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

by Robert E Colfax

  Lexi headed to the kitchenette while Jis was cleaning up. Urania said, “You know how this works, right, honey?”

  Lexi sighed. “Yes. Sometimes I almost hate it when she does that. Sometimes, I’m envious. She wasn’t joking around. Jis just predicted that somewhere, sometime, I’m going to be considered a witch. Probably with good reason. Maybe I’ll drop a house on somebody. It could mean anything. Probably means I’ll survive the Kreesh, at least.”

  Urania replied, “We never used to even recognize those random precognitions. I’m not sure Jis does even now. As far as I can tell, they just slip into her conversation so they’re easy to miss. I’ll be interested to see if you actually display traditional witchy talents or if it’s more of your techno-wizardry.”

  By the time Jis joined them, Lexi had hot tea and her favorite breakfast sandwich waiting for her. She made herself coffee, of course, with pumpkin pancakes, sausage, and a small fruit salad. Urania-avatar joined them at the table, drinking simulated coffee.

  “Thank you, guys,” Jis said around a bite of her sandwich. “How did I get out of the hive-ship? Where are we now? The last thing I really remember is losing mental contact with Lexi.”

  “We immediately did a brain scan on Lexi when your connection failed,” Urania said. “Her brain was exhausted, which we think is why you disconnected. We’re assuming yours must have been as well. I was still able to monitor your physical status from your Kreesh-suit so we let Lexi take a nap. I woke her when your bio-signs became frightening.”

  “I recovered enough by that time, I slept about six hours, that I was able to reach you,” Lexi said. “It seems dropping our connection let that part of your mind get some rest too. Makes sense. When we reconnected, you weren’t in good shape, honey. Your thoughts were weak and jumbled, but I got enough to understand that you wanted out and that you wanted us to leave the carcass behind. Urania quite adroitly managed that. You’ve slept for twenty hours since then. We’re headed back to Earth.”

  “You held me the entire time I was asleep,” Jis realized. “Thank you, dear.” Jis got up and returned from the replicator with another large mug of tea and a whole pumpkin pie with a green sauce drizzled over it. She looked at Lexi. “I couldn’t carry two. If you want one, you’ll have to get it. This one is mine.” She took a large bite and smiled blissfully.

  Lexi shook her head. She didn’t normally eat entire pies in a single sitting. True, she had once, but neither did Jis. Urania said, “We already had a discussion about eating whole pies not being healthy. What is the green stuff?”

  Beaming as she brought another chunk to her mouth, Jis said, “Wasabi sauce, of course.”

  With the pie two-thirds eaten, Jis said, “Oops. I don’t think I can eat the rest of it.”

  Lexi reached over with her fork and carved off a piece. Once she finished chewing, she said, “Interesting flavor combination. It’s actually pretty good.” She pulled the plate closer to her and had another bite.

  “What happened over there after Lexi lost contact, Jis?” Urania asked, moving the discussion away from bad eating habits and back to the more immediately pertinent stuff.

  “It was, well, can I get away with saying ‘interesting.” They have minds, of a sort. Very basic minds. It’s more stimulus/response programming than independent thought. They’re definitely robots, not living creatures. True AI. They have no sense of self, nor personal space. Thankfully, they haven’t evolved sentience. Despite that, I was starting to have a sense of what they were thinking if that term applies.”

  She paused. “Lexi, I know the Klaavaanit field was necessary for me to operate the suit. I think we should be concerned that the interface may have seeded sentience. That would be horrible.”

  Lexi considered. “I doubt it’s a concern. I don’t think the exposure was sufficient. I also don’t think the Kreesh nano-cell AI is sufficiently advanced to support sentience. Like you said, it’s more stimulus/response programming.”

  Jis nodded. “OK. You’re the expert. The hive-ball, it’s not really a ship, is far too large for me to have made it to the center. To move around in there, they climb over and around each other. Picture the most crowded street you can imagine in the largest city on Earth, Lexi. It was worse than that. The Kreesh are packed in there as a solid three-dimensional layer like the mantel of a planet. One that flows all of the time.”

  She frowned. “I knew I was losing it when I started having sexual fantasies about slithering through packed human bodies. We were all oiled. I did decide I need to have a discussion with An about a future together.”

  Lexi smiled at her. “The rest of us don’t know why you’ve waited so long. You guys seem good together.”

  “I know,” Jis said. “We are. We’re just not the perfect match Ackalonians idolize. I think we could become that. Anyway, back to my report. Kreesh exchange nano-cells all of the time. I think that’s how they communicate or at least, share experiences. I suspect it may also be how they update their programming.”

  “Did you exchange cells?” Lexi asked.

  “Yes. It’s not a conscious process. It just happens. The new cells were different from those in the carcass I wore. It’s hard to explain. I think I was able to sense them somehow. You’re worried about what your modifications might do.”

  “Yes, and your Kreesh suit had an integral Klaavaanit generator.”

  “Now it’s my turn to say this. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem, Lexi,” Jis said. “You already discounted my being in there as sufficient exposure to spark sentience. The generator was part of my skinsuit, wasn’t it? It should have been retrieved when Urania ported me out. Your other modifications just added life support functionality.”

