“What is going on?” Uther commanded.
“I don’t know!” Ector’s voice was frantic as he tried to recall the computers in total darkness.
Then a deep, dragon-like voice spoke from the communication unit.
“Are you the Pendragon?”
Uther waited and his crew grew silent. “I am, founder of Camelot and who are you who disrupts my court like this?”
The screens flickered and then an image appeared. The bridge was bathed in dark red colors as the mysterious speaker’s face filled every screen. Uther knew that all of his representatives could see it too. The figure sat in a primitive-looking throne made out of broken industrial metal and wrapped loosely in what seemed to be red silk. Behind it, a fiery background shimmered from heat waves. Seated in this throne was a black-skinned demon with a white mane of long hair and glowing green eyes. The horns on his head swept back from his head and upwards as he looked down into Uther’s eyes.
“Who are you?” Uther gasped.
“Don’t be so scared of my appearance, human. I know your legends and I am not what you think I am.” The creature rose and easily stood seven feet tall. A thick, dragon-like tail waved behind his hooves. “I am Hengist, brother to Horsa, whom you killed at Vortigern’s palace.”
“I killed no one!” Uther shouted a little too quickly and too loudly. “Where are you from and what do you want with me?”
Hengist nodded his great horned head and reseated himself in his throne. He placed his hand on a large, round shield next to his throne. It was dented, burned, and looked as though blood had spattered on it. “But you did kill, Pendragon. My brother had come to Camelot to investigate you and this man Vortigern told us of your treachery. My brother took council from me and volunteered to supply Vortigern with any supplies he may need. During the negotiation, you attacked.”
Uther remembered the strange weapon Vortigern had shot at him with. It had been powerful enough to hit and slow Excalibur down. It must have been from these alien creatures and their fiery planet.
“I did not know your brother was in Vortigern’s palace.” Uther felt the need to stand to address this alien. “But if he was, know that you threw your lot in with the wrong man. Vortigern was a traitor and a murderer. He killed my brother. I understand your pain.”
A strange, deep, and guttural sound emitted from Hengist’s throat after Uther’s last statement and the court was astonished to realize the alien demon laughed as his shoulders began to quake.
“Uther Pendragon!” he shouted and the screens went black with static. “You know nothing of pain!”
Just as suddenly as everyone had vanished from the screens, they were back. An outrage of cries and questions pulverized Uther’s ears as every representative began to shout out for answers. Uther had none.
“Pellinore, you’ve lived in this solar system longer than we have, of course. Who was that?”
Closing his large black eyes, Pellinore looked pale. “That is Hengist of Cantus XII, a fire planet of poisonous gasses and industry. They are known for their ever-advancing manufactory. Their number, twelve, is a description of the number of revolutions they have had in this lifetime. No one understands their calendar. But for all their efforts into moving forward, they are a backwards people. They kill for the throne and have abandoned all morals and religion.”
Uther began to tremble. A frightening being had declared his hate for him and may have even threatened him and he didn’t know where to begin.
“Might I suggest banning your men and settlers from pursuing Cantus XII,” Pellinore said.
“Yes,” Uther said to the representatives present. “I will put out a system-wide ban on Cantus XII. Ector, get a note to Merlin and Nimueh about it and have Nimueh inform the other D.R.U.I.Ds. No one is to speak to them or come in any contact with Hengist or Cantus XII!”
***
Igrain was driven nearly mad over the next three days. Uther raged with the threat from Cantus XII and would not sit still to listen to reason, advice, or council from her. She didn’t matter now that military issues had to be taken into account. The threat to Camelot became more important and Camelot was Uther’s first love.
“I do not want you involved in this!” he shouted one morning when he had found her looking at astral maps and polishing her pistols. “Perhaps I shall send you away for safety. I cannot think with you near!”
“Uther, please,” Igrain tried to laugh it off. “I am only being prepared. You wouldn’t have me stranded if an attack came, would you?”
“I would be here to protect you, now go!” In a blinding anger, he waved the maps away and took her guns from the table then stormed out shouting something about a war meeting.
Waiting about four breaths before she moved, Igrain stomped to the window and looked out. The city’s edge below was out of her sight now. It seemed to go on all the way into the horizon. What had once been a ship had become a palace and city. Now the metropolis of Pendragon reached beyond normal sight. The flying vehicles were busily zooming around for jobs and pleasure now. Uther really had done it. He had made a new planet, settled, and established in less than a year. She wondered if this is what life had been like for her ancestors on Original Earth. She would never know. She was disconnected from the human race’s origins.
“Merlin,” she said into her wrist com-unit. “I am ready to depart when you are. Meet me in the hanger.”
***
“Thank you,” Igrain panted, taking Merlin’s offered hand as they made their way up that now-familiar slope to the mountain ridge where Excalibur lay trapped. “I feel so huge these days, I’m afraid to step on stairs sometimes.” She laughed.
“It is good to see you smile, Igrain,” Merlin said. “I cannot imagine how these last few days have been for you.”
“I’ll tell you if you don’t mind the ravings of an ex-soldier mixed with the ramblings of a woman with child.”
