“Anyway, they hired us to find something recently stolen from them by, you guessed it, pirates. We eventually found the ship that hijacked their property dead in space, sitting next to the warship we’re about to discuss. Briefly, the warship was built centuries ago by a race called the Wraix. The warship was built for the purpose of enslaving all the other worlds of the galaxy. And yes, Bob, they could have pulled it off.
“The Wraix bumped into the Kreesh around the same time. We believe that subsequent to their encounter with the Kreesh, the Wraix may now be extinct. We do know that the Kreesh were already eating their homeworld.
“For reasons I am not going to go into, the ship itself became sentient. Let me take a moment to explain that by sentient, I mean self-aware like you and me. Despite all of the work done on Earth with artificial intelligence software, it only seems as though AI is something more than a computer program. It isn’t really. This ship was. It was as warped as its builders and got pleasure from killing. It trapped my team just as it trapped the pirates before we got there. Then it tried its damnedest to kill us. Obviously it didn’t succeed. When all was said and done, my team was left in possession of that ship. We also recovered the missing Vankovian property.”
“You’re glossing over a lot here, Lexi,” Bob pointed out. “All of these sound like fascinating stories. The alien ship killed the pirates before you got there?”
With a laugh, Lexi said, “Well, you’re a writer. Maybe someday I’ll invite you write them. Yes, the pirates were already dead. But the crux of the matter is that the builders of that ship were destroyed by creatures known throughout space as the Kreesh. The Accord, on the whole, didn’t believe the Kreesh were anything other than a myth. After our encounter with the warship, we knew they were real. The Accord was defenseless against them. Even worse, from my personal point of view, Earth was the first world in their path. So there I was with a warship that could almost hold off the Kreesh and no crew. For that matter, I had no clue how to fight a war.
“I did the only thing I could do, Bob. I reached out to the Accord worlds that knew me. Eight thousand years ago when they were drafting the Accord, someone said, ‘Look guys, we have this great contract which is going to force us to ignore each other for the benefit of all of us. But, what if something so terrible and so imminent comes up that we need to cooperate? How can we make that happen?’ It was a good question.”
As she paused, Bob prompted, “And the answer was Lexi Stevens?”
“Yes, Bob, it turns out it was. The leaders of the Accord worlds all knew me or at least knew of me. A surprising number of them on a personal basis. Between Ron and I, believe it or not, we are the heads of state of two worlds. After we prevented a pirate takeover of Ostrieachia, the Ostrieachians made me a citizen and elected me to the position of Chief Minister of their global council. That’s the equivalent of our World Governor.”
She paused, her expression and tone grim for the first time that evening. “I was in possession of a ship powerful enough to at least go up against the Kreesh. The evidence that the Kreesh were real and would be swarming in the near future was pretty overwhelming. Ackalon and Vankovia, the two most respected worlds in the Accord, were both solidly behind what I was attempting.”
She paused again, “Which brings us to Earth.”
“Yes, why Earth, Lexi? You gave us star travel and pulled us into the war with the Kreesh.”
Lexi frowned. “That’s not a fair way to put it, Bob. The Kreesh were on the way here. You’ve witnessed the death and destruction just a few thousand of their scouts caused. The Kreesh numbered in the billions. I did not pull Earth into a war with the Kreesh. I helped us survive it.”
She paused. “There is a thriving black-market business on Earth, supplying arms to the Accord. It seems we make the best guns. They have interstellar travel and they come here to shop for weapons. I’m not sure we should be proud of that, but there it is. Earth is also the only planet in Accord space that really understands war. The Accord worlds have been at peace for so long they can’t do it effectively anymore. Even the Wraix never fought an actual war. They were always so overwhelmingly powerful they just took what they wanted when they wanted it. I found myself not only with a ship with no crew, I had a war looming in my future, one I couldn’t avoid and no idea how to fight one. So I came to the experts. Every Accord world is still in the process of building warships based on what Earth’s military designed for us.”
“You faced the Kreesh and you won.”
“Never forget that it wasn’t just me, but, yes, we did. We fielded the largest, most technologically advanced fleet the Accord has ever seen. We lost a lot of good people. We can never forget that either. It was close, but we stopped them before the main swarm reached Earth. It wasn’t just Earth’s warriors who lost their lives. Many of our off-planet allies died protecting us too.”
“Several countries,” Bob said, “are building monuments to the fallen, those not from Earth as well as those from Earth. They won’t be forgotten, Lexi.” He paused. “On a related note, several studios are scrambling to pull together Kreesh-based movies. One company already has a video game out. There are rumors of several large amusement parks planning Kreesh exhibits. Thirty percent of the profits for these endeavors will be contributed to a trust fund for the benefit of the families of those who lost their lives in the war.”
He had to pause as practically the entire audience rose to their feet, applauding wildly. He and Lexi joined them. Once the applause died out and they were reseated, he remarked. “You still control the Accord? And the Accord is still increasing the size of the planetary fleets?”
