Project X-Calibur (16 page)

35

056:37:17

“WHERE DID YOU LEARN
to fight like that?” Kwan asked after we'd returned to our room.

I shrugged anxiously. All along I had wanted to be special, but now that I had everyone's attention, I didn't want it. Not like this.

“I'd like to see you square off against Pellinore in a swordfight,” Tyler whispered in awe.

Me
against Percival Pellinore, an original knight of the Round Table? I shook my head, embarrassed. “No way. Not a chance.”

Malcolm gave an exasperated snort. “If the aliens want to forgo ships in favor of a swordfight, Ben can fight them all for us,” he offered sarcastically.

He eyed me like I couldn't be trusted, like I had tricked everyone. But if anybody had been tricked, it was me. How was I supposed to know I could do that? Malcolm did have a point, though. When it came to flying ships, I was still the least skilled here.

Even after we turned the lights off, I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened.

When lives are on the line, it's all about doing, not thinking,
Dad had said. I looked to the window and could barely make out a few stars glimmering through the London fog. The name
Dredmore
popped into my brain uninvited. It wasn't a something, it was a some
one
—I could feel that in my gut—and whatever Dredmore was, he was coming to wreak havoc on my planet. Seeing Pellinore knocked to the floor by a spar-bot of his own design made me wonder what our chances of survival really were.

Suddenly, the countdown clock went blank.

I sat up, heart hammering, waiting. Two words popped up:
ME . . . AGAIN.

A smile exploded onto my face as three letters flashed:
BSR.

• • •

I stopped outside the BSR and looked up at the ceiling, waiting for the panel to slide open and reveal Ivy. I heard faint sounds of a battle coming from the other side of the BSR doors: alien ships soaring through space and lasers screeching. I squeezed through the opening, and for a moment my gut twisted in nerves.

“Hello?” I shouted over the storm of virtual laser fire around me. There was no answer. As I walked deeper into the vast space, an alien ship surged right at me. A hand suddenly grabbed me by the shirt and yanked me backward, into the open hatch of a pod. With the virtual outer space turned on, the pod had been camouflaged.

I crammed into the pod's lone pilot seat with Ivy.

“I just saved your life,” she grinned. “You were about to become space mush. We're even now, okay?”

When I didn't answer, she shrugged. “Okay, maybe not.”

“Listen, about the gym—” I began. I wanted to tell her that I hadn't tried to trick anyone, but she cut me off.

“Thank you, Ben. You saved my life
and
my father's. He gets on my nerves sometimes, sure, but . . . I still kinda like having him around,” she said with a swallow.

“You're welcome.” I took a deep breath. In the tiny pod, she was practically sitting in my lap.

“By the way, Darla told me what you did for her with the helmet. That was brilliant.”

“Oh. Thanks.” I wondered what else Darla had told her.

“I couldn't sleep, so I figured I'd get in some target practice for tomorrow,” Ivy explained, gesturing to the pod's windshield and the virtual battle beyond it.

“Your dad doesn't encourage you like he does the others,” I found myself blurting out. “But he loves you a lot. More than anything.”

Ivy smiled but changed the subject. “Where did you learn to swordfight? It was incredible.”

I groaned. “I don't know, it just happened. An instinct, I guess.”

“Well, whatever it was, you've got to channel it again tomorrow,” she said determinedly.

She jumped out of the pod and led me through the halls of HQ, into restricted areas I hadn't seen yet.

“I was wondering . . . ” I whispered along the way. “I heard that you're the reason we have X-Calibur in the first place. Is that true?”

She seemed surprised. “Who told you that?”

“Let's just say you're not the only one who's good at spying on your father and Merlin,” I admitted, and her face lit up.

“Bravo,” she said excitedly and gave me a high five. “I'm the reason they were able to get the ship to turn on.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“When I was eight, I was sneaking around in here and found my way into X-Calibur. I really just wanted to see what my father was doing all the time.” Ivy suddenly reached out and pushed me back against the wall, putting a finger to her mouth. I looked down the hall and saw Arlo turning a corner. Luckily, he turned down another hall and out of sight.

Ivy continued walking cautiously and whispering. “X-Calibur was essentially a massive paperweight at that point. Nobody could turn it on. That's why my father had all the techs build imitations of it, because the real one had proven useless.”

I turned to her. “But it responded to you?”

“As soon as I touched the steering controls, it powered up. Everyone was shocked. But I couldn't get it to do anything else. I had no clue what it was even
supposed
to do. I was a kid. They kept telling me to push buttons and panels, but nothing happened.”

“That's when they started bringing in more kids?”

“Yes. They found that older kids could get the buttons and things to respond, although not always in the way they wanted.”

I remembered Merlin explaining to me that the buttons inside X-Calibur seemed to change daily, like the ship didn't want to be tamed. As Ivy and I turned a corner, we passed an office that had a glass window on its door. I blinked quickly: I could have sworn the countdown clock inside flashed those strange symbols again. But when I blinked again, the numbers there were correct.

