Wanderer's Escape

by Simon Goodson

  “I don't think so. She was wearing a control collar, similar to those used on Sal and I but with some changes. I don't think she could do anything. I broke the link between it and the station, and that's when she shouted. Don't worry, we'll be cautious with her, I might be slow but I do learn eventually.”

  She pulled back a little and gave him a dazzling smile followed by a passionate kiss. Just as Jess started to relax into it several alerts flowed into his mind from the ship. Cursing he pulled back.

  “Damn that's bad timing. Three ships have just launched from the station. All three are touting some hefty weaponry and armour, they'll be tricky for us to deal with.”

  Sal shuffled over to them, still looking exhausted from her ordeal.

  “There's no reason to stay is there?” she asked. “Let's get out of here.”

  “We're too close to the station for any normal ship to be able to jump. We can reach jump distance in about twenty minutes. Those ships won't be close enough to prevent us jumping then, though I'm sure they'll follow us.”

  “We can deal with that when we need to. What about the robots? Do you need to destroy them?”

  “No. I can deal with them, well the ship can. The damaged one should be salvageable too. Might as well get that started.”

  With a thought Jess told the ship to start dealing with the robots. The floor around the two active robots flowed, quickly encasing their legs. The substance flowed on, reaching their chests then immobilising their arms and finally their heads. Jess had been prepared for what happened but he saw Sal and Ali shivering at the sight. Even knowing what would happen he felt uncomfortable watching the humanoid shaped robots being swallowed by the ship's substance. A similar process took place with the damaged robot, though as it was already in parts on the ground it was much quicker. He followed the ships progress in dealing with the robots. The two still active soon had their control functions wiped. Then the ship set about modifying them. Improving everything from their brains and power systems to their weapons, armour and shielding.

  The process would take some time but at the end they would have two very powerful robots. No, three very powerful robots. The third was badly damaged, probably beyond normal repair, but the ship was rebuilding them from the ground up anyway. Apparently rebuilding a ruined robot wasn't against the rules governing the ship.

  “There. It will take some time but the robots can be rebuilt and made loyal to us,” he said. “While we still have a little time I think we should wake our guest and offer her the chance to leave. I doubt she'll want to, especially as we'd have to send her off in a very minimal survival suit, but it needs to be done.”

  Both women agreed so Jess had the ship confirm their guest was well enough to be woken. Most of the medical devices had withdrawn, the few remaining were embedded in her body and would be controlled remotely until they were no longer needed – then they would simply dissolve away. He instructed the ship to release its hold on her and to bring her around. She opened her eyes with a groan.

  “Don't try to sit up,” Jess said. “You need to take it easy. How are you feeling?”

  “Rough. Like I've been out getting wasted all night.”

  Her voice was deep, her words clipped short. She stared at Jess for a moment.

  “Damn but you look like Ethan. My nephew. Bit younger than him though. Help me sit up will you? I ain't planning on carrying on a conversation whilst laid out.”

  Sal helped the woman to a sitting position. Jess monitored her health closely via the ship but saw nothing to worry about.

  “I can't see the ugly mugs of those bastards who sent me over with the bots so I guess something screwed with their plan.”

  “Yeah, we managed to get away. They don't seem too happy – they've sent three ships after us. You knew what their plan was then?”

  “Sure. They didn't bother discussing it where I couldn't hear. I was just a prisoner. They'd stuck a collar on me which locked my muscles rigid if they wanted, or felt like it was burning its way through every bit of my body. Don't suppose you lot have ever had the pleasure of wearing one.”

  “Just every day of my life till a week or so ago,” Jess replied, smiling slightly.

  “Oh.” she grunted, taken aback. “Guess you know what I mean then.”

  “Partly. I never heard of them being able to freeze anyone in place before.” He turned to Sal. “Did you?”

