“I have been too. Where are you?” her daughter’s eyes glistened and were pressed so close to the camera, Igrain could see the tears clinging to her lashes.
“In Castle Pendragon, of course. I married Uther.”
“I see,” Morgause’s eyes traveled down to her belly. “When did that happen?”
Igrain smiled. “Don’t worry, this is Galois’s baby. Your brother or sister. I had one more night with him before…”
Morgause frowned severely. She had the look in her eyes like she was calculating the mass of the universe. “Will you come to Lothian, Mother?”
Igrain laughed a little. “I cannot now, but I’d love to come and visit. I miss your charming moon. It was so divine.”
“No,” Morgause shook her head. “I mean come and stay. Something is not right on Camelot. Lot and I, we went looking for father that day he was reported dead.”
“I wish they had found his body.” She cast her eyes down and rubbed her growing belly.
“I did,” Morgause said in a hard monotone, the dam that had been holding her words back, breaking. “Buried under Vortigern’s castle. Lot was there too; you can ask him.”
“What?” She glared up at her daughter. “What are you saying exactly? Did Galois go back after the war was over?”
“No, there was a bug in your home system. Lot found it. Someone was using father’s passwords while he was away. We wanted to look into it more, but our signals are blocked from Camelot. We cannot contact you or use any of your satellites that you’ve launched recently. Lothian is cut off and that can only be for one reason.”
“What?”
Morgause laughed darkly. “Are you that slow already, Mother? You were once so sharp and witty. Someone killed my father and is trying to make sure we don’t find out who. And to make sure you cannot. Don’t you see who it must be then?”
Igrain shook her head but tears appeared in her eyes. “No, I don’t know who you mean.” She reached to shut off the communication.
“Wait, please!” Morgause begged. “Look.” She stepped back and turned sideways. “We match. I’m due in another six months or so. Same as you.” She smiled hopefully. “I’m going to call him Gawain after Lot’s grandfather. He says it will bring us good luck. I wanted to name him after father, but I wasn’t strong enough to argue.”
Igrain blinked and smiled weakly. “So, you married him after all? Galois never liked Lot all that much. I thought he was a fine man, a fine soldier. I hoped he’d be in an office here. But I see now that will not be.” She sighed and bowed her head, weak from the terrible thoughts that were now playing a mean game of tag inside her head. “You will deal fairly with Lothain?”
“More so than Uther with the D.R.U.I.Ds.”
“Uther is doing what he honestly sees as best for us all.” She breathed a moment, her daughter not replying. “Goodbye, Morgause.”
With more strength than the dial could handle, Igrain turned the communication off, sparks dripping from her hand and the broken dial clutched in her fingers. She would refuse to believe Morgause for the rest of her life, she knew. She loved Galois and had wept for his death. Had she loved Uther too quickly? Had she always loved him in her heart?
He did the right thing. She had to believe that. She had to see him as the young soldier on the ship that crash landed. The boy who was hardly brave enough to take command after Contans’ death.
She had to make a journey. Not now, but soon, she’d have to go see if what Pellinore once said about Excalibur and the DNA mapping was true. It was the only way.
16
Nimueh
Merlin reread the test results from Nimueh’s scans again. The blood tests had registered over 3000 sets of DNA, which reached beyond his comprehension and had to be a mistake. The brain scans revealed unusual scarring that were not coming up as tissue. They almost looked like strings of data, but Nimueh, it turned out, was not 100% organic. She had no D.R.U.I.D parts in her. Uther had no idea and Merlin wanted to keep it that way. She was flawlessly augmented. Her brain was her own, but her heart, other organs, skeletal system, and almost everything else—even her hair, nails, and flesh—were hyper advanced organic machines.
