Aeolus Investigations Set 2: Too Cool To Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens

by Robert E Colfax

  Watching sixty-two warships, all powering up weapons while heading straight at them, Geena shook her head in agreement, “No, it definitely isn’t.”

  It was Urania who stated what they all were thinking. “They won’t stand a chance against the Kreesh swarm.”

  Jis, always seeing the positive, stated, “Admirable response time though.”

  From the weapons console, Lieutenant Nala Nian Kregan, asked, “Should I be doing anything, Marshal?”

  Kregan was one of the six Akalonian officers they had on board. All were experienced naval officers, currently in training to handle Glaurang. Urania, still linked into the warship’s computer systems, was always ready to take over should it be necessary, but for the moment she was sitting in her avatar form with the rest of the team. On the flight from Ackalon, Lexi, along with Ron and a few of her Ackalonian technicians installed the modified version of the Klaavaanit field on the bridge and the adjoining conference room, allowing Urania to physically join them in those two areas.

  Lexi smiled. “Yes, Lieutenant. Plot a response against their hypothetical attack. This is practice only. Please do not actually bring any weapons online. We don’t want to scare them any more than we already have. See if you can come up with a strategy to disable them without destroying them outright. No point making the exercise too easy for you, is there?”

  Kregan smiled as she nodded. “No, Marshal. Should I be concerned if they fire at us?”

  “They can’t hurt us, so no, let them. I doubt that they will. Unless they have an idiot commanding their fleet, they won’t go that far.”

  Then they waited for a response to their communication. These people, like the Ackalonians, both knew and trusted Lexi’s team. When three members of the royal family were kidnapped and held hostage by pirates, it was Lexi’s team that tracked and subsequently brought them safely home.

  ***

  King Han, along with both his sons, flew out to meet them. His older boy, Vadal was quiet and thoughtful throughout the introductions. Jadkim, the second son, looked more amused than anything when he looked at his father. He knew Lexi and her team well. His children promoted Lexi to the status of “Aunt Lexi” after she rescued them and his wife from the clutches of pirate kidnappers.

  Han seemed irritated. Once they were all seated in the conference room, he immediately said, “Next time you fly into my space in what is clearly an alien warship send a message drone ahead. I have practically my entire population in emergency shelters.”

  “I do apologize, Han,” Lexi said. “Time is of the essence and this ship is faster than a drone. Frankly, an emergency drill is a good thing. You may want to schedule them on a relatively frequent basis going forward.”

  While Han gaped at Lexi, Jis said, “I know you have a closer relationship and greater respect for my father than for me. Can we speak King to Plicora for a moment?”

  Han smiled at her. “Recall which of you was Plicora when I sent a third of the ships of my fleet to cover your planet should you need the assistance. As to respect, I have not forgotten who it was who aided in the rescue of my grandchildren, Jis.”

  Jis didn’t smile back. Instead, she said, “I am quite certain the Aeolus team would have found them without my participation. It would just have taken longer. Much longer. And they were needed for other matters. If you don’t already, realize that this team is unstoppable. Realize too that they have a track record of not losing. What do you know of the Kreesh?”

  He shrugged while eyeing her intently. “Everyone knows the stories. Few believe they’re real. Is that what this is about?”

  “Yes, the stories are quite old, aren’t they? One wonders how they got started. A Kreesh swarm is headed toward the Accord. Billions of them, Han. No one is prepared for that. They will destroy world after world. The only hope we have of stopping them and saving our people is to work together, to unite the Accord.”

  He frowned. “No one believes that can ever be made to happen. You’re talking Article Seven, Section One?”

  “Yes, of course. Implemented by Ackalon before we left.”

  Han’s eyes shifted for a moment to look at Lexi. “I assume Jis means you? Kind of young for the job, aren’t you?”

  “She is,” Jis agreed. “Remember Ackalonian prescience. Lexi and these others are our only hope of survival. You were sent the specs for the hardware upgrades she developed when Aeolus uncovered the extent of the pirate problem.”

  Han shook his head. “Yes, yes, we know she’s a wizard with technology. That doesn’t qualify her to coordinate the Accord.”

  To that Jis replied, “She and her team coordinated Ostrieachia. According to my spies, no one could have done a better job. What do your spies have to say about it?”

  Han’s gaze drifted back toward Lexi. His spies as well as the officers on his ships in the Ostrieachian system all reported unbelievable results. It was easy to forget that this was the woman responsible for those results. Lexi said, “We’ll show you our ship. I’ll go over its capabilities. I will show you what we know of the Kreesh. I will also explain our plans for dealing with them. You should probably bring some of your military brass over for the tour and the discussions.”

  ***

  After the tour and an hours long meeting with Han and his military, the growing team met again. Early on, Lexi abandoned her original notion of planting a Borgolian colony on Hepca and making that her base of operations. It was a romantic idea, but logistically a bad one. While discussing it with King Han, she decided to put off a decision until she could ascertain the level of Earth’s involvement. During part of that conversation, he questioned if the combined military of the Accord worlds would be sufficient to stop the Kreesh.

