Note before story:

This story was written for Katie and Claire, who like me, are both Adventures of Sir Lancelot fans and Star Trek: Enterprise fans. I tried to put into this cross-over story, a sense of how people from a 6th century culture would perceive a 22nd century culture when they found themselves suddenly aboard a starship. But even the 6th century culture as portrayed in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot has creative anachronisms. And the 22nd century culture, of course, is completely imaginary - an extrapolation from our current culture which is a highly speculative thing indeed. Perhaps this meeting of cultures and disparate technologies is something which cannot be fully imagined, yet that is the gist of science fiction and I had fun doing it.

A Camelot Knight in Starfleet Command

A further adventure in 'The Adventures of Sir Lancelot'

And parody very loosely based on 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'

By Bineshii

Chapter 1: The Abduction

In the late evening, at Sir Ector's estate where they were staying, Sir Lancelot and his squire, Brian, cautiously approached the strange pulsing light on foot through the woods. They had seen this strange light from the battlements, and had gone to investigate. Crouching behind bushes, Lancelot peered out into the clearing were a large metal thing rested at the end of a smoking black trail in the grasses. It looked like half melted metal, as if something had gone terribly wrong in a giant's blacksmith shop. The metal was cooling, but still glowed red in places. Brian started to say something but Lancelot put a finger to his lips and shook his head. He wanted Brian to stay crouched down so he could not be seen.

There were two shadows of extremely tall men, walking slowly around the metal thing, a bit dazed, and one was holding his arm as if wounded. Another form lay on the ground unmoving, a trail of dark liquid, which Lancelot thought might be blood, led back to the metal thing. Perhaps this was a wounded man who had been dragged away from it. Then a curious deer poked its head out of the woods across the clearing. One man raised something in one of his hands and it spit out a spark of light like a ray of sunshine coming down through the tree canopy in a dense forest. The deer collapsed in a smoldering black heap when the ray hit it.

Lancelot made a sharp intake of breath. Touching Brian's shoulder, Lancelot signaled with his other hand and an inclination of his head, for the two of them to retreat back through the woods. He was unsure how to handle this situation. He thought it better to confer with Sir Ector and return with a larger force of men, later.

Brian, noting the look of concern on Lancelot's face in the moonlight, started backing away in a crouch. He tripped on a stone and fell backwards into a sapling which shook. The two figures saw the movement and started running toward them. By the time Brian was on his feet again, the two tall men were five feet away and a light was shining on them, blinding them, but not piercing them with smoke.

Lancelot pushed Brian behind him and raised a hand palm forward saying "we mean you no harm. Who are you?"

One man spoke but Lancelot did not understand the language because in Klingon the figure had said "phasers on stun" and fired a burst which struck Lancelot in the head and chest. As Lancelot fell unconscious, Brian uttered a soft cry, went down on his knees taking Lancelot's weight as the knight fell backward. Brian noticed a shimmering of light and his hand on Lancelot' s shoulder started to disappear as if a fog was creeping over it.

The Klingon who had used his portable transporter lowered it and said "I don't know where I have sent them. But it doesn't matter, we will never know anyway. These new portable matter movers are not yet perfected. Those two beings could be anywhere and any-when."

The Klingon holding his hurt arm said "You should have used your phaser on maximum! At least then we would have known they were dead. And our experimental ship is just as unreliable as that new matter transporter! Did you get a rescue signal off before we crashed?"

"Yes. And an answer. They will be here in an hour. They will incinerate the wreck and pick us up."

"Good. Then we can get away from this primitive world in this unknown star system. Why we chose to test a new ship in uncharted space, was a stupid idea. I doubt there are even sentient life forms here, despite the noises that one was making."

"I am not so sure about that," said the other, staring at the place where Lancelot and Brian had been.

...

Brian woke up first. All was grayness. But the grayness was not stone. He felt the wall beside him, thinking it was metal armor of some sort. But it was flat metal and it kept going straight up. Above was flat armor too - all across the ceiling. With his other hand he touched chain mail and cloth – red cloth. Lancelot lay unmoving beside him. Groggy, Brian turned himself over and pulled himself to a sitting position. He felt much less fearful with Lancelot there, even in an unconscious state. Shaking Lancelot's shoulder, he tried to wake him.

