Chapter 10

Ashton sat there in a conference room in the Avalon getting grilled.

“You don’t need to wave at the people while you patrol,” shouted Merlin.

Merlin had been going over everything that Ashton had done wrong last night. It was a grilling rebuke for him. And all he wanted to do was get out of there, or at the least, spin his chair around.

‘I have had teachers that were less peeved with me for insulting them in a report,’ thought Ashton.

“Do you know what waving does to them, Ashton?”

Ashton was about to answer when Mary answered for him instead. Ashton’s mouth was open as well, but he stopped as he noticed that Mary spoke.

“He was just trying to encourage the people. We are cooped up all day in this ship most of the time.”

Merlin looked at her, and then his sly eyes looked at Ashton. “You know that I did not even want you to go to that assembly of the leaders of this nation. However, it was required because those leaders needed us to be seen even though I did not want it. This is why I do not like republics hundreds of petty monarchs instead of just one trained to be king.”

Ashton spoke up. “I realize that I went longer last night than you wanted, but could you possible let me try out the transformation when I get out further east of Tizatlan about twenty miles. No one is going to see me transform. Also, why do I not have a radio?”

Merlin shied. “If you can speed up a bit more around the west of Tizatlan, and then you got 30 miles out East, you can try the transformation sequence for the machine knight. However, I will be monitoring you closer tonight.”

Merlin looked at both of them. “The truth is all the machines have a radio system as you call them. The problem is that I know that those channels can be monitored, so I am going to encrypt the channels. You better be ready to know how to do that in your machines because we are going to learn that right now.”

Mary and Ashton groaned.

After the end of the lesson, Ashton regretted asking in the first place about how to use the radio. When Merlin left the room, Mary got next to Ashton. “At the least, we aren’t going to have to shout to each other with the machine men.”

Ashton laughed. “It had a certain charm to it. Like the gods were yelling at each other I guess to the people that looked at it that way.”

Mary didn’t laugh. She seemed serious. “We aren’t gods, but I think that I understand what is bothering Merlin.”

Gripping her cross, Mary looked at Ashton. “Merlin seems to think that Christ is the one that his religion looked forward to, and he apparently missed an opportunity to meet him. How would it feel to meet Jesus Christ. Hell, I know that right now- you could leave from here to see some famous figure in Europe.”

Ashton didn’t even hold his tongue. “It’d be interesting to see Magna Carte being signed since no one ever talks about it. However, we might be off by a couple of years.”

“What’s Magna Carta?” asked Mary.

Ashton explained. “On June 15, 1215, King John of England was forced to sign a charter with his nobles that is the real basis for law in the United States. I just think it would be interesting to watch a king lose his power to try to keep peace.”

“Oh, I don’t really know much about history.”

“Well, we are too late for meeting Charlemagne and change the outcome of the Third Crusade, but I guess I could march to Mecca. However, what do I have to do when it comes to the aftermath?”

What Ashton didn’t know was that Merlin was watching through a hidden camera. A sly smile was on Merlin’s face.

“I’d have no idea what to do with the past. There are too many people who scream that they’d kill Adolf Hitler, but when that occurs, what comes next?”

Mary didn’t have an answer. “I don’t know the outcome, and it is a long time till he is even born. Right now, I think that I could go kill Genghis Khan, but that would have ramifications that I have no idea what would happen in the future. That is power. I think that Doctor Who put it best.”

“That odd show on PBS that looks like it was made with paper mâché.”

Ashton looked down as he got up from his chair. “That’s not the point, Mary. It was this conversation between the titular doctor and the creator of these creatures called the Daleks named Davros. The Doctor and Davros started to talk about power in the form of a virus that could kill everything in the universe. The power only works if you never use it, but Davros delighted in the concept of breaking the glass capsule.”

Mary looked at Ashton as he mimicked holding a capsule in his fingers. “That’s sounds awful. Please don’t do that.”

Snorting, Ashton shook his red hair with his hands. “We all currently have that power right now. The ability to change everything that we could destroy destiny, our time, and ourselves possibly. With a little decision, I could change all of history, but in so doing, I could eliminate my own existence. Merlin realizes that.”

