Andrea tensed. She sat up straight and kept her eyes locked on Q. “I’m listening,” she said.
“Orpheus is a battle station,” he said.
She stayed as she was, not opening her mouth, not moving an inch. Just frozen.
“We found a few hundred more of the Infinity Cannons on the planet’s surface,” he added.
“And you can’t shut them down?” she asked, her voice uneven.
“So far I’ve only managed to get into the controls for one of them, so I could technically shut down all the cannons,” Zelph said. “But I don’t know how long it would take.”
“I see,” Andrea said, distraught.
“I guess we should just keep trying for now,” he said.
“Yes,” she said, her voice less invigorated than before. That was understandable. She had found out about something disastrous. “This explains a lot of things,” she said.
“It does?” he asked, now his turn to be confused.
“This is why we couldn’t find Orpheus on older maps,” she said. “Not because it had been destroyed but because it’s been using stealth to get away.”
“You mean the whole planet is under stealth?!” Zelph asked.
She nodded. “It is the only thing that could explain how the planet has hidden itself from everyone else.”
“Can you even build stealth into a thing as large as this?” Q asked.
“I do not think it is possible,” she said. “But the proof for the statement lies with the fact that no modern spacecraft has ever detected Orpheus, let alone landed on it.
“Ah, I see,” Q said, involuntarily nodding his head in agreement.
“Boss, I’m almost done on the second Infinity Cannon,” Zelph said.
“Young one,” Loreas walked to him. “I believe it is time to go. It is dangerous for us to-”
The ground trembled, and Q fell off his feet, losing his balance completely. He immediately got up, and helped Loreas to his feet as well.
Zelph what was that? Q asked.
No reply.
Zelph! he asked again.
“You’re not going to like it,” the AI system said.
Q noticed a few cylindrical objects tilting upwards, peaking out of the top of the buildings as they stood completely vertical.
His eyes widened. “Oh god,” he mumbled.
Orange beams of chaotic energy burst out of the cannons, and shot straight up into the sky. In seconds, Q saw the starless morning sky light up with glowing dots as the Infinity cannons put jewels above the skyline.
Not jewels that were pretty, not jewels that glowed warmly in the darkness. They were the jewels of destruction, the last legacies of planets and civilizations.
***
“Q, I have an incoming transmission,” Zelph said.
Q stared blankly at the starry morning sky in front of him, his mind dazed with everything that was going on.
“Q?” Zelph asked.
“Fine,” he mumbled. “Let it through.”
Carlos’ face opened up through a hologram. “Q?! Are you okay?” he asked.
“How’s Zelph doing?” Burke’s face popped in as well.
“Oh, hello, your Highness,” Carlos noticed that the Empress was connected to the feed as well.
The Empress though, didn’t focus on formalities. “Q, what just happened?” she asked, her voice broadcasting to everyone in the feed.
Ugh, so many people, Q thought.
“Sorry, boss,” Zelph said. “I couldn’t split them into two separate feeds.”
No it’s fine, he took one last look at the sky, and took a deep breath. “I think several Infinity Cannons just broke an entire planet system.”
Andrea looked shocked, but Carlos and Burke were stone eyed.
“We know,” both of them said at once.
“I picked up a weird reading on my scanners just a few seconds ago,” Burke said “Carlos confirmed it for me.”
“How many planets were destroyed?” Q asked.
“I can’t tell for sure,” he said. “But from what I have seen so far, easily a hundred or more.”
“But eighty seven of those planets are barren, with no civilizations,” Carlos added.
“And the other thirteen?”
Carlos paused. “We’re not sure.”
Q didn’t reply to that. Meanwhile Loreas, who seemed to have realized Q was talking to someone, quietly gestured for Q to follow him. Q obliged and followed him along the rooftops, keeping his conversation with Carlos, Burke and Andrea going at the same time.
“They actually destroyed a hundred planets?” the Empress asked. “Is that even possible?”
“Apparently so,” Burke said.
“Burke they have another army of Infinity Cannons here,” Q said.
“Ah,” Burke mumbled. “That makes sense.”
Q wondered how the scientist felt, knowing that his greatest invention, the Lambda Driver, was being used to cause so much destruction. Burke actually looked fine though, which was honestly a source of inspiration for Q. If Burke was handling things that well then Q knew he could take hard things down without much emotion as well. To be honest his denial of emotion was the only thing that was keeping him from breaking down over everything that was happening around him.
He half stumbled on a rooftop and nearly fell over. Loreas came over and helped him up, quiet the entire time.
“What’s our course of action?” Andrea asked. “I have no clue what to do with the information I just received.”
“Wait, how is this battle station being powered up?” Burke asked.
“Nuclear,” Q said.
“A reaction under the surface?”
“Yeah,” he nodded as he jumped onto another rooftop.
“That’s good!” he exclaimed. “We can easily take that out!”
“Not this one,” Zelph finally spoke up.
“Hey Zelph,” Burke said, half-excited, half-realizing the situation needed him to stay calm.
