Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (8 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Tears flooded down Sal’s cheeks as soon as the door to her room closed behind her.  Anger, sadness and betrayal mixed into a concoction that left her light-headed.  She collapsed to the floor, slamming her fist down several times.

She felt betrayed by Jess and Ali.  They’d been willing to see her go, to see her leave, rather than give Roberto a chance.  How could they?  After everything the three of them had been through, how could they just turn their back on her?

And Roberto.  She’d thought he cared, then he’d refused to let her go with him.  Sure, he made it sound as if he was caring for her, but she didn’t believe that for a minute.

For a few moments she’d considered following Roberto, or somehow stealing on to the shuttle.  Anger at his dismissal soon ended those thoughts, not that she’d worked out a way to get past Ali and Jess unseen anyway.

A thought crystallised in Sal’s mind.  She had to leave the
Wanderer
.  There was no option.  Where could she go though?  Of course.  Elizabeth!  She could travel on the
Steady Light
.

She’d have to move fast though. The
Steady Light
could already be preparing to enter jump space.  Sal pushed herself up and ran to the door.  Or tried to.  She made it two steps, then her foot sank to the ankle.  Her foot went in easily, but it didn’t come out.

With her foot now locked solid Sal fell forwards, crashing into the floor.  Except she didn’t.  The floor was soft.  Not soft enough to sink into, but soft enough that it didn’t hurt.

Before she could try to get up or pull her leg free the floor to each side flowed over her back, pinning her in place.  Sal panicked, trying to struggle her way free.  It didn’t work.  She was stuck fast.

Without warning the ship lurched sideways.  Sal felt the material holding her in place absorb much of the force, but even so the breath was nearly driven from her lungs.

Sal, hold on!

The brief message from Jess almost made her laugh.  How could she do anything else?

Jess
, she sent back through her implants,
What the hell is going on?

*****

Jess threw the
Wanderer
to the side once more, narrowly avoiding the devastating force unleashed by one of the attackers.  He ignored Sal’s question.  Even with his mind massively accelerated everything was happening too fast for him to cope with.

Sal was safe.  So were Ali and he, both secured to the floor in the same way as Sal.  Teeko too, with Ben in his arms.  The boy looked terrified but his alien protector was soothing him.

Dash was as safe as Jess could manage.  He couldn’t control the shuttle’s form in the same way he could the
Wanderer
’s.  Dash was buckled into the pilot’s seat and should survive, even if he earned a few bruises.  If any of them survived.

Jess threw the
Wanderer
into a spiral, feeling his stomach lurch in response.  Weapons fire lashed out and destroyed two enemy fighters.  It hardly seemed worthwhile, it was like spitting into the wind.

Keeping the
Wanderer
safe was taking most of Jess’s attention.  What little he could spare was focused on the
Steady Light
.  Nothing had attacked her or the other freighters yet, but it would.  If necessary Jess would use the
Wanderer
’s unique jump engines to intervene.  For the moment he felt it better to keep away and give the
Steady Light
some space.

Something was happening.  Some of the Imperial corvettes were peeling off, turning to follow the
Steady Light
and to intercept the other nearby freighters.  The rest of the fleet still seemed determined to take out the
Wanderer
.  That worried Jess.  The enemy was showing far too much awareness of the
Wanderer
being something special.

The
Wanderer
shook under a sudden barrage of shots that seemed to come from nowhere.  Jess lashed out with the
Wanderer
’s weapons in a wide spread, acting on instinct alone.  Several lasers hit their invisible target.  Not enough to do any damage but enough to show its outline.  More stealth ships.  Now he was certain.  The massive fleet was chasing the
Wanderer
.

Jess started to throw the
Wanderer
through more random turns.  The stealth ships he’d encountered before had relied on a set pattern of attack to avoid hitting each other.  Jess had the
Wanderer
weave in and out of groups of enemy ships to break up any such pattern.

It helped a lot.  The stealth ships had to drop back into visibility every minute or so to reorder for another attack.  The exceptionally powerful weaponry they carried only hammered at the
Wanderer
’s shields intermittently.  She could take that punishment easily.

Something else struck the
Wanderer
.  Jess felt as if he’d smashed into the floor from several feet up, even with the padded restraints he’d fashioned.  Shaking his head against blackness he focused on the ship.

