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

history.
    “Where is my son?” he demanded.
    “In the morgue of the destroyer Guardian of Honor ,” David told him quietly. “We didn’t have the facilities to properly preserve his body.” Or the spare manpower to clean up the awful mess Kenneth had left of himself, but the medical team the Guardian had sent over had taken care of that too.
    “What the hell did you do?” McLaughlin snarled. “I sent my son with you so he’d stay safe , not so you’d get him killed!”
    “Kenneth saved our lives,” David told him. “We were ambushed by pirates – he jumped early, saving everyone else aboard.”
    “Pirates don’t find ships at random anymore. What the hell are you involved in Rice?” the Mage-Governor demanded.
    “Your son died a hero,” the captain repeated, his voice even quieter. “I have no idea how the pirates found us.”
    “Heroes happen when other people fuck up,” the McLaughlin said sharply. “You won’t be dragging any more children of Sherwood into your disaster, Rice. Get out of my system.”
    The connection terminated, and Rice stared at the screen wordlessly, glad none of his crew had been on the bridge. Getting out of Sherwood wasn’t an option, not with no Mage and the damage the Blue Jay had taken. Staying in the McLaughlin’s system after he’d told you to get out wasn’t wise, though.
    Before he could begin to come up with a plan the communicator announced the second call he’d been expecting – this one from his insurance company.
    With a sigh, he opened the channel.

#
    The medallion of a Mage opened a lot of doors – even for an unemployed Mage like Damien. When he’d heard that a new freighter was coming in, he’d made his way down to Sherwood Prime’s zero-gravity hub. His medallion had earned him a respectful nod from a security guard as he entered an observation lounge he’d normally be barred from.
    There was a neatly marked and signed line between the zero-gravity hub and the luxury lounge. The signs warned Damien, so he was ready when his feet dropped sharply towards the ground when he crossed over the rune-inlaid carpet. Like so much else, artificial gravity could be created with magic, but runes like those woven into the carpet required recharging by a Mage at least once a week. Only warships, with their multiple Mage crews, would expend the resources to have gravity throughout the ship.
    Damien reveled in the experience of full gravity for a moment as he made his way to the massive windows. Even the rotating rings only maintained about seven-tenths of a gravity, but this lounge was spelled to Sherwood’s nine-tenths. Weirdly, the slightly heavier weight he was bearing was… relaxing.
    The lounge was quiet at this time, roughly midnight by the station’s clocks, which was likely part of why the gold medallion at the base of his throat had been enough to get him into the lounge unquestioned. Lounges like this were the only ones in the hub with tables and chairs, and he settled into one by the windows.
    The windows were impressive. Normally, an ‘observation lounge,’ even on the hub, was just a set of viewscreens, but the Angelus Gravity Lounge had managed to get itself a place right on the edge of the station’s hull – and right above the main docking arms. The owners had then paid an astronomical sum of money to magically transform the complex ceramic and metal composite of said hull to be transparent.
    Damien ordered a small coffee from the cute but tired waitress and settled in. From here, he could see the Gentle Rains of Summer at a far docking arm, having cargo containers slowly maneuvered into locking positions on the massive ship’s keel. Closer, a fast passenger liner, its sleek lines suggesting that it, like the Angelus Lounge, had magical gravity, rested at another docking arm.
    E ight of the slender docks were visible from the cafe, half of the civilian docking arms on the Station. The other eight were on the other side of the hub of