The Destiny of Shaitan

by Laxmi Hariharan

  The DJ takes a break and the music winds down into a slower beat. Tiina goes to get them another drink. At the bar she turns around to find that Yudi is following the woman as she leaves the dance floor and walks out the door of the dance hall. She walks through the open field heading in the direction of a small hill not far from the academy. She stops and turns and, finding Yudi following, smiles and raises her eyebrows, as if daring him to keep coming. It seems to Yudi that as she steps forward, flowers bloom around her, soft grass springs up underfoot, a gentle breeze wafts over his skin, scented now with the smell of seduction. The entire space sighs with pleasure. They reach a soft grassy ledge on the top of a small hill. Yudi has eyes only for her, though. He fails to see the lights of the city spread out before them. He reaches for her. They tear off each other’s clothes and make passionate love.

  At one point, he is compelled to ask, “Who are you? A Goddess?”

  “Your lust come true,” she replies, breaking into laughter as he stares into her deep blue eyes. “Remember, you are mine!” she says softly, and walks away leaving him weak in the knees. His heart is beating faster and a feeling of déjà vu washes over him. It is as if he has set in motion an entire sequence of events which feel vaguely familiar. He knows he has been here before; feeling both ecstatic and unhappy at the same time. He does not regret the pleasures of the past few hours. But he knows he has lost Tiina, a second time.

  The next morning Tiina wakes up with a sense of something being very wrong. She lies there feeling the old sensation of emptiness washing over her. She cannot remember what has changed, and then the events of the past night come rushing back.

  Without even looking for him, she knows that Yudi is gone. No more will she hear his stupid jokes, feel his calming presence. Everything was OK as long as he was with her. She realises that she has lost him again. All her old insecurities come tumbling back. Rai finds her still in bed that evening, not having moved an inch from the morning. He tries to comfort her, picking up the pieces one by one.

  “You’ll see him again. I promise.” He tries to reassure her, not sounding very confident himself.

  “I am not sure I really want to ...” she says.

  “That is what you say now. Things will change,” he says softly.

  “Time and new memories?” she says, sniffling.

  “And new adventures to replace old dreams,” he smiles.

  “I know, I know,” she says.

  “Your heart will heal, I promise,” he says.

  “Surely you don’t believe that, do you?”

  “No,” he says truthfully, “I was just trying to be nice.”

  “But remember the mission? We do have a world to save. Go on adventures together.”

  Tiina walks away, putting a little distance between them. She looks at him, disbelief on her face. “How can you be so sure?”

  “You heard Mimir. We will be together.”

  “Do you believe everything Mimir says?”

  “Not everything,” Rai hesitates, “but almost …”

  “Ah!”

  “You have to admit, he is more accurate than not!”

  Tiina nods. “It will not be this easy the next time around.”

  “You don’t have to make it easy for Yudi.”

  “He will have to find me and woo me …”

  “Make him grovel,” exclaims Rai.

  “And even then, it will take a lot for us to be together again,” she says “There will be adventures, but for now they will be my own ... I am going to take a little trip.”

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t,” says Rai.

  Tiina merely smiles.

  First stop, Elixir

  Yudi has been staring ahead into the darkness for a few minutes wondering how to proceed. Tiina and Rai watch him with growing impatience. Artemis, the super intelligent tell-it-like-it-is spacecraft, has been idling for what may have been a few hours, minutes or days. She is the most patient of the four ready to set off on travels.

  Then suddenly Yudi exclaims, "Ah!"

  "What?" asks Tiina in exasperation “Have you plotted the fastest route to Bombay?”

  “I still don’t understand why Mimir told us to start with Bombay,” Rai exclaims.

  “Ah! Because that’s where we will find the portal to the other side?” ventures Tiina.

  “Not the most logical place to start with,” Rai says again.

  “You heard Mimir. It’s the junction between heaven and earth. Where the most good, and the most evil reside side by side.”

  “A city of extremes!”