Lancelot moaned and turned his head toward the voice that was urging him to wake up.

"Brian?" He asked, opening his eyes a little, wondering if they were incarcerated again. Dark, gray, cavernous place, this was. Lancelot tried to sit up but fell back in a dizzy spell which almost put him out again.

"Okay, Brian, until I recover more, describe what you see. What sort of a place is this?"

"A strange place, My Lord. It appears like we are inside a giant suit of armor. But it is not made for any shape of man that I can see. It is all flat walls. The floor is metal too, all little straight pieces in a grid that I can almost stick my fingers through. It is like very flat chain mail but woven very thick and square, and loosely. There is no straw on a dirt floor like a proper dungeon."

Lancelot put a hand on his head, trying to reduce the vertigo. He realized he had been hit with that weapon that spit out lightning. Remembering the deer, he sniffed for smoke and felt for burn marks down his chest. There did not seem to be any fire damage on him. "Help me up, Brian."

Brian pulled on Lancelot's arm and then pushed his back up. The two of them edged over to one wall so they could sit up supported.

"Are you hurt, Brian?" asked Lancelot.

"Not much. When you fell backward on me after they hit you with that fire weapon, all I saw was these sparkles in the air and everything faded away as if in fog...even my hand right in front of my face on your shoulder, as I tried to push us up."

"Strange, very strange," said Lancelot, trying to make sense of what he was now seeing around him, but squinting in pain.

Brian, seeing that Lancelot was having difficulty studying their surroundings, glanced around slowly, and continued to describe what he was seeing. "The torches are in the ceiling and they are not flickering. What magic is this?" he whispered, quite unnerved. "It smells like oil here, like what we have used on horses hooves sometimes. Or like those bogs were it boils up black. You know, that useless stuff."

They heard footfalls approaching from a passage way adjoining the one they were in. Lancelot put a gloved hand on Brian's shoulder to keep him silent. Two figures came around the corner and stopped to stare down at them. Neither Brian nor Lancelot could understand what they were saying, though the words sounded vaguely familiar.

The man knelt down to be eye level with Lancelot and said "You appear to be human. How did you get on board? Are you from Earth or one of our colonies?"

Lancelot could detect no hostility in this strangely garbed man in the one piece cloth garment with some kind of heraldic devices on the pocket and shoulder. The man was blond, like Brian. So he nodded a greeting and said "I am Lancelot of the Lake, a knight of King Arthur's realm. Who are you?"

Commander Trip Tucker glanced up at Commander T'Pol and said "We better get Hoshi and her translating device. This man appears to be speaking a dialect of English or German. I can't really tell."

T'Pol pressed the nearest communicator button on the wall of the companionway and made the request. Trip smiled at the man and the boy. They must be from a colony that had regressed in technology level far enough to need to make medieval armor. But how did they get aboard the Enterprise?

Lancelot's head was clearing a bit, but he was having one pounding headache. He saw that Brian still seemed to be okay. Another woman came around the corner next, wearing a similar one piece garment with almost identical heraldry. She looked human, Asian, he thought. But the woman who had talked into that wall box – those ears, like a demon from one of his mother's stories to scare children into behaving. Her skin color had a frightening greenish-beige tint. And those eyebrows...they were set at a strange angle. Lancelot had never considered that a demon could be beautiful, but this one was.

"Who are you," Lieutenant Hoshi Sato asked, squatting in front of Lancelot and pointing a little black box at him.

Lancelot frowned. She wasn't holding it like a weapon and it wasn't sharp, so Lancelot responded slowly and as clearly as he could "What is that? Who are you? Where are we?"

Hoshi turned to Trip Tucker saying "He appears to be asking questions. The grammar does seem to be Germanic or English, the words almost an ancient form of English. Let's keep him talking and maybe we will get enough language analysis to communicate."

"Questions?" asked Lancelot "Did you say ques-tion?"

"I did," said Hoshi, "My question is, what is your name?"

"Lancelot."

"Lancelot, I am Hoshi."

"Yes! You seem understand me now! I am Lancelot. This is Brian."

"Hello, Lancelot. Hello, Brian," said Hoshi. Then she asked "What planet are you from?"

"Planet? From?" asked Brian perplexed. "We are from Camelot, King Arthur's realm."

