Wanderer 3: Tainted Universe (43 page)

Chapter Fifty

Jess woke in a panic, heart hammering in his chest.  For a few moments he struggled to work out where he was.  He relaxed as the familiar surroundings of the flight deck registered.

The nightmare he’d woken from was already fading from his memory.  He’d been back in the world of the
Wanderer
’s systems, fighting the Taint again.  Ali had been there.  But had she been helping or attacking him?  He couldn’t remember.

He’d been asleep for six hours.  The
Wanderer
assured him that nothing had happened in that time.  The ship had started to repair itself.  Teeko was resting in his bath.  Ali, Dash and Ben were still locked away inside their shimmering prisons.  Everything seemed under control, for the moment at least.

Hunger gnawed at Jess, but the thought of heading to the living area made him shudder.  He could hardly stay shut away on the flight deck for the rest of his life though.

There was only one solution, though Jess hated it.  He had the
Wanderer
change its internal layout once more, creating hollow pillars to surround each of the prisons.  While he’d still know Ali and the others were there at least he wouldn’t see them.

Thinking about the prisons he realised they were too dependant on the
Wanderer
’s shields.  Any attack that damaged the shields risked the tainted getting free.  That was a chance Jess couldn’t take.  As the hollow pillars formed Jess built small shield generators into them.  The shields needed to cover such a small area that they didn’t need to be powerful.  Just powerful enough to maintain the prison.

Jess initially added three per pillar, giving double resilience.  Then he increased it to five per pillar.  He was scared of the tainted.  Especially their ability to attack the
Wanderer
.  He wasn’t taking any chances on them getting free again.

The changes would take time.  To distract himself Jess started accessing the information the
Wanderer
held on the tainted.  The more he learnt the deeper his frown grew.

The information was patchy and lacked any real depth.  Passing on the Taint involved some form of energy transfer between one person and another.  Using the term person very loosely.  The
Wanderer
had a long list of the alien species that the Taint had managed to control.  A very long list.

In contrast the list of those species that could resist the Taint for a brief time was exceptionally short.  And no species had ever been able to fully resist the Taint, to fight free without outside help.

Until now.  Until Teeko.  The alien might hold the key to resisting the entire tainted attack.

The
Wanderer
nudged at Jess’s thoughts.  It wanted to return to its home system.  No.  More than wanted.  It absolutely had to.  Before it had wanted to return home.  Now the ship was driven to.

Jess sent back his agreement.  If there was anywhere that Ali could be saved it would be the
Wanderer
’s home.  But they were already heading in that direction as quickly as they could.  What more could he do?

To his surprise the
Wanderer
showed him another route, one that was nearly ninety degrees off from their existing course.  The
Wanderer
seemed almost as surprised as Jess.  It was insistent though.  An ancient set of instructions relating to the tainted had been shaken loose by recent events.  The destination was only a couple of hours flight away.  It was deep in space, far from any planets or stars

With a shrug, Jess authorised the course change.  At worst they would only be wasting a few hours.  He was keen to see what would happen when they arrived.  The instructions were very vague on that note.

Something nagged at Jess.  What were the odds of them being so close?  Two hours flight, even in jump space, was nothing when compared to the size of the Empire.  Had they simply been exceptionally lucky?  Was this the only location or were there others?

The
Wanderer
couldn’t help.  It didn’t have the information.  The instructions had turned up with the destination specified.  It was possible, likely even, that they had been processed by a subsystem to calculate the nearest suitable destination.  The
Wanderer
had no way of telling.

The more Jess thought about it the more convinced he became that they would find nothing.  Something had gone wrong with the instructions.  The real location was lost and it had picked a random location close to their own.

A darker suspicion grew in his mind at the same time.  Were the instructions truly a message from the
Wanderer
’s past?  Or had they been planted far more recently?  Had they been planted by Ali while she’d been attacking Jess and the
Wanderer
?

Once again the
Wanderer
couldn’t help.  If Ali had managed to plant the instructions then she would have been able to remove traces of having done so.  The instructions had a feeling of age, of having lain untouched for millennia, but that too could have been faked.  And if the instructions were placed by Ali then what dangers waited at the other end?  A tainted fleet?  Something worse?

Deadly trap or waste of time.  Continuing made no sense.  Jess was tempted to change course again, to start on the long journey towards the
Wanderer
’s home system.  But he didn’t.

The
Wanderer
was still insisting they should follow the instructions, but that wasn’t what influenced Jess.  A part of him had to know.  He’d already seen so many impossible things since becoming captain of the
Wanderer
.  Maybe, just maybe, there would be something amazing waiting for them.  And if it was a trap then woe betide those who set it.  For it would give Jess a chance to vent his anger and pain using the might of the
Wanderer
.

*****

As the
Wanderer
neared its destination Jess strained to find anything in real space that could be a threat.  His original plan had been to blast past the location in jump space before returning, if it was safe.  He soon realised how dangerous that would be if an active tar pit was sitting at the destination.  The
Wanderer
would be dragged back into real space right in the centre of any trap.