The
Wanderer
seemed to be in one piece still, but the shields were very low.  What had happened?  Jess soon had the answer.  While trying to avoid the stealth ships he’d let the
Wanderer
get closer to the battlecruiser leading the fleet than he should have.  The huge ship had seemed completely focused on destroying all of Desolation’s weaponry as the
Wanderer
slipped nearer.

From one moment to the next the battlecruiser’s weapons were targeting the
Wanderer
, smashing through her shields.  Jess sent the
Wanderer
into a tumbling spin, making her as tough a target as was possible.  In time the shields would recover, but it was time they might not have.  Two stealth ships had shed their invisibility.  They were on the
Wanderer
’s tail and almost in attack range.

The first came into range and opened fire, shredding most of the
Wanderer
’s remaining shields.  Jess forced power back into the shields, stealing it from everywhere he could.  He powered down the
Wanderer
’s own weapons.  This encounter would be won or lost on her shields and thrusters, not in a shoot out.

Another volley narrowly missed, and another.  Then the two ships split slightly before angling back towards the
Wanderer
.  Jess cursed.  Whatever he tried they were likely to land enough shots to disable or destroy the
Wanderer
.  He tried anyway, throwing the ship into a tight spiral that felt like it would crush him.

It wasn’t enough.  He dodged all the shots from one of the ships but half from the other still struck home.  The
Wanderer
’s shields failed in a blaze of energy and much of the weapons fire struck home against the
Wanderer
itself.  Warnings flared across Jess’s vision.  Things were getting desperate.

Jess struggled to keep the
Wanderer
flying an evasive course, but the
Wanderer
felt sluggish and slow to respond.  The two stealth ships lined up for another attack.  Jess forced his ship into another turn, but the damage it had taken made it much too slow.  Both stealth ships would hit easily when they fired.

They didn’t fire.  First one ship peeled off then the other.  Both started flying circuits, always swinging their inactive weaponry across the
Wanderer
as they passed.  The message was clear.  Try to move, try to run, and you’ll be destroyed.

Jess rapidly ran through the damage the ship had taken.  Most of the damage was to the main hold area.  Sections were now open to space.  Hours before that would have been a disaster, now the area was empty.  All the freed prisoners had been sent on to other ships.

It wasn’t all good news though.  Some of the manoeuvring thrusters were destroyed, and all the shield generators had been knocked out.  Some were completely destroyed from the pounding they’d taken.  Jess was sure he could get others back online in only a few minutes but that might as well be a few centuries.  Besides, as soon as the shields went up they’d be knocked down again.

With the
Wanderer
damaged and vulnerable to any attack Jess had no options.  He kept the
Wanderer
in place as the battlecruiser closed in.  The size of the ship sent a chill down his spine.  It was massive, defying any sense of scale.  Nearby frigates looked more like runabouts.

Jess reviewed the attack.  As he’d suspected, the punch had been pulled.  Despite the damage done to the
Wanderer
the attack had been far below full strength.  Jess felt another chill run down his spine as he realised the Wanderer had survived when any similarly sized ship would have been vaporised.  It couldn’t be a coincidence.  The power had been precisely calculated to overcome the
Wanderer
without destroying it.  Add in the stealth ships and there was no doubt.  This fleet had followed them from Daspal.

How?  Had there been more stealth ships at Daspal, silently recording everything but not interfering?  Even if there were, how had they managed to direct a fleet to Desolation so quickly?  Most importantly, what happened now?  They wanted the
Wanderer
.  It was the only explanation.  Jess would rather die than let that happen.  The trick was ensuring his death, and the deaths of those he cared about, didn’t leave any part of the
Wanderer
intact.

Chapter Fourteen

Dash lay slumped in his seat, only the straps keeping him in place.  He was dazed, possibly concussed.  Every part of his body seemed to be bruised.  The metallic taste of blood and sharp pain told him he’d bitten his cheek despite his best efforts.  It felt like several of his ribs were broken.

Everything considered he’d got off quite lightly.  The shuttle’s seat and safety webbing were designed to cope with rough landings, but the forces he’d been subjected to would rip the small craft apart during touchdown.  As the acrobatics got steadily worse Dash had just closed his eyes and tried to relax, certain something would give way any second and he’d be crushed.

It hadn’t happened.  Somehow everything had stayed in place, despite some ominous creaking.  Even when the
Wanderer
was shoved by what must have been an epic discharge of weaponry the seat cushioned Dash from the worst of the forces.

