(Above the Moon, February 9, 1100 AD.)

            Meanwhile back at the lunar orbiting station emotions were still running high, but the British delegation had begun to calm their nerves with a newly-discovered temperance beverage. It was called mushroom wine, and it was distilled from a small grayish fungi with some plant-like characteristics that grew naturally on the lunar surface. Back on Earth this foaming drink would have most likely made any sober man drunk, but up here in space it had the opposite effect. It actually seemed to counteract the narcotic effects of first-time space travel.

            The Princess Shelah, of course, was not one of those who imbibed. She confined herself mostly to her quarters: a sturdy oak room with bamboo paneling on the inside imported from Mars. She had a small window with real glass in it that allowed her to look out over the wooden pylons and the lower platforms towards the international section of the space station. She saw foreign knights from different planets docking their great triremes above the moon and coming aboard to trade or to register for the summit.

            Later that morning there was a knock on the door. It was the Scottish giant Alfred. Travers had specifically assigned him to look after the girl while he was down on the surface negotiating with the foreigners. He was carrying his battle axe on his back as always and was clad in the same dirty tunic he’d been wearing ever since they left Earth.

            “Can I sit down princess?” he asked. She looked at him with a bizarre twist of her feminine eyebrows, but then a smile crept over her mouth, and her entire face lightened with a radiant smile. She scooted over on the bed and smoothed out a spot for him next to her.

            “No… No… I meant on the chair,” he said. “I’d probably break that delicate thing. My father used to say that if I sat down on our milk cow I’d squeeze the cheese right out of it. And that was when I was only twelve!”

            The princess laughed happily, forgetting for a moment about the foreigners. The impending stress of an interplanetary marriage seemed farthest from her mind, as she pictured what Alfred must have looked like when he was twelve years old. She would do almost anything to have seen him. 

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(Surface of the Moon, February 9, 1100 AD.)

            Weather on the moon that morning was fair, as always, with a delicate breeze occasionally whispering out of the southwest at 3 mph. It was daytime on the lunar surface, but the sky was still black and you could see the stars in the sky almost as clearly as you could in space. But the sunlight was still strong, and the knights felt rather hot inside their heavy armor.

            Travers’ ship Lancelot floated slowly down the ether portal towards the large cratered terrain gaping upward at him. It appeared much like it would to NASA astronauts touching down at a nearby location 869 years later. The Lancelot hovered near the side of a mountain and came to a floating stop by the top of a cliff about 150 feet above the rocky ground. A sentry was standing nearby clad in the armor and colors of the Byzantine empire. He cast them some ropes that allowed them to moor their ship to the side of the lunar mountain.

            Travers’ men cautiously disembarked and descended down the side of the precipice in battle formation. They proceeded quickly along the road in a military march, breaking step occasionally in order to traverse some of the newer craters that had not yet been cleared from the roadway. In the front a sturdy Welshman carried the colors of Camelot. Travers himself had the Green Belt of Sir Gawain wrapped around his waist. These were the only British tokens that the humans from the outer space colonies would be able to recognize.

            The ground quickly gave way before them as they approached the deepening valley which was less rocky and filled with fine white sand. In front of them the ancient castles of the lunar plains stood at their historic locations among the crevices and craters. Some of them had been built by the ancient Hittites; all of them were remodeled by the Byzantines. They were built with polished moon-rock. They shone with an eerie, ghostly light.

            Travers cast his eyes around quickly and surveyed the encampment. There were thousands of soldiers. He could recognize the colorful banners of several ancient empires. There were temporary huts built in various formations, the obvious settlements of soldiers on a mission. Around the tents there were gigantic ships tethered to the ground. They floated in mid-air at the bottom of the ether portals, rocking mildly in the atmospheric vents.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(Orbiting the Moon, February 7-9, 1100 AD.)

            By seven in the afternoon the British sailing ships had left Earth’s orbit stream thousands of miles behind and were heading quickly towards the moon on one of the fastest ether currents. The air was sweeter inside the ether stream, having an almost narcotic effect on the first-time space travelers. Travers made the men get some rest every six hours in order to counteract the effects.

            Early the next day the Lancelot, the Gawain, and the Galahad approached the lunar orbit streams in their usual order. The sailing ships slowed nearly to a halt as they entered the soft spot between the deep-space slipstream and the ether orbit. They then continued on a course around the moon until they reached the Byzantine orbiting station. It was five hundred yards long consisting of Pylons and deck levels built from Cypress trees transported from Earth. There was some kind of moss growing on the outer walls of the station as well as strata of space barnacles and interplanetary oysters deposited by the residue of nearby comets. Some of the oysters contained pearls.

            The ships came to a halt and docked beside the main tower. A gateway opened up next to them, and the inhabitants of the garrison extended a platform out to greet them. They were welcomed on board the station with much enthusiasm. Some of the men had been on this outpost for at least ten years and were anxious to hear how things were faring back on Earth.

