Wanderer

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Several hours passed and nothing had changed. Jane was still an empty shell. The prisoners had been left alone. The Limited hadn’t made another appearance but Nova was sure it was only a matter of time until they did.

Nova hadn’t spoken of what happened on the station, of the danger Jane might represent. It wasn’t the worry of what would happen to Jane that stilled her tongue, at least not completely, it was what would happen to her. She’d been on the station too. She’d been attacked by the Taint as well. Would the other prisoners really believe she was free of the Taint? No, they’d kill her too just in case. For the moment Nova was keeping a close eye on Jane but what would happen when she had to sleep?

Karina had spent most of the time sitting in one place, glancing around her and muttering. Now she climbed to her feet and walked towards the wall opposite the door. She ran her hands over the wall, gently feeling from side to side, up and down. She’d worked her way down most of the wall when she suddenly stopped, then her efforts became more frantic. Nova watched sadly, sure the old woman’s mind had finally seen too much.

Nova jumped as a sharp metallic click rang out. The next moment Karina was pulling open a maintenance hatch which had been indistinguishable from the wall moments before.

Karina glanced around the room, her eyes settling on each person in turn. Finally she locked eyes with Nova.

“Are you coming?” she asked those in the room.

Several of the slaves recoiled in horror. The rest shook their heads firmly. A couple reached up and touched their neck collars, fear etched into their faces.

“Are you coming?” Karina asked Nova.

Nova hesitated. The others had a good point. Even if she got out of the room the collar could still be used to t*****e her, to keep her under control. To kill her if necessary.

But any freedom was better than none. She didn’t like her chances if she stayed in the room. Their captors had already put her in danger from the Taint. They had no way of knowing whether Jane and she were infected. Sooner or later they would decide it was better to simply kill Nova and the others.

“Yes. I’m coming.”

Nova crossed the room. The maintenance hatch led into a cramped conduit with wiring and pipes everywhere. Karina was already climbing in. Nova followed. Short though she was, the conduit wasn’t quite tall enough for her to stand up straight.

Karina touched a control on the wall. Nova jumped as the access hatch clanged shut behind them.

“Don’t worry,” Karina said. “This button opens and closes the hatch. We aren’t trapped.”

Nova nodded shakily. She was surprised to find she could still see. The conduit was dimly lit by slightly yellowish lamps at regular intervals.

“Did you turn the lights on too?” Nova asked.

“No. They’re always on. If there’s an emergency the repair crews need to focus on the problem, not on trying to get the lights turned on.”

“That makes sense, I guess. How did you find the access panel, though?”

Karina chuckled. “I spent most of my life working on ships, dear. I was up to my neck in ship systems before your parents were born. I can feel them. They sing to me. I haven’t been on anything bigger than a shuttle in… I don’t know. Fifteen years, maybe. Not since I was first taken prisoner.

“When they brought us aboard this ship it felt like I’d finally come home. There were a lot of systems to listen to, to place. Once I had them all sorted out finding the access panel was easy.”

“So that’s what you were doing when you were walking around?”

“Yes, dear. Why, what did you think I was doing?”

“I thought… well… it seemed like…”

“You thought old Karina had finally lost her mind?”

Nova could feel herself blushing. She was certain her face was shining brighter than the dim lighting around them.

“I guess so, yes. I’m sorry.”

Karina laughed out loud at that, much to Nova’s relief.

“Well, dear, don’t get ahead of yourself. The time I’ve been a prisoner has taken its toll. There’s times even I suspect all’s not right with my mind.” Her voice dropped, becoming wistful. “I’m hoping being back on a ship will heal that part of me.”

Nova had no idea what to say to that. After a few moments Karina heaved a deep sigh then turned, studying the wires and pipes around them.

“Shouldn’t we move away from the access panel?” Nova asked. “Blade and the others might hear us.”

“Not possible, dear. The panels are completely soundproofed. Airtight, too, in case of damage to the ship. Still, we should probably move away just in case someone starts looking for us. Follow me.”

Karina set off, crawling on her hands and knees. Nova tried walking hunched over but soon found herself falling behind the older woman. She dropped to her hands and knees and found that was actually faster as she was no longer fighting her way past pipes and wires. Most of them were above her now, or to the sides, and she could make better time.

She still had trouble keeping up with Karina, despite the age gap. The old woman seemed to flow along the conduit. Nova tried to mimic Karina’s movements but couldn’t get the same effect.

After a couple of minutes of crawling Karina stopped. Seeing past the old woman was difficult but Nova managed to get glimpses of a hatch ahead of them. Karina was reaching for the control to open it.

