Avalon (Space Lore VI)

By Chris Dietzel

The Round Table is on the brink of civil war. Meanwhile, the Hannibal and their enormous Juggernaut continue their march across space. Nothing can stop them. It’s up to Lancelot to do what no one else can: defeat the approaching enemy once and for all. But to do so she will have to unite a band of the galaxy’s most feared warriors, all of whom want to kill each other.

In the final installment of the Space Lore saga, every answer will be given, including the origins or the Word, the Excalibur vessels, Avalon, and much more.

See why critics have said:

"Dietzel proves a master at swashbuckling space opera." Kirkus

"Great characters, great action, great plot...get this book!" Sam Joseph, moderator of the largest Star Wars fan group on Facebook

"An amazing sci-fi journey into fun. A must read for galactic war sci-fi readers." The Full-Time Book Reviewer

"Stirring sci-fi action that should appeal to fans who applaud the introduction "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."" Kirkus Reviews

"An absolutely wonderful Sci-Fi adventure." The Quilting Tangent

"Nothing in this tale was disappointing, from the great world building, to the vivid battle scenes, to the depth and heart of the central characters." Amazon Top 100 Reviewer

Other Books In The Space Lore Series:
The Green Knight - Space Lore I
The Excalibur - Space Lore II
The Round Table - Space Lore III
Lancelot - Space Lore IV
The Sword in the Stone - Space Lore V

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Dietzel
• Release date: Nov 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463202142

Chris Dietzel

Chris graduated from Western Maryland College (McDaniel College). He currently lives in Florida. His dream is to write the same kind of stories that have inspired him over the years.His short stories have been published in Temenos, Foliate Oak, and Down in the Dirt. His novels have been featured on the Science Fiction Spotlight, been required reading at the university level, and have been turned into award-winning audiobooks produced by Podium Publishing.Outside of writing, Dietzel is a huge fan of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) and mixed martial arts (MMA). He trained in BJJ for ten years, earning the rank of brown belt, and went 2-0 in amateur MMA fights before an injury ended his participation in contact sports.

Book preview

Copyright

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

AVALON, Copyright 2018 by Chris Dietzel. All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Watch The World End Publications

ISBN-13: 978-1727845518

ISBN-10: 172784551X

Click or Visit: http://www.ChrisDietzel.com

Cover Design: Loic Denoual

Cover Typography: TrueNotDreams Design

Editor: D.L. MacKenzie

Author Photo: Jodie McFadden

Illustrations: This book contains concept art based on various aspects of the story. For each design, an artist was given a basic description and then allowed to create their vision of that scene, character, etc. Artist biographies can be found at the end of the book.

By Chris Dietzel

Space Fantasy

The Green Knight - Space Lore I

The Excalibur – Space Lore II

The Round Table – Space Lore III

Lancelot - Space Lore IV

The Sword in the Stone - Space Lore V

Avalon - Space Lore VI

The Gordian Asteroid (short story)

Dystopian

The Theta Timeline

The Theta Prophecy

The Theta Patient (short story)

A Quiet Apocalypse

The Man Who Watched The World End

A Different Alchemy

The Hauntings Of Playing God

The Last Teacher (short story)

The Last Astronaut (short story)

Satire

The Faulty Process of Electing a Senior Class President

Avalon

Space Lore VI

Chris Dietzel

1

Above Edsall Dark, a pair of portals glowed bright and constant. The two flat disks were filled with dazzling energy that looked like billions of flashes of lightning within a ring of three hundred and sixty metal cylinders. The portals were bright enough to be seen from the planet’s surface, like two-dimensional suns orbiting the world below.

Between the dual portals and the planet’s surface, in the highest reaches of Edsall Dark’s atmosphere, six Round Table flagships hovered in a holding pattern. Two groups of three faced each other as enemies. A Solar Carrier, an Athens Destroyer, and an HC Ballistic Cruiser were on one side. Across from them were a Solar Carrier, an Athens Destroyer, and a Havoc Gunship. All six vessels of war were decorated with the Round Table’s crest of blue, red, and yellow cogs. The ships and their crews once had a common allegiance defined by the Round Table that had united them, but were now aligned into opposing factions.

On the planet’s surface, outside the Great Hall, two groups of soldiers faced each other. A line of Round Table guards was on one side. Each held a pike longer than the guards were tall. Each guard also had a small blaster strapped to his hip. Except for the Round Table insignia on their chests, their uniforms were varying shades of gray. Octo and Winchester stood in front of them.

