Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (17 page)

For the first time he had a chance to sit back and think about the situation.  He soon realised that he had no idea how to deal with the troopers aboard the
Wanderer
, or what they might try.  He needed help from someone with experience.  He needed help from Dash.  The very last person he wanted to rely on.

There was no choice.  Biting down on his feelings, Jess stood and went to find Dash.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Admiral Vorn stared at the display which had, until moments before, shown the
Wanderer
.  Just for a moment he’d thought the
Wanderer
was caught.  She hadn’t fled for jump space even while being pounded by missiles.  Several boarding shuttles had been destroyed but three had made contact, and many more were close to punching home.

Then the
Wanderer
had managed to jump.  Not far as jumps went, but far enough to escape the most immediate danger.  And in doing so she had shed most of the three shuttles.  Then the
Wanderer
had jumped again, disappearing for good this time.

It wasn’t all bad news.  Initial reports from the shuttles said there were ninety troopers unaccounted for.  Most, if not all, would be on board the
Wanderer
.  Vorn would have been happier if all ninety troopers had got on board, or other shuttles had reached the
Wanderer
in time.  Still, twenty troopers kitted out with the best Imperial armour and weaponry had a good chance of securing the
Wanderer
.

And the changes to the tracking device had worked well, allowing the
Starslayer
to drop out of jump space almost on top of the
Wanderer
.  The rest of the fleet had dropped out all around the
Wanderer
.  Vorn suspected that was the reason the
Wanderer
hadn’t been able to reach jump space immediately.  Would tightening up the formation on exiting jump space provide even more disruption?  If so it should be enough to keep their prey in place long enough to deliver more forces.

Vorn wasn’t so happy about the
Wanderer
’s course.  Taken with some of the earlier movements it was now clear she was heading for the Quarantine Zone.  Unless the troopers managed to win control soon there was a good chance the
Wanderer
would be destroyed.  If somehow the ship survived the mighty forces marshalled at the Quarantine Zone, and Vorn was starting to suspect that might well happen, then he’d be leading his force into the one area he would otherwise avoid at all cost.

He knew he wouldn’t hesitate to follow, no matter the risks.  With every encounter with the
Wanderer
he became more convinced that its technology would provide a huge boost to the Empire.  Not to mention greatly improving his own personal power base.

Still… crossing the Quarantine Zone.  If that was going to happen there were plans to make, and he needed to brief his officers.  Information on just what was going on in the other half of the Empire was strictly controlled and normally only available to the highest levels of leadership.

Even Vorn only had basic information, and he’d never expected to need more.  Now there was a strong chance he would be leading his fleet there.  He would never admit it but, despite the huge force he commanded, he felt a cold stab of fear in his gut.

*****

Sal lay on the floor gritting her teeth against the pain in her left arm.  She thought it might be broken somewhere above the elbow.

Moving wasn’t an option.  She’d tried it once and nearly passed out from the pain.  All she could do was lay still and hope someone came soon.  And that the last of the violent manoeuvres was over.

Sal didn’t know quite when she’d been hurt.  The first few manoeuvres had left her too dazed.  She vaguely remembered being thrown around the room several times.  There had been what sounded like an explosion too.

“
Sal!  Don’t move!”

“
I couldn’t if I wanted to Roberto,” she replied.

He came into sight.  There was a cut on the side of his head which was slowly dripping blood onto his clothes.

“Roberto, you’re hurt!”

“
I’ll be fine.  Just a cut.  How about you?”

“
I was pretty dizzy but that’s passing.  My arm hurts like hell though.  I can’t…”

“
Sal!”

Ali’s shout interrupted Sal.  Within moments Ali was kneeling next to Roberto.  Then Jess was there too, face grave.

“Your bone is broken in two places,” Jess said.  “The
Wanderer
can fix it.  Just relax.”

“
I thought you wanted Roberto and I off the ship?”

“
We don’t have time for that right now.  Whatever happens fixing your arm is the right thing to do.”

Sal felt the surface she was laying on begin to change shape.  For a moment she considered pulling away, refusing the help.  She must have moved slightly because pain shot through her broken arm, making her gasp out loud.

“Sal, try to keep still,” Roberto said.

He lay his hand on her right shoulder gently.  Her skin seemed to tingle under his touch.  She stared up into his deep brown eyes and smiled despite the pain.

“All right Jess,” she said, not looking away from Roberto.  “You win.”

“
Right now I’ll settle for us all surviving,” Jess said darkly.

“
What do you mean?” Roberto asked.  “That fleet obviously caught up with us, but I thought we’d got away.  We’re in jump space.  I can always tell.”

“
Yeah, they found us.  And we got away.  Though that was a damn sight more difficult than before.”

“
I got that impression.  The ship took some big hits.  But if we got away what’s the problem?  Are you worried about them tracking us?”

“
Yes, but that can wait.  We didn’t get away cleanly.  Three assault shuttles rammed us and started to unload troopers.  I used a jump to get rid of the shuttles but some of the troopers had already boarded us.  A few had penetrated our shuttle bay.”  Jess gestured towards the airlock door.  “I killed those.  The others are still in the main hold.”

Sal’s stomach flipped over. Troopers aboard the
Wanderer
?  And she was stuck on the floor unable to move.  The
Wanderer
could work miracles of healing but it would still take time.  Maybe she should just ask Jess to just patch her up well enough that she could fight.  Pump her full of strong painkillers or something.

