“If you’re right about the data, Urania, and I’m sure you are,” Geena remarked, “then they must have been working toward this for centuries. This kind of buildup doesn’t happen overnight. They may have even done this before, taking other, further out, non-Accord worlds we’ve never even heard of. Maybe that’s what happened to Wraix. We never knew the location of the Wraix homeworld. If they succeed here, then what?”
“Earth,” Lexi said, her voice flat. “Earth would be next. It’s not an Accord world. If it has any space defenses at all, and while I wouldn’t be surprised if they do, they’ll be primitive by Accord standards. It’s industrialized. Wealthy in terms of resources.” Her look turned introspective, thinking of the rise of international terrorism and the proliferation of nukes to countries who shouldn’t have them. “Unity may already be operating there.”
Thinking of his own two years on Earth, Ron, looking grim, said, “Possible. I can see why they chose a member world first. Ostrieachia is responsible for its own problems. Because Earth is Level-Two, all of the Accord is responsible for protecting it. I know that’s not entirely logical, but I think I’m right.”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Geena pointed out. “We were hired to find out what is going on here. Now we know. Let’s take that information back to Jis, assuming we can get out of the middle of a planet. She can send in her fleet and mop this mess up. The rest of it can be dealt with later.” She paused the briefest moment. “We shouldn’t forget that technically we’re working for Ostrieachia, not Ackalon.” She smiled, briefly. “True, our contract does give us a lot of leeway.”
“There’s a high probability that the pirates can cut any Accord-tech fleet to pieces,” Urania said. “Weapons are on par, but tactically, the pirate’s shield tech gives them an enormous advantage. Add their numerical superiority to that and, well, we’d have to upgrade Ackalon to my level for them to stand a chance.”
Kalia’s ears perked up. “What?”
Lexi said, “Not now, Kalia. Upgrading Ackalon is something we’ve already decided would destabilize the Accord. Jis agrees. Not only that, we’d have to rebuild every one of their military starships. They don’t have the capacity to do that in a reasonable period of time. Some of those ships are so old, I’m not sure they can be upgraded. All of the data we’ve analyzed so far says these guys are about to make their move.”
She took a moment to load up again on coffee. “Unity is manipulating the Ostrieachian political situation through the fifth columnists they’ve suborned. They’ve pushed it to the point where global war is imminent. The pirates intend to step in at that point and enforce peace. By the time we got back with this information, upgraded Ackalon, and made it back the war would be over. Even with upgraded technology, unless Jis stripped Ackalon bare, she wouldn’t have sufficient ships to even attempt to deal with the number of ships here. We don’t know they won’t send more once they have the planet, especially if they plan to use it as a base in Accord space.”
“Another thing,” Ron stated. “If Jis attacked, the rest of the Accord would be forced to outlaw Ackalon for attacking another member world.” He sighed. “So, OK, if we’re making this our problem, what do you want to do, Lexi?”
She almost smiled, although it was a grim smile. “You know the answer to that, love. I want to kill them all. That’s actually easy enough for us to do from down here, I just don’t have a clue how to do it without killing their six hundred captives as well.”
Chapter 15
Options
Geena broke the silence that followed by asking, “So, what are our options?”
“We can tunnel our way back out, of course,” Urania said. “If we run, they won’t be able to catch us. Then again, we could just tunnel out through the base itself. That would cause some major damage. Once positioned above the base, inside of their shields, the primaries would finish the job. Unfortunately, as Lexi said, that kills six-hundred slaves along with thirty-four-hundred pirates.”
For the first time, suddenly realizing that it was going to be possible for these people to solve her world’s immediate problem, Kalia’s thoughts again went momentarily back to the comment Jis had made, Was there anything these three people couldn’t accomplish? Of course, they were cheating just a tiny little bit. There were four of them, weren’t there? She smiled at that thought and then serious again, said, “There will be far more than six-hundred casualties if they’re not stopped. I imagine the number will be closer to sixty million. From a purely practical perspective, that’s not a bad trade-off. Still, I don’t like it.”
Denem cut in. “I’ll authorize it.”
“Fortunately for the captives, it’s not your decision to make,” Ron said, frowning at Denem, his voice harsh. “If my team decides that’s what has to be done, we will do it. We will not ask you or anybody else to authorize it. Too bad we can’t hyper this entire planet somewhere else.”
If he hadn’t been looking at Lexi, he would have missed it. Noting her reaction, he asked, “What did I say, kiddo? I know damn well we can’t hyper a freakin’ planet somewhere else. Although,” he added thoughtfully, “that’s a really cool idea, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is a really cool idea, Ron,” Lexi agreed. “I think we could move a planet through hyper. Give me twenty years and I’ll get back to you on that. Not feasible today, though.” She paused, her eyes still on Ron, although he could tell she wasn’t looking at him. Smiling, she said, “You just came up with an option that is going let us win, this round at least. When we’re ready to leave here, we’re not going to cut our way to the surface, we are going to hyper-jump out. We don’t have to take an entire planet through hyper with us, just a chunk of a planet. A big chunk.”
