ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (14 page)

“You what? But that’s…”

“Time is as important as power, Q; don’t underestimate it. May the gods be with you.”

‘What was that all about?’ Q thought about Kareem’s reference to the gods. He wondered what Kareem had meant when he told him that he’d travelled the universe for millions of years.

They left the cottage and walked back to the Orion.

The whole way to the ship Kai talked about how much Kareem looked like ‘Invisible Man’. Then he went along and said Kareem
was
the ‘Invisible Man’.

As soon as they entered the Orion, Kai stopped talking and ran to the pit. Q followed him.

“So where are we going?” he asked Q.

Q closed his eyes. The universe came to him. He saw a blue aura out there. The energy around it seemed to be in a standstill. Almost as though it was frozen. It had to be the Temple of Time.

“45 degrees north of east and pull up 15 degrees. Probably about a day ahead.”

Q couldn’t believe that he had just said that. It was awesome!

“Umm... okay,” Kai said. He still had to get used to Q’s new GPS powers.

His hands sped across the dashboard and prepared the Orion for intergalactic travel.

“We’re good to go,” Kai said. “Warp drive on!” he hollered and pulled down a lever in front of him.

The ship started and in a few seconds they were cruising at warp speed.

“Why don’t we all get a nap?” Taylor suggested.

              Q on the other hand was worried that something might happen to the ship while they were asleep. He asked Taylor about it.

“Don’t worry, the ship sets off an alarm anytime something funny happens,” she assured him.

“How come that didn't happen during the pirate battle?” Q asked.

“It did happen. The blasts were so loud that we didn't hear the alarms.”

That helped Q feel a little more relieved.

By the time they reached the bunker, Kai and Chris were fast asleep.

They all deactivated their suits and lay down on their beds.  They wished each other goodnight and went to sleep.

This time Elizabeth was the one who had a nightmare.

She seemed to be in some sort of a dark room.

A voice called out to her. “Come here, Elizabeth,” it said softly.

She tried to run away but her legs wouldn't move.

“You know what you must do,” A voice laughed madly.

“No! I don't want to! Give her back,” she” Elizabeth said.

A small globe of light appeared from the darkness. A woman lay asleep in it. The globe faded away before Elizabeth could react.

“You will get it soon enough, my dear. Soon enough.” Mad laughter echoed through her ears.

Elizabeth sat up in her bed. It took her a while to realize that it was the Orion’s alarms that had gone off.

She looked around. All the bunks were empty.

They were under attack.

Prana

Kai rushed to the pit. “I never should have left the ship unmanned,” he said blaming himself.

He looked around for enemy ships as soon as he reached the pit. He was really surprised when he couldn’t find anything.

“Hey, Kai! Come back here!” It was Elizabeth’s voice.

He kept going to the back of the ship until he found them. They were in the corridor between the pit and the bunker.

Q pointed at the full scale windows in the corridor.

Kai didn’t understand what was so special about the windows. Moreover, he didn’t understand why his friends were so cool and calm while they were under potential threat!

He saw what they were pointing to only after he got closer to the window. There were a million tiny blobs of glowing light floating next to the ship. Their colors ranged from blue to green to purple. The blobs were all alike and floated around in space like water would have. They looked a little sturdier than water though.

Elizabeth was delighted by this new ‘thing’.

She remembered her dream. She knew it wasn't something that she could tell any of her friends. It’d be best if she didn't.

“What are they?” Q asked.

Taylor walked up to them. “They’re called ‘prana’,” she informed.

“So they’re animals?” Kai asked.

“They’re our life force.”

“Huh?” Q said.

“Since matter is a form of energy, we are all made of energy. Each person’s energy vibrates at different rates. That’s what makes us so different from each other. The ‘prana’ take control of those vibrations. The ancient East Indians were the first to theorize the existence of such a being; so it’s called ‘prana’ in their honor. It means ‘the breath of life’ in the ancient East Indian language.”

“What are they made of?” Q asked.

