ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (24 page)

“A what?”

“An Eki. It’s the dragon’s real name. They used to live on the earth as well,” she added.

“And what exactly are they?”

“No one knows. They disappeared millions of years ago.” Elizabeth joined in the conversation.

Q wondered if he had accidentally made the Eki race extinct.

I’m sorry Ekis, he thought.

“Is that our exit?” Taylor pointed to a tunnel in the ceiling.

Q nodded his head. “The problem is getting up there,” he said.

“Leave that to me,” Taylor said.

Taylor activated her wings and boosters. Elizabeth put her arm over Taylor and caught onto her firmly.

Q put his arm on Taylor’s shoulder and they took off. The tunnel was quite long, so they took at least a few minutes to go to the top.

They brushed the ice off their suits as soon as they landed. This place seemed colder than the rest of the temple. The ice was forming almost instantly over their suits.

“So where do you think, we’ll find the map?”

A huge roar rang through the place. The ice around them shattered. Luckily the stone floor remained stable.

Elizabeth flinched. Her suspicions were right. The indentations. They weren’t indentations. They were footprints!

“A..a w..werewolf?” Taylor stammered.

Q’s mind was going into a frenzy. His memories seemed to be returning to him. This werewolf looked exactly like the one that had abducted him on the night of his New Year’s Eve Party.

He looked at Taylor. She seemed to have noticed it as well for her eyes were brimming with fear.

Q closed his eyes.

“You beat an Eki. A dragon. A werewolf is a walk in the park!” he told himself.

Though he had to admit, this werewolf was huge compared to the Eki.

He analyzed the werewolf. It had blue fur all over, with a patch of white on its chest. Its eyes were red and murderous.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” Taylor tried to drag them out of there.

Q brushed her hand off. “You can’t just run away.”

“You don’t know what a werewolf is,” she said.

“But....” he said.

“No buts.” It was Elizabeth. Her red hair covered her eyes but her body had pain written all over it. She took each step like she was stepping on a million sharp needles.

“We’ve got to leave,” Elizabeth said.

The werewolf whacked Taylor with his hand. Taylor flew twenty feet through the air and hit the floor hard.

Elizabeth ran over to her as Q tried to take on the werewolf.

Q swung his Durendal at his knee. Where there should’ve been a deep cut was.... nothing. Absolutely nothing!

Q’s face started getting beaded with sweat. He was tensed up. His weapon was his only companion. He didn’t know spells or anything of the sort.

While Q stood motionless, Elizabeth tried to summon Ruby.

“We need your help,” she pleaded with her mind.

“
Already there,
” Ruby said.

She heard a flapping noise and a gust of wind blew. A full- sized griffin landed next to Elizabeth. She got onto it.

“
You have to aim for its chest.
”

She flew closer to the werewolf. The werewolf noticed them and tried to swat them out of the air.

Q saw all this from the ground. He looked at the

motionless body of Taylor.

“Nobody hurts my friends.” Q could feel anger, pain and hatred flowing around him. “NOBODY!”

His body started glowing. Elizabeth landed next to Taylor, she knew better than to be in Q’s way, especially when he started glowing.

Q could feel the power building up in him. Then something weird happened, he lost control of his body. Something started controlling him. He could see his body being controlled.

He felt his arms being raised up to point at the werewolf. A wicked grin flashed across his face. Something that wasn't in Q’s nature to do.

A beam emitted from his hand and there was an explosion. Smoke covered everyone’s view. When the smoke cleared, he saw a petrified werewolf. Its terrorized face was completely petrified.

Q moved his hands and legs. He was in control again. He didn’t know what had just possessed him. He felt like he was being controlled by one of those voodoo-doll-stuck-with-pins enchantments.

“Q!” Elizabeth shouted.

He looked at her. Her face was filled with fear. He looked at Taylor. She looked at him horrified.

Q looked at himself. Smoke rose from his body. His vision became hazy. He slumped to the floor unconscious.

Purple light

Kai hid behind a seat.

