by Vishal Ved
That night when the sky was dim, with only three full moons over the horizon, the soldiers strapped their deadly shining odiums to their wrists with metal handcuffs for better grip. Cenoy who was in her gorgeous magenta bodysuit, her setek in hand. The soldiers followed her to the surface and advanced towards Calamus without making any noise on the empty streets.
Ariet was still lying in his pod, thinking about Santona and its fugits when suddenly the thumping sounds of soldiers running in the corridor alerted him. Had the Marcamaayu armies attacked? But why would they attack in the morning, when he had clearly asked Mesek to attack in the night? Maybe he was overthinking and this was just one of the mock drills like before, thought Ariet and lay back in his pod. But to Ariet’s surprise, the sounds of footsteps outside diminished, which had never happened before during the mock drills. He crept to the door and was shocked to see the corridor empty. Where had they all gone? wondered Ariet. He had never found Calamus this deserted during day time. Ariet was considering going to the ground floor to see what was happening, when he felt his zeng buzzing.
'ARIET, how can you be so careless.’ Mesek shouted at him without preamble.
‘What happened, haeres?’ asked Ariet, astounded.
‘Their seteks are fully charged during the night as always and neither is their charging station on the ground floor. I didn’t expect this from you.’
‘But haeres, why did the Marcamaayu forces attack in day time?’
‘What? Are you out of your mind? It’s midnight,’ yelled Mesek and disconnected the call.
How was it even possible that it was night? From the day Ariet had arrived in Calamus he had determined whether it was day or night based on Calamus routine, because there was no vent inside Calamus for daylight to see through. Frightened, the sato ran out into the corridor, where he saw a soldier stumbling out of a chamber, his chest bleeding heavily as though it had been pierced with an adium.
The battle had begun; the sato found his hands and legs shaking. Ariet ran through the corridor and as he got closer to the chamber the sounds of setek blasts got louder. For a moment the sato wondered if the battle was raging inside the chamber, but when he peeped inside, he was shocked. There was no one inside the chamber, but a tunnel led from the roof, and that was where the sounds were coming from.
Were they fighting on the roof, wondered the sato, because this was already the top storey of Calamus. Suddenly, realization struck and he hit his forehead with his palm, cursing his stupidity. Everything started making sense now including the thick roots in the trench; Ariet was under the ground this whole time and he hadn’t realized it because his eyes were closed when the soldiers brought him into his chamber from the corridor. The sato now recalled that the guards carrying him had jumped down somewhere and surprisingly he had found himself on the top storey, but he had ignored that in his confusion over the new setting.
Angry with himself, the sato dragged a flower table under the tunnel and climbed it roughly uncaring of the scratches the walls inflicted, like he wanted to punish himself deliberately. He was very ashamed of himself. After climbing the trench Ariet found himself in a narrow murky duct too low to even sit straight. The sato could feel the cold walls of the duct pressing against his body. Following the noises, the sato started crawling inside the horizontal duct like a reptile, and his bodysuit got doused in the blood which had probably spilled from the body of soldier whom Ariet had spotted down below. It didn’t take long for Ariet to realize that this was a secret passage used by Calamus during battles.
The stinky, breathless duct appeared to brighten around the corner. The noises of battle got louder as he rounded the corner. He spotted an open window from where the shrieks of children and blasts of seteks were coming into the duct.
Ariet reached the window and looked down. The duct opened into a chamber on the ground floor whose gate was open and from there Ariet could clearly see the view in the central open space.
What had he done? thought the sato, as he saw hundreds of dead Marcamaayu soldiers lying on the ground, their bodies torn apart in disgusting ways. Some dead bodies were missing their heads while others had big holes in their chests.
All of a sudden, Ariet saw a black soldier from Marcamaayu piercing an odium into the head of a very young sato who had a setek in his hand but wasn’t as fast as his adversary. Ariet's heart cringed at this, but the next moment he saw a kiro blowing off the head of that Marcamaayu soldier, and then she ran towards the young sato. She lifted him in her arms, and started applying her saliva on his bleeding head, wailing in agony.
