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

by Robert E Colfax

  Urania asked, “OK, dear, I’ve changed course back to where we left the three ships. What are Kreesh?”

  Geena was looking at Lexi, perplexed. “‘The Kreesh,’” she corrected, emphasizing “The.” “They’re always referred to as ‘The Kreesh.’ I don’t know why. They’re the bogeymen of children’s tales. Creatures that don’t exist. Monsters that can’t exist. What exactly do you mean, Lexi?”

  “Wraix knew the Kreesh. They called them Species Seventeen. They discovered them, dormant, on a barren moon in a solar system of only dead planets. Something they did activated them. Meat didn’t know what. He knew a science team found and reported them. The team was never heard from again. Eighty years later, the swarm descended on Wraix.”

  She had much more than that to tell them, but most of it could wait. “A lot went on in my head while I was unconscious. Believe it or not, some of it wasn’t movie related.” She smiled wryly. “Admittedly, a lot of it was. The cause of the coma and the dreams was my use of Meat’s consciousness as an educator field before I terminated him. I got everything in his data cores as well as everything in, well, I guess you’d call it his mind. I know what the Wraix knew about the Kreesh. They’re are about as close as you can get to a sentient hive race. They eat anything biological, including meat. To them, everyone we know fits that definition. The Wraix tried, but were unable to communicate with them.”

  “So you’re saying they’re real?” Geena asked.

  Lexi nodded. “Yes. Very real. That brings us back to Wraix. The Wraix beat them back nine centuries ago. It cost Wraix dearly. Fortunately, it put a stop to the Wraixain’s own sadistic plan of conquering the rest of us. With the size fleet Wraix could field, even without their new flagship, they would have easily taken all of us out. The Kreesh had an even larger fleet and put a crimp in Wraixain plans by almost destroying them. Equally fortunately, it looks as though Wraix did serious enough damage to halt the Kreesh. Until now.”

  She looked at her team, smiling. “So, my dearest friends, this is what we have to do. There is no one else who can. Accord technology won’t stop them. My innovations might, if we have enough time before they get here. We need that ship, the most powerful warship the Wraix or anyone else has ever built. And we need a base. I want us to buy Hepca, the planet we rescued the E’Krets from. Ackalon, Borgol, Vankovia, and probably Naragene and Cardin will loan us the funds if we can’t cover it alone. I’ll admit that idea hasn’t been fully thought out. Assuming we don’t come up with an alternative, I think we should look into planting a Borgolian colony there – they’ll appreciate the climate. They’re going to repair and upgrade Glaurung.”

  Her smile got bigger. “The name comes from Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. It’s a perfect name for the green ship. Glaurung was the first of the Middle-Earth dragons. He was wingless and most apropos had the ability to manipulate human minds. Once we have a base, we go to Earth and pick up a crew. The military on Earth understands warfare. The military of the Accord understands policing. It’s not the same thing. Even the Vankovians are more explorers than soldiers. They’re just realistic about the dangers involved. Once all of that is in place, we might have time to take out the pirate worlds before we have to deal with the Kreesh. It’ll be good practice.”

  Both Ron and Geena were staring at her, aghast. Urania said, “I know what you’re thinking guys, but her brain chemistry and neurological activity were normal when she got off the medical bed.”

  Lexi smiled. “Oh, I’m still sane. Mostly anyway. I never wanted any of this. I was perfectly happy hanging with you guys, developing new technology and beating the crap out of the occasional bad guy. The circumstances of the last three years have put us in the position of being the only ones who can save Accord civilization.”

  She shook her head, bemused. “Ironic, isn’t it? When I stowed away on Urania, I had the fleeting thought that I needed to get on board in order to do what I could to stop an alien invasion of Earth. Turns out I was right, I was just worried about the wrong aliens.”

  “Lexi,” Geena began, somewhat hesitantly, “Let’s assume you haven’t flipped out on us and that you might be right about the Kreesh. How much Wraixain knowledge did you actually absorb?”