They broke over the last great climb and through the foliage to the great sight of the mecha, kneeling in the mountain. Flora growth covered parts of the mecha and small animals had made their homes in its hand and on its shoulders near its head.
“It almost looks sad,” she commented.
“Avalonian mecha are strange that way,” he explained. “There is something about them we do not understand. Something more Avalon and less tangible.”
Igrain looked at Merlin sideways and asked sadly, “Do you ever wonder about Avalon? About where you came from?”
He began to pick leaves off of the mecha’s fingers. “I don’t know. I don’t even know if I’ve ever seen it. Some D.R.U.I.Ds who are less Avalonian than others have memory implants taken from true Avalonians. I do not know if what is in my head is there from the microchips or from my life. I know things, but I cannot explain how I know them.”
Igrain could see he wanted to go on with this thought, but he stopped himself.
“But you are real.” She squeezed his hand. “You feel and you have a heart.”
“Those things can be made.”
“Feelings?”
“Programmed to imitate.”
She tried to laugh his excuses off, but couldn’t help understanding. “I feel that way sometimes.”
Now Merlin scoffed. He shook his head. “You are a human. Being such, you are entitled to commodities like feelings and emotion. Not logic so much, but everyone has faults.”
She genuinely smiled now. “I know you have feelings.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I don’t.”
Choosing to ignore this last comment, Igrain walked up to Excalibur and examined it up and down in the sunlight. It was beautiful and yet frightening. And even more so if what Pellinore had said was true. But that would mean more questions. If Uther’s heir already lived somewhere, where was the child?
“Has Uther had a romantic affair I don’t know about?” she asked Merlin. “You know his every move. Was there anyone before me?”
“Never before
you,” he answered honestly.
Then who? she wondered. She stretched her hand out and stroked the mecha’s hand. A sudden surge of energy made her limbs spasm and take hold of the mecha tightly. The shock ran up her arm and into her torso with electric violence. With a tiny scream, she fell backward and gasped for air.
After panting for a moment, she realized her lungs had momentarily constricted. Her breath eased, but then a new terror seized her. Looking down, she saw the entire white front of her dress drenched in mysterious fluids.
“Merlin!” she cried.
“Are you hurt?” Merlin’s hands twitched around the apparently wounded area as he tried to avoid touching her rudely. “What has happened?”
“Ah!” Igrain screamed at the top of her lungs, clutching her stomach. Suddenly, it felt as though every muscle and nerve in her gut, thighs, and back were being shredded by razors.
“Merlin!” Her speech choked, mangled as she couldn’t even take a breath, “The baby is coming!”
18
Birth
“I’ll call a transport.” Merlin leapt to his feet as though to start away, but Igrain screamed to make him come back. Words seemed to be failing her. “What is it?”
“Don’t leave,” she managed to squeeze out between breaths. “Just stay, I may need you.”
“But I don’t know what to do,” he said. “What do I do?”
“Use your instincts!”
***
“Air space invaded by unknown aircraft, sir!” Ector called suddenly from his station.
“And no word on your wife,” Urien, the science officer called out. “Shall I keep trying?”
“What is in our atmosphere?” Uther screamed at Ector, ignoring Urien.
“We’re having a hard time tracking it.” He frowned and his fingers were gliding rapidly over the glass screens, attempting to lock on to the flying object. “It keeps vanishing and then reappearing several meters away. Locking on is near impossible right now.”
Uther leapt from his seat and marched to the rail. “Call Pellinore, he must know. And Urien, can you contact the flying object? Or scan it or something?”
“Trying it now, sir.” Urien put on the slim glasses that used to rest on Lot’s face and began to track the thing across the skies and its bizarre patterns.
His nails gripping into the steel railing, Uther squinted at the screen as Ector tried and failed to lock an image of the object. With this new threat, the thoughts of Igrain were almost driven out of his mind. She had been so odd the night before his council meeting and he had perhaps been too harsh with her for her disapproval. She had asked him to step down and call for a vote. She had even gone so far as to suggest that there not be one ruler over Camelot with various representatives and senators. She wanted each province to be self-governing.
“You don’t understand the division that would create,” he had said. “Diversity like that, so early in our history, would weaken us. We must stand together. This is not like it was on our planet of origins. There are very few of us compared to then.”
He had been right, he was sure. This was a time for unity and the thing invading his atmosphere would make a prime example.
“Urien, if you cannot identify it,” he paused. “Shoot it down.”
If any of the men felt uncomfortable about this last order, not one of them showed it. They were chained to their tasks either by fear or agreement. At this rate, none of them wanted to find out what would happen if they crossed Uther.
“Biomaterial!” Urien yelled at last. “It’s some kind of life-form.”
“Is it from here?”
“Scanning now… I don’t think so. None of the elements match up with Camelot’s known materials.”
Uther smiled. “Shoot it down.”
“Sir?” Urien’s hand hovered over the controls. “We don’t know enough about it. What if it’s a kind of bio-explosive or if there’s a poison inside? We could do more harm than good if we shoot it.”
“Are you questioning me?” Uther boomed in his deep, commanding voice. “I know what is best for this planet and this colony. Shoot it down, I said!”
