Even Jess was surprised at just how long it took them to reach the Sevius system. The closer they got the more disrupted jump space became. The Wanderer was forced to make several detours just to get through itself, and far more to find safe paths for normal ships to follow.
Each delay took its toll on Jess. The damage to jump space had been caused by the Wanderer’s creators attempt to destroy the Universe. Jess had stopped that from happening eventually, but damage like this was a reminder of everything he hadn’t been able to prevent.
Finally they found a clear path they could follow for almost an hour, taking them well into the system itself. Any normal ship would require three separate jumps, but the Wanderer was both able to cope with rougher conditions and had the unique ability to change direction within jump space.
Jess, Ali and Clay were on the Wanderer’s flight deck, Jess at the front with the other two next to each other on the seats immediately behind.
“We’ll have to drop out of jump space in a couple of minutes,” he told them. “But we’ll be more than close enough to see the planet. We can edge the Wanderer in closer and work out whether there were any settlements here, and if there are any inhabitants left.”
“If there are they’re probably trapped,” said Clay. “We can give them the safe route out.”
As the two minutes ticked down Jess studied the Wanderer’s sensors harder and harder. Jump space was doing something strange, preventing the Wanderer from picking out any details about the planet. The closer they got the more Jess worried. If the Wanderer could miss something as large as a planet then what else could it miss?
The time ticked down, then the Wanderer dropped back into normal space. Jess stared at the information coming in, shaking his head.
“That can’t be right,” he said.
“Empty space can be interesting,” said Clay. “But I’d rather get a look at the planet.”
“That is the planet. That is, that’s where it should be. It’s not there.”
“Are you sure? It couldn’t be that you have incorrect information?”
“No. I’m sure it’s not. The details I had came from several ships that had actually been there. The planet and its moon should be right there!”
“There’s nothing there at all?”
“Nothing the size of a planet or even a moon. Let me run a more detailed scan. Oh… no… no. It can’t be!”
“What’s wrong Jess,” asked Ali. She put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing slightly.
“There’s… I’d say there are asteroids but it’s massively more than that. There are hundreds of thousands of rocks, millions even, some pretty big but most a lot smaller. Taken together… taken together there’s enough there to account for most of the planet and moon’s mass.”
“What? Something destroyed them?”
“Judging from the distribution the Wanderer thinks they destroyed themselves, that they collided catastrophically.”
“How? How could that suddenly happen?”
Jess swallowed hard, and had to fight to get the next words out. “The destructive waves did it. They disrupted the orbit of the planet and its moon and let them collide with massive force. Nothing could have survived that, and I doubt anyone would have had enough warning to get to a safe distance, even if they had the means to do so.”
“That’s… that’s terrible…” said Ali. “It’s hard to even imagine destruction on that level. The entire Universe being destroyed I could almost get my head around, because it’s one thing, but a whole planet and its moon… it’s too much.”
She didn’t get it. Jess didn’t want to explain, but he couldn’t keep this to himself.
“It’s not just one world, one moon. If this could happen here then how many other planets must it have happened to? Maybe planets were even forced out of orbit and crashed into their suns. How many billions upon billions of planets are there in the Universe? How many of them did this happen to? Even if it was only a very small percentage it’s still an unthinkably high number.”
Ali’s hand tightened on his shoulder.
“Jess, that isn’t your fault. You stopped it, you didn’t cause it.”
“I stopped it… but was I fast enough? Could I have prevented this happening at all?”
“Of course you could!” said Clay, his voice level, matter of fact. “Just think of all those times you knew exactly what you needed to do but instead you decided to sit around and take a break. All those times you selfishly wandered off because a star had caught your eye and you had to see it. All those times you refused to do what needed to be done.”
“What? I didn’t! That didn’t happen!”
“Exactly!” said Clay. “So how can this possibly be your fault? You stopped something far worse than this happening to every world, every star. More than that, when you saved those worlds you also freed them from the Tyranny of the Taint, or the threat of it. You need to let go of this guilt and understand how much you achieved.”
“I… I don’t know if I can. I see them sometimes. In my dreams. I see them and they judge me.”
“Jess, if you don’t learn to let this go it will destroy you. It will eat you up inside. What happened, happened. None of us can change the past. You need to focus on what you can do.”
“Clay’s right, Jess,” said Ali softly. “I know you feel like so much of this is your fault, but it really isn’t. You have to let go. You saved the Universe and an incredible number of people. Focus on that.”
Jess glanced back at her, forcing a smile onto his face. “You’re right. There’s nothing we can do here, though. We should move on to the next system.”
She smiled back, and his own smile became less fake. Then he turned back, and pushed the Wanderer into jump space. Moments later a huge explosion rocked the Wanderer.
Jess desperately tried to keep the ship stable, his mind and the Wanderer’s locked together. There was no time to determine what had happened, other than that the explosion that had struck the Wanderer was within jump space.
Jess and the Wanderer continued to fight, but jump space was bucking and fluctuating about them. Nothing Jess did could get them to a stable place. Finally, with great reluctance, he let the Wanderer drop out into normal space. He just hoped they’d be able to reach jump space again once the disruption died down.
“What the hell was that?” asked Clay.
“Something’s wrong in jump space,” replied Ali, who had access to all the information Jess did and hadn’t been distracted trying to keep the Wanderer safe. “There was an instability. The Wanderer entering jump space triggered… well, an explosion is the closest description but that’s not really right. It rippled out across a large area before dwindling away.”
“Is it still there? Can we reach jump space?”
“It’s there, but not so severe,” replied Jess. “I think we could get away with entering jump space now. I don’t know whether it’s safe to, though. What if we hit more areas like that?”
