ConQuest (The Quest Saga) Read online

  It was most probably the first one, but Q usually hallucinated a lot after eating Jell-O.

  There was this one time when he thought he had a bomb in his hand, while it was actually a plate of Jell-O. That’s one New Year’s Eve party Q would love to forget.

  Q finished dinner and went to his room. Though he’d like to say he slept like a baby, he just couldn’t. He kept thinking about what he had seen earlier in the day. It wasn’t the kind of sight that you’d forget very quickly.

  He needed to somehow see what Carlos was up to. The portal had opened up in a blind spot for the cameras, so catching it on video was impossible. Just then he got a brilliant idea.

  If he couldn’t recreate the portal or catch it on tape, he would just have to follow Carlos to it. He knew how to hack into the video feed that kept a constant surveillance of Carlos’ bedroom door.

  That was the great thing about security systems; you could always use it against the people who installed them in the first place.

  Q brought up the feed on his palmtop. Speaking of Q’s palmtop, it was an amazing piece of tech! Q and Carlos had taken a whole year to develop it.

  It was what you could, would and should call a marvel of technology.

  It didn’t use nanotech processors but atomic processors, so it could clock up to 15 THz. It had a 16-core chipset, so it was probably multiple times more powerful than a supercomputer.

  It was capable of hacking any server through its advanced ‘Quad’ computer language system. It was a revolutionary advancement over the regular binary.

  With a 5-inch screen and approximately 5 billion pixels, it could run N.O.V.A 3 at 300 fps and do it for months at a time with the 20Kah DD (Dynamic Destructor) battery. It was a new type Carlos had invented.

  Don’t forget the 5000 MP C.R.U.S.H density camera with a 10 Giga watt Flash. At full power, the flash could just about kill anyone!

  He had custom-made headphones that ran on Red Laser 4.0, which was his alternate to Bluetooth. The headphones were so small that they could be concealed in your ears.

  They were highly sensitive and had inbuilt voice commands that would respond only to Q’s voice. Oh, and the palmtop was only 2 mm thin!

  Cool, right!?

  Dear reader,

  It has been duly noted that Q and I tend to get carried away with our high tech explanations. We are very sorry for this and we will look to improve in future.

  - Dhayaa

  “Come on Carlos, please go to your lab now,” Q pleaded with the feed on the palmtop. He waited and waited.

  All along he wondered what the portal was about. What secret was Carlos withholding from him?

  An hour passed.

  Two hours.

  Four hours.

  Q stayed up all night, but it was of no use! He didn’t even see a flicker of movement.

  Q left the palmtop on his desk. He rubbed his eyes and tried to get rid of the drowsiness.

  Suddenly, he saw the image on the palmtop change. His eyes scanned the picture. Carlos opened his bedroom door and walked out into the corridor.

  Q’s heart beat faster and faster. He was getting really excited. He expected Carlos to go to his lab.

  Instead, Carlos headed down the stairs and straight into the kitchen.

  “Any coffee, Charles?” Q could hear Carlos ask.

  Q switched off his palmtop dejectedly. His investigation was a failure. He rested his head in his hands and tried to think up another plan.

  “Q! When did you say your soccer match was again?” Carlos’ voice called out to him.

  Q wondered what he was talking about.

  Then it dawned on him. He’d forgotten all about the inter-school soccer match he had to play that morning!

  Q threw on a jersey and a pair of shorts. He ran down the stairs, his bag in one hand and shoes in another.

  “Morning,” Q greeted Charles as he walked over to the breakfast bar.

  “Where’s Carlos?” He asked. Charles pointed to the living room.

  “Maybe I should just ask him about the portal,” Q murmured to himself. It seemed like the only option he had. He headed towards the living room.

  “How’s our soccer star?” Carlos turned towards Q, with a broad grin on his face.

  “He’s fine, thank you but I’d like to ask you what you did last…” Q was interrupted by the sound of Carlos’ phone ringing.

