Omnia Online (Omnia Online Series Book 1)

by Christopher Booth

  When Drake asked what that was, Apapetux told him that they had bought a class, three fabricator. Sid used it to fabricate many of the parts used on the ship, provided they had the raw materials. But the fabber was something they bought for Sid, and not a ships fitting.

  The last questions Drake sent before heading into work was if Sidonia would be willing to share any schematics she had for the ship and its parts, and when he could pick up the ships code key.

  The answer he got back was that Sid would be willing to share her schematics she developed from reverse engineering… for a price. And that Apapetux would meet him after he got off work with the key for the Zenon 12.

  Drake entered the gun shop thinking, ‘Damn, has she changed anything on the ship.’ He would have to get her schematics now, just to see if anything was changed. He wondered what it would take to pry it away from the mousey woman.

  ***

  Drake’s day at work had become routine. The best part of his day being the lunch break, as he sat and absorbed some of the stories these men had to tell. It seemed that for these older gunsmiths, this was a second or third career for them.

  After work was over, Apapetux was there with the code key to the ship. This one was a round cylinder. It seemed each planet or ship manufacturer had a different way to secure a ship. He was told that this key, once used to change the ship owner, didn’t need to be used again, unless Drake wanted to add someone to the ships permissions.

  Apapetux said that he talked to Sidonia and that she was willing to let Drake have her parts and ship schematics, as well as the repair and change logs she kept for the ship. In return for Drake’s promise to help if they need more people to assist in her sister’s rescue.

  Drake would have been there anyway if invited, so he agreed. He got the feeling that this was just some face-saving for the problems from the previous day, but he was not going to turn down the gift.

  Then Apapetux offered to take him to the ship and give him a tour before talking about what had changed since yesterday.

  When they pulled up to the Zenon 12 the first thing Drake noticed was its size and shape. In size, his new ship was somewhere in the range of a small commercial jet or a large private jet. In shape, it looked like a more aerodynamic type of Space Shuttle, with stubby swept back wings. It was clearly designed with an eye to slipping through a planet’s atmosphere.

  The boarding ramp came down as the two men approached the ship. The way it appeared to Drake was that part of the starboard bottom hull of the ship swung down to form a door, and then extended out to form a ramp.

  Apapetux started describing the ship while standing near the ramp.

  “Drake, do you see those black bumps going down either side of the ramp about every two meters along the midline of the ship? Those are a few of the ship sensors. They allow the ships systems to keep an eye on what is around it on land and in space.”

  This ramp we’re climbing can only be used on the ground or when docked at a station. If you need to reach the outer hull while you’re in space, you can get out that little hatch there toward the back of the ship. But it’s only accessible through the underfloor access way where the ships life support, electrical and plumbing can be serviced. It’s just a half deck, so it’ll be a tight fit for a tall one like you.”

  “Now let’s go up and into the ship.”

  “As they entered the ship Apapetux led Drake to the front of the ship. As you see here, the cockpit section of the ship is almost separate from the rest. This is because it doubles as a three-person lifeboat.”

  “Now just back behind the detachable cockpit, you will see to the port here a sensor station, and to the starboard a gunnery station. Both of these are optional since the sensors and gun are designed to be managed from the cockpit. You see that there is just one chair here, the builders did not see a need for a four-man crew, so sensors and gunnery are considered part of the same station.”

  “Speaking of the gun, we remounted the originally intended swivel mounted twin blaster cannon. It can traverse about a 90-degree arc ahead of the ship, and is linked directly to the sensors to boost its targeting. If you ever lose the sensor connection for any reason, the cannons will lock forward and may only be fired straight ahead like a fighter's guns.”

  “Going toward the back of the ship to the port you’ll see the engineering repeater station. The engineer can monitor the ships systems from here or from engineering, this station can also be used as a backup for flight control if something happens to the cockpit or the pilot.”

  “Now as we head down this narrow passageway, you will see the armory to the port side. There is a storage area to the starboard, which is also where the ships floor cleaning bot recharges and where you will find the ships refresher. Behind the armory, is the crew birth bunks.”

  Drake looked at the berths; they opened right on to the passageway, like some he’d seen on military planes in the past. The people who slept here could close off their little berth, but they had almost no private space. They would have to use the ships head if they didn’t want to change while horizontal in their berth or in the passage. He could see why Aggressive Solutions wanted a ship with five real cabins, even small ones.

  “Next, we come to the main living area of the ship. To the port side, you will find the passageway continues around passed the mess to the engine room. To the starboard is the auto-galley and ships food storage area. Behind the auto-galley, you will find the only real cabin on this ship. You might want to switch out the bunk bed in there for a normal one. And finally jammed between the mess, the cabin, and the engineering passageway isthe ships only head. It’s just a toilet, shower, and sink, and it was the thing our team fought over the most. Two women and two men on a ship with no privacy, the only room where someone could be alone was the head.” said Apapetux.

  “I just remembered you said you were in that freighter crash, so you’ll need to remember to pick up a ship suit and some inner liners before you space.”

  “Well that ends the tour.” said Apapetux, as he took a seat on the couch in the ships mess.

