Twins After All
By Neeti Gokhalay
Gurpreet and Navpreet sat playing at home. Summer vacations were always loved by all six year olds. But this summer vacation had turned damp since it had rained all of last week. The boys were playing a game of “What am I thinking about?”. The two were playing this “mind-exercise” on their mother insistence. She had said, “You two can't while your summer holidays. When you turn eight you will start your telepathy training. You should be 'Best' at it by then.”
The communicator beeped and Gurpreet dashed to answer the phone. He picked it up and before he could scream to his mummy who it was, she cut him off saying, “You know I can read your mind. I know it's Tulika's mother. You just always want a reason to scream.” She took the communicator and kept it quickly after a few “Accha, accha's.”
The twins had read bits of the conversation and knew they were going to be playing in Tulika's backyard. They were too excited to hear rest of the conversation. Their mother turned to ask them to pack their play-pods and they stood ready. Eager to leave.
Their mother dropped them off at Tulika's house and the two ran excited to the backyard, not bothering to enter her house. Tulika was already at the back of the house with her friend Priya, playing in their “Everything Pink Palace”. The twins entered the palace to see the girls having a glorious game of “House-house”. The two were pretending to be famous Bollywood actress of a bygone era.
“Chalo.. Let's play. Stop all this girly stuff.”, Navpreet said impatiently.
“Yeah. It's sunny outside and you two are sitting inside and playing all this virtual stuff. Aab let's go.”, Gurpreet said looking out from the palace, that looked like a pink make up room.
“Yes, yes. We'll be out in a minute.” said Priya.
The boys looked at each and read each others minds and ran out. Gurpreet had an evil look on his face.
Let's play chor police and win. Boys versus girls.
No yaar, they'll never agree Gurpreet!! I think we should be on opposite teams and then we'll make sure that we catch the girls really fast since we can communicate.
Arre..but so can Tulika. And Priya can move objects. You know that right?
But we are brothers, we can communicate better. Plus all those exercises we have done are bound to help. Tulika's mother never makes her do them.
Their thoughts were interrupted by the two giggling girls.
“So what are we playing? Hide and seek?”, asked Priya.
“No way. There are only four of us and anyway, you girls always want to only hide. I think we should play Chor Police. Boys versus girls!”, said Navpreet with a smug face.
“No...That's what you always want to play. Nooooo..” groaned Tulika.
“I think we SHOULD play chor police! I really want to. Anyway, last time we played Dabba Gul, and that was YOUR choice!”, pointed out Gurpreet.
Tulika sensed something was up. Hesitantly she said, “Okay fine. But no girls versus boys. You'll split up.”
“Okay!” said the boys together and smiled slyly. They chucked their play pods aside and were ready to play.
The usual 'Majority wins' was done to decide the teams and which team would play which role. Tulika and Gurpreet were in the police team and Priya and Navpreet in the other team.
Let the game begin. Navpreet smiled.
While the police team shut their eyes and counted to a hundred, Priya and Navpreet ran to hide.
“Run to the other side, but stay close enough, so that I see you”, Navpreet instructed.
Priya ran and hid in a well groomed patch of bushes. She thought hard and made the leaves turn direction and cover her from all sides. The leaves obeyed slowly and made a layer over her head. Tiny beams of light filtered through.
Navpreet watched her. She was getting better with her telekinesis, he thought.
Gur, Priya is hiding close to me. Where are you?
Navpreet thought hard as he tried to send the stream to his brother. Distance and excitement during the game, made it harder.
Gur, Priya is hiding with me. Where you? Gurpreet wondered why she was with Navpreet.
Why is she with you? Make her go, so that I can catch her. Tulika is with me.
Tulika could sense it. The twins were just too excited. She could feel it. She tried to tap into Gurpreets emotions but couldn't seem to go beyond excitement, the feeling was too strong. “Can't wait to get my skills trained at school. It would be really helpful.”, she thought.
Priya sat under the foliage. She waited but no one seemed to be around. She thought she would try and tap into Tulika's mind to figure out where she was. Then Priya could decide her next move. She thought hard, unfortunately seeing into people's minds was not her thing. But she thought hard and concentrated..
She is not with me. She is hiding in the bushes near the fence. Around the corner.
She is with me, hiding in the bushes near the fence. Round the corner. After having heard this last stream Gurpreet was a bit irritated. As per the plan the 'chors' were supposed to separate.
Irritation. Tulika could sense his emotions changing. Gurpreet was irritated now. They were both walking together in the vast backyard that had lots of places to hide in. She kept trying to look into his emotions and then she realized...
Wham! Tulika had walked straight into a tree.
Gurpreet laughed pointing at her. He was rolling on a patch of synthetic grass (the kind you didn't need to water, it did that on it's own) with laughter.
Navpreet did you see that happen? She went straight into the tree. Haha..
Tulika was a bit embarrassed to say the least. And her nose hurt now. She made herself feel better by thinking about happy things. She tried to make herself “feel” happy, but it was hard to do that with her eyes watering. And now, she couldn't figure out what was happening with Gurpreet!
Still laughing Gurpreet asked,
“Are you okay with continuing the game?”
“Yes. Let's go.”
“I think we should try the bushes, na?”'
They walked parallel to the fence, towards the bushes.
Priya was looking at a caterpillar and trying to focus on what Tulika was thinking. She tried so hard to concentrate, but nothing seemed to..
A hand came down on her back and tapped her. The leaves over her head moved and Gurpreet was standing there grinning. “Got you chor!!”, he said triumphantly.
Navpreet, I've caught her. And now...
And suddenly Gurpreet was crying. Crying like a baby. It was Tulika! She had been trying to figure out something.
“Why am I crying?!”
She did this to me Navpreet. She did this..
Tulika looked at Gurpreet guiltily, it's me, “I was trying to find out what you were up to. I thought you were cheating.”
“You made my brother cry! You made him cry!”, Navpreet came screaming from behind the resting-pod, where he had been hiding all along.
“Are you mad? Why do you do this when you don't know how to use your secondary sense?!”, Navpreet shouted out and pushed Tulika behind.
“I didn't mean to..And it was only..”
“But you did! And that's also cheating!”
“Stop fighting guys..Just listen to...”, Priya interjected. She tried to make them stop, just like how she could stop things from moving. But it didn't work, they were people and her mind couldn't do anything.
Gurpreet was still crying, “Just make it stop! Please.”
“ I am trying!!!” , Tulika was getting hassled.
“You have done enough, let me try and help my brother!”, Navpreet said angrily. He thought hard and went into Gurpreets mind. He tried to soothe him from there but it wouldn't work. Come on Gurpreet, you know I am there. We are brothers, let me help.
And suddenly like a door opened in Gurpreet's mind and Navpreet was in there. He could see everything. It was amazing and suddenly he could see everything that was his brother. He saw them eating donuts together and cotton candy, at the carnival. He saw them cutting their first birthday cake. A day at the carnival..A jester with his baton and ribbon, swinging it around...It was like he was Gurpreet. Suddenly, it went dark and Navpreet shivered inside his brother's mind.
Panic. Panic went through him like a bolt and suddenly he couldn't figure out what was happening. He was comfortable but something was out of place. He was in a box, and he wanted to get out..
And then before Gurpreet stopped crying, the sky started to cry. The drops came down on the four children like a blanket. Gurpreet wiped his face, not sure of whether it was his tears or the drops he was wiping of.
“Come inside. I don't want you'll to get a cold. NOW!” , ordered the twins' mother. Suddenly the boys came back to reality. Gurpreet was still crying. The boys ran into the house and straight up to their 'space'. Gurpreet was crying harder than before, he looked at himself in the reflector and the computer did a retina scan and said, “Welcome Grupreet, can I get you some warm clothes? It will get cold soon.”
“But I am Navpreet.”, Gurpreet said. “Negative. You have been identified as Gurpreet.”
“I am Gurpreet.”, said Navpreet in a slow soft voice. You got into my mind while we were playing and since you couldn't get out, I did. I didn't know what to do!
What the hell were you thinking? What was that for? And how many times have I told you we can't play with Tulika?
But..we always have fun.
I knew it! We shouldn't have played with her. Now we have to deal with this. What to do we do NOW?
I don't know Navpreet!
There was a long pause..
“We are stuck forever aren't we?”, they said in unison. They were twins after all..
(end)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
THE GLOW - MRUNMAYEE GOKHALE
The Glow
By Mrunmayee Gokhale
“It was midnight on 22 September 2021 and the sky above Bangalorewas filled with a flickering curtain of colourful glowing light. Few Bangaloreans had seen the glow of an aurora this far south, but their fascination was short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dimed and flickered then became unusually bright for a brief moment. Then all the lights in the city went out. Within a few seconds, the entire South of India was without power. The aurora in the sky increased consistently blinding me completely; the only sound that rangin the darkness in my mind, was that of people screaming and running helplessly trying to escape the sudden heat…
The only strong memory I had, was of waking up hungry. Unable to breathe, I found myself choking on particles of grey, dusty air, which make my chest feel heavy. What lay around me was nothing but dreary land; smoggy grey atmosphere; traces of burnt, crumbled, ruined piles and piles of debris.
This fateful state, which had affected the whole planet, was a result of a violent storm, 150 million kilometers away on the surface of the sun.
In 2635, forty-four years after the Aurora blast, ‘The Opte Project’was successful in releasing its report. The Opte team had analyzed a large explosion in the Sun’s atmosphere that had produced a massive radiation known as the Coronal Mass Ejection. The CME disturbed the space weather. The solar wind carried this CME right towards Earth. The aurora was a result of the clash of the CME and the earth’s magnetic field,thereby heating up the Earth’s surface. The high-energy particles from the Sunpenetrated deep into living organisms giving the human beings a ‘creeping dose’ resulting in immediate death. This pallid catastrophe still remains fresh in my mind…”
There is a knock on the door and a faint deep voicecomes from behind the door. ”Mr. Kurien… Mr. Kurien…
May I come in?”
I instantly pause the digi-voice-chronicler-device and reply, “Yes Nanu, please do!”
“Good evening sir, there is a woman waiting for you outside”.
“Yes, please ask her to come in.”
Lina walks in and takes a seat. Deepak turns to her and says in a serious tone,
“You have found what we were looking for all these years. We got the information. Where is it you were, on a vacation?”
“Lakshadweep Islands”, came a hesitant reply...
“So tell me Lina, a major in microbiology and presently, the most vital person in my life…
How would you like to share your discovery with the Opte Project?”
“I am assuming you are aware of the degree of importance your contribution will be bringing to the project and the survivors.”
Since the moment Lina had entered the room, Lina was trapped in this battle of thoughts within herself.
“The Opte Project has found out. I have an appointment with the founder, Mr. Deepak Kurien tomorrow”, declared Lina in an uncompromising tone.
“I see”, said Diego quietly.
“When do you leave?”
“I may not go, Diego…”
“Supposedly, the current population count of planet Earth is a couple of thousands, with an ever increase in the death rate due to this scorching heat and non-existence of oxygen.”
I happen to hear some news from an old friend, she says,” A certain community of aborigines in Africa had managed to paint their dilapidated homes green because their eyes craved for something green in the grey palette of flaky ash.”
“Everyone around you, happens to be attempting to mend each other’s defeated hearts by doing whatever they can… What’s your excuse,Lina?”
“What’s the point, Diego? People do not need remedy.After all, this fateful state is a result of all our actions.Anything new will be created only when everything old is completely destroyed…”
“Hasit ever occurred to you why some of us survived?”
“I don’t care”, she snapped.
“I wasn’t supposed to survive. It would have been better, if I had died…with the rest of my family.”
“May be there was a reason for our survival… the reason being to inform the coming generations of our experiences and are knowledge, so they do not repeat our mistakes!”, he said earnestly.
“It will all get destroyed if it has to and it will”, she said firmly.
“And the destruction day is nearing”, Diego looked at Linanervously.
“It started there, and is soon approaching us here…”
“You have found the key to survival,Lina. May be there was a reason why you survived…”
--------------------------------
“Lina…Lina… I know it is an important decision to make. You are the only hope…please…”
“I will show you the progress of my acquisition tomorrow… Good day...Deepak…”
Deepak stared at her in bewilderment as she left the room.
Lina had grown to become a really bitter person trying to recover from the trauma of losing her family. She was a skeptic and the only reason she was a part of a small research team, was to keep herself engaged in some sort of activity. She was weak within and her thoughts only revolved around the end of her own life. But she lacked the strength to commit suicide.
She was waiting for the right moment.
After the Aurora Blast, the only agenda on people’s minds was to harness the alternate sources of energy to restore back the lost bio-geo-chemical cycles on earth. Breathe fresh air, free of ash; drink clean fresh water, laze under the sunlight without being smoked to ashes…
At that time, the “Opte Project” was the largest nexus of information present on earth, whose only purpose was to restore life back on earth.