“Wait!” hissed Nova. “We don’t know what’s on the other side. It could be an occupied room, or a corridor where people are working.”

Karina just chuckled and hit the control anyway. Nova’s heart was in her mouth as the door opened and the old woman shuffled through. Only when Karina moved to the side did Nova realise another conduit awaited them. This one ran to the left and right. It was indistinguishable from the first.

“Just another conduit, dear,” Karina said. “Now… which way do we need to go?”

Nova’s heart was still racing. It wasn’t discovery that had her so scared, but what discovery would mean. The slave collars would be activated, and probably left on for a significant length of time.

Had she done the right thing in following Karina? There still might be time to get back to the holding area. No. That wasn’t an option. She was certain returning would be a death sentence.

“Right… left… right… left…” muttered Karina, as she inspected the wires and pipes around her. “Right,” she said finally. “We need to go right.”

She was moving before Nova could ask her why she’d chosen that direction. Nova scrambled after her, trying to keep up.

Karina lead them through three more junctions, in each spending time checking the wires and pipes before choosing which way to go. Nova asked about her decisions twice but each time Karina just smiled and moved on.

Karina came to a stop. Nova caught up, her teeth clenched against the pain in her knees and arms. Peering past Karina she saw the conduit ended in yet another door. At least this time there was no choice to be made. The only way forward lay through the door.

Yet Karina was still checking the pipes, running her fingers along wires, tracing where they ran to, even tasting several by l*****g them with her tongue.

Nova quickly grew frustrated. As always, the control to open the door was obvious. She reached out towards it.

“Let’s just open the door,” she said. “We go forward. It’s the only way.”

As Nova’s hand neared the door control Karina slapped it away. Nova yelped and pulled her hand back.

“Don’t touch!” hissed Karina. “That would have set off the intruder alarm!”

“Why? How is this different from all the others?”

“Wait. Don’t touch. I’m busy.”

Nova swallowed down her response and sat watching Karina at work. The old woman seemed to be narrowing her attention down to two sets of wiring, but Nova couldn’t see what was special about either of them.

As the minutes ticked away Nova started to wonder whether Karina really was losing her mind. Maybe this door wasn’t any different to the others. Maybe Karina was worrying about nothing, or worse about something only she could see.

With ten minutes gone Nova was starting to consider trying to activate the door control again. Before she could act Karina let out a hiss of breath, then started pulling wires apart seemingly at random. Moments later the door popped open and Karina crawled through.

Nova was caught off guard. By the time she was moving forward Karina had already disappeared to the left. Nova reached the door and pulled herself through.

Her first thought was they had emerged into a room. It took her a few moments to realise there were no doors, only four access hatches, including the one she had entered from. The hatches were set low in the walls, the bottom was at knee height even for Nova.

The walls and ceiling were covered in more cables and pipes than she had seen so far, interwoven to form strange serpent-like shapes. Several computer boards emerged from the wires, all displaying information which meant nothing to Nova. The centre of the room contained a large pillar which had the same mixture of technology on all four sides.

“What is this place?” she asked.

“The Emergency Repair Hub,” Karina replied. “Or the Hub for short. Most big ships have one. All Imperial ships do, or so I’ve heard. From here we can access almost any system on the ship.”

“But won’t someone find us? Won’t they know if we start interfering with things? And don’t they have alarms?”

“They won’t find us. No one ever comes into the Hub unless there’s a problem with the normal systems. You saw how much fun it was getting here. Yes, there are alarms, of course. That’s what I was spending so much time working on. Don’t open any of the other hatches for now, I need to bypass those alarms too.”

“All right, but what’s the point in us being here if they’ll just detect anything you do?”

“Ah well, dear, that’s the trick. Doing things in such a way they won’t detect it, or even suspect there was any interference. That comes later, though. We need to know what’s going on. From here we can listen in to what’s happening anywhere in the ship. I reckon the bridge will be the best place to start.”

“If this… hub… can do that why isn’t there tighter security?”

“Because listening in like that’s not a standard feature, dear. In theory there’s no way to do it. I just happen to know a few hacks that will give us what we need.”

“And you’re sure we won’t be found? They won’t know you’re doing it?”

“I’m sure dear. The question is, do you trust the batty old lady?”

Nova shrugged. “Do I have any choice?”

Karina burst out laughing, clapping her hands. It took her several attempts to speak through the laughter.

“No dear, I guess you don’t. Good point. You’ll just have to let me work and hope I know what I’m doing.”

Nova just nodded. She felt so helpless. Everything that had happened so far, from escaping the holding room to arriving in the Hub, had been because of Karina. Nova knew she had contributed nothing so far and that she was still desperately dependent on Karina.

