A New Home: A Sci-Fi Arthurian Retelling (The Camelot Project Book 1)

by Abigail Linhardt

  Nimueh held up both her hands, her fingernails glowing as lines of light connected her to the orb in front. An outline of the transport they had come in appeared in the center and slowly rotated. She blinked and her eyes began to flash with codes and symbols.

  “I’m speaking to it now. You need to change the oil and recalibrate the inner compass. It’s quite off. Also, you grind the breaks a lot.” She giggled. “Constantine always started to drive with the parking brake on.”

  “That’s Ector, my pilot,” Uther said quickly. He shrugged off his too quick guilt. “He forgets to take the parking brake off sometimes as well.”

  With a quick flash, Nimueh dismissed all the blinking signs and charts. “That is how we do it. I doubt if a human can. Your brains are not formatted to connect with so many small details like computers. And your mental capacity is too weak to deal with the lack of emotion from those things.”

  “Okay,” said Uther. “I’ll ignore those statements if you tell me what makes you more special than the others.”

  But the female D.R.U.I.D didn’t reply right away. She squinted her eyes and frowned. “Most D.R.U.I.Ds are born once. Or manufactured like the ones here. Very few are augmented.”

  Merlin started and Uther glanced sideways at him. Merlin shrugged and shook his head, showing he didn’t understand either.

  Nimueh sighed and put her hand to her cheek. “Oh, no. I’ve said something wrong, haven’t I? What do you know about me?”

  “I may have read about you in my father’s ship’s log, but he didn’t know either,” other replied. “He just knew that you could reprogram every D.R.U.I.D on Camelot. That’s how the cities were built. Because of you. You told every D.R.U.I.D what to do. He called you the Mother of All. What can you do that the others can’t, Nimueh?”

  She smiled. “As you said. I can touch those manufactured Avalonians, D.R.U.I.Ds, and the organic ones. Why? Do you need me to help you?” she clapped her hands together with glee. “I miss Constantine and will help his sons!”

  This show of energy took Uther a little by surprise, but he was glad to see it. “Yes, I need to finish what Constantine started. Will you touch all the minds of every D.R.U.I.D?”

  Panic punched Merlin in the stomach. Surely Uther didn’t want to enslave every D.R.U.I.D out of fear or lust for power? He knew Uther, that wasn’t like him. Or rather, it wasn’t like the Uther he had known on the ship.

  “Then, please, Nimueh, connect to every D.R.U.I.D on Camelot.”

  “Uther, wait,” Merlin said quickly as the girl re-opened the core. “What will you do with all of them. With me? We are not machines; we live and breathe! You cannot just reprogram us at will.”

  Uther smirked and patted Merlin on the shoulder. “For the good of Camelot, Merlin. And yes, it appears I can.”

  When the orb pulsated once again, Nimueh’s hands went up and her nails glowed again. The connection code scrolled over her strange eyes at lightning speed. The air around her skin rippled and the very ends of her hair began to glow. At this, even Merlin gasped.

  “Is that normal?” Uther asked.

  “I don’t know. I won’t know unless you stop her and let me run some tests to find out.”

  “Fully synchronized,” Nimueh said softly. Her skin turned a rosy red. “What shall the new program be?”

  Uther tried to speak, but he stuttered as all the stone around them glowed with electricity. Beneath them, a huge engine hummed as the planet began communicating with every android being on its surface.

  “Input new program, please,” Nimueh said in a commanding monotone.

  Suddenly, a buzzing began. Each standing stone around the circle with a lintel on top began to hum and vibrate mildly. Without warning, beams of light blasted up from each, connected then rocketed out into the atmosphere.

  “Avalon is in range,” Nimueh said still in her monotone.

  “Avalon?” Uther and Merlin cried together.

  “Danger is sensed. Proceed with reprogramming?” she asked.

  “Yes, yes!” Uther shouted. “Hurry.”