  “Excuse me,” he said and answered the call.

  Q was getting late for his match. He grabbed his bag and walked to the door.

  “Charles?” he called out. Q needed Charles to drive him to the stadium. He waited for about a minute but there was no sign of Charles rushing. He decided to get there on his own. He walked up to the road.

  He looked along the ends of the road as far as he could see. Just then he heard a familiar sound. A Harley Davidson pulled up next to him.

  It was Taylor. She was dressed in a black full hand Tee and blue jeans. She had a silver chain around her neck and a pair of sunglasses on the top of her head.

  “What’re you doing here?” she asked.

  “I’m hopelessly late. I’ve got to be at the game in…”

  he looked at his watch

  “…ten minutes!” he exclaimed.

  Taylor smiled at him. “Hop on, I’m on my way there too,” she offered.

  Q sat behind her. She drove smooth and fast, and turned what would’ve been a 15-minute drive into a 5-minute dash. She had got him there just in time.

  “Good luck. I’ll be cheering,” Taylor wished Q as he jumped down.

  “Thanks.” He waved and dashed off to the players’ entrance.

  Q ran full steam and managed to catch up with the team just as they were lining up for the kick off.

  A short burly man in his late 30s came over to Q. It was his coach Michael.

  “Whatchya doin’ comin’ in so late?” he asked Q.

  “Sorry coach,” Q apologized.

  “Don’t gimme ya sorry” he yelled. “Jus’ get awn wit’ the game.”

  Q’s team ran into the field.

  A guy bumped into him. It didn’t take a genius to see it was deliberate.

  “What up, loser,” the guy tried intimidating Q.

  Q didn’t react at all. The guy was Jon Terry, the team captain.

  Jon was giving Q the snobbish look, which was distracted when the referee ordered everyone to their positions. Q took his position as a right wing. The referee blew the whistle to start the kickoff.

  The Wyverns, Q’s Team, played a tough first half. The opposing team, Rock Crushers, had a good defensive line.

  The halftime break was spent as usual. The coach yelled at all the players. Familiar words like useless, lazy, losers were his obvious choice!

  I bet he would shout at us even if we scored, Q thought.

  The break ended and before they knew it they were on the field again.

  In the second half, the Rock Crushers went in with six defenders, two midfielders and two attackers. It was a crazy tactic that Q knew how to break quite easily.

  “Jon, you’ve got to bring on another striker,” Q said.

  “I call the shots around here, nitwit, so just shut it.”

  Q knew this wasn’t going anywhere. He decided to take matters into his own hands and moved forward.

  It worked and put pressure on the other team. They finally managed to get the first loose ball of the match.

  The ball floated right to Q. He snatched it and started his offensive run.

  The Crushers didn’t expect it and in a flash Q was right in front of the penalty box. He kept moving forward till out of nowhere, three defenders tackled him at once. He flew for about three feet and fell hard. He felt as if his breath had been squeezed out of his lungs.

  While a few of his teammates tried to help him up, Q managed to look up and see the referee handing out red cards to all those who had tackled him.

  Medics came over with all their equipment to check on Q.
r />   “No broken bones. You’re all right to play. But I suggest you get some rest now. You’re pretty knocked up,” one of the medics said.

  “Rest is probably good,” Q agreed.

  Jon came over looking like he wanted to kill Q.

  “Penalty is yours,” he said tossing Q the ball.

  Q didn't understand what was going on. He finally realized that since he had been fouled in the penalty box, he got a penalty shot. But was he given the penalty kick, that too by Jon of all people!

  Q didn't care about the specifics. He just wanted to take the penalty shot. He looked at the medic anxiously.

  “Just the penalty kick and then some rest,” the lady warned him as if he was a five-year-old.

  Q placed the ball on the line. He looked at the ball from different angles and readied himself. He closed his eyes and imagined the shot.

  When the referee blew the whistle, he opened his eyes and kicked the ball. It went over the keeper’s head and tore the net!

