by Vishal Ved
Before the others returned from their meals Ariet checked every room on the floor. But Greix was nowhere. It was as though he had disappeared into thin air.
The others had started to return, so Ariet turned in the direction of his chamber, disappointed. Then his eyes fell on an empty plate lying outside a narrow gap in a corner which almost seemed like a construction flaw. With very little hope the sato entered the eerie passage cautiously. And there he heard snoring as though a giant monster was sleeping inside.
The narrow passage lead to a small room where a soiled lamp was glowing in a corner. Ariet saw Griex sleeping in a broken pod which had no legs and was simply lying
on the ground. Close to Griex was a casket which had to be the one Naksum had been talking about. Ariet thought of stealing it but then he realized it was far riskier to go out with it than to quietly read it while Griex slept.
Ariet tiptoed towards Greix’s sleeping pod and picked up the casket from the ground, he had no idea what Griex’s reaction would be if he woke up accidently and saw the sato rummaging through his stuff. The casket was enormously heavy and the sato took great care not to drop it. He carried the casket to the corner with the greasy lamp and opened it cautiously.
A musty odour came from the casket. It had evidently not been opened in ages. Inside, was a bundle of sheets tied together with a magnetic clutcher. The front sheet had the number six in capital letters under which was the sentence “Written by the last chronicler—Griex.” Ariet flipped the front sheet and yellow rays came out of the next sheet. These sheets were using a very older technology which Ariet had only seen once or twice while referring to some ancient articles in his laboratory and the sato knew he had to be very careful with them. A single scratch of a nail would leave a permanent mark on the page. Moreover, the sheets were coated with a special type of powder which reacted with dueso present in the atmosphere to produce a yellow glow, but such sheets had a limited life, just one day of full exposure to dueso would destroy all the writing on them.
Ariet flipped sheet after sheet, but he couldn’t understand much; the writing was in an unknown script. After skimming through all the sheets Ariet could only read a few letters, and even those were half broken. Exhausted, the sato closed the sheets, cursing the unknown script. He was about to close the casket in disappointment, when suddenly the number 6 written on the front sheet struck him. He flipped to the front sheet and discovered that he was right.
It had seemed strange to him that someone would use two different scripts in a single document, but he realised now that the text was encoded and the number provided the key to decipher it. All the letters starting from the second sheet were first placed in an imaginary hexagon to divide them into 6 equal triangular parts and then three alternative triangular parts were omitted before writing the letter, probably to save the powder. The text would have been nearly impossible for an ordinary fugit to read, but Ariet was an intellectual and it didn’t take him long to visualize the broken letters in their complete form.
It was a bright day, but it was still cool inside the houses. Suddenly an enormous explosion was heard and everybody ran out of their houses. Every fugit’s home shook in the explosion and some multi-story buildings even collapsed. There was no prior warning.
Tremors were not that big a deal on Santona, but this was a pure explosion. Many families got killed, and many were rescued by the soldiers of Alqamar (the group of intellects on the planet, whose curiosity and experimentation had fuelled every technological advancement on the planet)
What is this Santona, wondered Ariet. He recalled that Naksum too had referred to “Motherland Santona”. Was there another secret land on Tomarkus? Ariet read further.
Even the members of Alqamar were baffled at first, but soon the location of the explosion was traced. It had originated on a polar island, 22,340 miles to the south-east. The fleet of Alqamar reached the location travelling inside the modified trunks of their aquatic pets. About the size of one Hydus storey, these gigantic creatures were the best vehicles possible for expeditions across the sea. It took only two days for them to cross the ocean, but when they reached, they found an enormous crater spewing fumes like in a volcanic eruption. This crater had been formed inside a glacier. Everybody held their breaths as they advanced to see what had caused the crater. They couldn’t believe their eyes at what they discovered. It was a meteorite, which has survived almost intact through the thick layers of atmosphere instead of burning up. The meteorite was vaporising the ice, and sinking down rapidly into the glacier. It has already sunk to a depth of over a hundred feet into the thick layer of ice.
23.
The Mystery of
the Hovering Stones
The Alqamar fleet heaved a sigh of relief when the meteorite stopped sinking at about 120 feet.
Its surface must have cooled considerably, but it was still risky to jump into the crater to study it. The fleet of Alqamar waited for another day, but then something startling happened—the meteorite started rising up as though something was pushing it upwards from below. What was trapped inside this giant? The question confounded everyone.
Two brave satos from the fleet landed on it to take a sample of its rock. They struck it with a power gavel and a small piece of it broke. One of the two satos picked up the fragment of rock and came out of the crater, but as soon as he came out the fleet heard the cries of the other sato and what sounded like powerful jets from the crater. The torn body parts of the sato shot up in the sky along with an emerald liquid, mixed with his violet blood. Frightened, the fleet retreated from the crater, except for one sato. His name was Hosen and he didn’t fall back, but continued his observations as though the whole scene was a mere lab experiment. Others shouted but their voice couldn’t reach him in the noise of the geyser of emerald liquid. This liquid, amazingly, did not fall back to the ground, rather it made a jet stream in the sky as though it would go all the way into outer space.