Nimueh had communicated with Avalon, the Stones, and the Mist, and had no D.R.U.I.D parts. And last he knew she was not a child of Avalon. There was only one way that could have happened and she was too young to be a pure Avalonian unless she had dropped from the sky just years before the colonists landed. She had to have been born during the building of Camelot. But that should have been impossible. The D.R.U.I.Ds, though part Avalonian, were mostly androids. They didn’t have the same drive as other organic creatures and did not procreate.
Did they?
He touched his own skin. Was it cold? Did he just feel cold in the laboratory or were his mechanics making him that way?
With a great power of will and a sigh that rattled his throat, he stepped into the machine himself. The glass was exceptionally clean and he could see every detail of the whirring rings around it as it scanned his brain, nerves, flesh—everything. When prompted, he put his hand to the blood extraction and a small needle pricked his fingers to do a comprehensive blood test. He closed his eyes as the machine sung to him in a deep hum. He thought about Avalon. It had been so close that an organic had felt it. He reimagined the blue stones; the gateway.
A thought struck his brain as the scan touched his sensitive gray matter. Only Nimueh would know for sure. Had she come through the gate? Had she been on Avalon and opened the gate, coming on to Camelot?
A sudden snap in Merlin’s skull made him cry out and stop all thought instantly. It was a physical sting and he had heard it in his head. A strange sound like when one bounces a rock on a frozen lake coupled with a joint popping. His head instantly flared in pain like his skull had been cracked. Blood trickled from his nose.
Panicking, he shut the machine off and ran out to the med pack on the wall. He checked the mirror to make sure his skull had not indeed broken in two and threw painkillers down his throat.
He stared into his own eyes in the mirror on the inside of the medical cabinet. He knew those eyes. They were old. Very old.
“You remember?” a soft voice said behind him.
He didn’t jump, didn’t turn around. Over his shoulder in the reflection he saw Vivian. She looked just as she had the last time he saw her, probably two hundred years ago.
“Why do we do this?” He whispered, afraid to wash away the thousands of memories that had just flooded his brain. “Again and again.” He choked. “I have seen all this before. Done this before. Uther, Vortigern…Arthur.”
A memory appeared from the first time he had put this story in motion. A bloody battlefield, knights in primitive armor, horses screaming, dying men littered his vision. It rained that day. He remembered that because he slipped in mud and put his hand into a disemboweled soldier as he searched for one particular dead man. That was the first time the man he was destined to aid had died.
Vivian didn’t answer his question. She let him think, remember why lifetime after lifetime he gathered these people, first across centuries and now across planets, and watched them play out a similar story no matter the choices he made.
Merlin swallowed the emotion in his throat. “I volunteered. I said I would make the man who would be king.”
“A king of kings.” She smiled and nodded. “All of us from Avalon admired you for that. That’s why we could no longer stand by when Mab interfered. All of us for eternity, fighting over one man and the years that led up to his birth. Over and over again. The time waiting for his birth is always the hardest.”
Merlin rubbed his blood between his fingers. “They are powerful now. Mankind. Made us forget who we are.”
Vivian shook her head. “We let them. We know our powers are so great. Because we could level them with the flick of a finger, we humbled ourselves to them. The universes are theirs. We are but visitors, pieces in their stories, here to watch over
them—not to interfere. They never did kill us. Those who worshipped us said the Old Ways were gone, but we never were. We loved mankind even though they forgot us, and so we fight to save them.”
A weak smile tugged at Merlin’s eyes. “I said that.”
“In 236 B.C. On the first earth. Do you feel the same now?”
Drawing a breath, it felt like the first time. He knew he was not a machine. “I must have been afraid of what I would do,” he said. “To let myself become a servant. To lock my own memories away.”
A fire of anger and sadness passed Vivian’s eyes. She paused before she replied. “You made the D.R.U.I.Ds to serve man. The poor, stupid, base abominations. We closed Avalon to you for that abominable act. I took your memories. You and Mab fight too much. I wanted you removed.”
“I had a plan,” he said, though he could not recall what he had calculated.