They had managed to fool the patrol into thinking they were a damaged ship. The patrol readily allowed them to dock into the ‘Galactica’. The patrol was coming to inspect the ship.

All Kai and Chris needed to do was get in.

The door slid open. Two cadets dressed in a black jumpsuit came in. They had two mini-blasters in their hand. Mini was an understatement. The thing was as long as an arm.

They came in and did a typical scout and like always, they checked every place other than where Kai was hiding.

Kai sprung from his position.

He hit baddie #1 on the head so hard that his helmet dented. Kai clutched his hand, writhing in pain. He’d hit the guy too hard.

Baddie #2, who had his back turned to the whole scene, heard his partner slump to the floor. His face immediately shot towards Kai. He charged at Kai, gun loaded.

Kai focused himself. He needed to dodge every single beam that came out of that gun. The guy was coming closer and closer. His finger was on the trigger.

Then out of nowhere a blade hit the cadet’s hand. He clutched his hand and dropped the gun to the floor.

There, in front of Kai, stood Chris.

The cadet stood there gaping at his hand. He felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He turned to face the retracting fist of Kai.

“Sorry buddy. It’s just business.”

And baddie #2 slumped to the floor.

“So, what now?” Chris asked.

Kai opened the door to the outside.

“Ladies first,” he said, a broad smile across his face.

Chris pushed him out so hard that he fell face down on the floor.

Kai picked himself up and rubbed his head. “Or not,” he finished.

They looked around. They were in the hangar. It was completely empty, which was quite odd for a patrol ship that usually teemed with security guards.

“Maybe they’re all getting coffee,” Kai said.

Chris just glared at him.

“What? Can’t they have a cup of coffee in space?”

Chris stopped in her tracks. Kai didn’t notice and barged in to her.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” he asked, rubbing his head.

Chris didn’t say anything. Her mouth was hanging open. Her legs trembled. Then she pointed to a space above them.

When Kai saw what she had seen, he understood why she was acting the way she was. Everything made sense. The patrol letting them dock; the hangar being empty. They’d known all along whom they were. He and Chris had fallen for the trap. And there was no escape.

There was a huge ball of purple light and it was headed right for them.

Pandora Cannon

Q sat up in a daze. He looked around him. It took him a while to recollect where they were and why they were there.

He got up and took a walk.

He wondered where the map could be. He wondered if the patrol had taken it after all.

“So you’re finally up, huh??” said Elizabeth, walking next to him.

“Do you think the map’s here?” he asked.

“I’m sure we’ll find it, don’t worry,” she said and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Why don't you use your Q-maps?” Taylor walked up to them. She seemed to have fully recovered from her injuries.

That made Q feel like an idiot. How could he forget about his very own Q-maps?

He closed his eyes and focused. The images came flooding into his mind. He had a whole map of the universe in his head.

He latched on to the temple map. He could see the vague outline of the castle. Then he saw something that knocked the breath out of him.

He slumped to the floor immediately. He felt like he was drowning. Taylor immediately helped him up. She took something out of her pocket and fiddled with it.

Q was too dazed to see what it was. What his map had shown him was too much to process.

It couldn’t be; it isn’t possible, he thought.

“Here” Taylor gave him one of those doctored sugar cubes.

He ate it up and instantly felt better. He was able to stand up now. Elizabeth stood right next to him.

“What happened?” she asked, her eyes filled with worry.

“I...I...” Q stuttered. His brain wasn’t obeying him.

“It’s okay....let him take his time,” Taylor said.

“But that’s one thing we don’t have,” Elizabeth argued.

“It’s a wormhole,” Q said.

“What?” They both yelped in disbelief. A wormhole was a kind of door that led to another point in space, sometimes even different dimensions.

“We entered a wormhole when we came up the tunnel to this place.”

“So this place......”

“Is in another dimension. Yes. Right now, we’re in a pocket dimension. There isn’t any way to get out as far as I know. A wormhole is a one way trip, so we can’t take that tunnel to get back.”

