Excalibur

It had been some time since I had last seen Arthur. I remembered swearing revenge on him, but I had not expected to see him so soon. He had been out of memory, out of mind. I had expected his knights to come after me, but to grace me with his own presence?

My goodness, I felt honored.

I ordered Stephen, Vladimir, and Emiko back aboard Nightwing and informed Lucia that I would be receiving Arthur’s hail from there.

“What do I do about him?” Lucia stared nervously at Ulysses. “He’s still not responding.”

“Do what you can,” I replied. “Slap him. Pour water on him. Do anything. I’ll try to stall Arthur for as long as I can. And detach us from Circe when you can.”

“We’re going to fight that?” Stephen pointed outside at the titan. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“That,” I said flatly, “killed Diane. Any objections?”

Stephen recoiled as if struck. There was shame in his eyes. Shame that I had drawn the connection before he had.

“None."

“Vladimir?” I asked. “Spin up both engine cores to seventy percent.”

“They’re going to know,” Vladimir said. “There’s too many Caerleon ships for them to not detect the radiation.”

“Let them know,” I said. “Caerleon isn’t going to be scared of the Sunless Fleet. Let them be scared of their own creation.”

“He’s still hailing us,” Emiko said.

“Like a shitty ex-boyfriend,” I murmured. “Let’s patch him through.”

Arthur looked as he had the day he sentenced me to exile, dressed in gaudy regalia, not a strand of hair out of place, his cerulean eyes piercing with the excited sentiment of a young boy with a little too much power. Yes, this was the Arthur I loathed, the Arthur I swore revenge to.

“Hello, Arthur,” I smiled. “Surprised to see me again so soon?”

“Elaine,” Prince Pendragon bowed. “While it’s my pleasure to see you well, my request is for the Pirate King. Where is he?”

“Indisposed,” I said. “Looks like you’re talking to the Pirate Queen for now. Let me guess. Merlin told you where to find us.”

“Nonsense,” Arthur chuckled. “After Hadrian, it was obvious–”

“Cut the crap, Arthur,” I rolled my eyes. “You were never good enough at strategy to say such things, and you were an even worse liar. Just tell us why we’re here so we can calmly tell you to piss off.”

“I suppose I should be forthright given this may be the last time we speak,” Arthur frowned. “We have two demands today. The first is the Pirate King shall surrender himself into custody. The Sunless Fleet is to be disbanded, with its members of imperial origin tried for treason and sedition. The others shall be dealt with appropriately.”

“How scary,” I murmured. “And the other demand?”

“You. You’re the demand,” Arthur answered. “You will surrender yourself into imperial custody.”

“How is that any different from the first demand?”

“You are to be given special treatment. Execution.”

Everyone on the bridge stared at me. I smiled.

“My, my, Arthur,” I laughed. “And here I thought you didn’t have it in you to be so bold and daring. Execute your former fiance? For what crime? Are we going to repeat the same sham of our previous trial?”

“You’ve joined pirates. Who knows what military secrets you might have already leaked to them? How could they have found Fortress World Hadrian, otherwise?”

Nemura’s crimes were being foisted upon me. Of course.

“And if we don’t comply?” I asked. “If it’s execution you want, I’m right here, Arthur.”

“Uh… We’re also right here,” Stephen muttered nervously. “Maybe don’t get us caught up in a feud with your ex!”

“The imperium is nothing if not merciful,” Arthur snapped. “We have no wish to fight if you are all willing to lay down your arms. You will, all of you, save for Miss Greymoor whose crimes are above the threshold for acceptable conduct, be given a chance to defend yourselves.”

This was, obviously, a bold faced lie. I doubted anyone in the Sunless Fleet was swayed. It was the members of Arthur’s own court, his own people, who needed to hear it. It was for men like Gawain, whose pride and valor hung by a thinning thread. They needed to hear the affirmation that the Caerleon military was merciful, so that when we violently resisted, there would be no better justice than cutting down the imperium’s enemies.

Ulysses had not yet responded. That meant he was still not cogent enough to listen and be infuriated by Arthur’s horseshit. I needed to buy more time.

“In that case,” I said, “let’s do it properly. I need it in writing. Terms and conditions of an unconditional surrender. We meet on a third party warship and sign it. There is no third party but I am willing to entertain a Federation carrier as an appropriate proxy.”

“Are you serious?” Arthur growled. “Do you think you are in any position to negotiate?”

“What happened to the honorable disposition of the Caerleon military?” I goaded. “Surely the honorable imperium would allow us the dignity of a signed surrender?”

“There is no dignity among thieves!” Arthur shrieked. “Do you not use your eyes to see, Elaine? Do you not see what’s behind me? I shall describe it for you. It’s the full might and glory of my Caerleon military. A titan stands among us. Incorrigible. You are a motley group of the unworthy, who possess neither the dignity nor the presence of mind to know that you shame the rest of us by calling yourselves a fleet.”

“I can see why you dumped him,” Emiko said.