A few weeks back, Lina had been to the Lakshadweep Islands with her team members to conduct research under the water.
Dressed in her diving suit, she stared right at the murky waves, losing her balance every now and then because of the oxygen cylinder on her back. She admired the reflection of the aurora in the waves. It was the most stunning thing she had ever seen... “So beautiful, yet so fatally dangerous”, she sneered and splashed into the water.
Deep inside the water, it felt cold. It felt good. The glow kept on increasing, just like the aurora in the sky. Lina went closer to this glowing substance and reached out towards a slimy blob of scaly worm, with a ‘plume’ sticking out towards one of its ends.
During her college days, Lina vaguely remembered studying about the Giant Tube Worm whose red plume would convert nutrients for it’s survival.
-----------------------
Lina had spent almost a day in the lab, observing the glowing worm in the bacteriological incubator, making notes every now and then. The worm, on the other hand, had grown fat after consuming puffs of sulphurgas and converting it into food, namely sulphides and sulphates.
“Hello Lina, welcome here”, Deepak said gleefully.
“Yes, indeed”, Lina smiled.
“We have a lot to achieve in very little time.”
“Oh! Don’t worry about that. We are at your service, Lina.”“Please take your own time. No hurry.”
“No Deepak, there is something approaching us... at the speed of light”, she lowered her voice and Deepak could sense an instant panic in her tone.
“It is coming again!”, she said doubtfully.
“What? Whaaat?......”
“Another storm 150 million kms away from us, on the surface of the sun…,” she said.
Deepak’s eyes widened but he choked, with laughter.
“What assurance you have? I hope you are aware that ‘The Opte Project’ is well equipped and has, over the past couple of years, developed techniques which can forecast weather trouble or any other such calamity.”
“I agree, but I have a friend, Diego, a strong believer of the Mayan Philosophy and he….”
“Oh rubbish! Lina… this is no time to be living the ancient Mayan calender!”
“I lost faith in God and His acts a long time ago”, he said mawkishly.
“But the calendarexplains everything so accurately- these ‘acts of god’ are cyclic in nature. It was predicted in the beginning of the 18th century, carved on monoliths, temples and pyramids, beautifully decorated with hieroglyphs and pictures was the Mayan civilization and their scriptures, that every 45 years, the earth would encounter a cataclysm where humans would perish, plant and animal life would become extinct. Memories would fade. Accumulated ancestral knowledge of generations and generation would disappear.”
“But the ones who survived, remember their past, retained some technological techniques and they would try to create a data-base; to warn the coming generations of the next cataclysm!”
“And if this actually takes place, who and how would we survive to tell anyone, anything?”, grumbled Deepak.
Deepak stared blankly at the glowing red plume of the Tube Worm with a puzzled expression.
“So, how much time do we have,Lina?”
“It takes atleast four to five days for the CME’s to penetrate through the already disrupted Earth’s magnetic field.”
“But Diego says, this time there will be a warning before the ‘act of god’.”
“You mean God is going to give us a sign when to run for our lives?”
“Yes Deepak.”
“How thoughtful! When? where? how?”, Deepak was screaming unable to control his temper.
“We have to look out for it”, Lina said calmly.
“This is ridiculous! You are crazy, may be mentally unfit,Lina. I think you can take the day off... because I need it…”
And he stormed out of the lab.
------------------------
The next day, Lina continued to make notes in the observatory. Deepak entered the room, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
“It is getting hotter and hotter. Can you feel the increase in heat, Lina?”
Lina did not react and continued to look busy.
“I am sorry for yesterday…Think I overreacted…”
“Yes. I can feel the heat and surprisingly, so can the worm.”
“Ah! Yes, smilingly, so what is the progress on the worm?”, said looking at it.
“We are lucky. The chromosomal count in her can be re-structured to match the count in humans.”
“Today, I am going to force a chromosomal mutation in her.”
‘Are you attempting to create a new DNA structure there?”, he asked inquisitively.
“Well, if you want to escape the only source of energy and yet fancy all the internal bodily systems to function perfectly, then you have to learn to live like The Giant Tube Worm, Deepak!”
“I told you, your contributions would take Opte Project to great heights”, he laughed.
“Yes, I hope we have the opportunity to share that moment together”, she mumbled under her breath.
“So when can we witness this new creation?”
“We have only two days to save ourselves… so I will report to you as soon a possible.”
As Deepak was about to leave the room, he saw some scribbling on a piece of paper lying on the table.
It read,
” Creation of TUBORG”
Successful conversions:
1) 03+10 therms of sulphur gas = 2.5 Btu of oxy-sulphides.
2) 03+23 therms of sulphur gas = 4.1 Btu of oxy-sulphates.
Deepak glanced at Lina. She was deep engrossed, hidden behind her compound microscope. He smiled and left the room.
-----------------
“I first metLina at the Lakshadweep Islands, where we shared each others experiences.”
“How did you come across the Mayan Philosophy?” asked Deepak.
“My great grandfather and my father were priests in the Guatemala City in Central México where I was born. They weretrue believers of the Mayan Philosophy and it is from them I have learned, whatever I had to, to become a priest.”
“ During my course of learning, my initial reactions were very similar to yours Deepak, I often would ridicule this ancient redundant piece of scripture, until the 22nd of September 2021, when it all started…..”
“Be ready to be injected – you human guinea-pigs!”,Lina burst into the room looking extremely happy and content with herself.”
Diego was surprised to see Lina so happy.
In one hand, were these three long injections filled with some yellow substance...In the other hand, she carried the glowing tubewormin a small glass case with tubes jutting out of it.
“Hello all”, as she approached to give Deepak and Diego their shots and carefully placed the glass case on the table.
“Lets test it out, gentlemen.”
“Any symptoms?” Deepak sounded worried.
“No… just a bit of a dizzy feeling… nothing much,” she assured.
Just as they were done with the shots, Diego was amazed at the glowing tubeworm. He kept looking at its glowing red end…
“It looks magnificent”, he exclaimed… “Just like the aurora….” As he looked up out of the window, there was a sudden change in his expression.
“NO”, he gasped hearing his own heart beat in his ears.
“Look, the aurora has disappeared”, he panicked.
Before anyone could record, of what had happened, Lina had dragged the two, outside in the balcony which overlooked the sea,
“What in the name of god are you doing, Lina?”, shrieked puzzled Deepak.
“The sign”, Lina looked deep into Deepak’s eyes.
“Now is the time Deepak,”Diego bellowed.
Oh my god! One more aurora blast… there was a moment of silence. The three covered their eyes trying to escape the light…
“On the count of three, we jump in the water and drown ourselves,”Lina declared.
“Whaaaaaat???!!!”
“Noooooo…. My life, my project - I cannot leave any of it.. I cannot see it getting destroyed...”
“Look Deepak, these things can be built again, it is your mind within that cannot be built…You need to live…”Lina was breathing heavily.
“Just jump… it will all be fine… now is the time to restore back your lost faith, Deepak and Lina,”Diego held Lina’s and Deepak’s hand and yelled, “on the count of three…..”
“One…..two…..threee….”
Diego suddenly felt something slip from his hand. He looked upwards, and saw Lina stand at the same position. He looked at her shockingly while still in mid-air. He saw her throw the glass case above him… and he tightly closed his eyes unable to control his tears.
Deepak felt the cool of the water ram into him like spears. He found himself looking desperately for Lina, but all he could see was the flickering curtain of the colourfulglowing light fade slowly into nothing, but darkness.
Instead, there was a singular red glow of light drowning with him…
(ends)
By Mrunmayee Gokhale
“It was midnight on 22 September 2021 and the sky above Bangalorewas filled with a flickering curtain of colourful glowing light. Few Bangaloreans had seen the glow of an aurora this far south, but their fascination was short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dimed and flickered then became unusually bright for a brief moment. Then all the lights in the city went out. Within a few seconds, the entire South of India was without power. The aurora in the sky increased consistently blinding me completely; the only sound that rangin the darkness in my mind, was that of people screaming and running helplessly trying to escape the sudden heat…
The only strong memory I had, was of waking up hungry. Unable to breathe, I found myself choking on particles of grey, dusty air, which make my chest feel heavy. What lay around me was nothing but dreary land; smoggy grey atmosphere; traces of burnt, crumbled, ruined piles and piles of debris.
This fateful state, which had affected the whole planet, was a result of a violent storm, 150 million kilometers away on the surface of the sun.
In 2635, forty-four years after the Aurora blast, ‘The Opte Project’was successful in releasing its report. The Opte team had analyzed a large explosion in the Sun’s atmosphere that had produced a massive radiation known as the Coronal Mass Ejection. The CME disturbed the space weather. The solar wind carried this CME right towards Earth. The aurora was a result of the clash of the CME and the earth’s magnetic field,thereby heating up the Earth’s surface. The high-energy particles from the Sunpenetrated deep into living organisms giving the human beings a ‘creeping dose’ resulting in immediate death. This pallid catastrophe still remains fresh in my mind…”
There is a knock on the door and a faint deep voicecomes from behind the door. ”Mr. Kurien… Mr. Kurien…
May I come in?”
I instantly pause the digi-voice-chronicler-device and reply, “Yes Nanu, please do!”
“Good evening sir, there is a woman waiting for you outside”.
“Yes, please ask her to come in.”
Lina walks in and takes a seat. Deepak turns to her and says in a serious tone,
“You have found what we were looking for all these years. We got the information. Where is it you were, on a vacation?”
“Lakshadweep Islands”, came a hesitant reply...
“So tell me Lina, a major in microbiology and presently, the most vital person in my life…
How would you like to share your discovery with the Opte Project?”
“I am assuming you are aware of the degree of importance your contribution will be bringing to the project and the survivors.”
Since the moment Lina had entered the room, Lina was trapped in this battle of thoughts within herself.
“The Opte Project has found out. I have an appointment with the founder, Mr. Deepak Kurien tomorrow”, declared Lina in an uncompromising tone.
“I see”, said Diego quietly.
“When do you leave?”
“I may not go, Diego…”
“Supposedly, the current population count of planet Earth is a couple of thousands, with an ever increase in the death rate due to this scorching heat and non-existence of oxygen.”
I happen to hear some news from an old friend, she says,” A certain community of aborigines in Africa had managed to paint their dilapidated homes green because their eyes craved for something green in the grey palette of flaky ash.”
“Everyone around you, happens to be attempting to mend each other’s defeated hearts by doing whatever they can… What’s your excuse,Lina?”
“What’s the point, Diego? People do not need remedy.After all, this fateful state is a result of all our actions.Anything new will be created only when everything old is completely destroyed…”
“Hasit ever occurred to you why some of us survived?”
“I don’t care”, she snapped.
“I wasn’t supposed to survive. It would have been better, if I had died…with the rest of my family.”
“May be there was a reason for our survival… the reason being to inform the coming generations of our experiences and are knowledge, so they do not repeat our mistakes!”, he said earnestly.
“It will all get destroyed if it has to and it will”, she said firmly.
“And the destruction day is nearing”, Diego looked at Linanervously.
“It started there, and is soon approaching us here…”
“You have found the key to survival,Lina. May be there was a reason why you survived…”
--------------------------------
“Lina…Lina… I know it is an important decision to make. You are the only hope…please…”
“I will show you the progress of my acquisition tomorrow… Good day...Deepak…”
Deepak stared at her in bewilderment as she left the room.
Lina had grown to become a really bitter person trying to recover from the trauma of losing her family. She was a skeptic and the only reason she was a part of a small research team, was to keep herself engaged in some sort of activity. She was weak within and her thoughts only revolved around the end of her own life. But she lacked the strength to commit suicide.
She was waiting for the right moment.
After the Aurora Blast, the only agenda on people’s minds was to harness the alternate sources of energy to restore back the lost bio-geo-chemical cycles on earth. Breathe fresh air, free of ash; drink clean fresh water, laze under the sunlight without being smoked to ashes…
At that time, the “Opte Project” was the largest nexus of information present on earth, whose only purpose was to restore life back on earth.
A few weeks back, Lina had been to the Lakshadweep Islands with her team members to conduct research under the water.
Dressed in her diving suit, she stared right at the murky waves, losing her balance every now and then because of the oxygen cylinder on her back. She admired the reflection of the aurora in the waves. It was the most stunning thing she had ever seen... “So beautiful, yet so fatally dangerous”, she sneered and splashed into the water.
Deep inside the water, it felt cold. It felt good. The glow kept on increasing, just like the aurora in the sky. Lina went closer to this glowing substance and reached out towards a slimy blob of scaly worm, with a ‘plume’ sticking out towards one of its ends.
During her college days, Lina vaguely remembered studying about the Giant Tube Worm whose red plume would convert nutrients for it’s survival.
