Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (40 page)

Chapter Forty-Seven

Jess had no idea how much time had passed.  His mind had simply given up under the onslaught of pain.  Unconsciousness was impossible in that realm, but he achieved the next best thing.  A complete shut down of the thinking part of his brain.

The lack of pain roused him.  It wasn’t completely gone, far from it, but it had reduced greatly.  He felt a cool presence, like hands resting on his head, and another chunk of the pain fell away from him.  Someone was helping him.  Someone was taking the pain away.  Ali!  It must be Ali!

Jess forced his eyes open, then stared around in confusion.  Nothing was anywhere near.  There was no sign of Ali.  Yet he still felt the cool hands, still felt the pain dropping away.  He desperately reached out, trying to contact her.

He felt a presence, far closer than should have been possible given that he saw nothing.  The presence was almost on top of him.  And it wasn’t Ali.

A moment later he realised what was different, and so what the presence was.  The surrounding area was no longer enclosed by the flimsy barrier he had created.  Something far stronger had taken its place.  The
Wanderer
.

The
Wanderer
had finally reached the area where Jess had collapsed, and had then set about disabling the traps embedded in his… well, his body for want of a better word.  Jess welcomed the relief but disappointment tore at his heart.

He’d been certain the cooling, healing presence was proof that Ali still lived, that the core of her still existed in some form.  Now he knew that wasn’t the case.  The possibility that Ali was fully dead, completely gone, washed over Jess again.  He collapsed, curling into a ball, with tears pouring down his cheeks.

*****

As the
Wanderer
vanished into Jump space, Vorn went deathly still.  The officers around him held their breath, desperately hoping not to draw his attention.

Vorn stared at the screen, trying to understand.  Was the
Wanderer
toying with him?  Teasing him?  Was it trying to make him angry?  Was it trying to force him into a mistake?  Into doing something rash?  Impossible as it seemed, was the
Wanderer
forcing him into a position where he was vulnerable?

The thought was both ridiculous and chilling.  Ridiculous because no ship that size could possible pose a risk to Vorn’s fleet.  Chilling because the
Wanderer
continued to do one impossible thing after another.  Besides, the
Wanderer
might not be aiming for the entire fleet.  It might be aiming for just Vorn and his battlecruiser.

How though?  How could it strike against him?  His eyes fell on the
Wanderer
’s shuttle and he allowed himself a cold smile.  Of course.  He’d planned on bringing the shuttle aboard.  Now that seemed a bad idea.  He needed somewhere else.  A ship whose captain and crew were reliable yet expendable.

“
Admiral, boarding crew has reached the enemy shuttle.”

The reporting officer had spoken in precisely clipped tones and held himself rigid, waiting for an acknowledgement.  Vorn noted the signs of extreme stress — the tensed muscles, the beads of sweat, the slight shifts in position.  The officer was terrified that he would become the focus of Vorn’s anger.  As well he might.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

The officer was in luck though today.  Vorn had spotted the trap laid for him and was about to turn it around.

“
I want everyone on that shuttle delivered to the
Shogan
immediately,” Vorn ordered.  “And the shuttle delivered to the
Light of Skaros
.  Notify me immediately they arrive.”

“
Aye, sir!”

Vorn knew the captains of the two ships wouldn’t be happy.  Especially the captain of the
Shogan
.  Tough.  Either the shuttle or something on it was extremely dangerous.  Vorn needed to know what.  More than that though.  He needed to know what was happening on the
Wanderer
, and how the ship did such amazing things.

Those pulled off the shuttle might not be keen to answer.  That was fine.  Vorn was already drawing up a schedule of persuasion, starting with gentle requests but soon diving into the realms of torture and drugs.  The schedule would be stuck to even if the captives appeared to be answering honestly and openly from the start.  After all, he had to make sure they weren’t lying.

*****

The dull clang of metal meeting metal told Sal that the first assault ship had arrived.  She couldn’t see it so it must have attached to the back of the shuttle.  Moments later the control board lit up with structural failure and depressurisation warnings.  Apparently the Imperial forces were cutting their way into the main cabin the quick and dirty way.

She shivered slightly.  She was fine where she was for the moment, but if they decided to cut into the cockpit in the same way she’d be in a lot of trouble.

Something moved to her left. Turning Sal saw another assault ship closing in quickly.  It braked at the last minute, coming to rest only a few feet from where Sal set.  A short tunnel shot out, sealing itself around the shuttle’s door.

Through the door she saw several people wearing combat armour charging forwards.  The first slowed enough to attach something to the door, then shoved away.  Sal tensed herself, waiting for an explosion, for the freezing touch of vacuum.  She remembered the emergency suit stowed away under her seat.  Too late.

She jumped as something bright flashed outside the doorway.  There was no crash, no boom.  The troopers charged forwards again, levelling weapons as they came.  The closest grabbed the shuttle door and dragged it open.

Sal screamed, expecting to feel the cabin’s air rushing out.  It was an automatic reaction, one from deep down.  One that was impossible to restrain.

She pulled in the breath for a second scream, then stopped in confusion.  She’d expected breathing to be difficult, if not impossible.  The cockpit was small so it wouldn’t contain much air.  The open doorway should have emptied all the air within a second or two.  How was she still breathing?

“Freeze!”

One of the troopers knelt in the doorway, rifle aimed squarely at Sal’s chest.  Another stood behind, aiming at Sal over the first troopers head.  This was a dangerous situation.  Sal raised her hands slowly.

“Hands on your head.  Move towards us.  Slowly.”