They sat quietly. This new development had left them speechless.

Elizabeth knew that their only hope was Q. Only he could get them out of here. He needed to activate his powers to get them out of there.

Taylor was having the same thought. Q was their only hope. Her only concern was that he had already used his powers. If he used them at a scale as large as inter-dimensional transportation, he might use up all his life energy and burn up.

Taylor and Elizabeth looked at each other.

“How do we get out of here?” Elizabeth asked.

“We don’t have any ships. We don’t have communication. I don’t see any way out,” she said.

They both sat gloomily. Q sat in a corner, thinking about what his head had showed him. He had seen it clearly. The place they stood in was missing from the map. The only possible reason was that they were in a pocket dimension.

He needed to open a portal but he wondered if he had the energy to do something as vast as that.

“What are you thinking?” said a voice behind him. He got up, startled. It was only Elizabeth.

“I can try opening a portal,” Q suggested.

“You sure you’re strong enough to do that?” she asked.

“Carlos did it easily,” Q remembered the time back in Carlos’ lab.

“He travelled between different places in the universe. You’re attempting to travel through different universes,” Elizabeth said.

“Say, do you know where the werewolf went?” Taylor asked.

Q turned. Taylor was right. The werewolf had just disappeared into thin air!

“Did it just disintegrate?” Q wondered.

He turned towards the girls. “I’m going to try creating a portal so you’d better move away.”

Elizabeth looked worried.

“I’m strong enough,” Q assured her.

“Just a sec. Where are we going to transport to?” Taylor asked.

“I’m going to try to get us back to the Orion. That way we can regroup and get the map.”

The girls nodded in agreement and stepped back.

Q threw his arms straight up into the air. He imagined his brain to be a computer and searched for information. He searched until he found the word he wanted.

“Eetaris!” he uttered.

Nothing happened at first. The girls thought Q had got the word wrong, but then appeared the unmistakable glow of Q’s power.

Q started chanting something that the girls couldn’t hear. They could only see his lips moving. His eyes were closed. He then slapped his hands together, palms touching one another.

His eyes shot open. The girls knew immediately what was different.

Q originally had silver-grey pupils; but now his eyes had blue pupils.

“Q? Are you okay?” Taylor asked. Elizabeth was worried as well but she was concentrating more on finding the cause of this sudden change. A pupil change must only mean a personality change. But that would mean....

“He has a multiple personality disorder,” Elizabeth told Taylor.

“What? That…that’s impossible. I’ve known him ever since we were kids.”

They could feel themselves being pulled towards Q.

“Something’s wrong! He’s not supposed to have his own
gravitation field
!” Elizabeth yelled.

Taylor caught on. She ran towards Q to help him, but came up against an invisible wall.

“Energy field,” Taylor cursed.

Q or whoever he was, seemed to notice the sudden intrusion. He turned towards Taylor.

“Thy efforts are in vain. Thee must learn to let me be,” Q said. Now they were definite this wasn’t Q.

‘What’s with the Shakespearean?’ Taylor thought.

“Worry thou not. I am only helping thee. I will take thee to thy allies.”

(Translation: Do not worry. I am only helping you. I will take you to your friends)

Then he opened his arms up. A purple portal emerged immediately. Then Q slumped to the floor. It looked like whatever had possessed him had left.

“Q? Q!?” Taylor tried to wake him up. His eyes twitched a bit.

“Thank god he’s alive,” Taylor sighed.

Elizabeth ran over to them. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s better now.”

“Portal......” Q muttered.

The girls turned to realize that the portal was shrinking. They had to move quickly otherwise the portal would collapse.

Elizabeth carried Q into the portal.

They saw bright white light for a while.

“Look!” Taylor shouted.

An image formed in the distance. They had reached the end of the portal.

Oddly the portal opened up in the air ten meters above the ground. Elizabeth’s wings immediately reacted to the warm temperature and defrosted in the nick of time. Her wings felt warm and fluffy.

She opened her wings and glided. Taylor opened up her booster and flew to the ground.