Omnia Online (Omnia Online Series Book 1)

by Christopher Booth

  “There are many who would say, but this is a game where people should be allowed to blow off steam and enjoy doing something they would not be able to do in real life. But this is one of the reasons Omnia is so popular in our society, the virtual worlds where players can do anything they want with no consequences, lead to the self-destruction of those games from the players themselves. There is little fun in being in a game where after spending months building something worthwhile, when some player in a ship can drop a nuke on the city you live in, with no real consequences.”

  “But a more important point to consider is sociologists and psychologists long ago discovered that someone who wants to play a thief in a game world has a repressed desire to be a thief in real life. Would you trust a person with the depressed desire to be a thief with access to your bank account?”

  “So, players of Omnia Virtual Worlds have agreed in their own user's agreements to tie their virtual world’s behavior into a game based trust index. And there are data merchants in Omnia, just like there are those in the real Imperium that gathers and repackages such information for both players in the game, and to resale outside the game.”

  ***

  Drake (aka Kevin) woke up to the sound of an alarm. The sound was like five out of tune bagpipes blowing in his ears.

  He woke up in a small bunk bed, in an unfamiliar and very small room. The room contained five other bunk beds in stacks of three. All the other beds were empty.

  The alarm paused for a second, just long enough for a recorded voice to say; “Abandon ship, abandon ship, this is not a drill, please proceed to your assigned escape pod immediately.”

  “What…” said Drake. The alarm continued to sound in the background.

  “Sam, are you there?”

  “I’m with you, Drake.” He heard her voice coming from a bracer like device attached to his wrist.

  Drake took stock of his current situation. He was dressed in a light green loose fitting gown, kind of like a hospital patient gown, except that it was closed at the back and not tied. Besides underwear and the A.I. bracer, he had nothing else.

  All the sudden there was a bang, followed by the alarm going out and a new message. “Air breach detected, air breach detected…”

  “Sam, what do I do?”

  “Drake, look for a cabinet with a red circle on the door, with a stick figure man in the circle. I’m trying to connect to the ship, and download an emergency floor plan and evacuation route.”

  After a short time looking around the room, Drake finally found the cabinet near the door hatch. Inside the cabinet were six rolled bundles of yellow material with a metal cylinder attached to each bundle.

  “These are emergency pressure suits, take one out and press the yellow button,” said Samantha

  Drake followed her directions, a yellow light started flashing from what he now figure to be an air tank. He reported the yellow light indicator to Samantha, asking her what it meant.

  “That’s bad. Yellow is bad, and red is very bad. Try to find one with at least one green light.” said Samantha.

  After checking the remaining five suits, Drake found only two with green lights. One had 1 green light, the other had three.

  “How many green lights should there be?”

  “There should be five green lights on all of them. Someone failed to recharge the suits. Serviced often, the suits should be in better shape… it should take years for them to degrade this much. Put on the one with three lights, but keep the other with you just in case.”

  Drake followed Sam’s direction on how to put on the suit, check the seal and start the air flowing. He also found a bag; some sort of emergency first aid kit that seemed ransacked, and put the second suit in the bag.

  “Do you have any idea how much time we have, where an escape pod is and is there any time to grab any supplies? If the emergency suits are this bad, how are the pods…? ” said Drake.

  “I’ve connected to the ship. It appears to be under attack by pirates. There is a nearby planet and on our current course we will hit the atmosphere in less than twelve minutes.” Sam’s voice now seemed to come from the suit. Drake figured she made some sort of connection to the suit.

  “There is a bank of escape pods to the starboard, about two minutes travel away. The ship records show the crew checked off on servicing the escape pods… but the same records make the same claim about the suits.” said Samantha.

  “Poor records, poor maintenance, how did I get on this ship… Oh, right… I selected very hard… Is there any way to get some tools, a gun anything before I risk the escape pod?” asked Drake as he left the room.

  “This is not a military ship, so there is no armory. But the escape pods should each have an emergency kit with basic tools for planetary survival, but probably not a gun,” said Samantha.

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  “Is there a kitchen nearby, maybe I can get a knife and some food?”

  “Yes down the passageway on your left.”

  Drake started running down the corridors, following Samantha’s directions and about 45 seconds later found the mess. From there he found the kitchen and it was a disaster, cooking sheets, pots and pans scattered everywhere, along with food and cooking utensils. There was also a man with a knife in his chest. Drake checked but found no pulse.

  Having not yet found a knife, he yanked this one from the man’s chest, and wiped it on what he imagined was the cook's outfit.

  Not having more time to look around Drake grabbed the first item of food that looked like it would last a few days. There was an open case of what looked like crackers. He quickly shoved two of the boxes in his bag. Then he left the mess, with the knife in his right hand and the bag in his left.

  While running down the corridors to the escape pods, he asked Samantha it there would be a way to self-test the escape pods when he got there.

  When Drake reached the escape room, he found four remaining pods; in a bank that would have held 20 when full. He ran to each to start them running their self-tests. Only one of the pods gave something better than flashing red lights, and that pod still had systems showing in the yellow.

