The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  “No, the Dark Knights are one of those higher powered space organizations,” Taylor said. “Most people go there once they’re in their late teens.”

  “So you just joined?”

  “No, I’ve been there for quite a while.”

  “How long?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Quite a while.”

  “Guys I’m about to jump into Hyperspace so you’ll feel a tiny jerk. You don’t have to strap yourself up or anything though.”

  “Hyperspace?” Q said as he sat down and secured himself to his seat.

  “Another dimension that lets us travel faster.”

  “Say you have a curved sheet of paper and two points on either side of it,” Taylor explained. “Regular space would be a line on the paper while hyperspace would be a tunnel between the two points.”

  “So it’s way shorter?”

  She nodded.

  “How do you even get into hyperspace?”

  “This ship’s got a warp drive,” Kai said. “It uses energy waves to slightly compress the space in front of us, and when that space re-expands it opens up a hyperspace tunnel. Think of it as a small rip in space.”

  “Ready,” Kai said. “Enabling Hyperspace….Now!”

  The world spun around. Taylor landed smack on the floor.

  “Ugh,” she groaned as she picked herself back up.

  “Maybe strapping yourselves in would’ve been a better idea,” Kai said.

  This time Q had a smile on his face, and Taylor couldn’t help but laugh at the whole situation.

  “What happened to the Orion?” Chris asked.

  “Nothing. This is my first hyperspace jump with her, so it was a little rough.”

  “So now we’re headed to the black hole?” he asked.

  She nodded. “It’s pretty easy to navigate through hyperspace. It’s more than just a tunnel, it’s like a network of tunnels. So once we get into one of them, we can take other tunnels and pretty much figure out where we need to go.”

  Q pointed to the view screen, which showed a regular black canvas of space. “If hyperspace tunnels are that useful won’t a ton of people be using them? How come we’re isolated?”

  “Well, it’s hyperspace, but they look and act like regular space. So it’s huge, meaning even if someone else were in this tunnel with us, we probably wouldn’t see them.”

  The ship rocked violently, throwing everyone to the floor.

  “I thought you said you had the hang of this,” Elizabeth said.

  “It isn’t me. Something else is causing this.”

  Chris gasped, and pointed to the view screen.

  In front of them was a huge ship, its dark body scratched and shredded.

  Long gray cannons hung from either side, threatening to fire.

  “What is that?” Q asked.

  “Space Pirates.”

  ***

  “I can’t believe there are intergalactic Pirates,” Q said.

  “Well we do,” Kai said. “They steal smaller ships and sell them off.”

  “What about the people inside the ships?”

  “If they don’t kill them, they probably end up in a slavery black market.”

  “And we can’t outrun them?”

  “Both ships are in hyperspace, which means we’re both travelling at the same speed. We can’t outrun them.”

  “We could leave hyperspace then. The Orion would definitely be faster back there.”

  “We could, but the pirates are a tricky bunch. They seem to have a pretty strong Level-A ship, and I’m absolutely sure they’ve got a few more somewhere close by. Pirates hunt in groups. Not one on one.”

  “What do we do then?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Why can’t we let them just capture us?” Taylor suggested.

  “What?”

  The Orion rocked around violently.

  Q held onto his seat and tried to stay still. The others weren’t so lucky.

  They were tossed around, ramming into the walls before they finally landed on the floor.

  “They’ve opened fire,” Kai said.

  Taylor tried to calm them all down, “Guys we need to-”

  “Elizabeth’s unconscious,” Chris interrupted. “She must have hit a sensitive spot on her head.”

  “Concussion?” Taylor asked.

  She nodded, “I don’t know how severe it is. I’m taking her to Orion’s infirmary.”

  “We’ll handle things up here,” Taylor said.

  Chris picked Elizabeth up and ran off.

  Q turned to Taylor, “Umm. I know I’m new here but I really don’t think we should let them capture us,” he said. “Aren’t we running away from them? Why would we do the opposite?”

