A Journey Into Unknown

by Aditya Kumar

  "So, you are saying that I will have to meet with them to talk whom I am supposed to destroy. I have to take help from those, whose sole purpose was to make everybody miserable," Mark wasn't ready to do this.

  "It wasn't their choice. Just that you can't see, but you have no idea, through what they all went through. Quaiak not just were the most powerful civilization only, but their only purpose was to keep everyone at peace with happiness. To show them heaven in life. But this is a real irony considering what they are getting forced to do today." She added, "Trust me, they will be helpful, and it is not you who are going to take help, but its Quaiak whom you have to help," Xeuca finished, what she wanted to say.

  “Maybe… that wasn’t their choice… but taking Emily, what about this… and what about spying on me,” Mark was still furious.

  Xeuca replied, “Because he needed someone who could help them… that’s why they were spying on you… and about Emily… they took her because they wanted you to fight for justice… and not being scared and holding back.”

  “If you know they are good species and wants to take our help… for saving the universe… then why did you kill them,” Mark asked.

  Xeuca replied, “Queon had this plan to search someone powerful, but he can’t make this plan public… otherwise Acouch will know. So… other had no idea what Queon are doing. That’s why that fight was real… and not a drama… and I killed some of them.”

  "Okay, so where can I find Queon," Mark asked.

  "I know the place," Xeuca told.

  ◆◆◆

  CHAPTER 14

  After Knowing the Trut

  h

  Mark is sitting beside Queon. He couldn't believe himself. He is trying to help the one, whom he had sworn to kill in order to save the universe. However, his mission is still same. Only the enemy changed. 'How can there be that much level of mystery and when I would be able to unravel everything? How Quaiak can be a victim of something worse and how worse he is? I guess, I will have to wait to find the answer,' Mark thought.

  Queon started saying first with his introduction, "My name is Queon and I am the leader of this whole cluster which is known as Xanser. We are cursed with this ugliest area where everybody is taken to make them suffer. Not for any of their mistake, but just to play with them. I can understand that you feel that we are responsible for all this. Trust me, we also feel the same way. I am ready to take any kind of punishment for the things that we have done, but first we need to stop and destroy Acouch."

  "Who is Acouch and how do you know him," Mark asked.

  Queon replied, "We don't have much information about him, but we know that he is extremely dangerous. I don't know his mission or purpose and I am afraid of him... we all are. A very long time ago, we were the most powerful civilization of the universe. That's why Acouch chose us, so that he will not need to give much time to maintain the peace even after doing anything. He trusted us and gave the curse of immortality and all the thing that you can see here. He made us to make everyone suffer and keep this universe ready for him to take everything from here."

  "I heard that you took the technology of Dyson sphere and went towards the edge of universe. Why you did this and what did you find there," Mark asked.

  "Perhaps, that was my only mistake and we are still suffering for that act. Like every developed species want to resolve the mystery of universe and its element, we were like same. At that time, we were trying to understand the time. How it acts and differs. We conducted all the experiment inside the universe and found nothing conclusive. So, we wanted to go to the end of the universe. But, we didn't have that much energy. We were technically far advanced than anyone but perhaps except one. We heard the name of organization named as Clan of Defenders and heard that they have the technology to build Dyson sphere. We couldn't wait and attacked on them. Our intention wasn't to kill them, and we didn't," Queon replied.

  He added, "We just stole their Alpha-5 technology and ran away from there. As we are supposed to do, we tried to go towards the end of universe. But there wasn't any end. We thought that someone is following us. Those were two of their members. Before we could do anything, both were dead, and we encountered with Acouch. He came in our path. We were over-confident with our powers and told him to go away if he wants to save his life. But we were wrong when we thought that edge of universe doesn't exist."

  He continued, "We were there where we wanted to go but what we got there, we never wanted. We were welcomed by Acouch in sarcastic manner and offered a job to suffer everyone. We opposed him and wasn't ready to accept his offer. But later we found that we didn't had a choice. He attacked us with some lunatic spell... not to kill us, but to break us. After a moment we all were suffering with extreme heat. He told us that we all can survive this extreme temperature of 110,000 degree Celsius and will not die ever. I was the leader, and I had to decide for everyone and I chose wrong. I was scared for my people and me."

  He continued, "I saw you fighting. I saw you taking out fire whose temperature was more than 50,000 degree Celsius and I realized that only you can defeat him. I also heard that how you tortured my people with fire but keeping alive. We cannot sustain more than 20,000 degree Celsius, but you compelled us to live with suffering of that huge fire having more than 50,000 degree Celsius. I understood that you can help all of us, to make a better future and to do right our wrongs."

  “So… after everything… you want me to right your wrongs… what were you thinking when you accepted their offer… You still think that you deserve a chance,” Mark was going out of control.

  “I understand your anger… but I didn’t had choice…” Queon tried to say.

  “You didn’t had choice,” Mark interrupted in middle, “then how did you think that I have a choice after suffering for 18 years in those fear,” and Mark started to attack him. Queon tried to defend… but he wasn’t a match for Mark.

