Cosmic Witch

By Kathryn Rossati

To assist world leaders with the climate crisis, Earth’s witches step forwards from the shadows. The result: cleaner oceans, safe forests, and a good amount of the population living in space colonies to prevent overcrowding.

Hundreds of years later, Cosmic Witch - the organisation that pioneered the way - have ordered the removal of environmental balancing units from four young colonies. For Tia, a guilt and grief-stricken witch aboard The Merlin – the ship tasked with the mission – something feels off.

Battling her inner demons and her crush on the captain, Tia and her friends dig deeper into the reasons behind the mission. Soon, they find themselves wrapped up in a conspiracy none dreamt possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Next Chapter
• Release date: Jan 3, 2024

Book preview

One

Tia clutched her prosthetic arm in her other hand, its normally polished finish battered and caked with mud. The damage to its intricate workings was clearly extensive, even in the soft glow of The Merlin ’s evening light settings. She had no hope whatsoever of fixing it on her own.

Lannah’s going to kill me. She’s going to ritually sacrifice me to the engineering gods for this mess and not even think twice about it.

Leaning against the smooth wall of the ship’s main corridor, prickles splintered through Tia’s muscles, culminating at the stump of her left elbow. A shiny metal plate covered the area, protecting her nerve endings and allowing her prosthetic to fit snugly in place. When it was still attached, that was.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. She’d pushed her magic too far. Much too far. The look on Drake’s – on the captain’s – face as he'd watched cut her to the core. Horror, pure and simple.

‘Well, that’s just great, isn’t it? Violating the terms of my position in one huge sweep,’ she muttered aloud. The terms were simple: avoid using her full power whenever possible or get the boot. Until now, she'd done so. It'd been easy, in fact, as though unintentional, the spellwork etched on her prosthetic (allowing it to function just like her organic arm) had the side effect of restricting her magic. And while the restriction was a royal pain in the arse most of the time, she couldn't deny it was useful to keep herself in check.

Yet having magic fill her every cell again and releasing it freely – it'd felt so good. That scared her the most. How satisfying the taste of her own raw power was. Even standing alone with nothing but the dimly lit walls around her, the rush echoed in her veins. There was also the undeniable truth that it'd worked. The team had come out safe, no injuries in sight. Unless she counted her own current predicament, which wasn't so much an injury as the delayed wrath of her prosthetic engineer for wrecking such a masterpiece.

Shuffling to the nearest control panel, Tia checked the time. Two minutes past nine, nearly half an hour since the ground team had returned. That settled it. She couldn't delay any longer; she had to break the news.

Heading for the engineer's workshop, she paused outside the door. Tucking the prosthetic under her arm, she wiped a bead of sweat from her brow before waving her hand over the door's sensor. It slid open with a hiss. Immediately, the upbeat rhythm of a King P song boomed out and knocked her backwards; the long-dead musician’s lyrics about love and feverishness thrashed around in her brain. Typical Lannah, hardly a day went by where she wasn’t listening to one of his albums. At least it wasn’t some dreary ballad this time.

'Don't speak. Don't even mumble about it, I already know. Drake called me on the comm the moment you all came back onboard,' Lannah said, turning from her workstation to glare at Tia. Taking a second to adjust her wrist supports, she then made a quick motion in the air with her fingers, and instantly the music softened.

Tia chewed the inside of her cheek, quenching down the familiar pang of envy that rose inside her. If she’d been born a Zero One, she'd be able to use Tsa marks too, and thus losing focus or going overboard wouldn't be an issue. But she hadn’t. She was a plain witch gene Zero, like the majority of witches aboard The Merlin – and in the colony system, in fact. Though none of them appeared to have any trouble.

'Come on, get on the table and let me have a look at it,' Lannah continued crisply, ushering Tia over to the operating table in the centre of the workshop and switching on the intense overhead lamp next to the tool caddy.

Nervously, Tia placed the metal arm down. It'd been ripped from her body as she'd raised it to block an offensive spell. Little had her attacker known that the subsequent shockwave she let out would flatten the colony's witches altogether and send their guards fleeing.

'The attachment is completely crushed! What in the universe did you—'

'It wasn't me. One of Dale Run's guards accidentally stomped on it when they were doing a runner. The, er, broken wrist joint might be my fault, though. I stepped on it myself when Drake gave the order to retreat,' Tia admitted, nodding to the hand dangling on by a few thin wires.