“Yes, sir,” he replied in a low whisper.
All eyes trained onto the view screen above as Urien took aim with his scope on the screen. Every time he had it, the thing vanished in a cloud of black dust and reappeared meters away just as he had said.
“Locking on is still difficult,” Urien apologized.
“We need an android. Where is Merlin?” Uther shouted over the com-units and to the bridge at large.
No one answered and anxious looks were passed around.
“Where is he?” Now Uther’s voice held a threat. His men knew, but they did not say anything. Their silence spoke of treason worthy of the king’s anger. “If someone does not tell me, you will be charged with withholding information from your supreme ruler and removed for treason. Where is Merlin?”
“I can help!” a sweet voice called from the sliding doors the lift that just hissed opened. “I can help you, Uther.”
Nimueh skipped in, as gleeful and carefree as a girl in a park. She vaulted over the rail and landed lightly, scampering over to Urien. Taking his screen glasses, she put them on and instantly followed the vanishing object.
“I see a Cantus being,” she chirped.
In an instant, the image cleared as her sharp eyes followed the being. Her mind could calculate when it would vanish and where it would reappear, making tracking it a simple flow.
“How is it doing that?” Uther asked.
“Cantus beings build armor around their bodies that are inner-focused dematerializers. This lets the armor aim inside itself, fracture the body in it, and then the outer armor transports it to a new location.”
“How does the armor follow?” Ector asked. “If it happens from the inside?”
“Mirror technology,” she said simply. But the others didn’t understand.
“Never mind, Nimueh. Can you lock on to fire?” Uther asked.
She pushed the glasses up off her face and crossed her arms. “You don’t want to do that. Pellinore told me that if you do, a war will start. He said a good king does not make war; he only defends in times of other people’s wars.”
Pausing, Uther watched the screen again. The Cantus being didn’t harm anything. It simply flew around the horizon. Perhaps looking for a weak spot. Yes, that seemed rational. He could just kill it and perhaps no one would know.
“It may be an organic probe,” Ector said cautiously. “You know, just checking things out. To see what we are, scout out our defenses. Maybe.”
Now he had to think. There was no way of knowing. The thing could be trouble or it could be gone in a matter of hours. But it was in his atmosphere, in his airspace. Technically, this counted as an invasion whether it thought so or not. Camelot needed to be protected.
***
The screaming came from Igrain and the tiny life force that had fallen from her womb to the grass.
Tears drenching her face, Igrain looked down at the small human baby in her arms. Joy and gladness filled her aching chest at the sight of it breathing and that it had all of its prospective limbs, fingers, and toes. But its veins were pulsing a dark purple and the baby panted ceaselessly. Clutching it, she struggled to stand.
“What’s wrong with him?” she pleaded with Merlin. “Look at him.”
But Merlin smiled, a strange expression to be on the somber Avalonian’s face. “He’s fantastic, what do you mean? Look, he’s healthy and has a great mixture of Avalon and human DNA.”
“Avalonian?” she gasped.
Merlin looked at her through his brows as his head tilted down towards the baby. “How? It must be from you or the fa…” he stopped himself. Igrain had hardly any Avalonian work done. She was practically clean. It had to have been from the father. From Uther disguised as Galois with more Avalon in him than human.
“Perhaps from contact with Excalibur?” he guessed stupidly. Igrai
n frowned menacingly. Her teeth gnashed as she deepened her scowl. She shook trying to hold back her crying
“What did Pellinore mean by Uther’s heir?” She saw him put up defenses before he even spoke. “Damn it, Merlin, tell me!”
Then it happened. She convulsed and began to choke. Her arms fell limp and the baby tumbled from her grip. Merlin quickly caught it and held it awkwardly at arm’s length while catching Igrain as well. Her veins bulged on the sides of her head and blood continued to pulse out of her. She hadn’t stopped bleeding.
Behind them, Excalibur glowed and red Mist began to leak out. The com unit on her wrist beeped. The name on it took Merlin by surprise: Morgause. It was more than fate that she would reach out to her mother now.
“Igrain, we have to move. The mecha activated because of your son and the power surge after all this time has caused a leak in the Mist engine. I can’t explain it now, but I think it’s poisoned you. We have to move!” He hauled her up as she coughed for air. “It’s a fast poison. I’m so sorry.” Struggling against her dead weight, he trudged as far away and as quickly as possible from the defective mecha. “We’ll get that fixed; I promise.”
“I feel weird,” she moaned. “Tired too.”
With no breath left for conversation, Merlin ambled down the mountainside to safety and reached the transport. He set the baby down and lifted Igrain up to get her inside.
“We’ll go home and fix you up, I promise,” he said again. “Hold on.”
If she had had more Avalonian in her, there may have been a chance. As he saw it now, Igrain had but moments to make it back. If he could hurry and get her into the Avalon hospital, she might be saved. If only a very slim chance.
When she was safely tucked inside, he jumped back out for the baby, but stopped in his tracks when he landed at the feet of a monster-sized Cantus being. He looked up and then rose slowly, his eyes never leaving that of the beings.
A New Home: A Sci-Fi Arthurian Retelling (The Camelot Project Book 1) Page 14