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

by Simon Goodson

  Those troopers quickly moved towards the airlock, preparing explosives. One tried the airlock controls. Jess allowed the inner door to open. At the same moment he unleashed the ship’s internal weapons. Laser fire lanced into one of the troopers, while heavy slugs crashed into another. Both were slowed but they showed no other immediate effects.

  Jess was pretty certain he could kill the troopers eventually, but nowhere near fast enough. That left him with a problem. He had a weapon that could deal with the four, but it wouldn’t work unless the Wanderer returned to real space. If the battlecruiser regrouped quickly then it could jump to the Wanderer once again. There was no guarantee the Wanderer could get away if that happened.

  One of the troopers gestured at the inner airlock door, lifting a chunk of explosives ready to place them. An idea hit Jess. With an evil grin he put it into effect. The troopers armour might be able to survive the Wanderer’s internal weapons, but the explosives certainly couldn’t. A laser lanced out, striking the charge and triggering the explosion. The trooper’s hand, arm and much of his head and chest were obliterated. The airlock door survived the nearby explosion with nothing more than a slight dent.

  None of the remaining troopers had produced any explosives so far. Having seen what Jess could do they took another tack. One of them opened fire with a heavy beam weapon, targeting the airlock door. The circular area it struck started to wilt under the onslaught. It was only the size of Jess’s hand but it would allow the troopers to shoot through, and by moving the beam they’d be able to break through within a minute or two.

  Jess had to risk returning to real space. He sent the order to the Wanderer. He fired the jump weapons immediately. The remains of the three troopers collapsed to the floor, the missing chunks of their bodies shoved into jump space. Jess was certain it would have been an instant death. Well, mostly certain. It was best not to think about it.

  The living quarters were safe, for the moment. That left the eleven troopers in the hold. They’d joined together, forming a single group, and were carefully scouting. With no way to reach the crew area or any critical sections of the ship there was a limit to what the troopers could do in the short term. Unfortunately, it also meant they were in an area with relatively few defences, and none of the jump space based weapons.

  Jess pushed the Wanderer back into jump space, breathing a sigh of relief that they had avoided an immediate ambush by the Imperial fleet. For the first time he had a chance to sit back and think about the situation. He soon realised he had no idea how to deal with the troopers aboard the Wanderer, or what they might try. He needed help from someone with experience. He needed help from Dash. The very last person he wanted to rely on.

  There was no choice. Biting down on his feelings, Jess stood and went to find Dash.

  Chapter 24

  Admiral Vorn stared at the display which had, until moments before, shown the Wanderer. Just for a moment he’d thought the Wanderer was caught. She hadn’t fled for jump space even while being pounded by missiles. Several boarding shuttles had been destroyed, but three had made contact and many more were close to punching home.

  Then the Wanderer had managed to jump. Not far as jumps went, but far enough to escape the most immediate danger. And in doing so she had shed most of the three shuttles. Then the Wanderer had jumped again, disappearing for good this time.

  It wasn’t all bad news. Initial reports from the shuttles said there had been massive damage caused when the Wanderer jumped away but that twenty troopers were unaccounted for. Most, if not all, should be on board the Wanderer. Vorn would have been happier if all ninety troopers had boarded, or other shuttles had reached the Wanderer in time. Still, twenty troopers kitted out with the best Imperial armour and weaponry had a good chance of securing the Wanderer.

  And the changes to the tracking device had worked well, allowing the Starslayer to drop out of jump space almost on top of the Wanderer. The rest of the fleet had dropped out all around the Wanderer. Vorn suspected that was the reason the Wanderer hadn’t been able to reach jump space immediately. Would tightening up the formation on exiting jump space provide even more disruption? If so, it should be enough to keep their prey in place long enough to deliver more forces.

