The captain’s holo vanished, and forty ships shaped like old-fashioned arrowheads replaced it. Their noses ended in fine points, and I guessed the spear-like blades were used for piercing the hulls of other ships. Any one of them could probably skewer the Stalwart’s hull with barely any propulsive force.

But their shapes and noses were the only common factors. There was no unifying color scheme, and most of their hulls were comprised of diverse materials. Laser array turrets hung atop the back two points while dual plasma cannons protruded from the midsections of other vessels. All of the weapons looked like they had been retrofitted by someone with only a passing interest in which direction they should be firing.

“Looks like pirates to me,” Joseph said to the other enchanters. “Casey, Dominic, and Brad, grab some drills and a few containers of Dust. We’re heading to Deck 3.”

We were a Beluga transport starship. How the hell were we meant to deal with these enemies? There weren’t even supposed to be any pirates within the Triumvirate, let alone forty ships worth of them. The three kingdoms didn’t cooperate on much, but at least they’d agreed upon outlawing and evicting almost all the pirate colonies from their domains. Did the presence of this hostile fleet mean we were now outside the Triumvirate’s reach?

The last thing I’d expected when Duke Barnes assigned me to the Stalwart was a pirate attack. My heart raced as the enemy vessels slowly moved toward us, so I calmed myself with the protocol I’d learned at the Academy. When unable to defend themselves, RTF ships handed over whatever the enemy desired. The crew and its ship were worth more to the kingdom than the Dust aboard.

But if these pirates boarded the Stalwart, then I would help the crew take down every last one of them. I despised rebels, but pirates were a close second on my list of people worth killing.

“Were you trained in any ship warfare?” Casey said to me as she filled her pack with drills and other tools.

“I’ve done some simulations at the Academy. Tell me where to go, and I’ll help.” My Academy training focused on ground-level fighting and tactics. Ship battles tended to be the domain of artillerymen and sailors, with the odd knight who decided to specialize in space warfare. Although this wasn’t exactly my forte, I would do whatever I could to prevent failing my mission. I couldn’t exactly spy on a crew if the pirates destroyed the Stalwart.

“Great,” she said. “You can come with us to the gunneries. The Stalwart only has a minimum crew; the guys will need all the help they can get.”

I followed Casey, her grandpa, and the two other enchanters through the passageway. The other crew members we passed were either yelling orders above the siren sounds, carrying equipment, or preparing themselves for battle by donning armor and handing out weapons. Everyone seemed like they had a job to do, and the well-oiled nature of the crew impressed me. It almost seemed like they’d been attacked before, and no one appeared the least bit scared.

The four enchanters and I entered the elevator, and Casey hit the button for Deck 3. As soon as the doors closed, I considered what would happen if these pirates boarded. There were a few knights among the Stalwart’s crew, but I doubted they’d be exceptional in a ship battle. First rate warriors wouldn’t have been assigned to the Stalwart, after all.

If they somehow survived forty ships filled with gruesome pirates, then that would only confirm that the Stalwart was more than it appeared.

The elevator lurched to a stop with enough force to drive my stomach into my lungs. The doors opened, and Casey yanked me out after the other three enchanters had exited. The three men entered the first room on the left, and Casey tugged me into the second doorway.

I followed her into a chamber filled with metal terminals large enough for one person to sit inside. Five were shield stations, and the other ten were plasma quarrel terminals. The area Joseph and the other enchanters had entered probably held the ship’s heavy cannons and rune lances.

The dome-shaped boxes burst with light as the soldiers inside them initiated the activation sequences. Beeps and electronic feedback crooned from all around the room, and I could barely hear myself think through all the noise.

“Casey!” Moses yelled from a shield station in the far left corner. “I need a hand with this.”

I trailed behind her as she ran over to the knight.

“What’s up?” Casey asked him.

Moses was wearing full plate armor and a golden tabard. The sheer weight of the armor would have crushed an ordinary man, but he was a mountainous warrior with rippling muscles. A short spear and a gladius hung from his belt, and a tower shield rested on his back. The getup gave him the appearance of an enormous armored turtle.

“This shield station looks like it’s about ready to overheat. I need you to patch it up fast.” The big man jerked a gauntleted thumb at his shield station. Smoke drifted from the runic generator behind the stall, and I could smell burning electricals.

“You got it.” Casey slid behind the metal cage and started pulling out tools from her bag.

The shield stations were two meters wide and three meters tall. Regular soldiers could use them, but they were particularly powerful when manned by shield knights like Moses. Artillerymen sat within the other shield stations, readying the ship’s forcefields in preparation for a full-on assault.

“What’s the situation with these pirates, sir?” I asked Moses while Casey worked.

He glanced at me as if only now noticing I’d accompanied the enchantress into the room. “They knew we were coming to this star system.”

“How would they know?” I asked, and my voice cracked a little as a thought crossed my mind. What if the duke had somehow been responsible for the attack? I knew he suspected the crew were insurrectionists, but why would he assign me to this starship only to have pirates attack it?

“I don’t know, Nick, but we are going to find out,” he said as he gestured for me to take one of the gunner stations.

“What do they want?” I asked as I sat on the chair where the shield knight pointed.

“They demanded our Arcane Dust stores,” Moses said. “Captain Cross refused.”

Casey laughed as she slipped out from behind Moses’ station. “Gotta love the captain.”

