King Of The Realm a.k.a. Kings, Wizards ... Lasers?

King Of The Realm Part IV: The Laser Cannon

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Several days later, the three companions left Olin’s country cottage cavern, as Wes had called it, and headed off in the general direction of where the starship had crashed.  

 The wagon bounced roughly down the forest trail for at least an hour before Wes announced, “Damn!  I can’t get the homing devise on this minicom to work.  The little piece of trash must have been damaged in that bar fight and I’m not sure I can find the ship without it.”

 “I may be of some assistance in that regard,” laughed Olin.

The two had been building a little magic versus science routine.  Either had not seen too much of the other’s abilities and gadgets yet, so there was till some speculation as to the extent of the respective power on both sides. The reality was they both had quickly come to respect each other and it was all in good fun.

“Help yourself,” smiled Wes.      

 With the blink of an eye, a couple twitches of the forehead - and the hint of a self-satisfied smile, Olin  cast the spell.

“What, no smoke or lightning?” asked Wes.

“No, but I know where we are heading, you?”

 They arrived at the spacecraft on the evening of  their third day of travel.  All were tired from the long, bumpy ride.

“It looks pretty mangled,” observed Merritt.

  “Yeah, but look at the gun.  Those two … protrusions off to the left,”  Wes pointed in the direction of the huge, dual-barreled laser cannon, which was in remarkably good shape.  “I was in the area directly below the gun deck.  Way back before they had shields - and could make the ships a lot thinner - that area of a warship was always the strongest, because smaller fighter ships  always tried to disarm larger crafts when first attacking.  Looking at the ship and me being here must mean it’s still the strongest part of a ship.”

Olin and Merritt looked a bit confused, but Wes didn’t elaborate.

“I think I can get it to work,” he said.  The ship runs a FusionXC drive, but, has a decent hydrogen-battery back up, in case of emergencies.  I’ll need to harness the back-up system to the gun, and fit both on the wagon. Not impossible, but not easy by any stretch ”

 At this point, the others were entirely lost, but Wes enjoyed it; it was a welcome change from the past few months to have others dumbfounded. He walked over to the ship, and began the ascent to the cannon. 

 After a ten-minute inspection, he called down, “It's okay! But I’ll need a few hours to unfasten it. Then I'll need that rope to make a winch.  We can ...”

 “I can get it myself, if you show me exactly what must be moved,”  interrupted Olin.

 “Well ... okay.  Come on up.” Wes sounded skeptical.

“I'll try.”

 The gangly wizard scaled the ship with ease, his gray robes billowing out behind him like a cape.  Wes showed him the anchoring bolts, and the place where the platform fit into the grooves on the ship’s deck.

“This should not be too difficult,”  Olin saod, runnig his long, thin  fingers along the gun-mount grooves.

“I'll get some tools, just in case,” said Wes.

 Olin closed his eyes, his lips quivered, and the huge octagonal nuts began to rotate.  Slowly at first, then they gained momentum, until they spun off the bolts and disappeared with a small POP!  The cannon then began to slowly rise off the anchoring platform while Wes stared in amazement. “Whoa ...”

 Soon, Olin had the cannon placed on the reinforced wagon.

 “I’ll have to rest for a while.  That was quite a strain maintaining that energy level for such a long time,” gasped Olin.

 “I apologize ... I really didn’t think you could do it.”     

 “And I told you he is the greatest wizard alive,” laughed Merritt.

 “I know, but up till now I had not really seen anything that spectacular,”  said Wes, watching as the exhausted wizard made his way onto a tree stump to rest.  “Merritt, let’s go inside the ship to see if I can round up anything useful.  Olin certainly deserves a break!”

 They searched the ship thoroughly, and Wes did indeed find some useful gadgets.  He gave a stunner to Merritt, which could probably save the Prince’s life a couple dozen times in a world like this one. 

“It will last until you are an old man, if you use it sparingly,”

 “I'll add it to my collection.  Thanks!”  exclaimed the young man.  Wes had also given him the Newton language decoder.  After all, he probably would not use it again, while the boy might need it someday for some diplomatic reason.  The planet was large, and loaded with many different cultures and races.

 The two companions cut their search short, after finding the scattered remains of one of Wes’ former companions scattered about his cabin.  Some kind of scavenging animal had entered the open ship, and fed on the remains of the crew. They nearly vomited.

Glad to be outside, they checked on Olin, who was fast asleep, so they decided to get a meal prepared.  

 “Will the weapon work?” asked Merritt, grabbing two apples from a burlap bag he had earlier placed in the very rear of the large wagon.

 “Yeah, I think so.  Why don’t you save a couple for Olin.”  Wes said, pointing to the quickly-shrinking bag.

 “Yes, you’re right.  What are the ‘plans’ that Olin said something about, back at the cave?”

 “Believe me, we have this pretty worked out.  I’m not going into all the details now.  All you will end up doing, hopefully, is stating your demands to the Duke. The rest will be up to us,” Wes said, pointing to the slumbering Olin.

 “All my life, I’ve never been let in on anything important. It’s always, ‘You'll see’ or ‘never mind.’  I need to start doing some things if I am going to take the throne, don’t you agree? 

 “Sometimes it’s safer not to know anything, if you know what I mean,” said Wes, his eyes narrowing. “And quit whining - it’s not very princely.”

Merritt saw visions of the torture stories Olin had told him Captain Bahlrod had performed for his uncle. “Maybe you’re right, Wes. And, I do want to thank you for helping us out - sometimes I can’t figure why you’re going to all this trouble.”

The young man really was a quality person, and Wes had discovered that soon after meeting him. He wasn’t what Wes would have pictured at all. He wasn’t spoiled, wasn’t full of himself and he was very polite and kind.

He simply swiped softly at Merritt’s hair. “Eh, what else have I got to do around here?”