"I don't believe this," laughed Trip, "are these two from some asylum? Are they living out a fantasy or are they from some colony world that has gone insane?"

Brian was put out with this blond man. "We are not insane. What makes you think that we are? Is that why you have locked us up in this dungeon?"

"You are not locked up any more than we are," Hoshi said soothingly. "We are all on a star ship within the Terran System. We are moving into space dock for repairs after our latest mission."

"Ship?" Asked Lancelot. "Made with metal walls? Inside a wooden hull?"

Trip responded to this question. "You must be from a world with a different technology level. All star ships are made of some form of metal alloy."

Lancelot thought his headache was making him hear things strangely. He tried to make sense out of these people's words by responding to them. "A world? There is only ONE world. At least, I thought there was only one world. And what is this 'space' your ship is in. Where is the water?"

Trip and Hoshi exchanged glances, before Hoshi asked gently "Um, what is the name of your, I mean 'the' world? The planet?"

Lancelot was even less sure how to answer this further question. "Planet? Oh, there are planets, yes, in the night sky, Mars, Jupiter. Where we live is actually an island called Britain."

Hoshi sucked in her breath, thinking. "Okay," she said. "I believe you are from Earth. So, what year is it?"

"By Roman calendar, since the Christian reckoning of it, it is 543."

"Daniels. It is Daniels again! Damn the man!" said Trip.

"Who is this Daniels?" asked Lancelot.

Trip sighed and said "Daniels is a traveler in time. He tries to keep history from being changed. You two appear to be from our past. A very long time ago, I am afraid. Sixteen hundred years, approximately."

"Hundreds of years? That is beyond belief," said Brian. "Merlin might know something of this Daniels. But if we are from your past, you are still of our people? Or are you of the Vikings? Of the Romans? Of those from the Far East?" He was staring at Hoshi now.

"We are mostly from Earth on this ship," said Trip, noting Hoshi shaking her head and glancing at T'Pol.

Then Trip thought of something and smiled saying "There is one of our crew who is from the exact same place as you."

T'Pol hit the com button and said "Commander Reed, would you please come to C deck, companionway 3?"

...

Trip, who had gone to prepare Malcolm, explained the strange pair who had transported aboard the Enterprise, as they walked down a companionway.

Malcolm Reed frowned and shook his head. "You expect me to understand them any better than you do?" asked Malcolm. "The only difference in the way you talk and the way I talk is a slight accent. And if you must know, I did very poorly in school with Shakespeare, let alone Chaucer which was completely obtuse to me. And that is much later than the time of these people, if the 6th century is really where they are from. Even for later 20th century-early 21st century literature that deals with my favorite subject, weapons, like the Ian Fleming and Clive Cussler novels, I have to use an historical phrase dictionary. I am a weapons officer, not a damn medieval scholar or historical linguist. Leave this to Hoshi. Though, I am curious, if this man is who he says he is, he is a great legendary figure, who many people think was a literary invention and not a real person. Still, I would love to compare notes on armaments from his time. I doubt he could even begin to understand the weapons we deal with."

Trip smiled. "He has already dealt with a weapon of our time, or at least one much more advanced than his time - on the receiving end, judging from the fact that he was stunned and then transported here. But as for communication, well, you could at least try. Right now, he seems to be having trouble believing he is in a companionway and not a jail cell. Maybe just knowing you are from the same part of Earth, even if from a different time, might help."

The two Starfleet officers came around a corner to find Lancelot trying to walk while being held under one arm by Brian and the other arm by Hoshi.

"We are taking him to sick bay," Hoshi explained. "Brian objected to T'Pol touching him even though with her Vulcan strength she could have carried him all by herself."

Brian blushed, but said "I would prefer that a demon not touch Sir Lancelot."

"I am no..." T'Pol started to say, but Hoshi shook her head saying "everything is new and frightening to these two, we can explain ourselves later."

Trip and Malcolm fell into step behind Hoshi, Lancelot, and Brian, with Malcolm whispering "if they are afraid of T'Pol, what are they going to think when Phlox tries to examine them?"

...

"Well, well, do come in, don't be afraid," urged Dr. Phlox, when Brian balked at a glass door which moved to the side instead of upward like a portcullis.

"Not another demon!" Brian exclaimed. "What is this place? You say it is a ship, but it is much too large."