When soldiers of Calamus heard the wailing kiro it fueled their anger and they started killing the Marcamaayu troops like butchers. Suddenly, Cenoy came into Ariet’s line of vision. She was fending off three Calamus troopers at once and shouting to her own troops, ‘Out, Out, Out everyone!’ The handful of remaining Marcamaayu soldiers ran out followed by Cenoy.
Ariet’s mistake had costed Marcamaayu nearly three hundred and fifty soldiers, and the sato lost all hope of ever getting a call from Mesek again.
26.
Disaster of the Mild Venom
Cenoy tossed restlessly in her sleeping pod, the loss of her soldiers weighing heavily on her conscience. Why had Ariet passed on inaccurate information? Knowing the sato as she did, she couldn’t get herself to believe it had been intentional. The comfort of the soft pod and tiredness of the battle eventually drove her into a deep sleep, and she didn’t realise when her setek slipped out of her bodysuit in her tossing.
Something struck the floor forcefully and Cenoy leapt from her pod, instantly awake and alert. Running to Mesek's room, the kiro put her hand to her waist, but couldn’t feel her setek. A single moment could make a difference between life and death, and she didn’t pause in her headlong dash to Mesek's chamber, three chambers from her own. The door was already open, and Mesek was standing at the entrance, setek poised for attack, while Xena stood behind him looking frightened.
‘What happened, haeres? Are you alright?’ asked Cenoy, breathlessly, looking across the gloomy corridor.
‘Yes, dear. It was just that coward spy again,’ replied Mesek who nonetheless looked a bit concerned.
‘Could you see his face, haeres?’ asked Cenoy, getting angry.
‘No I couldn’t, but you know he brought an odium to kill me this time, instead of a setek. Maybe he knows about my golden armour which can sense the presence of nearby seteks,’ replied Mesek, baffled.
‘Should we call Hak to investigate the matter, haeres?’ asked Xena, her voice shaking slightly.
‘No dear, don’t bother him. He’s probably asleep, else he would have come by now,’ replied Mesek.
‘Haeres, can we talk to Ariet for looking into the matter?’
‘I don’t trust him anymore, dear. Sending him to Calamus was my biggest mistake and who knows if he’ll lead us again into a similar situation,’ he said, angrily. His expression softened slightly when he saw the distressed look on Cenoy’s face. ‘But if you want, you can contact him.’ He turned away from Cenoy.
‘As you say, haeres,’ said the kiro and came out of Mesek’s chamber.
Now that she had Mesek’s permission to talk to Ariet whenever she wanted, she felt great relief. Now, she could find out for herself what had truly happened. Closing the door behind her the kiro strode to her chamber. As soon as she was in her chamber, she focused on Ariet’s name “Ariet, Ariet, Ariet….” till she heard the sato’s voice.
‘I’m sorry haeres, It was a very big mistake. Please give me a chance to explain.’ Ariet spoke in a hurry concerned as though the zeng would be disconnected.
‘Ariet, it’s me,’ said Cenoy.
‘Cenoy?’ Ariet exclaimed in delight. ‘Since when do you have a zeng? I have been thinking of you for a long time but never tried calling you. How are you?’
‘I’m good Ariet, but the spy from Calamus made another attempt on Mesek’s life, and this time it wasn’t just a trap, the spy cam
e himself.’
‘What? Who would dare to do that,’ exclaimed the sato, leaping up from his pod, shocked.
‘Yes, that’s what I want you to find out, and please don’t call Mesek because he’s very angry with you. You can tell me anything that comes up. I have always trusted you and I always will,’ said the kiro.
A tear slid down the sato’s face. After a day spent castigating himself mercilessly, Cenoy’s words brought him immense comfort. Then, he overheard two fugits talking outside his room.
‘Cenoy, I’ll talk to you later. There’s someone outside,’ he said and disconnected the zeng. He crept close to the door, hoping to hear more of the recent fight.
‘They killed three of our youngsters in the fight, without showing the slightest mercy. One of them was pierced in the head with an odium into his head. I can’t get the sight of his body out of my mind,’ said a kiro, her voice thick with grief.