They faced a line of Round Table soldiers, each dressed in battle armor. Through the narrow slits of their untinted helmets were the faces of men and women who had fought in the blood tunnels years earlier. Cash and Cimber stood in front of them.

In the center of the courtyard, Lancelot stood three paces from Julian’s son. Between them, Hector’s lifeless body hovered in the air atop his energy transport. His arms hung down by his sides and his head slumped forward.

General Reiser’s son took a step forward and said, Now who will lead us against the Hannibal?

The air left Lancelot’s lungs. The Hannibal?

The heavier of the two representatives standing near the guards said, They’re a race of aliens past the Cartha—

I know what they are, she said, her voice booming through the modulator in her helmet.

The young man in front of her said, They’re headed toward Edsall Dark. We think they mean to destroy the Round Table. We currently have a fleet of ships confronting them two sectors away.

If you ever want to see any of the people on those ships again, you’ll call them off.

The young Reiser shook his head. It’s too late. The battle has already begun.

Lancelot’s voice dropped. She was already thinking of returning to her ship and leaving the planet.

Then they’re already dead, she said. And so is everyone here when the Hannibal arrive.

One of the representatives standing in front of the soldiers shouted at her. Maybe you should have thought of that before you killed Hector.

She turned her lances toward him and rose up on her hind legs. The man’s eyes grew large. His hands quivered. Lancelot guessed that if he weren’t frozen in place by fear he would have scurried behind the soldiers who each raised their weapons and pointed them at her.

One of the representatives on the other side of the courtyard turned to that man and shouted, Julian was the leader we needed, you fool.

Lancelot gripped both lances tighter. Her patience was running out. She told both men to shut their mouths. This caused the Round Table guards to raise their weapons at her as well.

Julian’s son put both hands up, palms facing her as he took a step forward, his way of showing he meant no harm—as if he could have caused her any in the first place.

Listen, he said, his voice low. I don’t know why you’re here, but you have to be careful. They will use their weapons if they have to.

Lancelot thought for a moment the young man in front of her was joking.

These people? she said, waving one lance at the soldiers and the other at the guards.

But before anyone could unite against her, the representatives on either side began shouting at each other again. A bald man with bushy eyebrows accused one of the representatives across from him of participating in Julian’s assassination. That man replied by shouting that, unlike Julian and his associates, he and Hector had actually cared about keeping the Round Table intact.

A moment later, the two sides were once again pointing their weapons at each other instead of at Lancelot.

It looks like they’re too busy trying to kill one another, Lancelot said to Julian’s son. Heroic action in a post-heroic galaxy.

I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean.

Lancelot scanned the courtyard and motioned to the representatives and soldiers alike.

They all want to be heroes but none of them actually are.

Talbot shrugged and shook his head, not understanding what she had been saying.

What are you doing here, Carthagen? We left your sector.

And your name is? she said, taking time to observe him for the first time.

Talbot Reiser.

You still don’t understand, do you, Talbot?

She took a long step forward. Before Talbot could move, his neck was in her hand and he was standing on the tips of his toes so he wouldn’t choke.

You still think you can go anywhere you want, don’t you? Frustration made her tighten her fist around Talbot’s neck. I guess all you have to do is tell the Hannibal you turned around and everything will be fine.

You think they would listen? he said, his eyes raising with hope as he coughed under the force of her grip around his throat.

You’re even more oblivious than your father was. And with that, she flung him across the courtyard.

2

On the command deck of the Solar Carrier Legacy, Brigadier En-O-En watched and waited. To one side of his vessel was an HC Ballistic Cruiser. On the other side, an Athens Destroyer. The captains of those flagships, one an officer in the former Vonnegan Empire and the other from Kaiser Doom’s kingdom, hadn’t known Hector the way En-O-En had. Decades earlier, En-O-En had been an ensign fresh out of the academy, serving his first mission aboard a Solar Carrier commanded by Hector. It had ended up being the mission in which En-O-En’s idol had lost his legs and most of his crew. It had ended Hector’s military career, but it had also given En-O-En a glimpse of a greater type of leader.

