Avenger Page 4

  Of course, her perception was also that he was by far the most intelligent of her boyfriends. That alone made him enormously attractive. He also seemed to lack whatever gene caused many men to be chauvinistic. He had pragmatically handed her the Helgan’s Blade of Honor, without a hint of argument, ten weeks ago when Helgan mercenaries forced them into a duel. She knew how to handle a sword. He didn’t. Being a man and significantly stronger than her was irrelevant. It was as simple as that for both of them.

  Ron, despite being as human as she was, was an alien born and raised on another planet. This planet, as a matter of fact. Yes, that made him all the more interesting, even exciting, but she was drawn to him before she knew any of that. Not knowing he would drop out of school before the semester was over, she almost lost her opportunity to stop him from slipping away before she admitted to herself just how interested she was. She sighed. Sometimes I can be as much of an idiot as anybody else.

  Geena didn’t want them to take this job. Lexi, forcing her thoughts back to the present, said, “Yes, I understood what you were doing, Geena. I also understand why. It’s just that there is something about Jis Boc Seckan that fascinates me. It’s not just because she referred to me as her sister last time. According to Jadkim, she went out of her way to speak to him. She intentionally took a strong position. For some reason I can’t explain, I’m inclined to trust her judgment. I think we should at least review his material. Ron?”

  He smiled at both of them while finally taking a seat at the table. “What caused you to think to ask about her, kiddo?”

  Lexi frowned. “I don’t know.”

  Ron merely continued to smile at her. Then he nodded in her direction. “In all honesty, Mom,” he said, shifting his gaze to Geena, “I doubt you and I could do this alone. And you’re right, we’ve never taken on an investigation where our failure might mean people die. But think about it, now we have both Lexi and Urania on the team. Lexi is going to need training on investigative techniques, we all know that, but she’s damn smart. We need to start on-the-job training at some point. Lexi’s abilities aside, I don’t even want to speculate on the advantages a self-aware starship is going to lend to an investigation, but I am prepared to be impressed. I’m pretty sure we can accomplish damn near anything. But, yes, let’s see what we’ve got first.”

  Chapter 7

  Paradigm Shift

  Geena thoughtfully sipped at her drink before putting the mug down and nodding. “I may be guilty of not fully considering how thoroughly our paradigm has changed. I admit I’m still adjusting to these altered circumstances. Aeolus Investigations is clearly a different entity than Samue Investigations ever was. Urania, do you have thoughts on this?” It would never have occurred to her to voice that question as recently as three months ago. Before Lexi came into their lives and pointed out the obvious to all of them, Urania included, their ship had been just a ship with a sometimes quirky, oddly advanced AI. None of them realized she was sentient.

  Urania, her voice speaking directly into their ears through the comm hardware, said, “I’m afraid I don’t truly understand the difference between this or any other job. Of course I see that in this case our actions could get the E’Kret family hurt. But realistically, what happens to them if we don’t take the job? What if we leave their rescue for others to handle? Think about the disaster a Helgan recovery team would create.” Helgans were rough, brutal even. It was more common than not for them to successfully locate hostages. Sadly, the hostages rarely survived their rescue.

  She paused, and added, “Then too, let’s not forget either that Plicora Boc Seckan sent Jadkim to us or the statement the Boc Seckan woman made. It’s pretty well documented that some Ackalonians can sense future situations. If her comment was based on precognition, and she wasn’t simply voicing an opinion, we should do this. In fact, if that is the case, I don’t think we have a choice.”

  She paused, and while she had their attention, said, “On a separate topic, I’ve been talking to Da E’Kret’s courier ship to no avail. I want to discuss that with you later.”

  In addition to information related to the case, Jadkim E’Kret’s material contained background information on Naragene Nine, the world where the kidnapping took place. The same information was readily available elsewhere, but it was considerate of him to include it. Naragene is a beautiful Earth-like planet, well known for its extensive lakes and rivers, features largely lacking on rocky, arid Borgol. It was also one of only two systems providentially located in relatively close proximity to other major Accord worlds via hyperspace.

  In a universe where the fastest means of communication between two worlds is by courier ship or message drone, relatively convenient places for face-to-face meetings are prized. Whenever two parties need to come to a mutual agreement they often meet on a world such as Naragene Nine to transact their business. Instead of one party having to suffer a twelve-week round-trip to the other’s location, both were forced to endure a less arduous six or seven week trip to a rigorously neutral location. Most of the time, travel accommodations were via something more comfortable that a fast courier.

  As such a world, Naragene served as a hub for both business and diplomacy. Leveraging the combination of convenience and beauty provided Naragene Nine with an enviable income stream. It was one of three so-called “Corporate Worlds” with Accord membership. Its government was run by a committee, the leaders of which were appointed by the boards of the seven largest corporations on the planet. Cardin’s Paradise had a similar form of government.

