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

“is a stencil saw. Now here is the stencil for your sword.” He handed Trance a highly accurate drawing of the sword on the plastic sheet, “You put the stencil in this slot and simply push the on button and let the machine work. Over there is the wood pile and you can pick out a good piece for your sword to be made out of.”

“Okay,” replied Trance. He then went over and selected a good looking board out of some very hardy wood and brought it back to the machine. He followed the directions to put the board in the machine and then inserted the stencil and started the machine.

The machine was set up with a table with vertical clamps that held the board in place. The blade was a thin metal rod that had sharp teeth all around it. Once the stencil was in place and the machine was turned on the blade was moved to the board and started cutting. The machine’s computer control guided the blade to follow precisely the stencil and the sword was cut out in just a few minutes. He used the machine again to cut out the dagger and ax head.

Trance then set out to find the rest of the supplies for the sword’s and dagger’s crosspieces and the ax handle. After finding them he cut them out and worked to put them together. Before he could finish the weapons the bell rang and it was time for him to pack his stuff up in a locker and go home. He’d have to come back and finish tomorrow.

The next day Trance was in the shop again and went to finish his weapons. After the sword and dagger crosspieces were permanently attached he went to paint them. While they dried he went to find a sheet of plywood for his shield. It didn’t take him long to find the piece he needed. He immediately went to work getting a stencil for the stencil saw and set up the machine. In a few minutes his shield was cut out. Trance then found the leather straps for the shield, and then went to Mr. Garyon to find out what he could use to make the hemisphere hub for the shield to make it look more like a Viking shield.

“Well I think that should be easy enough,” said Mr. Garyon. He went and found a four-by-four and took it over to a drill press. He then attached a hemisphere cutter and showed Trance how to use the machine.

Trance used the drill press and turned out the hub just like he wanted. He attached it to the shield and painted the shield. Now he had his weapons for class. Before leaving school that day he checked the schedule and saw that the knight class would be starting on hand-to-hand combat and some basic chivalry starting tomorrow. The class would then begin working on their primary weapons.

He also learned that he would have to pick a knight to be a squire to. Trance had already picked Kyle. First however, he’d have to be a page to a squire to catch up with the rest of his class. To his very good fortune, he was Gracer’s page. As a page he learned about chivalry and what he had missed when he made his weapons. After a week of squiring the knights would come to the school and make recommendations as to who should be the captain this year. How thrilling this was going to be thought Trance.

Chapter 13

The New Captain

Trance’s first week at school went by, and he had many friends in the knight class. Trance and Corena started to become better friends. He knew that she already had a boyfriend and he probably didn’t have a chance; however, he felt his heart beat faster when she was around. He’d heard a rumor that Corena’s boyfriend, Rex, had treated her badly. Rex, he was told, had been seen with other girls from his own school. Rex went to a school thirty miles away and was the captain of that school’s knight squad.

Rex had led his school to win all of the major knight class championships for the last three years. He had even won the ultimate singles title last year. He was said to be rather vain and proud. He cherished being Corena’s boyfriend, yet even though he saw other girls he was extremely jealous of any other boy coming close to her.

Trance’s closest friends were Gracer and Zam. The trio practiced dueling with each other in knight class just as soon as dueling lessons began. It did not take long for the three to be the best in class. Individually they could out duel almost everyone else in class. But if they dueled each other, the duel could go on and almost stalemate. To Neklon’s amazement the single best was Trance. Every day Trance seemed to get better and better. It became apparent and was predicted that the three friends would probably be the top candidates to be captain this year. But they knew that they would remain friends no matter who got the captain’s position.

Two weeks later the knights came to make their recommendations for captain. This day the boy’s knight class was to compete against the girl’s knight class. The boys were to defend the fort against the girls.

Standing on the wall of the fort Trance could see the knights in the bleachers wearing civilian clothes. Among them he spotted Kyle. He could tell what Kyle was wearing, a T-shirt, jeans, and athletic shoes. As he watched, Kyle waved to him and he waved back before turning back to the competition.

He made a last minute inspection of everyone in the fort. He looked again to see where the girls were and the formation they would be coming at them in. Then with a deep breath he checked himself out. His armor was on correctly, Gracer and Zam had helped him the first time