ZeQuest: A Space Opera Mystery Novella (The Quest Saga Science Fiction Adventure Series Book 2) (7 page)

Elizabeth’s mind went blank.

She mumbled Alicia’s name over and over, her eyes tearing up, hoping the pilot would wake up and tell her she was fine.

But this was reality. Things didn’t work that way.

She looked at Alicia, her heart thumping hard, her body feeling nauseous. Parts of Alicia’s face were blackened, as though she’d been beat up, and the black suit had miniscule holes in it, like the ones she’d have had if syringes had pierced her again and again.

She’d been abused. There was no doubt about it.

Elizabeth didn’t know what to feel. She was a hurricane of emotions. She felt anger, sorrow, regret, pain. And yet she couldn’t choose a single one of them.

“Why?” she knelt to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. “Why did it have to be you?”

She couldn’t help but remember everything Alicia had told her that day. About how this was her last mission, about how she wanted to get away from all this and settle down, about how she wanted to live a happy, normal life.

And then
this
happened.

It isn’t fair
, she thought.

The anger inside her welled up, masking all her other confused emotions. She felt the ground beneath her tremor a bit and immediately tried to calm herself down. A person’s control over an Elementa went berserk at times if their emotions were too extreme, and she wasn’t ready to pull off a level 10 earthquake in an underground cavern.

She would have loved to. But she wasn’t ready for it.

Voices echoed from a distance. Those people were coming back, and she could tell that this time there were more of them. She would have liked to send them to their grave, but she knew that would be a haphazard solution. She didn’t know who these men were, though she had a pretty strong guess that they were Thanonians, and more importantly she didn’t know what their combat abilities were. This wasn’t the time for her to bite off more than she could chew.

Right now, she had to focus on getting out of the cave and getting her communication lines back on. One message would be enough to get the High Priest to send her adequate backup.

She looked around her, searching for a spot to hide in. Of course, she could just go back to where she had been imprisoned, but these men would probably look there anyway. She glanced at the wide pipe that extended out of the machine and fixed to the ceiling. It ran into the darkness, into a path she couldn’t see. But she knew it was the only path she could take, her only way out.

She walked up to the table, her hands and legs trembling, and put her hand on Alicia’s face, her fingers feeling her still warm skin.

She bent down and kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“So we’ll get that Seraphian girl next?” a voice echoed loudly.

Elizabeth heart clenched. Her mind screamed in fear. She abandoned all her emotions, all her thoughts, and ran for her life, following the pipe into the darkness. The pipe itself was shrouded by the dark, leaving just a faint outline for her to see. Thankfully, her suit auto-switched back to night vision, showing her a better image of her surroundings.

She kept following it deeper into the cavern, ignoring her weariness and pushing on until her legs cramped. Her body gave in and she collapsed to the floor, her breathing hard and rigid. That rocket launcher must have injured her more than she’d thought.

Her mind replayed what those men had said right before she’d run away.

The Seraphian was next.

They’d meant her no doubt. They were planning to do to her what they did to Alicia.

Sure, she’d escaped now, but it wouldn’t be long before those men found out she was missing. Elizabeth sank in fear at the thought of what would come next.

She looked around her and saw that she was in a narrow, rocky tunnel. Dark, jagged rocks jutted out of the sides, threatening to injure her if she didn’t watch her step. The tube above seemed to keep going deeper in, and she didn’t know how much longer it would be until she found an exit.

She picked up on voices coming from behind her and her suit registered the noise, trying to amplify it as much as it could.

“Where did the girl go?!”

“The wall’s been cracked. She must have been an Earth Elementa user.”

“Curses. He should have told us she held such a power.”

“It must have slipped his mind.”

“We can’t worry about that. Take the men with you and sweep the delivery tunnel. That’s the only way she could have gone.”

Elizabeth trembled at the mention of a tunnel. They were onto her already. They’d be on her heels in minutes. She imagined what would happen if she were recaptured, and her mind remembered the painful screams she had heard. She was not going to end up that way. Never.