“
I need to unbuckle myself,” Sal replied, her voice a mixture of calm and meekness.  Not wanting to offend.  Not wanting to upset those with the guns.

“
Do it slowly then.  One suspicious move and you’re dead.”

Sal slowly started to move her hands towards the buckles.  Not that she believed the threat now.  Someone was going to a lot of effort to retrieve her alive, rather than simply blasting the shuttle apart.  Anyone shooting her was likely to be in a whole heap of trouble.

She wasn’t going to take any chances though.  One nervous soldier could put a stop to everything she had planned.  Slowly she released the buckles, slipped out of them then returned her hands to their resting place on her head.

“
Good,” the trooper said.  “Now slowly move towards us.”

She did as they asked, moving awkwardly with her hands still on her head.  As she drew near to the troopers one of them lowered his rifle and grabbed her, quickly twisting her round and securing her hands behind her back.

She was pulled out and quickly shoved towards the assault ship.  It was so close to her shuttle that the gravity fields were overlapping.  She felt queasy as the moved through the area where the two fields interacted.

And then she was on the ship.  Several troopers kept her covered with their rifles while she was secured to a chair.  Then everyone seemed to relax, as if any potential danger had been dealt with.

Sal almost laughed out loud.  If she’d wanted proof that the force hadn’t spent much time amongst the gifted this was it.  Yes, they were nervous and cautious, but anyone with experience of the gifted would do almost anything to avoid being on the same ship as one of them.  Orders or no orders.

Several clangs announced that they were disconnecting from the shuttle.  For a moment she wondered whether they would analyse it or simply destroy it.  It didn’t matter to her.  It had achieved what she wanted it to.  She wouldn’t be needing it again.

Acceleration pushed Sal into her seat.  Several troopers still kept weapons trained on her, though the nervous edge had gone.  Sal relaxed, waiting to see what would happen.

The journey was short.  Soon she felt the ship decelerating, then being nudged around.  Finally it settled onto a surface with a slight bump.  The troopers were on edge again.  One came forward and released Sal from the chair.  This time they didn’t secure her hands.

Sal slowly rose to her feet.  One of the troopers gestured towards the back of the ship where a hatch had opened.  Sal moved toward it and started down, blinking into the bright light as she went.

She wasn’t surprised to see more troopers waiting for her.  Each and every one was wearing full battle armour and had their weapon in hand.  Sal stopped at the bottom of the ramp, waiting for instructions.

“This way,” a trooper told her, gesturing.

From the voice she thought this one was a woman but it was hard to tell.  Sal followed meekly.  It wasn’t the time to cause trouble.  Yet.

They only walked for a couple of minutes before the trooper gestured towards an open door.  Sal walked through and found herself in a small room that couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than a cell.  The door boomed shut behind, making her jump slightly.  She let out a deep breath.  She was safe.  For the moment at least.

*****

Admiral Vorn stared at a frozen image of Sal.  He’d expected the shuttle to contain several people at least.  They’d found only one.  That narrowed down the interrogation techniques considerably.  They couldn’t risk her dying. And many of the most effective techniques involved seeing a friend in pain.

Capturing the shuttle had been a reflex action.  The right action, but still a reflex.  Now he had to decide what to do.  With the
Wanderer
having escaped yet again the question was whether to interrogate the prisoner immediately.

Vorn wanted to be directly involved in the questioning, though from the safety of his own ship.  That ruled out an interrogation in jump space when inter-ship communication was impossible.  Every moment they delayed gave the
Wanderer
a greater lead.  Vorn knew they would catch the
Wanderer
again eventually, but he wanted it to be sooner rather than later.  If the
Wanderer
dropped out of jump space, even for a short while, then his fleet needed to be on top of it.

On the other hand, what use was catching the
Wanderer
if they couldn’t disable her?  Watching their prey slip out from under their noses one more time would not only be frustrating.  It might start the officers questioning Vorn’s competence.  A round of officer culls might prevent that.  Or it might make it worse.

Interrogating the prisoner could provide the information needed to finally capture the
Wanderer
.  Or it might not.  How would he feel if the hours or days taken to interrogate the prisoner produced nothing useful?  What if she knew nothing about the
Wanderer
and had simply been jettisoned as a decoy?

So hunt down the
Wanderer
immediately, knowing it would almost certainly slip away again, or spend time interrogating a prisoner that might tell them nothing useful.  Even if she did the
Wanderer
would then have a massive lead.  Neither was a good option.

Which left one other.  One that Vorn had avoided even thinking about until then.  The Omega Beam.  Officially it didn’t exist, even as a concept.  It was a new type of weapon, just recently developed by the Empire’s immense weapons research programme.

Vorn had no idea how it worked.  That information was highly classified.  As was the fact the weapon even existed.  Fewer than twenty ships had been fitted with the Omega Beam so far.  The
Starslayer
was one.

Almost no one on the battlecruiser had any idea the Omega Beam even existed.  Those trusted with the knowledge were also firmly told what an information breach would mean, no matter the cause.  It made a long, slow, painful death look appealing.  Even Vorn faced those sanctions.

Using the weapon wasn’t quite forbidden.  Why fit it if it was?  But it was only to be used in absolute emergencies.  The kind that threatened the Empire as a whole.  Between the Taint and the powers the
Wanderer
possessed Vorn decided this was such an emergency.  If those he reported to disagreed then the consequences for Vorn would be horrific.  Even if they decided he’d made the right choice they might still throw him to the wolves as an example.