Chapter nine - A reason enough

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God of a Man

Across Two Eternities

“Total peace and total destruction, they can both lead to a better life.”

Chapter Nine: A Reason Enough

Dated: 1st March, 2461

Life does not end with the death of one life or life-form. No, it is not because the soul continues to live. Rather, it is because a new life takes up the space left behind by the previous life. Jurassic was neither the beginning, nor the end of life. It was just one of the life-periods that earth had supported during a certain time in history. It perished, just like any other life form would eventually, but was soon enough replaced by a more intelligent life, better adept at the changed conditions. Total destruction of one form of life is the beginning of a new form of life, which would eventually turn out to be better than the first. Even a nuclear disaster would not end life on a planet forever, for as long as conditions are still conducive, life will re-emerge, and be better than what had previously ended.

Total peace is the only other way to have a better life, where all life that exists, is at ease with the nature, free to cherish its bounties. What causes strife is the intermittent violence that neither ends the conflicting interests, nor settles them for good. Brave and heroic get consumed by the flames of war, while the cowards surrender unconditionally, ready to be subjugated to humiliating existence as long as their lives are spared, thus laying to waste the sacrifices of those who fought. For those who ride to battle; the battle might as well destroy the world once and for all, for what they would otherwise leave behind is no better life. What worth is laying down your life for those who would prefer to surrender for humiliating life then die for glory?

But is glory really the epitome of achievement for life form? What worth is glory that stands tall above a mountain of destruction, and what would it create afterwards? Perhaps more reason for future destruction! Thus for any life form, the only way to better life is total peace. Total destruction is for the sake of the planet that supports it. But planets don’t need to support life to be at peace with their own existence. They just support life because they cannot opt out of their predicament. But when they do; there is seldom a trail of destruction left behind; rather only an eerie silence. Ask those who dig up graves to build their own lives today; how many stories do the dead tell, that concern them more than their own story?

“We’ve got company,” was a frightening message for Anne, as Margaret’s voice boomed out of every wireless radio set. There was no time for niceties as Margaret sought immediate attention, “We have an unknown craft heading fast towards our location. Its motion is random; appears to be scanning the surface.”

“I’ll look into the matter straight away,” Bradley immediately radioed back, “Captain Ahluwalia; could you please secure the perimeter of the work site?”

“Certainly Captain Connors,” Captain Ahluwalia knew what was expected of him, “Let me know if you need me to move a man out or forward!”

“Sure will,” Bradley quipped back before continuing, “Margaret; keep tracking the craft. I’ll be by your side in the command deck in thirty seconds.”

And Bradley rushed out of his tiny compartment where he had set up a makeshift cockpit simulator to train the next batch of their pilots. On his way into the cabin, he grabbed one of the guns left behind by Alex.

“I just lost him,” Margaret exclaimed as she threw her hands up in the air just as soon as Bradley walked in.

“Where was the last position that you tracked the craft?” Bradley asked.

“About here,” Margaret exclaimed, pointing at the screen in front, “About two kilometres from our work site.”

“We don’t have time,” Bradley exclaimed as he pushed the laser gun towards Margaret, “Here, fire this at me!”

“What?” a surprised Margaret exclaimed in horror.

“Just do as I say,” Bradley quipped as he forcefully thrust the weapon in her hand and asked her to fire it.

“I can’t do it,” a shocked Margaret exclaimed as she let go of the weapon and got up from her seat.

“What’s the matter with you,” Bradley exclaimed as he stretched himself as much as he could, to grab the trigger of the weapon himself and pull it after saying, “Can’t you just pull the trigger like this?”

The laser fired, and the impact threw Bradley backwards and the gun at the feet of a shocked Margaret. But Bradley wasn’t going to be hurt, for he feeds on radiation. A glow reminiscent of the one witnessed on the Tyrene world began to glow in his stomach, right where the laser fire had shredded away his clothes. “See; that’s all I am asking you to do,” Bradley exclaimed as he got up, tearing off what remained covering his body.

“OK! I’ll try,” a still in shock Margaret stuttered in her speech, but grabbed the gun, to fire a reluctant shot.

“More,” came out the cry from Bradley, but not once. It came out enough number of times, to turn him into a red fluorescent humanoid light. “Now it’s time,” Bradley finally exclaimed as he took a few steps towards Margret, grabbed the gun from her hands, and dashed out, faster than a shooting star, while Margaret watched with her jaw dropped down to her stomach.

“What’s the situation?” a concerned Anne’s voice boomed on the radio.

“Captain Connors has just left the ship to manually scavenge the region,” Margaret replied as soon as her trance broke.

The more desperate one is, more thorough are their efforts. The more thorough are one’s efforts, more fulfilling is the experience, for even if one fails to find anything to suit their needs, they would still end up learning a lot about themselves.

A desperate Bradley dashed through frozen dunes, his gaze scrolling around in every direction to spot an enemy that was omnipotent in its stealth. Finally Bradley could no longer run around like idiots and decided to take a huge lunge from the top of the frozen mound that he had just scaled up like a child’s play. But to his surprise, such was the inertia of his velocity, and so little the resistance by the thin atmosphere, a desperate dive turned into an un-fancied flight. Bradley was airborne, but not like a plane or a bird; just his momentum keeping him afloat for a distance way longer than he might have ever thought in his wildest dreams. Could have been close to a kilometre, enough to give him a quick aerial view of the region, and this time, the enemy didn’t escape his laser focus.

Two alien warriors had safely landed their craft behind a line of dunes, and had taken a stealth march to perch on top of one of them, to better observe the activities being undertaken by the human visitors of the ghost planet. It was a shocking surprise to them, when a reddish glow moved across the frozen dune’s side they were lying prostrate on. In a jiffy they turned around as Bradley finally landed on his feet with a thud that nearly caused a quake and splattered frozen matter everywhere. His glow was finally subsiding, with him having used most of his absorbed energy in the search and comb operation.

“What the hell was that?” a shocked Professor Dunmore queried Captain Ahluwalia at the other side, as the duo observed the strange glowing object land behind the dunes in the distance. But Captain Alhuwalia had no answers to offer, as he grabbed his night vision equipped binoculars, to try and have a better view. The intrigue was heightened by the ensuing laser fire that lit up the sky at the other end.

The fire had been opened by the two alien warriors in defence; no questions having been asked, or even considered by the duo. They were not there on friendly mission, and definitely had no friendly intentions. But to their misfortune, they only ended up feeding more energy to a fast draining Bradley.

His laugh was cruel, or it must have felt so to the shocked alien warriors who looked at each other in surprise as a rejuvenated Bradley lunged towards them. The first of the warriors rushed towards him in return, and lunged in the air, in an attempt to kick him in his face. But Bradley quickly manoeuvred his sturdy trunk out of the way and grabbed the flying alien by his leg. He spun around and slammed the alien head first into the frozen ground. If there was any chance of life still left, Bradley quickly landed a heavy blow of his hand to the alien’s neck, with his laser lit hand acting like a blade, swearing the head off the alien’s body. Having subdued this one, Bradley turned all his attention towards the remaining one.

Shaken but nor scared, the other alien took a couple of shots more at Bradley, before rushing off towards him with a loud war cry. This time however Bradley rushed, dived and skidded on to his knees, his fist pumped up and aimed at the alien’s torso. Not only did he land the punch, but Bradley pumped a laser beam back into the alien’s body. The impact of the punch and the fire was enough to toss a lifeless body meters above in air, and far back enough, to land it close to the site where Captain Ahluwalia and his team had taken positions in defence.

“Who the hell is he?” Professor Dunmore exclaimed as he stood up and took a few steps towards the lifeless body.

“More importantly; who is he?” Aman asked as a red glowing figure appeared atop the dune from behind which the alien had just come flying from. “Bradley!” was a shocked exclamation from Captain Ahluwalia, as he focussed his binoculars on the face of his calmly waking brother.

“I need his hand,” Bradley exclaimed as he walked up to Aman’s team that had all now gathered around the dead alien, “He is the senior of the two, whose bio-metric data controls the craft mechanisms.” Bradley then knelt down and grabbed the dead body’s hand, and tried to severe it with a laser fire from his own, but his absorbed power had died out once again.

“Is this what you were talking about when you came back from those aliens’ world?” Aman asked as he knelt by his side, “That red glow.”