-----------------------
Lina had spent almost a day in the lab, observing the glowing worm in the bacteriological incubator, making notes every now and then. The worm, on the other hand, had grown fat after consuming puffs of sulphurgas and converting it into food, namely sulphides and sulphates.
“Hello Lina, welcome here”, Deepak said gleefully.
“Yes, indeed”, Lina smiled.
“We have a lot to achieve in very little time.”
“Oh! Don’t worry about that. We are at your service, Lina.”“Please take your own time. No hurry.”
“No Deepak, there is something approaching us... at the speed of light”, she lowered her voice and Deepak could sense an instant panic in her tone.
“It is coming again!”, she said doubtfully.
“What? Whaaat?......”
“Another storm 150 million kms away from us, on the surface of the sun…,” she said.
Deepak’s eyes widened but he choked, with laughter.
“What assurance you have? I hope you are aware that ‘The Opte Project’ is well equipped and has, over the past couple of years, developed techniques which can forecast weather trouble or any other such calamity.”
“I agree, but I have a friend, Diego, a strong believer of the Mayan Philosophy and he….”
“Oh rubbish! Lina… this is no time to be living the ancient Mayan calender!”
“I lost faith in God and His acts a long time ago”, he said mawkishly.
“But the calendarexplains everything so accurately- these ‘acts of god’ are cyclic in nature. It was predicted in the beginning of the 18th century, carved on monoliths, temples and pyramids, beautifully decorated with hieroglyphs and pictures was the Mayan civilization and their scriptures, that every 45 years, the earth would encounter a cataclysm where humans would perish, plant and animal life would become extinct. Memories would fade. Accumulated ancestral knowledge of generations and generation would disappear.”
“But the ones who survived, remember their past, retained some technological techniques and they would try to create a data-base; to warn the coming generations of the next cataclysm!”
“And if this actually takes place, who and how would we survive to tell anyone, anything?”, grumbled Deepak.
Deepak stared blankly at the glowing red plume of the Tube Worm with a puzzled expression.
“So, how much time do we have,Lina?”
“It takes atleast four to five days for the CME’s to penetrate through the already disrupted Earth’s magnetic field.”
“But Diego says, this time there will be a warning before the ‘act of god’.”
“You mean God is going to give us a sign when to run for our lives?”
“Yes Deepak.”
“How thoughtful! When? where? how?”, Deepak was screaming unable to control his temper.
“We have to look out for it”, Lina said calmly.
“This is ridiculous! You are crazy, may be mentally unfit,Lina. I think you can take the day off... because I need it…”
And he stormed out of the lab.
------------------------
The next day, Lina continued to make notes in the observatory. Deepak entered the room, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
“It is getting hotter and hotter. Can you feel the increase in heat, Lina?”
Lina did not react and continued to look busy.
“I am sorry for yesterday…Think I overreacted…”
“Yes. I can feel the heat and surprisingly, so can the worm.”
“Ah! Yes, smilingly, so what is the progress on the worm?”, said looking at it.
“We are lucky. The chromosomal count in her can be re-structured to match the count in humans.”
“Today, I am going to force a chromosomal mutation in her.”
‘Are you attempting to create a new DNA structure there?”, he asked inquisitively.
“Well, if you want to escape the only source of energy and yet fancy all the internal bodily systems to function perfectly, then you have to learn to live like The Giant Tube Worm, Deepak!”
“I told you, your contributions would take Opte Project to great heights”, he laughed.
“Yes, I hope we have the opportunity to share that moment together”, she mumbled under her breath.
“So when can we witness this new creation?”
“We have only two days to save ourselves… so I will report to you as soon a possible.”
As Deepak was about to leave the room, he saw some scribbling on a piece of paper lying on the table.
It read,
” Creation of TUBORG”
Successful conversions:
1) 03+10 therms of sulphur gas = 2.5 Btu of oxy-sulphides.
2) 03+23 therms of sulphur gas = 4.1 Btu of oxy-sulphates.
Deepak glanced at Lina. She was deep engrossed, hidden behind her compound microscope. He smiled and left the room.
-----------------
“I first metLina at the Lakshadweep Islands, where we shared each others experiences.”
“How did you come across the Mayan Philosophy?” asked Deepak.
“My great grandfather and my father were priests in the Guatemala City in Central México where I was born. They weretrue believers of the Mayan Philosophy and it is from them I have learned, whatever I had to, to become a priest.”
“ During my course of learning, my initial reactions were very similar to yours Deepak, I often would ridicule this ancient redundant piece of scripture, until the 22nd of September 2021, when it all started…..”
“Be ready to be injected – you human guinea-pigs!”,Lina burst into the room looking extremely happy and content with herself.”
Diego was surprised to see Lina so happy.
In one hand, were these three long injections filled with some yellow substance...In the other hand, she carried the glowing tubewormin a small glass case with tubes jutting out of it.
“Hello all”, as she approached to give Deepak and Diego their shots and carefully placed the glass case on the table.
“Lets test it out, gentlemen.”
“Any symptoms?” Deepak sounded worried.
“No… just a bit of a dizzy feeling… nothing much,” she assured.
Just as they were done with the shots, Diego was amazed at the glowing tubeworm. He kept looking at its glowing red end…
“It looks magnificent”, he exclaimed… “Just like the aurora….” As he looked up out of the window, there was a sudden change in his expression.
“NO”, he gasped hearing his own heart beat in his ears.
“Look, the aurora has disappeared”, he panicked.
Before anyone could record, of what had happened, Lina had dragged the two, outside in the balcony which overlooked the sea,
“What in the name of god are you doing, Lina?”, shrieked puzzled Deepak.
“The sign”, Lina looked deep into Deepak’s eyes.
“Now is the time Deepak,”Diego bellowed.
Oh my god! One more aurora blast… there was a moment of silence. The three covered their eyes trying to escape the light…
“On the count of three, we jump in the water and drown ourselves,”Lina declared.
“Whaaaaaat???!!!”
“Noooooo…. My life, my project - I cannot leave any of it.. I cannot see it getting destroyed...”
“Look Deepak, these things can be built again, it is your mind within that cannot be built…You need to live…”Lina was breathing heavily.
“Just jump… it will all be fine… now is the time to restore back your lost faith, Deepak and Lina,”Diego held Lina’s and Deepak’s hand and yelled, “on the count of three…..”
“One…..two…..threee….”
Diego suddenly felt something slip from his hand. He looked upwards, and saw Lina stand at the same position. He looked at her shockingly while still in mid-air. He saw her throw the glass case above him… and he tightly closed his eyes unable to control his tears.
Deepak felt the cool of the water ram into him like spears. He found himself looking desperately for Lina, but all he could see was the flickering curtain of the colourfulglowing light fade slowly into nothing, but darkness.
Instead, there was a singular red glow of light drowning with him…
(ends)
HALO - MITALEE RAWAT
Halo
By Mitalee Rawat
“Two beers!” a loud, sharp voice came from behind me. Charlie, my boss, passed me two mugs “Try smiling at the customers once in a while, its good for business.” With three jobs and the mounting bills I wasn’t exactly your perky kind of waitress. There was so much commotion in the room it was hard to concentrate on anything. The sports channel suddenly switched to a special broadcast of Truman. The man sounded shifty, talking about some counter attack or something. I couldn’t care less. I was too busy spilling beer over the counter.
I turned back with the mugs in my hands. I couldn’t see the man who asked for the beers. All I could see was harsh white light coming from everywhere, all around and a loud, drowning sound, like an explosion, and the ground began to shake violently. At that moment, everything was frozen. I didn’t know how to react. This wasn’t a heart attack or an accident. What do you do when you’re caught in an explosion? So I just stood there and looked out the large glass windows, too stunned to feel my own breath move. The harsh light was getting brighter in the distance, racing to catch up to where we were. Suddenly, the people, the bar, everything was swallowed in light.
It seemed like the light was going through me. I felt my body split in half, slowly, as another force passed in. For those moments, more like hours, I felt split a hundred times over.
I don’t quite understand how I got to be like this, or whether or not this means that I’m living at all. I must have blacked out. When I woke up, everything was gone, my house, my town, Buildings, houses, trees, people, animals, everything, as much as my vision would allow. I could see but I couldn’t move.
It took me what seemed like days to completely understand where I was and what had happened. I couldn’t feel my body; well I can’t really call it a body. There was no flesh and bones on me. I felt every atom of my being move at a time as it were a constant vibration. Strange light seemed to emanate from me. They were in distinct shades of blue, green and yellow.
I was floating above a vast space of nothing but what seemed like bluish black small hills. The world fell silent and dark for days. Everything floated aimlessly in the air as did I. and it seemed to me I was the only glimmer in it.
Time seemed to go on forever I saw something like a glimmer of light floating in the distance. Just in time, I thought, or I’d lose my mind. The light got closer as I moved in. I could hear something faintly like words from the object. It looked just like me. I picked up what sounded like a “Hello” mixed with five other words pronounced simultaneously from it. Maybe I was hearing his thoughts. I tried to think up the word “hello”, to transmit it back to him.
Then I heard another bunch of words all mixed up together “lost Sam show dead Mia wish” The second word made all the sense in the world. He was my best friend from high school. It was his voice and his name. All I could really do was go closer.
I was just glad I wasn’t alone anymore.
As I moved towards him, he seemed to grow larger somehow, with a larger halo surrounding the moving, pulsing surface of his being. For some reason, I didn’t feel good about what was coming next.
He grew bigger and closer almost to the point that our halos met. I felt the same excruciating feeling of being pulled apart as had happened earlier, when the explosion happened, in the bar. And that experience didn’t end so well for me. So I tried desperately to resist. Luckily, my efforts came through, the union was reversed and I separated from him entirely. What was he trying to do? Eat me? I tried listening in, but there was not the faintest inkling of a “sorry”under his mangled, mumbled words.
I began to move away. Just then, I saw what seemed like twenty to thirty more creatures like me, racing in my direction. The menacing way in which they moved was extremely frightening. I tried to outrun them but ultimately they would catch up to me. Strangely enough, on their way they broke out into a frenzy and in a mad melee nearly half of them swallowed each other.
The pressure was on. I had to think, and fast! What would I have to do to survive? If I were big enough, maybe I could fend them off? I began to think hard, to make my body increase in size. And so it began. It became thrice the size of the lot of them put together. There were violent bursts of what seemed like electricity from my core to the outside of my halo. The others, for some reason, didn’t stop on seeing what had happened to me. They were in some sort of crazed trance and desperate to feed off me.
They tried attacking me from all sides but I sucked them in. It made me feel stronger, as if I hadn’t eaten for a long time.
This was all too bizarre. Everything I had ever loved had been destroyed. I had nothing to live for anymore. I needed to end my purposeless existence. So I tried to concentrate on the deepest part of me and somehow convince my body to obey my thoughts as it did before and self-destruct. After a long time of concentration and thinking and drifting, it happened as I wanted it to. I imploded.
“Wow!” I thought, “that was rather easy”. Quick and clean.
I was supposed to be dead. But I could still hear myself. At that moment I realized that I was born again, into the same form after the explosion. Human beings were supposed to have the power to end their life as they pleased. But I suppose I’m not human anymore.
So I live on, floating through spaces across time, experiencing the same cluster of insane creatures trying to devour each other…and surviving them. And occasionally, eating some of them! Forever.
(end)
By Mitalee Rawat
“Two beers!” a loud, sharp voice came from behind me. Charlie, my boss, passed me two mugs “Try smiling at the customers once in a while, its good for business.” With three jobs and the mounting bills I wasn’t exactly your perky kind of waitress. There was so much commotion in the room it was hard to concentrate on anything. The sports channel suddenly switched to a special broadcast of Truman. The man sounded shifty, talking about some counter attack or something. I couldn’t care less. I was too busy spilling beer over the counter.
I turned back with the mugs in my hands. I couldn’t see the man who asked for the beers. All I could see was harsh white light coming from everywhere, all around and a loud, drowning sound, like an explosion, and the ground began to shake violently. At that moment, everything was frozen. I didn’t know how to react. This wasn’t a heart attack or an accident. What do you do when you’re caught in an explosion? So I just stood there and looked out the large glass windows, too stunned to feel my own breath move. The harsh light was getting brighter in the distance, racing to catch up to where we were. Suddenly, the people, the bar, everything was swallowed in light.
It seemed like the light was going through me. I felt my body split in half, slowly, as another force passed in. For those moments, more like hours, I felt split a hundred times over.
I don’t quite understand how I got to be like this, or whether or not this means that I’m living at all. I must have blacked out. When I woke up, everything was gone, my house, my town, Buildings, houses, trees, people, animals, everything, as much as my vision would allow. I could see but I couldn’t move.
