by Vishal Ved
'Heavens protect us!’ The sato shook in fear, as the creatures emerged fully. They were like the rodents they had just seen, but way bigger, like big swines, each with three sinister eyes staring at them. Their threatening grunts suggested they needed little excuse to tear the duo apart.
‘Don’t move,’ whispered Cenoy, holding Ariet’s hand. They huddled together at the center of the creatures.
Then, they felt movement under their feet, and suddenly the ground below them gave way. They screamed as the ground seemed to swallow them, and then they hit the bottom of the pit. They realised they had fallen into an centuries old underground trap, originally made for big wild creatures. To make matters worse, a number of beasts had fallen in with them. They were cornered and the starving flesh-eating monsters approached. Without a moment’s hesitation, Cenoy went on the offensive, grappling with them and throwing them out of the pit one after another, while Ariet standing behind the kiro kicked the ones that clung to Cenoy’s feet or came after him.
All of a sudden, the duo felt a prickling in their heads and their vision blurred, but at the same time they noticed that the rodents had started falling to the ground, their grunts fading.
‘Come out, Omin. Come out’ It was Hak who called them, but the duo couldn’t see him. There was only darkness around them, and the last thing they remembered was being lifted out of the pit.
9.
A Deathbed Of Thorns
Ariet opened his eyes and saw Hak standing over them with his setek pointed sideways, sparks coming out of its tip like tiny thunderbolts, radiant and aggressive. The kiro stirred beside him, and they got to their feet. They peered into the pit and saw the beasts trembling inside it, their eyes bloody green with blood draining out from their big ears.
‘We have to run,’ said Hak, worried, ‘My setek is almost drained...it needs to be recharged.’
The sato gazed in the pit and then back at Hak, ‘Then, why aren’t we? Let’s go.’
The sparks in Hak’s setek started sputtering out, and the sato darted into the forest without another word followed by Cenoy and Hak.
As they advanced into the forest, the trees underwent a transition in color from purple to bluish. The trees were consistently tall throughout the forest, but their varieties had changed from dense and leafy to comparatively bare. Ariet saw something unusual, and came to a sudden halt It was a tree releasing saffron fumes; it had no leaves but numerous thorns on which countless birds were impaled, as though the tree had hunted them.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this before…’ gasped Ariet, mesmerized.
'Is it supposed to be some kind of weapon to kill?’ asked the kiro, shocked.
'No, it’s not,’ answered Hak, 'just another creation of the cosmos. The fumes released by the tree attracts flies and they act as bait. Look over there.’ Hak pointed to the top of the tree, at a flock of birds diving down for the flies. Then suddenly two birds collided and the duo watched one fall straight onto the deathbed of thorns. They watched aghast as the bird thrashed and fluttered till the thorns had sucked life out of its body; after a few days only its bones would be left hanging in a bag of torn skin like the rest.
The group walked on, keeping to the shadows, hidden from the blaze of Citris which was now directly overhead. We’re probably reaching the end of the forest, thought the sato observing the thinning tree cover. He exchanged a puzzled look with Cenoy. They still had no idea why Hak had brought them there. Still, they had come to trust Hak who had first freed them from Carcerem and then saved their lives again from the vicious predators.
At the edge of the woods, Hak stretched out his setek and the duo heard it humming, jerking in his hand as though telling him to go left. When he did, the humming faded.
‘What was that?’ asked Cenoy.
‘The setek’s guiding us to Senempis,’ replied Hak.
‘What’s that?’ the sato couldn’t keep himself from asking.
‘You’ll see in a moment,’ replied Hak, excitedly as though they were going to meet someone very special.
They left the tree cover and now there were only bushes blocking their path.
‘We’ve reached,’ said Hak, his eyes sparkling.
‘What? Where?’ Cenoy looked askance at Ariet; there was nothing to be seen all around, except for the shrubs.
They whirled around at a sudden noise, and were just in time to see the shrubs swallowing Hak. They leaped back in fright. They had seen enough killing in these homicidal woods. Had these deadly bushes killed Hak?