  Merlin ran a few paces away from the table and looked up, shielding his eyes, desperate for a view of his home world. When he couldn’t find it with his naked eye, he ran back to the stone table and touched it, connecting his own mind as quickly as he could. The blue mist encircled him as well.

  “What are you doing?” Uther cried. “I don’t want you part of this, get away!” and he pulled Merlin back as forcefully as he could. He didn’t have the shutdown device with him. Hadn’t for some time. The mark on Merlin’s neck showed as a taunting remembrance of how out of control he could be. “Do as I say and I will not have you reprogrammed,” he bargained.

  Now on his knees, Merlin turned his face to the skies knowing that just miles above him orbited the home he had come from but could not remember. Being so close to his own home and to safety while his people were being brainwashed overwhelmed him.

  ***

  The trio that had gone out from castle Pendragon came back a million times larger. Uther led his D.R.U.I.D army up to the palace that had been built for his father, not stopped or questioned by any one. As he marched through the streets to his palace, eyes watched with curiosity and with apprehension. That night, he set the D.R.U.I.Ds to building again and saw Pellinore about the appointment of men to office.

  “In the morning, the Palace of Justice will be complete,” he said. “Who shall we send to it?”

  “Made was the list while you were away,” Pellinore said. “Also, the maps of the estates have been downloaded to your personal files for review. Ban from across the mountains has pledged his army to you already and Ector has agreed to the sixty acres you gave him. Other families are wondering if they too shall be given lands?”

  Uther smiled and sat back in a comfortable chair in his main hangar command center. “Send out messengers for a planet-wide meeting,” he grinned. “Get video communication up and call anyone who is willing to come in person. I shall make my first speech from the Palace of Justice at sunrise in a fortnight.”

  ***

  Igrain was dressed in red and gold. Uther had insisted she wear the golden circlet on her head to match the one he wore. He also wore red and gold and had a dragon crest fixed to his uniform and to Igrain’s silken cape.

  “I feel ridiculous,” she hissed as they stood just inside the doors to a great balcony on the new Palace of Justice. “I am pregnant and dressed like a holiday tree topper. And my hair is brushed.”

  Uther smiled and kissed her hand. “You can’t be a soldier all the time. Besides, we’re moving up from soldiering.”

  “I still don’t agree with what you’re doing,” she said. “Do you understand what you’re doing here?”

  He nodded, looking ahead at the mass of people that had gathered to hear him speak. “I am doing what is best for Camelot.”

  When Pellinore arrived, he brought Merlin with him who looked more somber than ever.

  “This is a great palace that has been built,” Pellinore said quietly. “Merlin and I have been going over the laws your brother wrote that were logged away in the ship’s bank.”

  “I make my own laws,” Uther said and ignored the glass tablet the alien held out for him. “Make no mistake about that.”

  Pellinore drew it away slowly, seemingly not at all offended. “The laws of Constans are good laws. He must have been a good man.” Uther didn’t move or nod. “I have lived many years and have tried to rule my people every way. I have found that council is wise and justice must be tempered with mercy. Uther,” his voice dropped to such a stern note that Uther had to turn and meet the alien’s eyes. “If you use this planet for your own means and harm its people, I will have no choice, but to leave you. And if it should happen that we become enemies, know that I will practice against you the way you deal. If you do not show righteousness, justice, and wise judgment married to mercy, you shall receive none from me or your people.”

  The truth in his wor
ds did not overrule the threat Uther heard there. He couldn’t find words, worried as the time had come to address his planet. Instead, he nodded and waved Pellinore away.

  After a few tense moments, he asked Merlin, “Have you done any tests on Nimueh?”

  “Just one: Basic appearance,” Merlin replied curtly. “Her hair is still changing and it appears that the pigments in it are ever shifting. They change so fast that one color can never be discerned. Her skin as well. She seems to have a kind of bioluminescent property that I cannot make out. And when I tried to scan her, the machine claimed there were too many life entities to scan. Like she was made of a thousand souls.”