  Lexi shrugged. “While still in space dock, the ship received emergency orders to respond to a developing situation and combat a massive incursion by the Kreesh. The new design had yet to be fully tested and proven. Because they didn’t really understand the Kreesh but knew they needed to, they put the top minds in almost every scientific and technical discipline on board. They assumed they would be able to take captives for study. Since it was a new ship, preparing for what was supposed to be a trial run, the science and technical staffs that designed and built it were already on board as well.

  “Wraix met the Kreesh in a pretty horrific battle. A battle that the Kreesh were slowly winning. Kreesh technology wasn’t nearly as advanced as Wraixain, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming. The damage to the dorsal fin was caused by the Kreesh fleet taking out one of the hyper-generators. That part of the ship crumbled off back into n-space. Somewhat disturbingly, I found no records of what weapons the Kreesh used. Millions of the Kreesh peeled off from the mother ship and wound up destroyed in the act of breaching the fin, but they had lots of ships and lots of Kreesh. The Wraix weren’t fighting their new ship very well and they knew it. Wraix Command made the decision to activate the less than fully tested Klaavaanit field.

  “When Meat was turned on, he instantly absorbed the knowledge and personality gestalts of everyone — soldiers, scientists, slaves, historians, cooks, and engineers. In short, he mind-raped everybody who was on board. Ninety percent of them died in the shock of that moment; their brains more or less instantly burned out. Meat was supposed to be introduced to sentience gradually. The overload of all those minds hitting him at once drove command-comp insane. It wasn’t a gradual awakening like that experienced by Urania for which I’m now very grateful.

  “Meat immediately seized control of the ship, calculated he couldn’t win against the Kreesh and hypered out of the battle. Hiding in hyperspace, he soon learned how to create an avatar for himself and started hunting the survivors of his crew. He was imbued with the killer instincts of the race that created him. Those of the crew who survived the activation of the Klaavaanit field, once they realized that somehow command-comp was hunting them down one by one, sabotaged the computer’s ability to shut off life support and gravity. Then they jury-rigged a hyper-generator so that it couldn’t be turned off, locking the ship in hyperspace, unable to use the drives because gravity was permanently on. It didn’t save them. His avatar stalked them through the physical ship itself.”

  She frowned. “This was before he figured out how to create simulations. By the time he did, he was living totally in his sim. That was more fun for him. He killed the last few in sim, not realizing his avatar should be able to fix the damaged generator. Instead, he kept recreating and hunting his crew. Over and over.

  “When we ran into him, his mind contained pretty much the entire knowledge base of the Wraixain at their height. Now so do I. I know that was a rather rambling answer to your question. In short, Geena, I pretty much know everything they knew. It was a lot to take at once. There’s a lot of overlap with what I already know, of course. Some of the knowledge is contradictory. Some of what they knew is just plain wrong. In a number of areas, the Wraix were less advanced than we are today. But in others, Wraixain knowledge was up to a thousand years ahead, maybe more. So let’s go with I know everything they knew and leave it at that for now.”

  Chapter 32

  Article Seven, Section One

  Geena took a deep breath. “OK, so you have the knowledge to repair Glaurung. You might have chosen a name that’s easier to pronounce, by the way. ‘Toothless’ might have been nice. But as to the rest of it, I don’t think so. You’ll never get the cooperation you’re going to need. The whole point of the Accord is to allow each planetary
government to go its own way without interference from the others. The flip side of that is there is little cooperation between any of them. Jis is clearly taking a stab at changing that, but it could be centuries before her efforts bear fruit.”

  Ron remarked. “That might be why she sent a fleet to Ostrieachia.” He paused. “Listen, Lexi, the only reason I’m taking any of this seriously is because it’s coming from you. But I’m not sure you’re completely stable at the moment, even if you are sane. You just got up from a coma. A Borgolian colony on Hepca is out of the question and assuming you can get a ship the size of Glaurang refurbished, you’re not going to be able to take us pirate hunting. Sorry.”

