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  She gave her small laugh. “All of my reasons are either selfish or pragmatic. You do not need my participation. I do not think I change the outcome of the mission in any way. I do believe you will locate and recover the E’Krets significantly sooner if you allow me to be involved.”

  Just as well we haven’t started the remodel, Lexi thought. We’re going to want to be able to create guest rooms on demand. Shortsighted, but extra rooms weren’t in our plans. We should have thought of it.

  Chapter 11

  Life in Hyperspace

  They again arranged for a quick maintenance and resupply for Urania. Jadkim granted use of a barren island despite not liking them spending a day practicing with weapons rather than looking for his loved ones. He understood how their practice session might spell the difference between getting back his family or not.

  Jadkim was appalled when he learned the real reason Jis came to Borgol. He tried to talk her out of what she intended, to no avail. At Geena’s request, E’Kret grudgingly dispatched a diplomatic courier to Naragene Nine on behalf of the so-called “Boc Seckan” party. The courier’s instructions were to arrange a meeting with the Talmonian ambassador at his embassy. The close ties between Borgol and Ackalon were well known among the worlds of the Accord; Jis insisted this courtesy would not raise any eyebrows. Jadkim agreed. The team’s cover story, which actually was quite true, was Ackalon shared Borgol’s concern regarding the growing danger posed by piracy.

  E’Kret’s courier was also tasked with making arrangements for accommodations, dinner reservations and the like. Based on the relative speeds of Urania and the courier, the courier was expected to arrive several days earlier than the ex-Vankovian scout. For them it was an eleven day trip, not counting the time spent rendezvousing with the personal yacht belonging to Jis Boc Seckan which would take Ron and her the final distance to Naragene Nine.

  The yacht’s presence in a nearly lifeless planetary system less than a day’s hyper travel from Naragene caused Ron to glance sideways at Jis, saying, “You were pretty confident we’d take you on.” She just smiled. The waiting yacht was the one that brought her to Borgol, sent ahead to wait at this rendezvous point within hours of her arrival. The Rose of Insight often proved to be a powerful tool when it came to planning ahead. It disturbed her that despite the Rose, she couldn’t sense the outcome of their mission. She still believed she was right, this team was the only chance the E’Kret family had. She just couldn’t be sure she and her new friends wouldn’t all die in the attempt to find them.

  Life aboard ship, especially in the zero-gee of the hyperspace environment, could be tedious. Lexi, Ron, Geena, and now Jis spent hours daily in the small gym exercising. Both resistance training and extreme cardio were essential to the maintenance of muscle mass, strength and agility, in order to counteract the debilitating effects of life without gravity. Geena, after living on the ship for thirty years, was already suffering from calcium loss. Alterations made by Lexi to Geena’s daily medications were slowly helping with that.

  Ron suggested, in response to Lexi’s concern about not having a martial arts coach, they simply play the martial arts training disks from Lexi’s library and let Urania observe the moves and the commentary. Once she recorded them, she proved to be an excellent coach.

  Lexi provided daily instruction in the art of swordsmanship, more for the exercise it provided than anything else. Besides, it was interesting practicing when if you tried one of those fancy moves taken from the movies where you jumped so a slashing blade passed under your feet you wound up bouncing around the hold. Zero-gee could be so annoying at times. Ron and Geena were still novices and there was no way Jis could learn anything useful in the ten days they had with her. Jis enjoyed the practice though and after six days said she was considering importing a fencing instructor when she returned home.

  They continued to practice gunnery with the range simulator. Without gravity, the effectiveness of most of that training remained questionable. That was the reason Lexi insisted on the day spent on Borgol blasting away at clay pigeons. With the simulator, in theory at least, they were training muscle memory. Jis finally learned to pull a trigger without flinching. And they were all getting better at using a gun in both hands at the same time. Lexi wryly thought, Should we ever have to fight off a boarding party in zero-gee we’ll be prepared.