“That’s right,” Bradely exclaimed, and to show him what he meant, he grabbed the laser weapon hanging by the side of his body, and fired a beam on to his self, getting some more power. He immediately used it to relieve the alien’s body of its hand. “Quick, we’ll need to shut down their craft and burry it deep down below as soon as we can, before the rest of their kind tracks it down,” Bradley exclaimed.

“So this is how you do it,” a shocked Aman however wasn’t listening as he grabbed the laser hanging by Bradley’s side, and started fiddling with it, turning it towards himself.

“You don’t try it,” Bradley exclaimed as he grabbed the weapon back from Aman’s hand, “It won’t work on you.” And he walked away and towards the location of the alien craft.

What works for one may not work for another, or at least in the same or a similar way. But this should not deter the other to learn from it whatever could be learnt, and if the need be, even try it. Sometimes a modification in method is all that is needed.

“It feels like we are flying straight into that blinding star,” Chief Flight Officer of NSSS Impact, Kris Morris, exclaimed as his Commanding Officer, Captain Shania Williams, looked on.

“Just three more days,” Shania exclaimed, “Once we enter the atmosphere of that planet, it won’t look this bad.” She then turned around and looked at the screen installed in her command desk, “We’ll need to find an exact physical match for this shoreline that was a part of the update posted by Rear Admiral’s men. Once we find it, it should be relatively easier to find our directions from there.”

Directions however need both a starting point, and an ending point, to make any logical structure. The goal to be achieved is no more important than the start that needs to be made. The rest of the journey in between however may be variable.

“What are we dealing with Captain Connors,” a concerned Anne asked as the Defence Core Committee of the mission met in the presence of Professor Dunmore, to thrash out the details of the events that unfolded, and decide what needed to be done next.

“These are Schneridians of Nedruxa world,” Bradley informed them, “The duo were a part of an armed team escorting business cargo to their friendly worlds, including that of Tyrenes.”

“What were they doing here?” Chris asked.

“The bright flash caused by our idiotic team caught their attention as the convoy flew past this planet,” Bradley explained, “They were dispatched to check up on the activities going on here, and depending upon the emergency, either report back to the caravan, or their own world. Their instructions were not to engage in any combat unless absolutely necessary, or if it was easy enough to be taken care of by the duo.”

“Does this mean our presence has been compromised?” an even more concerned Anne asked.

“Not yet,” Bradley replied, “But I’d be inclined to say we don’t have any more than three to four weeks of comfortably clear time left here.”

“And why’s that?” Aman asked.

“Because their world is barely three and a half weeks far from here at the speed they travel,” Bradley replied, “We are lucky the Tyrenes have moved their entire force further up space, from what I could gather from the minds of this dead duo, and will not be able to send any major attack force here. So if anyone has to follow up, which I would expect them to once the security team reports back to their world and they figure out their two men are missing, they are the one’s who’ll come in all guns blazing.”

“That is really concerning, not to mention the stress and strain it puts on our team to complete the work,” Anne exclaimed in horror, and then turned towards Professor Dunmore, “Professor, is there any chance of our fight back.”

“All the weapon and radar systems are ready,” Professor replied, “I can modify them for use as ground based defences, but I must warn you; any defence they would provide would be very limited. They are designed for aerial or space combat, and not as ground defences.”

“Some defence would be better than none,” Aman quipped, “Besides, if the need arises and we have no option left, we may be able to create an impression that we have a strong defence, which might deter them to proceed on a destructive course without adequate build up, and thus give us all the time that we need.”

“I second that,” Bradley added his support to the suggestion, and so did Captain Davis.

“Very well then, it’s settled; Professor please modify the weapon systems as soon as possible,” Anne wasted no time in coming to her decision after that.

“Give me forty eight hours,” Professor replied before adding, “However I do want to say one thing; we need every pair of hands that can do some useful work now.”

The five members of the Core committee looked at each other, before Anne finally asked, “You don’t mean him!”

“I certainly do,” Professor replied, “If he’s here on this mission, he might as well carry his weight around now.”

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Chapter Eight: Who goes there?

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God of a Man

Across Two Eternities

“Those who strip for money, keep their assets covered otherwise.”

Chapter Eight: Who goes there?

Dated: 1st March, 2461

An absolutely extrinsic yet highly individualistic characteristic of anything that exists is its value. Value, unlike inherent characteristics, is not a feature making up the object, but rather a characteristic attached to it by a volatile mix of circumstances extrinsic and attributes intrinsic to it. The more something is needed, the more is its value. Water is worth more than gold in a desert from which there is no escape, and life is worth more than gold when it is your own.

Obviously, value can be manipulated by creating or destroying the need for something. This is the expertise of management, whether that of a society, or that of a market. Value is also relative and comparative. Something could be more or less valuable over a stretch of time, or than what was expected, or it could also be more or less valuable than something else. Value is volatile!

This by necessity mandates an active involvement of the one who commands something, to ensure the proper preservation of the intrinsic qualities of the object of interest, or better still, an enhancement of the same. That person may or may not have the power to manipulate its’ demand, but they cannot let themselves down by not being prepared should an opportunity to reap the benefits emerge. They may also not want that object to be available to satisfy the demand without having paid back their own investment of any kind. Worst however is the situation where a person realizes that what they gave up when it was worthless; is worth more than a fortune when they don’t have it anymore. So it was apparent to the crew of a lost spaceship, that having milked a dead planet to the best of their abilities, it would be unpardonable to lose the gains by one stupid indiscretion.

For three painstakingly long months, had the crew of NSSS ‘Maa’ worked tirelessly round the clock, melting metals recovered from their newly unearthed haven. They first set up crude alloying machines, made of parts printed using their three dimensional printing technology. Then they used the volatile mix of liquefied Methane and Oxygen; that they had pumped out of the very holes they had dug up, to melt metals and alloy them. Big bodies are made up of many small parts, bound into a single mass by a tight arrangement. The spaceships they were building were no different.

The earlier despair that they had experienced over the course of their journey, when they had been woken up in turns, to stretch and use their muscles, was replaced by a new found optimistic fervour this time. For the first time they knew they could put their feet on a world not their own but yet very similar to it. This one might not have been warm and cosy, but it was neither unwelcoming, and nor did it do any disservice to their outside chance of finding a new home. If anything; everybody thought this was a moment that would provide them with a solution to all their problems. This was what would set them up on the home stretch. The memories of their loved ones were no more their bane, but their motivation.

“In my broken heart now lives a dream,

That makes me sing than cry.

I can’t change our fate, or turn back stream,

But for you my love I’ll try.

Sticks or shovels, guns or arrows,

No more than some gains.

Latch or drag, I’ll jump or grab,

Your love will ease my pains.”

Songs infused their efforts, and their efforts brought to life what had hitherto been unthinkable for most of them.

“How’s your training going,” Suzanne asked Aman as he walked up to her at the work site, ready to dig in with his bit, having just finished his daily training with Bradley on a flight simulator. Bradley was the one who knew how the new spacecrafts operated, and it was his task to train the five flying teams; three teams of three, for the three attack crafts, and four two member teams for the two mother-ships. Their journey was going to be continuous, as had previously been the case, only this time they would have the liberty of time, to scan the space more thoroughly and deeply.

“It’s good that Bradley trained the four professional pilots first,” Aman replied, “Now Chris, Rocker, Margaret and Christine have taken at least half the load off his shoulders. Man; I love the new machines already! Can’t wait to get my hands on the real thing soon enough!”

“Just another five weeks or so Professor says,” Suzanne quipped as she passed a cup of coffee to Aman, when her gaze fell on Anne, who had just finished her own shift at hard work, and was walking up to the make-shift canteen area, “Anne’s coming! Let’s continue with our plan.”

“Great, just let me know when she’s close enough,” Aman exclaimed as he got ready to enact another heated debate with Suzanne.

“Now,” Suzanne whispered as she pretended not to notice Anne approach.

“You know what, you think you know everything,” and Aman started talking up loud, as if he had just had enough of Suzanne, “But the truth is; you know nothing about either men or love.”

“I know enough about both Captain,” Suzanne exclaimed back as she put her hands to her hips, “Enough to know when one is sick with the other.”

“I don’t care what you think,” Aman replied back, “In fact I don’t care what anyone else might think. None of it matters to me, for the only thing that should concern me, and is my concern actually, is what she is going through right now.”

