Making the Grade (Omnia Online Series Book 2)

This book is the sequel to Omnia Online Book 1. I wrote this book with the assumption you’ve read book 1, but I still tried to make it readable as a stand alone novel. It’s my hope you enjoy the story, and the best way is in order.

While writing this book, there were many times when the main character would find himself dealing with either an Elf or Dwarf where I took the liberty of referring to them as a man or woman. It seemed to me that this would be correct since they are all considered descendants and variations of humanity in the Omnia Universe.

So please be aware, as you read the book that the main character will refer to any descendants of humanity as men and women at times.

Prologue – The Man with a Plan

Earth one week into Omnia Alpha Test…

James Renfew took a break from looking at the reports. The first week’s activities by the alpha test group for the Earth Omnia Project were logged for his review, almost a whole month at the four to one time compression used in Omnia. There were a thousand players in the alpha test group, and even though they’d been picked from the most elite of Earth’s online role players, it felt like 90% of the group’s activities were not worth the time he spent reading about them.

He knew better than to expect anything dramatic in such a short period, but this project was vital to him, and since it was so important he’d let his expectations grow.

James looked out of his window, the view over the Waterfront Park, and the Willamette River from his office was amazingly beautiful today.

James sighed; he loved Earth, there was something about the sky, the birds, and everything that felt more like home to him than any other planet he had ever been on. Most human planets seemed to share a similar biota.

James knew that sometime in the past, beyond any known history, many of the worlds in this part of the galaxy had extinction events, and they’d all been seeded with biota similar to that of Earth. In the Imperium today, such a massive killing of so many unique life forms on so many worlds would be a crime and a tragedy, but who knows what purpose drove those long-dead peoples to such an extreme action.

The net outcome of the event were hundreds of worlds, spread out through the vastness of space compatible with human life, or that could be changed to become human habitats.

But Earth was unique for James, not because it was special, but because he was from Earth himself.

The Imperial Department of Cultural Development didn’t send people with families to monitor worlds protected under the Imperial Cultural Protection Act. They felt that putting children on a world like Earth, and asking them to keep the world’s biggest secret, was too much of a risk.

The Department was responsible for allowing and encouraging the social, economic, and technological growth of planets like Earth, but history had demonstrated that revealing the existence of galactic civilization too early to a world unprepared could lead to disaster.

People needed to believe in their own importance in the universe. If someone just gave a culture all the benefits of an advanced society, without allowing them to feel that they earned it themselves… History had shown that such kindness was the worst sort of cruelty. It somehow destroys a culture's sense of self-worth, and that can be frighteningly devastating when it’s done on a planetary level. The Imperium had a few cases in its history where such worlds exported their troubles to other planets, and it took the local galactic society hundreds of years to finally resolve the many social issues that resulted.

So, their solution was to send single men and women, who closely matched the local genetic type. In other words, they sent Humans to Human worlds, Dwarves to Dwarve
n
worlds, and Elves to Elve
n
worlds. However, single men and women, still fall in love and have families of their own in time.

This is how James Renfew, who was both a citizen of Earth and the Imperium of Sentient Planets, came to be born. His father was assigned to a long-term observation mission on Earth, and he met James mother here. Over the course of time, James was born. James mother learned the truth about the Imperium, while on her surprisingly distant honeymoon.

James had only learned the full truth at the age of fifteen. It was on his birthday that his father finally considered James trustworthy enough to be able to maintain the secret while keeping his friends ignorant. It was something that he managed, but it had a personal cost. James found it difficult to build stable relationships when he had so much to hide.

James had always stood out in his primary and secondary school classes. He was smarter, more athletic, and more charismatic than the rest of his classmates and learning was easy for him.

James didn’t understand until he was fifteen that the reason for this difference was the genetic treatments he received while still a baby.

When James learned why he was so different, why he stood out so much, he didn’t feel superior… He felt sad. All his friends, his schoolmates, and the whole world’s population were less than they could be. He felt that this was wrong, so fundamentally wrong that it had to change. Yet he also learned the history, the reasons why the rules existed, and eventually came to agree. But at that point in his life, he found in himself something new… a cause to fight for. He would find a way to change the status quo, not just for his friends or his schoolmates in the Melbourne school he attended, but also for the whole world.

James father looked for a way to introduce his son to Galactic society, while he was still on Earth. After a bit of research and thought, he decided to introduce his son to the Omnia Virtual Worlds game. Intelecom Industries Omnia Virtual Worlds game was closer than any other to representing the reality of the Imperium.