Hosen went to the rim of the crater and started filling his bag with the fragments of the meteorite that were thrown out to the surface by the geyser.
The remaining fleet had no idea what Hosen was upto and some even declared that he was going to die, but then he came running towards the fleet with the bag full of stones on his shoulder and many more in his hands.
‘It’s a treasure,’ shouted Hosen when he reached them.
‘What? what is that? asked an elder fugit.
‘Look at this,’ said Hosen dropping the stones. The others saw in amazement that none of the stones hit the ground, instead they hovered a foot above it.
‘These stones have anti-gravity properties,’ Hosen said.
The remaining twenty-two members of the fleet ran back to collect the stones and, at the risk of their lives, brought back many more bags filled with the magical stones.
Though the bags were full of stones, they felt weightless, and some fleet members even struggled to keep their feet on the ground, as they were literally floating and others had to drag them far from the crater.
The meteorite had almost risen to the surface of the glacier, and the emerald liquid was gushing out from the hole made by the gavel. In a few moments, the giant floated out of the glacier and slowly traced its way back to deep space piercing the infinite sky. The Alqamar fleet kept watching until it had completely disappeared.
‘How did this meteorite get attracted towards our planet in the first place if it had anti gravity properties inside?’ asked a sato, bewildered.
‘Maybe it was thrown towards our planet during a powerful explosion,’ replied an elder kiro from the group.
‘Whatever the reason, it will change the future of our race forever,’ said Hosen looking at the weighless stones in his hands.
Twenty-three of the original twenty-four Alqamar researchers made it back to their colony where their discovery was much celebrated, but soon they parted ways with Alqamar to pursue research on the anti-gravity element independently, instead of working in coll
aboration with Alqamar.
Hosen became the head of this new research team which was named “Manosim Ornociya Xonik” which meant “The Flying Club” and its acronym MOX became a popular name. In a short span of just one and a half years, the team MOX had magnified the power of the anti-gravity liquid by over five hundred times.
They crystallized the emerald liquid obtained from the stones, into a solid substance which was generally referred to as anti- gravity stone. After numerous experiments MOX realized that just by rotating the anti-gravity stone it’s strength could be manipulated and then it didn’t take long for MOX to reach the moon of Santona just by using a small part of this magnificent stone.
Fugits were now on their way to become a multi-planetary species soon. Mox’s reputation kept increasing on the planet and soon the power of Alqamar got shifted to MOX.
Alqamar became history while MOX became the first ruling body on the planet. Its twenty-three founding members formed a council and made new rules for the development of the race and soon fugits began to thrive. New vehicles came into existence which could hover over any surface using just a tiny piece of the magnificent stone. These vehicles were only available to the council which used it for high-speed travel across the planet. Indirectly the stone had become a symbol of power.
The stone completely changed the lives of the fugits on Santona because now they could undertake interstellar mining from nearby planets for precious elements, and they were no longer dependent on the natural limitations of their planet. With a small population of just over twenty thousand, fugits had achieved heights of technological advancements which few other civilizations in the universe could ever hope to achieve.
But every coin has two sides, and fugits were yet to address the negative side of this magnificent stone which later poison their complete race and leave the planet Santona to burn to death.
What could have happened, wondered Ariet. But before he could resume reading, Griex turned over in his pod and the sato quickly closed the casket. He put the casket back quietly in its original location and fled from the room.
24.
The Root Riddle
Emerging from Griex’s room Ariet saw a large group of soldiers striding down the corridor, but none of them had seteks with them; it was the first time he had seen so many soldiers inside Calamus without seteks. Perhaps they were going to collect their seteks. It occurred to him that this could be a great opportunity, as he was yet to find the charging location.
The sato went to the parapet wall and looked down. The lower stories were flooded with soldiers, but this time Ariet was not scared like before. He had fallen into a more fatalistic attitude now, for he knew now that he had already been living the life of a slave for all these years. He no longer dreaded capture. It could not be much worse than what he had already endured.
Ariet followed the soldiers in the corridor and reached a dead end. Beyond was a trench he had never come across before during his nightly searches.
The soldiers in front of him began jumping into the trench, but there was no audible sound of their feet hitting ground. The trench apparently was very deep. Standing in line, fear found the sato again as he waited for his turn. There was no going back now, he told himself. When he reached the edge of the trench, he closed his eyes and jumped. The trench was deep and he felt a great shock in his legs as he landed. Unlike the others he fell like a stone and fugits who had landed just before him threw him mocking glances for his awkward landing. The sato’s legs went numb for a while, but he hid his panic under the pretense of feeling sick. Perhaps they would appreciate his taking part in the battle despite his sickness.
At the first opportunity, Ariet moved away from the crowd. He saw the the central open square and realized that he was on the ground floor. He noticed a chamber to his immediate right into which kids with adults were entering empty-handed and coming out with seteks in their hands.
It was either their weapons cache or their charging station, and what could be a better target than that, thought the sato.
