Ron spoke up. “Now we have the added complication that we should probably contractually bond on Grammin, rather than either Earth or Cardin’s Paradise. Life gets weird sometimes.”
Lexi took a deep breath. Until the events on Grammin, Jis was the only person in the Accord who knew about Zapper technology and Urania’s sentience. “It was never part of our plan, but the Grammin royals and a few others witnessed the use of Zappers. They also became aware of Urania’s sentience. While we regret that, both were unavoidable due to the terrorist incident. I’m officially a Paladin of the throne, protector of Grammin, though. Geena and Urania were both knighted. It wasn’t Ron’s doing, either. The last act of the ruling queen, his grandmother, before she abdicated in his favor.”
Jis sat for a moment sipping her tea considering what she had just been told about the performance-enhancing drugs Lexi was forced to take in order to rescue her team from certain death on the pirate base they infiltrated. Those drugs greatly increased Lexi’s strength and speed, and apparently her anger, while doing enough damage to her physically that she nearly died. At the moment, she found those meds far more interesting than the race of semi-aquatic humans Aeolus discovered. “What are your plans for the hulk-meds?”
Lexi shrugged. “I’m still thinking about them. I’m out of ideas at the moment, but clearly, it can be done. I was insanely strong and fast while the effect lasted. Urania recorded holographs through the contacts Geena and I had in. Bruce Lee can take a back seat. You can watch them if you like. They’re disturbingly gory. As to the drug, I just need to make it non-lethal. And less painful. And way less of an anger-enhancer. It needs to be DNA-based rather than biochemical. I know that much. I’ll get it someday. Why?”
Jis paused momentarily before saying, “I think you’re going to need them eventually.” Her expression turned puzzled. “That’s odd. I think I’m going to need them eventually as well.” Some Ackalonians had the ability, if not exactly to glimpse the future, to have impressions of what was to come. The Rose of Light, perhaps more correctly called the Rose of Insight, focused and enhanced that ability. Jis possessed stronger Rose-related abilities than anyone else on her world.
Jis was the only one in the Accord they had no secrets from. She knew Urania was the only computer sentience in the Accord. Lexi turned over complete specs, along with a treatise on the science, of her Zappers, weapon-technology so advanced it would be thousands of years before the Accord discovered it on its own. She would leave plans for the new gravity-pad technology and the hulk-med research while they were here. They trusted Jis completely. The woman was wise beyond her years.
Through the team’s internal comm-gear, which Jis had worn since the Hepca hostage rescue, Urania, the sentient command-comp of their starship, remarked, “It must be strange being you, Jis.”
Jis laughed. “You have no idea, Urania. While you’re poking around inside my datanets, would you upload everything you have concerning the Grammin? Put it in the secure area with access limited to my senior councilors for now.” The Grammin were the semi-aquatic humans originally discovered by Ron’s grandfather eighty years ago. A son was born to Princess Abree and the charming and exotic off-worlder who won her heart. That child was taken from Grammin by his father due to the debilitating environmental conditions there. Together, he and Abree decided the boy needed the chance to lead a normal life. Abree’s son grew up to be Ron’s father, Crane. Crane never knew he was descended from the royalty of an unknown world. Crane’s father never disclosed to anyone his discovery of another world whose people possessed star-threading technology.
“Why, Jis?” Ron asked. “And how did you even know that Urania is rummaging in your datanets?”
“You just finished telling me she hacks into and takes control of command-comp datanets on warships in the middle of battles. Considering Urania’s abilities combined with Lexi wanting to know everything about everything, I would expect nothing less. You have my permission by the way, although it would have been more respectful if you asked first. If you have any advice on making them more secure, I have people who would love to chat with you about it.”
She paused. “Do any of you understand why I had father change the law to allow Urania to be armed here? It wasn’t because you’re all my friends and I trust you, although that would have been sufficient reason. I asked him because it was necessary. Much of what I do, I do because it’s necessary. I can’t always tell you why something is necessary, because it’s not unusual for me not to know. I admit I find that depressing at times.”
She nodded. “You’re right, Urania, sometimes it really is strange being me. It sounds like you wouldn’t have survived this latest episode in your careers if Urania hadn’t been armed. Maybe that’s why I believed arming her was necessary.” She paused, looking thoughtful. “Although, honestly, you’re the most resourceful group of people I’ve ever come across. I’m including you in that comment Urania. You might have come up with something even without the new armament.”
She turned her attention to address King Ron. “What are you going to do with your Grammin, Ron? Do you plan on bringing them into the Accord?” The Accord was a loose coalition of twelve worlds, all with star-flight capabilities. The contract that bound them prevented them from interfering in each other’s business and attempted to extend some level of protection to other, less technologically advanced worlds. Membership was voluntary. The sister worlds of Grammin and Graplin that Ron unexpectedly found himself responsible for decided long ago they didn’t need the Accord.
