Daschande: Episode One, The Omni Menace

Daschande felt himself being rematerialized into solid matter. It was always a funny feeling to him; but now it brought him comfort. Comfort that he was truly OK; that "wierd" sensation somehow made him feel more "normal" at that moment. As he blinked to regain his vision, he saw the familiar sight of the Haven city. The org's name was as poignant as it was truthful. That name never seemed more symbolic than right now.

Thankfully, the Grid terminal also deposited him right next to his favorite bar! Walking up to the familiar bartender, he gave only slightly more than his usual drink order:

"3 Plumbo's and a bottle of whiskey...for starters, please"
"Scottish whiskey OK?"
"Oh Jesus..." Dasch said while holding his head in his hands "I'll feel this one in the morning... Sure!"
"Hmm, sounds like you've had a rough day" replied the bartender as he filled my order. Such things come easily to those who have seen it all. Wisdom usually comes as easily too, but right now I just wanted to be alone.
"You have NO idea my friend, but I really don't want to talk about it now." I made my best attempt at a smile and turned away to find a table. For once, I didn't take my usual seat facing the Trade Market after realizing that I could be caught out in the open in that seat. Not there, I decided after glancing around; there were way too many sight lines to my forehead in that seat.I had never worried much about death before; my experience reclaim pool could CERTIANLY attest to that... but now it was different. Queena had messed with the Omni-Armed Forces. When they tore down the door to our small but beautiful one-bedroom apartment in Jobe, my first instinct was to defend my lover and to extricate the invaders from my home. The fact that it was MY Love and MY Inner Sanctum being attacked demanded the use of extreme force. That meant that I had messed with Omni-AF. And those guys don't F around.

After Queena and I grew closer, she hinted about secret missions that she might know about; but when pressed she refused to say anything except that "It's for the good of Free Citizens across the world." ...But that was Queena. Her honesty was ONLY overruled by her loyalty. She would have been an excellent Bureaucrat! But that was not the path she chose; when the proverbial stuff hit the fan, she trusted her rifle far more than anyone's words. I took a long, deep swig out of the bottle of whiskey and grimaced. She certaintly wouldn't drink this S. After cracking open a Plumbo, I poured some out in the grass. "One for my Homies" I explained to the bartender, when he looked up from his work to see what I was doing. He smiled his usual big, knowing smile as if he knew exactly what I was going through. I sighed; perhaps he did.

I finally sat down at the table closest to the whompa to Neuters 'R Us. It wasn't much of an escape route, but the window of opportunity is always wider when you provide yourself with more options. Plus, I needed to take care of a few things before I got hammered. I checked my communicator to see if my Org president, Ghiam, was available. He might be my first peice in this impossible puzzle. ...Damn, i didn't get through! I left him a short message, not wanting to give too much away, just in case THEY were listening.
"G, it's Dasch. I think I may need your help with some org issues before they become big problems... please get in touch with me!" Hopefully that would throw anyone off my scent. Mr. Paranoia was finally kicking in again. I sure could have used him earlier...

It was just the night before when Queena told me to watch myself. We were at the Reet Retreat; she had somehow talked me into going dancing at some GSP party, but I spent most of the time at the bar until she noticed me having a lousy time. After many drinks in a quiet corner booth, she finally told me as much of her secret as she was ever going to tell me. By the look in her eye I knew to just shut up and not press for details.
"I've got myself into something BIG here. I promise I'll explain everything when it's all over, but for now just watch your back... Our backs." she added a second later, before finally admitting softly "I may really need your help with this." Looking back on it, that should have told me how serious things were. Before I could ponder for very long though, she grabbed me and pulled me close, whispering in my ear with that special look on her face "We need to get home...now" At that point I couldn't tell if she was speaking out of inebriation or out of love but, needless to say, I did NOT object!