“And you think you really care for her?” Suzanne quipped, pretending to be amused, “I don’t think you care for anyone more than your own larger than life ego that has to be satisfied no matter what.”

“Please yourself, assuming whatever you want to assume,” Aman exclaimed, “But one of these days!” And then he turned around, and pretended to almost bump into Anne, but made amends at the last moment, to duck out of the way and turn around to make his parting shot, “I will find her, no matter what!” And he walked away in a huff, his work gear in his hands, and ready to labour in with the rest.

“What happened?” a concerned Anne asked, “Another of your reality versus Jenny debates with him!”

“You guessed it Commander,” Suzanne quipped shaking her head, “I am just worried; his passion would consume him one day.” And then she paused for some effect, before continuing, “Even more worrying is the thought that his passion might consume someone else; perhaps this entire mission!” She then took a quip step towards Anne, and grabbed her by her shoulders, “Commander, someone needs to make him see sense before it is too late.”

Anne took a long deep breath, before she gently removed Suzanne’s hands from her shoulders, and quipped, “Relax Doctor Dillon, for I assure you; nothing will happen to him or anyone else, least of all this mission. Remember; this mission is my responsibility, and not his.”

“But his fixation with his own love life is scary,” a concerned Suzanne asked, continuing on with her and Aman’s plan to make Anne think that he was too preoccupied with Jenny, to be either a sensible man, or open to any other person’s advances. And their plan had worked so far effortlessly, or so it appeared to them.

“He’s been through a tough time,” Anne quipped with a heavy breath, “Just like the rest of us. But he has something that makes him different than the rest of us; his passion is matched by his talents.” She then turned around and took a few steps in the direction Aman had walked away in, before continuing, “Doctor Dillon; this mission needs his passion, to guide it to its’ logical conclusion.”

“But,” a shocked Suzanne wanted to say something, but Anne stopped her mid sentence by raising her hand.

“We both believe that there is really no possibility of him finding Jenny alive,” Anne continued, “And that might ultimately turn out to be true, yet it will not stop a loving heart that beats inside him, in believing the impossible. But what you see as a problem is actually a solution.”

“I don’t understand,” Suzanne asked perplexed.

“His passion is not only driving our mission forward,” Anne answered her, “But his optimism is also giving hope to others who didn’t have it in them. Thanks to him, the rest all nurse a hope in their hearts today that an end to our miseries is just around the corner. This has given a spring to their feet, a song to their lips, and an impetus to their efforts. All this abodes well for our mission, and who knows, might actually drive it towards a fruitful completion sooner rather than later.”

“But what happens after that,” Suzanne asked.

“We both know the answer to that,” Anne quipped in response.

“He’ll end up wasting his life searching for love that is not there anymore,” Suzanne exclaimed, a genuine pain dripping her words.

“Or he might give it up one day,” Anne exclaimed.

“Maybe one day too late?” Suzanne asked.

“He would have still served humanity and left it indebted forever,” Anne quipped as she took a heavy breath and stepped away to leave.

“Would you not feel sad for him?” Suzanne asked.

“No more than I would for any good friend,” Anne replied, as she paused and looked to a side, at something distant.

“You are a strong woman Commander,” Suzanne quipped, before adding and walking away, “I am not that strong.”

And as Suzanne walked away, Anne turned looked on behind her, before whispering to herself, “I wish I could say that to myself!” But before her emotions could completely choke her, she checked herself, and looked around to make sure no one was watching her in her weak moment.

Weakness is inherent in strength, for strength is judged by it. Strength holds itself up only to its weakest point before it snaps. But the problem is not with strength giving away. The problem is with not being prepared for the weakness.

“Jenny, why are we painting these big messages everywhere,” Jack asked Jenny, as the duo braved a bit of scorching sun late in the evening, painting a giant ‘Help us if you read this’ message on the rocks by the beach. They had already painted it at least a dozen of times at other places, and could have done so many more times at others, but rationing was the key. They only found a limited paint supply in one of the sheds, and they wanted to make sure it would last long enough for repaints, and also that they had painted enough signs to attract attention.

“Because, if next time anyone we know flies by,” Jenny replied as she finished the last of the strokes, “I don’t want them to miss us.”

One only misses something when one is not looking for it. Surprise is what comes to one’s notice in such a scenario.

“These are some to the worst conditions any man has ever worked in,” a frustrated Alan Blake, the sociologist onboard NSSS ‘Maa’ quipped, as he and Mick Kans, the anthropologist took a break from their work.

“Even so my friend, I am glad my feet are back on firm ground,” Mick quipped, “To let you on a secret; I am scared of flying.” And the duo burst out laughing.

There was a small stream of liquefied material flowing past where they were standing. Removal of material from the dugout warehouse would often reveal openings to other areas that were still full of fluid, and the same would start flooding the workspace created in the dugout. It was continuous struggle to maintain a safe working environment, with constant pumping out of new fluid necessary. Lucky for them, the warehouse was located on a higher ground, and the pumped out fluid would flow down into a low lying area naturally, where an artificial lake of liquefied gases had begun to be created.

“Here, let me warm this rascal for you,” Mick exclaimed as he pulled out his electric thermos, and poured a few drops of hot water onto the contents of the stream as a joke. But in a flash the joke turned on them. Their protective clothing and gear might have saved them from damage by the violent rush of material that the interaction between boiling water and liquefied gases caused, but the real shock was the reaction that it caused.

The energy provided by those few drops of boiling water was enough to start an exothermic chemical reaction between some gaseous content in the mixture. The stream, in a flash turned into a flowing river on fire, with the violent reaction quickly heading straight to the lake. A bright glow lit up, covering everything in a bright orange light.

“What the hell,” exclaimed Aman, as he and others working at the sight turned around and looked in the direction of the light.

Luckily however, the frozen matter surrounding the stream and the lake was mostly Carbon dioxide, that evaporated into a thick gaseous envelop within seconds, overwhelming the reactants by its inertness, and dissipating energy by its sheer chilled temperature and volume. The flame extinguished as soon as it had been lit.

“What happened?” an agitated Anne yelled as she rushed out of her temporary on-sight office.

“No damage done!” Professor Dunmore yelled back, to assure her, as everybody looked around to take stock of the situation.

Little however did anyone realize; the innocent buffoonery by two of their brethren had caught the attention of an alien caravan flying past their planet. It was business cargo en route to another world, escorted by an array of attack crafts. One of them was immediately dispatched to inspect the dead dark planet that had not been known to host any activity for centuries now.

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Chapter Seven - Trouble flies faster

God of a Man

Across Two Eternities

“Conscience is the act of self-judgment.”

Chapter Seven: Trouble flies faster

Dated: 19th November, 2460

Humanity may have conflated the distinction between right and wrong with religion, but that does not distract from the issue the core concepts that define the two. There is no crime in nature; crime itself being a product of society. A bird of prey heartlessly kills it feed, before proceeding to feast on its’ flesh. A mammalian male ferociously defends its’ marked territory, even if the confrontation leaves another mortally wounded. The mammalian female does not have a choice, except to mate with the strongest male who wouldn’t let a weaker male warm up to her. An animal’s needs may be limited, but there is no crime in claiming what lies there to be taken, irrespective of who discovered it first. Where are the concepts of murder, assault, rape or theft in nature?

But society is not a place nature extends to, for it is an artificial construct. In fact, the birth of society itself lay in the need to restrict nature and its’ vagaries to what is absolutely unavoidable. It was a means of defying the impact of nature’s law on a life as intelligent as a human being; a product of intelligence, to defend the intelligent. And out of this establishment arose the concepts of right and wrong. What one wouldn’t want another to do to them, for they won’t like the result, is what one shouldn’t themselves do to another, for the other would feel as a bad about it as they would have felt themselves. This is what the distinction between right and wrong is; what would hurt another or their feelings is wrong, and not doing it is right. But then, everybody is not a straight thinking well behaved socialite, and hence the birth of religion; or the fear of unknown.

Conscience has got nothing to do with religion however, for conscience is merely the personal appreciation of the impact of one’s actions on another, and then proceeding to perform or avoid the same. Conscience is an act of self-judgment; about what one is doing, what its’ impact would be, and should it be done, or what should be done if something has already been done. Conscience is the judge with access to evidence that none else might have, and also the most unbiased, although it is no more powerful than the will that wields it. Life will always test individuals with circumstances that will test their will, and only the best would pass it with flying colours, something people like Captain Ahluwalia are always aware of.

