Fleet Mage Academy: Star Sorceress: Book One by D. L. Harrison

Author:D. L. Harrison [Harrison, D. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The atmosphere at the funeral late that Monday after classes was dismal. All three deaths had been one half of a pair, so three of them had lost their roommates and the people they’d spent virtually all of the last ten weeks together with. The two surviving men had little choice but to become a new buddy pair, while Cadet Stacy Millhouse was left without a roommate at all.

She’d saved the other twenty-one in the platoon, but she could’ve saved them all, if she’d acted sooner. She’d played the odds, thought herself clever enough, but she hadn’t anticipated the instructor walking in, taking command, and totally screwing them over.

She should’ve acted then, but she hadn’t, and three of her platoon were dead because of it. She felt the guilt of it, but a part of her also blamed the arbitrary limits the intelligence branch had placed on her power.

Which is why she wasn’t feeling charitable at all when she spotted Lt. Julie Taylor loitering on the edge of the crowd as the funeral finished up.

She said, “Ella, I need a minute to speak to someone.”

Ella nodded, “I’ll wait here. Who?”

She replied, “My spook.”

Ella giggled, “Your personal one?” then covered her mouth in horror, that she’d giggled at a funeral.

She patted Ella’s leg, and then got up and moved toward Julie. She was in her mid-twenties, red hair and light brown eyes, fair skin. Right around five foot five.

“Why now?” she waved at the crowd, and belatedly added, “Maam,” as they walked away from the crowd.

Julie patted her arm, “Just want to make sure you’re okay. What we’ve asked of you is not easy, and this won’t be the first time this happens. You’re going to lose others, trying to ride that line and judging when your orders to only use your inborn powers when necessary, apply. But you should know all officers face that, this is not a unique situation as far as the stakes. They make decisions, and others live or die because of them, and that only becomes truer as you rise in the ranks, and more and more lives depend on your judgement.

“Your powers saved forty-five lives that would’ve, should’ve by all accounts, died two days ago. Try to remember that.”

She closed her eyes a moment. Julie was both right and wrong, because no other commanding officer had to gamble lives against secrets, just against the odds. That said, it was what she needed to do and what she needed to face if she was ever to reach her goals and put an end to the harbingers.

“Did you get anything from the ship?”

Julie shook her head, “No, it was clean, save for their navigational computer, we know what systems they’ve been working in. The official findings reflect the facts that they fired the missiles, and immediately engaged FTL, but that their ripple drive was badly maintained and malfunctioned, killing them all instantly in an intense gravity wave.”

“Good story.”

Julie sighed, “Maybe I should’ve waited a few days.”

She shook her head, “It’s not your fault, and I don’t mean to be angry with you.

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