Vulnerable

“You said that everyone died.” The commander roared.

“Everyone, worthwhile is dead, my Supreme Lord.”

“What is that?” He pointed at the screen.

The sepoy took his time to reply. “That freak somehow managed to live.”

The Commander thought over the situation. “You know what that means?”

The sepoy shuddered at the anticipation of answer. “No, no, my Lord, I am rather ill equipped to think what goes in your Supreme Mind.”

“That means you and your ass are to lead my men to kill that freak.”

“But, bu…,butt…”

“Now get out of my vision, I have better things to do than to chatter with minions.”

                                                 ***********************

Mom, I think I am irritated, I wet my bed.

He tried to push his mom. She was snoring loudly.

Oh, woman wake up. How can you be so sloppy when you have a child to take care of?

He climbed up on his dad’s stomach. Let him feel the wetness.

Dad, wake up. I think that you have to change my shorts.

His dad was not snoring. He was placid even while dreaming. It was mom who had control over the important things, one of them being him.

Come on guys, it’s already my waking up time, you don’t wish me to cry, do you?”

He pushed his father. Come on dad, you understand me, you are good responsible dad, aren’t you, then why is that your son his not getting his bottle of milk.

He pounced upon his dad’s face. He felt the bristles and brittle moustache on his dad’s face. Ha, my dad is amusing even when he is rough!

“Not now Mona, let me sleep.” His dad grumbled, pushing his hand aside.

Now, that was really rude, old man. Now I will definitely cry. You dare mistaken my hands with mom’s.

Whoa Dad what is happening?

His dad had suddenly gone whole stiff.

Relax dad, I won’t cry. Take it easy.

But his dad was not taking it easy. His arms were flaying wildly. The same seemed to have taken up with mom.

Oh boy, now I am afraid. Mom, please take it easy. I promise I won’t cry. But please take it easy.

Then he began to feel the pain rising up in his mind.

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! It hurts, I feel pain!

Dad, it hurts, please do something, Mom, please tell dad to do something. He can bring various gifts for me, can’t he stop this pain!

But his dad was not listening to him, was he? His chest went extra stiff, so much that it curved outside. He was knocked off from his dad’s chest.

He fell directly in between both of them.

Dad, don’t do that. Mom, tell dad not to do that.

He looked at his mom. Her hairs were splayed widely. Her eyes were bulging out; her hands were fiercely tearing down the sheets. Her body was curving, just like dad’s, jittering heavily.

Mom, stop. Please, I beg you. Oh, this pain, it will kill me, please stop.

Foam was spitting out from the corner of dad’s mouth.

I want out. I hate both of you; you don’t stop when I tell you to do so.

He was terrified of the vision, the vision that his mom and dad were like a slide with extra slope, just without the support of columns. The hands were flaying wildly, he was extremely terrified of them.

Then suddenly it all stopped. The bodies bounced back to the bed. Mom and dad went back to sleep.

But he knew that they were no longer his mom and dad, didn’t he?

                                          ******************************

“Well, that Commander would fry my ass, how much longer will it take to open the door?” Kipti asked.

“Sir, their ship is seamless; there is no explicit boundary point that would indicate the presence of door?”

“What the hell were you trained for idiot, hit it with waves and check for Doppler’s effect.”

“Yes, sir.”

It was indeed a frustrating job. Nothing possibly (with their advancement in technology) could break inside, and all this to be done, without being detected by ship’s computers. They would single handedly and effectively destroy the nuke coming in their direction, and decide from their thrust of impact, velocity and direction from where it had been fired, and would send their corresponding nuke to strike back. No warnings, no threats, just open fire. So of course they had to work extremely carefully so as not to be detected. They had to wear radar-absorbing suits, plasma ejector and what not in order as not to be detected within the periphery of the ship. One minor mistake could threaten everyone’s life. It had been rumored that one natural satellite’s resources went in making the arsenal system of the 10 habitat ships of humans.

It was only through the breakthrough of Mind Weapon, they could destroy the entire tribe present in the ship miles away. This technology has been kept highly secretive by the Council, so secretive that humans didn’t even knew that such a thing was possible. They still received computer generated information from their human-deprived ships, years would pass before they feel the absence of the humans. By the time that aimlessly wandering ship’s position would be gauged, the bodies would long have been decomposed in that artificially induced natural habitat. Scientists would then blame the computer efficiency in controlling the atmosphere.

 No one would doubt them for their deaths.

“Sir, five possible air holes can be detected.”

“Start with the one that has the maximum intensity, have no physical or electrical contact with the ship, chart out its boundary, send it to the department for detecting possible spoofs, then move on to the next one. Mind you this is one of the most delicate tasks and I don’t want to have my ass fried due to your mistake. Anyone found to go out of line will be dead by this heat blaster of my probe. Is it understood?”

“Yes, sir.” The technicians shouted in unison in the microphones. Though the threat was overdone, it never failed Kipti in giving desired results. Kipti looked out of the glass pane at his men cautiously working with giant blue metallic bulk.

You never mess with humans; just thrust a knife in their back when they are not looking.

                                             ****************************

He was hungry and now he was also bruised. He fell of the bed.

What else can you expect from me?

He didn’t cry, whom to cry to, when your mom and dad went to a deep sleep. They won’t wake up for a long time, what is the use to cry hoarse. When they do wake up, he would take his revenge. For now, he was alone. He had to search for food.

He was down on all his fours. Damn it, things are too high for me.

There was darkness everywhere.

Baby, you are trapped. There is no way out.

