Wanderer's Odyssey - Books 1 to 3: The Epic Space Opera Series Begins

by Simon Goodson

  “Madam, I will not hesitate. Stop your ship immediately.”

  “No. I’ll make you look after them. They can’t control the ship. Only I can. They won’t be able to stop and you’ll have to save them. I know how kind you all are. Much too kind to let a ship with only young children on be destroyed.”

  She smiled then, a strangely beautiful smile. The smile of someone finally finding peace. She smiled even as she stuck the pistol under her chin. She was still smiling when she pulled the trigger.

  The result was horrific. Blood and worse flew everywhere. The woman’s body collapsed. Most of the children started crying, though one was stunned into silence. Marsh stared at them, cursing the position he’d been put in.

  He checked the ship’s course, unsurprised to see it would collide with the station. Not that it made any difference. Even a near miss would have forced his hand.

  Feeling like his heart would burst from his chest, he killed the video feed. Tears stung his eyes as he spoke, but his voice was steady.

  “We can’t let them get close, and we can’t take them in. We would have given them food and supplies. She left us with no choice. Destroy the ship.”

  “Captain, we can’t just kill them. Let me go to them. I’ll take the risk. I’ll take them somewhere safe.”

  Marsh looked at his deputy, Alisha Sanders. He saw she was serious, even though it would mean never returning. He couldn’t let her do it. Greenseed needed her too much. He needed her help too much. Looking into her eyes he knew those arguments wouldn’t deter her. It didn’t matter anyway. It was too late.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “No. You couldn’t reach them in time. The ship would be too close. We can’t risk it.”

  “We can’t just kill those children!” she shouted.

  “We have no choice,” he replied, forcing calm into his voice. “You know that. Think of all the children we have here. Think what might happen to every one of them if we let that ship get too close. There’s no other way.”

  Marsh’s heart went out to Alisha as she wrestled with knowing he was right, while still desperately wanting to save the children. He couldn’t blame her. He felt the same way. If he could find any way to keep them safe, he would… but there wasn’t any.

  “Oh god… what have we become?” she whispered at last.

  The whisper cut to the heart of Marsh where the shouting hadn’t. What had they become? Killers of children for no reason other than fear. Marsh saw the same conflict on the faces of the others. He knew he had to counter it. Punching several controls he brought up a composite photo showing many of the children of Greenseed.

  “We’ve become what we had to,” he rasped. “You know the risks we run if we don’t destroy the ship. Look at these children. They are safe right now because we do what is necessary. I won’t let them down.”

  He punched several more commands in, then spoke again. This time he let the pain inside show in his voice.

  “But I won’t ask any of you to do something I won’t do myself.”

  He pressed one final button. The station’s weapons fired. The approaching ship disintegrated, ripped apart by weaponry designed to kill far larger ships. At least it was fast, he thought. They won’t have felt a thing.

  It didn’t help. He bowed his head, tears threatening to fall. He knew the faces of those children would haunt his sleep for weeks to come. He could hear several people weeping, Alisha amongst them. He didn’t blame them.

  How much longer could they stay strong? How long before people started to crack completely, or to make bad decisions? A chill settled into his heart as he realised Alisha wouldn’t have made the decision he had. She would have let the ship through, docked with the ship, brought it to a halt and then brought the children onto Greenseed.

  With a sigh he realised he would have to stay in the control room twenty-four hours a day. Compassion was a noble virtue, a wonderful virtue, but it was one they simply couldn’t afford. Letting just one ship through put the entire station at risk.

  Even so, just how much longer could they really survive? The station was tough, but not invincible. Ultimately they were just playing for time. Waiting for the Empire to solve the problem. If it could.

  He hardly dared consider the alternative. If the Empire couldn’t solve the problem then humanity’s days were numbered. It might take years, decades even, but the end would come. Would Greenseed be one of the last outposts to survive? Or would it be destroyed long before, crushed by the forces threatening the Empire or by those desperate to find somewhere safe to escape to?

