A New Home: A Sci-Fi Arthurian Retelling (The Camelot Project Book 1) Read online

  A New Home

  The Camelot Project: Book One

  Abigail Linhardt

  Text Copyright 2020 © Abigail Linhardt

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under the international and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Editing & Formatting by Dragon Soul Press

  Cover Art by DQ Designs

  For Weppy.

  Fly. Fight. Win. Thank you.

  Acknowledgments

  Special thanks to Lydia Stevens for reading for me and encouraging me. Also, thanks to my editor Jade Feldman, the bravest woman I know in this industry. And to Kelly Carevich for helping me keep Merlin in my life and for being one of the most amazing humans I know.

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Awakening

  2. The Descent

  3. Betrayal

  4. The First War

  5. Making a King

  6. Put Asunder

  7. The Face of a Friend

  8. Family

  9. Blind

  10. Conquest and Doom

  11. Darkening

  12. To Be King

  13. Mapping the Land

  14. This Land is Ours

  15. The Children

  16. Nimueh

  17. Arrival

  18. Birth

  19. A Soldier’s Death

  20. The Damned Queen

  21. The Second War

  22. Aftermath

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

  The Introduction and a Note On the D.R.U.I.Ds from the log of Constantine II, Fleet Admiral and Captain of the A.E.S Constantine.

  Translated in the year 1001 AE2 by Robin of Loxli

  Date: Lost.

  Status: Crew has begun cryosleep.

  To: Constantine IV and his descendants, long may they live.

  The year is unknown to us as we depart our earth. The ships that took us from the floating mass are long gone as are our ancestors who built the mechanical planet and brought us to Earth II in the Milky Way Galaxy. A great feat that now goes destroyed like so many before it. It has been so long that no one cares any more how we got here or why. This corner of space seems to be so quiet and so cold that we are losing interest in life.

  There is no growth on this synthetic planet we call a colony ship. It’s like a chrome graveyard. There are enviro-rooms that simulate various planets’ ecosystems and try to bring us solace and comfort in our long years of darkness. We have no fear of our engines polluting an atmosphere for everything is put out into that nothingness called outer space. We are more alone on this machine than we ever were on Earth II, I am sure. I’ve not seen any craft or picked up any signal in the years I have been here, awake.

  On that false metallic orb called a planet, it took me years to re-gather the exploration committee and train soldiers to go with me on my mad endeavor across the stars. But I was determined. I spoke to our captain and governor at the time and took a party of men with me and re-engineered one of our older space crafts to trek out into the stars and explore farther. I took my greatest friends, Benedict and Augustine, with me to act as my council and guides.

  Over the years, I went out farther and longer each time. I was proclaimed an ungrateful fanatic among my peers. As I discovered inhabitable planets closer than we had thought, I ignored their censure. Putting aside their rantings and condemnation was more easily done than expected because of a great discovery I had made.

  When we had at last embarked on a week’s long journey out with an intended week’s long journey back in, we were able to secure our newest starship to a large asteroid and launch our probing pods from there. The pods had the fuel expectancy of twelve hours, giving us ample time to explore the nearby mini-planets and star systems. There was so much to see and yet, I have not the sufficient time now to do all my discoveries justice. My daily logs can be seen for that.

  On my second trip out, I had discovered a terrifically brilliant little nebula of pink cloud just two hours out from our asteroid base. After being distracted for just a moment by what can only now be called a blue nova star, I went farther into the pink mist. This, I must say, is where my official report deviates due to the criticism I have hence received.

  Floating in the midst of this glorious pink cloud was a glimmering red planet. I could see landmasses, lakes, and oceans from this distance already. Intrigued, I drew nearer in my tiny exploration pod, but stopped when a black ring greeted my sight. Even now I cannot make sense of it and dare not ask another of scientific view to try to divulge the secrets of this planet. The black ring around this beautiful red planet was a sort of black hole. My censors picked it up right away and at first, I could not make out where the hole was. After a quick scan, I realized somehow the hole had been bent around the planet!

  Curiosity drew me closer and even possessed me to send out a communication to the inhabitants of the planet. I prayed, when my call was not answered, that something resided there. I am a man science and faith and both were tested at this time.

