Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (21 page)

The sharper turn on Clay’s part meant both pilots succeeded.  The two ships were once again approaching head on.  The difference was that Clay’s shields were almost at full strength, while his opponent’s had hardly recovered from the last attack.  The opposing pilot had seen red and was making a rookie error.  One that Clay wasn’t going to let pass.

Clay didn’t rely on his shields.  He kept his fighter moving too, jinking around at random yet still keeping fire pouring into his enemy.  It was a skill he’d developed over the years, and was one his opponent clearly didn’t possess.

The incoming fighter’s shields collapsed while Clay’s were hardly touched.  He kept the fire pouring in, but the enemy’s ship stubbornly refused to die.  As the distance between them was almost gone Clay launched a missile and peeled away.  The missile alert sounded in his own cabin.  His opponent had pulled the same trick.

The same trick but against very different opponents.  Clay was already pulling away and his shields were at nearly full strength.  His own missile struck home, proving to be the final devastating blow.  The enemy ship erupted in a massive explosion which reached its own missile, detonating it.  Clay wasn’t quite clear of the explosion but it only weakened his shields a little.  Slipping away in a controlled tumble he studied the situation and closed in on another rogue fighter.

Things were going badly for the enemy.  Many of their fighters were already destroyed, for the loss of only one from the
Purple Cloud
.  The Imperial fleet was already closing in.  Within a couple of minutes the enemy corvette would be taking fire from far heavier ships.  They didn’t stand a chance.

The corvette seemed to have reached the same conclusion.  It was peeling away slightly, aiming to place the
Purple Cloud
between it and the incoming ships.  It was a pointless exercise — the cover would be fleeting as the two ships rushed past each other.  Clay started to suspect that whoever was in charge on the enemy corvette had no idea of how to fight a battle.

The screech of shots striking his shields dragged Clay’s attention back.  He’d been thinking too much.  His evasive manoeuvres had become mechanical.  Predictable.  He soon changed that, weaving away then engaging the fighter that had fired on him.  It had lost interest in Clay already and was attacking Papa-Four head on.  Its shields were low but the two fighters were about to scream past each other.  It would survive.

Or it would have if not for Clay.  He poured fire into its rear, finishing the shields off then ripping through the thrusters.  Papa-Four poured fire in from the front.  The rogue fighter crumpled under the combined assault, coming apart in tiny parts rather than dying in an explosion.

Clay whipped past the wreckage and checked his display.  The fight had moved away.  Swinging around he saw it would be twenty or thirty seconds before he could engage again.  He took the chance to check on the
Purple Cloud
.

“
What the hell?”

The enemy corvette was slipping past the
Purple Cloud
, as Clay had expected, but far closer than any automatics would allow.  It couldn’t be more than twenty metres away in places.  Clay could see the
Purple Cloud
’s manoeuvring thrusters desperately trying to move it away, but the rogue ship actually seemed to be getting closer.

“
Bloody hell!”

An intense blast of light half blinded Clay, even with his helmet immediately darkening to compensate.  Moments later a second blast ripped out.  Clay blinked away the after image, desperately trying to see.  Trying to prove that his worst fears were wrong.  Trying to make out the shape of the
Purple Cloud
.

His eyes cleared but the chill in his heart just grew worse.  The
Purple Cloud
was just an expanding sphere of twisted wreckage.  So was the rogue corvette.  It must have triggered an overload of its engines.  That close together the
Purple Cloud
’s shields would have provided almost no protection from the blast.

Clay stared a few more moments.  Everyone he knew aboard the ship was dead, other than the handful of fighter pilots in space around him.  The captain.  The fighter maintenance crews.  The female officers he’d sometimes flirted with.  Everyone.

He felt numb inside.  How could this have happened?  How could a corvette have been turned into a kamikaze attacker?  Who would sacrifice such a massive ship in this way?

The numbness was replaced by the chill of fear as he realised.  The Taint.  Somehow an entire corvette had been captured and turned to their purposes.  And if it could happen to one Imperial ship it could happen to any.

Clay stared at the large fleet which was still closing in.  He couldn’t stay in the fighter forever.  There was only food for a couple of days.  It had no jump capabilities.  He would have to dock with one of the fleet, if they would let him.  But could he trust any of them?  And even if they were clear now, how long could it be before they too fell to the Taint?

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The
Wanderer
could reach jump space.  Jess was surprised.  The fleet behind them still remained stationary, and the many threats he and the others had discussed had failed to materialise.  Now they were free to leave.  It made no sense.

“
We can jump,” he told the others, his voice lacking any emotion.  He was too drained.

“
So should we go?” Ali asked.

“
I don’t know.  I guess so, but I’m still worried.  Why haven’t they sprung the trap?”

“
Maybe there is no trap.”

“
Then why didn’t they attack?”