            That night there was much rejoicing and feasting on the fresh provisions the knights had brought with them from Constantinople. Travers was eager to hear news of how things were going down on the lunar surface. The captain in charge informed him that twenty-six delegations had arrived so far, with 10 more expected by the end of the week. He had been forced to send extra troops down to the surface to keep the peace. Some of the tribal leaders were very intent on killing each other.

            Early the next morning Travers and the lead ship left before the others to go down to the moon to meet the lunar council. He left Alfred behind with the princess along with strict orders concerning her transport to the surface. No one was supposed to know that she was here yet.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(Earth and beyond, February 6 1100 AD.)

            The English knights had trouble sleeping that night as they circled Earth slowly, peering cautiously over the edge of their floating galleys at the unfamiliar land masses below. Many swarthy soldiers with scars and notched battle axes cowered like little children behind the railing, fearful of what might happen if they toppled overboard. Alfred and Travers made frequent rounds of the deck to make sure that none of the sailors were close to losing their sanity.

            It was noon the next day when the three vessels broke orbit and headed deeper into space. The warriors were shocked to discover that there was no more light in space when the sun appeared around the Earth. The great void beyond them was just as black as before. Alfred stood by the princess as she tried to comprehend the physics of what was happening to them. She stared down at Earth with a mournful longing in her eyes that almost brought the Scotsman to tears. The starlight glittered off the length of her dazzling hair. She was hardly a month older than seventeen.

            Travers, meanwhile, was farther up front talking to Darien, the skinny, dark-haired Greek that the emperor had sent with them. He didn’t talk much, and when he did his thin lips opened up to reveal a deep black throat every bit as dark as the nothing that surrounded them. Travers thought that he looked something like a human snake.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(Earth and beyond, February 1100 AD.)

The English knights set sail on the 2^nd of February 1100 AD on a course to the north out of Constantinople. They embarked at an early hour nearly half a watch before dawn with a heading towards the Great Black Ocean. On February 5^th they reached the Doldrums of Elathrium where the ancient vortex into the sky was illuminated by the salty fingers of sea mist. Here the three wooden space ships halted for an hour while the knights discussed the best way to enter the portal stream. They decided to let the Lancelot—the lead ship with Travers aboard—leave first followed by the Gawain and the Galahad.

            The Lancelot entered the vortex with gusto at ramming speed and was snatched up quickly into the upper atmosphere. The Gawain followed thereafter with less enthusiasm, while the Galahad, finally, brought up the rear with considerable trepidation. There was some fear among the crewmen that they were going to collide with the clouds. Others were worried that they would be separated from their souls.

            But they made it safely into the orbit stream without incident. The knights looked on in wonder as the round Earth rotated serenely below them as they floated around its equator. The stars looked so clear and bright that it seemed they could reach out and touch them.

            As they waited in silence they heard the familiar calls of seagulls, and saw the distant flapping of white, feathery wings.

            “So there are birds in outerspace?” asked the gigantic Alfred.

            “Apparently it would seem so,” said Travers. “But these are undoubtedly the least of  the wonders we shall see on this journey. Many legends talk of the bravery of the skypath sailors. We would not have been chosen for this task if we had not already been heroes.”

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(The entire Solar System, January 1100 AD.)

            And so as the Aliens threatened to conquer them, the outer space emperors looked backwards in desperation to the one place in their hearts where everything was still sacred. That place was Earth.

            And thus, because there was little else they could do, they sent messengers back to the home world to meet with the ruler of Byzantine Greece. He was the last of their kinfolk: the final remnant of the ancient empires on the planet Earth. He alone of all the Earthling monarchs was still in contact with the lost brethren, and even had stationed a few garrisons of his own on the moon, as well as an embassy on Mars.

            But the Byzantine Emperor had little time for the messengers. He was busy with his own wars against the fearsome Turks on Earth in an area known as the Holy Land. He had lobbied throughout all of Europe for help in this battle, and none of his own forces were left over to battle the aliens. And yet he could not turn his back on his distant brothers in space. Therefore, because he could not spare his army, he decided to give them hope instead of help.

            For this reason he sent his own daughter across the gulf of space towards the cold castles of the moon to offer her hand in marriage to one of the outer space emperors. He sent her along with a promise of peace and goodwill among humans as long as the towers of Constantinople remained free from destruction and loyal to the past. But he warned his brethren what would happen to them if his city were ever destroyed. They would face destruction more deadly than an entire squadron of alien mother ships.

            So in the dead of winter his daughter set sail. She would travel with valiant knights who had come over from Europe. They were British Crusaders, direct participants in the ancient order of knighthood descending from Arthur. They were valiant with the sword and pure in their hearts. There were three hundred of them, and they would travel in three different ships along with the king’s personal advisor.

