“You okay?” she asked.
“How long was I out?”
“It’s only been about two minutes since you started hacking into the Brain.”
Time really did slow down in there, Kai realized. His eyes scanned the ceiling above. It was a pure black, like an abyss.
“You may rise warrior,” a voice said.
The Brain, he realized. He shot up and looked at the Brain but it still hovered in the same position, shots of blue electricity running through it.
“What’s wrong?” Trisha asked.
“Did you hear that?” Kai asked.
“Hear what?”
“I am speaking to you telepathically,” it said.
“What do you want?”
“I believe I owe you a gift for the battle you have given me.”
“Oh yeah? What do you have for me?”
“This ship carries a horrid device along with it, a terrifying beast of a terrible past. The Ascalon. Should you see this machine, never ever engage with it for it will lead to a horrible outcome.”
“The Ascalon,” Kai repeated. “Just what makes it so dangerous?”
“The power the machine possesses is horrifying, but the way it generates this power is more so. You must run from this machine, as far as you can, if your life is to be saved.”
“Wow, for such a powerful being, I’m surprised you’re scared of this thing.”
“If you knew as much as I do, then you would run off this ship here and now.”
“And why can’t I know this piece of information which seems pretty important?”
“The more you know, the more it shall haunt you.”
“Ummm….Okay,” Kai said. “Is there anything else I should know?”
“You better start running.”
Alarms blared all around the room.
“Oh,” Kai said, realizing what the Brain had meant.
“It’s only been three minutes, damn it!” Trisha dragged him out of the door. They had mere seconds before the guards reached the main control room. They headed out of the door, into the corridors that were now bathed in red light. The odd part was there weren't any cadets even remotely close to them. Kai looked down both ends of the corridor but he couldn't see a single cadet in sight.
“Something isn’t right,” he said. “The cadets should’ve been here by now.” He spotted a figure running in from a distance. No, there were two of them now. “Keep close,” Kai told Trisha.
He pushed his hands into the wall. A blue tinge spread from his hands and ran along the metal walls. Sharp pieces of metal broke off the surface and floated in the space around them. He heard the faint whistle of an object being shot through the air. Trisha screamed from behind him. He turned around just in time to see her fall to the floor.
Her body limp, and lifeless.
***
4-1
Chris looked at the mothership’s hangar in awe. It was amazingly huge. Huge ships moved in and out the doors, each one as large as the one she had come on. They all had similar black bodies, but instead of purple highlights, they had different colors. Some had blue, others had green and a few had white.
“Cadets assemble!” the General yelled. The cadets formed four lines next to the ship. Chris and Lisara stood at the very end. The General yelled something out to everyone but Chris was too far back to hear anything. She was glad they were isolated from him though. Now she could have a more serious talk with Lisara.
“Lisara?” she called out.
“Yeah?”
She bit her lip, hesitating for quite a while before actually speaking. “You said your sister was captive. Is she on the mothership?” she asked. She knew it was a touchy subject but it was essential that she asked Lisara about it.
“I’m pretty sure she’s somewhere on this ship,” Lisara said, “The Squad Commanders called me before the mission and told me that if I let the enemy take down the mothership, my sister would perish along with it.”
The first thing that struck Chris as odd was the fact that a Squad Commander would personally threaten a cadet to do well. That meant the cadet in question was highly valuable to the organization. Was Lisara much more powerful that she made her out to be? Her mind wavered, but went back to focusing on the situation at hand. She had to find Kai as soon as she could. She had been pretty confident about scouting him out, but now that she was actually inside the mothership the idea seemed much scarier.
Chris needed help. Lisara was the sole person she could depend, and she knew there was only way she could Lisara to agree to infiltrate the ship with her. She didn’t like the idea one bit, but she went along with it anyway.
“There’s something I haven’t told you either,” she turned to Lisara, “One of my friends is being held captive here as well.”
Chris instantly felt horrible. She wasn't lying, but knew what she said wasn't entirely true. Kai really was stuck on board the mothership but by his own choice. Lisara, though, took the statement very seriously and looked at Chris with a deathly stare. At first she thought Lisara had seen through her bluff, but then she realized the deathly stares were from other ideas Lisara was imagining.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” her voice went quiet and cold.
“Umm...Maybe?” Chris felt awkward, “What are you thinking about?”
“Let’s fight back!” Lisara pumped her fist in the air, her eyes twinkling like stars. “We’re going on a rogue rescue mission.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked nervously. She was starting to regret hiding her true intent from Lisara, the guilt was weighing.
Should have practiced lying much more, she thought.
“Look. I’ve never considered rescuing my sister on my own. Now that I have someone to depend on, the whole idea seems more possible.”
“I’m glad I could help out,” she smiled.
“So where do you think we should start searching?” she asked, ready to jump into this mission.
