by Kumar Lomash
“We have waited for this moment this entire journey. We are placed into the orbit of Nole and are preparing to send our first probe into it as I speak. When we last visited this planet 400 years ago with our manless probe, it was empty. There were some flora and fauna but nothing which could be treated as a threat. Recent scans show some activity on the surface of the planet. Although it is difficult to ascertain what these activities really are, my hunch is chimpanzees would not have evolved into intelligent beings with guns in the last 400.”, Gollard smiled at his own joke. The room joined him. Gollard continued, “Let’s get down there and find out what’s going on on that planet. I have authorised assault, so you are free to fire at anything which poses a threat. However, we would like to create as little mess as possible. All the best.”
Gollard left, and another senior officer took the microphone. He briefed the room with the details of the mission. A small craft, carrying 100 men and 100 armbots would land on Nole at a predetermined site. Once on their feet, they would create a secure perimeter and set up camps. Gollow realised that his mission had been changed from a single day to a multi-day mission. He thought of informing Kevin but there was no such opportunity.
A side-wall of the large hall slid open to reveal a large room. Men in uniform started moving into it. Gollow could see that this room was filled with guns and ammunitions. They were supposed to pick a primary and a secondary weapon of choice and move ahead outside the room through to the probe craft. 100 armbots waited there. Gollow and everyone else on this mission were already trained for using these guns. Among 20 thousand humans on the spaceship, almost 3 thousand had weapons training. Most of these 3 thousands were Gs, who went through this training to join the military service on Earth. Gollow went into the room along with the others.
Somewhere else on the spaceship, an officer was in a hurry to be somewhere. He was walking fast, almost running. He barged into an office which read “Captain” on the door.
“Excuse me sir. Minister Gollard is going ahead with the probe.”
Garry looked shocked. He got up and walked out of his office. He knocked on Holum’s doors and went inside.
Holum was already in conversation with Ibu and others.
“Will Gollard take responsibility for the deaths if something went wrong there?”, Inca asked everyone.
Holum acknowledged the presence of Garry and said, “As you can see Captain, we already know.”
Holum turned to Foss, minister of technology and weapons. “What is it that we think we will encounter on Nole, Foss? Would it be friendly? If we get into a fight, how much damage would we sustain?”.
Foss was ready with his answer by the time Holum was finished. He said, “Mr. President, we don’t really know what is down there and we certainly don’t know what it is capable of, but we have some theories. We know for sure that our initial explorations on Nole and nearby star systems revealed that this star system did not have human like intelligent life. Nole itself only has plant and insect like life forms. We have found three more planets in this star system which have similar or lesser intelligent life forms. We looked throughout the planet, including the depth of the sea and found nothing more than that. Our initial probe ship and the accompanying bots on them camped on Nole for more than 100 years while we planned our trip to Nole. We were receiving its signal up until yesterday when suddenly it sent the SOS signal and went down. An SOS signal is sent by a probe only when it is sure that it will be terminated by an external threat. That SOS signal is the only thing that we have as an indication of some external activity or threat.”
The room listened to Foss patiently. Ibu asked a very obvious question, “Can a probe be wrong in assessing the situation and send an SOS before dying of natural causes like energy failures?”
Foss responded, “Unlikely, but sure that could happen. A more likely theory is that someone let the probe send happy signals up until now and when we were at a point of no return, killed it off.”
“Are we at a point of no return?”, Hobi, minister of economy asked.
Foss said, “Well… technically yes.”. The spaceship is already in orbit and we have used much of our energy in slowing down to get into this orbit. We need at least a year of solar charging before we could lift off Nole. Even if we do not land on Nole, we need a couple of months of charging before we could leave Nole’s orbit. Solar fuels are the only fuels we are left with”.
“What about the Nuclear fuel?”, Holum asked.
“It wouldn’t be wise to use Nuclear fuels for the ship’s movement, Mr. President. We would consume it completely in just trying to push this ship out of Nole’s orbit. Those are reserved for powering essential systems on this ship.”
“But we have that option under extreme circumstances, right?”, Ibu wanted to confirm.
“Yes.”, Foss replied.
“If your theory is correct, Foss, who could be these entities who waited for us to arrive before killing our probe.”, Hobi asked.
Foss continued, “Could be the native intelligent residents of Nole. So intelligent that they managed to hide completely when our probe was exploring the planet. They studied our probe when we thought our probe was studying the planet. Maybe, listened on our communications and let this probe become a trap for us.”
Illard, minister of medicine and medical equipments interrupted, “but Mr. Foss, why would an intelligent being risk allowing aliens to investigate and arrive on their planet?”
Foss replied quickly, “They saw the probe and knew our technology. They must have concluded that we are far too weak and ancient for them to treat as threats. We could be slaves or resources for them.”
Holum interrupted, “You paint quite a picture Mr. Foss, let's not forget that this is still a theory based on one single event that our probe went silent just as we arrive at Nole. I am going to allow Gollard his mission. There isn’t enough evidence to press any panic buttons yet.”
Holum turned to Garry, “Captain, I am assuming minister Gollard has your full cooperation.”
