Wanderer - Origins: Wanderer's Odyssey, #4

By Simon Goodson

Hunted by a powerful Imperial fleet, his friends infected by the Taint, Jess has only one place to turn — the homeworld of his amazing ship, the Wanderer.

But his journey will reveal the origins of far more than just the Wanderer, and both the Empire and the Taint will be ready to pounce at any moment. Jess expects to learn how things started, but what he learns might also point to how everything will finish… and just how close that end may be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Soul Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Oct 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781910586037

Book preview

Part I

Chapter 1

Jess sat lost in wonder as he soaked up information from the Wanderer’s sensors. Since escaping slavery on the Wanderer he had grown used to travelling through the swirling mists of jump space, but this… this was something else.

Jump space existed alongside normal space, though it was very different. Ships travelled far faster in jump space but with no way to change direction or speed. Other ships were never seen and sensors couldn’t penetrate the mists at all. Normally. The Wanderer was the exception to both rules, being able to change direction in jump space and detect other ships. Even so, when travelling through jump space Jess was always aware that they were somewhere very different from real space.

Jess had believed jump space was as fast as any ship could go. Now he knew differently. The Wanderer was moving far faster than was possible in jump space. A journey which should have taken months would now take less than seven hours.

And yet the Wanderer wasn’t moving, by some measures at least. Compared to nearby space the Wanderer was stationary. Local space was moving just as quickly as the Wanderer, heading for the same destination.

Jess felt a presence in his mind, nudging for attention. The Wanderer. The presence had stopped feeling strange not long after his connection to the ship was forged. Now he couldn’t imagine life without the link. Without taking his attention away from the amazing display outside the ship he absorbed what the Wanderer was trying to tell him.

He gazed at the wonders surrounding him a little longer, then sighed deeply and tore his attention away. The Wanderer was right, there were things to be done. The ship was in terrible condition after the most recent run in with the Imperial fleet that had dogged his footsteps. Every shield and weapon was down. The hull was smashed open in several locations and cracked in many more. All thrusters were out of action, as were the jump engines. And those were just the most pressing matters.

Jess didn’t know whether the Imperial fleet had followed, but he thought it was likely. They had already chased the Wanderer across a number of systems and even through the Quarantine Zone. Jess still didn’t know quite how the fleet had been able to track the Wanderer, but they certainly had. He was pretty certain the fleet wasn’t far behind.

Even if they weren’t he couldn’t count on a peaceful reception at the other end. While the jump engines were down the Wanderer would be trapped in normal space. With no thrusters the ship would be a sitting duck. With no weapons or shields it would be a dead duck.

The running battles with the Imperial fleet had taken their toll on the Wanderer’s supplies. Any repairs would be fuelled by cannibalising other parts of the ship. Given enough time the Wanderer could completely change its shape and structure, forging a complete but smaller ship out of the partly wrecked form it now had.

But there wasn’t enough time. It would take the Wanderer at least a day, and probably closer to two, which was far too long. He would have to prioritise the most critical repairs and oversee them himself.

Where should he start? The jump engines were a must. Without them the Wanderer could be hunted down by fast interceptors which would inflict more damage and bring her down. Fixing them wouldn’t be enough to see him safe. The fleet’s uncanny ability to track the Wanderer through normal and jump space meant nowhere was safe for long.

But in jump space the pursuing fleet couldn’t draw closer. In fact the Wanderer would be able to increase the separation. And all the while further repairs could continue.

The jump engines were top of the list, along with getting some shields online. Not for defence against hostile ships, though that was a useful side effect, but to keep the ship safe within jump space. Without shields the Wanderer would be obliterated within seconds of jumping.

Weapons were less critical. Jess wanted to get a few online for point defence against missiles and other debris, but other than that they could wait. Thrusters were another matter. Currently the Wanderer would be adrift in space when it reached the end of its amazing journey.

Jess had no idea whether the ship would gently exit at rest compared to the local system or be flung out at immense speed. Whichever it was, or if it was something in between, the ability to manoeuvre and avoid dangers would be critical.

The hull… that was a whole series of issues. Some areas could be patched up. Others needed major repair work, especially if the ship was to withstand combat. Then there were hundreds of damaged subsystems which the main systems relied on. Even focusing on just the most critical issues there was enough work to keep dozens of people busy.

