Grail -- Fiction; Knights and knighthood -- Fiction; Science fiction; Thieves -- Fiction; Time travel -- Fiction
The outer surface of each piece had been burnished to a high degree,
and he found himself a dazzling sight indeed when he looked into the
supply-room mirror. This effect was enhanced no end when he buckled on
his chrome-plated scabbard and red-hilted sword and hung his
snow-white shield around his neck. His polished spear, when he stood
it beside him, was almost anticlimactic. It shouldn't have been. It
was a good three and one-half inches in diameter at the base, and it
was as tall as a young flagpole.
As he stood there looking at his reflection, the red cross in the
center of the shield took on the hue of freshly-shed blood. The
period-piece expert who had designed the shield had insisted on the
illusion, saying that it made for greater authenticity, and Mallory
hadn't argued with him. He was glad now that he hadn't. Raising the
visor of his helmet, he winked at himself and said, "I hereby christen
ye 'Sir Galahad'."
Next, he bethought himself of his steed. Armor clanking, he left the
supply room and walked down the short passage to the rec-hall. The
rec-hall occupied the entire forward section of the TSB and had been
designed solely for the benefit of the time-tourists whom Mallory
regularly conducted on past-tours as a cover-up for the illegal
activities which he pursued in between trips. In the present instance,
however, the hall went quite well with the _Yore's_ lumillusioned
exterior, possessing, with its gallery-like mezzanine, its long snack
table, and its imitation flagstone flooring, an early sixth-century
aspect of its own--an aspect marred only slightly by the
"anachronistic" telewindows inset at regular intervals along the
walls.
Mallory's steed stood in a stall-like enclosure that was formed by the
tourist-bar and one of the walls, and it was a splendid "beast"
indeed--as splendid a one as the twenty-second century robotics
industry was capable of creating. Originally, Mallory had planned on
bringing a real horse with him, but as this would have necessitated
his having to learn how to ride, he had decided against it. The
decision had been a wise one: "Easy Money" looked more like a horse
than most real horses did, could travel twice as fast, and was as easy
to ride and to maneuver as a golp jetney. It was light-brown in color
with a white diamond on its forehead, it was equipped with a secret
croup-compartment and an inbuilt saddle, and its fetlock-length
trappings were made of genuine synthisilk threaded with gold. It wore
no armor--it did not need to: weapons manufactured during the Age of
Chivalry could no more penetrate its "hide" than a tooth pick could.
_Come on, Easy Money_, Mallory encephalopathed. _You and I have a
little job to do._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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