Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (47 page)

“
In case you missed the order, get yourself back to the ship now.  Don’t worry about flying cover.  We have plenty of chumps that can handle that.  We need to get you started in special operations as soon as possible.  What just happened makes that work even more critical.”

Clay felt sick.  In just a couple of minutes he’d gone from expecting to find freedom to being trapped doing the Cobra’s dirty work.  He had no choice.  But he still didn’t obey her order.

“Pilot!  Get back here now!  Acknowledge.”

All patience was gone from her voice now.  Clay keyed his mike to active.

“No.”

The word was quiet.  Calm.  And shocking.  Clay didn’t know what he’d planned on saying, but that certainly wasn’t it.  And yet it was the right thing to say.

Stunned silence greeted his reply for a few seconds.  Then the Cobra spoke again, her voice chillingly calm.

“
I don’t think you heard me clearly pilot.  I ordered you to return at once.”

“
I heard you,” Clay said.

He swung his fighter onto another course.  One that would carry him away from both the fleet and the shattered destroyer.  He would pass relatively close to a few fighters but that didn’t worry him.

“I heard you,” he repeated.  “But the answer is no.  I’m leaving.  Don’t try and stop me.  If you send any fighters near me I’ll destroy them.  You know that’s no idle threat.  And if you really want to try chasing down a lone fighter using corvettes and frigates then go ahead.”

He knew they wouldn’t.  It was almost impossible anyway.  The larger warships were much slower than a fighter, but they did have the ability to enter jump space.  In theory they could catch a fighter that way, but the minimum distance they would cover in jump space was hundreds of times greater than their sensor range.  If he made just one course correction then they’d never find him.

“Who the hell do you think you are?  I swear we’ll…”

Clay cut the connection, then shut down all his comms equipment.  There was no one he wanted to speak to.  No one he wanted to hear from.  All he wanted was to be alone.  To feel the comforting silence of space.  To leave everything behind.  And now he could.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Vorn couldn’t shake the feeling of deja vu.  Once again the
Starslayer
had dropped into normal space almost on top of the
Wanderer
.  Would things really be different this time?  Or would the
Wanderer
find yet another way to slip from his grasp?

“
Firing!” the captain shouted.

Vorn actually felt the massive warship tremble slightly as the Omega Beam was fired.  The massive beam struck the
Wanderer
’s shields.  Space around the
Wanderer
lit up spectacularly.

The terrific energies at play hid the
Wanderer
from both Vorn’s sight and the
Starslayer
’s instruments.  He started to worry that the blow had been too great.  Had he destroyed the
Wanderer
instead of disabling it?

He had to wait several seconds for the disturbance to die down.  Finally he managed to make out the
Wanderer
’s image.  Relief soon gave way to disbelief.  The
Wanderer
was undamaged.  How?  How could it possibly have shrugged off such a massive attack?

“
Target’s shields are badly depleted,” called out the captain.  “Preparing to fire again.”

Vorn checked his own display and felt his frustration evaporate.  The captain was right.  The
Wanderer
’s shields had withstood the assault, but not without a heavy cost.  The
Starslayer
trembled again.  This time the
Wanderer
’s shields buckled under the impact and the beam sliced through its target.

“
Targets jump engines are offline,” called out one of the crew.

“
Offline my arse,” the captain shouted jubilantly.  “They’re nothing but slag.  We’ve got them this time!”

“
Captain, we have thought that before.”  Vorn said firmly.  “Stay focused.”

The captain paled and swallowed.

“Yes Admiral.”  He turned back to his console, adjusting the targeting information.  “Firing again.”

The Omega Beam lanced out once more, smashing through another section of the
Wanderer
and destroying several thrusters.  Despite his warning to the captain, Vorn felt optimism bubbling inside.  The
Wanderer
was already in serious trouble, and things had only just got started.

*****

Alarms flared in Jess’s mind as the Imperial fleet dropped into real space almost on top of the
Wanderer
.  He was out of time.  He had to find a way to free the
Wanderer
.  The shields would hold for a while but not forever.  There was the risk of being boarded too.  He ramped up the
Wanderer
’s weapons, preparing to take out any boarding craft.