10.
The Marvellous Senempis
They peered wildly into the shrubs, looking for Hak. But he seemed to have vanished completely, taking with him their only hope of making it back alive from the lethal forest. Then, they heard Hak’s grunting coming from inside the bushes, but there was not even the slightest gap to go after him. The shrubs were like a wall.
‘Let me go first,’ said the sato, holding the kiro’s hand when she stepped forward to enter the bushes.
‘Let’s do it together,’ she replied, gripping his hand tightly.
The duo extended their hands carefully and tentatively touched the shrubs, then looked at each other startled as their hands closed on empty, warm air.
‘It’s an illusion,’ whispered the sato, and they stepped into the bushes at once.
Ariet squeezed his eyes shut as the hot air stung his eyes. Then, Cenoy screamed and scampered ahead, dragging the sato with her.
‘What happened?’ cried Ariet, unable to open his stinging eyes.
‘Nothing… I felt…’ she paused, rubbing her eyes, ‘like my eyes were burning.’
‘She’s fine, open your eyes, omin.’
The duo heaved a big sigh of relief on hearing Hak’s voice and opened their eyes slowly.
A titanic gray saucer-shaped thing, stood before them its metallic surface glittering in the light. Hak seemed to be struggling to control his setek. As he moved a little closer to the saucer, the setek shot from his hands and got sucked into the saucer, through a hole that appeared momentarily on its surface before disappearing again.
‘Meet Senempis,’ said Hak, proudly, running his hand on the curves of the gray saucer. He introduced the gray saucer as though it was alive and would come forward to greet them any moment. Sure enough, it seemed to come alive. Gears clicked, there was a hiss of releasing pressure and an oval door slid open in Senempis. The duo gasped, staring at it in awe.
‘What’s this?’ asked Cenoy, looking at Hak.
‘It’s my airship... it’ll carry us to Fetoildaan,’ replied Hak. He raised his fist and shouted, ’To our battleground.’
‘Is that where MOX headquarters are?’ asked the sato, scared.
‘Yes, and there we’ve our own forces as well,’ replied Hak.
The kiro’s face reddened with anger at the hated word MOX; she seemed ready to kill each and everyone of them.
‘Come on in,’ said Hak, moving into his beloved airship followed by Cenoy and then Ariet.
As the sato was about to enter the airship he heard a growling sound and whirled around to find that the illusory wall had disappeared and in the open space stood three vicious three-eyed boars.
Scared to his bones, the sato scooted into the airship screaming, ‘They’re outside, shut the door quickly.’
‘I knew it.’ chuckled Hak, ‘don’t worry they won’t come inside, they’ve seen what kind of beast I own.’
Hak closed the door behind the sato and sato's heartbeat relaxed a little.
It was dark inside the ship and the sato, momentarily blinded by the sudden transition from brightness to dark, wasn’t able to see anything except a big bright screen and some vibrant lights around it. Slowly, his vision cleared and he found himself looking at the coolest thing ever. Hak was sitting in a narrow glass cylinder, hundreds of vibrant symbols inscribed on its wall in little neon squares. He busied himself with his control panel, even as the duo stared at the bright, curved screen
on the wall, with its mysterious symbols running over the background view of forest.
‘Look at that,’ whispered Cenoy, pointing at their feet.
Ariet looked down, startled. They were standing on a glass floor under which the mechanisms of the marvelous airship were visible—links, gears, siphons and a big yellow disc spinning in the center of a mechanical claw, all glistening in a light blue glimmer.
‘We’re about to fly omin, grab your seats,’ said Hak, glancing at them.
A few seats were arranged in the middle of the ship around a central table, and the duo sat down quickly, excited. It was going to be their first ride in an airship. Though the sato had heard about them in the past he never got a chance to see one in reality.
‘Hold on tight, you two,’ called Hak.
Senempis took off with a big blast of air, rising rapidly in the sky, and the duo felt themselves pushed back into their seats by the force of its speed.