"Calm down, Brian," said Lancelot. "I really think these people are trying to help us."

"I wouldn't call them people, Sir Lancelot, not all of them anyway."

"I am a person, humm? And I am the ship's doctor."

Not seeing any recognition of that term, Phlox said "Medicine Man? Healer? Nurse?"

"Ah, healer, like one who tends to wounds?" asked Lancelot.

"Correct. Now if you would?" said Phlox, gesturing to the bio bed.

Lancelot blinked at the harsher light here in this sick bay than was in the hallway behind him. He tried to take a step forward, moving his shoulder on Brian's side to get the boy to help him move toward the bio bed. Brian complied reluctantly.

Hoshi moved forward saying "easy now, Sir."

Brian helped Lancelot sit on the bed. But he would not move away from Lancelot's side when the strange healer tried to push him away.

Noticing Brian glancing at the place on his arm where Phlox had touched him, Phlox said. "There will not be any warts growing on there just because an alien touched you, humm?"

Brian reddened, and tried not to look again at his tunic sleeve.

The sick bay doors flew open and Captain Archer entered.

"I hear we have a pair of alien guests that just transported aboard."

Hoshi turned to her captain and said "We believe they are human, Sir, not aliens. They appear to be from 6th century Earth. Daniels again?"

Archer frowned. "It sounds like it could be." And turning to the man on the bio bed said "I am Captain Archer, captain of this ship which is a Terran System vessel, the Enterprise."

Lancelot inclined his head and said "Sir, I am Lancelot of the Lake, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. From Britain. From the Earth planet, I guess. Where is this Terran System?"

Archer glanced at Hoshi, then Phlox, with an expression that seemed to ask "is this guy nuts?"

Then he thought he should play along and not upset the man. "Um, being from the 6th century, you would not know what the Terran System is. You might be happy to learn that the Terran System is the sun and all its planets, including Earth. I am from Earth, as is most of the crew on my ship. And Commander Reed, here, is from the same place on Earth as you, Britain. Though from a different century."

Lancelot looked at Malcolm. The man looked human, at least. "Commander Reed, I am glad to make your acquaintance. My father's estate is the castle Benwick. I now reside at Camelot. This is my squire, Brian. He was from the estate of Urgan the Strong before he came to Camelot. Where in Britain are you from?"

Malcolm stepped forward. "I mostly grew up in Malaysia, Sir, where my parents are now. So I guess that is my home, officially."

"I have not heard of this castle. What part of Britain is it near?" asked Lancelot.

Captain Archer sighed in frustration and broke in to say, "I think we should all have a talk later. I would like Dr. Phlox to look you over and treat you for any injuries. After that, if you would join me in the captain's mess for some food, we can talk."

Lancelot winced with his headache and continued to squint in the strong light but said "Brain and I would gladly do that, Captain."

Phlox turned the lighting down a bit as everyone but Hoshi followed Captain Archer out of sick bay.

Phlox asked Lancelot through Hoshi's translator "How did you receive this headache you seem to be suffering from?"

Lancelot told him about the incident in the clearing - the melted metal, the killing of the deer, the attack on himself and Brian. Then Brian filled in with what he had observed.

Dr. Phlox nodded. "Sounds like a Klingon ship. Maybe an experimental craft that crashed centuries ago when they were first developing warp drive. And you were stunned with an energy weapon, one that as you noted, emits a form of light energy like natural lightening. You will fully recover. I am going to give you a medication that will immediately remove your headache. Ah, don't be afraid, the medicine is in this metal tube that I will press against your neck."

It was over before Brian could object to it. Lancelot turned his head to the left and then the right while rubbing his hand against his neck where Phlox had applied the hypo spray.

"Amazing. My headache is indeed gone now." He smiled, and started looking the alien doctor over.

Phlox noted his interest so explained "I am a Denobulan. My home world is Denobula, like yours is Earth. My home world - a planet, orbits a star - a sun, about 20 light years from Earth. I have many friends now on Earth through the Interspecies Medical Exchange."

"Light years are a measurement of time?" asked Lancelot.

"No, of distance," said Phlox. "The distance light travels in one year's time. Light travels six trillion of your miles in one year."

"Roman miles?" Lancelot asked, trying to wrap his mind around what seemed to be an incredible distance."

