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

by Robert E Colfax

  Based on her weird dream while in a coma induced by absorbing the Wraix knowledge, someday she might or might not have a son named after Ron’s father. That much wasn’t a stretch. She and Ron both wanted a family. They had discussed names before. The first son would be Crane. The first daughter Christine.

  Her son Crane might or might not discover a burned off world named Waince, a world her deceased, probably alien, mother, Violet Stevens, apparently knew something about. Go figure. She didn’t have an issue with Violet being an alien. Technically, Ron was an alien. What she did have an issue with was the implications raised by Violet knowing about Waince, suggesting she was perhaps old enough to have known Waince before it was scorched. If my precognition was close to accurate, Waince has been dead for centuries. Which means, what? It meant Violet could be the being manipulating our lives.

  The private investigators Geena hired to look into Violet’s background found nothing to conflict with what Charlie told them he knew about her. She grew up in Hawaii. She went to the schools he said she went to. Violet’s parents died and left her enough money to pay for her education. There wasn’t anyone else. No brothers or sisters. No aunts, uncles or cousins. No corpse.

  Geena had the FBI look into the empty coffin. No answers came up about that either.

  Lexi still spent a large part of her days studying the Kreesh carcass. Not only was it essential that she understand the technology, she was fascinated by how the exoskeleton was constructed. She wasn’t making much headway. She could synthesize the nano-cells. She could even power them with her Zero-Point Units which were basically what powered the Kreesh. The design was only slightly different. Their version was slightly larger. At this point, she could almost build one of the damn things, or at least a robotic version of one of them.

  Lexi looked up from her musings as she heard Jis walking into the cabin. Her body language was more purposeful than usual as she walked over to the food replicator and got herself a large mug of hot tea and three sandwiches of lightly steamed vegetables in a wasabi sauce on focaccia bread. Of course, it was really the Ackalonian equivalents of wasabi and focaccia. They weren’t all that different from what Lexi ate as a child, although she hadn’t really gotten into sushi and the accompanying wasabi until middle school.

  As Jis took a seat at the table, she remarked, “You’re usually chatting with Urania by the time I get up.”

  Lexi shrugged. “I guess I was kind of in an introspective mood this morning. I get that way sometimes. I think I was moping.”

  Jis nodded. “I’ve got news. Urania, love, would you join us, please? Lexi, you may want to top off your coffee. I’m ravenous.”

  Urania, of course, was all around them. Urania’s avatar appeared in one of the kitchenette chairs almost immediately. Lexi headed for the replicator for more coffee, musing, She’s excited, or maybe scared, about something. Jis can be harder to read than most people when she has her mental shields up as she does now. Lexi was still working to achieve the control of her thoughts and emotions that at this point came naturally to Jis.

  Lexi joined the others and swiveled her chair to face them. She waited until Jis finished chewing what was in her mouth. “I hope it’s good news,” she said.

  Jis nodded. “The hulk-meds are kicking in. I think I’m going to want another sandwich or ten.” She put the last piece of her second sandwich in her mouth. “It’s good enough to stop you from moping.”

  “Would you like me to get you a pumpkin pie? That’s what I was gorging on when I was in this phase with the meds.”

  As Jis swallowed, she said, “That doesn’t sound very healthy, honey. I know where the Kreesh are.”

  Urania stared at her. “No, it’s not very healthy. How do you jump from that to ‘I know where the Kreesh are’ in the same breath?”

  “Yes, love,” Lexi agreed, “you’re going to have to explain that.”

  Jis smiled. “It’s simple, really. I had a precognitive dream. I’m pretty sure if you hadn’t got out of bed several hours before I did, you would have shared it, Lexi. It was as vivid as our dream of dead Ackalon. And almost as horrifying.” She paused and sipped her tea. “We all know that being this close to Lexi pumps up my talents to a marked degree. I’m not entirely sure that the hulk-meds aren’t enhancing those abilities as well.”

