The Revenge of Excalibur (5 page)

A green and white lawn chair materialized out of thin air. He sank onto the chair with a sigh. Leaning back, he swung his feet up, crossing them at the ankles. He sat there, smoking and drinking, as he surveyed the twelve, straining Council members. Trickles of sweat slid down their red faces. They looked as if they might have a stroke.

Arthur chuckled.
What morons.
He turned to see how Tig was doing. She still had her hands over her mouth, staring in terror at the Council members. He glanced at Tobah. Her mouth was handing open, the same terrified look on her face. Arthur shrugged.

Taking a sip of beer, Arthur glanced at Cobia, whose eyes were open, a snarl on her face that would drive the fieriest beast for cover. He burst out laughing, beer spraying out his mouth all over the Council chamber floor and his legs. He tipped his beer can at her. Her face twisted into even more of a snarl. Arthur chuckled again.
If I don't stop watching her, I'll never get to finish my beer.

Arthur gestured at Tig. “Come on, Tig. Sit, and have a beer with me. You, too, Tobah.” Two more chairs appeared with a can of beer in each holder. “This may take a while. It seems the Council members haven't realized they're out of business.” He smirked at the twelve women.

Tig hadn't moved. Arthur glanced over at her. She had a desperate, pleading look that reminded him of Ruth when she wanted something. Studying her, he thought,
Tig is a pretty woman, but Ruth and Daisy are beautiful.
He shrugged. If she didn't want to sit and enjoy the party, it wasn't any skin off his nose.

Arthur turned his attention to the gallery, where fifteen Calen women were sitting, watching the proceedings. Cobia had invited these women so she could demonstrate her powers, and how she was going to handle the Earthman. He snorted.
What a show-off. If she wants a show, I'll give her one.

He finished his beer in one gulp, threw the empty can in the air, aimed his finger at it like a gun, and said, “Pow.” The can disappeared mid-air. Taking a last drag off his cigarette, he did the same thing. “Pow,” he repeated, zapping the butt to wherever the beer can had gone. He smiled, enjoying this game.

The twelve women were still standing, holding hands, faces lined with concentration. Their normally pale complexions, which reminded Arthur of a freshly painted white house, were fire barn red.

What else can I do to break them? That's it
, he thought, snapping his fingers. Back on Earth, he knew a guy named Tommy, who smoked the raunchiest cigars ever. No one knew where he bought them, but they smelled like horse or camel shit. He stared at his upraised hand. A big, fat, brown cigar, wafting smoke, appeared between his fingers. He took a sniff, his nose wrinkling in horror.
Yup, I got it right.

He sat there, puffing away, blowing long streams of acrid smoke towards the Council members. His eyes started watering from the nauseating smell, so he shut down his olfactory senses. Pretty soon, the room was full of gagging sounds, as the Calens, who were non-smokers, covered their mouths, or held their noses shut. One-by-one, the Council members succumbed to the raunchy smell, gagging, dropping to their seats, eyes watering. All except Cobia.

She remained standing, holding her breath, scowling with hatred at Arthur. Face turning blue, looking as if she were ready to pass out, she finally released her held breath with a whoosh, slumping back onto her chair. Fanning the smoke away from her face with her limp hand, she shouted, “Enough, Earthman! You mock the ruling Council. Remove this foul odor, and stand before us, as all Calen must stand.”

Finally
, Arthur thought with a smirk,
something we can agree on.
He quickly removed the offending smoke, replacing it with a clean scent of pine. The smell must not have meant the same thing to the Calens, as their noses wrinkled again in disgust at the new odor. He sat staring at Cobia, who sat glaring back at him. He shook his head.
They just won't learn.

In a blink, he BLIPPED!, reappearing on top of the marble, Council table, sitting cross-legged in front of Cobia. The dozen Council members jumped to their feet, mouths open in shock, backing away from the Earthman.

“Cobia, I guess you don't understand yet,” Arthur said. He took a sip from another beer he just materialized. “When Daisy, er, Emeara and I met on Earth, she told me she and I would be ruling together. She also told me things weren't going so well on her planet. It appears she was right. Now, you have two choices. You can either quit, resign, whatever you want to call it, or I'll fire all twelve of you. And that won't be pretty. I'll find some desolate planet to plant your sorry asses on, where you won't be a threat to anyone again. What will it be?”

