“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 surprised 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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Starship's Mage: Episode 2 Page 8