THE VROL TRILOGY (17 page)

Bagatelle shot her a sharp glance,
causing her to stop mid-sentence.

"Don't… ever… call… me… that," to which
Jennie used her hand to make a little motion over her pursed lips,
like she was zipping them shut.

"I promise," she chimed.

Bagatelle gave her a warm gaze and
said, "Come back safe and I'll give you something you can call me
off duty - something much nicer than Luigi. I never liked that name
anyway."

Bagatelle and Draagh walked toward each
other, and when side-by-side Draagh said, "Jennie, Max, I'll be
back in a moment," and tapping his staff to the ground he produced
a small concussion wave, the two disappearing with a slight popping
sound.

Jennie stared aghast at where Draagh
and her commanding officer had been a second before, unwilling to
believe what she had just seen. Max gave her a wry smile while
wiggling his eyebrows.

"Told ya so."

"Shut up, Gunnarsson," she said, and
stomped off to the edge of some flora, acting as if she was looking
at flowers, but in reality hiding the fact that her eyes were
tearing up.

Draagh grabbed Bagatelle's arm to help
him balance. "Easy there, my good man. Are you well?" Bagatelle was
slightly disoriented, but saw they were next to his private
transport.

"How. Did. You?" he stammered as Draagh
gave him a wink.

"It is what I do. I am an observer and
sometimes a corrector, and I-"

Bagatelle put his hand up, interrupting
him and said, "Ok, you said that before. I am trusting you, old man
- with more than you know."

"Oh, I know," said Draagh, with a
thoughtful expression. "We'll bring Jennie back safe and sound.
Please prepare your fleet."

Bagatelle then turned away and entered his
transport.

Where Draagh had been only a minute
before, he was again, but sans Bagatelle. Jennie heard the pop of
his arrival, and turned around quickly, running over to where the
old mage stood.

"Is he ok?" she asked, with Draagh
looking at her with a kind expression.

"Why yes, my dear. Why wouldn't he
be?"

Max walked up to Draagh, gear bag in
hand, asking, "Ok, pops. Best we be on our way?"

Draagh paused for a moment and
affectionately surveyed the area. It was there where he met Max,
and later Jennie and Bagatelle. He looked forward to completing
their tasks and returning to retrieve the ship, even though, as he
had stated to Max earlier, they wouldn't need it.

The old mage walked out into the open
and beckoned the remaining two over to his location, giving them
instructions. "Now my children, we are going to go quite a distance
in space - and of course, in time."

They both looked at each other
quizzically, and then back at Draagh.

"So, you will need to follow my
instructions at all times. No matter where we go, we must stick
together. No running off to smell poop, do you
understand?"

Max and Jennie nodded their heads,
still looking slightly confused over the time comment, and more
than disgusted at the reference to poop, as Draagh continued, "The
energy generated by my staff will envelop this area in a 250 meter
radius, like a giant sphere. That is why I required Commander
Bagatelle to go to this ship - where he will see it all. Yes, yes
he will. Quite spectacular it will be."

Draagh set his staff on the ground, and
waved his hand out in front of him, causing a semi-transparent
infoscreen to appear. The new apparition astounded both Jennie and
Max. He appeared to type something into the data screen and waved
it off once finished. Then, holding his staff tightly, it began to
hum, with billions of glowing particles emanating around it,
flowing in circular motions, like a massive, slowly moving ribbon,
encircling them and growing ever wider, causing all of their hair
to rise as if defying gravity. As the power built up, they heard a
crackling sound, which immediately concerned Draagh.

"Draagh, Jennie, can you hear me? This
is Bagatelle. We have a Draeder coming in on your eleven." The
sound was barely audible, being masked by annoying amounts of
static.

Draagh looked at Jennie, and asked,
"Did you bring your communications device along too?"

Jennie nodded with a sheepish look while Max
grinned with some sort of satisfaction that the woman had done
something wrong.

"I am unable to stop the porting
process, or we will lose all coordinates, leaving us stuck in this
timeline until I can reestablish contact with Socrates. We must
continue."