“The explosion seemed to be in reaction to the Wanderer’s jump engines disrupting jump space,” said Ali. “As long as the Wanderer doesn’t drop out of jump or change direction it should be fine.”
“We might not have any choice!” said Jess. “Jump space is so messed up in this area, sticking to the same direction might be deadly.”
“I know! But the Wanderer can take a lot, and it should be able to turn much more carefully if we think far enough ahead. That might be enough so that we don’t set anything off.”
“And if we do?”
“Then you get to be a hero again!”
Jess scowled. “Don’t even joke about that!”
“Sorry. The Wanderer can handle this far better than any other ship, though.”
“I suppose so. Clay, what do you think?”
“I think this is way above my head,” replied Clay, then smiled. “I’ll leave flying the Wanderer to you two. If there’s something small out there you need shot up then give me a call.”
Jess bit back on his reply and tried to think things through rationally. He was still badly shaken by the destroyed planet and moon, and the implications of their destruction. It was hard to step back and look at the current situation clearly, but he did his best. Finally he turned in his seat, looking back at Ali.
“You’re sure the Wanderer can handle this?”
She shifted slightly. “Almost. We don’t have enough information to be certain, but I think so.”
“Alright, lets give it a go. We need to think this through, though. If even the Wanderer using its jump engines can trigger an explosion in jump space around here then having an entire fleet dropping out of jump space to change direction then back in is going to be catastrophic.”
“That’s true. What do you have in mind?”
“We already have a route through to this point, and it’s mostly straight. Let’s see if it would be safe for them to continue down that route, even if it they can’t risk dropping out of jump space. Otherwise the route so far is useless to them.”
“Do you think we could get that lucky?”
“We won’t know unless we try.”
“That’s true. Let’s go for it.”
“OK. Hold on tight, then!”
Jess eased the Wanderer into jump space, using as few of the jump engines as possible. Jump space around them rippled and twitched, but there was no repeat of the explosion. Once the Wanderer was in jump space the engines were no longer needed. It coasted along, and jump space settled down… a little. Jess remained tense, constantly monitoring for any signs that another explosion was building.
“Look at this,” Ali said, after they’d been travelling for twenty minutes. “Can you believe it? Every part of jump space we’ve travelled through since entering jump again is so unstable that a slight disturbance would set it off.”
“The Wanderer thinks it’s even worse than that,” said Jess. “In most places if one explosion gets triggered then there’ll be a chain reaction. Jump space over a huge area will flare up. We were damn lucky we didn’t trigger that.” He shivered at the thought.
“Then we make sure we don’t trigger anything!” said Clay. “How much further does this stretch?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” said Jess. “We go find out!”
“We have to turn,” said Jess, worry eating at him. “Jump space ahead is too volatile to enter.”
“It’s also more dangerous here than anywhere else so far,” replied Ali. “If we turn, or even try to return to normal space, then we’re most likely going to be destroyed.”
“If we don’t turn then we’ll definitely be destroyed. We don’t have any choice.”
“OK. Just make it gentle!”
Jess didn’t reply. He was too busy applying the least possible number of jump engines he could to still let them turn. Jump space was fizzing around them as he did so, small, localised explosions triggering, any of which risked starting a devastating reaction.
Whether by skill or blind luck, Jess managed to get the Wanderer turned without any major repercussions. Sweat was running down his back by the time he finished, and even the Wanderer felt weary.
“I think that’s it,” he said.
“Well done,” said Ali. “That was damn smooth flying.” Then she grinned. “You’ve got the job! You can see us out of this patch.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think I want the job!”
“Who said you get a choice?” she asked, leaning forward and kissing his cheek.
Jess pulled the Wanderer out of jump space then slumped in his seat.
“That’s it,” he said. “We’re clear.”
“That took a lot longer than I’d expected,” said Ali. “We’re halfway to the next star system!”
“More like a third of the way,” replied Jess, the Wanderer pushing the information into his tired mind without prompting.
“So did we get what we needed?” asked Clay.
“Not really,” replied Jess. For a moment he said no more, not wanting to face what had happened, then his resolve wavered. “We didn’t get a straight line route. We did find one that would require a course correction in an area of jump space that is more stable, but following it doesn’t lead into the safe route we’d first found. Any ship would need to change direction again at that point, and for any other ship that means dropping out of and back into jump space.
“There’s no way even one normal ship could do that without triggering a cascading explosion. A whole fleet wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Damn it! So all that risk was wasted?”
“Not necessarily,” muttered Jess.
“What do you mean?”
“The path we took could be extended in the other direction. We might be able to find a safe path through.”
“How likely is that?
“How the hell do I know? I don’t know anything about why jump space is like this, about how it formed. Maybe there are strong patterns embedded in it, which will mean there should be a path through. Or maybe it’s purely chaotic and there won’t be any way through in the opposite direction. I just don’t know!”
“We all need a break before we do anything else,” said Ali. “All of us are tired. Jess, you and the Wanderer are exhausted. We’re taking a two hour rest before deciding what to do. I insist!”
Jess just stared at her for long seconds, anger and frustration fighting with amusement and affection. In the end he shook his head ruefully, threw her a sloppy salute which earned him a tap on the back of his head and climbed out of the pilot’s chair.
“I guess it’s time for a rest,” he said. “Who’s for some food?”
“I’m starving,” said Clay. “Lead the way.”
“I could definitely eat,” said Ali. “But no talking shop! This is supposed to be a rest.”
Jess threw her another salute, then darted out the door before she could reach him to repeat the slap around the head. He moved into the living area, already asking the Wanderer to prepare food, and hoping that would be enough to distract Ali from retribution.