Mary nodded. “He did mention that he didn’t want us to change the past.”

Ashton nodded. “And that guy Joe that you told me about wants to break the capsule.”

Mary laughed. “It was Juan actually. Joe just gets made fun of because he likes larger women apparently.”

Ashton looked at Mary. “Really?”

He shook his head. “Anyhow, Juan wants to break the capsule. That’s what scares me. I get why Merlin keeps us secret. I understand the secrecy of how we are kept. Barely seen. Not allowed to go outside. And for someone like Joseph, it must have eaten at him.”

Mary shook her head. “It’s Juan again, and he probably hated it just as much. He wasn’t driven mad by this all. He was already there.” She spread out her arms.

Putting down her arms, Mary laughed. “He just thinks that if he gets the Aztecs more powerful that it will destroy the Spanish, and the United States will never form.”

Ashton looks at Mary. “Wait, he is doing this all to somehow undue the United States of America. That just seems dumb.”

Mary nodded. She got in closer to Ashton. “In fact, the thing is that he is charismatic, and he got my brother to listen to him without much prompting. However, Jesse didn’t look too close at Juan or really think about it. Juan isn’t of Mexican descent. He appears to be as European as you are. No fiery red hair.”

“You like my hair.”

“I always have,” said Mary.

Ashton looked deeply at Mary. Her smile showed her beautiful brown eyes along with her curves that showed up in the jumpsuit that Merlin had provided. “Would you mind if I kissed you, Mary?”

However, Ashton was shocked when Mary kissed him deeply. She pulled back with a huge smile. “You have no idea how often I wanted to do that, Ashton.”

“Is that why you put up with me talking about different chips and some conspiracy theory when everyone laughed at me?” asked Ashton who was also smiling.

Mary kissed him again on the forehead, and then she answered. “I didn’t care about those things. What I cared about was that you were interested. Sure, Bill and Jesse made fun of you because you weren’t some sort of attempt to be a hulking football player. Though I have no idea what Bill was trying to be with that belly of his.”

Ashton finally kissed Mary on the cheek. She seemed to appreciate it. “I figured that he played on the line. Dad always has me watch Oiler games with him. It’s not a position that I’d want.”

“Oh, stop talking about him or football. Let’s kiss more.”

Somewhere else on the ship, Merlin shut off the video. “I should probably stop this before it gets too far out of hand.”

He got out of his chair. “What I don’t need especially if I can figure out a way to return them back to their own time is a girl of thirteen with child? Somehow, I don’t think it is good to have an unwed teenager in the future.”

For Merlin, it was a time to act before he’d have to deal with a child. Though it would help if he lost Ashton to have some of his genetics in the mix. The problem with that solution is in that the possibility existed that Ashton dies in combat and a baby was born, he’d have to wait for the child to grow up. Plus, there was a possibility that the genes that allowed the use of the machine knight would fail.

“Chase those ideas away, Merlin.”

Which his robe flowing behind him, Merlin rang the door. He heard a lot of stumbling from inside the room. Waiting a moment, he entered the room with Mary strengthen her hair while Ashton looked sheepish.

“Well, no worries. I have decided to allow you the ability to try out the transformation sequence east of the city fully. Mary, I want you ride jump seat along with him. If you think that anything could go wrong especially if the flight mechanism, you will need to tell Ashton to stop.”

Mary nodded while Ashton smiled deeply.

“Good, I want you both ready to go out in the machine knight, but no kissing while on duty.”

Mary looked bright red suddenly. “You knew?”

Merlin smiled. “This is my ship just as it has been for more years than most can imagine. I know everything that happens on it if I so choose to know. No worries. I didn’t watch anything that might have been a tad risky. A kiss or two isn’t anything to worry about. Just do not take it further than that while I am your guardian.”

Ashton and Mary nod.

Merlin laughed. “This is easier to deal with than Juan with his treachery.”

Later, Ashton sat in his machine knight with a small seat next to him with Mary riding with him in a jump seat that Merlin had explained was besides the throne.

