Wanderer's Odyssey - Books 1 to 3: The Epic Space Opera Series Begins

by Simon Goodson

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  The Wanderer eased into real space a few minutes out from Glory Falls. Jess had chosen the area for its proximity to the station and the fact it was covered by patchy scanning at best. The ship made barely a ripple in the surface of real space as it appeared and it was running fully dark. No sensors that could detect the jump space distortion were aimed so close to the station. Why would they be? No ship could possibly emerge that close.

  No heat or light escaped the Wanderer’s hull. The heat storage systems would let it run cold for around thirty minutes, as long as the ship stayed mostly dormant. Any significant manoeuvring would soon generate more heat than could be stored, probably within a couple of minutes. That was fine by Jess. He didn’t intend to go anywhere just yet.

  Watching the station go about its normal business while the pirate fleet bore down on them seemed strange to Jess, but of course the station had no idea of the threat that was about to materialise. He fought down the temptation to warn them; it would change nothing other than risking his attempts to free Sal and Ali.

  When the fleet dropped out of jump space it exactly matched the formation it had jumped in. The freighter supported by fourteen fighters and five much larger combat craft. The Wanderer estimated that the five were roughly comparable with an Imperial corvette, though the weapons systems registered as being more powerful.

  The freighter blasted out its demands almost the moment it reached real space. Within a few minutes the containers loaded with prisoners had been launched – thirty of them, all on different paths. The countdown had started. Despite the gravity of the situation excitement flooded Jess’s veins. He smiled fiercely as the pieces moved into position. So far, so good.

  The response from the station was quick to follow. The governor appeared, looking pale, pleading for their people to be recovered quickly and assuring that their two prisoners would be put on a shuttle as soon as possible. She estimated it would take five minutes which worried Jess. He really needed it to be longer for his plan to work fully. There was nothing he could do, though, except wait. Wait and watch the containers with limited air and warmth spreading out from the freighter.

  He quickly shut off the video feeds from inside the containers. The images of terrified prisoners sitting huddled together in the dim light was too distracting, especially from the containers containing young children. They brought back too many painful memories, too, memories of the many times he too had been huddled into a ship or container with no idea where he was going, or whether he’d survive.

  He studied the displays tensely for any hint of movement from the pirate fleet, any hint that they would follow some of the containers. There were none. Jess had to admit that so far Matt had called it correctly, much as he hated to do so. The station appeared to be caving in to the pirate demands and the lack of movement suggested the pirates would renege on their side of the deal, simply leaving the prisoners to die once they had Sal and Ali.

  Jess’s driving aim was to rescue his friends. Once they were safe, if he could manage that, then he would try to help the prisoners in the containers, but he knew there was a good chance most of those prisoners would be dead within the next half hour. Hardening his heart, he studied the station displays, waiting for the right moment to start the rescue.

  As the minutes passed Jess found himself becoming more and more tense. Stomach knotted, wishing for something to happen at the same time as hoping desperately that more time would tick away. Sensing his state the ship offered several options that should reduce his tension without affecting his edge. Gratefully he chose one and felt his body relax immediately. It didn’t even occur to him how happily he’d accepted the ship’s interference in his mind and body. He was too focused on the coming fight.

  The promised five minutes came and went without a shuttle leaving the station. Almost immediately the governor sent out another message, apologising for the delay and insisting it wouldn’t take much longer. Just a minute or two, she said. Jess let out a sigh of relief. A delay of between three and five minutes would be ideal for his plan. Any longer and there was the risk of the station realising some containers would be difficult or impossible for the fleet to recover and refusing to release Sal and Ali.

  It turned out to be another two minutes and nine seconds. Not ideal, but much better than he’d feared. Now timing became critical. He watched the shuttle swing away from the station and begin its journey towards the waiting freighter. He couldn’t risk scanning it but the shuttle was small and could probably carry no more than ten or twelve people. So Sal, Ali and between one and ten others.

  He would deal with that when he had to, but his instincts told him there would be just a pilot. Anyone on the shuttle risked becoming a new hostage or being enslaved. The pilot would probably be someone with lots of family in the containers, and most likely someone who was quite old.

  When the shuttle had been travelling for ninety seconds Jess fired the Wanderer back to life. Engines ramped up to full power, weapons and shields too. Energy was once again dumped out into space. Within seconds the Wanderer was streaking towards the shuttle. Jess triggered the weapons.

  Lasers lashed out, collapsing the shuttle’s shields but aimed precisely so they then passed within inches of the hull and caused no damage. Ion cannons targeted the shuttle as a whole, knocking its systems off line. Lasers then flicked out precisely to carve up the engines. Within seconds the shuttle was dead, drifting on its last course.

  Jess flew the Wanderer close in to the shuttle, then caused it to reach out with powerful fields whilst braking hard at the same time. As the ship reached the shuttle the closing speed was greatly reduced. The ship’s fields grabbed the shuttle and dragged it in to nestle securely against the hull, safely within the ship’s shields. Anyone within the shuttle would have been shaken up badly, but Jess hoped they’d have nothing worse than a few bruises. He couldn’t worry about that now. It was time for the trickiest part of his plan.

