ConQuest (The Quest Saga) (6 page)

Kai immediately put on the standard issue armor, which conveniently double-functioned as a space suit, and ran out of the ship.

They all took reserve suits from the pit and got out of the ship. Q realized that these suits had an inbuilt helmet as well.

Kai was running around the Atlas furiously, mumbling something in between. He was completely focused on fixing the ship.

Q heard a crackle inside his helmet. “I’m going off to help Kai” he heard Carlos’ voice say.

Q realized that the suits acted as communicators as well. He looked around himself. The planet’s terrain was peppered with rocks. The surface was sheer rock and the landforms that Q could identify were pointy rocks that grew out of the surface. The whole place was a barren wasteland. There seemed to be no sign of life.

It looked like Taylor was already a step ahead of Q. She had already walked over to a huge crater about a hundred meters away.

“Taylor! Wait up,” Q said on the intercom. No reply.

“That’s odd,” Q muttered to himself. “Taylor never ignores another person.”

Maybe her armor was defective.

Not a good sign.

Q ran behind her. Well you could say ran. But Q was floating like a balloon since the planet’s gravity was apparently very weak. . Taylor on the other hand was walking normally.

Q wondered how she was able to do that. His top priority was to get to Taylor but it seemed like she was moving away from him. Something seemed wrong to Q. He needed another plan.

He ran back to the Atlas. He searched for Carlos and Kai, but they were nowhere to be seen.

“Carlos! Kai! You guys here?” he said on the intercom. The only reply he got was a bunch of static.

Q ran to the hangar in the Atlas. He’d seen a rover in there. He was sure he could use that to catch up with her.

How hard could driving a rover be, he thought.

He started the rover. The hangar door opened up and a platform extended towards the ground. Q rode the rover down the sloping platform to the rocky surface of the planet. He couldn't hear the engine because of the lack of air. He stepped on the accelerator and the rover rolled forward.

His idea was working out quite well. He was able to regain sight of Taylor in a few minutes. She seemed to be following something. Q looked closer. He couldn’t make out what it was but it closely resembled a fly. A giant one!

“Taylor! Taylor! Are you there?” He yelled into the intercom. She didn’t seem to hear him.

The rover brought him closer to her. It was only when he got to her could he actually see what was really going on.

There was a huge insect and it was carrying her!

There was one more insect that was prancing around her. It was only because she was flying that she moved faster and that’s why Q did not see her float up in the air.

The insects were completely grey in color and closely resembled bees. Their wings though remained invisible. Q wondered if it was because they were moving their wings at a very high speed. They had large black eyes. Q could see sharp teeth protruding from their mouth.

He didn’t know what the insects wanted with Taylor but he was pretty sure that it involved the words ‘dinner’ and ‘menu’.

Not gonna happen, Q thought.

He drove the rover alongside the insects. They didn’t seem to hear the rover. Q was relieved now he had the advantage of stealth.

Just then, ironically, an insect turned for some reason and saw Q. It rushed towards him. Q expected it to attack him but it just hovered in front of the rover. The longer Q looked at it the more bored and sleepy he got. He realized what the insect was doing.

It was hypnotizing him! Its flying patterns were probably hypnotic. 

Q willed all his strength and jumped sideways. He crashed into Taylor and the momentum carried both of them over 30 feet away from the insects and behind a pointy rock.

It looked like Taylor had been under the insects’ spell. She looked dazed. When she finally came out of her trance she didn’t seem to realize what was going on. She looked at him for answers.

“Taylor, listen to me.”

No reply. Her intercom was definitely broken.

He got an idea. He pointed towards the insects and showed them to her. That seemed to send the message across to her. She looked at them and then she did the most stupid thing in the world.

She jumped.

They were well hidden behind some rocks, but when she jumped, the insects found them. Q realized that their only chance would be to get to the rover.

But how do you get there when you have two bloodthirsty Alien parasites after you.

Q could only come up with a plan that involved one of them being used as bait. He knew he needed to be the bait.