Although he hadn’t left the military like his mentor, he had followed Hector’s example in many other ways. He had fought above Edsall Dark both times Mowbray’s Athens Destroyers had threatened the sector. Other than that, however, he only volunteered for humanitarian missions. He had gone to Dietrich-2 with a flagship full of food and supplies after a catastrophic sandstorm decimated the moon colony. Following a series of raids by Drickdorian pirates, he had opted to go to the outer rim and spend an entire year protecting a pair of colonies most people had never heard of. He was fine with other officers accepting the high-profile missions that could lead to promotions because Hector had taught him there was a better way.

To him, the greatest thing the Round Table ever did was remind everyone how similar they were to one another by doing away with kingdoms and empires. People had different political views and religious beliefs, but almost everyone just wanted to live in peace and be happy. When the Round Table was formed and various fleets were brought under one banner, more people remembered that.

Like En-O-En, Captain Mogston hadn’t joined the Vonnegan forces to help conquer the galaxy. Rather, he had been a boy and seen a Vonnegan officer delivering food to villages before lifting off in his great space vessel. Mogston had wanted to do the same. Now, he was in command of the Athens Destroyer beside En-O-En’s Solar Carrier.

To the other side of the Solar Carrier was Captain Ruction’s HC Ballistic Cruiser. Ruction hadn’t cared much for Kaiser Doom’s ambition. But he had understood that HC Ballistic Cruisers were the most feared vessel in the entire sector and he had wanted to command one in order to protect farmers from galactic bandits and miners from space pirates.

These were officers who knew what Hector had stood for and would fight to maintain his vision of the Round Table. They were officers who saw Julian go to the Cartha sector in search of glory while Hector had gone to the Great Hall and argued in favor of peace and restraint. They were there when Julian acted the part of the reluctant ruler, and they were there when mobs went through the streets, half of them cheering a potential tyrant’s death and half of them calling for revenge against the assassins. The Round Table was at a crossroads and these officers knew they had to do something.

However, both of Brigadier En-O-En’s greatest fears had both occurred within minutes of each other. His mentor had been killed. Not in some foreign land or while protecting the Round Table but in the streets of CamaLon. With the Solar Carrier’s visuals up, En-O-En saw a magnified hologram of exactly what was happening in the courtyard outside the Great Hall as the Carthagen drove a vibro lance through Hector’s gut.

He didn’t need a projection to see his other fear playing out. Directly out the main viewport of his Solar Carrier, he saw another Solar Carrier facing him, ready for battle. It was something he had only experienced during drills and war games, not anything he thought would actually happen in real life. On one side of that vessel was an Athens Destroyer. On the other side was a Havoc Gunship.

Hector was dead. En-O-En was preparing to battle a Solar Carrier.

The unthinkable was unfolding.

3

Talbot flew ten feet across the courtyard before landing on his back and skidding across the stone. The skin underneath his shirt felt as if it had been ripped apart as it tore across the ground.

He thought the guards and soldiers might break away from their alliances and target the Carthagen that had thrown him, but when he raised himself to one shoulder he saw the two sides were still aiming their weapons at each other.

I order you to arrest them, Octo said to the Round Table guards, pointing at Cimber and Cash.

The nearest guard took a small step toward the middle of the courtyard. When he did, the others on either side of him followed.

Arrest us? Cash yelled. For stopping a dictator’s rise?

Cimber turned to the soldiers with him and pointed at Octo and Winchester. Those men should be put on trial for treason.

The Round Table soldiers, many of whom glanced at the dead body of their still-hovering idol, stepped toward the middle of the courtyard.

Murderers, Winchester shouted at the representatives across from him.

Traitors, Cimber called back.

Octo withdrew a small blaster from his vest, which he aimed and shot at Cimber. As soon as one shot was fired, the courtyard broke into a blaze of lasers and yelling. Talbot expected the Carthagen to join the fray but instead it snorted with derision and shook its head.

He scanned the area for the best way to stop the fighting. As he did, a soldier got thrown back into him, knocking both of them to the ground. A guard with a pike came racing at that same soldier, not caring whether anyone else was struck. Without space to draw his Meursault and defend himself, without time to push the body on top of him away, Talbot’s instinct was to close his eyes and accept what was going to happen next.

He expected his life to end, but a moment later he opened his eyes to see the ion pike was gone. Instead, the guard standing over him was holding onto a stub. The rest of the weapon sailed through the air in an arc and lodged into the ground.

Without understanding what was happening, Talbot heard the guard who was standing over him grunt, then fly across the courtyard. He turned to see the Carthagen’s front boot come back down to the ground.