Early the next morning, I decided to surprise my love with breakfast in bed. She hated cooking and my day job while in the Professional Academy really came in handy! While the eggs were bubbling happily, I flipped on my home terminal and checked my mail. One of my monitoring programs automatically beeped at me; there were voices outside my door and the scanner showed that it was a large group of heavily-armed men! Before I could check the logs, I heard from the live feed "NOW! NOW! Mission compromised, MOVE IN!" as my overly-sturdy door exploded into shards of metal and faux woodwork. My faithful robotic guardian was on the attackers instantly; so was the alarm set to my personal communicator, now beeping annoyingly on my wrist. I cursed myself for not setting the majority of my "traps" designed to delay or stop an intruder, but I still had one trick left up my sleeve.

Running back in the kitchen, I turned off the gas burner and turned the gas on again, just high enough to not auto-ignite the flame. My antique range was going to save my neck today; or at least create a distraction. As I started a small fire in the cabinets and ran back to the bedroom, I saw Queena crouched at the doorway with her eye in her scope, ready to make her final stand against the next thing that moved around that corner. "Not today!" I screamed to her, looking back just in time to see my lifeless bot on the ground, riddled with bullet holes. I knew that we had precious little time. Back in the bedroom, I shoved the bed to the side and pulled on the carpet until I found my secret trap door. So secret, if fact, that even Queena didn't yet know of it's existance; but she only exclaimed with a smirk "A secret door, huh? Damn I Love you!" I pulled Queena down with me as I jumped feet-first down the chute. If all went according to plan, we would be deposited in the alley next to our apartment building, out of a door cleverly disguised as a trash port. I had taken every possible precaution, even registering that portal for automatic weekly pickup... under a false name and authority code, of course. Working as a Bureaucrat Attache' had its advantages, especially when you need to work around the system to keep your own secrets.

When I saw the door at our feet, I knew we were only one solid kick away from freedom. I put my foot against that door with all my might, but it would not budge! Queena illuminated the light on her communicator and shined it on the door jamb. "Look at that metal, right there...that shouldn't be there. Someone sealed us in" she said, sounding completely detatched and clinical. "The door is welded shut" HOW???? I wondered. NO ONE knew of my last chance escape route! I took EVERY precaution. I left NO trail... yet somehow, we were stuck in a metal box, but climbing back up only meant certain death, or worse.
"Oh well" Queena sighed "Maybe that gas will explode before they shoot us. I'd prefer a quick death anyways"

The gas! I thought to myself. Maybe I can fool them, if the timing is JUST right... I frantically punched my communicator until I reached an old trading friend of mine. A while ago I had saved him from bankruptcy and he told me of a special trick he learned through hacking the OT communications network. He promised me that it would be useful one day when I really needed a favor; damn did I ever need a favor right then!

"...you want me to grid you from WHERE? OK, what the Hell is going on? "
"I don't have time to explain right now, but I'm trapped in a hole with people shooting at me, and the building is about to blow up any second! ...oh, and I have an extra passenger too. She gets priority though."
"Extra passenger? SHE? This must be a good story and now you'll have to share; especially for a grid warp from Jobe! ...one second! "
I heard the sound of gunshots from above. They must be getting frustrated but were still too stupid to check for my trap... "I don't have a second, this building is about to ignite NOW!!! PLEASE get us out of here!"
"OK, here goes nuttin!" We stood there waiting for our saving grace when voices came from above:

"We found em' Colinel, they're stuck in the hole!"
then another voice, farther away "Fire! Fire in the kitchen!"
A fullisade of rounds was pumped into the wall in-between the bedroom and the kitchen
Just as I felt myself digitize, I could hear the beginnings of "No, You Idio...." which was drowned out by an enormous roar and replaced immediately by a wall of flame shooting directly towards us down the trash chute.