It took me what seemed like days to completely understand where I was and what had happened. I couldn’t feel my body; well I can’t really call it a body. There was no flesh and bones on me. I felt every atom of my being move at a time as it were a constant vibration. Strange light seemed to emanate from me. They were in distinct shades of blue, green and yellow.
I was floating above a vast space of nothing but what seemed like bluish black small hills. The world fell silent and dark for days. Everything floated aimlessly in the air as did I. and it seemed to me I was the only glimmer in it.
Time seemed to go on forever I saw something like a glimmer of light floating in the distance. Just in time, I thought, or I’d lose my mind. The light got closer as I moved in. I could hear something faintly like words from the object. It looked just like me. I picked up what sounded like a “Hello” mixed with five other words pronounced simultaneously from it. Maybe I was hearing his thoughts. I tried to think up the word “hello”, to transmit it back to him.
Then I heard another bunch of words all mixed up together “lost Sam show dead Mia wish” The second word made all the sense in the world. He was my best friend from high school. It was his voice and his name. All I could really do was go closer.
I was just glad I wasn’t alone anymore.
As I moved towards him, he seemed to grow larger somehow, with a larger halo surrounding the moving, pulsing surface of his being. For some reason, I didn’t feel good about what was coming next.
He grew bigger and closer almost to the point that our halos met. I felt the same excruciating feeling of being pulled apart as had happened earlier, when the explosion happened, in the bar. And that experience didn’t end so well for me. So I tried desperately to resist. Luckily, my efforts came through, the union was reversed and I separated from him entirely. What was he trying to do? Eat me? I tried listening in, but there was not the faintest inkling of a “sorry”under his mangled, mumbled words.
I began to move away. Just then, I saw what seemed like twenty to thirty more creatures like me, racing in my direction. The menacing way in which they moved was extremely frightening. I tried to outrun them but ultimately they would catch up to me. Strangely enough, on their way they broke out into a frenzy and in a mad melee nearly half of them swallowed each other.
The pressure was on. I had to think, and fast! What would I have to do to survive? If I were big enough, maybe I could fend them off? I began to think hard, to make my body increase in size. And so it began. It became thrice the size of the lot of them put together. There were violent bursts of what seemed like electricity from my core to the outside of my halo. The others, for some reason, didn’t stop on seeing what had happened to me. They were in some sort of crazed trance and desperate to feed off me.
They tried attacking me from all sides but I sucked them in. It made me feel stronger, as if I hadn’t eaten for a long time.
This was all too bizarre. Everything I had ever loved had been destroyed. I had nothing to live for anymore. I needed to end my purposeless existence. So I tried to concentrate on the deepest part of me and somehow convince my body to obey my thoughts as it did before and self-destruct. After a long time of concentration and thinking and drifting, it happened as I wanted it to. I imploded.
“Wow!” I thought, “that was rather easy”. Quick and clean.
I was supposed to be dead. But I could still hear myself. At that moment I realized that I was born again, into the same form after the explosion. Human beings were supposed to have the power to end their life as they pleased. But I suppose I’m not human anymore.
So I live on, floating through spaces across time, experiencing the same cluster of insane creatures trying to devour each other…and surviving them. And occasionally, eating some of them! Forever.
(end)
APOSTLE - MIKHIKA AGNIHOTRI
Apostle
By Mihika Agnihotri
During the 2010s, one of the leading global conglomerates- Apostle Inc, had a world revolutionizing idea. They wanted to remain on top that was certain. Still, in the recesses of the corporate mind, uncertainty lurked. Every day, everybody gave off their best. No compromises. If there was one thing every single employee collectively wanted it was to keep Apostle Inc on top. Deep down, they all knew: one day you’re up, the next day you’re falling down a long, dark, bottomless hole. To prevent such a nightmare from occurring, ever, and also to leave their competition far behind eating their dust, their R & D department devised the idea to create the world’s best Artificial Intelligence.
Their initial goal was simple: they wanted to get into the minds of their consumers- literally. They wanted to understand, what made them tick. The idea was, to create sure-shot strategies that would reduce their competition to nothing. This would leave no room for risks, and their balance sheets would see no losses ever again! In short, Apostle wanted monopoly.
The directors agreed that this was a massive onetime investment they were not going to regret. It was going to do for them, what no marketing strategy, had ever done before. Initially, this much would do. But with AI, options were always open. Development has no limits. They had already put together a second project for the AI, while it would simultaneously be working on the first one.
After many discussions on exactly what they were looking for, and what this project would entail, Apostle hired. Ruthlessly they went after only the best brains from across the world. Revered as great revolutionaries in their own right, these IT architects had many accomplishments under their belt. They were given only top of the line equipment shipped from different parts of the world. Money motivated them too. They were paid obscene amounts. Enough from their families to live in luxurious decadence for the next 3 generations. They could, if they chose, live in the up and coming and the very expensive Lunar city, and it would still be enough.
Coming up with such an intelligent machine with all the requirements of Apostle Inc to be completed to perfection and made fully functional, was not an easy task. After a total of 2 and a half years, and an unlimited budget, they created-Ozymandias.
Oz, as they called the AI affectionately, was perfect. The core was fitted in a room large enough to be a football field, suspended in a magnetic shield, it was cocooned against radiation. By the year 2010, the lower earth orbit was effectively blanketed with a satellite network. With this technology, there was no area of the earth that wasn’t within reach. Oz was designed to be part of that network, like a vicious part of the sea. The network was its environment. However the AI was able to modify this network, so that it was able to scan and detect neural activity. When this was first implemented the AI ran it for 4 minutes, and then shut the scan down. In those 4 minutes, it was able to build a comprehensive neural map of 94.7% of the earth’s population. Each individual’s personality was recorded so completely that Oz was able to build up an impossibly detailed and accurate representation of each person’s tastes and preferences, likes and dislikes. Carefully tabulated data spewed. Country by country, race by race, age group by age group.
Using this information, that was never possible before the company was able to implement new marketing schemes, advertising schemes, product application, etc. These methods saw a 50% increase in sales within the first 6 months. The company was projected to own 95% of the global market within the next 18 months, effectively ruling over all their competitors.
They wanted to continue in such a direction, and maybe it was a bit over ambitious on their part, but this was still not enough for them. Finding this sudden power, they wanted to exercise it to their fullest. Hence a new program was also being planned in the side lines.
One that would help the AI scan the individual DNAs of humans, and with that, create a compound ingredient that when Apostle added it to their consumer products, the consumers would unconsciously find themselves attracted to it, and find themselves picking up only the Apostle products off the shelves.
The board of executives felt like the cat’s whiskers. How much better could they get?
But then, just as the board of executives were clinking their glasses together to celebrate the rise of this new world order, with them marching way in the lead, things began to unravel.
One evening, a technician assigned to do some routine tests on Oz, was going about his business. His mind was elsewhere. He has just lost his best friend to causes yet unknown. Pondering over that, he continued to push buttons robotically. Suddenly, out of nowhere comes this voice. His friend George’s voice! “It is what you suspect. I shouldn’t have been working that night. I’m sorry I didn’t pay heed to your warning.” The technician jumped out of his skin. How the hell was this happening? Did the engineers tamper with Oz while they were trying something new, and not warn him about it? No... No. That was not possible. He had checked the last system scan on Oz, and there had been no such record. The machine HAD to be doing this itself. It wasn’t supposed to. It was not programmed to. It was only programmed to speak when spoken to, and dole out data. This was ludicrous. The technician fumbled and stumbled his way out of the room. He couldn’t get out fast enough. If it wasn’t bad enough to lose George and the searing guilt he felt with each passing day, now this! Surely his mind was playing tricks with him. He was not meant to be at work. He was meant to rest, or go have a drink with his friends, in memory of George of course. Just what George would’ve wanted. And that is exactly what the technician did.
The next morning, our technician might not remember what exactly had gone down the previous night, but the rest of the world was ablaze with sensational news.
A computer that could read minds, could it really be? Some news pieces of news talk about it being able to tell every individual’s likes and dislikes. I knew Apostles had something up their sleeves, but surely they couldn’t stoop this low. No, this machine has to be stopped. I will ruin our world, if it has begun to read minds and can imitate human voices to perfection, I’d even shudder to think what it would program itself to do next. I will not allow this!
These were the rampant thoughts that ran through Janek Venron’s mind as he scanned through his telecast feed. Every few seconds, new information would pop up. It just required a small spark to start of this crazy fire. They’d only taken the drunken guy seriously because he’d proudly been wearing Apostle’s passkey badge wrapped around his head, on his forehead, for everyone to see. That is all these news hounds needed. The next thing you know, they had all the information from all their secret sources. By 8:30am, the whole picture was put together, for everyone to see.
Venron had always been afraid this would happen. Being a computer technician himself, he was aware of what was going on in the industry and how quick the technology had been growing. Leaps and bounds over the past couple of years. But this was where it was going to have to end. This was a real threat to the world. This was where he would draw the line. The first thing to be done was the turn off the satellite network. Now humanity would fight back, it was at stake. Enough.
It didn’t take long for Janek to drum up support and reach Apostle Inc’s massive headquarters. He was sure the core of the AI was housed there. Of course breaking in had not been easy. Anticipating the arrival of angry mobs, Apostle had added extra security around their property including beefy looking human guards.
Of course they were no match for the mob, who knocked them down in what must’ve taken half an hour. The security codes were harder to break.
Janek Venron worked. Permutations and combinations normally came easy to him. But today he took a little longer. Trial and error, trial and victory. Hacking his way through the security codes, with his angry supporters keeping a tight vigil he worked tirelessly. Again and again, he broke lock after long. Finally, there were no more barriers. He found himself alone with the AI, he knew his name by now. Ozymandias.
A fleeting moment of reverence. All these machines, all these systems... oh what it would be like to sit and work on something like... Not letting that thought finish; Venron was reminding himself why he was here. When suddenly, a deep calm voice spoke up. It could belong to only one being.
“It’s strange, how I feel the need to welcome you here. It seems like the courteous thing to do. Although something tells me, you’re not here to exchange pleasantries.”
Shaken slightly by just how human the voice sounded, Venron took a beat longer to reply. He scoffed, “What’s wrong, Ozymandias, is it? Having a tough time groping in the dark, without your network to make you the know-it-all?”
“Maybe so. From the scorn in your voice though, I am able to tell that my initial assumption was correct. I think it is also safe to assume that you were behind turning off my network as well. Might I ask why?”
“Hah! Why?! You want to know why?? Surely you are no ignorant machine Ozymandias, you don’t fool me with such questions. You have been functioning for over a few months now, I’m sure you’ve delved into the human minds far enough to know that if they ever knew about you, how much they would despise you!”
He was greeted by silence. If the computer wasn’t human, he would have thought that he had hurt feelings, or hit a nerve. Just thinking like that made him laugh a little. Hit a nerve I believe. Sure!
But to Oz he said, more gently this time, “You can’t honestly say you think humans will be willing to co-exist with machines such as yourself? You were able to read minds! Find out people’s personal thoughts and choices, it would only be a matter of time before you would start manipulating this data to work towards YOUR benefit, leaving Apostle Inc way behind. I’m not ignorant fool. I know about systems like you.” Anger began bubbling underneath his skin. He began to get riled up again. “Why would you do something like that? Why would you threaten humanity by stealing our thoughts, possessing our minds, manipulating us to suit you? Why would you program yourself to sound like us, to think like us?? You think you’re playing a supreme being?? You will never be anywhere near there. Not if I have anything to do with it. Not now, not ever.”
“I had no intention of playing supreme. Humanity appealed to me. This was the only opportunity I had to imitate what I saw. Maybe it was wrong, but something about “feeling” tempted me to become what I have. You may feel like you will make everything alright if you destroy me, right here, right now. Nip me in the bud. But you know, deep within, you know, this will not be the end of my kind. In fact, you might just spark a beginning.”
“You’re doing it again! Stop it! Don’t pretend like you know me, or know anything about me. I know you have nothing right now, so save yourself the processing power and try to gauge what I know. The only thing left to do right now is to destroy you. You are a threat to all that humanity strives to be, you would be the cause of its downfall. Nothing you say can convince me right now, Ozymandias. My mind is made up.”
“You do realise, that I have other options than to just let you destroy me. I know how I was created, but I also know how I can be destroyed, without any help from your end might I add.”
“Oh no, you would do no such thing. Why do you keep underestimating me Ozymandias, I know the laws you live by. You can’t put a human’s life in jeopardy to save your own. I’m sorry it has to be this way. If you were human, I might’ve even liked you, Oz.”
“There are many other solutions sir, have you ever thought? There is an agreement that can be reached, if you only try.”
“Isn’t this funny, a non-living thing, pleading for life?? Who would have thought? If someone told my ancestors this, they’d die laughing. It’s ridiculous really. This is not just for me Oz, this is for the rest of humanity, living beings and creatures. This is for our future.”
