The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

“We have a transport ship ready to go,” Carlos said. “Chris has probably boarded it already. You leave as soon as you’re ready.”

  Q was taken aback at how quickly things were moving. But on second thought, all this haste made sense considering the mission was for the Dark Knights. The Dark Knights were like the Universe’s peacekeepers. They were a mercenary organization whose sole purpose was to keep a check on everything in the Universe. If they wanted help then it made sense to assist them as quickly as possible.

  “I guess we’ll leave now then,” Taylor said. She turned to Q. “You have your suit on you?”

  He smiled and held up his wrist, which had a black-and-red bead bracelet wrapped around it.

  “Good,” she nodded.

  Carlos got up, “I’ll show you to the ship,” he said.

  They walked out of the room, and took the elevator down. The doors slid open with a bing, and revealed a nearly empty lobby. A receptionist rested at the table to their right, her head cradled in her arms. Carlos walked ahead and led them out of the building.

  The streets were a little noisy with the chatter of people waking up. The first few rays of dim light bathed the ground. They walked a distance through the cold morning air before they reached an open field. A vast lawn of green grass spread out before Q. His eyes picked out the silver among all the greenery.

  “Is that the ship?” he asked.

  Carlos nodded, “She’s nothing fancy. Just a regular transport ship, but she can hold her own in battle if it comes to that,” he said. “Kai fixed it up with a special set of blasters.”

  “He always goes a step further than necessary,” Taylor laughed.

  They walked up to the ship. Just as Carlos had said, it was nothing fancy. It had a cuboidal body with rounded edges and the front face tapered off into a rounded nose. It wasn’t the prettiest ship Q had seen, but it seemed more than sturdy enough for the mission.

  I wonder why we couldn’t get a better ship though, Q thought. They could have provided one of those massive battle cruisers.

  “Smaller ships attract less danger,” Taylor said as though she had just read his mind.

  “Oh,” he said meekly, and quietly followed them up the ship’s stairs.

  There were thirty passenger seats inside the ship, aligned in a rows of three, running along the center. At the very last row were a boy and girl deep in conversation. The boy was Asian, and had dark black eyes. The girl had chocolate shaded skin, and even darker curly hair. The boy was holding onto her hand, and she was smiling at him, her cheeks flushing red.

  “These two again,” Carlos chuckled. He walked a little nearer and coughed. The two of them jumped around and faced everyone.

  “Hello, you two,” Carlos said, an innocent smile on his face.

  “Good Morning, High Commander,” they said.

  “Kai, I trust the preparations are complete?”

  He nodded, “All done. I had a team work things out in under an hour. The engine is at maximum capacity, and the ship has been tricked out with a full set of weaponry. This ship is basically a mini battle cruiser.”

  Carlos turned to Q and Taylor, “Then I believe you’re ready for take-off,” he said.

  “We’ll update you once we reach the Dark Knights,” Taylor said.

  Carlos nodded and turned to the girl, “Chris, Trisha asked you to contact her if you have any problems,” he said.

  “Will do,” she said, her voice monotone and cold.

  Q watched as Kai and his brother walked out of the ship. The hatch door hissed as it slid closed, blocking his view of the fresh field. He and Taylor walked into the cockpit, while Chris remained in the passenger area.

  Only a single seat had been built into the cockpit, and in front of it was a large dashboard with buttons, knobs, and dials. Taylor took the pilot’s chair, her hands working like clockwork, and in moments, the ship was in deep space.

  The cockpit is much larger than I expected, Q thought.

  What he found especially weird about the ship was that it didn’t have any glass viewscreen. Instead there was just a solid wall of metal. Their only view of the outside came from the holographic image right above the dashboard.

  Q asked Taylor and learned this set up apparently gave the ship more stability, since a glass viewscreen was much weaker than a solid metal cover. And since transport ships sometimes carried very precious cargo, it made sense to use any method possible to increase their defenses.

