Jess found himself leaning away from the force of her statement. Rather than push the point, something he found himself slightly scared to do, he focused on Sal.
“Sal, your wrist is badly hurt. I think it must be broken. We need to get you to the medical bay.”
Sal continued to stare into the distance for a few moments before she seemed to take in what he’d said. Her eyes slowly focused on Jess.
“Not a chance.”
She barely spoke above a whisper. Jess shuddered inside at the pain in her voice.
“Staying here… want to… see this through,” Sal gasped out. “If… I’m gonna… die… I want… to see… it coming.”
He opened his mouth to argue then stopped himself. The ship was in bad shape, they couldn’t jump yet and the other two ships were closing fast. Maybe they were going to die here. He put himself in Sal’s position and realised he’d do the same. They’d both spent all their lives shut away, kept from knowing what would happen to them, from controlling their own fate.
“If we’re going to die you want to face it free?” he asked gently.
“Yes!” she gasped out, smiling through the pain.
“I understand. Please let the ship give you a something for the pain, though. Just something local, it won’t make you sleep.”
She studied him for a moment then nodded, too exhausted to speak. Jess had her seat morph out to wrap around her arm just above the damaged wrist, securing it in place. It blocked all feeling from the wrist and hand then injected several chemicals to help boost her body and ward off shock. She relaxed immediately, still looking pale and exhausted but without the aura of intense pain. Jess smiled at her and she smiled back tiredly. Then he turned to Ali.
“Ali, are you hurt?” he asked.
“No. I’m not hurt. It’s just…”
She stopped, unable to continue. Tears forming in her eyes. Jess reached out and took her hand in his, squeezing hard.
“It’s all right to be scared. I was terrified, really, and I had loads to distract me. You just had to sit there and watch, and put up with my poor flying.”
She held his hand tightly, grabbing it with her other hand too, and smiled at his poor attempt at humour.
“Maybe, but you were linked into the ship. That means it seemed to last much longer for you than it did for me. But your flying was pretty awful. If I had any belongings in my room they’d be all over the floor now.”
“Ah – not exactly. Actually they’d be floating through space. We had a hull breach in your cabin.”
As he said it he cursed himself, he’d meant it as a flippant remark to cheer her up instead he saw the fear return to her face.
“Hull breach? My god, is the ship going to break apart?”
“No, no. Sorry. It’s not that bad. We had to really pull some sharp turns and the structure gave way there. The room is completely sealed. We can’t use it but there’s no danger.”
“Oh smooth Jess… real smooth.” Sal’s voice wasn’t strong but was much improved, the booster meds and the lack of pain already making a big difference. “Sorry babe, your cabin’s got a hole into space. You’ll have to share with me.”
Jess immediately felt himself turning bright red. He tried to answer but choked instead. Ali started to blush too, stared at him as he choked, then burst out laughing. Elizabeth was smiling too. Jess buried his head in his hands.
“I give up. There’s nothing I can say to that, is there?”
“Smart boy!” said Elizabeth. “Quit while you’re a long way behind.”
Jess looked up and smiled fondly at Ali and Sal. He still felt embarrassed, and knew this type of teasing would always continue, but he was starting to feel more comfortable with it. They were teasing him, no more. He realised he actually quite enjoyed it in some ways.
The laughter had reduced the tension. Sal was no longer in pain, though still clearly badly hurt, and Ali seemed less nervous. A grim determination settled over them all, a desire to face whatever was coming head on. Jess brought up a display showing the Wanderer and the following ships, together with an estimate of when they would enter weapons’ range. While still minutes away, the time was ticking down quickly. The ship’s shields were still offline and jump space was rapidly settling down.
“Jumps will be possible again soon,” Jess said quietly. “Still nothing from the shield generators. The ship is trying to repair them but they took a real beating.”
“What do we do if they manage to jump?” asked Ali. “They’ll be right on top of us. Do we try to fight? Try to dodge? Blow up the ship and try to take them down? Can we try to jump without shields?”
