The Mages of Starsea by Kyle West

Author:Kyle West [West, Kyle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ragnarok Press

By 5:00, it was early enough for a few people to be in the galley. Emma was already waiting for Lucian, her pallor paler than usual.

“Heard anything yet?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Lucian said, taking up a seat.

He couldn’t figure out what to do with his hands. And he couldn’t help but glance in the direction of the med bay. No doubt, that was where Dirk was right now. Had they told the captain anything yet? If they had, Lucian could be expecting a visit soon. Maybe it would be best to go to the captain himself. To get ahead of it, as it were.

Minutes passed as he and Emma outlined a strategy – a strategy that stuck to the truth, in case he were questioned. If there were cameras and med bay logs, then they could see it was self-defense. If Dirk and the others lied about that part, then the cameras would tell a different story. That was, assuming there were cameras, but it was inconceivable that there weren’t. Even given that, though, there would be consequences. The sick wrenching in his gut became unbearable.

“It’ll be all right,” Emma said.

The words didn’t help. He knew she was only trying to make him feel better, and those words had no bearing on reality.

The reckoning came sooner than he thought when footsteps approached from the direction of the bow. Lucian turned to see who must have been Captain Miller. He was a tall, middle-aged man, with salt and pepper hair and sharp blue eyes. He was dressed in a white Pan-Galactic captain’s uniform, complete with captain’s cap bearing the company’s retro rocket logo. Two male crewman flanked him on either side, both in plainer gray uniforms. One was tan-skinned, bald, and glowering, and the other tall, with graying hair and solemn features.

One thing was clear: they considered him dangerous, and were taking no chances.

“Lucian Abrantes,” the captain said, “follow me to the bridge.”

There was no getting out of this. “Okay.”

“He was just defending himself,” Emma said, as he stood.

Captain Miller nodded, as if he were aware of that much. His blue eyes watched her for a moment. “Rest assured, we’re doing what we can to get to the bottom of it.”

Emma watched him, her expression pale, while Lucian straightened his back to appear more confident than he felt.

“I’ll be fine,” he said to her.

Just words, too. Words that didn’t seem to have any effect.

“Let’s move,” the bald crewman said. “We don’t have all morning.”

He followed the captain and his two crewmen back to the ship’s bridge with a leaden weight in his stomach. They couldn’t kill him for this, could they? He had a vision of himself being blasted out of the airlock, a form of justice only reserved for the worst offenders. It was hard to get that thought out of his mind as they went upstairs to the second deck.

When they passed the door to the med bay, Lucian looked at it, but couldn’t tell if there was anyone inside. If there had been any blood trail leading to it, it’d been cleaned up by now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.