Contents
Copyright
Forward
Gambler, Episode 4
Copyright
Chatper 1, Ackalon
Chapter 2, Briefing Jis
Chapter 3, Infrastructure Upgrades
Chapter 4, Mingling
Chapter 5, Help Wanted
Chapter 6, The New Job
Chapter 7, Coronation
Chapter 8, Storm Winds
Chapter 9, Sensor Upgrades
Chapter 10, Intercept
Chapter 11, Rescue
Chapter 12, Crashing at Full Burn
Chapter 13, The News Isn’t Good
Chapter 14, Defining the Problem
Chapter 15, Options
Chapter 16, Dinner
Chapter 17, Dampeners
Chapter 18, Techno-Wizardry
Chapter 19, Penetrating the Base
Chapter 20, Command Central
Chapter 21, Secret Agents
Chapter 22, Team Two
Chapter 23, Hell Ride
Chapter 24, The Masters
Chapter 25, Raider Two
Chapter 26, Ostrieachia
Chapter 27, Falling With Style
Chapter 28, After the Fall
Chapter 29, One World Council
Chapter 30, Jis Comes Through
Chapter 31, Council Matters
Chapter 32, The Chase
Chapter 33, Evolution
Chapter 34, Come Into My Parlor
Chapter 35, A Quuck Update
Chapter 36, Chief Minister
Chapter 37, Jis Boc Seckan
Chapter 38, Lunch
Gladiator, Episode 5
Copyright
_____ Part 1: Gladiator _______
Chapter 1, Arena
Chapter 2, Mortal Combat
Chapter 3, Meet the Sims
Chapter 4, Retrospective
Chapter 5, Goram Interstellar
Chapter 6, Seekateeki
Chapter 7, Investigation
Chapter 8, Super Genius
Chapter 9, David vs Goliath
Chapter 10, Interlude
Chapter 11, Never Forget the Name Enterprise
Chapter 12, Double Trouble
Chapter 13, Scotty
Chapter 14, Dereliction of Duty
Chapter 15, Pirates, Really?
Chapter 16, Sunday at the Movies
Chapter 17, Plan B
Chapter 18, Spock
Chapter 19, Checkmate
_____ Part 2: Marshal ________
Chapter 20, Honeymoon
Chapter 21, Point Break
Chapter 22, Designs by Klendin
Chapter 23, The Striped Bass
Chapter 24, July 4th
Chapter 25, Widow
Chapter 26, At the Mall
Chapter 27, Lexi has Fallen in the Well
Chapter 28, Salvage
Chapter 29, Urania's Story
Chapter 30, Awaken Dorothy
Chapter 31, Species Seventeen
Chapter 32, Article Seven, Section One
Chapter 33, Glaurang
Chapter 34, Amusement Park
Chapter 35, Klaavaanit
Chapter 36, Ackalon
Chapter 37, Borgol
Chapter 38, Vankovia
Chapter 39, Medical Examiner
Chapter 40, Performance Enhancement
Chapter 41, Surf's up
_____ Part 3: Killer Queen _____
Chapter 42, Men in Black
Chapter 43, Visitors From the Stars
Chapter 44, First Contact
Chapter 45, The Short Version
Chapter 46, Charlie, This is Lexi
Chapter 47, Briefing
Chapter 48, The Interesting Stuff
Chapter 49, Alone at Last
Chapter 50, Killer Queen
Chapter 51, Charlie Stevens
Chapter 52, Violet Stevens
Chapter 53, Dog and Pony Show
Chapter 54, Theatrics
Chapter 55, World Governor
Chapter 56, Time Flies When You're Saving a World
Chapter 57, Engineering a Fleet
Chapter 58, State of the Union Address
Chapter 59, Problem Solving
Chapter 60, Tricks of the Trade
Chapter 61, Grammin
Chapter 62, Musings on Life
Chapter 63, Reconnaissance
Chapter 64, Inside the Hive
Chapter 65, Retrieving Jis
Chapter 66, Debriefing Jis
Chapter 67, Golden Girl
Chapter 68, Independence Day
Chapter 69, That Could Work
Chapter 70, The Wrap
_____ Part 4: Electra Stevens __
Chapter 71, An Evening With Electra Stevens
Chapter 72, Acquiring Glaurang
Chapter 73, After the Break
Chapter 74, Family
Geena's Story, Bonus Feature
Copyright
Chapter 1, Introduction
Chapter 2, The Scene of the Crime
Chapter 3, Crane Samue
Chapter 4, Reviewing Ship's Logs
Chapter 5, Getting Dirty
Chapter 6, Samue Investigations
Chapter 7, Starship WA32198389-18-32405
Chapter 8, The Rose of Light
Author’s Note
Books by Bob Colfax
Too Cool to Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens
AEOLUS INVESTIGATIONS
Episodes 4 and 5
by
Robert E Colfax
Cover art by Dave Kirk
Published by Robert C Kirk
Gambler Copyright © 2020 Robert C Kirk, used by permission
Gladiator Copyright © 2020 Robert C Kirk, used by permission
Geena’s Story Copyright © 2021 Robert C Kirk, used by permission
Copyright © 2021 Robert C Kirk
All rights reserved.