  Vorn wasn’t so happy about the Wanderer’s course. Taken with some of the earlier movements it was now clear she was heading for the Quarantine Zone. Unless the troopers managed to win control soon there was a good chance the Wanderer would be destroyed. If somehow the ship survived the mighty forces marshalled at the Quarantine Zone, and Vorn was starting to suspect that might well happen, then he’d be leading his force into the one area he would otherwise avoid at all cost.

  He knew he wouldn’t hesitate to follow, no matter the risks. With every encounter with the Wanderer he became more convinced its technology would provide a huge boost to the Empire. Not to mention greatly improving his own personal power base.

  Still… crossing the Quarantine Zone. If that was going to happen there were plans to make, and he needed to brief his officers. Information on just what was going on in the other half of the Empire was strictly controlled and normally only available to the highest levels of leadership.

  Even Vorn only had basic information, and he’d never expected to need more. Now there was a strong chance he would be leading his fleet there. He would never admit it but, despite the huge force he commanded, he felt a cold stab of fear in his gut.

  * * *

  Sal lay on the floor, gritting her teeth against the pain in her left arm. She thought it might be broken somewhere above the elbow. Moving wasn’t an option. She’d tried it once and nearly passed out. All she could do was lay still and hope someone came soon. And that the last of the violent manoeuvres was over.

  Sal didn’t know quite when she’d been hurt. The first few manoeuvres had left her too dazed. She vaguely remembered being thrown around the room several times. There had been what sounded like an explosion, too.

  “Sal! Don’t move!”

  “I couldn’t if I wanted to, Roberto,” she replied.

  He came into sight. There was a cut on the side of his head which was slowly dripping blood onto his clothes.

  “Roberto, you’re hurt!”

  “I’ll be fine. Just a cut. How about you?”

  “I was pretty dizzy, but that’s passing. My arm hurts like hell, though. I can’t…”

  “Sal!”

  Ali’s shout interrupted Sal. Within moments Ali was kneeling next to Roberto. Then Jess was there, too, face grave.

  “Your bone is broken in two places,” Jess said. “The Wanderer can fix it. Just relax.”

  “I thought you wanted Roberto and I off the ship?”

  “We don’t have time for that right now. Whatever happens, fixing your arm is the right thing to do.”

  Sal felt the surface she was laying on begin to change shape. For a moment she considered pulling away, refusing the help. She must have moved slightly because pain shot through her broken arm, making her gasp out loud.

  “Sal, try to keep still,” Roberto said.

  He lay his hand on her right shoulder gently. Her skin seemed to tingle under his touch. She stared up into his deep brown eyes and smiled despite the pain.

  “All right, Jess,” she said, not looking away from Roberto. “You win.”

  “Right now I’ll settle for us all surviving,” Jess said darkly.

  “What do you mean?” Roberto asked. “That fleet obviously caught up with us, but I thought we’d gotten away. We’re in jump space. I can always tell.”

  “Yeah, they found us. And we got away, though it was a damn sight more difficult than before.”

  “I got that impression. The ship took some big hits. But if we got away, what’s the problem? Are you worried about them tracking us?”

  “Yes, but that can wait. We didn’t get away cleanly. Three assault shuttles rammed us and started to unload troopers. I used a jump to get rid of the shuttles but some of the troopers ha
d already boarded us. A few had penetrated our shuttle bay.” Jess gestured towards the airlock door. “I killed those. The others are still in the main hold.”

  Sal’s stomach flipped over. Troopers aboard the Wanderer? And she was stuck on the floor unable to move. The Wanderer could work miracles of healing, but it would still take time. Maybe she should just ask Jess to just patch her up well enough that she could fight. Pump her full of strong painkillers or something.

  Roberto’s hand had gone straight to his hip. He frowned as he realised he had no weapon there.

  “I need a gun,” he told Jess. “Something powerful. None of you are trained. You’d be lucky to hit someone even at point-blank range. I’m the only one who can mount a decent defence.”

  “No. Not yet at least. They aren’t that close. I do need your help, though. There are eleven troopers left in the main hold. I don’t know what they’re likely to do or how to counter them. I need your experience.”