  Jess forced the ship into jump space, a rougher than normal transition because of the shuttle’s bulk sticking out from the Wanderer’s usual clean lines. Almost immediately he dropped back into real space, right in the middle of the pirate fleet, a fleet which was only just responding to the Wanderer’s sudden appearance and capture of the shuttle.

  Jess expected the fleet to go after the containers, to destroy them, in retaliation for the loss of their prize. Both the message transmitted to the station and Matt’s words made it clear that was the price of any resistance. Now he had to stop them.

  The fighters were his first target. Fast and agile, he had to take them down before they scattered too widely. His first pass took him tearing through them, weapons firing in all directions. He managed to collapse the shields of three and disable them with the Ion Cannons. Two more were ripped apart by laser fire. The plasma cannons badly damaged one more but several others evaded the slow moving plasma bolts. Jess launched six of the agile fast attack missiles. All six found their targets, having been launched at near point blank range. Four tore the targeted ships apart, the other two inflicted significant damage, leaving the struck fighters reeling and struggling to regain control.

  In a single pass he’d disabled three fighters, destroyed six and badly damaged another three. That left two fully operational fighters and the five corvette grade ships to deal with. The two fighters were already streaking away in opposite directions to each other, and the corvettes were moving too. Two were closing on the freighter to defend it, while the other three turned towards the Wanderer. The two active fighters would be able to start destroying containers within a minute or so. On their current course the three corvettes would be able to do the same within a couple of minutes, their longer ranged weaponry making up for their relative lack of speed.

  Jess pulled the Wanderer around in a tight circle and blasted towards the three corvettes, jerking the ship through evasive manoeuvres as he closed. The sheer mass of firepower from the three ships meant the Wanderer took mul
tiple hits. The newly reinforced shields were holding but weakening fast. Hooked into the ship Jess felt as if his skin was being flayed by sand.

  In response he was lashing out with every weapon he had. Lasers, ion cannons and plasma cannons all focused on the closest corvette. Despite starting at full power the corvette’s forward shields flickered and died as the range shortened. The weaponry Jess could bring to focus was massively more powerful than the last time he’d faced a corvette.

  The Wanderer’s shields were close to buckling, too, but Jess persisted. He chose a near collision course with the corvette he’d been pounding. As the separation between the two ships rapidly reduced the corvette started to turn away, but it was much too late. With only a handful of seconds until impact Jess launched two of the heavyweight torpedoes and threw the Wanderer into jump space.

  The two torpedoes struck the corvette before it had any chance to launch defences, their explosions ripped the ship apart and triggered far more massive explosions as the engines were destroyed. The detonation was so intense it bled over into jump space. Due to the nature of that medium the Wanderer was already clear of the area before the blast occurred, moving far faster in jump space than in real space, but it was still badly rocked by the blast.

  Dropping back in to real space a short distance later, Jess saw that the explosion had crippled one of the other corvettes and shredded the shields on the final ship that had come after him. Once again pulling the Wanderer into a tight turn he lined up on that final ship. The Wanderer’s shields had recovered partly and had to endure far less punishment than before. With more time Jess targeted critical systems, taking out the main thrusters and sensors and leaving the corvette stranded and partly blinded.

  Checking the larger picture, he cursed. Both fighters were approaching containers. Neither was significantly closer to the Wanderer than the other, but one fighter would be able to attack four containers in quick succession where the other could only target two. For most people the decision would have been clear – take out the first fighter. Thoughts accelerated massively, Jess was able to analyse the feeds from each of the containers. The four containers held thirty-five people, the other two only held twenty – but nineteen of those were children. There were only two children amongst the thirty-five in the other set of containers.

  Hating himself for making such a decision, for not having avoided getting to this situation, Jess threw the Wanderer into jump space, heading for the fighter closing in on the containers full of children. He had the weapons firing even as the ship dropped into real space. The fighter was rocked by the concentrated volley of weaponry, causing its own fire to go wide of a container. Jess didn’t give it long enough to correct. Pouring fire into the fighter at point blank range even the plasma cannons struck home. The shields buckled almost immediately then the fighter erupted in an explosion. At point blank range the blast rocked the Wanderer, burning out several already overloaded shield generators.

  Not pausing to recover, Jess threw the Wanderer back into jump space and towards the remaining fighter. Too late. The fighter had destroyed two containers already and a third was blown apart even as Jess reached for jump space. In desperation he brought the Wanderer back out between the fighter and the fourth container… just in time to absorb the punishment intended for it. More shields burnt out under the onslaught.

  Jess was aware some hull areas were covered by only minimal shielding now. In desperation he lashed out with every weapon he could focus on the fighter and launched the remaining six fast attack missiles. The fighter shuddered under the weapons’ assault but its shields held somehow. Return fire scorched a burning line of fire down Jess’s leg as it pierced the shields and burned away a patch of hull near the engines. Then the missiles struck the fighter, erasing all evidence of its existence in a massive explosion.

