Jess slumped down, head in hands, wishing this was a bad dream and he could wake up.
“You’ve got a lot to think about,” Matt said, standing. “I’ll leave you to it for a while.”
He walked to the door and banged on it. It opened to reveal a short corridor and another door. Jess sat slumped in silence long after the door to his cell hid all sight of Matt from his eyes.
* * *
Jess had no idea how long he’d been sitting when the tickling in his head started. Time had little meaning in the silent cell. No one had come to see him, no noises reached him. He’d given up trying to reach the ship.
It started as a slight tickle, one in the centre of his mind. It quickly progressed to an annoying itch and then very briefly he felt like something had stabbed into his brain. The pain went as fast as it arrived, leaving in its place something that he couldn’t believe. Once again his mind was linked to the Wanderer!
He received an image of his being closed off, shielded away, somewhere unknown. In the image both the ship and he were trying to communicate. All efforts were blocked by the shielded barrier. Then something changed about him, a change to the implants, he realised. The image seemed to shift in a new direction and while the barrier remained strongly in place it now had a limited height. The signals between the ship and Jess simply passed over the barrier. Additional information with the image told Jess that in reality the communication was via a series of higher dimensions. There was more but he was unable to grasp it. What mattered, though, was that he and the ship were now in contact again. He no longer had to sit helplessly waiting for someone to decide his fate, to decide the fates of Ali and Sal. He smiled for the first time since waking in the cell.
Contacting the ship was one thing, getting out a different thing altogether. The ship was able to pinpoint his location by their connection and fed a map into his mind. He was deep in the station, near the centre. Even if he could escape the cell he would have to find his way through miles of corridors to reach the ship, or any point where it could reach him. The ship suggested that if could get near the outside of the station then precision weaponry could sever that section, leaving it floating free for the ship to grab. He had no illusions he’d make it anywhere near that far. Even getting out of the cell seemed impossible.
Blowing sections of the station up to demand his release was a non-starter. The moment it started to happen they’d be likely to drug him again. Even without that, the Wanderer could only do limited damage to the station – definitely not enough to intimidate a ruthless bunch of pirates who were holed up safely inside.
How else could he get free? He couldn’t think of any way and his initial joy at feeling the ship’s presence in his mind faded into despair. He considered sending the ship away, maybe even killing himself, to prevent the pirates gaining control of the Wandereer. The thought of Ali and Sal stopped him. The pirates were unlikely to free the girls if he did deny them the ship, and even if Jess was dead they might torture or kill them. He remembered Matt’s casual mention of leaving the prisoners from Glory Falls to die in the containers, as an example to the station.
A thought pushed itself into his mind from the ship. This felt different than normal. Tentative. He sensed the ship was uncertain. As he absorbed the idea he could see why. In essence it was simple, whilst also being astoundingly audacious and quite probably suicidal.
The ship had huge control over its entry into and transition through jump space. Over a short distance it could thread the eye of a needle. It was certain it could pass through the section of jump space that correlated with Jess’s location.
On its own that wasn’t particularly useful. Any attempt to emerge in the same location as another physical object would be strongly resisted by the jump engines – both due to programmed restrictions and because the matter in the real universe would act as a physical barrier. It was possible to override the controls and overwhelm the barrier but then the moment the ship made it into real space a devastating explosion would ensue as particles tried to occupy the same space and annihilated each other.
The ship’s plan was very different and, in its own estimation, far from certain to work. The recent changes to the systems in Jess’s head did more than just allow him and the ship to communicate. They also offered the chance to fling Jess into jump space – acting as a miniature jump drive. But jump space was no more hospitable to an unprotected human than the vacuum of real space, if anything it was even less so. Jess’s jump would have to be timed precisely to match the moment the ship passed by, an exceptionally tricky manoeuvre due to the speed the ship would be moving at. There would be a window of a few milliseconds at most. The final problem would be trying to jump to occupy the same space as an object already in jump space. Once again the attempt to make two objects occupy the same space created a barrier that would need to be crossed. The ship thought it could ensure both its and Jess’s jump fields were in phase which should remove that barrier. If not, he’d be blocked for the milliseconds while the ship passed then dumped into jump space with no protection.
When asked for the chances of success the ship warned there were many variables which could greatly change the results but it estimated the overall chance of success at around twenty percent, one chance in five. Most of the risk revolved around getting the timing right, matching the phases correctly and the chances of Jess’s body being able to withstand the jump. It was almost certain his implants could throw him into jump space, meaning that almost every possible failure led to his death.
Jess decided to go for it. It was the only chance he had of taking back control of rescuing Ali and Sal. He told the ship to start. He immediately felt a tingling as arcs of green energy started to writhe over his body. A countdown from the ship appeared in his mind, starting from twenty seconds. The ship suggested curling up on the floor, so he did.