Well, he was exaggerating; there was indeed some patch of light which can be seen underneath the door. But how did mom and dad manage to go out from such a small gap. It was a great mystery to him. Anyway he had to solve this mystery, there somewhere outside laid food.

He went towards the door hastily. Then he looked upwards. The door seemed to stretch towards infinity. He tapped the door with his palm.

A slight whirring sound was heard. He laughed gaily.

Mom is awake.

He looked back, he was disappointed. Mom was not awake, she wasn’t even snoring, and he felt like he heard his mom’s voice because it was the door which was speaking. He decided to speak back.

“Da.”

Well, that expressed every emotion that he could muster. Again the door began to speak in that womanly voice. He could not understand what it was saying, but he could make out some words. There was ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa’ somewhere in between. He guess estimated that this door would not let him go outside without the presence of either of them.

Hell, door, can’t you understand my feelings? I am hungry. How can you be so rude?

But the door remained rude. Now he was stuck.

What the hell I am supposed to do?

He then so a minute thing coming from outside.

Whoa, that was tiny. It is tinier than me and it is also able to move through the door, so cool.

He decided to have a conversation with it.

“Da.”

But the black tube thing didn’t stop.

“Da, Da.”

Entire world is filled with rude entities. How can one live in such a harsh world!

It was small. He was big. He would not stand any disobedience from the younger ones. He decided to teach it a lesson. He obstructed the ant’s path with his hands.

Such ego!

The ant changed the path. Now he was downright angry. How can a tiny thing not listen to him?

He placed his hand on it.

Well now, that would be lesson for you. Never disobey your elders.

Then he felt a tingling pain in his palm, which increased in intensity, and then it was full blown pain.

He was vulnerable. He started to cry.

                                                                   ************************

“Shit, it’s an asteroid.” Kipti remarked. So absorbed was he and his team in the opening of the craft that no was observed the trajectory of the celestial body hurtling straight at ship.

The ship’s wave system might have already detected the asteroid.

“Sir, the ship is going out of balance. Get us out of here.”

Kipti knew that his men were no longer stable. Fear of life had gripped them.

Kipti’s throat went dry. The asteroid was bulky. A larger nuke will be used to destroy it. A nuke had a huge range of destruction, and the sad thing was they were in its range.

He had to call in the commander.

“Contact the commander immediately.” He ordered one of the operators. He told another bunch of them to open the doors, so as to let the probe in.

“Boost your probes and hop in quickly. B2 you come in first, then A1 , when A1 is safely in, C8 would seek entry. Is that understood? You all save your life in this manner.”

Who he was fooling! His own probability of surviving the blast was thin.

He could see tiny beads of perspiration form on the operators’ octopus heads.

The ship was getting ready, as two loaded missiles appeared on the lower lip of the ship.

“Sir, you have Commander’s attention.”

He saw the blue-green face of the squat commander on the vision tube.

“Sir, the ship is going to fire a nuke. It is requested that you please take us in.” He had no time for explanation. He knew that after this drama here, he would have to face uncomfortable questioning. But right now his priority was to save himself and his men.

But the Commander seemed to take all the time in the world. “How did you get a nuke being fired at you?”

“Sir, I indeed have no time to explain. Please sir.”

The ship was getting ready to fire the nuke. All the probes have entered the Kipti’s vessel safely.

“You have no time to explain, do you? But I do. The shock waves would leave us vulnerable if we open the door for you. What we would do is to increase the shield against the impact. You are on your own. Good Luck.” The Commander steered out of the vision tube.

Kipti was flabbergasted.

“Sir we await your order, we could run.” The operator said, almost coming out of the tub.

“No hyper drive.” Kipti replied.

His mind went numb. All he could do is gape wide-eyed at the nuke being fired by the ship.

“Sir……”

His throat went dry. He was in no situation to order. The nuke pierced across the space straight at the oncoming asteroid.

“Sir, we have to do something.”

Nothing could be done. They were vulnerable.

The nuke hit the asteroid. A huge ball of fire expanded. That was the last thing he ever saw in his god-damn life.

                                                     *****************

“Send the viruses in through the vent from which the missile was fired, the onboard computer would not expect infiltration in such a manner. Destroy the protection mechanism completely.” The Commander ordered.

The missile was about to be fired. He felt somewhat sorry for the crew outside in the rough, but he could not stake the life of thousands for 10 people. He had to make some hard and fast decisions that may seem cruel. They had to fire the viral robotans before the nuke stroke, because they would not be able to see in the heat that would develop in no time soon.

“Sir, our shields are almost on.”

“Sir, the viruses hit the target accurately.”

“Sir, shields on.”

Everyone in the cabin felt tense. Inspite of the shields, you can never undermine a nuclear attack. Everyone had their seat-belts strapped on. The monitors blanked out. Some were crying for the lost ones.

A sudden violent lurch shook the ship. Alarms rang everywhere. Then, silence.

Then the commander spoke.

“After the vision clears, see if the viruses had toppled their defense. If so, order them to open all of their entrances. The radioactive emission would seep in that ship and that human child would be dead soon after. Sedna, the nearest human planet should not be able to know that their ship has been overpowered. In few days we would instruct the ship to throw itself in a black-hole. End of the job. Is this understood?”

No one spoke for a long time.

“Sir, he is just a child.” A lady octopus wailed, spilling water from her tub in the process.

The commander stared hard at the female. “This is a war. They have long dumped their weapons on our planet and destroyed our habitats. They won’t care whether it was a meteor or a fragile life, they would simply nuke it. It is either us or them. We have been vulnerable for a long time, now it’s time they should share some of that.”