Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (34 page)

Within moments Ben was frozen in place, his gaze locked to Sal’s.  She lifted him from Teeko’s back but that was fine.  Being with her was fine.  A warmth started to fill Ben.  He smiled as he realised it wasn’t Sal standing before him.  It was his mother!  She’d found her way back to him!

Then something changed.  A cloying darkness poured back through the link, overwhelming Ben.  He tried to ask his mother why she was doing this, but he couldn’t talk.  He tried to shout to Teeko for help but nothing came out.  He was vaguely aware that Teeko was standing with his primary eyes locked to those of Dash.

Terror filled Ben as he realised Teeko was suffering the same fate he was.  That Teeko wouldn’t be able to save him.  He would have cried, if he was able.  Instead he felt his soul being crushed by the force attacking him.

Chapter Forty-One

The pressure was becoming unbearable.  Jess was fighting it but he knew he’d soon lose.  He was fighting on two fronts, directly against Ali and through the
Wanderer
.  It felt as if he and the ship were standing back to back, fighting off an attacking army.

The situation was terrible, and only made worse by the identity of their attacker.  What had happened to Ali?  And when?  How long had she been carrying this darkness?  Jess didn’t have the time to work it out.  In fact he didn’t have any time.  The pressure on his mind was unbearable and there was no letup.

In desperation Jess tried throwing everything he had back against Ali, abandoning his support of the
Wanderer
and trying to force a chink in her attack.  She didn’t even seem to notice it, and the
Wanderer
lost ground rapidly.  Jess tried to help the ship again but it was too little too late.  It was all over.

The sense of being back to back with the ship intensified.  It felt as if something warm and alive was pressing against his back, but that made no sense.  He was still laying on his bed with Ali atop him.  Was this the end?  Were even his perceptions being distorted? 

Two flexible arms wrapped around him, crossing over his chest.  He felt himself being gripped firmly.  Jess tried to struggle but he still couldn’t move.  Something changed in Ali’s expression.  She looked surprised.  Shocked even.

Then the universe seemed to spin around Jess, the room whirling rapidly around him and pulsing as it did so.  Everything went black and for a moment he thought he’d passed out, then he realised he was still thinking.

Light and warmth returned.  Jess stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling.  He drew in a shuddering breath and blinked, exulting at the feeling of freedom.  Whatever had been attacking him had been left behind.  His mind was free.

The
Wanderer
wasn’t so lucky.  Jess sensed the assault against it intensify.  Now, though, he was free to aid the ship without distractions.  It made a difference immediately.  The
Wanderer
was able to halt the attack, stop from losing any more ground.

Something moved under Jess.  He felt himself pushed up into a sitting position, then the two arms uncurled themselves.

“Jess friend himself is?” Teeko rumbled.

Jess stood up, turning to face Teeko with a relieved smile.  Teeko had saved him, and the ship.  The question Teeko had asked puzzled him for a moment, then he understood.  Teeko was asking whether he had fallen to the attack.

“Yes Teeko.  Only just though.  Thank you.”

“
Thank Teeko not.  Save Ben did not.  Too slow Teeko was.  Too long Teeko took.  Nearly taken Teeko was.”

“
Wait… you were attacked too?  In the same way?”

“
Yes friend Jess.  Attacked Ben was.  Attacked Teeko was.”

“
By who?”

Jess was pretty sure he knew the answer, but he had to know for certain.

“Sal attacker was.  Dash attacker was.  Ben lost was.”

Sal and Dash.  And Ali.  And now Ben apparently.  That only left Teeko and Jess free.  And the
Wanderer
, to the extent it still was.

He glanced around the unfamiliar room.  Where were they?  The
Wanderer
answered.  Jess and Teeko were in the hold.  Teeko must have used his strange ability to transport them there.  Jess guessed the alien had used the same technique it had used to retrieve Ben from the same area.

