The Ackalonians, as a race, looked almost faded, with their pale skins and platinum blond hair, that is, until you saw the life in their bright green eyes. The two men were very similar physically, large and barrel chested, both slightly stooped with age. Jis Boc Seckan was young, a couple of inches shy of six feet and in startling contrast to the Ackalonian men, willow slim.
On the team’s arrival on Cardin’s Paradise, Geena, as planned, delivered the Rose to Universal Underwriters for authentication. Within hours, Rene Tancer judged their find was the missing artifact. Because of its supposed meta-physical properties, final verification required examination by its owners.
Three weeks elapsed from that point for a high speed message drone to reach Ackalon and Ad Boc Seckan and his retinue to make the trip to Cardin. Based on Tancer’s evaluation, Universal advanced them a small percentage of the recovery fee. Without that courtesy, considering their depleted funds, just living on Cardin would have been difficult.
Bon spent twenty minutes examining the Rose with various devices from a valise he set on the table next to him while the rest of the table silently watched him. He finally nodded and handed it to Ad Boc Seckan, who held it directly in front of his face and stared intently into its interior for at least another five minutes. Before releasing it, his eyes clearly widened as his gaze focused momentarily on Geena, shifted to Ron and finally settled on Lexi. He set it on the table in front of him, his expression inscrutable. Jis Boc Seckan searched his aged features and said, “Father?”
Wenachi Bon answered for the older man, clearly speaking to the room at large as well as answering Jis’s implied question. “Energy within the crystal flows in specific patterns, ones that have not changed over the millennia. Although it now shows signs of long-term abuse, it is genuine. The alterations are minor. With time, the disrupted energy flows can be returned to normal. The Rose will heal.”
Ad Boc Seckan looked down the table to Geena. “You and your partners have performed a significant service for us, both as a people and for me personally. With the Rose again in our possession, once it is restored, or healed as Wenachi suggested, we can complete the transition of rule to my daughter, allowing me to rest at last.” He smiled in the direction of his daughter. “An event I have looked forward to for some years now.” He paused, again eyeing the three investigators appraisingly. “As you doubtless know, the Rose of Insight has been missing for over twenty years. Ackalon never collected on the insurance policy.”
He nodded to Jackson. “We carried insurance on the Rose for just this reason. If it were ever to be lost or stolen, we wished to keep the incentive for individuals like yourselves to find the Rose alive. Indeed, you are not the first group to go hunting for it. There have been many over the years. The other endeavors obviously were not successful. We are a wealthy people. Collecting the insurance money would have meant nothing to us. The Rose itself, however, is unique. It is a treasure that cannot be replaced.”
He paused, looking directly at Geena. “It is my understanding that you are to receive ten percent of the policy value for your efforts. That is a sizable sum, I believe. It is my intention to double that amount out of our treasury.”
“Thank you, sir,” Geena responded, her breath catching at the unanticipated windfall. As he said, the insurance recovery fee was already a sizable sum. “That is more than generous.”
All eyes went to Boc Seckan as he grunted. “Sadly it is more pragmatic than it is generous. You will be needed.”
Jis reached out and put a hand on her father’s forearm, asking, “Father, what have you seen?”
“I will say no more. The Rose is damaged and I cannot be sure what I see.” His gaze shifted back to the Aeolus team. “Again, my heartfelt thanks for your service to Ackalon.”
“Also know,” Jis Boc Seckan, who had been switching her attention, or at least her gaze, between her father, the crystal and the investigators who recovered it, said, “you have earned our friendship.”
“Thank you,” Lexi responded.
Jis Boc Seckan looked directly across the table at her, her gaze becoming penetrating. “You are most welcome, sister.”
***
Later, on the ride back to the ship, Lexi mused, “Why do you suppose Jis called me ‘sister’?”
Geena turned to look at her. “You could have asked her after the meeting. If you’re asking me to guess, it’s because you have the Rose of Light in your head, darling, and she can sense it in there. That’s what Ackalonians are known for. They sense things.”
Ron said, “I can’t help wondering what that business with Ad Boc Seckan stating we will be needed was about.”
Geena didn’t have a good answer for that one. “Maybe nothing. Maybe they’ll have another job for us someday. Don’t forget they said Jameson managed to damage the Rose to the extent that Boc Seckan wasn’t sure he meant anything either.” She sighed happily. “I am so excited by this, kids. This is the first time in years we’ve had this much credit banked. It should be enough to cover the remodel you keep bringing up, Lexi. If we’re going to be doing a remodel, I want us to hire an architect for the job. Plus we have twelve new cases to pick from, all high money. It’s all because of you, Lexi-darling. I’m so sorry I ever called you a pet. I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for Ron and me.”