  “I'd heard rumours occasionally,” Sal replied. “Nothing concrete though. If the guards used that function then it was either pretty rarely or well away from anyone I ever met. They seemed quite happy using the collars to inflict pain.”

  Jess turned back to their guest, who had listened to Sal and him intently.

  “So what was the plan?” he asked.

  “Pretty simple really. Get the robots into your ship then have them kill or subdue everyone in there. Same trick they pulled on me a few weeks back. Took my ship, killed the other two members of my crew. Captured me, stuck the collar on and used me as a slave. I felt so bloody helpless sat on that buggy knowing the same was gonna happen to you. Then suddenly I was free. I could move, could talk, could warn you. I remember shouting then the collar activated again, this time to punish me. The pain started but this time it didn't stop. I must have passed out. Next thing I remember is waking up here and seeing you lot.”

  Jess thought she was telling the truth. She seemed honest and the ship's monitoring of her backed that up.

  “What happened to your ship?” he asked.

  “No idea. Either they sold it or they've still got it, I guess. Not sure which thought is worse. Twenty years I'd had the old girl. Even named her after myself. The Queen Elizabeth.”

  “You're a queen?” asked Ali in surprise.

  The woman laughed at that.

  “No. I'm just plain old boring Elizabeth. The ship's the queen, not me. So – you know my name, how about telling me yours.”

  Jess quickly introduced all three of them. He didn't go into details about where they were from or how they controlled a ship. Elizabeth was clearly intrigued but didn't press for information.

  “I reckon I could stand now,” Elizabeth said.

  With the help of Jess and Sal they got her to the nearest sofa. Jess activated a display, using it to show their current position and the three ships behind them. He explained the choices they could offer – stay on board when they jumped or leave in an escape suit.

  “Not much of a choice really,” said Elizabeth. “If I leave then most likely I'll be picked up by that lot following you. Back to square one that'd be. And that's if they don't just blow me apart as they pass. Guess I'll be with you for a little while, till I can get somewhere safe at least. Ideally somewhere I've got some contacts so I can try and get my ship back.”

  Suddenly she stared intently at the screen.

  “Hang on. Can you zoom in on the central ship? Thanks. What's it called? Unbreakable? Bollocks! That's the Queen Liz, I'd recognise my ship anywhere. That shape is far from standard. She was a salvage job, stitched together from three other ships. Not on the cheap mind – best bits of three different ships to make one damn good freighter that could really shift and packed one hell of a punch. Never felt as safe as I did aboard her. That's probably why I got careless. Now the bastards are chasing me in my own ship.”

  “They aren't closing on us fast enough to be a problem,” said Jess. “Once we reach safe range from the station we'll jump.”

  “You know they'll follow you, don't you?” She asked giving him a piercing stare. “However close they are when you jump that's how close they'll be at the other end, if not closer.”

  “I know. We've got a few tricks up our sleeve though. It shouldn't be a problem.”

  “If you say so. I didn't get a look at your ship but I'm guessing fighting isn't an option, seeing as you're leaving in such a hurry. As far as I can see it's fight now or fight later. At least later we'll be away from the station. If by some miracle we do win then they won
't sending anything else straight after you.”

  “I don't understand,” said Ali. “Why are they doing this? Why did they attack us in the first place? They had a deal. We were ready to pay. What do they get out of this?”

  “Bloody obvious ain't it?” Elizabeth asked. Then, seeing the shock and confusion on Ali's face, she continued in a softer tone. “Sorry. You've been through a lot in a short space of time. I'm not the most subtle person you'll meet. My crew was used to me being sharp, knew I meant nothing by it. What do they gain? Your ship. A ship, any ship, is worth a fortune. Forget whatever you were going to pay for those bots, that wouldn't even scratch the surface. The ship was the only thing they wanted. Any prisoners were a bonus, but not one they go out of their way to get.

