AcQuest: A Space Opera Military Technothriller (The Quest Saga Science Fiction Adventure Series Book 3) (14 page)

“We don’t have much time,” he hesitated. “The next stage isn’t pretty,”

“We better get moving,” Juliana said.

Carlos glanced behind him. The cave had completely collapsed, blocking the entrance. There was no going back to that stronghold. The tunnel they were in went only one way - deep underground. All the other paths had been blocked by debris from the collapse of the tunnel walls.

“Do you think it’s safe to go deeper down?” Juliana asked.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Carlos confessed. “Going up to the surface is out of the question since the path is blocked, and even if we did get there the storm would just annihilate us.”

“But I think going deeper is going to trap us eventually,” Elizabeth said.

“Like I said, we don’t have a choice,” Carlos repeated.

They followed the tunnel, with Elizabeth trying to chit-chat to pass time. “So what does Jake want?” she asked him.

“With the Lambda Driver? I seriously don’t know. Moreover, he promised Q that he wouldn't attack Aliea if he brought the Lambda Driver back, but I guess it’s too late for that to happen.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” she scratched her head.

Carlos knew Elizabeth had a point. It did seem very silly for Jake to do that. Send your enemy on a mission to retrieve an important item that you really needed and then destroy his planet before he got back. It was completely unnecessary thing to do. Jake wouldn’t get any benefit from it.

Carlos stumbled. Spots of purple entered his vision, and in a flash he collapsed to the ground.

“Carlos!” Juliana helped him up.

He coughed hard. His lungs felt like they were exploding. “The poison,” he muttered. In all the commotion, the fact that Jake had poisoned him had completely slipped his mind. Carlos could feel the poison taking a toll on his body. His legs and arms became weak. His skin felt dry and cracked.

Elizabeth yanked onto his shirt and sat him up, “Say something,” she yelled.

Carlos looked at the blurry image of Elizabeth. Her loud voice faded in his ears, until he couldn’t hear anything but the beat of his heart. A rhythmic thump filled his mind, loud and gentle. He blinked his eyes. The world seemed to be going by at a much slower speed. With every blink of his eyes, Juliana and Elizabeth appeared to be more and more worried, their faces more and more blurry.

He finally gave up and fell into the depths of unconsciousness.

***

“Carlos!” Elizabeth shook him. She watched as his eyes closed and his arms slumped.

“It’s no use,” Juliana said. “He’s unconscious.”

“He looked like he lost control of his senses. What’s wrong with him?”

Juliana’s face turned dark, “It’s the poison,” she said.

“The poison,” her eyes widened. She recalled Carlos telling her that he had been poisoned, but he had made it seem like it was completely non-fatal.

“How do we heal him?”

“He told me the only antidote capable of countering the poison was with the enemy.”

“Do you think they actually have the antidote?”

Juliana bit her lip, “I hope they do.”

Elizabeth looked at Carlos. His body had turned pale and sickly in an instant. What kind of poison had they used against him?

“What do we do now? We can’t go on,” Juliana said. “Not with Carlos’ condition.”

“We shouldn’t go on. We have to find a cure for him,” Elizabeth said. Her vision suddenly went woozy, and she stumbled. Two hands caught her shoulder and steadied her.

“You better get some rest too,” Juliana said. “The storm has exhausted you more than you think.”

Elizabeth sat down without arguing, her back resting against the crumbling stone wall.

“Class,” Juliana turned to the group of kids behind her. “We’ll be taking a short break here. No one go exploring anywhere okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” The cadets bunched together in a large group, their voices filled with a little cheer even in this dire a situation.

“A nice bunch of kids aren’t they?” Juliana sat down next to her.

“They probably don't realize what’s actually going on.”

“That’s how the world works,” Juliana said. “Some people have to face the harsh reality of the world to let the others live the lie of happiness.”

Elizabeth kept quiet, her ears filled with the coarse sound of her own breathing. She could only think about the antidote the enemy had.

She looked at Carlos’ limp body on the ground next to her. “How long is he going to last?” she asked

“Usually I’d say a few days, but he seems to have exerted his body too much,” she said. “He hasn’t got much longer.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath, her entire body aching with the inflow and outflow of air. She was exhausted, her body felt like lead, and she had a hundred things to take care of.

Juliana put her hand over Elizabeth’s, “It’s okay,” she said. “We’ve still got time. Things will turn out for the better, don't worry.”

Elizabeth managed to smile, “The only reason they do turn out for the better is because there are people willing to do anything it takes,” she said.

She got up and took in her surroundings. The broken tunnels, the noisy cadets, the calm air. She summoned the strength inside and walked ahead, defiant and strong.

“Where are you going?” Juliana asked.

“To the Demon Riser,” Elizabeth said, a grin on her face, “I’m going to give those guys a piece of my mind.”

***

Carlos woke up with a shudder. He looked around him. It was dark and damp, and the smell of fresh mud filled the air.

“Elizabeth? Juliana?” he called out.

He heard footsteps coming towards him. Juliana’s relieved face popped into his field of vision. “Thank god you’re okay,” she smiled and helped him sit up.

His every joint ached with even the most subtle of movements. His lungs felt compressed and tight, his breathing became hard and restrained. He looked down the end of the tunnel. He could see the huge rocks that blocked the way into the cave. It would be easy to get rid of the blockage but he’d be sacrificing the entire tunnel’s stability if he did that. That cave was locked away forever.

Juliana noticed what he was looking at, “It’s sad we can’t go there anymore,” she said.

