Making the Grade (Omnia Online Series Book 2)

by Christopher Booth

Kevin thought, ‘This will be fun,’ his heartbeat sped up a little at the thought. He had owned the ship for just over six weeks, and this was the first time he would get a feel for how it flew.

  “Great, I’ve been looking forward to seeing how the Zenon 12 handles compared to the shuttles we’ve been practicing with.” said Kevin.

  “You're almost ready to take your in-system flight exam, and then you can start working on your hyperspace license,” she said. “For this training session, you’re at the spaceport, in Vastal City. Take off from there, make one orbit and dock with the Hassan Space Station. Once you’re finished you’ll just undock and return.” said Samantha.

  For the rest of the night, Kevin ran through simulations with Samantha and the Zenon. After making the first simulated flight, he had a name for his ship, High Jinx. The name came to Kevin when he felt just how quick and maneuverable the ship was at high g acceleration. So his mind combined the ships playfulness with its high G’s.

  That night when while taking a bath before bed, Samantha reminded him of an earlier promise he made, by showing him just how bad a witch she could be.

  Chapter 6 – Scientific Networking

  It was Sunday morning, and Kevin would usually wake up and start his morning routine. He would have breakfast with Samantha and then go to the training room to perform his morning stretches and some meditation, and then begin his exercises.

  But this Sunday was different; he had a promise to keep.

  “Samantha, you were going to gather more information about the Narack poaching?” asked Kevin.

  “Yes, Kevin, the more time I spent researching the question, the larger the problem appeared. To start off, the ranchers that are complaining about poaching are people who have settled down south of the city. Since the only registered settlements on Hassan are all on this continent, they’re mostly clustered within a thousand kilometers of the City of Vastal.”

  “The problem the ranchers are complaining of seems to be more widespread; there have been many animals and people disappearing in the southern edges of development here on Hassan. I’m not sure why the problem has gone unnoticed, the ranchers themselves have sent out a couple of their own people to find out what is causing the problem, and a few of those people have also disappeared. When they complained to the Colonial Planetary Governor, they weren’t given any help, just offered to allow any mercenary they hired from the Guild the temporary position of a marshal while investigating the disappearances.” said Samantha.

  “Why hasn’t the Governor’s office sent out the militia, to find out what’s going on?” asked Kevin.

  “I’ve tried to get more information and haven’t been able to determine why yet,” answered Samantha. “There are rumors of some political trouble between the Colonel of the militia and the government, but I can’t find anything stronger than rumors about why.”

  “Yet, it’s my estimate, given the scope of the problems down south that this assignment is harder than a Grade E assignment should be. I’ve informed the Guild of my assessment. They’re considering raising the level of the mission, but they’re reluctant to do so since they already agreed to take it on at the E Grade ranking. We would need to prove the job is harder to get them to make a change.” said Samantha.

  “Hmm, I wonder what is going on here. Do you have any idea why people and animals are going missing? Have there been any reports by any witnesses? How about anything that links the disappearances together?” asked Kevin.

  “I could find no reports of kidnappings, or demands for ransom, which means there are none, or there’s a cover up for some reason. I haven’t been able to find any links, except that the further south the location, the more likely the settlement is to have reported missing people or animals.”

  “I take it, that if I accept the mission, I can’t later change my mind?” he asked.

  “You may, but it would harm both your trust rating and your relationship with the Guild,” Samantha answered.

  “How about if I take the mission, and it turns out to be more difficult then they rated it as. Can I then get more money are at least more recognition for completing the assignment?”

  “No, and yes. I highly doubt that the Guild would dip into its own coffers to pay you any extra. The ranchers aren’t likely to have any more money to add to the pot, considering that they’re taking losses on both losing the animals and having to pay for help. But, if the task is considerably harder then they ranked it, you can at least expect the Guild to recognize the level of difficulty in your grade rating. Their reputation is on the line on both ends of the deal, they have to represent both the ranchers and you fairly or lose some standing, there are after all other Guilds out there.” replied Samantha.

  “Oh? I hadn’t heard of any other guilds,” said Kevin.

  “It’s a big galaxy, the Freelancers and Hunters Guild is the largest, most prestigious, and best represented in this area of the Imperium, but they’re not the only Guild. There are even bounty hunters and mercenaries that are members of more than one guild, but they still dues to both guilds. So they have to pay twice.” replied Samantha.

  “Well, it’s good to know that I have options.” said Kevin.

  “Let’s try another line of inquiry. Are there satellite images of the areas south that might show some reason why people are going missing down there?” asked Kevin.

  “This planet has just over two million inhabitants, and they’re all on this side of the globe. Outside the optics on the space station, there has been little demand for additional satellites. The space station serves both as a weather station and as a communications satellite for this hemisphere. This was part of the reason we were cut off when we crashed… I mean, I landed the escape pod two months ago. I didn’t have enough com-power to reach the space station or the city.” said Samantha.

  “You know it still bothers me that I can’t read those memory files, of what happened during your escape from the freighter. I’m sure that I could have landed an escape pod without crashing it.”

