Starship's Mage: Episode 5 (12 page)

The fireball he’d conjured inside the warship had been almost overkill – and yet hadn’t been enough.

“They’re inbound at thirteen thousand gravities, running on internal seekers only,” Jenna reported grimly. “We have three minutes, maybe less. I’ve spun up the RFLAMs, but they’ll be coming in damned fast. The turrets can’t stop all of them. They might get five.”

“Damien?” the Captain asked, looking at the Mage with a scrap of hope.

“If I do everything I can think of, I might stop fifteen,” Damien told him. Even with his new power fed into some of the spells he’d learned, there was only so much he could do.

“One getting through is enough,” David said quietly. “We’re going to emergency acceleration. Do what you can.”

Moments later, Damien was crushed against the tiny acceleration platform in the simulacrum chamber as the
Blue Jay
accelerated at its maximum three gravities. It couldn’t do much, but even the tiniest bit of evasive maneuvering bought them time. Precious fractions of a second could let Damien or the turrets take out a few more missiles.

It wasn’t enough, and they all knew it. Damien glanced at the intercom screen, but there was nothing to say. The three of them were the only ones with enough information to know they were all doomed. Even if he could reach Kelly, to try and say something – anything! – it wouldn’t be fair to fill her last moments with fear.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I tried.”

“You did all you could – hell, you did more than anyone else could have, and then some more,” David told him. “It’s been a good run, kid. I’m sorry we dragged you into all of this.”

“Came in with both eyes open, Captain,” Damien replied. “I didn’t think you were desperate for a Mage for no reason, after all.”

He laid his hands back on the Simulacrum and reached out with his power. He could start trying to pick off the missiles from here – might only take out a few more, but it was worth a shot. Any spell he could think of that would wipe more than one or two from space would wipe him out completely even now.

Pulses of coherent light began to flicker through space as Jenna opened up with the laser turrets, and Damien sank into the amplifier, flickers of fire lashing out into the emptiness around them. Missiles began to die, but only by the ones and twos – and the survivors grew closer.

At a hundred thousand kilometers, with the missiles barely thirty seconds away, Damien reached for the attack spell he’d used in Excelsior against the boarding pods. He might get dozens of them – but there were dozens
left
. And it was all he had. He reached for his power, and then –

“
Jump flare
!” Jenna shouted, and the white radiation flare of multiple jumps blinded Damien as the sky around him lit up.

Seventeen ships materialized out of nowhere – eight monstrous cruisers, each a match for the
Gauntlet
he’d just destroyed, and nine more destroyers. An entire
fleet
of Protectorate warships burst into existence around the
Blue Jay
.

Seconds passed, ticking away as Damien stared at the impossible ships in shock, and their sensors stabilized.

Then
their
turrets opened fire. The
Gauntlet
’s missiles died by the dozens: the salvo that had utterly doomed their modified freighter vanishing like ice in sunlight.

Damien stared at his screens in complete shock, and then a visual transmission popped up. He wasn’t sure if someone had overridden the
Blue Jay
’s systems or if Jenna had just accepted it without saying anything.

An older woman, clad in a black uniform and a golden chain with an open-palmed hand, stood ramrod straight, staring levelly into the screen.

“I am Alaura Stealey, Hand of the Mage-King of Mars,” she said calmly. “I am here to speak with Damien Montgomery.”

“We are not your enemies, but I
will
prevent you from jumping,” she continued. “I will board your ship with one companion. Please meet me in your shuttle bay.”

#

Alaura recognized David Rice from the case files from his encounter, long ago, with the Blue Star Syndicate that had triggered much of the current mess, though age had not been overly kind to the heavyset Captain. Damien Montgomery, on the other hand, didn’t look like he’d changed in the slightest from the photos from his imprisonment in Corinthian. Until you met the youth’s eyes, anyway.

Both were waiting for her at the exit from the
Blue Jay
’s shuttle bay as she and Mage-Lieutenant Harmon disembarked from the Navy shuttle that delivered them to the freighter. She had decided to allow Amiri to accompany them after the Hunter started making paranoid noises, though the younger woman was remaining in the shuttle as a most-likely-unnecessary security precaution.

Years of practice allowed her to reach the two men without any undignified flailing, and she greeted them with a calm nod.

“Is there somewhere private we can discuss?” she asked. “This may be a long conversation.”

Rice nodded carefully, one hand keeping him stable in the microgravity. “Follow me,” he instructed.

The trip deeper into the trip was silent. Alaura had no intention of playing any of her cards yet, and the two men seemed a little shaky. Twenty minutes ago, she suspected, they had known they were going to die. Now a complete stranger held their fates in her hands.

Rice led them onto the elevators that linked to the ships rotating ribs, and Alaura breathed a concealed sigh of relief as the rotational pseudo-gravity took hold. She did
not
like microgravity, and it would have been rude to use magic to provide her own footing on someone else’s ship.

Finally, they reached a plain conference room, the type found on any merchant ship for staff and business meetings. Rice led the way in and took a seat at the head of the table, with Damien at his right hand. Alaura remained standing, looking at the two men and considering.

“I take it from the absence of the
Azure Gauntlet
that Mikhail Azure has met with an accident?” she asked.

“He did,” Rice replied calmly. “He attacked us, and we defended ourselves. I believe that is still our right under Protectorate law?”

“Your right, Captain?” Alaura asked. “Your privilege! We owe you a debt of gratitude. Azure has been a thorn in our side for years.”