  With about six minutes left, Drake searched both the red lined pods for any emergency supplies and tossed everything into his escape pod with the bag he was carrying.

  With less than four minutes left he hit the eject button on the pod… nothing happened.

  “Sam, do you have any information on how I can override the eject system?” asked Drake.

  “Hold up your wrist so my camera can see the area around the door, so I can see what type of escape pod this is.”

  “It says Lantillian ShipWrights EP1.5 two man max.” said Drake.

  “Damn,” said Samantha, “These Lantillian pods were recalled years ago. I’m establishing a link to the pod; see if you can find a screwdriver… Ok, I’m linked. There is no computer over-ride. But there is a way to by-pass it. Try to secure everything that might be loose.

  In one of the emergency kits, Drake found something that looked like a screwdriver and a roll of what looked like duct tape. (Space tape, don’t leave planet without some.)

  He quickly shoved everything he could, including the knife, in the bin under the two seats, then tossed the rest into the second chair and taped it down. He then turned to the panel above the eject button and found it only secured with one screw. Grrr… He thought as he opened the panel. ‘Poor maintenance, poor records, recalled pods and loose panels. Someone should have shot these clowns before the Pirates had the chance.’

  “The panel is open, what now?”

  “You should see a yellow wire with red stripes and a green one with white markings. Those connect with the explosive bolts. Give those a hard pull in the upward direction. Don’t cross the wires.”

  Drake pulled the yellow wire, which came out easily, but he had to pull the green wire hard twice before it came loose. He reported his progress.

  The whole ship started to
shake.

  “We’re out of time, sit down, strap in and cross the wires.”

  Drake clipped the seat harness over himself and crossed the wires.

  There was an explosion behind him, and then his survival suit inflated. Then as the pod exploded from the ship it slammed right into the atmosphere of the planet. At some point in this process, Drake’s world went dark.

  Chapter 6 – Picking up the Pieces

  “Since you only asked for a brief outline of the proposed project I will finish with this point.”

  “The process of learning in a virtual environment is one of total immersion, which any teacher of a complex subject will tell you is the fastest way to learn new skills.”

  “The players of Omnia will be fully immersed in galactic society, both our customs and technology. I expect players will learn to operate in our society at least ten times as fast as someone taking a class would, even faster since all players experience the game at 4 times the speed of reality. In just three months new Earth Human players will live a full virtual year, training in how to be productive members of the Imperium of Sentients.”

  ***

  The second time Drake woke up in Omnia Online, he was in a world of pain.

  For a couple seconds he couldn’t breathe, but just as he was starting to panic, he caught a short breath and screamed it right back out from the pain in his chest.

  He took another breath.

  “Sam?” he called weakly.

  “Good you’re awake. Your biometrics indicate that you have two fractured ribs, a broken right humerus, and some internal bleeding.”

  “What happened?” Asked Drake, grateful that he was at least not upside down in his chair, but the steep angle of the pod floor suggested they had landed while he was out. ‘Hey, any landing you can crawl away from.’ thought Drake.

  “Well, I have good news and bad. The good news is that we’ve landed on a planet in one piece… mostly. The bad… you took a beating when the pod launched and again as we landed. The engines cut out while we were still seven meters up. Since the fuel gauge is one of the parts of this heap that was none functional, it’s likely we ran dry on fuel.”

  “Can we send an emergency signal?”

  “This pod is unable to send a signal. Maybe you can look at it, after you see to your injuries, and before you pass out from internal bleeding.”

  Drake felt like yelling at someone, maybe killing some others, but not until he did something for his ribs. Every breath was like a stab in the side.

  Drake carefully released his harness with his left arm. He then reached into the compartment under the seats and started pulling out supplies.

  Following Samantha’s directions, he first found some pain relievers and a pouch of water. The pain medicine was the non-narcotic, almost useless kind. If the kits had any good stuff, it had long ago been looted.

  The first and most painful part of Drake’s self-repair was removing his survival suit.

  “Samantha, can you tell if this planet's air is breathable?”

  “Your suit and the escape pods life support both read the air as being safe for Humans.”

  Removing the suit was painful and left Drake with only the light green hospital gown for clothing.

  Drake recovered his knife and cut loose the gear in the second seat. After searching through all the packs, he was able to find two packs of 24-hour emergency medical nanite booster injectors.

  “Nanite boosters? Don’t I need nanites for these to work?”

  “Nanite controller implants are standard for any citizen of the Imperium. They are small devices about the size of a grain of rice. Once it’s injected they build and control the nanites in your body. They help with healing and fighting diseases.”

  “Think of it as a game mechanic that explains accelerated healing. It also accelerates the rate your muscles recover from stress.”

  “So what are these boosters then?”

  “The booster provides resources and energy for your nanite-pack to work with. So they don’t have to draw as much from you, and are able to work faster.”