Elizabeth winced. “A jump without shields is suicide. How the hell we survived that last one I don’t know. We can’t have been in jump space for more than a second or two. Anything more and the ship would be ripped apart. Though… they might never know what had happened to us. The wreckage would be spread across a huge area. At least we could inconvenience the bastards, make them go searching for us.”
“It’s a choice,” Jess said. “Fighting isn’t, unless someone wants to stand in the airlock and throw things at them. Same goes for trying to evade them, the ship just can’t take any more stressful manoeuvres – she’d tear apart. Overloading the engines is a possible, but they’d have to be pretty close for us to take them down. I doubt they’ll make things that easy for us.”
“I vote for making a jump,” said Ali. “At least we’ll be escaping, kind of.”
“Me too,” said Sal.
“Works for me,” added Elizabeth.
Jess nodded.
“That’s agreed then,” said Elizabeth. “We’ve only just met, but I have to say I like you folks. You’ve got spirit.”
“I’m sorry,” said Jess, overwhelmed as the reality of the situation finally hit. Tears starting to fall. “I should have avoided this. I should have found a way to get us through without losing the shields. I should have…”
He broke off as Ali’s open hand rushed towards his cheek. At the last moment she slowed it, delivering a pat rather than a full on slap. Then she grabbed his face with both hands.
“What did I tell you about taking on too much responsibility?” she asked him, eyes locked on his. “You did your best. That’s more than enough.”
He grinned sheepishly, went to answer then jumped as an alarm blared out both in his head and out loud in the flight deck.
“What is it?” asked Sal urgently. “Have they jumped?”
“No,” answered Jess with a huge grin. “We’ve got shields back. Minimal shields. Really, really low power, but the ship confirms they’ll be enough to keep us safe during a jump and that it can maintain them. Let’s get ready to get out of here.”
The others stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds, then whoops of joy rang out. He turned the ship, aiming towards the nearest star other than the system they were fleeing. Aiming right towards it, a collision course. He stretched out with the ship’s senses, judging the state of jump space around them. While still turbulent he was pretty sure they could make a jump stick, then twenty or thirty seconds’ flight would take them far beyond the disruption. Still he held on, wanting to be sure.
His mind was made up as one of the ships pursuing them started to shoot at the Wanderer, still at extreme range but a few lucky shots could take the Wanderer’s shields down again. Already linked to the ship Jess’s reactions were near instantaneous. He launched the Wanderer into jump space, desperately hoping they could ride out the remaining disruption.
It was milder this time, still rough but controllable. Fifteen seconds into the jump the shaking slackened to a mild vibration. Twenty seconds in and jump space around them was completely normal.
The two enemy ships had jumped almost immediately. The scanner showed them coasting along behind the Wanderer, matching its speed as all ships in jump space did. Almost all at least.
“Well they’re right behind us and we can’t shake them off in jump space
,” said Elizabeth. “I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve got up your sleeves. I’m an old dog but I still like learning new tricks.”
Jess turned and grinned at her.
“Well,” he said. “We can do this…”
He had the Wanderer slew to the right, swinging round to a heading ninety degrees away from their original course. The other enemy ships soon shot past, still on course for the star and waiting to see the distinctive patterns as the Wanderer ripped a hole back into real space.
Elizabeth’s jaw dropped. For several moments she was speechless. Finally she found her voice.
“That’s… that’s not bloody possible! No ship can do that! You’re screwing around with me, ain’t you?” Jess noticed that her speech became even more clipped when she got agitated.
“No. It’s for real,” he answered. “Don’t ask me how, I don’t have a clue, but it’s on the level. Our friends will be chasing after where they think we’ve gone till they give up and figure we went straight into the star. Or maybe they’ll push it too far and get fried themselves. Either way, they’re not our problem now.”
“That’s one hell of a trick! What’s next? Pulling a rabbit out of a hat?”
“What’s a rabbit?” asked Jess.
“What’s a rabbit? Really? Small fluffy animals kids love for about two weeks then ignore?”