Lannah groaned and pulled her blonde hair up into a ponytail. ‘Fine, fine. I’d better set to it, then.’

The first hour passed in silence as the young engineer reshaped the prosthetic's components using a compilation of magic and precise equipment. Every so often, she'd clip a wire to the special plate connected to Tia's arm nerves to check each individual component's compatibility. Each time, a searing pain shot through Tia's left side along with the taste of rust, and the stronger the compatibility, the more intense the sensation.

Tia wanted to do something to take her mind off it, but interrupting Lannah's thought process when she was in a bad mood was asking for trouble. Her only option was to hold still and hope the repairs would soon be over.

Yet gradually, the engineer's enthusiasm for her work broke through, and she began uttering comments about her handiwork. Now talking might be an option.

‘You always wear the same expression when you fix me up. Half-annoyed but half-pleased,' Tia said through clenched teeth as her arm flinched in response to yet another component test. It looked like the last part. The next step would be to re-etch the Tsa marks on the prosthetic's outer plating, then attach the entire lot to her stump – never a pleasant experience. Such a jolt sent her reeling, and she'd passed out several times before.

Lannah picked up her thin etching tool and heated it over a green-flamed burner on a stand unsettlingly close to Tia's head. The engineer's ponytail had fallen into a mess of long strands that fell about her face, and shadows hung under her eyes.

Tia flicked her gaze down to the scuffs and tears on her top and cargo trousers. She doubted she looked much better.

‘That’s because you're particularly hard to repair. But I do enjoy the challenge, even if my body doesn’t,’ Lannah said archly, nodding to each of her joints. Though only the engineer’s wrist supports were visible, Tia spotted faint outlines of more supportive gear under Lannah’s clothes, a sign that the aches caused by her hypermobility were especially prevalent that day. ‘Do you have any idea how many extra enchantments I have to put on your arm just so it can keep up with your antics?’ She brushed a few metal filings off her otherwise immaculate lab coat with her free hand. ‘Last month you broke the fingers in combat training, the month before you melted half the outer plating, and I can't even remember what you did prior to that. And today you ripped it off completely. If we were still on Earth where I had other clients, I'd never get any of their stuff done.’

‘I didn’t do it voluntarily, it got caught when I was fighting,' Tia protested, making a fist with her organic hand.

'Yes, about that. I'm not entirely sure how things escalated that far in such a short amount of time. As far as I was aware, the idea was for the ground team to remove Dale Run's Tek as agreed. What went wrong, exactly?'

Tia shrugged. What had gone wrong? Drake said CW's instructions were clear and that Dale Run received notice well in advance that it was time for their Tek to be removed. Yet when the ground team showed up to do the work, they were treated like criminals.

A hiss followed by a sharp, sulphurous tang rose to her nose as Lannah began etching. Most of the Tsa marks she worked in were simple do-overs where they’d been partially worn away from use, but Tia noticed her adding a few new ones, too. She raised an eyebrow. 'You're putting more on?'

'No. Some of the old marks are so out of date I haven't bothered reworking them. These are new combinations I came up with to make the arm's functions even smoother, so in fact the amount hasn't changed. I try not to add more unless I need to; I know it's not good for you to have your magic restricted.' She set down the etching tool and clipped all the prosthetic's parts together. 'Now, are you ready?'

Tia sucked in a breath through her teeth. 'Sure, go ah—OUCH!' Before she'd even finished, Lannah had thrust the wires into her metal plate and twisted the arm into place with a neat click, causing white hot shards of agony to skitter through Tia’s entire body.

'Jeez, Lannah! A little warning!'

'I did warn you. You gave the okay, so I proceeded,' Lannah replied primly. 'Oh, that'll be ten dessert credits, please.'

Tia bolted upright, the fact that her prosthetic felt five times more natural than before escaping her under her sheer incredulity. 'Dessert credits? As payment? But the ship's medical cover pays all the costs.'

'It might cover expenses and time, but it doesn't cover personal loss. Designing this arm was probably the highlight of my career so far, and you practically destroyed it. And I'm not just talking about what happened tonight. You've been neglecting the maintenance routine I painstakingly laid out for you. Another month or so, and it would have been so caked in grime that it'd be out of action anyway.'