Her fear fueled her, and she limped deeper into the tunnel, ignoring the pain in her legs. She could hear the faint footsteps echo louder and louder. Her captors were still quite far off, but they wouldn’t take too long to cover the distance, especially since she was half-crippled.

She tried to spread her wings, hoping to fly through the tunnel. But sadly, a twenty-foot wingspan wasn’t very practical in such a narrow space.

Curse you, wings
, she thought.

She hobbled on, trying as hard she could to keep herself at max speed, her mind registering the gradual increase in the volume of the footsteps chasing her.

But then something went horribly wrong.

“I can hear footsteps!” one of them yelled. And this time, her suit didn’t have to amplify it.

She looked back and saw two bright flames of red on either end of the tunnel about a hundred yards behind her.

Fire mages
, she thought.

And then her mind paused. She was pretty sure a Thanonian could never control the Elementa of fire. What was going on here?

The footsteps became louder and louder. Her captors were coming up much faster than she’d expected.

Her leg wasn’t getting better, and she didn’t seem to be any closer to finding an exit. This was it. She was going to be recaptured. And she knew what came after that.

As she prepared herself for a final gambit, she noticed the air in front of her shimmer, and a strong draft ran through the tunnel. She turned around and spread her wings as much as she could, trying hard to ride the wind.

For some reason her suit went berserk. Interference noise ran through her helmet and random colors flashed on her visor. She crashed into something hard and then all the confusion stopped. Her helmet went silent, and her visor turned black.

A single message flashed on, “Spatial error.”

What?
she thought.

“Rebooting vital systems.”

Her visor turned on again, and she looked around her.

She had somehow left the tunnel and entered some sort of a cave. A few hundred crystals lay scattered all around, from floor to ceiling, each one glowing with a ghastly purple light.

She heard the clunking of metal next to her. She turned to her right to see a dark-armored man stand over her, probably the one she’d crashed into.

She recognized the armor build and right away, she knew she was in big trouble.

He was a Thanonian.

***

The man in front of Elizabeth removed his helmet.

He wasn’t a man. He was a boy, around sixteen or seventeen years old but for all she knew Thanonians could probably look much younger than their age. His face was elf-like, with a faint dimple, and a pointed chin. Radiant green eyes looked at her and long locks of smooth, black hair flowed out of his helmet, falling to his mid-back. His long pointy ears peeked out of the black strands, completing his elven look.

She felt a little quiver inside her as she gazed at him.

Thanonians look amazing
, she thought.

“Now look what you have done,” he said, his voice deep and noble.

She could sense the strong rage in his tone, but it was all masked by the cool expression on his face. She couldn’t help but feel unnerved by the contrast between what he said and what his face showed her.

“Those dreaded Getafixians,” he spat.

Elizabeth tensed up. He’d found out she was with the Getafixians. Her mind raced around, trying to determine her next move. The Thanonian though just sighed and rested against the rocks, his eyes looking up at the cave ceiling.

She really didn’t know how to react to all this. There was no doubt this man was a Thanonian. She thought of Alicia’s lifeless pupils. She teared up at the thought, but maintained her composure.

A dialog box popped out on her visor, “Spatial error unresolved.”

She clenched her jaw. Just what was that error?

“They are like stars, are they not?” the Thanonian pointed to glowing crystals on the ceiling, a smile on his face. He was smiling but his face couldn’t hide his look of pain.

Pain
, she thought.

Who was this man to feel pain after pulling off kidnappings and murders? She pulled her daggers out of their sheaths, and held them in front of her.

“It would do you well to put those away,” he said, his eyes not once looking her way.

Elizabeth grit her teeth, “At least face me, you coward,” she said. The image of Alicia’s face remained in her mind, fueling her rage.

They hurt her
, she thought.
They killed her
.

She charged at the Thanonian, her daggers aimed right at his head. He glanced at her with a fearless look. A blast of sound shot through the air, rippled as waves and knocked her flying. She landed into a rock a few meters away, daggers still in hand. The Thanonian walked over to her, a smile on his face. She jumped back onto her feet and positioned herself for another attack.

