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

by Robert E Colfax

  He paused again, looking over his audience while waiting for the chuckles to die down. His gaze sought out the Aeolus Investigations team, seated in the row reserved for personal guests of the new Plicora, three rows back from the stage. “At last night’s reception, there was a fair degree of excitement generated by the presence of Lexi Stevens, Geena Samue, and Ron Samue. As many of you already know, these three people are the investigators responsible for the recovery of the Rose, lost to us for more than twenty years.”

  The noise made by the largely Ackalonian crowd lasted far more than a minute. Bon waited it out before continuing. “I bring this up because it strikes me as pertinent at this point to mention that Jis Boc Seckan recently returned from a mission as a member of the Aeolus team. I believe her participation is a strong indicator of the character of the young woman who is to be the next ruler of Ackalon. Jis Boc Seckan put her life at risk to rescue the family of Prince Jadkim E’Kret of Borgol from the clutches of what we since learned to have been a pirate organization.” He paused, again waiting for the whistles and hoots to die down. “Jis, please, at this time, step forward.”

  Jis walked toward the Officiant and went to one knee, with her head slightly bowed as they rehearsed yesterday. She too was wearing the King’s Marker of Borgol, pinned above her breast on the right side of her gown. It glittered in the sunlight. Wenachi nodded and said, “Ad.” Ad moved next to his daughter and also went to one knee. Wenachi lifted the chain holding the Rose over Ad’s head and placed it around Jis’s neck.

  Jis looked up, her eyes again drawn to the spot where Lexi Stevens sat. As the two women’s eyes again met, Jis thought, I didn’t understand before. Now I do. Lexi and her team are the storm winds, as am I. She is the only one who can control us, direct us to wreak unavoidable havoc where it needs to occur.. At that moment there was an enormous flare of light, the color of the Rose, emanating from the crystal Jis now wore. The flare was so bright it illuminated not only the stage, but the audience as well.

  Wenachi, startled beyond measure, lost his balance, stumbled backward, falling to the stage. Much like a wedding on Earth, they rehearsed this ceremony. With the jewel’s unexpected flash, the ceremony careened wildly off-script. Wenachi, at this point, was supposed to reach out his hand, symbolically if not actually, helping the nimble young Plicora to her feet. That was what they practiced. Instead, Jis stood on her own and bent over to help the old man up, asking in a low voice if he was injured. With a negative shake of his head, he went to one knee and bowed his head to her, in unison with Ad, uttering the single word, “Plicora.”

  Once the hooting died down, Wenachi and Ad stood. Jis hugged both before they took their seats. Before sitting, Wenachi faced the audience and said, “Please pardon my clumsiness and my surprise. Traditionally, as part of the ceremony, the new Plicora gazes into the Rose and it flashes. As long as we’ve been doing this, we still don’t know why. We assume the flash must be caused by most of our population wishing our new Plicora well. I’m not old enough to have personally witnessed the flash when Ad ascended to Plicora. I have, however, reviewed not only recordings of his ceremony but all of those for a thousand years prior.” He paused, looking away from the audience to the still gently glowing Rose on the chest of Jis Boc Seckan. “The flash emitted by the Rose of Enlightenment has never been as strong as what we just experienced.”

  Wenachi took his seat after that statement. Turning to face her audience, Jis spoke. Her voice was clear and steady. Her speech was much shorter than her father’s. She first thanked her father for his years of service and dedication to the people of Ackalon. “I again want to thank our off-world guests for making the trip to witness my coronation. I know it was quite a long trip for some of you. All of you know that those of us of Ackalonian heritage claim to have the ability to sense future events.” She paused. “Many of you even believe it. I certainly hope all of our Ackalonian attendees believe it.” She had to wait for the hoots and laughter to end before continuing.

  “I would like to meet informally and individually with the delegations from each world before you leave for your homes. I have a request I would make of each of you. I would greatly appreciate it if you make appointments with my staff. I don’t intend to hold you for longer than thirty minutes. Those are Ackalonian minutes, so make your adjustments accordingly. We are also setting up a meeting hall for a group discussion tomorrow evening. As the leaders of the Accord, we have much to discuss. I do not believe we have the luxury of waiting for the next formal conclave. The magnitude of the threat posed by pirate predation is growing. I further sense piracy is only one of the threats we will soon find ourselves facing.”

  Her gaze traveled across all of the off-world delegates. All were focused on her, their expressions serious. The abilities of Ackalonians, especially their Plicora, were well known in the upper echelons of the Accord. She continued. “This morning, I want to leave you with this warning. I see storm winds wherever I look. I believe the Accord as we know it is soon to be changed forever. My insight is not a prediction of doom. It is within us to change for the better. There can be no turning back. The change has already begun.”

  It wasn’t until a technician was reviewing the recordings of the audience for an official documentary that anyone other than Jis noticed Lexi’s eyes flashed with the Rose. It wasn’t a reflection. When called to her attention, Jis suggested it would be better to exclude that clip from the documentary.

