ConQuest (The Quest Saga) Page 17
Suddenly Q remembered why he had come down in the first place. “Kai!” he called out.
He couldn’t hear any sound. A howl echoed through the air. The hair on Q’s neck stood up. He remembered hearing the sound before but he didn't know when or where. It all seemed faint to him.
Suddenly a shadow crossed his face. He heard soft growling from behind him.
Something charged into him; pinning him to the ground.
Q could feel sharp claws digging into his arm. The pain was unbearable.
He cried out, unable to bear the pain.
Everything went black.
“It’s okay. You’re all right,” said a voice.
Q removed his glasses. He saw that it was Commander Griffin. He was back in the VRT.
“What happened? What was that thing that attacked me?” Q asked.
“Nothing attacked you,” said the commander and looked at him quizzically. “Besides, we have bigger problems to face,” he put his finger to his lips and pointed to his left.
Q turned to where his finger was pointing.
There stood the girls, with the glowing body of Kai crouched in front of them.
A body that looked like it was disintegrating. A body that was ready to meet death.
Temple of Last Hope
“Is that?... Is he changing into his Nova form?” Q asked.
The commander just nodded. When the glow died, Kai didn’t look any different. He didn’t get wings, or a tail or anything special.
Kai noticed them staring at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
He felt a sudden pain in his palm. It felt like his palm was on fire. The pain became more and more intense.
He started wailing in pain. The others ran towards him.
“Kai! Kai!” They all shouted, but Kai had closed his eyes.
“Is he going into a cocoon stage?” Taylor asked the commander.
The commander was staring with his mouth wide open.
“This....is not possible,” he said.
Before Taylor could understand what he said, Kai started glowing again.
It was a quick burst and soon after, he opened his eyes.
“Kai, buddy!” Q hugged him.
Kai was looking at his hands as if there was something only he could see.
“Get away from me,” he yelled.
Q took a step back. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
Maybe it’s the Nova mode,’ Q thought.
The others were just as puzzled. Kai wasn’t exactly known for being rude.
Before any of these thoughts could grip the gang, Kai pulled his hand out into a fist.
Immediately, bits and pieces of metal appeared out of
nowhere and attached themselves to him. In a few seconds he was covered in a metal suit with a helmet and a visor.
“Dude, this is so cool!” Q exclaimed.
The commander was still gaping at him.
“What’s wrong, Griffin?” Taylor asked, purposefully avoiding the ‘commander’ part.
When the commander still didn’t give any reaction, they knew something was really up.
“It’s the boy, he’s..... He’s called the God of the Dead,” he said.
“He’s called what?” Q asked. He thought he was the only one with a cool name.
“He was a legend in those days. There wasn’t a single army that could last even a few minutes with the man,” he said.
Now that got Q interested, and he listened quietly after that.
“He is known as the God of the Dead, for his speed and power is unmatched by none other than, of course, the hand of God, who obviously surpasses him. The God of the Dead is not to be underestimated. He is a man who can control technology. Technology is non-living and thus, dead. That is why he is called God of the Dead.”
“Technology? Sweet!” Kai yelped. He was really excited.
Unfortunately for him, the story got interrupted when a cadet ran into the room.
“Sir, we’ve arrived,” he said.
“Very well,” the commander replied, and they all headed to the hangar.
All along the way, Kai tried to use his new powers. He overloaded electric circuits. He changed the images on computers. He even rattled out a cadet playing Pac-man on his computer instead of looking at the ship’s defense.
When they finally reached the front of the cabin, they were astounded. In front of them lay something that closely resembled a snow globe.
“We never talked about the temple in the end,” Chris told the others.
Q told them all about the palace that he’d seen and all the colorful ice. For some reason, he didn’t mention the creature that had attacked him. He felt he’d create unnecessary fear in them.
Elizabeth seemed to like the idea of colorful ice. “Was there any pink ice? How about purple?”
“Is that really important now?” Taylor asked her.
“Don’t you think we should get the map now? You know, with the time limit and all,” Chris suggested.
Q turned to Kai. “Can you get us to the planet?” he asked Kai.
“No problemo!” Kai assured. He just closed his eyes and concentrated. He could see a whole map of every single piece of technology kept in the place. He saw the Orion. He called to it. It responded. He could feel it.
“Isn’t that cool?” said a voice.
“Great protons!” Kai said.
Everyone else stared at him. Kai seemed to be the only one who heard the voice.
“Sorry, silly voice in my head,” he said.
Everyone still stared at him.
“Hi! I’m the Orion,” the voice said again.
“Hi” he replied; this time only in his mind.
“It’ll take me a few minutes to reach where you are, so can we talk until then?”
“Would you keep quiet if I say ‘no’?”
“No.”
“Then let’s talk.”
“You must be wondering how I can talk to you.”
“Now that you mention it, it did cross my mind from time to time,” Kai said sarcastically.