  When I returned to our asteroid base, I told my companions what I had seen and begged them to go back with me the next time the closest sun allowed us to embark on another exploration trek. Naturally, such a phenomenon was looked on with great interest, but more fear. So much fear that neither of my friends would be induced to pursue any of the others in our party to accompany me either. I had to go on my own. But you must understand, such a venture was risky with our current technology. I didn’t know how to get past the black ring or what the atmosphere would be like. I also didn’t know why the planet was red, but that would soon be discovered to be due to the bending of light around the planet. It was really a blue planet like our Earth II. The planet’s odd atmosphere also held some energy in it that I would later call Mist simply because of the vaporous properties it exhibited.

  As I went out a second time, I could not find the planet. My heart fell and I was prepared to turn back when, farther out than it had been before, it finally appeared. I called to it, asking why it had moved and that I was at half a tank of fuel, just enough to leave it now and go home. How had it moved? Had I not come back to the exact same coordinates? My instruments assured me of it. I had indeed gone beyond where the planet had first resided.

  Upon closer proximity to the red misted planet, my heart leapt as a signal was indeed picked up from them. The strange sighing and singing noise that greeted me was soothing to hear, but I could not make it out at all. I said as much and to my astonishment, a voice, low and still melodic, answered in a language of our Earth II. After much conversation back and forth (I have taken an oath not to divulge too much of this species or their planet in any report private or otherwise) I at last learned the speaker was called Merlin and that he (for it was a male) was a, what I understand to be, spiritual leader among the others on the planet. He called the planet Avalon.

  It took a great deal of time to convince Merlin that I was not a threat and I was s
imply an explorer. I told him of the race I represented and he made me recount our entire journey for as long as I could remember. When he asked if I remembered our Earth II, I said I did not. I had not been born there. He then said I was a child of the stars and need not be afraid.

  I was nearly out of fuel by this time and told Merlin I must leave. I thought I was to be given a farewell, but instead, my little pod was gripped by a tractor beam and held steady. Politely, Merlin asked me to stay and said he would guarantee my safety if I was afraid. I was deathly afraid, I told him. He asked why. I said it was because I knew nothing about him or his planet and if I came out, unprotected and unprepared as I was, I may die. He asked if I wanted to see Avalon and meet his people. I said that I did. He then promised me I would be safe. I cannot say more on his niceties, but know he was a very civil being.

  The Avalonians are humanoid in nature, but beyond that, I cannot describe their true form as I promised Merlin I would not for the safety of his people. They were so polite and full of every kind of inspiration. The best and queerest thing about them though was their technology. I fell in love with those devices and machines. Their mines were full of the strangest Avalonian metal and were harvested by the greatest of beings. Giants. I had never seen anything like it. In faith, Merlin showed me his world.

  But here, I confess ends the gladness of my report. Where I had once come in peace and curiosity was replaced a desire for their power. The virus took hold of me so fast that I cannot even place a time on when I realized what I wanted. Too quickly I had descended into lust and greed. I asked Merlin how to find Avalon again and he said should I ever want to visit, I only need send out a certain signal designed into a melody only he would know and I would be allowed safe entrance into the divine planet. He had called me a Mist-friend. But I betrayed that. To my everlasting sorrow, I betrayed Merlin.

  I started just by bringing Benedict and Augustine with me. They were just as entranced by the beings as I was and saw that where they were advanced in technology and robotics, they were sadly lacking in medicine and biological procedures. Benedict took it upon himself to teach them all he could with their compliance, which greatly added to our knowledge of them. Soon they were surpassing him in medicine and had created new surgeries for their own people. As can be seen in my reports, the Avalonians have a higher rate of regenerative cells than anything I have ever seen. This fascinated Benedict and myself.

  The most interesting thing Augustine discovered while working with the mechanics of Avalon was their great capacity for communication amongst themselves and seemingly with the planet. While in the mines, Augustine realized the entire planet was a bio-machine. It was wired like a network of binary brain cells, but as a living, breathing thing. Everything was connected and the beings as well. From here, we realized the Avalonians had been preserving their lives, when medicine failed them, by adhering themselves to the earth or elements from the mines. This is where I broke our trust. Seeing the greatness of the Avalonians, in every respect, and the way in which they connected with the resources of their planet, I knew it had to be shared. Thus, I brought back an entire fleet to harvest the planet.

  The D.R.U.I.D (Developed Regenerating Intelligence Unit Droid) was at first just the Regenerating Unit made from technology found on Avalon. It was a kind of bio-metal that would re-create itself when damaged. As research continued, we found it could be developed further and even harmlessly adhered to the living flesh of the planet's natives.

