(NOTE: The following short story was written by Carl Gerard Luft and was the first-place winner in the recent McAlester Public Library Essay and Short Story Contest. Readers might remember the characters from last year’s contest.)
COMMUNITY MATTERS
“Excalibur, this is Admiral Mike Hawkins aboard Merlin’s ship,” I called through the
speaker mounted amidst the anachronistic controls around the time machine’s power shaft.
“Merlin needs immediate medical attention. Have Dr. Winfield standing by on the hanger deck.
We’ll be materializing soon…I hope.”
“Oh, God, Mike, he’s burning up!” cried my golden-haired fiancé, Robin, on the other
side of the control platform.
“I hope the Excalibur got my message,” I mumbled as I went over to Robin. “I have no
idea how this ridiculous machine works.”
Robin was wiping sweat from the very young face of our millenniums-old friend. He was
shivering, clutching his tweed jacket closed, and sick from fever. Robin’s blue eyes looked up at
me, pleading. “We’ve got to help him, Mike! He’s delirious…”
A gong came from the time machine’s controls and the lights in the power shaft
noticeably dimmed. “I think we’ve landed,” I announced.
I took Merlin by the shoulders and Robin took his legs. We carried him down the
companion way to the deck of the massive, hemispherical engine room and out the
dimensional causeway. We emerged from the cabinet-sized white monolith which was the only
extension of Merlin’s time capsule in our four-dimensional universe.
We materialized on the hanger deck of the Asteroid Breaker Excalibur, just as we had
hoped. Several Space Guards were assembled there, including Dr. Emily Winfield with a
stretcher. “Emily, get Merlin to sick bay on the double.” I ordered. “If he gains consciousness,
do whatever he tells you, no matter how strange it may seem.”
“I’m not used to taking orders from a patient…” complained Emily.
“Emily, you were there when we first met Merlin on the moon base. He saved us from
those cyborgs and their mind control devices. Remember when the Outer Ones invaded Mars
Colony? Who bought the fleet time to evacuate?”
“Sorry, Admiral!” Emily apologized. “I’m well aware of all Merlin has done for this crew.
What happened to him?”
“He absorbed the radioactive output of a fission reactor.”
“He shouldn’t be alive!”
“He’s alien, Emily! Now, help him!”
As Emily and her medics rolled Merlin away, the very young Navigating Captain of my
Flag ship, Christopher Rogers, approached me out of the crowd. “Admiral, Commander. It’s
good to have you two back,” Chris nodded to my tearful fiancée and myself.
“What’s with Emily?” I asked. “She didn’t used to argue with me.”
“You and Commander Brady have been gone for over a year, sir,” explained Chris.
“It’s been that long?” asked Robin. “We landed correctly in space, but we mis-jumped
by a year in time!”
“It can’t be changed now,” I replied.
“Admiral, when we got your call, we were already responding to a distress signal,”
explained Chris as he beckoned us to follow him. “It’s a ship that broke away from the fleet in
orbit of Earth.”
We followed Chris through the ship’s passageways and companionways into the
compact, hemispherical bridge. On the forward view screen was the image of a late-model
spaceship adrift in space.
“Admiral!” cried a delighted Diane Carpenter at her commstation. “It’s good to see you.
The ship on screen is hailing us.”
“On screen!” I ordered.
A man in an all too familiar grey uniform appeared on screen. “General Quarters!” I
ordered at the sight of the enemy. “Arm missiles!”
“We have you outgunned, Admiral,” explained the enemy captain.
“The ship’s powering up, Admiral,” Executive Officer Elliot announced.
“Your ship was built for destroying asteroids,” continued the enemy. “Ours was built to
destroy you! We want the Atlantean. We know he’s aboard your ship. Surrender him and
we’ll let you go.”
“And if we don’t?” I asked.
“Then we’ll blow you out of space and pick Merlin’s remains out of the debris. We don’t
need him alive. You have fifteen minutes to respond.”
As the image of the enemy captain blinked off the screen, I turned to Robin and asked,
“What does the Institute for Coordinated Experiments want with Merlin’s body?”
“An Atlantean’s body is a miracle,” Robin explained. “The amoral scientists of I.C.E. will
dissect every cell of Merlin’s body to learn the secret of Atlantean immortality. An Atlantean
can live forever, barring accidents.”
