George stared at that outfit that had been his favorite dress for special occasions. He was off to another big mission. It was a top secret mission, and he'd just told his wife, Janet, the usual lie - a meeting in East-world. He did not want her to know that he was going to Al'Qir, a faraway planet from earth. It was finally time to leave. His wife, Janet got emotional and kissed him for longer than usual. She was depressed by George’s unusual behavior for the past few days. George knew that she was close to delivering their first child. He had to be with her; but cannot. He, and only he must go on this mission. No one. Military was informed that the assassin who killed Mithya, the East-world leader, was hiding in Al'Qir, a planet of Aatal Planetary System, a familiar territory to George. Al’Qir had become one of man’s experimental lands. Modern man’s immense knowledge had gained him many planets under his rule. The more he progressed in technology, the less he knew of himself. George had waved his hand for the final time as the SVU turned away. He would hold onto - the last glimpse of gorgeous Janet with a beautiful swollen belly.
"Sir! …… Sir!" echoed cab driver. George finally came to reality. He was holding a photo of Janet that he had clicked when they were in college. "Yes" George replied. "Your destination, Sir." a robotic voice came in reply. The cab driver was wearing a device which covered the 80% of her face, through which the voice had been translating. The device could translate 1 lakh known languages from all over the universe. This device had been proved very helpful in many occasions to him. Thanks to Conan Diesel he thought. “Keep the change” George said to driver giving her a tiny metal plate with numbers embedded. George observed the skin of Driver’s hand to be little deformed. He had been working with them for many years, he knew their anatomy well. Something is odd. He came to the base where a space-ship was scheduled to leave at 23.30. In not more than two hours I would be celebrating the end of 2111, in space. His mission of helping the cops in capturing the assassin was finally over and he was excited to go to his homeland. He had worked hard to make the Al’Qirians understand how important the assassin was to them. None had any clue about how he got there, that far!
“Colonel is waiting for you, Sir” a fellow in well-equipped dress had said to George. “Where is he?” George asked. “At the ship, sir”, the fellow replied. “I am going”, George said as he got up on one of the transporting belts. The base was so huge and there were belts all over the length. It was covered by high walls all around to save the ships from some of the rebellion locals. It would take 3 minutes approximate to reach the other end, where the Rodsraker, the first ever ship built by the modern man that would travel through wormholes was standing tall. She was one of modern man’s greatest discoveries from the ancient texts. Vedas, the ancient scripts that are of enormous knowledge, had once again proved to be the source for this modern machine, designed for 4th Dimensional journey.
George knew that Hattawa as tired as he was with this mission. “George, the bastard is in the car. He refuses to talk to anyone, but you!” Hattawa said to George. “Me?” George replied with shock. “Yes, he has asked for you by name”, Hattawa’s tone said it all. “Fine, I am going.” George replied as he headed to the car.
Team of Hattawa under the guidance of George had traveled all over the planet, which was 1.5 times the size of the earth to capture the assassin alive. George had maintained low profile all the time as he was pretty famous among locals. He had organized most of the them to hunt down the assassin. After finding out the location of the assassin, the team had worked diligently well in capturing him alive.
George was speechless; he found the assassin to be one of Janet’s friends. Janet had met him in one of the Mithya’s speeches. George had last seen him with Mithya when he was not yet a leader, 15 years back. “Donot take me back to earth. It would be devastating. Kill me...now, here. Torture me, if you want to; no one will know. I’ll be dead! Please...”, George heard this for the fifth time. He had not been saying anything else, except “Kill me if you want, don’t take me from here”. “Listen Halook, my job is to guide the cops. I have nothing personally against you. All I know about you is that you’re my wife’s friend. What went wrong?” George said warily. “Sorry friend some other time. Advance wishes. I know you wouldn’t listen. This would be your LAST SHIP. The Glass has already been released.” Halook said. George was even more disturbed by the conversation. He had an unbidden thought Will I reach the Earth, See my Janet?