The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner is an infringement of the copyright law.
Believe it or not, only fifteen months have elapsed since the formation of Aeolus Investigations. In the first episode of the series, Stowaway, Lexi and the team uncovered a mystical artifact stolen from the Ackalonian’s almost twenty-five years earlier. Episode two, Avenger, sends the team chasing after kidnappers. Their successful conclusion of that second mission leaves several of the Accord worlds in their debt. In episode three, Paladin, they manage to rescue a previously unknown civilization from possible collapse.
Too Cool to Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens
A lighthearted space adventure, with overtones of seriousness.
Take this opportunity to join Lexi, Ron, Geena, and Urania — the Aeolus Investigations team — in their continuing adventures.
Gambler (episode five), is the first episode in the To Cool To Lose collection. Gambler picks up only days after the end of Paladin, with the team joining their friend Jis Boc Seckan on Ackalon for her coronation as Plicora of the planet. They barely made it in time to witness the event.
Due to the length of Gladiator, the fifth episode in the series and the second in this set, there are only the two episodes included. Gladiator, when initially plotted out, was intended as three separate novels. It didn’t work that way. I thi
nk it turned out alright. I hope you agree.
Taken together, these two episodes, more so than any since Stowaway, determine the course of Lexi’s life.
You’ll also find Geena’s Story — a short story that relates how Geena meets the man who would one day be Ron’s father.
February 2021
Gambler
Aeolus Investigations (Episode 4)
Revised November 20, 2020
by
Robert E Colfax
Cover art by Dave Kirk
Edited by Dee Bullock
Published by Robert C Kirk
Copyright © 2020 Robert C Kirk
All rights reserved.
The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner is an infringement of the copyright law.
Chapter 1
Ackalon
As Jis Boc Seckan rose from her desk to greet her friends, her first words were, “Lexi, you seem rather angry.” She gave each of them a hug before stepping back, focusing on Lexi. Jis was one of the strongest empaths on her world. She and Lexi Stevens thought of themselves as sisters due to the mental link they shared through the ancient Ackalonian device known as the Rose of Light.
Jis, as typical of women from Ackalon, was very pale-skinned. Her slender, five-foot-nine frame carried more muscle than most Ackalonian females because she worked hard at it. Today she was in casual-mode, dressed in lounge pants and a t-shirt. She wore her long, platinum-blonde hair in a braid that reached to her lower back.
Geena Samue, her son Ron Samue, their sentient starship Urania, along with Lexi Stevens comprised the team of insurance investigators known as Aeolus Investigations. Aeolus was the name of a character, actually, several characters, from Earth’s ancient Greek mythology. His job as King of the Winds was to imprison the violent storm winds inside his cavernous floating island of Aeolia until Zeus commanded him to release them to wreak havoc on the mortals. Zeus was never the most compassionate of gods.
Lexi, the only member of the Aeolus Investigations team native to Earth, came up with the name after she forced a renegotiation of the existing partnership between Geena and Ron, making Urania and her full partners. Practically no one in the interstellar entity known as the Accord, other than her team, had a clue as to the name’s derivation. At any rate, as far as the team was concerned, it was just a cool sounding name, with nothing further implied. Admittedly, the term “havoc” could easily be used to describe much of their last two jobs.
Now Geena smiled, looking fondly at Lexi as she said, “She’s been a real bitch to live with for the last month. It’s a side effect of a drug she took. At least, we hope that’s all it is. She seems to be getting better. We’ve been letting it slide. After all, she dosed herself with it in order to save all of our lives. The stuff very nearly killed her. I’m afraid the side effects messed her up pretty badly. Do you have time for the story, Jis, or would you just like to hear the key elements?”
Jis was not only one of their best friends, she also worked with them as part of the team on the Borgol job. At the beginning of that job they hired her as a consultant. By the end, she was an adjunct team member. Working with them opened her eyes to a number of things she took for granted. She was responsible for the new Ackalonian law that allowed them to legally weaponize their starship. Tomorrow, she would become the Plicora, or ruler, of the planet Ackalon, taking over from her father after his many years of service. Lexi, Geena, and Ron barely made it back in time for the ceremonies.
Again looking at Lexi, and now looking concerned, Jis replied, “My next appointment is not for fifty minutes, and frankly, I can cancel it if I need to. I’d love to have an excuse. I’m supposed to decide on desserts for tonight’s reception. I suspect there must be other people around here who can make that momentous decision without me.” The Residence had been hosting nightly receptions for those off-world guests who arrived early for the last week. With travel times through hyperspace being uncertain as the inevitable turbulence could often add a day or two, people allowed extra time in their schedule. Plus some of her guests doubtless had business to transact. Some just desired time for sightseeing. Maybe some came for the desserts.