“Yeah,” Carlos said, his voice nothing but a whisper.

“I had so many memories in that place,” she said.

Curiosity flooded into Carlos’ mind, “Just how do you know about this place?” he asked. “It’s a top secret facility and to know it this well is quite extraordinary.”

“My dad was one of Aliea’s initial sponsors,” she said.

“Wait, what?”

“You probably don't remember me from back then,” Juliana said. “We used to explore these tunnels quite a lot when we were children. Before the traps had been set that is.”

“Explore together-” Carlos’ face froze. “Wait, Julie?”

Juliana nodded, “High time you remembered me, Carlos,” she laughed.

Carlos was still stunned, “But...I mean...how…” he stuttered.

“I moved back to Earth right after Aliea had been completed,” she said.

Carlos vaguely remembered something like that. It had been almost two decades since then so it wasn’t a surprise that he didn’t remember. “You’ve changed so much,” he said.

“What did you expect?” she laughed. “That I’d still be a skinny girl with short hair?”

“Well, I definitely didn't expect this,” he said. “So why exactly didn’t you tell me about this before?”

“You seemed to be pretty busy with the Aliea Academy,” she said. “When I came back I thought your dad would be in charge of this place but when I realized you were the only one here I figured it’d be better to give you some space and let you work. Aliea is a pretty tough place to manage.”

“My dad,” Carlos murmured, and looked up at the ceiling like he was looking at the non-existent stars, “He left a long, long time ago, right after the academy was founded.”

“Oh,” Juliana quietened. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don't be,” Carlos smiled. “He made me ready for this path.”

He looked around. Something felt off. Someone was missing.

“Where’s Elizabeth?” he asked.

“She’s just gone out for a bit.”

“Julie,” he said. “Where is she?”

Juliana bit her lip, “She’s gone to get the antidote for the poison,” she said.

“She what?!” he exclaimed.

“She wanted to help you so she left to get it. We couldn’t leave you alone so she asked me to stay back.”

“Too bad,” he said.

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Too bad we’re going to follow her anyway,” he said.

“Carlos you can’t,” Juliana warned him. “Your condition is far worse than you realize.”

“This is not a request. This the High Commander’s order.”

“Yes, Commander,” she stuttered.

Carlos stood up, stumbling a bit.

He steadied himself against the wall. “Let’s go,” he said.

“What about the cadets?”

He turned around to face all the young men and women, “Cadets hold your positions,” he said. “This place won’t be breached. We’ll come back to get you. Under no circumstances are you to leave this place on your own.”

“Yes, Commander,” they all saluted.

He looked into the end of the tunnel, its darkness captivating and frightening at the same time. He turned towards Juliana and smiled, “Looks like we get to go exploring again.”

***

Elizabeth ran to the end of the tunnel and looked up at the dark roof. She needed to get to the surface if she wanted to take back the antidote. She was sure that the storm was going to intimidate her like before, but this time she was going to be ready for it.

She focused on all her energy flowing into her fist. A sharp pain hit her chest. She coughed hard but she kept going at it. She was reaching her limit; her energy was being used up too rapidly. “Just one last time,” she said and punched into the walls of tunnel.

A large fissure ran up to the ceiling and it collapsed to reveal an opening. But the opening led into an overhead tunnel. “This is taking too long,” she muttered.

She didn't know how many more tunnels were above her, and she certainly didn't have enough energy to break through them one by one.

She lowered her arms to her side and focused on her energy. She imagined it flowing around her, wrapping her inside a cocoon. A red aura glowed around her. She stretched out her wings and shot through the opening, crashing through roof after roof of hard stone until she was out in the open, ready to face the storm.

Only, there wasn’t much of a storm anymore.

Gallons of cold water burst into her face. Her first instinct was to look back at the opening she had made in the tunnel. If the water flowed into the underground network it would be game over for Carlos and everyone else. Fortunately for her, her blast had created enough rocky debris to clog the opening and block the water from entering the tunnel.

Elizabeth swam up towards the surface and burst out, expanding her wings and taking to the air. She looked around and took in her surroundings. The whole of the academy was flooded with water. Aliea was now a vast ocean of blue.

She looked to the horizon. The Demon Riser stood there in all its glory, huge torrents of water flowing around it like they were being pushed by an invisible force.

A force field
, she realized.

The storm hadn't subsided. The hail and rain had stopped but the winds were roaring as fast as ever, threatening to toss her about like she was a piece of paper.

“I’m getting that antidote,” she said and shot towards the building. The wind kept pushing her back and the hundred-yard high waves threatened to take her down with tremendous force. She put her hands together in a swimmer’s position. She had to make her body streamlined if she wanted to cut through the winds in front of her.

A flash of lightning burst out of nowhere and hit the air a few feet away, sending a searing heat onto her skin. Another flash hit the sky. Elizabeth realized that the flashes of light were coming from below and not above. She looked down to see the ocean teeming with huge maelstroms. Massive flashes of lightning shot of the center of each one and lit up the whole sky. Thunder cracked through the air. The wind picked up speed, howling like forgotten souls screaming for their lives.

Elizabeth pushed her way through towards the Demon Riser. She could see that everything inside the tower’s barrier was peaceful. There was no storm, no wind, not even a drop of water. The biggest problem though, was figuring out a way to get inside. The force field was completely impenetrable, but she couldn't give up just because of that.

She had one hope; to use her strengths to get inside the field. She folded her wings and dropped towards the water, taking a deep breath before she plunged in. Her limbs and wings shifted in powerful movements as she raced towards the sea floor.