The ship had reached the outer space and Al’qir was a beautiful sight from there. George had admired this beauty many times but this time it was invisible to him. The watch on his hand beeped, the New Year was here. George kept all his worries aside and took out his wallet. “Happy new year, Janet”, George said to the photo of Janet. In a moment of time George found, what all these conspiracy theories were about. The MIT arch in the photo reminded him of about Mithya, during one of his lectures. “Shattered Glass theory” Mithya was demonstrating in the MIT hall holding a Glass pane in hand, “a shattered Glass is more stable than the whole glass. The whole idea is that every time chaos is created a new order is formed, more stable than the previous one. It is a simple idea but powerful one. When people come under one shade with an idea of shelter, and if the same shade is removed it only leads to one thing, infinite solutions of getting the shelter, the better universe”, Mithya had told the students of MIT. Janet believed in his teachings so much that she became his Ekalyava. “World would be better place if every human had has her freedom of thought!”, she’d say. East world under one leadership; The assassination during Mithya’s west-world journey; the assassin found to be one of Janet’s friends and a student of Mithya himself and Glass is released everything made sense to him, part of the working plan of the theory. Glass was going to be shattered. He wanted to stop the ship, which he knew was impossible. He grinned, thinking of Janet, for one last time. His eyes saw nothing!. BOOM. The planet exploded. The fire coming from the planet was inextinguishable and consumed the ship like a dragon eating its most favorite Human flesh.
Ahn opened his eyes after 3 hrs of simulation that had been going in his mind. He was on a ferry sitting at one end. It was not water the ferry was travelling on, The Conscious entity in which many crystal like balls were floating. It was so pure that ferry looked like it was flying amid these glittering balls. Ahn had removed the pipe which was going into his head, a shiny one coming from one of the balls for the 10th time after his journey had started.
George was the 1,97,60,27,07,791th life, Ahn had completed in the simulation. He was almost exhausted. “You want to say something or is it just that you wanted to take a break?” ferryman said with a smile in his face looking at the emotionless face of Ahn. “How much is done?” asked Ahn. “Little more, you are doing well. Your father will be proud of you.” Ferryman told. “Will I really be like my Father?” Ahn asked. “Yes you will be. There is lot more to learn. Don’t get panic. What you are doing is quiet normal. Just believe in you.” Ferryman said. “Will this ever get over? They would never believe they are not real. They always avoid their unconscious, the greatest guide. They are terrible. I think I will fail in this.”,Ahn expressed his doubts to ferryman. Ahn had been told that this simulation was very difficult to complete and many of his friends and cousins were failed to death. Fear had stopped many of the children from becoming the A graders, next to Gods’ position. “Don’t be carried away by emotions. Trust yourself. All will be fine!” Ferryman said, affectionately. “I have helped many to their salvation. I have been giving them symbols constantly, now they are losing to the material world. They don’t love anymore, it is just greed left.” Ahn told the Ferryman.’
The ruler of Sath City, father of Ahn had decided many trillions of human years ago, that the upcoming rulers had to complete the simulation before they fight in the ultimate test. The member who was participating in the penultimate test had to travel on “Could be Final Ferry” and chose one of the crystal balls in the conscious river. The crystal ball which was composed of laws, living entities, when connected with the individual’s consciousness, worked uniquely. This whole setup was made by Vishwa, the architect of the Sath city.
“You have lot more to do. Keep in mind...getting emotional is not going you anywhere. Focus!” Ferryman advised. “I will do my best”, Ahn replied. Ahn had taken the shiny pipe and connected it to his brain, a bond had formed and he closed his eyes instantly I will not fail.
The sun like star was shining directly on the head; all the animals in the forest were hiding forever under the ashes of the burnt trees. People few in number, almost nude, refugees of the modern technology were running towards the caves where a sage named Paarshwan, their leader was staying. They had watched their homeland helplessly for the last time. Bastards have raped her. Shabal, a planet of Maharian Planetary system was the latest invasion by the modern man.
Paarshwan had served the damned with gratitude and listened to everyone patiently. They were furious, clueless and most of all they were afraid. The fear had consumed them. They dint want to face those monsters. As these talks among the saved Shabalans, were going endlessly a voice had raised from the group which silenced everyone. Paarshwan was astonished to found it to be a child speaking but he knew it was not childish talk. The voice had silenced not only the people but also their worries, they were listening to him pin drop silently. The voice was filled with wisdom and ferocity, a strange combination.
“What is your name child?” Paarshwan asked. “Kalki”, the child replied.
THE END