The gap between defensive layers was larger than before. This time it was almost seven minutes before Jess felt jump space around them becoming thick and heavy. Accelerating his mind as far as possible he started fighting to keep the Wanderer from returning to normal space.
Time and again he found a point of traction for the jump engines, only to have it disappear almost immediately. The jump drives groaned under the strain but kept on fighting. Finally, after eight seconds, there was simply nothing left that the jump engines could grab onto. The Wanderer crashed back into real space.
Studying the displays Jess wondered if he was seeing what he expected now and somehow missing what was really there. He wasn’t. The Imperial forces were arranged in the now familiar pattern, well beh
