ConQuest (The Quest Saga) Read online

  Elizabeth put her hand on Taylor’s shoulder.

  “It’s okay. He’ll be okay,” she said but a voice inside her said otherwise.

  “I never got to tell him.....” Taylor sobbed.

  Elizabeth knew there was no way she could convince her to come along. She decided to win by volume than reason.

  “Do you want to save him or not?” she shouted.

  Taylor didn’t say anything. She sat motionless.

  “So you just want to let Q lie on an ice cold floor all alone till he dies?”

  That seemed to snap Taylor out of it. Her head twitched and she shot to her feet.

  “Let’s go,” Taylor said enthusiastically and Elizabeth instantly knew then that she had touched the right chord to get her motivated.

  “Elizabeth?” Elizabeth looked at her.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Elizabeth just smiled. She knew that they had a much bigger task ahead of them now. She was deep in thought when she was distracted by something on the wall. It was a patch of pink ice!

  Taylor looked at Elizabeth’s face and smiled.

  We are kids after all, she thought.

  And that was the closest to kids they’d ever be.

  Perfect Ten

  Q lay motionless on the ground. His eyes fluttered open. He moved his body around to check for broken limbs. So far so good. The suit had protected him quite well.

  He looked around him. He seemed to be in some sort of underground cave. The whole place was made of solid ice. The floor was black though. It seemed like mud but on closer inspection it looked like lava.

  “How could there be lava in a place like this?” Q wondered aloud.

  Then through the corner of his eye, he saw a shining object. He went closer to it. Whatever it was, covered in solid ice, it looked like a huge ice boulder.

  He put his face to the ice and then wished that he hadn't. He saw the bones of some animal. The animal was huge. It would’ve dwarfed a T-rex any day. The bones were so dim and transparent that Q had to strain to see them.

  Then came the real question. What were those bones doing there in the first place? There was no way that an animal died in there and the flesh just disappeared. There was no way the flesh would’ve decayed given that the place was like a really big freezer.

  “The only possibility is…”

  He heard a loud rumble.

  “…a monster.”

  He heard loud thumps coming from all sides. The ice was reflecting the sound. He had no idea where the noise was coming from.

  The thumps kept getting louder and louder. He could hear one side sounding louder than the other. He turned to that side. He could vaguely make out something coming towards him.

  Then he saw a burst of flame go up in the air. He realized where the lava had come from. He realized what had happened to the animal that was fossilized in the ice.

  He could see the beast more clearly. It was completely made of ice. It had colored liquid flowing all through its body. Q figured that it was probably its blood system.

  It was at least sixty feet tall and easily a hundred feet long. It spewed blue flames of fire into the air. Its wings were long and deadly sharp. Overall a ten on ten in the beast meter.

  Oh yeah, it was also heading right for him.

  Enter the Dragon

  Traitor

  Kai and Chris’s faces were beaded with sweat.

  They had been right all along.

  The patrol wasn't on their side. It never was.

  “Those bloody traitors,” Kai cursed.

  “It’s okay. We can take them on” Chris smiled. She tried to focus on piloting the Orion.

  “We don't know if they have the map,” she added.

  Kai turned to her “What? But you said…”

  “… they might have the map. For all we know they tried to confuse us and leave Q, Taylor and Elizabeth back at the temple. They might have planned an ambush or something back there.”

  Kai looked stunned. “Gee, thanks for lifting my spirits,” he said.

  “I didn't mean…”

  “Watch out!” Kai yelled.

  Chris looked ahead. A huge blob of energy headed towards them.

  She turned the ship sharply to the right.

  They heard a loud blast. Smoke surrounded the ship.

  “I think they took something out,” she said.

  Kai was running about checking gauges and levers. He looked up at her. His face was completely horrified.

  “We’ve lost the warp drive.”

  Ice man

  Taylor and Elizabeth walked ahead. They were both worried. Seeing Q fall down like that didn't exactly make them feel good.

  “How do we know where to go?” Elizabeth asked Taylor.

  “Well.... for one, we don’t have a choice.”

  The path behind them was completely destroyed. Their only choice was to take the route forward.

  The paths were straight with no left or right turns. The only companion they had was the solid hard ice.

  “I’m gonna sit down,” Elizabeth said. She was exhausted. Her body was absolutely wrecked. She felt like she was wearing ankle weights.

  She sat down on the cold floor. It was exactly like..... Ice (That’s a really bad pun).

  She looked around her. There was something about this place that bothered her.

  Suddenly a shadow whizzed past her head. She turned and looked at Taylor.

  “Did you see something right now? A small shadow thingy?”

  “There’s no one here but us,” Taylor said and went back to wiping the frost off her suit.

  Elizabeth stared at her feet. She knew that she’d seen something.

  “Maybe the ice reflected something,” she murmured to herself.

  Suddenly she heard Taylor scream. She turned quickly to see her worst suspicion come true.

  There was a solid block of black ice, shaped like a human.

  It wrapped its hands around Taylor’s neck and tried to choke her to death.