He didn’t know why but it just felt right. He also knew it would be hopeless trying to explain such a plan to Taylor. So he pointed to the rover and made a slow running motion.

It looked like she understood. Q showed the countdown on his fingers. 3...2...1... Go! He and Taylor ran to the rover. Just as he thought, the insects spotted them easily and chased after them. 

But what Q didn’t expect was for Taylor to run away from the rover at the last moment. Q realized what she was doing. She was using herself as bait!

They had to get out somehow. The insects were coming around fast and they didn’t even have a pocketknife to use as a weapon.

Q’s attempts to call Taylor back were in vain. He started the rover and headed for Taylor. He drove alongside her. She immediately jumped into the vehicle. If any giant insect wanted to eat them up they’d have to catch them first.

Q put some good distance between them and the insects. After a few minutes, Q saw the Atlas. He looked back. The insects were long gone. He figured that they had probably given up the chase.

When he reached the Atlas, he saw Kai and Carlos standing in front of the ship with their arms crossed.

Uh… oh, Q thought.

You can imagine his surprise when Carlos and
Kai patted him on the back!

“Good job, Q,” Kai said.

“Um.... Thanks? I guess?” Q was completely confused.

“We heard you on the intercom but we decided to let you handle it yourself,” Carlos told Q.

“Handle two carnivores on my own!??”

“Who told you they were carnivores?” Kai said with a grin.

That’s when Q knew he was going to win the comedian of the year award.

“God... Don’t tell me...” Q mumbled.

“Those are rock-eating insects. You could compare them to say..... Plants with wings,” Carlos said.

“They were probably taking Taylor because they were curious. Those creatures are highly curious beings. Like puppies,” Kai finished.

Boy, did Q feel like an idiot! They weren’t even going to kill them. They probably came after the rover because the colors appealed to them; pink and purple are definitely bright colors.

“If you had asked Taylor she would’ve told you,” Carlos said.

“But she never replied on the intercom,” Q complained.

“I noticed that as well. You okay, Taylor?” Kai enquired.

Well she didn’t say anything. It was probably the broken intercom. They took the rover into the hangar.

“So what was the problem with the engine?” Q asked.

“Someone crossed the wires,” Kai said.

“Someone?” Carlos raised an eyebrow.

“Fine... I changed the wiring to put the engine into overdrive but it gave away after too much strain,” Kai said guiltily.

They walked into the hangar and took off their suits.

“Why didn’t you reply?!!” Q asked Taylor once she
could
hear him.

“What do you mean I didn’t reply?! You didn’t reply to anything I said! I was shouting all the time. And by the way why did you run away from the…”

Q interrupted her “…I didn’t know they were harmless, okay?”

Taylor burst out laughing. Q went over to a corner and sulked. This was the most embarrassing moment of his life. Of course there was that Jell-O night but this came a close second.

Kai called Taylor aside. “Could I see the suit you used?” he asked. He took a good look at it.

“Oh dear,” Kai said.

“What’s wrong?”

“The insects probably meddled with your wiring. They’ve cut all the wires. I can fix it but it’ll take some time.”

“Can we get going please?” Q asked. He was getting bored of talking all the time. Plus he wanted to see what this new place that Carlos was taking them to, looked like.

“Carlos, you fly the ship. I’ll take a look at the engine to make sure it’s okay,” Kai suggested.

“Sure,” Carlos smiled happily. Q wondered if it was a good idea to let Carlos pilot.

Kai stayed back in the hangar to check on the core of the nuclear engine. He said that an overdrive could affect the core; something that Q didn't exactly need to hear.

That statement effectively meant that the core could overload and explode. A mushroom cloud up in space. It would have to be a first.

Q and Taylor followed Carlos to the pit.

Carlos strapped himself to the pilot’s seat. Q and Taylor strapped themselves in the two seats behind him.

“We’re going to take off guys. So, get ready for the ride of your lives,” Carlos laughed madly.

Q didn’t know about the others but to him, that sentence meant only one thing: Danger.

Warp Drive

Note to the Oxford Dictionary: The phrase ‘Ride of your lives’ has been redefined to mean ‘Get ready to meet your doom’.

