55 Book 4 - Chapter 113

Chapter 113: Mach 5

Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142

Inter-Academy Round 2 Fortescue Points: 193, Rank: 6, PR: 0.4825

Tier 3 Daedo M-Rank: 140

Term: 3, Round: 3

Daedalus Operating Capital: +2,600,000 bitcreds

Cillian yawned, "It's the middle of the night. Wait. What's wrong?" He said as he started to wake.

Daedo had sent through a message - with his call request - so Cillian would know it was him.

"Thanks for taking this in the middle of the night, but you need to be informed before you agree to help us," Daedo said quickly.

"Don't worry about details boy. I know you. And whatever it is - you will be in the right of it," Cillian said before he was interrupted. "Hold on." He said after a moment.

"I stand corrected," Cillian said when he came back. "The CEO insists that we know the risk before agreeing to help."

"I haven't done anything wrong, but there is a police-type force that we know simply as the organisation that is after me because they suspect someone I am close to of being an alien or alien agent," Daedo summarised.

"Who?" Cillian asked before he added, "Wait I don't need to know." Then he sighed before stating, "You may as well talk to my wife. I keep stuffing up."

"Hello," a woman's voice joined the call.

"Hi Mrs Marais," Daedo said.

"Call me Sophie dear," she replied.

Daedo didn't exactly feel comfortable calling her Sophie, but it was a minuscule obstacle compared to the others they currently faced.

"Where are you now?" She asked.

"Near our workshop. We acquired a comm unit that cannot be tracked to me other than the fact I am calling you," Daedo replied.

"Is this organisation after you now?" She asked.

"We're not sure," Daedo replied.

"Who is we?" Sophie asked.

"Mace is with me."

"Have you been charged with any crime?" She asked.

"No, no contact has been made. We ran, on the basis that they may come after me and when they did it would be too late," Daedo answered.

"Good. As I understand it; if we help you, we are putting ourselves at risk from this organisation's covert ops and ongoing suspicion. But legally we are not helping a fugitive nor doing anything wrong."

"That is an accurate summary," Daedo agreed.

"Very good," Sophie said, "What do you need?"

"Transport to a safe place. Somewhere they cannot reach us easily, but we can operate to a small degree," Daedo replied.

"I can think of two places that fit that criterion," Sophie said.

Daedo was quiet. Sophie had experience beyond his years, and he could only guess one location she referring to.

"The place that Jeram takes you on occasion," She said carefully not mentioning its name although reports from Mace or a concerted search of their data would reveal the Eye of the Sahara to the organisation.

"And the second would be to space on our prototype craft. I would daresay that the first is safer in terms of other factors, but leaving Earth's orbit would put you out of reach of most," Sophie stated.

Daedo thought about it for a moment before replying, "I need to discuss with Mace, can you pick us up and we decide when we are on our way?" He asked.

"Certainly," Sophie said. "Message through the coordinates and we will fly in."

Daedo handed back to com unit.

"What if they need to contact us?" Mace asked.

"They'll be able to find us now they know we're in this area," he replied.

The pair ignored the street kids who stared at them. Sophie mentioning outer space rocked their perception of reality.

"Which option?" Mace asked.

"Do they know about the Eye?" Daedo returned her question with a question.

She shook her head, "It wasn't relevant."

"You parents?" Daedo asked.

"I only reported activities which involved Master Nader," she said shaking her head again.

"How much trouble are you going to be now you are off grid?" Daedo asked.

Mace thought about his question, "Disowned." She said and then added, "I really don't know. Because I am helping you, it will be really bad, but I …" she stopped. "I have to do it. You and Daedalus are more important to me now and…argh, I can't explain."

"It's ok. I understand," he said attempting to console her. It wasn't as if he was blameless. He hid important facts from the team all the time which brought another line of thinking to the fore.

"Is Cisse and the workshop safe?" Daedo asked.

"Cisse's research?" Mace asked. "Is that somehow connected to Master Nader?"

Daedo shook his head. He, at least, was continuing his charade even if she wasn't. "But they don't know that."

"We should warn everyone to protect sensitive data as soon as possible," Mace replied.

Within moments the exhaust of a VTOL craft lowering itself towards to disused industrial yard could be heard. As it drew closer the noise grew louder it was unmissable by anyone in the vicinity.

"They could've brought something smaller," Mace said. She didn't need to whisper no one could hear her.

Daedo looked up and shouted, "I can't tell what model it is from this angle. It's not a carrier though; way too small."

He wished they had their exos. They would have been able to jump and fly the twenty metres easily. A pair of harnesses dropped attached to the craft, both Daedo and Mace quickly wiggled into one and checked each other's attachments per their training.

Within moments they were being winched skywards into the open bay.

"Fark I hate rich kids," Kalm said his antagonism masking his wish to go with them.

Victor kicked some dirt at Kalm and said, "Maybe ya should be nicer next time." The others nodded in agreement.

Kalm growled over the noise of the VTOL leaving, "What! I'm the one who got us three hundy instead of one ya idiot." The others nodded in agreement with this statement as well.

