The Boy From The Forest

“Steersman, bring the vessel about into the continuum slipstream.”

“Yes, Great Overlord. Your command will be done.”

“Focus the far-reaching sensors on the small yellow star.”

“Great Overlord, I most humbly seek to know your will. Which yellow star?”

“It will be dead ahead of us, once we have finished coming about.”

“Yes, Great Overlord.”

The Lesser Overlord stood by the massive gilded throne of the Great Overlord. In the lower decks where the Great Overlord never ventured his word was law. Here, he simply watched and learned.

The Lesser Overlord had formed himself into a roughly humanoid shape, except that he had two heads, one facing forwards and the other backwards. He did not trust some of the crew.

The helmsman finished bringing the vessel about. As the Great Overlord had foretold, there was a small yellow star directly in front of them.

“Great Overlord, we are now far from the main shipping lanes. This pitiful little star is even further from any charted region of the galaxy.” The Lesser Overlord spoke in a confidential manner to the Great Overlord.

“Yes, Lesser Overlord you are correct about that. And that is exactly what we need, is it not.”

No one ventured a reply. When your faction loses in the war of succession, far from the shipping lanes is what you need.

The Great Overlord sitting on his massive gilded throne was an amorphous blob, as befitted his rank. Each of the crew at their stations were in forms that suited the function they were performing.

“Great Overlord, I am commencing the scan of the star system. There are several planets.” The senior scan operator extruded a tentacle to point out the scan results.

The Great Overlord suppressed a sigh. If only. He had been discreetly approached about supporting Heddious Perclex, who was now Supreme Emperor of the Civilized Galaxy. But oh no, he had to be like his cousin and support the renegade upstart who promised reforms and freedom from the restrictive ways of the past. This precious cousin of his had self-destructed his ship to avoid capture.

Now the Great Overlord was in his ship, the Saffron Flower, with a ragtag crew trying to find a place to hide. Heddious Perclex would never give up trying to find them.

The lights in the control center went off. Then some of them came back on. The light above his throne stayed off the longest. Then it came back on, almost as bright as before and with an annoying buzz. The Supreme Overlord did not summon the engineer to work on this problem, annoying buzz or not. The engineer was working on their one remaining tactical laser. If they made landfall on an inhabited planet, this laser would be a lot more use than the light above his throne.

“Here, take a bite of this.”

“Norman, what are you giving me?”

“Just take a bite of it.”

Vincent took the mysterious substance. It was white, with a brown edge. It weighed very little. It did have a nice smell.

Vincent took a bite. It tasted very good. He shot an inquiring look at Norman.

“It is bread. Baked fresh this morning. It is made from wheat, which is the plant you saw growing the day I met you.”

So now Vincent was a breadeater. What was so bad about that, he mused.

“Are you scanning the planets?”

“Yes, Great Overlord. There are a number of planets. The body furthest out, we could not decide if it is a planet or not. Then there are several gas giants. Nothing we can use. There is an asteroid belt, and now we are starting to look at the fourth planet.”

Some amount of time passed.

“Well, are you going to tell us about the fourth planet?” The Lesser Overlord decided to remind everyone that he did have some authority.

“This fourth planet is rust-colored, with two insignificant little moons. It has a well-developed system of canals. Some of the inhabitants are green and have six limbs. They are very warlike. I think they would welcome us just because they would like to have somebody else to fight.

“There are also a considerable number of creatures with four limbs. They come in various colors and are also very warlike. They fly about in the air using very strange looking airships. None of us can figure out how these airships work.”

None dared to speak. What they needed was a race of beings that would welcome them as gods. Would the Great Overlord order them into what would have to be a difficult situation?

“Great Overlord, forgive me. I have not completed the scan of the planets. I am now starting to scan the third planet.” The Geographer extended a tentacle and adjusted the controls to scan the third planet.

“I do pardon you, with great graciousness.” The Great Overlord raised the middle appendage on his left side in a gesture of beneficence.

“Great Overlord, the fuel tanks have maybe one percent left. I am not at all sure we could even jump out of here.” The Lesser Overlord had no encouragement to give.

The Great Overlord did not reply. They awaited the scan of the third planet.

“Great Overlord. The third planet is green with many growing things. The land masses have scatterings of inhabitants. These inhabitants are not at all united; each little area has its own king. The oceans are teeming with life. The inhabitants make use of only a small portion of the resources of this world.”

“Make for the third planet. Take your time to save fuel. Lesser Overlord, tell the cryogenics team to wake the warriors. They have been sleeping long enough; it is time they woke up and did something!”

Vincent came back into the Hamlet of Om. Norman had realized he had to hurry to get back to Aunt Reba and Uncle Ron’s house before nightfall.

“Young Man!!” Rats. Vincent would have to start taking the long way, just to avoid Old Wayne.

“Young man!! What is that on your shirt?”

“What? Am I not allowed to be dirty?” Old Wayne should not talk about that.

“Young man!! What are those little white things on your shirt? Let me see. Those are bread crumbs!! You have been eating bread!!”

Vincent pulled away from Old Wayne’s bony grasp. He started to brush the crumbs away, but then he realized that would be admitting his guilt. He really hoped his Mother did not hear about this. Vincent moved quickly away from Old Wayne’s hut. He was feeling very confused.

Sir David was adjusting to his new surroundings. He had met his horse, and they had hit it off really well. He had also met Sir Frank.

“Sir Frank, it looks like we are the new men. The King wants to build up his army, but the old knights are none too welcoming.”

“Sir David, you have to expect some sort of initiation from the men already here.”

“That’s easy for you to say. Yesterday, they tied me up and lowered me headfirst into the well. I thought they were going to leave me there.”

Sir Paul entered the barracks. Sir Paul was always angry, even when he was in a good mood. Actually, he was never in a good mood.

“Sir David, you don’t look like a real knight to me. I think you people in Perrytown did nothing but sit under a shade tree and write poetry. Get yourself into the practice yard and let’s see what you can do with that sword of yours.”

Everyone went into the practice yard. The old hands were curious to see what the new man could do, although nobody else seemed angry about it.

“Remember we are all knights of The King and gentlemen. Keep it friendly, and I want both of you to walk away from this. Now go at it.” Sergeant Nolting had a way of supervising everything.

Sir Paul and Sir David were in full armor and shield. The swords were horribly sharp.

Sir David circled to his left, feeling out Sir Paul. He made a couple of quick fakes with his sword.

“Oh, you are afraid to really fight me. Some knight you are!!”

“He’s trying to talk the new man to death!” This came from somewhere in the crowd of knights. Everybody laughed. So Sir Paul was not very popular. Sir David did not allow himself to be rushed.

Sir Paul made a couple of wide swings with his sword. No, he was not all that rational. It a real war Sir David could have stepped in and run him through. But he needed to not kill Sir Paul or even hurt him very bad. Now Sir Paul was screaming that in days of old men rode steel horses in the sky and fought with weapons of fire and thunder. Maybe he had a head injury.

Sir David stepped in and whacked Sir Paul on the head with the flat of his sword. Sir Paul’s helmet rang like the liberty bell.

Sir Paul swayed and then went down on one knee. It a real fight he would have been dead three times over.

“Alright, it’s over!!” barked Sergeant Nolting. He strode over and grabbed Sir Paul by one arm, helping him up. The crowd of knights began to disperse.

Sir David sheathed his sword. He was shrewd enough to realize that they disliked Sir Paul more than they liked him. But he had made a start.