Ron sighed. “Legally, with Abree’s abdication, I am their King and the sole ruler of the two planets. Still, I don’t feel as though I have the right to make that particular decision for them. If they want to remain unknown to the Accord at large, I’ll support their wishes. The man I appointed as my regent expected to eventually inherit the throne his entire life. As far as we can tell, he holds no resentment being my regent instead. He seems to be a quite capable individual. The only reason I didn’t abdicate immediately to him, and he is aware of this, is the doom and gloom you seem to think is headed our way. Both you and your father have dropped hints, unhelpfully vague hints, by the way, that you think Aeolus is going to be involved somehow.”
Jis nodded approvingly. “Very noble, Your Majesty. I would have expected no less from you. Yes, you are involved in the futures we see. The fact that both of us feel that will be the case is disturbing. And I’m sorry they’re vague. That’s the way precognition works. You’re a determined group. I do believe you’ll be needed. However, nothing is predetermined. We both could be wrong. What will you do when your girlfriend needs them to become an Accord member-world?”
“That is both a weird thing to ask and an odd way to phrase it,” Lexi stated.
“Yes, it was, Jis,” Ron agreed. “What are you seeing? Why Lexi? What could we be involved in that would be big enough that one of us would need Grammin to join the Accord? We’re just insurance investigators!”
Her smile slipped as Jis responded, “Are you? Are you really? I agree that, yes, the day I met you, you were insurance investigators. Think about it. No insurance claim was involved in the Borgol episode, or for that matter, the Grammin episode you just recounted to me. This is one of those things I find somewhat depressing. I don’t know what prompted me to formulate that question.”
She paused momentarily. “Both Lexi and I have seen a future Ackalon. One completely desolate, with only ruins; one where no one was left alive. Whatever caused it felt like something that happens within my lifetime. I can’t allow it to happen. Foreknowledge can be a burden, Ron. Especially because it can be misleading. Even when I see something as clearly as I saw dead Ackalon, it’s not set in stone. The future never is. I will not allow that future to happen. I cannot.”
Ron slowly nodded his head as Jis continued, “So I’m not going to answer your question. I can’t. I don’t see anything, yet. I just have feelings. That’s why Urania is armed. Because I had the f
eeling it was necessary. So why am I asking about your Grammin data? I feel the Accord is going to need them. To be more specific, Lexi is going to need them, for the good of the Accord. And I can’t explain why. Nor can I be sure it has anything to do with dead Ackalon.”
She paused, her glance going from Ron to the others, settling on Lexi. “I can’t guess when or where or even why. But I doubt I am wrong about this. All of you are extremely capable individuals. You work with the only sentient starship in existence on your team. I don’t think any of you fully appreciate the fact that you also have the only Lexi Stevens in existence as part of your team. I can’t see where you are headed. Nor can I tell you when, if ever, it will happen. All I can sense at this time is that someday, Lexi is going to have a pressing need for these Grammin of yours.”
She nodded her head, having come to a decision. “I’m going to build a habitat here in the capital for them. I’m also going to reach out to the other Accord worlds while they have representatives here for the coronation and see if I can convince them to do the same without being specific about why. If necessary, I’ll buy land on their worlds and cover the expenses myself. When it is time for Grammin to join the Accord, the Accord needs to be ready to welcome them.”
She looked grim for a moment. “On an unrelated topic, you may as well know that the court executed the two bounty hunters I captured who were involved in Lexi’s kidnapping. Not only did they threaten many of my citizens, they threatened me, making it a capital offense. Father laughed when I asked him about commuting their sentence. He pointed out that their cooperation was under coercion. Of course, he was right about that. It bothers me because they weren’t exactly bad men. They were, however, self-serving to a disturbing degree. I approve of your removing the last of their team from our existence, Ron.”
Before they left her office, Jis arranged to have the refurbishment of one of her warships put on hold so her fleet technicians and engineers could work on Urania’s cracked hull as a priority. The hull bore severe damage after taking missile fire from cloaked pirate ships. Ron made emergency repairs at the time but the damage was heavy enough that one side of the ship needed to be replaced. Jis was making that happen, but it was going to take a number of days. At the same time, the Ackalonian technicians would make the remaining interior repairs and install the new holding cell. It was great having friends in high places.
Chapter 3
Infrastructure Upgrades
After the long morning session with Jis, they were left with the rest of the afternoon pretty much to themselves. There was still a lot of work to be done on the interior of Urania. The three of them took care of as much as they could without space-dock facilities during the time in hyperspace traveling back to Ackalon from Grammin. Ron and Geena spent the trip completing modifications to the power grid so they couldn’t lose both their primary beams and missile control at the same time unless the ship was almost literally blown apart.
The whole-ship artificial gravity field used by every ship in the Accord that was large enough to mount its bulky generator under the floor affected all matter on the ship, much the same as the gravity field of a planet pulled all matter toward the center of the planet. The ship-wide field pulled matter toward an imaginary center external to the ship. The field encompassed the hull itself, any other hardware, crew, passengers, and cups of coffee. As wonderful as it was to have gravity while in space, the Accord’s implementation couldn’t be used when the hyper-drive was active. Traveling through hyperspace, they slept in beds under netting, showered with nose plugs, drank coffee and wine out of sippy-cups, and ate crumb-free bars for most meals.