  Right then, pain burning in his heart, he wasn’t sure which option was worse. Maybe a quick end would be better than having his soul torn apart one destroyed ship at a time. He really didn’t know.

  Chapter 7

  “What happened to unloading directly to the base?” Jess asked Dash.

  Dash paused for a moment, then let out a deep breath. What should he say? How much should he tell them?

  “Knuckles knows the situation better than I do. I haven’t visited in several years, remember. If he says unloading directly to other ships is the best option, then it’s the best option.”

  “What about the base? Are we in any danger?”

  “I don’t think so,” Dash lied. “I trust Knuckles with my life. He saved it on several occasions. We go right back. If something was wrong, he’d find a way to let me know.”

  “If he’s such a good friend, why did you turn down his offer to go see him?”

  Jess was clearly suspicious. Dash decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. It was always best when lying. Making it too complicated was always a recipe for tripping up on the details.

  “My conscience. It’s still likely some of the prisoners won’t survive. I want to know I’d done everything I could for them. I can’t sit around drinking beer knowing people could be dying.”

  “Strange attitude for a pirate chief.”

  Dash shrugged. “You know my story. That wasn’t what I set out to be. I was just trying to keep my people safe. That led me to become what I became.”

  “All right. We know we can trust you.” Jess’s tone gave the lie to his words. “What about the ships the people we freed end up on? How do we know they won’t be sold straight back into slavery?”

  Dash sighed deeply, suddenly feeling very old. Had he ever been this idealistic? That caused him to chuckle. Of course he had.

  “What’s so funny?” Jess asked, scowling.

  “Sorry. I was laughing at me, not you. Remembering how I was when I was your age. I’d have been standing right next to you in those days, lending you my support. The years wear you down.

  “How do you know you can trust them? You don’t know. Even I don’t. But every one of them is here because they’ve shown themselves to be trustworthy and, more importantly, to have strong ethics. Those aren’t great in a pirate organisation, as I’m sure you’d be quick to point out.”

  Dash couldn’t resist making the barb. Jess didn’t rise to it, so Dash continued, glad to be on a subject where he could be completely honest.

  “That made it easy to shift them out to roles on the periphery of the organisation, and in time to rotating them through this base. So I think they’ll do the right thing, especially with us asking them to, but I can’t guarantee it. If I’m honest it’s likely at least a few will end up as slaves again.

  “What alternative do you have? Send a robot onto every ship? Follow them to their destination? Watch over the resettlement of everyone you’ve freed? You can’t do that. They’ll need to go to many different systems. This ship is amazing, Jess. You’ve achieved incredible things with it. But you have to learn there are still limits. If you don’t then you’ll tear yourself apart.”

  Frustration radiated off Jess. “There must be something we can do. If not, then we’ll take them on board the Wanderer.”

  “For how long?” Dash asked. “Things are crowded on the main decks as it is. The people down there
are just glad to be free right now, but soon enough they’ll get restless. If you try to squeeze four times as many people into that space they’ll revolt in no time at all.”

  Jess opened his mouth to argue, but couldn’t find the words. Ali put her hand on his arm.

  “Jess, Dash is right. I know you feel responsible for them, for all of them, but we’ve done what we can. We’re giving them the best chance we can, especially compared to what they were going to. Elizabeth found the details on the Steady Light’s computers. They were facing certain and agonising death cleaning up a radiation leak. You’ve given them back their lives.”

  Jess smacked a hand onto his thigh in frustration.

  “Damn it! We should be able to do more!”

  “Jess, I understand,” Dash said. His quiet and earnest tone got Jess’s attention. “I stood where you are now, many years ago. I didn’t have a ship like the Wanderer but the one I had was pretty good, and I had my men behind me. Highly trained soldiers. We’d seen what the Empire really stood for and wanted to fight against that.

