X-Calibur: The Return

by Jackson-Lawrence, R.

  Merlin wormed his way through the hive ship’s systems, analysing and assimilating all the data he could find. His intrusion was undetected as far as he could tell, and every new system he infiltrated expanded his knowledge of the Mori immensely.

  They were far from the villainous demons he had first imagined them to be. They came from a distant world, similar to Earth in many respects, except more harsh and arid. They had evolved from creatures similar in many ways to the Earth cockroach, growing both in size and intelligence over the millennia.

  Early civilizations were composed of hives, ruled over by a single Queen, the Mori-Gran. As the hives grew, they waged war with neighbouring settlements in an endless battle for space and resources. As the Mori intelligence grew, so did their weapons, until at last they laid waste to their own world and emerged from the ruins, lost and without purpose.

  The survivors of the final battle were united under a single Queen. All hives and thus all Mori, she decreed, belonged to her, and so there would be no more war. Each new Queen would be born from her, to rule over each hive in her stead, and the Queen’s word was law. She called herself the Mori-Gran-Ra, and all Mori looked to her and obeyed.

  As time passed, the remaining hives became hive ships. Any intelligent species they discovered was immediately enslaved, put to work building new hive ships and equipment. As the number of Mori grew, hive ships were sent to the most distant regions of the galaxy in search of species and resources to grow the Mori-Gran-Ra’s empire. After tens of thousands of years, the empire now spanned countless worlds throughout the Perseus Arm and the Orion-Cygnus arm of the Milky Way.

  Merlin discovered fragments of deleted and encrypted data, stories of species that resisted the Mori and even successfully managed to drive them back when they attacked. It was when he was attempting to delve deeper into the data that Merlin felt the first prickle in his code, the warning that the Mori security system had spotted him and was attempting to find him.

  Merlin skipped randomly between systems, jumping from oxygen recycling to transportation to waste management in an instant, just about managing to stay one step ahead of the Mori security measures. Once he was free of his pursuer, he slipped back into the Mori scout ship.

  Merlin considered his options. He needed to know more, to learn more about the Mori and their weaknesses. He needed to find Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere, to help them in their quest to free the slaves, and he needed to be free of his digital restraints, to reclaim his body and once again feel his magic flow.

  Merlin missed his body and the freedom it allowed. He still wasn’t accustomed to moving through the digital world, no matter how long he had lived inside the machine. The Mori security system had unnerved him. He’d felt it following him, hunting him, eager to devour him. For all the power he had gained from transferring his mind into the computer, the omniscience and the immortality, he was weaker than ever in too many respects. He needed to be free of the machine if he was ever going to join Arthur in building a new future for humanity.

  In the end he decided to tread lightly through the hive ship’s systems, learn of its defences and devise methods to defeat them. Once he could move throughout the hive ship without fear or hesitation, he would locate Arthur and devise a plan. Together, they would free the slaves and return to Earth, ready to begin anew.

  Chapter 9

  Patience

  Earth year 6238

  Adam 359 and Orlac 552 were taken from Gar-Wan’s chambers by an elderly Mori. He brought them black clothing to wear, the colour worn by the factory workers, and escorted them down through several levels of the hive ship to one of the manufacturing levels.

  The entire level was one enormous factory, one of those they had passed through during their ascent in the lift. Tens of thousands of humans and Dorgans worked there, and it was easy to see why Gar-Wan had chosen that as a good place to hide.

  The elderly Mori walked them past machines and conveyor belts to an area full of cots, just like the communal area on the asteroid. The entire factory floor was much darker than the mine, the dim lights from above casting dark shadows around the machinery. The slaves gathered around large cooking pots, distributing bowls of a warm broth to the humans and a gelatinous gloop to the Dorgans.

  “Stay here until Gar-Wan calls for you,” the elderly Mori whispered. “Don’t draw attention to yourselves.” Adam 359 and Orlac 552 agreed, and found themselves a cot each on the outskirts of the communal area.