“I don’t understand what you’re planning,” Denem said.
Lexi smiled, somewhat grimly. “You will. Ron, Geena, I need you guys to come up with a plan for getting us inside the base from down here. We’re going to need to collect all of the slaves together in one spot. The flight deck would be ideal. Urania, you’re with me. You’ve been wanting me to take a look at improving our hyper-generator; that just became our top priority. When we leave here, not only are we going to be activating the hyper-drive inside a gravity field, we’re taking the flight deck with us.”
Denem objected. “That’s not possible, even for Accord tech.”
Lexi glared at him. She was getting tired of his negative responses. “True. What’s your point?”
When he didn’t answer, she looked consideringly at the five Ostrieachians. “I would like for each of you to open a log file on the system. Then just talk. Record everything you can think of about your planet. Culture, economics, the political landscape, military strengths and readiness. My team is going to take the pirate menace out of the equation for you. Then we need to figure out what to do about the rest of your issues.”
She paused, looking primarily at Kalia. “This may not be what you thought you hired us for, but it’s what you’re getting. I’m going to be really pissed with all of you if you waste my time saving your butts from Unity and then wipe yourselves out in a nuclear war. Please, give me everything you can think of. It could be important.”
***
When Ron walked into Lexi’s lab a few hours later to bring her more coffee he found her walking through an exploded three dimensional hologram of a hyper-generator. Based on his knowledge of the technology, the holographic depiction was already deviating from the standard model. One of the research papers Urania downloaded on their most recent visit to Cardin’s Paradise hinted at the variations Lexi was now modeling.
Three of the four walls of her lab were what she called interactive boards, large touch sensitive screens that could be written on, saved and cleared with a command. She could do what she was doing now, walking through the model of a hyper-generator, occasionally speaking mathematical equations which Urania dutifully transcribed to the boards. He secretly thought she used them so that Urania could follow alo
ng with what she was thinking.
Ron also knew that Urania didn’t always agree with Lexi’s calculations, sometimes challenging how she arrived at certain results, pointing out when she was making unsupported assumptions and making her go back and rework them. They made a good team. Looking at what was on the walls now, he only understood three quarters of it. He was surprised he was following that much.
After making sure she was eating the wrap he brought with the coffee, he left. He knew she liked the vegetable wrap with the spicy nut sauce, although she seemed to be eating it mechanically. It might have been fun to watch them work, especially with Lexi walking around, seemingly talking to herself, but he didn’t know how much of a distraction he would be. During the first months of their relationship, both he and Lexi tended to lose focus when the other was around. They largely had grown past that now. Or at least learned to control it.
Back in the guest cabin, which both he and Geena used as an office when they wanted one, Ron asked, “Urania, what the hell are you guys cooking up?” Geena had a schematic of the flight deck of the base on their board.
“Yeah, about that,” Urania said. “Denem was absolutely right. What Lexi is proposing is not possible with Accord tech. Then again, neither are our Zappers. I’m watching her reinvent hyper-mathematics. You know; it’s weird. I have trouble keeping up with her thought processes. She can’t possibly be truly thinking faster than a moly-circ-based command computer, but she’s processing on so many channels at once it seems like she is. If I had feet, what she’s doing now would have knocked me off of them. Whatever it is we’ve done to her is freakin’ incredible.”
She paused. Urania, who required a special sub-routine to slow down her thought processes so that she could hold a conversation, always mimicked human speech patterns, including pauses. “Sorry. That didn’t really answer your question. She wants to use the rim Zappers to enlarge the chamber we’re in and position me a few feet under the base. Then we’re going to flip on the hyper-generator. If her calculations prove out, and if the redesign of the generator works as planned, and doesn’t burn out or explode, she expects that I’ll be able to push out a shaped field large enough to envelop the entire flight deck. After that, we cut free the flight deck. It’s not so much that the field is going to be all that large, Vankovia’s dreadnought generates a much larger one, but theirs is spherical and their generators are nine times the size of my hull.”
“I didn’t think you could bring up a hyper-field on a planet,” Geena objected. “Or more to the point, inside a planet. Won’t that cause us to explode?”
“No, Mom,” Ron said. “It’s the combination of a gravity field and the hyper-drive that is deadly. Generating a hyper-bubble inside a gravity field should be OK. The reason we always head out-system with the n-space drive before going into hyper is that the turbulence increases exponentially the further into a gravity well we are. Too far in and a ship crumbles or, more often than not, explodes.” He considered. “This is going to be really bad.”
“That’s right, Ron,” Urania said. “But, assuming what she’s working on proves out, we’ll have enough control, and power, to jump to hyperspace and take a large part of the base with us. It also means that the old hyper-limit isn’t going to apply to us any more. We’ll be able to fire the hyper-drive from deep inside a solar system. It won’t be feasible unless she can significantly improve the dampeners. Still, it’ll be a rough ride.”