  “It started well, but before long I reached the point you have. I realised that whatever I did would only be a splash in the ocean, that almost everyone I saved would have to be left to take their chances again.

  “I decided I needed more strength, more power, and I set out to get it. I succeeded, too. It just made the scale of the problem bigger. Now I could save a few hundred, or even a few thousand, and ensure they stayed safe but I saw tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, who needed to be saved. So I sought more power.

  “And for each bit of power I gained I sacrificed something. Sometimes my principles. Sometimes a small part of my ability to act as I chose. Sometimes the life of someone I cared about, sending them on a mission I would never have sanctioned when I first started out.

  “I know you don’t trust me fully, Jess, but please believe me on this. You stand at a crossroads. Don’t take the path I did. Accept that you have limits.”

  “I should just give up? Not try?” Jess spat back angrily.

  “No! Not at all. You need to understand the limits, then keep pushing them as hard as you damn well can. More often than not you’ll gain ground, and those times will make you feel good. Great. But if you try to fix everything then you will only ever find bitterness.”

  Jess didn’t reject the advice immediately. He sat, anger on his face but considering what Dash had said. Dash was impressed. Once again he was struck by how mature Jess could be at times. Thinking back to how his younger self would have reacted to such advice Dash nearly laughed again, stifling it with a cough. He’d probably have punched whoever offered the advice.

  Jess abruptly stood. He muttered something about needing a few minutes then stamped off towards the flight deck. Ali started to follow him then stopped, face stricken. Worried about the young man she loved but uncertain what to do.

  “Leave him, Ali,” Sal said quietly. “Roberto is right. Jess needs some time to come to terms with that. He’s angry right now. Angry and frustrated. If you go in there he might turn that anger on you. Give him a chance to calm down.”

  Dash felt a warm glow at Sal’s words. Despite everything, she still called him Roberto. It was how she’d first known him. Very few people used his first name any more. Sal using it gave him hope their friendship might survive all he’d thrown at it.

  “It’s so hard,” Ali replied. “I know how important this is to Jess, and I care about the people we rescued too, but I can’t feel it in the way Jess does. And you too, Sal. I’ve never been a slave. I hear you and Jess tell us about it, but it isn’t the same as having lived it.”

  “Jess knows that. You try, that’s what matters. Sometimes… well, sometimes the memories are just overwhelming. So is the ability to do things, to make a difference. That’s new to us. Making choices. Deciding our own fate, let alone other peoples. Sometimes I just feel like curling up in a ball. Shutting everything out.

  “Jess must feel that way too, but he knows he can’t do it. He’s the captain of the Wanderer. He has to stay focused, stay strong. That’s tough. I don’t know how he manages as well as he does, though I’m sure a lot of it’s down to you. You make him happy.”

  Ali blushed at that. “How are… how about a drink?”

  The hesitation was almost too short to notice. So was the way Ali’s eyes glanced at Dash before she changed the subject. Dash caught both, though. He was certain Ali was going to ask how Sal was doing, then she’d changed her mind when she remembered Dash was there. But was that because she thought Sal had feelings for Dash? He didn’t know. There were too many other possibilities.

  Still, maybe it was. And maybe Sal did have feelings for him. His eyes followed Sal as she and Ali fetched drinks, and he felt a tug on his heart at the thought of leaving the Wanderer. Leaving Sal. He realised he had to say something to Sal soon, or risk regretting the missed opportunity for the rest of his life.

  * * *

  Jess was in the pilot’s chair once again, but slumped down this time. In many ways he still didn’t trust Dash, but the older man’s advice had seemed honest. The more Jess thought about Dash’s words, the more they made sense.

  The Wanderer was massively more powerful than when Jess had first come aboard. It had repaired and reshaped itself into a much more deadly ship, which had allowed Jess and the others to help far more people than before. To save far more people. But, as Dash had said, that just highlighted the far greater number they couldn’t help.

