One of the creatures wearing Ali’s appearance appeared outside the barrier, taunting Jess once more. His resolve hardened. There was no choice. He had to end the assault, regardless of the risks.
His muscles tensed as he activated the protocol. The world swirled around him. Jess felt dizzy, then sick. The barrier containing the Wanderer’s soul was immense now, yet it was being battered around like a leaf in a hurricane.
Bad as things were within the barrier, they were far worse outside. A creature wearing Ali’s form was ripped into shreds in front of Jess’s eyes. He saw other creatures suffering the same fate. There was nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide. Even the swirling, chaotic colours were being blasted away.
Jess hung on, trying to survive the assault. It wasn’t easy. Space within the barrier was no longer empty. He’d filled it with complex structural supports, all designed to keep the Taint from regaining ground in areas he wasn’t focusing on. He crashed into them, one after another. He knew, deep down, that they weren’t real, that they were just another way for his mind to make sense of something far stranger. That knowledge didn’t stop the pain as he was thrown against struts and walls.
A sudden calm surrounded him. Groaning, Jess stretched, then studied his surroundings. The chaotic colours were gone. He found he could see further than before, far further than he could possibly see in the real world.
Everywhere he looked was the same, a black background against which the Wanderer’s systems glowed gently in a variety of colours. All trace of the Taint was gone, and Jess felt normal. Nothing had changed. Nothing was lost. He wasn’t Tainted!
The Wanderer was already stretching out its presence, regaining control of system after system. Smiling with relief, Jess let his surroundings fade away and returned to the real world.
* * *
Jess groaned as feeling returned to his stiff body. He forced himself upright, smiling at Teeko despite the discomfort.
“I think we’ve won, Teeko. The Wanderer had a way to neutralise the Taint. Ali and the others should be safely out of action.”
“Safe are we? Finished is it?”
“I think so. Let me check on them…”
Jess reached out to the Wanderer. Images streamed into his mind, showing Ali, Sal, Dash and Ben. All were surrounded by flickering shields. He could just make out their faces. They didn’t seem to be in pain or discomfort.
He checked on the Wanderer. It was taking time to recover full control over all its systems. The Taint was gone but it had left many traps behind. Jess prioritised getting control of the jump engines. Everything else could wait.
Alarms flared in Jess’s mind, followed almost immediately by the impact of heavy weapons fire. Several shield generators burnt out under the load. Many others were in a bad state. More information rushed into Jess’s mind. The Imperial fleet had finally caught up, and they were coming in with their weapons blazing.
* * *
Admiral Vorn fought the urge to hunch forward as his fleet crashed back into normal space. His captains had an extra incentive this time. If they failed to capture the Wanderer again then the captains from the two ships which were slowest to react would be executed, slowly and painfully.
The threat seemed to have worked. His ships were dropping out in a much tighter formation, tearing up space close to the Wanderer and, in theory, preventing it from jumping clear.
The Starslayer had been first back into normal space and opened fire immediately. This time Vorn was more interested in crippling the Wanderer than keeping her in one piece. Everything he’d seen convinced him the ship would be nearly impossible to destroy by accident, even with the immense firepower of a battlecruiser. The first step was to take down its shields, then its jump engines.
The initial volley should have wiped out most of the Wanderer’s shields. It hardly scratched them. Yet again the Wanderer was breaking all the rules. The firing computer automatically increased the weapons’ power levels, stepping them up repeatedly.
The readings coming off the Wanderer’s shields made no sense. Vorn ground his teeth. The Wanderer should be disabled, and yet it was soaking up more and more punishment, far more than the last time he’d faced it. Soon the disruption from his ships’ arrival would start to dissipate, allowing the Wanderer to escape.
The strength of the Starslayer's weapons fire continued to increase. Vorn hadn’t had an upper limit set, simply specifying it should stop increasing once it was able to wipe out the Wanderer’s shields. At that point fire would be targeted on the jump engines.
Vorn stared at his displays. Every weapon firing was now at full strength. The Wanderer was finally starting to show the effects, its shields were being slowly worn down. The strength of the relatively tiny ship was starting to scare Vorn. It was withstanding the full might of a battlecruiser. Destroyers couldn’t take this level of punishment. Even a cruiser would succumb quickly.
Other ships added their fire. Several more seconds ticked away. The Wanderer stubbornly refused to submit. Space around her was returning to normal.
Vorn growled deep in his throat. The Wanderer was going to get away. Again! And there was nothing he could do to prevent it.
* * *
Jess was overawed by the pounding the Wanderer was managing to withstand. How was it possible? The Wanderer’s shields had been shredded by far less powerful attacks. What was different about this time?
Then he figured it out. The shields were working differently than they had before. Something about the protocol used to contain the Tainted also made the shields… he struggled to understand. Not stronger. Not exactly. Just… different. They dispersed the attacks differently, which allowed them to deflect far more of the incoming energy.
The savage attack was starting to have an effect, though. Shield generators were dropping out. The Wanderer flagged up a warning. Soon the shields would be incapable of containing the Tainted. The shields wouldn’t fail, but the net effect wouldn’t be sufficient to keep Ali and the others prisoner.