You closed your eyes? the Carthagen said to him. Seriously?

I— Before he could say anything else, he was yanked off the ground so he was standing again.

The Carthagen spun him by the shoulders so he could see what was happening. All around him, the guards and soldiers were fighting. Most were too close to use any weapons on each other and were instead wrestling on the ground. A few, though, had managed to back away and create space between them and their opponents. From around the stone pillars, they fired sporadic laser blasts toward the fellow Round Table forces they had once fought alongside.

Just as fast, he was spun a second time so he was looking directly into the helmet of one of the alien warriors that had slaughtered the Round Table officers in the Orleans asteroid cave.

Do you see what’s happening? the Carthagen asked in a booming voice.

Yes, of course.

And you’re going to stand around and let it happen?

No, I—

Follow me if you want to prevent more war.

I’m not following you anywhere, Carthagen.

"Oh, now you have your courage back?"

Talbot’s face burned with the shame of having closed his eyes in the face of death only moments earlier.

Why are you here, Carthagen? he asked again.

He had said the final word as an insult, but he still wasn’t ready for the thick glove that once against grabbed him by the throat with such speed he didn’t even see it coming.

Your people are killing each other and you’re worried why I’m here?

Before he could respond, the Carthagen let go of his neck, then pushed him back so hard he went tumbling over a soldier and guard who were fighting each other on the ground. When he got up, the Carthagen was already running. The four-legged alien took ten giant leaping paces to get in front of Octo and Winchester. With the Round Table guards engaged in battle, the pair of representatives had only two alternatives: flee or stand their ground. To their credit, neither man turned and ran.

The Cartha campaign was— Octo began to say.

Two swishes of mist appeared in the air and a second later, both Octo’s and Winchester’s heads fell to the ground, followed by their bodies.

Talbot reached for his own Meursault. The Carthagen turned and faced him with its own pair of invisible blades.

You don’t want to do that, Talbot. I’m trying to help.

By killing the two men my father trusted?

Your father is dead. These two men wanted others to fight their battles for them. Everyone will be better off without them.

What about them? Talbot said, pointing at Cash and Cimber.

He expected the alien to take sides. Instead, it galloped off across the courtyard at the two representatives. With two flashes of mist through the air, both fell to the ground, their heads hitting the stone and rolling away from their bodies.

The Carthagen galloped back toward him, but instead of stopping, continued past him.

When he didn’t follow, the alien paused and said, I thought you wanted to save these people.

Talbot shook his head and reached down to pull a guard off a soldier. The Carthagen let out a sigh of impatience.

Two dozen people? I’m more concerned with the thousands that will die if we don’t get those flagships to stand down.

Then the Carthagen began to run again and Talbot had no choice but to follow.

4

Captain Cornelious stood on the command deck of the Solar Carrier Heroic. Alongside him were Captain Mudrow’s Athens Destroyer and Space Commander Yoesh-Ser’s Havoc Gunship. Opposite him was the Legacy, led by Brigadier En-O-En and two other flagships that were loyal to Hector.

Like En-O-En, Cornelious was watching a magnified image of what was going on in the courtyard outside the Great Hall. A Carthagen had arrived and revealed the decapitated head of the warlord Arc-Mi-Die before slaying Hector.

How about that, Cornelious had said with relief, thinking any need for violence that day might have been averted. Julian’s assassination had been avenged, albeit by the unlikely hand of a Carthagen, but avenged all the same. But then the fighting had broken out between the Round Table guards that had been protecting Octo and Winchester and the Round Table soldiers that had been protecting Cash and Cimber. Amidst the violence, that same Carthagen had slain all four representatives.

Without Julian, there was still a chance for peace. Talbot was young and naïve but he was the spitting image of his father and had also come back from the Cartha campaign as a hero of sorts. Octo and Winchester would have done whatever it took to ensure their plan for Julian came about through Talbot instead. Now, however, both representatives were gone. The opportunity for peace was over.

Ready the cannons, he said to his weapons officer.

He also had his comms officer send word to Captain Mudrow and Space Commander Yoesh-Ser to do the same.

Captain Cornelious hadn’t gone on the Cartha campaign with General Reiser, but he had been visited by the general a week earlier. Julian had made it clear that the Round Table wasn’t able to keep everyone safe because that it was barely functioning. He has also said that the fragile collective of former empires and kingdoms would shatter if someone didn’t take the lead and instill confidence in the governing body. Cornelious had shared that vision and accepted it as truth. He had seen firsthand how paralyzed the representatives had been in trying to decide how to deal with Arc-Mi-Die.

