The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  He had just made a logical point, but Elizabeth felt like he’d punched her in the gut. We can’t do anything about it, he seemed to say.

  The thought of Q drifted into Elizabeth’s mind. She couldn’t give up on him. She just couldn’t. “Couldn’t we try making a manual search?” she asked.

  Kai and Chris looked at her, then at each other. A small, hopeless smile curled onto their faces.

  “Fine,” Kai said. “We can go search the wreckage.”

  Elizabeth could feel the hope in his voice but she saw the hopelessness in his eyes, a hopelessness that mocked her, that toyed with her as if she were a child.

  Kai’s voice said they would find Taylor and Q.

  His eyes said they would only find their corpses.

  ***

  This is a really bad idea, Kai thought as he prepared the exit chamber for their spacewalk.

  Elizabeth clearly didn’t realize one thing. The bio signal only scanned for living signs. There was a good chance they might find Taylor and Q’s lifeless bodies floating around the darkness of space. If they hadn’t been incinerated in the explosion that is.

  Great Kai, you’re having such happy thoughts, he rolled his eyes.

  He set up the Orion’s outer hatch and made his way back to the deck. The only thought on his mind was how Elizabeth was going to handle all of this. She wasn’t exactly steel hearted, and Q really did mean a lot to her.

  When Elizabeth had first come to Aliea, Q was the first one to warm up to her. It wasn’t exactly evident, but Kai had always thought she had a really tight bond with Q.

  He had no idea how things would go if they accidentally found Q’s body floating through the wreckage, his features mutilated by the explosion. He himself felt it would be too much to bear. For someone like Elizabeth, the mental trauma might do more than just haunt her.

  But these were things he couldn’t exactly tell her. They were things he’d have to keep to himself and do the best to prevent.

  He walked back to the deck, where Elizabeth and Chris had equipped their battle armor. Elizabeth’s famous Blue Tears suit shone gracefully with its angled cuts and white and blue colors. Chris on the other hand had a more mystical, leaf-green suit that looked exactly like the one Tinker-bell would wear. They both had taken off their helmets and held it in their hands.

  “Hey there,” Kai said and they turned to him.

  “Are we ready to leave?” Elizabeth asked, her voice and face showing utmost concentration. She was completely serious about this.

  “Yeah,” Kai said. “The Orion’s hatch is ready.”

  “You better equip your suit then,” Chris said.

  Kai grinned. He raised his hands into the air and focused the life energy within him. Pieces of loose metal flooded through the open doors and onto the deck. A wave of silver-grey swirled around Kai for a moment, and then they instantly fused into a perfect suit of battle armor that covered him from head to toe, helmet and everything.

  Controlling the Elementa of Metal does have its benefits, he thought to himself, a smile on his face

  It took them a minute to get to the hull of the ship, which was where the hatch was. Kai concentrated, giving the Orion precise instructions to follow.

  Begin hull extraction procedure, he thought. Activate vacuum chamber and exit protocols.

  A thick glass wall lowered down, separating them and the hatch from everything else around the ship. A metal hiss rang through the air as the all the air drained out of their side and the pressure dropped to zero.

  Open hatch, he thought. A rumble ran through the walls.

  “This is it guys,” he said.

  The hatch swung open, revealing the dark path to the outside. Kai stepped through, letting himself float right outside. The others followed him and soon they were heading to the wreckage. It didn’t take too long to get there, since the Orion had actually stopped itself a few hundred yards or so from the thing.

  They used their suits’ small rocket propulsion systems to get around, firing a jet of fuel every once in a while to get going.

  Kai kept a watchful eye on Elizabeth. If she faced the slightest discomfort he wanted to get her out of there. He really didn’t want to see her with a broken spirit, and he was quite worried that might actually happen.

  “Oh my god,” Elizabeth said, her voice coming through the suit’s intercom.

