Wanderer - Echoes of the Past Read online

  “Sal, please don’t move!” he shouted.

  Something about his tone, about the horror and worry in it, reached Sal. She froze for a moment, eyes locked on his.

  “Why?” she asked, a quiver in her voice. Clearly she’d realised that something was wrong.

  “Hackett spiked you with a wasp. Did you feel a sharp pain?”

  She nodded, still holding his gaze.

  “That was the device deploying within your body. At its core is a small but very powerful explosive. If it goes off you’ll be dead. Anyone standing within a couple of feet of you too. Anyone much further away should be safe — it’s designed that way to protect whoever deployed it.

  There are two parts to the wasp. The main part, the payload, deploys in the victim. Then there’s the activation pad. That’s what Hackett is holding. If it is moved more than a fingers width away from the payload for more than a second then the payload explodes. That whistling you heard is the warning that it’s preparing to activate. Please… just stay still until I sort this out. OK?”

  Sal nodded again, but Dash could see the fear in her eyes. Wasp’s were a particularly nasty weapon. Dash hadn’t even known Hackett had brought one.

  He turned towards Hackett, trying to keep his anger under control.

  “Hackett, stand down now. Deactivate the wasp. I told you to wait for my order, and I will not give that order.”

  “What a surprise,” sneered Hackett. “Cover him!”

  Two of the armour suited men snapped their weapons up, aiming them squarely at Dash. He stared at them for a few moments, shocked at the sudden betrayal.

  “Really captain Dash, you’re becoming too predictable. You try to avoid selling slaves we capture. If you have to sell them you take offers far below what you could get elsewhere out of concern for where the slaves end up. Then you see a ship nobly releasing prisoners. As if you were ever going to let us assault it.”

  Dash glanced around, checking everyone’s positions. Jess remained where he’d started, as did the two women with him — one young and one old. Hackett and the two men covering Dash stayed put, but the others dumped the unconscious prisoners onto the floor and spread out, raising their weapons to cover the Wanderer’s crew.

  “I don’t understand,” Dash said. He feared he did, but he wanted to keep Hackett talking.

  “What’s to understand? You’re the great captain Dash, the fearless and merciless — where your enemies are concerned anyway. Leader of the organisation because of how tough you are, and how loyal those below you are.

  Except that’s all lies of course. I learnt that as soon as I started working directly for you. Those who were most loyal to you owed you loyalty from long before your days of piracy. They were men and women who once called you commander. They followed you because you had held them together and carved out a new life for them after deserting from the Empire.

  As to being tough and ruthless? Maybe with your most obvious enemies, but so often you take the soft option. Sparing innocent lives, as if anyone is truly innocent in this hellhole of a life. Freeing slaves, or selling them cheaply to secure a brighter future for them.

  Others have noticed too. Slowly doubts about your leadership have been building. Since Dozer died those doubts have become certainties.”

  Dash winced inside at the mention of Dozer. He was starting to realise that he’d been looking for someone to fill the hole Dozer had left, and had unconsciously given the same trust to Hackett as he had to his dead friend. Trust that had clearly been misplaced.

  “Lucky for me,” Hackett continued. “I was in the right place at the right time. But, like all luck, it came from careful planning. You shouldn’t have let me hand pick the crew Dash. Needless to say every one of them shares my concerns about you.

  Now, we are going to take this ship and if you’re very lucky you’ll end up as a slave. Though we’ll be selling you to the highest bidder, naturally. Our organisation is here to secure money and power, not to make slaves comfortable.”

  “You’ll tell everyone that something unpleasant happened to me?” Dash asked.

  “Of course. Something suitably heroic of course.”

  “And you’ll just slip in and take power?”

  Hackett laughed. “Of course not. I’m not stupid enough to expect that. I will get a powerful position though. And that was before we had the Wanderer. Maybe with this ship I truly can take over from you.”

  “It won’t work,” Jess said. “The Wanderer will only obey my commands.”

  “I think we have enough hostages here to ensure your good behaviour. Starting, of course, with Sal here.”