  Urania said, “She’s right, Lexi. All they would have got from the carcass was the computer circuitry you built to control the limbs and the extended life-support hardware. Everything else was in the skinsuit.”

  Lexi nodded.

  “I stayed with the units coming up from the planet’s surface,” Jis continued. “It was the easiest path to take. They were all making their way to a type of nexus. The others opened a channel of sorts for us. Well, you and I were still linked for the first part of that. I lost you hours before I saw the nexus node. It was nearly a hundred miles in; the stream I was with moved with purpose in there, but wasn’t rushing. I don’t know whether there are even larger nexuses further toward the core. There must be connections between the nodes, at least.

  “The node’s surface is a geometric-solid comprised of light and dark shapes. The Kreesh embrace the dark pentagons. I think there may have been a dozen. Each is large enough that hundreds of them can attach at the same time. I watched as they melted into it. I can’t swear to it, but it looked like new Kreesh formed and dropped off from the lighter colored triangles. I don’t know how many of those there were. I was forced forward by the crowd. Once in contact with the dark area, you can’t pull back. My carcass was dissolving around me.”

  Lexi said, “You’re describing what’s called an icosidodecahedron.”

  Jis paused, noticing Lexi hadn’t quite finished the pie. She took another bite, and being out of tea, finished Lexi’s coffee. She made a face. “I may have to gargle again. Anyway, back to hell. I didn’t know if the damn icosidodecahedron could dissolve my skinsuit and me as well. I don’t think knowing what the shape is called helps, either. I didn’t know whether I was going to be dead or not. I suddenly realized that the Klaavaanit field gave me more control over the nano-cells, at least the new ones, than I think even you expected. I tried to program a command into the cells of my Kreesh-suit. Really, it was a last-ditch effort. The Kreesh-suit was dissolving around me at the time. Then Lexi reached me.”

  She smiled at Lexi. “Listen, I need a shower in the worst way. I’d love to have you guys join me. I’d rather not be alone right now. Can we watch Pretty Woman after that? I think I just want to not think for a while and watch a movie that I’ve seen before with an absurdly
unlikely happy ending. And drink a lot of wine.”

  “We’re heading back to Earth,” Lexi remarked. “The Kreesh aren’t chasing us. It’s a long trip. We can all take a day off. The bad news is the hulk-meds will prevent you from even getting tipsy no matter how much wine you drink.”

  As the three women headed toward the shower, Urania prompted, “What was the command, Jis?”

  “I don’t have a clue, love.”

  Chapter 67

  Golden Girl

  The Accord had no further interaction with the Kreesh for the next six years. In that time, Lexi’s fleet had grown to a thousand eighty-two battleships and nine hundred sixty-one cruisers. She was almost, but not quite, to the point of having her production capacity outstrip her raw materials.

  The Kreesh had finished destroying the unnamed planet they were dining on at the time Jis infiltrated the hive-ship. A light cruiser squadron had maintained station in that system, unmolested, as they continued watching the Kreesh eat a world. Governor Stevens knew that much of the world population wouldn’t be able to emotionally handle the truth. Yet, it was happening. Video of what the Kreesh were doing to that unnamed planet was available to any who cared to watch it. Much of his population was in shock. Many were turning to drug and alcohol abuse. At the same time, heroes emerged. People, frequently those holding no elected office, rose from the masses as leaders. Calling for calm, putting their faith in the Marshal of the Accord.

  Now the Kreesh hive-ship was headed for Earth. The hive’s speed through hyperspace was poor. Any of her ships could dance around it. The fleet moved to intercept while it was still a month out. Lexi watched the hive-ship on the holo-monitor as it churned steadily toward her position. Finally, she gave the order, “All ships, commence the attack.”

  Every ship in her fleet opened up on the hive. Her cruiser-class ships let loose with their three primary beams. The battleships boasted sixteen, all firing simultaneously. The combined firepower was immense. They were visibly doing damage. Nothing could resist even a single primary beam, far less the barrage her ships were hitting the hive-ship with. But they were attacking something the size of a small planet. No matter how deep her ships’ beams gouged, the Kreesh closed ranks over the holes.

  She glanced at her readouts. Relatively speaking, they weren’t doing much damage. As the firing continued, Lieutenant Lashmi, one of her Ostrieachian officers, reported from tactical, her voice excited, “It’s breaking up, Marshal! The hive is breaking up!

  Ron watched what was happening as huge bubbles of Kreesh began separating from the surface. “Now I understand why the Wraix thought they had hundreds of ships. How is it doing that?”

  Urania said, “I think those are the icosidodecahedrons. Sensors are showing a couple of thousand Kreesh clustered onto each one. The object at the center is hard to read, but something is at the center of each cluster.” She paused, watching. “Lexi, they going after the battleships.”

  Lexi immediately switched to the all-ships channel. “Switch targets. The smaller ships are the larger threat at the moment. Destroy them.”