Jess didn’t have dozens. Just himself. It was more than enough though. With a thought Jess linked to the Wanderer, the implants in his head both providing the link and accelerating his thoughts massively. It was second nature now, something he not only took for granted but relied upon heavily.

With his thoughts running so much faster than normal Jess could oversee all the critical repairs. Time was no longer a constraint, or time to plan wasn’t at least. The time until the Wanderer reached its destination remained a problem, as did the lack of resources. Jess could allocate both in as efficient a manner as was possible, but he couldn’t work miracles.

Still, it would make a massive difference. When the Wanderer emerged at the other end it would have shields, thrusters, jump engines and even a handful of weapons. The hull would be reinforced at critical points. Not air tight and not fully repaired, but strong enough.

Finally Jess was satisfied that everything was underway. He allowed his mind to slow back towards normal speeds, though he kept himself somewhat accelerated. Issues and queries kept popping up but he had plenty of time to deal with them now. And between them he was able to study the marvel the Wanderer travelled through once more. The interruptions prevented him becoming fully lost within the spectacle, but he still made a valiant effort.

An hour passed slowly by. Jess found himself feeling more and more restless. He couldn’t keep his thoughts from what had happened and where he might be going. Both sets of thoughts carried their own pain.

He felt the need to talk, but there was no one he could talk to. The Wanderer was an incredible ship with a personality of its own, but it had its limitations. He certainly couldn’t have a conversation with it. Its communication involved images, feelings and information, but not words.

That left Teeko. Jess hardly even noticed how different Teeko was anymore. He had grown used to having the alien around, despite Teeko’s odd appearance — it looked like a walking, brown-furred table with four short legs on each side. The alien’s long flexible neck and two spindly arms jarred with that image. It had a narrow head with a small mouth and two sets of eyes. One set close together, the other set wide on its head.

Jess would happily have talked to Teeko but the alien was shut in its cabin, lounging in a warm bath. Asleep or close to it. Teeko had been spending longer and longer shut away in its room recently.

Jess longed to talk with Ali. He’d only known her a few weeks, yet it felt like a lifetime. And it was in some ways. He’d met her just after making his escape from a life of slavery. Just after finding the Wanderer and escaping on it. Just after his new life had begun.

They’d fallen for each other heavily, and the need to keep her safe had given him the energy to keep going. But now she was gone.

No; not exactly gone. It would be easier if she was. She had fallen to the Taint, and from that point she had become someone else… or something else. Jess only found out when she tried to infect him, attacking both directly and through her own link to the Wanderer. Dash and Sal had both been infected too and launched an attack on Teeko and Ben, the young slave boy who had become inseparable from Teeko. Teeko managed to escape, but Ben was lost to the Taint.

The battle had been fierce and Jess would have lost it without help from Teeko and a not inconsiderable amount of luck. In the end he’d managed to repel the attack and subdue Ali and the others using an ancient trick he’d pulled from the Wanderer’s systems. Curing them was beyond the ship’s abilities, but by forming a special shield around them they were neutralised.

Unable to bear looking at their faint forms within the shimmering shields, Ali’s especially, Jess had reformed the ship so the shielded figures were shut away from sight. It helped, but not a lot. Jess knew they were there and that Ali was within touching distance.

The temptation to free her, to speak with her, was strong. He knew it wouldn’t really be Ali. He knew she would attack immediately, trying to gain control of the Wanderer and Jess himself. Even so, he was still tempted.

The temptation was made worse by knowing that Ali, the real Ali, still existed somewhere in there. Or she had at least. When things had been at their worst, when Jess was fighting the Taint in the virtual world of the Wanderer’s systems, he had been overwhelmed by traps. With his strength rapidly fading and no way to free himself he had known it was all over.

Then she had come. Ali. The real Ali. She had taken the pain into herself, freeing Jess to do what needed to be done. And then she was gone. He didn’t know whether she had survived and returned to whatever corner of her mind she had been hiding from the Taint in, or if the effort had caused her to be destroyed. He longed for it to be the first, but feared it was the second.