“You think I’m the coward here?” he asked.

Elizabeth glared at him, “What other kind of person would kidnap innocent people and bring them here?” she asked. “What kind of man would torture someone to death?”

He sighed, “The two of us are going to be stuck in here for a long long time. I suggest you learn to stay calm, because otherwise we’re not going to get along at all.”

“Stop lying you coward,” she said. “What do you mean we’ll be stuck in here? You captured me and now you’re lying to me as well?”

He smiled, “Look around you at all there is to see. One cave. No openings. No exits.”

She fixed her gaze on him and made her suit scan the entire area to form a map. In less than a second a small section of her visor showed her the constructed images.

He’s right
, she thought.

One cave. No entrances or exits.

And more importantly, no machines or tables or chairs. That meant wherever she was right now, there was very little chance of her facing the same situation as Alicia.

“That tunnel you were in was where my portal was opening up,” he interrupted her thoughts.

“What are you talking about?”

“This land is called Nakiri, an inescapable prison, a pocket dimension,” he said.

A pocket dimension
, she thought. That explained the spatial error her suit had been mentioning over and over again.

The Thanonian went on, “For months I stored every single drop of life energy possible. Today I finally had enough energy to use my sound Elementa and create a portal to escape from this confinement,” he said. “I was heading out my portal when you and your Seraphian wings rammed into me and brought me back to this god-forsaken hell. The already weak portal closed up immediately, and now we’re both trapped in here.”

Elizabeth thought about it and realized every single word he said made perfect sense. Sound could indeed open up a portal if it were powerful enough. A portal was indeed opened since she never recalled going through an entrance to enter this cave; a portal was the only way in or out.

This really is Nakiri
, she thought. She knew it was the Getafixians’ maximum security prison, a place reserved for only the worst of criminals. And the very fact that this man was being held captive in such a place could only mean one thing.

He was one of the most dangerous criminals in the Universe.

And now she was trapped with him.

***

Q’s clammy hands gripped the underside of the table, his legs swinging nervously from the edge of his seat. The wooden table he sat at was massive, about twenty feet wide and almost twice as long. Fifty men and women sat around it, all of them wearing white gowns and calm expressions. The air of the room though hummed with a sense of expectancy.

“Quite a place,” Carlos whispered from the seat beside Q.

Q nodded, his hands still clutching the table.

The large wooden door at the end of the room thudded open, and Idhren walked in, escorted by two buff men. He quickly walked to the head of the table and took his seat, with his staff over his lap. The men bowed and left the room, closing the doors behind them. The thud of wood on wood echoed across the room, and silence took over.

“Welcome,” Idhren said, his voice flowing through the air. “I hope we all realize what it is we have gathered here for?”

A collective nod went through the Getafixians.

“The Thanonians are a race that has cheated us time and again, attacking us when we were peaceful, stealing from us at the worst of times, and now, they have crossed a limit. They have abducted countless men and women of our clan.”

Idhren paused, his fingers dancing around the crystal globe at the top of his staff, “The Thanonians have finally shown they are ready to wage war against us. We must reply, and in accordance with the Getafixian way, we shall deal with this problem with swift justice, stark and defiant.”

A few cheers went around.

“And to help us,” Idhren turned to Q and Carlos, “are our friends who, as many of you may have heard, are from the prestigious Aliea Academy.”

A round of cheers came again, this time way more enthusiastic than the last. A lot of them glanced Q’s way and whispered, making him feel more nervous than before. Idhren tapped his staff to the ground, and a small gust of wind burst through the air, silencing everyone.

“We must decide how we shall deliver our justice,” he said. “I believe the only hope we have of taking the Thanonians down is by disbanding them from within.”

“Disguises will be impossible,” a man opposite Q said.

He looked quite warrior-like, which seemed weird for a Getafixian, since they were more peaceful people. He had a square-jaw and a neat cut of hair along with a tanned, muscular body.

