Stellar Fox (Castle Federation Book 2) (37 page)
Read Stellar Fox (Castle Federation Book 2) Online
Authors: Glynn Stewart
“Every Mage wants to Jump,” she told him. “There are what, ten thousand Mages in Sherwood? Out of two billion people – ten thousand Mages. Everyone, from System Security to the Ship-wrights, to the damned
power company,
needs Mages. They’re desperate for anyone who can cast a spell – and you are sitting up on this station, doing
nothing
, complaining that you can’t find a place on a starship?”
Damien touched the collar he wore – the product of years of study and training so that he could Jump. Getting into Jump training wasn’t easy, for the exact reasons that Harrison had just thrown at him.
“I earned the right to Jump,” he told the cop. “You’ll excuse me if I don’t give up on that just yet.”
Harrison took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she told him. “It’s frustrating trying to recruit Mages, and watching there be not enough Mages for anything
except
Jumping – and too many Jump Mages. Just… keep it in mind, hey? You’d make a better cop than most.”
“I’ll think about it,” Damien told her. He even might, if he went long enough without finding work on a starship.
#
It took six hours to get any of the
Blue Jay
’s massive fusion engines working after they’d jumped into Sherwood. Rice had made his way along the ship’s zero-gravity core after the first hour to help out – without engines they were dead in space and unlikely to even show up on sensors so anyone knew they were in trouble.
Finally, the Captain was shoulders deep in a maintenance box re-connecting wires when he heard the ship’s engineer shout, “That looks like it, Skipper. Get clear, I’m going to open up the hydrogen feeds.”
David pulled himself free of the open panel and glanced up at the even blacker than usual face of his senior engineer, James Kellers. “Go for it,” he told the man.
“Everyone clear?” the engineer asked loudly. Both of the two assistant engineers responded in the affirmative, and the wiry black man threw a toggle on the datapad he was carrying. The engine room was on the aft end of the gravity-less main core, so they all felt it when the engines kicked. The room had a sudden, very faint, sensation of down.
“Well?” David asked.
“It’s not much,” Kellers admitted. “We’ve got the thrusters back at about fifty percent, but the main engines are shot to hell. Call it… two percent of a gee.”
“It’ll get us inbound – and make it so the Fleet can detect us,” David told him.
“And if they do, you should be on the bridge, not immersed in the
Jay
’s guts,” Kellers replied. “We can take it from here boss.”
Rice looked down at his hands, which were covered in ash from the burnt out conduits he’d been helping replace. It had been years since he’d worked Kellers’ job, but he hadn’t forgotten which way the circuits went in. He knew from when he’d done that job, though, how filthy his face was after crawling into a burnt out maintenance panel.
“I don’t know, looking like this might get help from the Martian boys faster,” Rice observed, but he was carefully making his way up the engine room against the very slight pressure of the ship’s acceleration.
For once, he’d welcome ‘the Martian Boys’ – the Royal Navy of the Mage-King of Mars, more commonly simply the Protectorate Navy – showing up.
Given that any Navy ship would have to at least wait until the light-speed signature of the Jay’s engine reached them though, he probably even had time for a shower.
“Captain to the bridge,” Jenna’s voice echoed over the intercom. “Captain Rice to the bridge, ASAP.”
With a sigh, David increased his pace up the core.
#
Jenna had somehow managed to get the main view screen for the communicator online, and it was showing an impeccably turned out officer aboard the disgustingly neat bridge of a Navy warship.
“This is Mage-Captain Adrian Corr of His Majesty’s destroyer
Guardian of Honor
,” the dark-haired man in the dark blue uniform told David as he entered the room and faced the concealed camera over the viewscreen. “You are Captain Rice of the
Blue Jay
?”
“I am,” David replied. “I have to say, I’m glad to see you boys so far out.”
He counted in the back of his head until the Mage-Captain responded. He made it to four seconds – the destroyer was still two full light-seconds away. Close in interplanetary terms, but still quite a distance away.
“We were doing an outer-system scan as an exercise and one of my officers identified your jump flare,” Corr said in his neatly precise tones. The blonde hair, with the slightly angled eyes and the soft accent marked the Mage as a Martian, one of the
old
Mage families. “When she did not see an engine signature, she recommended we investigate. My apologies for the delay, Captain – my first officer believed that even an in-system jump was my decision, not his.”
“As you can see, Mage-Captain, the
Blue Jay
is in no state for me to be 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?”
#