“Hello, boss,” Zelph said. “I was checking up on the reaction right now, and I don’t think we can take it out.”
“Why?”
“There’s a protective force field covering the entire event.”
“Ah, that’s how they’re making sure the nuclear reaction doesn’t go out of control.”
“That’s also how they’re making sure no one can attack the vulnerable core and destroy the entire planet.”
“I see only one option left,” Q said, jumping onto a higher building, grasping its edge and pulling himself up. “We need to bomb the Infinity Cannons themselves.”
“All of them?” Zelph asked. “There are a thousand cannons unevenly spread over a hundred different spots.”
“We’ll have to bomb all of them.”
“What about the anti-spacecraft missiles these guys probably have.”
“Evade them. Simple.”
“It isn’t that simple, Q,” Andrea said.
“And not doing anything about this is simpler?”
Everyone went still for a second.
“Fine,” the Empress said. “I will talk to my council and have stealth bombers ready for deployment. We’ll need the exact locations for the planet though.”
“Your first stealth fighter is already here, so you can use its location for the coordinates,” Zelph said. “In fact it’s actually standing right next to the Infinity Cannons.”
“Very well then,” she said.
“I and Carlos will try to find some other way to get rid of the Cannons,” Burke said.
Loreas opened a hatch on the rooftop and headed inside.
“I think it’s time for me to go now,” Q said.
Everyone nodded. “Stay safe,” Andrea said.
And with that the feed cut off.
“Two more Infinity Cannons down,” Zelph said.
Good, Q said.
“You really think we shouldn’t have told them I can take them all down?”
“Don’t
twist your words. How long would it take you to get them all down?”
“A week?”
“And how long does it take for the Infinity cannons to recharge?”
“An hour.”
“Orpheus can destroy more than ten thousand planets in the time it takes you to take them out.”
“Fine, I see your point.”
“Young one,” Loreas said, his head peeking back out of the hatch. “I apologize, but I must interrupt you at this moment.”
“Oh, sorry,” Q said and ran to him. He saw a ladder underneath the hatch and began to climb down it.
“Were those your allies?’ Loreas asked.
“Yeah,” Q nodded. “They were.”
“Are you going to attack Orpheus?” the old man asked, a bit of conflict in his voice.
“That is something neither I nor anyone else knows for the moment,” he said. “All I know is that we need to take down the Infinity Cannons.”
Q and Loreas quietly reached the end of the ladder and hopped down onto the floor. Q took a look around him, and saw a room very similar to the one from before.
“This is another one of your hideouts?” he asked.
Loreas nodded. “I have been on the lamb for a while now.”
“Why?” Q asked. “Did you do something wrong?”
“It is because I am Periel’s father.”
“What?!” he asked, enraged. “They’re hunting you down just because you were related to her?”
“Albion and the nobility wanted Periel’s entire family killed,” he said. “My wife…she was murdered while I was out trying to scour supplies for ourselves.” He traced his hand along the wall, as though he were recollecting the memories that lay within them.
Q asked him no questions. He wasn’t cruel enough to prod an old man about his suffering.
“Boss, I may have an idea,” Zelph said.
What? Q asked.
“So the reason I take this long to deactivate each Infinity Cannon is because each one has a unique access code, and each code is heavily encrypted. No two codes are encrypted the same way.”
And? he asked, a bit confused about what the idea part of all this was.
“Well, even if the encryption for each code is different, the code that generates each unique encryption process is still the same. And if I could get to that code, I can definitely speed up this process.”
By how much? he asked.
“I can get all the Infinity Cannons down in less than two hours.”
Q’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?” he asked, forgetting to speak with his thoughts.
“Positive,” he said. “The only problem is finding where this key is located.”
“The Palace?”
“The Palace,” he said. “There is info about the key on the palace’s mainframe, but I can’t find the key itself.”
“Ugh. Fine,” he mumbled. “I’ll get you there, you do the rest. Deal?”
“Done,” Zelph said, in a voice that made Q think the virtual him was grinning wide.
“Loreas,” Q turned to his grandfather. “We need to get to the Palace.”
The old man was confused for a second. “Are you certain?” he asked. “You may not be able to escape a second time. I only have so many tricks left to pull.”
“It is vital,” he said.
“Very well,” the old man sighed. “Wait here. Let me get a few things,” he said and left the room through the only door.
Q stayed put, his mind constantly working on the situation. “Zelph?” he asked.
“Yeah?”
“You can download yourself onto the mainframe right?”
“I can, but I would highly prefer that I don’t. This mainframe has scary defense tactics. Right now I’m not easily detected since I’m an external network. If I download myself onto it I’m not sure if things will stay the same.”
“Even if you’re detected it’s not like they can wipe you out right?”
“They’re too primitive to be able to wipe me out,” Zelph responded. “Why are you asking me this?”
“Download yourself onto the mainframe the moment we head into the palace. If something happens to me you keep taking out the Infinity Cannons.”
“You’re not thinking you’re going to die or something are you?”
“Always better to be prepared for the worst,” Q grinned.