I was about to shout ahead to Ivy when I heard a hum to my left. I turned. There was another hallway that branched off this one. The ceiling light at the start of the hallway was getting brighter, then darker, then brighter again, humming with each pulse as the electricity level rose and fell.

The light seemed to be beckoning me. Just like in my dream. I pinched myself.

“Hey, what are you waiting for?” Ivy suddenly asked, startling me. She was headed back this way. Everything returned to normal.

I nodded to the hallway where the light had been pulsing. “What's down there?”

Ivy shrugged. “Lots of things. Satellite monitoring stations, engineering department. It's also another way to get to the hangar.”

“Where the ships are?”

“Yeah. Come on,” she said, waving. “We're almost there.”

I gave the hall one last puzzled look and hurried after Ivy. Less than a minute later, we had reached our destination.

Ivy grinned. “Ready to see something that's not on my father's tour?”

We were standing at the end of the hall, looking at . . . a wall. Ivy pulled out a key chain that had a little digital voice recorder on it. Right before she pressed PLAY, she grabbed my hand.

“Hold on,” she cautioned, and our fingers interlocked.
This is the greatest moment of my life,
I thought.

Pellinore's voice came out of the little recorder. He said just one word: “Protector.”

I felt the unmistakable magnetic pull of the floor in my feet and legs. Ivy and I dropped as the panel we were standing on plummeted down a steel shaft, taking us with it. The plunge lasted only a split second, but we dropped about ten feet to a secret, shadowy room. The magnetic pull vanished from our legs and we stepped forward.

“What is this?” I squinted, until my eyes adjusted to the darkness.

A clear cylinder of glass, about seven feet tall and four feet wide, stood on a steel base. My eyes widened when I realized there was something floating in it. Ivy reached down to hit a switch at the cylinder's base. A light shone up into the fluid. My jaw dropped.

There was an alien suspended in there. It was dead, partially mummified, about five feet tall and skinny, with greenish gray skin. But the thing that really got to me was its face. It was wrinkled and scrunched together, eyes closed. It looked a little bit like an old man, a creature that might pass for part alien and part human, with an undeniable softness to its face.

“This is the alien scientist that flew X-Calibur to Earth, isn't it?” I asked.

Ivy nodded.

I stepped closer to the glass and put my hand against it, inches from the alien. “You know, Merlin said something to me last night about there being no accidents.”

“What do you mean?” Ivy's finger traced the base of the cylinder absentmindedly.

“Just that everything that's meant to happen
does
happen. I think it must have been your dad's destiny to find this alien and X-Calibur, don't you? There's no way it was just blind luck.”

Ivy's brow furrowed. “Of course it wasn't blind luck. He and Merlin had been tracking the origin of King Arthur's sword, so it made sense that it led them to the alien.”

I turned to her. “Huh?

“Didn't they explain how they found the ship when you were brought into HQ?”

“Your father said it was discovered in his travels, that's all.”

Ivy turned and walked deeper into the mysterious room, explaining along the way. “When the ship crashed on Earth, a sliver of its body was ripped off during atmosphere entry. A blacksmith eventually got the metal and forged it into the sword used by King Arthur.”

My mind was reeling. “But X-Calibur, the ship, looked flawless. I didn't see any slivers missing,” I countered.

“It came off the very bottom. You can see the mark if you know where to look.”

We quickened our pace. “How do you know this?” I asked.

“My father has it written down in his files, in case something ever happens to him or Merlin.”

Ivy arrived at a wall that had a window of glass built into it, though it was too dark to see inside.

“After Arthur and the other knights passed away, Merlin and my father realized there was something special about Arthur's sword. It was like no metal they'd ever seen. It ultimately led them to the crashed ship.”

I pointed to the dark piece of glass in the wall. “So what's in there?”

“See for yourself.” She pointed to a switch next to the glass, and as I leaned forward to click it, I felt like everything was moving in slow motion, the world around me melting away, just as it had done while I fought the spar-bot.

There was a massive sword behind the glass, its razor-sharp blade glistening like water. There was zero doubt about where the metal of that blade had come from.

The sword's handle was adorned with jewels—rubies and emeralds, probably worth millions of dollars. And even though the handle itself looked well-worn, the jewels sparkled with an almost magical brilliance.

“Excalibur,” I breathed.
“It's real.”

36

048:51:24

IN THE EARLY HOURS
of the next morning, we found ourselves in an abandoned soccer stadium. The place was large enough to hold over fifty thousand people, but now it was in bad shape and long forgotten in the middle of the English countryside. No “civilians,” Pellinore assured us, would see us out there.

In the middle of the empty, shadowy field, brightly lit by the glow of its own mechanics, stood X-Calibur.

In the light cast by the spaceship, Pellinore paced before us. “We're going to start things off differently,” he explained. He nodded to Merlin, a cue to show us a black velvet bag. “This bag contains six numbered rocks. Grab one, and keep it in your fist until told to reveal them. Understood?”

