Starship's Mage: Episode 4 Read Free Page B

was just the least bad plan.”

#
    The access to the station from the Blue Jay was close to the shuttle bay. The two officers, both experienced in zero-gravity maneuvering, made it there as the docking connections completed and a personnel tube extended from Heinlein Station locked onto the airlock.
    “We’re all connected up, sir,” Jenna reported over David’s wrist personal computer. “You don’t want to know what regular docking cost us.”
    “Tell me,” he ordered. He winced at the figure she told him in response. It was roughly twice what he’d expect to pay at a MidWorld orbital station. “Understood Jenna. Keep the lights on; we should only be on station for five or six hours this time.”
    “I’m guessing no shore leave?” she asked.
    “If anyone wants to pay the entry fee themselves, they’re welcome to,” David replied. “No more than twenty percent of the crew at once, no more than eight hours at a time. Everyone stays in contact with the ship at all times, stays armed, and moves in pairs.”
    Kellers looked almost offended as Jenna acknowledged and sign off. “Boss, for all my bitching, Amber is a civilized world. No one is going to get rolled in a back corridor. It would be bad for business.”
    “I’m worried because it’s a civilized world,” David admitted, opening the airlock and breathing in the air of Heinlein Station for the first time. “A lot of people want us dead, and the Protectorate wants to arrest us all.”
    His Chief Engineer didn’t reply, and David led the way down the tube. It connected to a circular corridor that could have belonged on any station in any system, with signs directing disembarking spacers to the left.
    At the end of the corridor, though, warning signs advised that the next area had ‘ thaumaturgically induced gravity.’ Most stations that David had been on didn’t bother with the expense of having Mages set up and maintain the runes necessary to create an artificial gravity zone – the weekly renewals ended up costing a lot of money.
    The two spacers carefully oriented themselves according to the sign, and then ‘dropped’ onto the floor as they entered the main processing area of Heinlein Station.
    The floor was, as promised, covered in the swirling silver markings of artificial gravity runes. The walls were plain steel, stretching up to the roof of the double-height compartment. Along each side of the compartment, half-height windowed cubicles marked the offices where spacers would meet with the officers of Heinlein Station. At the far end of the room, to make sure no one entered the station without paying all the correct tolls and fees, four men in matte black body armor carried assault rifles and grim expressions.
    I n contrast to the implicit threat at the other end of the hallway, a perky redhead in jeans and a blue tank top was waiting at the entrance for them. Her bright smile almost distracted David from the rocket pistol she wore strapped to her hip.
    “Welcome to Heinlein Station, gentlemen,” she greeted them. “Your docking fees are paid up, but you’ll need to discuss station access fees and visitor’s insurance with one of our Intake Specialists.” She checked her wrist PC quickly, and then gestured towards one of the cubicles. “Specialist Wan is available in office five. Please speak with her so we can get you into Heinlein as soon as possible.”
    Wan was a dark-skinned tiny woman with an unusually pronounced epicanthic fold for a child of the twenty-fifth century. As they entered, she waved them to the seats in front of her desk.
    “Welcome to Heinlein Station,” she repeated the girl outside. “Which of our station’s many services are you intending to make use of while you’re aboard? Passes to the station are separate for each external quadrant.”
    David glanced at James, and gestured for the engineer to answer the question.
    “We’re meeting someone in Quadrant Gamma,” Kellers told the woman. “We will also