Space Knights: The Arrival

by Gregory Samuelson

  While Bruise ranted and raved and slashed three more dummies, Rattell went back to the bridge, sat back in his command chair and waited for the navigator and pilot to drop the barrier drive. He was very practiced in controlling his emotions and temper. However, this was pushing him to the utter limits. There just wasn’t anything more he could do at the moment.

  The ship slowed as the drive worked in reverse and brought the ship to its destination and at last took its familiar two minutes of shimmying and shaking as the drive cut out and the ships regular engines engaged. Rattell unconsciously clutched at the arms of his command chair as the ship raced and shimmied as the braking engines engaged to bring the ship to a stop. And there in front of him blockading and protecting the planet was a rather vast fleet of ships.

  Rattell grunted and almost casually activated a large viewer to give him a better picture of the opposing ships. He was taken aback as he saw for himself how many ships were there and the variety of them. There were the great Griffin Galleons that resembled gigantic eagles. Of course there were the familiar Althorian battleships. There were some fighter carriers that had swarms of flying space horses and battle hawks. Off to the right of the Galleons were some Frigates and to the left were seven starships that looked like sleek sports cars with swept-back wings.

  Surprisingly, none of the ships seemed to have their weapons activated; however, Rattell was positive that if he made a single aggressive maneuver that all of those ships would immediately activate their weapons. With that many ships against him, he was certain that his three ships would be destroyed in minutes.

  Suddenly Rattell’s thoughts were interrupted as the communications officer turned to him and announced that they were being contacted by the lead Galleon. “Sire, the lead Griffin ship is trying to contact us. How should we respond?”

  “I’ll take it here,” replied Rattell as he flicked a blinking switch on the right arm of his command chair. Immediately, a desk rose from the floor in front of him and out of this desk came up a kytherum, the communicator screen. As it turned on he was almost shocked to see a Griffin commander looking at him.

  “Greetings, I am Admiral Thade. May I ask why you are here? Do you need assistance?” the Griffin asked very politely. Rattell had dealt with Griffins before and was no fool. While Thade sounded polite and concerned, he was still a battle commander and a very good strategist.

  “I am Admiral Rattell, and my three ships and I are on a rescue mission,” Rattell said in a carefully practiced voice.

  “Oh,” said Thade, trying very hard to hide his disbelief. “What is the nature of your emergency? Is there anything that we can do to assist you?”

  Rattell didn’t take long to think of an answer. He knew that the longer he thought the more like a lie it would sound. “One of our ships has sent an emergency signal from out near the planet Garuna. We are heading there to evacuate the crew and hopefully tow the ship back to Boulthora for repairs.”

  Thade very shrewdly asked, “What happened to your ship? We haven’t received a report from Garuna about a damaged ship nearby. What was your ship doing there? Garuna is sixteen light years away from Boulthora.”

  “The ship was on a possible trade mission to Garuna and suddenly suffered a massive power failure. We need to get to them before their life support systems fail,” Rattell said making himself sound concerned.

  “Is there anything we can do to help you?” Thade asked again. He felt the tension in his crew and knew that there were some that were trying not to laugh. He had suspected for three days that a Boulthorian ship would show up. His orders were to lead this fleet of various ships from all of the planets with students participating in the End of Year Tournaments. He was now curious to hear what the Boulthorian commander had to say to explain why they were there. He did know the real reason they were here, yet he didn’t know why the Boulthorians wanted to attack the tournaments.

  Rattell sat back and shifted slightly. He suddenly knew that this Griffin knew the real reason that they were there. His careful lie was known and now he needed an escape plan. His mind now desperately sought for a way out. Should he continue? “No, I’m sorry, but we can handle this. We only ask that we are allowed to go on our way so we may rescue our men and ship.”

