“If you had asked Taylor she would’ve told you,” Carlos said.
“But she never replied on the intercom,” Q complained.
“I noticed that as well. You okay, Taylor?” Kai enquired.
Well she didn’t say anything. It was probably the broken intercom. They took the rover into the hangar.
“So what was the problem with the engine?” Q asked.
“Someone crossed the wires,” Kai said.
“Someone?” Carlos raised an eyebrow.
“Fine... I changed the wiring to put the engine into overdrive but it gave away after too much strain,” Kai said guiltily.
They walked into the hangar and took off their suits.
“Why didn’t you reply?!!” Q asked Taylor once she could hear him.
“What do you mean I didn’t reply?! You didn’t reply to anything I said! I was shouting all the time. And by the way why did you run away from the…”
Q interrupted her “…I didn’t know they were harmless, okay?”
Taylor burst out laughing. Q went over to a corner and sulked. This was the most embarrassing moment of his life. Of course there was that Jell-O night but this came a close second.
Kai called Taylor aside. “Could I see the suit you used?” he asked. He took a good look at it.
“Oh dear,” Kai said.
“What’s wrong?”
“The insects probably meddled with your wiring. They’ve cut all the wires. I can fix it but it’ll take some time.”
“Can we get going please?” Q asked. He was getting bored of talking all the time. Plus he wanted to see what this new place that Carlos was taking them to, looked like.
“Carlos, you fly the ship. I’ll take a look at the engine to make sure it’s okay,” Kai suggested.
“Sure,” Carlos smiled happily. Q wondered if it was a good idea to let Carlos pilot.
Kai stayed back in the hangar to check on the core of the nuclear engine. He said that an overdrive could affect the core; something that Q didn't exactly need to hear.
That statement effectively meant that the core could overload and explode. A mushroom cloud up in space. It would have to be a first.
Q and Taylor followed Carlos to the pit.
Carlos strapped himself to the pilot’s seat. Q and Taylor strapped themselves in the two seats behind him.
“We’re going to take off guys. So, get ready for the ride of your lives,” Carlos laughed madly.
Q didn’t know about the others but to him, that sentence meant only one thing: Danger.
Warp Drive
Note to the Oxford Dictionary: The phrase ‘Ride of your lives’ has been redefined to mean ‘Get ready to meet your doom’.
“Slow down, man.” Q clutched his seat desperately.
“We can’t. A warp drive can only travel at the speed of light.” Carlos said.
“The what?” Kai asked as he walked in.
“Hey! So the core is all right?” Q asked.
Kai nodded and turned to Carlos. “Sir, you were saying something?”
“I was just telling these kids that the warp drive I installed on your ship, like all warp drives, can only travel at the speed of light. No slower.”
Kai’s eyes widened. He couldn’t believe his ears.
“You installed a warp drive on my ship?!” He jumped up and down in excitement.
“I was able to install it while you were fixing the engine. You didn't even notice it.”
Q and Taylor didn't understand a single bit of their conversation.
Kai seemed to notice their cluelessness and explained it to them.
“The warp drive is the second most advanced engine known to man, the first of course is the lambda driver,” he began.
Carlos glared at Kai. “Where did you learn that, pilot? The lambda driver never existed. It’s a myth.” He didn't seem to be happy with Kai’s statement.
“Umm... explanation please?” Q was clueless again.
“Well, there’s this theory that there exists a ‘lambda driver’ that surpasses anything that man has ever known,” Kai told him.
“So what about the warp drive?” Taylor enquired.
“Though you can’t compare it to the speed of a lambda driver, it is pretty fast. The warp drive compresses space in front of the ship so you travel through a shorter path. When you pass through the stretch, the compressed space behind you starts to expand and push the ship from behind, thereby increasing the ship’s speed.”
“What does a lambda driver do?” Taylor asked.
“Well that’s the problem. No one knows. We only know that it can travel faster than the warp which is kind of impossible. Nothing is supposed to travel faster than the speed of light but the lambda driver is believed to.”
“Wait, so if we’re going at light speed because of the warp drive, isn’t there some weird thing that should be happening to us?” Q asked.
He remembered that if you travel at the speed of light, time around you flows faster. So for every second you spend in the ship, a year passes by!
“The warp drive counters it,” Carlos said. “We found a way to stay on the same time plane while travelling at the speed of light. So we’re still in the 21st century and you don't have to worry,” Carlos smiled.
Q had studied about different methods of travel in space but those were based on NASA’s findings. These guys were much more advanced. If these guys were human then NASA was probably a monkey.
“Check this out,” said Carlos and threw a lever on the Atlas’ panel.
They heard the cadets shrieking from the passengers’ area.
“What did you do?” Kai asked Carlos.
Carlos didn’t say anything. He just got up and walked to the back. The others followed him. When they got to the back they realized why the cadets were screaming.
There was a huge hole opening up in the floor!
Or so they thought. Carlos just walked into the gap. He didn’t fall down. He just floated above it.
There must be some sort of transparent barrier, Q realized.
