Taylor glanced at the Orion’s holographic viewscreen. A large puff of smoke came from the rear of the ship.
Oh gods, she thought, Kai is going to kill me.
A white aura glowed around the Orion and its chaotic movements came to a standstill. The aura was so similar to Q’s Elementa of Light that she thought he was the one who saved them. Then she looked at the viewscreen and saw that the story was completely different. The warship was using a phase beam to pull them into the hangar.
Taylor hastened to the nearest computer and checked the Orion’s vitals.
Damn, she thought. They were too weak to break away from the beam. The warship had caught them in its grasp.
“We can’t let them take us hostage,” Ruby said. “Not until we know who they are.”
“I tried setting up a communications line but they’re blocking us out,” Taylor said. “We have to evacuate the Orion.”
“Kai will kill you if you abandon his ship.”
Taylor bit her lip. It wasn’t just him. Even she didn’t want to give this ship up so easily. She looked at the warship, her mind desperately trying to grasp her options. They had only a few seconds left before the Orion entered the warship’s hangar. Something caught her eye. A small vent a few yards above the hangar.
“Ruby, you can survive in space can’t you?” she asked.
“All griffins can. Why?”
“Time to go,” she said and ran to the Orion’s hangar. She dragged Ruby with her into the Airlock and opened the hangar door. In seconds they had left the Orion.
“What are you doing?! Kai will kill you!”
“Watch,” Taylor said.
She waited until she had a clear view of the hangar. Please make this work, she thought and focused on her life energy, directing it into her palms. A beam of black energy blasted from her and into the hangar. The phase beam immediately cut off. The Orion hummed back to life. A rainbow colored aura glowed around it, and it disappeared in a flash of light.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” Ruby asked.
Taylor was busy trying to alter her path and reach the vent, but she answered anyway. “I activated the Orion’s homing beacon,” she said. “It’ll head to Aliea and stay in orbit around it until someone calls it down.”
“We just lost our transport home.”
Taylor glanced at the warship, “I don’t know about you, but I’m looking at it right now.”
They neared the vent. Taylor put one foot inside and checked if it was stable, there didn't seem anything wrong with the build. It felt solid and was large enough to let Taylor in. Ruby though had to shrink down considerably to fit into it.
“Get in here,” she said and headed in.
“What did you mean you’re looking at your transport?”
“This ship will have tons of escape pods. We can use one of those.”
“You’re doing this based on a gamble?!”
“This way the Orion stays safe, we escape this ship, and get to go home. If I didn’t do this, both we and the Orion would have been captured.”
“We won’t be captured? You just attacked the hangar. They’ll obviously find us.”
“We were too close to the Orion for them to think a living being fired that attack. They’ll just think the Orion’s defenses acted up. As far as they know, we never got onto the ship in the first place.”
“Fine.”
Taylor focused on the task at hand. The inside of the vent was dark and creepy. Even though everything seemed fine, Taylor couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong. Then she realized that everything ought to feel wrong. She was infiltrating a war ship with nothing but a telepathic griffin for back up.
“Being a telepathic griffin, I can read your thoughts as well you know,” Ruby sighed.
“Always a pleasure to have my mind read,” Taylor said sarcastically. She had told Ruby countless times not to read her thoughts, but the griffin didn't seem like she’d listen anytime soon.
Taylor noticed a beam of light coming from the end of the tunnel. That had to be coming from some sort of opening. Her legs suddenly felt lighter and she ran through the vent as fast as she could, hoping her heavy steps weren’t loud enough to give her away.
She saw a grilled opening on the floor of the tunnel that seemed large enough for her to go through. She looked into it. A bright white glare flashed onto her face, and when her eyes finally adjusted to the light, she was amazed at what she saw.
There was a whole city inside the ship. People walked about, children ran after each other in multiple games of tag, and women chattered around noisily. Everything looked so normal. But this was supposed to be a warship. Where were all the guns and the cadets and the usual ‘I will yell at everyone’ kind of Generals?
“What is this place?” Taylor asked.
“Beats me. Think they have Burger King down there?” Ruby asked.
“Since when do you eat burgers?” Taylor laughed.
“Q gave them to me once.”
Taylor felt a catch in her chest, hard and painful. She hated that Ruby had brought up Q now of all times. She hated that she was worried to death wondering if he was safe, if he was all right. She hated that she couldn't be by his side right now, taking care of him and protecting him. All she could do was stare through the grill at the happy faces of the kids. At the happy faces of the people who didn't know that Aliea Academy had been taken hostage.
“He’ll be fine,” Ruby said. “He’s Q after all.”
Taylor just nodded her head and sighed deeply, trying to make herself feel a little more relaxed.
“So how do we get down there?” she asked.
“We can't jump out of the vent. Plus, I don't think it’s safe to get into this crowded a space. Our only option is to follow this path. Hopefully we’ll reach another opening.”
“Okay then.”
They had walked along the passage for a while longer when Taylor heard a creaking sound echo through the metal walls.
“What was that?” She froze.
Ruby froze as well. They had both sensed something. Taylor looked around, trying to look at what was causing the sound. “This is not good,” she said.
