Starship's Mage: Episode 3 by Glynn Stewart Page B

calling him for nothing. “What’s wrong?”
    “ I’m not sure,” the Pilot replied. “They docked further back than I was expecting – close enough that they could reach the shuttle bay. It’s making me nervous.”
    “Are you armed?”
    “ Strapping the suit on now,” Singh replied grimly. “I’m getting twitchy.” In the background, David heard someone shouting, and then Singh was speaking urgently. “Shit! They’ve fired a boarding tube at us – we’ve got…”
    The signal dissolved in distorted static. A type of distorted static that David hadn’t heard since he’d left the Navy – jamming .

#
    Damien had followed Jenna and Kellers to the buffet table, but was spending his time watching the crowd, not eating the food. It had been years since he’d gone anywhere in public without the gold medallion proclaiming him a Mage, and it was odd to realize just how much extra personal space and minor courtesy the coin gave him.
    The noticeable decrease in his personal ‘bubble,’ despite the relatively sparse crowd at the Festival Hall, put him on edge and alert. The first thing he noticed was Group Commander Mons, standing by a rotund man of Damien’s own height. Carefully, he turned away from her, looking first at the buffet table, and then past it.
    The back wall of the Festival Hall had been covered in curtains painted in a mural of an agrarian landscape entirely out of sorts with the buzzing industry and paranoid security of the city so far. He was looking to see if the artist had hidden any hint of the reality of life on Chrysanthemum when the breeze from an opening door flipped aside the curtains, revealing who was coming through that door.
    Three black armored soldiers with face-covering helmets, armed with familiar looking stunguns, were now hiding behind the curtain. Where there were three, there were likely more.
    He slipped over next to Jenna, grabbing a glass of champagne to cover his approach.
    “ We have a problem,” he told her while pretending to sip. “Soldiers behind the curtains. I doubt they’re here to seize the Legatans.”
    The XO didn’t seem to hear him for a moment, and then sighed. “Let’s make for the Captain.”
    “ He’s got Group Commander Mons with him,” Damien replied, noting as David stepped away from the President.
    “ She’s not a squad of soldiers looking to shoot us,” Jenna pointed out, putting her glass on the buffet table and gesturing for Kellers to join them.
    As the three made their way over to David, Damien saw the Captain jerk in surprise, and pull his PC away from his face, as if the noise it was making was painful. Out of the corner of his eye, though, he saw the soldiers stop trying to hide as they saw the Blue Jay ’s officers moving away.
    A dozen soldiers, armored in faceless black unmarked except for a gold chrysanthemum emblazoned on their chest, cut through the crowd like sharks through water. Even the officers and other soldiers in the crowd parted ways, clearing a rapidly growing space around them as they reached David. The Captain looked up at the arrival of his officers, and then beyond them.
    Before any of the Blue Jay ’s officers could speak, however, Group Commander Mons stepped forward, between them and the soldiers, and turned to Larson.
    “What is the meaning of this?” she demanded. “These people are under the protection of the Directorate!”
    “ I apologize, Group Commander,” Larson told her. The President’s voice was oddly childlike, and yet utterly flat. “These people are wanted by the Protectorate for major crimes. I would be remiss in my duties as the leader of a Protectorate world if I allowed them to go free.”
    Mons glanced at David, who shrugged back at her.
    “Did you think Ricket hired a perfectly clean crew for his illegal delivery?” the Captain asked.
    The Legatan glanced past David and met Damien’s own gaze. Her eyes widened at the sight of the Mage, and Damien inclined his head slightly. He