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

by Robert E Colfax

  Lexi commanded, “Keep us with it. Steady distance. Reiterate to all ships, keep weapons active but do not engage the enemy. Battleships are to remain available for transport. We may still need to abandon ship.”

  Within fifty minutes, it was clear the Kreesh were heading on an intersect course with the sun. “Captain Davies, start moving the fleet inside of Mercury’s orbit. Drop us to alert level four. Do not, under any circumstances engage.”

  “Yes, Marshal. Understood.”

  “I’ll be in my quarters having breakfast. Apprise me immediately if the situation changes. I’ll be back on the bridge before the hive reaches solar orbit.”

  Nine hours and thirty-seven minutes later, Lexi and the command team re-entered the bridge. “Good timing, Marshal,” Davies remarked. “The fleet is in position, holding shields at full. The hive-ship has dropped scouts already. Our sensors are partially blinded trying to follow them in, but we think we’re seeing total destruction. The hive should be in solar orbit in twenty-seven minutes.”

  The hive-ship looked tiny against the amazing backdrop of the sun. Almost at the same time it achieved orbit, the Kreesh, in their billions, began streaming into the corona. They sparkled like glitter as they flashed into vapor. It was actually quite a pretty display. They watched for the full six hours and twenty-three minutes it took before they could find no more on the surface of the hive ship and no more plunging to fiery dissolution into the sun.

  For the first time, the internal structure of the hive-ship was revealed. At the very center was a bright orange, solid, spherical mass. It approached a hundred miles in diameter. Other than noting the surface was dimpled like a golf ball, the sensors could get no information on its structure. A heavy framework connected it to the icosidodecahedron nodes. Thousands of nodes.

  Lexi looked around her bridge. “Execute battle plan Omega-17.” The name of the plan was cuter than it needed to be, she supposed. Omega-17 represented the end of Species Seventeen as the Wraix termed them. She was finishing the job they started a thousand years ago. All of the terraforming units were gone, incinerated by their plunge into Earth’s sun, leaving only the hive-ship core and node infrastructure. Yes, she would have liked the opportunity to take it apart and study the nodes that dissolved and reproduced the Kreesh. Even more so, she would have liked to get at whatever was at the center of the thing. She doubted the core was solid. But the Wraix destroyed a vast number of Kreesh and the Kreesh managed to come back. The Kreesh could regenerate, making it far too dangerous to even try to preserve the hive-ship. How they communicated without exchanging nano-cells would have to remain a mystery.

  Lexi, along with everyone else on Glaurang’s bridge, watched as her three hundred forty-seven remaining battleships along with her five hundred eighty-three cruisers flushed missile tubes at the intruder. Warhead after warhead detonated against the unshielded structure shattering the icosidodecahedron nodes and the connective lattice. Then the fleet’s primary beams bit in, carving what was left of the planetoid’s core apart, leaving chunk after chunk to spiral into the sun.

  The hive-ship was finished, destroyed in hours. A large portion of the fleet would hold position for as long as it took, destroying any rogue pieces. Lexi didn’t want as much as a single nano-cell surviving. Guaranteeing that would not be possible, but anything left would eventually be pulled in by the sun’s gravity. Once the larger pieces were dealt with, only enough fleet units would be left behind to monitor the situation. They would be monitoring for a long time. We’re going to have to have a cleanup operation on Earth, collecting whatever is left of the Kreesh destroyed on the surface. I think I’ll leave that in Dad’s hands.

  Lexi stood. “Lieutenant Iilja, open the all-ships channel for me. I have an announcement. Then contact your fellow Grammin on the other worlds, tell them…” Her voice caught as she felt the wave of admiration coming off of her Grammin communications officer. “Tell them we won.”

  Chapter 70

  The Wrap

  As the extended team gathered in the Marshal’s private lounge on Glaurang, Jis fished another shrimp out of her shrimp cocktail, took a small sip of her off-dry Riesling and said, “I still sense trouble. I’m pretty sure that the doom we’ve been sensing was not the Kreesh. I think it’s whatever burned Waince.”

  Geena, sitting comfortably on Charlie’s lap, looked at her. “You know, Jis, as much as I love you, you can be a real downer at times.”

  Jis offered her habitual serene smile and fished out another shrimp.

  “Lexi, darling, can you whip up a batch of that body paint for me?” Geena suddenly asked.

  “Sure,” Lexi said, with a mischievous grin. “Would you like any of the wash that removes it too? It’s relatively permanent otherwise.”

  Geena shook her head, “I wondered why you aren’t flaking all over Ron. Yes, please. Are you ever going to remove yours?”

  “Probably. What about you, Jis. Would you like any?”

  Jis glanced at Andy, who was currently grinning like an idiot. “Sure, why not. Enough for two. And some of the wash as well. I’ll be heading back to Ackalon in a few days. I suppose the Plicora should look dignified when I get home.” She gave Geena a stern look which she moved to include Lexi. “You guys need to keep that in mind too.

  ***

  Lexi ran a hand over Ron’s muscled abdomen and up to his shoulder. “My roommates had it right. You are yummy.”