Ruby glanced at her. More specifically, she glanced at the rapidly widening fissure in the floor under Taylor. The vent was breaking under their weight.
“Run!” Taylor sprinted, charging on for dear life.
***
Ruby tried to open her wings. Not possible, the space inside the vent was much too small. She charged forward, sprinting behind Taylor on all fours.
The vibrating noise dulled until it finally disappeared. She saw that the fissure had finally stopped. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned to tell Taylor the good news. And as usual, the good news was completely overwhelmed by the bad news.
Taylor was missing.
She had just disappeared into thin air. Ruby looked about and saw an open grill in floor ahead of her.
Taylor must have fallen in, she thought. She looked into the gap. No light came out of it, suggesting the room below her was unused, or abandoned.
“Taylor,” she called out. The silence was the only thing that replied. Ruby felt a skyrocketing sense of worry. What kind of situation had Taylor gotten herself into?
She wedged herself through the gap and landed on the floor, using her wings to glide herself onto it smoothly and silently. Her talons felt around, searching for anything that could give her a clue to where she was. She heard the sound of something hitting the floor. Her mind shifted into battle mode, focusing on her size and making herself larger.
The lights came on, flooding the dark room. Taylor stood near the switchboard, grinning widely. Ruby looked around. They were in some sort of empty storage room. A few boxes lay in the corner but other than that the entire room was empty.
“There you are,” Taylor said. “I was so worried about you.”
Ruby remained silent, replying with a blank expression.
“What happ
ened?” Taylor brought her hand up to Ruby’s head, “You seem worried. It’s okay, nothing is-”
Ruby slashed at Taylor, throwing her to the wall. The Dark Knight fell to the floor limp and breathless. She caught her shoulder and groaned. Ruby charged into her with a classic takedown and pinned her to the floor.
“Ruby, stop,” Taylor pleaded, her face filled with fear. “Why are you doing this? Please. Stop.”
Ruby wasn't going to take any of that. She raised her sharp talons above Taylor and hacked her into shreds in an instant.
“Boy, that was irritating,” she said. She walked towards a crate at the corner of the room and sliced it open with her talon.
Lo and behold, Taylor sat inside, safe and sound.
She seemed very surprised, “How did you know that girl wasn’t me?” she asked.
“She didn’t have the same whiny voice as you,” Ruby joked.
“Just what was that thing?”
Ruby knew Taylor took pride in her knowledge so it wasn't a surprise her curiosity was aroused when she found a beast she hadn't seen before. “A Pluthencelet. Native to Pluto,” she explained. “They’re shape-shifters who can resemble anything they want. They usually use their techniques to hunt for food.”
“So that Pluthencelet was impersonating me to hunt you?” she asked.
“Pretty much,” Ruby said. “I don't think they like earthlings. You guys are probably tasteless.”
Taylor laughed, “If being tasteless means I won't be food for some extra-terrestrial creature then I’m fine with it.”
“That Pluthencelet was an idiot though,” she said. “Its body was a good disguise, but its mind had only one thought. ‘Yummy Griffin’. “
Taylor laughed, “Well, you must look delicious to all the Pluthencelets out there.”
“We’d better get out of here, the enemy might trace that fissure and find us here,” Ruby said. She didn't know who the enemy was though. All she could see on this ship were a bunch of happy kids and relaxed adults. That didn't sound like a group that would attack anyone, let alone a griffin and a Dark Knight.
Taylor walked to the door, “Let’s find out what’s on the other side, shall we?” she smiled as it opened up.
A loud gunshot rang through walls and a bullet grazed past Taylor’s ear. Ruby reared up protectively and growled. Taylor immediately shut the door and moved away from it.
“Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea,” she said.
Ruby didn’t know where that bullet had come from but it wasn’t friendly fire.
“The attacker wasn't close by,” Taylor said. “Definitely a sniper, but it’s strange that the sniper used a mechanical rifle rather than a laser blaster.”
“Primitive technology,” Ruby said. “This ship doesn't look primitive though.”
“No it doesn't,” Taylor said. “Let’s get back into the vent. Our sniper will come after us once he realizes he didn't get me.”
Ruby crouched low below the vent. Taylor climbed onto her as a boost and squeezed herself into the vent. After Ruby was sure Taylor had gotten in, she shrunk herself and slipped in between the edges effortlessly.
“What exactly happened to you?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you were there one moment and then you were gone.”
“The Pluthencelet pulled me down. I felt some sort of arm or tentacle grab my leg and tug me.”
The whole vent tilted forward and Taylor and Ruby flew through. Ruby tried to latch onto the walls with her claws but she could only slice the metal with her sharp talons. They did their job a little too well. She could see a harsh white light coming from what seemed to be the end of the vent. Voices filled her head.
“Who are they?”
“I hope I get to have some fun this time.”
“Just when am I going to get promoted?”
She twisted in agony as every thought in the region was crammed into her mind. She tried to focus, which was hard to do while having a hundred thoughts injected into you every second. But she finally found one voice. The voice of a man on the other side of a vent. The shooter.
She fine-tuned in on the man’s thoughts. Those were what decided their fate.
