Starship's Mage: Episode 5 (11 page)

He finally opened his eyes, feeling sweat on his skin that hadn’t been there before, and met Kelly’s worried gaze.

“I think it worked,” he coughed, his throat dry.

“Well, you didn’t blow up and neither did the ship,” she replied. “Think that’s a win?”

Damien found a smile through his suddenly cracked and dry lips.

“Hell yeah.”

#

Mikhail Azure was not a patient man by nature. He had learned patience over the decades while clawing together the largest criminal organization in the galaxy by hook, crook and blood, but it was still a learned skill.

And he was fresh out.

The Crime Lord stalked back and forth behind his chair on the bridge of the
Azure Gauntlet
like a caged panther, his eyes
daring
any member of the crew to so much as breathe in his direction as he waited for Wong to finish his analysis of the latest jump flare.

Finally,
finally
, the dark-skinned cruiser commander rejoined him on the bridge.

“Well?” Azure demanded.

“They jumped three hours ago,” Wong said calmly. “I have the location, and they’ve been jumping every six hours, regular as clockwork, since our last brush.”

“Montgomery can clearly push a jump in five,” Azure pointed out. “Will we be coming out two hours flight away from them again?”

“We should be emerging at roughly ten light seconds, three million kilometers,” Wong replied. “I cannot guarantee closer except by pure luck. It will take us one hour and twenty minutes to close to a zero velocity rendezvous at seven light seconds to allow for use the precision kinetics.”

“And if they have another crate of missiles?”

“Alissa is jumping us,” the Hunter replied. “Jourdaine is standing by. If they pull that trick again, we will evacuate again. We have time, my lord – they are still a dozen jumps from any inhabited system.”

“I see,” Azure allowed. “And if they have some other trick we don’t see coming, Mister Wong?”

Wong shrugged. “I will have Monroe prepared and update a GOTH targeting plan,” he said calmly. “If it appears that we are in severe danger, we will destroy the
Blue Jay
. I presume you would prefer that to your own death.”

Azure glared at Captain, but finally took his seat.

“Very well, Mister Wong. Take us after them.”

#

“Here they come,” Jenna said quietly, the words echoing in the
Blue Jay
’s silent bridge.

David looked at the main screen as the jump flare settled into the disturbingly familiar sharp spike of the Syndicate cruiser. They’d emerged much closer this time, less than three million kilometers from the
Blue Jay
.

If the
Jay
had managed to have the lasers he’d purchased installed, the Blue Star Syndicate ship would have regretted that decision. Instead, all he could do was watch with frustration as the warship’s sensors stabilized, and it began to accelerate for the
Blue Jay
at fifteen gravities.

“I’d love to watch those bastards suffer an engine malfunction,” he told Jenna, his voice cold. “There’s a
reason
the Navy doesn’t push their ships to fifteen unless it’s an emergency. Engine failures make very pretty white stars, for a few minutes anyway.”

“Unless you’re counting on being far luckier than we’re used to, boss, I think we need to plan for a more pro-active response,” his XO pointed out.

David nodded.

“Hell, given the tricks we’ve pulled on everyone after us, I’m half-tempted to start accelerating
towards
them, just to make them paranoid,” he admitted. “It would get Damien in range sooner,
and
make them sweat.”

“Boss, making the guys with the multi-gigaton weapons sweat isn’t conducive to our long-term survival,” Jenna told him. “Let’s just keep running, and hope Damien knows what he’s talking about.”

The Captain nodded, and activated the intercom to Damien’s quarters.

“Kelly here,” the engineer’s voice answered.

“Our friends are here, Kelly,” David told her. “How’s Damien?”

“Asleep,” she replied. “Seems like the jumps are taking less out of him now, but he did just cut himself open and pour molten metal in the wounds.”

“We have an hour until the Syndicate is in range for their kinetics. Wake him and get him down to the simulacrum chamber – then get yourself to engineering. At this point,” he admitted, “I have no idea how this is going to turn out.”

“Will do, boss.”

#

“I swear, we missed them by minutes,” Medici told Alaura, pacing back and forth on the video screen linking her office to his flag bridge. “That jump flare is
fresh
.”

The Admiral was agitated and worn. Twenty two hours and eleven jumps out of Darkport, pretty much the entire flotilla was in the same state. Each jump brought them closer in behind their prey, though, and even Alaura could feel the excitement in the ships she’d commandeered.

Her own focus was on Montgomery, but she couldn’t help but agree with the pleasant buzz the crew was enjoying over the thought of finally putting Mikhail Azure down.

“If they’re that close, we should be able to catch them on the next jump,” she replied. “If Amiri sorts out their destination, how quickly can you jump, Admiral?”

“We’ve been cycling the Jump Mages hard, but not
that
hard, ma’am,” Medici said with a bright flash of teeth. “This close, we can jump as soon as the Hunter gives us a target.”

“Understood, Admiral,” Alaura told him. “I’ll be in touch.”

Cutting the intercom, she stepped through the open secret passage into the concealed chamber with the Star Mirror.

“How long?” she asked simply.

“Same as every other jump, Alaura,” Julia Amiri said bluntly, her hands and eyes busy on the three dimensional tank in front of her. “Give me an hour, then we can take a peek through your mirror and see what we can find. I want Azure more than any of your crew, trust me.”