  After about 15 minutes the pills had taken the edge off his pain, and he managed to splint and fit a sling for his right arm, while the nanites went to work.

  Now Drake started to focus on what he would need to live through the next 24 hours, while his nanites worked. According to Samantha, they would mend the internal bleeding first and then work on soft tissue and bone, and the less he moved, the better they would work. He should be able to use his arm again after about a day of accelerated healing…

  One problem Drake noticed right away was that the escape pod had no hatch. It never closed, that would have been part of the normal auto eject, but blowing the bolts left it open, and it was torn loose at some point.

  The hatch opening ended half embedded in the ground, so there was just a little crawl space to get out of. But there was no easy way to secure the pod from predators.

  While the meds worked, Drake started sorting through his gear with an eye to defense.

  He didn’t find any weapons, only the knife he took from the ship’s mess.

  “Samantha, is there any way to identify weapons and items, which would show their stats?”

  “I have a database of the common and uncommon items in the game. Would you like information on the kitchen knife?”

  “Yes please,” said Drake. He held up the knife for Samantha to scan. A screen on Samantha’s Bracer displayed:

  Victorvix Steel Chef Knife

  Type: Small Blade

  Damage: 11

  Durability: 28

  “What happened to the blue screens that you used in my virtual home, Sam?”

  “The game limits me to the features of the bracer; I’ll need a holographic projector to display popup screens here in Omnia.”

  ‘Back to survival, I have food, water, medical supplies and even shelter. I should be glad right?’ thought Drake.

  “By the way, Samantha, don’t you have your own radio?”

  “No, this wristband is only capable of local connections. Once we get to civilization, I’ll be able to connect to the local grid. You might also consider upgrading this unit with sensors and longer range comms.”

  “Do we know what planet this is?”

  “I was able to gather some information while connected to the freighter. The Planet we’re on is named Hassan, and the freighter Fyffes Swiftstar was making a scheduled stop to unload passengers and goods. The data I have on Imperium planets list Hassan as a new colony world, with a population of just over two million people. I’m sure they’re looking for survivors, but they might have trouble finding us. I couldn’t find a clearing to land us, so we came down in a forested area.”

  “So there is a high chance of there being people who can rescue us if we get the beacon working?”

  “That or the pirates.” said Samantha.

  “Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine today, Sam?” Drake grinned for the first time that day.

  “What can you tell me about the pirates?”

  “Based on the scans from the Fyffes Swiftstar their ship was a Nelta 34 Light Freighter, converted of course. That class of ship would normally have a crew of 2 plus space for 4 more, and would be able to land on a planet, so it wouldn’t normally carry a shuttle. But as a converted pirate, they may have one.

  “Even a small colony world should be able to run them off.” said Samantha.

  “Well first I think I need to make a door for my new home, and then start working on that beacon.”

  He decided to take the door off the hatch under the seat. He then used a small welder, he found in a toolkit, to weld the door hinges to the bulkhead above the hatch. Now he had a swinging door that would open inward. But a good kick from the outside could break it loose.

  Feeling tired from the stress, blood loss, and healing, he decided to stack everything he could against the door and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow he would figure out some clothes and tr
y to repair the beacon.

  He pulled out an emergency blanket and tried to get as comfortable as he could. In his exhaustion, he fell asleep moments later.

  ***

  The next morning found Drake working as a one handed repair man.

  Drake went to work trying to figure out what was wrong with the beacon right after a breakfast of 50-year-old emergency rations, crackers, water, and pain relievers.

  He was feeling much better after some rest.

  “Samantha, what can you tell me about the beacon? It should be part of the automated systems, right? Shouldn’t you be able to sense it through your connection to the pod?”

  “It tested ready and working before we left, but I cannot sense it as part of the systems now, I think something came loose in the crash… I mean landing.”

  “Haha, yeah, you crashed us, women drivers… haha.”

  “I’m sure glad you ribs are feeling better Drake just so you can laugh at me.” Said Samantha in what he thought was a mock hurt tone.

  “Well I really am glad you were there to help me, I don’t think this pod's automated system would have left me in one piece, thanks, Sam. Maybe we can get you a body someday so you can play doctor as well as pilot…” Drake grinned.

  “So where is the beacon, Sam?”

  “You’ll find an access panel to your right near your feet. The beacon will be inside.”

  Drake grabbed the screwdriver to open the panel, but soon saw there was a problem. “This panel is welded shut.”

  Drake started using a hand welder he found in one of the toolkits, as a cutting tool, and had a bit more than half the panel cut away when it ran out of gas. All the time he was working he was praying that he didn’t fry the beacon beyond repair. After another hour, he was able to pry the rest of the panel loose.

  Drake found something in the panel, which shouldn’t have been there.

  “Samantha, I think I know why the panel was welded shut. There is a small cloth bag here, and what looks like a gun and gun belt.”

  Drake pulled out the bag, it wasn’t very heavy, but it must be valuable to go to all this trouble to hide it? He started thinking it might be gems, maybe diamonds.