So he was doubly tortured. Firstly by how close Ali’s physical body was. Secondly by knowing that maybe, just maybe, the real Ali still existed somewhere, and he had no idea how to save her.

Jess felt a gentle nudge on his attention. The Wanderer needed guidance on the repair work. The ship could have made the decisions itself, but without Jess’s input it was incomplete. The ship had been designed to be closely tied to its pilot, and Jess was now that pilot. Welcoming the distraction, Jess connected with the Wanderer once more.

Chapter 2

Just one hour till the journey would be finished. One hour until Jess finally reached the Wanderer’s home system. The Wanderer’s excitement at the prospect washed over Jess, adding to his own.

He could hardly believe they were so close. It felt like years since the Wanderer had first expressed its desire to return home. In fact it was just a few weeks, but so much had happened in that time it felt far longer.

Jess found himself wondering just what they would find. The system was close to the Empire’s northernmost edge but isolated by disturbances in jump space. The journey in jump space would take only a few days, if it was possible, but in real space it would take thousands of years. The Empire would never have made any efforts to reach the star, especially as to them it was just one amongst tens of thousands of nearby but unreachable stars.

The Wanderer wasn’t any help. Other than the location it had no memories of the home system. That didn’t stop it feeling a powerful drive to return. A drive that Jess had awakened. Amazingly, the Wanderer had been around for tens of thousands of years, but for much of that time its personality had lain dormant, lobotomised. Jess had done something that hundreds of captains before him had failed to do. He allowed the Wanderer to become whole again. And the Wanderer wanted to see its home.

Until escaping on the Wanderer, Jess’s experience of the universe had been limited to prison cells, prisoner transports and work locations which were almost inevitably poorly lit, dirty or downright dangerous — and often a combination of all three. His spirit would have been crushed years before if it hadn’t been for the storytellers.

The storytellers had been the one bright light in his life. Some read from books but most knew their stories by heart. Tales of magic and princesses, of pirates and space battles, of horrors in the night. Some storytellers claimed they themselves had been there, that they had once been mighty but had been brought low by treachery or a misplaced love. Such claims were greeted with scepticism by the prisoners, but the stories were still welcomed.

Sometimes Jess had been lucky and had been around a storyteller for several weeks. Other times months went by without seeing one, but it didn’t matter. As a young boy Jess drank in every story they told. During the spells with no storyteller he remembered the stories he’d been told and made up his own, stories of wonder and valour.

As he tried to picture what the Wanderer’s system might be like he found many of those old memories returning. Would he find mighty space fortresses hewn out of asteroids? Would there be a wide web of delicate structures, woven together? Maybe the planets themselves would be tamed, every planet teeming with life. The possibilities seemed endless.

Even more tantalising were his thoughts about the Wanderer’s creators. What would that race be like? How would they react to the Wanderer’s return, and to Jess being the captain? Had they even survived? Jess felt as much trepidation as excitement, but his course was set. In just under an hour he would get the answer to all his questions, whether he liked them or not.

Just a few minutes now. Jess’s stomach was churning and sweat had broken out on his brow. He still worried over what reception he would receive, but that jostled with new worries.

What if the Wanderer was wrong and the journey didn’t finish? Could he be stuck in this exotic tunnel through space for days? Months? Years? Even if he did eventually get clear, he could be a lifetime’s flight away from any human worlds even without jump space disruption preventing a straight flight.

The idea that the tunnel would be ending soon scared him almost as much. He had no idea how the tunnel would end, or if the Wanderer would be able to survive. At the entrance space itself had been dragged into the tunnel. It almost seemed to be the tunnel. But at the other end space within the tunnel would be pouring out into an existing area of space. What forces might be unleashed? Would space itself buckle and fracture?

He’d find out soon enough. The Wanderer was at least in much better shape than before, though nowhere near fully repaired. Thrusters, shields and jump drives were partly operational. The ship could manoeuvre, take some damage and even jump to safety.

The sharp spike of an alert ran through Jess’s mind. The Wanderer had spotted something. Jess focused in on the area of concern.

The tunnel! Its walls were starting to flex and buckle. Not enough to endanger the Wanderer yet, but it couldn’t be a good sign. Then the Wanderer detected something ahead. An area of space that was moving slowly closer rather than keeping pace with the Wanderer.