  “Like us” says Tiina.

  Yudi, who has been quiet so far, finally speaks up, saying softly, "OK. Let’s take the road straight ahead."

  Tiina and Rai look at each other in surprise.

  “It took you a quarter of an hour to come up with that piece of amazing advice, eh?” asks Tiina.

  Rai heaves a long-suffering sigh. "Profound words indeed! Well, it is better than nothing, I suppose. Straight ahead it is then!"

  Yudi disengages the ship from the holding bay and it slides off its perch on the edge of Arkana and slides softly into the night.

  They look ahead into the darkness. Yudi is at the main driving pod. Tiina and Rai are on either side. They continue in silence until Tiina exclaims, "On my previous journeys through space I have always seen the stars in a distance...and most of my ships have been equipped with television”

  “What do you normally watch, reality TV?” asks Rai

  Tiina ignores the sarcasm “Just hoping for something to break the monotony … Here we are, in deep space, on the trip of our lives and all I can see is darkness.”

  “So sorry that it’s not to your expectations,” says Rai sarcastically. “You always want too much.”

  “Or not enough?” she asks. “Surely it’s not wrong to want things to be a bit more interesting ...?”

  Yudi chuckles. “I am sure we can do something about it,” then flips a switch on his right so that a beam of light from the ship suddenly slices through the darkness, lighting up their way. “Since you like music from the seventies” he says, then leans forward and this time flips a switch on above him, so that Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven fills the air and a three -dimensional image of the music video fills the viewing gallery.

  So incongruous and yet so apt it is, the three burst out laughing "I officially title this trip ‘Starway to Heaven’," says Tiina.

  Yudi nods “Spot on!”

  Tiina asks, “How long is the trip going to take, then?”

  “Time is relative in this part of our imagination, you know that,” says Rai.

  Both Yudi and Tiina groan. Yudi pretends to put out his hand to take the nearest thing at hand and throw it at Rai who mimes ducking the throw then neatly catches the imaginary object and throws it right back at Yudi.

  “Enough of the pop psychology for one morning!” says Yudi.

  “OK, OK.” Rai grins.

  Yudi then says, "We just have to keep going until we reach the very heart of the galaxy which leads to the eye of the pyramid where the gateway to Earth lies.”

  Scarcely are the words out of Yudi's mouth when Artemis picks up speed and moves to the next level.

  "Oops," he says. “Sorry, guys, still learning how to control Artemis.”

  “Be careful how you phrase that,” says Tiina, smiling slightly “You don’t want to upset Artemis?”

  Yudi nods. “You are right. He looks around the ship, I apologise, Artemis,” he says, “but we are in a hurry, so please can you speed up?” When there is no response he adds “Please….?” In response Artemis moves up in speed a few notches, slamming them back against their seats. "I suggest you strap yourselves in….." says Yudi grinning “I think we are finally picking up speed”

  Before Tiina can reply, the ship revs up to super light speed, as Artemis aims straight for the heart of the nebula, and going through the porthole crash-lands on the other side jolting them all into u
nconsciousness.

  Rai is the first to awake. He opens his eyes to find the sun shining overhead. As he looks around to where the others lie scattered, he sees a dark figure hovering straight up over him; its robes fluttering in the breeze, it bobs up and down much as if a mechanical 3-D image. The image stretches out its hand tentatively, as if making up its mind whether to approach him or not. Then, in a very human gesture, stamps its feet and flounces off, shaking its head, as if deciding to do the right thing much against its will.

  Rai realises that he has just witnessed the inner war of a being which is not of his world; then, just as he is about to relax, the apparition turns and floats right back to Yudi. As Rai looks on in surprise it reaches out one hand towards Yudi and, before he can protest, puts a hand on Yudi’s head. Rai can see Yudi’s body convulse and shudder vigorously as if his trapped soul is trying to break free. Rai tries to get up and futilely reaches his hand out towards Yudi.