Roberto’s hand had gone straight to his hip.  He frowned as he realised he had no weapon there.

“I need a gun,” he told Jess.  “Something powerful.  None of you are trained.  You’d be lucky to hit someone even at point-blank range.  I’m the only one who can mount a decent defence.”

“
No.  Not yet at least.  They aren’t that close.  I do need your help though.  There are eleven troopers in the main hold still.  I don’t know what they’re likely to do or how to counter them.  I need your help.”

*****

The words had nearly stuck in Jess’s throat.  He expected gloating from Dash, or a pointed remark.  He was surprised when Dash turned to Sal.

“
Are you all right?” Dash asked Sal, voice soft.

“
Yeah,” she replied.  “The painkillers are kicking in.  I’m feeling pretty good to be honest.”

“
Just don’t move the arm.”

“
I can’t.  It’s completely stuck!”

She giggled a little.  Jess checked the level of painkillers Sal was receiving and had the ship reduce them slightly.  Dash nodded to Sal then stood.

“Right then.  Eleven troopers.  It could be a lot worse.  They won’t want to split their force into more than three groups at most, and probably not more than two.

“
Their primary mission will have been to reach the flight deck and secure it.  Failing that they’ll want to find critical locations and either occupy or destroy them.  That forces us to respond and may let the fleet catch us.”

Jess nodded as he absorbed the words.

“So we have to stop them from reaching anything critical?”

“
Exactly.  You managed to kill the others.  I take it you can’t do the same to the troopers in the hold?”

“
No.  All of the heavy defences are in this section.  I thought any assault would most likely be aimed at taking control of the
Wanderer
.  To do that they need me, or one of you as a hostage.”

Dash smiled.  “You fell into a classic trap there.  You assumed your enemy knows everything you do, and will act on that knowledge.  Most times the enemy knows far less than you think.”

Jess felt anger rising again.  He’d been calm and reasonable.  Now Dash was mocking him.

“
Why shouldn’t they attack us?” he demanded.  “Plenty of people have tried that already.  Including you!”

“
That wasn’t my doing.  I tried to stop it.  You know that.”

“
I know you wanted it to look that way.  I don’t know what you were really planning.”

“
I risked my life!  I stood by Sal when it could have meant my death.”

“
So you say.  How do we…”

“
Shut up!” Ali shouted, glaring at them both.  “We have eleven troopers on board.  Isn’t that enough to fight in one go?”

Jess took a deep breath, looking at Ali rather than Dash.  She was right.  They needed to focus.

“I wasn’t knocking you,” Dash said, his voice much calmer.  “It’s a mistake that everyone makes at some point, and normally quite a few times.  I’ve done it.  It’s one of those things that’s obvious when someone tells you, but bloody hard to spot before.”

“
OK,” Jess replied non-committally.

“
Unless there’s something you haven’t told me, there’s no way the fleet following us can know about your link to the
Wanderer
.  They know the ship is something special, that’s why they keep chasing us, but they can’t know about you.

“
Striking for the flight deck was an obvious move, one that failed.  Now their focus will be on wiping out the crew or damaging the ship.”

“
All right.  That kind of makes sense.”

“
Good.  So, you don’t have the heavy weapons down in the hold.  Could you make some?”

“
Yes, given enough time.  Nowhere near enough though.  The hold is a big area and those weapons have a short-range.”

“
Can you extend the range?”

“
Easily.”  Jess smiled coldly.  “But it’s kind of all or nothing.  Short range or very long.  Blowing great big holes in the ship isn’t really going to help us.”

“
All right.  Anything else?”

“
The robots.  Two are in the hold, the third is up here with us.  If we dropped into normal space we could use a shuttle to get it into the hold.  That’s only three though, and we already know the robots weapons struggle to get through combat armour.  Working together they might be able to take on one or two troopers at a time.  Any more and we’d probably lose the robots.”

“
What about drones?” Ali asked.  “They worked well before.  They aren’t as tough as the robots but they give us more firepower.”

“
Maybe.  We’d need to increase the strength of their weapons which would mean fewer of them.”

“
Why?” Dash asked.

“
It’s a restriction that’s built into the
Wanderer
.  There’s a limit on how powerful the drones can be as a group.  We can have lots of weak drones or a few very powerful ones.  It’s the same for the robots too — that’s why there are only three of them.”

“
You can’t work around it?”

“
No.  Like I said, it’s built in.”

Dash frowned, then shrugged.  He thought for a few moments before speaking again.

“What about the terrain.  The hold was split up into floors and rooms for the prisoners we’d freed.  Have you changed it?”

“
No.  It’s still the same.”

“
And you can track them wherever they go?”

“
Yes.  Definitely.”

“
We can use it to our advantage then.  We know the terrain better than they do.  How quickly can you create a new door down there?  Or remove an existing one?”

“
It depends.  In a few minutes if I concentrate and there’s only two or three.  If it’s for a lot more then I have to leave the
Wanderer
to deal with it.  Maybe an hour or two then.”

Dash grinned.  “That’s more than enough.  We can turn that whole area into a maze, and one that changes around them at that.”

Jess was confused.  “How will that help?  I thought we wanted to kill them.”

Dash shook his head.  “No.  That’s not our main aim.  Don’t take this the wrong way but that’s another common mistake.  Focusing on defeating the enemy, on killing them, rather than the actual goal.  Right now that’s making sure they don’t do any damage to the ship or to us.  Keeping them wandering around in a maze will achieve that.”