  The first night in the factory went slowly. The other slaves viewed them with suspicion, avoiding them and talking in small groups amongst themselves. The following day was just as difficult. Adam 359 and Orlac 552 knew nothing of working on the factory floor, and the others were reluctant to show them how to mould the wires for the transduction coils.

  By the third night, when they’d been denied food yet again, Adam 359 decided he’d had enough. Pushing his way to the nearest cooking pot, he helped himself to a bowl that was being handed to someone else.

  “Thanks,” Adam 359 said, taking a drink of the watery broth.

  “That wasn’t for you,” a tall human slave replied. He wasn’t as broad as Adam 359, but he was at least six inches taller. “Informants don’t get to eat.”

  “Informants?” Adam 359 replied, but before he could say anymore the tall slave had knocked the bowl from his hand and pushed him to the floor. Adam 359 tried to block the flurry of blows which assaulted his face, but the tall slave pinned Adam 359’s arms beneath his knees and continued to strike him about the head and chest. Orlac 552 seemed to come out of nowhere and threw himself at the tall human slave, knocking him sideways.

  Orlac 552 stood between Adam 359 and the tall human slave, while Adam 359 bled from his nose and struggled to stand upright. The tall slave stared at Orlac 552, his face full of anger and hatred. “That was a mistake,” he spat, lunging for Orlac 552.

  Orlac 552 moved aside at the last minute, relying on the training Eve 221 had given him. Though far from skilled, he managed to dodge another of the tall slave’s punches and returned a swift jab to his midsection. The tall slave faltered and dropped to one knee, breathing heavily as he looked at Orlac 552 with contempt.

  “We’re not informants,” Orlac 552 said. “I promise you.”

  “Did you think we wouldn’t notice?” another slave asked.

  “Notice what?” Adam 359 said, holding his nose to stem the constant trickle of blood.

  “Ari-Dun,” the slave replied, speaking the name with disgust. “He brought you in here himself. Why would he do that if you weren’t working for him directly?”

  “Ari-Dun?” Orlac 552 asked. “The elderly Mori who showed us down here?”

  “He owns this entire facility!” the tall human slave exclaimed. “What is it? What do you get for betraying your own kind?”

  Adam 359 and Orlac 552 looked at each other as an unspoken agreement passed between them. “We had no idea who he was,” Adam 359 said. “Our master just gave us to him, told us we worked for him now.”

  “He brought us down here and told us to get to work,” Orlac 552 added.

  “We really didn’t know who he was,” Adam 359 continued. “We’re not here to spy on you. I don’t know what we can do to prove that.”

  The tall slave got to his feet and returned to the large cooking pot to get a bowl of broth. “This isn’t over,” he said, looking back towards Adam 359 and Orlac 552. “You’d better watch your backs.”

  *****

  As the days became weeks and none of the factory workers were dragged from their cots, the others slowly warmed to Adam 359 and Orlac 552. Unfortunately, they had heard nothing from Eve 221 and were becoming increasingly impatient with their circumstances. They began to feel like they had in the mine, trapped and forgotten, living out their days in the service of the Mori.

  The slaves in the factories lived longer than those in the mines, though only just. It wasn’t that there wasn’t enough food for them all, or that the air
was toxic. There was just none of the companionship they had witnessed on the asteroid. The young preyed on the old, taking their food and water and leaving them too weak to work until they collapsed and were sent for recycling.

  “This is hopeless,” Adam 359 whispered one evening. “These people would rather hurt each other than stand up against the Mori.”

  “They just don’t know any other way,” Orlac 552 replied.

  “I know,” Adam 359 said. “It’s just, where do we start?”

  “I didn’t say I had all the answers,” Orlac 552 said with a chuckle. “I only said I understood the problem.” Adam 359 laughed with him, making those around them eye them with confusion.

