Ambasadora (Book 1 of Ambasadora) by Heidi Ruby Miller Read Free Book Online

just lying
motionless on his bed aboard the Bard .
    His ears buzzed and popped. The
space around him transformed from dark nothingness into a purple sea and
silver-grey sky.
    Inside the V-side lobby Zak stood
on a floating platform that was barely a meter square. Sean’s stomach on the Bard detected the rise and fall of the softly undulating virtual sea as Zak kept his
balance on the slate-colored raft. The popping in his ears gave way to a gentle
lapping. His brain reacted with the phantom smell of the Archenzon Shore on
Tampa One, but the salty scent faded immediately. In the V-side, nothing had a
scent. This little detail kept the immersive world from ever becoming truly
real.
    Six fist-sized globules rose out
of the sea in greeting and encircled him. Each was a different shade of blue,
indicating the type of invitation being extended. The darkest came from a group
of regular gamers Zak and Topper had befriended during a slasher session. Zak
had joined them once, but he didn’t get into gaming like many fraggers did,
just the training.
    With a wave of his hand, Zak sent
the globules into a slow orbit around him until the palest one whirled front
and center. It was almost transparent and took on the purple sheen of the
surrounding sea on bottom and the silver of the sky on top. He reached his hand
out and made contact with the slippery surface.
    A quick pulse began in his
fingertips and rushed through his body, probing for his identi-markers. His av
was recognized immediately through the idents. The globule opened at the top
and fanned out, enlarging enough to allow Zak to step through to a training
world.
    On the other side, grassy plains
welcomed him. Half a dozen dragons with purple heads and green and silver
iridescent bodies eclipsed the dwindling light of a late day sky. Zak observed
three of his virtual companions figure the trajectories and energy expenditures
needed to bring down one of the iridescent beasts. Six others practiced hand to
hand techniques in a field nearby.
    Topper, sporting his reptilian
av, stepped aside as Ariel took aim with a rocket launcher and fired a round
into the lead dragon. Silvery scales disintegrated. The animal flapped its
great wings once before falling to its death behind a distant white mountain.
The other timid dragons hesitated, but when Ariel fired a second rocket their
way, another beast took point and led their flight formation away, into the
darkening horizon of this virtual world.
    “Zak, did you hear me?”
Topper sent a hot plasma blast into Zak’s shoulder from a crafter, a modified
cender. The nickname came about because the originator said it was craftier
than anything the obtuse contractors could come up with.
    Zak’s vision blurred as the shot
triggered a neural stimulation of his pain center. His virtual arm dangled
uselessly at his side. Blood splattered his grey armored vest and soaked the
sleeve of his blue shirt.
    “Can’t hear anything above
Ariel’s rockets.” Zak called up the healing program in his mind. Catching
Zak off-guard was one of Topper’s favorite games.
    “So, what’s your take on the
ambasadora thing?” Topper’s voice took on a reptilian hiss to match his
present lizard form.
    “Just one of Prollixer’s pet
projects. Most likely to draw attention away from current Embassy
mis-dealings.”
    “But how’s this new element
going to affect our plans?” Topper asked.
    “Won’t. Ambasadoras are just
another Embassy show, as impotent as Armadans.” Zak thought of his earlier
run in with David back on the Bard . Thinking of David as impotent made
him feel better.
    The system might have a highly
trained military, but the Armada was all show. With no intra-system conflicts
brewing, they never used their skills, weren’t even allowed to carry arms
outside of their Armada ships. The Embassy wanted it that way. Yet the
Sovereign’s pet contractors were given free reign of the system after they put
down those first fragger