  He watches as the apparition moves towards Tiina, leaving her convulsing. It then moves to stand in front of him.

  Rai can only watch mutely as it reaches out and touches his forehead. A warm tingling sensation flows through him, relaxing him, pulling him deep down into the well of his imagination.

  The first tremor wells up and has him in thrall as the information downloads into him. First come the equations, then come the colours and sounds and implausible sensations, and finally vibrations, which have travelled from far away and across many dimensions to seed him with all the information he needs to see them through the journey to Shaitan. He feels an incredible amount of energy running through him, and can sense that he is the middle of a grid connecting him to source and to the various focal points in the larger universe. He is at the very epicentre. The radiant power runs through him continuously, anchoring him, yet somehow setting him free, so that he feels he is one with the energy. That he is the energy and the energy is he. He opens his eyes and sees the truth. Then conveniently lapses right back into unconsciousness.

  When he comes to, he finds Tiina and Yudi's anxious faces peering over him. He continues to gaze at them unblinking. Then Yudi slaps him hard and Rai sits up with a surprised gurgle. "Ow! You didn't really have to do that you know," he splutters.

  Tiina and Yudi both simultaneously exhale in relief.

  "We thought we’d lost you there!" exclaims Tiina.

  "It was close,” Rai agrees. “And the thought did cross my mind, especially when I glimpsed the company that we were keeping.”

  “Really?” asks Yudi, surprised. “What did you see?”

  “You mean none of you felt it?”

  “Uh! I did feel a tickle on the underside of my foot,” says Yudi, “but it turned out that I had chosen to collapse on an anthill and had to pull away from that pretty fast.”

  “You, Tiina?”

  “I’d love to say that I felt more, but I can’t. I really did not feel or see anything of consequence. Except …”

  “Except?” prompts Rai.

  “Except that I feel really exhausted. Like I have run many miles and been on many different voyages.”

  “Which we have,” Yudi points out helpfully.

  “Yes, I know,” she snaps impatiently. “But this is different. I am completely mentally drained, too. My mind is blank right now.”

  “Like it was wiped clean?” asks Rai.

  “Yes,” says Tiina, surprised.

  “I feel the same, except that I am a step up from there. It feels like my mind has been wiped blank and …”

  “And?” prompts Tiina.

  “And in its place I have just got many streams of information running through my mind. I feel like I have been … well …”

  “Reprogrammed?” offers Tiina.

  “Exactly,” says Rai. “But at least I know what has to be done next.”

  "Oh, yeah? Well, tell us, oh enlightened one!" mocks Yudi.

  “I know where we are and what's going to happen next."

  Rai smiles “You were right about the music all along, Tiina. All we have to do is find the tune. It is not that far away. Play the correct notes and the pyramid will automatically open the way to Bombay!"

  "Well, then," says Tiina, "let us go and keep going, before the past catches up with us."

  "Why do you say that?" asks Rai, as they follow Yudi who has set off at a brisk pace already.

  "You are not the only sensitive one, you know," says Tiina. "I may not remember the entire experience of what just happened. I just have this feeling; it is this thing, which makes me very nervous about the outcome. I really do not think this is going to be as easy as you or he think it is going to be.”

  Rai says with some finality, "I would love to know the outcome of our journey.”

  “I’d just like to resolve this one way or the other. Don’t you think so?" asks Yudi.

  Tiina can all but nod miserably. "But I so, so want it to end my way."

  They both nod in agreement. “That would be preferable,” says Rai.

  “Any last words or thoughts that you guys want to share, before we indeed tread on this path to nothingness?” asks Yudi, only half joking.

  Tiina increases her pace and catches up with him. “Ah! The height of optimism, the fountainhead of youth, you are! That’s why I like you so much, Yudi.” snaps Tiina.

  “Sorry,” says Yudi. “Didn’t mean for it to come out that way. Guess I can’t help but always think the worst of the situation.”

  He says softly, “Perhaps when all this over, perhaps we have a real chance at being together, a normal couple."