  Thade looked thoughtful and relaxed. He was very confident. It had been his idea when the three Boulthorian ships had been detected that the fleet meet them without weapons showing. He hoped that this would distract the Boulthorians and catch them off guard. He also hoped that when the Boulthorians saw the size of the fleet that they would think twice about their plan to assault the tournaments. He tilted his head and watched Rattell closely for any tells. He was confident that Rattell just wanted to get out of here.

  “Very well, we don’t wish to delay as you run to assist your endangered vessel. We will let you on your way. I pray that you reach your ship in time.”

  Rattell was relieved and tried to control his emotions as he replied, “Thank you. We will be on our way. I appreciate your offer to help, but we have a mission to accomplish. Good day.” With that he reached out and shut off the kytherum.

  As the kytherum and the desk lowered back into the floor he signaled the pilot to turn the ship, start the acceleration process and ready the drive system to activate. Five minutes later the three Boulthorian ships leapt away as their drive systems activated. Rattell had quickly planned with the other ships to fly out toward Garuna and out of the range of the Griffin ships’ ability to detect them, and then swiftly plot a course back toward Boulthora. Rattell made his way back to his room so he could signal King Axlor.

  On the Griffin ship Venture, Thade sat back in his seat and clucked his beak and relaxed. He knew that his crew and all of the men in the fleet protecting Caldar were very nervous and rather trigger-happy. He was positive that the fleet could easily destroy those Boulthorian ships. He suspected that the Boulthorians knew this and had made up the story so they could get away.

  Thade turned to an older Griffin sitting calmly to his right. “Colonel Grebe, you may contact Faylor and his Highness King Tallok and tell them that the Boulthorians have left and all is safe up here.”

  Grebe nodded his head with some of his graying head feathers stuck up at odd angles and replied in a dignified voice, “As you desire.” He then stood up and went to the communications officer to make the call.

  Chapter 24

  Bold Plays

  As the protective fleet deterred the Boulthorian ships, Trance and his teammates continued to have success in the tournaments. He was also starting to experience a bit of celebrity. In a way he enjoyed it, and in another it made him uncomfortable.

  All through his school year and even here at the tournaments he had done his best to be humble in his efforts to learn all he could to be a good knight and how to use his weapons, both safely and effectively. He now found himself to be regarded as one of the best swordsmen to come out of the seniors competing in their last tournaments. His greatest singles effort to date was beating Rex in the Swordsman Challenge. Now he was able to start relaxing and enjoying himself more.

  He knew that he was weakest in archery; however, he needed to score fairly well in every archery match he entered to achieve a good enough standing for his dream to be a Golden Griffin. Each time he approached the line with his bow he prayed that each shot hit the target. He knew some excellent archers in the competition, some who had been shooting for many years. In the distance shooting he actually surprised himself to come within two rounds of the quarterfinals. On the other hand he only advanced to the third round of the Archery Joust. Disappointed, he worked hard to redeem himself as he worked to advance in the Riding Archery match.

  In this event he had to ride his robot horse Odin toward a variety of targets and shoot at them from the saddle. With each target he had to shoot from farther and farther back. Trance took more time to aim and did his best to hit the targets and
get a good score. His hard work paid off as he advanced to the fifth round. Trance knew that he was slower at shooting at the target, but with patience he was more accurate.

  As Trance mounted Odin for his first round match for the Ax Man Joust he looked around and spotted Rex talking to a rather large boy from the planet Saltor. Trance wasn’t too concerned since Rex wasn’t in this tournament. He knew that Rex’s three weapons were the sword, mace, and spear. He turned in his saddle, directed Odin to the starting line and looked toward his first opponent. He hefted his wooden ax and got ready for the referee to signal the start.

  At the referee’s signal Trance nudged Odin’s controls and raced toward his charging opponent. It took only a few moments for them to collide as each boy swung his ax at the other as they passed. Trance’s opponent made a rather wild swing that just glanced off his shield. Trance, however, landed a solid blow that unseated his opponent.