The patch of still space suddenly leapt towards the Wanderer. Before Jess knew it the Wanderer was being tossed around like a cork in rough seas. Several structural warnings competed for his attention. Other, more minor, warnings were queueing up behind them.

The ship lurched again as its front end was shoved to the side. Now the Wanderer was travelling sideways. Jess tried to correct but the thrusters were having no effect. They were firing, but something about the environment of the tunnel was neutralising them.

Jess was thrown against his straps as the Wanderer crashed into something. Alarms screamed for his attention at the massive deceleration. What had they hit? There was nothing around as far as the Wanderer’s sensors could tell.

Jess shouted out as another massive blow struck the Wanderer. More alarms came on. Mostly stress overload warnings from within the ship. Jess checked again but there was still nothing to be found.

Another thought sent ice down his spine. The Wanderer was being slowed down. Could it end up being stranded within the tunnel forever? Or until the tunnel collapsed, crushing the Wanderer?

He checked the Wanderer’s speed against the surrounding walls. To his surprise the walls seemed to be holding still. The Wanderer was travelling at the same speed they were. Was that a good thing, though? Or could it mean the tunnel was about to collapse, taking Jess and the Wanderer with it?

He checked the distance to what seemed to be the end of the tunnel. It looked close now, but it was no longer drawing closer. The Wanderer was stranded. Jess poured power into the thrusters again, focusing on trying to move at all rather than straightening the ship. It still had no effect.

Jess was getting desperate. He could only think of one other thing to try. The jump engines. He wasn’t sure they’d even work in this strange place, or what would happen if they did.

Even as he had the thought he felt the Wanderer urging him not to fire up the engines. The ship was convinced it would be a bad idea. Jess wasn’t so certain. Things were desperate. He needed to try something drastic.

Wham. The Wanderer shook as something struck it once more. Jess hardly noticed. He was studying the oncoming patch of normal space in disbelief. One moment it had been close but not that close. The next it was much closer, seeming almost close enough to touch.

Jess checked the recent sensor logs, focusing on how far away the patch of real space seemed. Sure enough, every time the Wanderer experienced crushing deceleration the patch of real space had leapt closer. It was completely counter-intuitive, but it was clearly happening.

Crash! This was the worst so far. The Wanderer picked up a tumbling spin and Jess fought hard to get the ship back under control. It was only as he stabilised the Wanderer that he realised what was wrong with that. The Wanderer’s thrusters had made no difference at all before. Now they worked perfectly!

Jess checked for the tunnel’s walls. He was shocked to find they were gone. The Wanderer had returned to real space. He caught a slight disruption in space behind the Wanderer. He could only tell it was the end point of the tunnel because he knew what to look for.

Then realisation struck him. He had arrived at the Wanderer’s home! He reached out with the ship’s sensors, wanting to drink in every facet of the system. Finally he would know.

The information started to be collated and Jess scanned through it with increasing urgency. Weight settled on his chest, making it hard to breathe. He couldn’t believe what the sensors were showing, or rather what they weren’t showing. Other than the star there was nothing in the system. No planets. No asteroid belts. No stations. No ships. Nothing.

He shook his head in denial. It couldn’t be true. Everything he’d been through, the pain and heartache, the friends he had lost on the way, all of it had been for nothing. All of that so he could reach this empty system. Jess slumped in his chair, head held in his hands, too numb to react. Overwhelmed by the turn of events.

Chapter 3

What do you mean, gone? Admiral Vorn’s voice was icily calm but anger churned in his chest. The junior officer trying not to cower in front of him was simply the messenger, but Vorn had been known to shoot the bringer of bad news. Or worse.

"Sir, they weren’t with us when we last exited jump space. With the rush to attack the Wanderer and then to follow it into the wormhole their absence was not noticed."

Not noticed? Vorn’s voice became quieter, even more dangerous. Two ships disappear, a frigate and a Banshee no less, and they were not noticed? For more than an hour?

Sir, at first we thought they had been destroyed by the wormhole. Several of our ships have fallen to that fate. It was only when I ordered a check of their last contact that we…

"You ordered?"