As the old woman got back to work Nova carefully studied what she was doing. It might take many hours, maybe days or even weeks, but Nova was determined to understand at least the basics. She didn’t want to be so dependent on anyone, especially not a frail old woman whose hold on reality was clearly not that tight.

Nova soon grew tired of watching Karina, her determination to learn blunted by the speed with which the old woman entered commands on the various consoles. Her hands flew far too quickly for Nova to take anything in.

Nova sat down on the floor, back against one of the few sections of wall that wasn’t covered in cables and pipes. The lighting in the room was dull. The air was warm and stank of electricity and oil.

It was far from the worst place she’d been, but it was hardly comfortable… and yet a strange feeling was washing over her, one she had trouble placing. She felt… safe. For the first time she could remember no guards knew where she was. No one was in a position to give her orders at a moment’s notice. She didn’t have to worry about another prisoner trying to hurt her in any way. Karina might not be all there but Nova was sure the old woman meant no harm.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the novel sensation of feeling safe. Within moments she was asleep.

“…is clear, Captain.”

Nova jerked awake, heart hammering at the deafening voice which had crashed into her dreams.

“Sorry, dear,” said Karina. “That was a bit loud.”

The older woman moved some controls as Nova struggled to calm her breathing. For a moment she’d been certain they’d been caught.

“What do you want done with the slaves, Commandant?”

This voice came through much quieter.

“We don’t need them now, Captain,” replied a new voice. “Kill them and throw them off the ship.”

“Two of them may have been infected with the Taint, and if so might have spread it to the others. You don’t want to keep them for study?”

“No, Captain. Our mission was to prove the Limited are a success. We have done that. There will be time for studying the Taint later. For now we need to get back to the base with as little drama as possible. Get rid of the prisoners.”

“Yes, Commandant. Flight Lieutenant, activate the prisoners collars and leave them activated. Then send in the Limited to throw the prisoners off the ship.”

“Yes, Captain. Activating the collars now…”

Nova’s hands flew to her throat. Her body tensed, ready for the pain. Karina and she wouldn’t be thrown off the ship, no one knew where they were, but they’d still die. No one could withstand a collar for more than a minute or two. By the time the rest of the slaves were thrown off the ship, or their corpses were to be more precise, she and Karina would be dead too.

Nothing happened. She remained where she was, half curled up and hands gripping her collar, but nothing was happening. After a few more seconds she uncurled and turned to Karina.

“I don’t understand. Why didn’t they activate the collars?”

“They did,” replied Karina sadly. “Look.”

She pointed at a section of the screen which meant nothing to Nova.

“If the collars are on, why aren’t we being affected?”

“Oh, this room is shielded against almost any kind of signal. It wouldn’t be much use otherwise. The signals from out there can’t reach in here.”

“And they never expected slaves to be in here?”

“Oh no, they put relay transmitters in here too in case slaves were used in any repairs. I just turned them off when we first came in. Couldn’t have them zapping us, could we?”

“Couldn’t you… couldn’t you have done the same for the others?”

“Maybe, dear… but I might as well put out a big sign telling the guards we’re here, and the others would still end up dead. There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“So we just sit here and hope they don’t notice we’re missing?” said Nova.

“I’m afraid so. Unless you can think of a better idea.”

“There must be something we can do.”

Karina smiled sadly. “I wish there was, dear. I really do.”

Nova turned away, fighting the urge to punch the wall. Was this freedom? She was free from being given orders but her choices were still severely limited. Nothing she could do would make a difference.

They waited in silence for what felt like forever, listening to the routine chatter on the ship’s bridge. Then they heard the Captain and his officers again.

“Captain,” said the Flight Lieutenant. “The Limited have reported back. All of the prisoners have been disposed of.”

“Excellent,” replied the Captain. “Commandant, what are your orders?”

“Take us back to base,” replied the commandant. “We know the Limited are a success. Now it is time to ramp up production. Every healthy and strong slave will be converted. With enough Limited we can not only slow the Taint down, we can prevail against it!”

There was more, but Nova didn’t hear it. She sat frozen in place, fear and anger fighting each other for supremacy. The few Limited she’d encountered were heartbreaking enough. The thought of thousands, maybe even millions, of slaves being converted into Limited tore at her heart. Knowing she could do nothing to prevent it only made it hurt all the more.

She wished they’d converted her too, or they’d thrown her out the airlock with the rest of the slaves. At least then she wouldn’t feel so useless. Part of her even wanted to crawl out of the tunnels and confront the Imperial officers, to go out in a blaze of glory. Most of her simply couldn’t cope, though, leaving her sitting immobile while pain tore into her chest.

Part II