  Who was it that had told him he would need to change the Empire, bring it down, to help everyone? He couldn’t remember. Too much had been packed into such a small space of time. Was it Matt? Or maybe Elizabeth? Sal, even? He didn’t know.

  That piece of advice merged with one from Dash. Know your limits, but push at them. Stretch them. Fine. He’d accept the limits he now faced, but his goal was to change the Empire as much as he was able. Maybe even to bring it down.

  An almost unthinkable task, but maybe one he could accomplish given the right help and resources. He was constantly aware of the Wanderer’s desire to return home, to the system far on the other side of Imperial space. Jess and the others had decided to go there, mostly for the adventure.

  Now Jess felt another reason to visit crystallise in his mind. He would need something amazingly powerful to destroy the Empire. Where better to find it than the system which built the Wanderer? Maybe he would find allies, though he thought it unlikely. Somehow he felt sure the original builders of the Wanderer were long gone. How could the Empire span so much of space otherwise?

  Yet the ship longed to return, which told Jess there should be something there. Or at least there would have been thirty or forty thousand years ago. The ship’s intellect had been greatly reduced for that immense span of time. Lobotomised, effectively. Jess had helped to smash through the barriers, to bring the amazing ship fully back to life, albeit without knowing what he was doing.

  Yet the ship knew how long had passed and it still seemed keen to return. And if the Wanderer had survived such a long time it seemed likely other ships and stations could have too.

  Jess straightened in the chair, eyes bright with ideas. His desire to smash the Empire burnt strongly, and it gave him renewed strength to look at the current problem. He might not be able to protect the former prisoners, but he could give them the means to protect themselves. The Wanderer could produce knives and even simple guns that would be difficult to detect. He’d make damn sure the prisoners had a chance if it came to a fight for their freedom.

  Chapter 8

  Ali entered the flight deck tentatively. Jess had been alone for well over twenty minutes. She didn’t think leaving him on his own for much longer was a good idea. In some ways Sal understood Jess far better than Ali did, but in others Ali was sure she knew him better. Their relationship had been short but incredibly intense, so much so that she couldn’t imagine her life without Jess in it.

  Jess had been sitting facing forwards.
Hearing the door he swivelled round quickly. Despite her worries, Ali couldn’t help smiling slightly.

  “Glad to see I still put a smile on your face,” Jess said lightly. He seemed nothing like she’d feared. Instead of gloomy and upset, he seemed bright and alive.

  “I was just thinking you’ve really got the hang of that swivel now. I hardly ever have to help you up off the floor.”

  Jess grinned sheepishly at that, remembering the time he’d ended up sprawled with his body on the floor and his feet tangled in the chair. It hadn’t swivelled then, or not until Jess had thought how he wished it would. It was one of the first indications he got of just how closely the ship and his mind were joined. The ship reacted to his wish immediately… and Jess found a fixed seat suddenly spinning and tipping him out.

  “Yeah…” he said with a grin.

  Ali walked forwards and dropped into his lap, tilting her head to one side. She was still smiling at the memory of Jess sprawled out on the floor. Jess wrapped his arms around her and gently kissed her neck.

  “Mmmm… that’s nice,” Ali said.

  She wriggled in place, drawing a groan from Jess, then leaned in for a passionate kiss. They pulled apart several minutes later, both breathing heavily.

  “I could lock the door…” Jess suggested, with a grin that made her heart skip.

  Ali groaned. “Oh… I’m so tempted. We can’t, though. I came to see how you were, and to tell you Dash thinks we should be hearing from the base soon. He was worried… well, we were all worried about you. I’m here you know, whenever you need me.”

  Jess’s face turned serious. “I know. I don’t think I can ever tell you how important that is to me. I love you so much.”

  They kissed again, softly this time with Jess cradling her face.

  “I love you too,” Ali said as she pulled away. “How are you?”

  Jess grinned. “I’m fine. I understand we can’t protect the former prisoners, not directly anyway, but I’ve had an idea. We can’t tell Dash, though.”