The officer froze for a moment, realising he had just made himself a prime target for the Admiral’s anger. With a deep breath he pulled himself together. There was little he could do now. If his death was certain then he would face it head on.

Yes, Sir. Once I became aware of the situation I thought it best to check when we had last been in contact. Everything appeared normal until the last entry into jump space. According to the sensor logs from the rest of the fleet those two ships did not enter jump space, or they entered after the rest of the fleet had jumped. Either way, they did not arrive at our destination.

The officer fell silent. Around him the bridge crew were working as quietly as possible, trying to make it clear they were in no way eavesdropping. Even the Starslayer’s captain had found an urgent task some way away from the admiral.

Vorn thought over what he had heard. One of the disadvantages of jump space was the inability to communicate between ships, or even detect other ships, while travelling it. Commanding a fleet under those circumstances was challenging to say the least.

Luckily a ship leaving jump space left a distinctive scar on the surface of space which was visible for several days after. Without that ships would always have to continue to their planned destination in order to regroup.

Vorn’s ship, the Starslayer, was always first into jump. If it exited unexpectedly then the other ships would see the scars on space and follow suit. That was the idea, at least. It wasn’t impossible that a ship could overshoot for some reason.

If just one ship was missing then Vorn might suspect that was what had happened. Or that they had suffered a jump drive failure which left them stranded at the last real space location. But two ships? And both failing to enter jump space until after the others had? That was stretching coincidence much too far.

One of the ships, the frigate Shogan, had contained a prisoner. Not just any prisoner — one from the elusive Wanderer. Vorn had considered bringing the prisoner aboard the Starslayer but decided against it.

The chances of the prisoner being one of the Tainted seemed very low as the Wanderer had only entered the Northern Sector, and so Tainted space, just ahead of the Starslayer. But the Wanderer had done many impossible things already. Vorn had not been willing to risk his flagship and himself.

Had that been a mistake? No, he thought not. The Starslayer was massively bigger than the Shogan, with security forces who should have been able to contain any threat, but even so it might have fallen.

Should he have waited in normal space and had the prisoner interrogated? Again the answer was no. Had he done so then the Wanderer would have escaped into the wormhole before his fleet arrived. Even had it still been in existence, he would not have been certain that the Wanderer had entered.

Still, the loss of the two ships should have been brought to his attention sooner. As soon as they failed to arrive. That was a major failing, and one for which someone needed to pay.

I expect better from my officers, Vorn said, voice still showing no emotion.

Something flickered across the officer’s face — possibly fear. It was gone in a moment, replaced by a carefully neutral expression.

This failure directly impacted my ability to plan, Vorn continued. That is unacceptable. The penalty is death.

The officer paled but showed no other reaction. He nodded sharply to show he had understood.

Vorn let a slight smile show. Not yours. You showed initiative in tracking down where and when the ships disappeared, and bravery in bringing this to me yourself. You could have passed it on to the captain.

Vorn’s eyes narrowed and he spoke again. The same cannot be said for the officer who should have been monitoring the other ships. They not only failed to spot the problem when it began, they failed to show initiative in hunting down the time it happened. Their delay could have cost us dearly. It may still have done. The sentence is death by slow depressurisation, to be carried out immediately.

The officer swallowed then saluted. Yes Admiral. I will see to it immediately.

Dismissed.

The officer scuttled away, no doubt relieved at keeping his own life but upset at the punishment he had to inflict. Vorn knew he wouldn’t hesitate, though. Death by slow depressurisation was a nasty way to die, but Vorn had far worse punishments lined up for those who disobeyed a direct order.

Vorn sat back, frustrated but not letting it show. The loss of a frigate was irritating but no more. The loss of a Banshee was a much bigger issue. The Banshees had not been allowed into the Northern Sector, to keep them out of the hands of the Taint.

Vorn had flouted that rule, deciding his need for the Banshees to capture the Wanderer was more important. If he didn’t capture the Wanderer then he already had no hope of returning to the Southern Sector other than as a prisoner, so one more black mark had seemed unimportant.