“You always do,” she smiled. “What is written, you always say. Written among the stars where the Questing Beast flies, awaiting a hunter worthy of his gift.”
He didn’t have to ask, but the question came out before he let doubt sink in. “Will you help me?”
She smiled ironically. “I will try not to. I hate you and I hate what you’ve done to this world in your righteous endeavors to save it. I don’t hate my sister Mab as much as I hate you.”
“And Nimueh?” he asked, closing his eyes, remembering the woman he loved. “She was human.”
Vivian gathered her robes, and turned away towards the door. “She still is. She followed your preaching, save mankind. She gave herself to Constantine and Augustine. But that is her story to tell. Not mine. And not yours.”
***
The night creatures sang in perfect rising and falling harmony with the wind, sounding like a strange song to Merlin as he sat in the darkened stones. They were only to be activated when Uther gave permission for them to be. The pulse of the Mist still lived in the pilot glow of the stone table, but he could not bring it to full life or Uther would know. So, here he sat, wishing he could communicate with the life around him in place of his fellow Avalonians. His eyes were trained onto the sky, scanning for any sign of the planet that had been so close before. He didn’t know what to look for, but he had faith that it was out there.
“I love the sky as well,” a sweet voice said behind him. He turned to find Nimueh standing there in her white gown. She must have left the lab in his absence and followed him here. “Thank you for running tests on me.” She smiled and crawled up on the table next to him.
“Why are you thanking me? I’ve discovered your greatest secret.”
“Because now you know who I am.”
He turned away from her. “You were mortal last time I saw you. And older.”
“My rebirth is a gift,” Nimueh smiled. “You never got to experience death and rebirth. I did. I am mortal. But,” she didn’t look at him, “this time I stay. This time I came through Avalon. I am like you now. Never have I been. I thought this time, he will love me for we are the same.”
She gently touched his pale hand on the stone. He pulled away.
“Yes, that’s what I thought. I was born out of sync, coming through Avalon. But you were not there. I left. Traveled the stars and found Augustine and his captain Constantine. I knew the king you sought came from this man and so I stayed. Forever. Constantine wanted to save the human race during a very dark time. You were not there. I knew that was your prime directive: save the humans. I gave myself to Constantine and Augustine’s experiments. I could bear them with Avalon inside me.”
He had to face her again. “What do you mean this time?”
She sighed heavily, disappointment drooping her eyes. “I loved you every time. But I was mortal. Every rebirth was new. I don’t know why I was gifted to return as an Avalonian this time, but I know it was for a purpose. I won’t pass on now. No more rebirth. Like you.” She reached out to touch his hand but he moved it away. “I thought this time, with all my memories, immortality, we could…”
“You’re a child,” Merlin hissed. “And a young Avalonian, apart from her planet.”
“I have all my memories,” she shot back. “I remember loving you. How we loved. Constantine said you’d come. I trusted him. And here you are.” She lowered her hand. “You won’t have me. I only have one mission then. I have a prime directive now.”
Something inside Merlin told him how revolting having her would be. She might have Nimueh’s memories, all of them, but no mortal was ever reborn an Avalonian. She was right, she would never die from age now and they were the same. He could love her like he never had before.
“You destroyed your Avalonian body,” he whispered, trying to stop his voice from cracking.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said suddenly. “Uther wants to implement a military academy. I have the ability he is looking for to pilot those Avamechs so I’m going to do that. I am what he thinks I am: part Avalon, part Camelot. I am giving myself to his experiments.”
Merlin had to reply to this. “Nimueh! He’ll tear Camelot apart! He’s weaponizing power he has no notion to control. Things are different this time. You cannot side with him.”
“Why not?” she shrugged. “You do. You always have.”
“What I do is different. I have a plan.”
An almost evil smile transformed her sweet, young face into one of malice. “Of course, you do. Like when my father traded me to a dragon for riches and you said you’d save me. That kind of plan?”
