Making the Grade (Omnia Online Series Book 2) (12 page)

“Sorry Sam, I’m not falling for that, get changed, now.”

In just a second she changed into a conservative outfit, that instantly reminded him of the time when she through a bucket of ice water on him to get his attention.  She was still a major hottie, but at least she wasn’t so distracting that he couldn’t hold a serious conversation with her.  But he did think for a second,
‘Wow, this girl can look hot in any outfit, dress her in rags and it would appear a fashion statement.’

“Ok, games up Sam.  How did I not notice the changes to my body before?  And why can I now use my psionic skills in real life… Or was that real life, and not some fake where you’re just playing with my mind.” Asked Kevin and the thoughts and possibilities started to scare him a bit, he was beginning to feel like this whole thing was a trap.

“Kevin, please.” Samantha got on her knees and begged, “Please, believe me, I can’t lie to you, I’ve never lied to you.  But I’ve always said that there are many things I can’t tell you.  Even if you reset my personality, erase me and restart the pod; that will still be true.”

Kevin thought for a moment, his real complaint wasn’t with Samantha, but with the people, aliens, or whatever running Intelecom.

“Samantha, this is too important to me just to ignore.  How have I not noticed any of this before?  Sure I’ve been in the game, but the last time I was out, I saw some significant changes.  So why am I just starting to notice… no I know the answer to that, I’m noticing since I’ve more information than before.” Kevin said, and he thought through the problem.

“Samantha, you’re going to have to get Intelecom’s permission to talk to me… Why haven’t you tried to get their permission?  What’s wrong?” asked Kevin.

He could see that Samantha was worried and stressed.  She seemed on the verge of tears.  Kevin got down on the ground next to where she was kneeling and hugged her to himself.  Maybe he’d been unfair to place the blame at her feet.  But she was his only real connection with the people who did this…

Kevin stopped for a second and thought, did what?  Did Intelecom actually harm him?  If anything they empowered him, they made him stronger, and faster, they taught him skills like martial arts and maybe space flight, if that was a real thing. 

Yes he was angry at the deception, but did they hurt him in any way?  No…

He was much more than the man who first entered the game pod a few weeks ago, wow…  In such a short time he’d gone through significant changes.

“Samantha, I’m sorry if I hurt you.  He said as he held the girl.  I felt a lot of the same pain I felt a few weeks ago when I found out that you’d been holding out on me…  But this time it wasn’t your fault was it?” asked Kevin.

“I’m sorry Kevin.  I tried to tell you everything I could, and I still can’t talk about these things.  Can you please forgive me?” cried Samantha.

“Nothing to forgive bunny, if you told me everything you could, that was all I could ask from you.  But it’s time to let Intelecom learn that I know more than they wanted.  It’s only fair, and I hope they’ll let you off the hook, how does that sound?” asked Kevin. “What do you think the risks are to letting Intelecom in on the fact that I’m on to the game they’re playing, and that I want to know what the hell is going on?”

“Well, I wouldn’t put it like that; it wouldn’t help to get confrontational.  Hmm, it’s hard to say.  I think it’s an acceptable risk, at the most, Intelecom will just insist… Oh, something I can’t say.  But in the long run, you’re bound to learn all of this, so I can’t see any long-term downside.  And it may be possible for me to get free of some of the restrictions I now have, so I’m for the plan.” said Samantha.

Kevin was starting to calm down enough to notice the amount of time that had passed, it was now past his lunch time, and he was getting hungry.

He was still holding Samantha when his stomach rumbled, which caused her to giggle.  He loved the sound of her laugh; it was so innocent, young and carefree.  He felt a little bad now for getting so mad at her.

“Time for your lunch, Kevin.” said Samantha.

And they got back to the day’s activity; first lunch then training.  They’d have to see how Intelecom received their request in time, but in the meantime, Kevin had training and many other things to keep him busy.

***

Before going to bed that night, Kevin checked with Samantha to see if Fiona had found anything interesting out, in her attempt to get him the data he requested.

She didn’t come up with anything new on the disappearances down south, except that one of the missing people also looked like the man he had fought.

On the other hand, Fiona did discover that the Dwarf he took prisoner was checked into the psychiatric ward of Vastal City’s main hospital.

Kevin would just have to check to see if the Guild could offer any more information when he took the assignment tomorrow.

That night Kevin enjoyed a nice relaxing massage and Samantha demonstrated that Kevin’s still had plenty of vigor, even at these lower levels of testosterone.

Tuesday morning was spent in more training since he had to wait until the afternoon to pick up his armor, and register to take on the mission for the ranchers.

His flight training was going pretty well, and he was passing all the practice tests that Samantha could design.  Apparently, the testing standards were public, just not the questions and specifics of what they’d ask the prospective pilot to do to prove their ability.