  They tried to tell the stories they learned in the mine, of Earth and Ma’Han. They stopped short of telling how they had visited each of the planets, but tried to instil the sense of wonder they had felt upon hearing the stories for the first time. While a few listened intently, eager to hear more, most just dismissed them as lies and folly. They all knew they had been made by the Mori, organic machines to do their bidding. To think anything else was heresy, and the Mori masters would put an end to it.

  “We need to act,” Adam 359 said once the laughter had subsided. “There are thousands of slaves in this factory alone, and how many guards have you seen? Forty, fifty maybe? If we could rally these people together, we could strike a blow that would be felt throughout the hive. The other slaves would have to stand with us.”

  Orlac 552 thought over what Adam 359 said. His blood still boiled at the thought of his home world, of the images Merlin had shown them and the dead rock it had become. He wanted to make the Mori pay for what they’d done, and he was growing to believe that helping Adam 359 would be the best way forward.

  “Okay,” Orlac 552 said after a moment. “Where do we start?”

  Adam 359 looked around at the humans and Dorgans, resting after a hard day’s work. Most huddled together, in fear of a small band of slaves who dominated them through fear and intimidation. The small group of bullies always ate first, taking food from those who dared to reach the cooking pots before them, making it clear that if anyone else gave them food they would suffer similar reprisals.

  “Most of these people are too scared of the other slaves to make a stand against the Mori,” Adam 359 observed. “While Adam 417 carries on treating them like that, they’ll just lie down and take it.”

  Adam 417 was the tall human slave who had accused them of being informants during their first few days in the factory. He and his small entourage were responsible for all the trouble in the small conclave.

  “So we need to get rid of him?” Orlac 552 asked.

  “They need to stand against him themselves,” Adam 359 replied. “If we take him down, they’ll just grow to fear us instead. We need to show them that they’re stronger together, stronger than the Mori or the other slaves who would abuse them.”

  “That won’t be easy,” Orlac 552 commented. “Between the programming and the daily abuse, they don’t have any fight left in them.”

  “I know,” Adam 359 said. “We need to show them somehow, make them believe.”

  “I’ll follow your lead,” Orlac 552 replied, his upper lip quivering as he smiled.

  *****

  Merlin had spent weeks studying the Mori computer network and the security system which protected it. He had come to understand that the security system had rudimentary intelligence. It wasn’t like him, it wasn’t alive and never had been, but its behaviour changed depending upon how Merlin acted.

  When Merlin limited his incursions to peripheral systems, the security system seemed to watch from a distance, tracking his movements but not interfering with them. When Merlin moved towards more important elements of the hive ship, the security system grew more aggressive. Merlin had noticed the security system trying to copy pieces of his code, trying to work out what he was and how best to stop him.

  Merlin’s experiments with fooling the security system were going well. It had been relatively easy for an intelligence such as his. The security system was so eager to learn what Merlin was, so Merlin copied elements of his code and cast them far and wide into the hive ship’s network. While the security system had to analyse each and every part of the network, Merlin was free to dig deeper into the records which intrigued him.

  He returned to cracking the hidden files relating to worlds and species which had resisted the Mori. The hive ship he was aboard had encountered a species called the Teleri shortly after enslaving the Dorgans. While initially believing the Teleri to be technologically inferior and suitable for harvest, they instead showed themselves to be surprisingly resourceful.

  What the Mori hadn’t appreciated was that most Teleri chose to live a simple life, casting aside the technology which could make their lives easier. Those who continued to use the technology had moved underground, with each faction respecting the other’s beliefs, two separate societies existing upon one world.

  When the Mori attacked, the simpler people on the surface could offer no resistance, and they quickly succumbed to the onslaught. However, choosing to ignore their agreement in favour of the greater good, the technologically inclined Teleri rose up from their subterranean civilisation and did battle with the Mori. Their weapons were powerful, and soon the hive realised they had more than met their match, and so the Queen gave the order to depart the Teleri system and never to return.