Power in Draagh's staff built up, as a
Draeder came up and over Huayna Picchu, the main mountain behind
the ruins, and dropped down into the valley on a direct course for
their location.

"Oh crap! How did he find us?" screamed
Max, while Draagh kept concentrating on the slipping process, but
then looked at his two travel companions.

"Remember I told you that when I
started this process we would be visible? Well… We are visible! Ok,
hold on, children!"

Lt. Johnson saw his targets and had
already decided to kill them, but like any opportunistic predator
he first wanted to play with his prey. He made a full circle around
Huayna Picchu and came in; intent on strafing them low, just for
fun. Johnson didn't notice that as he approached them, a large
charge of lightning shot up from Draagh's staff, with a massive
ball of energy surrounding the group. Bagatelle was standing on the
precipice and looking down, finding himself pushed back by the
energy sphere. Watching helplessly as the massive globe swallowed
them up, the sphere started to shrink, the lone Draeder entering
the energy field at the same exact moment that everything
disappeared.

Chapter 11
- Welcome to
Future-Past

No one ever feels anything
when in a 4D slip. They are standing there one moment, and then
suddenly the entire environment changes and they are somewhere -
and
somewhen
-
else.

Max had barely blinked, and found
himself in an open, grassy field, where he heard the deafening roar
of Johnson's Draeder scream overhead, going directly for the nearby
forest and vanishing from sight. Moments later there was a loud
explosion, which apparently signaled the end of Lt. Ryder
Johnson.

"Gunnarsson! Draagh's down!" Jennie
screamed, as they both dropped to the old mage's position. He was
on his back, staring up at the sky with a confused expression on
his face.

"Oh my, oh my. This is not good,"
Draagh groaned, as he attempted to get back up to his
feet.

The youths each took an arm and gently
lifted him up, with Jennie asking, "Draagh, how do you feel? Are we
ok? What did you mean?"

The old mage looked around, slightly
dazed and said, "It seems that we had an unwanted passenger. Oh no,
this is not good at all. I will need a moment to recoup myself, and
we can then go find him."

These direct 4D slips are becoming more
difficult. I believe I must rely more on The Hub from here on
out.

Max looked over at the small mushroom
cloud that was growing deep in the forest and said, "Um, Draagh, we
don't have to worry about that fellow. He went boom."

Jennie also watched the rising mushroom
cloud, but was not as sure as Max that Johnson had perished in the
apparent crash. They waited for a few minutes, and then headed over
and into the dark, foreboding forest to the north, each supporting
one of the old mage's arms.

In the chaos that ensued due to their
odd and uncalculated arrival, neither Max nor Jennie initially
noticed a change, but as the minutes went by they both started
feeling different. Better. As they were both of the same subspecies
they started to notice similar changes. Their hearing had already
improved - they could hear birds chirping, the crackling of fire at
the crash site, insects crawling on the ground, and many other
things they would have never noticed during their lives on Azul.
The one thing they were sure of was that they heard the sound of
footsteps, running away at high speed. Jennie immediately
ascertained that this was Johnson fleeing his wreckage. She was
sure he had survived the crash. Max turned to Jennie with a
concerned look, his face denoting that he heard the same things.
Draagh appeared to have recovered from his earlier stupor and
studied his surroundings.

"Come, my children. Let us see if we
can find this most unwanted hitch hiker, as he certainly does not
belong here. If you do not mind, we will need to walk for a while,
as the time slip rather took a bit out of me." With that, they all
continued into the forest, toward the crash site.

Arriving at the smoldering wreckage,
they found no signs of life. Max squinted his eyes slightly and
found that his vision was vastly improved, easily seeing a shredded
parachute in a cluster of trees 200 meters away. He then made a
sound, reminiscent of a growl and pointed in the direction of the
chute.

"Over there. He made it out, so he
can't be too far."

Draagh sighed and said, "No, my son. He
is long gone by now. Do you remember how I told you that on the
proper world, with the proper energy, you would experience enhanced
abilities?"

"Yeah, you did say that," said
Max.