“Plasma,” Taylor said. “The most energetic form of matter in the universe, our universe at least.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, that was Dr. Taylor,” Kai joked.

“So where are they going?” Q asked. He wanted to know everything about those beings. They could be the scientific ‘soul’ of a person.

“They keep floating around the universe until they merge with a newborn life form. There are these prana inside every single form of life. Even you and I have prana!” Taylor said.

“I don't get it. Are they alive or not?” Kai asked.

“They’re under a lot of debate right now though. They are chemically non-living, while they’re arguably the things that give life. So people don’t know whether they’re life forms or just matter.”

“Amazing....” Kai said in astonishment.

“They're so pretty!” Chris exclaimed.

“Let’s just turn in for the night. We’ve got like another two hours for the temple, right?” Taylor suggested.

“And leave the ship unmanned so that it could get attacked
by Pranas again?” Kai asked.

“Nothing’s going to happen. Chill,” Taylor said.

Q was in no mood to hear the argument at all. He walked to his bunk and lay down.

Q was fast asleep when he felt a sudden shiver run up his spine. His eyes shot open, and at the right time too!

Taylor was holding a sword above him.

She was going in for the kill.

Poison

Q didn’t open his mouth. He was too stunned to do anything for that matter.

“Traitor….” Q managed to mumble.

She brought her sword down. He closed his eyes. He was going to die through treachery.

He kept waiting for immense pain to consume him. He opened his eyes after a few seconds of silence. Taylor still stood beside him with something in her hand.

Q looked closer and saw that it was some sort of a snake.

“Space viper. Must have followed us from the desert planet. One bite and you have less than a minute to live,” she said.

Q didn’t know how to react. She just stood there in front of him after killing something as dangerous as a space viper.

He opened his mouth to thank her but he was still too stunned to actually say anything.

He felt ashamed that he’d thought of her as a traitor.

“You don’t have to thank me. We’ve got each other’s backs.” With that Taylor just went to the hangar, probably to do something about that dead viper. Q couldn’t sleep after what had just happened and so he decided to go to the pit.

Kai was up there already.

“Couldn't sleep,” Q told him.

“What’s wrong?”

He sat down and told Kai the whole story about how Taylor saved him and everything.

“A space viper isn’t dangerous,” he concluded, after Q told him everything.

“It..It...It isn’t?” Q stuttered. This was news to him.

“No it isn’t. It’s like a cockroach on Earth. You see it everywhere. Absolutely harmless.”

He said it with such conviction that Q couldn’t find a good reason not to believe him.

‘Dr. Taylor’ was going to get a space viper lesson from Prof. Q today, but something threw off Q’s plan by a huge margin.

While he was thinking up a scheme, he didn’t take into consideration that Elizabeth would run in carrying Taylor’s motionless body.

“Guys! Help! She’s out cold!” she shrieked.

“Taylor’s dead?” Kai froze.

“No you idiot! She’s unconscious!” Elizabeth said.

She lay Taylor down on a chair. Q checked on her. She was sweating profusely and there didn’t seem to be any breathing taking place. He looked at her arm and he saw too large holes which resembled the bite of a snake.

“What do you know about space vipers,” Q asked Elizabeth.

“I know well enough to stay away from one.”

“Wait,” she caught on quickly. “She’s been bit by a space viper?!”

Q nodded his head.

“They’re fatal! I’ll go call Chris,” she said running off.

“So, really harmless, huh?” he asked Kai who had suddenly taken an interest in his shoes.

“I confused them with Space
cobras.
”

Chris came running. After a look at Taylor her face went pale. A dark shadow passed her face.

“What’s wrong?” Q asked.

“It’s too late. The poison has already spread throughout her body. It’s a miracle that she even survived this long,” she said.

Everyone froze in silence. Chris had just told them that there was nothing they could do to save Taylor.

“It’s all my fault,” Q said.

“No, it isn’t.” Elizabeth tried to comfort him. She knew how much Taylor meant to him.

He brushed her off. “I could’ve saved her if I had just found her a few seconds earlier.”

