by Jasmine Walt
6
Saturn, 2990
She names him Darich after Keane Richards of the Rising Drones, the most infamous rock act in the galaxy, thus setting the tone of his life. Yet with his first drawn breath, her son renounces any association with the band and insists people call him Rai. He claims it is shorter, easier to pronounce, and translates across all cultures around the galaxy.
Thalia, Rai's mother, is the favourite groupie of the Rising Drones, their designated navigator, showpiece eye candy, sometimes stand-in stage performer, carrier of equipment, pleasure partner, and, on occasions when the driver is too inebriated, even spacecraft pilot. Like every other devoted groupie, she has followed them all around the universe.
On this occasion, the Drones are on their way to perform for Shaitan. It is the once-in-a-lifetime gig that all bands dream about—singing at the court of the king of the universe. The reward for a successful performance is a planet to call their own. The smallest celestial body in Shaitan’s kingdom, an empire which has now grown to gigantic proportions and stretches from Neptune to deepest space, could be theirs.
Shaitan is the new Alexander; a self-crowned king of all he surveys. The Drones are in thrall, deluded by the fantasy of a life lived in freedom. They are not aware of being manipulated by Shaitan. His control is absolute. Weaving dreams of ecstasy from thin air, he gives them what they want to feel.
Thalia is the highlight of their act, a naked human female swinging on a trapeze high above the crowds. In addition, as onlookers gape at the climax of the show, she loses her balance and falls into the crowd, straight into Shaitan’s lap. There, she holds onto him and there she stays.
What Thalia does not realise is how much of an end-of-the-line place this is. Almost three months to the date after meeting Shaitan, she finds out that she is pregnant. A possibility never considered blooms to life. In less than six months, Shaitan will be a father. About to walk into Shaitan’s rooms to tell him the news, she pauses to hear a conversation between two of his guards.
One guard says, “I thought everyone knew about the curse of Shiva.”
The second guard shakes his head. “No. I didn’t know, either.”
After shifting to a more comfortable stance, the first says, “Legend is that, angry at Shaitan’s impudence in claiming that he is as powerful as Shiva, the god curses him. ‘Your own son will kill you one day,’ he says.”
“Really? Cursed by Shiva the supreme himself, and yet all these years Shaitan lives without any worries that it may come true?”
“Yes, because in response to Shiva’s outburst, Shaitan simply bows his head.”
“Ha! That’s a surprise. Shaitan’s temper is second perhaps only to Shiva.”
“Like father, like son!”
The other chuckles.
Sounding pleased at his own wit, the first guard continues. “Yes, no tantrums from Shaitan; he doesn’t lose his cool this time.”
“A rare display of sanity.”
The first guard nods. “You bet! Shiva, too, is surprised by his calm acceptance. He asks Shaitan if he isn’t worried by what this will mean for him.”
“And?”
“And Shaitan replies that life finds a way; it always does.”
“Now, that is really rare—Shaitan quoting philosophy.”
“Ah, but he is smart. He obviously knew how Shiva would react to this.”
“And then?”
“Well, of course, Shiva’s generosity takes over. He is impressed by Shaitan’s cool acceptance, and feels perhaps he has been rash. So he tries to make amends for his earlier outburst.”
“This is really impressive. You know my esteem for our dark lord just went up quite a few notches.”
“Shiva throws him a lifeline. He tells Shaitan that there is one way to avoid the earlier curse.” He pauses for effect.
“Well? Go on!”
“He tells Shaitan that the only way to avoid his fate is to not have any children. Shaitan realises that he really could overcome the curse and its consequences. So, in reply, Shaitan simply bows and accepts what his father has said.”
“Go on.”
“Well, he leaves, but Shaitan being Shaitan cannot hold back from his usual actions, can he? He resumes his bid to rule the universe and continues his expedition.”
“So there is no change whatsoever to his cruel ways?”
