It was the last straw. A full blown river traveling with ferocious speed, gave wobbly legs to his brave soldiers, and to cross it! Well they could not imagine that.
They had already seen their share of predators having their deer meal, bee hives and lots more. It was more than enough. This jungle was just giving them creeps. They would not be able to handle more of it.
It would be time when they start controlling his mind, order him to order them to turn back. When facing the commander, he would be punished for that wrong decision; well the robots would be a testimonial that he was mind manipulated. But his name would be shred into pieces by the controversy. He won’t be able to lift his face of in front of the half-witted public. He had to take some enterprising decision.
He flicked his hands to two of the robots. They came as ordered.
“Take off your bags.” They took out their bags which were slung on their shoulders. Ramesh took out the polymeric ropes.
“Tie this at this end of the river; travel to the other, tie it at the second to a solid, heavy boulder. Wait there for further instructions.”
The two robots took two different fibres with them, so as to form two roped bridges. The river looked shallow.
The robots deftly worked, along the rapid waters, they managed to hold their grounds mostly due to their weights. They had tied a tight knot on this front. They were totally undeterred when they reached the other end. Mostly due to the seals and their heavy and bulky plastic body, they saved their inner delicate machinery from water. One more use of strong plastic in front of corrosive metal!
The soldiers looked apprehensive for what was coming.
Ramesh cleared his throat. “We have to cross the river with the help of this rope. We will have formation of two lines, and without touching one another you will hold the rope, and cross the river. Is it understood?”
“But sir….” One of them started.
Ramesh held his palm. “I will lead one formation. Alan will lead the second. You may all follow the suit.”
He felt that out of this group, Alan was one of the one of the courageous one. His small, tiny body was more than put up with his strong iron will.
The soldiers muttered amongst themselves. But they knew that they could not ignore the explicit orders from their leader. If they did the robots will bind them back into the craft, and they would serve the charge in complete isolation for the rest of their lives. They grumbled but followed their boss in that temerarious task.
Ramesh felt the coolness of the fast waters on his thighs as he passed through it. He felt his knees buckling under the pressure of the flowing fluid. But he was able to balance himself with the help of the taut rope. He could see his men follow them, shaking more than the pressure would have been. These fools were exaggerating. And the exaggeration would know no bounds when back on their home planets they would be faced by their cuddling mistresses. But first of all they had to return to their planets.
It took some more time before they all crossed the river. Then rest of the robots followed them. His men were complaining about how wet they all were, while crossing the blood-thirsty river.
“I think these rivers were created by our ancestors so as they can pass over various rocks and boulders, and collect various minerals, so as the water can be potable.” Alan remarked.
“But now these deadly rivers are out of grasp of the unknowing civilians. They are taking particular precaution as no one trespasses there. Here everything is unbridled. Anything may come anytime. There is no management. Our ancestor’s maybe good inventors but they definitely weren’t good managers.” One of the impetuous young soldiers interjected.
It brought spouts of laughter from all quarters. Even Ramesh smiled a little.
They again resumed their walk. Ramesh felt that something peculiar was going on in these surroundings, something that he could not place it in his mind.
Answer came in the form of a pointed arrow.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh.” One of the soldiers yelped in pain as he was hurt on his shoulder. They immediately fished out their mind-guns.
They could not pin point the source of attack. Out came another bow, it missed Alan by inches as it dug into the soil. Now they all were running wildly. Ramesh tried to instill order in this chaos but of course it was to no avail. They were blindly pointing their guns and choosing any target. He felt that they were easy prey. They were not even afraid of their guns. Of course they weren’t. Their guns did not cause physical pain. How could those idiots understand that they were numbing their brains with the help of a stick!
All his soldiers were falling into rudimentary traps. Some were falling into nets, while others into pits. His whole man power was being wasted out. The robots can only pin point out source of attack, and sometimes try to save them, but they were under strict orders by the commander that they could not attack them under any condition, so much for their karate. Before he could make one more of them numb, a boulder hit on his head. Then the blackness engulfed him.
*******************
His head was heavy with constant whirring around. He gazed upwards. The world was indeed round, or at least the one in which he was nested. It was a spherical wooden setting; his men were trying to haggle with the jeering multicoloured tribal outside. The tribal’s whole body was covered with colours, with a large leaf covering his nudity. For Ramesh, he was the boogey man himself. The tribal looked in his direction as he sat up. He smiled. Ramesh smiled back.
Encouraged, the tribal took the mind numbing gun in both his hands, and bent it like it was made up of noodles, a perfect waste of such a good weapon. Ramesh looked at his watch. They had lost ample time. Goddamnit, these tribals wanted to commit suicide, and they would also be forced to commit it with them forcibly. His one of men, Agent X rated best in mind combat was crying inconsolably. The two others were fighting with the tribal, who had nothing else to do. Their spherical cage was hanging from a huge thick branch of a banyan tree, so were the others. His men were looking disconsolate.
But the tribal people looked happy. They were going to conduct a grand feast in the memory of the sun, the last fire slinger. Ramesh could see the red giant which was staring maliciously at him. It was like that the sun was telling him that no amount of human manipulating will save him from his wrath. The earth had always been a member of sun’s family, but the sun loved the earth so much that he would engulf his favorite sun in few jiffy hours. Already the solar flares have been disrupting the life on the rest of the earth very badly. Earth quakes, volcano eruptions, burning of lives and tress, radiation effects. For long they have been protecting these people from billion dollars of the tax payers. And now they were binding and injuring their own rescue party, and also hacking the necks of the mild and inoffensive robots, so much waste of money and lives for the people who didn’t care for their own lives. He found nothing so beautiful about this earth worth dying for. He wanted to kill those activists. They themselves would never risk their lives, and order the government to send a full blown troop to save the people who themselves wanted to die.
He did not prefer to die. He would not die, not so worthlessly. If they want to die, then let them go to hell, but I will live.
He looked with blood-shot eyes at the still looking tribal. He felt that he had never been so enraged in his life. Strong fluid was flowing in his mind, indeed today he had decided to kill someone.
The tribal felt that the stick must be some holy symbol for the man which he had desecrated. He gave it back.
Ramesh was astonished by this gesture. He pressed the buttons to check the possibility of its working. He was amazed that inspite of the bent, the machine was working. A 3-D screen came in front of him.
DO YOU STILL WANT TO CONTINUE THE TASK? The computerized voice asked.
He clicked in affirmation. A frame came in front of him. He set it at the tribal man. Now he had to break the rules, he was helpless. After all his life was at stake.
Alienman 