  Jis, for the first time in her life, found herself accepted as one of a group of equals. She had always been somewhat isolated growing up, even pampered to a large extent. She was a twenty-seven-year-old female who had never held a weapon, but was now swinging a sword and firing guns with lethal intent. She was even gaining weight as she built muscle mass under the influence of metabolic enhancers in conjunction with intensive weight training.

  Other than taking into account her lower level of competence, her opponents weren’t just humoring her. She wore her bruises proudly. Before leaving Cardin’s Paradise, Lexi stocked Urania with a large supply of a lotion her weapon-shop friend Pete recommended for treating bruises. It helped clear them relatively quickly. All four of them went through a lot of the stuff.

  Under Urania’s watchful guidance, Jis was hitting people. For real. Ron offered to be her guinea pig and she had actually used him as a punching bag while dancing around him at high speed. He had bruises to prove it. Her efforts even elicited a few grunts from him. He was amazingly solid. Lexi advised her while they were relaxing in the command bay one evening that anything that bruised Ron would put most men on the floor. They all felt that she, more than any of them, needed to actually have physical contact during their sparring so she would know what it was like. Lexi had visions of Jis punching a bad guy in his kidney. Oh, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?

  In return, Jis provided training sessions in her area of expertise. For Ron and Geena, practicing the mental disciplines required to master the Rose of Light was merely an interesting and different way to pass time. Lexi, however, had a copy of the Rose in her head. The training Jis was offering resonated in her mind to the point where she was saddened that the training would end once they arrived at the rendezvous with the yacht. For the plan to stand a chance of working, Jis couldn’t be observed traveling to Naragene Nine in their company.

  Most evenings, the group watched at least one movie. While on Earth, Lexi, a movie buff to the nth degree, asked Urania to download several online libraries using her accounts. She left her roommates with access to her bank accounts. They were continuing to pay the monthly fees for her.

  They talked a lot as well. Geena, particularly, had many adventures to relate, sometimes sad, sometimes terrifying, frequently funny and always interesting.

  Another evening, Jis heard the full story concerning the recovery of her Rose. Ron started it by mentioning how and why Lexi joined the team. They wound up telling her everything including dealing with Jameson, the problem with the Helgans, the educator, running out of fuel when they tried to leave Earth’s system for Cardin’s Paradise and the subsequent catastrophic reactor failure in hyperspace. That one, more than any of the other stories, Jis interrupted from time to time with piercing questions. When they were done, Jis, looking pleased, said, “Thank you. That answers some of what I sense when I meditate that puzzles me.” She turned her gaze to Lexi. “Welcome to the Accord, sister.” She paused. “Tomorrow, if you don’t mind seeing it again so soon, can we watch your Swiss Family Robinson movie?

  Lexi laughed. “Sure. We’ll run Passengers for you too.” It was her turn to pause. “The way Geena and Ron just told our story makes me sound more heroic than I think I am. Each time, we worked together to save ourselves. I just did my part, what I was best qualified to do. Dammit, I just did what I had to do. We all did.

  Geena smiled at her, saying, “That is true darling. It is also true that you were quite heroic in doing what you had to do. I’ll refresh our drinks. Then we can start the movie. It’s a story of heroic people just doing what they had to do. Think about it, Lexi.”

 
Urania too, had a backlog of stories from her days with the Xeas trading firm. She described places the rest had never been. Her stories were relatively dry and lifeless based on logged recordings from before she acquired the ability to think.

  Although she said nothing at the time, this again set Lexi’s thoughts down the route of wondering when Urania had acquired that talent and more importantly, why? It does seem that the Wraixain educator is a key piece of the puzzle. What was it really designed for? Where did the rubrics come from?

  Jis loved it all and shared many of her own stories about the life of the daughter of a planetary ruler. One night she confided to Lexi while cuddling in an otherwise unused cabin that she had never been happier.