A new hole had been dug, but the fluid was drained out only after a well insulated broad-spectrum scanner had been dipped into it, to estimate the worth of the effort. The results were more than encouraging; it was a gold mine of resources that humanity’s torch bearers had stumbled upon. Alas with the fluid, their patience also drained out. There was no point in risking lives, and no time to carry out a stretched out and planned excavation. Whatever frozen material could be scrapped away, by their light excavator, was taken away, and then the rest was blown into the hollow chamber below with light explosives. It was much easier and quicker to remove the debris than follow elaborate safety protocols and a stretched out retrieval plan. They were already over the concept of preserving what was already dead, and had little or no concern to humanity, beyond its’ scientific curiosity.

“What do you think Doctor Harvey?” Anne asked Keith.

“I believe we have stumbled upon a distress establishment of this doomed specie,” stated Doctor Harvey in response, as he continued inspecting the stockpile of externally rusted but internally pure material, “It seems like this is the place where they were desperately attempting to come up with a solution to avoid the fate that awaited them.”

“So what happened?” a curious Anne asked.

“I have no idea beyond a guess, that their technology wasn’t good enough for the rescue operation,” Doctor Harvey replied as he turned around to look at his Commander-in-Chief, “Perhaps Shelly might know something more than what I can explain.” He then paused and gazed beyond Anne’s shoulder, before exclaiming out to his fiancée, “What are your findings my love?”

“Rather interesting,” came a reply from Doctor Dawson, who was intently inspecting what looked like an air-craft; or was it a potential space craft? “From what I can tell from the panels and internals of this machine,” Shelly continued as she manoeuvred her way around two mummified bug bodies, trying not to destroy what could be avoided, “Their science was pretty advanced, almost to the levels of human science in early twenty first century, and yet they don’t seem to have figured out a way to develop a workable aircraft.”

“That’s because they probably didn’t need to,” Doctor Suzanne Dillon joined in the conversation, as she walked up to Anne to ask about something, “They had wings! They never had the need to develop transportation means beyond those absolutely needed to move heavy material. Their science never knew a use for an aircraft.”

“That makes sense,” Anne exclaimed as her eyes lit up in the dim glow of portable artificial lighting being used at the venue, “They would have never even thought about something to assist them in flying. So when everything happened, their fate would have been instantly sealed, with all their efforts then being reduced to valiant attempts at avoiding the unavoidable.”

“Exactly,” Suzanne exclaimed before she popped her query to Anne, “Now Commander, I have inspected the material here for biological infection, and all the tests are expectedly negative. Any microbial activity would have ceased a long time ago, for this place seems to have been frozen for more than a few centuries now. I can always inspect more material once a big chunk has been removed from the surface if that’s alright!”

“That would be just fine Doctor,” Anne cleared her proposal instantly, before turning to Doctors Harvey and Dawson, “What are your estimates about the material that we have available here?”

“Well, having gone through the requirement list supplied by Professor Dunmore, it is safe to assume that we have plenty to build more than ten mother-ships if we want to,” Doctor Harvey replied, “It’s all about setting up alloying and manufacturing lines now.”

“That’s wonderful news,” a delighted Anne exclaimed, and then paused to point at the two mummified remains, and asked her scientific team, “Is it possible to determine how old these specimens really are?”

“It would take up too much resources and time,” Doctor Harvey replied, “We don’t know what the Carbon composition of this world was, and then what the Carbon isotope composition of this world’s carbon content was. The frozen layers would require further study, and a comparison of the remaining atmospheric contents of this world would be necessary. It might be better just to collect some samples and raw data for now, and then conduct the scientific evaluations at a later time, just for research purposes only.”

“Fine doctor; I’ll leave you guys to finish your work here now,” Anne exclaimed shaking her head, as her gaze fell on Aman, who had just walked in to inspect, and was about to turn around and leave. Anne quickly walked up to him. “Captain Ahluwalia,” Anne almost whispered, as if not to make any noise, “I wanted to thank you for what you did out here.”

“Oh, thanks,” a hesitant Aman quipped, not knowing what to say. The two walked up into the temporary elevator set up to access the site, with an uncomfortable silence between them. Once above ground, Aman led the lady to her waiting motorized sledge, and finally said, “I hope it won’t be long for us to get back up and flying now.”

“I sure hope too,” Anne exclaimed as she looked back at Aman, a bit confused. She embarked onto her sledge, ready to leave, when she finally asked Aman what had been bothering her, “Aman, why are you trying to avoid me?”

“Who; me?” taken by surprise, Aman fumbled, “No, absolutely not!”

“Do you really want me to believe that?” Anne asked as she put out her hand and put it on Aman’s, “Look, I know I didn’t want you to do what you did, and you expressly went against my wishes. But that’s fine! I see the results of your work now, and there’s nothing you should be uncomfortable about.”

“Oh, thanks! I am glad you understand,” Aman exclaimed as a sigh of relief escaped his lips.

“OK, I’ll see you back at the spaceship then,” Anne exclaimed as she steered her sledge off and away.

“You can’t just avoid her,” Suzanne, who too had followed behind the duo, and overheard their conversation, exclaimed, “She needs to be told the truth, but not in a way that would destroy her.”

“And you really think I have the ability to do exactly that,” a frustrated Aman turned around and asked Suzanne, who herself knew, she was asking too much of a man who only meant well, but had nothing more to offer in the circumstances.

There is inherent ability, and then there is training. The former cannot replace the later, but the later can cover up for the lack of former. What the former however brings to the table is the smoothening of the learning curve, and an enhancement of adaptability with the later.

“Captain Shania Williams reporting for duty, Sir,” exclaimed Captain Williams with a ceremonial salute to the Admiral, as she arrived for a special assignment that she had been specifically called out for, relieved of her current charge of NSS ‘The Mighty’.

“At ease Captain,” replied the Admiral as he looked up from the file in his hand and turned around to brief his young officer, “But not for long, for you will be leaving straight away for New Saisho Space Research Centre. Your new ship is being readied; two more weeks to go. It’s called NSSS ‘The Impact’.” And Captain Williams’ eyes lit up, and all doubts and misgivings vanished from her mind.

Training generally provides one with only a limited range of readymade answers, but it does prepare one in finding many others. Resourcefulness is about finding the right ones when needed, and ability is about how quick one is in finding them.

“Sir, I think I have a plan,” Engineer Dodd briefed his Commanding officer, “Camouflage!”

“Camouflage,” a surprised Rear Admiral asked as his hand immediately grabbed his chin at the possibilities, “How are we going to achieve that here in open space.”

“Sir, if I may,” Marcus continued, “In nature, species that deploy such a strategy tend to imitate their surroundings, and I agree that open space is not one such helpful environment. But there are ways.”

“And which one do you think suits us best?” Rear Admiral asked.

“The flying rock,” came the short answer, which of course was expected to be elaborated, and Marcus obliged, “Some bigger rocks than our spaceship fly around in space, and at great speed too. They are detectable in many ways; by radars or visible inspection. While the former distinguishes between neither a rock and nor a craft, the later requires either a distant telescopic observation or a close personal inspection, and would always be necessary before any action is taken.”

“So what do you propose?” Rear Admiral asked.

“We can use strategically placed projectors that we can easily install out of the various hatches that our craft has all over its body,” Marcus detailed out the plan, “Thanks to frictionless space that won’t be a problem, and the projectors would easily project the image of a rock onto our craft’s body.”

“What about our craft’s thermal and metallic imprints?” Rear Admiral inquired about the drawbacks that could still be detectable.

“Sir, while many rocks are metallic in nature anyway,” Marcus replied, “Both thermal and metallic imprints might require a much closer inspection than any other detection technique. Plus at the speed that we travel at, thermal imaging from any distance would be highly inaccurate, and not of any help to a spying entity.”

“What are our logistic requirements and projections?” Rear Admiral didn’t need to waste anymore time in making up his decision.

But not all decisions are easy, especially those that concern matters of personal concerns and convictions. It takes more than proper reasoning, to determine things one way or the other.

“Thanks for wrecking my brains Rukhsana, but I want to say something to you today once and for all,” a furious Doctor Adams barged into Doctor Leung’s room, exactly a week after their last conversation, and launched into her right away, “I do not love Doctor Dillon, and she is just a very dear friend, and I do not need to confirm to your choice of sexuality, or anyone else’s choice. I’ll live the way I like, preach the choice I make, and promote what suits my interests, and it is nobody’s business.”

