THE VROL TRILOGY (54 page)

"Jennie, it… smells different here. It is
like there is no scent at all," said the little lycan child.

"Yeah sweetie - well, the thing is that here
we can't smell things the same. Here we are… we're pretending to be
normals!"

Liliana smiled brightly and clapped her hands
in delight. Even though she had grown a few centimeters in the past
few months, she was still very much a little girl and retained all
of the mannerisms of a child her age.

Draagh grinned, finding Jennie's explanation
of their lack of lycan skills to be quite creative, as well as
appropriate. Moving on along the sidewalk, Liliana asked various
questions, such as why people were not wearing battle leathers, why
no one had a sword and why there were no castles. Jennie gave vague
answers to the girl's questions, figuring that one day she would
understand it all, especially as she had intended for them to live
on Azul once the Vrol had been defeated.

"Well, my dear girls. Would you both like to
see the ocean? I understand it is quite lovely this time of year,
quite lovely," offered the old mage who, if he had been seen, would
have caused all sorts of commotion, being dressed like an aged
Viking warrior with a massive sword strapped to his back.

"Ocean? Oh yes, please! I have never seen an
ocean, Grandfather," squealed the young girl, while wearing a face
of delighted expectation.

Jennie simply nodded and smiled, regretting
never having taken Liliana to a nearby ocean before Max had gone
missing. He was quite adept at 3D slips and could have transported
them to the Caribbean Sea for a holiday. But they were always so
busy with battle training, schooling for Liliana and then,
preparations for their wedding (which sadly did not take place),
that an exotic vacation never materialized.

Draagh brought the girls in close, and with a
tap of his staff on the moving platform, shot them off to a
not-so-distant ocean that sparkled like nothing Liliana had ever
seen before.

"May I go to the water, please?" begged the
little girl.

"Yes sweetie, but don't get wet. Just stay
near the water's edge."

Liliana bolted towards the shoreline,
where gentle, but small waves pelted the sand. Looking out, Jennie
had never really noticed how beautiful the water was. The color was
a light, nearly glowing translucent blue with touches of green.
Never having seen the Caribbean Sea before, she had no idea that
the oceans of Azul made those of Earth look like endless, dark and
dirty masses of water; such was the contrast between the two
worlds. Such oceans were the inspiration for the naming of her
world - Azul, which was Castilian for
blue
.

As Liliana ran back and forth along the
shoreline while waving her useless wand in the air (and pretending
to be a normal), Jennie and Draagh took seats on the crystalized
white sands of the beach. Looking out over the expanse of the
ocean, they sat and watched the young girl enjoy herself, and then
suddenly jump in the water.

"Bleh! Jennie! The water has a terrible
flavor!" the young lycan bellowed as she lurched out of the
moderate surf.

"Oh honey, it's salt water. It's supposed to
taste that way, and it's not for drinking! Besides, I asked you not
to get wet, you silly," called out Jennie, wearing a slight grin,
knowing all along that Draagh could perform a cantus to dry the
little girl off within a microsecond.

Liliana got a look on her face, reminiscent
of whenever she was thinking hard.

"But why would someone put salt in the water,
Jennie? Salt is for curing meats!"

Both Jennie and Draagh laughed out loud, as
Liliana turned and dove into the water, but taking care not to
swallow any more of the brackish liquid. Jennie and Max had taught
Liliana to swim some months before, using a large, fresh-water lake
near the castle. Needless to say, the girl took to the water like a
fish, even though her secondary genetic qualities more resembled
those of a wolf.

"We should be going soon," said Draagh, "our
dear friend Luigi shall be quite glad to be in our company."

"So, how are we going to do this? Where will
we take him? To Earth, and leave him with the ship?

"Why no, my dear - not at all. We shall take
him to Krynos' castle. Do you not remember that he is also lycan?
He has much to learn, and will need to practice his skills in order
to assist in the fight against the Vrol. Plus, I would never want
to leave someone alone on that desolate world with no
companions."