That memory, like a fresh moment that just happened, appeared in his mind. He had failed because he refused to use his power and that was the first time Nimueh had died.
She stood up, dusted her white skirt off and began to walk back to the city. “Tell Uther what you found,” she called back. “See what that does to your plans.”
He wouldn’t tell Uther what he had found. It would be simple to hide his findings; there were millions of reasons he could say he found nothing strange about her. That also helped him avoid divulging his own newly discovered secret, but she was Avalonian now. That was new. Were there other souls that had been reborn in different bodies? This time was too different; a dark feeling of unknown crept into his heart.
17
Arrival
“Nearly every household has an Avalon Station,” Uther excitedly told his court on the bridge of the Prydwyn. “The two months for building have come and gone, our government is thriving, law enforcement is busy, and every province is nearly represented in my court.” The windows had been transformed into dozens of screens holding the faces of the newly appointed representatives from various provinces around Camelot. Some were very far away now.
“We continue to pioneer east and west.” He waved his gloved hand and pulled up a map of Camelot. It was similar to what Nimueh had done only Uther needed the synchronized glove to have the illuminations follow his movements. “You can see here how that is going. Just splendid. And the Avalon Law was passed two weeks ago so everyone has a Station and each province keep has a Cleric Capitol where all the data is gathered. And,” he smiled broadly, “the military academy is blossoming better than I had ever hoped.”
Senator Ban spoke up. His new wife from the planet Benwick behind him, her red skin and yellow hair vibrant on the screen. “My people do not entirely understand these Avalon Stations, Uther.” He frowned in concern. “I have nothing against alien technology—”
Some of the other soldiers snickered as Lady Ban pursed her alien lips.
Ban bit his tongue and went on. “But what exactly is it they do?”
“All in good time, senator,” Uther smiled. He had grown several inches over the eight months since they’d landed on Camelot and he stood up to show off his height. Such boyish boasts were not yet beyond him. “For now, let’s just say they are a way for all the people of Camelot to have access directly to this court. Or rather, us to them. Every time someone checks in and is, well, not as they should be or is having thoughts or feelings tha
t could be threatening to Camelot or any of its rulers, we will know.”
A few whispers went up at this and someone objected.
“I am afraid to tell you that objection you cannot say rightly,” Pellinore spoke up from his screen. “The details were in the file manuscript sent out a month ago.”
“We didn’t have enough time to study it!” Ban interjected. “What is your game here, Uther?”
“I have no game and to think so is to question Camelot.” His voice grew stern. “Let’s think on our cities, shall we? Pendragon is a bursting metropolis now. Buildings as tall as the sky, the sky-lanes are full of craft ferrying our people to work. Our hospital has filed nearly twelve thousand births and some of those are from cryo-mothers. We have our first, native born Camelot citizens! That is amazing. Our numbers are growing and we, as a new civilization and planet, are moving forward. I cannot express my delight at this.”
“Many sprouts the mothers have made,” Pellinore said musically.
“Camelot boasts a little over two-million square miles on the surface,” Uther said proudly. “The moons and planets are galactic wonders. This is no time for petty debates!”
At this remark, agreement was met. No one could deny that settlement was going smoothly and that land was ample. Camelot as a planet was not large by historical standards if the measurement of the Original Earth could be believed. But the entire solar system tested as inhabitable. Every moon and many small stars sustained life. Some, like Lothian, had been given out to adventurous settlers. However, some planets like Listenoise were already inhabited and the new-comers had to adopt to the culture already there or move on. So far, the settlers had avoided those planets.
“Excellent,” sighed Uther. “On to other business?”
Suddenly, all the screens went black but all the outraged voices could be heard in a sudden, venous tumult. Every console on the bridge began to flicker and static crackled around the large room with an ear-splitting feedback.
A New Home: A Sci-Fi Arthurian Retelling (The Camelot Project Book 1) Page 13