Impossible Journey, A Tale of Times and Truth

"Camelot?"
"Seems to be."
"Ah! I was rather hoping we’d land here. This is really a fascinating era."
"You mean," asks Kerry, staring in unbelief at the scene before them, "that this place actually exists? I thought it was only a legend."
"That shows how much you know about European history. I guess you never read T.H. White. It was real alight, even though many legends grew up around it. Too bad that indicator broke, or we could be able to establish the exact date. There’s a lot of dispute about that among history scholars, you know."
"I see! Well, let’s go and take a look shall we?"
"But," objects Daniel, "Shouldn't we call home base first?"
"Nah! We can call later. That will give them more time to work on the new formula. Besides, we might have something interesting to tell them.
"If we don’t run into any more bad luck."
"Ah, quit being so pessimistic. Anyway, we have to find more alcohol, don’t we?"
"Well, I guess you're right. We can come back and call later. We might as well all go and have a look around."
As they walk up the hill toward the city, they talk:
"Tell us, Walt, What do you remember of this era from your reading?"
"Ah, this was a wonderful time. Chivalry, might-for-right and all that. King Arthur was trying to develop a perfect society. And he would have succeeded except for--"
"Except for what?"
"Except that Lancelot, Arthur’s dearest friend, fell in love with Guinevere, Arthur’s wife, which led to a scandal, and then to a full scale war, destroying Camelot."
"Ah yes, now I remember that from my world history."
"Say, do you think that perhaps we might be able to do something here to prevent this situation from happening?"
"Perhaps. Anyway, we can try. This could be a sort of test case for the garden of Eden."
But, their conversation is interrupted by the sound of a woman screaming. The scream seems to come from a clump of bushes a short distance to their left.
"Let’s go and see what’s happening."
They creep slowly into the clump of bushes and find a vantage point from which they can view the action without being seen. The poor woman is laying there almost completely naked and frozen with fright, while a big brute of a man begins beating her with a rough leather whip.
"Shouldn’t we do something?" whispers Kerry?
"Let’s not be too hasty," cautions Walt.
Just then, they hear another noise. Looking up, they see, coming from the left side, a knight in full armor, mounted on horseback, with sword in hand. He approaches speedily and brings his horse to a screeching halt just in front of the man. Dismounting, he draws his sword and aims a blow at the man. But the man is quick and jumps back. Twirling his whip in the air, he catches the knight’s sword with it. With a fling of the man’s wrist, the sword goes flying through the air, landing surprisingly close to where our three friends are hiding. The knight lurches forward and tries to strike at the man with his fist. But the man catches his fist and gets him in a head lock. The knight struggles and finally manages to break free.
Suddenly, another noise is heard, this time from above, as a third man, dressed all in black, hurls himself down from a tree, yelling "Down with might-for-right!" As he falls, he tries to grab the knight and pull him down, but fails. He falls, but immediately gets back up again. Meanwhile, the knight and the other man are still fighting. The man in black grabs the knight, pushing him backwards with a mighty thrust. As he does so, he cries out: "Tell Arthur that Mordred is here!"
"Now?" asks Kerry, poised for action.
"What can we do?" asks Daniel, a little frightened.
"Let’s go!" urges Walt, "At least we can bluff them!"
Walt reaches for the sword and our three friends rush foreword out of the bushes, yelling as they run. Walt points the sword at the two men, who, taken by surprise, take off running.
The knight, who has fallen backwards from Mordred's push, gets up with a start and shakes himself. "Wow, and glory be! Where did you fellows come from?"
"You might say we just dropped in," blurts out Kerry.
"A--we were looking for Camelot," corrects Walt.
"Oh, you want to become knights also, eh?" Well, you certainly proved yourselves today. I’ll certainly put in a good word for you." He points toward the castle. "It’s this way. Let’s go."
The woman, meanwhile, obviously stunned by the whole thing, gets up and starts walking off in the direction from which the knight came. But she suddenly turns and waves at the four, yelling, "Oh, thank you kind sirs, thank you indeed!"
************
"Wow! It’s even more glamorous than in the books!” exclaims Walt, as they enter the huge and splendorous "Great Hall" of King Arthur. At the end of the hall, the king, arrayed in his royal robes, sits erect on his marble throne. The throne beside him is vacant. They approach the throne respectfully, and, after the customary greetings, the knight relates the story of their timely aid and adds “In light of the valiant way that they handled themselves today, I’d certainly recommend them for knighthood, Your Majesty."