“I am glad you know exactly how you feel Doctor Adams, but why don’t you take a seat and relax,” Rukhsana however smiled as she gestured her colleague to sit down and settle for a moment, “I don’t think you understood what I meant.”

“I am not sitting down here with you anymore, and I know exactly what you were saying,” Doctor Adams however had really been worked up by her comments, and had obviously struggled to cope with them over the week, “You have no right to tell me what I should do.”

“I agree Doctor Adams,” Rukhsana tried her best to maintain her smile, and continued, “I have no right to tell you what to do, but as a friend, or at least as a colleague, don’t you think we can have a healthy discussion about issues that concern us?”

“You are more than welcome to discuss issues that trouble you, and I will be more than willing to help you too,” Xavier replied in a still agitated tone, “But you were not discussing issues concerning you, but rather commenting upon what I should do with my life, about what I should think, and how I should live.”

“Well, and what makes you think that the issue of sexuality does not trouble me?” Rukhsana asked, her gaze going deep down into Xavier’s eyes, “What about issues that affect my future kids and their future?”

“What about them?” Xavier exclaimed, his temper now almost to a boil.

“Doctor Adams, I am a heterosexual woman, and I have every right to hope and expect that my children would be heterosexual too,” Doctor Leung replied, “Homosexual life style and its’ promotion affects that right directly. So shouldn’t I talk about it?”

“You are such a homophobe,” exclaimed Doctor Adams shaking his head, “And not to mention highly offensive. What’s wrong with your kids being homosexual?”

“I am no more offensive in saying that I want my kids to be heterosexual than someone telling me that they can be homosexual,” Doctor Leung argued back, “Offence Doctor Adams is not a privilege that only a minority can enjoy. Besides, the question is not about my or your rights. The question is much bigger; it is about children’s rights too.”

“What do you mean?” Xavier finally mellowed down a little, to comprehend better what his colleague had to say.

“Promoting homosexuality, and medical intervention to assist in breeding denies one important party all its’ rights,” Doctor Leung replied, “It denies the child every right it might have about their life. We as individuals have every right to decide whether we want kids or not. But once we make a choice, the child to be born also has a right to have a natural life; to be loved by their natural parents, a mother and a father.”

“And why can’t two women or two men be the complete parents?” Xavier protested.

“Because a man and a woman are inherently different in their nature and approach to life,” Doctor Leung continued, “And in nature every child has a mother and a father. How can one deny any child this right and pretend that child would have no reason to be unhappy about the decision, simply because they didn’t have the right to choose and that anything can be good enough for them because we think so, and we know better?”

“What is this rhetoric of a man and a woman being inherently different? What world are you living in Doctor Leung?” Doctor Adams lambasted her now, “Today women are as strong as men, and what a proud moment it is!”

“When women are as strong as men, it is not a moment of pride, but rather a moment of shame for the society, for it means its’ men are not strong enough anymore,” Doctor Leung’s reply however shocked him, “If men cannot maintain a natural differential advantage, then as much as women have improved, the men have let themselves down in equal measure. Now don’t get me wrong! I am a woman, and I value and cherish the freedom and rights women enjoy today. But I am also not the one who denies or fights nature, but I am someone who rather prefers to adapt to it. Both sexes deserve their own space, and that space needs to be preserved for both. Development of either sex at the expense of the other will never be good for any society.”

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

Chapter six - Enough to burn

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

God of a Man

Across Two Eternities

“Even greed can fan revolutions!”

Chapter Six: Enough to burn

Dated: 12th November, 2460

Human needs, like any animal, are basic; safety from danger, food for survival, and procreation for propagation. Beyond these three basic needs lies the realm of desires. Society is a complex of both man and material; or perhaps describing in another way, a complex of both physical and psychic. There are many elements that combine to give shape to a society, and each one of these is indispensible; humans to constitute a society, culture to bind it together, goods and services that human efforts generate, and a market to dispense those goods. All these elements interact to drive a consummative force that promotes consumption of everything that makes up the society, be it culture, goods, or even humans themselves. The needs that every human living in a society thus has are not basic.

It is true that desire leads to more desire, and uncontrollable desire is called greed. It is also true that greed, when mixed with power to control any of the elements that make up a society, inevitably truncates the balance of consumptive power, with a few having all the means to splurge, and most others being left out of that sphere of privilege. But humans may be weak, physically or resource wise, but they are never rid of desire. There would always be those who would be just on the edge of that sphere of privilege, and those who would refuse to accept that they cannot be in that sphere with their efforts, in spite of their present predicament. Then there would be all others who would know how to desire, but would either not know how to get it, or have guts to do so. This would be a perfect substrate for revolution, and no matter what the circle of elite may design, this greed would always get the better of them, with the fate of elite being as worse as great their efforts to avoid it would be.

But it is not always a question of giving everything to everyone. Sometimes it is just about giving what people really need at that point in time. Problems don’t arise when people are getting what they want, even if not everything else. Problems arise when people don’t get anything at all, or feel like they won’t were they to seek. Although it is another matter, when people would start getting one thing, they will get used to it, and then they would start needing another. There is no way around this inherent revolution in social setup of a progressive society. Consider the case of Captain Aman Ahluwalia, who already has an opportunity that can one day put him in a position to pursue a quest for lost love and family. Yet he feels he needs to get this done as soon as possible. And if there is an authority that stands in his way, that authority need not be obeyed!

It was cold and pitch-dark, both inside as well as outside the big chamber that Captain Ahluwalia had just descended into. Even when he was standing right under the hole that he had entered into, thanks to the thick sheet of layers of frozen atmosphere, no light was to be detected entering the cursed surrounds. He was not only alone, but lonely too, considering the fact that he was barely a fifty odd feet away from his team above the surface. Yes he had a gun in his hand, and yes there was a torch right at the business end of its barrel. Yet its’ light got lost barely a few feet from him, such was the black of the dark.

He turned around in every direction before even taking a step further from his spot; vary of the slippery sheets of frozen gases lining up the floor beneath. His spiked shoes made it possible for him to stand, but laborious to move. The mummifying freeze was not going to help his case either. But those were the least of his concerns. All he wanted to find was one wall, to follow around. And yet there was none to be seen from where he was.

If the activities of the last two days weren’t enough, his presence had churned the air in there, raising temperature just enough, to turn ice into fumes. Dark was thickening with fog, and doing so pretty quickly! The rising fumes were just about beginning to make haunting sounds, with their echoes reverberating across the underground, loud enough to wake up the dead, if it were possible.

But Captain Ahluwalia needed to make a move, and that’s exactly what he did. Tentative of how hard he were to stomp his foot, firm to maintain his place and balance, and yet not too strong to capsize the floor underneath, he moved a few steps in one direction. Soon enough he found a wall, all layered by frozen mass, all looking blank, with no tell-tale signs of a story that must have thrived in those confines at some point in a time gone by. But that wasn’t all the frozen armour was guarding; possibly hidden behind it were the frailties that the structure might have developed post apocalypse.

Whatever sight the faint light of his torch afforded, Captain Ahluwalia made the most of it. Having scanned that wall thoroughly, he slowly followed along its edge, until he came to a corner, and found another wall. There was nothing noteworthy to discover, except pitch dark front, back, left, right, above and below. Even his own hands weren’t visible; the only thing that he could see was the tip of his gun, lit by his torch’s glare, and just fumes of cold gases in front of it. He would scan the floor in front, then look for anything protruding out of any sides or above, and then take a step or two forward.

After an hour long agonizingly slow march around the chamber, wall to wall, Captain Ahluwalia finally found a door, except that it wasn’t there, and that was the only bright side of it. What lay ahead was only a guess, but the march was still at a snail-pace. However, something was different about the ambience in this section of the buried site. And finally Captain Ahluwalia decided it was time to leave the walls behind, and march through the heart of it. Alas, only a few steps in and his march stopped at the edge of a pit full of fluid. There was no way to tell how far it stretched, and how deep it went. It was just cold liquid mass.

Captain Ahluwalia knelt down to inspect the liquid better. It was just no different than what they had pumped out for two days on stretch already. It just so happened that this level of fluid was below the level of what their pump would have sucked out. Captain Ahluwalia took a deep breath and stood up, only to be frozen down to his spine by what happened.