  Other Quaiaks moved towards Mark… but Queon stopped them. Xeuca saw situation getting out of control. She used a powerful lunatic spell on Mark to make him sleep, but it didn’t affect him.

  “I know that no one can die on Xanser… and so you will not. But I will take you away from the effect of death shield… then I will kill you… giving the same pain and suffering that you gave everyone,” Mark said.

  Queon said, “Please don’t do this… If you take me away, then Acouch will know and then everything will be much worse…”

  This war was getting out of control. Xeuca must had to do something, because Acouch will know this… then nothing would have left to do.

  “I don’t care… if you are the most powerful civilization of the universe… but…,” Mark said.

  Xeuca interrupted in middle and she told pointing towards Queon, “You always tried to save the universe, but I have something to say… You are not the most powerful civilization in this universe… you never were”

  Xeuca said the truth, but only for creating a distraction to Mark. And she really regretted for this.

  “What… How do you know… and if you knew this earlier, then why you didn’t tell me,” Mark’s curiosity made him distracted from Queon, but now Xeuca had to answer many question of Mark.

  “I don’t know, what are you talking about. If we are not the strongest, then why Acouch forced us to do what we are doing,” Queon was taking a little relief, but was also surprised.

  “I can take only one question at a time,” Xeuca said sarcastically and turned towards Queon and told, “Acouch chose you, because you were powerful, but not as much that Acouch could lose control over you,” and for you Mark, “I didn’t tell you, because you were not ready,”

  “Come on, same thing again…” Mark said getting irritated, “Now, I know how you are friend with Xena. He told me the same thing for many of my question,” then he asked Xeuca, “So, why do you think, I am ready now.”

  “No… you are still not ready…” Queon told.

  “What… then why you told me now,” Mark asked.


  “Actually… just my tongue slipped,” Xeuca told… hiding the real reason that she wanted the fight between Mark and Queon to stop.

  “No… No… You are not getting this… I am ready now… If Acouch may be afraid of them, we can negotiate with them to join us in war… It will definitely increase our chances of winning,” Mark tried to convince her.

  “Listen… that sentence was just a mistake… You don’t know still that how powerful civilization works in the universe… and what is their way? They can kill you for just going to them,” now Xeuca need to argue a lot.

  “But, Acouch is too much powerful… We know him… We have seen him at his best, when we couldn’t able to do him anything with millions of warriors… and with a lot more others… even when he was alone… Also, he tells himself immortal… so we will need some other type of help like those you were talking…,” Queon came in support of Mark.

  Xeuca wanted to say something, but Mark interrupted in middle, “Hey… You don’t need to say anything in this. You made the situation worse at first place… You gave up in front of Acouch… not only for your own fate, but you did everything to make everyone’s fate worse.”

  “But you know, I didn’t have choice then, but I have now… and I will help you with everything, that I can do,” Queon said.

  “And what will you do, when Acouch will win,” Mark shouted, “You will do the same thing, that you used to do yet… because you are still same… How can I trust you in this war?”

  “I know, we did a horrible thing… but I promise you I will not do the same thing. You will have to trust, if we want to win this war,” Queon told.

  “I can’t trust you any more… after what you did… and this is my war… not our war… this was never your war,” Mark said.

  “Enough…” Xeuca had to interrupt between these two and then said to Mark, “If you want to win against Acouch, you will have to trust Queon.”

  “I want to win this war, much more than any of you do,” Mark said, “I just want to increase our chances of winning… you just need to tell about them… I will do the rest… I just want to give it a shot.”

  “Okay… I will tell you,” Xeuca told, “But, if anything will happen, that would be on you only.”

  “Alright,” Mark replied in affirmative.

  “Follow me,” Xeuca told, “You don’t need to take your warriors to them, Queon. If they even will think that we are there for war, we all would be demolished in a moment. So, just we three are going… and maybe Mark alone will go to talk with them,” she added, “I know one of those powerful civilization, which is not far away from here. They call them self, Cloukon.”

  “And how much powerful, they would be… I mean, would he be able to defeat Acouch,” Mark asked.

  Xeuca replied, “There is a logarithmic scale developed, to measure the strength of all civilization, and on this scale Cloukon’s average capability is approx. 97.7, being 100 the most powerful civilization. This is their average capability… because this scale measures the capability of an individual. And if you want to talk about if they would be able to defeat Acouch… I would say that obviously not in one to one fight… but as a whole Cloukon species, chances would be very high.”

  “And what does this 97.7 mean,” Mark asked.

  “On this scale people of your planet… Earth belongs to around 53.78,” Xeuca continued, “As this scale is logarithmic, so their strength is more that Earthlings by order of 44 (10 to the power 44 times more powerful than Earthlings).”

  “And what about Acouch… and me,” Mark asked.

  “This scale is only for the being that belong to this universe… and always lived here… but Acouch has also lived in other universe of this multiverse. So, this doesn’t work for him. And for you… This scale is also failing… I really have no idea… why,” Xeuca replied.

  Mark thought about himself… for his past self for a moment, but that wasn’t a good time, to waste.

  “So, one last question… How do you know all this,” Mark asked.