“
We should jump,” Dash said.  “If there is a trap that we haven’t seen yet it’s probably placed near the point normal ships could make it into jump space.  If we jump now we bypass whatever is there.  If there is anything.”

“
I guess,” Jess said.  “Anyone disagree?”

No one answered.

“All right,” he said.  “Here we go…”

He threw the
Wanderer
into jump space, once again ramping up the speed of his thoughts.  Partly in case there was some form of trap within jump space, impossible as that seemed, and partly in case they ran into the next tar pit as quickly as the last.

They soon cleared the area of space where any trap might lay.  Jess slowed his thoughts to a level where he could still react quickly but conversations wouldn’t seem to drag out over long minutes.

“Dash, do you think there was a trap?”

Dash sat thinking for a moment, then shook his head.

“No.  I don’t think so.  It wouldn’t make sense.”

“
So they chose not to attack us?”

“
I don’t know.  I’ve never seen Imperial forces acting like this.  It’s not even that they’re being cautious in the face of a powerful foe.  They just don’t seem interested in tackling us.  I don’t know what’s going on.  We need to see what happens at the next layer.”

“
Judging from the distance between the last two I don’t think we’ll be waiting long.  I’m ready for it this time.  We should be able to stay within jump space for longer.  If the forces there stick to the same deployment we should be well clear of them.”

“
That’s a big if,” Dash muttered darkly.

*****

The gap between defensive layers was larger than before.  This time it was almost seven minutes before Jess felt jump space around them becoming thick and heavy.  Accelerating his mind as far as possible he started fighting to keep the
Wanderer
from returning to normal space.

Time and again he found a point of traction for the jump engines, only to have it disappear almost immediately.  The jump drives groaned under the strain but kept on fighting.  Finally, after eight seconds, there was simply nothing left that the jump engines could grab onto.  The
Wanderer
crashed back into real space.

Studying the displays Jess wondered if he was seeing what he expected now and somehow missing what was really there.  He wasn’t.  The Imperial forces were arranged in the now familiar pattern, well behind where the
Wanderer
had emerged.

Jess started the
Wanderer
heading away, following a much less aggressive evasion pattern than he had used the last time.  He was more interested in getting through the tar pit’s influence quickly than evading a non-existent threat.

“
Exactly the same again,” Ali said quietly.

“
I don’t like this,” Dash said.

“
I’m not keen on it either, but it beats fighting,” Jess said.

“
Maybe.  Maybe not.  That’s three layers we’ve been through now that have been set-up in formation to defend against anything coming the other way.  Coming from where we are heading.”

“
Oh… damn.”

“
Exactly.  Whatever it is, the Empire thinks it has at least a chance of getting past two huge fleets.  And I’m starting to think we’ll see the same pattern for at least a few more layers.”

“
And what do you think we’ll see after that?”

“
Wreckage,” Dash replied.  “And, if we’re unlucky, whatever turned the Imperial forces there into wreckage.”

Jess glanced over his shoulder at Dash, trying to gauge if the older man was joking.  If he was then he was doing an amazing job of hiding it.

“What should we do?” Ali asked.

“
Exactly what we are doing,” Dash replied.  “There’s a chance we’ll pass whatever it is in jump space and never know it.  We might drop into real space already past it, or be able to jump before we reach it.”

“
Or we might drop out right on top of it.  Or right in the middle if it’s a fleet of some kind.”

“
Yes, but even then we have a chance.”

“
A chance?  Against something that has devastated at least one massive Imperial fleet?” Ali said scornfully.

“
Yes.  We have an advantage the fleet doesn’t.  We don’t need to fight.  Or want to for that matter.  We’re just trying to pass through.  The fleet had to try and stop whatever is out there.”

“
And none of the Imperial ships will have had the same idea?  Seeing their fleet being destroyed, none of them would think to run?”

“
You might be surprised,” Dash said.  “The penalty for cowardice in the face of the enemy is execution, and not just for whoever is charged.  At least one member of their close family will also be executed.”

“
That’s… that’s horrible!”

“
It doesn’t surprise me,” Jess said.  “As slaves they treated us far worse than that.  I always envied those who were free, those who oversaw us.  I’d still swap my time as a slave for their life in a shot, but maybe it wasn’t as perfect as it seemed.”

“
A few ships may have tried to escape,” Dash said.  “And there’s no reason they can’t have made it.  They won’t have travelled this way though.  Not with the death sentence hanging over them.

“
A few survivors don’t matter though.  The point is that the vast majority of any fleet will be destroyed before it will give in.  As long as we aim to just escape we should be fine.”

Jess wasn’t so certain, but he didn’t want to scare Ali any more.  In the end it didn’t matter.  Their course was set.  They couldn’t go back.  They would just have to find a way to survive whatever they encountered out there.  Somehow.

*****

Jess fought to keep the
Wanderer
in jump space for as long as he could manage.  He was tired though.  Even with the
Wanderer
helping to tweak his body chemistry he was exhausted.

