Project X-Calibur

by Greg Pace

  “Eat my dust,” Kwan jeered. His ship rocketed forward and clipped a couple of the course markers, which swung on their chains like pendulums. One of them almost hit me, but I avoided it by inches.

  KA-WHOOOSHH!! I soared around a corner and accelerated into a straightaway, gaining some confidence again. The control over the spacecraft was exhilarating. I would have given anything to have Mom there to see me. Or Dad.

  THWUNK. I heard something collide with something else behind me. I tried to turn in my seat, but couldn’t see what it was.

  “Everybody okay? I heard something,” I asked.

  “It was me,” Tyler responded. “I hit one of those glowing things. But I’m okay.”

  “What are you doing up there?” Barrington snarled over the comm system. “You’ve got eighty feet of vertical airspace, and you’re clustered together like a bunch of daisies!”

  There was a roar above me as Malcolm suddenly rose higher. Kwan or Tyler also vanished.

  “Kwan,” I called. “You high or low?”

  “Low.”

  I looked down at my feet. I didn’t like that idea; he already seemed like a loose cannon as a pilot. Since Malcolm must have been way above me, I pulled back on my steering controls to give Kwan more room.

  “Whoa!! Watch it, Earnhardt!” Kwan suddenly screamed. Then I looked around and my eyes widened. His ship was probably a foot above me. We were practically touching each other!

  “You said you were low!” I hissed.

  “I am low!”

  “Then why are you above me?!”

  “I meant I’m lower than Malcolm!” my earpiece crackled.

  “How is that supposed to help me?”

  “I don’t know! You’re the one who asked!” His ship teetered slightly from side to side.

  I was starting to get a bad feeling about this flight.

  “Where’s Tyler?” I asked warily.

  “I’m also lower, Ben,” he answered.

  “Lower than what?”

  “Malcolm. Well, you too, of course.”

  What? I yanked the controls to avoid crashing into Tyler and maneuvered left, hard. I surged completely off-course and through the middle of the hangar. Even worse, in my panic my knee smacked into the underside of the ship’s handlebars, and I heard something knock loose on the console.

  When I grabbed the controls with both hands again to stop my ship from twirling, my thumb accidentally pressed the laser trigger and—

  KA-SWISH!! I’d knocked the trigger guard loose, and now the hangar lit up like the Fourth of July as a laser blasted out of my ship! It crackled like a bolt of lightning as it tore straight through one of the hanging pyramids, blasting it to smithereens, the pieces soaring through the air like glowing rocks.

  The laser kept going until it tore into the far wall, and a large slab tumbled down. In disbelief, I watched as it plummeted straight toward Merlin, Pellinore, Barrington, Darla, and the techs. Six people, two of them bona fide historical legends, were moments away from being crushed like ants.

  All because of me.

  28

  085:36:17

  TIME STOOD STILL as I watched the massive piece of wall plummet. Without thinking, I grabbed the plastic guard of my ship’s other laser trigger and pulled it so hard that it broke in half. I wrapped both hands around my controls. Blasting apart the falling piece of wall would be the only way to save everyone down there, if I could obliterate it while it was still falling.

  KA-SWISH! SWISH! Suddenly, two lasers, one right after the other, pierced through the darkened hangar and rocketed toward the piece of falling wall.

  Malcolm.

  He apparently had the same idea as me, and his lasers destroyed the slab in midair. Everyone below covered their heads as they were showered with pebbles, but nobody was harmed. Malcolm saved the day, but not from evil aliens; he had saved it from me.

  I slammed my foot on my deceleration panel and whipped around just in time to avoid another wall. When I was sure I was far enough away from anything else dangerous, I took a stab at landing. I managed to get back on the ground without blowing myself up, although it wasn’t the smoothest landing in history, that’s for sure.

  I paused to catch my breath, dreading what would come next. Would I be sent home after this debacle? When I finally got out of my ship, the first face I noticed in the dusty haze was Darla’s. She shot me a questioning look, then glanced down at her helmet, as if to ask if I’d done all this on purpose. Did she think I’d planned to bury her under two tons of concrete?