The main differences between the game and the true Imperium were that the game allowed players greater access to weapons, and a lot more in the way of conflicts, and of course the clone revival system. Weapons ranged from personal arms all the way up to ship killer missiles. Of course, Omnia created much more conflict and opportunity for adventure then the real known galaxy offered.

Over the progression of the game’s first 17 years of Omnia history, player’s actions had changed some of the virtualized planets. Those planets no longer were a perfect match to their Imperium counterparts, but the society was still the same.

Omnia was immensely popular with many of the young folk in the Imperium, who saw it as being more fun than real life.

James’s Father saw it as a great learning platform for his son. While James loved the game, he didn’t forget his new cause. When James eventually left Earth to get an Imperial level university education, he had a plan. James would get a job at the same Department of Cultural Development that his dad worked for, and he would in time propose his plan. James plan would harness a game like Omnia to elevate the people of Earth, to bring them into a mindset and level of technology that would accelerate the time for Earth and planets like it to be invited into the Imperium, as a full member of a much larger society.

And in time he did make his proposal.

As a result, he now sat at this desk looking at some very boring reports. His job was now the monitoring of Intelecom’s implementation of his plan for Earth for the Imperial Department of Cultural Development.

Intelecom had agreed to release a sandbox version of the Omnia Virtual Worlds game here on Earth. This version was the same as the one played by the citizens of the Imperium, but separate until Earth humans could be brought up to speed with galactic society. Then the Earth Omnia would be merged into the one played by Imperium citizens.

The only parts of the game shared between Earth’s Omnia Online and the Imperium’s Omnia Virtual Worlds would be the economy and planetary developments. The artificial intelligences (A.I.s) that managed Omnia would ensure that the history of the parallel games continued to match.

One benefit of a shared economy was that people on Earth could earn real Imperial credits. The Omnia and Imperial credits traded at 10 to 1, so ten game credits were worth one real Imperial credit. This was market driven, but the A.I.s knew what it took to manage the virtual markets to maintain the balance.

In theory, once the game was in full release on Earth; in about six months, people could trade Earth currency for Omnia credits, then Omnia credits for the real thing. This would not happen since they wouldn’t yet know that there was a real Imperium yet. In time, though, it could turn out to be Earth’s first step in earning off planet wealth.

Still looking out the windows on the world he loved James got back to work; “Matilda can you please sort through these reports, and just give me the ones you think need my attention…?”

Chapter 1 – On a Mission

A week later…

“Sir,” James’ A.I. interrupted his thoughts, as he was once again looking out the window of his office at the river. Maybe having an office with such a beautiful view wasn’t such a good idea, since he seemed to spend a lot of time looking outside and thinking.

“
Yes, Matilda?” he asked.

“You wanted to be informed about any unusual events dealing with subject U138.”

“Matilda, you know I’m no good at remembering all the number codes the Department is so fond of hanging on every person, place, and thing.” He knew, she knew, he disliked the level of bureaucracy all the codes entailed. But for Matilda, using the code number was just another way to tease him out of his current mood… It had taken him years to learn all the tricks she used to keep him sane, and he loved her even when she was irritating.

But the Department took its numbers and codes a bit too far for James liking. They seemed to want to reduce people to just a set of figures that could neatly fit into their files. The whole mentality was irritating, and he wondered if it was a mark of the eventual decline of the Imperium. Having grown up on Earth, he learned of the cycles of dynasties that China went through, and couldn’t help to wonder how many more thousands of years the Imperium would last.

“You might remember subject U138 as Kevin Asharic, who plays the character Horatio Drake in Omnia. His A.I. has put in a request for a lifting of restrictions on sharing information. She feels that to further his training in some technical matters, he’ll need to be allowed to experiment in real life. She’s asking for permission to recreate the Kinzigur experiments under laboratory conditions.”

The name sounded familiar… “Remind me, Matilda, who was Kinzigur again?” asked James.

“He was one of the earlier researchers into hyper-field theory, or as he preferred to call it at the time Supra-Spacial theory. And he was able to develop some experiments back in 546 P.I. proving the existence of fifth-dimensional space.”

“Oh, right, the Pre-Imperia scientist, I remember reading about him in history. So what do you think Matilda? Would allowing this information out, hurt or help our efforts in bring Earth up to speed?” he asked his A.I.

