“Sir I think it’s a dead end. There happens to be no sizeable stone in this perimeter to hide a pirate.”
“Watch again. This was the last acknowledged position of the hostage by the probe R-12. Juice up all the radars, and stick out all the passive detectors that you have got in this ship. Check for anomaly in the trajectory of any passing rock. We have records indicating that they were struck by a meteor-hidden craft before we lost contact.”
He twitched uneasily as he looked at the screen. Something was amiss here, but he couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was. How could two full-blown crafts manage to disappear on so short a notice? It is not possible to have a camouflage as strong as to stay invisible indefinitely, and it were two days of this rescue operation, there weren’t enough nooks and crannies here in space. It completely boggled his mind.
“No go sir, that’s all that can be done. There is of course the moon in the immediate perimeter, but the pirate would be nuts if he were to stash his booty on moon. He would face all the nukes stockpiled into the lunar crust if he so much as disturbed the sanctity of moon.”
The general cupped his mouth with his hands to stifle a yawn. This mystery was driving him crazy. And he was continuously nagged by the bureaucracy to try harder. This was one of the several rescue ships that were blasted out into space in search of what turned out to be a wild goose chase.
“Keep searching.” He strode out of the bridge into a pathway at whose end was a man hole, which led directly to the cabin.
Suddenly he was struck by a thought, a moment later wishing to discard it out of his mind. But he could not. It was possible.
The cabin consisted of nothing but slots for attachable bunk-beds and few burly men who had difficulty controlling their temper. A compact food compartment hid innocuously in the corner. No furnishings, no baggage, no computers, with only one central cooling equipment which, with its incessant screeching hum irritated the already hot headed soldiers, it was Spartan to say the least.
But if you have three heavy armed tankers, with a number of missile launchers, a slew of nukes up the ship, swiveling laser beams and gun fire, the ship was already overburdened.
It looked like they had just now broken off a fight at his arrival.
“Did we have a fighting here?” He asked in a cold, threatening voice.
Some scratched their heads, while other scratched their behinds, but they all hung their heads in silence.
“Do you know that rising temper means increased heartbeats, increased heartbeats means you pump in more oxygen, and though we seem to have plenty of it, it won’t last indefinitely. It has to stop here and it has to stop right now. Can’t you stay in space for two days without wanting to strangulate each other? If I hear about one more fist fight, or someone tries to break in the gun compartment, then you will all have to space walk your way back to L-5, is this understood?”
None replied.
“I asked if it was understood.”
“Yes sir.” They shouted in unison.
“Good. Now I want some four of you to go, and fire off some nano-drones to check in on the moon. They are to be programmed so as to give stats regarding the security density, the intensity of their radar out in open space and crater-chimneys from which no smoke is billowing out. Mind you, though they won’t show up in the large wavelengths of radio waves, we are to fire none of those commercial bullets, use those non-reflecting ones. At no time they are to move in a knot, they are to be dispersed and diluted in a large area. They should self destruct if found and should not be traced back here. The vehicle density being more in this region, they have no reason to assume that we are behind it, but this comes at a time when an Earthian V.I.P. is kidnapped along with his body guards and we are the ones send to find him.”
His men gasped at the sheer audacity of the plan. The Lunarians would not be happy. They were a privileged class, having immunity to travel any where on earth without someone pestering them, though if some earthian wanted to go to moon he had to pass out some thousand written examination tests and have clearances from various embassies on the earth surface, a written application by the president of that country to which the poor fellow belonged, literally begging to let him enter. If the earthians failed to fulfill any of the fancies of moon-residents, then they would face stoppage of supply of helium-3. They were jesters in front of a patron, trying to please him in every way possible so that the patron may take pity of him and give him few moles of that pretty important fuel.
And now their Major-General is thinking of spying on them.
“Sir, do you…..” One of the men ventured.
“Yes cadet, I do understand the gravity of what I am doing. I would be stripped of my command if I were to be caught in this act of espionage. The public would vent their fury by stoning me, but I think that the pressure which is exerted on me by the centre to find this Indian resident is much more than the diplomatic ties between Earth and the Moon. My seniors have explicitly ordered me not to care about treaties, public relations and diplomacy. They are hell-bent to find him. So it seems that I am unrestricted in this search, if it means tethering the ties of Earth with a superpower, then be it.”
