Wanderer - Echoes of the Past

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jess grinned at the stunned reaction from the others. Elizabeth looked like she was about to choke. Sal and Ali just sat with their mouths open. It was Sal who recovered first.

“OK… right… putting aside the fact the ship is suddenly expressing desires, which we really need to talk about, you want us to just fly off to this star which is weeks or even months away?”

“Sure,” Jess replied. “We could go direct easily enough. The Wanderer can provide all the food we need. We’ve got plenty of vids and books now to keep us busy. If you want we could stop off at some systems on the way, but why not just kick off in jump space and fly directly there?”

“You might be captain of this rather incredible ship, but you have an awful lot to learn about travelling in space,” Elizabeth cut in dryly.

She gestured at the star map Jess had called up. It was zoomed out, allowing them to see the whole span of human occupied space.

“Look carefully at the map. There are tens of thousands of systems with settlements in them, but look at how clumped together they are. You see how there’s almost always a sharp division? Most systems in an area have at least a basic human presence, then beyond a certain point there’s nothing. Did you never wonder why?”

“I’d never seen a star map until a few weeks ago,” Jess replied reproachfully. “Slaves weren’t expected to know where they were going.”

Sal nodded, her expression making it clear she shared Jess’s feelings about the comment.

“Damn,” said Elizabeth. “Sorry. I forget your backgrounds sometimes, and I’m not the most tactful person.”

“I’ve never thought about it either,” Ali said. “To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the full map before. When I was growing up all we really cared about were the nearby stations, and the systems that were really close by. I knew about some others, but more from curiosity than need.”

“Hmm…” Elizabeth said. “Different perspectives, I guess. All my life I wanted to get a ship and to travel. Once I got my ship I did exactly that. Best way to make money as a trader is to stick to a few routes that you know well. I did the opposite, travelling far and wide. I only reached the edge of the inhabited systems once but it stuck with me, being so close to worlds no one had ever visited.”

Her expression clouded for a moment. Jess thought she must be thinking about the ship she had owned for so long and then lost. Before he could say anything she cleared her throat and continued speaking, back to her abrupt self.

“All right, getting back to what I was saying. You might not have seen this before but you have to admit the pattern is mighty strange. You’d expect to have a core of systems that the Empire controls, and a smattering of systems beyond where those wanting to keep out of the Empire’s way drifted to.”

“Yes, I can see that,” said Sal. “So why isn’t it like that?”

“It’s down to jump space,” Elizabeth replied. “Jump space where we are now is pretty smooth. It’s easy to travel through. It isn’t like that everywhere. There’s the occasional star that does something nasty to jump space, causing disruption and worse. Think of the disruption we’ve felt in jump space when a large ship’s engines have blown in real space nearby. Now imagine that multiplied thousands of times and covering anything from a few light minutes to a few light years.

“You can’t see it at this scale but there are many no go areas even in the populated areas of space. You get clumps of disruption more often than pure chance can account for, creating dead ends or narrow paths. Surrounding these clumps of disruption are areas of space which can be navigated with care and a damn good map, areas where a tiny change in course can be the difference between safe transit and your ship being ripped apart.

“There are completely safe routes which are well known, of course, but sticking to them would make the journey at least ten to twenty times as long. The more direct routes are valuable. They are never given away, but they can be bought… for the right price… in the right places. We’re going to need to buy that information.”

Elizabeth paused for a moment, holding her hand up to stall any replies.

“There's a much nastier problem getting where you want to go,” she continued. “At every edge of populated space jump space becomes a chaotic, swirling place. The disruption isn't centred on particular stars, instead the turbulence covers from tens to hundreds of light years. Actually, that’s misleading. The chaotic regions aren’t pressing up against the inhabited systems, the inhabited systems are pressing up against the regions no one can get to.”

“And nothing can fly through those regions?” Jess asked.

“Yes and no. Anyone can try, and the level of disruption can vary greatly. One course might let you fly safely, for a while at least, while a slight variation would mean your ship was ripped apart in seconds.”