  Merlin assimilated the records, identifying the Teleri system and its location in relation to the Earth. Data from other hive ships throughout the galaxy suggested they had encountered similarly advanced civilisations, to an extent where an uneasy border with a species called the Skarl had been established along the Scutum-Centaurus and Sagittarius arms of the Milky Way. It amused him to discover that the Mori were far from the top of the Galaxy’s food chain.

  Merlin looked out through the hive ship’s network. The security system was still busy cataloguing and assimilating the random fragments of code Merlin had sent out ahead of him. Searching through the network, Merlin looked high and low for any sign of Arthur, Lancelot or Guinevere, but unfortunately found none. There were no reports of problems within the hive, or of slaves resisting or attacking their masters. There was nothing at all that may point him in the direction of his King.

  In the end, Merlin was left with no alternative. He returned to the scout ship, yet again tricking the network into deleting the ship from the records, to watch and wait for a sign of Arthur’s plan.

  *****

  “Are you sure about this?” Orlac 552 asked. “He could kill you?”

  “Please stop reminding me of that,” Adam 359 replied. “If you have another idea, please, I’d really like to hear it.”

  They had just finished their shift in the manufacturing plant and were returning to the communal area. As usual, Adam 417 and his entourage were at the fore, scaring and intimidating those who got too close.

  Adam 359 had spent his evenings watching Adam 417 and his entourage. Every day they would step ahead of everyone else, taking more than their fair share, leaving the weak and the elderly to go hungry. Someone had to stand up to them.

  “Just remember,” Adam 359 said. “No matter what happens, stay back today, okay?”

  “I won’t let him kill you,” Orlac 552 replied, “but I’ll do as you ask, up to that point.”

  Adam walked faster as the slaves neared the large cooking pots in the centre of the communal area. Just as Adam 417 took his bowl of broth, Adam 359 stepped forwards and took it from his hand.

  “Thank you,” Adam 359 said loudly as he passed it back to one of the older slaves.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Adam 417 demanded.

  “Helping,” Adam 359 said mockingly. “We help each other. That’s what humans and Dorgans do.” To emphasise his point, Adam 359 helped himself to a bowl of broth and passed it to another hungry mouth in the crowd.

  Adam 417 looked down at Adam 359, a wicked smile crossin
g his lips. Before he could react, Adam 417 pushed Adam 359 backwards, knocking him off his feet. The small entourage laughed as Adam 359 was punched and kicked repeatedly.

  As Adam 359 struggled to get to his feet, Adam 417 turned and poured himself another bowl of broth. Just as he was about the take his first mouthful, Adam 359 snatched it from his grasp and held it out to another slave who vehemently refused to accept it.

  “Helping,” Adam 359 said again, though the pain in his ribs made it difficult to talk.

  Adam 417 knocked the bowl from his hand and punched Adam 359 squarely on the jaw, knocking him to the floor once more. That time, Adam 359 could barely stand, and it took Orlac 552 and a female Dorgan to drag him away.

  “That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen,” the female Dorgan whispered. “Stupid, but brave.”

  The following day, after another long day in the factory, Adam 359 stepped forwards to the cooking pot, yet again taking the food from the hand of Adam 417. That time, Orlac 552 joined him, taking food from one of the entourage and handing it to another of the slaves. Adam 417 stared at them with incredulity.

  “Helping,” Adam 359 and Orlac 552 said in unison.

  Orlac 552 fared better at defending himself than Adam 359, managing to beat back two of Adam 417’s entourage before they ganged up on him and forced him to the ground, kicking him about the face and chest. Adam 359 stood his ground against Adam 417, landing a lucky punch to his midsection before being beaten to the ground and needing to be dragged from the fight by the female Dorgan.

  On the third day, three other slaves stood with Adam 359 and Orlac 552, handing out the food to those around them. Adam 417 was much more reluctant to attack them, arguing instead with his entourage and kicking one of the large cooking pots over in frustration before walking away.

  On the fourth day, Adam 359 had a small army at his back, handing out the food to hungry mouths eager to receive it. Adam 417 looked on, his face red and fuming. Adam 359 took a bowl of broth and handed it to him.