“Do we have power?” he asked his older brother. “I mean, enough?”
Constans tapped a few buttons on the screen by the door they were exiting. A little chart from the engine room appeared and gave him the basic statistics.
“Probably. I’d have to go to the bridge to make sure from the master control up there.” He let his hand rest on the screen for a moment in reminiscent thoughts. “Father was the last one to touch this. Do you think he knew he was dying?”
Uther shrugged. “I don’t know. Are there any emergency security cameras we can look into?”
Constans drew his hand away quickly. “Perhaps we shouldn’t yet. Let’s walk.”
“Shouldn’t we check the ship’s status?” Uther questioned as they left the sleeping chamber through a hissing door.
“I cannot think yet. Please, let’s walk.”
Walking in silence for as long as he could, Uther tried to distract himself by looking around himself. The ship appeared spotless and clean. The grey, soft ground proved as hard to walk on as he remembered before their sleeping days. He wondered if Constans would ever finish explaining the false gravity to him. He asked about it just before they went to sleep. He remembered waiting near the room where his father had told him to stand, watching the others be put down.
Uther remembered a lot of waiting in his life. Being the younger brother and ever since his second brother’s mysterious death as a child, he always seemed to be waiting for something or waiting on someone. Waiting for his father to notice him. Waiting for Constans to take care of him. Waiting for a reply to the academy to accept him for training. The ship may have been the size of a dwarf star, but to him, it was just a waiting room.
The academy had been his dream for as long as he could remember. Truth be told, there wasn’t much else for a young child of military lineage to do. He had no desire to craft, sing, or pursue art of any kind. He didn’t possess abnormal intelligence either. His friends had all been accepted before he had. His father had hoped that Constans and his other brother would graduate with honors and acquire their own commands. But the tragedy had made it so Uther could apply. A part of him felt wicked for being excited to be entering the academy since he did only due to his brother’s death. But he also felt he deserved the chance to prove himself as a space soldier, a pilot, and maybe even a captain someday with a ship to go explore and conquer.
He needed to talk. Permitting himself this brotherly boon, he asked, “Are you looking for something?”
He noticed Constans’s eyes were roaming over the glossy ship and kept straying to the slim windows. His brother shook his head.
“No. Just realizing this is my command now. Not sure I’m admiral material.”
Uther smiled and punched his brother’s arm. “I’ve always admired you.”
In a second, Constans had his brother in a head lock and ruffled his long, ratty hair.
“Ouch!” Uther cried out and pushed away. “Why do you have to be so manly all the time? Just a slap on the back will do.”
“Why do you have to be such a pansy?” He smiled. “Two sides of a coin, us.”
Uther snickered. “No such thing as coins any more, brother.” His steps slowed as he thought of their childhood. “You always collected old things.”
“Like father, am I?” He laughed at first, but the glee quickly left as they approached a civilian’s deck with a large window. They saw the sister ship not far off, no doubt everyone on board still slept. The silence was again complete and Uther began to shiver.
“We’re probably the only living, conscious things within miles of this nothingness,” he whispered. “I think I hate space. It’s too cold and quiet. Like there’s death everywhere.” The ship felt like a graveyard.
Constans cocked an eyebrow down at his little brother. “What’s this gloomy tone? Ice gotten to your brain?”
“No, I just mean… father’s dead. It’s up to us now.” He breathed in, expanding his lungs to their fullest extent. They’d need exercise later. “Let’s fetch Merlin.”
With solemn faces, the brothers took the rapid lift to the bottom levels of the ship. The whole ship was cold from lack of body heat and constantly running heaters, but the basement was even chillier. The ship emitted it and darkness. Thousands of people lived on it, sleeping really, for years, but the ship finally came alive with them. Soft glows lit the way as Uther led his brother down the cathedral-like halls to where the sacred life form called Merlin had been placed to rest until Camelot came into view.
“Computer, this is Uther Pendragon,” he said in a commanding voice. “Ship status, please.”
A few soft blinking moments later and the ship said in its accented voice: “Ship is stable.” It blinked. “All citizens alive and healthy.” Blinked. “Camelot in range.”
“In range?” Uther cried in joy. He turned to Constans. “We’re that close!”
Constans only smiled.
“Computer, Merlin life-form status report,” he ordered next.
The large glass window before them lit up with sudden bright light. Uther blinked and gazed in. In the center of the white room beyond the glass, floated a large glass tube of blue gel. Inside, the porcelain white body and pale flowing hair of the immortal Merlin life-form floated.
“What was father thinking when he brought those alien lives with us?” Constans asked.
“The D.R.U.I.Ds are wonderful,” Uther breathed in awe. “Because of them, Camelot is no longer just a dream. It will be real.” He said to the computer, “Release Merlin and send him to the bridge.” He turned to leave, but stopped and added, “And check on food supplies,” with a smile.
On the bridge, Constans