The Wanderer was rocked by another round of heavy fire. More shield generators died. And the flickering cocoons surrounding Ali and the other three Tainted vanished.
* * *
Sal blinked. Or what Sal had become did. She still thought of herself as Sal. She still had Sal’s memories, her drives and desires. There was another layer to her now, though, a layer that had full control over everything she did. She thought of it as the Gift.
She was still in the living area but time had passed. She couldn’t tell how much or what had happened, but time had passed without her knowing, without her being able to act. That was bad. Very bad.
Gaining control of the Wanderer was important, but getting herself or Ali to safety had to take priority. The knowledge they had gained from the Wanderer had to be shared. She could sense the thoughts of others who had received the Gift, as long as they were close by. As Sal arrived at a decision, Ali and Dash reached it at the same time. Ben lagged behind. His mind was still young, unformed. The Gift had less to work with in his case.
The other three agreed, Sal must be the one to escape. Both Ali and Sal had played host to the implants which linked them into the Wanderer, but Ali still had them while Sal’s had been flushed out. Only Ali could resume the assault on the Wanderer’s systems. So it was Sal who had to escape.
Dash and Ben would stay and support Ali. They would attempt to disrupt Jess’s ability to strengthen the Wanderer’s defences. Ali had been so very close to full control of the Wanderer before Jess returned to the fight. If they could remove him then the ship would soon fall.
With the decision made Sal raced from the living area, heading for the shuttle. She flung herself into the pilot’s seat, strapping herself in as the controls came to life.
She allowed herself a smile once it was clear the shuttle was under her control. Ali had isolated the shuttle immediately after her failed attempt to share the Gift with Jess. Sal’s face clouded for a moment at the memory. Poor Jess. H
e had no idea what he was missing out on.
Shaking off the memory, she had the shuttle send an emergency protocol to the Wanderer. The code, designed to be used in absolute emergencies, caused the airlock doors to open immediately. Sal shoved the shuttle forward, sending it flying out into space before Jess had a chance to override the door controls.
She’d done it! She was clear of the Wanderer. Now all she had to worry about was the huge Imperial fleet surrounding her and unleashing a thunderous storm of weapons fire.
* * *
Another alert flashed into Jess’s consciousness. Already struggling to keep the shields up, and to get control of the jump engines, he took several seconds to access it. When he did he cursed loudly. Sal had taken the shuttle and was already clear of the Wanderer.
He tried to override the controls but the shuttle was completely locked out. All the Wanderer’s weapons were offline. There was nothing he could do about the shuttle. Another volley from the battlecruiser shook the Wanderer, reminding Jess where his priorities lay. Sal was gone. She was someone else’s problem now.
He checked the damage. Several more shield generators were down. There were still plenty laying dormant, just waiting to be used. The problem was they hadn’t been brought under control of the Wanderer. They could be loaded with booby traps or worse.
Jess was checking them out and bringing them up as quickly as possible. It wasn’t fast enough. Shields were being destroyed more quickly than he could replace them, and the rate of failure was speeding up. The more strained the shields the more likely they would fail, which in turn added more strain to those that still worked.
The jump engines were in the same state. With the Taint driven from the Wanderer’s systems they sat there invitingly. Too invitingly. Jess and the Wanderer had already found and disabled more than thirty traps in the recovered systems. There was no reason to think the others would be any different.
Another volley struck. Yet more shields failed. Jess desperately cast around for a way out, a solution he’d missed. There wasn’t one.
* * *
“What the hell?” admiral Vorn muttered. “A shuttle?”
He stared for a moment longer before screaming out orders.
“I want that shuttle intact! If any ship destroys that shuttle then the captain, all the officers and half the crew will be executed. Get a boarding team out to it immediately. Don’t let it get away!”
The last words were spoken in a deathly cold voice. The officers around Vorn leapt into action immediately. In theory capturing a shuttle should be a simple affair. His officers weren’t making the mistake of assuming that would be the case. The Wanderer had done too many incredible things already. Who was to say that this small shuttle couldn’t have jump drives, impossible though that should be?
* * *
Sal started to relax as the shuttle pulled away from the immediate conflict. She’d worried at first that she’d be an accidental casualty of the assault on the Wanderer, or would be deliberately targeted.
She relaxed even further as several assault shuttles launched and turned onto courses to intercept her. They wanted her alive. Soon she would be dragged aboard one of the Imperial ships, probably in chains. Everything was going according to plan.
Chapter 46
“Why haven’t they jumped?” Vorn muttered.
None of his officers answered. The question hadn’t been targeted at anyone in particular and no one wanted to risk attracting the admiral’s attention.
Vorn couldn’t understand it. Space had settled down enough for even a normal ship to jump, so what was happening? His tactics had been based on blasting the Wanderer’s shields down and damaging its jump engines before there was any chance to escape. That plan had failed, but the Wanderer was still sitting in normal space. So his fleet kept on wearing down the Wanderer’s shields.
“Launch more assault shuttles. Have them close on the Wanderer. I want as many troopers on board as we can manage.”
“Aye, Sir.”