  Ron laughed. “Charlie mentioned that when we first got to Earth, kiddo. This is the first time you’ve brought it up since.”

  Lexi laughed. “I know. I’m thinking of painting you gold tomorrow. We’ll take pictures. Jis is right, it isn’t very dignified, but it is kind of fun. Just ask Kowaloski.”

  Ron rolled onto his side for a better view of the golden woman next to him. “Other than that interview you have scheduled in a few weeks, what’s next for us?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, love,” she admitted. “Our next job is going to be dealing with the Unity pirate empire. I don’t think I’m going to be able to delegate that one. It clearly falls under the purview of the Marshal’s Office. We need to rebuild the fleet first, so we’re a few years from moving on that.” Lexi clasped her hands behind her head. “What occurs to me is that your Grammin relatives will be on Earth in the next few days checking out their embassy and doing touristy things. Urania, Jis, Dad, Geena, Seekateeki, and the E’Krets are all still here. Our wedding bands with the embedded Barossa Channel material are ready. I think we should take the opportunity to get married.”

  Ron’s embrace would have crushed anyone who wasn’t hulk-med enhanced. That was enough of an answer for Lexi.

  >>> End of Part 3: Killer Queen <<<

  Part 4: Electra Stevens

  We cordially invite you to grab a glass of wine, beer, coffee, or soda (let’s have no underage drinking, please, and water is always a good choice) and kick back while Lexi candidly discusses the events leading to her becoming the Marshal of the Accord. Learn what Lexi and Ron have on their plate next as well as their plans for starting a family.

  Chapter 71

  An Evening With Electra Stevens

  “Good evening. My name is Bob Colfax. I’ll be your host for tonight’s event. This evening I have the honor and the pleasure of introducing you to Lexi Stevens in front of a packed house at the Eisenhower Theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Tonight’s interview is being televised and streamed live around the world. Recorded versions will be available on the internet early tomorrow morning.” He looked away from the camera to look at his guest. “I want to thank you, Lexi, both for choosing me to conduct this interview and especially for taking the time to be here with us tonight.”

  Lexi was dressed in a solid white, sleeveless gown with just a strap over her left shoulder. The material wasn’t clingy but still hugged her athletic form. Her white stilettos had three inch heels. Her brilliant red hair was held in a tight French braid
. It looked like she may have deigned to have the makeup people work on her, although it was possible she did it all herself.

  “It’s my pleasure, Bob. Many of the changes going on in the world today are dramatic. There’s no going back for us. It’s important for people to understand what is happening and why. I think I can help with that. I wish we had thought to do this before the war with the Kreesh. My only excuse is that we were kind of busy at the time.” There was a small round of applause and laughter from the audience following that tongue-in-cheek statement.

  Bob chuckled too. “On the off-chance that there may be one or two people in the viewing audience who don’t know who you are, let me introduce you. Ladies and gentlemen, I am seated here tonight with Electra Stevens. Electra, or rather, Lexi as she is known to her friends, is thirty-three years old. She was born and raised in Stamford, Connecticut in the United States, the only child of Charles and Violet Stevens. Ten years ago, she disappeared from the university she was attending in Washington state, ten weeks short of graduating with a doctorate in Applied Physics. The next anyone knew of her was when, well, I’m getting ahead of the story. Let’s start at the beginning. What can you tell us about your disappearance, Lexi?”

  Lexi gave a small laugh. “This is the honest truth, Bob. I met a wonderful man at a coffee shop on the campus I was attending. Wasn’t I surprised; Ron Samue was an alien. When he was leaving, I stowed away on his spaceship.”

  It was Bob’s turn to laugh. “I met Ron backstage before the show. He looks human to me. Why’d you stow away?”

  “Ron is human, Bob. He was, however, born on a planet one hundred sixty-seven light-years from here. We can get into how that is possible later this evening if you like. Why did I stow away? I followed him. I didn’t want him to leave. You know, I was a young woman with stars in my eyes. I was curious about why he was so abruptly dropping out of school to leave the country. I admit I started thinking of the Men in Black when I realized I was looking at a starship hidden in a barn.”

  She shrugged. “I felt someone had to defend us against an alien invasion. I was the only one there. As it turned out, Ron and his mother Geena were the only two people on that ship. They earned a living as insurance investigators and were tracking down a stolen object they believed had found its way to Earth. They were right about that. I helped them recover it and joined their partnership. Geena is now one of my best friends and Ron is my husband.” She smiled prettily. “That’s the first time I’ve called him that. The literal translation of husband in his language that describes our relationship is life-partner or life-mate.”

  “We’ll bring him out to meet the audience in the second half of the interview, Lexi. There is a rumor that your team uses swords in confrontations. Is that true?”

  She had to laugh at the expression on Bob’s face as he asked that. “Useless against the Kreesh but yes, otherwise quite true. Understand that I fenced as a hobby ever since I was about twelve years old. I‘m quite good at it. It’s great exercise too. Anyway, on my first job with the team, we were set upon by bounty hunters from an Accord world named Helga. They were looking for the same object we were. We had it. They thought they could take it from us.”