  Kai immediately shot around, trying to pick out what it was she just saw. He had expected it to be Q’s body. But now he wasn’t sure if this was worse or better than that.

  The entire wreckage of the Endeavor floated before him. The remains of the ship he worked on glistened as the light fell on its gleaming panels. Kai couldn’t even make out whether these were the actually remains of the ship. Each piece was completely unidentifiable. Not a single structure had retained its shape. Steel a few feet thick had been ripped apart like thin paper, and even the most massive components had been broken to shards.

  Kai calmed his thoughts and pushed himself towards the wreckage. “Activate bio scan,” he said. It wouldn’t hurt to try the same thing once more. But he knew the result wasn’t going to change. The Orion had already deemed everything dead and lifeless.

  “Bio scan complete,” a dialog box popped into the corner of his vision. A heat scan opened up in the other corner, with the words ‘Lifeless’ written on it in bold.

  He sighed. He wasn’t going to acknowledge any of this until they got back to Aliea. Everything going on was too much for him to handle at the moment. He knew that if he accepted his emotions he’d be incapable of running this mission safely. Even though it was inhumane to act like this, he knew he needed to be the one holding down the emotional fort.

  He wafted through the massive pieces of metal, trying to get deeper into the wreckage. The pieces started to get smaller, as though the inner parts of the ship had shattered into tinier pieces.

  “Energy signature detected,” his visor flashed with a large dialog box.

  What? he thought. Is the Endeavor’s engine still alive?

  The engine was the only thing on the Endeavor that could give out an energy signature. Unless, his eyes widened.

  “Guys! Follow me!” he pushed his armor’s thrusters at full blast and shot through, deeper into the wreckage, heading straight for the energy signature.

  It can’t be, he thought. There’s no way that could have happened.

  A fleck of green light shone over the fragmented wall of metal in front of him.

  Oh dear god, his eyes widened. Excitement grasped at him. He felt the hopelessness in his heart wash away.

  “What is that?” Chris asked, her voice changing as well.

  Kai headed to the top of the wall and peered over. A smile came across his face. “It’s exactly what we’re looking for.”

  ***

  Elizabeth couldn’t believe her eyes.

  A force field of emerald green lay on top of the metal piece. And inside it was the person they were looking for.

  Taylor.

  “I’m here too you know?” a feminine voice spoke into her mind.

  Elizabeth’s eyes widened. Ruby? she asked with her thoughts.

  “Who else you idiot,” she said.

  Elizabeth peered into the green wall and saw a griffin inside it, its green eyes glowing with a bright light. Griffins were telepathic beings, which meant they could communicate only with their mind and thoughts.

  “Ruby, are you okay?” Kai asked.

  “Not exactly,” she said. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold this up. You brought the Orion with you?”

  “Hold on,” Kai said. He concentrated his Elementa of metal and formed two cables using the spare metal on his suit. He shaped the ends of the grapples into hooks and attached them to the metal.

  “We’ll tow you in,” he said.

  “Can’t you just use your Elementa of Metal and try to drag the entire metal piece in with your powers?”

  “Might be a little too much fo
r me to handle,” he said. “I don't want to take any chances.”

  It took him a few seconds to head back to the Orion, cable in hand, and open up the ship’s large hull door. He attached the cables to his mechanical reel and started it. The cables went taut and the metal platform surged towards the Orion.

  In moments the wrecked piece was inside the Orion, along with Chris and Elizabeth. Kai closed the hull door, sealing them off from the zero-pressure space outside.

  The green force field cut off as well, revealing the lion-sized griffin that had created it in the first place. Taylor lay on the floor beside Ruby. She was unconscious, but she didn’t seem to have any injuries otherwise. She was armed in her Dark Knight armor, minus the helmet, which let them glance at her calm, expressionless face.

  Chris held Taylor’s wrist, searching for her pulse.

  “She’s alive,” Ruby said. “We just need to wake her up.”