Vorn watched as the Wanderer’s shields continued to be beaten down. They flickered for a moment. Immediately the Starslayer’s weapons lashed out at the Wanderer’s jump drives. The shields rallied and deflected the attack. This time.
Vorn felt a flicker of hope that things would be different than before, that he would finally capture the Wanderer, but he ruthlessly suppressed it. There were too many unknowns. Too much could still go wrong. He would celebrate once he stood on the bridge of the Wanderer, not a moment before.
* * *
The Wanderer’s shields threatened to fail, struggling to cope with the damage being unleashed upon them. Jess forced power into them, stabilising the flow. He was only just in time. The battlecruiser struck almost immediately, targeting the Wanderer’s jump engines.
The warship switched back to pummelling the Wanderer’s shields. Jess knew this couldn’t last. Soon, probably very soon, an attack on the jump engines would get through. Then the Wanderer would be at the Imperial fleet’s mercy.
To make things worse, the Tainted were active again. Jess could sense them starting to flow into the Wanderer’s systems. They had no fear of the traps left behind and were able to move quickly. Soon they would regain control of the remaining shields and jump engines. Jess could wrest control back again, but it would take time… time the battlecruiser would never allow him.
There wasn’t any choice. There never had been, but Jess had been holding back. He’d been scared if he was honest. He still was. Steeling himself, he took a deep breath, then dived back into the virtual world of the Wanderer’s systems.
* * *
The area surrounding him remained clear of the Taint, even the areas outside of the Wanderer’s safe zone. Things were changing, though. In the far distance systems were becoming blurry. Some were disappearing into the chaotic haze of colours that represented the Taint.
Not stopping to consider what he was doing, Jess launched himself outward. Not in one direction. In all directions. There was no care this time, no testing for hidden dangers. He was grabbing everything he could, sweeping it into his control. What he needed more than anything else was control of the jump engines but there was no time to be selective.
Jess cried out as hundreds of invisible knives plunged into his body and his mind. They tore at him, slowing him down. Each represented a trap, something left behind to hurt or corrupt him and the Wanderer. In some ways being struck by so many was a good thing. They merged into a suffocating wave of pain which allowed him to deal with them as a whole, rather than individually.
They affected him, though. The further he spread his influence, the more invisible hooks dug into him. His progress slowed. He neared the critical jump engine control systems, but he’d almost stopped moving.
He hadn’t thought the pain could grow worse. He’d been wrong. Every single barb, every single hook, started to radiate intense pain. Jess screamed as the agony ripped through him, as it started to rip his soul apart. The jump engines remained tantalisingly out of reach, but Jess didn’t care anymore. He was being flayed alive. Pain overrode all thought.
Tears blurred his vision, but he sensed a presence. One of the reflections of Ali, come to gloat. Or to grab the chance to enslave him. She rushed to his side, reaching out for his face with both her hands. Despite the pain Jess was determined not to give in. He would die before he let the Taint gain control of the Wanderer. Ali’s hands reached his face, holding it gently.
Jess had expected pain. Pressure. A fight. He certainly hadn’t expected the pain he was feeling to ease, but it did. Ali’s hands were cool, calming. The feeling swept through Jess rapidly, sweeping away the agony. He blinked in surprise, shaking his head to clear the tears.
Ali’s face contorted into a snarl of pain. Tears were flowing down her cheeks. She didn’t move her lips, probably couldn’t have spoken, yet her voice sounded in Jess’s mind. She sounded calm, at ease, despite what was happening to her.
Jess my love, mov
e quickly. I can’t do this for long.
Jess stared at her in confusion for a moment, then realisation struck. This was Ali. The real Ali! The Ali he thought he’d lost. She was right in front of him, and she was enduring excruciating pain for him.
Ali, I’ve missed you so much. Let me help…
No, she interrupted firmly. Do what you came to do. Save the Wanderer. Save yourself.
Somehow she found the strength to move, giving Jess a shove in the right direction. There was hardly any strength behind it but it was enough to break the spell. Jess threw himself towards the jump engine systems and several key areas controlling the shields. Pain spiked into him as he triggered more traps, but it was as nothing compared to the pain he had felt, and to the pain Ali was dealing with right then. Outside, in the real world, the Wanderer shuddered under another onslaught. Jess was aware of it but it seemed so remote now. So distant.
The moment the jump engines were under his control, Jess activated them. The transition was rough; he hadn’t taken the time to plot a smooth entry. Getting away mattered far more than comfort.
The Wanderer was safe from the fleet, but only so long as he controlled the jump engines. He knew he should be grabbing control of more shield generators, but he couldn’t help turning back towards Ali. Maybe they could share the load? He could certainly stand more pain than he was currently experiencing. Ali, on the other hand, looked way past her limit.
She lifted a hand, stretching it out to tell him to stop. Somehow she managed to smile through the pain.
I love you Jess. Always remember that.
She seemed to shatter. Tiny pieces flew in every direction, quickly vanishing.
“Noooooo!” Jess screamed.
Wanderer's Odyssey - Books 1 to 3: The Epic Space Opera Series Begins Page 84