  “It was an accident,” I breathed. I flashed back to Pellinore lecturing me in the gym about not having any more accidents. I was pretty sure he would have traded a little barf for this mess right now.

  “The trigger guard broke off. My knee hit it,” I explained sheepishly.

  Barrington was staring at me, lip curled, his shaved head speckled with tiny pieces of concrete and plaster.

  “And the firing?” Pellinore asked me pointedly, shaking similar dust from his hair. He looked like he’d just come from a snowstorm.

  “Also an accident,” I muttered, but no one was listening, because Malcolm had landed and was headed this way.

  “Malcolm, thank you!” Pellinore gushed and gave him a warm handshake. “We owe you our lives.”

  “Just doing my job, sir.”

  Merlin stepped forward. “Fine work, Malcolm. Fine work, indeed.”

  I looked away, ashamed. Tyler and Kwan had messed up too, but at the end of the day, I had blown apart a wall. Behind us, the sounds of Kwan and Tyler landing with clunky thuds echoed across the hangar. The two of them jumped out of their ships and came over to us.

  “Did you see me up there?” Kwan shouted happily. “I totally rule at flying!” He turned to me and scowled. “But what’s the deal with the shooting, Earnhardt? Kinda dangerous, don’t you think?”

  “Accident,” I grunted through clenched teeth.

  “When can we fly again?” Tyler asked.

  Pellinore surveyed the debris, then the damaged wall. “We’ll need to get this cleaned up and make sure the hangar is structurally sound first. We’re three hundred feet below ground. It won’t do mankind any good if we’re all buried alive.”

  “I’m sorry,” I croaked. The words sounded incredibly tiny in this vast space. I looked at Merlin, because most of all I was sorry to him. But he looked away.

  “I need the bathroom,” I said. I needed to be alone, and honestly, almost killing six people does strange things to your bladder.

  Pellinore wagged a hand toward the door, like he wanted to sweep me right out of here and back to Texas. “Go.”

  • • •

  Five minutes later, I was still standing in a bathroom stall, eyes closed. My attempt to find peace was interrupted by a muffled sound. A door slammed somewhere in another nearby room. And then, two voices: Pellinore’s and Merlin’s. I looked up and spotted a heating vent in the ceiling.

  With nothing to lose, I climbed onto the back of the toilet and stretched closer to the vent. The voices were louder now. I stood on my toes and pushed aside the vent cover. There was a metal beam running across the exposed space. I grabbed the beam and tried to pull myself up. I flailed back and forth until I had the momentum to swing my legs up and over one of the stall walls. I pulled and pushed myself into the open ceiling—Ivy would have been impressed.

  Holding my breath, I crawled through the cramped space, following the sound of their voices. The network of beams and pipes was dense here, not giving me much wiggle room. But I soon looked down through another heating vent to see Merlin and Pellinore in a room that looked like Pellinore’s office. They stood beside shiny metal bookcases, across from an ancient-looking tapestry with crossed swords.

  “I have immense respect for you, Merlin, you know that,” Pellinore was sayin
g.

  “But?” Merlin prompted, standing before him.

  “You’re misguided. That boy does not have knight potential.”

  That boy. Pellinore couldn’t even bring himself to say my name. Even worse, Merlin apparently didn’t have an argument to defend me.

  Merlin pressed a hand to his forehead warily. “Let’s talk about Ivy, then,” Merlin replied. My eyes widened.

  “Please, not again—” Pellinore protested, but Merlin held up his free hand and silenced him. It was weird to see someone who looked like a kid put a big, confident guy like Percival Pellinore in his place.

  “If anything, this mishap has proven how much we need her,” Merlin began. “And need I remind you that we wouldn’t even have a chance of using X-Calibur against the coming extraterrestrials if it wasn’t for Ivy?”

  Pellinore lowered his head as if he couldn’t keep it up any longer under the weight of everything. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know,” he admitted.

  “I know how much you care for her, but when it comes to your daughter, you wear blinders,” Merlin chided him.