  Jis shook her head. “No, Han, it won’t even come close.”

  “We really can’t strip the Accord world’s of their system defenses either,” Geena responded. “We know the pirates have fleets of their own. They wouldn’t hesitate to step in and take advantage of the situation. Lexi wanted to take Glaurang on a shakedown cruise and deal with them permanently. We agreed she was being overly impulsive when she came up with that notion. We’re not willing to vaporize billions of innocents in order to eliminate thousands of bad guys.”

  ***

  Before they left Borgol, Jadkim met privately with Lexi. He hugged her carefully, a Grake hug could leave bruises. The two had become friends after the Hepca job brought his family home. Smiling he said, “It seems you’ll be saving my family again, Marshal.”

  Lexi smiled ruefully at him. “I’m very glad you’ll be coming with us to represent Borgol. It’ll be nice to have Kahvia and the kids with us, too, at least until the shooting starts.” She sighed. “You know, I’m really not qualified for this job. It’s just that no one else is either and we’re the ones who lucked into the monster warship.”

  “I don’t know, Lexi.” He looked up into her eyes. “I don’t know that there needs to be anyone else. You’ve got my father and the military following your instructions. By the time you have the new warship designs, we’ll have materials stockpiled to build them. They’re also going to be recruiting like crazy. You convinced the King, over his objections, to alert our people to what is happening. Plus, I’m not sure you understand the weight an endorsement from Ackalon carries throughout the Accord. It all strongly suggests, to me at least, that you are more qualified than you believe. It took you, what, significantly less than a day to take control of Borgol.”

  Chapter 19

  Vankovia

  Within hours of Glaurang’s arrival at Ackalon, message drones were dispatched to all of the Accord worlds, Borgol aside, as well as the Level-Three, non-Accord worlds. A fast courier, rather than a drone, was dispatched to Vankovia. That ship, in addition to carrying information on both Glaurang and the Kreesh, conveyed that Lexi’s team had recovered their biological samples and would be arriving with them in six weeks.

  From a military perspective, Vankovia was the most heavily defended o
f any of the Accord worlds. In addition to Vankovia itself, the Empire controlled five other colony worlds. Her scout fleet was continually out searching for and cataloging new worlds. This significantly increased her risk of encountering somebody hostile with the capability of backtracking them to the homeworld. To date, that hadn’t happened. Now her in-system fleet of two hundred twenty warships ranging in size from small escorts up to the Empire’s single dreadnought clustered around Glaurang. Even the dreadnought was dwarfed by the Wraixain ship.

  From the bridge of that dreadnought, the image of Vankovian High Admiral Seekateeki was transmitted to Glaurang to be translated into a hologram. “Good afternoon, Lexi. It is a pleasure to see you again. I can’t wait to hear the story behind your ship, I’m sure it’s going to be at least as fascinating as the other ones you related to me,” he began.

  “I suppose we should release the pilot of the Ackalon fast courier you sent to warn us. We locked her up for her own protection. She was obviously insane. Oddly, I was overruled when I attempted to counter that decision.” He smiled. “My assumption was that with you involved, there was a better than even chance that my superiors’ assumption that this was all a hoax was erroneous.”

  Lexi smiled. “Good to see you again, as well, High Admiral. We have your specimens. They are undamaged. I would like to bring you over here to discuss what I am planning to do with this ship and Vankovia’s part in it.”

  Odd that a creature that still reminded her of a giant spider would nod its head in such a human fashion. “I can head right over,” he agreed.

  “Seekateeki, would it be alright if we simply transport you here from your bridge? You’ll need to drop your shields for a moment.” Lexi asked.

  Seekateeki stared at her momentarily, his expression one of keen interest. “‘Transport,’ is it? Still jumping ahead the technology, I assume. I also imagine my shields are relatively useless against that ship, aren’t they? One moment. Let me warn my staff not to panic.” His hologram disappeared, only to reappear a moment later, “I am ready. Go ahead.”

  Seekateeki spent several weeks as a passenger on Urania at the start of this affair. While the team had been quite open about the technology upgrades to Urania, what they had not revealed to him at that time was Urania’s sentience.

  He blinked a couple of times as his gaze traveled around Glaurang’s huge command deck, then mutely followed Lexi and the others to a small conference room directly off of the bridge. Lexi began. “Thank you for trusting us, sir. You know both Ron and Geena. You probably recognize Jis Boc Seckan, Plicora of Ackalon. The Grake is Jadkim E’Kret of the royal family of Borgol. Officially, he is now my liaison with his father, King Han E’Kret. Jis, I suppose,” she said, smiling in Jis’s direction, “is her own liaison. I would also like to introduce you to our fourth partner, Urania. Urania is at the moment what we have termed an avatar, a being whose consciousness is temporarily housed in what is no more than a very advanced holographic projection. More of a field of force, really. When she is not an avatar, she is the sentient command computer of our starship. Not this one; the one you hitched a ride on from Cardin’s Paradise to Sandlin.”