Garry had to affirm, “Yes, Mr. President”.
Holum asked everyone to leave but Ibu stayed, indicating that he had something more private to discuss. He asked as soon as they were alone in the room, “Are they really waiting for us on Nole?”
Holum spoke as if he was stating the obvious, “The whole star system is waiting for us, Ibu.”
Ibu concurred, “I know that, but if they wanted to kill us then they would have let us die on Earth”.
Holum countered, “Our death will be of no good to them.”
Kevin and Gambhir were talking to each other in the class as Ibu was not yet in to take their next lesson. Kevin had already told Gambhir how he felt about Joti. Gambhir was happy for him but wondered how could two people fall in love in their first meeting.
“I don’t know, kaddu. We have been watching each other with interest for some time now. I first saw her when we flew together to this spaceship from Earth. She looked to be as much into me as I am into her.”, Kevin insisted. Gambhir would have asked another question but Ibu walked in.
In the evening, Kevin and Joti were walking around level 20. He kept touching her fingers as they walked slowly, talking about Nole and the future of humans. Joti seemed more concerned than Kevin. Maybe she knew something which he didn’t. As he tried to be more playful, Joti thought it was about time she brought up what was on her mind.
“They say that we won’t be alone on Nole”, Joti said.
“You mean, there would be chicken and fish?”, Kevin was still being playful.
There would be natives, far more advanced than us. We might be their chicken and fish. All of this could be a trap.
“That’s just silly, Joti”, Kevin thought it was a joke, he was not amused. “Humans decided to come to Nole all by themselves - right? No one forced us. How can this be a trap?”
“That’s the beauty of it, Kevin. Someone far more intelligent than us most certainly could nudge our plans and
strategies and still make it look like it was all done by us.”, Joti explained.
“I don’t understand. Do you know of alien civilizations?”, Kevin was curious now.
I can’t be sure Kevin but angels have always believed that our government, the Union, was being controlled by an alien civilization. In fact, it has been so for thousands of years. It is believed that they have been using earth and its inhabitants for their own good.
“You can’t be serious, Joti. This is a rumour that we had in our colony as well. I guess there is nothing much to it except that we have entertained this idea more than we should have.”, Kevin explained.
A rumour in a class 4 colony can be ignored Kevin but not in the Union. Angels are not some religious cult or dogmatic society that would have beliefs without any basis. But there is more, I have come to know that the human probe on Nole which was sending us healthy signals for the last 300 years, suddenly sent an SOS and died yesterday. This happened as we were entering the orbit.
“How do you know that?”, Kevin interrupted.
“Well, it's my job to know. I am on the crew of the ship.”, Joti replied.
“I didn’t know that. Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”, Kevin was surprised.
“I thought everybody knew that already.”
“So, last night when I took you to level 45 and thought you were there for the first time…”, Kevin couldn’t complete his sentence.
“... I have been there a lot of times, Kevin. But what you did was beautiful, I never thought that we could watch Nole from there. Your idea was brilliant.”, Joti smiled with her hand in Kevin’s hair.
“So, everybody knows you, huh?”, Kevin smiled back.
“Well, not everybody. But they know that all J’s are employed with the Union and thus are part of the crew if they are on the ship. In fact, you are also very well known Kevin. At least in the Union.”
“Me? Really?”, Kevin was surprised again. “Maybe, as one of the 9 most ignorant people on the ship - right?”, Kevin implied sarcasm.
“Not really Kevin. Holum would not have you on the ship if you were not really needed. He did not approve the boarding of one of his own sons because he thought he didn’t earn it.”
“What would a bunch of Ks be good for?”, Kevin asked.
“You keep saying that but I don’t think you really believe it, do you?”
“What? That Ks are useless?”
“No. That you are a K.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Ks are extinct Kevin. When humans started naming gene pools, they reserved first 10 alphabets from A to J for engineered genes. They kept K for a fictitious gene pool which represented the direct descendents of the first humans on earth. From fathers to sons to grandsons. However, since nobody knew what that gene actually looked like, nobody was ever identified to be a part of that gene-pool. I say they are extinct because probabilistically, it is more likely that the bloodlines of the Ks would have ended in the long history of human civilization.”
“But… then, why do they keep calling me a K? I even have an id which begins with K.”
“That's really a popular myth, Kevin. Everyone in the class 4 and 5 colonies was called a K. It was not entirely wrong because if a real K existed then it must exist in those colonies as the modern world had all humans only from the engineered pool. Angels were the first to assign the letter K to level 4 and 5 colonies. It started as a sarcastic joke but then it caught up really quickly. So, now when someone says that you are a K, he simply means that you are from a class 4 or 5 colony.”
“That's disappointing. I was hoping that this would turn out to be something”
“You are special Kevin. Although I am curious too about why Holum brought you aboard. I have seen Holum and Ibu talk about the 9 of you all the time. I remember that picking you nine from your colonies was a priority-1 task for all of us before leaving earth. Maybe, you will help us kill all the aliens!”, Joti ended with a joke but she meant everything else that she had said.