“We kill them.”
***
Taylor turned around rapidly trying to find out where she was. It had only been seconds since she had fallen out of the vent.
“Why, it seems we have ourselves a pretty one this time,” a voice said.
She turned around. One, two, three huge mechanical guns were pointed at her.
From the corner of her eye she could see a restrained Ruby being hauled away by a few more men. Taylor wondered how Ruby had given in so easily. Maybe they had taken her by surprise. She focused on the current situation and turned towards the men.
“What do you want?” she asked
“You’ve got some nerve, missy,” one man said.
“Yeah,” another joined in. “Coming to our ship, infiltrating our base, and you want to know what we want?”
“Your ship attacked ours,” Taylor said coldly. “Don't you dare say this was my fault.”
The men looked at each other. Taylor could see a silent conversation going on between them. They uttered some name that Taylor didn’t quite catch.
One of them stepped forward, “We’re taking you to the leader. You can talk to him instead.”
Taylor nodded, “What about my griffin?” she asked. The men looked at Taylor’s cold stare. She could see their will to intimidate disintegrate with every second.
“Release the beast,” one of them bellowed.
“Her name is Ruby,” Taylor muttered under her breath.
She assessed the situation. These men seemed to be innocent ones who had no idea what was going on. But for all Taylor knew they could be Pluthencelets in disguise, waiting to get their snack. She didn't worry about it though. The possibility was one in a million. Taylor mounted Ruby and followed the men to their leader.
They wound about staircases, walked up ramps and jumped into elevators. The men finally stopped in front of a bright white door. One of them stepped forward. Patches of the wall around the door opened up and lasers shone out the gaps, jointly scanning his body.
“Identity confirmed,” a mechanical male voice said. The door slid open and the men urged Taylor to head inside. The inner walls of the room were colored snow white. Though they had a serene look, Taylor could not help looking at them in a ghastly aspect. The walls seemed to be crying to her, begging her to leave. She dismissed the weird thoughts from her mind.
Now wasn't the time to be talking to walls, she thought.
She noticed that the place was in fact a lab. Hundreds of test tubes lay upright on tables or scattered on the floor. Flamboyant colors of liquid flowed in glass pipes that went from beaker to beaker, turning to gas in one, and condensing to liquid in another. A man muttered to himself at the corner of the room. Taylor glanced at him. She hadn’t remembered seeing him with these men. He was someone new. She wondered if this was the ‘leader’ they had been talking about.
The man had flowing silver hair pulled back. His hair was ridiculously long, reaching down to his knees. His tall stature was draped in a white lab coat that hung to his shins. He heard them come in and turned towards them. A shriek of fear escaped Taylor’s lips. The man’s eyes were an evil red! With his red eyes and silver hair, the man looked like an incarnation of the devil.
“Well, hello there,” he said, his voice low and mystical, his words making her feel like she was being sucked into an abyss.
Ruby growled protectively, her restrained talons scraping the floor with harsh sound.
“Oh-ho, what have we here?” he ran over to Ruby. “I haven’t seen a Griffin in ages!”
Ruby unfolded her wings and flapped them, sending a huge gust of wind that threw the man back and pinned him to the wall.
“Feisty isn’t she?” he said.
“This guy is your leader?” T
aylor asked the men. She didn't know anything about the hierarchy of ranks on this ship, but this guy was clearly couldn’t be a leader.
“Dr.D has been leading us for a long time,” one of the men said.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked.
“He’s might be crazy.”
Taylor’s day was looking brighter already. One of the men helped Dr.D up back onto his feet.
“Thank you,” he dusted himself. “You may all leave now,” he waved at all the men. Before Taylor realized it, the men had left the room, and the door had been locked firmly.
Oh yeah, she was also stuck in there with a mad scientist.
She tried not to panic, “How about explaining why I was brought here?” she asked.
Dr.D sat down on his chair, “You see, I was the one who ordered the ship to use the phase beam,” he coolly twirled an empty test tube in his fingers. “It was pretty easy to see you had evacuated the ship so I made the men create fissures in the vent and rat you out.”
Taylor clenched her palm into a fist.
“My, such anger. All I wanted to do was examine you,” he said.
“Examine what?”
“Why, a Dark Knight of course!” he exclaimed.
Taylor stepped back. Not everyone could recognize a Dark Knight right off the bat, and the ones that did were the ones she never wanted to.
Dr.D smiled at her. “The Dark Knights have always had a high affinity to using their life energy and creating physically enhancing techniques,” he said. “I believe the secret to your power infusion lies in your brain.”
Taylor glanced around the room. Her mind working like clockwork.
Dr.D stood up, “I hope you won’t mind me examining you,” he said. “Very closely” and with that the man swooped by Taylor and punched her in the stomach. Taylor felt herself slide to the ground. Her vision blurry, her lungs breathless. She was helpless, knocked down, and in front of her was a madman.
Oh joy.
***
“Hi, Jade,” Q said. “Boy, am I glad to see you again. I thought you had left this place for good.”
AcQuest: A Space Opera Military Technothriller (The Quest Saga Science Fiction Adventure Series Book 3) Page 14
