He let his eyes rest on Igrain. She was simple to look at. Average height, soft but toned build, gentle but spirited. He remembered one day in the academy when she had failed an exam. He had caught her weeping in a hallway and in order to make sure he didn’t tell anyone, Igrain had challenged him to a fist fight to prove her strength. Uther didn’t want to fight, so he asked her out to lunch instead. She had said no.
“You will need more men,” Merlin advised Constans. “If Vortigern is allowed on this ship, tragedy will follow. It is not written!”
“Merlin!” Constans barked at last. He stood up and paced to escape the agitated D.R.U.I.D. “Why don’t you want him over here? What about you will he tell me that scares you so? And what isn’t written?”
Uther’s thoughts of Igrain were blown from his mind as he witnessed his soft-spoken brother shouting. In the silence that followed, it seemed astral winds could be heard.
“I’ll go to the wave-room and welcome him,” Igrain said. She stood up and prepared to leave, but Constans waved her back.
“I’ll go. No need for this scare. We know Vortigern.” He eyed Merlin and turned to leave when the door to the bridge slid open and Vortigern and Mab stood in his way.
“I let myself in,” Vortigern smiled. “Your father and I have key cards to each ship.” When he saw that both Constans and Uther looked confused, his face simpered. “What, he didn’t give it to you? Oh, that’s strange. Constans, come with me and I’ll make you a copy of mine.”
“Sir!” Merlin shouted and took two long-legged steps to Constans’s side. “Do not go. It is not written.”
Vortigern took Constans’s arm and pulled him away from the raving D.R.U.I.D. “Let me tell you something about these D.R.U.I.Ds, Constans.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a little white cylinder about two inches long and one inch wide. One end had a silver button and the other looked like mirror or glass. “They have an off switch.”
“No!” Merlin shouted just as Vortigern’s hand bearing the cylinder came down onto the side of the D.R.U.I.D’s neck. For a horrible moment, Merlin buckled and gasped before he crumpled soundlessly to the floor.
“Androids from another planet. Perhaps part creature, part machine, part human. We may never know. Droid Ramification Unit-Something, I don’t recall,” Vortigern said to the horror-struck audience before him. “Perhaps your father left you a memo somewhere in this ship. Sadly, these only work once.” He tossed the white cylinder aside. “And they are so hard to come by.”
Lot ran and retrieved the discarded cylinder to examine it closely. Morgause stepped to his side, watching Vortigern closely.
Galois shook his head. “You’re strange, sir,” he addressed Vortigern. “Perhaps it’d be best if you made your key and left.”
Igrain moved to the fallen Merlin and laid him out on his back. She frowned and examined him, but could find nothing machine or android about him that might be malfunctioning. “I think that would be best,” she agreed.
“Of course.” Vortigern and Constans left the bridge.
“Alright!” Galois cried. He hauled Uther up by the arm to the chair and set him down in it. “You’re commander now. Come on, tell me to do something in a big, commander kind of voice.”
Uther felt himself blush as Igrain smiled at her husband’s fun. “I’m not. Constans is. He’ll be right back.”
Igrain brushed her daughter’s hair with her hand as she walked past her and Lot. “Perhaps when we reach Camelot, Constans will give you some land. I can see you being a lord over a new city.”
“Is the city built?” Morgause asked in her sweet ignorance.
“Yes,” Lot sighed as he went back to staring out the window as though inspecting Camelot for blemishes. “Androids have been building it all these years to ensure when we arrive, all is well and prepared. I like the look of Lothian though.”
“We don’t know if the moon is inhabitable,” Galois said to his soon to be son-in-law. “We’ll find out soon enough though. I like the moon. Would you like me to fetch you that moon, my love?”
Igrain giggled and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Only the best for me?”
“Of course!”
Uther rolled his eyes as his friends engaged in passionate, loud kissing. To his right lay Merlin, still unconscious. He stood up and walked to the D.R.U.I.D, crouching by him. He had perfect skin like no other human Uther had ever seen. No marks, pores, wrinkles. Where were creatures like Merlin and Mab from? He knew they were alien lifeforms, but Vortigern had said they were androids. Androids were not allowed on ships. And the aliens were not trusted usually. Only on great missions when their knowledge of the stars was needed were they allowed on ships and in close proximity to humans. He reached down and touched the little sting marks on his neck from the cylinder. His skin turned clammy at the spot.
Galois and Igrain were laughing loudly and Morgause squealed with delight at something when the D.R.U.I.D suddenly shot up right, gasping for air. His hands reached up and seized Uther’s uniform lapels. Liquid streamed from his eyes like tears.
“It’s happened! Uther, your brother is dead,” Merlin cried.
In a rushing of stamping boots, Igrain and Galois leapt to the com-unit and called over it for Constans.
“How do you know?” Uther demanded, fear gripping his heart. “How?”
Merlin grasped the station’s surface and steadied himself. “Mab. I have seen it through her eyes. She has come to ensure that what is written does not come to pass.”
“Stop saying that,” Uther commanded. “What is it, Galois?” he demanded of his friend. Cold sweat already trickled down his back. He didn’t want to be in charge. He didn’t
