“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 words 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