‘Is it always this painful,’ yelled the sato, shutting his eyes tight against the severe pain in his stomach. Tears rolled down the kiro’s eyes.
‘Just a few moments...,’ replied Hak holding a lever with great effort in between his hands.
‘Would you please slow this thing down?’ cried the sato.
Hak released the lever and the crushing force was lifted, but Senempis kept rising for a while until it started spinning.
‘Why is everything spinning now? you do know how to fly this thing, right?’ snapped the kiro, looking at the clouds and Citris whirling about on the big screen.
‘Spinning is the only way to reduce the upward speed and take it forward,’ replied Hak, sounding annoyed, ‘It’ll keep spinning, until we reach Fetoildaan.’
‘He’s weird,’ whispered Ariet, baffled.
‘Yeah, he is,’ replied the kiro, grinning.
Spinning, Senempis speeded forward on the trajectory Hak had set. Feeling light-headed, the sato drifted off into sleep. But the kiro watched the big screen intently. In a while, the brightness faded as evening rolled in, and pink clouds started shimmering again.
‘Look at that!’ hissed Cenoy, nudging the sato awake.
Ariet jerked up as though from a bad dream. He turned towards the big screen the kiro was staring at. Three full moons making a big “V” lit the sky, along with many other partially glowing moons, all revolving with Senempis. What a staggering view, thought Ariet, looking at the distinct patterns on the moons, clearly visible from that height. Hak seemed unimpressed by the view; he continued to monitor the controls attentively, shifting gears, changing speed and altitude.
‘We’ll reach tomorrow morning, once we cross the ocean,’ said Hak. He pulled the lever down and the ship’s altitude dropped with a slight jerk.
Why were they crossing the ocean, thought Ariet, confused; to best of his knowledge there was only one mainland on the planet. Were they circling the whole planet instead of flying over the desert, or was Hak hiding something?
11.
The Fungi Mountains
The morning rays of Citris fell on Senempis and the interior of the airship brightened gradually, waking Ariet and Cenoy from their sleep.
‘Have we reached?’ asked Cenoy, opening her eyes slightly, while the sato kept his eyes closed, feeling lazy. He hadn’t had such a good night’s sleep in many days.
‘No, but we’re about to,’ replied Hak energetically, not looking the least bit tired.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Cenoy, looking at Ariet who was gazing with a worried look at the rotating gears under the glass floor.
‘No, nothing,’ replied Ariet, faking a smile. The doubts from the previous day had returned.
‘Look, look, look!’ Ariet shouted, suddenly, pointing towards the bottom of the screen. Thousands of saffron mountains rose from the yellow ocean. ‘Are these fungi mountains?’ He had heard horrifying stories about these mountains since he was a child.
‘Yes,’ replied Hak, lowering his tone, despair in his voice.
‘What, what is it?’ asked the kiro, confused.
‘Haven’t you heard about them?’ Ariet was shocked that the kiro had never heard of fungi mountains.
‘No, why?’ she replied, feeling a little ignorant.
‘These are fungi mountains...’ he told her. ‘The mountains which have made our lives miserable. They have eaten up most of the dueso from the atmosphere, and that’s why there is a crisis on our planet for dueso.’
Cenoy stared at him dumbstruck. Slowly, it dawned on her. ‘So that’s why prisoners die everynight in Carcerem... and it feels like we are choking when we are in the desert,’ the kiro said to herself, staring at the mountains on the screen.
Hak who was listening to the duo’s conversation without comment, suddenly started. ‘Omin omin, heads down!’
A white airship, similar to Senempis but nearly ten times larger, appeared on the screen out of nowhere; the duo quickly bent and hid under the central table.
Hak’s airship was stopped in mid-air as the giant one descended from above, and covered Senempis like an umbrella. The duo heard a jingling sound and Senempis shuddered as it was docked into the giant mothership. Ariet’s heart was racing, but Cenoy looked prepared, her fingers clenched.