That was why, following Julian’s assassination, he took to the skies. Hector and the others like him, the people who didn’t realize how ineffectual the Round Table was, were rallying troops of their own. The sooner people like Cornelious acted, the quicker the other side would be forced to either cooperate or fall by the wayside.

If Julian’s vision was ever going to come to pass it needed to be now. Cornelious wasn’t going to let the galaxy devolve back into endless conflict between warring factions. Future generations would forever be aghast at how many people had lost their lives in the senseless battles that had come before the Round Table.

He was aware of the irony of trying to prevent further war by firing on the flagships in front of him. He also knew that one Solar Carrier had never attacked another. For the greater good, however, things that had never happened before needed to happen now. If the Round Table wasn’t altered as Julian had recommended, the entire body would fall apart. To prevent that, to prevent millions or even billions of deaths, he would accept the loss of the lives aboard the three flagships across from him.

All cannons ready?

Yes, sir.

Fire at will.

5

Talbot and Lancelot looked up just in time to see the first blast. One of the Solar Carriers fired lasers into the other. A second later, the other ship returned fire. And a moment after that, all six flagships, all belonging to the Round Table but following two different allegiances, began to unleash their weapons.

Civil war was breaking out directly above the planet.

Lancelot grabbed Talbot by the shoulder. A control room or command center. Where is it?

He pointed to the building next to the Great Hall. Without pause, she turned and galloped toward the main door. By the time he caught up to her, she had reared back and was kicking forward with her front two boots. The metal door that provided perimeter security whined. After a second kick, the thick panel broke from the frame.

They ran through a twist of narrow corridors before coming to another steel door. This one was reinforced and covered in blast-proof coating.

Do you have a code? she asked, nodding to the security keypad beside the door.

My father did, but not me.

What good does that do us?

None, Talbot said, looking down at his feet.

In his resignation she saw a glimpse of his father after she had bested him in combat. In her private living quarters, Julian had realized he was in over his head. Outside the door to the control room, Talbot had the same understanding.

Rather than argue with him, she drew both Meursaults and brought them down in a pair of horizontal and then vertical slashes. As she had done many times in the past weeks, she then slammed her shoulder into the square she had cut and watched the chunk of metal fall away from the rest of the door and slam against the ground.

She was immediately pelted with laser blasts from inside the control room. With a growl, she darted forward. Her pair of Meursaults cut the hands off of two of the soldiers aiming blasters at her. Before the other two could react, their hands were gone as well. Each cried out and instead of continuing the fight, held their remaining hand over the injury.

She moved to the side to allow all but one of them to leave the room, then told them to get medical attention. Each realized they were being allowed to live another day and did as she ordered.

I don‘t get it, Talbot said. You killed the representatives out in the courtyard but you’re letting them go?

You’d prefer I killed them?

The final technician, the one she had spared so he could help them, withdrew a blaster and aimed it at her.

That’s what I get for trying to help, she muttered before striking the man down.

Talbot grimaced, but rather than acknowledge the latest fatality he said, You could have spared the representatives.

The men who got us into this mess?

Even in the cold, inexpressive voice of her modulator, her hot scorn for the four politicians was obvious. Without waiting for him to provide a retort, she asked if he knew how to contact the flagships fighting above them.

How would I know? he said, genuinely baffled. She was giving him far too much credit. He nodded toward the body on the ground and said, He surely knew.

Listen, you, she said, starting toward him.

He backed away and put his hands up in surrender.

We can push buttons, he said. Maybe we’ll get lucky.

However, with hundreds of buttons across the wall, they would have to be much more than lucky. Her head hurt from the absurdity of it. She was on a planet she didn’t care about, trying to save people she didn’t know or want to know, all because a pair of robed phantoms had told her it was worth doing. Perhaps it was she who was irrational and everyone else was perfectly reasonable.

Honestly, I don’t see why you care, Carthagen.

In her mood, she had no patience for anything Talbot said. Her upper right hand snatched him by the neck. Her upper left hand grabbed his wrist before he was able to bring his Meursault up to defend himself. Talbot coughed under the force of her grip but otherwise was motionless.

