Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (38 page)

Chapter Forty-Five

Jess launched himself forward, lashing out indiscriminately with lightning.  A dozen of the tainted creatures vanished under the onslaught.  He kept moving, driving the Taint before him.  Trying to gain as much ground as possible before the Taint regrouped.

As he drove the Taint back more systems came back under his control.  Jess grinned fiercely.  He’d hit the jackpot this time, regaining control of several major shield generators.  He pushed forwards again, gaining control of several minor systems.

The Taint finally regrouped.  Jess’s forward progress ground to a halt.  He didn’t worry.  This had happened hundreds of times before.  Regaining full control of the
Wanderer
was a painstaking business.  Nine steps back for every ten steps forward.  But it was still progress.

Once he was ready Jess launched another assault.  He forced the Taint back.  The Taint soon regrouped enough to stop further progress.  It had lost a little ground, but it was far from defeated.  The seemingly endless cycle could start again. 

Not this time.  Jess finally controlled enough shield generators.  He could implement the emergency protocol the
Wanderer
had dredged from deep in its memories.

Now was the moment of truth.  Jess didn’t feel any different.  He couldn’t sense any hint of the Taint within his mind.  But would he?  The
Wanderer
wasn’t sure.  Information on the Taint was severely limited.

Jess fed the protocol into the shield generator’s systems, preparing them.  That was the easy part.  Could he do this?  Could he risk it?  If he
was
tainted then he’d be disabled too.  The ship would be an empty shell, unable to function fully without its pilot.  When the Imperial fleet arrived it would take the
Wanderer
without a fight.

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 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.  Jess 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 that 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 had 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.  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 that it should stop increasing once it was able to wipe out the
Wanderer
’s shields.  At that point fire would be targeted on its 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
was flagging 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 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.  He had no idea what he was missing out on.

Shaking off the memory, Sal 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.

Jess 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 booby traps in the systems they had recovered control of.  There was no reason to think the others would be any different.