“Ah! But there is. He takes a vow—which, by the way, he seems to have just broken with that groupie—of not letting any of his lovers live, just to be sure that there are no children.”
Their conversation is interrupted by a shuffling noise from the far end of the corridor. Both come to attention and snap out of their earlier jovial mood before running toward the source of the sound.
The full impact of the conversation she has just overheard has Thalia rooted to the spot. The enormity of the situation makes sense to her. Shaitan mates and then kills, making sure not to leave anything to chance. There are no messy endings. Still, she had not expected him to be happy at the news, but had at least hoped for his support. How she could have missed that Shaitan always kills his mistresses is beyond her.
“So, this is why our lovemaking is always so intense. It’s almost like he dies with each climax. This is why he really does see only me when we are together.”
Only during this most intimate of occasions, does Shaitan reveal his true self. All of his experiences are distilled into those few seconds, for there is no hope for him after. A protective instinct swells in her, focused on her yet unborn child.
“He will not hurt my son!”
That night, Thalia makes love to Shaitan as if it is the first time. Matching him move for move, she is the exhale to his every inhale. The touch of her hand sets his skin on fire, maddens him to a passionate high from which he can only look forward to going all the way down. She circles his neck with her fingers in affection.
“You and me, we are the same, yet so very different,” she says.
Still inside her, Shaitan looks at Thalia through eyes glazed with passion. She reaches for the knife on the table beside the bed and plunges it into his neck. Stunned, Shaitan falls unconscious. Thalia runs out into the corridor and past the guards, who race into Shaitan’s room.
Without a backward glance, she races to the other end of the corridor and onto the adjoining rooftop quadrangle, toward Shaitan’s personal space-pod. After clambering into the driving seat, she fumbles around the controls, trying to start the machine. The guards have already emerged from the palace onto the open terrace, intent on stopping her. One of the guards drops to a knee; the other remains standing. As one they raise their bows, slip out the arrows from their quivers in well-rehearsed fashion, and take aim.
Sweat pours down her face, and with a sob on her breath and a prayer on her lips, Thalia hits the pale blue button below the steering control. The ship fires up and rises into the sky, hovers for a second, then gains momentum and zooms straight up into the heavens. The soldiers on the ground let loose their arrows in pursuit.
A pre-planned trajectory takes the pod halfway over the city in under a second before the space-pod gathers more speed. The force pushes Thalia back against the seat and, breaking the light barrier, catapults her out of the orbit of Saturn.
Thalia collapses against her chair, adrenaline draining out of her as she escapes with her newly-conceived child. She lets the space-pod carry her along, and weeps in gut-wrenching sobs, burying her head in her hands, desperately hoping Shaitan never finds her.
7
Shaitan recovers quickly from the grazing wound she dealt him and gets to his feet, runs out of his room, and onto the open quadrangle. He looks to the skies in time to see his space-pod disappear into the next dimension. After working up to a fine rage, he yells for Yaksha, his right hand man. One of the few pure bred humans on Saturn, Yaksha was retained by Shaitan not just because of his fighting prowess, but also because his very presence is enough to drive many an enemy to commit suicide rather
than face death at his hands.
“Yaksha!” Shaitan’s voice has not even died away when a tall mountain of a man with shoulders as wide as a small planet and a face as dark as the night sky looms in the entrance to the terrace. He is dressed in a fitted armour vest that covers him to his waist and fatigue trousers ending in combat boots. In his right hand is his favourite weapon, a gigantic axe, and on his face he wears a smile.
Shaitan merely raises his eyebrows at the enormous man, and watches as Yaksha’s smile breaks into a grin, happy at the prospect of a quick spot of entertainment to brighten up his day. He walks over to the soldiers and strides around them, then kicks their feet out so they fall on their backs. Both close their eyes as he takes careful aim and swings his massive axe down, first on one, and then the other, slicing off their heads.