  Seekateeki leaned forward and extended one of his four arms, greeting each of them in turn with a firm handshake. His smile broadened as he held Urania’s hand. “I know your history well. I specifically looked you up. We built you. This is incredible. I do not care to be rude, but I must ask, are my other warships going to become sentient?”

  “My pleasure meeting you, High Admiral,” Urania responded. “And no, they won’t. The circumstances that resulted in my evolving self-awareness are extremely unique.” She shrugged. “Not completely unique. This ship was sentient until it tried to kill us. We’ll fill you in on that later. I would not be surprised if there might not be a few more of us around.”

  As he sat down again, Jadkim said, “The governments of both Ackalon and Borgol have activated that old Accord bylaw installing Lexi as Marshal of the Accord. On board this ship, we now have a crew consisting of thirty-eight Ackalonians and eighty Borgolians. They are currently being trained to operate this vessel. The technicians in the group are beginning modifications, learning to work with Lexi’s upgraded hardware.”

  Seekateeki again nodded. Looking toward Lexi, he said, “We, of course, reviewed the material you forwarded from Ackalon, insane or not. It’s clear that you’ve managed to develop technology, even before you acquired this ship, far more advanced than anything previously known in the Accord. I reported that to my Emperor after my brief stint as your passenger.”

  He paused. “Any of us who think about it, and it is my job, and my emperor’s job as well as that of the other Accord leaders to think about it, realize that one of the things that has always made the Accord work is technological parity. None of us want to be in the position of being technologically backward. That position has traditionally been held by the Ostrieachians and they weren’t very happy about it. Due to your actions, they’re in the process of leveling up to match the rest of the Accord. For that reason alone, I predict you will be getting the full cooperation of every space-threading civilization in the Accord, both the member worlds and the non-members.”

  He smiled at them. “There have already been decisions made about what Vankovia would do after you arrived. You may be interested to know that one of our long-range scouts found a carcass floating in space over two hundred years or so ago. In our documents, it’s referred to as a killing machine. It is nasty by anyone’s standards. We believe it to be the mortal remains of one of your Kreesh. It certainly matches your description of them. We are prepared to turn it over to you along with the very limited information we derived from an attempted autopsy. According to the records, our surgeons couldn’t get through the exoskeleton.”

  “One moment, Seekateeki,” Lexi requested. She touched an icon on the pad in front of her and above the table, a holographic image she had reconstructed of the Kreesh, as envisioned by Geppetto Klendin, was displayed. “This is what we believe the Kreesh look like. This would be slightly more than twice my height.”

  Seekateeki examined the projection momentarily. “So, I do indeed have a specimen for you. But do you want it if you already have this? How did you know what they look like? I understood its been tens of thousands of years since the old rumors started.”

  Ron chuckled and Geena hid a smile. “That’s a long story,” Lexi admitted. “Basically, I dreamed it. We’ll tell you about that later. So, yes, I would appreciate a physical specimen.”

  “Ah, yes,” Seekateeki said, although he looked puzzled. “As to everything else, decisions have already been made. I have been instructed, after inspecting this ship and verifying the condition of our biological specimens, to inform you my Emperor will be placing the Empire under your command, Marshal. She would like the opportunity to meet all of you at the palace as well. I believe there may be medals involved.”

  Chapter 39

  Medical Examiner

  Ron invaded Lexi’s workspace in Urania’s hold late in the afternoon seven days before they expected to arrive at Earth. Lexi didn’t look up from what she was doing. In fact, he had the distinct impression she didn’t know he was there. He spent a couple of minutes paging backward through the interactive note board they hastily mounted in the hold so that Lexi could use the space as her lab.

  The room on Urania that was officially her lab was too small to hold the thirteen-foot carcass of the Kreesh specimen given to them by the Vankovians. So they improvised. There were plenty of large rooms available on Glaurang, but she wanted to be close to her other equipment. As he paged through the documentation of her observations, suppositions, and calculations, he realized that he could follow practically all of it.

  That’s new. They had speculated what living with Lexi, living with continual exposure to the effects of the Rose of Light and the telepathic abilities of the Barossa Channel, might do to the rest of them. Apparently, I’m smarter than I used to be? Of co
urse, the extra rubrics I’ve taken might have something to do with that. We know they modified Lexi’s brain. Time for a brain scan, I suppose.

  Although the body still looked intact, Lexi had been working non-stop over the carcass since they left Vankovia two and a half weeks ago. For the last few days, she had been skimping on sleep and failing to join the others for meals and movies. It was time to put a stop to that. Probably, past time.

  Ron turned away from the board and walked over to her. Turning her around to face him, he lifted her off of her feet so that their heads were level. She was totally unresponsive to what should have been a passionate kiss. I’ve never seen her like this. He got a better hold on her and carried her from the lab.

  She resisted the whole way to the shower, and damn she was strong but she wasn’t making more than a token effort. She knew far more ways to disable or kill him than he could count, but he didn’t think she was that far gone into whatever state of mind she had worked herself into that she would do more than struggle. She still hadn’t said a word.