Making the Grade (Omnia Online Series Book 2) (8 page)

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 designed 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.

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.

After the trouble with the Pirates six months ago, Drake had replaced the used high explosive det-tape.  He’d also purchased three sets of restraints (wrist and ankle), a field first aid pack, emergency rations and water, and a handheld stunner.  The green backpack was starting to fill up.

Drake made these purchases after reviewing some of the mistakes from his last adventure.  After capturing three pirates, he had to resort to using duct tape to bind them because he’d no other way to secure them while waiting for help to arrive.

Drake clipped the handheld stunner to his belt, in front of his heavy blaster pistol, and he was ready to go.  At least he hoped he was prepared for whatever he found.

Drake had already had Samantha request a rental air-car for today.  One of the thinks Drake liked about this world, was automated vehicles. You could place a rental request over the net, pay for the car and it would drive itself to your door.  Air-cars were more expensive than ground cars, but they were much better for traveling outside the city, and much faster.  Of course, they had no controls, but they didn’t require a driver’s license either, and Drake could live with not driving.

Drake wanted to get Fiona talking.  While on the ship, she was able to distract herself by playing games, but now that she had time to think, the girl seemed very downcast.

“Did you try to call your father last night?” Drake asked the girl.

“It’s no use, he doesn’t respond much.  He just sets there it the living room brooding… not eating and not talking.” Drake could see his question was just making her more upset.  So he tried a more positive angle.

“Well, if you don’t think your father will miss you, we can just skip to going straight to the place where your mother was last seen.  By the way, we’re now heading south, what was the name of your town so I can refine the cars heading?” asked Drake,

“The town is called Straffwood, after the type of trees that grow in the local forest,” said Fiona.

Samantha redirected the air-car without waiting for Drake to say anything, so Drake immediately saw their new destination appear in the car’s holo-display.

“Samantha could you bring up a map displaying the area around the town for us?” asked Drake.

An overhead picture of a small town at the edge of a forest appeared.  The forest was to the south of the town, while the other sides of the town were bordered by what looked like a patchwork of farms and fields for grazing animals.  The town was small, and Drake estimated its population at less than ten thousand people.

“Fiona, can you tell by looking at this, where your mother was last seen and where she regularly went when working in the forest?” asked Drake.

“There was a farmer here,” Fiona pointer to a field near the edge of the forest, who said he saw mom heading into the woods here.  This is on the path she usually takes to go into the woods.  You can’t see it from this overhead view, but she has a small research station about a kilometer into the forest, about here.” She said pointing to a spot a little way into the dense forest.

Drake couldn’t see anywhere nearby the indicated research station where the air-car could sit down.  So they’d have to walk into the thick woods to search the area.

“How far out does this forest extend?” Drake asked, intending for Samantha to answer the question.

But it was Fiona that said, “It goes on for about 1300 kilometers to the south where it fades into a grassland for another 600 kilometers, and then just a little further south is the Great Southern Desert.”

“Our town is really on the edge of know where.” complained the youth.

“Fiona, how old are you?” asked Drake.

“I told you yesterday, I’m 13 standard years old…  I know I should have been fledged already and not living in my mother’s nest.  But no one out here can take me on in service.  I think my mom made a mistake in bringing us out to this God forsaken planet, so she could spend all her time in the forest with the animals.” And with this last said, Fiona started crying.  Drake put an arm around her.  While trying to offer some comfort, he couldn’t help but wonder how he kept ending up in situations like this.

Drake knew that most of the girl’s complaints were from her anger and fear of losing her mother, but he also heard the frustrations of a young person who felt trapped by her circumstance and place in life.

Drake could offer no immediate help with the girl’s problems; he could only hope that they were able to discover something the previous searchers missed.

“Samantha, could you move the view a little to the south, and look for any openings nearer to where Fiona pointed to for the research station.” asked Drake.

Drake looked at the view for an opening he could sit the car down in.  He thought he found a spot and maybe something more.

“Samantha, is this a live view from the space station?” Drake hoped that it was current; it would mean he would have a real chance of finding Fiona’s mother.

“Yes, the search party requested a feed a few days ago, and this camera hasn’t yet been retasked.  So we’re getting a live area feed.”

“Good, can you focus in on this area?  Does this look like a small clearing, and do you think this looks like smoke?” Drake asked as the camera focused in on the area he had indicated.

“There’s a dark area there that might be a small clearing.  If that’s smoke, it’s a small fire, or we’d see it more clearly,” replied Samantha.

“Ok, take us to that spot and see if we can safely land there,” said Drake.

He got busy checking over his equipment.  He really missed having his scout gear right now.

Then he remembered Fiona.

“Fiona, when we land, remain in the air-car.” Drake directed. “And here, take this knife, just in case of trouble, but stay in the car.” Drake continued as he handed the girl his vibro-blade.

Drake hated giving up even the vibro-blade, but he really felt he shouldn’t have brought the girl out into the forest either.  But the lure of what might be a small fire was too strong an attraction for him to pass up.

They still had about a half-hour to wait while the air-car closed the distance.  Drake’s mind kept working on the possibilities.  Should he drop the girl off?  Could she help him identify her mother, if so what if she was dead, should Fiona be seeing her that way.

With nothing constructive to do, Drake finally decided to meditate and try to relax.  All the worries weren’t helping, and he had as many good reasons for bringing Fiona along as leaving her behind.  But Drake knew she wanted to be part of this, so he settled on taking her in with him.

For the next half an hour Drake meditated and tried to clear his mind of any doubts, and prepare himself to deal with whatever situation he might come across.

One stray thought did cross his mind, the fire might just be someone hunting or camping in the woods.  That was more likely than the hoped for discovery of Fiona’s mother.

After meditating for nearly a half hour, Drake started to get ready for the landing, when he realized he forgot to get one important piece of information.

“Fiona, what’s your mother’s name?”

“Amethyst, but everyone except me calls her Amy.” said the girl.

Just as the air-car came into view of the small clearing, Drake decided to leave his blaster carbine in the vehicle.  Carrying the weapon took both hands and limited his options.  If he were holding the carbine, it would take even longer for him to switch to using the stunner.

Drake had never yet had the need to use the carbine blaster outside of training.  He was beginning to wonder why he even brought it on trips like this.  It was more powerful, but it sent the message to anyone who saw him holding it that he meant dangerous business…

Drake thought,
‘Maybe that’s its best use, for those times when you had no options but to try to kill your enemy.’

Yet, Drake didn’t know what he would find when he left the car, and he wanted his options left open.  So, the carbine would be left in the air-car.

“Fiona, when we land please keep your head down.  I don’t know what to expect, but if I find your mother I’ll call for you. Can you do that for me?” Drake asked the girl.

He got a nod, the girl now seemed to be getting a little frightened.  Which Drake figured was because she was picking up on his worry for her, and just hoped she would be ok in the car. 

He didn’t like the feeling of this.  He seemed to keep walking into trouble only partly prepared; it would be nice to know what he was getting into for a change.

As the air-car descended into the clearing, Drake didn’t see any sign of people.  Even what he assumed was a small fire was still not visible through the trees.

The air-car stopped just above the ground, just brushing the tall grass of the clearing.

Drake opened his side door and exited the car.

He looked around and still didn’t see anyone.

Drake took a second to focus his mind and push out his psionic senses.  They still only reached just over six meters, but it was like having an extra set of eyes in a place like this.