Aeolus Investigations Episode 6

Available on Amazon.com

Find the link and the password for extra features in the Author’s Note at the end of the book.

In Gladiator, Lexi Stevens and the Aeolus team saved Earth as well as the Accord from the Kreesh swarm. Next on her crisis management list is dealing with the Unity pirates we first learned of in Gambler. In will be years before her fleet can be rebuilt to the level needed to deal with Unity. She doesn’t need to be there to oversee that.

Lexi and her husband Ron Samue, on board Urania, take a long-needed vacation, exploring outside of Accord space. Things go along just peachy until they approach the Forerunner seeded world of Satt. While on approach, a weapon of unknown design flashes out, cutting their starship into two pieces, both of which crash to the surface.

Now Lexi has to reunite with Ron and figure out how and why a primitive planet has a planetary defense weapon capable of destroying her ship. In the process, they encounter another race of aliens, a plant trying to overgrow the entire planet, and a two hundred fifty-thousand-year-old being who believes he might be a god, one with a bad attitude.

With Lexi captured by the primitive humans on Satt, Ron missing and maybe dead, Urania dead, what can Lexi do? Stupid question. She takes charge, of course.

Shaman — Chapter 1 Teg

When she woke up, she was flat on her back, naked and tied spread-eagled on a very uncomfortable, lumpy mattress that smelled like damp hay, with a large naked man attempting to climb on top of her. What the hell? This guy is taller than Ron. Less mass though. And Ron would never even consider sexually assaulting me while I’m unconscious.

She was tied to the rustic bed in a small, wood-framed structure. The walls, which looked both fairly sturdy and at the same time somewhat temporary were woven from plant material, held up by long wooden poles. Her assailant was hesitant, as though this was a new experience for him. He smelled strongly of alcohol and burnt wood.

She wasn’t concerned that she couldn’t exactly remember her name. She was also clueless about where she was and how she got into this situation. None of that mattered. She would deal with it. At least she remembered Ron. Memory of him was stirring other memories. Her last memory was of her starship crashing to the surface of a terrestrial planet she and Ron intended to investigate. This trip was intended to be a vacation from the craziness that permeated their lives for the last few years. The couple was also thinking seriously about starting a family. She wanted a child. He wanted to be a father. All they needed was a year when they weren’t fighting for their lives, or for that matter, the lives of all of the multitudes of beings of the interstellar civilization known as the Accord. That was our plan. This was supposed to be the year. So much for that plan.

The weapon that brought down their starship caused massive damage, leaving Urania, the ship’s sentient command-comp addled before becoming completely unresponsive. Her husband, Ron Samue, was probably dead. I’m Lexi Stevens, pseudo-leader of a federation of planets known as the Accord. Ron and I were taking what was supposed to be a vacation while we went exploring.

How much of my memory am I missing? How long was I unconscious? How I got in this bed is certainly a mystery. If Ron didn’t survive, maybe this guy married me and I just don’t remember it. It might be nice to know the situation before I kill him. She pulled her legs up to her chest, the cords holding them tied to the foot of the bed snapping. She shoved, sending the stranger flying backward through a wall. She shrugged mentally. If he’s fragile, that might have killed him. I need to work more on thinking these things through. The crashing and yelling that followed, however, was quite satisfying from her point of view.

Lexi snapped the cords holding her wrists and rose from the bed, following the path of the man’s trajectory, striding purposely through the shattered wall. She snapped loose a nine-foot-tall vertical member as she went. She was a strong woman, with a sculpted musculature developed by years of a rigorous workout routine in addition to the DNA modifier for strength and speed she developed for her team. Her team called them hulk-meds.

The smelly guy was struggling to get to his feet, shaking his head as though to clear it. When he stood, he was easily eight-feet tall, giving him nearly two feet of height on her. His arms, and therefore his reach, were proportionally longer. He was obviously human or close to it. His thin body looked like someone had tied his feet to the ground and pulled up on his hair, stretching what should have been a six-foot-tall body that extra two feet.

Lexi snapped her pole across her knee, leaving her with two lengths of approximately fifty-four inches each. She really didn’t want to get too close to him at this point. She wasn’t afraid of him. She wasn’t even worried that he might hurt her. But, this guy survived being propelled through the, admittedly, flimsy wall with little or no damage. The man wasn’t fragile.

