Making the Grade (Omnia Online Series Book 2) (19 page)

Drake turned to Ash, “So are you with me for this final step, or do you want to escort this man clear, Ash?  If you decided to leave… listen if I don’t make it back, tell whoever’s in charge not to trust anything electronic that had a data connection, wired or wireless.”

Ash nodded, “Yeah, I’ll go, I need to find my commander and report.  Good luck.”

“See you on the other side, Ash,” said Drake.  He didn’t want to order Ash to back out, and by allowing him the choice, Drake felt a little less like a cheat.

If he made it through this alive and received a reward, he would then consider if Ash should have a share.  Reporting and escorting the technician gave Ash an easy escape, and Drake would not have to split his focus watching out for the guard too.

“Ok, I’m starting the distraction part; this is probably the best time to leave.” said Drake.

As the men left, Drake took out the two remote controls for the radios and turned them on.

Even from inside this room, Drake could hear the radios transmitting the sound of someone talking.

Drake then entered the room with the high explosive det-tape and timers. 

He reached out again with his senses to check one last time, before setting off the tape.  The room beyond the wall was still guarded by two droids in the room but only one guard outside the chamber.

Drake started the timers and hid behind the biggest piece of equipment he could find in the room.  He closed his faceplate to protect his face and ears from the coming blast. Then braced himself for the expected explosion, in just 20 more seconds the emergency department would have a new back door into the imaging department.

10 seconds.

5, 4, 3, 2…

Drake was braced for the blast, and behind cover, so he wasn’t affected.

With his Blaster at ready, Drake hurried to make his way into the new opening to the emergency departments offices before anyone moved to block his path.

Drake entered a room devastated by the explosion.  One of the droids was complexly smashed and the second took some damage, the office door had been blown outward, and the person on the far side turned out to be a female Human, who was starting to turn around despite being stunned by the blast.

Drake’s weapon was ready before the woman’s blaster could be brought to aim.  He fired twice at the woman, before shifting his aim to the still able droid.  The droid was turning around to bring the damaged limb that held a blaster pistol to point.  Drake fired twice into the droid too.

Drake’s two shots at the woman, hit her once in the right shoulder, and the second time in her left arm as she was turned by the first shot.

The working droid was hit at close range twice, the first shot breaking through its housing and doing severe damage.   Drake second shot must have hit its power pack since it caused the droid to explode.

By the time Drake recovered from the Droid’s explosion, the woman was also recovering from the two hits she’d taken and was starting to aim a blaster rifle in his direction.

Instead of taking a shot at the female Human, Drake dove for cover behind the A.I.s casing.

The woman managed to get off a shot that hit Drake on the right side, just below his ribs, as he dove for cover.

Drake didn’t know if the A.I. was functional since it had taken some damage from the blast.

As Drake started to recover from his dive and being shot, in his attempt to avoid fire, he heard a panicked yell coming from the direction of his assailant.

Drake realized that his being so close to the A.I., and using it for cover might have caused the woman to panic.  Drake readied his blaster carbine, and when the women came running around to get him away from the A.I., he started firing before she had a chance.

Drake fired four times at the charging woman, hitting her center mass with three shots but missing her with his last shot, as she fell to the ground.

Just to be sure, Drake shot her one last time in the head.  Which with as powerful a weapon as the carbine, it did noticeable damage, and Drake was sure she wouldn’t be getting up.

Drake quickly disconnected the wires the A.I. had plugged into the data port and the power. 

Drake knew he only had seconds before the rest of the A.I.’s team came looking for him.  Drake calculated that with four dead, and any droids out of the fight now that the A.I. was disconnected, there would be only two or maybe three left out there to deal with.

Since Drake didn’t know how many of the A.I.’s servants might have been killed taking the hospital’s emergency room, he really had no idea of how many were left.  The only thing he was sure of was that he sensed one more person, before the distractions kicked in.

Drake didn’t have any tools to open the A.I.’s metal case with, to get inside and make sure it was dead.

