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

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ZEQUEST

A Quest Saga Novella

By Dhayaa Anbajagane

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Q hated trips.

He hated bicycles, cars, trains and planes. Basically if something could take him from one place to another, he’d probably hate it. So one could see why spaceships weren’t exactly his favorite thing, and being stuck in one was the worst. Especially since he’d been in there for two days. The only positive he could see was that there was just another hour until he could exit what he felt was a ‘metal coffin’.

“I’m bored,” he mumbled.

“Just go to sleep,” the girl sitting next to him groaned. She lay in her seat, curling up against the wall as she herself tried to go back to sleep. Her hair was a dark shade of red, its silky-shiny texture making it seem photoshopped.

“But I’m not tired,” he said. She ignored him and lay still, probably fast asleep already.

The trip had been quite tiring and being stuck in a truck sized spaceship for forty-eight hours didn’t exactly make one feel relaxed or rejuvenated.

Q had actually rejected the suggestion of taking this trip, but his brother Carlos had forced him to come along. Frankly put, he had no clue why he was even included. All Carlos had told him was that the planet they were heading to was called Armorica. So basically Q was on a blind mission to a place he didn’t know, to do something he was yet to be briefed on.

He got up and walked through a corridor toward the front of the ship, a.k.a ‘the deck.’

Two seats were placed side by side at the front end of the deck, a moderately-tall figure sitting on each of them. The chair on the right turned around, revealing an athletic looking man. The pit was dimly lit but Q could see the distinct shades of brown both in his hair, and in his eyes.

“Couldn’t go to sleep?” he asked.

“I’ve been stuck in this tin can for far too long to be able to sleep peacefully.”

“Whoa, whoa,” he said. “Hang in there would you? We’re just a while away from the landing site.”

“You know you still haven’t told me about this planet we’re going to.”

“I haven’t? Oh dear,” he said and quickly turned his chair around.

Q waited.

And waited.

“Are you going to tell me or not?”

“I’m just kidding,” Carlos laughed and turned back around. “So, we’re headed to Armorica.”

“That I already know.”

“It’s a planet that’s pretty much like Earth.”

“That’s still not useful info.”

“Commander,” the other seat turned around, revealing a girl in her late teens. She had fair, untanned skin and a rather thin, rounded face. Her curly black hair was sleek and had been pulled into a loose ponytail. Her blue eyes looked at him, her long eyelashes fluttering as she blinked.

“We’re two minutes into initiating descent,” she said. “Everyone needs to secure themselves for entry.”

“Will you be able to manage the descent on your own?” Carlos asked.

“Yes sir,” she said, her head looking straight at the view screen that fed a view from the front of the ship.

“Very well then,” he said and ushered Q towards the passenger area.

Carlos stopped in front of the fast-asleep girl and leaned close to her, “ELIZABETH!” he yelled out.

She jumped, her face slamming into the wall she was leaning on, and slumped back into her seat, her hands covering her face.

Carlos grinned, “Always wanted to do that,” he said.

“I’m so glad you finally got to do it,” Q rolled his eyes. His brother could do the stupidest things at the silliest of times.

“What do you want?” Elizabeth asked, her hands moving around her face, searching for any bumps. She didn’t seem mad at all, almost as though she were used to Carlos’ craziness.

“We’re preparing for reentry,” Carlos said. “Secure yourself.”

“You know, you could’ve just done that
without
waking me up.”

Carlos looked straight at her for a really long time and then he broke into a smile, “Well, what do you know,” he chuckled. “I guess I really could have done that.”

Elizabeth’s hand reached out to the screen in front of her, and she quickly tapped through different icons and settings. A rectangular, metal frame extended out of the top of her seat and rotated downward until it was touching her chest. Q knew the frame was made of metal because Carlos had told him that, but when he looked at it, it seemed nothing of the sort. The pipe-like sections had a nice, thick layer of sponge-like material around them, probably to cushion any sudden movements.

“Well?” she glared at Carlos, her red eyes looking like they’d really catch fire any second. “Am I the only one who wants to get ready for reentry?”

Carlos quietly secured himself in the seat in front of her and Q sat down next to her, working through the options on his screen.

Procedures. Reentry. Passenger securing.

His seat vibrated a bit as the metal frame positioned itself over him.

“I’m surprised you knew how to do that on your own,” Elizabeth said.

“Fourteen-year olds should learn to shut up,” he said.

“Fifteen-year olds should learn to make better comebacks.”

Ouch
, he thought.

The ship’s inner speakers turned on, the regular interference seeping out before the pilot’s voice came through, “Reentry initiated. Active in three...two...one!”

The ship shook violently, and Q felt his chest sink in and out of the sponge covering with every jerk he went through. A minute later the shaking stopped and he felt the ship heat up.

“We’re in Armorica’s atmosphere,” Carlos said. “So you’ll have to get through the five minutes of heat from reentry friction.”

“We know how this works, Carlos,” Elizabeth laughed.

Q looked out the window next to Elizabeth and saw a tinge of orange-red on the other side. The air around them was heating up so much that it had started glowing a reddish orange. He wished he could go outside the ship and look at it, but his natural obligation to stay alive advised against it.

A mental countdown ran through his mind as he patiently waited for the heat surge to end. Though the orange flame looked beautiful, he really didn’t like the intense heat that came along with it.

The ship jerked violently, nearly pulling into an uncontrollable barrel roll. A loud tear shredded Q’s eardrums, a noise that felt like a million chalk pieces were screeching against a board. A rush of wind rose towards the ship’s ceiling, swirling past him like he was the epicenter of a tornado. He felt one side of his seat loosen a bit and his hands instinctively tried to reach out for something to hold on to.

