Read Online Starship's Mage: Omnibus: (Starship's Mage Book 1) by Glynn Stewart - Free Book Online
Authors: Glynn Stewart
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was theoretically possible that the seventeenth sub-matrix was unnecessary, but it made no sense. Shaking his head, he made a note on the matrix diagram he’d inherited from the ship-mages before him. It was the only current notation on the file, all the previous notes were ‘sub-matrix in this location damaged by crate impact, repaired’ or similar minor fixes.
Still confused, he moved on, following the rune matrix forward towards the prow of the ship.
#
At the front of the ship, where the lengthy connecting sub-matrix expanded into the runes that covered the inside of the immense radiation shield, he found another ‘wrong’ sub-matrix. Four of the sub-matrices made sense, channeling the power of the jump spell out into space, but a fifth, again interfacing with the other four, siphoned off energy if criteria were met. The criteria didn’t make sense to Damien, the runes basically redefining the standard teleport spell that the matrix would amplify.
From the empty, echoing void beneath the radiation cap, Damien made his way into Rib One, following the chains of runes that linked together the major sub-matrices into the locked down decks. At the far extreme of the rib, the links broke apart to create seventeen sub-matrices, spread along the length of the outer rib, the extreme exterior of the ship. The central matrix, the one linking all seventeen together, was ‘wrong’ again. Like the runes in the simulacrum chamber and the radiation shield, it channeled away energy on criteria that read like a description of a jump spell.
By the time Damien had followed the rune matrices around to the central part of Rib Two, he wasn’t surprised to find almost the exact same rune matrix as he found in Rib One. He noted the slight differences on his matrix diagram. It almost looked like all three of the matrices were redirecting energy towards the same place if it met the same criteria.
In Rib Three and Rib Four, he didn’t even try to follow the linking matrices, heading directly to where he knew he would find the strange matrices. Each was basically an ‘if-then’ line of code, redirecting energy to a single point in the jump matrix if their criteria were met.
He floated in an empty maintenance space on Rib Four with his personal computer up, reviewing his notes on the sub-matrices. The six patterns had more to do with each other than with the hundreds of other sub-matrices and millions of other runes that made up the jump matrix, and they made no sense to him.
All six redirected energy away from the matrix, where the entire purpose of the runes was to multiply a spell that would transport Damien, personally, roughly ten thousand kilometers at best into a spell that would transport an entire ship a full light year.
The calculation he’d set to run finally finished, and the computer spat out an answer – all six runes were directing energy to the same place, likely a seventh and final sub-matrix. If his calculations were correct, it was in engineering.
#
Drifting into the engineering spaces in zero-gravity almost got Damien crushed as a load of containment cylinders of some kind swung through the space just inside the door. Only an instinctive jerk of magic pulled him back from a dangerous collision, and a voice bellowed across the cavernous space at the rear of the freighter.
“ Watch what you’re doing, you dimwits! That’s the only damn entrance; let’s try not to kill ship’s officers, eh?”
Damien remained motionless for a long moment as a white-faced assistant engineer caught up to his wayward cargo. The man gave Damien an apologetic glance before regaining control of the floating cart from his datapad. Tiny jets flared on the cart, redirecting the cylinders – which he now noticed had a ‘Warning: Explosion Hazard’ sign on them – away from the Ship’s Mage.
A dark-skinned man, not much bigger than Damien’s own slight frame, appeared out of the depths of the engineering
Still confused, he moved on, following the rune matrix forward towards the prow of the ship.
#
At the front of the ship, where the lengthy connecting sub-matrix expanded into the runes that covered the inside of the immense radiation shield, he found another ‘wrong’ sub-matrix. Four of the sub-matrices made sense, channeling the power of the jump spell out into space, but a fifth, again interfacing with the other four, siphoned off energy if criteria were met. The criteria didn’t make sense to Damien, the runes basically redefining the standard teleport spell that the matrix would amplify.
From the empty, echoing void beneath the radiation cap, Damien made his way into Rib One, following the chains of runes that linked together the major sub-matrices into the locked down decks. At the far extreme of the rib, the links broke apart to create seventeen sub-matrices, spread along the length of the outer rib, the extreme exterior of the ship. The central matrix, the one linking all seventeen together, was ‘wrong’ again. Like the runes in the simulacrum chamber and the radiation shield, it channeled away energy on criteria that read like a description of a jump spell.
By the time Damien had followed the rune matrices around to the central part of Rib Two, he wasn’t surprised to find almost the exact same rune matrix as he found in Rib One. He noted the slight differences on his matrix diagram. It almost looked like all three of the matrices were redirecting energy towards the same place if it met the same criteria.
In Rib Three and Rib Four, he didn’t even try to follow the linking matrices, heading directly to where he knew he would find the strange matrices. Each was basically an ‘if-then’ line of code, redirecting energy to a single point in the jump matrix if their criteria were met.
He floated in an empty maintenance space on Rib Four with his personal computer up, reviewing his notes on the sub-matrices. The six patterns had more to do with each other than with the hundreds of other sub-matrices and millions of other runes that made up the jump matrix, and they made no sense to him.
All six redirected energy away from the matrix, where the entire purpose of the runes was to multiply a spell that would transport Damien, personally, roughly ten thousand kilometers at best into a spell that would transport an entire ship a full light year.
The calculation he’d set to run finally finished, and the computer spat out an answer – all six runes were directing energy to the same place, likely a seventh and final sub-matrix. If his calculations were correct, it was in engineering.
#
Drifting into the engineering spaces in zero-gravity almost got Damien crushed as a load of containment cylinders of some kind swung through the space just inside the door. Only an instinctive jerk of magic pulled him back from a dangerous collision, and a voice bellowed across the cavernous space at the rear of the freighter.
“ Watch what you’re doing, you dimwits! That’s the only damn entrance; let’s try not to kill ship’s officers, eh?”
Damien remained motionless for a long moment as a white-faced assistant engineer caught up to his wayward cargo. The man gave Damien an apologetic glance before regaining control of the floating cart from his datapad. Tiny jets flared on the cart, redirecting the cylinders – which he now noticed had a ‘Warning: Explosion Hazard’ sign on them – away from the Ship’s Mage.
A dark-skinned man, not much bigger than Damien’s own slight frame, appeared out of the depths of the engineering
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