The charging station on the ground floor was very close to the entrance, and Ariet understood that if there were no elevators to come down then there would be no elevators to go up as well. It was probably designed that way to make it hard for enemies to reach upper storeys, but then why place their charging station so close to the entrance? The sato was utterly confused, but what was more important now than figuring out the mystery was to inform Mesek of his discovery.
He crept inside an empty chamber and repeated “Haeres Mesek, Haeres Mesek” in his head constantly, just like Xena had taught him. With a slight buzzing in his head the sato felt his zeng getting connected.
‘Yes dear, please tell what you’ve got.’ Mesek’s voice sounded in his head.
‘I’ve found their charging point, haeres. It’s on the ground floor close to the entrance of Calamus.’
‘Are you sure? Because I don’t think they’re such big fools,’ said Mesek, doubtfully.
‘Yes, haeres I’ve seen it myself. Perhaps they’re playing mind games with us by hiding it in plain sight, so to speak.’
‘Yes, maybe you’re right,’ replied Mesek, showing his confidence in Ariet. ‘And dear, do you have any information about the best time for the attack?’
‘Of course, haeres, night is the best time for an attack as their seteks would be fully drained and most of them will be asleep,’ replied Ariet, enthusiastically. For the first time in his life he felt a part of something bigger than himself, something that would bring about positive change. The thought was exhilarating.
‘Okay Ariet, take care,’ said Mesek and disconnected the call.
Mesek was worried about his enemies in Calamus changing their strategies. In recent battles Mesek had realized that Calamus soldiers used to charge their seteks in the day, but now they had apparently started charging their seteks in night. Such changes were more often than not a sign of imminent danger. Were they were planning a surprise attack?
Back in Calamus, Ariet went back to the trench as the only other way out was to jump directly to the third storey like rest of the fugits and, with his unenhanced limbs, he would probably die attempting such a legendary stunt.
Not that the trench was any easier to climb. Ariet dreaded having to clamber over its rough edges. He would no doubt lose some skin in the process, not to mention the damage to his bodysuit. But when he reached the trench and looked up, he could hardly believe his luck—inside the trench he found thick roots coming out of the trench walls, as though there was some large tree on the top of Calamus whose hefty roots had penetrated the entire building. How was it possible? How had he not noticed such a large tree on top of Calamus when he looked at it first. He blamed his nervousness for the oversight and climbed the trench anyway.
He returned to his room and lay down in his pod. His thoughts went to the contents of the casket. His curiosity about what had happened next in the story he had been unable to read kept him awake for a long time.
Meanwhile in Marcamaayu, a cloak of silence fell over everyone as Mesek, Hak and Cenoy landed on the massive practice plank with a super jump.
‘Dear odium master and my esteemed warriors,’ addressed Cenoy. ‘We are going to launch an attack on Calamus in some time, but only a selected few will be going with me while the rest will guard the Marcamaayu along with our setek force, because no matter the outcome of this battle, as long as we have Marcamaayu there will always be hope of winning the larger war.’
25.
Riddle Solved
The assembly dispersed. Mesek, Hak and Cenoy returned to Mesek’s chamber where Hak said, ‘Haeres, can I ask you something?’
‘Yes, go ahead dear.’
‘Why are we attacking in such a hurry?’ asked Hak.
‘Even if their spy warns them now, they won’t be able to charge their seteks before our troops attack them.’
‘But haeres, their seteks are always charged in the night,’ said Hak in a rather con
fused tone.
‘No dear they have changed their routine, and not just that, we have information about their weaponry as well,’ replied Mesek, with a slight grin on his face.
‘How, haeres? Where did you get this information?’ asked Hak, astounded.
‘Ahh, I forgot to tell you this, but Ariet is spying for us inside Calamus.’
Hak’s turned pale and Cenoy could see from his face that he was deeply hurt.
‘But haeres, I thought you had convinced him to take the reinforcement,’ Hak protested, his breathing uneven with anger, and before Mesek could explain he strode out of the chamber.
There was an awkward silence, which Mesek finally broke. ‘Do you know, Cenoy, why I chose you over Hak to lead the attack on Calamus?’
‘No, haeres,’ replied Cenoy, uncomfortably.
Hak is no less brave and skilled than you, but whenever it comes to an attack on Calamus he has never performed up to my expectations and we have ended up losing hundreds of our soldiers multiple times, without even inflicting much harm on the enemy forces...’
Cenoy didn’t know what to say. It was hard to believe that odium soldiers who went through such intense training could fail so badly.
‘Haeres, something is bothering me too,’ she said finally.
‘Tell me dear, what is it?’ replied Mesek.
‘Why aren’t we attacking with our full odium force?’
‘Because I still have doubt on Ariet’s information. We can’t risk our whole force,’ replied Mesek.
After their conversation Cenoy returned to her chamber. She lay down in her pod, but couldn’t sleep, as she was worried about the lives of her soldiers who won’t be carrying a setek like her.
Moments before it was time for the troops to leave Hak brought nearly four hundred new odiums for the soldiers who were selected to go with Cenoy. Mesek always insisted his soldiers bear poison saturated odiums before the fight and Hak knew that well. The blue shine of the odiums was enough to threaten enemies, thought Cenoy, gazing at the weapons.