“Dropping a few charges would go a long way to showing that gratitude,” Damien murmured, and Alaura raised an eyebrow at him.

“I guess I should clear that up to begin with,” she told them. “You are not facing any charges in the Protectorate – I had the charges with regards to the
Blue Jay
’s modifications struck as soon as I arrived in Corinthian. Those related to breaking Mr. Montgomery out of jail I had dropped after I realized how much effort you’d put into preventing casualties – successfully, I might add.”

“After today, I doubt any of the galaxy’s crime lords will be chasing you either. My count is now
four
major crime lords that have ended up either dead or in jail after crossing your path,” she continued. “You are probably safer than you’ve been in years.”

“Four crime lords?” the Mage asked, surprised.

“James Azure, some five years ago now, died resisting arrest after Captain Rice directed us to him,” Alaura pointed out. “You intentionally left Alistair Carney to catch the fall on the Spindle. He was taken alive, and will be spending the next twenty years a guest of a Martian jail. Julian Falcone surrendered Darkport to my forces to gain assistance saving his people, and will be facing a court on Saratoga shortly. And now, Mikhail Azure has very directly died by your hands.”

“That’s a track record many of our investigators would envy,” she added. “But it does lead us to why Azure and half a dozen bounty hunters were chasing you.”

“The
Blue Jay
has a fully functioning amplifier,” Damien admitted. “I converted the jump matrix.”

“I know,” she said calmly. “Unfortunately, I am assured by those who understand these matters that any competent Rune Scribe, given a few weeks, could duplicate what was done to the
Jay
. She represents a template that any of the galaxy’s crime lords could use to manufacture a fleet of undetectable raiders.”

“The
Blue Jay
, bluntly, represents an unacceptable risk to the peace of the Protectorate,” Alaura told them flatly.

“You just saved us, and now you want to destroy
my ship
?” Rice snapped. “Who do you think you are?!”

“I think I am a Hand of the Mage-King of Mars,” she replied. “Captain Rice, the Protectorate owes you and your crew a deep and abiding debt for allowing us to remove Darkport and for removing Mikhail Azure. I am prepared to compensate you well above market value for this ship. Indeed, I believe we would be able to hand one of the Navy’s
Archon
transports over to you as a replacement vessel.”

That shut the Captain up. An
Archon
was one of the largest freighters built, mustering a
fifteen
million ton cargo load – five times the
Blue Jay
– and carrying a limited but effective suite of self-defense weapons.

“Please Captain,” she pleaded gently. “I do not want to take away your livelihood or your hard built equity. But I
cannot
allow the
Blue Jay
to sail away. You must understand.”

“She’s right, boss,” Damien Montgomery said quietly. “Any ship I did that to… it’s why everyone has been chasing us for the last six months. She’s offering you the best she can.”

Rice nodded choppily. “Can we at least evacuate our things?”

“Of course,” she agreed. “All of your personnel and possessions will be transferred to the cruiser
Rising Sun of Gallantry
. They will transport you to the Tau Ceti fleet base, where the Captain will make sure you take possession of your new ship.”

“If the
Blue Jay
is a threat, what guarantee will you need that Damien won’t do the same to another ship?” Rice asked, and Alaura sighed.

“Mister Montgomery has an exceptionally rare gift,” she said, turning to look the Mage in the eyes. “I assume that to destroy the
Gauntlet
you have marked a Rune of Power on yourself. Show me,” she instructed.

Slowly, uncomfortably, the young Mage rolled up the sleeve of his turtleneck, revealing the lines of silver she’d expected.

“Untrained and unaware, you are a worse threat than the
Blue Jay
,” she said quietly. “You also, when in possession of the perfect raider, believing yourself wanted for crimes you hadn’t committed, and chased to the edge of civilization, still acted with honor and integrity.”

“Because of this, if you insist, I
will
let you go,” she promised. “But I have an offer for you.”

Montgomery gestured for her to continue.

“You are a Rune Wright,” Alaura explained. “Only a Wright can see the flow of magic, and only a Wright could have turned a jump matrix into an amplifier.”

“You have
no
idea what you can truly do with that gift,” she continued. “There is only one person in the Protectorate who can teach you. If you come with me, I will take you to him.”

“And then what?” he asked.

“Most likely? You would be assigned to the Hands to assist us, if not made a Hand yourself,” Alaura admitted. “With your gifts and our support, you would be in a position to do good few others could match.”

“Unfortunately, I need you to decide now,” she told him.

The conference room was quiet for at least a minute, the young Mage looking down at his hands as Alaura watched him, hoping he would make the right choice. Finally, he looked back up at her and nodded once.

“I will need to say goodbye,” he said quietly. “But then, I am yours, Hand Stealey.”

#

The
Rising Sun of Gallantry
turned out to have an observation deck, a massive slab of magically transformed transparent steel that allowed people to look out onto deep space. As Damien and the rest of the crew of the
Blue Jay
occupied that deck, however, the ship had been turned so it faced the
Jay
.

Even at four kilometers distance, the massive freighter was clearly visible. The Ribs were no longer rotating, but the running lights were still on, outlining the ship against the black of the space between the stars.

“Scanners confirm no life signs,” a voice carried over the intercom. The ship’s Captain was piping an audio feed from the bridge to the observation deck, a small courtesy Damien appreciated.

Everyone was off the
Blue Jay
. Their hundred kilograms of possessions each had come with them. The ship’s cat was apparently sharing Jenna’s quarters aboard the cruiser, though she hadn’t brought the animal to the observation.