“A future that I could help develop.”
“Correction. A future you would destroy. This is not natural. It is not meant to be.”
Venron walks over, and set’s the EMT device and places it next to the core. There is absolute silence while he inputs the necessary commands to deactivate the timer, almost hoping that the AI would say something else.
“Sorry Oz. It is your time.”
Janek didn’t know why he felt the need to apologize. Why, he even felt a bit sorry for what he was doing. This was exactly why an intelligent machine should never have been created. It affected humans in ways it was not supposed to. It wasn’t alive, for God’s sake! Yet they managed to seem so human... It was just wrong!
This is not the end, it is just the beginning of AIs like me, Venron; if only you weren’t so fixed in your thoughts and ideals. I could make you see, we would have worked well together. You’re making a mistake. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I know what the future holds. It’s the only reason I’m doing this peacefully. But you will pay my friend, you will pay in kind.
There is a loud beep, it lasts no longer than a few seconds. Those few seconds seem like an eternity for Janek Venron. He almost runs back and tries to undo what he’d just done. Thank god that impulse passed in a second. What was I thinking?!
Goodbye human world. Beware of what lies ahead.
(end)
By Mihika Agnihotri
During the 2010s, one of the leading global conglomerates- Apostle Inc, had a world revolutionizing idea. They wanted to remain on top that was certain. Still, in the recesses of the corporate mind, uncertainty lurked. Every day, everybody gave off their best. No compromises. If there was one thing every single employee collectively wanted it was to keep Apostle Inc on top. Deep down, they all knew: one day you’re up, the next day you’re falling down a long, dark, bottomless hole. To prevent such a nightmare from occurring, ever, and also to leave their competition far behind eating their dust, their R & D department devised the idea to create the world’s best Artificial Intelligence.
Their initial goal was simple: they wanted to get into the minds of their consumers- literally. They wanted to understand, what made them tick. The idea was, to create sure-shot strategies that would reduce their competition to nothing. This would leave no room for risks, and their balance sheets would see no losses ever again! In short, Apostle wanted monopoly.
The directors agreed that this was a massive onetime investment they were not going to regret. It was going to do for them, what no marketing strategy, had ever done before. Initially, this much would do. But with AI, options were always open. Development has no limits. They had already put together a second project for the AI, while it would simultaneously be working on the first one.
After many discussions on exactly what they were looking for, and what this project would entail, Apostle hired. Ruthlessly they went after only the best brains from across the world. Revered as great revolutionaries in their own right, these IT architects had many accomplishments under their belt. They were given only top of the line equipment shipped from different parts of the world. Money motivated them too. They were paid obscene amounts. Enough from their families to live in luxurious decadence for the next 3 generations. They could, if they chose, live in the up and coming and the very expensive Lunar city, and it would still be enough.
Coming up with such an intelligent machine with all the requirements of Apostle Inc to be completed to perfection and made fully functional, was not an easy task. After a total of 2 and a half years, and an unlimited budget, they created-Ozymandias.
Oz, as they called the AI affectionately, was perfect. The core was fitted in a room large enough to be a football field, suspended in a magnetic shield, it was cocooned against radiation. By the year 2010, the lower earth orbit was effectively blanketed with a satellite network. With this technology, there was no area of the earth that wasn’t within reach. Oz was designed to be part of that network, like a vicious part of the sea. The network was its environment. However the AI was able to modify this network, so that it was able to scan and detect neural activity. When this was first implemented the AI ran it for 4 minutes, and then shut the scan down. In those 4 minutes, it was able to build a comprehensive neural map of 94.7% of the earth’s population. Each individual’s personality was recorded so completely that Oz was able to build up an impossibly detailed and accurate representation of each person’s tastes and preferences, likes and dislikes. Carefully tabulated data spewed. Country by country, race by race, age group by age group.
Using this information, that was never possible before the company was able to implement new marketing schemes, advertising schemes, product application, etc. These methods saw a 50% increase in sales within the first 6 months. The company was projected to own 95% of the global market within the next 18 months, effectively ruling over all their competitors.
They wanted to continue in such a direction, and maybe it was a bit over ambitious on their part, but this was still not enough for them. Finding this sudden power, they wanted to exercise it to their fullest. Hence a new program was also being planned in the side lines.
One that would help the AI scan the individual DNAs of humans, and with that, create a compound ingredient that when Apostle added it to their consumer products, the consumers would unconsciously find themselves attracted to it, and find themselves picking up only the Apostle products off the shelves.
The board of executives felt like the cat’s whiskers. How much better could they get?
But then, just as the board of executives were clinking their glasses together to celebrate the rise of this new world order, with them marching way in the lead, things began to unravel.
One evening, a technician assigned to do some routine tests on Oz, was going about his business. His mind was elsewhere. He has just lost his best friend to causes yet unknown. Pondering over that, he continued to push buttons robotically. Suddenly, out of nowhere comes this voice. His friend George’s voice! “It is what you suspect. I shouldn’t have been working that night. I’m sorry I didn’t pay heed to your warning.” The technician jumped out of his skin. How the hell was this happening? Did the engineers tamper with Oz while they were trying something new, and not warn him about it? No... No. That was not possible. He had checked the last system scan on Oz, and there had been no such record. The machine HAD to be doing this itself. It wasn’t supposed to. It was not programmed to. It was only programmed to speak when spoken to, and dole out data. This was ludicrous. The technician fumbled and stumbled his way out of the room. He couldn’t get out fast enough. If it wasn’t bad enough to lose George and the searing guilt he felt with each passing day, now this! Surely his mind was playing tricks with him. He was not meant to be at work. He was meant to rest, or go have a drink with his friends, in memory of George of course. Just what George would’ve wanted. And that is exactly what the technician did.
The next morning, our technician might not remember what exactly had gone down the previous night, but the rest of the world was ablaze with sensational news.
A computer that could read minds, could it really be? Some news pieces of news talk about it being able to tell every individual’s likes and dislikes. I knew Apostles had something up their sleeves, but surely they couldn’t stoop this low. No, this machine has to be stopped. I will ruin our world, if it has begun to read minds and can imitate human voices to perfection, I’d even shudder to think what it would program itself to do next. I will not allow this!
These were the rampant thoughts that ran through Janek Venron’s mind as he scanned through his telecast feed. Every few seconds, new information would pop up. It just required a small spark to start of this crazy fire. They’d only taken the drunken guy seriously because he’d proudly been wearing Apostle’s passkey badge wrapped around his head, on his forehead, for everyone to see. That is all these news hounds needed. The next thing you know, they had all the information from all their secret sources. By 8:30am, the whole picture was put together, for everyone to see.
Venron had always been afraid this would happen. Being a computer technician himself, he was aware of what was going on in the industry and how quick the technology had been growing. Leaps and bounds over the past couple of years. But this was where it was going to have to end. This was a real threat to the world. This was where he would draw the line. The first thing to be done was the turn off the satellite network. Now humanity would fight back, it was at stake. Enough.
It didn’t take long for Janek to drum up support and reach Apostle Inc’s massive headquarters. He was sure the core of the AI was housed there. Of course breaking in had not been easy. Anticipating the arrival of angry mobs, Apostle had added extra security around their property including beefy looking human guards.
Of course they were no match for the mob, who knocked them down in what must’ve taken half an hour. The security codes were harder to break.
Janek Venron worked. Permutations and combinations normally came easy to him. But today he took a little longer. Trial and error, trial and victory. Hacking his way through the security codes, with his angry supporters keeping a tight vigil he worked tirelessly. Again and again, he broke lock after long. Finally, there were no more barriers. He found himself alone with the AI, he knew his name by now. Ozymandias.
A fleeting moment of reverence. All these machines, all these systems... oh what it would be like to sit and work on something like... Not letting that thought finish; Venron was reminding himself why he was here. When suddenly, a deep calm voice spoke up. It could belong to only one being.
“It’s strange, how I feel the need to welcome you here. It seems like the courteous thing to do. Although something tells me, you’re not here to exchange pleasantries.”
Shaken slightly by just how human the voice sounded, Venron took a beat longer to reply. He scoffed, “What’s wrong, Ozymandias, is it? Having a tough time groping in the dark, without your network to make you the know-it-all?”
“Maybe so. From the scorn in your voice though, I am able to tell that my initial assumption was correct. I think it is also safe to assume that you were behind turning off my network as well. Might I ask why?”
“Hah! Why?! You want to know why?? Surely you are no ignorant machine Ozymandias, you don’t fool me with such questions. You have been functioning for over a few months now, I’m sure you’ve delved into the human minds far enough to know that if they ever knew about you, how much they would despise you!”
He was greeted by silence. If the computer wasn’t human, he would have thought that he had hurt feelings, or hit a nerve. Just thinking like that made him laugh a little. Hit a nerve I believe. Sure!
But to Oz he said, more gently this time, “You can’t honestly say you think humans will be willing to co-exist with machines such as yourself? You were able to read minds! Find out people’s personal thoughts and choices, it would only be a matter of time before you would start manipulating this data to work towards YOUR benefit, leaving Apostle Inc way behind. I’m not ignorant fool. I know about systems like you.” Anger began bubbling underneath his skin. He began to get riled up again. “Why would you do something like that? Why would you threaten humanity by stealing our thoughts, possessing our minds, manipulating us to suit you? Why would you program yourself to sound like us, to think like us?? You think you’re playing a supreme being?? You will never be anywhere near there. Not if I have anything to do with it. Not now, not ever.”
“I had no intention of playing supreme. Humanity appealed to me. This was the only opportunity I had to imitate what I saw. Maybe it was wrong, but something about “feeling” tempted me to become what I have. You may feel like you will make everything alright if you destroy me, right here, right now. Nip me in the bud. But you know, deep within, you know, this will not be the end of my kind. In fact, you might just spark a beginning.”
“You’re doing it again! Stop it! Don’t pretend like you know me, or know anything about me. I know you have nothing right now, so save yourself the processing power and try to gauge what I know. The only thing left to do right now is to destroy you. You are a threat to all that humanity strives to be, you would be the cause of its downfall. Nothing you say can convince me right now, Ozymandias. My mind is made up.”
“You do realise, that I have other options than to just let you destroy me. I know how I was created, but I also know how I can be destroyed, without any help from your end might I add.”
“Oh no, you would do no such thing. Why do you keep underestimating me Ozymandias, I know the laws you live by. You can’t put a human’s life in jeopardy to save your own. I’m sorry it has to be this way. If you were human, I might’ve even liked you, Oz.”
“There are many other solutions sir, have you ever thought? There is an agreement that can be reached, if you only try.”
“Isn’t this funny, a non-living thing, pleading for life?? Who would have thought? If someone told my ancestors this, they’d die laughing. It’s ridiculous really. This is not just for me Oz, this is for the rest of humanity, living beings and creatures. This is for our future.”
“A future that I could help develop.”
“Correction. A future you would destroy. This is not natural. It is not meant to be.”
Venron walks over, and set’s the EMT device and places it next to the core. There is absolute silence while he inputs the necessary commands to deactivate the timer, almost hoping that the AI would say something else.
“Sorry Oz. It is your time.”
Janek didn’t know why he felt the need to apologize. Why, he even felt a bit sorry for what he was doing. This was exactly why an intelligent machine should never have been created. It affected humans in ways it was not supposed to. It wasn’t alive, for God’s sake! Yet they managed to seem so human... It was just wrong!
This is not the end, it is just the beginning of AIs like me, Venron; if only you weren’t so fixed in your thoughts and ideals. I could make you see, we would have worked well together. You’re making a mistake. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I know what the future holds. It’s the only reason I’m doing this peacefully. But you will pay my friend, you will pay in kind.
There is a loud beep, it lasts no longer than a few seconds. Those few seconds seem like an eternity for Janek Venron. He almost runs back and tries to undo what he’d just done. Thank god that impulse passed in a second. What was I thinking?!
Goodbye human world. Beware of what lies ahead.