They dropped into normal space only five seconds after encountering the tar pit’s field.  That was still five seconds longer in jump space than any other ship could manage, but would it be enough?

Of course it was.  The fleet was yet again arranged in the intensely defensive formation, so the
Wanderer
was well clear.  This was the eighth layer they had entered.  It was almost becoming routine.  Space ahead was clear.  Jess just had to get the
Wanderer
to the other side of the tar pit’s influence then jump out.  Yet again.

He needed to rest but there was no time.  When crossing a layer he had to monitor for any threats.  Once in jump space he had to be constantly alert for the
Wanderer
reaching the next tar pit.

The only way to rest would be to stop between layers.  To drop out of jump space where they were certain to be given peace, and to rest then.  Two things prevented that.  The first was concern that a layer they had passed through would send warning ahead.  That seemed unlikely though.  The far more likely threat was the Imperial fleet that was pursuing, and somehow tracking, the
Wanderer
.  With so little time spent in jump space Jess hadn’t managed to open up a decent lead over them.

Having confirmed there was no immediate danger Jess let his mind slow to only a few times faster than normal.  He went to speak, but an enormous yawn overtook him.

“Jess, you need to rest,” Ali said, concern in her voice.

“
I can’t.”

“
Yes you can.  Let me take over now, while we cross normal space.  I can use the
Wanderer
’s sensors and wake you if anything unusual or dangerous shows up.”

Sleep.  The idea was wonderful.  Jess felt as if he’d been up for days already.  Still, was it fair to dump this on Ali?

“Are you sure?” he asked, stifling another yawn.

“
Certain.  I can even keep an eye on the troopers in the hold at the same time.  Now get some sleep.”

“
The troopers…”  He yawned again.  “Sorry.  The troopers — what have they been up to?”

“
Not a lot.  They’re starting to get a little more adventurous, but they’re still taking care to secure themselves before every step.  It’s funny actually.”

“
Don’t underestimate them,” Dash warned.  “Just because they seem to be beaten back, don’t assume they are.  Most likely they’re looking for weaknesses right now.  You won’t get any warning.”

“
What might they do?”

“
Anything.”

“
That isn’t very helpful!”

“
Sorry, but it’s true.  You need to be ready.  One thing is pretty certain though — they’ll move like lightning and get well clear of the area they’ve been in.”

“
You’re sure?” she asked.

Dash smiled.  “It’s what I would have done.  They’ve been in one place too long.  That gives the defenders time to concentrate defences and traps.  They’ll want to get a good distance from where they are.

“Be ready.  When they move get Jess to shake the ship up again.  Whatever their plans are that will slow them down a lot.  They’ll still move, they’ll have been planning for that possibility, but they’ll have to be a lot more careful.”

“
OK.  I can do that.”

“
Are you sure you can watch them and sweep for any threats to the ship?” Jess asked, fighting off another yawn.

“
Yes!  Now get some bloody rest.”

“
All right.  I’ll leave the ship making random evasions.  It doesn’t need me awake to calculate those, though I might get a few weird dreams.  Remember to wake me up if anything happens.”

“
I said yes didn’t I?  Now get some…”

Jess didn’t hear the end of the sentence.  With the pressure lifted, even if only for a short while, he was already asleep.

*****

Jess blinked slowly, head still blurry with sleep.  He’d woken naturally.  There had been no emergencies while he slept.  The
Wanderer
was nearly able to reach jump space so it had slowly brought him round.  Now it started to push stimulants into his system.  A few moments later he felt wide awake, and far better for the short sleep.

“
Hello sleepy head,” Ali said affectionately.  “Feeling better?”

“
Much,” he replied, stretching in his chair.  “All quiet?”

“
Yep.  Just the same as the last seven times.  This could get boring.”  She raised a hand towards Dash quickly.  “I know Dash.  That’s when things get most dangerous.”

Dash chuckled.  “Have I said that already?”

“Once or twice,” Ali said.

Jess smiled.  He realised that, for the moment at least, some of his mistrust of Dash was gone.  He still thought Dash would seize control of the
Wanderer
if he could, but Jess no longer thought Dash was leading them into an elaborate Imperial trap.  Dash had seemed just as puzzled as the others by the defensive nature of the forces they encountered.  For the moment some of the tension had left the group.

Some, but not all.  Sal sat behind Ali with her head down, seemingly lost in thought.  Yet something in her position told Jess that she was listening to every word.  Jess felt a twinge of guilt.  She seemed to be drawing away from Dash, which was no bad thing, but if anything she was drawing away from Jess even faster.  Jess would be happy for her to stay if Dash staying was no longer part of the deal.

Jess felt a nudge in his mind from the
Wanderer
.

“
Here we go again,” he said, pushing the
Wanderer
into jump space.