ConQuest (The Quest Saga)

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  They heard a scream in the tunnel.

  ‘It couldn’t be’ Q thought.

  “Kai! Chris! Taylor!” he called out.

  He could see the familiar faces run towards him.

  “Where were you?” Taylor shouted at him.

  “Well.... I was....”

  “Yes?” said a new voice.

  A griffin appeared next to Taylor.

  “Whoa... Who’re you?” Elizabeth asked.

  “My name is Ruby.”

  “I found her,” Taylor said. “She can even speak!”

  “So? Every griffin can do that,” Elizabeth said.

  “Told you,” Ruby told Taylor.

  “Anyway, if you can’t tell me, I’ll ask your winged girlfriend here,” Taylor said.

  “She is not my girlfriend!” he yelled.

  “Why were you guys running,” Elizabeth changed the topic.

  “Oh yeah, I completely forgot. We were being chased by a giant scorpion,” Chris said.

  “You are or you were?” Q asked.

  “We are.” “So shouldn’t we, like, be running?”

  “Yes. That would be the logical answer.”

  “Ruuunnnn,” Kai yelled and they all ran for it.

  They looked back only when they got out of the tunnel.

  The good news? There wasn’t any scorpion. Bad news? There wasn’t any Elizabeth either.

  “Where is she?” Q asked.

  “She must’ve gotten stuck inside,” Kai said.

  “It’s twenty feet wide!” Q replied.

  “Okay. Then maybe she’s lost”

  “It’s a straight path!”

  “Look. You wanted my suggestions. Take it or leave it!” Kai said.

  “Danger,” Ruby said “It’s dangerous. Elizabeth may be in danger.”

  “I’m going in,” Q told everyone. They didn’t bother trying to stop him. It wasn't like they could anyway.

  He entered the tunnel. He opened his hand and tried to summon a flame but nothing happened.

  He walked into the tunnel. For a while there was nothing but darkness.

  “Elizabeth!” He called out but there was no answer.

  He could see a ray of light come from ahead. He ran towards the light. He stopped at a dead end.

  The light seemed to be coming through a crack in the wall.

  Suddenly, he heard the sound of metal scraping metal.

  He looked around him. He could see nothing but darkness.

  Out of nowhere something hit him in the chest and threw him to the wall. Q hit the wall hard and slumped to the floor. His breath had been knocked out of him.

  He opened his palm. A flame popped out.

  “Finally,” he mumbled. Then he saw what had attacked him. It was a huge scorpion!

  Its black skin blended in with the darkness. Its sting hovered above its head, waiting to strike.

  Q needed to get out of there, but how? His only path was blocked by the scorpion. He looked at the wall behind him.

  I could probably slice it with the Durendal, he thought.

  He took out the discs. The scorpion tried to attack him with its sting. Q had to focus entirely on dodging the venomous sting. He had to do it with one hand. If he closed the hand with the flame, he won’t be able to see the scorpion.

  He deflated the bow with the discs and hacked the scorpion’s tail. He seemed to have made a gash in it. The scorpion scurried away.

  “That was easy,” Q said and swung the discs at the wall.

  It didn't even make a mark. Q tried again but the result was the same. He slumped to the floor and leaned against the wall.

  He wondered where Elizabeth went. Suddenly, the scorpion’s sting broke through the darkness and struck at the wall; crushing it into pieces.

  Q scrambled through the hole before the sting struck again.

  He seriously regretted doing that. Why?

  Well for one, there wasn't any floor on the other side.

  He looked down. There wasn't any ground there either.

  Only billions of gallons of what looked like water.

  Just as he was about to hit the surface, something caught hold of him.

  “Hey, Q,” said a voice.

  Q looked up.

  “Elizabeth! You’re all right!”

  “Why? Did you think something was wrong?”

  “You disappeared.” Q stared at her.

  “Oh, that. The scorpion kind of dragged me away. I yelled out but you guys were too busy running.”