Drake grabbed the rifle the female dwarf dropped and started using the weapon to fire at the big metal box.

After a few shots, Drake figured that he was not going to be able to just blast through the A.I.’s outer shell.

Therefore, Drake retreated through the hole he blew into the wall less than a minute ago. He then took cover behind some equipment and waited for a response.

Drake heard some movement from just beyond his sight, and past the shattered office door.

“Your ‘master’ is dead, the A.I. has been destroyed, and you’re too late.  Give up now if you want to live,” shouted Drake. He hoped that if the brainwashed followers of the A.I. thought he was dead, they might give up now that it was too late.

“No!” came back an angry shout, “The Great Arhat is immortal and has slept for two thousand years awaiting us.  The master can never die,
you lie
!”

Then a male Sebek and a male Human charged into the A.I.’s room.  Drake started firing as soon as he had a target.  These last two didn’t make it through the chamber.  Drake took them down while shooting from cover, and with all the debris from the wall, droids, as well as their dead companion, it was hard for the last two followers to move or shoot.

It saddened Drake to kill these two people since they were more than just programmed tools of the A.I., they were people that might have been recovered with proper care.  But they were extremely dangerous since their conditioning also somehow enabled them to absorb so much damage and continue to fight.

For Drake, this was a game, but he would wonder for some time after if he could have saved these last two had he used the stun gun.  This was especially true the few times he met any of their relatives. 

People or code, did it matter that the feelings were based on programming if hurt so much?  When the living had to build a new life from the one with a person-shaped hole in it?

After killing what, Drake now believed to be the last of the A.I. servants.  Drake started looking for a way to destroy the A.I. for certain.  He had no tools, but he finally came up with something that might work.

Drake found some air vents on one side of the box, and loaded his stun gun with a fresh set of electric stun darts.  Then he plugged the A.I. into the power socket one last time and started shooting darts into the vent.

With each shot, he could hear some sparks going off inside the box.  On the third shot, the box started smoking; the fourth shot caused even more smoke.  By the time Drake had unloaded the full clip into the box, there was a fully evolved electrical fire burning.

Drake unplugged the box and left the room to try to find something to use to contain the flames.

The after battle cleanup would take days, weeks or for a few people years.

Before Drake could find a method of extinguishing the flames, he discovered the rooms where the ‘Great Arhat’ confined all the people it had captured.

Drake found about sixty people confined to the first three rooms in the office area.  He imagined that the reason they were restricted to the front offices was so they could serve as a living shield at need.

The confined groups of people included three security guards and a lot of the hospital emergency room staff.

After releasing a few, he gave the work over to a couple of the guards and asked the third to help him contain the fire he started.

The fire extinguishers produced foam that quickly reduced the flames.  They had to feed the foam into the same air vents Drake had shot through, to put out the fire inside the A.I.’s shell.

With the fire contained and the captives released, Drake made an excuse to the guard helping him fight the fire, and left the area.

He figured that the hospital staff and the security guards were the real experts to deal with the mess
,
at this point.

Later he would learn that when he unplugged the A.I., the 19 people subjected to strenuous mental conditioning were left locked in the medical pods unconscious.  The A.I. had to overwrite many of the functions and limits built into the medical pods, so when the victims were released, they needed to be moved to other areas of the hospital for treatment.

***

Drake found getting back to the High Jinx to be a challenge in a city where all the public transportation had been shut down.

He would have to think about getting his own transportation that was hardened against hacking.  He imagined the cities systems were protected, but they just couldn’t stand up to this level of threat.

Drake started to head back to his rented air-car when Samantha gave him some bad news.

“Drake, if you’re heading back to the air-car, you should reconsider.  Hitting the emergency shut off will leave the vehicle grounded until a technician can come out and reset the system,” said Samantha.

“So can you call a cab or something?” asked Drake.

“No, sorry, most of the cities services have been severely disrupted by the ‘Great Arhat.’  The data-net is just starting to recover, but many of the officials took flight with the Governor when we called in the alarm and are still on their way to the space station.” said Samantha.