Shaitan is quiet as he continues to stare at where the space-pod had been originally docked. Anger sears through him. “Find her, Yaksha. Tell me where she is, so I can put an end to this story before it begins.”
Yaksha nods and retreats, making very little noise for a man of his bulk.
In the year 3000, there were still ten planets in the solar system, but gone was the old order. Earth continued to be the third planet to orbit around the sun. Mercury and Venus were where they had always been, orbiting around the father-like figure of the sun, and still the closest planets to the sun.
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn stayed in that order, following Earth. Saturn was Shaitan’s home planet, and they were made for each other. Both were dark, brooding, temperamental, filled with surprises, and too restless to stay in one place for long periods of time. The planets after Saturn had changed; the force of Shaitan’s personality and the burden of his conquests had been borne by the planets closest to it. Gone were Uranus, Neptune, and the planet of Ka Surya, which had been discovered more recently. By following in the footsteps of the human conquerors before him, Shaitan had taken one planet at a time. Before long, common sense dictated that if he destroyed all the other planets in the solar system, he would be left with nothing and no one to rule. Instead of destroying planets, he had merely contented himself with bending them to his will.
After Saturn came Pluto. Unlike Ka Surya, which was governed by the royal family, Pluto was more of a democracy, though a barely functioning one at that. It was not as rich in mineral resources, either, and so had escaped Shaitan’s attention.
Hiding behind Pluto and the equivalent of being just a peck on its cheek, was the much smaller planet of Java, with Ka Surya right behind it. It had been discovered much later, and for a while, its position as the second from last planet in the solar system protected it from Shaitan’s wrath; yet, he eventually reached and destroyed it in search of his progeny.
After which, Shaitan had slowed down, sparing the other planets complete destruction. Mars and Jupiter had been plundered at length by him for all manner of possessions, from arms and weaponry, to armies and beautiful females of all species to add to his palace.
But he had stopped short when it came to Earth, for nature had beaten him to it, unleashing its own secret chest of horrors on the planet, ravaging it with tsunamis, tornados, earthquakes, volcanoes; every natural disaster that had laid dormant had spewed forth over the last decade, destroying many of its proud cities. While Shaitan had been to Earth a few times, he had stopped short of looting it further. Giving into his weakness for the female of the pure human species, he had contented himself with stealing away an occasional human and sometimes a half life.
Bringing up the rear and on the edge of the arm of the Milky Way, after the erstwhile Ka Surya, was the newly discovered planet of Arkana.
8
It takes six months to track Thalia down. Yaksha sends soldiers to all the planets in the galaxy looking for her. Shaitan wants to search for her himself, but Yaksha convinces him that his time is better spent putting his army together and assures his ruler she will be found. Days, then months, trickle by without any sign of Thalia, and Shaitan grows impatient.
His anger has calmed into a burning curiosity after the first few weeks. It is as if Shiva himself has conspired to help her stay hidden. Mixed with it all is an unfamiliar feeling. He misses Thalia, her vitality, the way she lights up the space around her. The sheer joy for life she has, for enjoying what she has, and her fierce emotions have vanished, leaving him empty. The intensity of her passion has always taken him by surprise. The physical he always had, but with Thalia, he wonders if she had begun to awaken his human side. Is that why I have to go after and destroy her? Or is it still because I cannot not let any children of mine live?
When Yaksha’s spies finally track Thalia on Earth, he springs into action. One way or another, he will face his doubts and answer his questions. Action! Something he understands better than sitting around biding his time and waiting to strike.
Shaitan smiles in anticipation; his excitement is almost child-like. The familiar thrill of the chase kicks in. Earth! He has a reason to pay the mother planet another visit.
The ruby in the centre of his sword’s hilt glows deep as he straps it to his back. Then out of habit, he takes the dull gold band with the dark blue sapphire in the centre and places it around his head. He strides across the open terrace to the other side, presses a few buttons on the wall and the panels slide back, revealing a spaceship thrice the size of the one-person space-pod Thalia escaped in. He jumps into the pilot’s seat. The spaceship shoots out into the sky and toward the setting sun.