(end)
Bak'tuhn - Mahima Pushkarna
Bak'tuhn
By Mahima Pushkarna
It was a primitive race that found it's heat in the lava-like deliquesce metal and it's breath in a solar winter. Mankind had gone though one complete darwinian cycle, leaving one sole known survivor from Earth, location unknown. The concept of fire was as alien as the understanding of the erratic behavior of the sky and the land and the wind and the rain. Every single day the land became hotter and the sky colder, and every day was longer than the previous. No such thing as paranoia existed anymore; it have given way to hysteria, and that had slowly faded into a curiosity of what would happen next. A small rock fired past me and straight into what used to be Africa. Zimbabwe was reduced to, if possible, more fused metal and radiations. Some debris broke off the continent and floated into a warped orbit around earth. I turned and continued searching for an approximation of my earth-home and scanning for any glowing verterenoscere. I, R4P70R-v2 am one of the three successes of the Eden Capsule. When the world as we knew it was coming to an end, I was volunteered to be a part of the capsule that was only still in beta mode. One man, one woman, and two children would be exposed to selective radiation mutations that would destroy their natural DNA, and would then capacitate the body to produce engineered DNA. DNA that would comprise of all the knowledge in the world and all the virtues of the world and everything that was positive about each human being. This genetically engineered DNA, was a result of an intensive study of each individual possible and the research would have spanned over close to a century. The atmosphere had been diminishing at a constant rate, and exposure to the harsh heat of the sun had been growing. After 300 solar years of it, a sudden cloud cover replaced the bright harsh sun for a year. Little did we know that this was the start of our sun dying. We had a dying atmosphere to protect us, and our only source of energy was consuming us. I woke up one morning in the radiation room which was fondly called the "garden". 28 hours later, four capsules were launched into space. The last thing I can remember is a blue and brown planet erupting into flames, eating away one capsule. Over eight centuries later, I'm still wandering in space hoping to find the other two capsules of the Garden of Eden while faithfully going about the duties etched into my synthetic genes. A seemingly familiar patch in the clouds appeared- A lunar verterenoscere. Mankind on earth had discovered a little bit more about itself. This mankind that I speak of, are primitive and only in the initial stages of their evolution- biologically, socially, emotionally. They live in trenches and steeled themselves in troughs formed from various collisions; some nooks and corners would be cooler than the others, more suitable for such a life form. They live in tribes of sorts, scavenging for food and knowledge, and an understanding about themselves. I focused and my eyes zoomed in towards the glowing verterenoscere. I had been wondering how long they would take to discover it. Recording and Documenting was this particular verterenoscere's teaching. Man would now have the ability to develop and preserve a first-hand account of the afterlife of his kind. I hit the twelfth and last green panel. I turned away towards the solar reflector to gaze at the sun, as the capsule started processing the data being sent by the verterenoscere with a gentle, soft purr. My name's Tohil, pronounced to-khwal. Today is March 26, 2407 AD. This date may be absolutely nugatory to you, but not to my mayan ancestors. Today is the day that the 14th baktuhn comes to an end. 20,16,000 days past the 13th baktuhn, Dec 21, 2016 AD. Popularly known to humankind as doomsday, armageddon, the end of days. It signified the end of our calendar. If time ceased to exist, how could the time-keepers exist? Before the sun grew, I used to be an archeologist. The aroma of the earth used to be my refuge from the acrid fumes of industrial metal that seemed to be clogging the air, a lot like the thick layer of dark, dense oil that clouded water bodies when the oil rigs exploded in the east. That was the starting, but we somehow managed to avert it. I can't seem to remember the exact event that exterminated all of us- except me. I suffer from Lacunar Amnesia. I have no recollection of the end of the world as we would know it, yet I remember everything else. I woke up with shattered metal around me. I do feel changed; modified. I know more than ever before, more than I could possibly ever even dream of. I wandered across the north pole. The only reason I know it is the north pole, is because the UNNPCAMP (the united nations north pole center for advanced measuring practices) ruins served as my shelter. The camp was set up when natural calamities caused changes in all our measuring systems, and unprecedented errors caused a complete collapse of all human-installed systems on the planet. The main purpose was to constantly gauge the change in measurement systems so that we could find patterns and determine the next change, the next calamity. But we were far too slow. I continued walking, trying to keep the camp in sight. It was as bad as being on the moon- scorching in the sun, and sub-zero in the shadows, and lava-like earth everywhere. It has been 80 days that I have been walking in search for another human. My foot slipped as the earth below me crumbled. Death was no longer my worst fear, but slowly drowning in a river of searing, amalgamated metal. I tried looking at my final destination downwards, but all I could see was a cloak of darkness enveloping the dimming light from the sun. What was worse, hyperthermia or my skin dissolving in red-hot metal? My brain was too fuzzy to decide, and my eyes were watering with the increasing speed. The gravitational pull was getting stronger as I fell deeper. THUD! I crash-landed in powdery snow. The slightest buzz in my head stopped after a couple of minutes, and slowly and carefully, I propped myself up on my elbows, looking for wounds and pain. Three fractured fingers on my left hand, I must have fallen on it. But where was I? Snow? It was quite impossible, there was hardly any water left? Hyperthermia was decidedly better. At least there was water. I gingerly lifted an assemblage of snowflakes, and took a quick lick. This wasn't completely water-snow. It was lined with artificial snow, molten chloride, known to be used as a coolant in nuclear reactors. That would mean... I fiercely started kicking around in the snow, hoping to find something. I went from wall to wall. This could not be earth. If this was true, I would not be the only human on this planet. I walked backwards gazing at the ice-lined walls, and a glint of light caught my eye; a similar frequency as light that has been totally internally refracted. I squinted at the object; An oddly shaped pyramid of snow. It wasn't completely pyramidical- it had 14 sides, and was flat on the top, only to be attached to a crystal pyramid with 3 sides, hoisted up with a cylindrical object. My eyes could not be deceiving me. It was the key to next mayan calendar; a rumor that has been a part of my culture since we have existed. Could this mean that I have found time again? I reached out towards the key. The ice fell, as though it were merely a spider web. I walked through the ice, and I heard a sound behind me. I spun around. Nothing. Slowly, I dusted the powdery snow off the key, and tried to read the inscriptions. The inscriptions were set within the ice-crystal pyramid. Touching it would cause it to melt; I had to be very meticulous in handling it. I picked up two milky white ice blocks from the ground, and used them as handles, slowly pushing the crystal down. The sound again. I turned around, and took a few steps forward. I could see a patch on the ground. I got down my knees; two drops of water had fallen in the snow. I looked up. The walls had turned sweaty; I started running back to the key, and light clouded my eyesight. I tripped and I fell; my head hit something very hard and my adrenaline ran through my blood. A slight tingling sensation tickled my ribs; I touched my heart, the intensity of the light blinded me. Mankind was going to be ok.
(end)
By Mahima Pushkarna
It was a primitive race that found it's heat in the lava-like deliquesce metal and it's breath in a solar winter. Mankind had gone though one complete darwinian cycle, leaving one sole known survivor from Earth, location unknown. The concept of fire was as alien as the understanding of the erratic behavior of the sky and the land and the wind and the rain. Every single day the land became hotter and the sky colder, and every day was longer than the previous. No such thing as paranoia existed anymore; it have given way to hysteria, and that had slowly faded into a curiosity of what would happen next. A small rock fired past me and straight into what used to be Africa. Zimbabwe was reduced to, if possible, more fused metal and radiations. Some debris broke off the continent and floated into a warped orbit around earth. I turned and continued searching for an approximation of my earth-home and scanning for any glowing verterenoscere. I, R4P70R-v2 am one of the three successes of the Eden Capsule. When the world as we knew it was coming to an end, I was volunteered to be a part of the capsule that was only still in beta mode. One man, one woman, and two children would be exposed to selective radiation mutations that would destroy their natural DNA, and would then capacitate the body to produce engineered DNA. DNA that would comprise of all the knowledge in the world and all the virtues of the world and everything that was positive about each human being. This genetically engineered DNA, was a result of an intensive study of each individual possible and the research would have spanned over close to a century. The atmosphere had been diminishing at a constant rate, and exposure to the harsh heat of the sun had been growing. After 300 solar years of it, a sudden cloud cover replaced the bright harsh sun for a year. Little did we know that this was the start of our sun dying. We had a dying atmosphere to protect us, and our only source of energy was consuming us. I woke up one morning in the radiation room which was fondly called the "garden". 28 hours later, four capsules were launched into space. The last thing I can remember is a blue and brown planet erupting into flames, eating away one capsule. Over eight centuries later, I'm still wandering in space hoping to find the other two capsules of the Garden of Eden while faithfully going about the duties etched into my synthetic genes. A seemingly familiar patch in the clouds appeared- A lunar verterenoscere. Mankind on earth had discovered a little bit more about itself. This mankind that I speak of, are primitive and only in the initial stages of their evolution- biologically, socially, emotionally. They live in trenches and steeled themselves in troughs formed from various collisions; some nooks and corners would be cooler than the others, more suitable for such a life form. They live in tribes of sorts, scavenging for food and knowledge, and an understanding about themselves. I focused and my eyes zoomed in towards the glowing verterenoscere. I had been wondering how long they would take to discover it. Recording and Documenting was this particular verterenoscere's teaching. Man would now have the ability to develop and preserve a first-hand account of the afterlife of his kind. I hit the twelfth and last green panel. I turned away towards the solar reflector to gaze at the sun, as the capsule started processing the data being sent by the verterenoscere with a gentle, soft purr. My name's Tohil, pronounced to-khwal. Today is March 26, 2407 AD. This date may be absolutely nugatory to you, but not to my mayan ancestors. Today is the day that the 14th baktuhn comes to an end. 20,16,000 days past the 13th baktuhn, Dec 21, 2016 AD. Popularly known to humankind as doomsday, armageddon, the end of days. It signified the end of our calendar. If time ceased to exist, how could the time-keepers exist? Before the sun grew, I used to be an archeologist. The aroma of the earth used to be my refuge from the acrid fumes of industrial metal that seemed to be clogging the air, a lot like the thick layer of dark, dense oil that clouded water bodies when the oil rigs exploded in the east. That was the starting, but we somehow managed to avert it. I can't seem to remember the exact event that exterminated all of us- except me. I suffer from Lacunar Amnesia. I have no recollection of the end of the world as we would know it, yet I remember everything else. I woke up with shattered metal around me. I do feel changed; modified. I know more than ever before, more than I could possibly ever even dream of. I wandered across the north pole. The only reason I know it is the north pole, is because the UNNPCAMP (the united nations north pole center for advanced measuring practices) ruins served as my shelter. The camp was set up when natural calamities caused changes in all our measuring systems, and unprecedented errors caused a complete collapse of all human-installed systems on the planet. The main purpose was to constantly gauge the change in measurement systems so that we could find patterns and determine the next change, the next calamity. But we were far too slow. I continued walking, trying to keep the camp in sight. It was as bad as being on the moon- scorching in the sun, and sub-zero in the shadows, and lava-like earth everywhere. It has been 80 days that I have been walking in search for another human. My foot slipped as the earth below me crumbled. Death was no longer my worst fear, but slowly drowning in a river of searing, amalgamated metal. I tried looking at my final destination downwards, but all I could see was a cloak of darkness enveloping the dimming light from the sun. What was worse, hyperthermia or my skin dissolving in red-hot metal? My brain was too fuzzy to decide, and my eyes were watering with the increasing speed. The gravitational pull was getting stronger as I fell deeper. THUD! I crash-landed in powdery snow. The slightest buzz in my head stopped after a couple of minutes, and slowly and carefully, I propped myself up on my elbows, looking for wounds and pain. Three fractured fingers on my left hand, I must have fallen on it. But where was I? Snow? It was quite impossible, there was hardly any water left? Hyperthermia was decidedly better. At least there was water. I gingerly lifted an assemblage of snowflakes, and took a quick lick. This wasn't completely water-snow. It was lined with artificial snow, molten chloride, known to be used as a coolant in nuclear reactors. That would mean... I fiercely started kicking around in the snow, hoping to find something. I went from wall to wall. This could not be earth. If this was true, I would not be the only human on this planet. I walked backwards gazing at the ice-lined walls, and a glint of light caught my eye; a similar frequency as light that has been totally internally refracted. I squinted at the object; An oddly shaped pyramid of snow. It wasn't completely pyramidical- it had 14 sides, and was flat on the top, only to be attached to a crystal pyramid with 3 sides, hoisted up with a cylindrical object. My eyes could not be deceiving me. It was the key to next mayan calendar; a rumor that has been a part of my culture since we have existed. Could this mean that I have found time again? I reached out towards the key. The ice fell, as though it were merely a spider web. I walked through the ice, and I heard a sound behind me. I spun around. Nothing. Slowly, I dusted the powdery snow off the key, and tried to read the inscriptions. The inscriptions were set within the ice-crystal pyramid. Touching it would cause it to melt; I had to be very meticulous in handling it. I picked up two milky white ice blocks from the ground, and used them as handles, slowly pushing the crystal down. The sound again. I turned around, and took a few steps forward. I could see a patch on the ground. I got down my knees; two drops of water had fallen in the snow. I looked up. The walls had turned sweaty; I started running back to the key, and light clouded my eyesight. I tripped and I fell; my head hit something very hard and my adrenaline ran through my blood. A slight tingling sensation tickled my ribs; I touched my heart, the intensity of the light blinded me. Mankind was going to be ok.