“Well, there’s a really long explanation for it.”
“I’ve got time.”
“Technology, you see, is like a different race, an artificial race. We communicate through electrons all the time. It is our language.”
“Okay?” Kai was finding this hard to believe. But then again, he was talking to a ship.
His biggest worry was that he’d thought that the Orion would be a girl but this voice had ‘boy’ written all over it.
“So you can talk to every electronic device alive. They can talk to you as well,” the Orion concluded.
A million voices, like the Orion’s, talking to him inside his head wasn’t exactly one of Kai’s lifelong wishes.
“How exactly are they alive?” Kai asked.
They walked into the hangar. Kai looked around the hangar for the Orion.
“It is something far beyond the understanding of the zyxian brain”
“Now just wait a minute...” Kai was offended by the comment on the zyxian brain.
He heard a screech, this time through his ears and not his mind. The Orion had reached them.
“All aboard!” he ordered.
“We’re right next to you,” Elizabeth complained.
“Sorry, pilot’s habit,” he grinned.
“Pilot’s habit.” Chris tried to imitate him.
“I wish you luck, cadets,” the commander saluted them
They saluted back and got into the ship. It was as they had seen it before, only now it had ‘Space Patrol’ written all over it.
Seeing those signs reminded Q of something that the commander had told them.
“Say, Kai? Where did you get this ship from?”
“Why do you ask?” Kai asked.
“No reason. I just happen to talk to...”
He glared at Q. Q realized that it’d be better to ask him when they were alone.
The commander interrupted them “I trust everything is alright?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the help,” Taylor said.
“Oh, no. It is our honor to help one of the dark knights,” he said.
“How does this guy know about that?” she wondered as she smiled at him.
“Can we please leave?” Chris asked. She seemed to be pretty impatient to leave.
“Okay then, anytime you need help, just use the radio to call and we’ll be there in a flash, literally,” the commander chuckled.
They waved goodbye to the commander and left the Galactica.
“Well, it was fun,” Kai offered, but it was no use. Everyone was missing the Galactica already.
Granted it isn’t the place to have fun but it had a charm of its own.
“Can we focus on the map?” Elizabeth asked.
“Fine, fine,” Q said. He felt that a few people were getting a bit too pushy.
“We’re gonna land in a few minutes,” Kai said.
“Just a sec....” Chris interrupted.
“What?” everyone asked.
“Don’t you think the map should be with the patrol? You know, since they had the virtual map for the palace and everything?”
“What do you mean?” Elizabeth asked.
“They must’ve explored the Temple of Last Hope at some point in time. That’s how their virtual reality system had the layout of the whole place. But if they’ve already explored the place they might have taken the map as well.”
Taylor understood Chris’s concern. “So, you’re basically saying that the map is with the patrol?” Taylor asked.
Chris nodded.
Everyone was silent. They had just been stumped by simple reasoning.
The silence continued until Kai decided to break it.
“Now why didn’t I think of that?” he joked.
Taylor knocked him on the head, making it was clear that she was on the more serious side of things.
“What are we going to do?” Chris asked.
“What?” It took Q a while to realize that all eyes were on him and he felt a little uncomfortable.
“You’re supposed to lead the mission!” Elizabeth said.
“Why don’t you use Q-maps?” Taylor suggested.
Q closed his eyes. He focused entirely on the Galactica. He could see the layout of the entire ship. He searched around for the map.
Q opened his eyes “No luck. It isn’t there,” he said.
“But wait. Could your Q-maps penetrate any sort of safety device?”
“You’re saying they have it in some place I can’t find?” Q said. “It’s a possibility.”
“What should we do?” Taylor asked.
“Well, I think the map’s in the temple.... but it might be a turn for the worse if what Chris says is true,” he said.
Kai instantly saw where Q was heading “You want us to split up?” he asked.
Q nodded. “I know it didn’t work out the last time…”
“Didn’t work out is an understatement,” Taylor muttered.
“…but we’ve got no choice now. We have to do it,” he finished.
Kai turned towards Q. “You, Elizabeth and Taylor head towards the temple. Chris and I can manage the patrol. Especially since we have the Orion with us.”
“You bet,” the Orion said.
“Alright then. Chris and Kai, you both take the ship and head back to the ‘Galactica’. The girls and I will try and get the map.”
“Alright. Readying sky drop,” Kai told them.
“Huh?” Taylor didn’t get this ‘sky drop’ thing.
Kai noticed the expression on her face. “It’s really simple. You just drop from the sky,” he explained.
“Wait.... you’re saying…” Q started. He was starting to get worried.
Kai smiled. “No time. Bye,” he said and pressed a button.
A door opened underneath them and they fell out of the Orion.
“Now we go get those patrol guys,” Kai said and set target.
“Ethosien!” Q said aloud. His armor instantly emerged. Once he had suited up, he looked around him. Taylor and Elizabeth had suited up as well.
He realized his main problem.