Cobia's face tightened up with rage as she quickly grabbed for the ray gun holstered at her side. She barely had the gun aimed at Arthur before he pointed his finger, saying, “Pow!” The dozen women vanished to the same place as the beer can, cigarette filter, cigar, and smoke. Arthur stared at his finger in amazement.
Pretty slick, but I didn't mean to do that. I'd better be careful.

The onlookers in the balcony sprang to their feet, moans and cries of disbelief filling the room. Tig ran up to Arthur, and tugged on his arm, eyes wide with fright. “Arthur, what have you done? Did you harm them?”

He smiled down at Tig, patting her hand. “Don't worry, they're fine. I put them where they won't be a nuisance to anyone, anymore.”
Yeah, but where the Sam Hell is that? Where ever the beer can went, dummy.
He shrugged. As long as they left him alone, it didn't make any difference. He knew if he wished them back, they'd probably reappear just as he'd sent them; whether it was today or ten years later.
Do I want to?
Images of gory science fiction and horror movies he'd seen with bodies with no heads, or heads with no faces, floated through his mind. He shuddered.
No, they were better off wherever they were.

The memory faded, and Arthur finally slipped into a restful sleep. Panth sighed. What he just saw explained so much. The twelve Council members had a huge following, and their followers finally retaliated.
I still do not understand why Teth and my family were involved? Is it because of the silver objects? What, in Osso's name, are they?
Unlike his snoring cellmate, he tossed and turned the rest of the night.

“What the hell?” Pam cried, stumbling forward, falling to her hands and knees. Turning over, sitting on her butt, eyes wide with fright, she slowly peered around. She found herself in a round room, and everywhere she looked was silver. Silver computer consoles, silver chairs, silver screens, and a silver floor and ceiling. The bright, overhead lights turned all that silver into an eye-squinting glare.

Her heart started racing.
Oh, my God, I'm in one of those space ships from the cavern.

How? Who teleported me here?
The only person she knew who could've done it was her father. Slowly rising to her feet, she glanced around some more.

“Dad? Is that you?” she asked, her voice ending in a squeak, hand at her chest.

*We are
Weesa
,* came a female voice.

Pam rubbed her forehead. She hadn't heard any words, but felt them resonating in her mind. It felt like someone was softly scratching at her brain.
Is this what my family feels when I talk to them telepathically?
It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

“
Weesa
? What's a
Weesa
?”

Two silver screens in front of Pam flickered on. She found herself staring at identical twins. They were very pale, bald-headed, wearing white robes with silver trimming, and she couldn't tell if they were male or female.

*We are
Weesa
, and we need your help.*

Pam rubbed her head again. The Voice was actually two female voices talking together, almost in harmony. She shook her head. “I don't understand. How can I help you? Why did you kidnap me?”

The two faces looked at each other. *Kidnap? What is 'kidnap?' We do not understand this term.*

Pam's fear was slowly being replaced with anger. She scowled at the faces, hands on hips. “What you just did to me. You took me out of my home, without my consent.” She glanced from one face to the other. “Who are you, and what do you want from me? If I don't get some answers, like right now, I'm leaving the same way I got here.”

The two pale heads bowed as one. *We are sorry, Pamela. We did not mean to frighten you. We need your assistance, as our King and Queen, your father and his wife, are in danger.*

“Arthur and Daisy? What has happened to my father?” Pam bit her bottom lip. She and her mum had been right. Her father was in trouble.

*They were attacked at the palace by rebel Calen men. The rebels devised a new weapon that penetrated Arthur's force-field. The King and Queen were captured, and are now being held prisoners. Regretfully, their three children did not survive the attack.* Tears were coursing from their eyes.

“What? You mean I had brothers or sisters?” Pam stepped backwards until her knees hit against a chair, where she sat, unable to believe what she'd just heard.

Staring at the two crying women, she felt hot tears prickling the back of her own eyes.
Why didn't I realize Arthur and Daisy would've had children? If only I hadn't been afraid.
She should've gone looking for her father years ago. If she had, she would've met her half-siblings.
Did they have powers like me, too?
Her mum and step-father tried for years to have more children, but Ruth could never conceive again.
What would it have been like to have had a younger brother or sister?
Hanging her head, she mourned a family she would never know.

*Pamela, now is not the time to grieve. Arthur and Daisy are still in danger. We fear for their lives. You must come with us, and save them.*

Pam looked up, wiping the tears from her face. “But, how? What can I do that you can't? You obviously have some powers as you brought me here. Why can't you just teleport my father and Daisy out of the prison?”

*We are unable to use our powers as Bindkall Prison uses an anti-psychic devise to keep their prisoners contained.*

“Wait a minute,” Pam interrupted, raising her hand at the screens. “If you can't use your psychic powers, what makes you think I can use mine?”

