She watched Lexi nodding, before continuing, “The protocols regarding use of the educator, which I’m now comfortable ignoring in your case, are extremely explicit. Lexi, you’re already way past the lifetime limit. If you were anyone else, you would be expected to be dead, or at least permanently catatonic, by now. That is well documented, however, my installation has been used enough over the years that I know what to watch for. I was paying attention before, during and after each rubric and would not have let that happen to my best friend. Your neurons are generating thousands, maybe millions, of new connections. You’re understanding things no one has even thought to question before. I think your thought processes are becoming massively parallel. I want a scan in the med-bay as soon as we get the chance. Those sensors have finer resolution than those in the rest of the ship.”
Lexi gave a small, weak laugh. “I always thought I was special, but then I imagine we all do.”
“For what it’s worth, it appears you might actually be special. From a practical point of view,” Urania continued, “Geena’s drug could have been ‘tweaked,’ as you so colorfully phrased it, hundreds of times. There is little incentive for pharmaceutical concerns to spend effort on modifying the formula when they have no way to protect their work. Anyone who can get a sample can break it down and make more.”
Lexi sat back and closed her eyes. “That’s an interesting point,” she conceded. A moment later, she said, “Tell me about yourself, Urania.”
“Sure. I was built one-hundred and thirty-nine years ago as a scout for the Vankovian exploration fleet. I carried a crew of eight on extended exploration missions. That’s pretty much all I know about that stage of my existence. Other than the addition of the Wraixain educator, I don’t think I’ve been modified since that time. My logs were erased when I was retired, deweaponized and put on the commercial market. That happened just over forty years ago…”
Despite being as old as she was, her story was short. Lexi noted with interest that up until the last decade, Urania didn’t sound like she had real memories, just log entries. When she finished, Lexi said, “You’re the best, Urania. Thank you. I think I’m going to go arouse Ron.” She smiled. “It might take me an hour or two to get him out of bed.”
“Take your time honey, I’ll still be here when you’re done arousing Ron. Maybe I’ll chat with Geena when she gets up. That’ll be different.”
Chapter 13
Aeolus Investigations
“So what’s next, Lexi?” Geena asked. She had been remarkably, hmm, personable once they had legally and bindingly become full partners. Not only that, it was as if she made a decision to step back, leaving Lexi in the role of senior partner. She supposed that was something they would have to work out over time. Lexi didn’t think she was qualified. After all, what did she know about being an insurance investigator?
Geena insisted, reasonably Lexi had to admit, their new contract be contingent on the recovery of the Rose of Light. Lexi was sure she would be an asset to the team even without the Rose. It was early to expect Geena, or Ron for that matter, to share that realization.
Geena also insisted that they come up with a new name for the partnership. She wasn’t comfortable retaining the name of Samue Investigations. She didn’t go into her reasons other than alluding to a fresh start and a desire to move on. Lexi offered up a name they all found intriguing, explaining that since no one objected to naming Urania after a Greek muse, adopting a another name from Greek mythology seemed somewhat fitting.
“I studied a number of Earth mythologies while we were there, Lexi,” Geena said. “I was interested in whether or not there was any way to tie back the gods of your so-called ancient civilizations to illicit visitors from the Accord. I really think there may have been something going on there, especially in the mythologies of the Americas but I couldn’t come up with anything conclusive one way or the other.”
She shrugged, looking the least bit wistful. “There was less correlation with the ancient Greek and Roman deities. However, I think I recognize that name. Aeolus, if I remember correctly, was the king of the winds, appointed by the Greek god Zeus to guard the storm winds. I admit I didn’t delve into individual deities that deeply. It was never clear to me what Aeolus was guarding the winds from. I suspect I might have it backwards and he protected mankind from the storm winds. That sounds more reasonable, at any rate. Are you implying anything with your choice of names?”
“No. It just sounds like a cool name, one that isn’t all that pretentious either. I was also thinking one meaning of the name Aeolus is ‘nimble.’ Ideally, as investigators, we should be nimble, or at least strive to be, don’t you think? Although you’re right. Aeolus was appointed by Zeus as the keeper of the winds, to guard, which I think in this case means to imprison, the storm winds. He penned them on a floating island named Aeolia. His job may have been to guard mankind, although when instructed by Zeus, he released the winds to wreak havoc.”
Ron frowned. “I’ve known you for almost three months. You boarded this ship to derail an alien invasion. I can already picture you both guarding mankind and wreaking havoc, kiddo.”
Lexi smiled back. “With you guys at my side?”
He smiled as well. “That does seem likely.”
“This conversation has gone weird,” Geena proclaimed. “I’m OK with the name, just try to keep a lid on the havoc, kids. I’ll handle filing the partnership documents and legally registering us as Aeolus Investigations when we get back to Cardin’s Paradise.”
