THE VROL TRILOGY (141 page)

Max thought for a moment and decided he would
never ask her about the mechanics of their growing relationship
again. It was a stupid thing to do. It was ridiculous because they
were meant to be, and there was no sense in agonizing over
minutiae. He just had one single questions left before he would let
it rest forever.

"Yeah baby. You're right. I am glad. Can I
just ask one more thing, and I promise I'll never ask again? Shit,
I sound so insecure."

"Oh my god, love, you can ask me as many
times as you like. I really don't mind. I think it's sweet. What
would you like to know?"

"When was the moment when you knew, one
hundred percent, that you loved me?" Max looked at his wife, his
lover, his eternal flame, bearing an expectant gaze, only wishing
for honesty, and she responded without hesitation.

"In Vladros' dungeon, after I was kidnapped.
When you handed me my katana. I felt an energy surge through my
body. No… wow, it was actually before you handed me the sword. I
saw you, your face. Your beautiful, angelic face and at that moment
I knew I wanted to see it every day, every morning, every night,
for the rest of my life. Then, when you handed me the sword it was
almost as if I had… signed a contract with my soul. I was yours,
baby."

Max smiled and tried to keep from tearing up.
He knew she loved him, but her explanation was more than he
expected. However, what came next absolutely blew him away.

"But when did you know you loved me, Max?
Crushes are one thing, but when… did you really know?"

Max always knew. He just never thought she
would ask him, so low was his sense of self when he compared
himself to his wife.

"The first time you called me by my given
name, love - during our mock battle. You called me Max. I knew, at
that moment, that I was yours forever, even if you had chosen
another."

"Max! That's kinda kinky!"

"I don’t mean it that way, Jen. What I mean
is that I was dedicated to your happiness and well-being forever,
once you had considered me as a person by using my first name. From
that moment on your life was more important to me than my own.
That's my definition of love."

Jennie's eyes grew wide as she stared deeply
into those of her husband. Max's love for her had surprisingly
matched her own. The young hybrid had no idea the depth of Jennie's
love for him. He was clueless in that aspect, as she was of his at
the same time.

"Sweetie, let's put it this way. I would
throw myself onto a sword to preserve your life."

Max looked at his life-mate, flabbergasted,
but brought back his own response.

"Jennie - if you did that, I would use that
same sword to take my own life."

"Then, we are as one," she said.

"Yup. A
43
^rd
century Romeo and
Juliet," he sighed.

Jennie was his reason for being - his
essence. Jennifer Marie Escalante de Gunnarsson was his life's
meaning. Well, she and Liliana. With everything that had happened
to the young couple - Max's tragic disappearance, his fortunate
rescue and now the upcoming war, he had still not discussed
something with her - having a baby. They loved their adopted
daughter immensely, but he wanted more. Once the Vrol had been
vanquished he wanted to have another child.

"Love, how would you feel about having a baby
once we've taken care of business?" asked Max, giving Jennie a
hopeful look. He had no idea what to expect. Jennie was still a bit
arrogant about her appearance, and although she was lycan and had
massive healing capabilities, she might have believed a pregnancy
would affect her proportions. However, she just stared in his eyes
for a few seconds before rolling over on top of him.

"Liliana will need a little brother or
sister. I'm hoping it's a boy," cooed the beautiful dega.

"And I want another girl," replied Max.

"Another girl? Don't you want a male to carry
your legacy and surname?"

Max gazed in her eyes and kissed her deeply.
After softly running his tongue over hers for a few moments he
pulled back and smiled. "Baby, I love being surrounded by
beautiful, amazing women. And about the surname thing - if you
really think about it, it's only a way of identifying someone. It's
not even my genetic surname. Hell, I don't even know if I have
one."

"Oh my god, you're right! I never thought
about that. We should ask your father about it sometime."