“That hum is odd.”

Ashton looked at Mary. The sphere around him showed everything around the mecha knight.

“I’ve noticed that as well. The hum is like a muffled air condition going all the time.”

Mary asked as she watched the video of the patrol. There were people cheering again, but they were making the turn.

“So did Merlin tell you about that?”

Ashton nodded as he continued to turn the mecha-knight. “He says that it is actually the hum of the fusion engine of the machine.”

Mary looked around worriedly. “So, we are sitting near this engine.”

Ashton laughed. “It doesn’t explode like a nuclear weapon or even a hydrogen bomb. From what I understand, this is a perfect cold fusion reactor. The only exhaust is clean water.”

“So, what happens when it explodes?” Mary asked.

“Same thing that happens when anything explodes with a fusion reactor. It just explodes just without the release of nuclear fallout.”

Mary laughs. “So, if we destroy the other machine men, we will not cause nuclear Armageddon in Mexico.”

Ashton looked at the console in front of him as another voice comes in booming in the cockpit. “Remember I can hear you as well,” said Merlin.

Mary laughed. “No worries, Merlin. We are well aware of that.”

Ashton hadn’t waved that night, but Merlin still sounded a bit enraged. It was probably the talking about the future which had gotten the ancient angered.

“Okay, we are going to pass the southern half of the city, and then start the march out.”

Merlin spoke a single word. “Aye.”

“So were all cities in the old days built with walls?” said Mary.

Ashton pressed the console as he watched the equipment in front of him. The console rose to above his waist with. There were buttons and indicators. Some even had English written crudely by someone that was most likely not Merlin on strange paper. It wasn’t parchment, but Merlin had tons of the stuff apparently. It came from a deck on his ship that apparently was a held in some sort of status field or without oxygen.

Ashton answered quickly. “Yes, most cities had walls around them in the ancient days.”

“Let’s increase speed to get us closer to the testing area,” said Ashton as he pushed the machine forward. Ashton pressed forward the two handles to increase speed on the throne that he used to control direction.

“What speed are we doing at the moment?” asked Mary as the usually steady machine knight.

Ashton smiled. “We are getting up to 60 miles per hour as best I can tell.”

Then they heard a different voice. “You are getting up to a 120 miles per hour, boy.”

Then the wizard added for emphasis. “So, slow it down! You might trample some unsuspecting farmer or animal.”

Ashton slowly pulled it back with the handles. And the machine became steady again as gait became normal again.

“Well, I guess we found out top speed,” said Ashton.

Merlin laughed over the speaker. “Well, I guess it hasn’t gotten to a full run in several thousand years. Mirp Designs probably never intended for their machines to last this long. Mind you, they’d probably be shocked that their rival Tsusj Manufacturing lasted as well, but all the machines had been held in a statis field inside an ejected pod.”

Mary asked a simple question. “What is a statis field?”

Merlin sighed. “You know for two future kids. You ask a bunch of silly questions that all Murau children knew, but a statis field is similar to long term stasis pods. It creates a field around the object. In the Avalon’s hold is a statis field in a chamber. I can turn it on and off, but I keep it running basically to keep what is down there from falling apart to time. There is some beef down there that I keep for special moments from my homeland. You would not believe the cows from Murau.”

Mary seemed confused. “What do you mean? A cow is a cow.”

Ashton wondered what the difference was, but then again, the cows from today were not like the cows that would later exist. Ashton’s eyes darted around the screen. He couldn’t read the strange markers on the screen.

“There are different types of cows, Mary. In the future, but before our time, many aristocrats across Europe breed different types of cows. I think in days, Angus are considered the best beef cows. Maybe there is a better Japanese cow. I really don’t know.”

“That’s embarrassing considering that we both grew up in Texas which is known for cowboys, and I doubt either of us worked on a ranch.”

Merlin laughed. “That was one of the things that Atlanteans hated about my people. Our love of beef. The ancient aristocrats of the House Addam were said to be family and ranchers. A cadet branch of the that House killed a scion of the family, and he established the House of Cain.”

Mary gasped.