“I see a lot of potential problems with that,” Ron countered.
“You think?” was Urania’s only comment.
Chapter 16
Dinner
Except on rare occasions, the team always stopped what they were doing so they could eat their evening meal together. After dinner, relaxing on the command bridge while drinking a chilled chardonnay out of a real wineglass because, now that the command deck had a grav pad installed under it, Lexi apologized. “I’m sorry. I realize I was pretty abrupt this morning. I kind of got excited.” She sipped her wine. “Denem was kind of aggravating me too.”
The Ostrieachians already retired to their cabins. Large meals tended to knock them out. Besides, they required twice the hours of sleep needed by the humans and preferred being up with the team in the morning over staying up with them at night.
Geena smiled. “That’s why I handle the team’s negotiations, darling. Interesting that he didn’t seem intimidated by you at all. That suggests he thinks he can handle you in a confrontation, probably a physical one. He is annoying. I’ll allow you that. Kalia seems nice, though. Urania tells us you’re working on groundbreaking technology.”
Lexi laughed. “Literally, love. I’m thinking of turning on the hyper-generator and taking us along with whatever part of the base is above us into hyper. Then we’ll be setting course for Ostrieachia, granite slab and all. Can you guys get us into the base? I’m assuming we’re going to have to be up there to round-up the slaves.”
“Pretty much the same as what you’re thinking of doing, kiddo,” Ron responded. “We’re going to carve access tunnels with rim Zappers and climb into an empty corridor. We’ve identified several spots where we can do that with a low risk of discovery. I’m working on a plug to seal the bottom of the tunnel as soon as we’re in it. We’re still working out the specifics. Urania will keep it blocked with her wall shield to keep atmosphere from rushing down the tunnel until I get the plug in place.”
Geena said, “After that, it’s just another mission.” She laughed. “Listen to me, talking like we do this all the time. But at least it’s not our first time and I do think we’ve learned from the last two times. Frankly, the material Pete loaned you is, well, let’s go with comprehensive. Hopefully, we remember it when it counts.”
The material Geena referred to was a series of data chips Lexi’s friend Pete Isher loaned them on how to be a spy. Who knew there was a manual, right? Geena was right, these were extremely comprehensive. His possession of them more or less confirmed her guesses about his past. The man had himself been a spy, one who operated on Earth. He still wouldn’t admit that to her. It was fairly obvious his chips were largely unedited copies of CIA training material. He also threw in a chip relating to identifying and disabling Accord tech sensors. All three of them read them. Lexi found herself wishing she understood the educator well enough to convert them into a rubric.
“For some reason, he seems to be proud of us,” Lexi remarked. “I know he’s not flirting with me. The Rose would tell me if he was. I’ve got you guys as mentors for insurance investigation techniques. It’s nice to have an ex-spy mentoring us on the other things we seem to be getting into. I’m with Geena, I hope we can remember to apply those techniques when the situation warrants.”
Ron remarked, “Don’t we all.”
Geena nodded. “The plan Ron and I came up with is for Urania to take over the communication system on the base. We’ll broadcast instructions for all of the captives to gather on the flight deck. Before she can make her announcements, we’ll have to first go in and take the control room to prevent them from realizing the instructions came from us. Ron and I will take care of that.”
Ron said, “We’re sending you in with Kalia and her crew to organize the flight deck. We’re going to have to issue them Zappers, Lexi, primarily so they don’t have to worry about running out of ammo. Hopefully, there won’t be any shooting on the flight deck at all, but better safe than sorry. Besides, with the gravity as light as it is, we’d probably wind up shooting over everybody’s heads with the Glocks. Compensating for low gravity isn’t going to be intuitive so line-of-sight Zappers are a better choice.” He paused. “When this is over, let’s put one of your mini-grav pads in the cargo hold. We’ll have to stay within its field, but at least we’ll be able to practice with the guns in lighter and heavier gravity fields.”
Geena sipped her wine, and added, smiling, “That’s a good idea, Ron. You know, Lexi, none of what we’re contemplating doing falls under the job description of an �
�Insurance Investigator.’”
“I know,” Lexi admitted. “When I first left Earth, I left to be with Ron. Well, then once I realized he wasn’t exactly a local, to stop you guys from invading. Then I discovered I wanted to be an insurance investigator with you guys. That seemed challenging enough for me. Since then, one thing has just led to another. Even this job.” She looked momentarily lost.
“Maybe it’s about finding yourself, darling,” Geena suggested.
Lexi shook her head. “It wasn’t supposed to be, love. I’ve always been self-assured. I’ve always known where I was headed. I always had a pretty clear picture of how I was going to get there. Now I don’t know. I thought working with you would be fun with a modicum of danger. Now we’re in the business of trying to save a world. That’s a lot of responsibility. Not just for me. For all four of us.” She shrugged. “I guess there are worse things.”
Aeolus Investigations Set 2: Too Cool To Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens Page 8