Wait…  If the
Wanderer
could pinpoint their location then so could Ali.  The
Wanderer
pulsed back a reassuring message.  It had managed to isolate most of the hold’s sensors from the attack.  The attacking force had considered them a low priority item, a diversion maybe, leaving the
Wanderer
free to consolidate its control.  Ali and the others would soon figure out where Jess and Teeko were, but they wouldn’t be able to pin them down.

“
They attacked you too,” Jess said.  “How did you get away?”

“
Words Teeko can’t find.  Fight hard was.  Fight losing Teeko was.  Fight Teeko won.  Teeko secret had.  Teeko power had.  Attack power triggered.  Teeko mind free was.”

Jess tried to absorb what Teeko was telling him.

“You’re saying that something inside you fought back against them?  That it let you get free?”

“
Correct that is.  Know Teeko did not.  Surprise was.  Defence against tainted had.”

“
Tainted?  What’s that?  Is Ali tainted?  Are Dash and Sal?”

“
Tainted they are.  Tainted Teeko does not know.  Name Teeko knows.  Tainted.  Taint.  Surprised Teeko was.”

“
This was buried inside you?  You didn’t know about it until they attacked?” Jess guessed.

“
Jess friend correct is.”

Jess paced back and forth restlessly as he tried to understand what had happened.  He was aware of the
Wanderer
fighting against Ali.  Fighting against the Taint.  The name seemed apt.  Whatever had poured from Ali into Jess had definitely felt like a dark stain.

Teeko had somehow resisted.  It seemed the alien had been prepared for such an attack, though not consciously.  Had it faced the tainted before?  Or was the defence inbuilt in some way?  Unless Teeko had suddenly remembered more of its past there would be no way to tell.

The
Wanderer
, relying heavily on Jess’s almost subconscious help, was managing to keep the Taint at bay for the moment.  It wasn’t able to recover control of the key systems though.  Critically, the jump engines were still out of action.  They were stuck in normal space going nowhere fast.

Jess tried to focus, to prioritise their problems.  The solutions all seemed to come back to one thing — wresting back control of the ship.  Getting the ship moving, staying hidden from the tainted, marshalling the ships defences… all would be compromised until the ship was free.

Just as important was freeing Ali from the Taint.  If that was even possible.  Jess remembered how she had looked.  Only now was he able to piece together the expression she’d worn while he was trapped by her eyes.  It had been a feral expression.  A hungry expression.  The expression of an animal.  What if she was gone forever?  What if the Taint had not just overwhelmed Ali but destroyed all trace of her?

Darkness threatened to overwhelm Jess at the thought.  He wanted to give up.  He refused to.  Instead he stoked up his anger at the Taint, at what it had done to Ali.  He wouldn’t believe she couldn’t be saved.  He couldn’t believe that.  He would save Ali, and the other three.  Even if he had to tear the universe apart he would find a way.

Control of the
Wanderer
was vital.  The battle had to be fought within the
Wanderer
’s systems.  The
Wanderer
’s mind wasn’t focused in a single place, it was spread throughout the ship’s structure.  Even massive structural damage wouldn’t restrict its abilities, but that also meant it was impossible to purge the Taint from the
Wanderer
’s systems by selective destruction.

“
Teeko, the Taint is attacking the
Wanderer
.  Trying to take over the ship.  I need to help fight it off, but that means I won’t be aware of what’s going on here.  If they find us they might attack and I won’t be able to fight back.”

“
Not worry Jess friend.  Teeko protect will.  Teeko fight will.  Teeko win will.”

There was an intensity to the alien’s words that Jess hadn’t heard before.  Was it anger?  Determination?  He wasn’t sure.

“Teeko, I’m sorry about Ben.  Are you all right?”

“
Teeko fight will.  Teeko win will.”

Jess waited but Teeko said nothing more.  It stayed where it was, studying Jess but otherwise not moving.  Jess couldn’t find the words to try again.  He was certain Teeko was hurting and he wanted to help, but he had no idea how to bridge the gap.  After a few seconds he gave up.

“OK.  Let me get started.”

Jess closed his eyes and concentrated, throwing himself fully into the world of his implants.  The world of the
Wanderer
.  The world which was now a battlefield.