It wasn’t a tap on his shoulder, but rather a forceful impact, and whatever hit him, stayed there. In a flash he turned around, his gun instinctively pointing ahead of his sight. Any lesser man would have already pressed the trigger too, but Captain Ahluwalia managed to keep his composure within some confines of sensibility. But a rude shock awaited him, for as soon as the torch atop his gun lit up the site in front, the view was enough to imbalance him, toppling him into the freezing fluid.

Luckily for him, where he had paused, was a set of stairs. The steps were deep, but not too deep for him to climb back up quickly, although the highly viscous fluid tried hard to drag him underneath. The added weight of the protective gear he was wearing made his situation worse. It wasn’t as easy a struggle as he made it appear, but he emerged out of the fluid as soon as he could, with his gun barely hanging by his side. As soon as he climbed out of the freezing fluid, he grabbed his gun again, and pointed it back in the direction he had previously inspected.

The sight that scared him stood still, like a rock; made of mummified organic matter. It was like a giant bug from Jurassic Age, and Captain Ahluwalia understood for the first time what the intelligent specie of this world had looked like.

“How are you doing down there Captain?” a familiar voice emanated out of the radio set built into his helmet.

“Still alive,” Aman replied back, before asking, “Where you at Captain?”

“I am above ground,” Bradley replied, “I am your rescue team should there be a need.”

“Looks sweet for now; I’m done,” Aman radioed back, “By the way, could you please have a look at the radio scanner and mark my position on it?”

“Yep, I am looking at it right now,” Bradley replied.

“Great, how far am I from the hole?” Aman asked.

“About fifteen-twenty feet,” Bradley quipped in response.

“Is that all?” a shocked Aman exclaimed, “It really felt like a kilometre down here.”

“I am sure it must have,” Bradley replied, “But negative; the blip on the radio scanner shows you barely fifteen-twenty feet from your entrance.”

“OK, mark that site,” Aman continued, “I’ll take a few steps towards the exit now, but remember my current location. We need to dig afresh five to ten feet further up from there. There’s a lot more fluid to be drained out. This looks like a warehouse or something.”

“Sure thing,” Bradley replied.

To be sure about something is always the first step towards success. Before that stage any efforts are not even a wild goose chase, for there is none to be chased. One needs to be at least sure of what they want, even if they are not sure about how they will get it, or how much and what it will take to get it.

“Lady Davis,” Admiral Abdullah sought the attention of his President, “We have a problem!”

“We always do Admiral,” Michelle replied shaking her head, “What is it this time?”

“The details are in and the scientific consensus is; we won’t be able to find enough fissionable material to fuel our entire fleet,” Admiral informed her.

A sigh escaped Lady Michelle Davis’s lips, as she lamented, “Now isn’t that a shame? I mean; we can’t leave anyone behind, and we can’t fuel enough ships to carry fifty thousand people too.”

“At least we have time on our side now,” Admiral commented a bit optimistically.

“Do you really think so?” Michelle asked, “Life is not going to get any easier out here.”

“Yes, but it won’t become unbearable any time soon either,” Admiral argued in support of his assertion, before pausing to reflect on something. He then continued, “But, if I may, we do have another option open to us now.”

“What do you mean?” Lady Davis was immediately intrigued by his assertion.

“Rear Admiral’s new found world,” Admiral replied, “His update talks about a huge stockpile of Uranium isotope on that world. And we have the means to tap it now.”

“Go on, you have me hooked,” Michelle inclined forward as she actively devoted all her concentration on to Admiral Abdullah’s words.

“This new technology may have undone all our previous six months work, but,” Admiral continued, “It has also provided us with a solution that enables us to travel way faster than what was previously possible.”

“And how does that help us?” Lady Davis asked.

“While it will take at least two years for us to produce our entire fleet of mother-ships on an assembly line,” Admiral explained, “We can assemble a smaller ship in about three weeks time, and dispatch it to that planet to source Uranium to meet our fuel needs. By the time our fleet is ready, that ship would easily end up making at least four trips to that planet and retrieve all he Uranium that we need for our purposes.”

“That is not a bad idea, provided it is feasible,” Michelle quipped as she took off her glasses and put one of its’ limbs in between her teeth, “What do our scientific team say about the possibility?”

“We may not have radar technology to map unknown universe and alter our course on the fly,” Admiral informed her all that he had been told, “But we have a very good idea of what lies between our planet and that planet. Our team can not only travel way faster than what Rear Admiral’s own team might be travelling at right now, given the limitations they have identified in their model, but I think it would be a good test of the new technology too, before we put the fate of entire humanity in its’ hands. It should get there in just under three months time, and back in about the same, giving it a week and a half every six months, to scavenge that planet for resources.”

“Sweet,” Lady Michelle Davis quipped, “Admiral, you have my go ahead. Get a team ready to leave for that planet.”

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

Chapter five - What we seek

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

God of a Man

Across Two Eternities

“The better man just does his work.”

Chapter Five: What we seek

Dated: 12th November, 2460

Petty are those who spend their entire lives trying to prove how much better they are from anyone else. Better they will never be, for greatness would never be their forte. What a waste of life and talent it is, when the creative and intellectual faculties are pre-occupied by prejudice! The bitterness that clouds their work masks the sweetness that success should have left as after-taste.

A better individual never wastes time, to emphasize what makes them better, for what does so is not their argument, but their work. They instead proceed on to their next endeavour, with same fervour as they had approached their previous task. Greatness is just the aftermath of their creations that would always be there for the entire universe to judge for itself, as to who was better. The better person just carries on!

This disconnect is itself a part of the virtue, of being better, for a better individual is not concerned with whether their work would be appreciated or not. It is not appreciation they seek, but rather accomplishment; the feeling of satisfaction that comes from the fact that no stone was left unturned in pursuit of what hath to be done. And this is why they are better; just like the band of brothers on board NSSS Full Bloom.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Chemist Noel Flaherty exclaimed as he threw his hands up in the air, having gone through the data generated by Chief Engineer Marcus Dodd’s algorithm.

“Why’s that Sir?” Lieutenant Jake Reginald, who had been patiently watching the two men of science rake their brains on a puzzle, couldn’t keep his curiosity in check anymore.

“Every form of matter Jake, is characterised by a strong conformity to its form and substance,” Noel tried to explain, “Unless we mix two highly reactive substances, or excite a highly unstable substrate, two different materials do not react unless something external exerts a strong influence on their condition; say for example heat, or presence of an acid, etc. This is what we classify as reactions; chemical or nuclear.”

“What has this got to do with our universe, or our universes?” Jake however didn’t understand what his scientifically trained senior was trying to allude to.

“Think of our universes as molecules, for the purpose of this explanation,” Noel tried to explain his statements at a bit more basic level, “Normally I wouldn’t expect two Universes to collide with each other interactively, unless something external to them is causing that strife. This is because gravity has a peculiar way of organizing things. Look at any solar system, and how planets are always circling around their stars in set paths that they seldom deviate from; just like electrons in an atom. Then look at galaxies; bundles of billions of stars that maintain their own position within those galaxies, seldom showing an inclination to collide with their neighbours. Even the black holes don’t fly away in any direction, but rather maintain their position within their galaxies, like nuclei of atoms, sucking only what comes onto them. Everything you see is maintaining a perfect balance with its surrounds. And in light of these observations, it appears highly uncharacteristic of two universes to collide with each other, especially on their own.”

“Maybe you are right, or maybe it is just similar to the situation that exists between Andromeda and Milky way galaxies; two objects on a collision path,” Marcus joined in the conversation, “But what difference would that make to our situation?”

“It could potentially alter our model,” was a short and precise answer from Noel.

“I didn’t think about that,” Marcus immediately saw the flaw in his creation, “That would mean we might have to factor in the possibility of the two universes coalescing together, and then continuing to exist as one combined bigger universe from thence on; like a new molecule generated by a chemical reaction.”

“You know Sir,” Jake quipped to his seniors, “I may not know how the two universes would eventually end up, but this entire scenario reminds me of a post-historic world myth, that on a judgment day the sky will swallow the earth and everybody would die. The way things have happened, they come perilously close to that description.”

“That was just a superstition young man,” Rear Admiral, who  had overheard the comment as he had just walked in to take charge of his ship for another day, quipped as he patted his shoulder, “Neither it’s the sky that has swallowed the earth, and nor are we all dead.”