While her friends were taking care of Urania’s infrastructure issues, Lexi fabricated two full-size “mini” gravity-pads. She tested a working prototype, a foot in diameter, in her lab weeks ago, before the incident with the hulk-meds. Installing the six-foot-diameter production models involved dragging the heavy components through the four-foot-high underside of Urania’s deck. After assembling the components in that relatively cramped space, she connected them to the power cables and control modules the contractor who handled Urania’s remodel on Cardin’s Paradise installed for them three months ago. He didn’t understand why they wanted such a complicated power grid, but a lot of what they asked for he didn’t understand. Even then, Lexi knew she would eventually crack the problem of the miniaturized gravity generators. It was just one of the hundreds of things swirling around in her head for the last year, waiting for her attention.
The first of her new pads went under the shower, the second under the table in the kitchenette. Lexi planned to eventually install additional pads under each bed on the ship as well as in her lab, the gym, the control cabin, and the med cabin. Her calculations told her how many could be active at once, but she wanted to start small and closely monitor the impact of each additional active unit. Neither she nor Urania could find a flaw in her calculations, but this was a case where even a small mistake would probably kill them all. For now, though, they would be able to shower without having to wear masks designed to keep the weightless water droplets out of their lungs and drink coffee around the small table in the morning without having to use a sippy cup.
The real advantage of the mini-pads and the reason she put the effort she did into building them was they could be used while traveling through hyperspace due to their compact, highly-tuned field. True, they increased the turbulence experienced while forcing a ship through the hyperspace medium, but unlike ship-wide artificial gravity generators, not to the extent that they would cause the ship to blow up. A definite plus in everyone’s book.
With that much already off of the list, the Ackalonian techs concentrated on the other repairs and modifications. Ron designed a fourth, bare-bones, collapsible “cabin” as a holding cell. That idea came to him when they briefly had two of the bounty hunters on board, captured, well, practically crippled, by Jis after Lexi’s kidnapping. None of the team had the bandwidth to build it on the trip back.
Dealing with the nine traumatized people they rescued along with the Barossa Channel from Johnny Carson’s pirate base took up a good bit of all their time. All four of the females suffered repeated molestation while in the clutches of the pirates. Lexi prescribed medication to help. She also held mandatory meditation sessions, exercising her internal Rose of Light. She was happy to turn them over to Ackalonian sensitives, who in addition to good intentions, knew what they were doing. Lexi was pretty sure her contribution consisted mostly of angering the women, and the men, about what they suffered through. She hoped that was progress in the right direction at least.
She never expected to be in the position of both wanting to help and possibly being able to in a situation like the one the women found themselves in. True, she sat with Jis while her friend offered similar services to the slaves they managed to rescue from Hepca but that had been Jis doing the driving. In this case, by the time they reached Ackalon, she still wasn’t sure whether she had helped anybody or not. Instead of having four fragile egos in need of nurturing on board she wound up with four exceedingly angry bitches.
The Ackalonian techs would take care of constructing the holding cell for them while the hull was being repaired. They also added locks to the other three cabins so future guests could be contained if needed. Other than the hull and related structural repairs, the big job taken on by the Ackalonian techs was building individual environmental controls into the guest cabins.
In the process of liberating Lexi from her captors and subsequently accepting a commission from the Grammin to locate their missing artifact known to them as the Barossa Channel, Urania wound up with two Grammin passengers. The medical bay, the only cabin on the ship that could be environmentally sealed, was turned over to them. There always existed the chance that a patient might require quarantine. The medical cabin was designed with that in mind.
Its designers probably hadn’t envisioned the use Urania’s crew came up with. The quarantine protocols allowe
d them to keep the temperature and humidity in the medical bay absurdly high. They also lowered the oxygen content, all for the comfort of their aquatic guests. Lexi occasionally wondered if the AI-controlled surgical tools had been pictured as a hair salon by the designers, a use Geena programmed shortly after she and her life-mate bought the ship. In space, on a small ship, you made do with what you had.
The Grammin environment boasted temperatures forty degrees hotter than the non-modified human team found comfortable, sixteen percent oxygen levels, and humidity in the high nineties. If and when they had Grammin guests on board again they would be assigned their own cabin rather than being confined to the cramped medical bay.
Chapter 4
Mingling
In addition to the ambassadorial staffs permanently in residence on Ackalon, all of the Accord member-worlds sent representatives from their planets to witness the coronation of Jis Boc Seckan. In most cases, that meant actual members of the ruling families. Many had emperors, kings, or queens. Other worlds were governed by a board of directors. The chairman of the board for those worlds was present. Then there were a couple of republics, represented by their elected officials.
King Han E’Kret of Borgol came in person. Han’s entourage included his life-mate as well as both of his adult sons. Lexi and the others were pleased to see Jadkim, Han’s younger son, and his family again. They became close friends with Jadkim, his life-mate Kahvia, and his children Kacen and Koe during what the team now referred to as the Borgol job. Lexi’s second job as leader of Aeolus Investigations commenced when the team was hired by Jadkim to track and hopefully rescue his family from what turned out to be a pirate operation based on the planet Hepca.
Aeolus Investigations Set 2: Too Cool To Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens Page 2