“The experiments are barely within the ability of a few Universities to perform. They’d need access to vacuum, either out in space or in a chamber and have the tools on hand to conduct experiments using superconductive high energy devices, which could be hard to manufacture. We could make it a lot easier by providing a high power superconductive coil for the experiments, but that might violate the bounds of our project.” answered Matilda.

James nodded in thought for a few minutes. “Maybe not, we could have a subsidiary of Intelecom put a bid in on manufacturing the coil. I agree with the terms of the project, the people of Earth need to feel that they’re making advances on their own terms. But if they put the part out to bid, we might be able to help without bringing notice to ourselves, but do we even want to approve the release, to begin with?”

Matilda responded, “Well, it would be an Earth Human making the information known, which is part of the idea behind the project, right? But it would have to be done in a way that didn’t lead directly back to the project or Intelecom.”

“Ok, give it my approval, just insist on anonymity. The release can be attributed to Kinzigur, but that in its self is a form of anonymity in a world where our history is unknown,” said James.

“How is Mr. Asharic doing otherwise? I haven’t heard anything about him since his explosive start in Omnia.” He asked.

“Based on his request for skill books, he’s been busy learning; nothing important to report otherwise,” replied Matilda.

“Good, is there anything else I need to know?” James asked instead.

“Most players are just starting to make headway in the game. But I’ve been monitoring a disturbing trend…”

***

Kevin could hear the wind blowing through the leaves in the darkness of the night behind him. He could feel the cold air as it found its way through his stealth armor as he laid down at the edge of the compound, and watched the guards make their rotation.

The plan was simple; sneak into the research lab and get proof that they were designing a bio-weapon, then escape to return the evidence to his employers.

The problem was, there was nothing easy in its execution. First, the lab was in a restricted area, second, it had around the clock security guarding its perimeter, and third, to get in he would have to get past the electronic lock on the building's door.

The only way in was to cross twenty kilometers of land that was restricted and patrolled by the military, on foot and at night in order not to be spotted. Then get in, get the proof, and escape out of the zone before dawn.

Even with the night, making his way through twenty kilometers of forest, hills, streams, and rivers, would have been impossible for him without all the physical training he’d been through in the last six weeks.

It helped that it was winter in this part of the planet of Baldarick, which gave Kevin some hope at first of being able to complete the mission in one night. But on further study, Kevin decided that he just didn’t have enough information about the research compound. No matter what plan Kevin came up with, he just couldn’t find a way to complete the mission in one night.

So he changed the plan.

He was given no information on the compound he was supposed to assault, so he first took a night to scout out the site, watch the patterns of the security patrols, and try to discover the function of each of the five main buildings in the compound.

Over that first night, Kevin scouted the complex slowly and carefully from the outside.

He noticed that one of the buildings vented steam into the night’s air, and was rarely approached, and then only approached by people dressed like maintenance personnel. Kevin’s guess was that this was the services and maintenance building, which served to supply cleaning, repair, and utility services to the rest of the buildings.

A second was used for vehicle and bus storage. Everyone who worked at this location was bussed in from a remote parking area as part of the security.

The remaining three buildings proved to be the test facility, the research lab, and the guard’s barracks. The barracks served double duty as a temporary holding place for the test subjects.

Kevin had listened into a conversation between an older guard and someone new, describing the ‘services’ the guards routinely demanded from the political prisoners before they were sent to the testing center. Since the trip to the bio-weapons testing center was one-way only, the guards felt they could do whatever they wanted with the prisoners, with no fear of repercussions.

The whole conversation seemed to disturb the new guard, but he said nothing at the older man’s boasting. Kevin who had to lay quietly in waiting was sickened at the man’s lack of humanity. He wondered if the man was posted here because he was a degenerate, or if he had become that way through having watched so many of the test subjects dying in gruesome ways. Did he ever have a sense of humanity, or was it ground away with each passing victim he took to the weapon testing facility.

The briefing Kevin had on the government of Baldarick reminded him of some of Earth’s most dictatorial and despotic regimes. Places like North Korea where any dissent was cause for being ‘disappeared’ into political re-education and work camps.

Kevin wished he could do something to help the prisoners, but a whole world’s future depended on him successfully completing this mission.

The only thing that made this job possible at all was the fact that the people running this research lab had gone to extreme lengths to keep it off the data-net. So there was no automated security, just a lot of the old-fashioned, human-driven kinds.