Thalia turns the space-pod toward Earth. Bombay is where she grew up and she decides that is where she will hide herself from Shaitan. Unaware of the shortcuts through wormholes, she takes the normal interplanetary trade routes past the planets of Jupiter and Mars, finally reaching Earth.
After landing in Bombay, she docks the ship on top of one of the abandoned buildings of the city. She walks out of the space-pod and onto the terrace of the building. It is not a high structure and is surrounded by much taller towers.
As she tries to orient herself, she spots a familiar signpost in the distance; a simulated holographic image, the Goddess Mumbadevi, the patron goddess of Bombay towers over the city.
The four limbed, curvaceous figure with long black hair flowing to her waist, is clad in an ochre coloured saree draped in the traditional Indian nine yards style. She has a trident clutched in her upper right hand, in her lower, a sword. Her upper left hand holds a pink lotus bud, and from her other left hand, a steady downpour of gold coins rains down on the city, bringing hope to the souls of Bombay. She extends halfway up to the skies, watching over the city, following the citizens going about their lives.
Thalia looks to her for a minute in awe.
If only she could find a way to stay hidden for the next six months, yet she does not know where to go. And then inspiration strikes. What better place to hide is there than in front of the figure of the goddess herself, where she would be protected? Surely the goddess would keep an eye on her. It may be just an emotional crutch, but that is all she has to go on right now. She is young and healthy, and she wants to live at least until her son is delivered. I have to get through it for him.
After returning to the space-pod, she guides it across to the tower and situates it right in front of the image. The space-pod was not made for interplanetary travel and is on its last legs. She lands it on the building just as the engine loses power. Better get used to it, she thinks of her loneliness, for this is her home until her son is born.
There's no other world out there where everything is going to be peaceful. There is just this, Earth, my reality, where I, a woman on my own, am nothing. Had I actually hoped that we would be a family? That I could tame the most powerful being in the galaxy? She didn’t know what she had been thinking anymore.
Looking around her at the planet on which she had once lived, she feels nothing. She doesn’t care about anything anymore. It is just about him; she touches her womb. Her son would stand in his own light, she is sure of it, or she wo
uld die trying to make sure he would.
The first labour pain cuts into her, as if someone has plunged a hot knife into her and is tearing it along her side. The agony grows in intensity, and she pants, trying to breathe into it. Is it possible to actually fan this agony further? She wonders as it radiates from the centre of her back until it covers the entire upper half of her body.
She holds up her hands, wondering in desperation if she could shake out the rays of pain from her fingertips, then she doubles over as it whips into her before subsiding.
Then just as she begins to relax, the coming onslaught, which is more concentrated than the previous wave, strikes; her stomach muscles tighten and her neck muscles harden as if preparing for war. It is war!
She screams out in terror as the torture rushes through her, overwhelming her. Tears pour down her cheeks as she tries to breathe through it, focussing on the single glowing light on the control panel of the space-pod. A prayer to the goddess, whose eyes follow her every move, does not help. The goddess is unresponsive, grinning back as the energy fades out of Thalia completely. The ring of fire gripping her centre forces her to grit her teeth, bracing for the final tidal wave of hurt, which carries her into the final stage, gushing out of her, bringing Rai into the world. She sees the child through a bewildering dream-like haze, the edges rippling with the aftereffects of the fading agony, before losing consciousness.
Quite some time passes before the baby’s cries finally penetrate her awareness. With a groan, she manages to sit and clutches the baby to her chest before wrapping him in her scarf.
The child stops crying as she kisses his forehead. For a few seconds more, she looks at him, her perfect creation. Then her eyes are drawn to a speck far behind the holographic goddess and she watches it head in her direction. It flies right through the hologram, toward her—a spaceship, similar in design to the pod, yet much bigger.