"A little different than a modern mile on Earth but close enough," Phlox said, warming to the subject. "But we are within the Terran System right now, at Jupiter station. That is very near your planet, Earth. At their CPA, Jupiter is 390,682,810 million miles from Earth. When the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun, they are 576,682,810 miles apart. At Jupiter Station, we are right next to your planet, actually, when you consider the vast distances between star systems."

"I see," mussed Lancelot, who had a very tentative grasp of what Phlox was saying and had no idea what CPA meant.

Phlox smiled and continued. "In your time, I am aware that not many people knew that the Earth and the other planets actually orbit the sun, am I correct? Or even that the planets are round?" Phlox, belatedly realized that Lancelot might not understand what 'opposite sides of the sun' meant.

Lancelot, who was well educated for his time, had to think about Phlox's question for a minute. "The Egyptians, Merlin said, measured the Earth using shadows and that the Earth is round and thousands of miles to completely walk around it. I don't remember how many thousands."

"Correct!" Phlox chortled, giving Lancelot his widest smile. "Twenty-five thousand miles to be exact."

Lancelot was a little disconcerted by Phlox's wide mouth expression. He then asked "You are not a human, are you? Denobulans are what the other humans here are calling an alien?"

"Yes, as is T'Pol." Admitted Phlox.

"The green pointy eared demon!" Brian interjected.

Phlox gave Brian his unnervingly wide smile. "Young man, T'Pol is no demon. She is simply a sentient being from the planet Vulcan, which is an ally of Earth."

"Ally?" said Lancelot pouncing on the word. "Having an ally implies one has enemies, does it not?"

Phlox had studied some of earth's literature and legends in his effort to get to know the people of Earth better. This man, insanely impersonating a legendary Earth literary character...or perhaps actually being this person, nevertheless had a quick intelligence.

Phlox said "Sadly, this is so. The universe with all its star systems and alien civilizations can be a fascinating though dangerous place."

"A dangerous place which is little different from the civilizations just on our world...planet, I would guess then," said Lancelot somewhat disappointed. "You have ships of metal, weapons that belch fire, travel between planets, and cure headaches instantly. My people would consider these to be god-like or magical powers. But you still have allies and enemies just like we do. This is very strange to me and a bit disconcerting. And you say you are from our future? By how many years was that again?"

"About fifteen of your centuries, approximately 1,550 years," said Phlox smiling cheerfully. "And there is nothing god-like or magical about us or our technology. We are sentient beings just like you."

Lancelot stared at Phlox with sadness. "Fifteen centuries and there is still fighting. King Arthur has hopes of eliminating most of the violence from his realm in his lifetime. Apparently violence is more widespread and harder to eliminate than anyone in our time thought." Then Lancelot sighed. "I think we should go to your captain's dining hall now. I really don't think Brian and I should contemplate what you have revealed to us any further on an empty stomach."

"Of course not!" beamed Phlox. "Food would do you both good to get over the shock of your recent experience. Lieutenant Sato will take you there. And don't worry so much, Earth is a lot more peaceful now, I think, than in your time, even with the recent World War III."

"World War? The third one? The whole planet at war, not just a couple of lords within a kingdom? And fought with the kind of weapons you have?" Lancelot looked like he might fall into a shocked condition again. "My god, I would think you would have wiped out our whole race," Lancelot said in an unusually quiet voice.

"You humans almost did just that," said Phlox cheerfully. "But humans are overcoming what the Vulcans and other more advanced technological civilizations consider the primitive human murderous and suicidal psychology, now. Your species is maturing. I look forward to talking with you again and telling you about the social organization on my planet. I believe it is much different from that of your time. For instance, I have four wives and each of them has several husbands. I believe in your time, male and female relationships were not organized so?"

Lancelot looked alarmed. "Each person with several spouses? Are they like that now? On...Earth?"

"No," said Hoshi, giving Phlox a hard look. "Marriage on Earth is between one man and one woman, or between two adults of the same...um, well...marriage among humans today on Earth is somewhat similar to that in your own time. Aliens with varying physical morphology and psychological needs...they organize their cultures differently than humans. But that is a subject for another time, I think."

And she walked toward the sick bay doors which opened for her and said "Follow me, please."

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