Only Hak knew exactly what kind of situation they were dealing with; any source of suspicion during the inspection, and lasers would burn down Senempis in an instant. A robotic arm, with an eye mounted at its end, descended into Senempis from above the central table. The duo saw the arm’s reflection on the floor, and the sato closed his eyes in fear, while Cenoy tensed, ready for action.
The eye inspected the interior of the airship and was retracted. A rapid jingling was heard again as the Senempis was released.
Hak sighed in relief. ‘You can come out,’ he said, zooming the airship forward at full throttle.
Before the duo could take their seats, a loud siren shook the sky. It was an emergency call from the mothership.
‘Stay down, stay down,’ grunted Hak, ceasing the speed of the airship. He knew there was no escaping the mothership.
Ariet slid his hand into his gaban and started when he didn’t find his dueso mask. That’s when he remembered—he had left it on the table. It must have been there during the inspection. The giant ship must have noticed it and now they all were going to die because of his mistake.
The siren grew louder and louder as the mothership approached, and Ariet’s heart rate shot up as though he had been sprinting in a marathon. Cenoy tensed. Hak held his breath, hiding his nervousness. The siren stopped and the mothership covered Senempis like a dark cloud.
‘Do not overspeed. This is a civil area. Overspeeding will lead to your airship being terminated.’ A shrill voice intoned.
For a moment, they were stunned into silence, then Hak gathered his wits and replied, ‘Please accept my apologies, it won’t happen again.’
Was that all? wondered the sato hiding under the table. Had they missed the dueso mask on the table?
The mothership pulled away and danger passed. Hak flew Senempis forward, at a more reasonable speed this time. The duo smiled at each other in relief under the table.
‘Come out, omin, we’re safe,’ said Hak, relaxing. The duo came out from under the table and, to Ariet’s great surprise, there was no mask on the table. He looked around, but it was nowhere to be seen. Cenoy, blushing, took out two masks from her gaban and put them on the table.
‘Thanks,’ said Ariet, smiling, but then suddenly his face turned pale as though he had seen a ghost.
‘What happened?’ asked Cenoy, turning to see what he was looking at on the screen.
They were approaching a new land with purple trees and colorful buildings standing tall together. It wasn’t a wild land like the forest, rather it was organised and beautiful—trees carefully planted around the sky-high buildings and on their roofs. It was the first time Ariet was seeing establishments above the ground, but even more mysterious was he had never heard about them.
How could he have been living on Tomarkus for years without ever hearing about Fetoildaan, thought Ariet, emotions churning in his mind. Throughout his entire life he had been told that MOX headquarters were in such a dreadful place that nobody would want to stay there even for one day, and yet MOX officials lived there to run the planet efficiently day and night.
12.
A New World
Their surprise didn’t stop at just the pretty buildings and purple trees; the duo noticed something even more strange—fugits strolling leisurely on the streets. They even spotted kiros among them, their white bodies shining distinctly in the daylight. The place where MOX officials lived didn’t look anything close to dreadful, as they had heard. On the contrary it was a hundred times better than Hydus in many ways. Here was a city, beautiful, organised and peaceful, where fugits apparently lived in complete freedom. Neither the sato nor the kiro had ever seen anybody in Hydus roaming leisurely on the streets doing nothing; inhabitants of Hydus were always ploughed into unending work.
How could the officials of MOX be so free, doing nothing, wondered the sato. Meanwhile Cenoy could only dwell on one thought—how those kiros here were so different from her, allowed to roam freely while she had been forced to sacrifice her whole life without any alternative. The sato doubted that whatever bad was happening on Tomarkus was not limited to prisoners alone, it was much more, but he kept his thoughts to himself, looking at the distress on Cenoy’s face.
Senempis zipped over the buildings and Hak carefully guided it, keeping a sharp eye on the screen as though he was looking for something specific.
‘Hold onto your seats, we are about to land,’ he announced, holding the lever tight in his hand and staring at the screen. He suddenly applied the brakes and Senempis skidded and tilted as though it was about to flip in mid-air, causing them to nearly fall out of their seats. They clutched the table and somehow managed to remain in their seats unhurt as the spinning slowed and the airship came to a halt.