  “I’m sorry,” Q told her.

  “No prob. Right now…”

  A huge column of water hit them hard. Elizabeth and Q dropped into the water.

  Bubbles surrounded Q. He desperately tried to search for Elizabeth.

  He spotted her swimming to the surface. He was about to swim up as well when he noticed something at the bottom.

  A stone tablet.

  It was the map!

  He swam towards the map. He could feel his heart pumping faster and faster. His vision was becoming blurred. Something was wrong. He was running out of air but his suit shouldn't run out of air.

  He grabbed the tablet just as his mind turned completely blank.

  I’m not going to die, Q thought.

  He managed to summon the last bit of his energy and burst through to the surface. Elizabeth lifted him up and took him out of the tunnel.

  Luckily the scorpion seemed to have gone somewhere. They were able to get through the tunnel and exit the temple easily.

  Elizabeth put Q on the ground. He went down on his knees, gasping for breath.

  Taylor ran towards them. “What happened?” she asked.

  Q laid the tablet on the ground.

  “He got the map,” Kai said. He took the map from Q.

  Chris ran over to them. “He’s exhausted. That’s all,” she said. “He’s been using too much of his life energy,” she added.

  “We’d better get him back to the ship,” Taylor suggested.

  Q nodded in approval.

  Elizabeth walked over to him and hugged him.

  Q blushed. “What are you…”

  She lifted him up and flew him at mach speed towards the Orion while the others flew with Ruby.

  When they reached it, they realized what bad shape the Orion as well as Q was in.

  “It’ll take at least a day to repair it,” Kai observed.

  “That means we’ve got only three days left,” Taylor said.

  “We’ll make it. I know we can,” Elizabeth sounded positive.

  And now they had a whole day to burn.

  “So what do we do?” Q asked, still lying on the floor.

  “If you want I could teach you to control your powers,” Taylor offered.

  “Does it involve flying?”

  “No…”

  “I’m in.” Q instantly got up.

  “What about me?” Elizabeth asked. “I’ll teach you to fly!”

  Q looked like he was about to throw up but a little voice inside his head told him something.

  “If she can teach me flying I’ll never have to fly with her again.”

  He was interrupted by another voice.

  “You can't fly. You don't have wings, you idiot.”

  “He is right,” Q said.

  “Well it wouldn't hurt to try,” the first voice said.

  “Fine. I’ll go with Taylor first. I think flying can wait.”

  “Come on then,” Taylor told Q.

  Q followed Taylor to a rocky pathway.

  She lifted her hand. A huge rock lifted from the ground. She curled her hand into a fist. Instantly the rock got crushed into powder.

  “Concentrate on the rocks. Feel their presence. Then attack,”

  she instructed.

  Q was concentrating more on how he should never irritate Taylor again.

  “How did you do that?” he asked her.

  “Telekinesis. Concentrating hard enough on an object and being able to make it mov
e.”

  Q tried to emulate the same thing but he couldn’t.

  “Keep trying,” Taylor urged him.

  And so he did.

  They did the same thing for about two hours. Standing in the hot suns made Q sweat profusely. But the training paid off.

  Q was able to pick up and throw objects at a distance. At one point he picked up Taylor by mistake (With his telekinetic powers).

  After a while, Taylor just asked Q to fight against her.

  She picked up her sword and went into an offensive stance.

  “Umm.... I don’t have a sword,” Q said, but Taylor didn’t seem to bother.

  She just charged at him, sword poised.

  “Or a shield,” Q reminded her.

  Taylor was still charging.

  Q realized what she was doing. He had to fight her with his mind.

  “Then my mind it shall be,” he said.

  Q focused on the floor beneath Taylor. He could feel her steps. He could predict her every move.

  He put his arms out. “Rise,” he said.

  Four walls of solid rock surrounded Taylor. He couldn’t see Taylor but he could bet that she didn’t believe what she was seeing.