“Slow down, man.” Q clutched his seat desperately.

“We can’t. A warp drive can only travel at the speed of light.” Carlos said.

“The what?” Kai asked as he walked in.

“Hey! So the core is all right?” Q asked.

Kai nodded and turned to Carlos. “Sir, you were saying something?”

“I was just telling these kids that the warp drive I installed on your ship, like all warp drives, can only travel at the speed of light. No slower.”

Kai’s eyes widened. He couldn’t believe his ears.

“You installed a warp drive on my ship?!” He jumped up and down in excitement.

“I was able to install it while you were fixing the engine. You didn't even notice it.”

Q and Taylor didn't understand a single bit of their conversation.

Kai seemed to notice their cluelessness and explained it to them.

“The warp drive is the second most advanced engine known to man, the first of course is the lambda driver,” he began.

Carlos glared at Kai. “Where did you learn that, pilot? The lambda driver never existed. It’s a myth.” He didn't seem to be happy with Kai’s statement.

“Umm... explanation please?” Q was clueless again.

“Well, there’s this theory that there exists a ‘lambda driver’ that surpasses anything that man has ever known,” Kai told him.

“So what about the warp drive?” Taylor enquired.

“Though you can’t compare it to the speed of a lambda driver, it is pretty fast. The warp drive compresses space in front of the ship so you travel through a shorter path. When you pass through the stretch, the compressed space behind you starts to expand and push the ship from behind, thereby increasing the ship’s speed.”

“What does a lambda driver do?” Taylor asked.

“Well that’s the problem. No one knows. We only know that it can travel faster than the warp which is kind of impossible. Nothing is
supposed to
travel faster than the speed of light but the lambda driver is believed to.”

“Wait, so if we’re going at light speed because of the warp drive, isn’t there some weird thing that should be happening to us?” Q asked.

He remembered that if you travel at the speed of light, time around you flows faster. So for every second you spend in the ship, a year passes by!

“The warp drive counters it,” Carlos said. “We found a way to stay on the same time plane while travelling at the speed of light. So we’re still in the 21st century and you don't have to worry,” Carlos smiled.

Q had studied about different methods of travel in space but those were based on NASA’s findings. These guys were much more advanced. If these guys were human then NASA was probably a monkey.

“Check this out,” said Carlos and threw a lever on the Atlas’ panel.

They heard the cadets shrieking from the passengers’ area.

“What did you do?” Kai asked Carlos.

Carlos didn’t say anything. He just got up and walked to the back. The others followed him. When they got to the back they realized why the cadets were screaming.

There was a huge hole opening up in the floor!

Or so they thought. Carlos just walked into the gap. He didn’t fall down. He just floated above it.

There must be some sort of transparent barrier, Q realized.

“There’s a covering made of the same type of glass the Chepauk uses,” Carlos revealed.

“The Chepauk used,” a cadet reminded them.

Everyone went silent. They faced the reality.

S.P.A.C.E was actually gone. Every single cadet that stayed back had been killed by those giants. Q hoped the ones who escaped were fortunate enough to survive.

He couldn't believe that those giants killed their cadets. Q wondered why they’d come to S.P.A.C.E in the first place.

“When are we getting back to Earth?” Taylor asked Carlos.

“Well, we’ve got a few complications.”

“Like what?!” Taylor and Q asked in unison.

Carlos’ eyes darted around the room nervously.

“S.P.A.C.E was completely annihilated. The only ones who escaped were either healers or navigators.”

Taylor understood what he meant “All the warriors are dead,” she voiced her thoughts.

Carlos nodded. “That’s why I need to go to this other place.”

“What other place?” Q asked.

Suddenly the Atlas stopped. Kai seemed to have switched off the warp drive. In a few seconds the nuclear engine kicked up and they started cruising again.

“Why did you turn the warp drive off?” Q asked Kai.

“Can’t use a warp drive once we’re on a planet, can we?” Kai said.

“We’ve reached?” Taylor asked excitedly.

“Welcome to Zygrade,” Carlos announced.