  “Be careful, Jis,” Urania advised. “Lexi went into a tailspin focusing on dissecting the Kreesh specimen at about this stage with the meds. Don’t let yourself get trapped in a precognitive world.”

  “Good advice, dear, but I don’t know how to prevent that. You guys will just have to keep me under observation.” She frowned. “I really can’t prove that talking to you now isn’t me stuck in a pre-cog dream. That’s how realistic this last one was.”

  “Assume you’re awake and tell us about the dream, Jis,” Lexi requested.

  “I might need one of those spinning top things Cobb had,” she mused, popping the last bite of her third sandwich into her mouth. “The two of us were on Urania, spying on a Kreesh hive-ship. They’re huge, by the way, the size of a small planet. We keep talking about the Kreesh swarming by the billions. With a ship that size, there may only be the one hive. It could easily carry billions. I couldn’t tell if the hive-ship is actually a ship at all and not just an aggregate of the Kreesh holding onto each other. Either that, or millions of them were holding onto the hull. Pretty disturbing visual, actually. They move continually.”

  She smiled, although it wasn’t her normal, serene smile. “Urania, the morning after Lexi and I dreamed about observing lifeless Ackalon from your command bay Lexi mentioned we should have asked the dream you what the date was. This time I did. Better still, I asked you for our exact coordinates and travel time from Earth orbit. Once I had that information, I actually told you guys I was in a precognitive dream. Dream-Lexi stepped forward, hugged me and told me it was time to wake up. So here I am. Hopefully awake. They’re still pretty far out. It will take us five months to get there and we need to leave within the week to make the date.”

  “That’s definitely good enough news to stop me from moping,” Lexi said. “We’re going to have to check it out.”

  “So we’re doing this?” Urania asked, looking toward Lexi. “Just the three of us?”

  Lexi looked wryly at Urania. “I suspect when most civilizations fall, bad news comes in and the response is, ‘What’s that? Really? Are you sure?’ Just for what it’s worth. If what Jis saw is real, then yes, the three of us are doing this. We have to. Ron isn’t even close to Grammin yet and we’re going to need those people. We can’t take Geena off what she’s doing on Earth. Dad needs her. And I doubt there is any value in bringing a squad of Marines. Jis?”

  Jis considered a moment. “No, just the three of us. At Urania’s maximum speed. Turbulence is going to be a bitch, isn’t it?”

  “Not as bad as would have been before the new Rathca dampeners, but I’m significantly faster than I was then. So, at my top speed in hyper, yes, turbulence is definitely going to be bad.”

  “Jis,” Lexi asked, “while we’re bouncing around in hyper, would you help me with strengthening my mental shields? Yours are tight. Mine not so much. I want to have them as strong as yours before I start training Ron.”

  Chapter 63

  Reconnaissance

  After two days of observing the hive ball, Urania remarked, “I think we may be mistaken about what the Kreesh are. Those thousands of ships the Wraix fought look like they could have been no more than aggregations of individual Kreesh.” On more than one occasion, they watched as a thousand of the Kreesh formed into a globule on the surface of the hive ship and sailed down to the planet to plunge into an ocean.

  “I have the same concern,” Lexi replied. “I’m also slightly concerned that they’re not registering as lifeforms. I’m going to have to get inside the hive.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Urania asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, even b
efore we headed out here. We need more intel. I think I made a bad mistake.” She looked at her two friends. “When we finally got the guts out of the carcass, I was surprised to find only traces of organic material. Without having any supporting evidence at all, I guessed, dammit, guessed that floating in space it had digested itself the same as it would life on whatever planet it was eating.”

  “I don’t know that that was an unreasonable assumption, Lexi,” Jis said.

  “The problem, love, is that it was an assumption. One I had no reason to make. Now we’re looking at an entire hive-ship and not getting any sign indicating any life exists over there at all from the life-sensors.”