Jennie thought for a moment, and found
Draagh's logic to be of sound reasoning, but then asked another
question.

"So, you said that you would change us
somehow, in the future, so that we would retain our skills on this
world. If you do that will we lose our abilities back home?"

Draagh raised his eyebrows at Jennie's
mention of the word
home
. By
the way she was speaking it appeared she had actually come to
consider the Rhönen Dominion as her permanent place of residence.
Although much more detailed and complex, he resolved to make
whomever was to reside on both worlds multi-frequency compatible -
that is, to make it so they would be able to slip between worlds,
while retaining their skills and abilities. As it was, he had
approximately four years to prepare - much more time than was
needed.

"Jennie, when all is said and done, you will
be able to live wherever you choose, and live out your very long
eternity with your husband and daughter. This much I promise you.
Now, with that being said, shall we aid in the release of a certain
Luigi Bagatelle?"

Jennie smirked and said, "Sure. Boy, I can't
wait till he sees us. This should be fun."

The two stood up and called Liliana back,
which took about five more minutes to happen, as she was a child
with a sense of urgency that was very singular. Finally returning
to her mother and great-grandfather, albeit with some reservation,
she was instantly dried of and cleaned up by Draagh, who then
gathered the two close and set his great staff on the white sands
of New Bondi Beach, causing them to disappear with a slight popping
sound.

###

Former Rear Admiral Luigi Bagatelle was in
his kitchen, preparing some jraxon eggs and coffee, while wearing
nothing but regulation undergarments, when he heard a small popping
sound come from his living room. He had been strictly relegated to
his home during the prior few months, having been betrayed by
Councilman Johnson and an apparently weak-minded Azul Security
Council.

Leaving the kitchen to investigate the odd
sound while carrying his plate of eggs and cup of coffee in his
hands, he entered the small room, only to drop his plate and cup on
the floor in a state of near shock (with the mess quickly cleaned
up by a little drone that scooted out from behind a nearby
cabinet). He saw three people sitting on his couch, two he already
knew - one quite well, the other not so much, and a small girl who
had a beaming smile on her face.

"W-w-what… hello?" stammered the senior
officer, forgetting he was in boxer shorts and a tank top. The
other difference in appearance between that moment and the last
time they had seen each other was that he had not shaved for the
past few months and was sporting a thick, well-groomed beard.

"Luigi! Luigi!" yelped the little girl on the
couch, still maintaining a huge smile.

Bagatelle looked at the girl with
astonishment, not able to piece everything together
instantaneously, but he regrouped and took a deep breath.

"Hello Jennie… Draagh…little girl…" he said
calmly, "I can't say I'm not happy to see you both, but who is…
she?"

"Hello Admiral. This is Liliana - my
daughter."

Bagatelle's eyes grew wide in surprise as he
appraised the young girl sitting to his former lieutenant's
side.

"Daughter? How? Huh?"

All three sitting on the couch started to
laugh, causing Bagatelle to grow a look of frustration. He was a
man who was not accustomed to being laughed at.

"Luigi, my dear friend. Greetings! You appear
well, and I must say your facial hair does give you a certain look
befitting a man of your stature," exclaimed Draagh.

"Um, thanks. And Jennie, how do you have a
daughter?"

Bagatelle walked over and took a seat on a
chair, having sufficiently recovered from the shock of having three
individuals from another planet (well, two at least) suddenly
appear in what was, for lack of a better term, his prison cell.

"Admiral, this is my adopted daughter,
Liliana. She was an orphan where we live, and Max and I decided to
- "

"Max? Gunnarsson? What? You two?" interrupted
Bagatelle, his face returning to its shocked expression.

Jennie got a warm smile on her face and
continued.

"Yes, Max and I. We are… married. He really
turned out to be an awesome man. Anyway, we fell in love over time
and things just kinda worked out the way they did. And Liliana was
a blessing. She is also lycan, like us, and…"

"And a very powerful mage, I might add,"
Draagh added, interrupting the beautiful woman sitting at his side.
"Little Liliana is my student, and has become most adept in the use
of magical skills.