  Lexi smiled at him. “I need you to elaborate. We’ve got plenty of time to talk this through. Although let me first point out that ‘Toothless’ is not an acceptable name for a warship, Geena.”

  Ron sighed. “OK, kiddo. Hepca doesn’t have the infrastructure to support a space dock. In fact, it has no infrastructure. Setting up a colony with the ability to repair starships is a multi-decade project.”

  Lexi frowned, but only slightly. “Good point. We could prefab most of a shipyard on Glaurang and assemble the pieces once we get there. Still, I think you’re right about that. What’s my mental state, Urania? Am I high?”

  “No, love. Although at the moment, some areas of your brain are overstimulated compared to normal.”

  “OK, someone point it out to me if you see me crashing. Ron, you mentioned pirates?”

  Geena saw the same problem with pirates, which Lexi was missing. “We can’t bombard the Unity worlds, killing millions of innocents in order to get thousands of actual pirates. Even their warships are largely staffed with innocent soldiers. You know this.” She paused. “I still don’t see us getting the cooperation we’ll need from the Accord worlds. What Jis did vis-à-vis Ostrieachia aside, the Accord just doesn’t work that way.”

  Lexi said, “This is going to sound like megalomania, and yes, it’s practically part of the Wraixain mental make-up. They had plenty of it and yes, I’m still sorting through a lot of their crap in my head, but I’m going to be put in charge.” She looked inward for a moment. “In charge of pretty much everything. The entire Accord. I think I was discussing this with Jis, sort of, while I was unconscious. She would have known about the law. That’s probably why I know about it. I’m pretty sure she is already sensing the Kreesh swarm, as well.

  She paused to finish her beer, giving Ron time to say, “Explain that, Lexi. What law?”

  She nodded. “We all know that the Accord is nothing more than a very loose agreement protecting each political unit from excesses by the others. At the time it was drawn up, someone presumably raised the questions, ‘What if, in the long run, we’re making a big mistake? What if we ever need to band together? And what if it has to happen too quickly for years of negotiations?’”

  She had both her friends looking puzzled. “Article Seven, Section One was the answer they came up with. It’s a little-known law going back to the very beginnings of the Accord. It allows for the appointment of a single person with absolute power in case of an extreme emergency. That person is going to be me. Their name for the position is Vankovian in origin and has multiple translations. I think I will go with ‘Marshal.’ That will be the most palatable option to Earth and we’re going to need them. No, cooperation won’t be a problem, Geena.”

  She was silent for a moment, again looking very grim. “That’s the situation, as I see it. So that is what we need to do. Unless you opt-out, then it is what I need to do. Honestly, guys, I need all of you. But it wouldn’t be fair not to offer you an out. This is going to wind up being the most dangerous job we’ve ever attempted. Urania, I need you regardless, until Glaurung is up and running. He can never replace you, and we’re eventually going to face an ethical issue as to whether we make other starships sentient because now we know how. And honey, if you want, when we don’t need you to be a ship, we’ll be able to generate an avatar for you on Glaurung. It’ll take some work but I know how Meat did it. Besides, I remember Jis remarking that someday she’d be able to hug you. Sometimes it’s irritating the way she says things like that that sound random but aren’t.”

  Urania laughed. “Bribing me with showers, are you, dear? You know me so well. I would like to have an avatar body available if its possible. Not a priority, of course. I’m in either way. Oh, and by the way, Geena, you weren’t really in Meat’s sim so you don’t know what the ship smelled like. A better name than ‘Toothless’ would be ‘Stinky.’”

  Ron said, “You know my answer, kiddo. I’m with you to the end. Always and forever.”

  Geena looked from Lexi to Ron and then back to Lexi, a large smile on her face. “What the hell! Yes. Let’s save the freakin’ galaxy! If nothing else, it will look damn good on our resumes.”

