Drew's Troubles - Omega Colony #02

His mother was essentially not talking to him because she was so mad. Plus, he got to meet the completely stuck up UN Ambassador Ms. Easterbrook. Meeting a dry piece of toast would have been more pleasant.

He had to come clean with Lord Drew, his staff, and his mother about what had happened to him. She was not amused that he had kept it private, especially the meeting with the High Grell Ambassador. He got a shock and a bit of a laugh when found out the great High Grell had bestowed on him the titles of Ambassador to the Elders and Grell scholar. As if he cared about titles.

Then he met Cara, oh my god sweet Cara. He knew something was different, but when they were given time to talk, he discovered he could hear her, and she could communicate mentally. He had avoided reaching out and touching her all night since his mother and he had arrived back here. He wanted to, desperately, but he held off.

Oh yea, and to wrap up the week he met another ambassador, Hoppy, a three-foot black fuzzy spider in mini-mouse ears.

And his cousin kept a timber wolf and a puma as pets. And the puma could talk mentally, limited, but a Puma he could talk to!

Damn!

What a fascinating week.

***

"Mother! There is a shuttle coming in about an hour. If you wish to come with me, I have been asked to invite you." Drew shouted through the interior door that attached both rooms. He had opened his side. Within a few seconds he heard mumbling and a 'Damn' as Adrian fumbled with the deadbolt on her side.

The door was thrown open and she was standing in the doorway, still in her comfy sleepwear.

"What is going on and why a shuttle? Who are we meeting with? And again, I ask why?"

"Well...I contacted Cousin Drew and asked if we could visit Omega and probably Gamma. What is going on there will be a disaster in a couple of months when the cold sets in. He is on his way with his shuttle to take me, or us there. If you want to go." DB explained.

"You contacted Lord Drew without talking to me or the Ambassador? Who do you think you are? We are here on UN business not your personal field trip," Adrian responded visibly angry from the tone of her voice to the redness of her face.

Drew was surprised at her vehement reaction, but the calmness envelopment him.

"Mother...lets come to a peaceful agreement. I am sorry that I did not discuss my thoughts with you. I am sorry that I did not give you fair warning so you could play bureaucrat and contact the Ambassador for permission for you to travel with me." DB paused and thought how to put the rest of his thoughts out without being rude, 'oh fuck it' he thought.

"But let us please have a real understanding of position. I will only say this once between us. I am now officially an Ambassador of the Elders and a Grell Scholar. You are a Deputy Ambassador for the UN. I do not have to ask you or tell you anything. I am no longer under your or the UN control via monies or travel restrictions or anything else. I am an Ambassador of the Elders...Period"

Drew paused because he could see the shock in his mother's face, and he was sad that he knew he had hurt her.

"Now, as your son, I will always look to you for counsel and of course your love. But as we move forward please keep the two levels of our relationship separate. I do love you mother, and treasure our being reunited. Things have changed because I came to be with you. That genie will never go back in the bottle." Drew finished looking at his mother and saw the sadness in her eyes and he could feel it inside her.

"Lord Drew asked for me to invite you since the UN was asked to be observers. You can use that as an excuse for your sudden departure without Ms. Easterbrook's permission. If you are coming, please wears field clothes mother, we will be traveling and looking at Agriculture."

***

The shuttle headed down to the hotel landing pad and did a beautiful pirouette, landing as softly as a feather.

"And that is how you land a shuttle," commented Target from the pilots' seat.

Drew, from the copilots seat just rolled his eyes as he spun the chair and untangled his feet from Goldie. She still hated flying and her hide-away bed and Drew's feet had intersected for the entire flight.

"Let's keep the motors hot. They should be waiting in the vestibule, waiting on me to come get them." Drew commented.

"Yes, we are here and coming out," Drew heard DB's comments in his mind. Drew headed back to lower the boarding ramp and hatch when both happen simultaneously.

"Did you open the hatch?" Drew yelled back at the cockpit.

"No, why?" Target then noticed the indicator lights for the hatch and ramp were red.

Drew helped his mother up the ramp and into the open hatch. It closed by itself. They both shook off the cold.

"Thank you for getting us in so quickly. Mother lost her ability to deal with the seasons while living on station, " DB commented as he helped his mother remove the ridiculously heavy coat she was wearing.

"Drew, sorry DB, quit fussing over me. I am sure it will all come back quickly. Remember I was NA born and bred so cold is what I lived with." Adrian responded.

Lord Drew just stared at the young man. They had not had a real time to talk. There were always interruptions or some type of drama to bleed away his time. He had a couple of hours planned for a leisurely flight around the world to the Atlantis colonies.

"Target, can you handle all controls as we head to Atlantis? I would like to have some discussion time with the two Ambassadors."

"Oh please, as if I need you at the controls. I am going to listen in to you back there on the head set though. So please remember to speak and not just to the mind trick thing," Target responded to Drew with a sarcastic version of love.

Goldie was just unwinding herself from the chair to visit the new guests when she felt the rumble of the lift servos and squeezed back under the co-pilots chair.

Once they were aloft, Drew turned to DB and Adrian.

