Lancelot Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  By Chris Dietzel

  Lancelot

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  Art 1

  6

  7

  8

  Art 2

  9

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  11

  12

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  31

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  34

  35

  36

  Art 3

  37

  38

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  48

  49

  50

  51

  52

  53

  Art 4

  54

  55

  56

  57

  58

  Art 5

  59

  60

  61

  62

  63

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  66

  67

  68

  69

  70

  71

  72

  73

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  76

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  Art 6

  88

  89

  90

  Art 7

  91

  92

  93

  94

  95

  The Adventure Continues

  Acknowledgments

  About The Author

  About The Artists

  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.

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

  Published in the United States by Watch The World End Publications.

  ISBN-13: 978-1722120085

  ISBN-10: 1722120088

  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

  Lancelot

  Space Lore IV

  Chris Dietzel

  1

  The brilliant white ring of energy floated in space, contained within a loop of three hundred and sixty massive interconnected cylinders. From a distance, each cylinder in the galactic portal appeared to be the size of a small Llyushin fighter, but anyone who approached closer for the first time inevitably gasped at their enormous scale. They were larger than a starjet. Much larger. Each was comparable to a King-class frigate.

  The blaze of energy inside resembled a flat sun, with a metal frame around it. Its immensity caused some children on field trips to cry the first time they saw one close up, even if they had seen holographic versions in classrooms. It was easy to imagine drowning in the ocean of energy that stretched for miles and miles, an abyss of light. Many farmers and day workers refused to believe an object could actually be that large until they left their home worlds and got a chance to ride out into space and see one for themselves. For these people, the colossal starships that lifted off from landing pads on their way back out into space had to be the largest things ever made by human or alien hands. It seemed absurd that a Class-3 Frigate, larger than the fields that the shepherds tended their flocks on, could pass through the mammoth portal along with many other ships just like it.

  The portal in the Cartha sector was no different, even though, for those living on Edsall Dark, the Cartha sector was considered to be a distant region of space. The Thurndorian sector was beyond the large swath of galaxy that had once been known as the Vonnegan Empire. Past that was the 16-D-10 sector, known for its pair of collapsing stars and vast asteroid fields. Only after a ship made its way to the far edge of that sector would it begin to approach the Cartha sector. Almost no one on Edsall Dark even knew of anyone who had visited that region of space before.

  It was through this enormous energy field at the edge of the Cartha sector that an HC Ballistic Cruiser appeared. The ship’s black metal was reminiscent of the fleet Kaiser Doom had once taken into battle. After the flagship had completely emerged from the white light, its tinder walls slid away to reveal the vessel’s windows and ports. The ship adjusted course slightly and began heading toward the nearest planet.

  A moment later, the prow of another vessel began to appear through the portal, a traditional dull silver matte flagship which was also differentiated from the HC Ballistic cruiser’s hard edges by its rounded command deck. As more of the ship came through the portal, it became clear that the second flagship was a Solar Carrier. It took an entire minute for the ship to emerge from the portal. After it was clear of the ring of energy, it too raised its tinder walls. The Solar Carrier adjusted heading to match the course of the first ship.

  It did not fire its laser cannons at the vessel ahead of it. Nor did the HC Ballistic Cruiser unload any of its proton torpedoes, laser cannons, or any other part of its arsenal on the Solar Carrier. Instead, the two ships simply continued into the Cartha Sector.

  Another vessel began to appear through the portal. This one had hard edges like the first ship, but was of a lighter variety of metal than even the Solar Carrier. The visible portion of the vessel steadily widened from being a point at the fore of the ship, growing thicker and thicker as more of the flagship emerged from the portal. An Athens Destroyer.

  As soon as it was all the way through the portal, it too raised its tinder walls. Once the metal panels were up, the Destroyer adjusted heading slightly to point at the Solar Carrier ahead of it. The blue light of its engines darkened as more power was sent to its thrusters.

  This ship also refrained from firing on either vessel ahead of it. Nor did the Solar Carrier try to evade the Athens Destroyer, set its own weapons systems to tar
get the ship behind it, or even raise its shields.