  Pellinore looked up again, pleading. “She’s my only child, Merlin. I’ve watched so many people I care about come and go. I’ve outlived them all—”

  “As have I,” Merlin interrupted.

  “—but never my own flesh and blood. I resisted getting too close to anyone after our brothers in the knighthood died. It was only after Ivy’s birth that I understood the joys of family again. They are beyond compare, old friend.” Pellinore’s face clenched. Seeing how much he cared about Ivy made me miss my father even more than I already did.

  “If we fail, and if our knights cannot rise to the challenge, then we’re all dead,” Merlin reasoned. “And no amount of love will be able to save her then. Or anyone else.”

  I held my breath as I waited for him to say something. I heard a toilet flush behind me. Someone was in the bathroom, and I had left the ceiling panel open! Panicked, I scrambled back the way I had come as quietly as possible. When I got to the open panel over the bathroom stall, I lowered myself through it.

  SPLASH! My feet landed in the toilet. I lost my balance and fell backward, toward the stall door, hitting it with my head. It flew open and I hit the bathroom floor on my back, my sopping wet shoes now propped up on the toilet rim. If that wasn’t bad enough, I looked up at . . . Malcolm.

  He crossed his arms. “This is odd,” he said, deadpan. “Although I’m beginning to think odd is your middle name.”

  “I, uh, heard something in the ceiling. A rat. I was trying to catch it. They carry diseases, you know.”

  He rolled his eyes and extended a hand, so I took it and stumbled to my feet.

  “Thanks. Not just for that, but for, you know, saving everyone. I don’t know what I would’ve done if they—”

  “Just be more careful next time, okay?” he said, his tone softening a bit. I think he had finally concluded that I was zero competition for him.

  “I’m trying, believe me.”

  He eyed me a moment. “Look, we all know Merlin brought you here.”

  I nodded. “Yeah?”

  “Well . . . being like that . . . it probably messes with him, don’t you think?”

  “Being like what?” I asked.

  “Aging backward. Who knows what that does to a bloke’s mind.” Malcolm’s lips thinned into a stiff line.

  We were both suddenly startled by the sound of Pellinore shouting out in the hall. When Malcolm and I joined everyone in the atrium, there were whispers among the techs that Pellinore had an important announcement. Merlin spotted me, then looked to my shoes. They were dripping wet, creating a puddle of toilet water around me.

  “I can explain,” I whispered, but he held up a hand. The stress of championing me had probably aged him a couple of months backward already.

  When everyone finished gathering, Pellinore stood before us, and, to my surprise, I realized Ivy was next to him.

  “For those of you who don’t already know her,” Pellinore began, “this is my daughter, Ivy.” He took a deep breath. “From now on . . . she’ll be a part of our team.”

  Ivy was glowing at the news. I’ve never seen someone look happier, and I couldn’t have been happier for her. We even shared a knowing smile.

  “Not only will Ivy be a potential prototype pilot,” Pellinore continued, “but she’ll also be in contention for the honor of . . . flying X-Calibur.”

  I looked over at Malcolm. His jaw was clenched, genuinely intimidated. I’m not going to lie—I loved it.

  “However, in light of the fact that we now have five ships and six pilots, our plans will have to be altered somewhat,” Pellinore added. “Knights, in only a short time, one of you will be cut from this mission, and your knighthood terminated.”

  Gulps all around. “Who’s going to be cut?” Darla asked. She was still clutching the helmet I had given her, like it was a life preserver.

  “That remains to be seen,” Pellinore replied, though he glanced in my direction.

  “Can’t you just build another ship?” Kwan asked.

  Pellinore sighed. “Each of our four X-Calibur prototypes took sixteen years to build. None of the others are even close to ready. To put it bluntly, this is now survival of the fittest. Show us what you’ve got—or go home.”

  29

  084:10:08

  WE WERE ALL in the cafeteria again, and the tension in the air among the six potential knights was so thick you’d need a chain saw to cut it. Twenty minutes ago, even with my screw-ups, it wasn’t like there was another kid here ready to take my place. But not anymore. Now, either Darla or I would probably go home.