With arms around both Geena and Ron, Lexi purred as she said, “You’re doing a pretty good job so far.”
Welcome to the Lexi-verse. Between you and me, she’s a fun character to write about. I hope you enjoyed reading the story of how Lexi and Ron met as much as I enjoyed documenting it. I think of Stowaway as an origin story in which you’re introduced to the main characters and learned a little about their personalities and backgrounds, as well as the canvas on which they operate. Lexi, Geena, Ron and Urania have many more, dare I say, exciting adventures to come.
My original intent was for this to be a stand-alone story, short enough to be sold to a sci fi magazine. However, I like the characters. I also find the backdrop of the Accord interesting. The second episode in the series, Avenger, will be released within a few weeks of Stowaway’s release. A preview chapter of Avenger follows this section. Other episodes will follow every few months (assuming my cover artist can keep up; we both have full-time jobs).
In Avenger, the team takes on an assignment to locate three Borgolian royals kidnapped by an interstellar crime syndicate. The events that take place in Avenger solidify Lexi’s position as the leader of the Aeolus Investigations team.
In addition to Avenger, which will shortly be available on Amazon, Episode 3, Paladin, should be out in early 2020.
I confess, I’m new at this. I’m experiencing a degree difficulty coordinating things. I don’t expect the RobertEColfax.com website to be up until the end of 2019. So despite the fact I’d love to hear from you, that may not be possible if you’re one of the early readers of Stowaway. As I write this, the above link works if your default browser is Chrome or Internet Explorer. I’m working on why Firefox is failing. There you’ll find information about forthcoming adventures and estimated release dates. I welcome you to sign up for my email list to receive notification of additions and changes to the schedule.
Please leave a review at Amazon.com. It helps get my work noticed by other readers. I also expect to be listed on GoodReads once I figure that out.
While we’re here in the notes, let me mention that “Gat Kume” was among the first words of my older daughter. She was trying to say “thank you.”
“My cat,” or “Mein tah,” was from my younger daughter. She loved that cat.
Both of them speak English extremely well these days. Neither of them, to the best of my recollection, ever said, “Plak !Gorp.”
You may have noticed that Lexi has a tendency to think in terms of movies. Fair warning, though. She’s been known to take liberties with the quotes. If you’re interested, check out the movies that are mentioned, or at least alluded to, on my web site, once I get i
t up. Did you catch all of them?
Avenger, Chapter 1
Aeolus Investigations Episode 2
Urania watched with increasing satisfaction as her three partners and her new friend, Jis, emptied their clips at the erratically moving targets. They were fast learners. All of them, other than Jis, now had reloading down to an art. Jis wasn’t that far behind. “Ron,” Urania called out over the team’s comm gear, “You’re still playing catch up with your targets. We worked on this in the simulator. Live action is no different. Lead, don’t follow. Geena, looking sharp, honey.”
She watched them reload yet again and continue to blast away at the targets. Lexi, to no one’s surprise, had proved to be a natural. Over a decade of championship-level, competitive fencing with the rapier and the epee had left her with a degree of hand, eye and muscle coordination the others had to work at to match. There was also no telling what impact the recent unanticipated acceleration of her neural processes might be having on the overall performance of her nervous system.
Jis, after an hour of this, was still flinching every time she pulled the trigger of her weapon. Still, she was managing to hit almost all of her targets. The only child of the ruler of Ackalon, Jis probably never entertained a violent thought in her entire sheltered life, far less an actual confrontation. Ackalonians where universally known as the gentlest species of humanity in the vast expanse of the Accord.
Urania knew that Jis had some degree of precognitive ability and suspected she was more or less cheating, shooting where she knew the target was going to be. If she can do that when people are shooting back at her I don’t have a problem with it. Damn, she realized, I’m really thinking outside of the box these days. I don’t think I used to be able to do that. She laughed silently to herself. If only my Vankovian builders could see me now.
Joining the team only a day ago, Jis lacked the experience the others had using the shipboard simulator. The fake guns the team practiced with while on the ship had the weight and feel of the real thing. They had a muzzle flash, a convincing noise and kicked. The holographic, computer-generated targets looked like they had been hit, or not, as the case may be. Her partners spent at least an hour a day practicing in her relatively empty hold, both singly and as a group, on the thirty-one-day trip through hyperspace from Cardin’s Paradise to Borgol. Borgol was where Jis unexpectedly joined the crew.