“Whatever you say, sir.”
“Good.” The General strode back to the bridge, his hands shaking. He hasn’t told them about what he was planning to do next. He tapped on the shoulder of the radio-operator.
“Find a safe line and establish a contact with the embassy on moon.”
Balwant Singh looked out at the space. Not in his wildest dream did he imagine himself in the position that he presently held. How come a small farmer from a rural village of Punjab rise to the stature of Space-Soldier (S.S.) of Earth Protection Squad? He didn’t know. But here he was along with his three companions, firing salvos of bullets at the lunar surface, in the first ever (or suppose the others weren’t caught) act of espionage against the moon. He was fascinated by the moon people, in a very similar manner that his forefathers were fascinated by the Englishmen or the Americans, he even dreamt about marrying one of the tall lunar girls.
He had a large turban on his head and bushy beard which not clearly visible from the spacesuit he was wearing. His legs were tightly strapped with the seat he was sitting on. He had a Polaroid up his eyes, which besides cutting the glare gave a holographic dimensioning of any object, in this particular case it was the moon. Of course it was not the moon, but a point in space near the moon which was being focused, as the projectile of the bullet traveled in a curve and the moon itself was not a stationary object. The fired bullet traveled along the curve, but when it reached a predestined region, thousand miniature probes separated itself from the bullet, dispersing in different directions. Their paths were already charted out so there wasn’t any point of clashing against each other. Then the solar powered drones would be further boosted up their way by their small but powerful engine, so as not to be deflected by the solar flare. Balwant fired each shot accurately and precisely, his goggles indicating the angle at which he tilted his head and the gun with respect to the moon, so as to fire the shots at the pre-calculated angles so that they can cover the whole lunar surface. The space suit blended around his skin tightly, and near his hands, the inside of the spacesuit contained millions of fibrous hairs, which were so infinitesimally thin that it made its way through his skin, without an inch of pain so that his suit would not make him clumsy while firing the shots. During the initial stages of the space wars it was found that the soldiers were having difficulty handling the guns with their bulky suits on. This called for advancement in the suit design, and now the suit didn’t impede precision.
Of course they had a machine gun fitted to the ship, but they weren’t able to handle these bullets because the companies which handled both the products were different.
His heart beat faster. This was indeed an exciting task, and before long he might even have a story to tell his fellas back on earth!
“General, do you have the clearance of what you are planning to do?” The holographic vision was a tall, fat man with prim short moustache stood at the centre of the bridge.
“Clearance 5467 E-2 814 Delta.” General read from a strip of paper. The Centre had already given him clearance when he chalked out his plan. They themselves must have had the suspicion. All he waited was that video flow to stream in.
“So the centre has cleared this, what you want me to do for you, Captain?”
“Sir, if our suspicion is right, can you arrange in any manner possible, our reason of being near the surface of the moon?”
“You ask for impossible. There is no way that I can arrange for you being on the moon. You haven’t passed the tests for God’s sake, and a warship has no go.”
“We are not asking for a landing, just near the surface so that our ship can snoop on any hot Lunar development.”
The Embassy Officer laughed. “So you are planning to give Lunarians a big brotherly watch, they won’t like it. But yes, I think I can do that. We have helium 3 in our dockyards; it waits for being shipped back to earth. So in account of the recently happened incident of a kidnapped terrestrial ship along with its protector, the government is paranoid for safety of its men and resources. So instead of one warship, we have asked for the service of two and you happen to be one of them. As you have no clearance, you will wait near the surface of the moon, and then you can stage your drama, if you are right you can carry out the heist. Is that okay?”
“Thank You, sir.”
“But if this mission goes awry, then we would disclaim you. You would then be rogue agent working closely with the pirates. Is it understood?”
“I understand. If this allegation is found true, you will have to fulfill other part of your obligation.”
“Whatever you do, don’t start a war, General. I will think about the other obligation. Right now I have few pressing matters of my own. Tread your steps cautiously.”
With this, the hologram of the embassy officer disappeared.
“Have we started receiving the data stream?” The General asked, as he pondered upon the warning of the officer.