Before my brain could process that threat, I instantly re-materialized, as if I were going in between the Grid and solid space instantaneously. I found myself in my friend's apartment in Omni-Trade. Sitting directly next to me was Queena's Caterwaul and the pendant I had given her a few days ago.
"What the Hell happened?" I berated him "Where the HELL is Queena?" This man was a trusted friend but he was still an Omni employee... Had they reached him too?
I stared him down as I pressed the muzzle of my pistol against his forehead; at this range its relatively low damage would make no difference. The look in his eyes showed that he understood that fact too."Tell me what you did with her... NOW!"
"I swear to you, my friend" he replied, shaking noticably "I did nothing to your passenger. You and she were supposed to end up directly next to me. The process relies on reclaim data so it should be foolproof under ANY circumstances!" I lowered my weapon and he paused, thinking. "Well, pull up her reclaim data please and we can see where she is now"

He typed in an account and eventually I saw the familiar ICC Citizen Interface, with one critical change which eased me immensely. My good friend was looking out for me after all. I holstered my weapon as I sat down.
# Please input Citizen ID:
I typed in her ID carefully, fearing the worst. No way had OT been able to erase her reclaim data; that technology was rumored to exist, but that would be a crime of the highest order! All Clans and even many Neuts had sworn boundless war against ALL Omni, even families, if they didn't end their reclaim research that was halted several years ago. Nowadays only the ICC had acces to that kind of data...Hopefully. I closed my eyes as I hit Enter.
# Sorry, no data for Citizen #1969728, Please input Citizen ID:
I Screamed, I cursed, I threw objects around until Remy finally calmed me down, then I tried again and again
# Sorry, no data for Citizen #1969728, Please input Citizen ID:
# Sorry, no data for Citizen #1969728, Please input Citizen ID:
# Sorry, no data for Citizen #1969728, Please input Citizen ID:
# Sorry, no data for Citizen #1969728, Please input Citizen ID:
# Sorry, no data for Citizen #1969728, Please input Citizen ID:

Slowly the realisation sunk in. Queena was Perma-Dead. Someone had taken great care to make sure she was never heard from again; but who? And why? How was the least of my concerns at that point. I thanked Remy profusely and left before drawing any more attention to us. On the short Yalm flight back to the Grid Terminal, I wondered what Queena had done to make someone see her as such a large threat. ...then the realization hit me... They'll probably be looking for me, maybe even now! That didn't seem like a very happy or prosperous future.

Sitting in the Grid, I pondered my next move "Aww, F it" I thought to myself "I need a drink; probably several" and headed to the friendly local Cantina...

I had been sitting there for several hours and by then I was drunk. Empty Plumbo cans lined my table, in my drunken stupor I had told the bartender that I wanted to build a castle with them. Apparently my spatial skills were off. Way off. Perhaps I should go sleep it off for a while... Now was not the time to mourn, I realized, I still had to focus on the matter at hand. Those bastards had taken my love, my life as I knew it and maybe even my freedom from me; on an allegedly free planet, no less! I could not let that stand.

Then again, I had no clue exactly who I was facing, or even why. Why was least important at the moment. If you can find out WHO your opponent is, you can defend yourself easier, follow your target and maybe they'll lead you to WHY if you're lucky. I had heard one of the grunts call out for a Colonel. Could he be connected? Every armed force in the galaxy has a chain of command; and low-ranked people never speak to high-ranked people. If a message needs to be passed up the chain, the soldier goes to their Commanding Officer, who then reports it up the chain to their CO, etc. More importantly, why would a Colonel lead an entry team into sovereign territory? A person of that rank would HAVE to know the political ramifications of a fully-armed Omni-AF team being seen in Jobe; not to mention the property and collateral damage. If a Colonel was really in on this, then a coverup must have already been planned down to the last detail. No high-ranking career soldier risks his reputation for one single enemy. Hopefully my little fit of pyromania would draw more attention to what really happened.

After taking the last shot out of my bottle of whiskey, I stumbled off to find a nice comfy couch in the HQ building. I only made it to the entryway before I noticed how comfortable the benches looked. "Noticed" isn't the right word; perhaps "Fell upon" would be more accurate. I heard the sound of spare change and metal objects falling out of my pocket, but it was many moments before I opened my eyes and saw Queena's pendant lying on the ground. As I picked it up, a wave of memories came crashing down on me.