Her lower arms reached up and unlatched the clasps of her helmet. Then her neck craned forward and her helmet was in her hands. Her blond her fell down over her shoulders. Her eyes shone with blue ferocity.

I don’t care if you call me a Carthagen or anything else, but you should know two things. Her grip tightened on his neck. First, if you say it with disdain you’ll irritate me, and you don’t want that. And second, calling me that only shows how little you know of what’s really going on.

She let him take in the features of her very human face. He made no noise but his eyes were wide with shock.

He didn’t beg to be let go. He didn’t ask why a human was dressed in Carthagen armor. When he did finally speak, he uttered the same two words Julian had said weeks earlier.

You’re beautiful, he gasped.

For the second time, he reminded her of his father.

With a disgusted sigh, she dropped him to the floor and turned her attention back to trying to figure out how to operate the control panel.

6

In an instant, an already utterly baffling situation became so incomprehensible that Talbot thought he might be losing his sanity. The thought actually crossed his mind that perhaps he had never gotten off the Carthagen asteroid after all. Maybe everything in the weeks following the Cartha campaign had been a part of another highly advanced Carthagen trick. That would be the only explanation for the same alien who had taken his father prisoner somehow showing up on Edsall Dark and revealing itself—herself—to be a human. Not just any human, though, but the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes upon.

One of the many differences between him and his father was that Julian didn’t care about the why of things, he was focused on the when and the how. That was what had made him such a decisive leader that soldiers and citizens alike wanted to follow. Talbot knew those things were important but he had always been more focused on the why.

As a result, his mind was unable to get past the immediate shock of a Carthagen warrior, who had ambushed them many sectors away, now being in CamaLon, being a human, and for some reason, wanting to stop the civil war before it spread throughout the rest of the Round Table. Why did she care if the flagships destroyed each other or not? Why was she wearing Carthagen armor? None of it made sense and it brought on a stupor of inaction.

After once more having been thrown by the warrior, he slowly picked himself off the ground and asked what he could do to help. The woman had her back to him and was scanning the console in front of her for any indication of which controls she needed to use.

You can either sit there and do nothing while your people kill each other, or you can figure out how to communicate with the flagships and convince them to stop fighting.

He moved beside her to the main console and began reviewing the buttons. Some were white, yellow, or red. Others were unlit. A few were green. Some blinked and some were constant. None conveniently said exactly what they did but most had indicators as to what system they were connected to.

Maybe this? he said, reaching over one of her four arms and pressing a glowing white button.

Nothing happened.

She sighed and continued pressing other buttons around the console.

Freeze! someone shouted from the doorway behind them.

Talbot turned to see who it was. Lancelot’s only acknowledgement of the new arrival was to put her helmet back on. Other than that, she didn’t even dignify them by turning to see who was there. Instead, she continued to press button after button in hopes that one would bring up a comms signal with the ships above them.

In a different situation, Talbot would have been glad to see more Round Table forces. Now, though, he had no idea if the four soldiers in the doorway, blasters pointed at him, were loyal to his father or to Hector.

As was becoming a habit, he brought his hands up, palms out to show he meant no harm, and began shuffling toward them in slow and small paces.

We’re trying to bring an end to the fighting, he said.

None of the guards replied. He noticed too that none of them moved their blasters away from their targets. Two weapons were pointed at him and two were pointed at the Carthagen. He stopped moving toward them and smiled.

If we can agree on one thing, it’s that we don’t need more bloodshed, right?

One of the soldiers moved the barrel of his blaster from pointing at Talbot’s chest to aiming directly at his face. Easy for you to say now that Hector’s dead.

My father is dead too. What we need to do now is focus on stopping the killing.

None of the blasters moved away from their targets.

He pleaded with them to lower their weapons. When he still didn’t get a response, he heard the Carthagen slam her fists down on the console and turn around. She then taunted the soldiers by asking them if they were going to point their weapons at her all day or if they were actually going to fire them.

Without speaking, the two guards that were focused on her each let out a pair of blasts. All four shots deflected off the Carthagen armor or were absorbed. Just as fast, she reached over her back, ignited both vibro lances, and hurled them across the room so they impaled the soldiers through their stomachs. Both men grunted and fell backward.

Talbot planned on moving to the side to get out of the line of sight of the two remaining soldiers. Before he could, the Carthagen was rushing past him. Both of her Meursaults were out.

Stop, Talbot shouted.