  Elizabeth leaped onto it in a flash. Her hands punched the being but there didn't seem to be any effect.

  Taylor was trying to pry its hands from her neck. It seemed like an impossible task. The ice block was too strong.

  Elizabeth suddenly had a brainwave.

  Fight fire with fire? Not a great idea.

  Fight ice with fire? Seemed sensible.

  She focused on her arms. She remembered the spell that she had learnt long time ago. It needed you to think about the moment you felt angriest in your life.

  Elizabeth’s mind was flooded with images but she only needed one. She kept searching till she found it.

  Her mind immediately played the memory.

  She was in a hospital, sitting on a couch. There was no one around her. She looked down the lobby on both sides. It looked like it stretched on forever.

  A man came to her and sat beside her. He was in a grey overcoat. His head was a bit squares but his chin was pointed. His eyes were brown just like hers. He brushed his coffee brown hair off his face.

  “Listen, Elizabeth.....” he said.

  She stared at him.

  “Mommy has gone to another place. She said she won't be coming back.”

  She still stared at him, emotionless.

  “Why did mommy leave? Doesn’t she like us?”

  “No. Mommy loved you. Mommy didn't like me.”

  Elizabeth looked at the man. Her face showed a new found anger forming inside her.

  “You made mommy go away!” she screamed at him.

  She got up and ran away, tears in her eyes, anger in her heart.

  The image shifted back to reality.

  Elizabeth’s hands were glowing with flames. Her eyes were in tears.

  She yelled and the flames burst out in a beam. It hit the ice being plumb on the chest and disintegrated him instantly.

  Taylor managed to move her arm. She sank back to the floor. Her face was purple from the loss of b
reath.

  “Stop,” Taylor managed to croak.

  Elizabeth turned towards her. Her face was one fit for anger. She let the anger control her. She did as it willed. This was one of the side effects of using powers that required your emotions.

  “Ice..... cracking,” Taylor said, a little louder. Her strength was coming back to her with every breath she took.

  That snapped Elizabeth out of her trance. She looked down. The ice was melting into a puddle of water.

  Too much heat, Elizabeth realized.

  Taylor nodded in approval.

  “Let’s go,” Elizabeth urged.

  She picked Taylor up and ran away from the crack. The floor started giving way. Elizabeth ran for her life but the floor was giving way much faster.

  “Put me down,” Taylor said. “I’m too heavy for you to carry.”

  Elizabeth didn’t say anything. It would take too much time and time was something that they were short of right now.

  She ran until they reached a dead end. She put Taylor down and walked to the ice.

  She punched at the ice but it didn't have any effect. She couldn’t use the fire spell anymore. She didn't have enough anger within her.

  Taylor stood still and looked at the floor break into pieces until it gave way beneath them. Elizabeth opened up her wings but it was too cold. Her wings were covered with frost.

  They fell into the crevice. Darkness enveloped them. They were in the bonds of the temple.

  Dragon

  Q looked straight up at the huge dragon.

  ‘It looks awesome’ was the first thought that came to his mind.

  The dragon roared at Q.

  ‘And it wants to kill me’ was the second thought that came to his mind.

  Q ran from it, but it proved to be of no use.

  The beast was quite agile for something that large. It kept up to Q easily. Q kept running and running until he realized that running wasn’t an option.

  He needed to escape. He looked around for a tunnel.

  He saw a small opening on the roof of the cave.

  That was the good news. The bad news was that it was right behind the dragon.

  Not the kind of situation he would’ve liked but he didn't have any other choice.

  He observed the dragon. It didn’t seem to be responding well to sight. He moved around quietly. No reaction. He jumped onto the floor with a thud. Immediately the dragon scurried to where he was.

  He knew he couldn’t run. He tip-toed to his right. Not a long distance but just enough to avoid the dragon’s large feet. The dragon didn’t detect where he was. It moved its head in the air but didn’t do anything.

  Q got a closer look at it. There were streams of color inside its body. They seemed to be like blood. It flowed through its whole body.

  Q realized it was the same kind of liquid that flowed through the palace. He silently hoped that it didn't mean that this temple was a living beast like the Temple of Giants.

  Like blood, Q thought. His face lit up. He’d seen a way through.

  He took his Durendal out, careful not to make a single sound. He held it in his hand. In one fluid motion he jumped onto the dragon’s legs.

  He scrambled up to its back and slashed at him.

  The dragon wailed and thrashed about. Q saw the colored liquid coming out of the dragon. It flowed all over him, but his suit protected him.

  The dragon’s wound started sizzling. Q let himself be thrown off the dragon. He fell hard on the floor. The dragon went havoc. It shot flames out into the air and melted the ice around it.

  It kept thrashing about, till the ice under it gave way and it fell. There was no way anything could survive something like that.

  Just when it seemed like Q had won, he heard a deep rumble. He could feel the ground beneath him shake. He didn’t see any cracks.

  It must've been a quake, he thought.

  But that wasn’t it. The vibrations seemed to be coming from the hole.

  He went over and looked down into the tunnel. He saw two beacons of light.

  The eyes of the dragon!