  Igrain made a face at this. “Why are you discussing this now? Uther, it’s time to speak to your people.”

  He smiled and kissed her lips. “I love it when you act like a bossy wife.”

  Together they stepped out of the sliding glass doors and onto the elaborately designed balcony that overlooked the town square filled to bursting with Camelot’s citizens. People stood in windows of surrounding buildings, hovered in crafts above the ground and waited in ships idling in the air. Nearly every person was there. Those who could not fit watched the giant glowing screen where Igrain and Uther were magnified to royal proportions.

  Uther held his hand out and the audience quieted even more. He stepped up to the silver com-unit mounted on a structure much like a pulpit. He breathed and heard it amplified a million times over. They were waiting.

  “People of Camelot,” he began. He stopped when he heard it echo around the city of Pendragon like a speech made by kings long ago in the old days before wars. His voice rang out, bigger than he had thought. He had to go on now. There was no stopping this.

  “You traveled many galaxies and spent hundreds of years of your life on a ship my ancestors built to take us from a synthetic life to a real home.” He waited for the echo to die down. He tried to calm himself and use all the charm he could. He needed them to believe his words. And somewhere in his heart, he wanted to believe his words. “You have waited a long time for a new start. Some of you have never set foot on real dirt before. I know this is not our native planet, but we will do our duty to make it home. This land is ours. But every planet is governed by laws. Laws of gravity and physics; of nature and man. This palace is where our laws start. I have brought this Palace of Justice to you and I only ask that you follow me and the laws I will give you.”

  At this, small verbal replies arose.

  “I know. I am one man and have no claim to make myself lord over you. But I promise to listen to you, the people, and do right by you. The ones who council me will be elected from your own homes. Your people will be in my halls.

  “So, first, I give us two lunar cycles to establish homes and city boundaries. The laws for homesteading have been already written and I think you will find them fair. Go out into this world and create your own homes, cities. My D.R.U.I.D army is for the people and you may use them to build.” He smiled and raised his hands above his head. “I give you this land and bless your efforts! Do what you will with it. Take as much as you need, but do not result to violence to stake your claim. My soldiers will act as law enforcement until more can be trained and schooled in the new laws.”

  He sighed and smiled. “This land is ours. Let us not waste it. Go out and use this earth!”

  With that, a new cry arose but this one of joy and enthusiasm. A single word began to rise above the tumult of cheers. The people were happy. They were given land and safety. Someone to watch over them and make sure they got what they deserved. They chanted the name of the man they loved now.

  “Uther! Uther! Uther!” they screamed in unison.

  Igrain couldn’t help but sigh in resignation and squeeze her new husband’s hand. “Well done. Your father and brother would be so proud.”

  The weight of everything left him as the crowd roared its approval. He wished Vortigern were still alive to see this. That old man could have never been king this easily. And Constans would not have been king. He would have stepped down to become a farmer or something of the sort and installed a democracy instead. Yes, Uther was sure he was the only one who could have pulled the whole planet behind him.

  “Uther, King of Camelot!” Pellinore called and then again in his own tongue so that the other planets watching would know.

  “And will he be a merciful king?” Merlin whispered in Uther’s ear.

  “You should not fear, Merlin. You have been my friend too long for me to enslave you. And soon, your people will be free as well.”

  Merlin stood next to Uther and looked out over the cheering people. He had seen the way Uther treated his life-long friends and he was not determined to go the same way Galois had.

  15

  The Children

  The engine hummed to life with a great roar. Everyone outside the massive ship had protection over their ears. The ceiling to the hangar had been altered to now open with majesty into the late afternoon sun with two great double doors for aircraft to vertically take off and land. Inside, energy ran just as high as that which combusted in the quad-core engine.

  “Stabilized,” Merlin said from his control panel. The bridge in the new ship was round with an elevated platform where Uther sat. The front of the bridge was all open window that could double as screens. A crew of all D.R.U.I.D engineers filled every seat except a few. Ector stood to the side as navigator and one of Pellinore’s sons, Aglovale, had elected to be linguistics.

