Starship's Mage: Episode 2 (9 page)

There were few things in the universe David hated more than full emergency acceleration. He was strapped into his Captain’s chair, with his crew around him, but he couldn’t focus on much more than the fact that he felt like he weighed over two hundred kilos.

The computer
was programmed for twenty-four hours of this, which was going to leave the entire crew
very
cranky –but alive and free. Alive was important – and free was even more so.

“Hey boss,” Jenna announced,
her voice showing almost none of the strain of the acceleration. “Got a com channel inbound for you – looks like its Carmichael.”

“Put
him on,” David told her; and a moment later the image of the red-haired information broker appeared on the screen of his captain’s chair.

“Captain Rice,” Carmichael greeted
him. “You look uncomfortable.”

“Emergency acceleration is
quite bracing,” David replied. “You should try it sometime.”

“
I
like
my home system,” the businessman replied. “I have no intention of pissing off enough people to need to run. I’m surprised you ran as fast as you did though,” he admitted. “Carney and I were planning on the three hours it was going to take to get the Governor to authorize the lockdown – and the fact that the liner in dock has a notoriously stubborn captain.”

“
You were right, though,” Carmichael continued. “The dock just went into lockdown, which means Carney’s men are stuck on station, instead of being snuck off until the heat dies down. I can’t help but suspect you knew something was coming.”

“Everything
I told you was true,” David replied.

“Indeed, you are a man of your word,” the broker agreed
. “Also, a man with more morals than most in our business, so I was surprised when you agreed to free six of the worst men in those cells – I doubt you didn’t look up their resumes.”

“So tell
me, Captain, what speeds up the lockdown by three hours and makes you unafraid of those released thugs?”

David considered it for a moment, eyeing the plot of the
system showing the destroyer he was quite certain had delivered the Hand to the station, and shrugged.

“The Guildmaster was planning to burn Damien out,” he said
simply, “and summoned the only Judge who could. The same kind of Judge who could order a lockdown without the Governor.”

“
You have a Hand on your station, Mr. Carmichael,” David continued, “and if you will not run, I would strongly suggest that you hide.”

Carmichael’s face
was frozen, and he was silent for a good minute.

“
You played us all,” he finally said, and his voice was admiring. “I appreciate the warning, Captain Rice, and I do believe I will follow your advice.” He paused. “I wouldn’t return to this system if I were you.”

“
I know,” Rice agreed.

“That said, if
you find yourself in Legatus, look up a man named Bryan Ricket,” the broker continued. “Tell him I sent you. He’ll find you work that stays under the radar.”

“Thank
you,” David answered. “I might just do that. Keep your head down.”

“And the same to
you, Captain Rice.”

The channel broke off, and David looked up at a choking sound from Jenna
. Her face had gone pale, and she met his gaze wordlessly, throwing up a wider chart of the system.

On
it, glowing in a bright green that mocked the reality of the situation, was the pair of Martian Navy destroyers he’d noted when they arrived in the system. They would intercept the
Blue Jay
well short of jump range. Not that it mattered. With what they’d done, the Navy would settle for putting a missile into them.

Two uniformed Marines guarded the entrance to System Command. Armed with black battle rifles and clad in digitally camouflaged armor, they were a barrier to any random and most non-random intruders - a barrier that melted away instantly at the sight of the golden hand hung around Alaura’s neck.

Inside,
glowing wall-screens surrounded a massive holographic display that displayed the location of every ship, structure, and rock ever identified in the Corinthian system. Arrows showing vectors and paths criss-crossed the display, but three were glowing brightly as the system focused on the
Blue Jay
and the two destroyers chasing it down.

“Understand
me Mage-Captain,” a voice was saying into a communicator, “Damien Montgomery is a Class One Fugitive and the crew aboard the
Blue Jay
accomplices in his escape. We have no idea what that ship might be capable of – you are to destroy it from maximum range.”

“Belay that,” Alaura interrupted, stepping up next to the
Commodore, who was clearly taking his orders from the Guildmaster standing on the other side of him.

“Break off the pursuit and return to the
station,” she ordered.

“Who the hell are
you?” the Commodore demanded, turning to face her. “No one has the authority…”

He
trailed off as he saw the chain around her neck.

“
I
have the authority,” she said bluntly, looking past the Commodore to the Guildmaster.

“Look at it this way, gentlemen,” she continued
calmly. “If you’re right, it won’t matter – the
Blue Jay
will tear itself apart when Montgomery jumps her.”

“And if
you’re
wrong
, Montgomery has achieved something unique. I
need
to know which it is, do you understand me?”

Both men glanced away, cowed by the golden hand
she wore, and she leaned into the communicator.

“Confirm receipt of
your orders, Captains,” she said calmly. “You will return to the station and prepare your Marines to assist Corinthian System Security in tracking down the escaped criminals. Understood?”

Damien looked at the two deadly pyramids showing up on the scanners, feeling them through the amplifier and studying them.

He was
reasonably sure he had the same capabilities as either ship in terms of magic, though the Ship Mage’s aboard the warships would be better trained. The catch was that he – and the destroyers’ Mages – could only reach out about six light seconds with their magic. He wasn’t sure of the exact capabilities of the missiles the destroyers carried, but his understanding was that their range was on the order of ten times that.

Destroyers had
been
built
to take down ships like the
Blue Jay
– stolen amplifiers and obsolete weapons, retrofitted onto freighters that couldn’t outrun the warships, or outrange their devastating antimatter missiles.

Anything they could do with magic, he could do.
But they had better technology, and the anti-missile turrets mounted on the freighter would never suffice against
real
missiles.

But he could do anything they could do with magic
. Realization sunk in, as he looked back at Corinthian Prime, and the destroyer that had erupted right next to the station.

He
reached out through the amplifier and the
Blue Jay
’s sensors, studying the gravity and space around the freighter. His training said it wasn’t flat enough to jump, but now he studied it with open eyes. It… might be possible.

“Captain,”
he said into the communicator. “How far are you willing to trust me?”

Rice gave a surprise
d bark of laughter.

“Far enough to save
us from two destroyers?”

“
Cut the acceleration,” Damien told him. “Cut the acceleration – and prepare to jump!”

The only sound in the Command Center was the soft whir of computers and the slight, almost unnoticeable buzz of the holographic display.

“Any debris?” Alaura
finally asked.

“No
ma’am,” a Navy sensor tech replied, refusing to look at her as he answered her question.

She
glanced over at the Commodore and the Guildmaster, both staring at the simple blue icon of a jump flare exit on the display.

“You were wrong,” she said
simply. “It appears that Montgomery has given the
Blue Jay
a fully functional amplifier.”

“Now… let’s see what he does with it.
”

Watch
for Starship’s Mage: Episode 3

Coming June 2014

and

Starship’s Mage Episode 4

Coming September 2014

If you liked the novella, please leave a review!

Follow Glynn Stewart on Twitter @faolanspen or on his blog at www.faolanspen.com

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