For a moment he considered trying to contact Jess, but he soon dropped the idea.  The thought of moving at all filled him with nausea.  Imagining trying to focus on the shuttle’s controls at the same time was more than he could bear.

So he stayed where he was, listening to the eerie silence.  To begin with he expected the killing blow to come at any time.  As the seconds stretched out surprise took over.  Why hadn’t they been finished off?  What was going on out there?

They hadn’t jumped, Dash was sure of that.  He could always tell when a ship made that translation.  So what was going on?  Whatever had hit the
Wanderer
was big. 
Really
big.  Too big for the
Wanderer
to have taken out he was sure.  Or anything else around Desolation, even if they somehow managed to combine the power of their attacks.

Was the
Wanderer
surrendering?  And if so, to who?  Had this attack come from those who wanted Dash overthrown?  He didn’t know, and his mind was in no state for abstract thought, so he closed his eyes to wait for the end.  However it came.

*****

Jess, what the
hell
is going on?
Sal sent, trying yet again to get a response.  Once again he ignored her.

Biting down on her frustration she connected to the
Wanderer
herself, trying to find out.  She’d passed out during the violent acrobatics.  She remembered intense pressure, then a feeling of floating.  Her ears had started to ring and her vision rapidly went dark at the sides.

Then she was waking where she had been before, still secured to the floor.  But all was now still.  The
Wanderer
appeared to be rock solid.

Sal quickly came up to speed.  It seemed she’d only been out of it for a minute or so.  The
Wanderer
had been pounded by the biggest ship she’d ever imagined, smashing apart the
Wanderer
’s shields and leaving the ship helpless.

With no shields they couldn’t run.  They’d risked entering jump space with no shields once before, but only for the briefest of times.  Until the shields were repaired they weren’t going anywhere.

*****

Admiral Vorn smiled at his tactical display.  The
Wanderer
lay at rest, covered by his own massive ship and two of the banshees.  The pirate base was starting to be torn apart by fire from his other ships, and the remaining intact vessels were being hunted down.

Now came a tricky part.  He needed the
Wanderer
, and those on board might know as much.  He had to offer them something, give them hope of survival and reward.  The last thing he wanted was to spook them.  One key factor was time.  Allow them enough time to realise their predicament.

Another was taking the other ships in the system - particularly those that had been with the
Wanderer
at Daspal.  There was nothing like seeing friends in danger and pain to provide motivation.

Admiral Vorn continued to study the display, making plans but doing nothing yet.  Let those on the
Wanderer
sweat for a while as they contemplated their likely fate.  Then, when despair was peaking, anything offered by the Admiral would seem more than reasonable.

*****

Jess stared at nothing, lost in the inner workings of the
Wanderer
.  He was vaguely aware of the messages from Sal but he was far too busy to respond.  Ali lay next to him, unconscious.  She’d passed out during the heavy manoeuvring and hadn’t stirred since.

Jess had the
Wanderer
examining her now.  To his relief there was nothing too serious.  The shaking had left her with a mild concussion which the ship was already starting to heal.

The
Wanderer
was in similar shape.  Nothing major was destroyed, but much of it wouldn’t be working soon.  Or soon enough.  Pinned between the three powerful ships there seemed to be no escape.  Jess was sure the captains on the surrounding ships would be congratulating themselves.  Well, they didn’t have their hands on the
Wanderer
yet.  And they never would if he had any say in the matter.

Jess smiled at an alert on his display.  Finally some good news.  The
Steady Light
had just jumped.  The corvettes following seemed to hesitate for a short while, probably confirming their instructions, then they jumped too.  Jess grinned.  It wouldn’t matter.  Elizabeth would be into the target system and out again before the corvettes could catch her, and the effects of that system would stop them following her any further.

The other ships around the base should soon be ready to jump.  Many of the freed prisoners would get away.  Maybe all.  Jess would never know.  The two stealth ships were getting close enough to launch an assault.  He also worried they might take more shots now they were closer, to cripple the
Wanderer
further.

Entering jump space without shields was almost certain suicide.  Jess knew that.  The
Wanderer
had done it once before, for the briefest of times.  It had survived more by luck than anything else.  Trying it again would be crazy.  Jess figured staying where they were was worse.  Making the jump would at least place the
Wanderer
’s wreckage beyond the Empire’s reach.

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves he threw the
Wanderer
into jump space.  The
Wanderer
vanished.  It didn’t reappear.