Eighty-nine minutes. Only b****y mindedness kept Jess waiting. He’d expected leaving after ninety minutes would be difficult. In fact not leaving sooner had been the real challenge.
He was certain they were achieving nothing now. The instructions had been garbled, or they were hopelessly out of date. Either way, nothing was going to happen. He watched the final few seconds tick down. Then he let the engines run for another thirty seconds, just in case. Still nothing happened. There was no temptation to continue any longer. With a deep sigh Jess sent the command to shut down the jump engines.
Nothing happened. The engines kept running, kept pouring energy into jump space. Jess sent the order to shut them down again. And again. Still no response. He queried the Wanderer, won