*****

Colours swirled around Jess, forming ever changing patterns.  They buffeted him.  They tugged him first one way then another.  Sounds crashed over him.  Squalls of piercing tones and deep rumbles that vibrated him to his core.  He struggled against it all, trying to prevent the assault tearing him apart.

That was all he could do.  He couldn’t fight back.  He couldn’t get away.  All he could do was hang on from moment to moment.  He was already growing tired.  He couldn’t do this much longer.

The pressure suddenly died off.  A bubble of tranquillity surrounded Jess.  The swirling storm continued unabated, but for the moment it couldn’t reach him.  He sensed a familiar presence within the bubble.  The
Wanderer
.  It was shielding him.  Giving him the chance to find his feet.

Jess gratefully took it.  He studied how the bubble was formed, sensing both the massive strength it represented and the way it was being constantly pushed close to breaking by the forces outside. Knowledge flowed into Jess from the ship.

He learnt that the bubble was all that remained of the
Wanderer
, the parts that it had managed to keep safe.  It was
the
Wanderer
’s soul.  To Jess it seemed worryingly small but the
Wanderer
insisted that wasn’t the case.

The massive forces buffeting the
Wanderer
’s soul originated from Ali’s implants.  They had wormed their way into the
Wanderer
before turning aggressive.  Now they were turning the ship’s own resources against it, using the captured sections of the ship to generate stronger and stronger attacks.

The
Wanderer
had fallen back as far as it could, reducing the area it had to protect greatly, but it wasn’t enough.  The storm was gradually wearing away at the defences.

A particularly strong gust struck.  One section of the bubble started to collapse inward.  Jess could tell this was a weak point in the structure, that it failing would cause a cascade of failures across the bubble and quickly lead to defeat.  He threw himself at the damaged area, blocking the attack and reinforcing the area.  Reaching out with arms and legs to anchor himself in place.

He knew he didn’t really use his arms and legs.  Such concepts didn’t truly exist in this place.  He felt and saw his body but that was just a convenient way to filter the raw information.  The bubble around him and the storm winds outside were the same.  They were the best way his mind could cope with the situation he found himself in.  Probably the only way.

Jess succeeded in reinforcing the breach.  Something drew back into the storms beyond.  Something that was all razor-sharp teeth and armoured plates.

Jess didn’t have time to dwell on his success.  Other areas of the bubble were showing signs of strain, or even imminent collapse.  He rushed to the one under heaviest assault, once again reinforcing and strengthening the bubbles edge.

When he moved on the bubble was not just repaired.  It was far stronger than it had been originally.  The
Wanderer
had been restricted when the bubble was first formed.  Fighting without its full strength.  Fighting without its captain.  Though Jess was so much more than just its captain.  He was an integral part of the
Wanderer
.  Without him the ship had struggled to survive.  With him it was able to reclaim lost ground.

Jess was aware that the
Wanderer
’s perception of the battle and its surroundings was very different to his own, but he couldn’t begin to comprehend that raw view.  It was frighteningly alien, a world his brain just couldn’t interpret.  The
Wanderer
reassured him that it didn’t matter.  His way of viewing the battle worked.  That was all that mattered.

The bubble was small.  Soon Jess had reinforced every weak area.  The
Wanderer
and he had fought the attack to a standstill.  Now it was time to go on the attack.

Jess struggled to envision the changes that were to be made, the work he would need to assist with.  In the end he floated in the centre of the bubble, arms outstretched, imagining he was shoving hard against the edge of the bubble.  The bubble was small but it was still far wider than his outstretched arms, but he felt pressure against his hands.  The image was a stretch for his mind, but it was working.

As the bubble expanded Jess was aware of systems falling back under the
Wanderer
’s control.  Nothing major so far, but every step was a victory.  He worried that the systems might still contain the Taint, that they might be a trap, but the
Wanderer
assured him they were safe.  The visual representation he saw was an imperfect representation of what had happened.  Nothing containing the Taint could possibly cross into the bubble.