“There’s a covering made of the same type of glass the Chepauk uses,” Carlos revealed.
“The Chepauk used,” a cadet reminded them.
Everyone went silent. They faced the reality.
S.P.A.C.E was actually gone. Every single cadet that stayed back had been killed by those giants. Q hoped the ones who escaped were fortunate enough to survive.
He couldn't believe that those giants killed their cadets. Q wondered why they’d come to S.P.A.C.E in the first place.
“When are we getting back to Earth?” Taylor asked Carlos.
“Well, we’ve got a few complications.”
“Like what?!” Taylor and Q asked in unison.
Carlos’ eyes darted around the room nervously.
“S.P.A.C.E was completely annihilated. The only ones who escaped were either healers or navigators.”
Taylor understood what he meant “All the warriors are dead,” she voiced her thoughts.
Carlos nodded. “That’s why I need to go to this other place.”
“What other place?” Q asked.
Suddenly the Atlas stopped. Kai seemed to have switched off the warp drive. In a few seconds the nuclear engine kicked up and they started cruising again.
“Why did you turn the warp drive off?” Q asked Kai.
“Can’t use a warp drive once we’re on a planet, can we?” Kai said.
“We’ve reached?” Taylor asked excitedly.
“Welcome to Zygrade,” Carlos announced.
Zygrade
Taylor went over to a window and peeped out. They were on a planet about the size of Pluto. It was a pinkish planet that had quite a sci-fi look about it.
It was an eerie place. It had a mysterious mist that covered the entire surface of the planet. Q could almost imagine Dracula emerging from the mist to welcome him.
Carlos guided Kai fly towards a huge mountain on the planet. The thing looked
to be at least a mile into the air! It was completely black with no sign of life at all.
Kai pulled the Atlas up.
“Is it just me or is it getting really hot in here?” Q asked.
Taylor could feel it as well. The temperature was rapidly increasing.
“What’s going on?” Q asked Carlos.
Taylor looked through the windows. Her heart skipped a beat!
“This isn’t a mountain,” she shrieked. “It’s a Volcano!”
Q looked through the windows as well. He could see the red hot lava in the crater of the volcano.
What he didn't understand was why they were heading straight for it!
Suddenly the ship’s communication system blared up.
“Space craft A-T-L-A-S. This is a restricted airspace. Please leave immediately,” a voice said.
Kai slowed down the Atlas down until it was floating in the air.
Carlos spoke up. “This is Commander Carlos of S.P.A.C.E. This is an S.O.S. Academy has been destroyed. Requesting permission to land,” he said.
Taylor could hear noisy chatter coming from the other side. It looked like they were discussing something.
“Permission granted,” the voice declared.
The holographic screen instantly vanished.
The ship started to rumble. The cadets screamed and screeched.
“I think they’ve realized we’re in a volcano.” Q sounded nonchalant.
“Oh, my God!” Taylor yelped.
Q looked through the window. The sight was amazing!
The lava was parting halfway. Something seemed to be pushing it to the corners of the crater.
A huge circular door opened up in the volcano.
Kai lowered the ship through the door carefully.
Lights lit up all around them. They were in some sort of a high tech tunnel. Kai followed it till it ended.
“What now?” Taylor asked.
The tunnel rumbled. Another tunnel opened up in front of them. Kai wasted no time in entering it. He kept going until they reached a hangar.
Q looked at all the high tech ships that were in the hangar. They seemed to be much, much larger than the Atlas.
Kai landed the Atlas. A platform emerged from the floor and lifted the Atlas through an opening that had formed in the roof of the tunnel.
The Atlas jerked as the platform stopped lifting them. They had reached level ground.
The cadets slowly got down from the Atlas.
Q looked around. This place was amazing!
There was a huge pyramid covering over the city to regulate air pressure. There were tons of buildings of all shapes and sizes. In the middle of the city though, was a huge tower that extended towards the top of the pyramid.
“Welcome to Aliea Academy!”
Aliea Academy
“Aliea academy?” Q asked. “What is this place?”
“Remember I told you S.P.A.C.E was a place that trained cadets? It actually trained only men and women. Young kids come here to Aliea to train,” Carlos revealed.
“So this is like a teenage academy?” Taylor asked eagerly.
“You could call it that. Anyway, let’s get going, shall we?”
Carlos guided all of them to the large tower in the middle.
“What is that place?” Q tried to be heard over the noisy chatter of the cadets behind them.
“Demon Riser. It’s the control centre in Aliea Academy.”
Q wondered why all of these buildings had to have weird names. ‘Chepauk’ then ‘Demon Riser’; what next?
Carlos walked to a kid at random and spoke to him for a while. Q figured he was a student at Aliea.
After a while, Carlos walked back to them.
He faced the cadets. “Would you all please follow this guy?” he said.
All the cadets followed the guy. But not before thanking Carlos and co. for saving them.
Carlos led the others to Demon Riser. As soon as he walked in through the door, everyone looked at him.