  “I think you have heard the word ‘Knowledge’. Maybe Xena have told you… This scale is a part of that mysterious book… a part, whose one copy… I have in me,” Xeuca replied.

  Mark could easily recall, when Xena had told him about ‘Knowledge’, but now they have got a lot to do. So… Mark, Xeuca and Queon… all three went to negotiate with Cloukon.

  Xeuca used another mysterious spell and they were somewhere else. They could see a large sphere glowing and producing sparkling red and blue light and continuously brightening and fading the color. It seemed large even when they are far away.

  Xeuca told, “Remember… it would be very tough for you to enter in that sphere. Go inside… and be careful. I will need to call for help…”

  “What… I will be fine… You will see me coming with them… Well, to whom you are going to call for help,” Mark couldn’t believe that Xeuca hadn’t believed on him.

  “Just do you job… and let me do mine,” Xeuca said this and disappeared with Queon.

  Mark went close to that sphere… that was a very large sphere surrounding their whole planet. Mark tried to analyze its frequency… but it seemed changing with time. He went on the nearby place and again there, frequency was different. He understood that the vibrating frequency of that sphere changes with time as well as with space. There wasn’t any relation he could able to find between the frequency of previous moment and current moment… made impossible to enter for him.

  He flied away to see the weak area. At one place, he saw that light coming from there, was complete blue and without any fading or brightening. He went there and observed that frequency doesn’t changes there with time… but also frequency wasn’t same throughout that whole place. So, in order-to enter in the sphere, he had to vibrate his body parts with different frequency and exact accuracy. He hadn’t done this before, but he had to do this time and he did this perfectly. He was inside the sphere.

  Whatever he saw was nothing… an empty space. He flied through it… and he saw a planet in middle… like this sphere was their security wall. He went closer to the planet and he felt their warrior attacking on him. Mark just defended himself, because he wasn’t there to create a war… he just burnt their weapons. Their warrior ran away… and their chief commander came to Mark and asked the reason of his presence there.

  Mark said, “I want to meet your chief. I need him.”

  After a lot of argument… he was convinced to take Mark to their chief.

  Whatever, Mark saw there is not easy to describe. A planet which was millions of years away than Earth in terms of technology. That commander took him where their chief Clemon lives. He greeted Mark and asked the reason to come there. So far, he seemed a good person to Mark.

  Mark said, “Our whole universe is attacked by an inter-dimensional creature, named Acouch. He is trying to make everyone suffer…”

  “Not us,” Clemon interrupted in middle, “I understand your concern… but what would be there for me in this deal.”

  “Your people will remain safe, and…” Mark said.

  “They still are,” Clemon again interrupted, “we have done our research on Acouch and he is not able to attack on us. Moreover, we don’t have time to help you or any one weak like you.”

  “I can show you, that I am not weak,” Mark couldn’t able to keep control on himself.

  “Alright then. Can you see that,” Clemon said pointing towards a robot, “Defeat this robot and we will help you… and one more thing, if you will be defeated, we will kill you.”

  Mark wanted to take the risk… and so, he accepted the challenge.

  “So, why not start the fight here right now,” Clemon said.

  As Mark said yes… Clemon signaled the robot.

  Mark went towards robot to attack on him… but robot took him and threw outside. Mark smiled… as he could fly… but he was dragged by something and fell on ground. “How did you do that,” Mark asked.

  “Oh
… you are asking to robot,” Clemon said sarcastically, “It doesn’t speak much… but it can control gravity… increase or decrease at any point.”

  ‘You got to be kidding me,’ Mark told himself.

  Mark again came to the robot… but this time he stopped Mark with his hand and in such a way that he couldn’t move his hand and threw him away on the rock. Mark was injured, but he used energy blast on the rock and that made him to fly again and also untied his hand. On seeing this, robot got very angry and this time… he didn’t only tie his hand… but broke his hand… broke every part of his body.

  Mark was lying on the ground. He had nothing to do… he was defeated. Clemon sent his executioner to kill him. As executioner came close to him, he closed his eyes and accepted his death. He kept his eye closed for some time… but nothing happened. He opened his eyes after some time, but he found himself somewhere else.

  That place was complete white… Mark was healed completely. “Am I dead,” Mark asked, and then he saw a person that looked familiar to him.

  “No,” that person said.

  “Are you dead,” Mark asked.

  “No,” that person said.

  “Then why are you here… and why did you help me… even we don’t know each other,” Mark asked.

  “You really don’t know me? Just ask yourself,” that mysterious person said.

  “Oh… no… no…,” Mark was shocked as he recalled that person, “Father… is that you?”

  “My name is Trepon… and in your world David Raynson… as your father,” Trepon said.

  “You didn’t appear to me yet… then why now,” Mark asked.

  Trepon replied, “Because, you were dying, and you needed help.”

  “I went through these kinds of situation, many time… but you didn’t come to me then to save me,” Mark asked.

  Trepon said, “Because, first time you did something that you shouldn’t.”

  “No… that wasn’t the first time. I was in danger and in fear many time… I was on Earth for 18 years in that fear and you didn’t come to save me… oh… no… you left me there… why… why you did this to me,” Mark’s voice changed as he realized the truth.