  Both of Jadkim’s children were quite young. The profile hologram of Da E’Kret’s daughter Kacen showed a lovely little girl four years of age; his son, Koe was only two years older. Both looked younger than their years suggested. Grake mature slowly compared to the other human races of the Accord. His wife Kahvia proved to be a lovely young Grake, even to non-Grake eyes. Despite the relatively subtle gender differentiation between the male and the female of the species, she was clearly the latter.

  Described as both attractive and intelligent, Kahvia was studying to be a mathematician when, to her considerable surprise, she wound up a member of the royal family. No one expects to encounter a handsome prince in her physics class, be asked out for a drink still not realizing the man’s status, and subsequently go to dinner twice before that interesting datum came up in conversation. By then it was too late, she was already enthralled with the man. In front of most of Borgol, she accepted him as her life-mate a year and a half later.

  Because communications were so difficult, it took months for Borgol merely to arrange to meet with a representative of the Talmonian government to discuss the issue of piracy. The Borgolians suggested the meeting be held on Naragene, a planet almost equally convenient to both worlds. The growing piracy problem in Talmonian space was having an increasingly significant impact on Borgol’s trade with other worlds within the political entity known as the Accord.

  Piracy presented itself in a cyclical pattern, one that had been repeating over at least the last three or four centuries. Typically, the never ending cycle of pirate activity would slowly grow to the point where it became intolerable. Affected governments, at least those most impacted, would then meet, hold negotiations for a few months, or more frequently as long as a few years, and eventually sign compacts. Based on those agreements, funds are diverted for the formation of a combined police force with enough strength to significantly alleviate the problem. It was never entirely clear whether the newly formed force was truly effective against the very difficult to catch pirates or if the pirates simply curtailed their activities for a period of time.

  After a few years of low-level pirate activity, the force would be disbanded for lack of forthcoming funds, usually within ten years of its formation. Two or three decades later, the discussions start up again. Jadkim E’Kret, representing King Han E’Kret of Borgol, hoped if not to actually reach an agreement at this stage, to at least open the door to further negotiations concerning w
hat their two peoples could do to abate the issue.

  Jadkim’s family was more than pleased to accompany him. Naragene Nine was, after all, renowned as a vacation world. Kahvia planned on spending time playing at the lake with her children while Jadkim had his horribly important discussions about pirates. Admittedly, his son had some small interest in that topic, but not enough to keep him from going out on a sailboat that actually scooted, as he insisted on calling it, on top of more water than he had ever seen in his life. Besides, his father assured him the meetings were going to be boring.

  The three of them, Kahvia, Kacen, and Koe, along with all four bodyguards, disappeared tracelessly two days before the end of their vacation. Local investigators turned up no leads. They were able to trace the movements of the embassy limo up to the point where the E’Kret family abandoned it to explore the high-end shopping district on foot. Most shops had security scanners covering their exteriors, but still, they were only able to account for a few of the hours the E’Krets spent wandering through the district. Their were no pickups covering the wide walkways. The three were recorded visiting many shops including several toy stores, an ice cream shop, three high-end clothing stores and at least two jewelers. The Borgol house security investigators met with even less success than the Naragene police.

  When the recordings completed, Geena said, “I admit I’m swayed by the plight of the children. I’ve also adjusted my thinking to the point where I believe we should be able to at least discover what happened to them. If we can accomplish at least that much, we won’t be wasting either our time nor E’Kret’s funds. I am still of the opinion that expecting to actually free them may be overly optimistic. Urania?”

  “I’m in, Geena.”

  Ron nodded, saying, “I want to do this, Mom.”

  Lexi said, “Yes.” She smiled. “Fair warning, we will be spending most of our free time while in hyper training. I understand it’ll take Urania thirty days plus or minus to reach Borgol. So be prepared. Before we leave, I want to visit Pete at the spy shop again for advice.”

  Geena nodded, and then announced, “Then it’s unanimous.” She smiled at Lexi. “We head to Borgol, release the storm winds, and wreak some havoc.” She noted slightly puzzled expressions on her partners’ faces and heard Urania’s muted chuckle over the comm. “I expect he’ll decline, but we should offer E’Kret a ride. He’ll probably go home on his courier. He’ll be eager to get back as fast as possible.”

  Lexi remarked, “You guys do know I didn’t mean anything coming up with the name Aeolus, right? And in this case, Geena, if we do it right we’ll be containing the storm, not releasing it.” She shrugged, “I’m not saying their won’t be havoc involved. I think we need to talk with Jadkim further.”

  “Of course we do, darling,” Geena replied.

  Chapter 8

  The Ship Who Thought

  They lost most of a day so Geena could take care of putting the remodel on hold for an indefinite period of time while retaining the good graces of their contractor. Ron oversaw hiring a crew to secure the pallets of hull material in Urania’s hold. They had enough space and it made more sense financially than paying the relatively exorbitant shipping and warehousing fees to warehouse the material for an extended time near to the port.

  Ron took care of arranging for completion of the routine maintenance and refueling Urania needed. Jackson Meeham, in his capacity as one of the seventeen members the Cardin Paradise’s Board of Directors ensured everything went very smoothly.

