“Well, what the hell am I supposed to do!” Victor said. “In three days, the Alliance fleet will reach Lysander and scour all life from its surface. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
“I know that, and I’m not askin’ you to do something about it,” Gaz said.
“Then what do you want me to do?” Victor asked.
“Anythin’ really,” Gaz said. “So long as it’s more than just fuckin’ mopin’. A shower wouldn’t hurt for a start.”
Victor rubbed his chin, feeling the coarse hair beneath his hand, his beard now thicker than he usually let it grow.
The sound of approaching footsteps attracted Victor’s attention. It was Princess Lysandra.
A lump formed in Victor’s throat at the sight of her. Worry was etched on her face, though Victor’s disheveled state did not seem to be the source of it.
“Princess?” he asked.
“Lena needs you on the bridge,” she said. The tone of her voice suggested something was wrong.
“What’s going on?” Victor asked.
“Something’s following us,” Lysandra said. “And, by Providence, neither Lena nor I can make sense of it.”
Curiosity overwhelmed his depression. He leaned forward as if to listen better. “How does it not make any sense?”
Lysandra swallowed, as if to force a lump down her throat. “It’s a bit hard to explain. I think it’s best if you see for yourself.”
“Well, I’m curious,” Gaz said.
Victor glanced at Gaz and then back at Lysandra. “All right. Let me see.”
***
Everyone on the bridge was tense when Victor arrived.
“Over here, Victor,” Lena said.
“The princess said something’s following us,” Victor said, walking up to Lena’s seat. Princess Lysandra followed him.
Lena stabbed a finger at one of her monitors. “That appeared from nowhere half an hour ago.”
Victor leaned down to get a look. Lena pointed at a picture taken by a thermal sensor. Silhouetted against the cool blue background of space was a fiery red blade.
“
Excalibur
!” Victor said.
“
Excalibur
? Is that some secret Alliance ship?” Lena asked.
Victor shook his head. “No, no, that is very much not an Alliance ship.”
“Then whose?” Lysandra asked.
It was almost mine
, Victor thought. “No one you’d know of, Princess. It…belongs to an acquaintance of mine.”
“Well, I hope you made a good impression, because that ship is gaining on us,” Lena said.
Victor checked the numbers on the screen. The ship’s acceleration was higher than the
Mae
’s. The time to intercept was estimated at just over thirty hours. But Victor saw no reason to wait that long.
“Cut the drives,” Victor said.
“Are you giving me orders, Victor?” Lena said.
“No, I’m making a suggestion, Captain Dryer,” Victor said. “It’ll catch us no matter what we do. And, besides”—he glanced at Lysandra—“if there's one ship that can save Lysander, it’s that one.”
Lysandra blinked and looked at Lena. “Shut down the drives, Lena.”
Lena sighed and nodded. “Sticks, cut the drives.”
The hum of the drives faded away, and the time to intercept was reduced to a few minutes.
“I hope you’re right about that ship,” Lena said.
“Me too,” Victor said.
Not long after the
Mae
cut her drive, the
Excalibur
fired her retrodrives, the exhaust plume obscuring the vessel’s thermal image.
When the retrodrives stopped, the
Excalibur
was just ten kilometers away.
After a beep, Lena tapped another screen. “Well, I’ll be damned. I just got docking instructions. Whoever’s controlling that ship wants us to fly into her hangar.”
“Are you willing to do that?” Victor asked.
“I don’t see any other choice,” Lena said.
“In that case, I’ll be waiting at the airlock. I think I’m expected,” Victor said.
“Fine by me,” Lena said.
“I’ll come too,” Gaz said.
“As will I,” Cormac said.
“I’m coming with you as well,” Lysandra said.
“Wait. You too?” Lena asked.
Lysandra smiled. “If that ship can really save my world, then I want to see it for myself.”
“Then I’ll come with all of you.”
Lena leaned forward to get out of her seat, but Lysandra gently pushed her back down. “You stay, Lena, and guard your ship. If there’s any trouble, I promise to run back aboard.”
Lena pursed her lips. “I’ll hold you to that.”
***
The thump of metal on metal signaled the last of the docking clamps securing the
Daisy Mae
in the belly of the
Excalibur
.
“Docking completed,” Lena said through the intercom. “Got a good seal on the airlock.”
“Roger that,” Victor said. “I see the airlock equalizing now.”
“You make sure Lysandra comes back from that ship,” Lena said.
Victor glanced at Lysandra. “I will.”
“Good,” Lena said. “And good luck in there.”
“Victor?” Lysandra asked.
He turned around to look at the princess he had captured and then had set free. “Yes?”
She chewed her lower lip, then said, “Thank you…for what you did. And I’m sorry about Fara.”
Victor nodded. “Me too.” He turned his attention back to the airlock. It was almost fully equalized.
Without bidding, Lysandra walked up next to him. “So when did you first encounter the
Excalibur
?”
“It’s a long story,” Victor said.
“I have time,” Lysandra said.
The airlock
ding
ed; pressure between the
Daisy Mae
and the
Excalibur
had equalized.
Victor opened the outer hatch and walked through. “You’ll find out in a moment, Princess.”
Lysandra huffed with frustration and followed him, along with Cormac and Gaz.
Boarding the
Excalibur
, Victor had to squint against the bright light inside. The bulkheads and overhead were a matte white, while the deck was a black rubbery material.