  “The pirates will try to reel us in. They can’t damage the ship too much because if they do they won’t be able to sell it. We pretend to let them reel us in, and then we’ll launch a surprise attack once we’re inside.”

  “That sounds very safe,” Kai said. “Except for the reel us in part, and the surprise attack part.”

  “You have a better idea?”

  Silence.

  More silence.

  “Ugh. Fine,” Kai gave in. “We’ll go with surprise attack.”

  He turned to his controls and in a few seconds, the Orion’s lights and engine turned off.

  “I turned off all non-vital systems.”

  “Wait, the thrusters are inactive?” Q asked.

  Kai nodded.

  “Then how are we not floating around?” he said, recalling that the thrusters were what emulated gravity on the ships

  Kai seemed to pick up on his train of thought immediately.

  “On that old level-B ship we only had gravity when the thrusters gave us an acceleration. The Orion has an artificial gravity module. So even if we don’t use our thrusters we’ll still have gravity.”

  “Okay now why exactly did you turn off our systems?” Taylor asked.

  “If we seem inactive the pirates will think we’re malfunctioning and reel us in.”

  Q pointed to the screen, “I think they already think that.”

  The ship’s front hull had opened up. Two mechanical claws extended out and latched onto the Orion, reeling it in quite fast.

  “Here,” Taylor tossed him and Kai a gray bracelet. “Need to arm ourselves.”

  “Put it on your wrist,” Kai told Q and did the same. “Ethosien,” he said.

  The air around Kai glowed and white light shrouded him. When it died down, he was in a gray suit of armor. It seemed pretty standard, with a bodysuit and a helmet, but it was way better than nothing.

  “Now all you have to do is utter the same word. These items are voice activated, so they need you to use the code word to activate and deactivate.”

  Q nodded and put the bracelet around his wrist, “Ethosien.”

  His vision went bright white, and he felt as though he’d teleported to some isolated environment. His skin lost all sensation, and for a second he panicked. The feeling was awfully similar to what happened when the Phalatopian attacked him.

  Parts and sections materialized out of nowhere and fused together around him.

  As soon as the last piece was attached his vision went back to normal, and he saw that he was still on the Orion.

  “Easy fella,” Kai said. “It takes a few tries for you to get used to it.”

  “That’s what everyone says,” he mumbled.

  He turned around and saw that Taylor had armed herself with her dark suit, the now characteristic black haze making an appearance once again.

  The pirate ship had reeled them in completely.

  Q looked as the Orion slid into what seemed to be the hangar of the pirate ship.

  Loud banging came from the other side of the hatch.

  “We’re going to have to get a move on,” Taylor said.

  It’ll be okay. I’ll be fine, Q thought.

  He hadn’t really prepared himself for the situation. And honestly, nothing could have pre
pared him for any of this.

  “Just relax okay?” Taylor put her arm on his shoulder. “The secret to any wave-based attack is imagination.”

  She walked over to Kai, “Open the door on three, I’m charging out first, I’ll clear a path and then you two come out.”

  He nodded and got the controls ready.

  “One…Two...Three!”

  The door slid open, and Taylor charged out even before anyone saw what exactly they were up against.

  Kai and Q headed out a few seconds after.

  On the other side were about thirty really surprised pirates, and thirty more lay knocked down on the hangar floor.

  The pirates seemed half-human, half-lizard. They had blue, scaly skin, and large white eyes with no pupils. Their hands and legs seemed well built, and a tail extended from their lower back. The way they brandished their blades literally sent shivers up Q’s spine.

  He had no clue what he was supposed to do. Who was he supposed to fight? How was he supposed to fight?

  Kai had got in on the action as well, joining Taylor and using the armor’s sword to push back the pirates.

  More pirates flowed into the hangar. Taylor and Kai were completely outnumbered, and Q knew it would only get worse. A big ship like this probably carried thousands of pirates.