"Where to?" Jeram called.

Daedo looked at Mace and said, "I want to go to the Eye." She nodded.

"Aww," Jeram cried. "I wanted to see you two up in the proto."

"No thanks," Mace replied. She turned to Daedo, "Prototype sounds too dodgy for space."

He nodded in agreement, "Yeah. The one thing we've learned about space is it's dangerous. May as well be in a submarine at one-kilometre depth at least you don't have to worry about re-entry."

They both knew if they ever went to space they would need backups of their backup systems. One failure and you were dead. If a mech failed they could just tow it back to the workshop.

"We're control freaks. No way we'd take someone else's craft into space without checking every part of the design," Mace said. "Especially you." She accused him.

Daedo shrugged. She was right even if the Eye of the Sahara was still within reach of the organisation, space was just too risky.

"Ready?" Jeram called.

"For what?" Daedo asked.

"Mach 5" Jeram shouted.

"We need to send some messages," Daedo stated.

"Strap in and use the display on the chair," Jeram said.

"Yeah, but I don't want to leave a trail to our position, so hold off Mach 5 until the messages are sent," Daedo said.

"Who said we are going straight there?" Jeram replied. "Strap in and send your messages. We're going heading to South America."

It seemed like the Marais Family had come up with a plan already.

"Thanks," Daedo said, "For everything."

"No sweat," Jeram said with a laugh, "Wait 'til you get the invoice."

"Wait," Mace asked Daedo. "Let me set up my hop and tunnel for you."

Daedo looked at her quizzically.

"It has over a hundred hops and two tunnels. It will take them ages to trace the source if they can at all," she explained.

"Have you used this when communicating back to your parents?" Daedo asked.

She shook her head. "I use it when hacking," she explained. "The only issue is my mother knows all my tricks. Half of them are hers. But even so, it would take her time to track the packets all the way back, and we will be long gone."

Daedo pinged Cisse for a voice chat and waited.

"Daedo?" She said with a sleepy voice.

"I don't have much time," Daedo said, "I just needed to tell you I am going on a holiday and you need to secure all our data. Ensure it's safe."

"What? It is safe," she said coming to her senses, "Why?"

"If you need help, talk to Vannier. Just make the sure the designs and data are safe, ok," Daedo said.

"Hmm … messages from my father. Can I access them safely? They could be fake," Daedo asked Mace.

"Stay offline. Call him using the utility," she replied.

Daedo sent his Father a voice chat request as Jeram increased the speed of the shuttle. they were now above the ocean and flying so low they could see the white peaks of the waves reflecting in the moonlight.

"Etana! Thank goodness," Ikaros almost shouted. "Are you alright?"

"… how … what do you know?" Daedo asked.

"Your teacher came here and asked me to contact you. She said you were in trouble and needed to run …. But I couldn't get a hold of you."

"Master Nader?" Daedo asked overcoming the urge to correct his father regarding the nature of her role or former role.

"Etana … she is … never mind. So where are you? What will you do?"

"I'm safe, and it's best if you don't know where I am," Daedo replied.

"Of course. Of course. What can I do? Can I call the police?" Ikaros asked.

"No Father. Do nothing. Keep your head down and pretend not to know anything. Just go to the workshop and keep the mechs and exos running," Daedo requested.

"Ugh. That's not going to be easy. Etana. I really don't like this business. I was quite happy with Daedalus, but what happened that you have to run and hide?"

"Father its nothing to do with Daedalus. It has more to do with the Academy," Daedo said all he could on the matter.

"Okay. Then you're leaving that Academy. I never liked them anyway," Ikaros said.

Daedo laughed.

"What's so funny?" Ikaros asked flabbergasted.

"I don't like them either. It's just … funny … you don't like them. I don't like them. No one likes them. Yet we are in deep doing everything we can to help the people we don't like."

Ikaros chuckled now as well. "Sometimes you have to do what you have to do and liking or not liking doesn't come into it I guess."

"Father. I need to go. I'm safe and will be in touch," Daedo wrapped up the call and let out a long breath. This wasn't going to be easy on his father. He didn't like confrontation and Daedo wasn't sure how he would handle a stressful situation like this while being kept in the dark.

"Next," Mace stated. They were both wearing their helmets and used internal comms as the noise of the shuttle was compounded by the wind it was cutting through. It rocked about as Jeram fought the elements, the adrenaline-fuelled pilot was probably enjoying flying so low. He would usually increase altitude to avoid the weather.

"The weather is probably a good thing," Daedo said after a particularly severe jolt.

Mace nodded, "Unless they have the Atlantic covered with low-level LIDAR we are good."

"He'd see the drones if that was the case," Daedo predicted.

She nodded again and asked, "Vannier?"

Daedo sent the ping.

"What the feck did you two do?" Vannier asked and the out of character swearing indicated her level of anxiety.

"Can you talk?" Mace asked.

"Of course I can talk. I'm talking aren't I?" Vannier said angrily.

"Vannier. We didn't do anything. They were after Master Nader and by association Daedo," Mace massaged the truth conveniently leaving out her role.