Q looked at the people in there. It looked like there was only one adult. Everyone else was just the same age as Q. He wondered if it was some sort of a teen paradise; a place without adults.
“Is that..,” a boy whispered.
“Oh, my God!” A girl squeaked.
Q could not understand why everyone was so obsessed with Carlos.
A guy walked up to Carlos with a pen in his hand. “Could I have your autograph please?” Carlos smiled and signed his book.
Q’s mouth fell open.
They want his autograph!, he thought. Nothing made sense to him.
“Follow me, everybody,” Carlos said.
He took them to their rooms.
The whole room looked like the inside of a space shuttle. It was a pure white room while everything in it was pitch black.
There was a small half-floor in the room with a few bunks. The lower floor had a velvet couch that extended into an L and a large screen T.V.
Kai whistled. Q agreed with him. This place was awesome!
“So do you like the place?” Carlos asked them.
“Hell, yeah!” Kai said, obviously pleased.
Taylor turned to Carlos. “So what was all that fuss about?”
Carlos looked at her quizzically. “What fuss?”
“Those kids were like ‘Oh, my god! It’s Carlos’.” She mimicked a few voices.
“I just happen to be a well known person around here.”
“Why? Because you were at space?”
“No. I’m quite familiar with the place.”
“How come?” Kai asked with curiosity.
“Well, I kind of built Aliea Academy.”
Lights Out
“You what?!” Taylor said, in a mix of surprise and admiration.
“I’m the one who started the place.”
“Why do that when you’re already the commander at S.P.A.C.E?” Q asked.
“I wanted a place for teenagers to train,” Carlos said. “It seemed like a good idea so I built this place.”
“Do you even have that much money?” Taylor asked.
“My business on earth isn’t my only one you know.”
“You’re an intergalactic businessman?” Q laughed.
Carlos ignored the question. “I need rest,” he said and walked to the bunks.
“I wanted to take a look at the spaceships in this place. If a transport tunnel was so cool, I bet the ships are ten times more awesome!” Kai said and dashed out the door.
Q wondered why everyone was in a rush.
“You wanna go look around this place?” Taylor asked Q.
“Cool! Where are we going?” Q asked in return.
“I saw this fancy mall just a few blocks away!” she said excitedly.
Why would they need a mall at a secret training camp in the middle of nowhere, Q wondered.
Then he realized that there were teenagers there. A place with teens and no mall was just asking for trouble.
Q and Taylor walked out of the building. The roads in this colony were pure metal. They had a nice gray finish with electronic streaks of blue running through them constantly.
Q could see the various Zyxians walking along the road. There were hundreds of them!
Q had a hard time believing some of them were teenagers. There was this girl from another planet; at least he thought she was a girl, who was around ten feet tall!
If that was just ‘adolescent’ height how tall would she get when she fully grew up?
“So where is this place?” Q asked.
Taylor pointed to a large skyscraper that stood distinctly in the sky. It was a sheer glass building just like the Demon Riser, though this one was made of bluish glass as opposed to the Demon Riser’s black glass. It was about half the height the Demon Riser was.
“Hello? You there?” Taylor confirmed, knocking on his head.
Q grinned. He tended to escape into his mind a lot. It was like he blocked out the whole world and just focused on so
mething. Sometimes he creeped himself out.
They walked on for a while till they reached the massive building.
Q could see teens walking in and out of the doors; all of them smiling broadly. Well, that was what a mall was for.
“You coming?” Taylor was already at the door.
‘How fast is she moving? Her ‘mall’ mode is impressive,’ Q thought as he followed her into the building.
The place was ginormous! Q couldn’t even see the ceiling! All he could see was the sunlight glaring in his eyes. The mall probably had a glass roof as well.
He walked beside Taylor, exploring the mall.
“You must be new here,” a voice said.
Q turned to look at the person.
It was a guy. He was a little bit taller than Q. His wavy auburn hair was roughed up. His face was quite square and his eyes were a deep black. He looked human though.
The guy looked at Q, his gaze shifting up and down. He pointed his thumb at Q.
“Hi I’m Jake. The Aliea Academy’s president,” he said.
“Nice to meet you,” Q shook his hand.
“So what are your plans for today?” he asked, turning to Taylor.
“No plans really. Just looking around,” she replied.
“Say, do you want to take a look at the academy?” he asked enthusiastically.
Q, on the other hand, didn’t look too enthusiastic about the whole idea. “Nah, I’ll pass,” he said.
“C’mon, Q. Let’s go see this place.”
“Not really in a mood,” Q gave a lukewarm response.
“You sure? We’ve got an amazing tech lab. It’d be a shame to not visit it.”
Q reacted to those words the same way a dog would react to a bone. His face brightened up and he instantly felt energetic. That’s what technology did to him. He was a seasoned tech addict.
“Okay then,” Q said, with a smile. Shopping with Taylor proved to be of some use to him after all.
“This way please,” Jake said and led them out of the mall.
They walked for a while until they saw a wall in the horizon. It seemed to stretch for miles.
ConQuest (The Quest Saga) Page 5