            The name of their leader was Travers. His chief man at arms was a muscular Scottish brute named Alfred.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(The entire Solar System, Autumn 1099 AD.)

            As time passed, the Klarons and the Persians tried to keep their relationship secret, but before long everyone knew that the moons of Jupiter had been conquered by an alien species. From the Neo-Egyptian pyramids on Mercury, to the Phoenician trade posts on Tritan, word spread quickly that the entire solar system was under attack.

            The free human kingdoms of outer space soon realized that they would have to band together if they were to defeat their new sophisticated enemies with their ships of wood and weapons of metal. The Roman emperor on Mars and the Chinese Chen from Saturn’s Moon Titan were forced by their allies at long last to stop fighting their longstanding conflict. Young Caesar Marcus of Mars was still angry at the Chinese for death of his father in the Neptune war of the previous year.

            But now if they were to have any hope against the Klarons and Persians, they had to find some sort of mediator to help them make an alliance. They discussed terms for a neutral meeting place, but none could be found. Every kingdom of the planets had some interest in one of their empires or the other.

            So that is why it was finally decided to let the Earthlings solve the disputes. The Byzantine emperor on Earth was the only one whom everyone considered to be truly disinterested in the nasty interplanetary political situation. So all the inhabited planets and moons quickly sent delegations to Earth’s moon in order to draw up a plan of defense. In the meantime a messenger was sent to Earth to summon the Byzantine Emperor.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(Moons of Jupiter, September 1099 AD.)

            After the Persians surrendered, the Klarons went to work on the Persian fleet, trying to find ways to enhance their wooden sailing ships. They would need every advantage they could get in order to conquer the Romans and take over Mars.

            The skypaths, which the ancient humans traveled, had been built by some unknown species at least thousands of years ago. These intricate slipstreams through the heavens not only supported life, but they resisted technology. They had an outershell that protected wooden ships in the slipstream from attack by rayguns from the outside, or even high-velocity projectiles. Such projectiles could only exit the slipstream, but not enter them.

            In addition, the slipstream had magnetic properties that destroyed any technology inside it that emitted an electrical field. The Klarons discovered this when they tried to put radios on the Persian space ships. The radios immediately blew up and electrocuted whomever was closest to them.

            The Klarons then tried a more primitive approach, and outfitted the Persian ships with metallic armor and cannons. But the armor contained too much metal, and it too was zapped inside the skypaths. Of course some metal was allowed inside the slipstream (i.e. soldier’s armor, weapons) but not enough to make a thick enough skin over the side of the ships to make a different.

            Finally, the Klaron attempts to bring gunpowder aboard failed also. This was the worst attempt yet. The gunpowder exploded immediately and blew up the entire ship.

            So the Klarons decided to let their Persian minions battle the Romans in the old fashioned way: with swords, spears, and catapults. But the Klarons would place an alien commander aboard to give them their orders.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(Moons of Jupiter, September 14 1099 AD.)

            As the alien invaders called “Klarons” laid waste to Ganeymede, the Persian king and his staff fled aboard their wooden sailing ship to the skypath that orbited the desolate moon of Io. This world was mostly uninhabited, except by a couple thousand Mayan Indians from South America. The only natural species on this forsaken moon were several kinds of fungi, small insects, and a brownish looking fern.

            Hours later the Persian fleet rendezvoused with the king and his flag ship. There were thousands of Persian soldiers aboard, veterans of the space wars who were time-hardened soldiers. But they all were afraid for their families who were being held captive by the aliens back home.

            Finally, after a couple hours of deliberation, the Persian king decided to surrender to the Klarons. The terms were not so bad. The aliens simply wanted control over their fleet of wooden space ships so that they could enter the skypaths (technology could not function in them). They planned to help the Persians conquer their life-long mortal enemy: the ancient Romans who lived on Mars.

            The Klarons didn’t mention anything about Earth. They pretended not to know that it existed, or that it was home to the most numerous and poorly defended group of humans there was.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem

(Moons of Jupiter, September 14 1099 AD.)

            As the Klaron Cruiserships descended onto their moons, things began to look bleak for the Persians. Once on the surface, there was no stopping them. The Klaron cruiserships skimmed over the landscape blowing up Persian catapults and castles, firing missiles at legions of soldiers armed to the teeth with swords and arrows. The Klaron cruiserships were immune to the catapults on the planets surface, because of gravity. The reason why they could be destroyed in outerspace, on the other hand, was because the Persians could launch larger stones where there was no gravity.

            But the Klaron ships did not destroy the entire homeworld and kill everyone. They could have, but they were trying to get the Persians to surrender; not annihilate them. They sent a group of heavily armed foot-soldiers into the royal palace on Ganeymede after the king. But he wasn’t there. He had already fled to outerspace in a wooden sailing ship through an obscure ether portal.

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This account is based on the SkyPath Crusade Epic Poem