  Chris nodded and walked to the panel on the wall. She entered in a few codes and looked up. A section of the ceiling opened and a mask dropped to the floor. She pulled the mask and gave it to Taylor to breathe from.

  The blond Dark Knight took a few unconscious breaths and gasped. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing her bright blue eyes. Only they weren’t so bright anymore.

  “Taylor, do you know where Q is?” Elizabeth asked.

  She looked at her, her eyes becoming dull. Elizabeth’s heart clenched. She saw in Taylor’s eyes the exact same thing she had seen in Kai’s.

  A horrible hopelessness.

  Taylor stared right at them, her lips trembling. “Q is dead.”

  ***

  1-4

  Everyone probably thinks I’m dead, Q thought.

  To be fair though, he knew he’d have thought the exact same thing if he were in their position. An explosion like that wasn’t supposed to leave anyone alive - even someone who could create super strong shields of light.

  Q had actually created the shields the moment the explosion shot towards him. And though he’d like to say the explosion couldn’t match up to his powers, that was far from what actually happened.

  A moment before the explosion hit him, he was teleported to somewhere else, and right now he was in one of the most bizarre places he had ever seen.

  Everything around him was black, but a black that clearly told him this wasn’t space. The calming silence, and the bright, shining stars were missing from the canvas that extended above him. This was the kind of black that made one feel like they were in a dark room, alone, isolated, scared.

  But Q was too accustomed to darkness to trip up over something as trivial as this. Being with Taylor and her Elementa of Darkness for so long had made darkness feel like second nature to him.

  The thing that really bothered him though, was the massive rectangular tower in front of him. It was a shade of charcoal black, which, in contrast to the sky, seemed quite bright.

  The structure itself didn’t unnerve Q. What seemed off was that he could recall he’d seen this tower before, and its identity did not evade him either. He hoped this was a dream, he hoped he was actually unconscious or in a coma, and that this was just a memory that his mind was playing tricks on him, that none of this was actually taking place.

  Everything around him was silent, but he could feel a tremor shake within him, shake within the floor. The tower vibrated and a door-like section of the tower slid open, revealing a big burst of white light from inside.

  Just like before, Q bit his lip.

  He knew what was coming, but he entered the tower anyway. His mind concentrated and strengthened the energy suit around him. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as his body pumped itself up.

  The inside of the tower was pure white. Calling it snow white would be a disgrace. If there were a kind of white from which all whites originated, it was this one. It was a kind of saintly white that made one feel it would always be out of reach.

  And yet, it exists in a place like this, Q smirked.

  “My, my, my,” a male voice echoed through the tower, and all the walls rumbled in reply. “You have quite the negative personality my boy.”

  Q looked around, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. But it was useless. It seemed to be coming from everywhere.

  “Now, now,” the voice went deep. “You aren’t...afraid are you?” it cackled.

  “Me? Afraid of you?” Q asked, glancing around. “Between me and you, which one of us is hiding like a coward?”

  The voice went silent.

  I wonder if that was a bad idea, Q sighed.

  A massive bolt of black lightning shot down from the endless ceiling, right onto the center of the tower floor. A grey shadow lay within it all. It extended its arms, and the lightning ceased.

  A man walked out of all the chaos, dressed in a suit as dark as death itself. His shirt was pure white, as were the gloves that he wore. His face hid behind a weird looking mask. One side of it was white, with a black outline around the area for the eye, and the other side was black, with a white highlight around the eye. He flashed a smile through the slit for his mouth, showing Q all of his teeth in a wicked expression.

  “Now that’s what I call an entrance!” he bowed low, and pulled back up, a menacing look in his eyes.

  Q clenched his fists. The Masked Magician, he remembered. He shouldn’t exist.

  “What’s this? You haven’t forgotten about me have you?” the man asked, feigning sadness.

  “How could I?” Q muttered. “You wrecked the lives of so many people.”