Chris knew that Q was going to go into a fit if something wasn’t done soon. She walked toward him but stopped midway when she saw a blinding aura around him. A searing heat spread out from Q.

“Q, buddy, calm down. We can all sort this out.” Kai tried to calm him down, though he sounded a little tensed himself.

But it wasn’t of any use. Q slowly started rising in the air.

“Move away from him!” Elizabeth yelled.

A huge blast occurred and all of them hit the floor, knocked unconscious by it.

The aura around Q slowly dimmed and he slumped to the floor.

Temple of Time

Q sat up and looked around him. He was in the bunk but he couldn’t see anyone else there. He walked up to the pit. No one was there as well. The ship didn’t seem to be moving. He looked out of the window. They were on some green planet. Q didn’t know what had happened to the others.

He just sat in the pilot’s seat and waited for them to come back from wherever they had gone.

Q spent the time to try and remember what had happened a little while ago. He kept thinking until it hit him like a steam roller. He had created a blast inside the ship. Taylor was dead. Dead from poisoning. Dead because of him.

“Because of you,” a tiny voice in his mind said.

He could hear voices coming from outside the ship. The voice in his mind disappeared immediately.

“The guy at the counter didn’t have to yell at me.” Q heard Kai’s voice. His friends were alive. Thank God.

“You were fighting with him because he gave you a superman action figure instead of
Pikachu.
” It was Chris this time.

They both walked in and saw Q.

“Oh!” Chris was surprised to see Q.

“How you doing, buddy?” Kai asked.

“How’s Taylor?” Q asked nervously.

“You healed her completely! Right after the blast, all the venom from her body just disappeared. We don't even know how it happened but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the blast.”

“I mean that was soo..so cool.” He heard Taylor’s voice.

She came inside the ship. “Oh! Hi Q,” she said.

“Here you go.” Taylor tossed him a box with a picture of Goofy on it. Q looked it at quizzically.

“It’s from McGoofy’s,” Kai told him “It’s a McD in space! Just make sure you never eat the ‘Goofy Special’. They might call it chicken but I have no idea what they put in there.”

“So how far away are we from the Temple of Time?” Taylor got serious.

Q was happy that for once it wasn’t him who was getting the conversation back on track.

“We’re about 20 minutes away. Luckily the blast didn't affect the ship,” Kai noted.

Q suited up. All ready to take on any Zyxian baddie who came at them.

“Okay listen up,” Q said. He focused on a picture of the temple from his mind map, or Q-maps as he liked to call it, and a holographic 3D map glowed out of the centre of his suit, showcasing it to the others.

“What can that thing
not
do?” Taylor asked.

Q ignored the question and continued. “The map is most probably in this tower at the centre,” he said pointing to a huge structure.

“Let’s split up…” he started

“That’s a great idea!” Elizabeth interrupted.

Q was beginning to think it wasn't such a great idea.

“I’ll go with Q and all of you can go together,” she said to the others.

Q looked a little nervous. He still wasn't able to shake the fact that she could be the intruder back at Aliea. Having her by his side wasn't exactly going to be re-assuring.

“Fine then,” Taylor said.

They reached the planet. The Orion opened up a door for them to get out.

The whole planet was covered with plants, but they looked different for some reason.

“These plants are different from the ones on earth. They are cannibals. They eat each other,” Taylor told Q.

That seemed funny to Elizabeth. She couldn’t begin to imagine seeing a plant chew on another one.

“They don’t eat up each other directly. Their roots are the ones that do all the fighting. They start to grow around the weaker plant and in a few hours, the plant is dissolved within the makeshift ‘root’ cage,” Taylor added.

Kai felt a shiver down his spine. “They don’t eat zyxians, do they?” he asked nervously.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Taylor teased.

“Okay guys, listen up,” Q said. “We’re here to save the world. So let’s go do it!”

He was ready with plans of action. He’d mapped the temple inside out using his Q-maps.

“You take the right and we’ll take the left,” Q suggested.

“I’m coming with you,” Chris interrupted.