With a calm nod, Alaura took a seat back at her workstation. It was down to time, and hoping that the
Blue Jay
survived until they got there.

They’d been tracking both ships for most of a day now, and Alaura could do the calculations as well as any of her compatriots. Unless she was wrong, when the
Azure Gauntlet
had left this system, they’d caught up with Montgomery’s ship.

“You’re a tricky bastard, Montgomery,” she whispered aloud. “I’m coming.
Stay alive
.”

#

Damien was too warm. In the eighteen hours since he’d carved the Rune of Power into his arm, he’d been feverishly hot as his body tried to adopt the new levels of thaumic energy swirling through him. The painkillers he was taking probably didn’t help, but that was the only way he’d been able to sleep.

He wasn’t on painkillers now. He couldn’t afford the dulled senses as he watched the Syndicate cruiser bear unswervingly down on his ship and hoped that everything he’d done would be enough. His arm
hurt
, but the heat burning through him suggested he hadn’t failed.

“They’ll try close to seven light seconds,” David reminded him over the intercom. “I’d really like if they didn’t make it that close, Damien.”

The young Mage rested the runes on his palms on the blank spaces on the Simulacrum meant for them. The power of his new rune and the amplifier linked together, and he looked at the stars through the lens of the
Blue Jay
’s runes.

“I won’t guarantee more than eight light seconds,” he said softly. “And if I guess wrong, it might be enough for them to realize what’s going on – which I doubt we’ll survive.”

“Let them close then,” David replied quietly. They’d been watching the oncoming ship for fifteen minutes now. “You can take him? That ship is heavily armored.”

“I have no idea,” Damien admitted. “But there’s only one way to find out now.”

#

Time seemed to crawl as the
Azure Gauntlet
swept towards its prey. So close to victory now, Mikhail Azure was tempted to order Wong to pour on more speed. Of course, since the
Gauntlet
was now decelerating towards zero relative to Rice’s ship, that would have been counter-productive, but the almost childish urge ran in the back of his mind.

Instead, he gripped the edge of his chair tightly, watching the range figures drop and glancing around the bridge. Wong had pulled the same main bridge crew who had assaulted Darkport with to this shift for the attack. The petite woman Hu controlled sensors. The mohawked gunner Monroe sat at the weapons console, two separate firing plans laid out on his console, just waiting a command to fire.

Wong sat at the center of the bridge, and now Azure could be mentally magnanimous towards the Tracker. For all of the setbacks, the ex-bounty hunter had delivered Azure’s prey to him, and shortly they would return and complete the conquest of Darkport.

Almost an hour had passed since their arrival, and barely twenty minutes and a hundred thousand kilometers remained before they would fire on the
Blue Jay
and capture his prey.

Something shifted. He
felt
magic sweep through the ship, on a level he’d never personally experienced, and then felt the ship lurch.

“What the hell?” Wong demanded. “What’s happening?”

Everything seemed to move very slowly, and Azure
knew
what had happened. He could feel the energy rippling through the ship as magic ripped into the mighty cruisers antimatter tanks.

“We have a critical engine breach!” Hu shouted. “Containment is failing!”

Azure reached out with his magic and slammed a single button on Monroe’s console.

Behind him, the antimatter fuel tanks feeding
Azure Gauntlet
’s immense engines lost containment. Hundreds of tons of matter met its opposite and disappeared in a flash of white light and unimaginable energy.

In front of him, every one of the
Gauntlet
’s missile tubes fired. Fifty-two missiles blasted into space, seeking revenge for their mothership.

Azure had enough time to be certain the Go To Hell launch had succeeded, and then the antimatter explosion reached the bridge.

#

“Got him!” Amiri announced. “Stealey, get in here!”

The Hand was in the Star Mirror chamber before the Tracker had finished speaking.

“Give me the co-ordinates,” she ordered, but Amiri had already thrown them up in the holographic tank.

The Hand took a long moment to review them, committing the distances and angles involved into her mind before crossing to the Star Mirror.

Holding the location in her mind, she laid her hands on the corded silver frame of the runic artifact and focused her power. Energy ran out from her, the Rune of Power on her arm growing warm as it doubled and redoubled her strength, interacting with the Mirror to do what even by magic’s standards was impossible for most.

The silver cords lit up, glowing with an inner fire as the Star Mirror opened and showed Stealey the stars a light year way. The sensor behind her whirred as its scanners drank in that far away light and the computers conjured up an image.

The image was easily ten minutes old, and it was terrifying.

The
Azure Gauntlet
was closing on its prey, rapidly approaching the range at which the pirates would be able to use kinetic missiles to carefully disable the
Blue Jay
.

Alaura regarded it for only moments before making her decision.

“Medici,” she snapped, opening a channel. “I’m flipping you scan data from our destination – can you arrange the jump so we arrive in a tight enough defensive formation around the
Blue Jay
to protect her from a disabling kinetic strike?”

“I’m not even going to ask how you got this,” the Admiral said slowly. “We can – but we’ll need time!”

“Do it quickly!” she told him. “The
Blue Jay
may not
have
time!”

#

The Rune had succeeded beyond Damien’s wildest dreams. With its power flowing through the
Blue Jay
’s amplifier he’d been able to reach out to the Syndicate cruiser and enhance the
Jay
’s sensor returns. Locating the cruiser’s antimatter fuel tanks had been easy, and after that, a tiny spark would have worked.