She didn’t know the situation here. Before the weapon struck her ship, Urania determined this was a preindustrial civilization. It shouldn’t have been possible for them to bring down a shielded starship. Lexi didn’t want to cause him injuries that might prove fatal, especially if this culture was as primitive as it looked. With his reach, she might have no choice but to break him if he got a hold on her. A small crowd of equally tall people was gathering, mostly jeering at Hinsu for letting a small woman toss him through his wall. Lovely, Lexi thought. That’s just lovely. Now my damn subconscious is picking up and learning new languages.

Hinsu rose to his full height, flexed his muscles and charged her. Lexi couldn’t tell what was driving his violence. Apparently no one in the crowd felt an obligation to try and stop him. Or to help him. She stepped aside at the last second, hitting him hard behind the left knee with one of her poles. As he went down, the second pole smashed into his butt, sending him sprawling on his face in the dirt. The crowd was larger now and roaring with laughter.

As he struggled back to his feet, anger suffused his features as he glared at her. He rubbed the back of his knee. He no longer wanted to simply punish her. His emotions screamed that he wanted to kill her. Like that was going to happen.

This situation was going from bad to worse. Lexi spoke for the first time. “Your best choice is to stop now and ask for my forgiveness.” She tossed her poles aside. Maybe he was stupid. Maybe he was embarrassed by the public punishment he had already taken. He might still have been somewhat addled from being tossed through his wall. Whatever his reason, he made a bad decision and tried to take the small unarmed woman. With a roar, he charged her, long arms swinging. She sensed a feeling of great loss feeding the anger coming from him. No one saw what she did to him, she moved far to fast. What they did see was her step away from him after she caught him and eased him to the ground.

The crowd was strangely silent after that. Lexi squatted next to him to check that he still had a pulse. Then she stood and faced the crowd. “Anyone else?” she asked.

One of them pushed through the ring of watchers to face her. He looked fairly young and based on what she observed of the others in this group, the majority of whom wore little or no clothing, almost freakishly muscled. “I’ll fight.”

Lexi nodded. “I’m sure you would, but I have another idea.” She bent over and lifted a good-size boulder from the ground[Granite weighs 166.5 lbs on average per cubic foot.]. Holding it out from her body, she tossed the nearly eight-hundred-pound stone ten feet into the air, catching it easily as it fell. Other than the young Hercules, the crowd collectively took a step back, their eyes following the flying boulder. “Let’s just play catch. You and me. Simple rules. First one to drop the stone loses.”

Her would-be opponent swallowed. Then he bowed his head and clasped both hands over his chest. After letting go of the stone, which hit the ground with a satisfying thud, Lexi nodded at him approvingly. “Good decision. Now, who’s in charge here?”

The young man looked at and pointed to Hinsu, now snoring pretty loudly. “Of course he is,” Lexi muttered so softly it was almost a subvocalization. “Listen up, people. From now on, I’m in charge. If anyone here has any issues with that, let’s hear them now.” She waited while low-voiced discussions among the crowd ensued.

Finally, an older-looking man said, “We don’t know you. You don’t even look like we do.” He was tall like the others and gaunt, but no more so than anyone else.

“You’re right, of course,” Lexi agreed. “My name is Lexi. I am different from you because I’ve traveled a very long way to get here. I will tell you more about me in the morning. It’s late. I want everyone to get a good night’s rest. We have a lot to do, starting tomorrow. You,” she said, indicating the young man. “What’s your name?”

“Epa. I work with the blacksmith.”

“Would you take me to get something to eat, please, Epa?” As he nodded, she said, “The rest of you, find someplace for Hinsu. He’s not welcome in my cabin.”

She asked Epa to sit with her as she ate. “What do you call yourselves, Epa?”

He smiled, not, apparently, the least bit nervous about sitting with a woman who tossed around boulders. “We are the Teg clan of the People.” Anticipating her next question, he added, “We are fifty-seven strong.”

When she said nothing, he took a gulp of his beverage and continued, “Hinsu is, or was, our leader. Our leaders are chosen from among the strongest and smartest of us. One day, not soon, but one day, I will probably be our leader. You are very strong. Are you a good leader, Lexi?”

She looked into his eyes. His question was sincere. Thinking over the events in her life, what she had accomplished these last several years, she answered, “Yes.”

He nodded, content with her simple answer. “Our leaders are usually men, although we have had women leaders before. Teg needs a good leader. There are fewer of us each generation. The other clans are our enemies. In my grandparents’ time, it didn’t use to be that way. It is becoming harder for us to hunt enough food. We have other problems. Dangerous creatures now roam our land.” He nodded his head several times, apparently in agreement with what he just said. He repeated, “Teg needs a good leader.”

Shaman is available on Amazon.com