The original plan of the Aeolus team’s included vacationing on Ackalon for the two months preceding the ceremony. That plan was drastically altered when Ron and Geena were forced to abruptly rush off after bounty hunters who kidnapped Lexi. They made it back to Ackalon only six hours ago. In those two months, they managed to destroy a significant pirate base and possibly save an unknown civilization spanning two worlds from complete collapse.
Ron said, “Well, Jis, I think the most important thing for you to know is that a representative of a space-threading civilization you’ve never heard of will be attending your inauguration. King Ron Samue of Grammin and her colony world of Graplin will be present, in person.” He bowed with a small flourish. In an aside to Lexi, he added, “I bet your friend Pete hasn’t heard about that yet either.”
Lexi smiled. Pete Isher ran a weapon shop on the Samues’ homeworld of Cardin’s Paradise. In addition to guns and armor, he sold what could best be called spy paraphernalia. Somehow he seemed to have an inside track on information that should have never reached him. Lexi suspected he actually was a retired spy, still plugged into more than one information network. His advice proved helpful in running the types of missions Lexi had been choosing for the Aeolus Investigations team. She agreed with Ron, however. He probably wouldn’t know about the Grammin worlds. They were completely off the grid.
Ron met Lexi when he and his mother Geena, insurance investigators based out of the world called Cardin’s Paradise, were on Earth searching for the missing Ackalonian Rose of Light. As Lexi said, at six-foot-seven and two-hundred-seventy pounds of muscle, Ron stood out in a crowd. She first ran into him at the campus coffee shop where he worked. Coffee and a hunk, what could be better?
Unable to locate the stolen artifact and going broke while looking for it, Ron and Geena decided to call it quits. Lexi, knowing none of that, while harboring the misconception that she needed to do something to sidetrack an alien invasion, stowed away on their starship when they packed up and left. A day later, with Lexi now leading the team, they returned to Earth and retrieved the stolen gem. They first met Jis when the Rose was turned over to her father, Ad Boc Seckan, the man serving as Plicora of Ackalon for the last sixty-some years.
Still smiling, Jis was the most perpetually serene person her friends had ever met, she said, “You know you can’t get away with lying to me, right, Ron? Let me get this straight. You were gone for nine weeks. Just nine weeks. In that time, Lexi took drugs to make her angry. Ron came back as King of an unknown world. Except I have heard of Grammin. It’s supposed to be uninhabited. Did you guys have time to get any sleep?” She shook her head. “I’ve seen reports on the shape you brought poor Urania back in. That much damage is impressive even for Aeolus Investigations. I’m guessing you tangled with pirates again. I think I need the whole story. It sounds like the bounty hunters grabbing Lexi was the small part.”
It was true their first space battle with pirates resulted in some serious damage to their newly weaponized starship. The thing about that was it would have happened whether or not they were able to fight back. They hadn’t exactly gone out looking to test the new weapons against live targets. Without the weapons, they would most likely all be dead now. The first thing they did once they docked was to arrange with a commercial facility to have repairs made while they were here.
Jis ordered coffee and what amounted to a cheese and fruit platter for them. While they waited for the food to arrive, Jis again directed her attention toward Lexi. “You do seem different, somehow, Lexi. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s not just the anger. Frankly, love, that’s been there since Hepca.” On Hepca, they
left over seven-hundred people behind, stranded and on their own, with the team planning to return as soon as possible with a transport ship. The transport left Borgol for Hepca as soon as it could be arranged. Still, it didn’t get there soon enough. The people they promised to rescue were subsequently slaughtered by pirates before the team had time to return. There was no way anyone could have prevented the atrocity. Lexi still took it personally.
Lexi actually smiled at Jis and thought, Different? Whatever do you mean?
The surprised look Jis wore turned penetrating for a brief moment before her almost perpetual smile returned. “Telepathy? Now you’re just showing off, Sister.” After a pause, she asked, “Well, who’s narrating?”
Chapter 2
Briefing Jis
With all three of them narrating and an occasional comment from Urania over the comm-gear, they held Jis’s attention for nearly two hours. During that time, someone other than Jis apparently rose to the occasion and decided on desserts for the evening reception. Once the story was complete, Jis looked at Lexi, asking, “So does that make you the queen, love?”
Lexi smiled. In Jis’s presence the anger she felt burning inside her almost continually these last weeks was fading. Jis was like that. More powerful than the lingering effects of the hulk-meds. She hoped the effect was permanent. She didn’t like being difficult for her friends to live with. “No, not the queen. The king’s mistress? I don’t know. The royal consort, maybe. Let’s stick with Ron’s girlfriend for now. We’ve known each other for a year now, Jis. We agree it’s time we make our pairing official, so to speak. But I want to have my father present when we take vows. I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
Aeolus Investigations Set 2: Too Cool To Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens Page 1