*You cannot,* came back the harmonic response. “However, the Shalit, Excalibur, can.”

“Wait one damn minute. Are you talking about the evil entity trapped in the sword Excalibur?”

*He is the one, and same.*

“No, no, no,” Pam said, shaking her head. “My mum told me about the Shalit, how it could never be released. If it were, it would destroy every living thing in our galaxy. I won't allow that to happen.”

*Allow?* The twin faces blinked their ice-blue eyes at Pam. *You have no choice in the matter. If you wish to save your father, you must release the Shalit contained in the sword.*

“Are you people nuts? You won't be saving anyone. You'll be sentencing all of our worlds to a horrific death.”

The two heads turned toward each other, not saying a word.
Are they talking to each other?
Pam wondered, picking at the cuticles on her left hand.
This makes no sense. Why would a ship have to converse with itself? No matter. They can talk all they want. There's no way I'm going to be responsible for letting the Shalit loose. No way.

The bald-heads faced Pam again. *Even though we have little time, we have agreed you need to understand before you will assist us.”

Pam held up her hand again. “Before we go any further, can you speak out loud, and not telepathically? You're giving me a headache.” She grimaced, rubbing her forehead.

“Certainly,” said one of the female heads. Her voice was the tenor in the harmonics of the twin voices. “You asked us who we were. We are now
Weesa
, but before our brains were incorporated into this ship, we used to be called Olso and Emeara.” With a slight nod to the other head, she continued, “Emeara is my child, and we are both very distant grandmothers to Daisy.”

As Olso spoke, Pam began noticing the differences in their appearance. Olso's face and nose were thinner, where Emeara's eyes had a more slanted cast to them. Pam shrugged.
Their faces might not even be what they originally looked like.

The other face, which Pam took to be Emeara, smiled. “Of course, my dear. What you see in front of you is our true appearance while we held physical bodies.” Her voice had a lilting alto tone.

Pam frowned, biting her lip. “You're reading my mind, without my permission. I don't know how things are done on your planet, but we value our privacy. So keep the hell out of my head. You got it? Or, I'm going back home.”

Emeara's eyes looked troubled. “We're sorry, Pamela. As
Weesa
, we always read the crews' minds, to assist them in their duties. We meant no harm.”

“I'm not your crew,” she snapped. With a heavy sigh, she leaned back in her chair. “Look, I'm sorry. I just found out my father is being held prisoner, and I had a brother and sisters, but they're dead. I'm totally out of my element, and I don't understand what it is you want me to do.”

“If you will listen, we will explain,” said Olso in a stern voice.

Pam glared at Olso, not sure if she liked her or not. She seemed to be the bad cop to Emeara's good cop. “Ok, ok,” Pam said, waving her hand. “Go on with your story.”

“Many generations ago, more than you can fathom in your Earth years, before Humans even walked your planet,” Olso lectured with a sneer, “our Universe was invaded by a terrible entity. We knew not where they came from, but they destroyed all life, including planets. They were nothing more than clouds of dark energy that would envelope a planet and absorb all the energy from the world and its life forms. I was told it was a slow, painful way to die. I was Queen of Calen at that time, so I ordered our best scientists to discover a way to eliminate them.

“Even with our brightest minds working on the problem, no one came up with an answer. And the Planet Destroyers were getting closer each year. It was quite by accident we found the solution. Some of our deep space vehicles were using Rem brains as computers, and to fulfill other functions on those ships.

“The Rem brains were contained in vessels that were constructed with small amounts of Husken Silver as components. Husken Silver is toxic to our race, but in small enough quantities, not lethal. Our deep spacers started encountering the Planet Destroyers, sadly, to be absorbed and destroyed themselves. All of them, save the ships using Rem brains. These, the Planet Destroyers avoided, at all costs. We then discovered they would not go near the planet with the only supply of Husken Silver, Lear.

“Using larger quantities of Husken Silver, and with the help of the Rem brains, some of the deep space captains devised a weapon they thought would fend off the Planet Destroyers. It was a more complex variation of the Ultilear. They had no illusions. They knew if their weapon did not work, our worlds were doomed. Imagine their surprise, when they discovered not only were the Planet Destroyers vulnerable to the Silver, but their energy was absorbed by it. The captains were unable to kill the Planet Destroyers, but they could be contained, in Husken Silver.