  As he turned Odin around so he could return to his starting position Trance caught sight of the large ax man Rex had been talking to just smash his way to victory to advance as well. Trance wasn’t worried about this boy no matter how large he was. He had faced other large guys this last year and none had intimidated him. Why worry about this guy?

  Trance was also very thankful that the boys that he had seen that were really quite large, well over seven feet tall, had to compete against each other. Gracer had told him, “The rules committee long ago decided that it would not be fair for the giants to compete against the rest of us. Their teams have to face each other. They have all the same events that we compete in.” And indeed Trance had watched them in their contests and was grateful that he didn’t have to face them.

  “Hey Trance, nice win,” said a voice from behind him. Trance turned and saw Hamon riding his horse over to him. It was obvious that Hamon had also won his match in the Alternate Weapons Joust.

  “Thank you. I see that you’re doing alright in your events,” Trance told his friend.

  “Thanks, but I’m not doing as well as you are. Have you been keeping track of your points?” Hamon asked.

  “No, not really. I’ve just been concentrating on my matches,” Trance admitted. Truthfully he hadn’t kept up with his scores. This was one of the few rules at the tournaments that he wasn’t too familiar with.

  The scoring was actually rather simple. Points were awarded by how far a competitor advanced in each event he or she was entered in. The competitor was also scored on how long they lasted in the team competitions and how far their team advanced in the team tournaments. For the individual events the scoring was five points scored even if the competitor was eliminated in the first round of the event. If the competitor won the first round the score was ten points. From there the scoring went up by five at a time, climbing up with each round of the tournament. Thus fifteen for just making the second round and twenty for advancing to the third round, then twenty-five and thirty in the third round and so on for every advancing round.

  The scoring was similar in the team competitions; however, you got a point for how long a competitor lasted in each match and then an additional ten points if your team advanced to the second round, twenty after making it to the third round and so on. For example a competitor who was the sixth member of his team eliminated and saw his team advance to the second round would score sixteen points.

  Trance turned and looked to the massive scoreboards and along with seeing how the tournaments were shaping up he spotted that he was currently in fourth place. Rex was sitting in second, behind Orazior. Baltaise was third, Trance fourth, Talthor, a Samurai, fifth, Authric sixth, Hamon seventh, Kintrell captain of the Kainanth knights eighth, Hiram, a very tall and muscular dark skinned boy that was second in command of the Ator Warriors, and a true lancer in ninth, and Holok in tenth.

  Trance looked back at Hamon and smiled as he wished his friend good luck as well. As he advanced yet again he became more aware that he might have to face that large boy in the Ax Man Joust. It seemed almost like fate that they would meet, and sure enough they were up to face each other with the winner to advance to the quarterfinals.

  With an uneasy feeling Trance mounted Odin, rode up to the starting line and looked across at the large boy, whose name he learned was Goloc. He hefted his ax and waited for the starting signal. At the signal he urged Odin to a full gallop and rode toward Goloc. Trance realized he was in deep trouble as Goloc threw off his shield and grabbed his ax with both hands and took a large back swing and prepared to deliver a devastating blow. Trance braced himself and tucked his arms in behind his shield and rode bravely forward.

  Goloc only had one goal in mind as he took up his ax and rode his robot horse toward Trance. He took a huge back swing with both hands and prepared to swing. It only took the two boys just seconds to get to each other and Goloc unleashed a smashing blow that caught Trance completely square on his shield and instantly sent him off of Odin and crashing to the ground.

  Trance landed hard on his back and felt all of the air knocked out of him. He had taken falls before, and was familiar with the sensation of hitting the ground when he has been unhorsed in jousts, yet he hadn’t ever been knocked off like this. It was one of those times when everything in the world seemed to stop. Trance thought it was minutes before he opened his eyes; however, only a few seconds had passed. Breathing, such a natural body function when everything works properly seemed to not be possible at the moment. When you’ve been knocked off a horse, and in this case a robot horse, and land on your back it seems that nothing works properly for what may seem to be several minutes.

