Free THE VROL TRILOGY by S.K. Benton

while looking up at the
stars. Draagh again filled his pipe and puffed away, with Max
noticing that the smoke made him feel quite relaxed.
    "Hey, Draagh, what are you smoking?
It's not tobacco, is it?"
    Draagh snickered and almost coughed,
but held back. "My son, this is an exotic herb that actually
originated here on Earth. I believe its scientific name was
cannabis sativa. It is quite relaxing. Would you like a puff?"
Draagh went to hand the pipe to Max, who went to reach over, until
a look of realization washed over his face.
    "Whaaa? You're smoking pot? Oh. My.
God! I never smelled it before, but we have it on Azul. I can't
believe it. You're smoking weed. Man, this is weird."
    Draagh waved his hands in the air, half
snickering and half coughing, clearing away the ambient smoke
floating around his head. "Oh no, no, no, my son. It doesn't affect
me like it would a human. My system is much more resilient. In
fact, my genome has roughly 127 billion base pairs, compared to a
normal human's 3 billion. We are quite complex. Yes, quite, I must
say."
    Max had no desire to smoke any weed,
and started to feel the scotch working in his belly. He always
loved that initial warm sensation, consequently followed by a
delicious dulling of the mind. He poured more Glenfiddich into
their cups, filling them to the brim. Taking a more comfortable
position on the ground and leaning back against his log, Max was
far more relaxed and accepting of this odd turn of events, and the
whisky was certainly helping. He had escaped Azul, successfully
tested the hook drive, and arrived at Earth. Then he had
investigated a major city commercial area, gone to Machu Picchu,
and then strangely made a new friend who popped up out of nowhere.
He knew that Federation forces were on their way to get him, but he
had another couple of days at least, and if this Draagh fellow had
popped up out of nowhere, perhaps he could help in getting him to a
safer location.
    "Draagh, I have a question. If you knew
I was coming here, and you knew all about my life, then you
probably know who's coming after me, right?"
    Draagh, also relaxing back against a
log, nodded his head. "Yes, Max. There are coming. They will reach
Sol system, as you call it, by tomorrow afternoon, and then need
another day to get into orbit around Earth. Why do you
ask?"
    Max shot him a look of spite. "Wait,
you know this, and yet you sit here hitting on a pipe and drinking
whisky? I really need to make some plans, because there is no way I
can go back without showing some sort of success on this trip. It
was an incredible risk I took in the first place. Hey! Can you tell
me where the surviving humans are? Maybe I can go
there."
    Draagh shook his head side to side,
looking down slightly. "No my son. There is no need. We can stay
right here. Do not worry, my son. No, no, no. There is nothing to
worry about at all. I have a wondrous plan that will all come to
fruition quite soon. We are quite safe! Such excitement! This will
be most brilliant!" Draagh shot his fist up in the air, almost in a
victorious fashion.
     
    Great , thought Max, he's loaded. I'm so
screwed.
     
    ###
     
    Max woke up to the sounds of birds
singing as they jumped from branch to branch in the thick
vegetation overhead. His fire had self-extinguished due to lack of
attention, but it had only been for effect anyway. His sensor
perimeter would have protected him in any case, and the weather in
the Urubamba Valley was quite warm, even during the wintertime.
Rubbing his eyes, he got up from his blanket and nearly spilling
the opened bottle of whisky at his side.
     
    Hmm , what a weird
dream .
     
    Staggering over to his ship, he went up
the loading ramp and into the cargo hold.
     
    God, I'm gonna need some
pain killers .
     
    He knew drinking on an empty stomach
was always a bad bet, so he stumbled up to the gallery and pushed
for a painkiller cocktail. Taking it out of the dispenser tray he
moved across the aisle to his cabin, opened the