Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sal was still steaming with anger.  Stamping around the
Wanderer
’s living area for twenty minutes hadn’t helped.  Waiting for the Imperial fleet to arrive wasn't helping.

Dash had tried talking to Sal.  Her replies had swung from grunts to acidic comments.  He’d soon given up.  Now she sat in the living area, waiting for things to happen.  Not knowing was the worst.  She needed some displays at least.  Jess was on the flight deck.  She could go sit there but it seemed a bad idea given her anger.  She would have to speak to Jess though, ask him to create some screens in the living area.

Sal stood and managed to take two steps before the
Wanderer
rocked violently.  It shook again, throwing Sal to the ground, then bucked as a titanic thud shook the ship.  She felt heavy acceleration.  Another thud came, shaking the whole ship this time.  Then another.  The
Wanderer
lurched again, sending Sal rolling until she slammed into a sofa.

Sal lay in a dazed heap, groaning and preparing for the next assault.  Everything had taken only ten or fifteen seconds so far.  What else was coming?

*****

Unlike Sal, Jess was more than ready for what happened.  His thoughts were already heavily accelerated.  He shifted them into an even higher state as space around the
Wanderer
lit up with the scars that signified ships returning from jump space. 

Jess grudgingly accepted that Dash had been right, the entry points were all around the
Wanderer
.  The fleet had found a way to improve their targeting.  Once again the battlecruiser was the first ship to break through.  Whatever they were using to track the
Wanderer
must be on that ship.  It made sense.  The battlecruiser was the strongest ship in the fleet.

One question was answered at least.  The speed with which the fleet had reached the
Wanderer
, together with the direction they arrived from, confirmed that the
Wanderer
was being tracked directly.  The implications were chilling.  Wherever they went, whatever they did, that fleet would be doggedly following behind.

The battlecruiser made it fully into real space.  The ships nearest to it were nearly through.  It was time to leave.  Jess sent the
Wanderer
clawing its way towards jump space.  Let the fleet follow.  The
Wanderer
could travel faster than they could.  If they wanted to follow then they’d better get ready for a long chase.

Nothing happened.  With so many ships dropping out of jump space close together the fabric of jump space was being badly disrupted.  The
Wanderer
couldn’t break through.  They were stuck.

Jess froze for a moment.  Even with his thoughts massively accelerated it nearly proved fatal.  He recovered quickly, throwing the
Wanderer
into a steep dive, but not fast enough.  The
Wanderer
shook as the battlecruiser’s massive banks of laser weapons struck home.

The
Wanderer
was moving now, but not quickly enough.  A second volley of laser fire shook the ship.  The shields were already below seventy percent.  Jess routed all power from the main weapons into the shields and thrusters.  Trying to fight the battlecruiser would be suicide.  Their only hope lay in running, in jump space or real space.

A volley of missiles swung in close to the
Wanderer
.  He’d left the point defence lasers powered and put them to good use now.  The missiles were still tightly grouped, not having had the time or distance to spread out.  Jess managed to destroy a handful, which triggered a chain reaction through the rest.

For a moment he grinned, glad to have dealt with the missiles so easily.  Then the shock wave hit.  Even through the shields it felt as if something titanic had thudded against the ship.

Jess pushed the
Wanderer
even harder, wringing every bit of acceleration he could from her.  He knew it wouldn’t be enough.  The battlecruiser was still almost on top of them.  It could pour out enough fire and missiles to destroy the
Wanderer
long before it was possible to reach jump space.

More missiles shot out from the battlecruiser.  Many more this time.  Someone had spotted that the
Wanderer
’s shields had been depleted by the first near misses.  Another wave followed close behind.

Jess got more of the missiles this time, but they were more spread out.  The missiles streaked in close… and exploded before reaching the
Wanderer
’s shields.  This time the whole ship shook, but the damage was mostly to the shields which dropped to thirty percent.

Jess desperately tried to get the
Wanderer
into jump space.  Still no luck.  He frantically started targeting the next wave of missiles.  While he had some luck it was soon clear that many would get through.

They did.  Once again they exploded just short of the shields, but their effect was devastating.  Every shield on the ship blew, leaving the
Wanderer
defenceless.  The ship was badly shaken but took no other structural damage.  With her shields down she was helpless though, and jump space was out of reach.

Armoured assault shuttles launched from the battlecruiser.  The Empire were taking a different approach this time.  One that could easily work.  Jess rerouted power back to the weapons.  There were no shields to power.  Well, almost none.  The emergency shield generators were still in place — giving Jess a way out, if only jump space would settle down.

The shuttles covered the distance quickly, hardly slowing as they neared the
Wanderer
.  They were going for a hard and fast landing.  Jess studied where they were aiming for, preparing the ship’s internal defences.

Jess made the
Wanderer
reach out for jump space once more.  The fabric of space around them was still too disturbed but the engines gained more traction than they had before.  They should be able to jump soon.  But would it be soon enough?

Several of the shuttles had almost reached the
Wanderer
.  Jess opened fire, bathing them in lasers and plasma.  At such short-range even the slow-moving plasma struck almost immediately.  Far too quickly for the shuttles to dodge.  Every targeted shuttle disappeared, replaced by an expanding cloud of superheated debris.

