Gambler (Aeolus Investigations Book 4)
Contents
Cover
Copyright
Dedication
Forward
Chatper 1, Ackalon
Chapter 2, Briefing Jis
Chapter 3, Infrastructure Upgrades
Chapter 4, Mingling
Chapter 5, Help Wanted
Chapter 6, The New Job
Chapter 7, Coronation
Chapter 8, Storm Winds
Chapter 9, Sensor Upgrades
Chapter 10, Intercept
Chapter 11, Rescue
Chapter 12, Crashing at Full Burn
Chapter 13, The News Isn’t Good
Chapter 14, Defining the Problem
Chapter 15, Options
Chapter 16, Dinner
Chapter 17, Dampeners
Chapter 18, Techno-Wizardry
Chapter 19, Penetrating the Base
Chapter 20, Command Central
Chapter 21, Secret Agents
Chapter 22, Team Two
Chapter 23, Hell Ride
Chapter 24, The Masters
Chapter 25, Raider Two
Chapter 26, Ostrieachia
Chapter 27, Falling With Style
Chapter 28, After the Fall
Chapter 29, One World Council
Chapter 30, Jis Comes Through
Chapter 31, Council Matters
Chapter 32, The Chase
Chapter 33, Evolution
Chapter 34, Come Into My Parlor
Chapter 35, A Quuck Update
Chapter 36, Chief Minister
Chapter 37, Jis Boc Seckan
Chapter 38, Lunch
Author’s Note
Gladiator, Chapter 1
Tipping Point, Chapter 1
Gambler
Aeolus Investigations (Episode 4)
A Lexi Stevens Adventure
by
Robert E Colfax
Copyright © 2020 Robert C Kirk
All rights reserved.
The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.
Cover art by Dave Kirk
Proof read by Dee Bullock
Thank you
Hi, Bob Colfax here.
The Aeolus Investigations series is intended to be a lighthearted space opera covering the life of Lexi Stevens, formerly of Earth. Each book in the series is a standalone novel. There is no “to be continued” at the end of any of them. None end with Lexi doing a pregnancy test and getting a positive result or someone in a coma. I don’t like that kind of thing because it forces you to buy another book to find out what happens. I’d rather you read the next one in the series because you enjoyed this one.
Somewhere around book 10, she and Ron do have a son. You’ll have to wait for it. And yes, I have planned this series out even further than that. Stay tuned.
With that in mind, the books are released chronologically and really should be read in that order. Later novels almost always refer to something from a prior one. This is the fourth book in the series. I’ve listed them below in the preferred reading order.
Aeolus Investigations
1. Stowaway
2. Avenger
3. Paladin
4. Gambler
5. Gladiator (available June 2020)
Beyond the Divide
1. Tipping Point
2. Turning Point (available June 2020)
Chapter 1
Ackalon
As Jis Boc Seckan rose from her desk to greet her friends, her first words were, “Lexi, you seem rather angry.” She gave each of them a hug before stepping back, focusing on Lexi. Jis was one of the strongest empaths on her world. She and Lexi Stevens thought of themselves as sisters due to the mental link they shared through the ancient Ackalonian device known as the Rose of Light.
Jis, as typical of women from Ackalon, was very pale-skinned. Her slender, five-foot-nine frame carried more muscle than most Ackalonian females because she worked hard at it. Today she was in casual-mode, dressed in lounge pants and a t-shirt. She wore her long, platinum-blonde hair in a braid that reached to her lower back.
Geena Samue, her son Ron Samue, their sentient starship Urania, along with Lexi Stevens comprised the team of insurance investigators known as Aeolus Investigations. Aeolus was the name of a character, actually, several characters, from Earth’s ancient Greek mythology. His job as King of the Winds was to imprison the violent storm winds inside his cavernous floating island of Aeolia until Zeus commanded him to release them to wreak havoc on the mortals. Zeus was never the most compassionate of gods.
Lexi, the only member of the Aeolus Investigations team native to Earth, came up with the name after she forced a renegotiation of the existing partnership between Geena and Ron, making Urania and her full partners. Practically no one in the interstellar entity known as the Accord, other than her team, had a clue as to the name’s derivation. At any rate, as far as the team was concerned, it was just a cool sounding name, with nothing further implied. Admittedly, the term “havoc” could easily be used to describe much of their last two jobs.
Now Geena smiled, looking fondly at Lexi as she said, “She’s been a real bitch to live with for the last month. It’s a side effect of a drug she took. At least, we hope that’s all it is. She seems to be getting better. We’ve been letting it slide. After all, she dosed herself with it in order to save all of our lives. The stuff very nearly killed her. I’m afraid the side effects messed her up pretty badly. Do you have time for the story, Jis, or would you just like to hear the key elements?”
Jis was not only one of their best friends, she also worked with them as part of the team on the Borgol job. At the beginning of that job they hired her as a consultant. By the end, she was an adjunct team member. Working with them opened her eyes to a number of things she took for granted. She was responsible for the new Ackalonian law that allowed them to legally weaponize their starship. Tomorrow, she would become the Plicora, or ruler, of the planet Ackalon, taking over from her father after his many years of service. Lexi, Geena, and Ron barely made it back in time for the ceremonies.