“Dignity!” I laughed. “Says the prince who cowers behind his newfound titan, who still does not find it pathetic that his strength comes from the combined strength of his brilliant knight captains, without them you are nothing. What happens when their strength yields to the passage of time, Arthur? What becomes of Caerleon then, of you? Had you the honor of even your father, you would have challenged me in open combat and allowed me the opportunity of a pardon.”

“Enough!” Arthur howled as when dogs lost all their bite. “Who do you think you are, parading amongst pirates as if you were one of them, as if they will ever accept you. Bring me Ulysses! Where is that bastard?”

“I’m standing right here, your majesty.”

Ulysses's voice came through clear as spring, and his video feed flashed on. The madness had vacated his eyes. His expression donned a pensive sobriety. The Pirate King had finally returned.

Circe pushed ahead of us and approached the Caerleon fleet. It reminded me of the trials I had witnessed back home. A lone man or woman would stand at the center of a great spiraling amphitheater, enveloped on all sides by imperial adjudicators.

“Took you long enough,” I muttered.

“Make no jest towards a man with recently crushed dreams,” Ulysses replied. “What is it you want, imperial prince? I apologize for my lateness. I was indisposed.”

“I do not enjoy repeating myself,” Arthur spat. “There’s only room for one king in this sector, pirate. Surrender yourself to Caerleon and the lives of your people may be spared.”

“Spared?” Ulysses said. “You brought this many ships just so you can spare us?”

“Do not test my patience!”

“I am not testing your patience,” Ulysses replied. “I’m testing the merit of your word. If I were to surrender to you, would you guarantee my people’s safety?”

“What are you doing?” I said. “You can’t serious.”

“It has already been a mistake to bring my people here,” Ulysses said. “Allow me the rare opportunity to make up for such a grave stroke of misjudgment.”

“This fleet won’t survive without a leader,” I said. “It has to be you.”

“Why does it have to be me?”

“Because you’re a madman, Ulysses,” I shouted. “The Sunless Fleet? Its journey? It’s utterly preposterous. A saner man would accept his fate and choose to lay down his arms and live out what remained of his life in a time departed from his own. But not you. You choose to fight against a destiny predetermined not by the stars or even the heavens, but by a distortion of all of the above, a phantom of a timeless wonder. That’s why you’re irreplaceable, Ulysses. No matter how much of a fuckup you are, the Sunless Fleet needs you.”

“Oh how I tire of politicking.”

A bolt of plasma struck Circe’s port side. Her shields failed and the superheated weapon melted a full layer of titanium alloy. A second shot of plasma connected with the ship’s rear side and Circe lurched to the side. The ship’s engines lit up like celebratory pyrotechnics and its mechanical innards burst from Circe like blood spurting from an open wound.

Ulysses’s screen flared in red and static. Lucia and him were tossed to the side as the ship spun out of control.

“I am not interested in sitting around talking,” Arthur sighed. “My patience has run its course.”

No one in the Sunless Fleet moved. Ulysses and Lucia yet lived on our monitors, but all eyes were on Circe's burning, inert carcass.

“Radiation!” Vladimir called. “Sunless Fleet ships are gunning for an escape.”

“Elaine,” Emiko said. “If the Sunless try to flee, they’ll be cut to shreds.”

“And so will we,” Stephen murmured.

“Give me a fleetwide signal,” I barked. “Hold your nerve, pirate scum!”

One blip of static and I was broadcasting my voice to the entire Sunless Fleet. This was it. My life, Ulysses’s life, the lives of my crewmates, the lives of The Sunless Fleet all rested on my next words. I wondered what Diane would have done in this situation. Would she have doomed tens of thousands to death for her own survival, as I was about to do?

“I have traveled with the lot of you for less than a month,” I started. “I’ve humiliated you at the simulator. I’ve also fought alongside you. I’ve listened to you curse Nightwing, curse the imperial legacy, curse me. You are, all of you, in one way or another, precisely the inhospitable wretches that Caerleon made you out to be.”

“And yet,” I continued. “If there is something to admire about The Sunless Fleet, it is that in this short transitory phase of my life, I have sympathized with your plight more than I ever have the people of my home. I have seen greater resolve than Arthur’s knights, who hide behind superior technology, frightened by the possibility that the supremacy of the imperium may one day wane. I have seen loyalty unbound by dogma, resilience unfettered by fear, and a spirit unshakeable and true.”

“So why do I see some of you abandoning these principles when they matter the most?” I asked. “You don’t have to listen to me, but the Pirate King lays fallen yet alive. Will you allow the dogs of Caerleon to execute him? Where will you go after they have finished with him? Scatter to dying stars? Hide in the dying entrails of the imperial rim? Where was the promise of home?”

“If any of you,” I bellowed, “still believe in returning to the time you now only recognize in your dreams, then you will stay with me and save the one you call king.”

What was that phrase again, I wondered? From the Old World. Oh right.

“Long live the king!”