The response from the battlecruiser was immediate.  Lasers lashed out, targeting every weapon that had fired.  Several survived but most were badly damaged or completely destroyed.

Jess cursed.  Without shields the
Wanderer
’s weapons were horribly exposed.  Two more shuttles were about to make contact but there was nothing he could do. Rotating the
Wanderer
to bring other weapons to bear would take too long.  He made the
Wanderer
reach for jump space again.

As the
Wanderer
scrabbled for traction Jess felt twin thumps.  The two shuttles had made contact.  In fact they’d smashed part way into the
Wanderer
’s hull.  A hatch blew open in the front of each and armour clad figures charged through.  Jess estimated each shuttle could hold thirty or forty troops.

Sixty to eighty troops, all armed and armoured.  And more with every shuttle that managed to reach them.  Desperately he worked with the
Wanderer
, trying to find any patch of stability for the jump engines.  Another shuttle smashed into the
Wanderer
.

There!  For a fleeting moment a small patch on the rippling fabric of space smoothed out.  Jess had the
Wanderer
use it to drag itself into jump space.  The jump engines groaned under the strain, a strain made worse by Jess forcing the jump field into a specific pattern.

It might have strained the engines but it had the desired effect.  Jess had forced the field to hug the
Wanderer
, instead of extending tens of metres out as it normally would.  The field had sliced through the three shuttles, leaving only the part embedded in the
Wanderer
.  Most of the three shuttles were left behind in real space.  Two unfortunate troopers were caught halfway across the division point.  The field split them in two.

Jess quickly moved his focus away from their gruesome remains.  He had no time to consider the fate of those he’d set loose in jump space.  He had to deal with those who had made it aboard, and he was struggling to keep the
Wanderer
in jump space.

With a wrench the
Wanderer
crashed back into real space again.  The battlecruiser was now a long way distant.  So were the shuttles.  The
Wanderer
wasn’t alone though.  Several Imperial ships were nearby.  It wouldn’t take them long to open fire.

Jess focused, searching for a way to reach jump space again.  This time he found a chance almost immediately, and threw the
Wanderer
back into the safety of jump space.  The jump engines groaned again, but this time they managed to keep the
Wanderer
from returning to real space.  Once again the emergency shields were the only thing keeping the
Wanderer
from instant destruction.  A few seconds flight and jump space had settled down.  They were safe from the fleet.  Now Jess just had to deal with the seventeen heavily armed troopers who had made it
on board
.

*****

Nature took care of two troopers before Jess could lend a hand.  The open hatches in what remained of the front of the shuttles now opened onto vacuum.  Jump space was similar to real space in that way at least.  Two unlucky troopers had still been climbing out of the shuttle when the
Wanderer
entered jump space.  As air from the
Wanderer
rushed out it dragged them back through their hatches and into oblivion.

That left fifteen.  Most were sealed away in the main hold but the last shuttle had rammed home in the shuttle bay attached to the living area.  Only four troopers had made it on board, but those four were only one airlock away from the living area and Sal.

Those troopers quickly moved towards the airlock, preparing explosives.  One tried the airlock controls.  Jess allowed the inner door to open.  At the same moment he unleashed the ship’s internal weapons.  Laser fire lanced into one of the troopers, while heavy slugs crashed into another.  Both were slowed but they showed no other immediate effects.

Jess was pretty certain he could kill the troopers eventually, but nowhere near fast enough.  That left him with a problem.  He had a weapon that could deal with the four, but it wouldn’t work unless the
Wanderer
returned to real space.  If the battlecruiser regrouped quickly then it could jump to the
Wanderer
once again.  There was no guarantee the
Wanderer
could get away if that happened.

One of the troopers gestured at the inner airlock door, lifting a chunk of explosives ready to place them.  An idea hit Jess.  With an evil grin he put it into effect.  The troopers armour might be able to survive the
Wanderer
’s internal weapons, but the explosives certainly couldn’t.  A laser lanced out, striking the charge and triggering the explosion.  The trooper’s hand, arm and much of his head and chest were obliterated.  The airlock door survived the nearby explosion with nothing more than a slight dent.

None of the remaining troopers had produced any explosives so far.  Having seen what Jess could do they took another tack.  One of them opened fire with a heavy beam weapon, targeting the airlock door.  The circular area it struck started to wilt under the onslaught.  It was only the size of Jess’s hand but it would allow the troopers to shoot through, and by moving the beam they’d be able to break through within a minute or two.

Jess had to risk returning to real space.  He sent the order to the
Wanderer
.  He fired the jump weapons immediately.  The remains of the three troopers collapsed to the floor.  The missing chunks of their bodies had been shoved into jump space.  Jess was certain it would have been an instant death.  Well, mostly certain.  It was best not to think about it.

The living quarters were safe, for the moment.  That left the eleven troopers in the hold.  They’d joined together, forming a single group, and were carefully scouting.  With no way to reach the crew area or any critical sections of the ship there was a limit to what the troopers could do in the short-term.  Unfortunately it also meant they were in an area with relatively few defences, and none of the jump space based weapons.

Jess pushed the
Wanderer
back into jump space, breathing a sigh of relief that they had avoided an immediate ambush by the Imperial fleet.