Jess shrugged. “I grew up a slave. We didn’t see many animals. Those we did were normally treated better than us. Anyway, my next trick is finding somewhere quiet to stock the ship up on raw materials. It can manage some critical repairs, but that’s all. We need to sort the Wanderer out before taking on anyone else that doesn’t like us, which seems to be an ever growing list.”
They studied the local charts and found a star a few hours flight away which had an asteroid belt and virtually no human presence. The belt was too sparsely populated for commercial exploitation, but with the Wanderer’s ability to scan real space as it flew past in jump space they could quickly locate useful targets.
Chapter 21
With the flight to the asteroid belt under the ship’s control they set about patching up Sal and Elizabeth, then started to relate their stories to their new visitor. Explaining the ups and downs since their escape from slavery, how they’d encountered Ali, and then Matt’s betrayal and their escape. They held nothing back, she’d already seen several amazing things that the ship could do, and would see it repair and rebuild itself once they reached the asteroids. There weren’t any other secrets.
“That’s quite a story,” Elizabeth said as they finished. “If I hadn’t seen some of it for myself I’d doubt it was true. This ship is amazing! Truly incredible!
“You’ve been completely honest with me, now I need to do the same with you. There’s one thing I want and one thing only… a ship. Don’t worry, not this one. I couldn’t control it anyway and I think it’s going to catch a lot of attention wherever it goes. No, I want a new ship. The Queen Elizabeth Two, I guess.
“I don’t expect you to do anything illegal or even to go too far out of your way, but I think you need my help for a while. You’re all far too… how can I put it… trusting. Too straight. You don’t know enough about the world out here to avoid getting stung. I can help with that. And at some point I’m pretty sure we’ll come across a ship. One we liberate from pirates, one we find abandoned, something like that. Or maybe we’ll put together enough money to buy one, though only if one of those asteroids turns out to be pure gold.”
“I’m curious,” said Sal. “How did you get the Queen Elizabeth? Did you inherit her?”
Elizabeth smiled at them, sat back in her chair and took a deep drink of her beer.
“Well now, that’s a story. No, I didn’t inherit her. I used to wait tables in a star port dive. Years ago, when I was young. I wasn’t stunning but I could turn a head or two, especially as I mostly wore short skirts and tight tops. That got me a lot more tips, though a lot more hassle too.
“Then one day there’s this guy in there drinking. Casual looking, cleaner than most in that place. Had a man mountain sitting next to him that could only be a bodyguard. I get him his drinks a few times then he asks me when I finish, if I’d like to join him for a drink. I’m a little uncertain but he seems OK, and he’s kinda good looking. I figure why not. My shift ended half hour before anyway, so I join him straight away.
“Pretty soon he’s got me drinking the hard stuff. Cocktails with vodka, gin, whisky and god knows what else. Glasses of champagne too. He says he’s heading off to the casino, would I like to go? His shout, he says, and I can keep what I win.
“I’m young, carefree, and this is the most excitement I’d had in months. I say yes. We get in his car, a limo no less, and head to the casino. Now this is where I expect him to get frisky, hands everywhere and pushing his luck. He doesn’t. He keeps charming me, telling me how beautiful I am, but behaves like a gentlemen. I’m almost disappointed when we reach the casino. I’d have quite liked a bit of fun in the back of a limo.
“So, the casino. More drinks, lots of games of chance. Then we end up in a private room at the back and he makes his proposal. He really likes me he says. Really, really likes me. Wants me so bad he’s fit to burst. I’m expecting him to say he wants me on the poker table right there, and I’m pretty sure I’ll say yes. What he actually says totally throws me. He wants to gamble. Best of eleven games of Cartash, a form of poker, one we’d been playing earlier and I’d done pretty well at.