  As to what they want now... I guess they want you dead. Quickly. Before you get a chance to blow their little scheme. If you talk then there'll be no real proof, but their little operation would be watched much more closely. Maybe by the authorities, but definitely by those representing the other traders in the system. Rogues like that are bad for business, at least they are once word gets out. I reckon there's plenty who know what their game is and keep their traps shut.”

  “They won't try to take the ship again?” asked Jess.

  “No. Too difficult. They'll be looking to pounce on you the moment you return to normal space. My brain still feels fuzzy, should have asked before. Where's your captain? They should be hearing this too.”

  “That's me,” said Jess.

  She stared at him for a moment.

  “Really? You're pretty young. Not the youngest Captain I know though. So who've you got flying her right now?”

  “Err... that would be me again. The ship is pretty automated.”

  “Three hostile ships closing on you and you're sitting down here?” She shook her head. “Well, you're the captain. Though I'm guessing there's a story behind that. Once for later though. If there is a later.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The Wanderer reached safe distance and jumped on time. The three chasing ships had closed the gap significantly and were only a few minutes away from engagement range when the Wanderer jumped. Jess was surprised to see their pursuers jump at almost the same time, and mentioned it to the others.

  “Safety margins,” said Elizabeth. “The published safe distance is actually about ten percent more than is really needed. Cutting it fine like that is frowned upon, but I don't think they care about that.”

  Jess pulled up a display showing the Wanderer and the three ships chasing them. Even in jump space the three were far closer than he liked.

  “We'll drop out in about fifteen minutes and take a different route. That will put us out into deep space. Then we can pull a few of our tricks.”

  “I'd love to see them,” said Elizabeth. “I've been around a lot a years and I ain't got anything we can use. Clever display, by the way. Estimating their position relative to us. Must have used the disturbance from them jumping to calculate it. Bit pointless really though, nothing's gonna change till we drop back to real space and we know they'll be right on us when that happens.”

  “I guess,” said Jess, shrugging and trying to appear casual. If she hadn't guessed the scan was real time he wasn't going to tell her just yet.

  As the time to drop into real space approached the four of them strapped into the flight deck. Sal had taken a seat in the back row, leaving Ali and Elizabeth to sit behind Jess. She said it was because Elizabeth had more experience in piloting and ship to ship combat. Jess suspected it had more to do with being in position to watch Elizabeth.

  When the moment came Jess dropped the Wanderer into real space, wrenched it through a hard turn and jumped again – just as the chasing ships dropped into real space almost on top of them. Jess started to grin at the close call when alarms blared out across the flight deck and blasted into his mind. With a crunching wrench the Wanderer crashed back into normal space. They were several minutes flight in real space from where they'd started, but that still left them almost on top of their pursuit. Jess urged the ship to jump again but it couldn't. It felt as if the ship was mired in something sticky.

  “What the hell happened?” shouted Sal.

  “I don't know. We'd just got into jump space, then it was like we hit a wall. Now I can't get the ship to jump. Every time I try to use the jump engines it feels like we're stuck in something. I don't think we can jump.”

  “Tar pit,” Elizabeth muttered to herself.

  “What?” asked Jess.

  “A tar pit. A jump space inhibitor. It's a device that disrupts jump space, prevents any ship in its radius from being able to make a jump. They're incredibly rare, the Empire has just about all of them. The rumours say no one knows how to make them – that they're so rare cos they've been salvaged off derelict spaceships. Most of the rumours say alien ships, unbelievable as that sounds.”

  “So that's what they've got? It couldn't be anything else?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Any way to get away? To shut it down?”

  “I don't know. It's not like these things are common. If you're fast enough you can outrun the ship it's on, get clear and jump. Otherwise you need to destroy it. If there's another way I don't know it.”

  “Looks like we fight then.” Jess said grimly. “Any idea which ship it will be on?”

  “It could be any of them, but...” She stopped and sighed. “It'll be the Queen Liz. She's significantly stronger than the other two ships. You'll have to destroy her.”

  “I'm sorry.”