  Kwan, Tyler, and Malcolm kept stealing awkward glances at Ivy, who sat by us, eating quietly. I felt bad for her. She knew this HQ better than anyone, but she was still an intruder in our group. Malcolm seemed especially uptight. He was pushing his food around his plate while he tried to figure out just how worried he needed to be.

  Darla was the only one who wasn’t concerned. She was seated at the end of the table, closest to the large window, with my helmet next to her. What if it allowed her to overcome her claustrophobia and kick butt? That would probably seal my fate here, and I’d be saying sayonara.

  “How’s your lunch, Ben?” Ivy suddenly asked me from across the table, and the eyes of Kwan, Tyler, and Malcolm immediately darted toward me. I swallowed.

  “Fine,” I mumbled, “just fine.” Then l looked down at my plate and resumed chewing. So did everyone else. I didn’t want to let on that Ivy and I had already hung out. It would definitely bring up questions and suspicions, especially from Malcolm, and I had enough to worry about.

  After a few seconds, I glanced at Ivy, but the disappointment in her eyes over my sudden coldness was clear. This sucked. We were supposed to be a team, not competitors who ate in silence. I was about to open my mouth and apologize to her when I spotted Pellinore heading our way.

  “Knights, my techs have informed me that it’s going to take longer than expected to repair the hangar. In the meantime, let’s get all of you in the BSR pods again.”

  • • •

  “Make sure Earnhardt takes the same pod he had last time!” Kwan shouted as we entered the BSR. “No way I’m takin’ the one he yakked in!”

  Pellinore and Merlin walked into the BSR with us. The massive space was free of any stars. I looked up, trying to see the curved ceiling as I remembered standing on top of it with Ivy.

  “Since there are six of you now, to keep it fair we think it’s best to have you compete three at a time. The first three up will be Ben, Darla, and Ivy,” Pellinore declared.

  Ivy only met my eyes for a split second before turning away coldly and walking confidently to her pod. She was still angry with me for blowing her off in the cafeteria. I tried to walk with her, b
ut Darla hurried up alongside me, whispering frantically. “What do I do with this helmet, Ben? Please—”

  “I set it up to tap into the power of the helmet’s comm system,” I quickly whispered back. “As soon as Pellinore turns on his microphone to talk to us, it’ll fire it up.”

  “Fire what up? You have to show me,” she pleaded.

  “Okay. Quick,” I relented, and we both climbed into her pod. It was impossibly cramped with both of us in there, and her eyes went wide with fear.

  “Oh, no, no, no,” she gasped, hyperventilating. “I c-can’t do this!”

  She was practically shivering with panic, and I thought, This is a huge mistake. I should have let her quit already. But it was too late to go back now—why not at least give my helmet a try?

  “Yes, you can, Darla. Sit down and close your eyes. You have to trust me.”

  I turned over the helmet to examine the tiny window scenery device I had put in there. I had attached its video wire to the helmet’s glass with a couple of Band-Aids I’d found in our bathroom.

  “What’s going on in there, Ben and Darla?” Pellinore barked over the comm system. Now that the helmet’s power had been initiated, the little scenery unit lit up. It was working!

  I quickly put on the helmet to see how it looked. I gasped; it was better than I could have even imagined. The helmet’s glass now had a wide-open mountain view on it, just like the one in the room window or cafeteria. The image was slightly transparent. There was a lake at the base of the mountain, and I could look through the water to the pod’s windshield. It was like being in two worlds at once.

  I yanked the helmet off and gave it to Darla. “Here! Put it on and you’ll see!” I whispered, putting a finger to my mouth, reminding her to keep her voice down. Whoever else was on the comm line might hear us now. Her entire body relaxed as she gazed through the helmet’s glass. She didn’t need to say a thing. The trick had fooled her brain into thinking she was somewhere other than a cramped pod.

  She pulled off the helmet. “How can I ever repay you?” she whispered.

  “Just do great,” was my answer. And I meant it. I turned to climb out of the pod, but then I stopped and turned back.