  ***

  Lexi raced from their cabin to her lab with Ron hot on her heels. Both of them were naked and probably smelled of sex. Nothing could be done about that now. The Kreesh had been harrying Glaurang for days. Despite this, the hull breach was both sudden and unanticipated. At last count, fully thirty of the enemy were on her ship. She lost dozens of her crew in the first chaotic minutes following the breach, before the alert even reached her. If the Kreesh focused on people, it would have been worse. They seemed equally interested, if not more so, in ripping into the ship itself as they attempted to terraform it. On the planet, they watched Kreesh occasionally breaking down boulders although they mostly bypassed them. Exactly what that was about Lexi couldn’t be sure. Much of the Kreesh behavior seemed somewhat erratic.

  Based on information garnered from Jis after her stint on the hive-ship, Lexi didn’t think they had the capacity to understand that they were in a battle with starships. They may think they were clearing debris to get to their next target. That may not fully explain the Kreesh boarding parties, but they were, after all, totally alien automations. All of the evidence, circumstantial as it was, pointed to the Kreesh not being weapons. They seemed to be malfunctioning terraforming robots. Just single-minded, broken technology. Deadly technology.

  In her lab she had a set of four upgraded Zappers, prototypes, still in the testing stage. Despite power-assist armor, none of her Marines was strong enough to wield them effectively. Even power-assist armor had limitations, increasing strength, but not agility. These were small cannons, cousins to the anti-personnel Zappers that ringed Urania’s hull. They weighed two hundred thirty-seven pounds each. While not outside of the ability of the Marines to carry, in their hands they would have to be considered semi-portables. Firing them accurately while on the run would be beyond them. The hulk-meds gave her team that ability. Then there was always Urania-avatar.

  As they grabbed up a Zapper each, Ron said, “I’ll head forward. You take aft.” His comm-gear contact lens, like hers, provided real time internal sensor data on the location of the Kreesh. “Jis, Urania, where are you guys? Pick up some Mark-Twos from the lab.”

  Headed for the rear of the ship at a dead run, Lexi encountered a squad of nine Marines, armed and at ready, watching as one of the Kreesh busily ate its way into a maintenance storage closet. Their standing orders, in the case of a breach, were to stand back unless crew or vital areas of the ship were threatened. Assuming this one destroyed the maintenance closet it was working on, this area of the ship might not be vacuumed for a while. Not all that critical. As she ran past, she shouted to one of her Marines, a man with a deserved reputation of being a wise-ass, “Kowalski, don’t say a thing.” She didn’t want to hear comments about her unusual appearance, which she never expected anyone to see outside of her private quarters.

  If her weapon worked on a functioning Kreesh like it did on the carcass fragments she assembled for testing, sustained fire at a single point would burn through in under a second. They all knew where the thing’s most vital spots were located. It didn’t let her have that second. The Kreesh moved much faster than she anticipated. With the first lick of the Zapper, it was on her, ripping the weapon from her grip with one of its tentacles. It loomed over her looking down while those same tentacles touched her on the back, the arms, and delicately on her face. She looked up at it, it’s face only inches distant from hers, I suppose this is how Ripley felt. At least it’s not drooling acid.

  She was facing probable, almost certain, death, and knew it. Although if the hulk-meds work and if my calculations on what these things are capable of are correct, then this monster shouldn’t be able to hurt me. Much. Not sure about the calculations though. She was wondering why it was just standing there. Think of the positive. Again, at least it’s not drooling acid.

  Behind her, nine Marines were standing by, not sure how to handle the situation. They knew their weapons, unless they managed to concentrate all of their fire on the same spot, would have no effect on the Kreesh. Even then the outcome was questionable. Kowalski was approaching slowly, angling toward where the Mark II Zapper was laying against a wall.

  The tableau persisted, unchanged, for seven long minutes. Nervous Marines at ready forty feet down the long corridor. Lexi standing very still in front of a hunched over giant at a distance of three feet, its ruby-red eyes unblinkingly on her, tentacles slowly waving. Maybe it‘s trying to figure out why my skin and hair are metallic gold. I imagine my Marines might be wondering the same thing. The Kreesh made meaningless noises at her the entire time. Then, quite abruptly, they weren’t meaningless noises. Didn’t know I could do that! I just learned a new language, sort of. Who knew they could talk?

  Maybe not. She reached over her shoulder and felt small nubs on her back where the tentacles touched her. Great, it’s not the sounds it’s making. I’m understanding it because I’m infected with
freakin’ Kreesh nano-cells. Jis said they communicated by exchanging cells. Those tentacles are still touching my back.

  “Instructions, Maker?”

  OK, I know damn well I didn’t make these monsters. Is my translation off? Is that what they call humans? Then a light bulb went off. More likely this is what they did with the instruction Jis implanted. Even if that is the case, how many of them could have been affected by what Jis did six years ago? The Kreesh in front of her was just one out of billions. Only one answer made sense if this randomly encountered robot was following that instruction. How many? All of them. Overthinking, Lexi! Carpe diem. “Stop taking apart my ship. Immediately. That includes both my organic and inorganic materials. All of you.” She didn’t know how she did it, but she thought it wasn’t so much her words that got through to it. She could feel the nano-cells in her back writhing as she sent them back into the tentacles. What a weird feeling that is!