Now, though, he had lost one of the Banshees, and in a way which was suspiciously similar to how the Tainted were known to operate. Even if it hadn’t fallen to the Tainted yet it could still happen in the future. And if that happened then the Taint could easily bypass the Quarantine Zone. Once through the entire Southern Sector would be at risk.

Vorn told himself it would only bring forward the inevitable. Impressive though the Quarantine Zone was, it couldn’t hold the Taint out forever. Many layers of its defence had already been overwhelmed. His fleet had passed an immense battle as the Imperial forces tried to hold back the Tainted, one they were sure to lose sooner or later.

As would the defensive layers behind them. He had seen everything that was known about the Taint. Its strength grew exponentially wherever there were humans, spreading like a plague. Absorbing all those it came across and turning them to its purpose.

Shoving those thoughts aside Vorn focused on the future. His fleet was still in pursuit of the Wanderer, travelling in an unprecedented manner. The scientists amongst the fleet were studying the wormhole frantically but had no idea how it was formed, where it led or, more importantly, how long it would last.

The only certain thing was that the Wanderer was ahead of them. During his first encounter with the Wanderer Vorn had used one of the rare devices entrusted to him to place a mark upon the Wanderer. The mark was invisible and could only be detected using the related device, but that device could track the mark — and so the Wanderer — anywhere within normal or jump space. And, apparently, through a wormhole too.

The long chase and the many near misses were starting to take their toll on Vorn. So many times he’d been certain the Wanderer was caught, only to see it slip away — often doing something he had thought impossible until that point. He was starting to doubt that they would ever be able to bring the Wanderer to heel.

He had even considered ending the chase, but that wasn’t really an option. Returning to the Southern Sector, where his crew had their friends and families, wasn’t possible unless he had the Wanderer. If he ended the chase then pressure to return would build. If they returned it was likely the entire fleet would be destroyed and the crews all killed to prevent any risk of the Taint passing through.

All fleets operating within the Northern Sector had procedures in place to validate they had not fallen to the Taint, that they had not even had any risk of doing so. Just one more thing Vorn had chosen to ignore in his pursuit of the Wanderer.

Returning was out of the question, but even the iron discipline Vorn demanded would start to break down once the crew realised they would not be returning home at the end of the mission, or possibly ever.

So the pursuit would have to continue. Vorn would have to act as if he expected the Wanderer to be caught, no matter what his views actually were. And he would use whatever means were necessary to maintain discipline.

Chapter 4

Jess stared at the empty system, feeling hollow inside. He couldn’t believe that after everything they’d been through there was nothing to find. He slumped in his chair, fighting against tears. Ali had been lost, maybe destroyed, for this?

The Wanderer nudged his mind. It seemed excited about something. Jess resisted, not wanting to be distracted from his gloom. The Wanderer nudged him again. Then again. Reluctantly Jess opened his mind to find out what had the ship so excited.

An image formed in Jess’s mind. An image that washed all the gloom away. There was another step to the journey. One that required the jump engines. The Wanderer’s homeworld wasn’t in real space. It was somewhere beyond.

Excitement flowed through Jess as he told the Wanderer to go ahead. The jump engines leapt into life, wrenching the Wanderer out of normal space… but not into jump space. Not as Jess knew it, anyway.

Through his connection with the Wanderer Jess knew the jump engines well. He’d felt them in every state from normal operation to desperately clawing for extra traction, but he’d never felt them like this. They were groaning with stress, struggling for grip on something that was neither real space nor jump space. In places space around the ship felt like glass. Slippery and smooth, impossible to grip. In others it was more like a craggy cliff face, offering so much grip the engines were spoilt for choice. And there was no way to distinguish between the two until the engines grabbed on.

The Wanderer slammed to the left as space on the right suddenly shifted from craggy to smooth. Jess’s curse died on his lips as something emerged from the mists ahead. Something immense. Something the Wanderer was heading straight for.

His first impression was of a wall, a wall where there should be nothing. A wall the Wanderer was rushing towards. Jess lost precious moments staring in shock before the danger they were in dawned on him. If the wall was solid, as it appeared to be, then the Wanderer would be smashed apart when it struck.

Jess queried the Wanderer, asking whether they could safely drop back out of jump space… or wherever they were. The Wanderer’s answer was clear and concise. No. Not without destroying the ship. The space they travelled through wasn’t like jump space. There was no easy way back to real space. They needed to reach where they were aiming for… or die trying.