“Ever resourceful, and inspired by this new weapon, our scientists developed a bigger and more powerful version of the Husken Ultilear. Our deep space vessels were equipped with this new technology, and soon, the Planet Destroyers became the hunted. Our Calen ships searched far and wide, until every dark cloud of energy had been absorbed and contained in a prison of Silver. Unfortunately, we lost many Calens to the toxicity of the Silver, but their lives were worth the sacrifice for the good of us all.”

Pam sat picking at her nails, bored with the history lesson, and Olso's condescending tone. * I'm sure the Calens who gave their lives didn't have much of a choice. If Husken Silver toxicity is anything like radiation poisoning, they would've suffered excruciating deaths.* Pam shuddered at the thought of what they must've endured, hair coming out in clumps, teeth falling out, pustulating skin lesions. She studied Olso and Emeara.
Maybe not the hair and teeth falling out, they didn't seem to have any.

Pam pushed herself from the chair, standing with arms crossed, foot tapping. “Look, thanks for the history lesson, but I don't see how this has any bearing on what happened to my father. He's being held prisoner. He could be dying. We need to go rescue him. Now.”

Olso's blue eyes narrowed. “I see you are as imprudent as your father.”

Pam's eyes widened in anger, fists clenched at her sides. “Me? You overbearing hunk of metal.”

“Please, Pamela,” interjected Emeara. “If you are to believe us about the validity of releasing the Shalit from his prison, you must hear the rest of the tale.”

Pam shook her head.
Yup, definitely good cop, bad cop.
With a loud huff, she sat back down, legs crossed, kicking the crossed leg back and forth. “Okay, but make it fast. However, I don't believe there's anything you can tell me that will convince me to release the damn thing.”

The two faces turned toward each other.
They're talking to each other, again. It doesn't make any sense. If they are
Weesa
, shouldn't they already know what one another are thinking?

Emeara gave a slight nod, then turned back to Pam. “We were once like you, wearing mortal bodies, but when the end of our lives grew near, we chose to have our brains removed and linked to this ship. We are now immortal for as long as
Weesa
remains intact.

“
Weesa
has a long history. She once used Rem brains for her computing system. The deep space captains discovered the more Rem brains installed on a ship, the faster the ships traveled. The captain of
Weesa
grew greedy, and installed more brains than any other ship had tried. Unforeseen by the captain, the Rem brains evolved, and took over the function of the ship. They referred to themselves as a singular entity, called 'The One.' ”

Pam's head jerked up from where she'd been fiddling with her grandmother's wedding ring. “When I was trying to focus on my dad, to locate his whereabouts, I was blocked by something called 'The One.' ”

“Yes, my dear,” Emeara said with a sad smile, “they are the one and same. For you see, when
Weesa
finally returned back to Calen from her mutinous journey, the brains were dismantled. Most of them were contained in Husken Silver, to prevent them from evolving any further. We were terrified of what we created, and didn't know how far they would evolve. Would they become more powerful than us? So they were imprisoned, all but one. That brain was taken and installed in Bindkall Prison, where it remains to this day.”

“Wait a minute,” Pam said, shaking her head. “This makes no sense. I thought the Planet Destroyers were the only ones you encased in Husken Silver. Are you saying the Rem brains are the Planet Destroyers?”

“That was the conundrum,” Emeara said with a sad sigh.

“We were not as foolish as you Humans to think we were the only technologically advanced society in the universe,” Olso said, a smirk scarring her beautiful, pale face. “We knew not where the Planet Destroyers originated from. We experimented on lower life forms, why not other such minded societies? We took no chances. We imprisoned them all.”

Pam glowered at Olso, her face flushed with anger. She felt the psychic energy crackling through her body. She wanted to burn the smug look off of Olso's face.

Olso gave a sorrowful sigh, a tear forming in the corner of one eye. “We were wrong. After I had my brain installed into
Weesa
, I had access to all the data banks. Before
Weesa
returned back to Calen, with her Rem brains called The One, they sat for years in a vast part of space totally devoid of any life forms. The Planet Destroyers had already passed through, absorbing everything in their path.

“With their immense scanning abilities, The One probed for miles, looking for answers. What they discovered was incredible. The One was still in the process of computing its findings when it finally obeyed the captain's orders to return to Calen. Once
Weesa
arrived, the brains were dismantled, never having the opportunity to relay its discovery. That information lay dormant in the computer databases until I linked with the ship, many years later. When Emeara neared the end of her life cycle, I contacted her, and told her of my hypothesis. She agreed to link her brain to
Weesa
, and we started our search for the truth.”