Read Online Starship's Mage: Episode 2 by Glynn Stewart - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Glynn Stewart
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certain of. There were a dozen or so where observers, with hindsight in place, had managed to reasonably prove that the Mage aboard the ship which had come apart into pieces when jumping had been experimenting.
The only two cases where a Mage had actually been brought to trial, it sounded like they’d got it half right – some of the ship had survived the jump, enough that the Mage had been alive to arrest. One had committed suicide before his trial, and the legal case study Damien found on the other ended with the ominous note of ‘Turned over to the Hand of the Mage-King for justice.’
There was very little sanctioned experimentation with jump matrices. The rune matrix hadn’t been noticeably changed in the two hundred years since the first Mage-King and his people had built the very first jump ships.
The only person who had ever done anything with the standard jump matrix, in fact, was the first Mage-King himself. No improvements since. Almost no research since. The few experiments that had occurred had uniformly ended in death and tragedy.
Damien was starting to suspect that he really was crazy when his door slid open, revealing one of his Enforcers, a pair of rune encrusted manacles in his hands.
“ You have a visitor Montgomery,” the Enforcer told him. “We both know you’re not gonna cause trouble, but I’ve got to put these on you anyway. Gonna make an issue of it?”
Damien shook his head, resignedly holding his wrists out as the mag-booted Enforcer manacled him and gently pulled him out of the cell. There was only one Enforcer today, though Damien saw a few of the uniformed Corinthian System Security officers guarding the cells as well.
They passed by the entrance to the cell block, where Damien couldn’t resist sagging against the restraint, glancing over the security desk ’s metal detector and armed guards. He’d seen it before, and the only thing that stood out was the black case someone had left floating in the waiting area beyond the security gate, latched to one of the hooks set there for just that purpose The Enforcer yanked a little, pulling Damien a little faster up to a door surprisingly close to the front entrance.
“Gravity in the room is that way,” he said kindly, pointing and helping Damien orient himself before opening the door. “Your Captain has twenty minutes,” the Enforcer continued. “I’ll be back for you then.”
Damien drifted through the door and dropped slightly onto the runed steel of the floor. Behind him, he heard the Enforcer’s mag-boots clicking against the door as he returned to the front desk.
The room was undecorated beyond the runes on the floor generating gravity, with only a desk and two chairs sitting in the middle. Captain David Rice was sprawled lazily in one of the chairs, and gestured Damien to the other.
“How’re you holding up?” the Captain asked quietly once Damien was seated. “This place looks like a precursor to hell.”
“ They gave me a library,” Damien said dryly, “or I’d be going nuts. It’s damned weird – I know there are other prisoners in here, but I haven’t seen any.”
“From what I’ve been told, that’s as much to keep you safe from them as anything else,” David told him. “Most people in here killed someone, and the reasons were rarely good.”
“ It’s terrifying,” Damien admitted, glancing up at the cameras and audio pickups in the corner. “I… just want this over. However it ends, I just want it over.”
“ You know how they want it to end,” David said flatly.
“ It’s not set in stone,” Damien argued. It was only in the worst cases that he’d lose his magic. More likely was twenty or thirty years at labor – he could live through that.
“The Guildmaster’s already made up his mind and summoned a Hand,” his Captain replied, and Damien felt his stomach drop out beneath him.
A Hand had already been summoned. Without trial or chance to defend himself, he had already been
The only two cases where a Mage had actually been brought to trial, it sounded like they’d got it half right – some of the ship had survived the jump, enough that the Mage had been alive to arrest. One had committed suicide before his trial, and the legal case study Damien found on the other ended with the ominous note of ‘Turned over to the Hand of the Mage-King for justice.’
There was very little sanctioned experimentation with jump matrices. The rune matrix hadn’t been noticeably changed in the two hundred years since the first Mage-King and his people had built the very first jump ships.
The only person who had ever done anything with the standard jump matrix, in fact, was the first Mage-King himself. No improvements since. Almost no research since. The few experiments that had occurred had uniformly ended in death and tragedy.
Damien was starting to suspect that he really was crazy when his door slid open, revealing one of his Enforcers, a pair of rune encrusted manacles in his hands.
“ You have a visitor Montgomery,” the Enforcer told him. “We both know you’re not gonna cause trouble, but I’ve got to put these on you anyway. Gonna make an issue of it?”
Damien shook his head, resignedly holding his wrists out as the mag-booted Enforcer manacled him and gently pulled him out of the cell. There was only one Enforcer today, though Damien saw a few of the uniformed Corinthian System Security officers guarding the cells as well.
They passed by the entrance to the cell block, where Damien couldn’t resist sagging against the restraint, glancing over the security desk ’s metal detector and armed guards. He’d seen it before, and the only thing that stood out was the black case someone had left floating in the waiting area beyond the security gate, latched to one of the hooks set there for just that purpose The Enforcer yanked a little, pulling Damien a little faster up to a door surprisingly close to the front entrance.
“Gravity in the room is that way,” he said kindly, pointing and helping Damien orient himself before opening the door. “Your Captain has twenty minutes,” the Enforcer continued. “I’ll be back for you then.”
Damien drifted through the door and dropped slightly onto the runed steel of the floor. Behind him, he heard the Enforcer’s mag-boots clicking against the door as he returned to the front desk.
The room was undecorated beyond the runes on the floor generating gravity, with only a desk and two chairs sitting in the middle. Captain David Rice was sprawled lazily in one of the chairs, and gestured Damien to the other.
“How’re you holding up?” the Captain asked quietly once Damien was seated. “This place looks like a precursor to hell.”
“ They gave me a library,” Damien said dryly, “or I’d be going nuts. It’s damned weird – I know there are other prisoners in here, but I haven’t seen any.”
“From what I’ve been told, that’s as much to keep you safe from them as anything else,” David told him. “Most people in here killed someone, and the reasons were rarely good.”
“ It’s terrifying,” Damien admitted, glancing up at the cameras and audio pickups in the corner. “I… just want this over. However it ends, I just want it over.”
“ You know how they want it to end,” David said flatly.
“ It’s not set in stone,” Damien argued. It was only in the worst cases that he’d lose his magic. More likely was twenty or thirty years at labor – he could live through that.
“The Guildmaster’s already made up his mind and summoned a Hand,” his Captain replied, and Damien felt his stomach drop out beneath him.
A Hand had already been summoned. Without trial or chance to defend himself, he had already been
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