As Arthur looked on, he saw a gloved hand hold something above Lance’s head. He couldn’t see who the hand belonged to, but what they were holding was more than enough to terrify him. Between their thin thumb and index finger they held a blue capsule, with hundreds of hair-like protrusions wriggling beneath it. Lance fought harder as he felt the tiny hairs brush against his skin, his objections becoming screams as they began to burrow behind his ear and into the flesh at the base of his skull.
“Leave him alone!” Arthur cried, but just as Lance stopped screaming and went limp, Arthur felt the same fine hairs begin to tickle to skin behind his own ear.
*****
Arthur awoke an unknown time later, resting against the cold metal of the table. His head was pounding, a dull, deep throbbing that wouldn’t let up, with a sharper pain just behind his right ear. As he put his hand to his head, he remembered what he’d seen, the device that had been put in Lance and undoubtedly into him too. As he touched the flesh behind his ear, the capsule squirmed and wriggled beneath his skin.
“Lance! Gwen!” he shouted. “Wake up!”
Arthur went to each of his companions, shaking them violently until they began to move. Lance sat up first, though his eyes had taken on a deep milky colour reflecting the pain he was in. “What did they do to us?” Lance demanded. “I felt, something.”
“They put something inside our heads,” Gwen said, standing groggily, both hands firmly on the table to support her.
Arthur looked around the room, his fear building. The room looked just the same, white and square with three chairs and the table. There were no doors that he could make out, and the walls, floor and ceiling were all on off-white, lit from behind like the hangar bay.
“We have to get out of here,” Arthur said. “Look for a door, anything.”
Arthur ran towards the wall where they had entered, running his hands across the surface, searching for anything that would allow them to exit. There were none of the coloured symbols which had been so vibrant in the corridors, nothing to suggest an opening or an outline. Lance did the same along another wall, while Gwen searched a third, but there was no way out. The room was sealed shut.
“Return to the seats provided,” a voice ordered, though they were unable to identify where it came from.
“What have you done to us!” Arthur screamed in return, as Lance and Gwen tried to find the source of the voice.
“You haven’t come to any harm,” the voice continued.
“You put something in our heads!” Arthur retorted.
The wall opposite the table shimmered before coming transparent, allowing them to see through it. Beyond the wall was a similar looking room, though it had only one chair along with an identical metal table. Sat in the chair was what they assumed to be one of the Teleri, and the source of the harsh and commanding voice. He was dressed in a dark blue uniform and had pale blue-grey skin, with two large black almond eyes high up on his oval face. He was wide at the shoulders and incredibly narrow at the waist, his legs hidden beneath the table. His hands, with five long, thin digits rested comfortably before him.
“It’s a simple device,” the Teleri remarked, “one inserted into all children soon after birth. It will do you no harm.”
“I want it out, now,” Lance demanded, turning angrily towards the transparent section of wall.
“Why?” the Teleri asked. “The human female already had something similar, though remarkedly primitive.”
“It’s a communicator?” Gwen asked.
“It has many functions,” the Teleri explained. “One of its benefits is to modulate the signals between the ear and the brain, modifying them and so allowing us to understand each other.”
“I still want it out,” Lance insisted.
The Teleri tilted his head as though considering their demand. “No,” he said at last. “Sit down.”
“Lance, Gwen,” Arthur said before returning to his seat. The Teleri looked like someone who was used to being obeyed, and though they were far from comfortable at the thought of an alien device worming its way inside their heads, they were still trapped inside the sealed room.
“That’s better,” the Teleri said. “I am Caran Doc of the Teleri Defence Force, Principal of the Ardent Dawn. You wished for us to speak, and so your request has been granted. What do you want to say?”
“You had no right to put that thing in our heads,” Arthur began, “but I believe you when you say it wasn’t meant to cause us harm. If you wanted us dead, you’d have destroyed our ship instead of letting us aboard yours.” Caran Doc said nothing, waiting for Arthur to say more.