Again looking at Lexi, and now looking concerned, Jis replied, “My next appointment is not for fifty minutes, and frankly, I can cancel it if I need to. I’d love to have an excuse. I’m supposed to decide on desserts for tonight’s reception. I suspect there must be other people around here who can make that momentous decision without me.” The Residence had been hosting nightly receptions for those off-world guests who arrived early for the last week. With travel times through hyperspace being uncertain as the inevitable turbulence could often add a day or two, people allowed extra time in their schedule. Plus some of her guests doubtless had business to transact. Some just desired time for sightseeing. Maybe some came for the desserts.
The original plan of the Aeolus team’s included vacationing on Ackalon for the two months preceding the ceremony. That plan was drastically altered when Ron and Geena were forced to abruptly rush off after bounty hunters who kidnapped Lexi. They made it back to Ackalon only six hours ago. In those two months, they managed to destroy a significant pirate base and possibly save an unknown civilization spanning two worlds from complete collapse.
Ron said, “Well, Jis, I think the most important thing for you to know is that a representative of a space-threading civilization you’ve never heard of will be attending your inauguration. King Ron Samue of Grammin and her colony world of Graplin will be present, in person.” He bowed with a small flourish. In an aside to Lexi, he added, “I bet your friend Pete hasn’t heard about that yet either.”
Lexi smiled. Pete Isher ran a weapon shop on the Samues’ homeworld of Cardin’s Paradise. In addition to guns and armor, he sold what could best be called spy paraphernalia. Somehow he seemed to have an inside track on information that should have never reached him. Lexi suspected he actually was a retired spy, still plugged into more than one information network. His advice proved helpful in running the types of missions Lexi had been choosing for the Aeolus Investigations team. She agreed with Ron, however. He probably wouldn’t know about the Grammin worlds. They were completely off the grid.
Ron met Lexi when he and his mother Geena, insurance investigators based out of the world called Cardin’s Paradise, were on Earth searching for the missing Ackalonian Rose of Light. As Lexi said, at six-foot-seven and two-hundred-seventy pounds of muscle, Ron stood out in a crowd. She first ran into him at the campus coffee shop where he worked. Coffee and a hunk, what could be better?
Unable to locate the stolen artifact and going broke while looking for it, Ron and Geena decided to call it quits. Lexi, knowing none of that, while harboring the misconception that she needed to do something to sidetrack an alien invasion, stowed away on their starship when they packed up and left. A day later, with Lexi now leading the team, they returned to Earth and retrieved the stolen gem. They first met Jis when the Rose was turned over to her father, Ad Boc Seckan, the man serving as Plicora of Ackalon for the last sixty-some years.
Still smiling, Jis was the most perpetually serene person her friends had ever met, she said, “You know you can’t get away with lying to me, right, Ron? Let me get this straight. You were gone for nine weeks. Just nine weeks. In that time, Lexi took drugs to make her angry. R
on came back as King of an unknown world. Except I have heard of Grammin. It’s supposed to be uninhabited. Did you guys have time to get any sleep?” She shook her head. “I’ve seen reports on the shape you brought poor Urania back in. That much damage is impressive even for Aeolus Investigations. I’m guessing you tangled with pirates again. I think I need the whole story. It sounds like the bounty hunters grabbing Lexi was the small part.”
It was true their first space battle with pirates resulted in some serious damage to their newly weaponized starship. The thing about that was it would have happened whether or not they were able to fight back. They hadn’t exactly gone out looking to test the new weapons against live targets. Without the weapons, they would most likely all be dead now. The first thing they did once they docked was to arrange with a commercial facility to have repairs made while they were here.
Jis ordered coffee and what amounted to a cheese and fruit platter for them. While they waited for the food to arrive, Jis again directed her attention toward Lexi. “You do seem different, somehow, Lexi. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s not just the anger. Frankly, love, that’s been there since Hepca.” On Hepca, they left over seven-hundred people behind, stranded and on their own, with the team planning to return as soon as possible with a transport ship. The transport left Borgol for Hepca as soon as it could be arranged. Still, it didn’t get there soon enough. The people they promised to rescue were subsequently slaughtered by pirates before the team had time to return. There was no way anyone could have prevented the atrocity. Lexi still took it personally.
Lexi actually smiled at Jis and thought, Different? Whatever do you mean?
The surprised look Jis wore turned penetrating for a brief moment before her almost perpetual smile returned. “Telepathy? Now you’re just showing off, Sister.” After a pause, she asked, “Well, who’s narrating?”
Chapter 2
Briefing Jis
With all three of them narrating and an occasional comment from Urania over the comm-gear, they held Jis’s attention for nearly two hours. During that time, someone other than Jis apparently rose to the occasion and decided on desserts for the evening reception. Once the story was complete, Jis looked at Lexi, asking, “So does that make you the queen, love?”
