ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (20 page)

The girls wondered how Q was all right. Luck didn't exactly play a part in science.

Still, that was a conversation for another day. The ground was starting to vibrate more violently.

Kai wasted no time in rushing to the pit. Taylor made sure everyone got in.

They took off in a flash. They were quite high up in the air when they heard a loud grumble. They looked down and saw the temple crumbling to pieces.

“What’s going on?” Q asked.

No one answered. They were left speechless by the scene before them.

The whole temple had crumbled into huge rocks and was now slowly assembling into some sort of
thing
.

“What is that thing?!” Kai asked.

“The temple. It’s alive!” Elizabeth said.

“How is that even possible?” Taylor asked.

“I don’t know but we should focus on getting out of here,” Elizabeth said.

“Um.... how exactly should we get out of here?” Kai asked.

Q slapped his forehead, he forgot all about the energy shield.

“
The shield get’s deactivated once the map is taken
” It was Ruby.

“You brought that beast along?” Chris screeched.

“I’m not a beast, I’m a griffin.”

They headed into space, into the universe’s grasp and as usual it wasn’t kind. Think the sea’s a cruel mistress? Well, the universe could make her cry.

Only a few minutes into flying and they came face to face with a fleet of space ships.

The holographic on-board screen flashed. There was a man on the screen. He had grey hair and wore a monocle. He looked exactly like a general from World War II.

“This is Commander Griffin of the Alpha legion of space patrol. We’re here to arrest you on orders of the Board of Security.”

Kai tried to turn on the warp drive to escape but it seemed the commander had anticipated that.

“Any attempt to escape will be met with hostile measures,” he said.

“The Alpha legion is the strongest in the patrol,” Taylor told the others.

“They must think we’re pretty tough, sending such a high ranked team after us,” Q said, grinning.

“Not the point.” Chris couldn’t believe what she was hearing. To her Q had too much of a positive attitude.

“We’d better see what they want. If they aren’t up to any good…” Kai turned to Q. “Can you bust us out?” 

Q got up and closed his eyes. A soda can about 10 feet away rose into the air and got crushed into a pellet.

“You can bet on it,” he said.

“You can cut the drama out,” Kai said, grinning.

“That was seriously good!” Taylor smiled at him.

Too good, she thought.

Q went up to the screen.

“This is the Orion. We give in. No hostile action intended,” he sent the message.

In a few minutes the lead ship came over and the Orion docked with it. The doors opened and Commander Griffin stood in the doorway.

“Try anything hostile and-”

“Yeah yeah yeah, we know,” Taylor said.

The commander seemed a bit irritated at Taylor’s response.

The commander was a bit surprised on seeing Ruby, especially since she was his namesake.              

They all boarded the ‘Galactica’, as their ship was called. The Orion was put inside the Galactica’s hangar; something Kai didn't exactly vote for.

“Welcome to the Galactica,” Commander Griffin welcomed them.

One word. Maybe two.

AMAZING

OUTSTANDING

UNBELIEVABLE

Oh wait, that’s three.

Temple of Judgment Doom

Only one thought came to Kai’s mind.

‘Better than the Star Trek’s Enterprise.’

There were cadets everywhere, some working on computers, some barking out orders, some carrying food trays.

Kai took a good look around.

“Umm... pardon me general,” he said.

“Its
commander
, son,” The general gestured to his badge.

“Okay then, Commander Griffin, why does it look like you’re preparing for war?” he asked.

Everyone else noticed it just then. The whole ship had all its weapons active.

Taylor exclaimed.

The others turned towards what she was looking at and exclaimed as well.

Q looked around clueless. He had no idea what the big deal was.

“That…that’s a Pandora Cannon!”

“A what?” Q asked.

“A Pandora Cannon. It shoots out huge amounts of anti-matter; disintegrating anything in its path.”

“Well, lads. We didn’t know to what extent we had to go to get you on board,” the commander said.

Taylor was astonished. “You were planning on using a Pandora Cannon?!”