  “I’m heading into hyperspace now,” Taylor said, her hands working through the controls at super speed.

  “Do we have to?” Q sighed. He hated hyperspace jumps. They always made him feel like he had been punched in the gut.

  “Well, the Dark Knight’s home base is on Drakon, which is about five billion light years from here. Without jumping into hyperspace we’ll never be able to get there.”

  He sighed again, “Fine. I’ll go seat myself as well,” he said and ran back to the passengers’ area.

  Why does hyperspace have to be so darn useful? he thought. Hyperspace was an alternative dimension that existed parallel to the Universe. It was a warped version of space, so travelling one billionth of an inch in hyperspace was like travelling a thousand miles in the regular Universe. Using hyperspace, the trip to Drakon, which should have taken at least five billion years, would actually take maybe a day at most. Crazy, wasn’t it?

  Q walked into the passenger area and found Chris in one of the seats.

  “Hello, Q,” she said.

  “Hey Chris,” he sat himself down next to her. “Listen, Taylor’s going to put the ship into hyperspace. Just wanted to give you a heads up.”

  “Oh okay,” she drew her seat belts across her chest in an X-shape, and secured herself to her seat. Q did the same for himself.

  The ship’s P.A. system blared, “Ahem. This is your captain speaking,” Taylor said. “I hope you’ve both secured yourselves. We’re entering hyperspace in three...two...one...NOW!”

  A hard jerk shook the ship, and Q felt the seat push into his spine. Every inch of his body quivered as the ship jumped into the alternate realm. The jerking stopped just as quickly as it had started, and everything became silent once more.

  The P.A. system spoke again, “This is your captain speaking. Just wanted to tell you I’m still alive, and that we’ve jumped into hyperspace.”

  Q smiled. Of course, the hyperspace jump had given him a metaphorical punch to the gut, but his mind couldn’t think about anything but the mission. They were on their way to Drakon, on their way to meet the Dark Knights.

  He couldn’t wait.

  ***

  1-2

  Taylor switched the ship’s controls to autopilot and walked back to the passenger area. She had already been dead tired last night, and Carlos waking her up at three in the morning for an emergency meeting hadn’t made her feel any better.

  “The hyperspace jump went smoother than I thought,” Q said from his seat, a grin on his face.

  “You’re welcome,” Taylor chuckled and plopped herself down in the seat next to him.

  “Didn’t Carlos say the route to Drakon was dangerous?” Chris asked. “Can autopilot handle it if something goes wrong?”

  “Carlos said the mission was dangerous. The route to Drakon should be fine,” she paused for a few moments. “I think.”

  Chris stared at Taylor for a second, “You think?”

  “Well, aren’t you a bundle of confidence,” Q chuckled.

  Taylor punched him the arm, “Idiot.”

  “I’m really tired,” Chris stood up. “I’ll go catch a few winks. Let me know when anything comes up,” she said and walked to the seats behind them.

  If this were the first time she was meeting Chris, Taylor would have felt something was wrong, but since she had known her for a long time now she knew it was commonplace to see Chris act a little socially awkward every now and then. The only person she opened up to was Kai, and it was pretty obvious why. Taylor wouldn’t be
surprised if she found those two by some lake, holding hands under a full moon.

  My romantic scenarios are so cliched, she chuckled.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask,” Q interrupted her thoughts. “How are you handling all this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, it can’t be easy going back to the Dark Knights can it?”

  Her expressions changed. Ugh. Why did he have to bring that up? she thought.

  She knew exactly what Q was implying. She wasn’t exactly fond of the Dark Knights’ headquarters, the Palace of Darkness. All the memories she had of the place were not things she wanted to remember. Ever. In fact she would have had all those memories wiped away if there were some safe way to do so. Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t.

  “I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” she sighed. “The last time I faced the Dark Knights it was on Dryke, that sub-territory I visited. I haven’t been to the Palace of Darkness since forever.”

  “What about the Dark Knight Empress, Andrea?” he asked. “You know her?”