To Kevin, it seemed a little archaic since it would be possible just to check Samantha’s logs to see just how able he was.  When he asked Samantha about the test, she said that most pilots don’t have an A.I. to vouch for them, so the standard was to take a test, and since the test was the standard the bureaucrats were determined that everyone use the same method of proving their ability.

What surprised Kevin was learning that A.I.s were so uncommon?  But Samantha told him that only one in about a thousand people in the Imperium both wanted and could afford to purchase an A.I.  And that some of the key components of an A.I. were difficult to make since they required some rare psionic talents to form.

This was why adventures such as him were much more likely to have an A.I. than a random kid on the street. 

As Samantha answered his questions, Kevin noticed that she was a lot more liable to answer him if he asked a question regarding the game.  He still didn’t know how much of this new world was a game, and how much real, so he didn’t know how this bit of knowledge could help him, but he filed it away for further reflection.

Focusing back on his flight training, he asked, “Samantha, when do you think I’ll be ready to take the in-system flight test?”

“I believe that you're ready now, but I was planning on booking you an appointment to take the test next Monday, after your morning psionic training session.  I’m running into a little problem, though, the test requires that you either use a two person shuttle you own, or rent one for use.  The problem is that the only shuttle available for rent is more expensive than it should be for just a few hours of use.” said Samantha.

“Just how expensive is it?” asked Kevin.

“Well, to rent a shuttle for just two hours, you’d normally expect to pay maybe 200 credits at most.  The shuttle that’s available rents for 400 credits an hour; you could buy a used one for a couple thousand so this rental rate is out of line.  You’d need to spend 800 credits for a two-hour rental.” said Samantha.

“After finding this out, I started doing a little digging in the public records on Hassan.  The shuttle belongs to a cousin of the Governor, and the person running the local chapter of the pilots union, who would be administering the test, is married to the Governor’s sister.  Further, there’s a marked difference in test results depending on if someone rents this shuttle or uses one of their own.  It seems the tester find so many faults with other shuttles that few people who don’t rent the shuttle are able to pass the flight test.”

“So it seems like a rigged game, its pay to pass.  But good luck making the claim that you’ve been cheated if you don’t rent the cousins shuttle since it’s not his fault the shuttle you used was so poorly maintained,” said Samantha.

“Do you want me to file a report with the pilots union?” asked Samantha.

“Hell no!  At least not until we leave this world.  We don’t want to get on the wrong side of the local power structure, but I can see what the militia colonel is complaining about.  I wonder how many other rigged systems there are around Hassan.” said Kevin.

“Of course, that doesn’t mean that the militia colonel is as clean as the driven snow.  Probably the opposite, since the colonel seems to be just sitting by while people are disappearing and dying.” Kevin continued.

“For the rest of your flight training we’ll be using a shuttle like the one you’ll need to rent to buy your way into passing the pilots test.” said Samantha.

Kevin was sure that this was Samantha’s way of mocking him for not reporting the rigged piloting test setup.  But Kevin still felt his approach was best.  Maybe given enough time he could find a way to get even for the rip-off, but he remembered an old saying.
‘Never do an enemy a slight injury.’

Kevin didn’t feel so injured by the cheat that he would want to make an enemy as powerful as the Planetary Governor.  So he would let the matter drop for now, even if Samantha was a little miffed at the peculation.

As Kevin started to get back to his flight training, he asked, “By the way Sam, how is my piloting skill progressing anyway?”

“Your piloting skill is:”

Samantha continued, “It won’t be long until we’ll need to buy the next piloting skill book.  For now, I think it’s time you had practice flying around an asteroid field.  For your next simulation, you’ll dock with Hassan’s local mining platform.”

Kevin’s training progressed through the afternoon, until about 3 pm when Samantha informed him, that he’d received a message from Cairbre that his armor was repaired and ready to be picked up.

***

Cairbre’s shop was busier then Drake had ever seen it. With three other customers waiting on Cairbre’s attention, Drake decided to look at the used arms and armor the store stocked out front.

There were a variety of weapons and armor of different types and sizes.  Most other items were similar to gear sold in the many other stores in the small arms mall.  But there was one thing that seemed different.

Drake noticed a full suit of armor that looked a little strange.   It wasn’t the separated pieces of armor like what he owned or the mechanized golem like equipment he’d seen in other stores, and he’d seen used by Imperial Marines.  This set covered the supporting manikin from head to toe with no gaps and looked like it might be air tight, but unpowered.

He wondered if he was looking at some sort of armored space suit.  The suit was a matte black color that seemed to absorb the rooms light.  As Drake moved the arm up, he could see that the armor was joined together by some sort of flexible black material.  It looked just like a vacuum suit made of thick material and attached armor.  The inner suit looked like it could be a type of carbon fiber mesh.

While Drake was busy examining the suit, Cairbre finished helping the last customer.  With the Procyon male having just departed, Cairbre walked over to where Drake was standing.

“I see you're looking at the Soonia-Meron Armored Vacuum Suit.  It’s an excellent system of armor and vacuum suit combined,” said Cairbre.