  Q could control the ground under him. How cool was that!

  Apparently Q was celebrating too early. The rock on this planet was not exactly hard, so Taylor easily cut through them with her sword and charged at him again.

  Q wondered what to do. He’d tried the walls of rock once. He wasn’t going to do that again.

  He tried to find new methods. His mind was racing and so were Taylor’s feet. She was closing in on him fast.

  Q had no idea what he did after that.

  He lifted the huge piece of ground under him creating a floating platform. Taylor did the obvious. She jumped onto the platform, but she could never have expected Q’s next move.

  Q turned the land under Taylor’s feet into a marsh. She was stuck fast in it. He took out the Durendal and charged at her. He could easily deliver the winning blow but Taylor had other ideas.

  She threw her sword. It hit Q’s Durendal and knocked them from his hand. Taylor’s sword changed direction and headed back towards her.

  Q couldn’t believe what had just happened.

  “Don’t you ever forget that I’m a dark knight,” she said grinning.

  “And that my sword’s also a boomerang,” she added.

  Elizabeth flew in between them.

  “It’s my turn,” she said excitedly.

  “We’re in the middle of a fight.”

  “Your time’s up,” she said.

  “Fine,” Taylor conceded.

  Q followed Elizabeth.

  “I’m gonna teach you to fly!” Elizabeth said, excitedly.

  That was when Q realized he could have avoided himself a lot of trouble if he’d offered to help Kai fix the ship just like Chris had.

  “I don’t have wings.”

  “You don't need wings.”

  Elizabeth flew around for a while.

  “I really don't see the point of all this,” he said.

  She immediately landed next to him.

  “Flying is not what you feel here,” she said, pointing to her head. “It’s what you feel in here.” She pointed to her heart.

  “Maybe I could try telekinesis on myself!” Q realized.

  He closed his eyes and felt the air around him. He felt its presence. He concentrated on it and willed it to lift him.

  Nothing.

  He tried another method. He willed the air beneath him to solidify.

  “Rise,” he ordered.

  The air actually lifted him up. ‘Higher’ he thought and he instantly went up higher and higher.

  “Doing well, I see.” Ruby floated next to him.

  “He’s doing well but now for combat,” Elizabeth said.

  “Combat?! I can barely fly!” he complained.

  She wasn’t listening to Q. She was too busy aiming for his throat. Q wondered why all these pretend battle had to have real assassination attempts.

  The Core

  Now he had to protect himself from a winged girl with only a platform of air that formed less than 20 seconds ago.

  He kept thinking “she uses air as well.” He realized that it was his answer.

  He focused on the air around Elizabeth. He created vacuums, bursts of wind, air walls and so on.

  It worked! She struggled to keep herself level in the frenzy of air disasters. She kept getting thrown about.

  It was all going well until Q tried to make a twister.

  It actually worked! He had successfully created a twister. A huge twister. That was when he realized what he’d made.

  A huge uncontrollable twister!

  Elizabeth was ecstatic. “You made a twister!”

  “Yeah, an uncontrollable huge twister.”

  “That’s even better. Wait... an uncontrollable huge.... uncontrollable?!” That was when she decided to make a run for it.

  Q created walls of air and floating rocks around it. The twister stopped but Q had a feeling that it was only temporary.

  They ran to the ship. “Kai, we’ve got to take off,” Q said.

  Kai had a puzzled look on his face.

  “We’ve got a twister behind us!”

  That seemed to make him understand.

  They had just got into the ship when they saw the wall give away and the twister wreak havoc.

  “Now, that’s a twister. Why can’t you make stuff like that Q?” Kai asked.

  “Umm… I did,” Q said.

  “That is so cool! So how…”

  “Kai! Twister heading towards us!” Q reminded him.

  “Oh sorry,” Kai said and ran to the pit.

  Suddenly they felt the ground below the Orion vibrate. Elizabeth’s face changed.

  “We have to leave. NOW!” she said.