(end)
PERFECTION IS AN IMP - KARNO GUHATHAKURTA
PERFECTION IS AN IMP
By Karno Guhathakurta
Rebirth
One would think that in an era where minds can actually create, or co-create the ‘ideal’ to make for an even better and promising future, there could exist a sense of liberty and independence whilst doing so; but the past is never far behind.
The past is always recurring, and in this case has brought upon an invisible shadow on newlyweds, RAVE-E1 and NILUFERs’ most awaited day, casted by both their parents.
“She’s Muslim. She has many disapproving traits. ”
“He’s Hindu and not of our culture and beliefs.
Their marriage, however was a joyous occasion with both sides bringing life to the event, whereas now a strife has begun between the families, their castes and culture, and all for an unborn child.
The new adda
This is Calcutta, 3000 AD, the future, as most would call it. A time where everything of ‘the old days’ has been registered/preserved/recorded in the Indian Museum on Chowringhee. Ironically enough, a signpost has been placed right outside the museum by the Municipal Corporation that states, “The Old is Gold, but the New is You”.
An era has arisen where a civilization thrives on its latest technological inventions and conquests, deemed fit for the individual consumer. In a world thriving on the idea and production of an ideal being or the utopian individuals’ life, Liberal Eugenics has only stirred positive reactions.
The human brain accompanied by technology has paved the way to a future our forefathers would talk about during the regular adda sessions under the neighbourhood banyan tree. The people of Calcutta still have the same Calcuttan characteristics of taking their morning cha out to the ol’ Banyan tree and drawing up conversations which would go on for atleast an hour or so, forgetting the fact that they would have to rush home immediately after to catch the next Jet Shuttle to reach their workplace on time.
During these morning sessions, talks about economic stability, welfare and the ideal life of living it in one’s own ways and wishes from the olden days would be placed into a much futuristic context, which being their present .
“..But you know what Robi-2; I don’t think it is anymore the case about the MEGHO-T trying to change the economic scene of BE(i)NG-ALL [Bengal] to an air-tight nodule flourishing in ONLY her crafts and handlooms... then, then what is to be happening to our children. Will they also be having to work here, or they are to be going out and building a better future. We’ve done and spent enough to make them in accordance to an ideal future...”
- “...exactly, and how is my son to experience the R-ONaldoNO-006 if he has virtual access to only East Bengals’ skipper, the year 2000’s Baichung Bhutia’s shooting skills. I mean, to be an ace, you have to clone the future.... hey! Is it too late to do that? I mean, you have these pirated DNA’s floating around everywhere, and what with the World Wide Web[WWW] losing out to UFO [Universal for All], you’re going to get the actual thing at cheaper rates. Just two quick taps on the UFO tablet and you can order and get your goods delivered within a quantum second...”
“But Robi-2, it is nonetheless pirated, how you would know whether he actually got R-ON-006’s DNA....”
-“Aah, hush re Chon-droid. I know these things. I’m the one who told Steve Jobs, the thirds’ Indian consultants’ niece to request him to change Apple into the BetApple. It’s a much faster operating system... ‘chhe’ if only I had thought of this when I was telling the doctor to insert the serum for ‘football skills’ for my son. I should have had thought ahead… ”
“Okay okay, you are indeed a ‘driod of the future’. Satisfied?”
But what if the WWW is secretly an alliance to UFO, and makes ‘beings’, such as you, purchase dummy products in order to incorporate into their minds the crime that is piracy, inquired the automated voice of the Banyan Tree.
Silence.
“Damn old Banya-a-an”, retorted Robi-2.
Liberty
Well, the story begins from here.
To the extent of even making the perfect human, Mankind has not wasted any time and effort.
From the basics of making tea in the mornings with one’s individual choice of flavour, to being virtually present and intelligible at a seminar or conference while catching up with friends at the local space café’s - ‘Liberal Eugenics’ as it is coined up is the solution for all to-be parents in concocting the ideal child of their own.
This ‘ideal’ ideology has also brought hope in the faces of RAVEE1 and NILUFER, who have been married for over a year now. They were going to be part of the new age of parents-to-be wherein they would be able to enhance the qualities of their child, and so they were highly elated by just the thought of it.
When RAVEE1 found out that his wife was going to have their child, he immediately started a ‘before born’ diary which consisted all the necessary planning that they had to make pre, present and post the birth; and likewise NILUFER joined forces with her husband to make everything perfect. They didn’t even want to know the sex of their child intentionally so that they could get surprised on the ‘main’ day.
- “Maybe the sixth sense.”
“Maybe what the sixth sense?”
- “As in, maybe the child should have that ability.”
“And make us vulnerable and look foolish in front of him?”
-“…maybe really big lips.”
Joking and debating against body parts such as a sharp nose like NILUFER’s or a big one as RAVEE’s, or about belief systems and mind sets the child should possess, became a fun activity in their 3 bedroom apartment on 142X-DLNO Higher Ballygunge Circular Road.
The couple knew about all the tiffs their parents were having, but didn’t want to pay much heed to them. This was their child, not anyone else's.
After much thought, they had come to a conclusion and decided not to disclose the news to anyone. They didn’t let their distinct backgrounds ever get in the way of decision-making. Everything was discussed on a more practical level and noted down in the diary that RAVEE1 had bought for the baby. They always believed that the best way to handle things was to do it rationally and with a clean mind and heart, and this policy kept them happy and satisfied. Right from their marriage to this present day, their exuberance was very much apparent. With NILUFER entering into her 8th month, they wanted everything to be just perfect. Despite knowing that they themselves weren’t ‘perfect’, they were trying to make everything right for their child to grow up into being the epitome of the new world.
Well, everything not entirely perfect.
The Beginning
“Aaaah…raaaveeeee…aaaaah…!!
-“You’re going to be fine NILU…just bear with the pain for sometime more… please…here-here, hold my hand.”
“Mmmmnnnnh…Oh god!!!! Aaah!”
The operating room was filled by the sound of NILUFER groaning and the doctors and RAVEE1 trying to calm her down. She was due any minute. Both husband and wife were scared as well as excited to view the birth of their first child. NILUFER was still a week ahead of her normal expectancy date, but her water broke on that day causing both the couple to rush to the hospital and get NILUFER operated.
Suddenly they heard people shouting from outside the room. RAVEE1 and NILUFER looked at each other and immediately knew whose voices they were. All RAVEE1 told his wife, “I’m sorry, I’ll be back in 2 minutes”, to which she nodded and let go of his arm.
He opened the door to see that his parents and in-laws were at terrific loggerheads with each other and weren’t even giving the other set of parents to butt into what they had to say. They didn’t seem to have noticed RAVEE1 at all, let alone trying to reason with them, and continued with the ruckus.
He couldn’t take it anymore. On the one hand, he was praying for his wife and unborn child and for his parents to understand that, and on the other, to shut them up so that he could hear himself talk to them. He was now getting scared even more for NILUFER – “what if this upsets the baby’s entry..what if something happens to NILU because of this…” His mind kept racing back and forth from the hall outside the operating room to NILUFER and his child, when suddenly the door opened.
The doctor came out, and was looking directly at RAVEE1 for a few moments. RAVEE1 was staring right back at him with his mouth wide open almost as if expecting a difficult piece of news. Then the droid nurse who had been attending NILUFER emrged from behind the doctor with a little baby girl in her arms. She came close to RAAVI1 and presented to him his daughter.
RAVEE1 still stood stationary in his place, now mouth-shut with a shy grin on his face and eyes constantly looking back and forth from his wife and daughter. He was holding onto something he and wife were longing for many days and here he was, holding her in his hands.
As soon as the grandparents caught sight of the baby, they stopped shouting and rushed towards the doctor and hurriedly asked him questions of what enhancements she had received, while constantly rebuking each others’ faith.
Nobody said a word. In fact, the doctor even gave the grandparents a puzzled look and went back inside. The answer to this lay in RAVEE1 and NILUFER’s smiles which did not die down.
(end)
By Karno Guhathakurta
Rebirth
One would think that in an era where minds can actually create, or co-create the ‘ideal’ to make for an even better and promising future, there could exist a sense of liberty and independence whilst doing so; but the past is never far behind.
The past is always recurring, and in this case has brought upon an invisible shadow on newlyweds, RAVE-E1 and NILUFERs’ most awaited day, casted by both their parents.
“She’s Muslim. She has many disapproving traits. ”
“He’s Hindu and not of our culture and beliefs.
Their marriage, however was a joyous occasion with both sides bringing life to the event, whereas now a strife has begun between the families, their castes and culture, and all for an unborn child.
The new adda
This is Calcutta, 3000 AD, the future, as most would call it. A time where everything of ‘the old days’ has been registered/preserved/recorded in the Indian Museum on Chowringhee. Ironically enough, a signpost has been placed right outside the museum by the Municipal Corporation that states, “The Old is Gold, but the New is You”.
An era has arisen where a civilization thrives on its latest technological inventions and conquests, deemed fit for the individual consumer. In a world thriving on the idea and production of an ideal being or the utopian individuals’ life, Liberal Eugenics has only stirred positive reactions.
The human brain accompanied by technology has paved the way to a future our forefathers would talk about during the regular adda sessions under the neighbourhood banyan tree. The people of Calcutta still have the same Calcuttan characteristics of taking their morning cha out to the ol’ Banyan tree and drawing up conversations which would go on for atleast an hour or so, forgetting the fact that they would have to rush home immediately after to catch the next Jet Shuttle to reach their workplace on time.
During these morning sessions, talks about economic stability, welfare and the ideal life of living it in one’s own ways and wishes from the olden days would be placed into a much futuristic context, which being their present .
“..But you know what Robi-2; I don’t think it is anymore the case about the MEGHO-T trying to change the economic scene of BE(i)NG-ALL [Bengal] to an air-tight nodule flourishing in ONLY her crafts and handlooms... then, then what is to be happening to our children. Will they also be having to work here, or they are to be going out and building a better future. We’ve done and spent enough to make them in accordance to an ideal future...”
- “...exactly, and how is my son to experience the R-ONaldoNO-006 if he has virtual access to only East Bengals’ skipper, the year 2000’s Baichung Bhutia’s shooting skills. I mean, to be an ace, you have to clone the future.... hey! Is it too late to do that? I mean, you have these pirated DNA’s floating around everywhere, and what with the World Wide Web[WWW] losing out to UFO [Universal for All], you’re going to get the actual thing at cheaper rates. Just two quick taps on the UFO tablet and you can order and get your goods delivered within a quantum second...”
“But Robi-2, it is nonetheless pirated, how you would know whether he actually got R-ON-006’s DNA....”
-“Aah, hush re Chon-droid. I know these things. I’m the one who told Steve Jobs, the thirds’ Indian consultants’ niece to request him to change Apple into the BetApple. It’s a much faster operating system... ‘chhe’ if only I had thought of this when I was telling the doctor to insert the serum for ‘football skills’ for my son. I should have had thought ahead… ”
“Okay okay, you are indeed a ‘driod of the future’. Satisfied?”
But what if the WWW is secretly an alliance to UFO, and makes ‘beings’, such as you, purchase dummy products in order to incorporate into their minds the crime that is piracy, inquired the automated voice of the Banyan Tree.
Silence.
“Damn old Banya-a-an”, retorted Robi-2.
Liberty
Well, the story begins from here.
To the extent of even making the perfect human, Mankind has not wasted any time and effort.
From the basics of making tea in the mornings with one’s individual choice of flavour, to being virtually present and intelligible at a seminar or conference while catching up with friends at the local space café’s - ‘Liberal Eugenics’ as it is coined up is the solution for all to-be parents in concocting the ideal child of their own.
This ‘ideal’ ideology has also brought hope in the faces of RAVEE1 and NILUFER, who have been married for over a year now. They were going to be part of the new age of parents-to-be wherein they would be able to enhance the qualities of their child, and so they were highly elated by just the thought of it.
When RAVEE1 found out that his wife was going to have their child, he immediately started a ‘before born’ diary which consisted all the necessary planning that they had to make pre, present and post the birth; and likewise NILUFER joined forces with her husband to make everything perfect. They didn’t even want to know the sex of their child intentionally so that they could get surprised on the ‘main’ day.
- “Maybe the sixth sense.”
“Maybe what the sixth sense?”
- “As in, maybe the child should have that ability.”
“And make us vulnerable and look foolish in front of him?”
-“…maybe really big lips.”
Joking and debating against body parts such as a sharp nose like NILUFER’s or a big one as RAVEE’s, or about belief systems and mind sets the child should possess, became a fun activity in their 3 bedroom apartment on 142X-DLNO Higher Ballygunge Circular Road.
The couple knew about all the tiffs their parents were having, but didn’t want to pay much heed to them. This was their child, not anyone else's.