“I don't really know,” Chris said. She wished Kai had told her a little more about where he was being stationed.
“You came here without a plan, huh?” Lisara sighed.
“In my defense, how was I supposed to know that we were going to carry out a rescue mission?”
“Alright, alright,” she held her hands up in surrender, “First things first, we have to get away from everyone. It’s tough to pull off missions like this with a group of cadets breathing down your neck.”
Chris nodded.
“You two, late again?” the officer from earlier barked at them.
She looked ahead and realized that the cadets had walked away, led by the General.
The officer glared at them, “Come along or I’ll give you cleaning duty for the rest of your lives!”
Chris and Lisara scampered ahead in haste. They walked one behind the other at the end of the line. Chris bided her time, trying to figure out some way to break off from the group.
A few yards in, Lisara pointed ahead of them, “Look” she whispered. The narrow corridor was breaking off into two. The perfect opportunity. They waited until the entire line had passed through the corridor on the left and silently slipped into the one on the right.
They tore through the empty corridor as fast they could, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the cadets. They ran and ran until they could run no more. When they finally stopped Chris figured they were about two hundred yards away. She put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. Her lungs felt as though they were going to burst from the pressure.
“So now what?” she managed to gasp.
“Hey, I already made up the plan to run right instead of left,” Lisara said. “Now it’s your turn.”
“Yeah. I’m sure that plan was really hard to come up with,” Chris smiled.
Lisara punched her arm playfully, “Gosh, you’re like the Queen of Sarcasm,” she chuckled.
Chris ignored her and turned serious, “R
ight now we have no other choice but to follow this path,” she said. “So let’s keep heading in and find out way from there.”
Lisara nodded. They walked through the corridor that, Chris now realized, was as silent as a graveyard. She found the whole place pretty creepy. She thought there would be a few cadets at least but nope, the only thing that kept them company was the deafening silence.
A hundred yards further was a single door with an ID scanner on its side. Lisara pulled out a metal card and swiped it through. A red light flashed on the scanner and a loud beep ensued.
“Damn, I’m not authorized to use this door,” she said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means we’re going to have to break it down.”
“I’m not exactly that strong.”
“Just leave it to me,” Lisara winked. “Ethosien,” she said. A large, white circle of light appeared beneath Lisara, forming three smaller concentric circles within it. Chris could see red runes in the space between successive circles, their light mesmerizing and mysterious at the same time. A glowing white figure rose from the circle and towered over them.
Chris had to blink her eyes a few times to make sure that what she was seeing was actually real. In front of her stood a huge mech-armor robot, and inside it sat Lisara, gleefully waving at her.
The armor was about fifteen feet tall, its glowing white body completely made out of metal except for a small hemisphere of glass that covered the cockpit. Two white cannons slung across its back and two smaller white rifles attached to each of its hands. A long, sharp blade was attached the sides of its knees as well. Overall the machine looked like it was made to destroy.
“Is that a Nightmare?” Chris recalled what these things were called. These machines were supposed to be the latest advancement in hand-to-hand combat; huge mech-armor robots that could stomp right through a battlefield. She had heard that the only catch was that the pilot needed to be compatible with the Nightmare for it to function properly. It was only that one fact that had kept the Nightmares from occupying the battlefields in abundance.
The fact that Lisara owned a Nightmare meant that she had a high compatibility rate with it. Things started to make sense now. The organization was threatening her into staying here because it was very rare to find someone whose compatibility rate with a nightmare was high enough for them to actually operate it. Lisara really was extraordinary.
“This one’s called the Lancelot,” the armor broadcasted Lisara’s voice. “It’s the best Nightmare the organization has right now. Who could have thought I would be using it against them, right?” she chuckled.
She wasted no time in getting on with the agenda. She punched through the door with a crunching sound that left Chris’ ears ringing. The whole corridor turned red and alarms started blaring all around them.
Should’ve known this would happen, Chris thought.
Lisara though, was completely unfazed, “Let’s go get them,” she said and charged through the door.
Chris didn't know who to feel more sorry for - her and Lisara who were going to have to face an army of cadets, or the army of cadets who were going to have to face a hyperactive girl with a Nightmare.
***
I hope we pull this off, Q thought as he walked across the Aliea Academy of the Anti-verse.
“So what’s the plan?” Burke asked.
“Well. Taylor said no one had ever tried searching for the enemy’s base so its location was unknown. So what we need to do now is find the enemy lair, storm into it and stop them.”
“That’s your big plan?”
“You have a better idea, smart guy?”
A gust of wind blew through them, and a completely healed Jade landed right next to them.
“I’ll do the planning,” he said. “I believe the people we’ll be dealing against would not have risked setting camp above surface. They will have built an underground city, which is much safer. I have traced the trajectory of the missiles that were launched at us, and tracked the location they were launched from. All we have to do is go there and search for an entrance to the city.”