"So, Drew, it is Drew is it not? Why the name-change at the Mars station?" Lord Drew asked.

"Well..." DB paused trying to decide how much old history to impart about his life.

"According to my dad, mom had this crush on a distant cousin..." DB had just started when his mom jumped in.

"Drew don't you dare," Adrian warned, sneaking looks at Lord Drew and blushing six different ways.

"My story Mom, you can tell yours after," smiling but staring her down.

DB turned back to Lord Drew, "Now where was I. Dads opinion was that when her distant cousin was lost to the stars, she was heartbroken and married Dad on the rebound. Later I came along, and she insisted I was to be named Drew. Then many years later you show up, aliens in tow. Then You and Your dad saved the world. From the time I could walk, I was "Lord Drew' in my neighborhood. Hated it every time. Plus, with all of xenophobia and hate floating around, comments like "alien fucker' etc. became a norm. The hate back home just kept on coming." DB Paused.

"The change I went through...well am still going through, made me realized that putting us together in the pathway, was going to get confusing. So, I changed to DB. Several of my friends used to call me that because they knew I hated to be compared to you. My mom hates it, but she will get over it."

"OK, fair enough on the name change. Can we talk about your change? When you reached out for me last night, we were across the city from each other, but you could have been in the same room with me. How did you do that?" asked Lord Drew.

DB was a bit taken back by the question and did not know how to respond.

"You have a distance limitation on your mental abilities?" DB asked, "I do not, not that I know of. I just reach into the transition and look for who I want to talk to. I thought it was the same for you?"

Drew just sat back with his mouth open.

"OK, let me give you a being to reach out to. She is patrolling the edge of marauder space. Can you do that?"

"I have no idea, but it sounds like a fun experiment," responded DB. Drew forwarded information on Thing One.

DB closed his eyes and found her almost immediately. She did not react kindly to having a strange voice pop into her head from gods know where. DB just told her to contact the shuttle.

"Artemis to Royal Cat, please come in" Target was reaching to Comm but looked at Drew. He had his shoulders shrugged and his hands open in question of his shuttles call sign.

"I'll show you the paint designs later dear," she commented to Drew before hitting the comm, 'Royal Cat here. What can we do for you Artemis?"

"What the fuck was that? And where is the gentleman that contacted me? Do I have a stowaway? That is not a funny joke," demanded Thing Two.

"The Elder Ambassador is here sitting with me, my dear. He is the one that contacted you." responded Drew.

"Bullshit, my dear lover. Never heard of anyone being able to do that." Thing One responded.

Drew just looked at DB and shrugged. DB closed his eyes slipped back into transition and then opened his eyes to share. He sent her mental images of the interior of the shuttle, Drew and his mom and then spun to show Target and Goldie hiding under the front seat.

"Oh, to the gods. That was..." Thing One could not finish.

"Thank you, Artemis. I am sure we will talk more when you are back on planet. Royal Cat out." The Comm went dead and then Drew commented "Royal Cat? Really?"

Target just shrugged, "I like it"

Drew turned back to DB and his mom. "One more question about your abilities. When did you start moving or manipulating physical objects?"

"I am not sure what you mean?" responded DB.

"I did not open the hatch. I did not lower the ramp. I did not close the hatch and neither did Target. So, either you manipulated the AI on the ship, or you physically made them happen. Do you even know?" Drew questioned the young man.

DB remembered the crushed injection device when they were about to inject him after his trip into the transition on his arrival in Cat space.

"If I do have that ability, I am not conscious of it. But there have been some anomalies I will have to think over."

"Please no experimenting while we are in flight, ok?" requested Lord Drew.

"Understood," DB said smiling.

***

The shuttle came down to a couple of hundred feet of the surface and began a search sequence based on DB's description. They started up at the canyon and viewed the poorly constructed dam. They went down gradient and viewed what would potentially happen if the dam failed. Multiple small villages would be wiped off the face of Omega in an instant.

Their pattern shifted following the northern path and came to the destruction of part of the jungle and the use of the larger trees to fire distilling equipment.

As they followed along this path of destruction, the warning klaxon and lights flashed in the shuttle.

'We have a weapons lock. Hold on! Evasive maneuvers," yelled Target.

The small missile arced up from the closest distillery site and seemed to be heading directing at the port where DB and his mother had been watching the countryside.

"Can I shoot back?" Target requested.

"No, you would kill an unknown quantity of civilians. I doubt the missile will get through our shields."

"You want to take that chance?' asked a very flustered and angry Target.

"No not really. Do not like the odds. Just keep swinging your hips dear and see if we can shake it." Drew responded but was thinking 'High-grade military equipment,'

"Swish and twitch my hips he says..." Target thought.

Despite the maneuvers, the missile kept shifting its trajectory to match.

At 100 meters, the missile just stopped. It just floated in space following the jinking and side shifting of the shuttle, in a perfect ballet.

Drew spun and looked at DB. "Is that you?"

"Um, yes, but what do I do with it?" Db asked.

"Crush it if you can. In the middle not all over, its armed," Drew directed.