Lexi smiled. In Jis’s presence the anger she felt burning inside her almost continually these last weeks was fading. Jis was like that. More powerful than the lingering effects of the hulk-meds. She hoped the effect was permanent. She didn’t like being difficult for her friends to live with. “No, not the queen. The king’s mistress? I don’t know. The royal consort, maybe. Let’s stick with Ron’s girlfriend for now. We’ve known each other for a year now, Jis. We agree it’s time we make our pairing official, so to speak. But I want to have my father present when we take vows. I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
Ron spoke up. “Now we have the added complication that we should probably contractually bond on Grammin, rather than either Earth or Cardin’s Paradise. Life gets weird sometimes.”
Lexi took a deep breath. Until the events on Grammin, Jis was the only person in the Accord who knew about Zapper technology and Urania’s sentience. “It was never part of our plan, but the Grammin royals and a few others witnessed the use of Zappers. They also became aware of Urania’s sentience. While we regret that, both were unavoidable due to the terrorist incident. I’m officially a Paladin of the throne, protector of Grammin, though. Geena and Urania were both knighted. It wasn’t Ron’s doing, either. The last act of the ruling queen, his grandmother, before she abdicated in his favor.”
Jis sat for a moment sipping her tea considering what she had just been told about the performance-enhancing drugs Lexi was forced to take in order to rescue her team from certain death on the pirate base they infiltrated. Those drugs greatly increased Lexi’s strength and speed, and apparently her anger, while doing enough damage to her physically that she nearly died. At the moment, she found those meds far more interesting than the race of semi-aquatic humans Aeolus discovered. “What are your plans for the hulk-meds?”
Lexi shrugged. “I’m still thinking about them. I’m out of ideas at the moment, but clearly, it can be done. I was insanely strong and fast while the effect lasted. Urania recorded holographs through the contacts Geena and I had in. Bruce Lee can take a back seat. You can watch them if you like. They’re disturbingly gory. As to the drug, I just need to make it non-lethal. And less painful. And way less of an anger-enhancer. It needs to be DNA-based rather than biochemical. I know that much. I’ll get it someday. Why?”
Jis paused momentarily before saying, “I think you’re going to need them eventually.” Her expression turned puzzled. “That’s odd. I think I’m going to need them eventually as well.” Some Ackalonians had the ability, if not exactly to glimpse the future, to have impressions of what was to come. The Rose of Light, perhaps more correctly called the Rose of Insight, focused and enhanced that ability. Jis possessed stronger Rose-related abilities than anyone else on her world.
Jis was the only one in the Accord they had no secrets from. She knew Urania was the only computer sentience in the Accord. Lexi turned over complete specs, along with a treatise on the science, of her Zappers, weapon-technology so advanced it would be thousands of years before the Accord discovered it on its own. She would leave plans for the new gravity-pad technology and the hulk-med research while they were here. They trusted Jis completely. The woman was wise beyond her years.
Through the team’s internal comm-gear, which Jis had worn since the Hepca hostage rescue, Urania, the sentient command-comp of their starship, remarked, “It must be strange being you, Jis.”
Jis laughed. “You have no idea, Urania. While you’re poking around inside my datanets, would you upload everything you have concerning the Grammin? Put it in the secure area with access limited to my senior councilors for now.” The Grammin were the semi-aquatic humans originally discovered by Ron’s grandfather eighty years ago. A son was born to Princess Abree and the charming and exotic off-worlder who won her heart. That child was taken from Grammin by his father due to the debilitating environmental conditions there. Together, he and Abree decided the boy needed the chance to lead a normal life. Abree’s son grew up to be Ron’s father, Crane. Crane never knew he was descended from the royalty of an unknown world. Crane’s father never disclosed to anyone his discovery of another world whose people possessed star-threading technology.
“Why, Jis?” Ron asked. “And how did you even know that Urania is rummaging in your datanets?”
“You just finished telling me she hacks into and takes control of command-comp datanets on warships in the middle of battles. Considering Urania’s abilities combined with Lexi wanting to know everything about everything, I would expect nothing less. You have my permission by the way, although it would have been more respectful if you asked first. If you have any advice on making them more secure, I have people who would love to chat with you about it.”
She paused. “Do any of you understand why I had father change the law to allow Urania to be armed here? It wasn’t because you’re all my friends and I trust you, although that would have been sufficient reason. I asked him because it was necessary. Much of what I do, I do because it’s necessary. I can’t always tell you why something is necessary, because it’s not unusual for me not to know. I admit I find that depressing at times.”
She nodded. “You’re right, Urania, sometimes it really is strange being me. It sounds like you wouldn’t have survived this latest episode in your careers if Urania hadn’t been armed. Maybe that’s why I believed arming her was necessary.” She paused, looking thoughtful. “Although, honestly, you’re the most resourceful group of people I’ve ever come across. I’m including you in that comment Urania. You might have come up with something even without the new armament.”