“We would have the complete set of data in a jiffy, sir.”
“Make haste.”
The radio operator clicked some buttons.
“Sir, we are streaming the data now on the top left corner screen.” The radio operator told. The indicated screen gave the data regarding the variables fed in as per the instructions of General.
“Now I want you to eliminate all those craters from which constant smoke is spurting out.”
All the manufacturing units will be eliminated in this manner.
“Sir, there is 70% decrease in the number of craters.”
“Good, now I want you to eliminate those craters which are clearly situated on any standard map of lunar surface.”
This will eliminate all the residential places underneath the lunar surface.
“We have 15% further decrease.”
“Now eliminate all those craters that don’t give out anything.” That would represent the craters which have not been worked upon or lived in.
The extrapolated map was becoming less and less redder.
The radio operator gasped. “Sir…”
“Yes I see it.” The General said silently.
The map showed exactly 9 places which fulfilled the specifications. And they seemed to be nearby each other.
“Gents, this is it. It is possible that our asses get fried, medals snatched, but if we do indeed find out that these bunch of craters are indeed the much speculated about but never searched for Lunar Jail and have our man in it, then we would storm in to get him out anyhow. He is the priority number 1. Kaplan, boost up all the passive detectors to maximum intensity.”
A young man nodded and pressed few buttons.
“Operator, where is the docking site?”
“Fortunately, not very far from these craters, sir.”
“Okay, specify these locations to the base and the embassy. We are rolling in.”
Ha, so much for being a top priority VIP for all the 159 embassies on Earth surface, they couldn’t afford much better than a business class?!!
He hated traveling like that. The business class ticket comes with less sponge in your seat so that your ass goes numb, sweaty fellow travelers who enjoyed constant bickering on the sat-mobile phones with their wives or prospective customers, who were constantly chewing at junk, and who sometimes farted for a change. Hell, you wouldn’t like to go all the 127 hours to the International Port of Space Commercialization in a lowly, torturous business class. Not if you happen to be the lone astronaut who would be fired away out there in space against bone crushing pseudo gravity. There, he was thinking about it.
David turned and gave him an accusatory look. Kapil made a face. David’s face grew darker. He returned his attention to the magazine that he was reading. Well, Kapil thought darkly, you cannot call that a magazine.
He framed a clear thought in his mind. ‘Hey Dave, do you know that you are an asshole?’
From his position he could see David’s ears go pink with fury. The magazine that he was reading was actually a bloody mind projector. And it was Kapil’s mind that was being dished out and splayed as letterings across the glossy digital magazine as David and some others ogled on its contents. It was worse than nudity. Specially designed as a depression and bad feelings detector- as soon as he had one dark thought a young flight attendant would arrive with a glass of water that he was supposed to drink in one big gulp. Contained in it were thousands of bots which smoothened his nerve endings. He wasn’t as much as troubled by that but they wouldn’t allow him to think about The Most Important Expedition Ever Ventured by Any Solar Resident. Now a normal person won’t be thinking about the Important Information That Everyone Wanted to Steal while he was day-dreaming. He wasn’t spilling the beans, he was just dreaming about his Grand Return, Fame and Prosperity sort of thing, an ending that had happily ever after in it. But one single minute thought involving the expedition, and people like David would give him angry looks. Hell, he didn’t even have the freedom to think.
Anyways this was no ordinary business class trip streaking its way out in the space; it looked like a commercial plane because it was made to look like one. He was the only person in this entire plane who had some work to do after they docked in at the Port. Everyone else was working right now, some checking his heartbeats, while other snooping around his internal anatomy across billions of cells to detect a virus, though it was advised for them to do the job discretely. The Big Brother was watching. No light signals can go in or come out, no sat-mobiles, no computers, nothing. The Black Body absorbed all radiations. Fancy that.
And thank God, he was sitting on one of those one seaters!
Well, he tried to engulf himself in the novel that he was holding in his hands. There were dirty oil smudges across, but he still preferred this tattered copy to any digital, holographic version of it- Harry Potter, what else.
But Albus Dumbledore was unable to cull his fears today. Something big was to happen in his life exactly at 1200 hours tomorrow. Even after his being on a course of anti-depressants, he was constantly nagged by the doomsday scenario. There wasn’t a drug against stage fear, was there?