“Who uses a weapon like this against a gang of teenagers?!” Chris asked.

The commander smiled awkwardly. It looked like he didn't have any good answer to that question.

Kai slid next to Q. “So how do we get out?” he whispered.

Q looked at him quizzically. “We don’t.” He continued, “They have the Orion in a lock mechanism that’s close to impossible to break plus they're putting us in high security quarters.”

“We can figure something out,” Kai suggested.

“And risk getting on their bad side? Let’s just see what they want,” Q replied.

A cadet showed them to their room. It was awesome and it had an HDTV! Did people have cable in space? Apparently they did.

Q jumped onto his bed. He was exhausted, but he still needed to discuss a plan with the others.

“We’re not gonna break out of this place, that’s not an option,” Q started.

The others just stared at him.

“Then what
did
you want to talk about?” Chris asked.

“Well, I wanted to see if any of you had any ideas on what to do once we get there,” he said.

“With there being the Board of Security?” Kai asked.

“Yeah, so...” Q started but Taylor interrupted him.

“Discussion closed,” she said and all of them went off to do their own things, leaving Q to wonder what wrong he had done.

              He was still wondering when the lights went off. Kai and Q rushed out of the room to see what was wrong. Apparently it was nothing. The rest of the ship was perfectly fine. Q saw Commander Griffin at a distance. He ran up to the commander.

“Commander Griffin,” Q called out to him.

“Yes?” “I was wondering why the lights in our room were turned off.”

“Oh, that!” the commander said, relieved, as if he was expecting another question. “Well it’s because it’s bedtime,” he replied.

“Excuse me?” Q said, thinking he hadn't heard right.

The commander held out a paper. It had a weird seal at the bottom. Q could make out that it was some sort of order.

“We have strict orders for your bedtime,” he said.

Q couldn’t believe it. “Bedtime in space!?”

“What did he say?” Kai asked when Q returned to their room.

“They’re enforcing bedtime on us,” Q announced.

Kai burst out laughing. “Bedtime? That’s a good one. My own mom can’t get me to bed.”

Then he looked at Q’s face.

“I’m serious,” Q said.

“I am too. My mom would go nuts!” Kai laughed.

Taylor was a little more serious about the situation “No point in resisting. Might as well take a break anyway,” she said.

Before anybody could protest she was fast asleep.

“I guess all of us need a break,” Q agreed.

They all went to their beds and fell asleep once they hit the mattress.

As he drifted into sleep, Q wondered what he was going to do. His mind though had other plans for him… 

Q could see Taylor a long way from him. She was in a silver gown. He was in a hoodie and jeans. This was the worst nightmare he could possibly have.

Taylor walked up to Q. “So, what’s new?” she said.

Suddenly piercing pain shot through his chest. No, it wasn’t because of his emotions. Something was physically wrong.

“Nothing. Excuse me.” He pushed her aside and ran out into the open.

It was a freezing 20 degrees below zero and all he had on was a hoodie and jeans. To top it all, it was snowing as well. He looked at the forest next to his school.

He walked into the forest. “Peace and quiet is all I need,” he said to himself.

He had gone in about a hundred yards when he heard screeching sounds.

Probably some animal, he thought.

He kept going further and further into the forest until he reached a frozen lake.

It was amazing. The trees around were covered in layers of snow. The ice over the lake was of a light blue shade. The starless sky was deep black. Everything was perfect until
it
happened.

Q sat up straight in his sleep. He didn’t know what time it was but he didn’t want to have that dream again. It was going to drive him mad.

He woke Taylor up.

“What is it?” she asked, yawning in between.

“I had that dream,” he said.

Taylor shot up in her bed. “What happened?” she asked.

Q told her every last detail. At the end Taylor just bit her lip.

Q confronted her “It isn’t just a dream, is it? Tell me the truth! It feels like the incident actually happened.”

She came closer to Q.

“You remember the New Year’s Eve Party, right? The whole thing with your dream is because of something that happened then. You ran out of the school?”

