"I'm home!" Jack called as he stepped through the door, bone weary after his and his friend's conversation with the mysterious mage.
"Jack!"
Jack grinned and leaned down to catch the child racing towards him. "Hey, Les."
Les's older sister, Sarah, looked up from the datapad she was studying at the table and smiled briefly at Jack. "Welcome home."
"Thanks," Jack said.
Sarah's brow furrowed. "Les, go get ready for bed."
"But I want to play with Jack!"
"Maybe tomorrow. It's time for bed now."
Les sighed. Jack set him down and he ran off for the 'fresher cabinet at the back of the flat. Sarah set her datapad down and looked expectantly at Jack. "What is it?"
Jack sighed and sank down into the chair across from her. Sarah was a few years younger than him, but was one of his oldest friends. Their fathers had worked together as crew on a supply ship that ran between Proserpina and settlements on the three moons, and Jack had spent most of his days in Sarah's family's home, in the care of her mother while their fathers were offworld. He had been with them, and baby Les, when a reactor leak had led to the supply ship blowing up while on Taothea—taking half of the settlement with it. Sarah's mother had died a few years later, and Jack had taken responsibility of Sarah and Les from that point on.
"Jack, come on; what happened?" Sarah pressed, reaching across the table to take his hand.
"Sarah, do you believe in magic?" Jack said finally.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sarah asked.
"I mean… Well, your mom used to tell us stories about space mages when we were kids. And even in school we learned about how they used to act as the protectors of the galaxy, and stuff like that. But they died out in some of the old wars. Do you remember?"
"Sure," Sarah shrugged. "Everyone's heard the fairy tales. But that's all they are—stories."
"I'm not so sure," Jack sighed. "Race and Elmer and I met this guy on our way home tonight. He… Well, he stopped time. Well, okay, technically he didn't stop it completely, but he slowed it down a lot."
Sarah arched an eyebrow. "Really."
"Look, I know it sounds crazy. I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. But Race and Elmer were there too—they experienced it right alongside me."
"Are you sure you just didn't drink too much Corellian firewhiskey at the cantina?" Sarah quipped.
"No; I had one glass of spotchka when I got there. We weren't drunk."
"Jack, this is insane. People can't just stop time, or slow it down, or whatever."
"That's what I thought!" said Jack. "But then we met this guy and I guess now I've changed my stance on magic."
"What did this 'guy' want with the three of you anyways?" Sarah asked.
Jack paused. He didn't think that Sarah would believe him if he told her the whole story David had told them…
"I work for a very powerful man in the Core worlds," David explained. "Most of what I do nowadays is keep an eye on his kids for him. He wants to keep them safe, and I'm the best way for him to do that. Except… recently, I failed. His daughter was captured by pirates, and his son was gravely injured. We barely got him to Proserpina in time to save his life. Now I'm left with the task of rescuing the girl, but we lost several members of our crew in the battles with the pirates."
"What does that have to do with us?" Race asked.
"Again with the interrupting!" David sighed. "I cast the spell 'In Time of Need' in the hopes that it would lead me to the best people to fill in the crew in order to also help us accomplish our mission. And, since it led me to the three of you… I guess you're it."
"He offered us jobs," said Jack finally. "On his ship. He said they're down some crew, and he offered to hire us."
"And he needed magic for that… why exactly?"
"He said he used a spell to find the people who would be the best fit for the crew," said Jack.
"So that's you, Elmer and Race?"
"Apparently," Jack shrugged.
"Are you going to take the job?"
Jack paused for a moment. "I want to. This could be my chance, Sarah. My chance to get off Proserpina for good—to get you and Les out of here. And it's not like it could be worse than working on the docks."
Sarah shrugged. "It's your choice. Don't stay here just for us."
"I have to get off this planet, Sarah," Jack sighed. "I can't die here like my dad. I want to go somewhere with wide open skies, that doesn't smell like exhaust fumes. Maybe see grass and real plants that live in the ground, not in pots and window boxes and hydroponics systems. Clouds that aren't just straight-up pollution."
Sarah smiled fondly. "Sounds like a nice place."
"I'll take you there someday," Jack promised. "You and Les."
"Sure," she said. She stood up from the table. "When do you leave?"
"He said to meet us at his ship in a week. They're doing maintenance and repairs. I have that long to make up my mind."
"Sounds like you already have," Sarah said.
Jack sighed. "Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see where I'm at in a week."
.*.*.*.*.*.
"Well?" Spot asked, stepping out from the shadows around the gangplank of the Banner.
"Well?" Davey repeated, stopping at the foot of the gangplank. He did his best to school his features into neutrality, unwilling to admit how badly Spot had scared him.
"Did your spell work?" Spot asked, crossing his arms. He moved to stand close to Davey, glaring up at the taller man.
"As far as I can tell," Davey replied, drawing himself up to his full height. "Do you doubt my abilities, Captain?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Spot spat. "Why should I trust that your magic can find better people for my crew than I can from interviewing free deckhands around the docks? I could find the people with the best skills to compliment the crew we still have, and to buffer our ranks for our next run-in with those pirates—because I guarantee that we'll be meeting them again, if we're to go after Katherine."
Davey sighed. "Captain Conlon, what I do is magic. Not science. I told you about the spell I was planning to cast, and what it does. It will find us exactly what we need to accomplish our goals, whether that is personnel, tools, et cetera. As a matter of fact, it did find us personnel—three young men who I firmly believe will make excellent additions to our crew."
He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. "But, I have to admit… This spell isn't exactly in my realm of expertise."
Spot arched an eyebrow. "Care to elaborate on that?" he snapped.
"I'm an evocation wizard, primarily," Davey explained. "That means that the majority of my spells… create something. Fire, air currents, acid—I mean, you've seen me in a fight. Evocation wizards are good for battle, but not so much for support. The spell I cast was a divination spell. Divination wizards see the future, read minds, see through invisibility… That sort of things." He smiled fondly. "My mentor was a divination wizard. She was… very powerful. There were even rumors that she could manipulate time and space itself, before she disappeared. She… she would have known exactly what to do right now. Anyways, divination isn't really my strong suit. So, while I'm sure the people I've found will help us… I can't be exactly sure how, or if they're the absolute best solution. I just have to trust that the spell has done its job."
Spot grunted and shoved his hands into his pockets. He pushed past Davey and headed up the gangplank. "Guess we'd better hope that you're as good a wizard as everyone seems to think you are."
Davey sighed again and followed Spot up the ramp. "Guess we'd better," he muttered.