The whole chair broke free and the air shot him upward; he’d been sucked out through a rift in the ship ceiling. In seconds he was far enough to see the silver-grey spacecraft shoot away, its entire body encompassed in a flaming red tinge.

Only now it wasn’t actually a tinge. It was a flame.

Q’s eyes widened as he realized what was going on.

They’d been attacked.

And the ship was on fire.

***

Elizabeth’s mind worked razor fast.

The moment she felt the wind around her she realized there was a breach on the ship’s ceiling. She saw a large shadow pass by her face, and she immediately turned to her left.

The seat was gone.

Q was gone.

Damn seat
, she thought.
Its
screws must have been loose
.

Her body moved involuntarily, as though she knew perfectly what to do in this situation.

Focus
, she thought and concentrated on her upper back. Two glorious, feathery wings of white extended from her back. She kept them folded up and tapped on the screen in front of her. The frame around her rotated upward, loosening its hold on her.

“
Ethosien
,” she said.

The sky-blue, pearl bracelet on her wrist radiated brightly, covering her in a cocoon of white light and warming her skin. She felt sections of metal cover her body bit by bit as they all snapped into place, and in less than five seconds she’d shifted from T-shirt and jeans to a full blown blue-white armor, helmet and all.

She looked through her visor at a floating Q a few hundred yards from her, a small tinge of red around him.

Oh god
, she thought.

She had hoped the wind surge had slowed him down enough to prevent reentry burn up, but as always, the opposite had happened. Her wings spread out in the open space, each one around ten feet in length, and she tried to fly up towards him; the key word here being ‘tried’.

She was still too high up in the atmosphere for any significant air presence. That meant however hard she flapped her wings, she wouldn’t move fast enough to reach him in time.

But the effort did help her get a better look at him, and she felt relieved to see that he’d managed to get his armor on - A sleek black suit with a circle of neon red on his chest.

And since he had his armor on, the reentry heat wouldn’t hurt him.

For now.

But another five minutes in and there was no way he was going to survive. She could feel her skin heat up as well, her suit glowing a faint red.

Damn it
, she thought.

She’d been so focused on Q she’d forgotten she was in the exact same situation as he was. She figured her wings would slow her descent, but that slowing down could only happen in the lower atmosphere where she had enough air to work with. And based on how fast her suit was heating up she wasn’t sure she could get down there in time.

She wracked her mind, trying to come up some sort of improvisation, and that’s when a translucent wall of white surrounded her in the form a small sphere. The bottom of the sphere had the red tinge of flames to it, which meant she was still falling. The only difference now was that there was something else between her and the heat.

Another one of those spheres appeared beside her, and she noticed that Q was in it.

The Elementa of light
, she realized. Q had shielded both of them from reentry burn up.

“We need to head back down,” his voice flowed through the intercom in her suit.

She nodded her head and turned around. Her eyes went wide at what she saw. The ship was surrounded by large flames.

“Carlos!” she yelled out.

All the air inside the ship had come out by now, which meant there was no mini-hurricane pulling everyone out of the ship. What that also meant was that Carlos and the pilot were stuck in there as well.

“I can’t protect them for this far away,” Q went straight to business. “We need to get to within a hundred yards.”

“Carlos’ Elementa is air isn’t it? Can’t he use air to slow them down?”

“Are you crazy? Think of all the life energy you’d need to summon that powerful a wave-skill. There’s no way even a Mage could pull that off, let alone a warrior.”

She bit her lip, “How many seconds till we’re within range?”

“Under two minutes.”

“That’s too long,” she paused. “Get this thing off of me.”

“What?”

“The shield. Take it off.”

“What are you trying to do?”

“NOW!”

The white walls dissipated into nothing. She extended her wings and pushed herself down towards the ship. Her helmet flared up with the familiar red tinge of burn-up as she fell through the air. She secretly wished someone took a snap of the scene.

Flaming girl falls through sky
, she thought.

The ship was coming up. The reentry jerking and friction was causing the breach on the top to slowly tear itself open inch by inch.

She could see Carlos in there equipped with a standard gray suit. He was standing amidst the flames, next to a large section of metal that had collapsed onto the floor.

“Carlos, we need to get all of you out of the ship,” she spoke into the intercom “Get the pilot and get out.”

“I can’t,” his voice crackled through. “Her legs are caught under the metal.”

Her suit's visor magnified the image in front of her and she saw a silver-armored figure stuck under a metal piece. Carlos tried to lift up the metal on his own, but no way was he going to free her like that.

“Try using your Elementa of air,” she could hear Q’s voice over the intercom as she headed in. “We haven’t got any time to spare.”

“I tried. The fire’s created too much heat for me to be able to control any of the air around her. It’s all too chaotic.”

“We need to find something soon,” Elizabeth said. ”I don’t know how much longer the engine will stay stable.”

Another voice came through, clearly a woman’s, “Sir, you must leave,” she said. “I’ll find a way on my own.”

The pilot
, Elizabeth recognized.

“Do not assume for even a second that I will leave a comrade in need.”

“With all due respect, Commander,”

The ship creaked one final time, and the whole thing exploded in a burst of flames.

“NO!” Elizabeth tried to burst toward the ship but a white globe of light encompassed and confined her. “Q! What are you doing?” she yelled.

“Look,” he pointed to a smaller sphere of light that shone at the epicenter of the explosion. “Carlos, are you both safe?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Carlos voice came through the intercom. “We’re fine.”

Thank god
, she thought.

They’d narrowly escaped one calamity, but Elizabeth knew it wasn’t over yet.

“How much longer can you keep these shields up?” she asked.

Q moved his hands about and the three spheres came together. They fused into one larger sphere and deposited all four of them within its protective walls.

“Now that I’ve done that,” he said. “About twenty seconds.”

***