“But sir, if I may say so,” Jake however argued in defence of his assertion, “Aren’t we too uncomfortably close to annihilation? I mean; we don’t even know what would happen tomorrow, or how long we, or anyone else we know that may still be alive, are going to live?”

“Not if our science can help us,” Rear Admiral however replied, “If we find ourselves at the rough end of the stick today, then that’s because we wasted too much time and lives on fighting over superstitions and for greed, than developing our science.”

“But sir, doesn’t the failure of science justify superstition?” Jake asked as others looked up to their commanding officer.

“Science, young man, would always be superior to superstition, and rationality better than belief,” Rear Admiral however emphatically replied, “For while superstition espouses a lot, it is only science which explains and thus reveals everything, and while belief may motivate one to do something, it is rationality which would explain why something needs to be done.”

“But why go through so much pain, if our science is only going to help us only so far,” Jake however wasn’t satisfied yet, “Why not just live in blissful ignorance, blaming someone unknown for all the troubles, and hoping that same unknown would save you when worst comes? If everyone is going to perish anyway, why not just live free of worries?”

“Because life is about hope, and science gives us that,” Rear Admiral replied, “Belief only gives us wishes that we seek all our lives, without ever getting them in that life. We strive for we know science will potentially save us when faith will leave us at the mercy of probability, for faith is not about fighting against probability, but rather accepting whatever it has to offer. Science will never be perfect, but the more we will improve it, the more the chances are, the judgment day would never come, for judgment day is a creature of belief, and it is about accepting whatever probability has to offer, and not fighting against it.”

Fighting however is easier, when the war is with another. Tough however are the battles that rage inside. And while the external battles may drain your energy, the internal ones bring about emancipation.

“Hi Xavier, how are you?” a vibrant Rukhsana asked as soon as she entered her colleague’s office. “Just wondering if you are free today evening?” was a question that followed quickly without even waiting for a customary response.

“I am not sure,” a confused Doctor Adams quipped as he warily looked at his colleague, “What’s the big fuss about?”

“Nothing big as such,” Rukhsana however clarified, “My friends are just coming over for a little dinner tonight, and I was wondering if you would care to join us.”

Her words however put Xavier on caution, as he consternated before motioning her to sit down, “Why don’t you grab a seat?” As Rukhsana sat down, Xavier heaved a big sigh and took off his glasses. He wiped his eyes, and then with great labour, exclaimed, “Look Rukhsana, I don’t know where and what we are getting at, but there’s something I want to say to you, and I assure you, I am not feeling comfortable at all saying this.”

His words immediately made Rukhsana concerned, “What is it?”

Xavier took another deep breath, before blurting out, “I am gay!”

“Oh I know that,” was a cool and relaxed response from Doctor Leung as she realized what the mole hill was.

“But,” a perplexed Xavier however was left stuttering, “I thought!” And after a bit of struggle, he finally exclaimed, “Why the heck was I getting this feeling?”

“That I am falling for you,” Rukhsana however cut his speech and supplied the words he was struggling to speak up. She took a pause, inclined over, and then continued, “I really admire you a lot Doctor Adams, because you are a good man. But love; I don’t think so! Not that I am aware of any such feelings yet.” Her words finally put Doctor Adams at ease, but it wasn’t meant to last, for her next put him in a spot, “But what would be so wrong even if I was to?”

Xavier uncomfortable pulled back, looked away in every direction, his jaw having dropped down to his tummy, before finally exclaiming, “It just won’t work out. For you sake, I hope that is never the case, for you are one of the best girls I have ever known.”

“But why won’t it work out,” Rukhsana however was in a mood for a discussion.

“Because I would never be interested in a girl as a sexual partner,” was the prompt response from Xavier.

“What has sex got to do with love Xavier?” Rukhsana asked, “We don’t have sex with every person that we love. Some of the most intimate relationships in our life are based entirely on undying love and yet do not involve sex.”

“I agree wholeheartedly dear, but they are not the ones in which we are meant to have sex,” Xavier remarked, “Most of them are blood relations, and some of them are relationships of trust and bonding.”

“I know, but that’s exactly the point,” Rukhsana however calmly replied, “Love and sex; the two are not the same Doctor Adams. Love is a free bird, whereas sex is an intentionally restrained act. We are free to love anyone in the world, but we actively build borders around our sexual limits.”

“Yes, but why would a girl be interested in a boy if she wouldn’t want to have sex at some point in their relationship?” Xavier however raised a very basic question.

“Sex has got nothing to do with love, but everything to do with our mind,” Rukhsana however explained, “We may love anyone either because we find them physically attractive, or because we find ourselves intellectually compatible with them, but we restrict ourselves to having sex to specific categories of people. The relationships that are based solely on love have got nothing to do with sex because our sexual interests in those relationships are deliberately cut out. And they are cut out either because of social, moral or personal preference restrictions that we put on them ourselves, right from the start of our lives.”

“Just like I have put restrictions on the female sex,” Doctor Adams calmly quipped, “Which is why I asked; wouldn’t it be a waste of time for a girl like you to fall in love with a man like me who would probably never cross those self-established bounds, as you have just described?”

“Well, if straight people can turn homosexual, by just removing the restrictions that they had originally put on their minds,” Doctor Leung argued in response, “Doesn’t that imply that a homosexual person is equally likely to turn heterosexual, provided they change their restrictions? When humanity believed in god and souls, there might have been an argument to say that there’s a soul of one sex trapped in another body, but now that we know none of that is true, doesn’t that mean that there is not scientific reason for a person to have any sexuality.”

“Possibly; but why would a person change their sexual preference?” Xavier asked.

“Why do you think they develop such a preference in the first place?” Rukhsana asked in reply.

“Because they like people of a particular sex, and want to have sex with them,” Xavier guessed the answer.

“But that should mean that those people don’t like people of the other sex at all,” Rukhsana argued, “For if they do, then the only reason they won’t have sex with that other group would be an intentional setting up of bounds, as to who is included in sexual compatibility list, and who is not.”

“But that’s just what we discussed,” Xavier exclaimed throwing his hands in air, “The important question is; why do those initial attractions develop, that lead to the setting up of those bounds?”

“At least nature has a role to play in heterosexual lifestyle,” Rukhsana argued in response, “Men have something that women don’t have, and women have something that men don’t. Curiosity leads to attraction and adventurism, and must have originally established a pattern of behaviour. This pattern of behaviour would have subsequently been formalized as physically correct, and subsequently as morally correct. Further bounds on sexual behaviour must have developed over time from that basic premise.”

“That is absolutely agreeable,” Xavier exclaimed, “But that still doesn’t explain; why would a man or a woman feel attracted towards members of the same sex? Why does nature not act the same way in case of homosexual individuals?”

“Nature is not to blame Doctor Adams, for nature is no longer the master of human psyche,” Rukhsana replied, “We are more a creature of intentional conditioning of our brains than anything else. Why else do you think we put bounds around relationships that are not included in our sex lists? Nature plays an equal part in every individual’s life, but it is an intentional choice that a homosexual individual makes at some stage in their lives, to put a bound around the sexes as to which one is included, and which one excluded out of their sex list. It is a personal decision motivated by an individual’s intellectual situation at the time they make this choice. This is what accepting your sexuality is about; intentionally putting bounds around a sexual choice. Thereafter, the individual just lives with that choice for the rest of their lives, reinforcing it in their minds at every opportunity, shutting out the other option.”

“But that means that anybody can turn homosexual,” Xavier exclaims.

“And anyone can turn heterosexual,” Rukhsana replied back, “Through a conscious choice of their own. And this is why it is all the more important to promote heterosexual lifestyle, for else humanity stands to lose the only natural way of propagating itself. We are not subjects of nature anymore.”

“You can easily say that because you are a heterosexual, but why would I want to promote heterosexual lifestyle? I am gay, and I would love to see more men gay, for it gives me more mating options,” Xavier exclaimed in horror, “Even if I agree with every word of your explanation, it doesn’t give me a reason to rearrange my bounds. There is science to help humanity breed. Why should I turn heterosexual when I enjoy having men in my life more? Having a man on top of me makes me feel.”

“Vulnerable and subjugated,” Rukhsana chided him as she cut short his words, without realizing that she was offending him.