“We will not be the ones going to Thanos, Falael,” Idhren said. “At least, we won’t be the ones infiltrating it.”

“That job is ours,” Carlos finally spoke.

“Very well,” Falael said. “But how do you plan to wreak havoc within Thanos?”

Idhren paused, “The Thanonian army is ruled with an iron grip by none other than General Za’ad. His subordinates are all men who hate one another, and would probably murder themselves if not for their fear of their general. If Za’ad is rendered immobile then the army will run without a leader, and thus will become harmless.”

Rendered immobile
, the words ran through Q’s mind. It scared him a bit to think of what Idhren meant.

“I request that this plan remain secret until it has been carried out. We have reason to believe the Thanonians are within Armorica as we speak. We cannot afford for them to find out. This plan is our final gambit.”

“We shall take the oath of silence,” Falael said and everyone grunted in approval.

“Thank you,” Idhren said.

He stood up, “Sire, I shall attend to the task force we shall need,” he said.

“Very well. You and the others shall handpick a team of six that can carry out this mission. I shall require another group to go to the hangars, pick our best stealth ships, and check their condition. And a last group, led by me, shall work on establishing communication with our Intel group in Thanos and getting as much helpful information as we can.”

“Yes, Sire,” everyone said.

“Dismissed,” Idhren tapped his cane on the floor and the whole room disbanded.

A swirl of white gowns rushed around as people got together into groups and headed out the doors. A few of them gathered around Idhren, probably the intel contact team, but he sent them away as well. In less than a minute the whole conference room was silent and was devoid of any other Getafixians.

“Now would probably be a good time to brief you about the contents of
your
mission,” Idhren said.

A strip of the ceiling slid down behind Idhren, revealing a large screen. It turned on when it fixed into position, and showed them what seemed to be blueprints.

“The Thanonian military base,” Carlos murmured.

Idhren walked over to the screen like a presenter, and started talking, moving his staff about as a sort of pointing device.

Staff, walking stick and now powerpoint laser
, Q chucked to himself.
I need to get me one of those
.

“This is their military base,” Idhren said. “General Za’ad is stationed at the innermost level of the base.”

“High grade security tech?” Q asked.

“Of course it is,” his brother said.

Idhren nodded in agreement, “Brute force cannot and will not let you achieve your goal,” he said. “In fact it might hinder you the most. The intruder sensors are supposed to be highly sensitive.”

“Let’s talk about getting onto Thanos in the first place,” Carlos said. “How good are your stealth ships?”

“Our larger ships are the very best, but we can’t send you on those, since they’ll be easily noticeable by the naked eye once you reach Thanos’ surface.”

“So how about the stealth on the smaller ones?”

“Not the best in the world, but they should be well beyond the reach of the Thanonian radars.”

“Positive?”

Idhren nodded, “The fact that we managed to land spies on Thanos serves proof enough that our smaller carriers have adequate stealth capabilities.”

“What else should we know?”

“General Za’ad is surrounded by four outer levels or walls. Each one requires retinal and numerical passes to validate and permit entry, and each one houses a certain rank of men, going from analysts and strategists on the outside, to squad commanders on the level just outside Za’ad.”

“No guards?”

“There are a few. We do not have much intel on this, but I believe only the squad commanders will have guards that you might need to worry about.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard to get by,” Carlos said.

“Yeah,” Q said. “I mean all you have to do is beat a large group of people capable of sonic blasting you to death right?”

“I do not understand,” Idhren said. “What is he saying?”

“He’s being sarcastic,” Carlos said.

And Idhren stood there as though he were not aware of such a tool of speech.

Weird
, Q thought. But then again, he’d never really heard any Getafixian use any sarcasm, so maybe their culture didn’t have a sarcasm factor in it.

“Send a copy of the plans to my quarters,” Carlos said. “I’ll look it over and get back to you with a plan of action.”

“I hope we can avert this war,” Idhren sighed.

Carlos smiled at him, “Hope is coming your way.”

***