  * * *

  The words had nearly stuck in Jess’s throat. He expected gloating from Dash, or a pointed remark. He was surprised when Dash turned to Sal.

  “Are you all right?” Dash asked Sal, voice soft.

  “Yeah,” she replied. “The painkillers are kicking in. I’m feeling pretty good, to be honest.”

  “Just don’t move the arm.”

  “I can’t. It’s completely stuck!”

  She giggled a little. Jess checked the level of painkillers Sal was receiving and had the ship reduce them slightly. Dash nodded to Sal, then stood.

  “Right, then. Eleven troopers. It could be a lot worse. They won’t want to split their force into more than three groups at most, and probably not more than two. Their primary mission will have been to reach the flight deck and secure it. Failing that they’ll want to find critical locations and either occupy or destroy them. That forces us to respond and may let the fleet catch us.”

  Jess nodded as he absorbed the words.

  “So we have to stop them from reaching anything critical?”

  “Exactly. You managed to kill the others. I take it you can’t do the same to the troopers in the hold?”

  “No. All of the heavy defences are in this section. I thought any assault would most likely be aimed at taking control of the Wanderer. To do that they need me, or one of you as a hostage.”

  Dash smiled. “You fell into a classic trap. You assumed your enemy knows everything you do, and will act on that knowledge. Most times the enemy knows far less than you think.”

  Jess felt anger rising again. He’d been calm and reasonable. Now Dash was mocking him.

  “Why shouldn’t they attack us?” he demanded. “Plenty of people have tried that already. Including you!”

  “That wasn’t my doing. I tried to stop it. You know that.”

  “I know you wanted it to look that way. I don’t know what you were really planning.”

  “I risked my life! I stood by Sal when it could have meant my death.”

  “So you say. How do we…”

  “Shut up!” Ali shouted, glaring at them both. “We have eleven troopers on board. Isn’t that enough to fight in one go?”

  Jess took a deep breath, looking at Ali rather than Dash. She was right. They needed to focus.

  “I wasn’t knocking you,” Dash said, his voice much calmer. “It’s a mistake everyone makes at some point, and normally quite a few times. I’ve done it. It’s one of those things that’s obvious when someone tells you, but bloody hard to spot before.”

  “OK,” Jess replied non-committally.

  “Unless there’s something you haven’t told me, there’s no way the fleet following us can know about your link to the Wanderer. They know the ship is something special, that’s why they keep chasing us, but they can’t know about you. Striking for the flight deck was an obvious move, one that failed. Now their focus will be on wiping out the crew or damaging the ship.”

  “All right. That kind of makes sense.”

  “Good. So, you don’t have the heavy weapons down in the hold. Could you make some?”

  “Yes, given enough time. Nowhere near enough, though. The hold is a big area and those weapons have a short range.”

  “Can you extend the range?”

  “Easily.” Jess smiled coldly. “But it’s kind of all or nothing. Short range or very long. Blowing great big holes in the ship isn’t really going to help us.”

  “All right. Anything else?”

  “The robots. Two are in the hold, the third is up here with us. If we dropped into normal space we could use a shuttle to get it into the hold. That’s only three, though, and we already know the robot’s weapons struggle to get through combat armour. Working together they might be able to take on one or two troopers at a time. Any more and we’d probably lose the robots.”

  “What about drones?” Ali asked. “They worked well before. They aren’t as tough as the robots, but they give us more firepower.”

  “Maybe. We’d need to increase the strength of their weapons, which would mean fewer of them.”

  “Why?” Dash asked.

  “It’s a restriction that’s built into the Wanderer. There’s a limit on how powerful the drones can be as a group. We can have lots of weak drones or a few very powerful ones. It’s the same for the robots too. That’s why there are only three of them.”

  “You can’t work around it?”

  “No. Like I said, it’s built in.”

  Dash frowned, then shrugged. He thought for a few moments before speaking again.

  “What about the terrain? The hold was split up into floors and rooms for the prisoners we’d freed. Have you changed it?”