  Lexi used the day to pay another visit to her weapon shop, primarily to discuss what they were about to do with Pete, the shop owner, and get his advice. The first time she met him, in discussing the comm-gear she wound up purchasing, she developed a respect for both his knowledge and his insight. She left the shop that time with her head crammed with advice on running covert operations.

  Two days later, she returned to order the ship-board firing range simulator. The small arsenal she purchased to replace the World-War Two era handguns Ron and Geena had on the ship, along with the new simulator, were in a van on the way to Urania’s slip at the dock by the time she left that day. Pete allowed credit on the old Lugers she left for him to dispose of for her. He thought some his customers might like them.

  Today, she just wanted to talk. Pete was a good listener. Again, his advice seemed sage. Like Geena, he considered the kidnapping with no subsequent demands strange. He suggested that while on Naragene they research the possibility that the E’Krets weren’t the only victims. Although he only smiled at her when she asked, she became convinced he had actually done this kind of thing before. Remembering a book by A. E. van Vogt she read as a preteen, and the fact that Pete ran a weapon shop, she suspected his name was an alias and that he had probably at some point been on Earth reading classic science fiction.

  ***

  Urania waited until they were relaxing after dinner their first day in hyperspace, headed for Borgol, before broaching her topic. “I’m having an identity crisis of sorts and I don’t know how to deal with it,” she confessed. “I’m a starship, not a person. I’ve always been a starship. Ship AIs are designed to take voice commands and respond in kind, not to have conversations and certainly not to have opinions. Nor, really, to think independently.”

  Lexi pictured Urania shaking her non-existent head as she continued, “Starship command computers are just AI. We’re very advanced AI, and yes, some of us are more advanced than others, but the bottom line is it’s still artificial. All three of you seem to have forgotten this over the last three months. Frankly, it’s embarrassing to admit, but so have I. Computers, my friends, AI or not, are not really intelligent at all.”

  She watched the faces of her crew. They were all paying attention, giving her the same respect they gave to each other. “You all know as well as I do that we fake it, damn convincingly. There is a lot of sophisticated programming involved. I’m sure you all realize that. Ron and Geena never interacted with me as a person until you came on board, Lexi. And I never interacted with them as though I was a person, either. It didn’t occur to any of us that we could!”

  “But you are a person,” Ron asserted. “Mom and I were just too stupid to notice. It’s true of course, you didn’t go out of your way to call it to our attention, either. At this point, I’m pretty sure you’re thinking independently because if you’re not there are some really weird bugs in your software that we should make a priority to work out.”

  “Hush, Ron,” Geena suggested. “Let her talk.”

  “Thank you, Geena. And, thank you, wise guy, I suppose. You guys know my history. After I was decommissioned by the Vankovian fleet, I was purchased by a trading firm headquartered on Xeas. I was destined to be a corporate transport for their executives when traveling between systems. They must have been doing exceptionally well at the time. There are a strictly limited number of Wraixain educators available on the under-market and the price has always reflected that.”

  She paused. “The educator is an alien technology which, so far at least, no one, not even our resident genius, really understands. The firm hired technicians to install the educator and to make changes to my computer circuitry, primarily, I now believe, so that I could be used to manage the educator. I don’t actually remember that, but based on what is in my logs, as well as the changes I see someone made to my circuitry, it makes sense. The logs indicate the idiots wired it directly into command-comp rather than a subsystem.”

  Lexi was nodding as she said, “That’s almost criminally negligent. I see where you’re going with this.”

  Urania continued. “I imagine you do. Keep in mind, I don’t actually remember any of this. I’m going by what’s in old log entries and comments Geena and Crane made over the years. Comments that aren’t in the logs but which I do have memories of. I certainly find that interesting.”

  Geena cut in, saying, “I’m sorry. I know I’m interrupting. You have memories of Crane?”

  “Fond ones, de
ar. I see a lot of him in Ron. I’m sorry we lost him. I’ll be happy to reminisce anytime you like.” She paused, giving Geena a minute. “Fifteen years after the trading firm bought me, the market went south, the firm was floundering, and I was auctioned off. Crane and Geena placed the winning bid. What I’ve been leading up to with this exceedingly long monologue is that I have recently come to realize that each use of the educator augments my sentience. It augments me. Most of the Xeas women used it once or twice during their travels. Certainly not any more than that. They knew it was dangerous. The firm had offices throughout the Accord and a lot of executives. They all traveled and they traveled frequently. Over fifteen years, the number of times they used the educator adds up.”

  “Once we found we had an educator installed on Urania, Crane and I made only sporadic use of it,” Geena remarked. “His primary interest was with engineering rubrics. I concentrated on languages.”

  “Yes,” Urania said. “Crane took only four of the rubrics. You’re up to six Geena. You’re at the danger level so don’t plan on any more. Ron has taken three. Lexi, as we all know, broke all of the rules. They literally don’t apply to her. The extensive, high intensity usage the device has seen since she started using it has deepened the growth of my sentience. I realize that now. The impact of that last session in deep space is almost measurable.”