The missile bent itself in half and the small rocket engine faltered and stopped. DB closed his eyes and thought of the deep sea off the coast and sent the missile into transition. The wet missile sank to the bottom of the deep dark ocean.

"What did you do with it?" Drew asked looking at his empty scan screen and empty air outside the shuttle.

"I sent it away. It's about 3 miles off the coast down about 1600 meters. You want it back?" asked a puzzled DB.

"No, I did not know you could do that. How much mass can you move?"

"Mass? I don't know. I did not know I could do what I just did until now. It just seemed to be the right thing to do."

"Ok, let's get down there and find out who is shooting missiles at a Cat diplomatic shuttle."

Within an hour there were security troops on the ground and within two hours the skies were in control of security and the whole section of Omega was cordoned off. A handheld launcher was found. DNA and fingerprints acquired. Identity established and within three hours, a suspect in custody.

The shooter was a minor Odessa underling thug. He had no idea who they were when he shot at them. He just assumed some type of police and did what came naturally. When it came time to get information regarding where and how he was in possession of a high-grade military weapon, he clammed up. Drew was tired of games and had no patience. He had learned a trick and just spun some flashes into the thugs' mind. Spiders, snakes, falling from a high distance, and hit the jack pot with drowning.

Drew turned to DB and pulled him away from the suspect and the security officers.

"Do you want to do me a big favor?"

DB looked dubiously at Drew,"Suuure, like how can I help?"

"Well can you send him to dangle over the location that you sent the missile? And then bring him back? He has a fear of drowning."

"Oh, that's sort of evil," DB said with a smile, "Let's try that large pond over there first. OK?"

DB closed his eyes and then imagined the ponds surface.

The security team went crazy as their prisoner disappeared from between them. Drew turned and told them to quiet down.

In the meantime, in the far distance there was a splash in the surface of the pond that could be seen from where they stood. DB said "oops,"

The soaked thug appeared again between the two security officers coughing up water and folding into a fetal position mumbling to himself.

"Do you remember now, where you got the missile and launcher?"

The thug just kept saying no and shaking his head. DB did not have to be asked, the thug disappeared again with DB paying much more attention in transition.

DB whispered more to himself than anyone, 'Oh my. Quite the storm out here.'

And the thug popped back to his same location smelling of sea salt and urine.

"Last change Bucco. Next time we will just leave you to drown and feed the fishes." whispered Drew to the smelly cowering thug.

The man started to babble in a Russian dialect. The security team was recording and translating. And Drew was starting to get angry. The Russian collective was smuggling in arms through third parties. After they gathered evidence, the security teams started sweeps in the local area and found multiple weapons that were banned in the colonies.

They reboarded and then completed their review of the rest of the agriculture of Omega. Everything DB had stated he had seen, was true and worse. The farmers were subsisting on their own gardens at best. It was presumed that the Odessa was going to barter the cash crops for food stuffs, but who knows. The whole colony was being run like a fiefdom.

Omega was going to take a while to sort out. And they had not had a chance to look at Gamma.

***

The shuttle had just cleared the coastal towns and they did a quick skim of the rugged coastline and adjacent islands.

DB just sat back and lounged in the oversized jump seat and realized what he had done. The had nearly killed another human being. He didn't, but easily could have. If his inner voice had not assured him that he could do what he just did, there could have been an error anywhere along the path that could have caused death.

His mind went into the inner calmness, but a part of him stood looking back at himself. He knew how easily he could kill someone. In just a blink of an eye, could drop someone from a thousand feet. Just pluck someone from anywhere and then place them a thousand feet underwater. Or what about space, or the moons, or...

He wrapped his arms around himself an found himself shaking.

"I am sorry," commented Drew "You are too young to be used how I used you." Drew plopped himself down in the adjacent chair.

"I am just so tired of sticking my mind into the minds of some pretty fucked up individuals. I was hoping terrifying the jerkoff into providing the information we need would save me the trouble of weeding around in the muck that is that man's brain." Drew huffed out looking at the ceiling of the shuttle and then shifted to look at the younger man.

"I am so sorry little cousin for the pain you have endured because of me. But thank you for the missile. There is going to be a lot more ugliness before this is all done. And if I do not miss my guess, you are going to be in the middle of it. I need to see if Alexander can break away from his other projects to help organize and assist with the reorganizing of Omega and Gamma. Security sweeps have already confirmed the same issue with Agriculture and armament." Drew paused

"Tell him the rest, my loving Lord Drew" was yelled back from the cockpit.

Drew huffed but knew it was useless to argue with target on this issue, "Cara has just finished her education to the level of somewhere around Earth high school. Coming from being an uneducated slave, she is picking up things at an amazing pace. She is already deep into collegiate level studies of business and marketing. She wants practical level experience, so I was thinking of sending her out here with Alexander and you. I assume you would not have an issue with that?"

DB reacted like any horny male of 18, that was just been told of nirvana.

"Yes, and we will have to get your shielding training started before that happens. We do not want a replay of me and your Aunties Thing One and Two, when we first met."

'What happened?" asked DB

"That is a story for another day and age, my young cousin." Drew stated chuckling to himself

End of Chapter 17