  “So, what has been going on since we met last?” asked Drake, sitting at the other end of the circular corner couch. This couch had a table and was part of the mess, but as the only communal sitting area on the small ship, it served double duty as a sort of lounge.

  “Sidonia believes she found where the pirates are based, and we’ve been in negotiations with the Captain of the Imperial Naval Destroyer Fulster, which was sent out to deal with the pirate problem.”

  “The captain of the ship seems to have two concerns, well three actually. One that the Navy (and she) comes out looking good, by dealing with this matter swiftly and getting back to her normal duties, that’s one and two. The third is her crew was looking to getting a little bonus out of this rare chance the ship was given at prize money. Now we’ve taken away a chunk of the possible rewards, yet we offer her a way to wrap matters up here quickly.”

  “So, you can see she has mixed feelings.” said Apapetux.

  “You got all this from talking by comms?” asked Drake.

  “No, of course not, on something like this we send Lorna Fei. As she picks up people's passive empathic responses, she is able to figure stuff like this out with some ease. Of course, it helps that she’s an attractive Elf, who people like to talk to.” grinned Apapetux.

  “So is there any progress in these talks? It seems if the lady captain is so interested in speed, she should be motivated to make a deal,” asked Drake.

  “We’ve made a deal, a fifty/fifty deal with the destroyer. But there are signs that the pot might be bigger than we thought. The pirate’s base appears to be a shared location. At this moment the destroyer is dispatching a stealth scout to investigate. So we’re waiting and getting ready to move. The scout is expected to take some time sneaking in and out to make sure he remains unseen.” said Apapetux

  “The Destroyer Captain expects to leave Friday or Saturday morning. So ge
t ready, we’re going to include you in on the take, we might as well make you work for your credits.” grinned the Dwarf.

  “So my part went down from 20% to 10 %, but the target may have gotten fatter? Well, I’ll not count the credits before they’re in the bank. Speaking of which, when will the first batch of bounties be paid out?” asked Drake.

  “We’re holding off on collecting the pay for your take from yesterday. If we report the bounties, officially, the Pirates might get word of the bounties for the first four disappearing from the list, which might cause them to bolt.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ve turned them over to the destroyer, and they gave us a receipt for all five, including that Brice Pafkeo fellow.”

  “As far as gear you captured from the pirates, we valued the gear at 3125 credits, so 55% of that will hit your bank account by way of the Guild, minus their usual 5%. Let me see, you should have 1632.81 hitting your account any minute,” said Apapetux.

  Drake was relieved since he was getting short on funds.

  “Good,” said Drake “So you team is cleared out of the ship?” He asked as he headed to the front to enter the code key and take ownership of the vessel.

  “Yep, and we’re glad to be out of this old sardine can. Lorna really loves having a real galley instead of an auto-galley. I think she missed cooking as much as she wanted a private cabin. The crew was claiming cabins before you even agreed to the trade.” The Dwarf added with a grin.

  “This ship is great for one person, or anything up to three, but as our team grew, we felt like the lack of space was choking us for any long trips. Heck, Sid took to slinging a cot in engineering, not that she found that a hardship, it’s the place she loves most on a ship.”

  Drake finished changing the ship security to just him and Samantha.

  As they exited the ship, Samantha locked the ship down.

  “So what does a pad like this cost a month?” asked Drake waving at the resting place allotted to the small ship and the spaceport.

  “The cost of the open pad is 90 credits a month, but if you want to put it in a hanger, I understand the space rents for about 360 credits a month. The costs are so low because this is a small slow and out of the way Port,” answered Apapetux

  As Apapetux talked, they got into his ground car for the trip back to the Guild Hall.

  “Just remember, just because the ship sits still, doesn’t mean there’s no maintenance. Look at the records Sid left behind in the ship databanks; it includes a ship maintenance cycle, even when it’s just setting a ship will eat away your credits, just at a slower pace.”

  “Sid also left you information about the fabricator we removed. She suggested you get one like it, to keep your repair cost down, and for any emergencies, you run into once in the deep. You should also check the ship spares locker. We didn’t carry as many as suggested since we had the fabber. I believe we paid about 16000 credits for our fabber. They’re handy since they can make almost anything up to their internal size limit, the schematics, and the material at hand. Sid wouldn’t let us buy a cheaper class one or two unit, said they just don’t produce the tight tolerances and detail she needed for the ship components. We needed a class three fabber any way to be able to repair the outer hull of the ship since the outer hull is all carbon allotropes. It’s what makes the ship so light, but getting repairs from many backward worlds was impossible before. Now we at least patch with the same material as the original hull, and with careful bonding you can’t see the patches...”

  “I think that ends my advice. You’ve got some work ahead of you getting to know your new ship. In the meantime, you shouldn’t be expecting to hear from us until tomorrow afternoon. Be sure to stay ready to go after you get off work tomorrow, the destroyer captain will not want to wait too long for us, and the XR2 Scout is going to play an important part in our plans.”

  And with that, he dropped Drake off at the Hall.

  This day being a Thursday, Drake had his psionic training to attend.