‘We owe our thanks to Kibesu. Had he not interchanged the poison of the odium with a mild venom, the casualties would have been significantly larger,’ added an adult male.
—The odiums hadn’t been poisoned! Ariet’s jaw dropped at this revelation. The Marcamaayu soldiers had been fighting against seteks with ineffectual weapons. Ariet had to tell Cenoy as soon as possible about this Kibesu and what he had done, but suddenly Ariet realized a very strange thing as once the two fugits passed the corridor fell into a haunting silent like never before. Ariet peeped from a little crack in the door and was utterly shocked to see hundreds of soldiers walking down the corridor, their heads down in mourning.
Ariet came out of his room and followed the crowd until he entered a big chamber. Half of the roof had been torn open; this chamber was a normal gateway between underground stories and the ones above the ground. Everybody, clearing the height easily, went to the surface except Ariet who moved in the side, pretending to be injured in his leg. But then two fugits came to him and asked, ‘Do you want some help?’
‘Yeah sure, I would be thankful,’ replied the sato.
Both fugits locked Ariet’s arms into theirs and jumped, bringing Ariet to the surface with them. Ariet gave them a grateful smile, but their sad faces didn’t respond. The sato came into the central open space where the floor was littered with the remains of the battle. Three families were wailing for their dead youngsters, while all others who encircled their corpses had wet eyes.
Ariet looked around and found that the remaining floor was covered with dead bodies of black soldiers and Ariet blamed himself for their deaths. Depressed, the sato stepped back from the sorrowful gathering and slipped into an empty chamber.
He focused on Cenoy’s name, and her voice came over the zeng.
‘Yes Ariet, what happened?’
‘I’ve found out the name of the spy. His name is Kibesu. And you won’t believe what he did!’
‘What?’ exclaimed Cenoy, leaping from her pod.
‘Do you know that yesterday your odiums could kill only 3 enemies.’
‘How’s that possible? We must have killed at least 30 of them,’ Cenoy said, stunned.
‘I overheard two kiros saying that Kibesu interchanged the poison of the odiums with a very mild one.’
The kiro was staggered by this revelation; Hak was in charge of poisoning the odiums and how could somebody deceive a person like Hak? ‘I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,’ said Cenoy, trying to sound confident.
‘I’ll have to go Cenoy. I’m in hurry,’ said Ariet and disconnected. He had got a sudden inspiration from a flower plant in the chamber. It was an idea that could end the story of Calamus forever.
27.
Hands In Muck
The place smelled like dung, which was only natural; it was the dung disposal chamber, after all. Ariet searched frantically with bare hands in the muck.
Finally, he found what he had been looking for, and held it high in his hands. It was a sprout of Fubus, with two big, yellow-brown leaves stretching out from it. He pulled the sprout out of the ground, along with the feces-covered mud it had grown in. From then on, he made it his routine to collect sprouts when everyone else was asleep, and store them in his room.
Soon, he had upwards of a hundred Fubus sprouts under his pod. The room had turned into a laboratory where the sato was storing Fubus sprouts along with the feces they had grown in. It was one of the most disgusting projects Ariet had ever undertaken in his life, but it saved his life when some soldiers came to his room, but found the smell so annoying that they left him alone from then, advising the sato to adopt some hygiene in his life. The sato didn’t know the guards were on the lookout for the spy of Marcamaayu, else he could have panicked and given himself away.
The smell was horrible, but it helped keep his operations secret. The sprouts, which the sato was collecting, had the ability to grow at lightning speed once seeded into damp soil.
Everyday after underground Calamus fell asleep, the sato wandered in the corridor, hiding sprouts and damp soil in a trash box, looking for the perfect opportunity, until one day he actually found it. There were no patrolling guards near the duct chamber which Calamus soldiers used during battle to go to ground level because opening the normal passage bore the risk of exposing the underground stories to enemies.
Ariet slipped into the room and climbed the trench. Moving through the duct he reached its other end, then crawled back seeding sprouts in the damp soil all along the way back to the entrance. The soil had enough moisture to unravel the superpowers of these sprouts which had had a slower growth in feces.