  “Anything within a couple of feet dies?” Sal asked suddenly. “That’s what you said, isn’t it?”

  Dash stared into her eyes, seeing that fear had been replaced by anger and determination. Dash realised she meant to try and take Hackett with her.

  “No Sal!” he shouted. “He isn’t worth it! There must be another way.”

  Hackett, alerted to the danger, grabbed Sal in a tighter grip.

  “Oh no… I don’t think so,” he said.

  “I won’t let her face this alone,” Dash said.

  He started to walk slowly towards Sal. The two men covering him tensed, but Hackett shook his head. Dash reached Sal and stood close, reaching for her hands. She gripped his in return. Outwardly she still seemed completely calm, but now Dash was close enough to hear her rapid breathing and to feel the tremor in her hands.

  “I won’t leave you,” he promised.

  “Sweet,” Hackett said. “But pointless. Secure the others.”

  The men started to move, then froze in place.

  “What the hell is that?” Hackett asked, staring further into the Wanderer.

  Dash turned to look, and felt his heart jump in his chest. As Hackett said… what the hell was that?

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Jess stood, outwardly calm but in turmoil inside. The Wanderer’s scans had confirmed that something explosive had been lodged in Sal’s back. It couldn’t estimate how powerful it was, but any explosion there would be fatal for Sal.

  The scans indicated there was some form of energy flow between the explosive and the device in Hackett’s hand, but the communication seemed to be encrypted. The Wanderer couldn’t break that encryption without risking Sal’s life.

  Jess was linked to the ship and accelerating his thoughts, of course, but that didn’t help. He could think faster but he couldn’t move faster. One of the robots was concealed in a false wall within the docking bay, but even it couldn’t move quickly enough to do anything other than avenge Sal’s death.

  Jess had considered using the Wanderer’s internal fields to somehow isolate the device, cutting it free from Sal, but had to rule it out. The damage done to Sal would probably be fatal and he had no idea whether the fields could withstand the explosion if the device activated.

  One part of his mind was analysing the situation, the interplay between Hackett and Dash. Jess was pretty certain it was for real. If it was a charade then Jess couldn’t see what Dash could gain by it, particularly by placing himself in danger by standing next to Sal.

  Jess was very aware of Ali standing near him, horribly exposed if the invaders opened fire. The internal fields should keep her safe, and Elizabeth too, but Jess was worried about what other weapons might be brought to bear.

  There was one possibility that Jess could see, but it was extremely tricky and the angles were completely wrong. Maybe if Hackett moved in the right way… but he showed no signs of doing so.

  Jess continued to watch and plan. He slowed his thoughts somewhat, enough that everyone around him seemed to move in slow motion rather than being almost frozen in place.

  “I won’t leave you,” Dash told Sal.

  “Sweet,” Hackett said. “But pointless. Secure the others.”

  His men started to move, then stopped dead.

  “What the hell is that?” Hackett asked, staring past Jess.<
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  Jess quickly stretched out with the Wanderer’s senses, wondering just what had startled the attackers so much. To his surprise, and amusement, he realised it was Teeko. No wonder the attackers were shocked.

  Jess hadn’t registered Teeko’s approach as he now considered the alien just one more of the Wanderer’s crew. Seeing the alien out of its room was a surprise, but then Jess saw what the alien had on its back. He could only stare in disbelief. Riding on Teeko’s back, hanging onto the alien’s fur, was Ben — the young slave who had lost his mother.

  That was impossible though. There was no way to get from the cargo hold to the living quarters. Well, none other than going outside the ship, and Jess would certainly have known if any airlocks had been opened.

  “Teeko… what… how… how is Ben with you?”

  “Alone Ben friend was. Alone Teeko was. Ben friend Teeko heard. Ben friend Teeko to went. Ben friend here is. Ben friend alone not. Teeko alone not.”

  Jess stared at the alien for a few more moments before his mind was dragged back to the current situation.

  “Tell me what the hell that is right now or we blow it to kingdom come!” Hackett screamed.