“As a woman, do you feel vulnerable and subjugated when you sleep with a man?” Xavier however kept his composure, and asked without letting his displeasure colour his tone.

“There is a natural power differential between a man and a woman, thanks to physical size differences between the two sexes, and aggressive hormonal influences in males,” Rukhsana continued to reason back, “Besides, we women enjoy it as much as men do, and it is consistent with the most comfortable position the natural act would allow.”

“You are just arguing to justify yourself,” Xavier however confronted her explanation, “Besides what makes you think that I don’t enjoy the act as much?”

“How could you, when you are not even using what you need to, to derive that pleasure, and are instead being forced through a pain that you don’t have to?” Rukhsana was almost getting graphical with her questioning now, but Doctor Adams was himself to blame for letting the cat amongst the pigeons.

“Oh I very well am using what I need to, and twice if I may say so,” Xavier exclaimed with an emphatic nod.

“Oh well, don’t they say men love digging up shit,” Rukhsana however laughed.

“You are offending me Doctor Leung,” Xavier however was beginning to lose his patience at his friend’s insensitivity now.

“Doctor Adams, if I were you I wouldn’t be worried about what I just said,” Rukhsana however got up to leave, but wanted to say something that really concerned her, “I would be more worried about my true feelings for Doctor Suzanne Dillon.”

“What do you mean?” a shocked Xavier asked as he looked up.

“Doctor Xavier, if you really loved Bradley, you would have gone on that ship, instead of putting Doctor Dillon on it,” Rukhsana replied, “Love makes us do stupid things that we don’t understand ourselves. You put Doctor Dillon in there because you wanted to save her, and not because you wanted Bradley to have a happy life, or for that matter, because Doctor Dillon was your best friend. You put her in there because you couldn’t live with the thought of leaving her to die.”

“If that were true than don’t you think I, and not Bradley, should be there with her right now?” an agitated Xavier asked her.

“You would have been, if only you could have dared face her after what you had done,” Rukhsana replied, a bit argumentatively perhaps, “Or should I say; if only you could have dared face yourself, for the toughest challenge that any man ever faces is the prospect of accepting that he was wrong all the time.” And with that Rukhsana walked out of his office, leaving Doctor Xavier caught up in a web of emotions and turmoil.

Emotions block rational thought, simply because they draw out so much more hormones into an organism’s blood stream. And hormones easily overpower behaviour, which only a highly trained mind can then exert any effective control upon.

“So what are your findings Professor Dunmore,” Anne asked her scientific advisor, Professor Sean Paul Dunmore.

“The findings are encouraging, to say the least,” the professor replied optimistically, “You see; this alien technology is way more advanced than ours, which means we have enough material and fuel available onboard this craft itself, to satisfy all our semiconductor needs for two compact mother-ships and three attack crafts, and also fly them for almost the same span of time as this one, only many million times faster.”

“Two mother ships and three attach crafts,” an astonished Anne exclaimed before asking, “But why would we need such a large fleet? Just one advanced mother-ship is all that we need. Why waste our time scouting for resources then?”

“I wouldn’t have dared disagree with my Commander-in-Chief, but,” Professor however calmly explained, “Our recent experience clearly demonstrates how vulnerable such a choice would leave us. A few days back, what was just a work of great literary imagination for most part of our history till then; came true. In light of this experience, there is no way I can start making recommendations from below the count of two mother-ships.”

“I understand your point Professor,” Anne nodded in agreement, as Bradley, Chris and Charles looked on, before continuing, “But what is the use of three attack crafts?”

“Two of course, would provide necessary protection to the convoy, twenty four by seven, for they would have the ability to travel a few times faster than the mother-ships, and a lot more potent attack prowess,” Professor explained his recommendation, “The third attack craft would give us the advantage of scouting the space around us more closely, leaving the convoy traversing its programmed path without deviating, only to fall back at the time of inter-universal crossing. And should a need arise, we would have a limited ability to spare a craft to assist in rescue, should our scout get in any trouble.”

“I second Professor’s suggestion,” Charles interrupted to put his weight behind the man, “And our seasoned warriors on the committee; I am sure they would agree too!” And as everybody looked at Bradley and Chris, they too confirmed their agreement with the proposal.

“So what are our needs then, beyond our spaceship,” Anne asked the professor.

“We can either dismantle our current ship, and then build two mother-ships from scratch,” the Professor replied, “Which obviously would be very inconvenient, almost to the level of impracticality for us; or we can hope to recover enough metallic resources from this planet, to design our ships. We luckily have the flexibility of developing quite a few sturdy alloys, all of them good enough to serve the purpose.”

“What are our manpower and equipment requirements?” Anne asked.

“We have four three-dimensional printers at our disposal,” Professor explained the situation, “They can generate all the internal components, including engine parts, for all the crafts, which of course would have to be assembled manually. So we would need all hands above, say thirteen or fourteen years old, up and about, doing the assembly-line work with trained engineers controlling the operation, while a two member scientific team would easily oversee component production. Trouble would arise when producing external and skeletal body parts for the crafts. We would have to first produce some other machines instead, that would then produce those structural elements independently.”

“Is all this possible?” Anne calmly asked.

“Yes it is,” was the calm reply.

Unfortunately the calmness was only short lived, for a radio alert soon demanded everybody’s attention.

“Bravo calling Alpha,” Liandra’s voice boomed out of the radio set lying in front of Anne.

“Alpha receiving,” Anne replied.

“Emergency Alpha,” Liandra exclaimed, “We have pumped out all the fluid that would come out of the hole, but Captain Aman Ahluwalia has descended down for a manual inspection.”

“What? Has that man gone nuts?” a shocked and exasperated Anne jumped out of her seat, “Why didn’t you stop him?”

“Sorry Chief, but he’s our senior, and wouldn’t listen to anyone,” Liandra replied.

“Would someone please explain to me what I am supposed to do with a man like this?” a frustrated Anne haplessly asked those around her.

Bradley however took a deep breath, before inclining forward and calmly replying, “I am not surprised.”

“Sorry, what was that?” an agitated Anne however asked.

“You don’t understand Commander,” Bradley calmly continued, “That man is not living because he wants to, but only because he has to. And he is living for only one reason; no matter what it takes, one day he will return to find his mother and his fiancée. And until that happens, he would continue taking the most ridiculous risks, even those that only have a remote chance of yielding him a result that might favour the success of his plans.”

“Are you saying that none of us wants to find a home quickly, and then return to those that we have left behind,” a surprised, frustrated and enraged Anne asked, “Do you see any of us behaving like a maniac, like that man is? Would you yourself ever behave like him?”

“Don’t be too sure, Commander-in-Chief,” Bradley however quipped in response, “We are deserters. We gave up on those whom we loved, and made a compromise with the reality, that we would save those that we can. Everything else that we tell ourselves is just a justification we are making to our conscience, so that it doesn’t trouble us.”

“Do you want to say that we are not going to find our loved ones, once we have found a new home?” a shocked Anne fumbled out, as the intensity got the better of her.

“The question is; do we really believe we will ever find them?” Bradley however put it squarely, “This man does, and not only he does, he is trying to make that happen.”

“Captain Connors, you want me to believe that you are a man who gives up on those he loves, that he is a deserter,” a still not satisfied Anne asked.

“I am a young orphan,” Bradley emotionally replied, “Captain Ahluwalia’s parents have not only raised me as their child for most of my life, but I have often felt that they gave me more love than him; a reason why I have always had a troubled relation with him. But all this has made me a strange individual; bound to my responsibility, bound to fulfil my duties. I am here on this mission because as one of the best men available, it was my duty to make it succeed. I am no more than my heartless duties. You can’t compare me and Aman. That man is driven by love and belonging!” He finally got up to leave, before continuing, “You need to learn and understand those that make your team Chief, for not only will it help you utilize their abilities better, but would also help you accept their eccentricities. These are the best of the humanity that have been put at your disposal.”

His words left Anne speechless, while Chris and Charles looked on at each other’s faces, not sure what to say.

“You might want to assemble a good rescue team quickly, to relieve me,” Bradley said as he stopped at the door and turned around.

“What do you mean?” Anne asked.

“I am going to the sight, to mount an immediate rescue should anything go wrong,” Bradley replied, “But there’s only so long I would be able to stay up in pitch dark, for our handheld torches won’t feed me energy for long. You’ll need a better rescue team up there.”

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