  “Well, it was just a few million people I’d say,” he said gleefully. “All is fair in death and pain.”

  Anger boiled within Q. Has he not changed even a bit? he thought. How is he even here in the first place?

  The Masked Magician was a deadly mass murderer Q had faced off against months ago on his first assignment. The Masked Magician was from the Valkyrie, a former planet that had been completely annihilated a long time ago. He was the last living member of his race, and had an undeniable thirst to avenge his planet by destroying every last person who abandoned them.

  Which was basically the whole Universe.

  The guy himself seemed cuckoo, which would have been fine with Q if he didn’t have that one special trick up his sleeve.

  Q felt his feet float into the air, as though something were pushing him from below. He glared at the Masked Magician, “I see your powers have come back.”

  He spread out his fingers, “The Elementa of Gravity is quite the plaything,” he brought down his hand and Q thudded to the floor, creating a mini-crater on the surface.

  Q brushed off the debris and stood up, completely uninjured. His energy suit flickered around him, slowly glowing brighter.

  “Ah!” the Masked Magician said, all excited. “You’ve learned some new tricks I see.”

  Q thrust his hand into the air. A massive bolt of lightning shot down, heading right at the Magician. The air around the man glimmered, and all of a sudden the bolt charged right into Q. His energy suit absorbed most of the attack but it was much too massive for it to handle on its own. The bolt sizzled Q’s nerves, making him feel like he was burning. He gasped for breath and glanced at the magician, his mind confused as to what just happened.

  “I may have forgotten to mention,” he grinned. ”I’ve learned some new tricks as well.”

  Gravity can’t do anything like reflect an attack, Q thought. Unless. His eyes widened, his thoughts finally clicking into what just happened.

  “Ah, I see you figured it out!” the Magician said excitedly. “If you concentrate enough gravity into one spot, you can warp space. And if you can warp space, you can send an attack back to its caster. I just used your own lightning against you.”

  Tension rose within Q. Does this mean he can do this with any attack of mine?

  “What’s this? Don’t back down,” the man said disappointedly. “Am I really that scary?”

  “You’re supposed to be dead,
” Q muttered. “And something just doesn’t sit right with me about zombie space men.”

  “I’m only a zombie if I actually died,” he grinned.

  “What?” Q’s eyes widened. “I saw you die with my own eyes!”

  “Did you now?” he grinned. “I’d like to chit chat and catch up on your adventures, but well, I do have a job to do here. So if you could, like, surrender now that would be great.”

  “Surrender?” Q raised an eyebrow. “The last time you asked me to kill myself. Now it’s just a surrender?”

  “You talk too much,” he brought his hand up. An invisible force rammed into Q, throwing him into the air and ramming him against the wall. He fell to the ground, the energy suit around him flickering.

  The Magician walked up to his fallen body. “You know, this is much less entertaining than I expected it to be,” he said.

  The force picked Q up and threw him back onto the floor. He felt the wind go out of him, and he lay there motionless, completely out of breath.

  “Aw c’mon, you can do better than that,” the Magician swiped his hand across the air.

  The force weighed onto Q, crushing him to the floor. The ground cracked as Q and his energy suit struggled between the surface and the Magician’s Elementa. The Masked Magician though was completely unfazed. It appeared like this was all child’s play for him.

  “Ugh. This is really boring now,” he scoffed.

  “Shut up!” Q yelled and his Elementa of Fire burst onto the scene. A hot red flame covered him completely, and he stood up, bearing the force weighing down on him.

  “This is what I wanted!” the Magician’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

  Q shot a flamethrower right at the man. The very next moment the attack bounced back, ramming hard into Q. The attack overloaded and caused an explosion. Q flew into the air, his consciousness fading.

  He felt the Magician’s Elementa catch him mid-air and ram him into the ground. A mini-explosion rang out, and the ground trembled under the impact. Q lay in the deep crater, his body numb, his mind blank, his energy suit slowly flickering to a death.