  As the research continued, it was found that not only the flesh of Avalonians would fuse with the metal, but the organs as well, as a defense mechanism. This led to research with other parts of the Avalon body, mainly the brain. With Augustine and Benedict’s research, it was soon discovered the cranium of the Avalonians could be harmlessly opened while they were awake. From here, we sought a way to tap into their minds. With microchips developed from their nano-technology (which is still in its infancy) we were able to take a simple Avalon alien, clone its flesh and build metal skeletons with bio-mechanic brains. We had made the perfect android.

  With experimentation, the Unit Droid--a cloned native fused with Avalonian bio-metal-- was created and fully developed. Thus, the D.R.U.I.D came into existence and has been an irreplaceable Android on exploration space craft ever since. Its knowledge of stars and learning ability are highly prized among starship captains to this day.

  From here, it is obvious the route I have taken. Many Avalonians are born every year and every one of them goes through our chipping process and skeletal reconstruction. It is hard to say now which ones are real. What is real?

  With their help, I was able to venture out away from our synthetic earth-ship and find a planet suitable to us as human beings. I have planted a large colony of D.R.U.I.Ds there and hope it will become a great new Earth for my people. I cannot beg the pardon from Avalon for the things I’ve done and pray my children do not have justice for that sin brought against them.

  Merlin is gone. As I near the end of my life, I wish I had known where he was and wish I knew how to take back what I’ve done. But can I? Should I? The human race would not be where it is now--safe, happy, and free--if I had not done what I had. I look to the stars and the future for an answer. I pray you take heed of my questions and see a better way, my sons. But for now, Avalon is gone. I wish I did not have to record some of these words as the truth is like the Mist: there protecting one moment and gone the next. Take all I say with a grain of salt.

  The starship Constantine drifted slowly towards its destination as its inhabitants, roughly 30,000 sleeping souls and two captains, began to stir for the first time in centuries. The ship, set onto its quest by Constantine II, sailed for the planet Camelot, which had been inhabited and prepared for the humans these past years by the working android class.

  The ship, long kept in utter, cosmic silence had done its duty in keeping the human bodies alive and well these past years. The journey that had been planned for years by the man known as the first Constantine had taken longer than any of them expected and cryosleep became necessary. Watched over by the reliable artificial intelligence in the ship’s computer, the people slumbered as their new home loomed nearer.

  The first man to wake would start a great chapter in history he would never see the value in.

  1

  Awakening

  Uther stirred in his cryosleep tube, waking his fingers and toes with flexes. If it hadn’t been for the muscle supplement they had been living on all these years, he may not have been able to move at all. The lid hissed open and dim, grey light pierced his eyes for the first time in an age. The first thing he noticed was the hum of the ship. His father, Constantine IV, said when he awoke, the ship would be silent and still in orbit around Camelot. But it still it ran. That meant his great father had died and the task to guide the colony to the waiting planet, fell to him. His awakening meant they were close.

  He got out, stretched, and pressed the large DNA pad on the wall next to him. It glowed softly, the ship acknowledging his alertness. He had been warned he might feel ill or take days to recover. Uther heard his stomach growl as he stretched again and thanked his lucky stars they had come further in their knowledge and he didn’t need to make use of the white pan attached to his pod.

  “Good day, Commander Pendragon,” the ship’s screen said. “First task from Constantine IV: awaken Merlin life-form, base level.”

  “No,” Uther said as he hit the glowing text, acknowledging he understood. “The first task is getting my brother up.”

  “Already done,” sighed a tall, slender man behind him. His older brother, Constans, with his angular face, high cheek bones, and yellow hair was the epitome of a commanding officer. Uther glanced at his own reflection in another cryotube. The physically stronger of the two, he had inherited his father’s brawn rather than his mother’s charm like Constans. “Father left us a voice recording. The computer says it’s only days old.” He looked up from the tiny screen on his wrist. “He m
ust have disposed of his own body already.”

  Uther saw the sadness in his brother’s face. The sensitive one. “We should get Merlin. He’ll know what to do.”

  “Can I have a moment?” Uther said angrily. He wished he’d watched his tone instantly. “I’m sorry, brother. What a greeting after all these years, right? How long has it been?”

  Constans shrugged then winced. “Take a walk with me, Uther. I feel oddly stiff.”

  Quietly, as though they were children in an old library, the two brothers walked out of the room full of their sleeping fellow human beings. All the other tubes were softly glowing now. Uther wondered if they’d been powered on the whole time or if the ship just now returned to power after only pushing itself in the direction of the new planet.

  “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?”