  "Eh?" says Tiina, "you said something?"

  "You heard me,” says Yudi.

  "Just speaking with yourself, as usual?" she asks.

  "It’s a habit I need to break out of," Yudi exclaims.

  "This circle of life is one I need to break out of," says Rai, catching up with both of them.

  Tiina nods.

  "Let’s find the missing links, fit the puzzle and move on," says Yudi resolutely. In unison, they pick up speed and set off at a brisk pace. They walk in silence with Rai in the lead, each one immersed in their own thoughts. They must have been walking for a few hours when the Goddess of Love appears, shimmering, bobbing gently up and down on her borrowed lotus chariot. Yudi almost bumps into her, with Rai and Tiina having to stop very suddenly in their tracks.

  "Steady, there," she says irritably, in a tinny voice, "don't ruin my robe, which I have finally managed to clean of cosmic residue."

  Yudi drops to his knees automatically and the others follow suit nervously.

  "Stand up, stand up, boy,” she says, “and tell me, what will you give me in return for guiding you to the eye mountain?"

  "Uh, well, but you are a Goddess already, what is it that that you lack?” exclaims Tiina.

  The Goddess's eyes lift to her and she fixes Tiina with her forceful gaze, silencing her effectively. "Let the one I have asked the question of speak," she says impatiently. "Even Goddesses have needs that only humans can meet, after all."

  "What do you want?" asks Yudi.

  "Love," she says.

  "But are you not the Goddess of Love?" he asks, a trifle amused now at the strange apparition. “And haven’t we met before?”

  Then as the recollection comes back, recognition dawns. “It was you, on the dance floor in Arkana, all those years ago?”

  "Yes," the Goddess cuts in, "and I am still here and still looking for love."

  “All we need is love?” says Rai delightedly.

  The Goddess barely registers this remark. "If I show you the next stage of your route, then will you become my companion?"

  Yudi exclaims, “Me?"

  "Yes," she says, "you of the three, the missing link who holds the destiny of humankind in his will. The one with the superior genes. I couldn’t find a better partner with which to have children.”

  "Hey! Hold on,” says Yudi. “That’s my entire life right there you are talking about. It’s good to know that
I have the kind of genes which are of interest to you. I am flattered that you would choose me as your mate, but sadly I may have to turn you down.” As he speaks, he inches closer to his friends, as if trying to hide himself from the gaze of the Goddess. “You see, I do have a mission I need to fulfil first.” Not knowing if he is now getting through to the Goddess or not, his voice tapers off.

  The Goddess says, "But if you refuse," and at the thought her eyes seems to glow with a distinctly unearthly fury, "If you refuse, then you are on your own for the rest of the journey."

  Yudi, Tiina and Rai look at each other, puzzled, and then Tiina says, "That is the most bizarre request ever and not fitting for a Goddess!"

  The Goddess laughs "You think greed is only the prerogative of you mortals?"

  "Yes, absolutely," says Tiina. "After all, you, the Gods who have achieved Nirvana, you are liberated from the circle of life and death, right?"

  "Exactly," says the Goddess, "and still need a companion.”

  “Why would you need a mortal, though? Considering there are so many thousands of you out there to keep each other company. Could you not choose from among one of your own kind?”

  The Goddess looks at her and sighs. “There aren’t that many of us to go around, actually. And most of them have paired off already.”

  “It sounds exactly like …”

  “The dating cycle in your world?” The Goddess finishes her sentence. “You are right. It is not far off. All the good ones are taken. As for the ones who are not, well, you can imagine that there are good reasons why no one will have them.”

  “Wow!” exclaims Tiina, amazed. “Even Goddesses would have the same fear as us girls?”

  “Of ending on our own, scared and lonely, with only the cat for company…”

  “I know!” says Tiina “You haven’t told us your name by the way”

  “It’s Uma” says the Goddess “And I so need a man! Someone who can keep me company through the days and nights of this never-ending life”