Read Online Starship's Mage: Omnibus: (Starship's Mage Book 1) by Glynn Stewart - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Glynn Stewart
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space, zipping across the empty space and grabbing a support loop with practiced skill, turning bright blue eyes on the Mage.
“Only one folk on a ship like this wears that gewgaw,” he said gruffly. “Welcome to Engineering, Ship’s Mage Montgomery. Chief Engineer, James Kellers.”
Damien carefully shook the engineer’s hand, keeping his feet and spare hand carefully wedged to keep him in place. Releasing the handshake, he looked around the engineering room in awe. There were no rooms, corridors or dividers in the working space at the rear of the ship. Designed to function in zero-gravity, the space around the engines was festooned with hundreds of devices and consoles that he didn’t begin to comprehend.
The room stretched to the exterior of the hull on all sides, and on the far edges of the room Damien saw the graceful looping patterns of the runes of the Jump Matrix.
“What brings you to engineering Mr. Montgomery?” Kellers asked.
“Looking in awe, right now,” Damien admitted. “I did my jump tests on a much smaller ship, and they had the life support and other equipment separate from the engines.”
Kellers nodded. “Probably ex-military,” he admitted. “The Navy likes to space important bits out through the keel, minimizes the point failure sources. Concentrating all of the important gear in one place allows three of us keep everything functioning, though.”
Damien took a deep breath, inhaling the faint scent of burnt plastic and fused hydrogen. “Is it safe for me to move around in here?” he asked. “I need to review the runes and make sure nothing was damaged when we got banged up.”
“The Ship-Wrights had a pair of Mages in here day before yesterday checking all of the runes,” Kellers told him, scratching the stubble on his chin. “But if you’re careful, you should be fine. My boys are not normally quite that dumb,” he finished loudly, glaring at the assistant who’d nearly flattened Damien.
With a nod to Damien, the Engineer kicked off towards one of the many strange machines in the cavernous space. Damien took a moment to orient himself against the map he’d put together on his PC, and then kicked off himself.
The runes he was looking for weren’t on the exterior hull, but as he approached the strange device they were carved on, he saw that they were close. A massive block extended in from the ‘bottom’ of engineering, with grills and strange conduits all over it. The runes ran in from the sub-matrices that connected the matrix to the rear of the ship, and Damien looked at them, tracking their energy.
The links that flowed out to the matrix on the massive metal block were barely even connected to the main spell, tying directly back to the other strange matrices throughout the ship. Whatever the other runes were doing, it focused here.
The runes on the center of the block were different from the other six weird matrices. Those had all been roughly the same, criteria triggered redirects. This just took all of the energy that flowed into it and cast a simple… fire spell?
“Kellers?” Damien called. After a moment, the engineer rejoined him, a worried look on his dark face.
“Something broken in the runes?” he asked quickly.
“I don’t think so…” Damien said quietly, eyeing the matrix. “What’s this block?”
“Block…?” the engineer said slowly, blinking at the massive piece of technology in front of him before smiling brightly. “Oh, that – sorry, I’ve never heard anyone not know what it is. That’s our primary heat exchanger – takes the excess heat from the reactor and life support and dumps it into space. Without it, we’d eventually cook ourselves just with our body heat, let alone the engines!”
The Mage eyed the runes. A spell to create heat in something that had the purpose of getting rid of heat still made no sense.
“How much extra capacity does it have?” he wondered aloud. If this was something wrong, at least it probably
“Only one folk on a ship like this wears that gewgaw,” he said gruffly. “Welcome to Engineering, Ship’s Mage Montgomery. Chief Engineer, James Kellers.”
Damien carefully shook the engineer’s hand, keeping his feet and spare hand carefully wedged to keep him in place. Releasing the handshake, he looked around the engineering room in awe. There were no rooms, corridors or dividers in the working space at the rear of the ship. Designed to function in zero-gravity, the space around the engines was festooned with hundreds of devices and consoles that he didn’t begin to comprehend.
The room stretched to the exterior of the hull on all sides, and on the far edges of the room Damien saw the graceful looping patterns of the runes of the Jump Matrix.
“What brings you to engineering Mr. Montgomery?” Kellers asked.
“Looking in awe, right now,” Damien admitted. “I did my jump tests on a much smaller ship, and they had the life support and other equipment separate from the engines.”
Kellers nodded. “Probably ex-military,” he admitted. “The Navy likes to space important bits out through the keel, minimizes the point failure sources. Concentrating all of the important gear in one place allows three of us keep everything functioning, though.”
Damien took a deep breath, inhaling the faint scent of burnt plastic and fused hydrogen. “Is it safe for me to move around in here?” he asked. “I need to review the runes and make sure nothing was damaged when we got banged up.”
“The Ship-Wrights had a pair of Mages in here day before yesterday checking all of the runes,” Kellers told him, scratching the stubble on his chin. “But if you’re careful, you should be fine. My boys are not normally quite that dumb,” he finished loudly, glaring at the assistant who’d nearly flattened Damien.
With a nod to Damien, the Engineer kicked off towards one of the many strange machines in the cavernous space. Damien took a moment to orient himself against the map he’d put together on his PC, and then kicked off himself.
The runes he was looking for weren’t on the exterior hull, but as he approached the strange device they were carved on, he saw that they were close. A massive block extended in from the ‘bottom’ of engineering, with grills and strange conduits all over it. The runes ran in from the sub-matrices that connected the matrix to the rear of the ship, and Damien looked at them, tracking their energy.
The links that flowed out to the matrix on the massive metal block were barely even connected to the main spell, tying directly back to the other strange matrices throughout the ship. Whatever the other runes were doing, it focused here.
The runes on the center of the block were different from the other six weird matrices. Those had all been roughly the same, criteria triggered redirects. This just took all of the energy that flowed into it and cast a simple… fire spell?
“Kellers?” Damien called. After a moment, the engineer rejoined him, a worried look on his dark face.
“Something broken in the runes?” he asked quickly.
“I don’t think so…” Damien said quietly, eyeing the matrix. “What’s this block?”
“Block…?” the engineer said slowly, blinking at the massive piece of technology in front of him before smiling brightly. “Oh, that – sorry, I’ve never heard anyone not know what it is. That’s our primary heat exchanger – takes the excess heat from the reactor and life support and dumps it into space. Without it, we’d eventually cook ourselves just with our body heat, let alone the engines!”
The Mage eyed the runes. A spell to create heat in something that had the purpose of getting rid of heat still made no sense.
“How much extra capacity does it have?” he wondered aloud. If this was something wrong, at least it probably
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