Read Starship's Mage: Episode 1 for Free Online Page A

make out the four flattened structures that contained crew quarters, and the hundreds of standard ten thousand cubic meter containers attached to the central keel’s cargo spars.
    Launching from the central, immobile, hub of the station forced the ship to build up her momentum entirely on her own. It took easily ten minutes before the minuscule thrust of the ion thrusters moved the Summer out of the station’s safety zone and rotated her to face out-system. Once the ship was in position, the massive fusion rockets at the end of the central keel flared to life. The window between Damien and the rockets darkened noticeably to prevent the light of those miniature suns from injuring the patrons’ eyes.
    Watching the ship burn away from Sherwood, it finally sunk into Damien why Grace had been looking for him even before her Captain had asked her to. It would be months, even years, before the Gentle Rains of Summer returned to Sherwood. If Damien went on another ship, it was exceedingly unlikely that he would be in Sherwood when the ship returned. Last night had been the last time they were likely to see each other.
    Damien pulled the data disk out with a sigh and eyed it. The PC on his wrist could read it and place a call. On the other hand, the Blue Jay ’s dock was only ten minutes drift through the zero-gravity section of the station.

#
    “David, there’s a young Mage here to see you,” Jenna told Captain Rice, sticking her head in the office just off the bridge. The bridge and his office, located on Rib Four, had only had gravity restored about two hours before, and David was trying to catch up on the paperwork his insurance agent was inflicting on him.
    David suspected he’d never seen this much paperwork for insurance before because he’d never seen insurance work progress so quickly, but the agent was taking an almost gleeful pleasure in ramming through the Blue Jay ’s repairs before his superior could find some way to argue against the sworn affidavits of the bridge crew of a Martian destroyer.
    “A Mage?” he asked, to be sure he’d heard correctly. His best efforts to try to track down a Jump Mage without going through the Guild hadn’t produce much more than vague promises, and his best hope of poaching a junior Mage from someone had just left port, Michaels assuring him that ‘steps had been taken.’
    “He says his name is Damien Montgomery – and that Captain Michaels sent him,” his first officer advised, glancing at the small pile of authorizing data disks on Rice’s desk. The stocky blonde flashed a bright smile at her Captain. “I’ll send him in, shall I?”
    “Any distraction from Mr. Clarke’s mountain of helpful paperwork,” Rice told her, agreeing with her implied glance. For that matter, David was willing to meet with any Jump-qualified Mage, even if they had three heads and only spoke Sanskrit.
    The ‘young Mage’ that Jenna showed into his office a minute later, though, was barely more than a boy. Dark-haired, short and slim, he was probably older than he looked, but David would have placed him at maybe sixteen years old.
    “Captain Rice, I’m Damien Montgomery,” the youth introduced himself calmly. Instead of the tie that David would have worn with the dark slacks and shirt combination he was wearing, Montgomery wore a black leather collar holding a gold medallion against the base of his throat. As the youth stood across from David, the Captain recognized the tiny three stars carved into the medallion that marked him as Jump-qualified.
    “Have a seat Damien,” Rice told him. “I’d ask if you were here about the Ship’s Mage posting, but I’m afraid there is no posting.”
    “So I was told,” Montgomery said quietly, settling into the proffered chair. “The Governor has blacklisted you. The Guild won’t let you hire anyone.” He paused, and shrugged. “I’ll jump for you.”
    Rice regarded him levelly.
    “As you said, the Guild has blacklisted us,” he said