Heart hammering and breathing in short gasps he watched the countdown drop. With three seconds to go his body was covered in a web of green energy which stung him all over. Time seemed to slow down for him. The two second mark seemed to take an age to reach, the one second even longer. Then the cell around him started to waver and twist, pulsing faster and faster until suddenly… darkness. Excruciating cold, complete blackness and a feeling of utter nothingness around him. He could feel the air in his lungs being dragged out by the emptiness.
Realising the attempt had failed he started to panic, but the cold and the nothingness sapped his energy quickly and he almost welcomed death as it overtook him. At least it wasn’t as painful as he’d feared.
The next moment something crashed into him. Light, sound, pressure all returned in a blinding flash, along with intense acceleration. After a few moments the acceleration eased off and he became aware of his surroundings. He was in the living area of the Wanderer, suspended in mid air by a force field.
From the ship he gained the image of the ship grabbing him and using the force field to cushion his body against the immense acceleration needed to bring him up to the ship’s speed. He also learnt that he had spent only three milliseconds in jump space before being grabbed by the ship. Enough time to do some nasty exterior damage but generally he was in good health. The ship lowered him to the floor and secured him in place, medical devices already deploying to heal his skin, ensure his lungs were undamaged, and review his internal health.
He closed his eyes and linked with the ship fully, losing all sense of his own body and replacing it with the ship. He could swear there was a slight hint of smugness to the ship’s thoughts at what it had achieved. He decided the ship deserved to feel that way. Now he was fully linked in he could appreciate just how difficult a trick it had pulled off. Having tried the experiment the ship now rated the chances of success at around eight percent, much lower than before. It certainly wasn’t anything Jess wanted to try again in the future.
He felt great, though. He was back in the Wanderer. He had power again. He could chase after the pirate fleet, overhaul it and
somehow rescue Sal and Ali. To do that the ship was going to need a lot of resources, and in the process of getting them Jess intended to start extracting his revenge. He pulled the ship round in a sharp turn, heading back towards the Stone Snake mining complex.
Chapter 13
Jess had the Wanderer drop back into real space almost on top of the mining complex. He had no doubt Matt had already told his collaborators about the ship’s amazing abilities so there was no need to hide them. He blasted a message at the station across all frequencies.
“Matt – I’m going to stop your fleet and rescue Sal and Ali. Then I’m going to come back here and finish the job I’m starting now. I’m going to rip this place apart around your ears. And you know I’ll do it. There’s no one here to tell me not to any more. He betrayed me and left. Now it’s payback time.”
Jess had the start of a plan forming in his mind. One thing was clear, the ship would need more resources, a lot more resources, for what he had in mind. The mining complex was the perfect place to get them. The ship had already identified numerous storage bays and unmanned freight shuttles containing materials it could use. He needed to be quick, both to avoid a response from the station and to allow him to catch the pirate fleet before they spent too long at Glory Falls. A thorough plundering of resources was out, he needed to hit many sources and grab what he could on the way through. A course of action that would lead to far more damage to the mining station’s operations. That thought put a large smile on his face.
The first target was a chain of twenty bulk shuttles, all loaded down with metal ores. Exceptionally slow and heavy, they were sitting ducks as the Wanderer swooped in. The ship’s lasers quickly shredded the shuttles’ minimal shields, shields designed to protect against impacts from stray rocks rather than high yield weaponry. Once the shields were down he vaporised each shuttle using the plasma cannons. Finally the Wanderer swooped through the glowing debris cloud slowly expanding from each shuttle, using force fields to channel and recover as many of the materials as possible.
Next he needed to increase the amounts of rare metals available to the ship. Far more expensive than the ores the shuttles were carrying, the rare metals were held in a section of the mining complex guarded by heavy weaponry. A shield arced high above the storage bays. Massive tower-like laser and plasma weapons studded the surface just outside the shield. Anything approaching would be shredded by the hail of destruction. Even the Wanderer couldn’t hold off that level of firepower for more than a few seconds.
It didn’t have to. The defences were designed for normal ships, those that had to drop into real space far away from something as massive as the mining complex. Ships that had to run the gauntlet of the tremendous volley of energy to get near the storage bays, not to mention bringing down the powerful shield.
The Wanderer was no normal ship. Jess had it drop into jump space on a path that let it drop out above the storage bays but within the shield. Suddenly the complex had to face a ship that had not only avoided its defences but was now protected from them by the station’s own shield.
Jess immediately set to work on the storage bays. With no individual shields to deal with he moved straight to vaporising them with the plasma cannons. To an observer Jess would seem to be targeting bays at random, sometimes taking out every one in an area, other times leaving individual bays or groups of bays. It was far from random. The Wanderer was scanning every bay for life signs and Jess was avoiding all those flagged. It was more than likely that many of those in the bays were prisoners, slaves. While Jess’s anger at the pirates meant he would happily kill them and any of their pilots he had no intention of taking any poor slaves with them.
Only a small proportion of the bays held life and there were far more valid targets than he could possibly use. After half a minute the ship had all the resources it needed. The force field remained up, shielding the Wanderer from any retaliation. Jess continued the destruction, now using the lasers to target bays at longer distance while still using the plasma cannons on those nearby.
