Now he felt trapped. He wanted to show her his Camelot. His planet that his father had chosen for them all to live on, discovered by his ancestors before them. Perhaps showing concern would be a better action though? That seemed like the direction to go.
“I am sorry, Igrain, truly.” For a moment, he actually felt it. A tiny hand of sorrow gripped at his heart. Had he killed Galois? The frightened face of his comrade flashed in his mind. “I’m taking you to Vortigern’s keep to show you what he had done.”
She clearly had no interest, but Uther was convinced this would be the way to earn her favor for himself as himself. He couldn’t be Galois forever if he wanted Camelot. He remained silent until they sped past the stone circle of the D.R.U.I.Ds.
“That machine is divine,” he pointed to it and her eyes followed. “It is the only way the D.R.U.I.Ds can communicate with Avalon, their home planet. No one knows where it is in the universe because it is so well hidden.”
“So, the Avalonians we took and turned into androids cannot go home?” Her face showed no joy in the wonders he had delighted in.
“No, they’re not purely androids,” he defended. “They’re alive and breathing and they bleed. They just have enhancements. Made by their own people too.”
She kept her eyes forward. “I know of it. I was wounded once and the D.R.U.I.D medical bay was the only one available. I have some of Avalon in me. As does Morgause.”
This gave Uther pause. “Did you give birth to Morgause?”
A procedure had been adapted many years ago, before the setting sale of the Constantine that enabled women and men to create a child with very special specifications and to have it grown in an imitation womb while they traveled in space. The adding of Avalonian DNA to these embryos had been proposed to many war councils to create a special, genetic soldier. With the ability to heal and communicate with computers through their minds, the human coveted the Avalonian DNA. Naturally, this idea had been dismissed as unnatural by every war council.
“I did not carry her, but she is my child,” Igrain said. “I was a soldier; I didn’t have the time to carry a child. Galois was rather against it, but he soon saw sense. She was our opportunity to have children and have one that could quickly join us.”
“She is genetically altered?” He tried not to condemn her. After all, he had had the exact same thoughts. But the mixing of growing human eggs and Avalonian DNA had even been outside of his father’s dreams. Let the alien stay alien, he had said.
“We wanted a child with us during our battles. She is young still. The DNA allows her to be as strong as a grown woman.”
“Can she…” he felt strange asking this question, but the curiosity deadened his sense of decorum. “Can she communicate with them? Is she part of Avalon?”
“I don’t know the extent of her heritage.” She breathed in deeply to calm herself. “Sometimes I have dreams of Avalon when she does. It is her unconscious mind linking to my genes and sharing her dreams with me. Almost like Avalon calls to her. She is… sometimes very alien to me.”
They were stopped outside of Vortigern’s once tall, white walls now. Taking her hand, Uther led her up onto the small observation dock on top of the transport. She gazed analytically out at the rubble that she didn’t know had buried her husband.
“They say someone supporting Vortigern had killed my husband. I cannot know.”
Below, D.R.U.I.Ds were salvaging in the rubble for anything that could be fixed or sold to another settlement.
Uther scanned the rubble and tried his best to sound brave and sorrowful at the same time. “Vortigern tried to kill Galois here. Vortigiern attacked me and we were engaged in combat when Galois appeared.” He had to think how to spin the story. Galois had come home to Igrain. Perhaps he had dug himself too deep into a trench.
Igrain only partly listened. She relived the last days she had had with a man she thought was her husband. All the memories were false. She could never know.
“Galois was a hero, Igrain,” Uther said. Somewhere inside, he actually believed that. “He was brave here, spoke his truth. Of course, someone wanted him gone.”
She still said nothing. She blinked and some kind of light turned on behind her eyes. Finally, Uther spoke his thoughts. “I’m going to proclaim myself king of Camelot,” he said bluntly. “We’ve hardly settled here and government is needed.”
“So, make a government, not a monarchy,” Igrain said. She masked her anger at his idea.
“Just to get us started,” he corrected quickly. “However long it takes.”
“And how long do you want to be king?” Her voice rose as she spoke. “Will you distill the Avalon substance and live for a thousand years?”
“If I must. Igrain, this planet must survive.”
“We’ve already lived longer than any human ever has. Can’t we just die in peace and leave this to someone else?”
“I want to see this through. For my father. For Constans. Galois wanted it too.” He prayed he had not overstepped his bounds. She didn’t react though.
Below, a sleek green space craft had landed and strange beings were disembarking. At first, they looked totally foreign, but then Uther recognized them as the race of Listenoise. They were tall and moved like swaying trees with smooth green skin and their long vine-like hair blew in the light breeze. The one in front wore an elaborate head dress and dark glass over his large eyes to protect from the sun. It was King Pellinore.
“Well met, Uther,” he said in his deep, sighing voice. “You have come out to see the damage. Thrown out my offer of aid, have you?”
“No, good king,” Uther said quickly. “Forgotten perhaps.” His face blushed with stupid embarrassment.
“As is the human
