Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

hide his disbelief. “What is the nature of your emergency? Is there anything that we can do to assist you?”

Rattell didn’t take long to think of an answer. He knew that the longer he thought the more like a lie it would sound. “One of our ships has sent an emergency signal from out near the planet Garuna. We are heading there to evacuate the crew and hopefully tow the ship back to Boulthora for repairs.”

Thade very shrewdly asked, “What happened to your ship? We haven’t received a report from Garuna about a damaged ship nearby. What was your ship doing there? Garuna is sixteen light years away from Boulthora.”

“The ship was on a possible trade mission to Garuna and suddenly suffered a massive power failure. We need to get to them before their life support systems fail,” Rattell said making himself sound concerned.

“Is there anything we can do to help you?” Thade asked again. He felt the tension in his crew and knew that there were some that were trying not to laugh. He had suspected for three days that a Boulthorian ship would show up. His orders were to lead this fleet of various ships from all of the planets with students participating in the End of Year Tournaments. He was now curious to hear what the Boulthorian commander had to say to explain why they were there. He did know the real reason they were here, yet he didn’t know why the Boulthorians wanted to attack the tournaments.

Rattell sat back and shifted slightly. He suddenly knew that this Griffin knew the real reason that they were there. His careful lie was known and now he needed an escape plan. His mind now desperately sought for a way out. Should he continue? “No, I’m sorry, but we can handle this. We only ask that we are allowed to go on our way so we may rescue our men and ship.”

Thade looked thoughtful and relaxed. He was very confident. It had been his idea when the three Boulthorian ships had been detected that the fleet meet them without weapons showing. He hoped that this would distract the Boulthorians and catch them off guard. He also hoped that when the Boulthorians saw the size of the fleet that they would think twice about their plan to assault the tournaments. He tilted his head and watched Rattell closely for any tells. He was confident that Rattell just wanted to get out of here.

“Very well, we don’t wish to delay as you run to assist your endangered vessel. We will let you on your way. I pray that you reach your ship in time.”

Rattell was relieved and tried to control his emotions as he replied, “Thank you. We will be on our way. I appreciate your offer to help, but we have a mission to accomplish. Good day.” With that he reached out and shut off the kytherum.

As the kytherum and the desk lowered back into the floor he signaled the pilot to turn the ship, start the acceleration process and ready the drive system to activate. Five minutes later the three Boulthorian ships leapt away as their drive systems activated. Rattell had quickly planned with the other ships to fly out toward Garuna and out of the range of the Griffin ships’ ability to detect them, and then swiftly plot a course back toward Boulthora. Rattell made his way back to his room so he could signal King Axlor.

On the Griffin ship Venture, Thade sat back in his seat and clucked his beak and relaxed. He knew that his crew and all of the men in the fleet protecting Caldar were very nervous and rather trigger-happy. He was positive that the fleet could easily destroy those Boulthorian ships. He suspected that the Boulthorians knew this and had made up the story so they could get away.

Thade turned to an older Griffin sitting calmly to his right. “Colonel Grebe, you may contact Faylor and his Highness King Tallok and tell them that the Boulthorians have left and all is safe up here.”

Grebe nodded his head with some of his graying head feathers stuck up at odd angles and replied in a dignified voice, “As you desire.” He then stood up and went to the communications officer to make the call.

Chapter 24

Bold Plays

As the protective fleet deterred the Boulthorian ships, Trance and his teammates continued to have success in the tournaments. He was also starting to experience a bit of celebrity. In a way he enjoyed it, and in another it made him uncomfortable.

All through his school year and even here at the tournaments he had done his best to be humble in his efforts to learn all he could to be a good knight and how to use his weapons, both safely and effectively. He now found himself to be regarded as one of the best swordsmen to come out of the seniors competing in their last tournaments. His greatest singles effort to date was beating Rex in the Swordsman Challenge. Now he was able to start relaxing and enjoying himself more.

He knew that he was weakest in archery; however, he needed to score fairly well in every archery match he entered to achieve a good enough standing for his dream to be a Golden Griffin. Each time he approached the line with his bow he prayed that each shot hit the target. He knew some excellent archers in the competition, some who had been shooting for many years. In the distance shooting he actually surprised himself to come within two rounds of the quarterfinals. On the other hand he only advanced to the third round of the Archery Joust. Disappointed, he worked hard to redeem himself as he worked to advance in the Riding Archery match.

In this event he had to ride his robot horse Odin toward a variety of targets and shoot at them from the saddle. With each target he had to shoot from farther and