THREE UNKNOWN MEN - BHARAT CHAUHAN

Three Unknown Men

By Bharat Chauhan


Three of them were sitting at the table with lowered heads. A little device was kept on the table which showed a blinking green dot that was still in the center of the screen. She hadn’t moved even after almost three hours. Her stillness would have made anyone believe that she is dead but the green dot reaffirmed her being alive. The little dot would have turned red if she would have been close to any mortal danger. They were watching her every move to make sure she stays alive. The child she carried in her womb was the only hope for humanity and she did not have even a faint idea about this. That’s why it was so important to watch her.

“We shouldn’t have done this.” Said Aatman.

“We didn’t really have a choice. You know that. And stop bringing it up over and over again. None of us feel any good about this.” Said Rishi. His teeth were clenched and his jawbones became more prominent every time he spoke.

There was silence again.

“Wasn’t there anyone else who could have done it?”

“A rape is rape weather you do it or you pay someone else to do it. Think about what you are saying. Plus we couldn’t really have gotten anyone else involved. It had to be one of us.” He tried not to look at Pratap but his eyes would constantly try to steal a look at him. He knew that Pratap wasn’t looking but even then it was hard to look at his face. He could not even begin to imagine the extent of his shame and despair.

Pratap dealt with the science of predicting evolution of mankind and studying the high and low points of future so something can be done about it but he would have never thought his downfall would be this.

Rishi was floating on a small cylindrical object that kept aloft in the air. He kept a hand on Pratap’s shoulder and it felt almost like an act of formality and he withdrew it almost as soon as he had kept it there. There would be no consolation in gestures no matter how good the intention.

“You know wasn’t your decision to make. Your name was chosen at random. We all know you wouldn’t go and rape a woman. None of us would have.”

Aatman joined in for the consolation, “The man who was supposed to impregnate her died in a car accident and none of our Nine sciences could have predicted that. We can’t study what the life course of one man is going to be. There are too many deviations. But it had to be done because she carries the potential to give birth to Kalki. And above anything else that is more important. I know it won’t be of any consolation but think of it this way. You have done great deed by allowing Kalki to enter the world. Ten thousand years of preparations for this genetic super being who could not have been born at any other time or from any other woman would have gone to a total waste. Think of all the ancestors of the Nine whose all good works for the betterment of mankind would have been washed away by this little hitch. An entire world of humans would have come to an end. Entropy would have won the war and according to your own scientific calculations the human society will have a breaking point in the next twenty five years. We all needed this. The world needed this.”

Pratap stood up from his chair and walked towards a small opening in the wall that acted as a tiny window and looked out at the base of the sea. This little sunken temple that stood at the bottom of the sea had been their temporary lair. To everyone else it was only a useless lost piece of relic but between its fading walls was a home to probably the most powerful men in the world and they had hidden it well for the past two millennia from peering and curious eyes. Even though it was dark outside C really hoped to see some fishes but they had disappeared long ago, even before his time, and were a rarity. The biological chain of species and survival had been disrupted by egoistic and selfish humans and he was the one who had to pay for their mistakes by having to do something that his religion, his god and his heart forbid. In that single moment, he hated everyone. Everyone that was alive. Everyone that had ever lived before him. He didn’t need science to tell him everything was coming apart. Any fool could tell that.

He was tired of listening to their talks of fake consolation for the past three hours. He had heard the same thing over and over again even though he already knew every word they were saying. He needed some time on his own so he walked out of the room leaving the other two alone.

Aatman and Rishi watched him go out into the other room and waited five minutes. Then, Aatman took out a small device from his pocket and placed it inside his ear.

“Is it done?” said a voice inside his head.

“Yes. Three hours ago Kalki was successfully conceived by him.” he replied with a thought. He didn’t need to speak to communicate. Plus, he could not risk being overheard. Rishi looked at him with an eager gaze, wanting to be a part of the conversation. But only Aatman had been instructed to report back to the remaining Six.

“How is he doing?”

“Hasn’t spoken a word in the past three hours. He is broken.”

“That was expected. You know what to do next?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t forget your prayers for forgiveness and before he dies let him know why. He deserves a reason. May god forgive us for our crimes and may our brother rest in peace. His part in this journey is done. Good luck.”

“Yes. I will report back later.”

The line was dead. Aatman nodded at RIshi and he understood the signal.

B reached into his sleeve, took out a pill and hovered over to where C had been sitting. He slipped the pill into Pratap’s glass of water and hovered back to his position. It slightly amused him even after all the weapons of mass destruction that could erase an entire nation the most secretive was still poison. Maybe because you wouldn’t expect it.

There was silence for a while and then Rishi spoke, “I wonder if we are becoming criminals instead of doing out job as protectors of the world.” He said in a way as if almost to himself or in the air but he expected an answer.

Aatman spoke after a small silence, “We are not criminals. And I am hurt that you must say so. Sacrifices are needed for any victory and this will not be a selfish victory for our sake. We are fighting a battle against entropy, a law greater than any of our sciences. Of all the mysteries we and our ancestors have solved this is the only one we never could answer or contradict. We have learned to bend time, space, and even light. This is the only thing in our way to save the world from apocalypse. Imagine a world where life goes on forever. Imagine a world that lives without the fear of ever seeing an end. Imagine an immortal world. With the assurance that Kalki will finally being born we have now the task to make sure that he becomes a member of the Nine. For that one of must leave. I would have given up my life for it but I feel sympathetic towards the state of Pratap. We all do. We want to liberate him from the pain of living with this burden.”