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"You will need to explain it to me. They have been interrogating everyone. The whole Academy is on lockdown. No one is permitted to leave," she was talking extremely quickly.

"And they are monitoring this conversation," Daedo stated.

"Seriously?" Vannier asked.

"One hundred percent, based on what you just said and what they want," Daedo replied.

"Should we be talking?" Vannier asked.

"You haven't done anything wrong, and neither have we," Mace said. "We didn't want to put Daedo in their hands. We don't trust them."

Daedo looked at Mace. She was sending the organisation a message.

"They won't be able to find us," Mace said confidently.

"Vannier?" Daedo said. She had gone quiet. Normally she would respond even if it was a sound to indicate she was listening and understood.

"I'm here," she said quietly she had gone from angry to concerned. "I'm sorry. I was angry because I thought you two were doing risky things and keeping me in the dark."

Mace and Daedo looked at each other. That was spot on, but Vannier didn't need to know that. Not now.

"I need you right now," Daedo stated. "You need to keep everything going."

"Without you?!" She breathed the words.

"I will be in contact. Just not for a while … Everything is in place. Ikaros can service the mechs and exos. The teams can use the equipment we have. M-A is performing at a high level and hopefully will continue to do so. U-A needs to make better use of the equipment they have. That's probably your biggest challenge, and you are more capable with people management and diplomacy than I am."

"You forget gauntlet strategy for M-A. You were running that, and we hit at least six points every match," Vannier said.

"Picard will have to do her best," Daedo stated.

Vannier sighed and asked, "What can we do to get rid of this thing hanging over your head so you can come back?"

"Mace will handle that," Daedo replied.

"Hmm," Vannier vocalised her growing suspicion that there was more to this story.

"We have to go," Mace blurted.

Daedo said, "Call you later," quickly and cut off all connections to the net.

He looked at Mace with a sceptically raised eyebrow.

"The connection went on too long, and we need to control information flow," she said defensively.

"We need to discuss our next moves," Daedo said.

"Yeah," she softly.

"The base has some of the new equipment we ordered, and I can adjust the manufacturing queues to put out a couple of exos and weapons as priority," he said like he was discussing academy match prep.

"Can your prospectors plant some repeaters for us? When we make contact we should make it as difficult as possible to track our location," she asked.

"Already done," Daedo said. "Check the design, and if you need more, let me know."

Mace leaned back in her chair. The craft had finally cleared the bad weather and was flying smoothly. "We're banking," she noticed.

"Are we turning Jeram?" Daedo asked.

"Yeah, I'm sending the flight plan to your hud," he replied.

They initially headed towards South America at high speeds before flying south-east towards Antartica. According to the flight plan, the craft would then swing north back up the Atlantic off the west coast of Africa right before one last turn to the Eye. The point where they crossed land was largely uninhabited.

It had been a long day, both Daedo and Mace tried to get some sleep but were woken at random times when Jeram hit turbulence or bad weather.

As the shuttle skirted Africa, it dawned on Daedo that Jeram was most likely working on no sleep.

"Jeram?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you ok? It's been a long day," Daedo enquired.

"We've been on auto most of the time. It's no biggie, I can manage it," he assured.

When they finally approached the base, Jeram hovered momentarily while the pair disembarked using the lines attached to the craft.

"Hurry, the less time I am here, the better," Jeram repeated the plan. After dropping them off, he would fly out to an island in the Atlantic and get some rest before heading home. Daedo had learned that the range on the shuttle was limited by maintenance needs. Fuel was abundant as the fusion reactor that powered it could run for a week before it needed refuelling.

The sun was rising as the pair entered their new home.

"Oh," Mace said as she scanned the entrance. It was a storage bay. She knew from the tour the rest of the facility was refining and manufacturing.

"Yeah. Sorry. It wasn't built for comfort," Daedo apologised.

Mace checked her display. There were three messages from her parents and one from the organisation commander who contacted her during the failed operation to apprehend Master Nader. She looked at Daedo and closed it again.

"We have a lot of work to do," she said.

Mace began working on net security while Daedo changed the manufacturing queues for defence equipment first and comfort items second.

"Do we have any food or water?" Mace asked after ten minutes of working feverishly.

Daedo replied coyly, "Sort of."

"What does that mean exactly?" she pressed.

"We needed water for manufacturing; the aquifer has been tapped. But the only food we have are a few leftover packages from our first trip," he explained.

"How long until you can get a biomass plant up and a food processor?" she asked what was the most unappealing, however expedient, option.

"Even if we could build them in a day, which we can't, a biomass plant will need start up material. We will need to visit our neighbours and ask for some food," he replied.

Mace smiled, "Lucky we were nice to them." Remembering their first meeting with the local tribe who lived on the other side of the Richat Structure.

"In one day we have relied upon the Marais family, and asked for help from the street kids near our workshop and now the tribespeople who still drive fossil fuel vehicles," Daedo observed.

Mace gave Daedo a hug and cried behind his head, "I never want another day like this one."

"Me either," he replied. And it wasn't their new home nor the flight from the Academy that they were objecting to.