The battlecruiser leading the fleet opened fire, but in a way Jess had never seen before.  Previously the battlecruiser had unleashed volleys of fire from numerous weapons.  This time it unleashed just a single beam, but one of devastating power.

The
Wanderer
rocked under the impact.  The shields held but were badly depleted.  Jess didn’t think they could take another hit like that.  The weapon must take an immense amount of power though.  How long would it be before it could fire again?  Seconds?  Minutes?

A few seconds later he got the answer as the beam fired again.  This time the
Wanderer
’s shields buckled and failed.  The beam punched through the hull and on through the ship, striking the jump engines and destroying them instantly.

Despite the damage Jess felt a surge of hope.  With the engines offline at least the
Wanderer
would be mobile again.  He threw power into the thrusters… but nothing happened.  Whatever had the
Wanderer
pinned in place was still exerting its influence.  Another blast from the battlecruiser destroyed a section of the hull and several thrusters with it.

Jess unleashed the
Wanderer
’s weapons, lashing out at the battlecruiser.  None of them reached their target.  They fizzled out long before making contact.  Jess felt despair.  Not only did the battlecruiser have an awesomely powerful weapon, it had some form of shield that nullified all the
Wanderer
’s weaponry.

What was left to do?  He couldn’t run with no jump engines.  Couldn’t dodge while pinned in place.  Couldn’t defend against the attacks, both because they were too powerful and because the shield generators were mostly burnt out wrecks.  And he couldn’t strike back through the battlecruiser’s shield.

Another blast struck the
Wanderer
, destroying more thrusters and some weapons.  Blast after blast followed.  The battlecruiser seemed intent on carving up the
Wanderer
this time, on rendering it little more than a wreck.  The only positives were that the Imperial warship wasn’t trying to destroy the
Wanderer
, because the engines were being carefully avoided, and wasn’t trying to kill its crew, because the flight deck was also left alone.

It was cold comfort.  Jess could feel the destruction of the
Wanderer
as physical pain.  The ship he had spent so much time linked to was dying around him, and there was nothing he could do.  All he wanted right then was to have someone standing by him with a clever suggestion.  Elizabeth.  Dash.  Even Matt.  Or failing that he wanted Ali, the real Ali, standing by his side so he could hold her one last time.

Thinking of Ali led him to onto thinking about the prisons he’d created.  Anxiously he checked them.  He was relieved to find the small shield generators were still functioning.  Much as he longed to have the real Ali beside him, he certainly didn’t want to face what she had become.

As the battlecruiser continued to carve up the
Wanderer
Jess realised he had one last decision to make as the
Wanderer
’s captain.  Surrender or destruction.  Not destruction at the hands of the Imperial fleet.  Destruction of his own choosing.  The engines still functioned and he retained control of them.  If necessary they could be set to overload, denying the Empire any chance of learning the
Wanderer
’s secrets.

But could he do that?  The
Wanderer
was more than just a ship.  It was a living entity, and one that had been around for tens of thousands of years.  Could he really be the one to end that?  To kill the ship?

And would he be right to?  He’d seen what the tainted could do.  What they were.  Corrupt and terrible as it was, the Empire was at least human.  It was shocking to realise the Empire might be the lesser of the two evils.

Then the choice became academic.  Jess watched in horror as the power output from the engines dropped to zero.  They didn’t seem to have failed, or to have shut down, but there was no longer any energy within them.  Emergency power kept the lights on, and the shields around the prisons running, but the
Wanderer
was completely helpless.  None of its weapons, external or internal, could be used.  The boarding parties would walk straight in without meeting any resistance.

And there was no longer any way that Jess could destroy the ship.  All he could do now was wait to be captured.

