Free Project X-Calibur by Greg Pace Page B

Pellinore replied.
    â€œThis is only our first line of defense, knights,” Merlin added. His face looked shadowy against the light from the screens behind him. “Once we become aware of intel, we can hijack or block any transmission known to man before it spreads. TV signals, radio, cell phones, internet, email. If people use it to communicate, then we have access to it.”
    Something dawned on me. “At home yesterday I saw on the news that NASA was tracking space debris headed toward Earth. Are they actually tracking the aliens?”
    â€œUnfortunately, yes,” Merlin replied. “But NASA doesn’t
know
they’re tracking alien ships yet. They really do believe it’s just space debris—”
    â€œYou mentioned an elite team of fighters . . . You mean us?” Darla asked from the back of the group.
    â€œAbsolutely,” Pellinore confirmed.
    Tyler raised his hand. “Will we be fighting alongside older people, too? You know, adults?”
    â€œJust you five,” Pellinore said bluntly.
    â€œYou can’t be serious,” I blurted. I had seen the devastation these aliens were capable of. This was suicide. “How the heck can five
kids
fight off an alien attack?”
    Pellinore grinned. “That’s where X-Calibur comes in.” He looked up. “Accelerate, please. Destination: X-Bay.”
    The hallway floor
surged
forward, the force so powerful that a few of us swayed backward. I gritted my teeth. The incline of the moving floor got steeper, and we rocketed deeper and deeper below ground.
    When the floor came to a drastic stop, I let out a shaky breath. How much more of this craziness could I take?
    The curves of the tunnel ended at two enormous steel doors in front of us.
    â€œWhat do you keep in there?” Tyler asked, mouth agape. “Godzilla?”
    â€œMaybe you can wrestle it,” Kwan joked.
    An electronic scanner glowed red at the side of the door. Pellinore leaned down and smiled, letting the device get a read on his teeth. The glow turned green and the massive doors slid open, revealing an empty room the size of two football fields, at least, with a ceiling that was a hundred feet high.
    With a twinkle in his eye, Pellinore turned and shouted into the vast space. “Reveal X-Calibur!”
    Nothing happened. The five of us looked at each other, confused. Had Pellinore and Merlin gone senile in their old age? There was a hiss in the center of the room, along with the faint whirr of gears turning below the floor. A section of the ground suddenly
split in two.
    My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides. As I took a step forward, my mind raced back to the stories Dad would tell me about the most famous sword ever crafted, and how it had been kept in an underground cavern before rising up from a magical lake to reveal itself to King Arthur.
    I looked to my left and realized that Malcolm had also taken a step forward, standing next to me, tense with excitement. As the floor opened wide, something rose up on a steel platform.
    My jaw dropped. X-Calibur wasn’t a sword at all. It was the most kick-butt
spaceship
I had ever seen.

14
    118:10:36
    IT BECAME CLEAR TO ME that HQ and everything in it had been designed to imitate the look of X-Calibur. The ship was twenty feet long and shaped like a rounded arrow. Its wider front end consisted of four panels with seams that came together to form an X. From there the windowless sides sloped closer together as they got to the tail of the ship, ending in a crisp metallic point. X-Calibur was
beyond
impressive. It was downright . . .
otherworldly,
like nothing that could have ever been created by human hands.
    â€œThis is an alien ship, isn’t it?” I breathed.
    Merlin nodded. “Precisely.”
    The ship had two short wings that curled at the ends into gleaming points, like razor-sharp steel talons. Were those “wings” there to help the ship fly?