“My name is Arthur, and we’ve travelled all this way to ask for your help,” Arthur continued. “Humans and Dorgans were slaves of the Mori, the species who attacked your planet thousands of years ago. We know you were able to fight them off when they attacked your home world, and so we’re asking for your help in defending us, now that we’ve escaped them.
“The Mori have attacked us once already, killed thousands of my people, and we were barely able to fight them off. If they return in any number, we won’t stand a chance.”
Arthur stopped speaking, watching Caran Doc intently as the Teleri sat unnaturally still, the large black eyes both unblinking and unmoving. After a moment, Caran Doc sat forwards, closing his fingers together.
“So,” Caran Doc said. “What is it you’re asking for exactly? Weapons? Technology to fight off these Mori you claim enslaved you? You expect me just to hand them over to you?”
“No,” Arthur said quickly. “We wouldn’t expect you to just give weapons and equipment to total strangers. You don’t know us, we understand that. No, what I’d like to discuss is an alliance, between your people and mine.”
“And what do you have to offer the Teleri as the basis for this alliance?” Caran Doc asked.
Arthur paused, not sure how to answer. They had nothing to offer the Teleri, nothing they didn’t already have. Camelot was desperate and alone, struggling to survive, facing insurmountable odds as they fought to build something for those who had survived enslavement.
“Just as I thought,” Caran Doc continued. “I shall allow you to return to your vessel.”
Caran Doc stood, his long slim legs striding slowly towards the wall where a doorway was already forming. “Wait,” Arthur yelled. “That’s not it, that’s not everything. The Mori, they aren’t the only threat out there. We have information about the Skarl.”
Caran Doc paused, turning back towards the transparent section of wall with a sly smile upon his face. “And who, or what, are the Skarl?” he asked.
“A threat far greater than the Mori,” Arthur replied.
Caran Doc returned to his chair. “Go on,” he said.
“No,” Arthur replied.
“I’m sorry?” Caran Doc replied.
“No,” Arthur said again. “You might command this ship, but we need to speak to someone with more authority.”
“Authority?” Caran Doc continued.
“Someone who speaks for the Teleri people, not just this ship,” Arthur clarified.
“I think you’re bluffing,” Caran Doc said.
“Merlin, on our ship,” Arthur replied. “He can give you the basics, but we’ll need to speak to someone senior before we go into more detail.”
“The Artificial Intelligence?” Caran Doc asked. “Our system has already interrogated it.”
“He’s a wizard, don’t call him an it,” Lance interrupted. “You’ll upset him.”
Caran Doc sat in silence, thinking over what Arthur had said. Arthur continued to stare at him, confidently, smiling to himself. “Well played,” Caran Doc said at last. “I’ll contact the Assembly and request an audience.”
*****
Once Caran Doc left, Lance and Gwen turned towards Arthur, mouths open ready to ask questions. They wanted to know why he’d lied, why he’d told the Teleri they were in danger from the Skarl.
Arthur silenced them wit
h a look. They might be listening, he mouthed. Follow my lead.
“Once we speak to the Assembly, they’ll realise the extent of the threat they face,” Arthur said.
“They will?” Lance asked.
“They will,” Gwen agreed, glaring at Lance. “Do you think Caran Doc can get us in to see them?”
“I hope so,” Arthur continued. “I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.”
They sat in silence for a moment, Arthur trying to work out what he was going to say to the Assembly. The lie had come so easily, just like the lies he had told to the people of Camelot. Merlin had tried to reassure him, tell him that it was all for the best, but Arthur wasn’t sure. What about the Knight’s Code? What about being truthful? Where was the honour in lying to get what he wanted?
Sometimes a ruler has to make the hard choices so the people don’t have to, Merlin had said. Sometimes, and only sometimes, the ends do justify the means.