He looked out of the window. Space- infinite, boundless, expanding blanket of gravity which shoveled each and every particulate of shit that man could generate, unflinchingly. He wasn’t a romantic die-hard space lover, nor did he have brains to be one, but he sure was impressed by the sheer immensity of his surroundings and that of his being a microscopic snot in this vast game of poker, thermodynamics and nuclear fusion.
Big day tomorrow, huh, he thought. Few heads were turning, but he didn’t care if they were able to rotate 360 degree.
He was feeling extremely pissed off. After all that rigorous training, the D-day had finally arrived. They say you feel rattled only during the take off. Of course you do. And it wasn’t at all similar to rocket boost. Being shot like a bullet from the largest rail gun ever made in the solar system wasn’t his idea of picnic to Titan.
Someone tapped his shoulders. Hell, once again the most intrusive Flight Attendant makes her presence felt- with an injection this time.
“Sir, I have to give you a shot.”
He looked piercingly in her eyes. She lowered her gazed.
“Do we have a doctor here?” He asked sarcastically.
“Sir, I was trained at the best medical facility in the world for your expedition. I think you should co-operate with me, the Council hadn’t vetoed out the measure of force yet.”
“Bloody hell, anybody can come up and threaten me with a stick, can’t she?” the girl didn’t met his gaze, “well, do this fast. And do stretch this seat as I flop down helplessly, the last time you forgot to do so, my back got cramped.”
He raised the sleeve of his shirt. The girl dabbed the anesthetic on his skin. No one was looking in his direction. Though every one of them was jealous of the attention he was getting and about the apparent fame that he would get if he returned successfully, no one wanted to switch places with him as many of them thought he wouldn’t survive the trip. He was the first guinea pig about to be sacrificed in this space race between Lunarians and Mars Settlers’ Union (M.S.U.) and the earth.
She held his hand tightly, and pressed the syringe down into the blood stream.
As soon as the injection emptied its contents down his hand, his mind grew…….crazy!!
One moment everything was fine, he was entering an administered coma, next moment the ship suddenly nose dived and he hit the seat in front of him. Through his blurry eyes he could see the flight attendant sliding down the aisle hitting the empty syringe in someone’s calf.
In the midst of uproars and jeers and shouts of panic, the computer voice buzzed into activity. ‘PASSENGERS ARE REQUESTED TO STAY CALM. DO NOT PANIC.’
But it is but natural that if you ask someone not to panic, he would panic all the more. Then the ship rotated a full 3600. Kapil flew out from his place and banged his head against the metal. Someone was rushing forward to grasp his hand but he could only make out the green of his shirt. His hands were all bloody, his legs felt a dull pain, his eyes had grown heavy, he was losing consciousness.
But he tried to stay awake. Something was not right. This wasn’t the part of training. Why all of a sudden was he having nightmares? Some idiot was playing a practical joke on his mind.
A loud noise flattened all other voices. His entire body was feeling the vibratory motions.
It was indeed a nightmare. No one drilled through a space shuttle.
Then sparks began to appear out of nowhere. This was indeed a dream. After drilling, someone was welding. This was indeed a stupid nightmare.
People were flying, vomit and blood seemed to be the only fluid filling the interior of the ship, things were falling and his eyelids were growing all the more heavy.
They were hostages. Someone was kidnapping the ship. Of course that has to be a dream. No one captured an earthian ship. M.S.U. and even the petty Lunarians would think twice before carrying out such an audacious steal. Earth knows how to get furious. This is a dream. He told himself. This is a dream and I have to stay calm. They are testing my sanity.
Could it be aliens?!!
He felt acrid taste in his mouth. He spit it out without any restrain. He could imagine a fountain of vomit moving around in all directions.
Hell, this nightmare seems so real. I want to wake up. I don’t want to sleep any more.
But he wasn’t able to pull himself out of it. Ah, you want me to have this dream, don’t you?
I will close my eyes in the dream. Ha.
It seemed so good to close his eyes. Wake me up if you can, bloody assholes!!
“Sir, nano bots are dead and ready to receive.”
“Check if there are any lasers in immediate proximity. Use the inbuilt temperature detectors.”
