At Alpha Centauri, the United Nations of Earth made their last stand against the Medari Council. Humans would have been willing to consider joining if the dominant race of the Council, the Medari, didn't demand that all races convert to their religion. The war was going poorly until humans produced the new phase cannons and establishing a policy of destroying their ships to ensure the enemy never gets one. At Alpha Centauri, the phase cannons almost carried the day but instead it ended with the Japanese fleet heroically sacrificing themselves to cover the evacuation of civilians to Sol. Among the broken remnants of humanity, grandparents and parents pass on the stories of those heroes, the few ark ships hiding deep in space, and the legend of a ship that was supposed to save them all. Excalibur.

Gerald had worked his way up to first officer on a salvage ship. Like the rest of the humans on board, the Medari captain hired him because humans were desperate to get out of the slums and worked cheap. Because humans almost won the war, and would have if not for the bioengineered plague the Medari used against them, they are treated as little more than slaves. He's been on the ship for years, but this salvage run makes him uneasy. For decades, salvage ships have avoided the enormous battlefield at Alpha Centauri, mostly because the Medari are very superstitious. They believe the area to be bad luck because they almost lost. However, that means there are rich pickings for a salvage ship here. Gerald knows that his captain secretly hopes to find a phase cannon, or part of one, which would make him a hero as well as wealthy. Gerald doesn't discount the possibility, so he passes the word among the human crew to be ready just in case. They would all give their lives to prevent the Medari from getting one of the phase cannons.

The ship follows a faint engine signal in low orbit around a gas giant. The alien members of the crew think the cluster of phase engines might be a cluster of ships, but as soon as they start getting a visual Gerald doesn't hesitate to pull out his illegal gun and shoot the captain. He alerts the rest of his crew and within minutes the humans have full control of the ship. They know that if the council learns of their mutiny all humans will pay, but what they see confirms the legend that humanity built a single titanic battleship. There she sits, Excalibur. She's real, and apparently intact, although powered down. They assume something must have gone wrong since she didn't make it into the battle, but if she's still functional Excalibur could possibly take on a fleet by herself. Still, they have only a few dozen humans to repair and crew a ship that was built for a crew of thousands. Not to mention that a single ship, no matter how well armed, can't take on an empire alone. The Medari prisoners manage to get a garbled message back to the Council and suddenly Gerald is out of time, but like the old myth he has drawn the sword from the stone and is ready to wield it in battle even if it kills him.

This is a great novella for any sci-fi fan. What's not to like about a rag tag crew armed with a massive battleship fighting for the fate of not just the human race, but all of the subjugated races of the Council? Even better, it's not a fully functional warship so the odds are even worse! There are also alien races along on this adventure, which is a good thing since Gerald forgot to include a Scottie or LaForge in his crew to solve their engineering problems. Excalibur Lost is definitely more exciting than Pulsar Race which is bundled into the the same Audible release. Pulsar Race was probably chosen to title the Audible release of both since its in the popular Starship's Mage universe and Excalibur Lost stands alone so far but given the world building details I anticipate Stewart will eventually publish further material. Excalibur Lost does have it's own e-book release but is not available at this time in a printed version.