It was nearing her birthday, last year. As usual, I had completely forgotten about it until the last minute. Somehow I had managed to get us nice dinner reservations and tickets to the local live theatre that we frequented. That month's show was a musical, just like the tradition so long ago. Singing, dancing, and a love interest that always ends with the two main characters kissing and walking off into the sunset. It was completely sappy, to be sure, but something about the show touched Queena deeply. The main female character had just lost her boyfriend to an incurable illness and was depressed and lonely until the leading man came into her life. From the way the woman acted and sang, it would be hard for anyone to not weep for her plight. At the end of the her saddest song, there was not a dry eye in the house. Not even mine. Not even hers; she delivered the last verse flawlessly but with tears streaming down her face, exaggerated greatly by her eyeliner and stage makeup.

On the ride home, Queena told me that she had suffered a similar fate.

"There was a man in my life once named Toby." she told me "We were together for a few years and it was great...until he started to get depressed, even angry over nothing at all. It started out small, then grew to the point where I was thinking about leaving him. He would never get angry at me, or even consider raising his hand to me. He put all the blame for every little problem in life on his own shoulders. I talked him into seeing a specialist but he only got worse and worse." she said, in tears "One day, he disappeared. He left all his clothes and everything he owned. He even left the keycard to our apartment on the table, next to a small box that had a gold heard pendant inside with a note. It said: To the Woman with the Heart of Gold. You deserve better."

It was a second before she continued, finally speaking almost silently "I felt just like that woman for a long time before I met you."

This year, I had remembered her birthday. Her gift was ready well in advance: A gold heart pendant with sutures up the middle. On the back, I had it inscribed "By Your Side, Near Your Heart. Now and Forever" I even had a tiny hologram chip inserted into the heart; when the pendant was placed upside down and someone pressed on the inscription, it would show a picture of me. A picture I took great care to make; I am not a photographer by ANY means and I HAD to get the picture just right.

Once more, just for old time's sake, I told myself. I put it down and activated the hologram. When I saw the face before me, I bolted upright. In an instant, I went from drunken nostalgia to perfectly sober and terrified! I inched away from the pendant as if if were about to attack me; I was staring directly at Queena's elegant smile! I wasn't sure what to believe when I heard the door open behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see Ghiam giving me a strange look

"Hey, what was that message about....Jeez, Dasch, are you OK? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

I took a second to compose myself "Actually, I think I did! This should be an image of me," gesturing to Queena's face, "instead it's a face of a woman who was with me hours ago, and now there's no record of her existance! It's a really long story, but that's what the message was about."

"Hmm" Ghiam replied "I'm intrigued. Let's go to the lab and have a look at that hologram."

At the lab, he placed the pendant under a microscope and gently pulled out the chip. Examining it closely, he said with surprise "This isn't a normal chip here. This is at least twice the size of what people use regularly, and look! " he placed the pendant under the microscope again "Someone jury-rigged the activation button. It should plug right in, but it's been cut and rewired to make it work! Well then let's see what we have here..." He connected the chip to a long wire running to the terminal on the wall. "WOW! There's a lot of data here! This could take a while to download, why don't you finish the story of what the hell happened?"

After I finished my story he sat thinking. "Well honestly that brings up more questions than answers." the terminal beeped softly, showing that its transfer was complete. Ghiam looked at it, shaking his head "...And that only brings up more questions. There's a huge encrypted file in there! ...That gives me a starting point at least; that file was meant for someone's eyes. Maybe if I inquire quietly, I can find out who. In the meantime, maybe you should get some rest. It looks like you need it."

I got up, stumbling from the shock and from the alcohol. "I think you're right. I'll be here if you need me."

I finally made it to that comfortable couch in a quiet corner. I laid there, staring up at the ceiling trying to piece together any clue about what had happened. Sleep came to me before any revelation ever did.

(( TBC ))

(( reserved for part 3 ))

(( reserved for Act 4: The Finale ))