  The crowd roared. Q took the Wyverns to a one goal lead. Amidst all the chaos Taylor came over to Q.

  “You okay?” She looked concerned.

  “It’s just a cramp,” he held his leg.

  “You need to go home and get some rest,” the medics warned again.

  “C’mon, let’s take you home,” said Taylor and took a bunch of keys out of her pocket.

  “Could you drive a little, you know, slower?” Q asked, afraid that his cramp would worsen from Taylor’s ‘warp speed’ ride.

  Taylor grinned at him. Q hoped that that was a yes.

  They walked up to the bike. Q sat behind Taylor and reclined his head to look up at the sky.

  The bike roared on ahead. His neck hurt after a while and he dropped his head back down. He looked at the shops that sped past him. Then he realized something; this wasn’t the way home.

  “Why aren’t we going home?” he asked.

  “Well, I thought that we could go out for ice cream to celebrate.”

  “Ice cream sounds good!” he said excitedly. Who doesn’t like ice cream?

  They drove to Ice ‘n’ Bites, this new ice cream joint that was the talk of the city.

  Taylor placed the order at the counter. “One Funky Monkey and One Chocó Marble Crush.”

  Q waited as she got the ice cream and brought it over. They talked for a while, catching up on different things. Watching Taylor talk so vivid and excited made Q feel like they were kids again. They kept talking until they were interrupted by the sound of Taylor’s phone ringing.

  “It’s Carlos,” she said and answered the call.

  Probably about some nanotech stuff, thought Q. Taylor was interning for Carlos right now. She was a really dependable lab assistant.

  “Uh huh... Sure... You mean right now? Fine, I’ll bring him over,” Q heard her say.

  “Uh, oh! Why am I a topic of conversation?” Q mumbled aside.

  Taylor got off the phone in a minute.

  “What did he say?” Q asked hoping Carlos hadn’t found out about the recent ‘exploration’ of his.

  He wondered if Taylor knew about Carlos’ secret. If she was his assistant there was a good chance that she did.

  “He wanted me to bring you back. He says he has something to show you.”

  Q wondered what Carlos wanted to show him.

  They quickly finished their ice cream and sped to the mansion. As soon as they entered the house, Taylor said, “You wait down here” and ran up the stairs.

  Q was puzzled. “What?” he asked. But she had already disappeared into Carlos’ lab.

  He wondered if a person could be ordered to wait in his own house. It certainly didn’t seem normal.

  He didn’t need to wait long. Almost instantly, Carlos came down the stairs with Taylor behind him.

  “Come on up, Q,” Carlos gestured to his lab.

  Q followed him up to the lab and into it as well. Just to authenticate the lie that it was Q’s first time in Carlos’ lab, wide-eyed, he exclaimed at the awesomeness of the lab. Apparently he had a knack for acting and both of them bought it.

  “So what did you want to show me?” Q asked.

  Carlos grinned and waved his hand. Immediately a portal like the one Q had seen appeared.

  Without as much as a word, Carlos stepped inside the portal.

  Q freaked out.

  “It’s not gonna bite you.” Taylor was trying hard not to laugh. She followed Carlos into the portal.

  Q went berserk.

  What kind of deadly secret had they stumbled upon? Was this something he really wanted to know?

  Yes it was.

  S.P.A.C.E

  Q stepped into the portal slowly. He expected something weird but he realized that weird was an understatement.

  It looked like he was on some sort of inter-planetary highway. Bright roads of unimaginable colors formed a network. There were small flashes of light that zoomed past him. He realized that they were actually stars. They just seemed blurry because of the speed he was traveling at. He could see other people zoom past him in all directions. Q was overwhelmed with excitement. What kind of secret had been kept from him for all these years?

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Q reached the other end of the portal.

  “How was the ride?” Carlos asked Q.

  Before he could answer, he fell flat on the ground. Somehow the trip seemed to have drained the strength out of Q. Taylor helped him up.

  “You’ll get used to it,” she promised.