The jump engines strained again, pushing the ship back towards the right. The Wanderer highlighted a tiny area of the wall, drawing Jess’s attention to it. There was something there. A patch of deeper darkness in the dark grey coloured wall. The Wanderer was straining to reach it, and straining was the right word. Every time the ship got somewhere near to heading in the right direction the jump engines would struggle for grip once more and the Wanderer would be sent careering away, heading for an unbroken section of the wall.

The jump engines were more than groaning now. Some were operating at their safe limits already. Many were showing signs of the exertion. At this rate they would start dropping out, and with them any hope of reaching safety. Assuming the target they were trying to hit did offer safety.

Jess focused hard, joining with the Wanderer and trying to decide on the best course of action. The Wanderer thought they were only two or three minutes away from colliding with the wall, but it was impossible to be sure. There was no sense of scale, nothing to tell him how close the ship was to the wall. The Wanderer was estimating two or three minutes and that was the best he was going to get.

The first thing he did was to shut down several of the jump engines, allowing them a chance to recover and arranging immediate replacement of some damaged parts for two of them. The Wanderer resisted his commands for a moment before capitulating unhappily.

With fewer engines available the Wanderer was struggling even more with keeping on course. Jess threw himself into the fight, adding a layer of intuition the Wanderer lacked. Where the ship was reacting to one incident at a time, and even then slower than was needed, Jess pulled back a little. He tried to sense all of space surrounding them. He diverted a few jump engines to testing space around them, mapping it out.

The Wanderer expressed its concerns once more. With the additional engines out of action the ship was drifting further and further away from the safe course. Over the next few seconds things continued to deteriorate, then they stabilised. While not back on course yet, they were at least not drifting any further away.

Then, almost imperceptibly at first, the ship started to move closer to the correct course. Jess shut down even more engines, flagging them for immediate repair, but the ship kept getting closer to the correct course.

Jess allowed himself a brief smile of achievement, not letting up one bit. Things were better, but not good enough. If the Wanderer’s estimates for distance were right then the target they were aiming for was only about five times wider than the ship. Tricky enough normally, but disastrous now. Whenever a lack of grip sent the Wanderer swinging off course the deviation was tens or hundreds of times the width of the ship. Assuming space was as difficult to travel close to the entrance, the Wanderer stood very little chance of hitting its target.

They were pretty much back on track, but they spent more time being flung off course and recovering than actually heading in the right direction. Jess continued to bring down jump engines. With only thirty seconds to go, assuming the estimates were correct, he’d shut down nearly half of the jump engines. The Wanderer kept pushing him to restart some, or all, of them. He kept refusing. He did at least stop shutting down any more.

With twenty seconds to go they were actually heading in the right direction. Space surrounding them had settled down over the past few seconds. The ship no longer encountered the glassy slickness. Maybe, just maybe, they’d braved the worst of it.

At fifteen seconds to go Jess was starting to feel optimistic. In some way they were sheltered from the effects they’d faced before. The closer they got to the dark tunnel the easier the journey.

At twelve seconds he was proven wrong. A massive loss of traction by the jump engines sent the Wanderer not only careening to the right but shoved the ship into a spin. They weren’t sheltered where they were. They weren’t safe. And now they weren’t going to make it.

It was now or never. Jess activated all the jump engines he had powered down before. Some had been patched up. Most had simply been given the chance to rest, a move designed to stop them failing as there was no time to repair anything more.

Several engines blew completely, buckling under the strain. Many of the others were struggling badly, but they held. For now.

Jess felt the Wanderer start to slide back to the required course. It was going to be tight. Too tight! If he didn’t pull off a miracle the ship was going to be destroyed. The engines just weren’t moving the Wanderer fast enough for it to get into position and stop the sideways momentum.

The answer was obvious… and exceedingly dangerous. He could get the ship on course in time, but he couldn’t stop it from overshooting after they entered the tunnel. Still, hitting the tunnel side on sounded a whole lot better than smashing head on into the wall at such massive speeds.