Liliana gave the admiral a big smile and
waved her index finger around, much like Draagh would do whenever
he was making something mischievous or silly happen.

"So, this is all real then. Everything you
told me is real, and to think, I thought it was a bunch of crap
until you somehow got me to my transport the day you left…I had no
choice but to stick to the data you had given me … but it all blew
up in my face."

Draagh and Jennie nodded their heads as
Liliana stood and politely curtseyed to the admiral.

"Sir, I am Liliana Gunnarsson. It is a
pleasure to make your acquaintance," she said, causing Bagatelle to
grin awkwardly.

"Liliana, it is a pleasure to meet you too.
You are a very pretty girl, and have a remarkable resemblance to
your mother," responded Bagatelle as she smiled sweetly and took a
seat next to her mother. Then, looking over to Jennie, he said,
"Well, I assume you are here to help, am I correct? That bastard
Johnson has locked me away here, but I have some outside agents.
They ran a hardline under the ground so I can at least get some
communications and…"

"Oh my dear friend," said Draagh, stopping
the admiral from continuing, "we are not here to assist with any
such efforts. No, no, no. Those shall play out by themselves all to
good fortune, but we are here to help release you from this dungeon
most vile."

Bagatelle looked around the room, and didn't
notice anything vile about it. However, he did want to get out of
the house. But then his face suddenly grew an alarmed
expression.

"Oh sharga - the feds have surveillance on
this house. You're going to be discovered. Quick, you have to
leave."

Draagh chuckled and shook his head
knowingly.

"Oh no, my dear Luigi. I have taken care of
that. All that your minders will see is you making breakfast. It is
quite easy to manage a vid and audio feed, I must say."

Bagatelle looked relieved, and hoped that the
old man was right. He saw that Jennie was chomping at the bit to
say something, when she chimed in and said, "Admiral, why don't you
start - please tell us what the hell happened and why you're a
prisoner in your own home."

Bagatelle then began from when they last saw
each other. They had spent a week searching for Lt. Johnson, and
after failing to locate him, listed him as missing in action.
Bagatelle had done everything he could to redirect search parties
away from Machu Picchu with great success, thus preventing anyone
from discovering Max's ship, even though it was immune to
detection, thanks to Draagh's cantus. He then ordered the
Revolution to return to Azul, but not before making a couple of
detours in star systems on the way. They found nothing but
lifeless, rocky planetoids in the first system, but in the second
one they encountered a sapient, pre-industrialized society on a
moon orbiting a gas giant. The population consisted of odd,
four-legged, two-armed creatures with two vertical mouths on their
foreheads (actually, where a forehead would be on a human) and eyes
that sat atop protruding tentacles. As they had no way of detecting
the Revolution, Bagatelle sent down a recon team which took
numerous vids of the creatures in a small village - vids that
Johnson would later claim had been fabricated, along with the
evidence that Draagh had provided.

He then detailed the rest of the tragic
story, with him being framed for supposedly falsifying all evidence
of the Vrol invasion, and was then placed under house arrest. He
also told Jennie that he had reported her missing in action, and
Max most probably dead, and that there was no evidence of him ever
having reached Earth. Unfortunately, Johnson didn't believe him,
and kept the two on surveillance alerts system-wide.

"Hmmm, sad, quite sad, I must say," stated
the kindly looking, but very Viking-like Primulus seated in the
admiral's living room. "It appears that you discovered the
K'Long'nesh. Peaceful creatures they are, though destined never to
discover the wonders of traveling through the stars. I enjoy
watching them, however. Their little octagonal huts with thatched
roofs, and their penchant for standing upon one another's head. Is
it not comical how they go about moving much like crabs?"

Bagatelle nodded his head, coming to realize
more and more that Draagh wasn't a hallucination. No one could have
given a description of that species so precise without having
previously witnessed them. As he had basically finished with his
tale, he then asked Jennie to report on her travels.