He was falling. And he had no idea how he could stop.
“Do these things have parachutes?” Q asked
Taylor seemed hesitant to answer “I don't know,” she said.
Q tried to change his suit into a flying version.
Surprisingly he got the white version that he had activated in the virtual realm.
He willed it to extend the arms and legs. He could feel the suit extending; the air resistance was getting larger. It grew for a few seconds, until he looked like a white bat.
“Hang on,” he said.
Q just swooped down and grabbed each one of the girls with one hand and landed softly on the surface.
Q was ready to get adventuring. “C'mon. Let’s go,” he said.
Taylor looked around her. The planet was exactly as they had seen in the virtual realm.
It was a blizzard-ridden place. Actually speaking they didn’t even know if it was day or night. The storm could have blocked out a million radiant suns. It was only because of their suits’ in-built night vision goggles that they were able to even see each other.
“We’ve got to find the tunnel,” Elizabeth said.
Q wasn’t listening. He was busy modifying his suit a little more. It grew spikes around it and handles on the shoulder blades.
“Grab the handles or the wind could sweep you out,” he said.
They grabbed the handles and all of them started searching for the tunnel. They walked around for an hour but still couldn’t find it.
Q knelt on the floor.
“Tired already?” Taylor chuckled.
Q wasn’t listening. He was much too busy sweeping snow off the ground, wherever that was, with the snow piling up, the ground might even be a mile down from the surface.
Elizabeth on the other hand was using some sort of megaphone. She kept pointing it in different directions.
“What’s that?” Taylor asked.
“Ultra sound,” she said. “I’m trying to find any cliffs or rocks nearby. It will reflect the sound back.”
“Any luck?”
“Not even a single wave came back.”
“Found it!” Q yelled so loud that Elizabeth jumped.
He was putting his hand into the snow. He went in up to his shoulder and moved it around. Suddenly all the snow just crumbled away and a tunnel emerged!
They peeked down the tunnel. It didn’t seem like a friendly place but they didn’t have a choice.
“Let’s go.” Elizabeth jumped into the hole.
Taylor looked at Q. They both shrugged and jumped in as well.
The tunnel was completely vertical till the bottom. There were just solid walls of ice to give them company. Q wondered what the ice in this planet was made of. It certainly didn't seem like frozen ice.
When they reached the bottom, they were looking at the palace of ice. It looked just like the one Q had seen in the virtual realm. He wondered if the patrol had really taken the map after all. He was more worried about Kai and Chris. What if the patrol attacked them?
Taylor walked up to him “It’s okay. Kai and Chris will be fine,” she said as if she’d just read his mind.
He looked at her quizzically.
“I’ve known you long enough to know how you feel,” Taylor smiled.
“So what are we waiting for?” Elizabeth asked.
“Well, we’ve got to see if there are any creatures down here,” Q said.
The image of that shadowy creature attacking him stayed vividly in his mind.
“We’ve got to stay together, okay guys?” Q told them.
They both nodded.
They approached the palace made of solid ice. The color of ice changed very frequently, which made Q wonder if there was some sort of colored liquid flowing inside it.
“Doesn’t this place strike you as eerie?” Q asked.
No one was listening to him. Elizabeth was searching for pink and Taylor was scouting for enemies, monsters, the lot.
“Relax,” Q put his hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “Nothing’s gonna happen…”
They heard a loud thud ahead of them.
“…until now.”
At the sound of the thud they rushed forward. They kept running and running but they couldn’t find anything.
“It must've been an echo, you know, with the walls being solid ice and all. It could’ve been just ice falling down,” he said.
“Yeah,” Taylor agreed.
They continued walking until they reached a fork in the pathway.
“What do we do?” Q asked.
“Split up?” Elizabeth suggested.
“Will you girls be all right on your own?”
“We’ll have to be,” Taylor smiled.
Just as Taylor finished her sentence, they heard something crack.
Taylor froze. “Don’t move...an....inch,” she said.
They froze as well.
Taylor slowly looked down. There was a crack below their feet. It was small, but it could give away in less than a second, if it became any wider.
They heard a crack again.
“Move! Move!” Taylor yelled.
She and Elizabeth got out of the patch easily but Q had a tougher job ahead of him. He had quite a lot of ground to cover.
He took a few steps but his foot got caught in a crack in the ice. He tried taking it out but it was stuck fast. He looked at the two worried faces of Taylor and Elizabeth.
“Go! You’ll die if you stay here any longer,” he urged.
“No! I’m not giving up,” Taylor said and ran forward.
Q saw that she was coming forward and instantly knew what to do.
Q concentrated on his armor. A rocket launcher appeared above his shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking at Taylor running towards him desperately.
“Bye,” he said and shot the rocket at her. The rocket hit her plumb on the chest and pushed her back. At the exact same moment, the ground gave way and Q fell down.
“No!!!!” Taylor fell to her knees.