  Teeko, realising that it was suddenly the target of several guns, grabbed Ben tightly and vanished. Teeko’s unusual ability also hid Ben from view. Jess, using the Wanderer’s sensors, saw Teeko leaping sideways into the shelter of a corridor. As he started to breath a sigh of relief he became aware of a whistling sound coming from Sal.

  Jess stared horrified at Hackett’s hand which was now several inches away from Sal — far more than was necessary to activate the wasp. The whistling from the device had reached a fever pitch. Jess estimated that she had no more than three-quarters of a second and ramped his thoughts back to their fastest.

  It was useless. He already had the robot moving, smashing it through the panel, but it wouldn’t reach Hackett and Sal for at least another two seconds. It would be far too late.

  With Hackett’s hand so far from Sal already the last-ditch idea he’d been saving couldn’t work either.

  I’m so sorry, Jess sent to Sal. He didn’t think her thoughts were accelerated, didn’t think she’d get more than the start of the message before the wasp exploded, but he had to do it.

  Thinking so quickly caused him to miss Dash’s movement to begin with, but finally he realised that Dash was in motion. Jess expected to see Dash flinging himself backwards, getting clear of danger, but instead he was moving forward.

  As fractions of a second moved past agonisingly slowly Jess watched Dash grab for Hackett’s hand. Unable to stand the tension he allowed his thoughts to slow again.

  Now Dash was visibly moving to Jess, though still slowly. He caught Hackett’s hand and shoved it towards Sal, using his own body to keep it moving. Jess realised that Dash was going to crash into Sal, probably dragging her to the floor. Even if he got Hackett’s hand in place before that happened the odds of keeping it in the right place as the three of them tumbled to the floor were almost non-existent.

  That was if they even got to that point. By Jess’s reckoning the wasp was due to go off at any moment. While Hackett’s hand was being forced back towards it the wasp was still shrieking away.

  Jess tensed, feeling sick inside, as he waited for the explosion. He was tempted to slow his thoughts to normal so the inevitable explosion happened from one heartbeat to the next, but that felt too much like abandoning Sal.

  The whistling started to drop in pitch. To Jess it seemed like a long ten seconds before he could be sure, though to the others it would have been nearly instantaneous. He felt hope flare in his chest, only to be replaced by fear of what would happen as they tumbled to the floor.

  Dash crashed into Sal, starting to drag her down. Hackett’s hand was still trapped in Dash’s grasp so his arm was pulled downwards as he fought to stay upright.

  Jess felt hope flare once more. Could it be? Yes! Hackett’s movement had placed him in the right position. Without hesitating Jess activated the Wanderer’s fields in a precise arrangement, severing Hackett’s hand at the wrist.

  Dash and Sal continued to fall towards the floor, but now Dash had a firm hold on Hackett’s severed hand, and so on the activation pad for the wasp. There was at least a reasonable chance of him keeping it close enough to the wasp to prevent an explosion.

  Hackett, however, was not doing so well. Setting the fields to cauterise the wound, to prevent any bleeding, was a simple matter. Jess had deliberately not done so. Hackett’s severed wrist was pumping out blood under arterial pressure. His eyes widened and he let out a blood curdling scream. Jess closed his heart to it. Hackett deserved that and so much more for what he’d done to Sal.

  Hearing Hackett’s scream the men in armour opened fire. Several sprayed the area which Teeko had recently vacated. Others fired towards Jess, Ali and Elizabeth. The fields contained the weapons fire easily, bullets transforming into brief flashes of energy.

  Run! Jess sent to Ali. Get to cover.

  He had the robot open fire, unleashing its weapons against one of the defenders. The man was staggered but remained standing, turning his fire on the robot whose shields easily absorbed the damage.

  Jess sent the robot charging forwards, still firing, to see if physical force would work against the suit. The robot crashed into the man, denting the armour and dumping him on the ground but not finishing him off.

  The other attackers, realising their weapons were having no impact, pulled out heavy looking pistols. The first fired towards Jess who watched in slow motion as the strangely glittering slug sliced through the fields as if they weren’t there. Slugs from two other guns flew towards Jess too.