Vera Base, Azul System

Seated at a tabletop console, Josh Mannheim
carefully analyzed, on four vid displays, the 36 lycans locked up
in a stifling dorm room. He had just given the automated food
dispensers a command to send lunch to the soldiers, and he thought
he would mix it up this time. Josh was a computer guy by nature,
and had performed a lot of tasks for the military (before his
defection), pushing computer applications to their limits. He
sought to break systems, and this time it was no different - except
for the fact that he was looking to break soldiers. He needed to
find and eliminate their weak points.

He sent a lunch of bok choi and sea cucumber.
He was sure the Samurai would enjoy the lunch, but he wanted to see
the Haida and Rhönen responses. They had tried virtually every
other way to antagonize the teams, but had failed on every attempt.
The only thing they had yet to do was to give them all a bunch of
alcohol and see if a brawl broke out.

Watching intently, he saw the Japanese dig
into their plates, while the others looked on with some
trepidation. Then a curious thing happened; a Samurai walked over
to a perplexed Haida and sat down, explaining the odd-looking food.
The Haida took a bite and let the flavor waft around in his mouth,
growing a pleasant look on his face. He then lightly elbowed a
Rhönen soldier to his left and nodded at the plate. The soldier
took a bite and chewed a bit, his face changing to a pleasant
expression. Suddenly, everyone was laughing and eating
heartily.

Compatibility was no longer an issue. These
men would fight and protect each other with their lives.

"Hey baby, how's the experiment coming
along?" asked Josh's wife.

"Hey love, all good. Been trying to get these
guys to start beating the crap out of each other, but it seems
blood is thicker than water."

"Huh? They're related?" asked the woman.

"Oh no, baby. It's just that they're all
lycans. They have an amazing genetic connection. I have a feeling
everything's gonna be alright."

Josh's wife, Becky, had brought him lunch as
she usually did every day. Josh was now a full lieutenant, having
been given a brevet promotion by Admiral Bagatelle, and was
assisting with various scientific and analysis aspects of
operations on Vera, while Becky was mainly worked with data entry.
She had been building a database of everyone involved in the
rebellion, which was critical to the effort. The database would
then be converted and made available via the Hub and through IFF
(identification friend or foe) eyepieces. These eyepieces, mostly
in the form of contact lenses (but some that resembled sunglasses),
would show the users who were friends and who were enemies, as well
as the heat signatures and genetic backgrounds of those they
viewed. This was so they could identify genetic vampires, Vrol (for
later), mages and normals.

"Well, I brought you choripan and kraut. You
really like sauerkraut, don't you, baby?"

"It's an acquired taste, hun, but yeah. I
like the flavor."

"Cool. Just… brush your teeth before going to
bed," laughed the young lieutenant female.

The two had been turned to lycans upon their
arrival to the Rhönen Dominion. It wasn't a planned thing, but Max
thought it would be a great idea, and a just reward for those so
dedicated to their efforts. They would be practically immortal, but
further, they had become much more physically attractive than they
had previously would have ever been.

They had also made intensive efforts in
learning Castilian Spanish, as they planned to retire in Nueva
Argentina once the Vrol war was won. Of course, Becky's friendship
with Jennie was strong as ever, even though the wife of the hybrid
was kept busy training troops in the Rhönen and raising her
precocious young daughter. However, Becky felt a special connection
to the young Gunnarsson, the girl even calling her
tía
(aunt), which made the woman
feel quite special.

"Josh, do you think we're going to win this
war… really?"

"Yeah, of course hun, why do you ask?"

"I dunno. Sometimes I feel so disconnected.
Sometimes it's like there's not gonna be a war at all."

"Love, that's you listening to Johnson and
his bullshit and you know it."

Becky grinned lightly and nodded. "Yeah,
you're right. The vamp's a total puke."

"Agreed. Hey! Mr. Draagh offered to disguise
us so we could have a night out on the town anywhere we like. What
do you say?"

"With you, baby? Anywhere. How about a double
date with Max and Jennie? Hell, we could go to a different
timeline, anywhere in the galaxy!"