Nearly a minute after the Wanderer had appeared within the shield it was finally dropped. Weapon towers immediately opened fire but they found only empty space – except one that vaporised a significant section of the station itself. Mind accelerated by his connection to the ship, Jess had triggered a jump within milliseconds of the shield dropping. He left a huge swathe of destruction in his wake. At least sixty percent of the bays were destroyed or badly damaged. A huge fortune in materials was gone. Still secured to the floor of the living area, Jess grinned fiercely as he directed the ship towards Glory Falls and started transforming it using the newly gathered materials.
* * *
The first part of his plan involved catching the pirate fleet while it was still en-route to Glory Falls. The Wanderer had been analysing space surrounding the mining complex, even while out of touch with Jess, and had detected twenty ships in the pirate fleet. He wanted to remove some of the escort ships while they were still in jump space, while the other ships would be unable to communicate or detect them. Even for a ship as powerful as the Wanderer taking on twenty combat ships would be tricky, especially if he needed to try to protect and then rescue the prisoners in the containers.
Matt had told Jess that all ships moved through jump space at a fixed rate. Thinking about the Wanderer’s unique ability to change course in jump space, Jess had wondered if it could use the same techniques to travel faster. The ship had confirmed that while difficult it was possible, so the first set of changes to the Wanderer boosted its jump engines. Once completed, Jess could sense them clawing at the fabric of jump space to drag the ship forwards faster. The jump engine capacity had been more than doubled but it would only reduce the travel time by around eight hours. Any further increases in engine power would provide smaller and smaller gains. The pirate ships had a head start of just over seven hours, meaning Jess would have only an hour to deal with them before they reached Glory Falls. He hoped it would be enough.
The next stage involved further changes to the ship’s defences and weapons, and corresponding increases in the hull size to mount them, the thrusters to maintain manoeuvrability and the engines to provide sufficient power. Once completed the ship would pack an even more powerful punch.
Then there was nothing left to do but wait. The ship had finished patching up his body. He felt sore and his skin still tingled but he was in good shape overall.
Once again, with things weighing on his mind he ended up sitting in the pilot’s chair. He sat and stewed over Matt’s betrayal, thinking back to try to spot any indication of Matt’s intentions. There was nothing, which made things worse. If he couldn’t spot Matt’s betrayal coming could he spot the signs in anyone else? Would he rescue Ali and Sal just for one or both of them to betray him?
Then the thought of his two captive friends had him worrying for them, for their safety in the battle to come. Worrying whether he could save all the prisoners in the containers, whether if some perished the people of Glory Falls would hold him responsible, whether they’d agree to free Sal and Ali if that happened.
After two hours of seemingly endless worrying, the ship started to nudge Jess with warnings about his health. He was badly in need of food and sleep and his body needed a chance to recover from its ordeal. Mechanically he made his way back to the food machine, accepting a large bowl of soup that was delivered without his asking. Once he started to eat he realised how hungry he actually was and ended up wolfing the soup down, then following it up with a large chunk of cake. Whilst eating, it occurred to him that the one entity he did trust completely was the ship. He’d accepted its food without question. Accepted its suggestions. Even let it throw him into jump space with nothing to protect him. Through his link he felt he knew it well enough to be completely confident in trusting it. He might not always understand it, but he had no doubt that his safety was its first concern.
Once again the ship warned that he needed sleep but he felt far too keyed up,
had far too many worries in his head. There was no way he’d get to sleep. The ship offered an option. It could use his implants to send him to sleep, letting him get a good long rest and waking him if anything happened or once they neared the fleet they were chasing. Jess knew he needed to be fresh and awake when the confrontation came. He curled up on a sofa under a blanket and told the ship to go ahead. A comfortable, warm feeling washed through him, nothing like when Matt had drugged him. He felt himself slowly slipping towards sleep but knew that he could interrupt the process at any time. That knowledge allowed him to relax and let sleep take him.
Chapter 14
The ship woke Jess as the pirate fleet started to appear on long range scans. He felt far better for his sleep. He was calmer and able to view the situation with a clearer head, and he soon realised his plan wasn’t going to work. If he took out most or all of the combat escorts then the freighter would be unlikely to still launch the containers holding the prisoners when it arrived and they didn’t. If it didn’t turn tail and head back to the mining complex it would still be a tough nut to crack. Jess doubted it would be possible to intimidate those on board, and destroying it would kill the prisoners he wanted to rescue. He needed a different plan.
The Wanderer’s speed meant it could pass by the fleet and reach Glory Falls a little over ten minutes before the fleet did. As a new plan formed he threw a new set of instructions to the ship to change its configuration. First he changed the shiny silver hull to matt black. Next he added baffles to help hide its heat signature and large heat storage systems so the ship could run completely cold for a time. Then he set to work reviewing the ship’s records of Glory Falls, identifying the best position for the Wanderer in his new plan. It wasn’t perfect, but it might just work.
Wanderer's Odyssey - Books 1 to 3: The Epic Space Opera Series Begins Page 10