The others followed him in, including Cormac, who gasped when he studied his surroundings. “This is a First Civilization vessel!”
“Very good, starchild,” the old man said, his projection standing just outside the airlock.
“Who the fuck are you?” Gaz dropped to a fighting stance.
Victor placed a hand on the pit fighter’s shoulder. “Easy, Gaz. That’s a hologram. And, besides, he’s not an enemy.” Victor stared at the old man. “Are you?”
“Quite the opposite, Captain Selan,” the old man said. “I’m here to help.”
“Which kind of surprises me. We didn’t part on the best of terms,” Victor said.
“Why would you say that?” the old man asked.
“You dumped me on Mustang,” Victor said.
“I didn’t ‘dump’ you there, Captain Selan.” The old man smiled. “I planted you there, with everything you needed.”
“Needed for what?” Victor asked.
“To grow and mature,” the old man said.
“Victor said you could help save my homeworld,” Lysandra said. “Is it true?”
The old man shifted his gaze to Lysandra. “I’m afraid not, Princess.”
“What? What do you mean?” she asked.
“I am not the one who will save your world,” the old man said. He looked back at Victor. “He will.”
Victor crossed his arms. “I thought I wasn’t the man you needed.”
“You
weren’t
the man I needed,” the old man said, “back then. But, after all this time, after all you have done, I think that’s changed.”
“I doubt it,” Victor said. “I’ve spent the last few years killing people for money and the promise of revenge. I failed at the revenge and helped a man just as bad as Magnus Lacano rise to power. A man who’s about to destroy another world.”
“That is not your fault,” the old man said.
“How is it not?” Victor asked. “If it wasn’t for me, Holace Quill wouldn't have built his Alliance—”
“You give yourself too much credit,” the old man said. “The threat of the Lysandran Empire made the Alliance possible, not you. You merely made it easier for Holace Quill to form it. And, besides, if the Alliance hadn’t been formed, Emperor Magnus would likely be scourging Mustang from orbit in order to intimidate the rest of the Free Worlds into surrender.”
“I still didn’t help matters,” Victor said.
“How could you? You’ve just been one man with a small ship and a motley crew,” the old man said. He looked past Victor. “No offense.”
“None taken,” Cormac said. “Tell me, are you an AI?”
“Why do you ask?” the old man asked.
“Because it was said the First Civilization created fully aware AIs, patterned after human minds. The primary way those AIs would interact with people was through holographic projections of the pattern-donor.”
The old man smiled at Cormac. “No one has better preserved the knowledge of the First Civilization’s technology than the starchildren. Which is unsurprising, considering their star cities are among the last functioning examples of First Civilization engineering. Yes, I am an AI.”
“So who was your pattern-donor? I don’t recognize you from any known First Civilization figure,” Cormac said.
“That, I’m afraid, is not something I wish to discuss,” the old man said. “And, besides, we have more important tasks to attend to.”
“We need to stop the Alliance from destroying Lysander,” Victor said.
“No,
you
need to do that,” the old man said.
“How?” Victor asked.
“With one final sacrifice,” the old man said.
“This is not a good time to be cryptic, old man,” Victor said. “What exactly do you need me to do?”
“I’m sorry, Victor. But what you need to do…” The old man sighed. “It’s better that I show you. Please follow me. I’m taking you to right to the core of the
Excalibur
.”
“Fine,” Victor said. “Lead the way.”
The old man nodded and turn to walk away with silent footsteps. Victor followed with the others close behind. The old man led them to a bank of elevators. He then strode up to one, and the doors quietly slid open.
Gesturing at the elevator with a wrinkled hand, the old man said, “Going down.”
Victor walked inside and turned around as the others stepped in. Lysandra and Cormac were both wide-eyed as they studied the interior of the elevator. Gaz seemed bored. He clearly was not as impressed with the
Excalibur
as everyone else.
Then the doors closed, and the elevator descended.
“The old guy’s not comin’ with us?” Gaz asked.
“Hologram,” Victor said.
“Oh, right,” Gaz said.
After a few seconds of descent, the elevator’s doors opened, revealing the old man waiting on the other side.
“Follow me,” he said.
Victor shot Gaz a knowing look and then stepped from the elevator.
A short time later, the old man stopped in front of a large, heavily reinforced hatch. He gestured to the hatch. “And here we are.”
“You took us to the bridge?” Victor asked.
“No,” the old man said. “The bridge is forward of here. This is the vault.”
“And what’s in here?” Victor asked.
“What you need to control the
Excalibur
,” the old man said.
The hatch swung open silently, revealing another brightly lit room on the other side. Standing on a dais was what looked like a formidable suit of armor.
Cormac gasped. “A warsuit!”
The old man nodded. “Yes.”
“It just looks like a suit of power armor,” Lysandra said.
“It’s more than that,” Cormac said. “At least from what my people know. The warsuits were supposed to allow one person to control a large starship and make them powerful combatants in their own right.”
“That and more, yes,” the old man said. “What else do you know, starchild?”
“That is the extent of it,” Cormac said. “For the most part, my people only know what First Civilization technology could do, not how it worked.”
The old man turned to face the warsuit. “Well, that suit can, indeed, allow one person to control the
Excalibur
.” He turned back to face Victor. “Specifically you.”
Victor stared at the armor, filled with an unshakable sense of familiarity. “It looks like a big action figure.”