Throwing the empty trash box into a corner, the sato returned to his room, grinning with satisfaction. Even if the Marcamaayu army killed every adult in Calamus it would be a minute punishment compared to what they had been doing for centuries on Tomarkus.
“Cenoy, Cenoy, Cenoy,” Ariet repeated in his mind until he heard kiro’s voice.
‘Yes, Ariet. what is it?’ asked Cenoy, concentrating her full attention on Ariet’s voice in between a noisy training session.
‘Listen carefully, Cenoy. Calamus is divided into two portions, one is under the ground while its same replica is above the ground. And you’ll never find all their seteks discharged because they charge their seteks in two shifts,’ said Ariet.
‘Then how do we defeat them? This is very bad news,’ exclaimed Cenoy.
‘No, it’s not, because half of the soldiers whose seteks need charging come to the underground stories while the other half stay above ground, and continue to guard Calamus. During the battle they use a secret duct to sent their underground army whose seteks are only partially charged to support the other half, but this time they won’t be able to as I’ve initiated the blocking of the duct which will be completely blocked in 4 days.’
‘That’s brilliant, but how did you manage to do that?’ asked Cenoy, surprised.
‘I have worked with plants for my entire life, don’t you remember? So, I’m just using my knowledge against the ones who taught me,’ said Ariet, mysteriously. Telling Cenoy about the casket and history of Tomarkus would only distract her from her work, so he decided not to tell her for now
‘Okay Ariet, I’ll consult with Mesek and plan a surprise attack because there’s a spy inside Marcamaayu who has a very sharp eye on whatever we do,’ replied Cenoy.
Okay Cenoy, but take care of yourself,’ said Ariet and cut the call.
Three days had passed but Cenoy hadn’t said a word to Mesek regarding the fake poison. Mesek had told her that everytime Hak attacked Calamus, surprisingly Marcamaayu soldiers could never kill more than a handful of soldiers. And now she knew why. It was because their odiums never had proper poison into them, they were fake.
The kiro feared that if she told Mesek, he would become even angrier and it would help her in no ways.
‘Haeres,’ called Cenoy, knocking on Mesek’s door.
‘Yes Cenoy, come inside dear. What’s the matter?’
‘I want to tell you something, but please do not tel
l Hak about it.’
‘Why, dear? Why so?’
‘Haeres, I’m not sure but I fear that Hak is the spy from Calamus,’ said the kiro, nervously. She was very keen on not informing Mesek about the fake poison.
Mesek burst into laughter, and said, ‘It’s okay, I get it that he’s a little unpredictable, but you don’t need to worry about him. I chose him myself, just as I chose you.’
‘Haeres, please, trust me on this,’ Cenoy pleaded.
Mesek shook his head, bemused. ‘Look Cenoy, I can’t believe Hak is a spy, but if you insist, I won’t tell him what you tell me.’
‘Haeres, I talked to Ariet and he had informed me that—’
Before Cenoy could complete Mesek interrupted, ‘What? You still believe him?’
‘Haeres, this time he’s right, you’ve my word for it.’
‘Okay, what did he say?’ asked Mesek, not looking too convinced.
Cenoy told Mesek about how Ariet had blocked the duct so half the Calamus would be trapped underground.
Mesek listened to this, thoughtfully. ‘If this is true, it sounds like a good opportunity, but what’s your plan?’
‘Mesek, I want you to send Hak out on some mission tonight and I’ll attack on Calamus tomorrow with our full odium force while our setek force will stay here guarding Marcamaayu.’ Confidence shone in Cenoy’s eyes.
Mesek looked at her, considering. ‘Okay, I will send Hak to get some more prisoners tonight. You focus on the attack strategy and keep checking with Ariet.’
After Hak had left for Carcerem, Cenoy asked Mesek to give her fresh poison and supervised the poisoning of the odiums herself. Her army was now set to finish their biggest enemy, but Cenoy lied to her soldiers that it was just a mock drill.
28.
The Betrayed Planet