  “The life-detectors are still pretty new technology, Lexi,” Urania responded. “Maybe the sensors aren’t able to penetrate the exoskeleton.”

  “She’s thinking they’re machines,” Jis stated. “That we’ve been wrong calling them an insectoid species. All we had to go on for that was that was what the Wraix thought they were. They don’t have to be, right, Lexi?”

  Lexi mutely shook her head.

  “OK,” Jis said. “Stupid mistake. I know you’re not going to make excuses for yourself. I’m not going to either. Learn from it and move on. In the final analysis, does it make any difference whether or not they’re biological creatures in an exoskeleton or fully robotic?”

  Lexi shook her head. “I don’t suppose so. Although that’s another assumption.” As Jis started to speak, Lexi held up her hand. “I know. Sometimes when we don’t have enough information, we have to assume. But the fact is, we need to know what we’re facing. Whether they’re alive or not, they cooperate with each other. We’ve seen them form a small cluster and generate something not much different than an Accord-tech primary beam to break down boulders into rubble. If a dozen of them can do that, a thousand should be able to generate a beam powerful enough for the Wraix to think they were battling starships. Regardless, we need more data. That’s why I’m taking our Kreesh carcass and wearing it over a skinsuit. Then I’m going to infiltrate the hive-ship.”

  Jis looked at her hard for a minute, then shook her head. “No, Lexi. It’s a good idea, but I’m doing it. I’m smaller than you. You’ll have more trouble fitting inside the shell. Besides, this is why we hulk-med enhanced me.”

  Lexi stared at her. “You’re not making that up, are you?”

  Jis shook her head, resignedly. “No, I’m not. I was puzzled that first time we discussed the enhancement meds on Ackalon. I said I thought I might need them. Now I know why I said that. It’s not something I’m looking forward to, but it will be me who goes in.” She shrugged. “Even my father saw that I needed to be on the team for this mission.”

  Urania looked from Lexi, to Jis, and back again. “How long will it take you to ready the carcass, Lexi?” she finally asked.

  Lexi was still looking at Jis with a worried expression on her face. Jis, on the other hand, was sitting calmly, serenely watching Lexi, feeling her concern and her love. Jis said, her voice soft, “Whether I live through it or not, it is the way it has to be, Lexi. In the worst case, whoever does this might die in there. The Accord needs its Marshal far more than it needs a Plicora. I can be replaced. You can’t. We don’t win this war without you.”

  “A seeing, Jis?” Lexi asked.

  “No.” Jis shook her head as she spoke firmly. “A Plicora’s opinion.”

  Still, Lexi hesitated to answer Urania’s question. No one spoke for several minutes, both Lexi and Jis watching the horrifying display of the Kreesh hive-ship orbiting the, fortunately, uninhabited planet they were currently eating. At the rate they were going at it, it looked like at least four years, seven at the outside, before they finished with it. They were recording the Kreesh progress and making calculations. They had another question answered too. The Kreesh were diving into the bodies of water, going after aquatic life.

  Lexi suddenly remarked, “I want samples of the waste matter they’re leaving behind. If they’re not biological, I don’t understand why they’re eating planets. Ron’s speculation about terraforming comes to mind.” She looked thoughtful a moment. “Let’s check that out. Jis, before we insert you into the hive ball, we need to suit up and shoot down to the surface. Urania, could you find us an area they’ve cleared and moved away from? We’ll take Zappers, although we already know they won’t cut through the things.”

  She looked at Urania. “To answer your question, I’ll need three or four days to make a Kreesh-suit. I know what needs to be done. The tricky part is going to be assembling it. Even with it gutted, I can’t cut through the shell. The hardware is going to need to be assembled using the transporter. We’re not really set up for work that fine. Still, that particular modification should be straightforward. We’re also going to have to make a special skinsuit for her to wear inside the carcass.”

  Lexi looked at Jis. “You know we can’t use an avatar, right? You’ll have to be physically in the carcass.”