Q’s eyes widened. He’d always thought it was only a dream and now Taylor was telling him that it had actually happened.

“I tried to find you but you were long gone. I searched around the school and saw a few tracks go into the woods. I followed them. They went deep into the woods. The air was like really cold.”

“I really don’t need those details right now.”

“Hey! I’m telling the story and I’ll say it the way I want to.”

“Fine.” Q shrugged.

“A few tracks joined yours; they didn’t look human. They looked like they were wolves. I ran forward. More and more tracks appeared. There were close to about twenty wolves chasing you.”

Q was holding his breath by now.

“I gave chase and finally found you by a lake. There was a wolf above you. Not just any wolf. A werewolf! The werewolf looked at you as though it was searching for something. Then it slashed at your chest and ran away. I heard footsteps behind me. I braced myself, but it was just Carlos.”

“I died, didn’t I?” Q asked jokingly.

“You would’ve. You had lost so much blood that Carlos and I thought you were dead. Then the water from the lake just rose in a beam and covered you. When it receded you were all healed and breathing.”

By the end of the story, Taylor’s eyes were in tears.

“And that’s how I became Carlos’ assistant,” she said.

Q was too stunned to say anything. His memories were flooding back to him. His emotions mixed.

“I told him everything I had seen that night. I’d expect a person to admit me in a hospital as a mental patient, but Carlos believed me. He told me all about the Zyxians and then he asked me to be his secretary to um... take.... care of you.”

“Wait, why don’t I remember it in the first place?” Q asked.

“I really don’t know. Carlos said that the water might have had that effect on you.”

This was all too much for Q to take in. It was much too..... well it was downright scary.

“Aren’t you forgetting one important thing?” They heard Kai say.

They turned to face him.

“N..no,” Taylor stammered. That pretty much gave away that she was hiding something.

“You’re lying and it really needs a lot of work,” Kai observed.

Then he turned to Q.

“I don't know the story Q, but I do know about werewolves. They’re not just myths. They’re animals that mutated on the moon. That’s why they’re usually powerful during the full moon. Anyway, a werewolf doesn’t just attack someone. It attacks them to suck on their life force.”

Taylor glared at Kai but that didn't seem to stop him.

“This werewolf didn't seem to have done that. It had
searched
for something. Sometimes, there are certain configurations of energy hidden inside you. This energy gives you so much power that you couldn’t even believe it! I think that werewolf took that kind of power from you,” Kai finished.

“That’s enough!” Taylor said.

Suddenly the lights came on in the cabin.

The door opened. Captain... sorry...
Commander
Griffin stood in the doorway.

“Bedtime’s over,” he said.

Then he walked up to Q.

“I need you to come with me,” he said.

“Who me?” Q asked.

The commander glared at him. Q figured that the best thing to do would be to run up to him.

“I expect all of you to be in my office in no less than an hour,” he told the others.

“Yes, sir,” they saluted.

Q saluted as well and tried to go back into the room when the captain... no... Commander (Boy, this commander thing is tough) Griffin caught him by the collar.

“I’m not gonna eat you up, laddie,” he assured Q.

“Are you sure? Because you don’t look to play the part.”

The commander (finally got it right!) didn’t bother answering anymore and just dragged Q, literally, to a doorway.

When Q picked himself up, he glanced at the door. It was nothing out of the ordinary. But ordinary things tend to be extraordinary.

The commander opened the door and inside it was a huge globe! Inside it were millions of insects that Q couldn’t even recognize. It looked like one of those ant farms only that this one was huge! Almost dangerously huge.

“Bug collector, huh?” Q asked.

The commander just went over to the globe, which by the way, was sealed inside a glass globe, and tapped on the glass. A huge snake appeared. The commander waved his hand over the globe and an opening formed. The snake coiled around a grey tablet and brought it to the commander. It retracted the instant the commander took the tablet.

Q was still staring at the globe when the general handed him the stone slab.

“Um.... thanks, I guess?”

Then he looked at the stone. It had some sort of hieroglyphics on it.