The thought of it made Arthur feel sick, but he couldn’t return home without the help and support he so desperately needed. Without the Teleri to help defend them, it was only a matter of time before the Mori-Gran-Ra killed them all. Maybe, just maybe, this was one of those times where he had to make the hard choice, for the sake of his people.
“I can feel this brain thing moving?” Lance asked.
“Me too,” Gwen replied, scratching at the small lump as it wriggled and squirmed behind her ear.
“I want it out,” Lance said. “They had no right to do that to us.”
“Me too,” Arthur said. “Gwen, will you take a look?”
Arthur rested his cheek on the desk and moved his hair to the side, allowing Gwen and Lance to get a look at the spot where the capsule wormed its way into his skin. Gwen ran her fingers over it delicately, feeling it move just as it had done when she touched her own device.
“There’s no scar,” she said, talking to herself as much as to the others. “And I can’t see the fine hairs which were attached to it, just the capsule under the skin.”
“Can you get it out?” Arthur asked.
“Maybe,” Gwen replied. “If we had a knife or something. I don’t know, though. What if it went further inside? What if those hairs didn’t come with it? I think we should wait for now, have a look with the scanner when we get back to the ship.”
“I don’t like it,” Lance protested. “It might be too late by then.”
“No, Gwen’s right,” Arthur remarked. “We don’t know enough about it, anything could happen if we try to take it out.”
“I promise,” Gwen added. “As soon as we get back to our ship, I’ll do what I can.”
Lance looked disappointed, but nodded in agreement. They sat together in silence, waiting for Caran Doc to return. There were no sounds except for their breathing, increasingly erratic as the minutes turned into hours without any news. Arthur paced intermittently, a habit he had picked up during the long journey to Earth from the hive, a constant need to be doing something when there was nothing to do.
Sometime later, Caran Doc returned, entering their room instead of the room opposite. Lance had been falling asleep and almost fell off his chair as the door formed and opened behind him.
“I apologise for keeping you waiting so long,” Caran Doc remarked. He spoke to them in a friendly tone, a stark contrast to the intimidating voice he had used before. “It took some doing, but the Assembly has finally agreed to speak with you. If you’ll follow me, I’ll escort you back to your ship.”
“Thank you,” Arthur replied.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Caran Doc said. “Politicians and bureaucrats look at the world differently to soldiers like you and I.”
“I’m not a soldier,” Arthur said, but he doubted the validity of what he said as soon as the words left his mouth.
“The records your AI shared suggest otherwise,” Caran Doc replied. “What you achieved on the Mori hive ship, that was quite something. If the Skarl are as much a threat as you say, I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again soon.”
They turned a corner and found themselves looking into the hangar bay, the Mori scout ship directly in front of them. “That only took a minute or two,” Gwen muttered to herself. “You really were walking us in circles when we arrived.”
Caran Doc made a sound which they took to be amused laughter. “They were just following orders,” he said. “It seemed prudent, at the time.”
Arthur thanked Caran Doc again and led Lance and Gwen back onto their ship.
Chapter 4
The Assembly
Earth year 6239
“Finally, you’re back!” Merlin said as they climbed the gangway. “I was worried.”
“Thanks, Merlin,” Arthur replied. “We’re okay though.”
“Speak for yourself,” Lance objected, heading straight for the medical bay.
Merlin offered Arthur a confused look as Gwen followed Lance, her head held low and her brow furrowed. “Go with them, Gwen will explain,” Arthur said. “I’ll prepare the ship for take-off.”
Merlin disappeared and reappeared inside the medical bay, where Lance was pulling himself up onto the examination couch. Once lying down, Gwen moved the scanner up and directed it to perform a deep scan of Lance’s head and brain. As she watched the images appear upon the display, her brow furrowed further.
“What is that?” Merlin asked.
“The Teleri put one in each of us,” Gwen replied.