Loreas entered the room again, with his hood covering his face. “Are you ready?” he asked.
Q pulled over his hood as well. “All set.”
Loreas placed his hand on a section of the wall and it sank in. A square section of the floor slid out revealing a ladder underneath.
“Another hidden passage?”
“How many of these do you have?” Q grinned.
“Not more than ten. I bought ten different houses just for this. I needed to have a way to get in and out of the Palace back when I was being chased around so much.”
“You aren’t chased around much these days?”
“Well, I was forgotten about until I came to save you.”
“Ah...sorry about that,” Q said.
“Do not worry,” Loreas said, lowering himself down the tunnel. “I’d rather be an old man who saved his grandchild than an old man who lived to be ninety.”
Q smiled and followed him down. This tunnel was just like the last, too dark to see anything. He used his Elementa of light to summon a light orb and light the place up. Familiar dark walls greeted him.
“Come along now,” the old man said and walked along the tunnel.
“There isn’t any hover board here?”
He shook his head. “Not in this one, no.”
“Boss, another Infinity Cannon down,” he said.
Good, keep at it, Q said. By the way, are you sure you’ll be able to find the encryption key?
“My connection to the mainframe is a little too weak for me to do a proper analysis,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I can find the key if we get closer.”
Fine, he said. He walked in silence for the next few minutes, listening to nothing but the hollow sounds of his own steps echo through the tunnel.
“How is it that no one else knows about this tunnel?” he asked.
“We White Knights are not very bright, are we?” Loreas winked. “My tunnel entrances are actually well hidden and are almost impossible to trigger if you don’t know them as well as I do.”
“Ah, I was about to ask if someone could accidentally trigger the openings.”
“It has never happened in my life,” he said just as they reached another ladder. He walked up to it and shook it a bit to check its stability. He looked at Q, “Seems fine.”
“I’ll go up first?” Q asked.
The old man put his foot on the ladder. “I’m the only one who can open up these panels. Whether you’re inside the tunnel or outside.” He quickly climbed up and touched his finger against five random points on the ceiling. A square panel slid out silently, and he made his way up.
“Zelph, are you downloading yourself to the mainframe?”
“On it, boss.”
“How long do you need?”
“Ten minutes tops.”
Q heard a gasp come from above.
Loreas? he tensed up and rushed up the ladder as well. He pulled himself onto the white-walled corridor and saw his grandfather staring at something in front of them.
Q followed his gaze and his body immediately went weak. A dark horror imprisoned his mind, his breath caught cold in his throat.
On the ground in front of him lay Albion, still and silent, his head twisted the wrong way, his limbs completely disfigured, as though his very bones had been broken and shattered. His mouth lay gaping open, his pupils rolled back into his head. His battle armor was ripped apart, his bloody injuries showing through the gaps in between.
Albion had been brutally assaulted.
The King of the White Knights was dead.
***
4-5
&n
bsp; Q felt horror and fear, not because Albion was dead, but because he had never before seen a death this gory and unsightly.
Loreas knelt before Albion and closed his eyelids. “I forgive you,” he whispered, and stood up.
Q stared at his grandfather, in shock and awe. He couldn’t believe that someone, however saintly, could actually forgive the man who murdered their precious child, who ruined their entire life, who ruined their entire family.
Loreas turned to him. “Each of us has stories that make us who we are,” he said. “The people who don’t know them will always see only the evil.”
Q felt a presence behind him. “Loreas!” he tackled his grandfather to the ground.
He quickly jumped onto his feet and turned around to see the metal floor behind them crack and shatter. A man in a helmetless white suit stood behind him, his body larger than any human Q had seen. He wielded a massive mace in his hands, its end spherical with sharp spikes on it.
Q’s eyes moved up to his face, and his heart froze.
Zelph, are you seeing what I’m seeing? he asked.
“It’s the clone,” the AI said, its voice showing shock for the first time since Q had met him.
Q looked at the clone’s burly figure, at the massive arms that it had, at the streaks of red on its weapon. He immediately realized what had happened. “That thing killed Albion,” he said.
“What?” Zelph asked. “No way. Why would Levi kill Albion?”
“Why wouldn’t he?” Q cursed.
The clone stared at him, and slowly made its way towards them, one massive step at a time.
Loreas grabbed Q’s hand. “We must run,” he said and turned around.
And there, at the end of the corridor, stood Levi, a look of pure rage on his face. Beside him were a squad of ten Knights, who looked like dwarves compared to the clone.
“What the hell have you done?!” Levi asked, anger boiling in his voice. His Elementa of Water activated, sending a stream of water around his body, ready to attack them all.
“What are you talking about?” Q asked, enraged as well.
Levi shot a blade of water right at them. Q threw his hands up into the air and channeled his energy. A shield of white light instantly appeared before him and blocked the attack.
“Don’t toy with me, sorcerer,” Levi attacked again and again, his hands moving around at top speed as he summoned blade after blade of clear water. “How dare you kill the King and act innocent!”
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 96