'But… but… we're best friends.'

'All the more reason to listen to me. Now, hand them over.'

'Gah.' Hopping off the table, Tia moved to the small touch-screen module to the side of Lannah's desk and input her password ready to transfer her credits to the engineer's account. Hitting confirm, she spun back around and folded her arms. 'Done.'

'Wonderful. How does it feel?'

'Losing out on Terran's dessert specials after I worked so hard to save for them? Oh, great. Fantastic.'

'Tia, stop being cocky. How is your arm functioning?'

Tia stuck out her tongue. 'Spoilsport.' Raising both arms to compare, she performed a series of simple movements. The new Tsas must have been for lightness as well as dexterity, as the metal's weight barely registered at all. 'It's perfect, as always. Thank you, Lannah.'

Lannah smiled, massaging her shoulders. 'You're welcome. Now, you didn't answer my question earlier. What happened on the colony? How did you end up fighting?'

'Honestly, I'm not sure. We went down and introduced ourselves, saying we were there on behalf of Cosmic Witch. They took us to their Tek straight away, but as soon as we started dismantling it, the guards and a team of witches were called in on the grounds that we were stealing. Drake tried to reason, but they said he was spouting nonsense and the guards drew their swords. After that, it gets a bit hazy, but I do know the witches were casting spell spears. Good ones, too – I reckon they must train in fast casting as much as we did. Well, me and the others, I mean. Seeing as you don't need to.’

She shivered. Now that her pain had settled, the workshop seemed freezing. Grabbing a grey jacket from the coat rack, she zipped it up to her chin, grateful for its cosy fleece lining.

'Cold? It's probably the shock to your nerves from the reattachment. Hold on,' Lannah said, writing a quick Tsa in the air with her finger. Immediately, Tia felt the temperature in the room rise. ‘Anyway, it sounds like there's been a lack of communication somewhere. Like they weren't expecting their Tek to be taken away at all.'

‘But how can that be? Cosmic Witch said they’d notified them. And even if they hadn’t, everyone knows they take Tek back once it's served its purpose. It's common knowledge,' Tia replied, running her fingers through the rough strands of her short hair. The Merlin had been out of conditioner for months, along with most things.

'I don't know, but I don’t like it. It's true that CW have a new leader, and there's always bound to be hiccups with management, but there's too many things that don't add up here. Before you came in, I was checking Dale Run's stats. They said it's one of the newest colonies in the system. The Tek’s magic can’t have balanced the conditions there that quickly.’

‘Maybe it’s a new model?' Tia suggested, tracing her organic hand over the neat metalwork of the other, relishing the cool smoothness. She had to give it to Lannah, it was awesomely stylish. 'They're supposed to be improving and adjusting them all the time. Besides, Drake would have looked into that before agreeing to the job… wouldn't he?'

He's been acting differently since he became captain, though, a snide voice said in her mind.

Bog off, she snapped, shaking it away. He was still the Drake she knew – the last twelve months with The Merlin getting hardly any work had just been stressful for him, that was all.

‘Perhaps, but you know better than most that when my brother gets excitable his wits tend to abandon him,’ Lannah said. 'Still, enough talk for tonight. I've got to type up my repair report, and you need to relax and let your nerves adjust.'

Tia nodded, just about to leave, when her stomach lurched and her feet lifted completely off the floor. Lannah was in the same trouble, along with all the loose equipment in the room. The ship's artificial gravity unit had obviously failed again.

'Typical,' the engineer said. She grabbed her sparkly red walking stick as it drifted towards her head and hooked it under the edge of her desk, anchoring herself in place. 'I guess the report can wait until later. As usual, this tin can needs repairs.'

'I can do it,' Tia volunteered. 'I'll be going that way anyway.'

'Alright, but check the reading first; don't feed it all of your magic right away. It could just be the wiring. And if it does need power, then only fill it up halfway. You've already used a lot today as it is. I'll top it up tomorrow.'

'Aye, aye, ma'am,' Tia said with a grin, aware of how much Lannah hated being addressed so formally.

Flipping herself around, she let her boots touch the ceiling panels, then bounded from the room and down the corridor.