  Jess quickly checked the status of the final container. It was undamaged. Six people had survived thanks to Jess, but twenty-nine had died, including the two children.

  Heart aching, Jess stretched his awareness out to the rest of the battle zone. The freighter and the two undamaged corvettes had turned and were making a run for it, trying to cover enough distance to jump clear. The three heavily damaged fighters were trying to limp away, as was the heavily damaged corvette which still had propulsion. Three fighters and one corvette remained completely unable to move. The danger to the containers was eliminated.

  The danger to those within the containers remained. Already the air would be getting stale and the temperature dropping dangerously low. There was no chance of any ship from the station reaching and recovering more than two or three of the containers in time to save the occupants, even if they launched immediately.

  Jess was tired and battered from the battle, but his work wasn’t finished yet. He started with the container he’d just saved from destruction. The Wanderer drew close to the container, then used its fields to drag the container into contact with itself. Once it was secure Jess had the ship jump to the next container, secure that and move onto the next.

  The containers were small enough that the Wanderer could capture four at a time, even with the shuttle still nestled against its belly. Once he had the first four he jumped the ship, now wallowing badly with the additional mass of four containers and the shuttle, close to the station and released the containers. Then it was on to the next four, then the next, and so on.

  With twenty-seven surviving containers Jess needed to make seven runs. Even with the Wanderer’s agility and ability to short cut via jump space it was a race against time. Now the video feeds from the containers were invaluable, allowing him to prioritise those containers with the most people, or with many children to be picked up first, along with those where the occupants were clearly in trouble.

  By the time he dropped the third cluster of containers off, the area around the first two groups was busy with tugs and shuttles pulling the containers into cargo bays. From the chatter over the radio he knew that the entire station had mobilised to bring the containers in and treat those inside. So far no messages had been sent to the Wanderer, which Jess was glad about. He still harboured a lot of anger at the people of the station for getting him, Sal and Ali into their current situation.

  Once the final three containers were dropped off by the station Jess jumped the Wanderer a good few minutes’ flight away from both the station and the remaining pirate ships. The freighter and two corvettes continued their run for freedom. For the moment Jess was content to let them go.

  Finally having some time, Jess had the Wanderer extrude an elongated corridor to meet the shuttle’s airlock then made his way into the corridor. Heart heavy from what had already happened, and fearing the worst, he patched into the airlock’s emergency communication circuit and spoke to those in the shuttle.

  “Whoever is in the shuttle,” Jess said. His voice sounded tired, drained, even to himself. “I’m sorry for the rough ride and for having to overpower your ship. The battle is over and the pirates have been defeated. The containers have been taken to the station and are being recovered now.”

  He felt it best not to mention the three destroyed containers or the fact that at least some of those in the final containers he’d rescued might not make it.

  “You will see that your airlock leads to a pressurised corridor. Please send out your captives. If you wish to join them then feel free. I will say this though; don’t make me come in there to get them. If you do, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

  He killed the circuit without waiting for a reply. He didn’t want a dialogue, he just wanted this nightmare to be over. Nothing happened for a couple of minutes, then he detected vibrations that suggested the inner airlock door was being opened. Soon after, the outer door opened and he grinned in relief at seeing Ali and Sal standing there, both looking tired and worried but otherwise unhurt. His smile froze as he took in the two men standing behind them, each holding an automatic pistol pointed at one of the captives. Both men were we
ll into their fifties and had a hard look about them. Jess was sure they’d use the guns if provoked. The one standing on the left spoke.

  “Right. You’ve seen our captives. You’ve seen they are healthy. Now the four of us are going back inside and you’re going to let this shuttle go. If what you say is true then once we are safely back on the station you can discuss their release with the governor. Until then any hostile action means we shoot one of them. Nowhere fatal to begin with, but it will still hurt like hell. Don’t try anything.”

  Jess stared, mouth open. The man who’d spoken reached out and triggered the control to close the outer airlock door. As it started to slide shut Jess reached out for the Wanderer, for the familiar acceleration of his thoughts.

  Immediately the closing door seemed to slow to a crawl. Jess reached out with the ship’s fields, first jamming the door so it couldn’t close, then slamming a shield between the two men and Sal and Ali. He stepped forward to pull them both out of the airlock. The man behind Ali fired… then screamed as the gun exploded, taking part of his hand with it. Jess was in no mood for half measures. He’d ensured any weapon fire wouldn’t kill the two men but felt they deserved significant pain if they tried anything. The other man dropped his gun as if it had suddenly turned into a scorpion, then tried to aid his colleague.

  Jess pulled Sal and Ali from the airlock then allowed it’s door to slam shut. Sealing the corridor, he had the Wanderer shove the shuttle away, none too gently, and then let himself return to his normal speed of thought. Almost before he could react Ali had him in a fierce hug, crying against his shoulder. Sal threw her arms around both of them and the three stood hugging, all with tears running down their cheeks. Jess could hardly believe he had the two of them back.

  Chapter 15