  “But we haven’t got any fuel,” Kai complained.

  “Leave that to me,” said Q and ran into the Orion.

  “No don’t!” Kai called after him, but Q was already out of earshot.

  “What’s he going to do?” Elizabeth asked.

  “The warp drive is fuelled by a core that’s kept in the hangar of the Orion. When we used up all the energy to break though the energy field, the core died. Q’s going to use his life force to restart it. That isn’t exactly safe.”

  “How dangerous is it?”

  “Well…he could die.”

  Galactica

  Q ran to the hangar. The ship started to move from side to side. The ground was rumbling more and more.

  He entered the hangar. In the corner of the hangar stood a huge tube of metal extending from the floor to the roof. He opened a small door. Inside were two rods and in between them was a small sphere of matter. The sphere was the warp drive core. It had lost all its energy and so it was of dark black.

  Q put his hands out and cupped the core with his hands. He focused on every living essence inside him. Suddenly the ship wobbled and Q hit his head on the roof. His vision went blurry.

  “I’m not going to lose consciousness. I’m going to do this,” he assured himself.

  He felt the life essence within him and he let it all lose. Purple energy flowed from his arms into the core.

  The core started glowing vibrantly. When Q let go of it, it was a radiant violet.

  Using his life force left him in a daze. He managed to stay conscious and stumbled out of the hangar.

  He gave Kai a thumbs up. “Refueled,” he said.

  The girls looked at Kai.

  “No seriously. He could’ve died,” Kai said.

  The girls wondered how Q was all right. Luck didn't exactly play a part in science.

  Still, that was a conversation for another day. The ground was starting to vibrate more violently.

  Kai wasted no time in rushing to the pit. Taylor made sure everyone got in.

  They took off in a flash. They were quite high up in the air when they
heard a loud grumble. They looked down and saw the temple crumbling to pieces.

  “What’s going on?” Q asked.

  No one answered. They were left speechless by the scene before them.

  The whole temple had crumbled into huge rocks and was now slowly assembling into some sort of thing.

  “What is that thing?!” Kai asked.

  “The temple. It’s alive!” Elizabeth said.

  “How is that even possible?” Taylor asked.

  “I don’t know but we should focus on getting out of here,” Elizabeth said.

  “Um.... how exactly should we get out of here?” Kai asked.

  Q slapped his forehead, he forgot all about the energy shield.

  “The shield get’s deactivated once the map is taken” It was Ruby.

  “You brought that beast along?” Chris screeched.

  “I’m not a beast, I’m a griffin.”

  They headed into space, into the universe’s grasp and as usual it wasn’t kind. Think the sea’s a cruel mistress? Well, the universe could make her cry.

  Only a few minutes into flying and they came face to face with a fleet of space ships.

  The holographic on-board screen flashed. There was a man on the screen. He had grey hair and wore a monocle. He looked exactly like a general from World War II.

  “This is Commander Griffin of the Alpha legion of space patrol. We’re here to arrest you on orders of the Board of Security.”

  Kai tried to turn on the warp drive to escape but it seemed the commander had anticipated that.

  “Any attempt to escape will be met with hostile measures,” he said.

  “The Alpha legion is the strongest in the patrol,” Taylor told the others.

  “They must think we’re pretty tough, sending such a high ranked team after us,” Q said, grinning.

  “Not the point.” Chris couldn’t believe what she was hearing. To her Q had too much of a positive attitude.

  “We’d better see what they want. If they aren’t up to any good…” Kai turned to Q. “Can you bust us out?”

  Q got up and closed his eyes. A soda can about 10 feet away rose into the air and got crushed into a pellet.

  “You can bet on it,” he said.

  “You can cut the drama out,” Kai said, grinning.

  “That was seriously good!” Taylor smiled at him.

  Too good, she thought.

  Q went up to the screen.

  “This is the Orion. We give in. No hostile action intended,” he sent the message.