The Merlin was quiet. In the aftermath of what happened on the colony, Tia wasn't surprised, but usually there were at least a few stragglers mooching around. Gyra, the only male witch on board, actually made a habit of appearing in unexpected places, gravity or no gravity. But even that flirt seemed too tired to have bothered staying up tonight – something she certainly wasn't complaining about.

Springing along as if she were wearing trampoline boots, evoking metallic rings from the panels, she made it to the closet-sized room storing the gravity unit in under half a minute. Getting the door open took more effort, however, as the sensor was set level with where her thigh would be under normal circumstances. The ship’s high ceilings didn’t help matters either, but after a series of jumps she managed to activate the thing.

Whoosh.

She propelled herself inside. Thankfully everything was bolted to the walls, so no debris floated into her face, but the space was still cramped. Pipes and wires criss-crossed and tangled everywhere, and a pungent odour somewhere between rust and stormy weather encompassed the whole area.

Locating the black, toaster-sized box in the back corner, she placed her hands on the two circles marked on its sides and took an energy reading. Zero point zero one per cent remaining. Definitely out of power, then.

Hooking her feet around some sturdy pipes, she secured her footing. Best not to go drifting if she could help it. Not when she was about to release her magic again. With her hands remaining inside the box's circles, she closed her eyes to quiet her mind. Then, drawing from the well of magic deep inside her, she poured it into the tiny box.

Her left arm ached as the newly redone Tsa marks reacted to the contrasting waves of her gene Zero power. Despite having to put up with it ever since she'd first had her prosthetic fitted, it still felt like running a marathon in iron boots. Possible, but draining beyond all reason, and her mood soured considerably.

'Stupid… arsing… thing,' she cursed, watching the energy bar slowly tick up to the halfway mark. 'Forty per cent… forty-three… for… ty-seven… c'mon, you clanking piece of sh—'

A bright red reset icon flashed on the display at the exact moment the charge reached fifty per cent. She smacked it with her real palm, and a second later her boots hit the floor, followed shortly by her rear end. A clunk from outside the room told her that someone else had landed, too.

Maybe she'd been wrong about Gyra being asleep. 'Look, if you've come to make sleazy remarks, then you'll end up with my foot somewhere very unpleasant.'

A thin, dark face appeared from around the corner, followed by a slender build mostly hidden under an antique captain's jacket that was at least three sizes too large. 'It's a good thing I only came to check up on you, then.'

Tia's heart ping-ponged in her chest. Drake!

The scars on his cheek gleamed under the lights, making his skin look like it was delicately inlaid with silver. Just under two years ago, they'd been fresh and angry. Amazing what time healed – and what it didn't. ‘I see Lannah’s done a perfect job fixing you up again. I hope you thanked her,' he remarked.

‘I always thank her. You make it sound like I'm ungrateful.’

‘Not ungrateful, just careless,’ he said, his voice taking on its new-found authoritative tone. Honestly, slap a fancy uniform on someone and they have to act all high and mighty. She'd thought he wouldn't fall into that hole, but as usual, she was wrong. Though it had taken a good seven months. Her stomach knotted in anticipation. Surely, he wouldn't reprimand her now? He'd wait until morning, after they'd both recovered, right?

His face relaxed and she let out the breath that had lodged in her throat. ‘You pulled a ballsy move tonight. I'm not complaining; we all got back safely because of it. But you know taking that kind of risk is beyond dangerous, don't you?'

‘Of course I do,' she said quietly. 'But it was at least partially planned. I mean, I didn't intend the shockwave to be so big, but I did envision it to be a shockwave.'

'I'm glad to hear it. I'll mark it in the log as a team effort, though if the same thing happens again, I'll have to put you under formal review.'

'Well, I'm not planning on getting my arm ripped off again any time soon. Hurt like hell, that did.'

His eyes dropped to the join of her elbow and prosthetic. 'Must have if you say it like that.'

The comment didn't pass her by. Hell was a familiar place for her nowadays.

He coughed. 'Anyway, the rest of the ground team are in the mess hall celebrating getting hold of the Tek. Seems the whole ship knows how much we need this job. I'm heading that way myself if you want to join in.’

Celebrating? Really? The job had hardly been a success. Especially considering what Lannah had said about the colony being so young.

'Thanks, but no thanks. They might not care about what I did right now, but they will after their heads clear tomorrow. You can walk me to my room, though,' she said, holding out her hand for him to haul her up.