“We can’t let them have Merlin,” I concluded. All the bridge crew expressed their
agreement, save one.
“Admiral, there are sixty people aboard this ship,” said an ensign at the pilot’s station.
“You can’t sacrifice them all for one man.”
“Who the hell are you?” I demanded.
“Ensign Sussie Brooke.”
“Do you know who Merlin is?”
“I know he’s not Space Guard and that he’s not human.” she replied.
I took a step forward, brought my face a few inches from hers, and growled, “In 2086,
shortly after the Outer Ones invaded Earth and took our home planet from us, while the
Excalibur was refueling at Moon Base Tranquility, the entire crew, save Robin, fell under the
power of mind-controlling cyborgs. Merlin turns up and saves us.
In 2087, when the Outer Ones invaded Mars colony, Merlin shows up again and saves
half of humanity’s refugee fleet. Later that year, Merlin brought us Captain Rogers from the
57th century to destroy an Outer One base on Pluto, preventing an invasion…”
“I’m sorry, Admiral,” Brooke stammered. “I’m new to the Excalibur. I hadn’t realized
what he means to this ship.”
“Take my word on it, Ensign,” I said. “Merlin matters.”
“But the crew of the Excalibur matters more, Mike.” It was Merlin’s voice. I turned
towards the bridge’s hatch. There stood Merlin leaning against the bulkhead with a warm smile
on his “twenty-something” face.
Dr. Winfield, beside him, said, “You told me to do whatever he asked. He asked for a
hot dog, and then promptly vomited it up!”
“I needed something to purge the radiation from my biomass,” explained Merlin.
“Radioactive puke!” Robin laughed, giving our time-travelling friend a big hug.
“Thank you all for making me feel like I matter,” said Merlin, “But you matter more.
Since Atlantis was destroyed, I’ve spent the last couple of centuries as a homeless wanderer
floating around time and space. But you, the crew of the Excalibur have given me a place to
come home to. You’re worth the danger and risk to defend. You’re my home, my community,
now, and you matter!”
Merlin approached the forward view screen and said to Carpenter, “Diane, hail that ship
for me, please.”
As the I.C.E. captain appeared; on screen, a broad smile spread across his face, and he
asked, “Merlin, I presume?”
“You know who and what I am. I’m giving you one warning: Surrender!” his face
suddenly grim and hostile, Merlin commanded.
“Fire a warning shot along their bow!” shouted the I.C.E. captain. A second later, the
Excalibur lurched and an explosion boomed through the ship.
“I’ll take that as your answer. I’ll be in the forward airlock.” Merlin replied gravely.
The screen returned to a view of the I.C.E. ship as it moved into dock.
“Merlin, you can’t!” Robin sobbed as she blocked his way to the hatch.
“Mike, please hold on to your wife-to-be,” said Merlin as his brilliant green eyes looked
deep into Robin’s. In a voice as warm as a summer’s breeze, our friend said, “You have to let
me do this, Robin. Trust me.”
As I wrapped my arms tightly around Robin, Merlin stepped around us and said, “I’ll
need a space suit. The airlock’s not cycling.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the forward airlock,” objected Engineering Officer Ling.
“I need an excuse to be wearing a space suit,” winked Merlin.
“Oh!” replied Mr. Ling. “Looks like the forward airlock’s not cycling.”
“Good man!” Merlin cried as he left.
“Mike, you can’t let him do this,” Robin pleaded.
“There’s no stopping Merlin when his mind is made up,” I replied as I kissed her
forehead. “You know that, sweetheart.”
“Merlin’s aboard the enemy vessel,” Brooke reported. “They’re pulling away. Orders,
Admiral?”
“Wait,” I ordered. “Sweetie, look at the screen! Everyone, look!”
Explosions were erupting all over the surface of the retreating ship as it began to
crumble apart.
“I’m picking up a directional transponder amidst the debris,” announced Carpenter.
“It’s from a Space Guard space suit.”
“Zoom in on it!” I ordered.
The image magnified on to a space-suited figure madly waving its arms. As the image
focused in on the face plate, Merlin’s smiling face filled the view screen!
“He did warn them!” I laughed. “Let’s bring him home!”
The End
McBook 