The king lifts his golden crown and scratches his head. "We’ll have to see about that. But what was that you said the man in black, who came from the tree, called himself?"
"He said, 'tell Arthur this Mordred is here.'"
"Are you sure he said 'Mordred'?"
"I’m certain, Your Majesty--Mordred."
The king frowns. "Oh, no!"
"Who’s Mordred?" asks the knight, curious.
"He’s my―“ The king hesitates.
"He’s your illegitimate son, right, Your Majesty?" blurts out Walt.
The king is taken aback. "How do you know that? It’s been my secret! Nobody knows about it--nobody!"
"And," continues Walt, "if he’s here, it means that Lancelot has arrived also."
"Sir Lancelot? He came over a fortnight ago."
Walt leans in close to the king. "And has he been making advances toward the queen?"
At this, the king becomes flustered. "A-a-a-Sir Dividend,” he turns to the knight, who has been trying to hear what Walt is saying, without showing interest. "a-you may leave now. I shall like to continue talking with our new friends in private."
"As you wish, Your Majesty." The knight departs.
"Th-th-this is absolutely amazing! How do you know about this? I was doing my best to keep th’ whole thing a secret. And they have been very discrete. Why, I hardly noticed anything myself, but since she’s my wife,--. Anyway I’ve decided just to ignore it. But, how did you know?--about this and about Mordred?"
"We possess knowledge beyond the scope of this time period."
"Then you are soothsayers!"
"Of a sort, I guess. Actually we’re travelers in time, if Your Majesty can understand that. We come from your distant future."
"Merlin sent you, didn’t he?"
"We came to warn you that your kingdom is in great danger."
"But everything has been going so well. My dream is working. The thing I’ve waited for all my life--the answer to the problem of evil in the world---." He holds up his right hand, triumphantly, "Might-for-right! The perfect society! It’s wonderful! I think this thing with Lancelot is just a passing disturbance. I’m trying to forget it, hoping that it will soon pass. Except for this one little thing, everything is wonderful."
"Except for this and the arrival of Mordred--a deadly combination which will ruin your dream forever."
"That’s right, Your Majesty,” adds Daniel. "Your own system will backfire, so to speak."
Arthur scratches his head and sighs. "Then, there is no hope for the world? I had so hoped that Camelot would be the answer! Is the world doomed to perish with hatred greed and violence? Is there no answer to the problem of evil in the world?"
"Ah, but there is, Your Majesty, there is! In fact, we ourselves are trying to do this very thing--to eliminate evil from the world. And we may be able to do it, with your help."
"But how?"
"By getting rid of the cause of evil, namely sin. You see, Your Majesty, we are attempting to go back to the beginning of time in order to prevent the first sin. But, in order to do so--in order to make our device work more efficiently, we need a certain quantity of alcohol."
"I’m not sure I understand exactly, but rest assured, anything you need--"
Suddenly, the door swings open and in walks a huskily built old gentleman lead by a huge Saint Bernard on a leash. Under the dog’s neck is fastened a large keg of brandy.
"Your Majesty,--" the man starts, and then, upon seeing our friends, "Oh, pardon me, Your Majesty. I didn’t realize that you had guests."
"King Pellinore?" ventures Walt.
The man is obviously taken aback. "Why, he knows my name!"
"Our guests know many things, Pelly. They’re my new soothsayers, and they’re going to help me to eliminate evil. Isn’t that wonderfully, Pelly?”
"Oh, wonderful, wonderful,” agrees the befuddled Pellinore, bowing to our three friends.”
"The only thing is,” continues Arthur, “that they need a certain quantity of alcohol." Arthur turns to our friends. "Do you think that (pointing to the keg) "will be enough?"
"That," answers Kerry, who has been silent until now, "will do perfectly."
"B-but,” protests the baffled king Pellinore, "th-that's for an emergency."
"Well, Pelly,” counters Arthur, “believe me, right now we are in a real emergency. I wouldn’t ask you if it weren’t the case."
"Anything you say, Your Majesty." King Pellinore unstraps the keg from the dog and hands it to Kerry.
"Thank you very much, Your Majesty. You won’t regret it."
"And,” adds Daniel, reassuringly, "We’ll return the keg."
"Then," says Walt to Arthur, "with Your Majesty’s permission, we shall take our leave, and return shortly."