  “Yeah, you landed it, right into the ground. I’m sure glad I have such a qualified teacher to train me in flight mechanics.” Kevin knew she couldn’t remember the escape from the freighter a few months in the past. It was part of a legal settlement that those records be sealed away, even from her. But he knew that if the escape pod hadn’t run out of fuel in the last moments of landing, that she would have made a good landing. He just couldn’t tell her any of the details.

  “You know I like to tease you Sam, but there really wasn’t anything you could do to make a safer landing. But you know those records are sealed as part of the settlement, so don’t worry about it, ok?” said Kevin.

  “I try, but it’s like an itch I can’t scratch,” she said.

  “Well, any time you want your back scratched, you can just come to me, love,” Kevin replied.

  “So is there any other way we can get more information other than just to go down and scout it out ourselves, and risk getting in over our, or rather my ears?” asked Kevin.

  “Well, I should point out that Fiona’s town is included in the area were all the disappearances have occurred, and her mother is one of the people on my list of missing. So it does look like we’re going down there to check out at least part of the problem,” said Samantha.

  “We could also try asking an information broker. An answer would cost us some credits, and it might not help,” Samantha continued.

  Kevin thought about their dwindling bank balance, and how little this mission might pay. Maybe there was another way to make the mission pay more.

  “Samantha, if I take on a mercenary mission, do I get to keep any gear I turn up? Like what if I find and recover some of the missing bodies, I imagine their belongings are returned to their families, right?” asked Kevin.

  “Mercenary work follows closer to the old rules of warfare than bounty hunting. And if you take on a marshal’s position, however temporary, you’re even more limited in your conduct. For
instance, as a mercenary, you’d be expected to give an enemy a chance to surrender, if possible without harming your mission, but as a marshal, you’d be supposed to do your best to take any suspect into custody, even if it could hurt your mission.”

  “The benefit’s to being considered a marshal are more in the respect and access it would give you to information. There may be information only available to a law officer that would help with this assignment, and that might be what the governor’s office had in mind when they allowed the ranchers to hire someone on as a temporary marshal,” said Samantha. “Yet the drawbacks are many as well. At least as a marshal you wouldn’t be tied down by all the legal loops your police on Earth have to go through to solve a crime. You just have to be able to prove that you were reasonable in your conduct later, or you could be charged with a crime yourself.”

  “For someone with your lack of knowledge of the local laws, I would avoid taking on the position of a temporary marshal. It would be a better fit for a retired police officer than for someone so new to the Imperium.”

  Remembering the last time he faced a judge here on Hassan, Kevin tended to agree with Samantha’s assessment.

  “If I took the assignment, could I avoid the marshal’s position?”

  “Yes, the position was an add-on, as an option for the job, not a requirement. The Guild prefers to allow their mercenaries to choose how they hang themselves, if they made it a mandate, it could come back to trouble them later. This way they can say it was your choice.” replied Samantha.

  “How much do you think it would cost to get worthwhile information out of an… information broker?” Kevin couldn’t help but think spy, rat, hacker, and thief when he thought of what an information broker really was. To him, it seemed at least as dirty a trade as killing for a living.

  ‘Which is perhaps what I do now?’ he thought, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t cast stones in my new glass house, hey?’

  “Since the information we’re looking for might involve the governor or the colonel of the militia? And still not have anything to do with whatever is actually happening in the south? My guess is useful information could cost us everything we have in the bank. Is it worth it?” asked Samantha.

  “That’s always the question when you’re asked to leap before you look. No, let’s hold off on spending more money until after I first go down and see if we can find anything out about Fiona’s mother’s disappearance.” Kevin instructed Samantha.

  “As you wish, Kevin.” she replied.

  “What else do we need to discuss?” asked Kevin.

  “Yes, there are a few things still to cover. First, your meditation skill is getting very close to the Advanced Beginner level, so I’ve loaded a new meditation skill book for you,” replied Samantha. “Second, do you want me to have someone paint the Zenon 12 with its new name, and third we should talk about Sarah and if she would be the best person to seek out for your experiments,” said Samantha.

  “Let’s start with the ship then. No, I don’t know if I want it so easily identified visually. And definitely not until we have some more money in the bank. Is there a requirement to paint the name on the ship?” asked Kevin.

  “No,” responded Samantha, “but if the name is to be official, we should change the ships ID beacon. That will cost a couple hundred credits since it must be done by an official Imperial Registrar. There should be an office of the Registrar of Ships in any major space station, but I’mnot sure if the Hassan Space Station has one. Let me check… yes, there’s a small office of the Imperial Registrar on the Hassan Space Station.”

  “I still want to wait until we have a few extra credits since we’re running so close to finding the bottom of our bank account.” said Kevin.

  “As for Sarah, I have been rethinking my idea. Do you think the Colorado School of Mines has all of the equipment needed to run Kinzigur’s experiments? And if we want to distance ourselves from the research, maybe we should be looking at schools or labs that have all the tools needed to run the experiments.” asked Kevin.