Rishi knew that was a pure lie. None of the others had the guts to sacrifice their own lives so they had conspired against Pratap and made a scapegoat out of him. A’s honey dewed words of treachery disgusted him but the truth was that he himself was scared. It was easier to sacrifice someone else’s life for the greater good than your own. Not only were they all criminals but also conspirators. He moved away from the table and hovered near the corner where he turned his back towards Aatman. Without looking at him he said, “I don’t think this is right. We should not have to do this.”

He could hear Aatman from behind. “We have to.” Almost without any regret.

“I don’t believe that.”

“Then why don’t you do us all a favor and drink this water yourself, if you are so concerned with the rights and the wrongs at this stage.”

Rishi didn’t reply. He flinched slightly in his hovercraft, nothing else.

Few minutes later Pratap walked back in the room, still in his state, and took his seat. He took a glance at the tracking device. The little green dot had started moving by now. It was hard to know if it was moving towards a destination or aimlessly. No one could say but it seemed to take turns and random, then stop for a while and then start walking again. Every once in a while the movement of the dot would pace up and then slow down again. She was having a hard time dealing with what had happened.

In all this, probably the only consolation was that she was at least moving again carrying the seed of a super being in her body.

“Why don’t you have some water?” suggested Aatman keeping a straight face even though it wasn’t necessary.

Being in the state that Pratap was in, he wouldn’t have guessed. He picked up the glass and slowly lifted it up. As soon as he was about to have a sip the green dot went red and the device started beeping. There was sudden panic in the room. B hovered back to the table. The device showed no one else around her but the dot was still red and still continued to beep constantly.

The glass was forgotten and so was the conspiracy. They had a common goal at the moment. They rushed to the lower levels of the temple that was buried underground and led into a small tunnel which was attached to an aircraft. The three men took their seats except for B who remained in his hovercraft but he could attach it to some extensions coming out from the ground. Rishi was the one who had designed this submarine-aircraft and he had modified it to his own comforts. He did not wait for everyone to strap in and started the engines as soon as he was in his seat. Aatman was slightly thrown back but he regained control. The craft rushed through the water and within three minutes it was out and flying.

They would have preferred to use faster than light travel but it was impossible to do that on Earth considering the damage it would cause all around. Pratap was still holding the device to guide them their way to her and it was beeping more constantly now. It could happen any minute. The aircraft rushed through the atmosphere like a comet leaving a trail of fire behind it. Tomorrow there will be news all over the world about a so called UFO flying around the city or maybe they would call it a secret government test that went haywire.

In another five minutes the aircraft was near the land and it was rushing on over the city. It was late at night and the city was still very much alive. Pratap took a look out of the window and he could see tiny light all over the place. There were more skyscrapers then ever – almost no horizontal buildings. All were trying to reach the sky. Some of the building had fake atmospheric gardens on the terraces inside little domes but they were closed for now. Open maybe only to the owners who would come and sit in the plastic gardens and stare at the stars.

“Where is she now?” inquired Aatman.

“On top of a construction site almost two hundred miles away from here,” replied Pratap. Rishi throttled the aircraft to it full power. Even at this speed it would take them at least ten minutes to reach there.

Rishi was constantly lowering down the aircraft and he was riding pretty low by now, almost a hundred feet or so above the highest buildings.

“Faster, Faster!! She is about to go.”

Rishi increased the speed even more and now the aircraft could crash into some of the highest buildings if the piloting would have been bad. But it was of no concern right now.

“Three more minutes and we’ll be there. Hold on.”

They could see the building she was on now. It was pretty close to the place where they had left her last. Not too far but still it was amazing that she had been able to walk all the way till here on her own considering the state she was in. The building stood alone at the corner of a huge slum that seemed to stretch all the way till horizon. She was at the edge of the roof now. Rishi needed to find a way to land it now. He pulled back the wheel and the aircraft nosed upwards. They could see her from slightly above now.

She seemed to be standing still. If she noticed the small aircraft rushing towards her they couldn’t tell. If she was shocked, amazed or bewildered at its sight, no one could tell. They couldn’t see her properly but like a mass of shape standing there in high winds and looking down. The aircraft was almost above the building and Rishi would have landed it, maybe even jumped down and let the aircraft crash but the woman let herself off the ledge. They saw her falling and they knew she was gone. Rishi pulled back up towards the sky. It was over with.

All three of them could feel a weight crushing them but most of all Pratap. He looked out the window. The city lights were getting dimmer and smaller again. What he had done meant nothing now. It was only a curse. He looked down at the world. He could feel entropy shoving him back. The world was doomed. There would be no savior now. No one to change the course of nature of things. Entropy was laughing at them. Despite all odds, despite their best efforts it had won. Maybe that is how it works. Maybe its roots are deeper than thought of. A tear rolled down his face. The aircraft moved on aimlessly in the sky.
(END)