Lexi purchased the indoor practice-range while they were between jobs on Cardin’s Paradise from the same shop where she found the comm-gear they now routinely used to stay in contact with each other. Pete Isher’s weapons boutique had become her favorite place to shop these days.
Although she considered it ludicrous, she had also picked up a half-dozen Glocks and several thousand rounds of ammunition for them from his shop, one hundred and sixty-seven light-years distant from the manufacturer on Earth. She only recently learned that most of the artillery used by the advanced space-threading civilization known as the Accord was clandestinely purchased on her home planet. “Lexi,” Urania asked, “can you work with Jis for a while?”
With the permission of the Borgolian government, their shooting range had been set up on a small, rocky island inhabited only by a species of small, raucous flying reptiles which scattered as soon as Urania landed. Any of the braver, or more curious, ones who hung around dispersed as soon as the shooting started.
The computer-controlled range was elaborate and totally portable. Lexi was proud of the design. Ron and Urania, following her explanations of what she had in mind, designed and fabricated eight self-propelled carts mounted on chassis similar to that found on Earth tanks. The treads allowed the squat carts to climb over the rough terrain of the island, while remaining low enough to the ground that their position was usually hidden from the shooters.
The carts, as they rumbled across the landscape, launched small saucers in random directions at high speeds, occasionally directly towards the shooters. It was all computer controlled by Urania, the command computer of their starship as well as their sentient AI partner. Tiny charges built into the saucers, randomly detonated by Urania, caused the targets to bob, drop and weave. Each cart was a third the size of a small European car. Each carried one hundred and eighty targets ranging in size from that of bread plates to salad plates.
Lexi thought of the targets as clay pigeons. I never really understood why they’re called clay pigeons. OK, granted, they were probably originally made out of baked clay. Makes sense, right? But pigeons? That’s rather specific. And what the hell is a “skeet”? she wondered as she holstered her gun and walked over to coach Jis. Baked clay discs don’t look anything like pigeons. If I was still back on Earth, I could Google it. But then, I wouldn’t be here on an alien planet with the four best friends I have in the galaxy. Literally. In the galaxy. Although the galaxy is a big place, so at least in this section of it. How wild is that? I probably wouldn’t be wondering why our targets are called clay pigeons either. It wouldn’t have come up. I bet there aren’t any real pigeons on this planet anyway. Probably a flying reptile fills that niche. So, cool, I introduced pigeons to a planet that has never had pigeons. Pigeons that can’t breed and overrun the place like rabbits did in Australia. I read once that some British idiot imported rabbits so that he would have something to shoot at from his front porch. Big mistake, rabbits being rabbits. He should have used clay rabbits. Or clay pigeons. Safer, much safer. I bet Geena would like Pretty Woman. I’m not even going to try to figure out why that thought just popped up. Although she does look somewhat like Julia, especially now that she’s letting her hair grow out a little.
Lexi dressed in what she thought of as her pirate outfit. Brown leather boots, leather shorts and vest over a white cotton dress shirt, knotted at her midriff. Tall, slim and muscular, it was a good look for her, and she knew it. She was letting her hair grow out, too. When it got long enough, she intended on braiding it with a steel ball at the end. Although, maybe not. A steel ball on the end of her braid would be dangerous when they were flying around in zero-gee, which they did a lot. After watching Pirates of the Caribbean with her, both of her lovers had come up with similar attire. Yeah, we all look damn hot. Ron even looks swashbuckling.
Jis was wearing upper-class Ackalonian native dress which basically meant she was swathed in silk tulle; the material wedding veils on Earth are made of. Of course, it wasn’t silk, but the effect was the same. It wasn’t clear to the others what prevented it from unwrapping. She had dispensed with the head covering in order to maintain her full field of vision. The holster strapped to her waist looked, well, highly incongruous.
All four of them were right-handed. After lunch they would reload the carts and start practicing shooting with the gun in their left hands. Then using both hands to fire two guns at once if they wanted to take the time and still felt up to it. Lexi felt, and the others agreed, that the time they were spending on target practice on this island was well worth it. Still, there was always the simulator on the ship.
They estimated that they would have eleven additional days to practice during their transit to Naragene Nine, the world from which Kahvia E’Kret, along with her two children, Kacen and Koe, vanished, presumably kidnapped, while vacationing. It was now the team’s job to find them, making Naragene their destination for the next leg of their journey.
***
Please join the team for the next Aeolus Investigations adventure, available on Amazon, December 2019.
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