  “No. It’s still the same.”

  “And you can track them wherever they go?”

  “Yes. Definitely.”

  “We can use it to our advantage, then. We know the terrain better than they do. How quickly can you create a new door down there? Or remove an existing one?”

  “It depends. In a few minutes if I concentrate, and there’s only two or three. If it’s for a lot more then I have to leave the Wanderer to deal with it. Maybe an hour or two in that case.”

  Dash grinned. “That’s more than enough. We can turn that whole area into a maze, and one that changes around them at that.”

  Jess was confused. “How will that help? I thought we wanted to kill them.”

  Dash shook his head. “No. That’s not our main aim. Don’t take this the wrong way but that’s another common mistake. Focusing on defeating the enemy, on killing them, rather than the actual goal. Right now that’s making sure they don’t do any damage to the ship or to us. Keeping them wandering around in a maze will achieve that.”

  “For how long?”

  “As long as it takes. Their suits will recycle water and they’ll have emergency rations for a few days. If we can keep them moving round in circles they’ll start to get frustrated and careless. That’s when we can start to pick them off.”

  “I don’t like it. I’d much rather just kill them.”

  “Me too. While they’re alive we have to keep a close eye on them. Unless you can think of anything else this is the best we can do.”

  “Damn. All right. Do we use the robots too?”

  “Not for the moment. Save them for when we can make best use of them.”

  “How do you know the troopers won’t get out?” Ali asked, fear tingeing her voice.

  “We don’t,” Dash said. “Jess, is there anything they could damage down there?”

  Jess thought about it. The others waited for him to speak. Finally he shook his head.

  “Not really. The engines are sealed off behind multi-layered bulkheads designed to take impacts from a warship’s weaponry. The main thrusters too. They might be able to reach a few of the manoeuvring thrusters or shield generators, but not enough to do any real harm. Then there’s us, of course. They’d have to get through reinforced bulkheads again, and most of the defensive weaponry is here to keep
us safe.”

  “That’s good. Think about creating a bolt hole, though. Somewhere secure we can all fit into if they do look like breaking into this area.”

  “I can do that.”

  “What about the ship? What state is the Wanderer in?”

  Jess grimaced. “Not great. The main shields are still down. Many of the generators need to be rebuilt. The battlecruiser took out quite a few weapons, too. We’ve still got some structural damage and the ship took a battering in that last fight.”

  “Can you fix everything before we reach the Quarantine Zone?”

  “Maybe. Definitely most of the important stuff. We need more resources to completely fix everything. I don’t think we’ll be mining any more asteroids for a while, not with that fleet on our trail, and it’s going to be tricky getting everything fixed while also dealing with those troopers.”

  “Let me run that operation, then. Give me control and enough screens to keep track of them, then you can focus on fixing the ship.”

  Jess was immediately suspicious. Giving Dash that much power sounded a terrible idea. Dash could use the power to prepare an ambush for Jess and Ali. Even if Jess put limits in place he would still have to constantly watch what Dash was doing. It would be more distracting than dealing with the troopers himself.

  “The Wanderer doesn’t really work like that,” Jess said, stalling.

  Dash frowned and opened his mouth to argue. Ali got there first.

  “I’ll do it,” she said. “I can use my implants to do what’s needed, and to help Dash keep track of the troopers.”

  And I can make sure he isn’t planning anything against us.

  Jess fought to keep a smile off his face as he received Ali’s message. It was a great solution.

  “Yes. That should work, shouldn’t it?”

  Dash thought for a moment then nodded, smiling. “Yes. Definitely. Let’s get started.”

  As Dash turned away Jess caught a fleeting expression he couldn’t place. Was it because Dash couldn’t prepare a trap for Jess now? Or was it Dash starting another plan, looking to find another way to grab control of the Wanderer? Leaving Ali working closely with Dash suddenly didn’t seem such a good idea. He wasn’t armed, but Jess had no doubt Dash was deadly anyway.