  “I imagine many of us who have watched the Worlds of the Accord video posted on the web know about Helga.” Bob smiled. “The video is quite popular.”

  Lexi nodded. “Those who haven’t should find the time to do so. It was designed to introduce you to our neighbors. Helgans are the only race in the Accord who use swords. It has to do with their code of honor, a hold-over from their preindustrial days. They challenged us to what they term an Honor Duel. After that, I decided what the hell, let’s all become proficient with long, sharp, edged weapons.” She leaned in, and her voice low, added, “When you’re infiltrating an enemy base, well, let’s just say a sword is much quieter than even a silenced gun. We’ve had to infiltrate more than one enemy base.”

  “Yes,” Bob agreed, clearly slightly taken aback, “I imagine they are. I think before we go into more about you, we should segue into a bit of background on the extra-solar over-government called the Accord.”

  Lexi shook her head slightly. “It’s a misstatement, Bob, to call the Accord an over-government. There are a number of civilizations that discovered star travel more or less at the same time around eight thousand years ago. After a short period of minor aggressions and misunderstandings, eleven of those worlds got together and signed a contract specifying limits on what they would allow each other to do. Eight hundred years ago, a twelfth world signed. We brought in a few more, including Earth, prior to the start of the conflict with the Kreesh.”

  She paused to take a sip of water. “The Accord is a contract. It consists mostly of common sense stuff along the lines of ‘you don’t attack my planet and I won’t attack yours.’ It also facilitates trade agreements. Aside from that, they agreed to leave each other alone. That contract was called the Accord. However, after all this time, saying ‘The Accord’ usually refers to the volume of space occupied by these worlds. There are a few other star traveling civilizations in Accord-space that still haven’t joined the Accord. They lack the non-interference protections the Accord worlds enjoy but in all practicality, it makes no difference.” She paused and took another sip of water.

  Bob nodded his head. “Where does Earth fit into all of that?”

  “Up until a few years ago, Earth was what the Accord terms a Level-Two non-member world. The non-member part is self-explanatory. Level-Two simply means that Earth has progressed past the preindustrial stage. We weren’t very far from achieving star travel, or space-threading technology as they term it. Level-Three indicates a world with space-threading capability. Level-One worlds possess sentient life, but at best, preindustrial technology.”

  Bob nodded, looking pleased. “Thank you for that concise explanation, Lexi. I know all of this is in the educational materials that have already been widely distributed, but I think while we’re chatting we should touch on everything, no matter how glancingly.”

  “I absolutely agree, Bob. Where do you want to go next?”

  “Let’s go back to your career. You left here as a stowaway on a small private starship. Three years later, you returned home in command of what we’re told is the largest, most powerful warship ever built and as the leader of almost half of the Accord. By the time you led the fleet against the Kreesh, the entire Accord was reporting to you. That must be an interesting story.”

  “Yes, my life has been interesting,” Lexi agreed. “Those years encompass more than one story, Bob. Please don’t forget that I want to discuss piracy sometime this evening.”

  Bob answered with a smile, “We’ll get to that after the intermission. I promise.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that, Bob.” Lexi smiled. There was no sting to her words. “My next mission with the team involved rescuing VIPs kidnapped from five Accord worlds. We eventually learned that the outfit who was holding them hostage was affiliated with a pirate organization. You’re not going to be able to get away without discussing piracy. It’s a topic that comes up frequently in my life.

  “On that mission, my team worked closely with a woman named Jis Boc Seckan. As a result, she became one of our closest friends. She’s now the ruler of Ackalon. When we got back, she altered Ackalon law to allow us to arm our starship. Most Accord worlds prohibit non-military ships from being armed. That being said, it’s awkward running into pirate ships on a job when you can’t fight back. While we were in the process of installing our weapons, I was kidnapped by bounty hunters and taken to be interrogated by, sorry, Bob, pirates.”

  “It’s OK, Lexi. After all, you warned me. And they are part of your story.”

  “I’m afraid you’re right about that. They were interested in some radical technology my team employed during the rescue mission. We all survived that one, I’m happy to say. In the process we made friends with the rulers of the Grammin, a Level-Three civilization which, until the Kr
eesh war, was completely unknown to the Accord at large. In short, my team of insurance investigators became known throughout the upper echelons of the Accord worlds as a group that gets things done. By then we had also eliminated two pirate outposts. We didn’t go looking for them, but neither could we avoid them.” She smiled. “You’re sweating, Bob. Don’t worry, the warship is coming up next.”

  Chapter 70

  Acquiring Glaurang

  “It’s the studio lights, Lexi,” Bob said. “This isn’t what I do for a living and I’m not used to them.”

  She laughed. “Sure it is. OK, then, the majority of Accord races are as human as you are. We can get into that in the second half. We probably should. The Vankovians, however, are not at all human. If you can picture five-foot-tall aliens with six limbs and human intelligence, well, that’s a simple description. I like them.