle felt odd, standing on the command deck of the ADF (Azul Defense Forces) Ronald Reagan. The starship was the second largest in the fleet, after the Revolution, and it was commanded by Captain Lars Jorgensen. Knowing no one could detect his presence, he looked at Max, who was his escort, providing camouflage cover, and asked, via comm, if his friend was a vampire.

  "So, is he a blood-sucker? I'd hate to see that."

  "Nope. He's completely normal. Not even mage-potential," stated Max.

  Moving on to the next craft, the ADF George Washington, the two started on the flight deck, examining the Draeders. Max got in close and examined one of the craft, not
ing familiar-looking retrofitted machinery.

  "G, I think we have a problem here."

  "What's that?"

  "These Draeders have been retrofitted with hook drives."

  "Well, if any Johnson loyalists get ahold of any of these it could mean big trouble."

  "I'll fix it. Hang on a sec."

  Max was serious when he said he would fix it. He invented the hook drive, and consequently knew how to temporarily disable it too. He merely reversed a critical component inside one of the hook stanchions. It wouldn't result in anything fatal - it would simply make the hook drive non-functional. That is, until Max fixed it. He then went and examined every Draeder in the ship, and finding twelve more with hook drives, did the same thing for each one. Then, slipping up to the command deck with Bagatelle, they invisibly spied on Captain Nigel St. Amand.

  "Normal. Plain-old white bread human," said Max, much to Bagatelle's relief. "Let's go back to the Reagan and check the Draeders."

  Slipping back to the first craft, they went straight to the flight deck and looked over the craft. Fortunately, none of them had hook drives, so the two shot over to the Constellation. First checking the flight deck, they again found no Draeders with hook drives, and then, analyzing the captain, found he was also simply a normal, just like the others.

  "You know, G, something is odd. Why does only the George Washington have Draeders with hook drives? Who would install them there? It just seems wrong."

  Bagatelle thought for a second, going over the crew manifests in his mind. Suddenly, he snapped his fingers and grabbed Max's arm.

  "Max, take me to the Washington. We need to check something out."

  The two found themselves back on the command deck, where Cpt. St. Amand was going over standard checklists with his first officer.

  "Max, scan the first officer for extra-genetics."

  "Yup. He's recessive vampire," said Max. "Good call, G."

  "Let's check out all of the officers," suggested Bagatelle.

  Finding that nearly every single officer on the George Washington had recessive vampire genes, they figured it was a sure bet that the entire ship was in Johnson's pocket.

  "How the hell do these guys know who they are? It can't be that much of a coincidence. Johnson obviously placed them all on this ship. This is odd," said Max.

  "Those of like genetics find each other. It is an innate ability," said Gabriel, totally shocking the two, as he had slipped to their side without first notifying them.

  "Really?" responded Max.

  "Yes, of course. When you went seeking a mate, did you look for a chimpanzee, or an attractive female? Despite the fact that your wife is a spectacular physical specimen, you were actually even more attracted to her due to the fact that she was dega and lycan. It is nature, my nephew. If she were vampire, no matter her beauty, you would have been revolted by her presence."

  "Well then, how do you explain the fact that Jennie was dating Ryder Johnson, an inactive vampire?" Max asked.

  "Did you not earlier state that she was rather shallow, and very much wanted to marry for status? That could have been enough of a factor to override her revulsion. Plus, did she not kill the fiend in hand-to-hand combat?"

  "Ok, Gabe, yes she was pretty into herself, and I follow what you mean, but every officer aside from the captain on this ship is vamp. What do we do? We can't kidnap them, but they'll most certainly cause all sorts of chaos when the proverbial ka-ka hits the fan," said Max.

  "They must die, son," said Michael, who had also just slipped in.

  "Oh hey, Mike. Um, that's kinda harsh, isn't it?"

  "My son, let me ask you this. When you first encountered the hybrid experimental human in Los Angeles, what happened?"

  "That Kylen thing? Well, I killed him."

  "Yes, but what happened before you killed him? You hesitated and a child lost her life. Am I not correct?"

  "…yes…" Max thought softly, remembering the poor child. He hesitated, and someone's life was snuffed out in a most disgusting and perverse manner. "They must die so that others will live."

  "Yeah Max, I have to agree. But how do we do it without being obvious?" Bagatelle wondered.

  "We shall suggest to the captain that his officers need to go on a retreat for training on new systems. As the ship is on stand-down, there would be no issue with him sending them all out in a shuttle," Michael surmised.

  "And then? What do we do?"

  "Destroy the shuttle," said Gabriel.

  "Hey! Why can't we just appear in front of Johnson and tell him everything, tell everyone in the system. Reveal our presence and rally everyone to fight the Vrol? I can't believe I'm following along with this super-secret angel stuff," Max complained.