  “Yeah, you and me both. Guess I had the idea I'd get her back somehow, bloody unlikely though that was. Can you take her down?”

  “I don't know.” he answered, shrugging. “Maybe. Her shields are pretty strong and she packs a wallop. If the Wanderer was at full strength then I'd say yes, easily. She's not though. Those other two ships will complicate things too, they'll be blasting us as we try to tackle your ship.”

  “Damn it. Bastards. Making me do this to my own ship. All right, there's a chance. A weakness in the shields. Bring her up on the display. Right... it's here. There's a small area in the shields that's far weaker than the rest, something to do with the way she was built from the three old ships. Been trying to fix it for years. Used to pray each time I got in a fight that nothing would find that spot. Nothing ever did. Just hitting it ain't good enough though. You need to get the shot through to hit the reactors, here. The armour's strong there but if you can punch through it'll be goodnight folks.”

  Jess studied the image for a while, then nodded to himself.

  “It's tight but we can do it. Dangerous though, we'll be taking fire from all three ships. Anyone got a better idea?”

  No one had. Jess swung the Wanderer around sharply, curving back towards the pursuing ships. Now the closure time was measured in seconds instead of minutes and the other ships seemed to leap towards them. Mind heavily accelerated Jess was able to keep track of the situation despite the massive closing speed. He had the Wanderer performing basic evasive manoeuvres as they entered weapons range, avoiding anything that would change their course significantly. He opened up with the ships weapons, targeting the leftmost ship, ignoring the Queen Elizabeth in the centre and the rightmost ship.

  The sudden change of course had caught the pursuit flat footed. It was almost five seconds after entering weapons range that the right most ship returned fire. The Queen Liz and the ship on the left followed suit soon after. The Wanderer shook as its shields were pounded by return fire, but they held firm.

  A virtual countdown in Jess's vision counted down to the critical shot. With five seconds to go it still looked good. Then alerts flew into his vision, all three ships had launched missiles. A lot of missiles. At such short range avoiding them would be nearly impossible, and they'd easily overwhelm the shields. There were almost fifty. With a curse Jess changed direction, shoving the Wanderer hard over to the left and down, dragging the missiles down towa
rds their new course. Ruining his chance of making the killer shot.

  At three seconds the shields were struggling to hold out as the enemy poured fire into them at point blank range. The missiles had turned to their new interception path. Jess tensely watched as everything came together, trying to judge the right moment.

  At two and a half seconds he threw the Wanderer back up and right, clawing its way back towards the position it needed to make the critical shot. The missiles detected the new course and adjusted, but crucially the move slowed them a little more, lengthened the distance they had to travel slightly. Now they'd reach the Wanderer just after the countdown finished instead of just before.

  At two seconds Jess targeted some of the incoming missiles, managing to knock out the closest and buying them a few more tenths of a second. He kept the ship turning hard despite numerous hull stress warnings. Even so they'd only just be able to get into position for the shot before they flashed past.

  At one second the Wanderer's shields were dangerously weakened. Jess desperately routed power into them everywhere he could, only sparing the weapons, thrusters and jump engines. With a sinking feeling he realised the Queen Elizabeth was rolling to bring more weapons to bear, and in doing so moving the weak area of shields away. He pushed the Wanderer into an even tighter turn, ignoring both the critical stress warnings and the grunts from the others at the forces acting on them. If they didn't make the shot they'd be dead anyway, there were far too many missiles to take out and the shields were already close to collapse.

  Half a second and they were still not going to make it. Jess shoved the ship over even harder. An alarm flared into existence warning of a hull breach in one cabin, air pressure dropping already. The ship sealed that cabin to prevent losing air from the rest of the ship.

  Quarter of a second and he thought they might be able to make it. A volley of enemy fire collapsed the shields for a moment, Jess registered it as a scalding pain across his shoulder. Damage signals flared amber but nothing was critically damaged, the shields had sapped the attack of almost all energy.