Lexi nodded. “Thanks, Geena. Put us down in the barn again, please, Urania. Aeolus has a job to do, maybe some ass to kick, perhaps some minor havoc to wreak,” Lexi said. She looked at her team. Since coming on board, she had learned that the roof of the barn had fallen in years ago. While Urania was hidden in there, a holographic projection of an empty barn disguised her presence from aerial surveillance. They would do that again.
“Once we’ve landed, we take Ron’s car up the road. He and I drive my car back to the university and grab the Rose. Geena, if you don’t mind, take Ron’s car into town and pick up groceries. More beer would be nice. Well, you know better than I do what to buy for a starship, but please get a bottle of champagne, too. We’ll probably want to celebrate. You can put it all on my credit card.”
“Wait,” Ron said. “You’re saying the Rose is really at the university? We were that close?”
“That’s right, sweetie. Top right-hand drawer of Dr. Jameson’s desk. You were really close to finding it. If Geena had been playing detective instead of you, you would have it by now.” She paused, considering. “Except, maybe not. He takes it out and shows it to his female students in order to convince us to provide personal services. I don’t know what his success rate is with that. I didn’t realize that was what was going on when he showed it to me. I recognized it as your missing artifact as soon as you described it to me.”
“You didn’t…” Ron began.
“Ew, no,” Lexi said, grimacing. “Don’t go there, Ron. I’ll puke. Now that I think about it, he seemed more than a little bit confused when I left his office that time.” She smiled. “I told him if he made moves on me again I’d knock his teeth out. He knew I meant it. And that I could do it.” She flexed the muscles in her right arm as she said that, earning a grin from Ron. “I probably wouldn’t have been given a passing grade in his class either,” she added.
“More seriously, I want you both to know that I was going to tell you where the Rose was this morning anyway. The educator just changed my terms. I wanted to be part of what you’re doing since Ron told me about it last night. I’m thrilled with the thought of traveling to other planets. I thought maybe I could stay and you guys could teach me how to be an insurance investigator. Unless you have a rubric for it, I’m still going to need to be taught. I also want you to know that those rubrics are amazing. Urania hasn’t run all of them for me yet. Even if I turn out to be a klutzy investigator, I know I can still be an asset to t
his team.”
Chapter 14
Romancing the Rose
For their expedition Ron dressed in faded jeans, a slightly worn tee-shirt that proclaimed “She’s with stupid” and tan sneakers. His jaw dropped when he saw Lexi. She wore an outfit right out of Pirates of the Caribbean, although she didn’t bother explaining its inspiration to him. Her prior reference to Men in Black sailed completely over his head. Apparently, he didn’t watch movies. I need to do something about that. They’re a big part of my life. I wonder if I’m just trying to escape the mundane. If that’s the case, then damn, I’ve left the mundane so far behind, it’ll never catch up.
Urania fabricated the new clothing for her. Lexi found the fabricator, a large machine installed in an otherwise empty cabin, every bit as fascinating as the hyper-drive. It took raw materials, almost anything really, broke them down to molecular components and reassembled those components into whatever it was programmed to produce. She thought of it as a three-D printer on steroids. It took her a couple of hours and three tries to get the programs for her clothing right. Urania was a big help with that. Now she was dressed in low-cut suede shorts that stopped just short of mid-thigh. Her calf-high matching suede boots added to the look. She wore a simple white tank top leaving her tanned midriff bare. Over that, she had on a brown suede vest. She exuded sex appeal. Ron’s eyes took it all in.
Eventually, he noticed the dagger in a sheath built into her right boot. Lexi noticed his raised eyebrows when he got to that point and asked him, “What? I asked Urania to fabricate me some boots. The knife is from your armory. I thought a gun might be a little bit over the top. Besides, it would probably bring campus security running. I’ve never fired one, either. But you should see the cool quick draw holster she’s going to make for me. We need to upgrade your armory, by the way. Your guns are all at least seventy years old. I’m pretty sure that makes them antiques. I expected you guys would have ray-guns. You’re supposed to have ray-guns. Don’t you think space-aliens should have ray-guns? It’s very disappointing. I might have to invent them for you. I’ve got some other research to do first, though. The main problem is going to be the power source. I have some ideas about that. I think maybe I’ll pick up a Magnum while we’re here and a Glock for a backup piece. You look really good, Ron.”
He was sure that in whatever universe she thought in, all of that would make complete and coherent sense. Then he got to wondering if the slogan on his tee might literally be true.
As planned, Geena dropped them off at Lexi’s car and left to run errands. When Lexi and Ron were alone, driving toward school, she asked him, “Do you think your mom minded much being sent shopping?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Although she agreed that there was no point all three of us ganging up on our man Jameson. Besides with three people on board now, we really could use some fresh supplies, so someone needs to do it.” He paused, considering. “She seems different, somehow, the last twenty-some hours since you took over. She’s more relaxed, I think. Maybe she was scared about losing the ship and winding up being forced to find a boring job somewhere. I don’t know. I could have taken the senior partner role any time over the last several years but I didn’t think I would do as well as she was doing. Maybe I should have anyway. Then you happened. You did take over, Lexi; you realize that, don’t you?”