  He needed to play his part.

  A loud explosion hit the scene and Kai flew into air, landing against the Orion.

  When the smoke cleared he saw a large cannon being manned by a few pirates.

  But now it was trained at Q, and it was ready to blast.

  He knew that even if he managed to dodge, the Orion would still be hit, and that was a worse scenario.

  Fight you idiot, he thought.

  He closed his eyes and tried to remember what had happened the previous time he’d summoned fire and lightning.

  He tried to pull out every bit of information that he could get from his battle with Jake.

  Frustration crept into his mind. Frustration at not being able to help, at being nothing more than dead weight.

  The secret is imagination, he recalled Taylor saying.

  He opened his eyes and brought his arms up to his sides.

  Blasts of lightning shot from his palms, jumping from one pirate to another, paralyzing everyone it touched.

  “Finally,” he muttered.

  From the corner of his vision he saw Taylor fighting off an overwhelming number of pirates.

  “Taylor,” he called out. “Get the Orion free from those arms.”

  “Are you crazy?” she said as she fended off a few blows, “I need to protect the Orion.”

  “I’ll take care of that.”

  “Are you sure?” she kicked a pirate in the head and knocked him out.

  He nodded.

  She stopped pushing back and ran towards the Orion. The pirates instantly saw the opportunity and rushed towards him and the Orion.

  Q turned back and looked at Kai. He was still on the floor, completely limp.

  There weren’t any pirates close to him, so he’d be safe for a moment.

  He lifted his arm into the air, and imagined his life force flowing into his fist. His legs bent and he jumped, landing right in the middle of the enemy crowd.

  “See ya,” he drove his fist into the ground.

  A circular wave of blue shot through the air, knocking every pirate to the ground.

  It would be a while before the next wave of pirates came along so he took advantage of some precious time for the escape.

  He heard a loud creak coming from behind him. He turned around and saw that the Orion had broken free of the metal grip.

  “We’re clear,” Taylor ran back, “And I took out their ship’s engine, so they can’t follow.”

  She stopped and looked at all the unconscious pirates. Then she looked at him, and then at them again.

  “Apparently frustration was the key,” he smiled. “Anyway, we’d better get back on before the next wave.”

  “What are you two doing?” Kai walked up to them in a daze.

  “You’re awake. Perfect,” Taylor said.

  “Boy was I hit hard,” he said a little dazed as they led him into the ship.

  “Think you’ll be able to start the ship up?” Q asked.

  “Give me thirty seconds,” he said and worked on the first holographic screen he found.

  The Orion’s engine fired up and they shot the hangar.

  Q held his breath until the pirate ship finally disappeared from view. It seemed like this one didn’t have any companion ones to back it up so they didn’t have to worry about any revenge attacks.

  “Boy did we do a number on them,” Taylor laughed.

  “We out-pirated the pirates,” Kai said.

  Q smiled.

  “Ethosien,” they all said, and the armor shrunk back into a bracelet that neatly wrapped itself around their wrists.

  Q stretched out. It felt good to remove the suit and walk around, even if he’d been in it only for a few minutes.

  The first thing that came to his mind was to check on Elizabeth. He was walking towards the infirmary when a blood curdling scream came through the infirmary walls.

  He charged through the open doors.

  On one of the bunks was a scared Elizabeth.

  And a pirate stood next to her, its sword poised and ready to kill.

  ***

  4-1

  “No!” Q shot forward.

  The pirate brought its sword down.

  And then it froze, the sharp tip mere inches away from Elizabeth.

  An arrowhead protruded out of its chest, and it disintegrated into some sort of smoke. The Orion’s exhausts turned on and sucked the blue-tinged fog out of his vicinity.

  Chris walked to him, a crossbow in her hand. Her weapon looked pretty high tech. It was completely metallic, with laser guidance systems, and many other dials.

  “Good thing I was still here,” she said.