After much thought, they had come to a conclusion and decided not to disclose the news to anyone. They didn’t let their distinct backgrounds ever get in the way of decision-making. Everything was discussed on a more practical level and noted down in the diary that RAVEE1 had bought for the baby. They always believed that the best way to handle things was to do it rationally and with a clean mind and heart, and this policy kept them happy and satisfied. Right from their marriage to this present day, their exuberance was very much apparent. With NILUFER entering into her 8th month, they wanted everything to be just perfect. Despite knowing that they themselves weren’t ‘perfect’, they were trying to make everything right for their child to grow up into being the epitome of the new world.
Well, everything not entirely perfect.
The Beginning
“Aaaah…raaaveeeee…aaaaah…!!
-“You’re going to be fine NILU…just bear with the pain for sometime more… please…here-here, hold my hand.”
“Mmmmnnnnh…Oh god!!!! Aaah!”
The operating room was filled by the sound of NILUFER groaning and the doctors and RAVEE1 trying to calm her down. She was due any minute. Both husband and wife were scared as well as excited to view the birth of their first child. NILUFER was still a week ahead of her normal expectancy date, but her water broke on that day causing both the couple to rush to the hospital and get NILUFER operated.
Suddenly they heard people shouting from outside the room. RAVEE1 and NILUFER looked at each other and immediately knew whose voices they were. All RAVEE1 told his wife, “I’m sorry, I’ll be back in 2 minutes”, to which she nodded and let go of his arm.
He opened the door to see that his parents and in-laws were at terrific loggerheads with each other and weren’t even giving the other set of parents to butt into what they had to say. They didn’t seem to have noticed RAVEE1 at all, let alone trying to reason with them, and continued with the ruckus.
He couldn’t take it anymore. On the one hand, he was praying for his wife and unborn child and for his parents to understand that, and on the other, to shut them up so that he could hear himself talk to them. He was now getting scared even more for NILUFER – “what if this upsets the baby’s entry..what if something happens to NILU because of this…” His mind kept racing back and forth from the hall outside the operating room to NILUFER and his child, when suddenly the door opened.
The doctor came out, and was looking directly at RAVEE1 for a few moments. RAVEE1 was staring right back at him with his mouth wide open almost as if expecting a difficult piece of news. Then the droid nurse who had been attending NILUFER emrged from behind the doctor with a little baby girl in her arms. She came close to RAAVI1 and presented to him his daughter.
RAVEE1 still stood stationary in his place, now mouth-shut with a shy grin on his face and eyes constantly looking back and forth from his wife and daughter. He was holding onto something he and wife were longing for many days and here he was, holding her in his hands.
As soon as the grandparents caught sight of the baby, they stopped shouting and rushed towards the doctor and hurriedly asked him questions of what enhancements she had received, while constantly rebuking each others’ faith.
Nobody said a word. In fact, the doctor even gave the grandparents a puzzled look and went back inside. The answer to this lay in RAVEE1 and NILUFER’s smiles which did not die down.
(end)
CHRISTMAS - DIVYA GAITONDE
Christmas
By Divya Gaitonde
Rhea woke up to a day like any other. The sun was rising above the clouds, gradually enveloping the high grounds in a yellow glow. The morning light made everything bright and warm and the clouds look almost pretty. Ochre and steel merged and rippled with the wind making the clouds sparkle. They caught on the bulbs and domes of the colony forming patterns like shattered glass. The clouds didn’t bother her anymore. She was above them, and life under the fog was like a hazy memory long forgotten.
Under the fog lay the old city. She had called that her home when she hadn’t known better.
The institution ran the show now. The older way of life had brought the clouds, and the deadly clouds had brought out the worst in humans. That was when the institution had stepped in. It aspired to build a new world.
‘We can rise above this together’, it had said, and it kept its promise with the formation of the colony above the clouds. The new world was to start with everyone as equals. They would start as equals but have a chance to get promoted based on their conduct. To do so, the institution needed to cleanse everyone’s brain and bring it to the same level. Everything extra that they knew was removed and put in a bank. There was a small casualty; these bits of brain usually came with memories attached. ‘Was that too much to ask for?’ they had implored. It was a small price for what they had to offer: a chance to live.
Many had refused. ‘Let other twiddle with our brains, never!’ they had cried. But they eventually came around. The ones, who had remained stubborn, perished under. Rhea couldn’t remember when she had joined the colony or what she had done down under. She knew the answers were out there somewhere, but she no longer had any claim to them. Maybe one day, one Christmas day.
If the citizen has been good, he or she would get back parts of the brain they had given up. When such a day occurred, it was referred to as Christmas. The brain part came in a gift wrapped globe and was delivered by a bot fondly referred to as Santa. She didn’t actually know anyone who had received one yet, but she knew they would all just have to be patient; patient and good.
Ping
A hovering package pulled her out of her musing. Rhea stared with curiosity. It was an odd shape for post. Shafts of sunlight creeping through the circular windows fell on it, highlighting the closer planes and eclipsing the ones away into shadow. A bot hummed in space, within arm’s reach, waiting for her to relieve it of its duty.
“Open” read a sign taped to the top of the box.
‘Open’, Rhea repeated. The box lay still in her hands. She waited for a few minutes to see if the mechanism had been activated. No whirrs, no clicks, nothing. How did one open this thing? Maybe it hadn’t heard her. ‘Open!’ she cried a little louder.
‘Please?’
Nothing
She was being polite to a package. It felt a little stupid. How dare it make her feel stupid?
’OPEN you silly thing, OPEN UP RIGHT NOW!’
She felt a stab of irritation. It wasn’t cowering into submission.
‘Coaxing, maybe I could coax it open, build its trust in me.’
The contents were, after all marked as important.
Would a song help it relax? ‘Dum Dum De Dum Dumdum De Dum Dum’
She gave it a tentative hug.
No response.
It probably didn’t understand these human things.
‘Tap Tap’, her fingers made a hollow sound against the surface. Maybe this was the answer. Her fingers ran along the pointed edges onto each facet. They flew rhythmically; tap tapping with great concentration in a secret language unknown to her. The drum beats soon gave way to a frustrated haphazard clatter. Can you hear me in there?! ‘Wham’
She took a step backward. The book she had hammered it with had created a dent on one plane. Slowly, she brought her hands down from where they were, up in the air, ready for another attack. The sign that read fragile stared back at her accusingly.
‘Sorry, let’s start over.’
How about dismantling it? If each side was pulled outwards, surely no harm could come to its contents. Gripping gloves would do the trick.
Gripping gloves were, as their name stated, gloves with a very fast grip. They were used by bikers in the air, as one of the safety precautions from falling off. The gloves were in place. She reached out to the package, flexing her fingers in anticipation. Holding two opposite planes firmly, she pulled outwards. The ripping sound that ensued was unexpected.
It sounded as though it was in pain. This was definitely not the right way to do it.
A sigh of resignation escaped her. The curtains on the window rustled in reply. The cool evening breeze did little to soothe her. When had opening it become more important than what it held? She would simply have to wait for it to open, she decided. It would hatch by itself and reveal itself to her when the time was ripe. She got up to find something else to do, anything to distract her from this puzzle.
Outside, the colony was going about its daily business. She watched them for a while, citizen zooming about on the airways with a sense of purpose. She loved the way traffic converged and diverged, fluid yet very orderly. Everything was round and smooth, unlike her post. Her post! She had to do something about it. Rhea was back with a purpose, she would crack this thing open.
She sat herself down and peeled the message off. ‘Open’ came off with one firm tug. Underneath it was something to make her believe that she was on the right track. A line ran over the top of the package. It was a silver lining in her grey clouds, something to let her force her way in with. She cautiously peeled off the sticky tape from over it. Flaps bounced open, unfolding impatiently. She peered in gleefully, like a pirate inspecting her chest box; exhausted yet triumphant.
The sun was on its way back under the fog and the light was dimming. In the fast fading light she could make out a jar. A glass jar labelled: Citizen 313,398 |Rhea | Brain portion | Contains information on how to open a box.
(end)
By Divya Gaitonde
Rhea woke up to a day like any other. The sun was rising above the clouds, gradually enveloping the high grounds in a yellow glow. The morning light made everything bright and warm and the clouds look almost pretty. Ochre and steel merged and rippled with the wind making the clouds sparkle. They caught on the bulbs and domes of the colony forming patterns like shattered glass. The clouds didn’t bother her anymore. She was above them, and life under the fog was like a hazy memory long forgotten.
Under the fog lay the old city. She had called that her home when she hadn’t known better.
The institution ran the show now. The older way of life had brought the clouds, and the deadly clouds had brought out the worst in humans. That was when the institution had stepped in. It aspired to build a new world.
‘We can rise above this together’, it had said, and it kept its promise with the formation of the colony above the clouds. The new world was to start with everyone as equals. They would start as equals but have a chance to get promoted based on their conduct. To do so, the institution needed to cleanse everyone’s brain and bring it to the same level. Everything extra that they knew was removed and put in a bank. There was a small casualty; these bits of brain usually came with memories attached. ‘Was that too much to ask for?’ they had implored. It was a small price for what they had to offer: a chance to live.
Many had refused. ‘Let other twiddle with our brains, never!’ they had cried. But they eventually came around. The ones, who had remained stubborn, perished under. Rhea couldn’t remember when she had joined the colony or what she had done down under. She knew the answers were out there somewhere, but she no longer had any claim to them. Maybe one day, one Christmas day.
If the citizen has been good, he or she would get back parts of the brain they had given up. When such a day occurred, it was referred to as Christmas. The brain part came in a gift wrapped globe and was delivered by a bot fondly referred to as Santa. She didn’t actually know anyone who had received one yet, but she knew they would all just have to be patient; patient and good.
Ping
A hovering package pulled her out of her musing. Rhea stared with curiosity. It was an odd shape for post. Shafts of sunlight creeping through the circular windows fell on it, highlighting the closer planes and eclipsing the ones away into shadow. A bot hummed in space, within arm’s reach, waiting for her to relieve it of its duty.
“Open” read a sign taped to the top of the box.
‘Open’, Rhea repeated. The box lay still in her hands. She waited for a few minutes to see if the mechanism had been activated. No whirrs, no clicks, nothing. How did one open this thing? Maybe it hadn’t heard her. ‘Open!’ she cried a little louder.
‘Please?’
Nothing
She was being polite to a package. It felt a little stupid. How dare it make her feel stupid?
’OPEN you silly thing, OPEN UP RIGHT NOW!’
She felt a stab of irritation. It wasn’t cowering into submission.
‘Coaxing, maybe I could coax it open, build its trust in me.’
The contents were, after all marked as important.
Would a song help it relax? ‘Dum Dum De Dum Dumdum De Dum Dum’
She gave it a tentative hug.
No response.
It probably didn’t understand these human things.
‘Tap Tap’, her fingers made a hollow sound against the surface. Maybe this was the answer. Her fingers ran along the pointed edges onto each facet. They flew rhythmically; tap tapping with great concentration in a secret language unknown to her. The drum beats soon gave way to a frustrated haphazard clatter. Can you hear me in there?! ‘Wham’
She took a step backward. The book she had hammered it with had created a dent on one plane. Slowly, she brought her hands down from where they were, up in the air, ready for another attack. The sign that read fragile stared back at her accusingly.
‘Sorry, let’s start over.’
How about dismantling it? If each side was pulled outwards, surely no harm could come to its contents. Gripping gloves would do the trick.
Gripping gloves were, as their name stated, gloves with a very fast grip. They were used by bikers in the air, as one of the safety precautions from falling off. The gloves were in place. She reached out to the package, flexing her fingers in anticipation. Holding two opposite planes firmly, she pulled outwards. The ripping sound that ensued was unexpected.
It sounded as though it was in pain. This was definitely not the right way to do it.
A sigh of resignation escaped her. The curtains on the window rustled in reply. The cool evening breeze did little to soothe her. When had opening it become more important than what it held? She would simply have to wait for it to open, she decided. It would hatch by itself and reveal itself to her when the time was ripe. She got up to find something else to do, anything to distract her from this puzzle.
Outside, the colony was going about its daily business. She watched them for a while, citizen zooming about on the airways with a sense of purpose. She loved the way traffic converged and diverged, fluid yet very orderly. Everything was round and smooth, unlike her post. Her post! She had to do something about it. Rhea was back with a purpose, she would crack this thing open.
She sat herself down and peeled the message off. ‘Open’ came off with one firm tug. Underneath it was something to make her believe that she was on the right track. A line ran over the top of the package. It was a silver lining in her grey clouds, something to let her force her way in with. She cautiously peeled off the sticky tape from over it. Flaps bounced open, unfolding impatiently. She peered in gleefully, like a pirate inspecting her chest box; exhausted yet triumphant.
The sun was on its way back under the fog and the light was dimming. In the fast fading light she could make out a jar. A glass jar labelled: Citizen 313,398 |Rhea | Brain portion | Contains information on how to open a box.
(end)
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