Merlin laughed. “You realize now what your bible tells you is true to a degree. It is said that House of Addam were the first men. That they were created by the Creator directly.”

“Adam and Eve,” stated Mary.

“What do you believe, Merlin?” asked Aston.

Merlin didn’t answer for a moment as he continued to follow the path out past the city. Ashton shifted his head back to left to see if he could still see the city. There was probably a way to bring up different cameras, but unfortunately for him, Merlin hadn’t explained how to do that along with the simulator. He had been explained how to process aim, but that was it.

The city had disappeared save for the light of the fires that could barely be seen. Checking the tracker, they were closing in on the point where they could start the transformation process.

Then before Ashton could tell Mary to get ready. Merlin started to speak. “When I was a young man, I didn’t really believe. I knew magic existed since I was trained in it, but Atlantean thought influenced me. Sure, Methuselah the Ancient had lived for a thousand years, but that could be explain by his mastery of magic or something else. Murau religion to me in those days was stagnant. However, it was in the aftermath of the end of Murau and Atlantis that I started to believe. I had met the last heir of the royal family, Prince Noah known as the Crazed by his enemies in court.”

Mary asked another question. “Wasn’t Noah the only survival?”

Merlin laughed as Ashton began preparing the transformation sequence. The wizard spoke. “There were other survivors across the world, but the great cities and the ability to create them were gone. Oddly, the last holdout was in what you’d probably call India. I told Ashton about it, but the last battle of the war occurred just as Chronos had almost finished the Tower of Babel.”

“And then I saw another miracle. Many of the Babel devices that he had been used to coordinate building just stopped. Most of those people never learned multiple languages. I have suspected that Circe caused it, but I have no proof. I can’t say that is beyond her abilities. And then there were so many other moments where I cannot explain what occurred. Plus, the prophecies that were predicted seem to be occurring.”

Ashton readied himself.

“I believe that the Creator came to Earth twelve hundred years ago as prophecy predicted. I mentioned that I did not meet him. However, I met some of his apostles. But that’s enough for my thoughts and beliefs for now.”

Ashton noticed the indicators, and he braced for what was coming next. Merlin was most likely looking over data. And then he spoke. “You are clear from what I can tell,” said the wizard.

Mary braced for the transformation. Ashton did one less check to make sure that no one was watching. Moving his head around and then do a check with something like night vision. Both checks showed good to go.

Ashton pressed the button next right hand below the handle. That’s when suddenly Mary and Ashton heard grinding. The position of the cockpit seemed to shift a bit forward.

Outside the mechanized knight seemed to shift and convert, it went from machine in roughly the shape of a man in armor standing straight. The wings folded out of the back that had been a bit of a metallic. The face got covered in a metallic mask that covered it as the cowl moved around it. As it covered the face, bumps on it opened to reveal rectangular eyes that appeared more reptilian on either side of the new head.

The now covered head seemed to grow as parts of the back became a longer neck. The lower parts of the spine became a tail which included the segmented sword that slid down. In fact, the tip of the tail came from the sword.

The pauldrons folded down onto the arms which shifted in front of the chest. The arms of the mecha knight seemed to be adjusted to only henge off the elbows. The hands became more claw like as secret panels on the hands let the claws extend.

The legs on the other became wider gapped. As the thighs moved out, the shins got bent back at the knee. The foot got separated to a three toed foot.

What had been a knight suddenly was a white mechanical dragon.

“Is it done?” asked Mary.

Ashton nodded. “All of the transformation is done.”

“So do you just push it up, and then the machine is flying?” asked Mary. “Also, does it not feel flat at the moment?”

Ashton nodded. “Yeah, we got pushed up a bit. I imagine when we get up in the air that we will be pushed a bit forward as well to keep the cockpit level.”

“Well, but do we jump in the air and then we are flying?”

Ashton shook his head. “No, we have to get a running start as far as I can tell.”

“Let me get a look around, first.”

The dragon moved its head around scanning. There was a farm about ten miles away. Dusk had fallen. So, if he didn’t make a loud boom, the dragon taking flight wouldn’t make that much of a scene.