  Drake made it back just a few minutes late for his psionic training session. He hurried to his room to get out of his armor and into some loose fitting clothes, and then ran to the lift up to the top floor. Everyone else was busy meditating, and working on drawing on their psionic energy when Drake arrived and quietly took the open mat in the back.

  Drake had more trouble than normal reaching a place of rest where he could start searching for that undefinable inner place where he found the pool of energy in the past. It seemed to Drake that the combination of both being relaxed and not thinking, and being aware and in control were almost two different mindsets that were nearly impossible to combine. Finally, when Allacia came around to help him, he was for the first time able to both relax and find the control to be able to pull just a little bit of the energy from what he thought of as a deep pool. All of the sudden he felt a flow of warm energy infuse his body, Drake was so startled that he lost the tenuous connection he had, and for just an instant, established. Drake was flooded with conflicting feeling, anger at losing focus, excitement at having made this small advance, embarrassment at having Allacia watching his fumbling attempts at doing something so second nature to her, more anger and feelings of embarrassment over something so stupid… Drake just couldn’t regain focus. For the rest of the session, he could not clear his head of all the days’ exciting events and thoughts.

  After the psionic training, Drake went to his room to exit Omnia.

  Chapter 22 – Ready to Rumble?

  Kevin left the game room, still excited about his success in his psionic training and seeing his new ship for the first time.

  Kevin was later getting back then what had started to be his normal time, but this just pushed his dinner a couple hours late.

  Tonight dinner was pizza and beer. Maybe the special meal was to celebrate the ship?

  He gave Samantha a hug and a kiss, “It’s good to see you again, rather than just hear your voice.”

  As he ate, he asked Samantha what she thought of the ship.

  Samantha replied, “The main thing the ship has going for it is speed. It’s as fast and maneuverable as a space fighter. The only normal fighter that could catch it in space would be an interceptor. Otherwise, its 3.5 G maximum acceleration is the same as most medium fighters, and faster than some heavy space fighters. As the Zenon 12 is currently configured; it has slightly more shielding but thinner hull armor than a standard fighter. The only real problem with the ship is it cannot fire while running away from an opponent. Its twin blaster cannons carry a punch but only in the forward 90-degree arc and at relatively short range. Laser cannons usually have a longer range and do less damage. So if you fight a ship that has lasers and is faster than you, it can pick you apart. But since little is faster than the Zenon 12…”

  “I like it.” said Samantha, “It’s a lot more ship then you’re ready for, but it’s better that then being ready and not having a ship I imagine. So I took the liberty of spending the 100 credits to add your ship to the training room. I’ve also included the changes made by Sidonia.”

  “You should give it a name, and then we can start calling it a ‘her.'” advised Samantha.

  “So, now I add piloting and ship engineering to my training?” Drake was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the things he was expected to learn. Then he asked Samantha about the training schedule.

  “We will add novice piloting and engineering to your list. Like all novice skills, at this level it’s just a matter of memorizing and following proper procedure. All the basic ship maintenance duties you will be expected to learn are only a little more difficult than replacing a household light switch. Piloting may seem a little harder, but it’s also just knowing how to talk to traffic control, how to program the navigation computer and autopilot. Later as you advance, you will need to know how to plot without a computer and fly without aid. But you will learn ship skills in steps just like you learned everything else. Don’t expect to be flying by tomorrow or Saturday, and
after you train, you still need to get licensed.” said Samantha.

  “Your training schedule, for now, will include the normal stretching, fitness exercises, running, meditation, martial arts, shooting (both blasters), and training on ship maintenance and piloting specific to your ship.”

  “Now that we added your ship to the trainer, it can act as a flight trainer as well.” said Samantha.

  “It may seem like a lot, but don’t worry, you have me to manage your training schedule to make sure you advance in both your body and skills as fast as possible. Of course, you’ll advance faster after your tour at the gun shop is complete. More than half of your available time is used up there.”

  “For tonight, you're short on time; let’s get moving so you can get at least a little training in.” said Samantha.

  Kevin would get back to training in a few minutes, but there was one thing he’d been putting off doing. He wanted to check up on his friend, Gordon’s, progress.

  “Samantha, let’s see if Gordon has a minute to chat. Please send him the question: ‘Hey Gordon, can you chat for a minute?’ ” said Kevin.

  Gordon: Good to hear from you… I’ve been so busy lately, but sure I have like five minutes, then I have to do a hunt with a team of Gepinapaxian Rangers.

  Kevin: Good, that’s why I’m texting you this time, just wanted to see how life in Omnia was treating you… and maybe drop a few suggestions.

  Gordon: Well I wouldn’t mind some hints, this game would be better with a good players guide.

  Kevin: I have been doing pretty good, and have discovered a few things. How are you fixed for credits?

  Gordon: I took the credits you sent me and invested it in a rifle like I planned. Unfortunately, the money people are willing to pay for someone to hunt is pretty low. So I was having trouble just paying for a place to stay until I met up with a Ranger… I have been doing some animal control and culling jobs with them. The pay is a little better now, and I’ve been saving to pay you back, I’m just not there now yet.