*****

Vorn watched as parts of the
Wanderer
were reduced to glowing wreckage.  He had ordered the engines and flight deck left alone, but everything else was a fair target.  One thing was certain, the
Wanderer
would never fly anywhere again.  That was fine.  He would have its remains towed on board the
Starslayer
where his crew could begin to unlock its secrets.

If nothing went wrong.  Even now Vorn was tense.  The
Wanderer
had escaped too many times already.  He wasn’t taking anything for granted.  The
Wanderer
was almost a floating wreck, unable to move or retaliate, yet he still worried.  The lack of retaliation was particularly strange.  The
Wanderer
had fired once, but the weapons fire hadn’t even reached the
Starslayer
.  After that the
Wanderer
’s weapons had fallen silent, even before they were destroyed by the Omega Beam.

“
Admiral…” the captain said tentatively.

Vorn felt his stomach lurch.  “What?” he snapped angrily.

The captain took a half step back, then steeled himself.

“
Admiral, we are seeing something… unusual.  With the Omega Beam.”

“
What do you mean unusual?”

“
The beam seems to be striking with diminished power.”

“
So?  You know as well as I that this is new technology.  The power relays are probably overloading.  Keep firing.  If the power drops off too far we will switch to our normal weaponry.”

“
No sir.  There isn’t a problem with the beam.  Sensors show it is still at full power.  But by the time it strikes the
Wanderer
it is… diminished.  It started about a minute ago.  The power loss was just a few percent then.  Now it is closer to sixty percent.”

The
Starslayer
trembled as the Omega Beam fired once more.

“
Over ninety percent that time!” the captain said.

“
That power must be going somewhere,” Vorn said firmly.  “Find out where.  Are you sure the sensors are working correctly?”

“
Yes sir.  Ninety-six percent down that time sir.  We hardly inflicted any damage on the
Wanderer
.”

Vorn frowned.  Was the energy simply vanishing into empty space?  The image of the
Wanderer
firing its weapons sprang into his mind.  Its weapons fire hadn’t reached the
Starslayer
.  The weapons energy had seemed to bleed away.  Exactly as the Omega Beam’s power was.

The beam fired again.  Something clicked in Vorn’s head.  Whatever was happening must have something to do with the
Wanderer
, and that meant it was something he had to stop.

“
Stop firing!” he barked out.

“
What?” asked the Captain, thrown completely off-balance by the order.

“
Stop firing the beam
right now!
” bellowed Vorn.

“
Aye sir,” the Captain shouted.

He slammed his hand down on the console, slightly too late to prevent one final firing of the massive weapon.

“Launch the assault shuttles,” ordered Vorn.  “I want the
Wanderer
crawling with our troops and I want it done
now!
”

*****

It took Jess a minute to realise the barrage had stopped.  He’d been sitting head in hands, slumped in depression.  Waiting for the inevitable.  He reached out with the few surviving sensors and found what he had dreaded.  More than a hundred assault shuttles were streaking towards the
Wanderer
.

And there was nothing he could do.  The battlecruiser’s assault had destroyed almost every weapon the ship possessed, and the power drain had rendered the others useless.  All he could do was sit and wait.

No.  Not quite all.  He reached out to the
Wanderer
, expending a small portion of the dwindling stored power, and had a section of the wall flow back.  It revealed one of the heavy guns that Dash’s men had used when they turned on their leader and tried to capture the
Wanderer
.  The weapons were more than capable of killing someone in battle armour.

Jess wasn’t sure if he’d use the gun on the invaders or himself, but he felt better for holding it in his hand.  It gave him at least a little control over what would happen.

*****

The lead assault craft were halfway to the
Wanderer
.  Vorn willed them to move faster, to reach the ship before it could pull off yet another disappearing act.  Then one of the sensor officers shouted in alarm.

“
What is it?” Vorn asked, stalking over to the man.

“
I don’t know sir.  I’ve never seen readings like this.  Something is happening to space near the enemy ship.  To jump space too.”

“
What?  Is something coming through?  Is the
Wanderer
going to jump?”

“
No sir.  I don’t think so.  These readings are like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  They’re… I just don’t know sir.”