“Now that’s a plan,” Burke said.
Q glared at him.
“What? It’s better thought out than yours.”
Q turned to Jade, “Where do we start searching?” he asked.
“I will show you.”
“Wait,” Anti-verse Taylor ran towards them with something in her hands. “For you,” she handed Q a bag, “It has all the provisions you might need on this dangerous endeavor.”
“Uhh...Thanks,” he smiled awkwardly. He still hadn’t gotten hang of the similarity between this Taylor and the one back home. It seemed really jarring to him. He helped Burke get onto Jade’s back and swung himself on as well. Jade flapped his wings, kicking dust all around them, and rose into the air.
“I wish you luck,” Taylor said.
“We’ll be back soon,” Q yelled over the gust.
Jade shot forwards to the location he had described to them.
Burke looked at the sky, “Do you think there are Anti-verse versions of us out there?” he asked all of a sudden. Q’s eyes widened. It never occurred to him before that there could be another version of him exploring the cosmos or getting yelled at some ordinary school on Earth.
“We will reach our destination in a few more seconds,” Jade interrupted.
“Really? That was quick.”
“They have set up camp much closer than I expected.”
He descended sharply and came to a grinding halt. Q and Burke jumped off of Jade and looked around at what seemed to be a huge desert. Sand was pretty much the only thing that they could see for miles around.
“I don't think we can find the entrance in such a vast region,” Burke said.
Q nodded. The entrance could be under layers of sand for all they knew. The only way to find out its location would be to dig up the entire desert, or be immensely lucky and find it on first try.
Of course there was also a third, crazier, option.
“Well, we don't have to find the entrance,” Q said, “Just wait for the enemy to find us.”
“Let me get this straight. You are suggesting that we let them attack us?”
“Look around you. Would you rather dig up the desert or face a little firepower?”
“But I do not know if your idea will work,” Jade said skeptically,
“How come?” Q asked.
“If the enemy can control their weaponry from an underground base, it eliminates their need to ever come out.”
“What about food and water?” Q said.
“We’re not talking about humans here,” Burke said “These enemies could have adapted to a scarce way of life.”
Q heard a whistle vibrate through the air, slowly becoming louder and shriller. He looked up at the sky and saw a trail of smoke heading their way. Only one thing made trails like that.
A missile, he thought. The enemy had made their move.
“Incoming!” he yelled and ran as fast as he could with Burke and Jade in close pursuit.
He turned around. The trail of smoke was even closer than before. There was no way they were going to outrun the missile that was causing the smoke trail.
He looked around him, wondering if there was any sort of protection in this vast emptiness. It was no use. He realized he was going to have to provide the protection himself. He stopped running and held his ground.
“Why are you stopping? Run!” Burke said.
“We can't outrun it,” Q said. “We have to stop it”
“Very well then,” Jade caught on. “I shall assist you.”
Q looked up into the sky. The smoke was starting to dissipate and from within it emerged a huge missile, no doubt a present from the enemy. Q straightened his shoulders and put one hand out in front of him, with Jade standing right behind.
The missile came closer and closer. Q could almost feel its explosive power as it headed towards him. He needed to
stop this weapon. He needed to do it now. Jade reared up and roared. A circular shield of green energy formed between them and the missile.
My turn, Q thought. He focused on the energy within him, imagining all the extra energy leaving him and turning into a large wall. His hand vibrated violently. He desperately tried to steady it with his other arm. Just when it seemed like his arm was going to fly off on its own, a small white circle formed in front of him and expanded quickly. In seconds it had become much larger, and thicker as well. But making a shield was not the tough part. Stopping the missile was.
The missile had now left the sky and come onto level ground, not deterring in its speed. It flew towards them in a straight line, kicking up a dust storm around its path.
“This is it,” Q said.
“We shall stop it,” Jade said.
The missile slammed into the shield and Q felt his feet being pushed back. He tried to dig his heels deeper into the sand and get some sort of usable traction.
Jade on the other hand was finding it much easier. His talons clawed into the surface and held them in place. He held his shield strong and mighty against the incoming missile. Q felt a hand on his shoulder, pushing him forward. He turned to see Burke pushing him forward with all his might.
“You do this your way, I’ll do it mine,” he muttered.
Q couldn't help smile at the effort he was putting in. The guy was trying his best.
“Something isn't right,” Burke said, “The missile should have gone off by now.”
Q realized that too. Usually missiles exploded on impact but this one was clearly different. Was it timer based? Was it remote controlled?
“Keep going,” Q urged. “It has to run out of fuel sometime!”
“This one is definitely a nuclear missile, so it won’t be surprising for it to be using a nuclear core as fuel,” Burke said. “It would take a really long time for the nuclear core to be completely used up. Basically, that thing could keep this up for a month and still blast you to bits when it hits.”
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 55
