A New Home
The Camelot Project: Book One
Abigail Linhardt
Text Copyright 2020 © Abigail Linhardt
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under the international and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Editing & Formatting by Dragon Soul Press
Cover Art by DQ Designs
For Weppy.
Fly. Fight. Win. Thank you.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Lydia Stevens for reading for me and encouraging me. Also, thanks to my editor Jade Feldman, the bravest woman I know in this industry. And to Kelly Carevich for helping me keep Merlin in my life and for being one of the most amazing humans I know.
Contents
Prologue
1. Awakening
2. The Descent
3. Betrayal
4. The First War
5. Making a King
6. Put Asunder
7. The Face of a Friend
8. Family
9. Blind
10. Conquest and Doom
11. Darkening
12. To Be King
13. Mapping the Land
14. This Land is Ours
15. The Children
16. Nimueh
17. Arrival
18. Birth
19. A Soldier’s Death
20. The Damned Queen
21. The Second War
22. Aftermath
About the Author
About the Publisher
The Introduction and a Note On the D.R.U.I.Ds from the log of Constantine II, Fleet Admiral and Captain of the A.E.S Constantine.
Translated in the year 1001 AE2 by Robin of Loxli
Date: Lost.
Status: Crew has begun cryosleep.
To: Constantine IV and his descendants, long may they live.
The year is unknown to us as we depart our earth. The ships that took us from the floating mass are long gone as are our ancestors who built the mechanical planet and brought us to Earth II in the Milky Way Galaxy. A great feat that now goes destroyed like so many before it. It has been so long that no one cares any more how we got here or why. This corner of space seems to be so quiet and so cold that we are losing interest in life.
There is no growth on this synthetic planet we call a colony ship. It’s like a chrome graveyard. There are enviro-rooms that simulate various planets’ ecosystems and try to bring us solace and comfort in our long years of darkness. We have no fear of our engines polluting an atmosphere for everything is put out into that nothingness called outer space. We are more alone on this machine than we ever were on Earth II, I am sure. I’ve not seen any craft or picked up any signal in the years I have been here, awake.
On that false metallic orb called a planet, it took me years to re-gather the exploration committee and train soldiers to go with me on my mad endeavor across the stars. But I was determined. I spoke to our captain and governor at the time and took a party of men with me and re-engineered one of our older space crafts to trek out into the stars and explore farther. I took my greatest friends, Benedict and Augustine, with me to act as my council and guides.
Over the years, I went out farther and longer each time. I was proclaimed an ungrateful fanatic among my peers. As I discovered inhabitable planets closer than we had thought, I ignored their censure. Putting aside their rantings and condemnation was more easily done than expected because of a great discovery I had made.
When we had at last embarked on a week’s long journey out with an intended week’s long journey back in, we were able to secure our newest starship to a large asteroid and launch our probing pods from there. The pods had the fuel expectancy of twelve hours, giving us ample time to explore the nearby mini-planets and star systems. There was so much to see and yet, I have not the sufficient time now to do all my discoveries justice. My daily logs can be seen for that.
On my second trip out, I had discovered a terrifically brilliant little nebula of pink cloud just two hours out from our asteroid base. After being distracted for just a moment by what can only now be called a blue nova star, I went farther into the pink mist. This, I must say, is where my official report deviates due to the criticism I have hence received.
Floating in the midst of this glorious pink cloud was a glimmering red planet. I could see landmasses, lakes, and oceans from this distance already. Intrigued, I drew nearer in my tiny exploration pod, but stopped when a black ring greeted my sight. Even now I cannot make sense of it and dare not ask another of scientific view to try to divulge the secrets of this planet. The black ring around this beautiful red planet was a sort of black hole. My censors picked it up right away and at first, I could not make out where the hole was. After a quick scan, I realized somehow the hole had been bent around the planet!
Curiosity drew me closer and even possessed me to send out a communication to the inhabitants of the planet. I prayed, when my call was not answered, that something resided there. I am a man science and faith and both were tested at this time.
When I returned to our asteroid base, I told my companions what I had seen and begged them to go back with me the next time the closest sun allowed us to embark on another exploration trek. Naturally, such a phenomenon was looked on