The Carthagen turned, her swords ready to strike. One of the soldiers ran for reinforcements and disappeared. The other tripped over the body of one of the dead soldiers and looked up at her with helplessness.

We need him to help us figure out how the console works.

The soldier grimaced. I don’t know how it works either.

The woman in Carthagen armor reached down, took hold of the soldier by his neck, then picked him up so his feet were unable to touch the ground. That’s the wrong thing to say.

But I can call someone who does, the soldier gasped through labored breaths.

She released her grip and let the soldier fall to the ground. That’s more like it.

7

From the window of her home, Margaret watched the battle taking place in the sky. It was occurring too far above Edsall Dark for her to see much until she turned on the device beside her. An image appeared in the air a second later. Instead of seeing faint glimmers of light, she zoomed in so she could see what was happening.

The sight made her heart sink. Never in her life did she imagine she would see Solar Carriers fighting each other.

Her husband was dead, killed by his best friend. Her son was off in the capital somewhere, most likely in danger of his own. And instead of protecting the Round Table against the approaching threat of the Hannibal, six flagships were using their arsenals against each other. It was madness. If her husband were there he would think it signaled the end of the galaxy. She turned to see his reaction before remembering once again that he was no longer alive, which in turn made her cringe.

As much as she had wanted to spend the rest of her life with Julian, she had known the risk she was taking by marrying a career officer. He had always wanted to be out among the stars, accepting the missions no one else wanted, putting his life in jeopardy in order to serve the greater good.

What she hadn’t planned for was that he would be cut down in the streets of his own capital, by his own friend. Julian wouldn’t have wanted to have died that way, but being the honorable man he was, he would have accepted it if it had guaranteed peace.

Instead, the exact opposite was occurring.

There had been a time, many years earlier, when Athens Destroyers had arrived and tried to conquer the CasterLan Kingdom. Solar Carriers had met the threat and the two sides had engaged in bloody war. Now, an Athens Destroyer fought beside either Solar Carrier, as the two sides unleashed their cannons on each other.

As she watched, the HC Ballistic Cruiser and Athens Destroyers ignited their main thrusters in an attempt to outflank the opposing flagships. In response, the opposing Havoc Gunship and Solar Carrier diverted their cannons away from the remaining ship in front of them while the Athens Destroyer fighting alongside them remained entirely engaged with the second Solar Carrier.

She had no way of knowing which of the three flagships were loyal to her husband and which were loyal to Hector. She did know, however, that neither Julian nor Hector would agree with what was happening. Both men would have been outraged by the violence between vessels emblazoned with the Round Table insignia.

The HC Ballistic Cruiser took an incredible amount of cannon fire as its flanking maneuver failed, forcing it to move away from the fighting before it suffered a catastrophic systems failure. The two Solar Carriers resumed firing their cannons on one another.

Julian was dead and the Round table was falling apart. Margaret wiped tears from her eye.

8

The Round Table soldier glanced at Talbot while they waited for a communications officer to arrive. He coughed and casually tapped on the Round Table insignia on his uniform as if to remind Julian’s son which side he should be on. Lancelot acted as though she didn’t notice. It was clear Talbot wouldn’t soon forget the same soldier had recently pointed a weapon at him. After the soldier nodded to Talbot and then to a cache of blasters on the far wall, Lancelot reached down and took the man by his throat.

What’s your name?

DeMichaelis.

Well, DeMichaelis, if you haven’t noticed, a civil war is beginning. See those ships?

She pointed to a hologram of the battle in the corner of the control room. The soldier nodded.

Lancelot said, Hundreds, if not thousands, of your fellow Round Table friends will die if that battle continues.

DeMichaelis gave a look of disgust. What do you care, Carthagen? I heard about what you did to the officers who went into the asteroid tunnels.

Lancelot’s first instinct was to yank the man off the ground and throw him into the wall. Her arm flexed and her suit prepared for action.

Her second instinct was to collect herself and work on her patience as Vere had often suggested. Many of the stories Vere related to Lancelot involved her being young and quick to act rather than taking the time to think things through. In one story, Vere said she had accepted a game of chopping off a green knight’s head without thinking of the possible repercussions. She had almost paid with her own life. This thought made Lancelot take a deep breath, release her grip on DeMichaelis, and turn away from him.

The third idea that crossed her mind was that the soldier in front of her didn’t even know how to operate the control room’s console and someone else was arriving who did. That meant it