Jess stopped worrying about stopping the sideways movement and instead focused solely on ensuring the Wanderer would make it into the tunnel in the first place. He’d worry about what happened then when the time arrived.

As the seconds ticked down Jess wrestled with getting the Wanderer back on course for the opening. It continued to suffer losses of traction repeatedly. Sometimes they shoved the Wanderer further off course. Other times they worked in Jess’s favour, pushing the ship in the direction he wanted.

With only a second left Jess couldn’t tell whether they would make it. Several more jump engines were on the verge of failing from the strain. A sudden loss of traction sent the Wanderer skidding off to the side, before Jess could even respond the patch had passed and the Wanderer was moving in the right direction once more.

The wall was rushing closer and the angle to the opening was increasing all the time. They weren’t going to make it. In desperation, Jess threw more power at the jump engines. Several blew under the strain but not before they had given the Wanderer a boost, and the rest continued to operate above their safe levels.

Even with his mind accelerated Jess couldn’t tell if it was enough. The wall rushed towards them even as the Wanderer tried to reach the entrance. The distance to the wall was crashing down towards zero. Jess watched, unable to do anything more than he already was.

They hit the wall with a huge crash. Jess was crushed in his seat as the Wanderer bucked and span. It took him a few moments to realise the ship was still around him. Still in one piece, at least where he sat. Jess studied the ship, trying to work out what had happened.

He chuckled slightly when he worked it out. The Wanderer hadn’t hit the wall. Its shields had. The ship’s hull had reached the gap with only a few metres to spare. It had been enough, but just barely. Jess checked the ship over. Some of the shield generators had taken a battering but the hull was intact and there were no other dangerous indications.

The Wanderer reached out to Jess. He could sense the urgency it was sending. Jess cursed. They were already over halfway towards the tunnel’s wall and closing fast. Fast enough to do some serious damage.

Jess threw energy into the jump engines, trying to stop the ship’s sideways movement. It wasn’t going to be enough. Even with the engines straining at maximum they were still going to hit, and hit hard.

As the tunnels side loomed closer Jess desperately tried to find something, anything, that he could do. There was nothing. In fact he made things slightly worse, burning out several jump engines when he tried to force more power through them.

Even with his mind accelerated the side of the tunnel was rushing towards them. Jess wasn’t sure the Wanderer could even survive the collision. It would definitely be badly damaged, possibly too badly to support life. Belatedly Jess realised he should have had the ship create him a survival suit in case of a hull breach. Too late now.

At the last moment Jess’s body took over, forcing his eyes shut and making him tense against the impact. It made no difference. He still saw everything through the ships sensors. The tunnel’s wall looming over the ship. The distance indicator racing down to zero. The sudden change in the ship as energy was routed from the engines to the shields. Then everything went black as the Wanderer struck the tunnel wall.

Jess could feel his heart hammering in his chest. His hands still clung to the arms of his chair and his stomach was in knots. His body was prepared for the impact with the tunnel wall. An impact that he hadn’t felt. Had he passed out?

He checked with the Wanderer. No, he hadn’t. There hadn’t been any collision. What happened? The Wanderer seemed almost as confused as Jess. The ship had shot straight through the tunnel wall as if it wasn’t there, even though it had been reading as solid on the sensors.

Now the Wanderer was outside of the tunnel, drifting through a featureless blackness like none he had ever seen. The only thing visible was the tunnel, but now he was seeing it from the outside.

Jess marvelled at the shimmering tube which stretched forwards and backwards for as far as the sensors could reach. Had they travelled that far from the tunnel’s entrance? Jess didn’t think so. But then nothing he saw made any sense.

Jess fired up the jump engines again, not wanting to drift too far from the tunnel. Alarm immediately flooded into him from the Wanderer. Most of the engines couldn’t get any traction. This wasn’t like before, where the surface of jump space was there but too smooth to offer a grip. Now there was nothing. No surface. No possible traction.

No. Not quite. A few of the engines were still finding traction. Jess checked them quickly. The tunnel! The engines could get a purchase within the tunnel. Jess had as many of the jump engines as possible stretch out to space within the tunnel. The difference was clear immediately as the Wanderer’s movement away from the tunnel began to slow.

It wasn’t enough. The Wanderer slowed but it was