Instead he planned to emerge into real space some distance from the destination.  Close enough to spot anything large, far enough away to enter jump space again even if there was a tar pit.  Not to flee.  To gain the best position possible before attacking.

He still hadn’t spotted anything as the final seconds ticked down.  He wasn’t reassured.  If anything it made him more uncertain.  So uncertain that he held off returning to real space for a couple of seconds, letting the
Wanderer
emerge in a different location than he’d planned. 
Just in case
, he told himself, without really knowing what it was in case of.

The
Wanderer
dropped back into real space.  Jess studied the sensor readouts, searching for any sign of danger.  There was nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  No danger.  But nothing to justify the
Wanderer
’s instructions.

Jess felt hollow inside at the disappointment.  Despite everything, he’d been secretly hoping to find… something.  Something linked to the
Wanderer
.  Something amazing.  Even the danger of a trap would have been better.  It would mean he hadn’t wasted several hours on a pointless diversion.

Suddenly the
Wanderer
was nudging for attention again.  It sent across a second set of instructions, a follow-up to the first set.  Jess scanned them quickly.  Then, his excitement rising, he went back and read through them again.

It seemed he’d misunderstood.  They hadn’t travelled here to
find
something.  They’d come to
do
something.  The Wanderer’s jump engines needed to be run in a very particular configuration.  Quite what that would achieve was still unclear.  It seemed to translate as
your path will be cleared
.  Or was it
your path will be created
?

All thoughts of a trap had fled Jess’s mind, replaced by a mounting excitement.  He waited impatiently as the
Wanderer
travelled to the specified coordinates, which were a marvel in themselves.  There was leeway, but only a few hundred metres each way.  For coordinates in empty space that was like setting down on the head of a pin.

To distract himself Jess studied how the jump engines would need to be used.  The pattern was strange, completely different to anything he’d seen before.  It was far more complex than the patterns required to enter and exit jump space.  But what would it do?

Jess could sense that the
Wanderer
was just as confused as he was.  The ship echoed his excitement too.  They were about to try something completely new.  Something that might be dangerous, even deadly.  Jess found himself grinning.

The
Wanderer
indicated they were at the required coordinates.  Jess smiled at the fact they were precisely on target.  Not just within the margin of error but exactly where the coordinates specified.

Jess went to activate the jump engines, then hesitated.  What if there was a trap and it wasn’t what he’d imagined?  What if the pattern would cause the jump engines to explode, or some other calamity?

A grim expression settled onto his face, completely at odds with the excitement he’d shown before.  With Ali lost to him what did it matter if he died?  Whatever had taken control of Ali would perish at the same time.  Maybe Ali would even feel free, for a brief moment.

Jess sent the command.  The
Wanderer
’s jump engines activated.  Jess could sense the change immediately.  The feel of the engines, the way they drew power, was very different to normal.  They were drawing more power too, though not enough to cause problems.

Jess studied the sensor readings expectantly.  He could sense the power being generated, could track the incredibly detailed shapes they were generating within both normal and jump space.  But nothing else.  The
Wanderer
was showing no signs of entering jump space.  All the energy from the jump engines was flowing somewhere, but the sensors couldn’t follow it any further.  It entered jump space then seemed to disappear.

Jess waited impatiently for something to happen as seconds stretched into minutes.  The amount of energy the jump engines had expended would be enough to push an entire fleet into jump space, yet still nothing had happened.  Was something wrong?  Were the engines slightly off?  Was this much energy truly needed?

Or had his initial thoughts been right?  Were they in the wrong place?  Was the energy being poured away without achieving anything?  Worst of all was the uncertainty.  How long could he risk staying here?  How long before the chasing fleet caught him, yet again.

He thought the
Wanderer
could hold them off with the new shields, but did he really want to put that to the test?  The fleet had surprised him before.  He didn’t want to risk that happening again.  Running the calculations he decided he could spare ninety minutes.  It should be plenty.  If nothing had happened in that time then he was sure nothing ever would.

*****

Forty-five minutes.  That’s how long it had been since Jess activated the
Wanderer
’s jump engines.  Forty-five minutes and nothing to show for it.

Jess drummed his fingers on the arm of the pilot’s chair.  They were halfway to his self-determined limit but nothing had changed.  The
Wanderer
’s jump engines continued to pour out energy which just kept on vanishing into thin air.

The
Wanderer
was worse than useless.  It had no explanation, no theory, but it remained convinced that they were doing the right thing.  That the instructions were correct and that it would just take a little more time.

Jess considered stopping.  Writing it off as a failure and getting back on course.  He couldn’t do it.  What if just a few more minutes, or even seconds, would be enough?

A seductive line of thought.  And a dangerous one.  Jess started to realise how easy it would be to let his deadline slip.  To wait just a minute more.  Then another.  Then five.  He resolved to stick to the deadline.  The moment ninety minutes was up they were leaving.

*****

Eighty-nine minutes.  Only bloody mindedness kept Jess waiting.  He’d expected leaving after ninety minutes would be difficult.  In fact not leaving sooner had been the real challenge.

He was certain they were achieving nothing now.  The instructions had been garbled.  Or they were hopelessly out of date.  Either way, nothing was going to happen.