  Chapter 12

  Investigators

  Urania’s arrival at Naragene Nine was uneventful. She was just one of the hundreds of ships that came in daily, her well-to-do crew visiting with high expectations of the planet’s renowned recreational facilities. As on most Accord worlds, entry requirements were next to non-existent. The Port Authority verified Urania’s identity as WA32198389-18-32405, a privately owned exploration vessel and assigned her a slip on the landing field.

  Lexi and Geena, after disembarking, ran their Cardin’s Paradise IDs through a scanner as they walked through the access gate at customs where the guard wished them a pleasant visit with a smile. No one bothered looking through their luggage, although it too passed through a scanner. Even their satchel of weapons passed without comment. Lexi just shook her head at that. Apparently, all they cared about were life forms being smuggled in. Probably to make sure no one imported rabbits, along with their weapons, for target practice.

  They opted for a dirt-side berth despite the extravagant cost. Docking at one of the numerous space stations and shuttling to the surface would have been less than half as costly. Fortunately, they could justify the expense and E’Kret would reimburse them. Lifting from the surface, on this world at least, was significantly less involved than leaving from an over-crowded station. There was far less red tape and less jockeying for position with a surface departure. There was also no need to wait for a surface-to-station shuttle. If things went as planned, they would need that flexibility.

  “We should be doing something, shouldn’t we, Geena?” Lexi asked once they were checked into their hotel, an upscale accommodation a ten minute walk from the Elegan, the hotel where the E’Krets stayed. Jis would be checking into her suite at the Elegan tomorrow. “It could be days before the kidnappers take the bait. Assuming they do at all. What do we do now?”

  Geena gave a small laugh. “We’re investigators, darling. We investigate, of course. Urania, see how many of the relevant datanets you can get into, but don’t get caught doing it. I really wish we knew you could do that back in the old days.”

  Placing a hand on Lexi’s shoulder to get her attention, she said, “Ron and I used to do this manually. We thought we were being clever.”

  Lexi smiled, and Geena continued, “I want whatever you can get, Urania, on anybody the E’Krets might have met. Hotel people, embassy people, concessionaires at the lake. That kind of thing. You’ve seen Ron and me do it, so I imagine you know what I want. If you can retrieve anything from the law enforcement datanets relating to this or similar kidnappings that would be a big help.”

  As an aside to Lexi, she said, “I really love this comm-gear. I don’t know how Ron and I managed without it.”

  Lexi just smiled in return. After all, what could she say? She didn’t understand how her two partners managed without it either. “Urania, I’m interested in the scanner technology used on our luggage. Can it actually detect living animals in luggage? I know your sensors can’t do that. So if it can, I want to know how it works. Think how useful it would be to tell how many people are alive on a ship.”

  Geena looked at her friend, shaking her head. Curiosity that can’t be reigned in. And she’s right. I almost died one time boarding what we thought was a lifeless ship. Let’s get back to business. “Lexi, you and I are going to visit the Criminal Investigations Bureau offices first thing tomorrow. The new black leather outfits, I think. We’ll go armed, but please, darling, not your sword. Tonight, we relax after our long journey to get here, just like anybody else. Have a drink or two while exercising in the pool. That kind of thing.”

  “I left the sword on the ship. Hey, there’s a question. If you meet a drunk Helgan in a bar, are you risking being challenged to an honor duel?” She laughed. “I guess there’s not too much we can do until Jis gets here.”

  Geena looked thoughtful. “I’ve never heard of an incident of that nature, but I suppose it’s possible. Kind of a scary thought. There’s quite a bit we could be doing while we wait for Jis, but I don’t want us to call attention to ourselves sooner than we have to. Besides, it’s already mid-afternoon. Right now people are tired and looking forward to going home, hence less cooperation. Tomorrow morning, our credentials should get us full cooperation at the CIB including access to their files. That being said, we’ll be taking advantage of our looks. Looking both competent and sexy is a technique that more often than not pays off.”