Jennie also nodded knowingly, as Draagh
continued, "Well, what we had undone in the past by modifying man's
energy signature via a trans-mutagenic virus on an individual level
was repaired, but this time by changing the world's energy itself,
making it compatible with the altered energy signature of man. So,
unfortunately, that particular individual is also experiencing some
enhancements. Foot speed is one of them, as well as an amplified
sense of smell, although not as keen as yours. However, he will
also notice unwanted changes that you will witness as soon as we
find his location. I implore you to be at the ready as his type is
quite vicious."

Max and Jennie stopped, looked around
and drew in deep through their noses, finding it to be true. They
could both smell as they had never before. Plants, bugs, rotten
logs, and of course Draagh's musty leathers, and the small satchel
of herb in his pocket. They both wrinkled their noses and gave each
other a mildly disgusted look, then bound forward to catch up with
the old man. As they continued further into the forest, they picked
up the scent of rotting flesh, which they both found disgusting,
yet appealing in a way that made them want to pursue the putrid
aroma.

Draagh looked at them and exclaimed,
"Ah, so you detect that too. Yes, yes, it is quite clear that our
unwanted passenger has already started to transform, the energy on
this world working in conjunction with the virus that flows through
his system. Sad, quite sad, indeed."

Jennie was slightly ahead of the other
two, scanning the area in all directions as she pushed forward,
stepping over moss-covered rocks and small steams of water, when
she asked, "Draagh. So tell us how this all works. I can see
better, hear better, smell better and even feel things with every
step I take. The feedback I am getting from the ground is amazing.
What more can I expect at this point and time?"

Draagh smiled whimsically as he walked,
going to retrieve his pipe, but putting it back, wanting his two
companions to be able to detect any errant scent without it being
masked by the smoke of his beloved herb.

"Well," he responded, "yes, your senses
are now much more enhanced than a normal's - more akin to those of
a wolf. As night falls you will notice that your vision has also
vastly improved. The subject of our search will also have an
improved nose, but more targeted toward finding two things - his
own kind and normal human blood."

"Human blood?" they both cried out
simultaneously.

"Yes, yes. Human blood. You
see, his type, to whom I referred to as
ghouls,
actually have another name,
and it was quite well known on the Earth of your ancestors, just as
it is well known and feared in this world. The colloquial term one
uses is
vampire
."

Jennie turned around and
came to a full stop, looking aghast at Draagh, trying to process
this new revelation. Not having been a fan of fantasy novels as a
youth, and more into technical documentation, she had still read a
couple of ancient authors' novels regarding vampires, and as she
thought further she knew that
lycan
sounded familiar. Werewolves, fairies, ogres and
other assorted mythical creatures also rung a bell, as well as
witches and warlocks (who, by the way, were quite evil in the works
she had experienced). Of course, she never believed that any of
those things could have ever existed, but this new, impromptu
experience was playing a cruel game of connect the dots in her
mind.

"Just a minute," said Jennie,
"vampires, as I remember from fictional reading, subsisted on human
blood. I believe they were also the immortal dead, would die if
exposed to sunlight, and had an aversion to the Christian cross.
Are these so-called vampires also sensitive to those
things?"

Draagh motioned for the
three to continue walking deeper in the woods, and plainly stated,
"Oh, my dear, no. Well, a bit is true, and a bit is legend. These
vampires do indeed have a need to consume the blood of humans, but
they live. Yes! They are indeed quite alive. However, they are not
immortal, and although alive, are constantly fending off a state of
continual decomposition. The energy of this world barely keeps them
in a state of living existence, but they slowly disintegrate, as
you can tell from Lt. Johnson's already-changed scent. Of course,
never having met the man I cannot tell you, but he may or may not
have an aversion to sunlight. He is still fleeing on foot, and it
is indeed broad daylight, although under the cover of the forest,
so it seems that he could be what is called an
enlightened one
- that is, a vampire
who can survive, albeit with some discomfort, in the ultraviolet
rays of the sun. Yes, he appears to be quite strong - and lucky for
him too! If he had not been of that caste we would have found a
smoldering corpse hanging in that tree where his silken evacuation
device was snagged."