  Behind them, another Solar Carrier appeared through the energy field, then another Athens Destroyer, a Flying Fortress, a Havoc Gunship, a Hellship. Twelve flagships in all, two of each model. They were all roughly the same size as the others and contained similar weaponry, although each ship also had design features and capabilities, both offensive and defensive, that set it apart from the other ships in the formation.

  After appearing through the portal, each vessel raised its tinder walls and adjusted its course to follow the ship in front of it. The result was a caravan of flagships that had formerly belonged to the most prominent kingdoms in the galaxy but which now were all part of one fleet.

  The forces of the Round Table had made their way from one side of the galaxy to the other, but not to wage war. This time, they brought an offering of peace.

  2

  Inside the HC Ballistic Cruiser leading the Round Table fleet, Julian Reiser, general of the expedition, scanned the emptiness of space from his command deck.

  “Any signs of resistance?” he asked.

  The officer sitting nearest to him at one of the displays answered in the negative.

  “Good. Bring up Brigadiers Warwick and Exeter.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  As the officer worked to contact the Solar Carrier and Athens Destroyer commanded by the two senior officers, Julian continued to stare out into space. Without being conscious of it, he ran the thumb and index finger of his right hand across the coarse hair at his chin.

  Once upon a time, his beard had been a bright blond that matched his hair. Now, it was more silver than gold. Of course, he also hadn’t always possessed the wrinkles that now surrounded his eyes or the faint grinding in his shoulders that occurred when he raised his hands over his head.

  On the far side of the command deck was a reflection of what he had looked like years earlier. Talbot, the ensign sitting at the weapons system console, looked exactly as Julian had twenty-five years earlier. His hair was curly and bright, the color of fresh yellow fruit. His neatly trimmed beard was vibrant and healthy. Not a hint of seniority in that face. No scars from past battles.

  Julian turned away before Talbot or anyone else on the deck caught him looking at his son. Even without Julian showing preferential treatment, the rumors were bad enough. Julian knew that the other junior officers whispered that Talbot was only there because his father had selected him for the mission. That was the only explanation for someone freshly out of the academy being assigned to the lead Round Table vessel commanded by the general in charge of the expedition.

  In fact, there was some truth to that. Julian had personally assigned his son to the HC Ballistic Cruiser he commanded. And yes, Julian had ensured that his son would be posted to a position that would test him and train him, groom him into one day taking the same role his father now held. But the preferential treatment ended there. He didn’t acknowledge Talbot when they were both on the command deck unless it was to ask a question or give an order, the same as he would treat anyone else. In the last year, the only two times he had spoken to Talbot while they were on duty had been to put the ensign in his place, once for not answering quickly enough if the cannon batteries were operating at full capacity, and the other time to scold him for yawning toward the end of his duty shift.

  In that regard, Julian was actually tougher on his son than he was on the other officers; he had never chastised any of them for doing the same things. Every commanding officer knew it was normal to grow complacent and allow weariness to fester during extended space voyages. People who lived their entire lives on one planet liked to imagine space travel as an assortment of spectacular views of suns and exotic planets. Occasionally that did occur, but the vast majority of time spent out in the galaxy presented nothing but emptiness. For weeks at a time, the only thing the crew saw were glittering dots amongst an otherwise infinite void.

  For the most part, Julian ignored Talbot until they were done with their shifts because that was how Julian demonstrated that his son wasn’t being treated differently than anyone else, even though they all knew he was by simply being there.

  The comms officer said, “Sir, holo links open in three, two, one.” Then he nodded to Julian right before the holographic images of two senior officers formed in the air in front of the main command deck viewport.

  Both men looked the same age as Julian, but that was where the similarities ended. The first hologram was of a man with only short stubble on his head. He had bushy black eyebrows, and a set of vertical scars ran from his right nostril to his right ear. He didn’t blink except when he looked to his side and then back again. Other than that, every part of his face was still. Anyone who didn’t know him and hadn’t seen the fury with which he fought might have confused the emotionless officer for an android.

  Julian nodded to the brigadier. “Hello, Warwick.”

  Warwick gave a slight nod of his own.