  “I’m never doing that again!” Q said and sat down.

  It was only after he was able to stand again did he see where they were. He searched for a word to describe the place, but gave up in the end.

  It was a circular city on some random planet in space. It had a transparent dome completely covering it.

  “Welcome to S.P.A.C.E,” Taylor welcomed Q. Spelling out S-P-A-C-E to avoid confusion.

  “Neat, what does it stand for?”

  “Nothing. We just like the acronym,” she grinned.

  Q didn’t notice that Carlos had already moved ahead. He had been too busy gaping at the oddly shaped buildings and towers around him.

  Most of the towers were pure white, while others were so dark that they blended in with the shadows. Each one was amazingly tall by Earth’s standards.

  Q couldn’t even begin to think of a proper number that’d be close to their actual height. He was so amazed by the buildings that Taylor had to grab his hand and yank him to make him move.

  Q suddenly let out a gasp. Everyone turned towards him. He faced a human being with a glowing red aura around him. He looked like he came straight out of a fantasy book! His long white hair pretty much sealed the deal.

  “I get that a lot”. The ‘creature’ smiled and went up to Carlos. “High-Commander,” he saluted and marched away.

  Q didn’t know what was more amazing. The fact that Carlos was apparently ‘High-Commander’ of this place or the residents here resembled elves.

  “W...who was that?” Q trembled. He was excited at the possibility of meeting an E.T but these guys looked like…..humans.

  “I’ll explain it to you in just a second,” Carlos assured Q.

  He took them into a building larger than the rest. Q figured it was the main centre or something of the sort. There was a large metal plate above the entrance. It was engraved with a saying.

  “Do your words. Speak your actions”.

  Carlos noticed Q looking at the engraving and said, “It’s our motto.”

  “It means don’t say things you can’t do and don’t do things without thinking about them first,” he explained.

  “Good saying,” Q observed.

  “Here we are,” Carlos said as they entered a lab like area swarming with ‘creatures’. As soon as he went in, everyone stopped moving about.

  “High-Commander,” they saluted in unison.

  “Gentlemen,” Carlos acknowledged and they all continued wi
th their jobs. Q couldn’t help but feel jealous.

  Carlos is a cool bro but over here he’s on a completely different level, he thought.

  A figure in a long black cape ran up to Carlos.

  “Sir, we’ve got trouble. We need you at the bridge,” the figure said. Q couldn’t figure out if it was a he or she.

  “I have to leave you two here for a while,” Carlos told them. “Take care of Q, Taylor. And Q...Um... try not to destroy anything, will you?”

  “Don’t you mean ‘touch’?” Taylor asked him.

  “Destroy,” Carlos asserted. “Not touching would be good too,” he smiled and left.

  “How could I destroy anything?” Q asked but Carlos was already out of earshot.

  “Cool Place,” Q said turning towards Taylor. “So how come you didn’t tell me about it?”

  “Well there were a few complications.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’ll let Carlos fill you in on that.”

  What followed was an awkward period of silence which was broken by Carlos when he came back.

  “Sorry. I hate being commander. I have so many things to do,” he smiled. He was one of the most laidback people Q knew. So seeing him actually work was kind of weird.

  “So let’s get on with the tour,” Carlos said. “Now this is the…”

  Q wasn’t really listening. He was still processing what had happened today. He was irritated that Carlos still hadn’t explained to him what these other ‘creatures’ were. The tearing goal that Q scored today seemed like the least exciting event that happened. But he knew one thing for sure. It was going to be a long, long day.

  Hidden powers

  Q followed Carlos to the front desk. There was a lady sitting there. She had coffee brown hair, cut really short. Her eyes flaunted rimless glasses which went well with her black outfit. Q figured she was the receptionist here and she seemed to be quite human.

  Carlos spoke to her for a few seconds and came back with a card in his hand.

  “Here’s your badge,” he said and handed it to Q.

  “Keep it close,” he added. “Without that badge you’ll be considered an enemy.”