As she spoke she zoomed in on various areas, gathering more information about the Teleri device. The capsule positively glowed, the scanner reporting high levels of an unknown energy type powering it. From there, the hair-like tendrils spread throughout the brain and upper regions of Lance’s spinal cord. As well as attaching themselves to the nerves from his ear, the tendrils reached into his visual and motor cortices as well as the equivalent of his thalamus and pineal gland. There was also a large cluster of tendrils in the amygdala region, where memories were stored and processed.
“Can you remove it?” Lance asked, turning towards Gwen.
Gwen zoomed in as far as the scanner would allow, bringing the tip of one of the tendrils into clarity. She noticed that the tendril had fine spikes which anchored it securely. She couldn’t see any way of removing the device without shredding the nerves and braincells in the process.
“No,” she said, swinging the scanner hard against the wall of the medical bay. “We’re all stuck with them.”
“No,” Lance objected, sitting up. “We don’t even know what it’s doing, squirming around inside our brains. You have to try.”
“If I try to take it out,” Gwen insisted, “I could end up pulling out half your brain with it.” Lance froze, a look of horror on his face.
“Maybe you wouldn’t notice?” Merlin suggested, trying to brighten the mood. Gwen and Lance glared at him.
“I’m sorry,” Merlin continued. “Sometimes my humour isn’t as well received as I’d like. I’m sure the Teleri have the skills and equipment to remove it.”
“They’d better,” Lance remarked, scratching again at the capsule behind his ear.
They felt the ship lurch as Arthur took off and joined him in the cockpit. Arthur looked up from his consoles as they entered, though a slow shake of Gwen’s head told him all he needed to know. “Once we’ve spoken to the Assembly,” he said, “we’ll insist they remove them. Strap yourselves in; the escort ships are already leaving the hangar.”
As they strapped themselves in, Arthur guided the scout ship out through the large doors, following closely behind the two silver, diamond shaped craft. Though they hadn’t felt the Ardent Dawn move, it quickly became clear that they were no longer in deep space. As Arthur banked left, the blue-green atmosphere of the Teleri home world appeared before him. The Ardent Dawn was in low orbit, along with several other ships, many of them even larger than Caran Doc’s vessel.
The escort ships glided slowly towards the atmosphere, manoeuvring past a satellite which app
eared to be nothing more than a floating weapon’s platform, the rail guns and ion cannons pointing out into space. The escort ships glowed an orange-red as they struck the atmosphere, changing their angle as they approached the cloud layer and entered it. Arthur kept the scout ship close, dropping into the fluffy white clouds and emerging below them, in awe of their first view of the surface.
The Teleri home world was stunning. As they broke through the clouds, they were flying over a deep blue ocean, approaching the rolling orange hills of land. They cruised over the orange fields, a small town on the periphery zipping by in an instant. The orange fields gave way to forests of blue and green, and flocks of bird-like creatures flew in formation around them, up over the scout ship and down the other side.
“Beautiful,” Gwen said, straining in her seat to get a better view.
“Isn’t it,” Arthur agreed. “So similar to Earth, and yet, so different.”
“Reminds me a little of the images of Ma’Han,” Lance murmured. “So much nature, everywhere you look.”
The escort ships slowed and began to descend further, banking towards a large, natural looking cave. Arthur followed them in, manoeuvring between the stalactites and stalagmites until the cave opened up into a brightly lit cavern, the white floor beneath them the same as that on the Ardent Dawn.
They landed and remained inside the cockpit, waiting for further instructions. As before, Gwen waited for someone to disembark from the escort ships, but they just hovered there, unmoving.
“Is someone coming to meet you?” Merlin asked.
“I don’t know,” Arthur replied. “I suspect so.”
“And what exactly are we going to tell them when they do?” Lance asked. “Why did you lie to Caran Doc?”
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Arthur replied. “He was going to send us away, and we needed to speak to someone else in authority.”
“But now they’re expecting to hear about a Skarl threat,” Gwen said.
“Merlin, please, back me up,” Arthur replied.
X-Calibur: The Descent Page 5