  The second man had a smile big enough for all three of them. Other than a tiny line down the middle of one eyebrow, he had no visible battle scars. Like Julian, his hair was turning grey, but Exeter’s hair was fading from red rather than blond. Now, though, only hints of crimson remained as if a fire were dying out and only embers lingered. The man’s jaw kept moving as he chewed on something, and each time an officer did or said something near him on his own ship, he gave them a friendly wink even though they weren’t being picked up by the communication feed that was projected onto Julian’s deck. Because of this, Exeter seemed to be winking at Julian’s crew for no reason.

  “Exeter, thanks for joining us,” Julian said.

  Although Julian was in charge of the mission, the three men treated each other as relative equals. Each had graduated from the academy around the same time. Each had seen his fair share of battles and had known only victory, never defeat. It was because of this that Julian didn’t refer to their rank and didn’t want them to refer to him as general.

  “We’ll be at Cartha-6 in approximately two hours,” Julian told them. “Seeing as how we don’t expect any resistance, I’d like to send down a small party to personally deliver our message. If nothing else, it will give us an excuse to get off these ships for a little bit.”

  “Sounds like a good time,” Exeter said, his back teeth still grinding at whatever was in his mouth.

  Warwick, still unblinking, said, “I’d like to lead the rendezvous party.”

  “I was thinking we would all go,” Julian replied. “Gather up some of your officers and when we get there, the three of us will go down and deliver our official greetings from the Round Table.”

  As he spoke, he glanced out of the corner of his eye to see if Talbot was looking his way. He had no way of knowing if his son would want to be one of the officers to accompany the party that would land on Cartha-6. What he did know was that it would look like he was playing favorites if he did bring his son along.

  Their eyes—father’s and son’s—met for a split second, but then Talbot’s attention darted back to the weapons systems displays in front of him.

  Focusing back on Warwick and Exeter, Julian wondered how his two friends would handle the same situation if they were in his shoes. Understandably, Talbot would be mortified if his father actually asked the question out loud in front of everyone. Anyway, Julian knew what their answers would be even without asking. Neither of them would have selected their son to accompany them to the planet’s surface because neither would have assigned their child to the same vessel they were in charge of in the first place. It was only Julian who had decided it was a good idea to bring his only son across the galaxy with him as he set about politely asking each planetary system to join the Round Table.

  3

  In front of Hector, a room full of aliens and humans of every variety gathered. They were the representatives from throughout the galaxy who had been appointed by their people to sit at the Round Table. Although he too was part of the group, he was one of a
few who didn’t actually sit during the proceedings. For Hector, this was because he hovered on top of an energy disk. For the Looselawsug, a gelatinous alien without a skeleton, it was because a chair wouldn’t allow him to see what was happening. For the Sherwee, a member of an alien race that couldn’t survive in an environment hospitable to most living creatures, it was because she had to be in an encased chamber of helium in order to live.

  The actual table, the wood rings and accompanying wedges, had grown beyond Hector’s wildest imagination. Now, he had to squint in order to make out the alien sitting on the far side of the table from him. Maybe it was a Kraknour. Were those six arms he saw or four arms and two antennae? Maybe it was a Lowry-Low. As much as he strained to identify the alien’s species, all he saw at that distance was a blur.

  In the years since the Round Table had formed, more and more kingdoms had joined. At first, the table had been able to accommodate representatives from a dozen kingdoms. Even before the first formal session, however, an additional ring had been built around it to double the number of representatives. As more and more kingdoms and planetary systems joined the Round Table, the group of humans and aliens who gathered at it grew exponentially.

  The main reason for this was that not every kingdom was the same size. It was argued that there had to be some sort of system to reflect that. After all, it wouldn’t be fair if the Dur-Schiell Kingdom, made up of only two inhabited planets, had the same number of representatives as the Kerchin Kingdom, which had ruled over twelve planets. That didn’t even factor in the former CasterLan Kingdom, which had possessed twenty-five inhabited planets within its borders, or what had been the Vonnegan Empire, which had encompassed over one hundred planets during its peak.

  Only two years after its inception, the first modification was made to how the Round Table would work. Instead of each kingdom having one representative, each inhabited planet and colony would have a member. It was the only way to ensure balance.