THE VROL TRILOGY Read Online Free PDF Page A

music (J.S. Bach was his favorite),
while assembling pieces of the device out of junk parts he had
smuggled out of the Military Scientific Research Complex. He knew
that if he were discovered he would be penalized and possibly
jailed, as the military had ownership over the technology, but he
forged on, intending on returning to Earth as a test. He surmised
that if he could go to Earth and return, then the government would
have no choice but to allow military ships to be retrofitted with
the technology, enabling mankind to go out and meet the approaching
alien fleet - just to make sure they were not hostile, and if they
were, to vaporize them where they floated in space.
     
    His calculations set the estimated
arrival at Earth in less than eight standard days -14,000 times
faster than it had taken the original Exodus to achieve orbit
around Azul. When he was almost finished with his homemade hook
drive, he sought to buy a small transport craft capable of rugged
space travel, so he found an old cargo ship that was used to carry
everything from cattle to shipping containers between Azul and the
local moons. He purchased it after he was approached by a less than
reputable vendor named Ali on Sienna's Verdal continent, and named
it the Machu Picchu, after the historical Inca ruins on Earth's
South American continent. He then flew it back home and filled it
with cargo - camping gear, a water purification system, weapons and
an all-terrain vehicle for exploring on land, before initiating the
process to install the hook machinery.
    If Max had a bad habit, it was that he
was a bit chatty - and trusting. He liked to share information with
people, to give them hope, to raise their spirits up, and also let
them know that he was smart. Very, very smart. This was his
downfall, as his ego drove him to give a bit too much information
to Ali, from whom he purchased his new ship.
    He didn't mention anything
about a slip drive, but said he was working on something that
would change mankind for the better and it had to do with returning to Earth. Ali,
being a shifty and greedy merchant with a rich criminal history and
multiple stints in local jails, thought he could earn a reward from
the military by selling out Gunnarsson, as it was obvious to Ali
that illegal activities were going to take place.
    So Ali contacted the local military
annex and started to blab to an unshaven, low-level officer who
looked like he had slept in his crumpled uniform for at least a
week, inventing half of the story as he went along, making wild
embellishments that no one would have believed. In truth, nothing
would have happened, and at best Ali would have been thrown out on
his ear but for one small fact - the scientist had told Ali his
real name, so when Ali said he had sold the spacecraft to a certain
Max Gunnarsson it set off alarms within Azul Military Intelligence,
even though it took a few days for that information to filter up to
the proper ranks. By this time Max was finished retrofitting the
hook drive onto the Machu Picchu and was ready to help usher in a
new era for mankind. Even despite Max's issues with the
authorities, things were never as good in Earth's past as they were
on Azul. And he had left it all, gambling that there was even still
a planet orbiting Sol.
     
    ###
     
    At 45 years of age, Rear Admiral Luigi
Bagatelle was the youngest person ever to have attained that rank
in the history of Azul's military. He dedicated himself for years
to get where he was - standing on the bridge of his massive
Juggernaut-class ship, the Revolution, the newest in the fleet.
Without prior indication or warning, his command was assigned the
responsibility of going where no Azul-born human had gone before -
back to Earth.
    Knowing full well
that the hook had
yet to be tested on such a large ship, he could have been bringing
hundreds of men and women to their doom, but it was his job to make
sure that this technology did not fall into the hands of anyone -
alien or