“How does anyone even know that?” asked Sal.

“Automated probes, mostly. It’s an expensive business, but plenty of people are interested in finding a clear path through the chaos. Even if it only led as far as a single system just think what that could mean, a system the Empire was unable to reach. Many, many organisations would love to find such a place; pirates, shady businesses, even those looking for a different political set-up than the Empire. And, of course, the Empire puts even more resources into the search, to ensure they find and take control of any such systems.”

“And are any found?” Jess asked eagerly, caught up in Elizabeth’s tale.

“Officially? No. Not any more, at least. But there are always rumours saying the opposite. Are any of them true? I have absolutely no idea.”

“How do they know how far the disturbance goes?” Jess asked thoughtfully. “It might only be very shallow. If it was then a path to one system might open up another huge area of accessible systems.”

“Now that is a good question, and it relates to our problem with reaching the system the ship wants to get to. Look here…” She zoomed the map in. “You can’t see it until we zoom in, but look at this section.”

“It’s narrow,” Ali said. “Really narrow.”

“Yep. In fact between those two stars there’s only a channel a couple of light seconds across – about six hundred thousand kilometres. That might sound a lot but it’s pretty much nothing. It’s so tight that the Empire tightly restricts traffic through the area. To prevent collisions, they say. That’s a lie of course. What they are actually doing is cutting the Empire in half, ensuring each half is completely isolated. They even refer to it as the Quarantine Zone.

“Anyway, back to your point. The Empire isn’t too hot on people knowing its history. The implication is that the Empire has always been around and things have always been the way they are, since well before any records exist, at least. That’s the official version. Other tales are told, though. One in particular says the Empire was once much smaller, then someone found a safe route through what had been thought to be an impassable area of space and found another large area just waiting to be colonised. That route is the Quarantine Zone.

“The tale makes sense, and it explains why the Empire works so hard to track down anyone probing areas of disruption. It might not be a single system at stake, it might be enough space for an entire rival empire – especially if a group slipped through and left no trace. It would take time, probably hundreds to thousands of years, but something that could threaten the entire Empire might develop out there.”

“So we’ve got two problems,” Sal said. “First, we’d have to get past the Quarantine Zone to be able to get anywhere near the Wanderer’s home system. The second is that the system is inside one of those regions of disruption.”

“That’s not a problem,” Jess replied confidently. “The Wanderer knows a safe path. We just need to get there. Elizabeth, is there any other way through the Quarantine Zone?”

Elizabeth sighed. “Again, there are plenty of rumours. Tales of pirates and others knowing secret ways past. In all honesty I have no idea if they’re true.”

“So the other option is just to blast our way through? It’s a narrow channel but the Wanderer can handle it, and she has scanners that work in jump space which no other ship has. We can avoid any collisions and just fly through. No one will ever know we were there.”

“If it was that easy then lots of people would try, even without the ability to avoid potential collisions. The Empire uses jump space inhibitors, tar pits, like the one we were trapped by. There are several at least and each is used to force ships past a checkpoint backed up by a massive fleet. The Empire is exceptionally serious about maintaining the Quarantine Zone.

“But why? Why go to that much trouble?” asked Sal.

“Another question with no answer. I think it’s partly out of fear. If there ever was a threat to the entire Empire then the Quarantine Zone would serve as a perfect defensive point. It gives them a single, focused point from which they could ensure half the Empire was safe. I reckon that’s also why they allow so little traffic between the two sides. Ideas are the most dangerous cargo, they lead to questions and, ultimately, to revolutions.”

“So we’re back to hoping there’s another way through, that someone, somewhere knows it. And that someone will probably be a pirate who’s highly unlikely to share it with us.”

Jess’s shoulders slumped at the thought. Reaching the Wanderer’s home had seemed such a simple task. He’d been buzzing with excitement at the idea. Now it looked like it would be impossible. Jess felt as if it had been snatched away from under his nose.