  With a great groan and gasp Trance tried his best to try to take a breath and felt his body shudder. In a moment his senses, that just before had been stunned, began to wake up and register pain and his need for air. It took an effort for him to start breathing and to move, and as he started to move and struggle to roll over to his knees several of his teammates ran up to try to help him. Among the first to get to him were Zam, Gracer, and Mandor. To Trance’s surprise and delight Hamon even ran up with some of his teammates to see if he was okay.

  Lying there he let go of his ax and shield. Then painfully he reached and took his helmet off. He was then aided to his feet and he looked around for the one face he really wanted to see. He leaned on Hamon and Zam as he saw with growing relief Corena riding up the field on her horse. She had just won a Swordswoman Joust to advance to the quarterfinals.

  “Trance, how are you?” she said as she leaped down from her horse Kishara and ran over to him. With one swift motion she removed her helmet, tossed it down and hugged and kissed him.

  “I’m alright. I just got unhorsed is all,” he replied and tried to hug her back as he was still regaining his senses. A few moments’ later Trance’s parents also arrived to check on him. After a few minutes of everyone checking on him, Trance finally got his full bearings and the group of friends and family gathered up their stuff and started back to their places on the field and back to the stands.

  As Hamon was about to leave he whispered to Trance, “Don’t worry about Goloc, he’s mine.” With that he strode off toward his own team and horse. Trance went back to the locker room, got out of his armor and then left to go with his family so he could continue to watch more events. Just when he took his seat he saw Hamon and Goloc line up for an Ax Man Joust. As with Trance, Goloc threw his shield away and drew back his ax to take a double-handed swing at Hamon. However, Goloc underestimated Haman and in a shocking upset Hamon came back and defeated him.

  Trance yelled and cheered for his friend. He looked up at the scoreboard and cheered more for Haman as he saw that his friend had moved up two slots in the ranking. Trance was also humbled, as he couldn’t help but notice that he had also moved up one slot in the ranks. Trance reflected that he was now favored to win the Swordsman Joust. He smiled to himself as he took a glance at the scoreboards and saw that he might actually meet Rex in the quarterfinal mat
ch, if they both got that far.

  The tournaments were now starting to wind down. After the Swordsman Joust came the All Weapons Joust. Then there would be the Gladiator Circle tournament and finally the Ultimate matches where all of the boys and girls teams would be combined and compete in a castle assault and defense match, and finally a massive battlefield match. Trance found himself looking forward to these other events.

  The next morning seemed to come too soon. The day was slightly overcast and could have put Trance in a depressed mood. As he stood in the locker room and put on his armor he actually felt calm, a strange calm. He felt calmer and more relaxed, feeling confident that he could win this tournament. His mind even tried to analyze why he was this calm. True, he knew he was quite skilled with the sword and had proved he could compete and win here. He had even defeated his great rival Rex, and he recognized from his last tournament that Rex was probably trying to rally any and all of Trance’s possible opponents to defeat him at all costs.

  With all this it was still a strange calm. It wasn’t that this tournament mattered or could bring him more glory if he won. He wasn’t usually over-confident and he wasn’t arrogant; at least, he didn’t think so. In general he had always tried to remain humble and remember who he was and what had brought him here. This was different. He sat down and leaned back and closed his eyes. In his mind several things crisscrossed. Winning, losing, being beaten by Rex, defeating Rex, winning the whole tournament, and falling short all flashed through his mind as he sat for a few moments.

  His eyes snapped open as Gracer came up and tapped his shoulder, “Hey Trance, let’s go. You’re up shortly.”

  He nodded and calmly smiled at his friends and teammates. It was that pure moment that he felt himself the most relaxed before a match. The calm that comes from knowing that he had prepared himself the best he knew how and was ready. This was what he had been working toward for the last year. Destiny was here and he was ready. Whatever happened was okay with him. He had already proven his value to himself; now he could just go out do what he needed to do.