ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (21 page)

“So, it’s an Egyptian tablet?” Q asked.

“Don’t know how to read, eh? Here let me translate that for you,” he said, taking it from Q.

“The Map of......”

“Yeah?”

“The Map of.....”

“So you don’t know how to read either?”

The commander’s face turned so red that he looked like a beetroot.

“Darn it! It’s the last piece of map that you need!”

Q just stared at him. He wondered if the general was pulling his leg and if he wasn’t, what the general was doing with the map in the first place?

“We excavated the Temple of Judgment Doom long ago,” he said, giving the map to Q.

“Thanks, but we still need one more.”

“You do? We were told that you needed only one!”

“Well you guys might be....... wait a minute! You've been following us around?”

The commander grinned “We are in charge of universal security, you know. Spying on ships is our second nature.”

“So why did you even capture us?”

“Well, would you believe us if we told you that we were going to help you?”

“Well...... no.”   

“That’s why.”

“Maybe…..”   

“Well then.... I think we must get you this other map.”

Taylor sat nervously in her bed. Elizabeth was right next to her. Kai was having an ice cream sundae which for some reason the patrol offered to make for them.

“You think they’ll kill him?” Elizabeth asked nervously.

Taylor and Kai looked at her quizzically.

“You okay?” Taylor asked her.

Elizabeth nodded, though her mind was just making her go crazy.

“It’s been an hour; we’d better go to the commander.”

They set out for the commander’s office, leaving behind a sleeping Chris who didn’t seem to be bothered by the situation at all.

It took them only a minute to get there since literally every passageway had a sign that said ‘Commander Griffin’ with an arrow pointing in the direction of his office.

The real surprise awaited them when they opened the door. Something beyond their wildest imaginations.

A
friendly
commander!!

VRT

“So all we have to do now is get the map of Last Hope,” Kai confirmed.

They had talked to the general and had headed back to their room.

“The patrol offered us a ride till the temple.”

“Well. I guess that’s okay,” Kai said. He wasn’t happy with the fact that someone else was giving
him
a ride.

“We’re about half-a-day’s journey from there,” he said.

“What do we do till then?” Chris asked, yawning mid- sentence. She had just woken up.

“The commander said he’ll set up a virtual reality adventure of the temple of Last Hope for us,” Q said.

“Cool. When do we go?” Elizabeth asked.

“Anytime is fine,” Q replied.

“Now?!” Taylor asked excitedly.

“I said
anytime
is fine,” Q repeated.

They walked up to the VRT (Virtual Reality Theatre). The commander was already at the site waiting for them.

“I had a feeling you’d show up,” he said, handing them glasses.

“What are these?” Chris asked.

“Virtual reality glasses. Just wear them and go to the centre of the floor,” he said, pointing to a room through the glass.

They entered the room. The inside was pure white. The only thing separating the room from everything else was a thick wall of glass. The commander gestured them to wear the glasses. They did so.

“Activating ...Now!” the commander said.

A voice began. “Welcome to the virtual world. Please note that getting killed in here will also result in death in the real world.”

“What?!!” They said in unison.

“Have a nice time,” the voice said.

God of Death

Images flowed through to Q. Earlier, he couldn’t see anything but darkness. That’s how dark the glasses were!

He looked around him, virtually, of course. The area was of pure white. At first he thought that he was still in the white room. Then he heard an eerie howl. It was only then that he realized that the whitishness was actually snow!

He was in a blizzard, a blizzard that made any storm in the Himalayas look like a snowflake falling from the sky. He looked around for the others but he couldn’t see them. The blizzard was too ferocious.

The wind pushed at him. He struggled just to stay on his feet. He could feel his feet giving way underneath him. It was only then that he looked at what he was wearing. It was his very own armor! It was in its traditional dark knight mode, the one that Taylor felt jealous about. He focused on his suit. He tried to modify it to his will.

He didn’t know how many minutes had passed when he had finished. It might have taken him some time, but it was worth it. He had a snow white suit with spiked boots and a beacon lamp. It took only a few seconds after that for his friends to find him.

The beacon lamp shone brightly through the snowstorm. Storm would be an understatement though.

“Cool suit,” Kai said.

The others gathered around.

“Now that we’re all here, what do we do?” Taylor asked.

“We have no idea where the temple is and with this weather there is the chance that we’ll never find it,” Chris said.

“Dudette, try to be at least a little optimistic,” Kai said.

And that was when he fell into a hole.

Elizabeth screamed, Taylor screeched. Overall, everyone was quite scared. Kai had fallen into a hole in the ground.

“I’m going in,” Q said.

“Be careful,” Elizabeth told him. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to him.

“Will do,” he said and jumped in.

It took him forever to reach the bottom, but when he did, it was totally worth it.

There was an entire palace below the surface of the planet!

And that wasn't the cool part.

It was made entirely out of ice!

The palace was a marvel to see. It was made of different shades of ice at different places. Q wondered how ice could form like that. There seemed to be some source of illumination, for it appeared like daylight.  Something that was impossible to get about a hundred feet underground.

Suddenly Q remembered why he had come down in the first place. “Kai!” he called out.

He couldn’t hear any sound. A howl echoed through the air. The hair on Q’s neck stood up. He remembered hearing the sound before but he didn't know when or where. It all seemed faint to him.

Suddenly a shadow crossed his face. He heard soft growling from behind him.

Something charged into him; pinning him to the ground.

Q could feel sharp claws digging into his arm. The pain was unbearable.

He cried out, unable to bear the pain.

Everything went black.

“It’s okay. You’re all right,” said a voice.

Q removed his glasses. He saw that it was Commander Griffin. He was back in the VRT.

“What happened? What was that thing that attacked me?” Q asked.