By the end of the first night Kevin had a plan that he hoped might work, he felt it was still a long shot. To Kevin, the weak point of the compound was the maintenance building. It was close to the edge of the perimeter and seemed to have the lowest security. But he thought that there must be some access from there to the other buildings in the compound, some way for power and water to be distributed.

Since Kevin had planned on a multi-day mission, he came prepared to wait out the daylight hours. He packed in a mummy bag and breathing system, that was designed to allow him to hide buried beneath thirty to forty centimeters of earth for the day.

Before dawn, Kevin found a small depression outside the compound, and dug a shallow trench, then buried the mummy bag in the dirt and leaves. The bag was three meters long, and once the whole thing was buried in dirt and leaves, only one end was exposed. Kevin climbed into the open end of the long bag. He pushed his feet down into the slick material, forcing the ground to make room. Once he was at the bottom of the bag and underground, he then pulled the open end down below the surface.

This hiding system came with a rebreather that Kevin could use for up to twenty-four hours. But he only needed fourteen hours for the sun to pass. Kevin did his best to sleep through the day. The pressure of the ground around him made his sleep fitful and uncomfortable. The best he could do for most of the day was just to try to meditate and focus on relaxing.

If Kevin had been claustrophobic, this plan wouldn’t have worked. But he made it through the day, and getting out of his hiding spot was much easier than going in.

Kevin had snuck up as close to the building as he dared, and was now waiting for the guard who was responsible for patrolling this side of the maintenance building to pass him by.

Kevin’s heart was racing as the guard approached his position. He didn’t think he would have had a chance to hide undetected without his armor’s ability to blend into the background. Still, he’d selected the part of the building that was closest to the perimeter. As Kevin waited, he laid low in the long grass of a small ditch, as the guard walked by no more than five meters away.

The guard turned the corner and started to walk away.

Kevin stood up and did his best to sneak up behind the alert man. This was the risky part of this phase of the plan… He was just a meter away from the man when something must have alerted the guard to his presence. Kevin was watching the guard carefully as he tried to sneak up on him, so when the guard started to turn to look behind him, Kevin sprang forward and in a rush tackled him.

As soon as Kevin had his arms around the guard, he squeezed the trigger on the stunner in his right hand. Kevin felt a jolt of electricity as some of the charge managed to pass through both the guard and his own armor. It was enough to make his nerves jump at the spike of energy.

The guard was now limp. The stunned man would be out for the next five to ten minutes.

Kevin took the guard's company badge from around his neck and pulled him over to the door. Once at the door, he propped the man up against the door for a minute. Then he placed the guard’s left hand over the door’s sensor plate and swiped the employee card passed the I.D. reader at the same time. There was a click from the door.

Kevin hurried to drop the man’s body and reach past him to open the door.

He dragged the stunned guard into the building and shut the door behind him.

Kevin found himself in a stairwell. It continued to surprise Kevin when he found something so low tech in a game where you're surrounded with so much advance technology. But he figured that the A.I. that made this game must have realized that emergencies often mean no power, which meant there were stairs.

Kevin took a set of restraints out of his backpack and secured the still unconscious guard to the hand rail. He then pulled out an injector from the same pack and gave the guard a shot that would keep him out for the next few hours.

He didn’t know when the guard would be missed, so the clock to his discovery had just started.

One of the stairs led down, which had been what Kevin had hoped for.

Kevin stretched out his growing psionic senses. He descended the stairs with his senses pushed to their limit, as well as his eyes, and his helmet's sensors. He didn’t find any cameras or sensors that might give away his presence.

The stairs only went down one level.

When Kevin reached the bottom, he looked for any signs that the door was wired for security. He could see nothing on this side of the door, or through his helmet's sensors.

He then reached out with his psionic senses… there was something… something at the top right corner of the door. He could sense it there, but he’d yet to develop enough sensitivity to ‘see’ fine details.

He looked through his backpack for something that might help… He had a door bumper, for breaking into regular electronic locks, or he could try using his stunner to fry the electronics on the other side of the door… If what he sensed at the top of the door was a lock, the bumper would work, but if it were a sensor, the bumper would set off an alarm. If he tried to hit the spot with a jolt from the stunner, it might fry a sensor, but would set off an alarm if it were a lock… He wished he had something he could use to look through the door jam and see, like some sort of fiber optic camera.

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