  Then he heard a low rumble. It was the call of the beast.

  He poised over it and waited for it. The noise got closer and closer.

  He unsheathed his weapon, yelled out a battle cry and charged at it.

  Reunited

  Taylor and Elizabeth found themselves on a grey floor. The room was solid rock. The ceiling alone was made of ice.

  There were huge indentations on the floor.

  Elizabeth recognized them, but she didn’t dare tell Taylor what they were. If they were what she thought.....

  “They couldn’t be,” she assured herself.

  “Where do you think we are?” Taylor asked.

  “Beats me, but I don’t think there’s a way out.”

  “There is one,” Taylor said. “It’s up there.” She pointed towards the ceiling.

  There was a small hole in the solid ice ceiling. It was impossible to get there. The rocks didn’t seem to be climbable and they didn’t have any equipment either.

  “But we can never get there,” Elizabeth stated the obvious. “You can't fly and my wings are frozen!” she added.

  “I, though…” Taylor said.

  Two rocket boosters opened up on her back.

  “…tend to differ,” she finished.

  “How many more tricks do you have up your sleeve?” Elizabeth asked her.

  She loved Taylor’s suit. It had such a cool look. And it could fly!

  “Grab on, let’s get out of here.”

  She took Taylor’s hand. Taylor closed her eyes and wished for her suit to lift up. The booster ignited and lifted them up into the air. They flew for a short ten seconds and got out of the tunnel.

  Suddenly they heard a loud battle cry.

  It was Q!

  He looked surprised.

  Q realized that the ‘eyes’ he’d seen must've been bursts of flames from the booster and the rumble was also probably the booster’s noise.

  “What’re you guys doing here?” he asked.

  “Nice to see you too,” Taylor said.

  He rubbed his head. “Sorry, I’m just surprised,” he apologized.

  Elizabeth gave him a hug. Then she clonked him on the head just for fun.

  Q smiled a little bit. It felt good to be together again. He couldn’t wait for Kai and Chris to come back.

  “So how do we get out of here?” Q asked Taylor.

  “I have no idea, did you see any tunnels in here?” she asked.

  “Well, there is this one opening,” he said.

  “Let’s go then,” Elizabeth said.

  They walked ahead.

  Elizabeth’s mind was still worried about the footprints.

  If they were what she thought they were……

  ….. Death was inevitable.

  Try, try again

  Kai put on his gear. Chris walked up to him. She was in full armor as well. Kai was brimming with confidence. For one, he could control tech and almost all of the Galactica was tech. Like they say, fight fire with fire. And two, he had finally blocked Orion’s voice from his head.

  A telepathic companion might sound nice, but it gets irritating after like, twenty seconds.

  They had successfully run away from the patrol. Unfortunately, having the warp drive broken didn't teach them anything. So they were getting ready for a second shot at infiltrating the Galactica. They’d activated the nuclear engine to propel the Orion.

  “We’re gonna die you know?” the Orion said.

  “Nooo! I thought I finally blocked you out!” Kai sighed.

  “Well, sadly, it isn’t that easy,” the Orion said. “Plus I can help you if you need some advice,” it added.

  Advice from a machine. That’d be a first, Kai thought.

  “What do you think we should do?” he asked the Orion.

  “We can’t just barge in, and if you want to control the ship, the best place to start wou
ld be the control room.”

  Kai felt like hitting himself. He could have used so much of information that Orion would’ve known but he didn’t, all because the Orion was nagging.

  Kai felt a hand on his shoulder.

  “What’s wrong?” Chris asked him.

  “I was talking to Orion,” he said. He explained what the Orion had told him.

  “So that’s the plan,” Chris said, after she heard everything.

  Kai nodded. It would be impossible to take on the whole patrol by themselves. But they didn’t have a choice. They couldn’t let their friends down.

  The memory of the previous encounter stung Kai.

  Kai regretted losing the Orion’s warp drive. He had managed to fix it up a little bit. It would still work but not for long.

  Still, letting someone damage the warp drive wasn’t exactly comforting.

  They were all set to go. Now only one question remained.

  Could they pull it off this time?

  They approached the Galactica. It was huge compared to the Orion. It didn’t matter since they weren’t trying to attack the ship. All they needed to do was get inside it.

  “What’s that purple light over there?” Chris asked Kai.

  One look and Kai felt faint.

  It was the Pandora Cannon!

  They were warming up the universe’s most dangerous weapon.

  Odds of surviving? Well, they weren’t pretty.

  “Let’s get into the ship as fast as we can,” Kai said. The thought of the Pandora Cannon had made him sweat profusely. It would only be a matter of time until Chris realized the danger they were in.

  “You do realize they could attack us with the cannon. If they do, can you take the Pandora?” Kai asked the Orion in his mind.

  “I can dodge it,” the Orion said. “But once it hits.....”

  “Well then..... good luck. I’ll tell you if I need anything.”

  The Orion didn’t say anything, but Kai could imagine it nodding its imaginary head.

  “I’ll be alright,” the Orion said.

  That was all that Kai needed to start going all out.