She laughed, not denying it. “I wasn’t planning a coup. I just wanted to be part of the team. Both of you immediately started acting like I’m in charge. I don’t really know enough to be in charge. I know that. You guys can’t forget that either. I can be a team leader. I’ve done that often enough for class projects. I’m just not sure I can be the leader of an investigative team.”
She paused with a smile. “It’s your fault, Ron. You were going to leave before I had a chance to decide whether or not I wanted to keep you. We’ve only known each other for nine weeks and only had the one date three nights ago.” She leaned towards him, placing her hand on his thigh, her voice lowered and her intonation conspiratorial, said, “I’m leaning towards keeping you.” Sitting back, she added in her normal voice, “After that first morning with Urania and the educator, what else could I do? I had to talk my way onto your team.”
She paused, considering how she wanted to explain her dilemma. “I knew you would want to come back for the Rose. I knew I could go back to my old life as though nothing changed. But the truth of the matter is I know too much to stay on Earth. I can build freakin’ starships, Ron. No one else on Earth can say that. And I am going to build ray-guns. Wait and see. I can revolutionize, and at the same time, destabilize, practically every industry on the planet. I’m fairly certain the destruction of civilization would be a direct consequence. Earth just isn’t ready for what I know.”
Her expression turned introspective as she added, “We might not ever be. I don’t have the temperament to feed it to them in tiny doses. Besides, if I stay on Earth, now that we’re back, I lose you. I understand how bored you would be here. I don’t think I want to lose you.”
She again paused and considered what she was about to say. “The raw knowledge churning through my mind is phenomenal. I can already advance Accord technology in several areas by at least hundreds of years and I still have a more than half of the rubrics to go. I might be as dangerous to the stability of the Accord as I am to Earth.”
He stared sideways at her. “How can you know more than the Accord? What the hell is in those rubrics? I’ve only taken a few of the language courses.”
She thought about that. It was a fair question, one without an obvious answer if you didn’t know what the rubrics did. “It’s not so much what is in them as it is putting the pieces together to make a whole,” she replied. “I don’t actually know more than the Accord, but I’m seeing connections that they missed. Take the stay-young drugs Geena uses, for instance. They’re shortening her life. She’ll still look young and beautiful, but she’ll be dead in another fifteen to twenty years or so. Even if she stopped taking them today, the damage is already done. It’s too late to help her. Since you guys never talked to Urania, you didn’t know.”
With a smile, she said, “If I close my eyes I can see the formulas for them, which I’m not going to do right now since I’m driving. I can see where the mistakes were made. I can also see how they need to be altered so that her body is really as young as she looks. It’s not at all straightforward, but the original designers were on the right track at least. Once I make those changes, it will probably double or triple her natural life expectancy. What do you think an advance like that, with everybody living at least twice as long as they do now, will do to the Accord? I don’t know the Accord so I can’t answer that. But I do know Earth. We need to be careful.”
They were both silent for the next few minutes. Oddly, he wasn’t worrying about his mother’s impending death. Learning it wasn’t going to happen in practically the same second you learned of it was comforting. But the conversation did lead him to thoughts of Geena, and oddly, to Crane, his father. “You know, this was my family’s business?” he began tentatively.
She laughed again. “Whoa there, lover; slow down. There’s only one place you could be going with that line. I like you too but don’t go there yet. In the past, half the time when my relationships wound down, it was because the guy couldn’t cope with me. I guess the other times, I started to find them tiring. I mentioned Hank the other night. He was tiring. I’m optimistic about us, Ron. You seem the coping type. Enjoy the benefits and get to know me for a while. Then we’ll talk. Do you think you’ll want to have children someday?”
He let out a contented sigh and said, “I don’t think you should be providing benefits while you’re driving, kiddo. And we’re different branches of humanity so children may not even be an option. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of interbreeding between humans from different planets. But yes, someday I would like that.”
Lexi laughed and moved her right hand from his lap back to the steering wheel
.
She parked the car in a reserved spot close to the building. She didn’t expect to be parked there long enough for it to be a problem. They headed directly for Jameson’s office. On the way, Ron remarked, “For the record, I intend on keeping you, Lexi.”
Lexi forced him to a stop by grabbing his arm at the biceps. She stared momentarily into his eyes, kissed him while standing on tiptoe and, without comment, continued on into the building with somewhat more than the normal bounce to her steps. Ron watched her hair swinging behind her for a moment, then rushed to catch up.
Chapter 15
Judge, Jury, Punisher
Jameson’s office door was locked. Lexi knocked sharply. From inside, Jameson barked, his voice muffled by the thick door, “Come back later.”
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