“I can’t raise him on any of the units.” Slight panic strained Galois’s usually collected voice.
“Nor on the screens, sir,” Igrain called over. She whimpered as her fingers flew across the vision board, checking every camera in the ship. “I can’t find him!”
“Constans!” Uther screamed over the all-ship speakers. “Constans, where are you?”
Uther could hardly hear over his own heartbeat. His brother’s voice did not answer. Nothing. “What can you see, D.R.U.I.D?” he yelled to Merlin in a strangled cry. “Can you see her now?”
Merlin’s blue eyes were twitching back and forth as though watching an invisible screen. “I see nothing. She’s—”
“Gone!” said a familiar voice accompanied now by Vortigern’s face on the head screen. “Poor D.R.U.I.D’s circuits must be fried,” he chortled. “Look in the cryochamber, little Uther. There you will find your brother and your entire crew. At least you can still save the crew before they die. Life support is inactive right now.”
“I’ve got it!” Igrain yelled as she leapt up and dashed out of the bridge door before Uther could order her to the cryochamber to save the crew. Thousands of souls were in danger, suffocating at this very moment. He blessed Igrain and her immediate response.
“Most of them should be alright,” Vortigern smiled. “But not Constans. He was going to be a great leader, right, Mab? Ah, Uther, these D.R.U.I.Ds have their uses. Why we shunned such a wonderful race is beyond me. But I really don’t want to stay and chat with the new boy-king. Camelot awaits.” He grinned manically and shut off the transmission.
“What does he want?” Lot asked in disgust, clenching his fists. “If I had my sword…”
“Look,” Galois brought up the outer ship view. The twin starship pulled ahead of them. Vortigern would reach Camelot first.
“You cannot allow him to take the planet,” Merlin said. “My people are there. He may enslave them.”
Uther turned his red-rimmed eyes on the D.R.U.I.D. “So, you are an android? You lied to me all these years?”
Merlin shook his head; he didn’t understand. “There is more to it than that, Uther. I am not just android. I am a living thing. Our race has been feared and persecuted for centuries. But this is not the time for religious or political discussion. Your people and mind are in grave danger!”
“Wish we had time to discuss alien religions,” Galois piped up. “But we have to stop Vortigern!”
“Sir?” came Irgrain’s broken voice over the com-unit. “I’ve found commander Constans.” She gasped and choked on a sob. “I’m so sorry, Uther.”
Uther felt his fingers dig into the soft flesh of the chair he sat in. The commander’s chair. The tears fell down his toned cheeks, but he didn’t care. Let them see him weep. Constans was supposed to the perfect leader. He always tempered justice with mercy. He was wise and fair. He was quiet and thought things through. Those were all things Uther had always left up to his brother. If Constans was all those things, then that left Uther free to be the bad brother. The rascal of the two.
“Sir!” Lot cried from his left. He had taken up the defense station and had his hands on the weapon’s controls. “The other ship is preparing to fire. Orders?”
Uther froze. He didn’t know what to order. Igrain had jumped into action, sparing him the duty. He wanted to say blast him out of the sky. He wanted Vortigern beyond dead. He wanted his body incinerated into oblivion. Lot called to him again, but Uther couldn’t answer again. His muscled arms just flexed in fear.
“Arm the missiles,” Galois said at last. “Find him and give him one ping to let him know we’re serious.”
“Astral sonar launched,” Morgause said from her station. Astral sonar provided a far better reading of the environment than the overhead view screen.
“Fire a warning laser. Just a small one,” Galois said. “Igrain, how’s the crew?” he asked over the com-unit.
“They’ll be fine,” she said. “I’m coming up. How’s Uther?”
Galois looked over his shoulder at his petrified friend. “He’ll be fine.”
“Firing!” Lot screamed in the ways of a primal warrior.
2
The Descent
Uther was forced to command the ship now they had entered combat. Galois hit the emergency call to arms and had released hundreds of the sleeping crew. Within twenty minutes, all stations were armed and the ship’s shields were raised. The steadiness shivered as they neared the planet and small rockets and lasers from Vortigern’s ship rocked the bridge.
“Evasive action, Galois,” Uther ordered. He snapped the head-glass onto his face, a metal headband with a screen display over the eyes, and scanned the area around the ship with his keen eyes.
“This ship isn’t meant to run like this,” Galois grunted from his navigation station.
The ground bucked and several people were knocked off their feet. Igrain fell from where she had been looking out the space-scope and landed right at Uther’s feet. He leapt up to help her, but she popped up before he could. She met his eyes in the flashing lights of alert and gave him a trusting smile.
“You can handle this,” she whispered.
“I’ve charted a landing course,” Morgause called from behind where her fingers were flying over the keys manipulating the space maps. “We can speed jump into the atmosphere and land then.”
“Speed jumping will put us into the planet too fast,” Lot argued from where he swiveled around with a head-screen over his eyes as well. He enjoyed space combat like no other in his year at the academy. “We’d crash!”
Morgause ignored him and turned to Uther. He sat upright in the chair, his hands clenching into the soft leather. He didn’t know what to do. The ship shook again and Irgrain called something out about weak shields. A red light flashed behind while an alarm sounded under his feet in engineering. He had to make a decision.
“We need to detach,” Lot said sternly from