“Okay, I don’t see any nearby obstructions,” said Ashton.

Merlin spoke up. “Nor from my end. Just be careful.”

But before Ashton could get ready to start the run. Merlin spoke again.

“Actually, the machine knight has the ability to fly in knight mode, but it is more like floating. In fact, those same abilities translate to the flight mode as well. However, you need more training before you can try flying in the knight form.”

Ashton sighed. “So, I don’t have to run to get up to fly.”

Mary laughed slyly. “Well, it’s something to look forward to the point where you can do things without running.”

Ashton shrugged. “I had hoped that I can do that immediately, but I am going to guess that I’d need to be able to ready the console better.”

Mary laughed. “Trust me, you are dealing with people who are unable to understand how much of their equipment works.”

“Okay, you are strapped in, correct?”

Mary nodded when Ashton looked over at her.

“Then let’s get this going.”

Pulling the control left handles up that slide from a flat position to a more joystick position. Ashton pushed forward with the right handle. Then suddenly, the legs started to move, and Ashton could swear that he heard engines start to hum.

The dragon started to move forward as the arms shifted to attach to the body. The legs strode forward running. Each wing seemed to be made up of various large long feathers, but each feather was also thrusters.

Suddenly, the dragon started to lift off the ground. The legs pushed back and attached to the tail. Additional thrusters started to appear in the legs. Soaring past the jungle to the left, the now winged serpent flew up through the sky.

Inside the cockpit, they were flat again. Mary was amazed.

“I’ve never flown before. This is amazing.”

Ashton waited for the pressure in the cockpit to pop his ears. Once or twice, he’d quickly touch his ears. However, there was no buzzing in his ears either.

“I keep waiting for my ears to pop, but they aren’t. That’s odd.”

Merlin laughed. “So, in your time, they haven’t figured out the ear popping situation. You will figure it out eventually.”

“You know you are probably alive in the future. You could tell them how to prevent that from happening.”

Merlin didn’t answer as Ashton realized that they were going fairly fast. He slowed it down.

Merlin didn’t answer. “I would like to help, but every time that I try to help. Something goes horribly wrong. Camelot and Rome were examples of that. If I stay in the shadows, it works out better. Maybe if the Great Enemy returns, I will have to do more than just sit back and watch.”

Ashton realized that they were coming to the outlines of the coast, and he started to turn around. Mary looked at all of it amazed.

“This is amazing. It seems to be so clear. You could probably fly all the way to Europe in this.”

For a moment, Ashton wondered if he could. He could make it all the way to the Crusades. He could fly around the world. However, he knew that he had made a commitment to Merlin not to go out too far.

“Okay, Mary. It’s time to fly back towards where we took off, and then get this patrol over with.”

Mary snuck up, and as Ashton turned his head to see why she hadn’t responded. She stealthily kissed him.

“Thank you for being my first pilot.”

Ashton smiled and kissed back as he brought the machine slowly down to speed to land.

“Bringing out the legs soon. It’s going to get a bit choppy, so get strapped back, Mary.”

Mary got back into her chair.

“No worries, flyboy. It’s the best flight that I have ever had.”

“It’s the only flight that you have ever been on.”

Merlin didn’t respond.

Ashton brought the dragon down to land, but the wizard didn’t respond. Ashton transformed the dragon back on ground. And then Mary came back to kiss one more time.

Ashton stopped the machine, and he held her in his hands. And then they did something a bit more drastic as Mary reached for her jumpsuit.

Merlin was a bit frustrated as he got that the machine knight had landed, but something was disrupting his radio signal.

Finally, after ten minutes, he got a signal again. “You two, okay?”

There were frantic gasps as Ashton finally answered. “Yes, we are okay.”

Merlin nearly turned to video, but he decided against it. The children needed to keep their secrets at time. However, what made Merlin feel a bit of fear was the slight radio disruption. That could only be caused by Circe’s skiff.

As the two landed if they had been more observant, they might have seen two other machine men walking in the distance through the jungle. The trap was proceeding on schedule.

While near the city, Circe walked slowly cloaked.