  Realising that the shield his implant provided would probably offer no help either Jess threw himself down and to the side, overriding his body’s natural restraints and tearing muscles and ligaments.

  He managed to dodge one slug. The others failed to strike in vital areas, as they had been aimed, but they still struck. One punched through his left arm just above the elbow, the other through his hip. Even before the pain could hit Jess used his implants to block it out. He felt himself being spun from the impacts but ignored that too.

  Closing his eyes he activated the experimental defences he’d had the Wanderer prepare, closely watching the attackers at the same time. The unstoppable pistols seemed to have a long reload time, those who had fired were waiting for them to cycle, but others were raising their still primed weapons. Not all were aimed at Jess either, two were aiming towards Ali.

  Jess activated the defensive lasers, targeting one of the two men aiming for Ali. The man rocked back, armour flickering as it tried to repel the huge blast of energy. Jess kept the ship’s internal fields up to protect Ali and the others from the energy being unleashed. Armour starting to melt in places the man stumbled back further, knocking into the second man trying to target Ali and causing his shot to go wide.

  Another attacker had almost drawn a bead on Jess. Jess diverted one of the lasers, targeting the man’s helmet and hoping to blind him. It didn’t work. The helmet immediately darkened and another slug flew towards Jess.

  This time it was less accurate. Jess’s tumbling form made for a difficult target. The slug scored a line down his cheek but otherwise caused no damage.

  The Wanderer’s lasers finally overwhelmed their target’s armour, breaking through and destroying the man within in a moment. The robot’s power had won out in its battle too. It had managed to wrench its opponents head hard enough to break his neck, even through the armour.

  It wasn’t nearly enough. Only two attackers in armour were down, seven more remained. Several were almost in a position to fire on Ali and Jess. Jess had hit the ground, he would make a much easier target now, and Ali had only started to turn and run. They were both dead unless Jess did something drastic.

  Jess still hesitated. He had one experimental defence left. It truly was experimental though, something he hadn’t had any chance to t
est. If it worked it would save them. If it went wrong it could easily destroy the Wanderer, killing everyone on board. Not just Jess and the others, not just their attackers. Everyone on board. Every one of the slaves they had freed.

  Jess made his choice. Clenching his eyes shut and hoping against all hope that it would work he used the Wanderer to run the exquisitely complicated calculations involved. As soon as they were done he activated the special weapons.

  Seven weapons fired. Seven attackers collapsed to the floor. Or those bits of them that were left did. The weapons were based on jump technology. When they activated anything within their field was thrown into jump space — in this case significant chunks of their targets bodies.

  Much to Jess’s relief these wounds had been cauterised, preventing what remained of the attackers oozing out of the gaping holes in their armour.

  Jess had far more important things to worry about though. He desperately ran structural checks of the Wanderer. Getting the weapons to work wasn’t the problem. Getting them to stop was. Keeping the field to a very localised area, and not having it fade in and out in a direct line through the ship.

  The immediate area of the Wanderer had suffered no damage but that proved nothing. Jess ran checks across the entire ship. In theory any damage would be in a direct line, but with jump technology who could tell. To his relief everything came back clear.

  Jess pulled in a deep breath. They’d done it. They’d survived. He still had to save Sal, and Hackett was sat white faced and clutching his severed wrist trying to stem the bleeding, but Jess was confident the Wanderer could deal with both. He had the robot restrain Hackett.

  They’d done it! They were safe!

  Alarms flared in Jess’s mind, pumped through from the Wanderer. They were under attack! Jess checked space around them using the Wanderer’s sensors. Had the Shadow Beam decided to open fire? No, it was sitting in space and showing signs of having been attacked too, it’s shields were flickering.

  But there was nothing else around! None of the freighters were close enough to attack, and there were no other ships. Suddenly weapons fire appeared from out of nowhere, crashing into the Shadow Beam and overloading its shields. Moments later more weapons fire appeared from a different, but still empty, patch of space. The Shadow Beam flashed out of existence in a massive explosion.