They strolled along in silence until they reached her door. The whole way, Lannah's comments had been playing on her mind. Should she voice them? Or would he turn all captain again and dismiss her?

Blowing out her cheeks, she about turned and said, in one breathless stream, ‘You definitely said that CW messaged the colony about our visit in advance, right? Details and all?'

Drake blinked, startled. 'What?'

'Before we set down on Dale Run, you told the team that Cosmic Witch informed the colony of what we’d be doing. I know they must have sent some kind of message out, else the people wouldn’t have escorted us to the Tek in the first place. But it was like the colony’s officials had no idea we’d be taking it away; they even said as much when you tried to explain to the guards. Don’t you think that’s… odd?’

‘Oh. Um. Well, we’ve only got Dale Run's word that they didn't know the exacts. It might be a complete ruse. The enchanted parts in that Tek are probably worth more money than the entire colony has put together. Who knows? Maybe they were thinking of breaking it up and selling it to pirates.’

Tia considered him. He had many tells when he lied, and she was sure she’d caught at least two of them already. Yes, he was blinking too much and rubbing his right thumb and middle finger together. And was that…? She surreptitiously leant closer and sniffed. Fresh sweat. That sealed it. ‘Tell me the truth, Drake.’

Drake ran a hand over his smooth head. ‘I – alright, maybe my theory is a bit off. But I do know CW informed them someone would be coming to check their Tek. Whether they elaborated further than that, I don't know. Anyway, what does it matter now? We completed our task in the end. Besides, it’s not really my place to question Cosmic Witch’s practices, now, is it? They’re our first employer in ages.’

Tia folded her arms across her chest, trying to bury her sense of disappointment. ‘There’s a hell load of difference between checking and removing, Drake! Especially when it’s regarding something as important as Tek! And hasn’t it occurred to you that if CW have been sending the same vague message to all the colonies we have to visit, then they’ll react in the same way? It'll be chaos every time.’

He gave her an exasperated look, adjusting his stiff uniform, the collar far too wide for his neck. She wondered if he’d ever grow into it. She hoped not; the damned thing already seemed to have corroded his wits. ‘Tia, I have to do what’s best for the crew and the future of this ship. No one else was offering us work, and CW are paying good money for this mission.’

‘Lannah said when you’re set on something, you aren't critical enough of it, and she was right, wasn't she?’ she accused, her voice sharp as needles, mirroring the toxic feelings inside. Half of her felt betrayed by her own feelings for trying to keep him on a pedestal, the other was simply pissed at how negligent he’d been. And he’d had the cheek to call her careless!

She took in a breath, then another, clamping the irritation down. As calmly as she could, she went on, 'Dale Run is still a young colony. Lannah was reading up on it earlier and was worried the Tek might not have had chance to permanently fix the living requirements yet. I thought that this one might be a new model, so it’d work quicker, but now I’m not so sure.’

The lights in the corridor flickered as she spoke. What a rust bucket this ship was.

Drake shut his eyes pensively, then asked, ‘You think we’re doing something wrong, don’t you?’

‘I don't know what I think, Drake. You're the one who spoke to the CW’s rep, not me. I just… can't believe you took a job without researching it all first.' She rubbed her brow, noticing dimly that her palms were covered in dust from the gravity unit. 'Look, it's late and I'm shattered. Goodnight, Captain.’

She strode past him to the door of her room and went in, activating the lock with a wave of her hand over the sensor. After a minute, she heard Drake's footsteps disappear the other way.

Two

Drake hovered outside Tia’s door, his head heavy. Her words had woken a dull chill in his stomach. He should have done his research before accepting, just like she’d said. But then that always spiked his anxiety and sent him spiralling into a hole of never-ending what ifs . Trusting things at face value was far easier, especially when the information came from one of the biggest organisations in space.

This is exactly why I didn’t want all this responsibility. I think I’m doing my best, when it turns out I’m just playing it safe for myself.

Swallowing down the thought and the bitter shame on his tongue along with it, he about turned and made his way to the library, which was located next to his own quarters. There were three more colonies The Merlin had been commissioned to visit, and like Dale Run, Drake had no idea how old any of them were. New colonies were popping up all the time – since Cosmic Witch pioneered the way for living in space, nearly a quarter of Earth’s population had migrated out there – but as ship’s captain,