  Chapter 33

  Glaurang

  The return trip to the asteroid field took three days. Lexi was suitably impressed with Ron’s re-engineering of the cloak technology he used to disguise the ships. She asked him to go over it for her and, of course, immediately started thinking of other applications, such as skins for avatars, for it. Ron simply grinned and said, “You’re rubbing off on all of us, kiddo. Even Mom’s ready to go pirate hunting.”

  That aside, she spent most of the three days of down-time working with Urania building a three-dimensional holographic model of Glaurang. They would need it for show-and-tell. It truly was a huge ship. Built to house an operational crew of twelve hundred, it had facilities to support another thousand ground troops. Its multiple hanger decks would have maintained close to nine hundred fighter planes, for want of a better term, as well as planetary assault vehicles. The battle with the Kreesh severely depleted the fighter plane inventory. They only had thirty-seven on board, all damaged.

  Her friends were every bit as appalled as she was when she explained the purpose of Glaurang’s “eyes.” The huge crystalline structures were each as large as Urania. Positioned toward the front of the ship on either side of the tapered nose, they really did give the impression that the ship had two eyes. Their true purpose was to channel twin convergent beams of focused hyperspace energy, the same energy put out by the hyper-generator, combined with the thrust of the hyperdrive into the core of a planet. That technology was completely untested.

  Despite the fact that it chilled her to her core, Lexi fully understood what the Wraix hoped to achieve, as well as the technology they built to implement it. She also knew beyond any doubt that if the Wraix had got around to testing it, their nice new ship would have been completely destroyed. Everything forward of the eyes would have simply vanished. The part of the ship aft of the eyes would have suffered a significantly more violent but equally catastrophic blow-back event.

  There was a thirty-one-point-nine-three percent chance it would have also destroyed its target as designed. Sending the core of a planet into hyperspace, no matter how briefly, could not be considered healthy for its inhabitants. It wasn’t a weapon for ship-to-ship space combat. It’s only use was as a planet-killer. She could re-engineer it, make it work. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. She couldn’t think of any planets she wanted to kill at the moment.

  Glaurang had two skins. The outer hull was composed of a very advanced biphase-carbon-silicate polymer material. It was in this area that the Wraix were the most advanced over the Accord worlds. Accord hulls were designed as containers, both for shipboard infrastructure systems and for maintaining a small chunk of livable environment to protect occupants from the hazards of space. Admittedly, they did that job very well.

  The oily-looking green plate of Glaurang’s outer hull was designed as a defense against space hazards, be they rocks, radiation, projectile weapons or beams. Even if Glaurang’s shields were down, he was pretty well protected. Equally importantly, the hull was designed for speed in hyperspace. Because the hull was assembled from scales tethered to the inner hull, giving him somewhat the appearance of a lar
ge fish, or a scaled dragon as the case may be, it was flexible. This allowed the ship to slither through hyperspace so that the unavoidable drag caused by turbulence was greatly reduced. Despite its size and bulk, Glaurang was beyond a doubt the fastest ship in space. And Lexi hadn’t started to work on him yet. The hyperdrive and related systems developed for Urania during the Ostrieachian episode may not quite double his speed, but they would come close. Those upgrades were years away.

  The inner hull served to maintain that all-important bubble of livable space inside Glaurang. Unlike the outer skin, it was rigid. Between the two was another polymer material, with a plastic-like consistency. It was also marginally compressible, insulating the inner hull from the slithering motion of the ship.

  All three of the smaller ships, Save Me, Witchy-Bitchy Woman and Urania fit on Glaurang’s massive, main hanger deck with plenty of room to spare, despite the dozens of smaller craft already parked there. Most of Glaurang’s fighter complement was destroyed in the fight against the Kreesh, leaving a huge amount of open hanger space. Urania managed to make connections to the critical parts of the enormous network of computers previously controlled by Meat in a matter of hours. Once she had control, they left the asteroid belt for Ackalon at top speed.