  “It never occurred to me we could,” Jis admitted.

  “I’m still working on it but I do know that avatar technology doesn’t support empathy and telepathy. That’s one of the things I’m trying to figure out. If it even can. When my avatar fought Meat’s we joined minds through the Klaavaanit interface. It wasn’t telepathy. Frankly, I hope telepathy can never be used to kill.”

  Jis’s eyes widened. “You’re thinking of going in with me using the mind-meld!”

  “Yes, I am. We’re also going to need you to see if you sense any sign of sentience in there. You’re not going to be able to move inside the carcass. You’re going to need to learn to use the Klaavaanit interface to move the suit around.” She paused. “Urania, I need you to program a simulation so Jis can practice. You’ll have to update it once we have a final design. Jis, I’m afraid I’m going to be keeping you very busy. You’re going to need to practice in the sim. We’re going to be practicing mind-melding too. I’m going to want to keep in constant touch with you so we can yank you out if necessary. Believe me, the Accord needs Ackalon’s Plicora as much as it needs its Marshal. And that is not an opinion, dear. It’s something I know.”

  ***

  Jis was dressed in her modified skinsuit, staring resolutely at the Kreesh-suit she would soon be wearing. “I’ve never been so afraid of anything in my life. This isn’t nearly like the time I chose to let myself be kidnapped by what turned out to be pirates on the Borgol job.”

  “I can modify the carcass, love. We have the time. It’ll be tight, but I can fit in there instead.”

  “No, it has to be me. Yes, we certainly have the day or two it would take you to reconfigure the Kreesh-suit. But, one of us needs to do this and it can’t be you. If nothing else, you would have to reduce the food and water supplies. Besides, isn’t the definition of brave doing what you need to do even though you’re overwhelmed by fear? I need to be brave, Lexi. I think it’s my turn.”

  Lexi managed to suppress any further look of concern on her features, even while knowing that it wouldn’t do any good when facing the empathic Jis. “Lay down on the template, then.” The only way to get her friend into the Kreesh suit was to transport her in. The template was designed to position Jis’s body precisely matching the contours of the interior capsule constructed inside the carcass. In some ways, this was more dangerous than sending her into the hive-ship. She built a lot of protection into the carcass, using the same transporter. For it to be effective, Jis had to be inside the carcass wearing the special skinsuit. If the transporter placement was off the least little bit, it could be fatal.

  As Jis composed herself on the sculpted template, Lexi stood over her, checking her alignment. She sighed. With the helmet Jis wore sealed, she couldn’t even give her a kiss. The transport technology used focused gravity. Lexi’s avatars used sculpted gravity to produce a hologram. She watched as the holographic field enveloped Jis, showing exactly what was to be transported. She slightly adjusted the position of Jis’s right arm, stepped back, and
said, “Transport.”

  Jis vanished from the template and almost immediately her voice came over the comm-gear. “Success. No missing body parts. I’m going to try standing and moving around. Monitor my read-outs while I’m doing that, please.”

  The suit sat up and then got to its feet. Jis said, “Your simulation was good, Urania. This still feels like standing on stilts, but my balance is good.” Lexi backed to the side as the ungainly suit took a step, wobbling only slightly. Jis, gaining confidence, took a few more steps, stopping abruptly to turn around as she hit the far wall.

  Lexi said, with no trace of humor in her voice, “That’s OK, love. We can patch the wall. Can you use the tentacles at all?”

  “Maybe. I can feel them back there. Really weird feeling, too. Give me a couple more minutes accidentally knocking holes in walls and I’ll give it a try.” Jis managed to walk completely around the nearly empty cargo hold without doing any additional damage. She approached the stack of empty shipping containers stacked to one side, bent down and picked one up. Carrying it in the suit’s arms, she set it down six feet away. “This wouldn’t be possible at all without the Klaavaanit interface. There’s really very little I can accomplish with physical movement, especially with the extra joints.”