  Taylor bit her lip, “Gosh, you’re asking a lot of intrusive questions,” she said.

  Q was taken aback, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize-”

  Taylor immediately regretted saying that. “I’m kidding,” she laughed, trying hard to cover up. “And to answer your question, yeah, I do know the Empress.”

  “So can we count on a warm greeting when she sees you, or is she going to open fire?”

  Taylor fell silent.

  “Hey?” Q asked.

  She glanced at the wall, wishing there were some sort of window for her to look into at the dark emptiness of space.

  “Are things not okay between you and the Empress?” he asked.

  She sighed, “I wish I knew.”

  ***

  A white light glowed around Taylor and shrouded her with its glare. It dimmed as moments passed, revealing couches, chairs and a television set. She was inside someone’s house.

  A dream, she realized.

  “Taylor?” a voice called out.

  She turned around and saw a tall blond woman call out from the doorway, her ocean-blue eyes looking around affectionately.

  “She’s hiding in the hall, dear,” a dark-haired man walked up to her. “She’s mad that you’re leaving, and I don’t think she’s changing her mood anytime soon.”

  “Oh well,” the lady sighed. “I’ll see her in a week anyway.”

  The man put his arm around her, “Are you sure you have to go?”

  “I’m sorry, honey,” she said. “The Knights specifically asked for me. It’s tough to say no when I know they’re depending on me.”

  “Fine,” he smiled and pecked her on the cheek. “Come back safe,” he said.

  “I’m going to be fine,” she smiled. “You on other hand have to take care of a rogue five year old,” she laughed.

  “I know,” he pretended to shiver. “I’ll get her some pizza and ice cream tonight. That should make up for everything.”

  “I’ve got to go now,” the lady stepped back. A bracelet on her arm glowed white, and a suit of dark armor grew around her. An aura of pure black emanated from it, and the man inched away from her.

  “Still can’t handle it huh?” she laughed.

  “You have no clue how scary that is,” he complained.

  “We can talk about it when I’m back,” she winked.

  A purple portal opened up next to the lady and she jumped through it. The man’s eyes watched longingly as the circle of light closed, sending a gentle arc of wind through him.

  Taylor’s eyes shot open. She gasped as she sat up. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she looked around the room. She was still inside the ship.

  “Stupid dreams,” she muttered, her teeth clenched. She looked to her right and saw Q sleeping soundly, his head resting on her shoulder.

  “Yeah, the thing about the Pokemon is….” he mumbled.

  She smiled, “You idiot,” she ran her fingers through his hair. She gently lay his head back onto the seat, making sure he didn’t wake up, and then headed up to the pit.

  Better check up on our course, she thought. It took her an instant to pull up the ship’s course details on the holographic screen. It had been almost half a day since they had started, and they had covered quite a fair distance.

  “Hey there,” Chris walked into the pit.

  Taylor swivelled around on her chair, “Couldn’t get any sleep?” she asked.

  “Got plenty,” she said. “I’m just bored.”

  “Oh,” Taylor said awkwardly. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to respond to something like that. Initiating simple chit chat wasn’t exactly Chris’ thing.

  She’s changing bit by bit, Taylor smiled. She wondered if Kai was the reason for that as well.

  “So I was wondering,” Chris leaned against the wall. “The Dark Knights are one of the strongest military groups right? So do they have lots of mages?” she asked.

  All space cadets were split into two main classes - the warriors and the mages. The difference between the two was the amount of life energy they possessed. Life energy could be used to manipulate different kinds of objects and give birth to something called Wave-skills. Each wave-skill pertained to a certain Elementa, like the Elementa of Wind, or the Elementa of Fire.

  Warriors were born with low life energy, which meant they could only use very basic wave skills from any one Elementa. Mages, on the other hand, had very high levels of life energy and could pull off complex wave skills in two completely different Elementa.