  "We cannot, Max. It would cause society to unravel. Mankind is comfortable in its ignorance. Plus, Jah forbade it. We must forever be invisible to normals. Even interacting with the enhanced was always frowned upon," said Michael.

  "Is that why you left Mom? You really did love her, didn't you?"

  Michael became completely silent, and looked over at his brother who was shaking his head lightly.

  "That, my son, is something I do not wish to discuss at this time."

  Max stared his father down, giving him a less-than-kind expression.

  "But perhaps I will confide in you one day, my son," said Michael, leaving the door open to more information down the line.

  "Let's get over to the Revolution," said Max, slipping himself and Bagatelle over, where Michael and Gabriel joined them.

  "Max, we have a problem. A big problem," said Michael.

  "Um, what's that?"

  "The captain of this vessel is an active vampire. He's been modified."

  "How can that be? Who could have done that?" asked Bagatelle.

  "One of many. It could have been my uncle, Marnn - he enjoyed tinkering. It could have been one of the Grigori, rebellious ones of our kind. There was never such a thing as a demon - just bad angels. I personally awoke Janice Wong, so that she could be your caretaker right after you were born," Michael informed the young lycan/archangel.

  "Ok, so we stick him on the same shuttle as the officers from the Washington," said Max.

  "No, much too obvious. He will need to suffer from a malady," said Gabriel.

  "Like what?" asked Max.

  Before he could speak further, alarms sounded on the ship. A medic team was called to the command deck over the intercom, and the group of four merely slipped to the command deck where all the commotion originated.

  Medics were pouring over the ship's captain, a particularly malignant individual named Herman Smith, whom Bagatelle never cared for in the least.

  "It appears he had an aneurism, sir. He's dead," the corpsman informed the second in command, who was fortunately a normal. The ship would be under the command of a non-vampire, at least for the time being.

  "Wow, Gabe, really? An aneurism? Just like that?"

  "Well, you don't believe Stalin naturally died of a cerebral hemorrhage, so you?"

  "You killed Joseph Stalin?" Max asked, totally surprised.

  "No. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage. I simply poked his brain a bit," the archangel said with a touch of a smile on his lips.

  "Good - one vamp down. Let's check the Draeders," said Bagatelle, not feeling any remorse for the death of an officer he despised.

  Down on the flight deck they again found a number of Draeders that had been retrofitted with hook drives. Max performed the same undetectable modifications on them, stripping all of their faster-than-light capabilities.

  Finishing with that, they all left and went to Vera Base, where Pandy and Jessica were testing out the training equipment in the gymnasium. The base had turned out looking less like caverns carved out of rock, and more like modern facilities with smooth walls, proper lighting and doors.

  "Hello, Jessica. How has your day been?" asked Gabriel as he approached his lycan friend, who was turning out more and more to be closer to a girlfrie
nd than a mere platonic acquaintance.

  "Heya Gabe. We're doing great. Are you fellas hungry? The commissary has elk stew. It's super yummy."

  Sitting down at a lunch table, the six engaged in light conversation, Max being the most inquisitive.

  "So Pandy, are you liking it here? Do you miss Sins at all?"

  "Max, it's great. I'm not missing a thing. Just one thing I'm not looking forward to."

  "What's that, little one?" he inquired.

  There's a full moon in the Rhönen in four days. Krynos said we can't simply pop around the universe and avoid it. We have to start being real lycans, as he says."

  "Yeah, I hear it's gonna totally suck," said Jessica.

  "It's not really that bad. Don't worry. And each time it happens there's a chance you maintain some sentience. I look at it as kind of a game," said Bagatelle, attempting to make the girls feel at ease.

  "We shall be there with you, young Pandy. Worry not. You shall have our protection," said Gabriel, while looking at Jessica with a mild grin.

  "You know, we should really try something. You girls have been inoculated with the anti-protein inhibitor that Draagh synthesized out of my blood after my time in L.A. G managed to change to phase 2.5. If you can do that you may have a chance at getting a better handle on your transformation. I did last night, in Old-Earth of 2020, when we went to get the hamburgers," said Max.

  "Yeah, and smooth move, genius commander. You failed to check the moon phase charts," said Bagatelle jokingly.

  "True - luckily Draagh went and did an area memory wipe before fixing the restaurant and going off to the zoo-bar. Otherwise there could have been a serious time paradox, resulting in a split thread from that reality," said Max.

  "But what about the people on the bicycles? Won't they also remember, Max?"

  "Nope. It was Halloween, so everyone was dressed up in all kinds of outfits. They thought I was wearing an awesome costume."

  "Huh? What's Halloween?" asked Pandy.

  Max then spent the rest of the lunch hour explaining not only Halloween, but also numerous other Old-Earth western holidays to the girls.