"Serious? That would be way cool. I'd love to
get to know the Captain a bit more, anyway."

Josh quickly wolfed down his sandwich and
gave his wife a sly grin. "Um, I think I'm ready to brush my teeth.
How about a lunch break?"

Becky grabbed her husband's hand and
practically dragged him out of his chair, making a beeline to their
private quarters.

"Use some mouthwash too, sweetie."

Chapter 16 - Attack!

Admiral Luigi Bagatelle had waited far too
long, and his most trusted senior officer knew it. Jennie,
actually. Max was still reticent about attacking Azul System so
soon. They had only recently brought together dozens of troops from
the Rhönen Dominion, Saxman and Tokyo. It was certain they would
not try to murder each other, but he was still queasy about their
ability to actually function together on the field of battle. Azul
system had just experienced a double full moon, so they had five
weeks before the next phase 3 dilemma. Bagatelle figured if they
couldn't unify the Federal government in that amount of time they
had no chance against the Vrol anyway. They had already tricked
Coby Worthington, making him believe he would avoid his change the
phase 3, but instead locked him in a cage in a hidden location on
Azul and observed him.

He made a very docile werewolf, and remained
calm in his cell, licking himself repeatedly. However, he did have
near-sentience and would probably be able to roam free sooner than
most.

"Max, we have to move. Now."

"Admiral, I agree with you one hundred
percent, but I guess Max here is getting a little scared," said
Jennie.

"I am
not
getting scared, Jen. It's just. Well,
dammit. I'm a scientist, and I'm binary - black and white. Either
things work or they don't."

"Max, you need to understand," said
Bagatelle, "when entering into the theater of war, nothing is for
sure - like one of your equations. There's always room for error.
That's why you have to fight. If it were for sure, no one would
die. One side would win and the other would merely surrender."

Max looked at his wife, and then at his
commanding officer and sighed deeply, his head lowering slightly as
if in resignation. He knew he was wrong. But this was the new Max.
People had died due to his failure to act in the past. He wanted
people to live.

"Okay. I'm with you. Plus, my wife would kick
my ass if I kept arguing."

"You know it, sweetheart."

"And I'm your commanding officer. Even though
you could probably melt my brain with a thought."

"Brother, he could do much worse. Trust
me."

"
Basta
! Yes! I have awesome brain-melting powers,
but I would never do that to G. Admiral, what are your
orders?"

Bagatelle smirked and looked at his little
sister and her husband, knowing he was in the best of company. In
his previous life, the one before getting involved with Max, he
would have never allowed his subordinates to converse with him in
such a manner, but things had changed. They had changed immensely,
and he was now preparing to fight for Mankind's right to exist. He
just had to remove a bunch of self-serving jerkoffs first.

"We need to mobilize and take over the
rest of the military. We have nearly all the Navy, but only fifty
percent of ground forces. Still, I think they'll cooperate when
they see our impressive off-world contingency. And, can you tell me
- how
do
you melt
brains?"

"Microwave radiation cantus. Didn't you ever
take Home Ec class in secondary school?" asked Max.

"Actually I did. I got an A."

"It was my only C," added Jennie.

"Oh, that explains it," responded the lycan
captain, only to receive a glare from his gorgeous wife, who, if
she wanted to, could have married the richest man in the galaxy and
would have never had to worry about cooking for her entire life.
But instead, married the son of the Taxiarch and was made
near-immortal. Good choice.

"Baby! Your empanadas are super good. I
especially like the ones with spinach and cheese," pleaded Max,
knowing he had done a good job of pissing Jennie off.

"Yeah, whatever," she said. "Brother, tell us
what you need and we're on it."

"Very well. First, we need your
grandfather."

###

Candles flickered in Draagh's castle office,
providing barely enough light for anyone to see. Except for the
fact that three of them were lycans (and one a Primulus) and had
excellent night vision.