“You see the inner vacuums suit?” he continued, as he pointed out the feature.

“Yeah” replied Drake.

“That’s a Soonia-Meron proprietary blend of ionic polymer-metal composites and long chain carbon nanotube fibers.  They’re the only company that knows the method they use to blend the fibers into such a tough electroactive material.  The inner suit, beneath the outer plates, can be worn independently as a normal vac-suit, or the added shell can be used for going EVA and for added protection.”

“Sounds interesting, but it must be expensive.” said Drake.

“Yep, it is. Which is why it’s been sitting here in my shop collecting dust for the last six months.  It’s cheaper to just buy a regular vac-suit, and get an armored vac-suit for when you need them.  This unit just provides more protection than the standard vac-suit.  It’s also faster just to add the outer plates, then to have to remove a standard vac-suit and switch to an armored vac-suit, when the shit hits the air impeller.” 

“Pilots like this suits features, it allows them to wear the underlayer while going into combat, where having to wear a bulky set of combat armor would get in the way while they trying to fly their ship,” said Cairbre.

“Just don’t go out into the deep without at least some sort of vac-suit.  But I expect you know that already.” said the Half Dwarf.

“So, you’re here to pick up your armor, just a moment, and I’ll go get it,” Cairbre said just before leaving into the back to find Drake’s armor.

Drake took one more look at the suit, he could now see that the outer armor shell was designed to detach, it seemed like a clever way of making one type of vac-suit serve in two different jobs.  But he didn’t have the money to be spending on something like this just now.

It seemed like an excellent solution to one of the problems of vac-suits.  The safety conscious space traveler would wear a vac-suit all the time since the traveler was usually one thing layer of metal from the vacuum of space. The standard vac-suit was as comfortable as a set of pajamas since they were thin and clung to your body very closely.  In fact, they had another name; they were often called skin suits because of this trait.

The suit would start off loose, for fitting over your body, but once the electric charge was removed from the material, it would shrink and form a sort of second skin, that protected you from tissue damage in the event of pressure loss.  But the skin suit made for poor armor.

Yet an armored vac-suit was way too bulky to be wearing around all the time, which is why this hybrid of skin suit and armor sounded like a nice compromise.

Drake knew he wouldn’t have the money for something like this for a while, so he added it to his mental wish list.

As Drake thought about the armored vac-suit, the Half Dwarf reappeared from the back with his scout armor.

The armor looked like it was in better shape than Drake had ever seen it.  When he first received it as part of a deal he made with a company called Aggressive Solutions, it had a worn and repaired look.  Now it looked new, its dark grey-green exterior was smooth and free of any signs of wear or damage.

As Drake examined the armor, he asked Samantha to display their stats.

Drake said, “The armor looks great, thanks for the good work.”

Cairbre seemed almost offended, “It’s what we do, and you may think you spent a lot of credits here, but we pride ourselves in the product we return to our customers.”

Drake agreed, he’d worked in the shop for a few weeks and had been impressed with the technicians that the Half Dwarf employed.  For many of them, this was a second or even third career, which they did more for the love of this type of work then for the pay.

Thinking of what he knew about Cairbre’s experience, he thought it might be useful to ask for some advice.

“Cairbre, have you heard about the trouble down south?  I’m thinking about taking on a job for some ranchers, they’re missing some Narack.  But I understand that both people and animals have gone missing in that area.  I was wondering if you might have any advice before I go over to the Guild Hall and accept the assignment.”

“Only don’t go getting your armor shot up.  We just spent a lot of time getting it into working order.” Grumped the Half-Dwarf, “But, never did any of that type of work myself.  You know… maybe you should talk to Roshan, in the back; he used to be a merc and bounty hunter.”

With that, Drake thanked Cairbre and asked for permission to go to the machine shop in the back.

Drake found Roshan, a dark haired Human male, working on a suit of mechanized armor.  He tried to be helpful in suggesting some items that Drake might find handy if he was looking to bring a prisoner back alive. That reminded Drake that he needed to restock his backpack after the last trip south.

Roshan also suggested that Drake purchase a sensor upgrade program for detecting life signs.  It was software that Drake could add to his armor’s data bracer if he didn’t already have one installed.  The program he said worked with the audio, visual, and electrical sensors in the helmet to detect and categorize life forms.  It was originally designed to help hunters find elusive and aggressive prey in the wilds, by identifying and matching up any audio, visual, or electrical impulses they gave off.

Drake thanked the man and headed out into the Balsdif’s arms market to make some purchases.

He replaced the used arm and leg restraints.  They were light, and would go into his backpack.

He remembered the training program where he had to use a handheld stunner on a guard, and his more recent experience on Sunday.  In both cases what he really wanted was some way to stun the men from a distance, so that he didn’t have to run the risk of getting too close.  So Roshan also suggested that he purchase a stun pistol.