Starship's Mage: Episode 1 Read Online Free Page A

complaining about any help present.”
    “Of course,” Corr nodded. “My apologies again - are you in need of medical assistance?”
    “We have no significant injuries,” David told him. “Only minor injuries and one fatality.”
    “What happened?” the Mage-Captain asked.
    “ A pirate ship jumped us at our last jump lay-over,” Rice answered. “Disabled our defensive turrets, and was preparing to fire into us when our Ship’s Mage jumped us.”
    The Navy Officer’s wince, four seconds later, was small but noticeable. “Early,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
    “We will take your ship under tow when we arrive,” Corr informed Rice. “I will pass your report on to System Command. We will investigate this pirate.”
    David nodded his agreement. “Thank you,” he said quietly.
    “We serve the Mage-King of Mars,” the Martian Noble told him. “What does his Protectorate mean if we do not protect people?”

#
    The Guardian of Honor was unable to tow the Blue Jay much faster than the battered freighter could move on her own power. While the destroyer’s engines were both more powerful than the freighter’s and fully intact, the navy ship had done a full sensor sweep of the freighter – and Mage-Captain Corr judged her only capable of surviving about a quarter-gravity of acceleration.
    At that much reduced rate, it took the destroyer several days to haul the ship into something resembling real-time communication range of Sherwood. David spent most of the trip on the bridge, watching the battered thermal scanners carefully for any sign of trouble. A million-ton warship was a lot of reassurance, but after watching pirates try to blow his ship away, he figured he was allowed some paranoia.
    He ’d sent Jenna to get some rest earlier, which meant he was the only one on the bridge when the Blue Jay received the first of the two transmissions he was dreading.
    The transmission was a video signal, carrying the image of an expensively dressed dark-haired woman with the kind of perfectly imperfect prettiness that spoke of either natural beauty or truly expensive cosmetic surgery.
    “Office of the Sherwood Governor,” the woman announced herself. “Please connect me to Kenneth McLaughlin.”
    It was phrased as a request, but the tone made it very clear that the woman expected to be obeyed instantly.
    “I’m sorry miss, I can’t do that,” David told her with weariness tingeing his voice that had nothing to do with having been conscious for over twenty hours.
    A few moments later, he could tell when his response arrived. The woman blinked, clearly surprised by his response. “And why not?” she demanded sharply.
    “Kenneth McLaughlin is dead,” the freighter captain told her simply.
    This time, he could time the light-speed lag to the microsecond. As soon as his words arrived, the haughtiness took a full-on body blow, and the woman’s lips tightened until they were almost white. It took her a few seconds to even minimally re-compose herself.
    “Hold for the Mage-Governor,” she instructed sharply before the screen threw up the eagle and bagpipes of the Sherwood planetary crest.
    David waited out the crest patiently. They were slowly decelerating towards the massive station in orbit around Sherwood. Even with the Guardian of Honor ’s tow, the Blue Jay wouldn’t dock for another five hours at their current pace. There was no rush.
    Finally, the crest cleared to show a man that David had only met once before, though he’d seen the face on dozens of newscasts.
    Miles James McLaughlin, patriarch of his clan and seven times elected Mage-Governor of Sherwood, was a tall, steel-haired man with cold blue eyes. He wore a plain black suit, but pinned to the breast pocket of the jacket was a small red ribbon with a golden planet hanging on the end – the Mars Valor Award, given to a much younger Mage-Commander McLaughlin after single-handedly ending one of the nastier anti-pirate campaigns in recent