  “A truly great ship, you have had created,” Vivian said behind Uther. He had demanded she come along since all of her people were now under his command. “I thought you wouldn’t amount to anything. Now I see how wrong I was. You’ve become the greatest dictator we Avalonians have ever seen.”

  Uther ignored her as the system’s check made its blinking round around the ship. Each section began to check off.

  “The hangar is secure and all units secure,” Nimueh informed him. A hanger full of tanks, vehicles, and best of all Avalonian mecha waited in the lower decks. All but Excalibur, who wasted away, trapped in the rock. Uther had had another made and named it Calesvol and had it balanced to wield a great sword. It did not possess a psych-link like the Avamecha, but it would do in a pinch.

  “I am not a dictator,” Uther said simply. “I listen to the people.”

  Vivian shook her head slightly.

  “I do. Yesterday I had an audience with five new provinces to listen to their concerns. Does a dictator do that?”

  She shook her head again. “I suppose not.”

  The overhead doors to the hangar were entirely open now.

  “Ready for launch.” Even Merlin seemed more cheerful than he had been in the past month or so. He told Uther there was nothing left to find out about Nimueh and had cheered up immensely.

  “Then it’s time to go out and see what the people of Camelot have done,” Uther beamed. “Stand by for the maiden launch of the greatest ship in the solar system: The Prydwyn!”

  With a little rocking motion, the Prydwyn left the ground, the thrusters turning to balance the ship as it did a vertical takeoff. Smoothly rising up, the ship cleared the hangar safely and the crew cheered unashamedly. The sleek, silver, bullet-shaped Prydwyn rose over castle Pendragon and across the fields.

  “Now let’s take her up,” Uther said.

  “Engaged next level,” Ector commanded.

  With a little rumbling and some loud adjustment, the Prydwyn rose up at an angle, higher and higher until they had reached twelve thousand feet.

  “Straight and true now,” Ector said with a giddy smile.

  They were now soaring above Camelot’s lush world and purple mountains. Colorful birds and strange mammals with wings raced away from them as the shiny intruder made its way across the sky.

  ***

  Igrain watched the ship sail out and away from her. Uther had kept his word. Camelot had launched itself into near perfect civilization in a matter of a month. With only a week
left, Uther over-excitedly anticipated seeing what he had created for his people. She was less tentative about it now that she had seen the D.R.U.I.Ds in action. They were relatively the same, she thought. They did not seem brain-dead as she had expected. But she didn’t know what went on inside their heads and realized she could be blinded to the truth inside.

  Merlin looked and acted more light-hearted and she took that as a good sign. She had also lapsed peacefully into the role Uther had put her in. She had not picked up a gun or so much as a tablet in months. As her belly grew larger, she took delight in wondering what her next child would be like.

  This made her think of Morgause and Lot. She hadn’t seen them in ages and missed her young daughter. Morgause was not as old as she appeared. All children had received an advancement drug before they left the synthetic planet and were all put to sleep. They had all then received an age progression regression. She and Uther were hundreds of years old now. But they hadn’t been able to live their lives.

  Missing Morgause hurt painfully now. She went to her side of the bedroom and opened up a video call to Lothian. A moment later, a woman’s voice asked, “I do not have security clearance to transmit a communication from Camelot, I am sorry.”

  “Wait, please!” Igrain said. “I’m Morgause’s mother. She’ll want to speak to me.”

  “Name?”

  “Igrain. Tell her it’s Igrain calling.”

  Clutching her stomach, she waited. Why would a communication from Camelot need to be secure? There was no longer any war and no one on Camelot had done Morgause or Lot any harm as far as she knew.

  “Mother?” Morgause’s face appeared on the small screen on the wall like a portrait.

  “Morgause!” Igrain cried, pressing her hands to the screen. “Where have you been? I’ve been so worried.”