“Without the missing leadership, some of the cities systems are going to take more time recovering.  It’s not helped by the fact that all communications with the spaceships and the space station have been cut off.  It might take some time to get the word out that the A.I. is dead.” Samantha continued.

“So what do you suggest we do to get back to the spaceport… wait a second, didn’t you say that all the space ships lifted from the spaceport?  Did that include High Jinx?” asked Drake.

“Yes, there’s a part of me that’s controlling the High Jinx.  I’m trying to reconnect with that part of me right now.  It seems that I’m suspicious of myself, so the part of me in control of the spaceship is waiting for some sort of third party verification before it tries to open its comms here in Omnia or land,” said a frustrated Samantha.

Drake couldn’t help but break up laughing at the thought of his A.I. getting frustrated by arguing with her split personality.

After a few minutes of laughing, Drake felt a lot better.  This whole night had been a constant buildup of stresses for him.

“It’s ok, Samantha.  There’s no point in rushing back to the spaceport if the High Jinx has flown the coop.  How about we head to the Guild Hall?  Can you connect to them and get me a room for…  I guess most of the night is shot.  How about renting a room for a few days?  Where is the Hall from here?” asked Drake.

“I’m trying to connect to the Guild Hall Services… Their network is still offline; it’s probable that they were targeted by the A.I. as a threat.  The Guild Hall is about seven and a half kilometers to your northeast.  I’ll continue to try making a connection and inform you when I’m able.  I’m also monitoring the tube-way system to see when they come online, but I expect that you can make it there on foot before it does,” said Samantha.

Drake felt nearly exhausted, and still hurt from the gunshots he’d taken, so he wasn’t about to try jogging.  He started to limp his way toward to the Guild Hall.

About an hour later when Drake was almost half way to the Guild Hall, Samantha informed him that she’d managed to rent him a room for the next couple days.  She also registered the job as complete.  The guild would have to review this night’s activities before it would pay out for the assignment.

It was another thirty minutes before Samantha informed him that she notified the militia about the wrecked ship in the forest, and the people the A.I. left out there when it tried to make it to the spaceport.

Therefore, by the time an exhausted Drake finally made it to the Guild Hall, other people were taking over sorting out the night's mess.

Drake went up to his rented room.

“Samantha, did you tell Fiona that she wouldn’t be able to work this morning?” asked Drake.

It was still a few hours until dawn, but it was better to let Fiona know that the ship wouldn’t be there, as soon as possible.

“Since I’m in connection again with her data-pad, I’ll let her know as soon as she wakes up.” said Samantha.

Drake said, “It’s stuff like this that I love about you, Sam.”

Drake ate one of his meal bars from his pack and drank some water.  Then he laid down on the bed and logged out of Omnia.

***

Kevin noticed an immediate difference after logging out.  His body in his virtual home wasn’t damage and healing from blaster wounds but was only tired from staying up late, not exhausted from all the night's work.

So feeling better and more relaxed, he went to find his bed…  And found a surprise.

Samantha lay in his bed, but she was different.  She had fuzzy cat-like ears and a tail…

Samantha looked at him with eyes bigger than he was used to; she looked like an anime character.

“Welcome home Kevin…” said the sexy minx, “I found this in the memories of your dreams, do you like it?”

Kevin was embarrassed for a moment. 

When he was about twelve, he had some erotic dreams featuring a feline female.  It had been an embarrassing time in his life.  Which in many ways, he did not want to think about.

But on the already sexy Samantha… “Yes, you look different,” Kevin said, as he undressed and start to climb into bed.  “Come here, love, let me take a look at that tail.”

Kevin found that he had more energy than he expected, but after a long and delightful exploration was over, he cuddled up with Samantha and dropped on into a dreamless sleep.

Kevin would realize sometime in the next few days, just how much Samantha’s timely change had distracted him from his thoughts about that night's previous stresses.  In this, Kevin would find another reason to love this artificial girl of his dreams.