“Refused?” I said, unable to believe my ears. “Isn’t it RTF protocol to hand over the Dust if the vessel can’t defend itself?”

“Ha, you don’t know Captain Cross, buddy, and you don’t know the Stalwart. We’re more than capable of blowing these pirates out of space. You give them ground, and they’ll keep taking.”

Attacking the pirates rather than hand over the Stalwart’s Dust stores seemed crazy. Still, I’d always hated the law that made the RTF into victims, and the captain’s desire to stand his ground filled me with respect for a man I had yet to meet. He was standing up to those who threatened him. I almost wished I’d shown similar courage at the Academy when Ludas Barnes had first called me Poor Boy.

“Can’t the Stalwart outrun them?” I asked not because I thought we should run, but because apparently the best jump mage in the RTF was aboard the Stalwart. I thought we should have been able to open another portal and escape if we wanted to.

Moses frowned at me. “We don’t run from battles. Especially those we can win. These pirates will find some other suckers to loot, suckers who might not be able to defend themselves. You don’t believe we have what it takes to stop them, do you?” The knight nodded at the console I just sat in. “Turn on the gunner terminal.”

I grinned at the knight as excitement ran through my body like an electrical current. “Yes, sir!” I exclaimed before I punched the power supply. The gunner terminal’s giant fans whirred to life, and a gust of wind from the machine blew into my face. I activated the screen and put both my hands inside the control arms.

The monitor in front of me displayed the status of the weapon:

Weapon Type: Plasma Quarrel

Rounds: 160 (8 x 20)

Details: Medium mounted-artillery. Manually-operated. Can only fire in a straight line.

I’d used similar weapons once during an introductory Academy drill, but only in a simulation. They were reasonably archaic because the AI systems provided only minimal targeting. The basic idea was to point, shoot, and hope you hit something vital on the enemy ship.

I moved my arms around to get a feel for this particular unit. The left stick controlled the base of the turret’s rotation while the right stick controlled the gun’s barrels. It took a little bit of getting used to, but after a minute or so my first target was inside the crosshairs. The enemy vessel was quickly getting closer, and its nose had almost reached the Stalwart’s hull before I pulled the trigger.

Eight purple plasma quarrels cut through space and slammed into the pirate ship’s shields. The plasma disintegrated on the forcefield, but one quarrel penetrated an arrow-ship’s shield and hit the rear engines. Metal melted before plasma, and the ionic batteries burst into a bright blue flare. The entire ship exploded into chunks of iron, and the Stalwart rocked a little from the blast.

“Got it!” I pumped my fist into the air.

“Nice job,” Casey said. “Seems I underestimated you. You’re not too bad at ship warfare after all.”

The weapon I’d fired must have been enhanced by some kind of Runetech. From what I’d learned during Academy classes, a single plasma array shouldn’t have been able to take out an entire vessel. The Stalwart seemed to be filled with surprises.

“Try to hit them before they get so close,” Moses said to me as he glanced up from his terminal. “We don’t want the Stalwart getting hit with the shrapnel. Makes extra work for us shielders.”

“Understood, sir.”

“I better be going, Nick,” Casey said as she touched my shoulder lightly. “Good luck in here. I’m gonna see if I can find some extra firepower in case these pirates board.”

I watched her leave the gunnery before turning back to the monitor. I hadn’t known Casey for long, but it seemed as if she considered me a friend. Moses showed me more regard than anyone in my entire time at the Academy. And Dr. Lenkov had offered to help me without hesitation.

While they might be rebels, I couldn’t allow these pirates to breach the Stalwart. Dad wanted me aboard this vessel, and I had to complete the mission. I would blast as many of the arrow-ships as I could manage, and if they managed to board our starship, then I would paint the bulkheads with their blood.

I ignored the blaring sirens, wrapped my fingers around the control sticks again, and carefully moved my hands to target. Another arrow-ship drifted into the crosshairs, and the assisted targeting feature locked onto it. I exhaled while squeezing the trigger.

The turrets released the plasma quarrels, shooting them through space like arrows. The projectiles pounded into the enemy vessel’s hull, and it spun out of control until it was no longer on my screen. A second later, an explosion of blue gas and metal debris showed on the bottom right side of the monitor.

“By the Queen!” Moses yelled as he slapped the side of his terminal. “A damn fine shot, Nick.”

“Thanks,” I said, and the back of my neck heated up. Although I was merely doing my duty, I still felt a sense of pride from the compliment.

My next shot sent plasma quarrels into the cockpit of the diving pirate ship. Another turret fired at the same time, and the enemy vessel erupted from both ends. Two other vessels flew straight into the cloud of debris, and my monitor flared from the subsequent blast.

The screen was too bright to look at, so I glanced to the artillerymen inside their gunner terminals. Pirate ships were exploding on almost every monitor, and I guessed that it wouldn’t be long until this assault was over.

Before I could turn back to my terminal, the artillerymen leaped to their feet and cheered. They started shaking hands with each other, and a smile broadened my lips.

We’d done it. The last pirate ship had been destroyed.

“You did good, buddy,” Moses said as he clapped me on the back.

“Sir! Space Knight Manzo has intercepted enemy comms,” a heavyset artilleryman said. “More pirate ships are inbound. Calculations suggest they will enter this system within five minutes.”

My heart stopped. I couldn’t believe it. We’d been incredibly lucky to hold off the first attack.

I focused on my monitor and prayed our luck hadn’t run out.