  She paused. “The Grake are still investigating too. We’ll check in with them later, especially if we can’t come up with anything on our own. I hesitate to contact them because it’s certainly possible someone was paid off. Unlikely, but possible. After that, it’s all legwork. We interview people at the embassy and at the E’Kret’s hotel. We visit the restaurants they ate at. We talk to the operator of the boat the family chartered. We ask questions. We find and unravel leads.”

  Lexi nodded her head. “I have a lot to learn, don’t I? Why did you say it’s unlikely someone on E’Kret’s security was paid off? We don’t have a rubric on how to be an investigator, do we?”

  Geena smiled. “No, no rubric, but don’t worry about it. Remember, this is what I made my career, Lexi. It’s what I do and I’m good at it. You’re smart and good at thinking on your feet. You’ll learn the tradecraft quickly. As to the Grake, it takes time to suborn someone, especially someone vetted as thoroughly as palace security has to be. I don’t see how there was time to select and turn one of those individuals between the time the palace planned the E’Kret’s vacation and the day they vanished.”

  She watched Lexi looking thoughtful, and added, “A lot of being an investigator is monotonous footwork. And waiting. There’s a lot of waiting. I imagine you were thinking this would be almost as easy as walking into your professor’s office and taking the Rose of Light out of his hand. But it isn’t. It never is really. Don’t forget that Ron and I were forced to give up tracking the Rose after two years of searching.”

  Lexi nodded. “I understand. How did you learn to be an investigator?”

  Geena laughed. “Easily. No, not really. The answer is easy, though. I was a cop on Cardin’s Paradise. I went to the academy, passed the tests, worked hard, and eventually made detective. I was partnered with an experienced woman on the force who taught me a lot. The kind of things that come from experience, not from an academy education.”

  She smiled, thinking back. “I met Ron’s father, Crane Samue, while working a case. His parents were murdered during a jewelry store heist. In the end, working together, we got the killers, but it was still traumatic for him. He was already an insurance investigator. I eventually learned a lot from him as well. He kind of swept me off my feet and the rest is history.”

  “Nice! Samue men rock, right?” The two smiled at each other. “Do you think we’re going to be able to do this, Geena?” Lexi asked, somewhat hesitantly. “I know I kind of talked you into it.”

  Geena hesitated. “Understand me; I think we have a good plan, but the odds of it working are no better than fifty-fifty. We may have to track the kidnappers the hard way. There are illicit places where information relating to criminal activities can be bought and sold. Ron and I know how to locate them. We’ve taken that route on investigations before.

  She paus
ed, looking grim. “If this approach doesn’t work for us, we start cruising the hell-holes to see what we can turn up. I warned Jadkim that this kind of case can take years to resolve. I didn’t make that up because I didn’t want us to take the job. We’re assuming, since no demands have been made, that this wasn’t a one-off. If we’re right about that, well, no one runs this type of kidnap caper indefinitely. They know law enforcement will eventually see a pattern and close in on them. If they’ve already passed their cut-off point, they won’t be here to take our bait no matter how attractive she is.”

  Lexi said, “It’s possible there was no ransom demand because they’re already dead, either intentionally or accidentally.”

  “That’s a possibility,” Geena agreed. “The Boc Seckans don’t think so. I don’t know how much weight to give that, but I admit, I am giving it some.”

  Chapter 13

  Cops

  Lexi, as usual, woke up after only four hours of sleep. Geena roused slightly and mumbled something but didn’t wake up. Lexi found the casual clothes she wore yesterday, dressed, grabbed her pad and quietly headed down to the lobby for coffee. The hotel’s offering wasn’t bad. She commed Urania and asked her to download her research on the case to the pad. While she was keen to dig into the possibly new scanner technology, other things were clearly more time sensitive. She might be a novice as far as being an investigator went, but digging into quantities of disjointed research, collating and then correlating it, after spending the last six years of her life taking upper-level college courses was something she not only knew, she excelled at.