“Yes, to both questions.”
“With the emergency over, shouldn’t you step down?”
“I intended to, Bob, I truly did. But I soon realized I had traded one emergency for another.”
“I’m sorry, Lexi. This is the first I’ve heard of a second emergency.”
“I know. That’s one of two main reasons I was looking forward to this interview. You see, Bob, my job is to protect the Accord. Now, I’ve let Earth loose on the stars. Earth poses almost as big a threat to the stability of the Accord as the Kreesh did despite the fact that you won’t literally be eating anybody. Figuratively eating them is a distinct possibility.”
“I think I’m echoing the position of most of our audience when I say, I don’t understand.”
“To put it concisely, the Accord has stagnated, a condition I forced them to realize over the last seven years. If Earth could enter like a fresh breeze, that would be a beautiful thing. What I see coming is a typhoon. Most likely followed by a tsunami. That’s why I invited Earth to join the Accord as a probationary member-world. As such, Earth is under my control as long as I control the Accord. That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t stepped down, why I’m still Marshal.”
She shook her head. “I don’t like this one bit. I’ll tell you honestly, Bob, this business of being in command of a space-faring civilization was never something I aspired to. Before I met Ron and Geena, my goal was to get my doctorate and earn a place on one of the Mars or Titan missions. As a star-traveler, I loved being an insurance investigator. I like visiting new places. I like tinkering with technology. I want to retire and start a family.”
“OK,” Bob said. “I think we’ll take that intermission now. When we come back, we’re going to be discussing the pirate problem, Earth’s future in the Accord and, maybe, just maybe, Lexi’s and Ron’s plans for a family. During the break, we’ll be running a short documentary on the worlds and races of the Accord on the big screen behind us as well as for the viewers at home. Back in twenty.”
Chapter 73
After the Break
“Welcome back. For anyone just tuning in, my name is Bob Colfax. I’m here at the Eisenhower Theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Tonight we’re having a frank discussion with Lexi Stevens, formerly of Earth and now Marshal of the Accord. I se
e our audience looks refreshed and is still paying rapt attention so let’s proceed to the second half of the interview.
“What exactly does being Marshal mean, Lexi?”
“I have several titles, Bob, depending on which language we’re speaking. Marshal is the English translation of the Vankovian title. It’s also the one I thought Earth would be most comfortable with. At any rate they all mean the same thing. The title means that until I voluntarily step down, I am the Accord. Every civilian governing body reports to me. Every military echelon reports to me. It’s not a position I ever aspired to. Circumstances put me in the position of being the only person anywhere who stood a chance of stopping the Kreesh swarm. To do that, I needed the coordinated resources of every world in the Accord. The governments of those worlds agreed with me.
“Of more interest to our in-house audience, Bob, I needed Earth. I gave Earth space-threading technology. As a result, industry is booming. You’re building orbital factories. You’re already making plans for using the technology to build bases on the Moon, Mars, and Titan. In the few short months since we defeated the Kreesh, you’ve sent manned ships to Venus and Jupiter. Earth is a planet of innovators and risk-takers; two traits that the Accord has largely forgotten. Because of that, Earth is dangerous, Bob. Earth is a storm that is poised to rip through the Accord leaving chaos in its wake.”
“That’s a pretty loaded statement, Lexi. Let me ask you two things. How sure are you of that? And what can you do to mitigate it?”
“We’ve provided background information on the worlds and races of the Accord. Most of the Accord worlds are populated by humans who where brought from Earth somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand years ago by a race known as the Forerunners. We don’t really know anything else about them. We assume they don’t exist anymore.”
She paused, and smiled. “At least, so far, no one has come forward and owned up to being a Forerunner. Nor have we come across any race that has been traveling the stars for that long. However, that’s why my husband, Ron, is both human and an alien. He’s from one of the Forerunner-seeded worlds.”
Bob said, “That time frame is sufficient for the species to diverge, to develop new abilities.”
Lexi nodded. “You’re right about that. Many of the people on Ackalon can sense future events. They’ve sensed the chaos, and yes, the carnage of which I speak. Plus I know Earth. Remember, I was born here. I grew up here. There will be trouble. I can’t prevent it. What I can hope to do is to moderate it. I can direct Earth’s energies into safe channels to the benefit of all. Earth currently has control of sixty-two percent of my space fleet. You now have a fledgling planetary government which in a spirit of cooperation never before seen has the full support of the other member worlds of the Accord. Earth is in a position where it has nothing to fear from the Accord itself. As long as you behave, you have nothing to fear from me either. It will be decades, maybe centuries before this situation plays itself out.” She paused, taking a sip of water. “Now, I’m going talk to you about pirates.”
There was an unexpected round of applause from the in-house audience. Bob smiled. “We’re ready, Lexi.”