  Q though, was actually a sorcerer, which meant he was a class above all mages. He had such great power he could manipulate any almost Elementa, including the hardest Elementa there was - the Elementa of Light.

  “Taylor?” Chris asked. “Are you okay?”

  “Sorry,” she said, realizing she had spaced out for a second. “I’m not really sure of how many mages the Dark Knights have since I haven’t met them in a long time. But frankly speaking, I don’t think they had any. They’ve always been more of a warrior type.”

  “Wait, but you reached your NOVA form right?” she asked. “So doesn’t that make you a Mage?”

  A NOVA form was something warriors permanently transformed into. It gave the warrior a much greater life energy, allowing them to nearly rival the mage class. The transformation itself was an extremely rare occurrence though.

  It was believed to only happen to warriors who had a potential to carry more life energy than they were born with. The rules for setting off this transformation weren’t well known. So far all they knew was that it happened when a potential NOVA warrior underwent a massive psychological or emotional change.

  “Well, when you think about it you’ve technically become a mage right?” Chris asked once again.

  “I’m not really sure if me being a NOVA warrior counts as a mage,” Taylor smiled.

  Her fists clenched. I can’t tell them, she thought.

  “Well, I guess I’ll leave you to the piloting then,” Chris said and walked away.

  There was actually not much piloting left to do, but Taylor knew the conversation would only get more awkward if it kept on going so she let it go.

  The holographic screen showed her nothing but the empty depths of hyperspace. She stared through the hologram and tried to lose herself in the darkness.

  It comforted her, made her calm, made her feel alive.

  The darkness was her friend.

  It was her home.

  ***

  1-3

  Q woke up dazedly to an excited Taylor and nonchalant Chris.

  “Wake up already!” Taylor said. “We’re going to be heading into re-entry soon.”

  Q’s eyes shot open, his mind realizing what that meant. They were almost at Drakon. He jumped up onto his feet, stumbled a bit, and followed them to the pit. “How long was I asleep?” he rubbed his eyes and pushed himself through the cramped door.

  “The who
le ride actually,” Chris said. “We tried to wake you up but you seemed really tired.”

  “You even slept through the exit hyperspace jump,” Taylor said, a look of disbelief on her face.

  “Whoa,” he mumbled. Even he felt that was crazy. Either he had completely knocked himself out, or Taylor had just mastered the art of a smooth hyperspace jump. And he wasn’t really sure about Taylor.

  “Are you okay though?” Taylor asked. “You slept continuously for nearly twenty hours.”

  “Well, I feel fine,” he looked at his arms and legs. “I did play a lot of Super Mario last night. Maybe that’s what did it.”

  “You and your video games,” she chuckled and turned back to the holographic screen.

  Q turned his attention to the screen as well, and his eyes glistened in awe at the sight before him. A large flame-red star and a small ice-white one lay in orbit around a black region of space.

  “A red giant and white dwarf,” he mumbled, recalling the name of the two iconic types of stars.

  “That’s not all,” Taylor said and pointed to the space the two stars were orbiting around.

  At first Q couldn’t tell what she was trying to tell him. And then he saw a bright flare of white shoot out. It lasted for less than a millisecond. Even half an eye blink and he would have missed it. His mind immediately grasped what he was looking at.

  His lips curved into a grin, “A black hole,” he said.

  Taylor nodded, “Drakon’s ultimate security system,” she said and pointed to a lone dark planet that orbited the region around both the stars. “There’s no way anyone but a highly experienced pilot can even get close to the planet without having the stars or the black hole suck them in.”

  “Nature’s own protection system,” Chris said quietly.

  “Yeah,” Taylor smiled. “Pretty cool huh?”

  “I just have one problem,” Q said. “You said we need a highly experienced pilot. How are we going to land on Drakon then?”

  She punched him in the arm, “I’m a highly experienced pilot you nitwit,” she glared at him.

  “Um. Oh,” he said. “You can’t blame me for not thinking that. Whenever our ship was in a tight spot Kai was the one who got us out.”