  “Since you asked I looked into the matter, your alma-mater has most if not all the equipment necessary to set up the experiment. But I agree that a little more distance, and not involving someone who lives at the same address as you, might be a good idea. What are your thoughts for whom to go to then?” asked Samantha.

  “I don’t know if there are many Professors who would want to run some experiments sent to them anonymously through e-mail. And if you’re right about the importance of the theory and research, it wouldn’t be a good idea for it to go only to someone here in the United States.” Kevin paused for a moment in thought.

  “Samantha, could you send it to multiple universities around the world, and maintain our anonymity at the same time?” asked Kevin.

  “Yes. It’s easy enough to set up third party mail drops on the internet. I wouldn’t have to hack or lie to distance us from the data.” replied Samantha.

  “Ok, then find me three labs or universities here in the US, one in Germany, England, Russia, China, Japan, and India, heck add in Australia too, even though I don’t think they have a real space program. Find places that can run the whole set of experiments. Be sure that they know that the information has been shared widely; let’s see if a little competition might get someone moving. Then we can just wait and watch the internet for any news on the Kinzigur experiments. I would like to have been there in person to see the results, but the importance is in the verification right?” said Kevin. “And we can run our own tests in the training room, like you suggested, with confirmation coming from those outside sources.”

  “I’ll get working on the research and set up the mail drop now. Do you want me to notify you when it’s done?” asked Samantha.

  “No, just let me know the moment there’s anything published on the internet or in a magazine on the experiments.” said Kevin.

  “Well, time to get back into Omnia and back to Fiona. One last item, can you suggest something from the auto-galley that I might actually like for breakfast?” asked Kevin as he headed into the Omnia game room.

  Chapter 7 – The Hunter Game

  Once Drake was back in Omnia, he opened the hatch to his berth.

  The berth wasn’t all that bad; it had a holo-display that could be projected for viewing either while laying on your back or stomach. There was storage for personal items and clothes at the head and the inner side of the space. The best part of the space was the privacy, since it had a hatch that opened like an automated garage door, and locked in place.

  When Drake first got the ship, he read up on many of its features and knew that the berth also had a 24-hour life support system built in, in case the ship lost atmosphere.

  It was features like the life support system built into the berth that really separated the ship out as a combat class vessel. Drake couldn’t imagine a civilian class ship bothering with the extra expense since the whole crew was expected to wear vac-suits.

  Drake left the lower of the two berths, and with just a single set he was in the shared mess and galley area.

  He saw Fiona seated at the table playing some sort of space combat game on the holo-screen built into the table top. The mess room served as a multi-function space on the small ship. It was a dining, sitting, and meeting room all in one.

  The ship was designed to be flown by one person, with berth space for two more optional crew. One crew member could work on the sensory-gunnery consoles, and an engineer could work from either engineering or the engineering repeater station just behind the sensor position.

  The ship spaces were a real tight design and didn’t offer room to spare for passengers. There was just one real cabin and the two berths. The previous crew replaced the cabins one bed with a bunk bed for their four-person team. And they were very eager to get out of the cramped little ship when the opportunity presented its self.

  Drake hadn’t yet gotten around to replacing the cabin bunk bed with the type of bed the cabin was originally design
ed to contain.

  “Did you eat breakfast yet?” Drake asked his guest before ordering his meal from the auto-galley.

  Fiona, who was concentrating on her game, just nodded her head.

  ‘Why didn’t I just eat in my virtual home, it would have been more appetizing than this.’ thought Drake as he looked down at the plate that came out of the galley’s food slot.

  After setting down to eat and tasting the food, he decided he wasn’t being fair to the meal. The plate had something like biscuits and gravy with a side of some green tuber like vegetable. The biscuit seemed standard enough, and the gravy actually tasted pretty good, but Drake didn’t want to imagine its origin. The surprising part of the meal was the green vegetable; it had a sweet fruity taste that was excellent and totally unexpected.

  After eating his meal, he told Fiona that it was time to go. Then he gathered up some of his gear. He would have to do without his armor, but he still had his old blast-vest.

  Hunters-Pride Blast-Vest

  Type: Body Armor (Torso only)

  Energy Protection: 11 (12)

  Physical Protection: 11 (12)

  Durability: 20 (24)

  Compared to the armor he had in the shop, this armor sucked, but it was better than nothing.

  He also put on his gun and knife belt and grabbed his blaster carbine. The last thing he picked up was his green backpack.

  Dreanan Defender Heavy Blaster Pistol

  Type: Blaster Pistol

  Ammo: 35

  Damage: 52

  Durability: 28

  Range: Medium

  ExoPiro Defender Heavy Blaster Carbine

  Type: Blaster Rifle

  Ammo: 50

  Damage: 60

  Durability: 32

  Range: Medium-Long

  LaserHoned Talon Vibro-Dagger

  Type: Small Blade

  Damage: 25

  Durability: 32