“My team has run into pirates several times over the years. The first time was during the rescue mission I mentioned earlier in this evening’s interview. We got the hostages we were hired to find out as well as a few others. Our ship is small. We were forced to leave behind over seven hundred people. Those men, women, and children were used both as slave labor to mine ore on that planet as well as for the entertainment of their pirate overseers. We sent an evacuation transport back to return them to civilization. By the time the transport arrived, all of them had been slaughtered.”
She paused, giving that time to sink in. “Since that time, we have encountered and destroyed more than one pirate ship. The personal logs of the crews show what they do to their captives. Believe me, this is not Johnny Depp playing Jack Sparrow. It’s as bad as you can imagine. I hope the majority of you listening tonight cannot truly imagine how bad it is.” She paused again, giving the audience a few seconds.
“Eight years ago, my team accepted a commission to investigate what was happening on Ostrieachia, an Accord member-world. We uncovered a pirate base in a nearby system. The fleet of enemy warships stationed there was larger than that maintained by most Accord worlds. They were on the verge of invading and taking over an entire planet. The base had been nearby and operational for seven decades and no one knew it was there. During that time they had been subverting the leaders of a number of Ostrieachian political factions. They were funding terrorism.”
“What happened? You obviously got away with that intel. We know they didn’t take Ostrieachia. You already told us you head the planetary council there.”
She smiled. “Good to know that you’re paying attention, Bob. No, my team stopped them. We rescued the six hundred slaves being held on that base and took almost their entire invasion fleet away from them. In the process, we came to a shocking realization. It was a real eye-opener for us. Not all pirates are rapists and murderers. Some of them are perfectly nice people like your neighbors. They’re security guards, shopkeepers, teachers and maintenance workers. Normal people who just had the misfortune to grow up on a pirate dominated world. They have normal everyday jobs. They have families. There were even children on that base. Our original plan was to blow the base to pieces as soon as we escaped with the slaves. We obviously were forced to alter that plan.”
“So, what did you do?”
“We adapted the plan. Most of the base was intact when we left. Once we put a lid on the political chaos on Ostrieachia, the base was commandeered by Ostrieachian forces, the four thousand so-called pirates were rounded up and transported to Ostrieachia where they were incarcerated. We had a team of Ackalonian sensitives standing by to question them. An Ackalonian always knows when someone is lying. The innocents, and I’m pleased to report that was by far the majority of them, were released. A small city was built for them. They’re being integrated into the planet’s population. The bad ones were executed. We also had full access to the records of the pirates’ operations. The Ostrieachians on their payroll, as well as the terrorists they were funding, were rounded up for a session with the Ackalonians. All in all, it was a reasonably satisfactory resolution to an impossible situation. The situation there is still evolving. Like on Earth, there are still national rivalries. But they all now acknowledge the Council. That’s another situation that will be playing out for at least a few decades.”
“It sounds like the Ackalonians are a good people to have on your side,” Bob remarked.
“Yes, they are. You couldn’t ask for better. I have one of their teams standing by here.”
Bob frowned. “That sounds slightly ominous, Lexi.”
“Does it? It shouldn’t. Earth, I’m afraid, has the pirate disease. You’re infested. Our information suggests that Earth is the next world on the pirate’s takeover list. They have a base very much like the one I just described that they think is hidden on Titan.” She smiled. “Or at least they had one there. Earth forces took it out two days ago. Police forces worldwide, with the assistance of Home Fleet Marines, are picking up collaborators identified from that base’s records. The planetary governor’s office will be making regular announcements on how that cleanup is going.”
“Hmm. Let’s give the audience and me time to digest that. In fact, let’s shelve this topic for now, Lexi. What can you share about your father?”
Chapter 74
Family
Lexi shrugged. “Dad? Well, let’s see. He raised me pretty much on his own after my mother died. I was four. She was beautiful and wonderful and perfect, at least in the eyes of an adoring four-year-old. She was one of these save the world people that we just never have enough of. They met at a conference on global warming in Sweden. Dad never talked much about her beyond that. Her loss pained him deeply.” She paused, smiling. “I never knew what he did for a living unt
il I came back to Earth on Glaurang that first time.”
Bob chuckled. “We’ve all seen video of your entry into the solar system. It nearly broke the internet with the number of you-tube hits it received once it was released to the public.”
She laughed. “Yeah. Thinking back on it, that may have been a bit over the top. We had no idea who we needed to contact on Earth or how to go about it. We couldn’t just set down on the Potomac, the Hudson, or the Moskva. I knew you guys were at least watching the skies for killer asteroids and suspected you must already know about aliens with spaceships. So we made a very noisy, very splashy entrance. No one was as surprised as I was when my father’s voice came over the communication link.”
Bob laughed this time. “I can well imagine. We now know that the job your father didn’t talk about was that he headed a multi-government-funded, global organization whose mission was to cope with alien traffic on Earth. That top secret organization was called WASP, an acronym for Worldwide Alien Studies Program. The name Men in Black, taken from the comic books and movies has been used extensively in the popular media.”
Aeolus Investigations Set 2: Too Cool To Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens Page 53