  Chapter 9

  Sensor Upgrades

  “We caught up with them already,” Urania remarked. “I didn’t think it was possible for a ship to travel that slowly in hyperspace.”

  Lexi, Ron, and Geena were all relaxing in the command chairs, sippy cups in hand. They all knew that compared to Urania, the Ostrieachian yacht Flagon was going to be slow. They decided to follow the yacht anyway rather than fly directly to Ostrieachia. Urania added, “At this speed, we’re still twelve weeks from Ostrieachia.” Urania had already been in pursuit of Flagon for seven days.

  “I think,” Lexi said, “I’d like to use the time to look into adding life-form sensors to the array. They always came in handy on Star Trek.”

  Geena chuckled. “You do that, honey. Coming in handy on a TV show is as good a reason as any to start a new project. Is there any reason for Ron and me not to install grav-pads under our beds and here in the control cabin?”

  “You’re tall people, so sore backs? No?” Lexi said. “That’d be great. We haven’t had any blips flipping the first two on and off. We could use gravity in the kitchenette, too. Then we could cook whenever we want.”

  Ron said, “I want to get you in the gym and to see if your hulk-med changes have worn off yet. Aren’t you curious, kiddo?”

  Lexi shrugged. “Maybe a little bit. It really doesn’t matter that much. None of us can use them until I get them fixed. The fact that I survived, barely, the first time doesn’t mean I will a second time. It doesn’t mean you guys will either. But, sure, lover. We can spend time together in the gym.”

  The next evening, Ron said, “We discovered installing the pads goes faster with both of us working on the same one. Geena’s been in the crawlspace and I’ve been handing her what she needs from above. It’s still tedious and I think one a day is going to be about the best we can do. I’ll take the crawlspace tomorrow.”

  Geena said, “I think I want to go ahead and install them everywhere we think we might want them while we have the rhythm. Just because they’re under there doesn’t mean we need to use them.”

  “That makes sense, Geena,” Urania remarked.

  “How’s the sensor upgrade coming, Lexi?” Geena asked.

  Lexi laughed. “It’s the kind of thing you just have to love. Urania scavenged data on what the Naragene Nine Port Authority uses to detect animals being smuggled in. That’s where I first noticed the technology. We got the same information from the Ackalon datanet. Neither planet knows how the damn things work. I verified that, yes, they do work. Bu
t I’m not going to upgrade our sensors until I know why they work. So my simple project of building on an existing technology now has a theoretical component. It may take more than the day or two I planned on.”

  Ron said, perfectly straight-faced, “So, that’ll leave you with, what, eleven more weeks with nothing to do?”

  Lexi grinned. “Oh, I’ll find something. I might make you an artificial girlfriend for when you annoy me. Wouldn’t want you to suffer, after all.”

  Ron looked puzzled, then nodded his head. “As long as she looks like you, sure, let’s do it.”

  “I was thinking Sori.”

  Urania spoke up saying, “There are actually laws on the Accord worlds about impersonating a human. I’m not sure why.”

  Lexi shrugged. “It really wouldn’t be that difficult to build a life-like robot. I can see why people may not want that to happen. Think of Mr. Data on Star Trek, or, hell, any of the Terminator movies. There are many others depicting human-appearing robots causing problems, especially when they replace specific people with the robot. I don’t believe a human-appearing robot would inherently feel compelled to take over, but like I say, I can see why people might worry about humanoid robots.”

  ***

  “Anything, Urania?” Lexi asked from flat on her back in the crawl space, having just installed an upgraded sensor node which, if her understanding of the theory was correct, should detect life on nearby ships.

  “No, Lexi. I can see Flagon, but I’m afraid everyone over there is dead.”

  Lexi grunted. “They’re not dead. Let me try making a few adjustments down here.” After six minutes, she again asked, “Anything now?”

  “Sorry, no, we’re not there yet.”

  “Hmmm. We should be getting something. Try moving in closer.”

  “No, dear, can’t do that unless you’re up here and strapped in. They do have weapons, you know?”

  “We’re cloaked. They can’t see us. It’ll be OK.”

  Ron and Geena were both already on the bridge, waiting to see life-forms on the sensors. “This is King Ron. All subjects are to report to the control bridge at this time for possible evasive maneuvers.”

  “I wondered how long it would be before you tried to play that card, lover,” Lexi said. “I’m not Grammin and therefore not a subject of the great and mighty Ron.”

  “You’re a Paladin, so, you are, sort of,” Ron argued.

  “Nope,” Lexi declared. “Knights are exempt from following the commands of the throne. Part of our duties is to check the misuse of power by the royal family. We may act on requests from the monarch if we deem them worthy but we only answer to our own conscience.”

  “Where does it say that?” Ron demanded. “You just made it up!”

  Urania chuckled. “It’s in the fine print, Ron. She right, you have no authority over her.” She paused. “However, Lexi, I do. I’m not moving the ship unless you’re up here and strapped in.”

  They all heard her grumbling about the inconvenience of the crawl spaces as she made her way to the floor panel she removed and from there up to the bridge.

