quietly. “But the fact remains that I can no longer trust the Protectorate. I will guard my crew from you with all that is in my power. By the time you receive this message, I will be less than an hour from leaving this system. You cannot catch us. You cannot pursue us.”
David Rice sat in his command chair for a long time after that, watching the Protectorate destroyer draw ever closer, until, finally, Damien wrapped him and his ship in a sphere of magic and whisked them away to safety.
#
“We found them.”
The words were quiet, but Alaura Stealey, Hand of the Mage-King of Mars, hadn’t missed the door to her private office opening. She heard Mage-Lieutenant Harmon, the executive officer of the destroyer Tides of Justice , perfectly clearly.
With a small sigh of satisfaction, she closed down the screen she was reviewing, filled with the latest in a series of reports from agents across the Protectorate. While the Mage-King’s instructions with regards to Montgomery had been clear, she couldn’t ignore the rest of her duties. There were too many trouble spots, here and there across the sphere of human space, which would eventually require the touch of a Hand.
“Who found them, and where?” she asked. There was no question as to who had been found.
“The destroyer Golden Sword of Freedom was making one of our irregular ‘you’re not building pirate ships, promise?’ stopovers in Amber. They detected the Blue Jay making a run for it. Mage-Captain Okoro challenged them, but Rice refused to surrender. The Mage at the transceiver provided a transcript of the conversation.”
Alaura nodded, quickly taking the sheet of hardcopy from the Navy officer and skimming through it. She grimaced at Rice’s words about trusting the Protectorate, and sighed aloud.
“I guess it was too much to hope that dropping all of the charges would get them to talk to us,” she said quietly. If only she could talk to them herself! The limitations of the use of transceiver arrays made that impossible unless she could actually convince the Blue Jay to stay somewhere until she arrived – and Rice had his opinion on that clear to Okono.
“ After Corinthian made it clear they intended to strip Montgomery’s magic, I’m not surprised,” she continued.” But, why Amber?”
Amber was a problem child for the Protectorate. While Alaura found herself somewhat in sympathy with the basic philosophy behind the planet, the fact that the world’s lax law enforcement tended to be abused by scum to do things like arm pirate ships gave her a headache.
“They were probably looking for a cargo, Ma’am,” Harmon told her. “From Amber, they’ll likely sweep out to the Fringe – carry cargos between worlds that see maybe three ships a year, and possibly three Protectorate ship a decade . They could make a lot of money, and avoid any attention from us.”
“Which will make tracking them almost impossible,” Alaura said aloud. She cursed, glancing around the tiny office. Her officer gave her command of any resource the Protectorate had to offer, and she had runic tools most didn’t even think were possible , but even she couldn’t track a starship once it had jumped. There were rumors that some people had managed it, but if they had, the Navy had never worked out how.
“Someone on Amber has to know where they’re going, though, don’t they Ma’am?” Harmon asked.
“It’s not a certainty,” the Hand told him. “If they’re smart, they wouldn’t have trusted anyone on Heinlein Station as far as they could throw them.” She shrugged. “With that said, it’s our only lead.”
“Send a message back through the Runic Transceiver Array,” she ordered. “Our agents on Amber are to try and track down who Captain Rice dealt with. Once you’ve transmitted that, get us underway. Time is of the essence if we are to find young Montgomery.”
“Understood Ma’am,” Harmon replied crisply. “I’ll inform the Captain, we
David Rice sat in his command chair for a long time after that, watching the Protectorate destroyer draw ever closer, until, finally, Damien wrapped him and his ship in a sphere of magic and whisked them away to safety.
#
“We found them.”
The words were quiet, but Alaura Stealey, Hand of the Mage-King of Mars, hadn’t missed the door to her private office opening. She heard Mage-Lieutenant Harmon, the executive officer of the destroyer Tides of Justice , perfectly clearly.
With a small sigh of satisfaction, she closed down the screen she was reviewing, filled with the latest in a series of reports from agents across the Protectorate. While the Mage-King’s instructions with regards to Montgomery had been clear, she couldn’t ignore the rest of her duties. There were too many trouble spots, here and there across the sphere of human space, which would eventually require the touch of a Hand.
“Who found them, and where?” she asked. There was no question as to who had been found.
“The destroyer Golden Sword of Freedom was making one of our irregular ‘you’re not building pirate ships, promise?’ stopovers in Amber. They detected the Blue Jay making a run for it. Mage-Captain Okoro challenged them, but Rice refused to surrender. The Mage at the transceiver provided a transcript of the conversation.”
Alaura nodded, quickly taking the sheet of hardcopy from the Navy officer and skimming through it. She grimaced at Rice’s words about trusting the Protectorate, and sighed aloud.
“I guess it was too much to hope that dropping all of the charges would get them to talk to us,” she said quietly. If only she could talk to them herself! The limitations of the use of transceiver arrays made that impossible unless she could actually convince the Blue Jay to stay somewhere until she arrived – and Rice had his opinion on that clear to Okono.
“ After Corinthian made it clear they intended to strip Montgomery’s magic, I’m not surprised,” she continued.” But, why Amber?”
Amber was a problem child for the Protectorate. While Alaura found herself somewhat in sympathy with the basic philosophy behind the planet, the fact that the world’s lax law enforcement tended to be abused by scum to do things like arm pirate ships gave her a headache.
“They were probably looking for a cargo, Ma’am,” Harmon told her. “From Amber, they’ll likely sweep out to the Fringe – carry cargos between worlds that see maybe three ships a year, and possibly three Protectorate ship a decade . They could make a lot of money, and avoid any attention from us.”
“Which will make tracking them almost impossible,” Alaura said aloud. She cursed, glancing around the tiny office. Her officer gave her command of any resource the Protectorate had to offer, and she had runic tools most didn’t even think were possible , but even she couldn’t track a starship once it had jumped. There were rumors that some people had managed it, but if they had, the Navy had never worked out how.
“Someone on Amber has to know where they’re going, though, don’t they Ma’am?” Harmon asked.
“It’s not a certainty,” the Hand told him. “If they’re smart, they wouldn’t have trusted anyone on Heinlein Station as far as they could throw them.” She shrugged. “With that said, it’s our only lead.”
“Send a message back through the Runic Transceiver Array,” she ordered. “Our agents on Amber are to try and track down who Captain Rice dealt with. Once you’ve transmitted that, get us underway. Time is of the essence if we are to find young Montgomery.”
“Understood Ma’am,” Harmon replied crisply. “I’ll inform the Captain, we
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