  “Yeah,” he said and shifted his gaze to Elizabeth. She lay on her bed, completely frozen with shock.

  “ELIZABETH!” Chris yelled.

  Her body flinched and her face regained its normal composure. She put her arms around Chris, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said nonchalantly.

  Taylor and Kai came running in.

  “We heard screaming,” Taylor said. “Is everyone okay?”

  Q told them how Chris had shot the pirate with her high-tech crossbow.

  “Wow,” Taylor said. “It’s good thing you were here.”

  “Yeah,” Q said. “I just saw an arrow head pop out of the thing.”

  “Wait, where’s the body?” she asked.

  “It disintegrated into smoke the moment it hit the ground.”

  Her eyes widened, “Did anyone breathe in the smoke?”

  “I don’t think so, the exhaust system sucked it out pretty quickly. I didn’t know the Orion could automatically do that.”

  “It doesn’t,” Chris said. “The smoke wasn’t safe so I activated the exhaust systems.”

  “What was that smoke?”

  “It’s an evolutionary benefit this particular species of pirates developed,” Taylor said. “As soon as they die their body decomposes at insane speeds, turning them into smoke. And the contents of this smoke are poisonous to most Zyxians.”

  “Wow,” he said. That would have been the LAST thing he’d expect from smoke.

  Chris had saved his life as well, and he hadn’t even known it until now.

  “Well, it’s good no one inhaled it,” Taylor said. “We’ve got a while to go so I suggest we rest in turns. You guys go get some shut eye. Q and I will stay up.”

  Kai protested, “But-”

  “If you don’t get enough rest we won’t let you pilot tomorrow.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he pouted and walked off.

  “You can go back to the bunks if you want,” she told Elizabeth and turned to Chris, “Keep a watch on her though, just in
case.”

  Elizabeth seemed irritated, “There’s no need for that.”

  Taylor shifted her gaze towards her and she calmed down immediately.

  “I’ll notify you in case anything happens,” Chris said and helped Elizabeth to the bunks.

  “C’mon Q,” Taylor said and walked towards the main deck.

  They sat down on the upper deck and stayed in silence for a while.

  “You know, I think I have almost all of my memory back,” she said.

  Q stared at her blankly, “I really don’t know how to react to that.”

  She smiled, “Well, I’m just letting you know that old Taylor is back.”

  “Are you going to throw me over your head?”

  “I just might,” she said with a serious face. And then the two of them broke out into laughter.

  The holographic view screen opened up, “Incoming message,” it said.

  Taylor worked with the controls and a live feed opened up.

  “Carlos!” Q said.

  “Hello, you two,” his brother said. “Can you hear me?”

  “Loud and clear, Commander,” Taylor said.

  “Okay then. I don’t have much time to talk. If I’m on this communication channel for too long I might get found out, so I’ll make this short. The black hole destabilization is happening faster than we predicted. There is no longer any question about it. We’re picking up massive levels of energy radiation at the center of the universe. Something big is going on there and we don’t know what.”

  “Has our mission’s aim has changed then?” Q asked.

  “Yes. This thing might be too powerful for you. We need you to get help.”

  “Does that mean the others have acknowledged the destabilization thing?”

  “They have, and they agree the radiation levels are related to it. But it goes downhill from there,” he said. “They just think the radiation is from some massive explosion, but I feel the radiation levels are too steady to be an explosion.”

  “So where are we supposed to go get help?” Taylor asked.

  “The ‘Palace of Being’,” he said.

  Taylor let out a small gasp.

  Q had no clue what Carlos was talking about, and Taylor seemed too stunned to answer a question.

  “What’s this Palace of Being?” he asked.

  “In the time of the Great War, there was a race of highly superior beings on our side, one might argue they were the deciding factor of the battle. These beings, the energy beings, are Zyxians made of pure energy. They’re basically like sorcerers, but they’re not as powerful. These beings are the only ones who can help you out.”