“Nothing attacked you,” said the commander and looked at him quizzically. “Besides, we have bigger problems to face,” he put his finger to his lips and pointed to his left.

Q turned to where his finger was pointing.

There stood the girls, with the glowing body of Kai crouched in front of them.

A body that looked like it was disintegrating. A body that was ready to meet death.

Temple of Last Hope

“Is that?... Is he changing into his Nova form?” Q asked.

The commander just nodded. When the glow died, Kai didn’t look any different. He didn’t get wings, or a tail or anything special.

Kai noticed them staring at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

He felt a sudden pain in his palm. It felt like his palm was on fire. The pain became more and more intense.

He started wailing in pain. The others ran towards him.

“Kai! Kai!” They all shouted, but Kai had closed his eyes.

“Is he going into a cocoon stage?” Taylor asked the commander.

The commander was staring with his mouth wide open.

“This....is not possible,” he said.

Before Taylor could understand what he said, Kai started glowing again.

It was a quick burst and soon after, he opened his eyes.

“Kai, buddy!” Q hugged him.

Kai was looking at his hands as if there was something only he could see.

“Get away from me,” he yelled.

Q took a step back. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

Maybe it’s the Nova mode,’ Q thought.

The others were just as puzzled. Kai wasn’t exactly known for being rude.

Before any of these thoughts could grip the gang, Kai pulled his hand out into a fist.

Immediately, bits and pieces of metal appeared out of

nowhere and attached themselves to him. In a few seconds he was covered in a metal suit with a helmet and a visor.

“Dude, this is so cool!” Q exclaimed.

The commander was still gaping at him.

“What’s wrong,
Griffin
?” Taylor asked, purposefully avoiding the ‘commander’ part.

When the commander still didn’t give any reaction, they knew something was really up.

  “It’s the boy, he’s..... He’s called the God of the Dead,” he said.

“He’s called what?” Q asked. He thought he was the only one with a cool name.

“He was a legend in those days. There wasn’t a single
army
that could last even a few minutes with the man,” he said.

Now that got Q interested, and he listened quietly after that.

“He is known as the God of the Dead, for his speed and power is unmatched by none other than, of course, the hand of God, who obviously surpasses him. The God of the Dead is not to be underestimated. He is a man who can control technology. Technology is non-living and thus, dead. That is why he is called God of the Dead.”

“Technology? Sweet!” Kai yelped. He was really excited.

Unfortunately for him, the story got interrupted when a cadet ran into the room.

“Sir, we’ve arrived,” he said.

“Very well,” the commander replied, and they all headed to the hangar.

All along the way, Kai tried to use his new powers. He overloaded electric circuits. He changed the images on computers. He even rattled out a cadet playing Pac-man on his computer instead of looking at the ship’s defense.

When they finally reached the front of the cabin, they were astounded. In front of them lay something that closely resembled a snow globe.

“We never talked about the temple in the end,” Chris told the others.

Q told them all about the palace that he’d seen and all the colorful ice. For some reason, he didn’t mention the creature that had attacked him. He felt he’d create unnecessary fear in them.

Elizabeth seemed to like the idea of colorful ice. “Was there any pink ice? How about purple?”

“Is that really important now?” Taylor asked her.

“Don’t you think we should get the map now? You know, with the time limit and all,” Chris suggested.

Q turned to Kai. “Can you get us to the planet?” he asked Kai.

“No problemo!” Kai assured. He just closed his eyes and concentrated. He could see a whole map of every single piece of technology kept in the place. He saw the Orion. He called to it. It responded. He could feel it.

“
Isn’t that cool?
” said a voice.

“Great protons!” Kai said.              

Everyone else stared at him. Kai seemed to be the only one who heard the voice.

“Sorry, silly voice in my head,” he said.

Everyone still stared at him.

“
Hi! I’m the Orion,
” the voice said again.

“Hi” he replied; this time only in his mind.

“
It’ll take me a few minutes to reach where you are, so can we talk until then?
”

“Would you keep quiet if I say ‘no’?”

“
No.
”

“Then let’s talk.”

“
You must be wondering how I can talk to you.
”

“Now that you mention it, it did cross my mind from time to time,” Kai said sarcastically.

“
Well, there’s a really long explanation for it.
”

“I’ve got time.”

“
Technology, you see, is like a different race, an artificial race. We communicate through electrons all the time. It is our language.
”

“Okay?” Kai was finding this hard to believe. But then again, he was talking to a ship.

His biggest worry was that he’d thought that the Orion would be a girl but this voice had ‘boy’ written all over it.

“
So you can talk to every electronic device alive. They can talk to you as well,
” the Orion concluded.

A million voices, like the Orion’s, talking to him inside his head wasn’t exactly one of Kai’s lifelong wishes.

“How exactly are they alive?” Kai asked.

They walked into the hangar. Kai looked around the hangar for the Orion.

“
It is something far beyond the understanding of the zyxian brain
”

“Now just wait a minute...” Kai was offended by the comment on the zyxian brain.

He heard a screech, this time through his ears and not his mind. The Orion had reached them.

“All aboard!” he ordered.

“We’re right next to you,” Elizabeth complained.

“Sorry, pilot’s habit,” he grinned.

“Pilot’s habit.” Chris tried to imitate him.

“I wish you luck, cadets,” the commander saluted them

They saluted back and got into the ship. It was as they had seen it before, only now it had ‘Space Patrol’ written all over it.

Seeing those signs reminded Q of something that the commander had told them.

“Say, Kai? Where did you get this ship from?”

“Why do you ask?” Kai asked.

“No reason. I just happen to talk to...”

He glared at Q. Q realized that it’d be better to ask him when they were alone.