The six of us nodded. Darla gave me a little smile and whispered, “I'm glad you're still here.”

I smiled back. “Me too.”

“Today will determine which of you will pilot X-Calibur. The chosen knight will train all day tomorrow with X-Calibur, while four of the remaining will continue working with the prototypes.”

Merlin walked down the line, giving each of us a chance to reach into the bag. “Okay. Reveal your numbers.”

We opened our fists. Incredibly, Malcolm had picked number one, Ivy had picked number two, Darla had picked three, Kwan four, Tyler five, and me last. If our rock choices were fate at work, then it didn't say much for me.

“Malcolm, you're up,” Pellinore said. “Show us what you can do in X-Calibur. Use the stadium airspace any way you see fit.
Dazzle
us.”

Malcolm stood at attention. “Yes, sir. And the weapons?”

“Fire at will,” Pellinore stated firmly, then added, “To
that
side of the stadium only, please.” He pointed across the field to the opposite side of the stadium. Malcolm's brow furrowed, as did mine and everyone else's.

“I'm . . . not sure I follow, sir,” he stammered. “You want me to shoot
at the stadium
?”

“Correct. How else will we get a taste of X-Calibur's weaponry? Have no fear; I own this stadium. It's mine to destroy.” He gave us all a wink.

“Yes, sir!” Malcolm barked, then hurried across the field. When he got to the ship, he looked back and gave us all a crisp salute. He'd been waiting his whole life for this moment.

As we waited for the ship to move, Pellinore fidgeted like a father watching his son take his first at-bat in a Little League game. “Talk to me, Malcolm,” he said when he couldn't endure the suspense anymore. He nodded, listening to Malcolm respond through the earpiece, and then X-Calibur began to hum again and slowly rise. The fact that Malcolm had gotten the ship to even take off was apparently a big deal.

X-Calibur was only a few feet off the ground, though, when it suddenly swung around, its tail end almost clipping a few techs who quickly jumped out of the way. We gasped as the ship suddenly whipped its back end in the
other
direction, still hovering in place. More techs jumped for cover.

“Malcolm, what's going on?!” Pellinore cried.

I put on my helmet, hoping Malcolm's voice would be audible over the comm system.

“I'm not doing anything, sir!” Malcolm grunted, fighting the controls. “The ship is doing it on its own! I think it's malfunctioning!”

I looked to the other knights, who had all followed my lead and put on their helmets. I didn't think any of us had bargained for this.

“
You're
the pilot!” Pellinore snapped. “That ship is a
machine
!
Make
it work for you! You're a
Gunn
!”

Pellinore's tactic worked. Malcolm got the ship to stop spinning, and it rose straight up with the grace of a bird.

“Excellent, Malcolm,” Pellinore said. “Now show us what the ship can do.”

The back of X-Calibur lit up even more as Malcolm gave it power. He could fly, there was no doubt about that, but the ship wasn't doing anything all that different from the prototypes. As Malcolm soared around in wide laps, I glanced at Merlin and Pellinore. They had clearly hoped for something more. Something that would give us a fighting chance against Dredmore.

The ship whipped around to face away from us and Malcolm unleashed a barrage of weapon fire. Every blast shot from X-Calibur's talon-shaped wings was like concentrated lightning, and the damage inflicted to the stadium was devastating. Entire sections crumbled as support beams were obliterated.

Pellinore and Merlin squinted as they observed the destruction. So far, X-Calibur had proven to be just another ship. And a temperamental one at that. Would it be enough to protect mankind?

X-Calibur stopped firing, then spun around and went low, cruising about ten feet over the stadium's dead grass.

“Talk to me, Malcolm,” Pellinore said. But there was silence.

“Malcolm, you there?”

I yanked off my helmet to watch X-Calibur veer sideways and dip even lower.

“Malcolm?!” Pellinore repeated, but the ship swerved again and circled just a few feet off the ground.
It's looking for a place to land,
I thought.

The second X-Calibur touched down, I heard a tiny beep. I looked to my countdown watch and gulped. It pulsed rapidly:
XXX:XX:XX
. The pulsing sped up—brighter, softer, brighter, softer. I couldn't take my eyes off it.

In the middle of the field, Malcolm exited X-Calibur and jogged toward us, a triumphant grin on his face. Pellinore greeted him. “How did she handle?”

“Brilliantly,” Malcolm chirped. “Once I got the ship under control. There was interference on the comm line, though.”

With my eyes on my countdown watch and those pulsing “X”s, I thought,
Of course there was interference. It's the same thing that's causing my watch to—

“Hey, something's wrong with my watch,” Darla suddenly cried.

“Mine too!” Tyler confirmed.

I glanced at my own watch again and felt a chill. One by one, the others held out their wrists:
000:00:00
.

The teams were running toward us, muttering into their headpieces.

“What's this about?” Pellinore demanded.

“We just got confirmation from HQ. It's go time!” one of the techs shouted in terror.

“The aliens, sir!
They're already here!
”