“Aliens will be stupefied as soon as they see you, my dear. They would not have seen such beauty in their lives.”, Kevin took the cue. They both started giggling.
“Why are they sending you to Nole?”, Joti again sounded concerned.
Don’t know! Maybe they really want me to kill those aliens.
I am serious, Kevin. Haven’t they briefed you or anything?
Yes, they did. They said, all 9 of us would go along with the crew and armbots.
That's it? Nothing more?
They said we were supposed to help the crew with our skills. Whatever that means.
What skills?
I don’t know.
I don’t like this, Kevin. What are you doing after dinner?
Nothing, why?
Meet me here at 10, we will go to level 6.
Why?
To see Francis.
Who?
“Just make sure that Moji doesn’t follow you, ok?”, Joti insisted.
Ok.
“I will see you then.”, said Joti leaving in a hurry.
It was 10 minutes past 10. Joti was wearing a hoodie and Kevin was walking alongside her looking around like a tourist. A couple of people turned and wondered if they knew Kevin. Joti kept walking with her head down. She obviously didn’t want anyone to recognize her. They arrived at a room labeled L06-217. Joti removed her hoodie and smiled at the old looking man with trust and respect. This was Francis.
“Joti, my dear”, Francis opened his arms and greeted Joti with a hug. He turned to Kevin and shook his hands addressing Kevin by his name. Francis already knew Kevin it seemed.
“Have we met earlier, sir?”, Kevin was confused.
Francis said “No, Kevin. But Joti kept going on and on about you the other night so I thought you must be Kevin”.
“But, we met only yesterday”, Kevin wondered.
“So, you did notice me the day before yesterday, huh?”, Kevin turned to Joti.
Joti blushed and asked, “can we discuss the more important issue at hand?”
“Francis, the probe died yesterday.”, Joti brought up the topic.
Francis sat on his bed with despair. “So, it’s true then.”
“All things point in that direction.”, Joti supported him.
“What? Even you believe that there are aliens controlling our government?”, Kevin asked Francis.
“I was only half sure, Kevin but this is going exactly as the Angels had predicted.”, Francis sounded convinced.
“I don’t understand, sir”, Kevin was curious.
“The Angels have this theory that humans are not native to earth. They believe that the first humans were engineered by an alien race which called themselves hums. This race engineered the genes of the native life forms on earth and created humans, nobody knows with what intent. It is believed that hums created a lot of species across the galaxy and kept coming back to them to monitor their progress.”, Francis was patiently narrating but Kevin had a question.
“So, they kept coming back to Earth to keep an eye on us?”
“Yes. We don’t know what they wanted to achieve with us but they wanted to control every bit of our evolution. They were not happy with the way we crossbred among ourselves. You see, even among humans, they created special breeds with physical, mental and emotional specialities. But we humans kept having children with whomever we liked - mostly because we didn’t understand any other reasons to seek partners other than love.”, Francis stopped to look at Kevin and Joti. He sensed what was going on. He then continued with a smile.
“It is said that there were 4 breeds in total. One of them was the master breed which was supposed to be the most advanced, the rest of them were special too but in specific capabilities. The master breed was more like what we call a J, these days. Since humans have discovered genes, some of the angels have tried to find out individuals who belong to that master breed but have not been able to find one.”
“If the
y do find one, they would call him a K. Right Francis?”, Joti interrupted.
“Of course! K has been reserved for that master gene pool but the problem is that even if someone had those genes how would you recognize it? Nobody knows what that gene looks like. Angels wanted to prove the existence of a master breed to prove their theory about hums or aliens who visit Earth and interfere with the activities down there. They believe that these aliens have always controlled the governments on Earth.”
“What! all governments? That’s impossible to do covertly.”, Kevin objected.
“Well they controlled the governments which mattered.”, Joti replied.
“Yes, Kevin. They controlled the governments and controlled the economy and trade. They decided when wars would happen and they decided who would win.”, Francis confirmed.
“But this is all just a theory right? No one has any proof.”, Kevin asked.
“Well we have had some indications over the last few centuries but we never could prove beyond doubt, especially when the Union is adamant about never taking such discussions seriously.”, Francis showed some helplessness.
“But things have changed since yesterday”, Joti said. “We have a dead probe which was running fine for 300 years. What are the chances that it died just as we entered Nole’s orbit?”.
“So, you are saying that it died because its work was done?”, Kevin entertained the thought.
“Yes, its only purpose was to let humans believe that Nole is empty. Now that we are here, we cannot just turn around with the whole human civilization on board and start searching for alternatives.”, Joti said.
“What should we do, Francis?”, Joti asked.
“I will inform the angels about the probe, dear. Someone there must have a strategy given that they have always anticipated this.” Francis had a point, the people who had always anticipated this situation must have made plans to handle it. Francis was the only angel that Joti knew personally. Apart from him, there were a few whom she knew to be angels but she had never talked to them. Angels had always kept their identity a secret and even the officers in the Union wouldn’t know who an angel is unless they had a certain clearance. Joti trusted Francis completely but even if she didn’t, he was her only viable channel of communication with the angels. The other channel was through Holum but it was an official one.