“If I win I get money. A huge amount of money. I’m talking several billion here, enough to buy a ship and that’s a dream I’ve had for years without any hope of achieving it. Then there’s the catch. If I lose I get to walk out with twenty thousand, still twice what I earn in a year. I get to walk out in the morning. If he wins then he gets to have me all night. Nothing kinky, nothing painful, just normal sex. I wonder if he’s joking, about the stakes if I win and the stakes if he does, till a lawyer walks in with a contract to sign. Casino manager is there too, and he swears on a secure recording to make good if Mr Rich doesn’t.
“I kinda get it then. Mr Rich could have me quite easily. I’d taken a liking to him and screwing him in the limo or a plush hotel suite would have been fun. He knows that too. He wants the control, the feeling of having won me, of having owned me for the night. Twenty thousand if I lose is good money, but I know I’ll hate myself for it. Sleeping with him now would feel shitty.
“But if I won… the money was crazy. I could live my dream, buy a ship. I’m pretty damn drunk too, which clouds my judgement. I say yes, sign the contract, and we sit down to start playing. This variation of poker is for two people. You take turns to be the dealer. I start.
“It’s still pretty early in the evening but we’ve been drinking since lunchtime. Thinking about it, I’ve been knocking back a lot more than him. I start to realise he’s done this before, probably loads of times. Gets the girl drunk so she’s gonna make mistakes. I lose the first three games and realise it’s more than that. His money is never at risk cos he cheats. A lot. He must be running inserts calculating all the odds, telling him the ideal move, tracking the cards. He can’t lose the bet.
“Let me rephrase that. He can’t lose the bet in an honest game. Bad news for him is that I can cheat better than him. I start slipping cards off the deck while I shuffle them. I’d spent months working a casino as a dealer. Not cheating the punters, it was a legit place, but the casino taught us how to cheat so we could spot every trick that might be used on us.
“I win four of the next five games. He pretty soon realises what I’m doing, but he can’t catch me at it and he can’t say anything without giving away his own cheating. That’s the only way he can know I’m not being incredibly lucky. So now it’s four each, three games to play. I win the next and consider letting him win one more, drawing it out to the final game, giving him some hope. Then I think screw it and nail him into the floor with the next hand.
“He looks like he’s
going to have a heart attack as I win. For a moment I can see him considering refusing to pay up, then he realises he’s stuck, caught by his own contract. We both stand and he nods to me, congratulates me. I move close to him, smiling, press my body against his then whisper in his ear. ‘Next time pay for a whore, you arsehole,’ I say. ‘We slutty waitresses are too damn good for you.’
“He moves to hit me. Damn lucky for him his bodyguard stopped him. He’s outta there almost straight away leaving his lawyer, and a bank manager turns up from somewhere. Suddenly I’m absolutely loaded. Next day I started the search for a ship. Late the next day. One of the waiters in the casino was damn sexy. We hired a limo and spent the night screwing in the back. It turned out to be every bit as good as I expected.”
She settled back with a satisfied smile. Jess knew his cheeks were red, Sal was laughing delightedly and Ali was grinning too, though she had a slight flush at the explicit ending. Jess tried hard not to meet her eyes.
“Did you ever see him again?” asked Sal.
“No, though I heard he tried his tricks a couple more times that month. I’d put the word round though. I could certainly afford to. Everyone working in a bar or restaurant or anywhere else he’d be likely to hit on knew his game. One girl he picked up had a great time at his expense, then laughed in his face when he suggested the bet. The other turned round and told him she knew she’d lose, she thought he was really cute so they might as well go straight to bed. Completely ruined it for him apparently. He was out the club and into his limo in under a minute, leaving her with all the chips on the table. She quickly cashed them in then went on a year-long cruise with the proceeds. Never heard of him after that, he most probably tried his luck in a different area or on a different planet. Or we shook him up enough he saw a shrink and got himself straightened out. Somehow I doubt it, though.
“So you know my history. Some of it, at least. And you know what I want. Question is, do you want my help? Do you trust me? I’ll completely understand if you don’t after what you’ve been through.”
Wanderer's Odyssey - Books 1 to 3: The Epic Space Opera Series Begins Page 18