  Once she was seated, she looked at Geena and winked. “So, everybody happy now? Urania? My Liege?”

  “I’m good, Lexi,” Urania cheerfully admitted.

  Ron asked, “How’s my Sori toy coming?”

  Geena reached over and slapped him on the back of the head. “Gibbs does that. I think I see why.” She stared at Ron a moment. “I’m sorry, Ron. I just realized. You do have a lot of the same characteristics as DiNozzo.”

  “OK, then,” Lexi said. “Moving on. How about moving us in slowly, Urania. Stop as soon as you can detect life-signs.” She paused. “Or until we get close enough to kiss their rear. Whichever comes first.”

  Urania put the sensor output on the viewscreen showing the relative positions of both ships. Along the bottom left, she added a digital readout showing the distance between the two craft. They were pretty far apart. For the next twenty minutes, they sat quietly, watching the display as Urania slowly gained on the slower ship. She slowed to Flagon’s speed at the same time she put a message along the bottom right that life-signs were detected.

  After glancing at it, Lexi said, “Let’s move in closer. We should have more resolution. We should not only be able to tell that there are six people over there, we should see where on the ship each one is.”

  The image slowly resolved. Shortly the screen was indicating six life-forms. Not too much longer, they had six discrete dots of orange light on the screen. Without being asked, Urania placed an overlay of the ship on the screen. They had a pilot at the controls, someone in the engine room, two in the common area and two others in one of the cabins, probably asleep.

  Ron said, “So it works. Any humanoid robots over there?”

  When both his mother and his girlfriend turned to stare at him he said, “What? I just wanted to see if Mom was going to slap me again or if it was just a one-time thing.”

  Lexi sighed. “Yes. It works. I was hoping the range would be better. But really, this isn’t bad.”

  Geena smiled at her. “No, it’s pretty good. When we rescued Hrassi off of the pirate ship, we were much closer than this. Do you expect it to be able to distinguish between races? Those six are all non-human.”

  Lexi shrugged. “I think it will do that. We’ll just have to test it out. Urania, I’ve got the data memorized, but would you log this as six Ostrieachians for me.”

  “How does it work, Lexi?” Ron asked.

  “Life has an energy signature associated with it. It’s not electro-magnetic energy so it passes right through the e-shielding. It’s faint, so I have to boost the signal quite a bit to filter it out of the background noise. I don’t know if we’ll ever to be able to identify individuals using it, although with the right equipment, it’s a possibility. I want to test it on a ship with telepaths and empaths, because my guess is it is related to however those abilities work. They almost have to be energy based, even if it’s an energy we can’t detect. If I can nail this down, I might be able to make some headway into explaining Jis’s abilities. Mine too.”

  Geena said, “Sounds like a good stopping place. Ron can read your files if he wants more information. What do you guys say to a couple of episodes of NCIS before bed?”

  “I’m in,” Urania said.

  “Sure,” Ron replied. “Urania, all of our video content is in your data cores. When you watch something with us, isn’t it like seeing a rerun you’ve seen so many times you know all of the lines by heart?”

  “You’d think it would be, wouldn’t you. But watching the viewscreen through my cabin sensors is a totally different experience. Also, I keep the content data cores encapsulated. I don’t see them until you watch them. Sometimes your questions are pretty good, Ron.”

  Ron smiled. “I try.”

  Chapter 10

  Intercept

  “Everybody to the bridge,” Urania announced, setting off the battle-stations alarm at the same time. Out of consideration for the fact that all three of her flesh and blood partners were sleeping, she kept the volume low. If they had been awake, she wouldn’t have bothered with the alarm at all. As all three of them jumped out of bed, she said, “You don’t need to jump into suits yet, just get out here fast. Throw something on or not.”

  All three of them were seated on the bridge within seconds. No one bothered with clothing other than the socks which kept them anchored to the floor in zero-gee. They slept with those on. Casual nudity on starships, especially smaller ones like Urania, was more common than not. “What are we looking at, Urania?” Lexi asked.

  “It looks like our pigeon is in trouble.” Urania had been shadowing Flagon, the small Ostrieachian yacht carrying Kalia and Denem home. She stayed sufficiently outside the Ostrieachian ship’s sensor range that Flagon’s passengers and crew didn’t know they were being followed. Limited as Urania was by the much slower ship’s speed, what would have been a nine-week flight for her had al
ready lasted eleven weeks. And Flagon had a two-week head start.

  Lexi’s team spent an additional two weeks on Ackalon completing Urania’s repairs and modifications after Flagon departed for home subsequent to the meetings Jis held after her coronation. Jis didn’t invite Lexi, Ron, or Geena to any of her meetings with the foreign heads of state. She had, however, filled them in after the fact. Jis was not pleased. Many of the older representatives were stubborn about taking the concerns of an unproven girl seriously. Especially as those concerns were based solely on what she sensed of future events. She also felt a degree of resentment that some seemed to consider a twenty-eight year old woman a girl.