Wanderer - Tainted Universe

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

Jess sat in the pilot’s chair of the Wanderer, watching the mists of jump space sliding past. As always, nothing else was visible. Jess knew there were three other ships out there, though. He could pinpoint their location using the Wanderer’s seemingly unique abilities, but there was no visible sign of them, even where the mists parted.

Was it just impossible to see in jump space? Or maybe the other ships were in a slightly shifted dimension, both close by and infinitely far away? It was impossible to tell. Under Jess’s control the Wanderer had destroyed several ships in jump space, but using weaponry based upon jump technology so that proved nothing. If the ship’s engines could access parallel dimensions then so could the jump technology based weapons.

“Hey, sexy.”

The voice from behind was accompanied by soft hands rubbing down his arms and a kiss on the top of his head. Then Ali dropped into his lap, kissing him properly. Jess responded enthusiastically, letting his hands start to wander.

After a few minutes Ali pulled back a little, flustered and flushed.

“Wow,” she said. “Sometimes you make it too easy to get distracted. I came up here for a reason.”

“Not just to see me?” Jess asked, feigning hurt.

“No. Well, yes. But not like that.” She glanced towards the back of the flight deck, then continued in a quiet voice. “I’m worried, Jess. Worried about Dash, and about where he’s leading us. His men have only just tried to take over the Wanderer. I know he stood against them, or certainly seemed to, but do you actually trust him? Enough to risk flying into a base he and his men control?”

“Honestly? Not really. But I don’t see any other choice. We’ve freed the prisoners on board but the other three freighters can’t do that. If we don’t get them somewhere safe pretty damn soon people will start dying.”

“I know but… I’m scared, Jess. We nearly lost Sal. You were badly wounded. Elizabeth and I were lucky. You managed to fight them off, but only just. What’s to stop that happening again, but with far more attackers?”

Jess gave her a squeeze before speaking.

“I don’t know. I’m scared too. When they opened up with those pistols that punched straight through the internal shields you were standing out in the open. I couldn’t protect you. That scared me so much. I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

She smiled at that, leaning in for a quick kiss, then pulling back again.

“I’m scared but I can’t let those prisoners die,” Jess continued. “I can reduce the risk to us. The Wanderer doesn’t need to dock. The prisoners we freed can leave on shuttles, and I should be able to ensure nothing unpleasant is on board when the shuttles return.”

“Should?”

“Yeah. I’d have said definitely a couple of days ago, but those stealth ships made me realise how little I know of the universe.”

“You and everyone else. Even Elizabeth knew nothing about them, and that’s pretty much unheard of.”

Jess smiled and nodded. Elizabeth was much older than Sal, Ali and he. Older and far more experienced. She’d been captain of her own freighter for most of her adult life, and had used it as a base to explore new systems and worlds. She seemed to know of, and have an opinion on, almost everything.

Now Elizabeth was flying one of the other freighters, the Steady Light, which she had claimed for her own and nursed back to partial flight worthiness. Jess was pleased she had the chance to own a ship again, yet disappointed at the thought of losing her advice.

“Dash hadn’t heard of those ships either,” he said. “And he was the head of a major pirate organisation. Or still is, I suppose, assuming the attempted coup by the men he brought with him hasn’t been repeated across his organisation.”

“And assuming he was telling the truth,” Ali replied.

“Yeah… we keep coming back to that. I’ve done everything I can. We’ll just have to take a chance.”

“What about those guns? The ones that cut right through the shields.”

“I’ve got the ship working on them, but it’s slow progress. Some sort of energy field is generated around the bullets. There aren’t that many bullets to play around with. I think they only came with ten each so that’s ninety to begin with and quite a few were fired.

“It’s odd, though. They had advanced combat armour, but they didn’t have any shields. The fact they carry specific shield-piercing guns means they must face shields quite often. So why don’t they have shields?”

“I don’t know. There must be a reason, though.”

“Yeah. I’d feel a lot happier if I knew what it was. I would ask Dash but…”

“Yeah. How about asking Elizabeth?”

“I’d like to, but I can’t do anything until we finish the jump. I don’t know how secure any communications with her would be even then. I really don’t want to give Dash or his forces any kind of tip-off telling them our vulnerabilities.”

Ali nodded without speaking, deep in thought.

“Sorry,” Jess said after a couple of minutes of silence.

“What for?” she asked, surprise in her voice.

“I’m supposed to be making you less scared. I’m not doing a very good job of it!”

“You’re doing better than you know,” she replied with a smile. Then she leaned into him, pressing against his chest for comfort this time.

He tightened his arms around her, enjoying the sensation. It wasn’t enough to remove the lead weight in his stomach, though, the fear of letting anyone onto the ship where they could hurt Ali. Jess stared out at the mists of jump space once again, desperately trying to think of more ways to keep her safe.