“But sir, in order to detect laser, nano bots have to be in its path, giving away its location and laser being highly coherent would not spread out to be detected by radiation based temperature detectors.”
“We are not to detect the lasers directly. There are several indirect methods to do that. Check out the matter that is in contact with laser, it would definitely be giving away radiations intensely and at a higher rate than any object in the immediate surrounding.”
“Aye, sir.”
He had to be extremely cautious now. They have achieved a remarkable feat. To pass several layers of Lunar security was an extremely risky task. It was rumored that most of the satellite’s juice went up after its security. No country was as paranoid about its secrets as LunarLand was. During the initial phase of Lunar inhabitation, it was made clear by the explorers that they were steering clear from Earth’s petty bureaucracy and any attempt at espionage would be dealt with severe consequences. But Earth very much doubted its intentions. Fake currency, drug trafficking, kidnapping , snooping- Moon was speculated to be behind all those shady business.
The fact that they have passed Lunar security meant that the security wasn’t as tight as speculated, for God’s sake there had been no terrorist attack, no jealous country’s bombing since its inception, at the same time back on earth, embassies were still very hot to be blown up every other day, of course you would expect the Lunarians to go complacent. But it was the alternative that gave him creeps. What if their minds were concentrated somewhere else………
It would be like kicking the hornet’s nest.
“Sir, road bumps ahead. Each and every microscopic spot ahead is marked by at least five intense laser pointers. There is no way that the nano bots can go further.”
He whistled. “They are cooking something,” he thought loudly. “Okay abort the search.”
He was in a fix. He didn’t know how to approach this problem. He could not afford to just barge in and start firing, if he was wrong………
He couldn’t afford to be wrong at this point. There had to be some sort of indicator to help him out. Of course it could be the Somali Pirates with a big fish in their nets. But no one acknowledged the kidnapping, no demands were made.
“I think we would have to wait till the screening.”
*****************
It wouldn’t have been that bad if he could open his eyes. But they refused to budge. He tried to use his hands to open them, but they were tied.
“Pretty helpless, aren’t you?”
“Huh?” He was still incoherent, unable to process his surroundings or situation.
“Puh, I am so sorry for you, dear.” This time, a female voice spoke. It seemed to be approaching from the same source. Whoever that was didn’t wanted to mark his presence.
“Where am I?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me, bastard. I HAVE ALREADY GONE THROUGH ENOUGH SHIT. YOU HAVE ME HERE TIED, INCOHERENT, BLIND, HELPLESS FOR GOD KNOWS HOW MUCH AMOUNT OF TIME AND YOU HAVE THE BLOODY CHEEK TO ASK ME THAT I WON’T BELIEVE YOUR CRAP?” His voice was all hoarse. No one wanted to listen to him.
“I want you to do something for me.”
“Where are my friends? Where are all those people who were there along with me? WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THEM? Bastard, tell me.”
“They weren’t useful for our purpose. You, on the other hand could play a very useful part in this game.”
“You killed them, you killed them all. Oh God, you are a demon.” Kapil wanted to cry. But the tears were impeded by the glue.
Someone smacked his face. “NEVER EVER UTTER THAT WORD IN FRONT OF ME.”
“You are a demon, you are a monster. Beware Lord’s Fury, bastard!!!”
This time, the punch was indeed hard. He could taste iron in his mouth. “God has no place in this Holy Sanctum! You don’t putrefy my domain with the name of that barbaric, deceitful and utterly hypocritical creature. Years have passed, and you still haven’t stopped selling your religions. You either buy your devotees, threaten them, tempt them, tantalize them or terrorize them, still you never stop. In the end you always convert them.”
“No, it isn’t possible. You were supposed to be …….”
“….dead, isn’t it? You gave us no food, practically no air to breathe in when you threw us away in deep space when you realized that we were so barbaric that no amount of conversion would do us any good.”
Kapil was choke-slammed with fear. It wasn’t possible.
“And you Kapil are about to play a very important part in this mission. You see, we ourselves have a brand new religion, all we want is devotees to stash it onto.”
The voice grew nearer. He could feel the acrid stench that these people were so famous for.
“Welcome Kapil, to the new Renaissance.”
Alienman 