Krikos: The Vertical Horizon

by Rishabh Dubey

  149 I.E. - The first law of INSIGNUS was formulated. making every citizen of Insignia – equal. He’d get an equal allowance and income and also sufficient resources for the whole family. This fact made the sects of different occupations rise against each other, demanding more for what they did comparatively. This surge was then temporarily calmed down by the Insignia through the celebration of 150 years of the Insignia council in 150 I.E.

  150 I.E. - Insignia council completed 150 years, and the celebrations were held throughout the region. The council gave a moving speech on the importance of equality and how no task was small or big and calmed the people by telling them how they had suffered because of envy and treason in the past. The world wanted to grow. The world wanted to advance to a better stage.

  169 I.E. - The condition of the world stabilised to a better condition. Food resources started to get better. Insignus started motivating other fields to develop at a rapid pace.

  192 I.E. – Scientists and researchers reached their crescendo.

  The Human genome project achieved new heights. People could now choose the traits they wanted in their off-springs.

  Several new possibly-habitable planets found. The Space exploration program reached the highest level ever-259 in one year.

  2673 A.D. OR 271 I.E. – The Epilion Renaissance – A Revolution took place... People began believing that the Nucleated Earth was a disgrace to their high decorum and started revolting against the slow-paced Insignia decisions. A world summit took place which dissolved the obsolete ideals of the Insignia. A Consensus took place to find a suitable alternative to Earth since self-sufficiency was not possible. The Insignia was replaced by a bigger Council known as the Epilion Council.

  The year 2700 A.D. became the year 0 A.E. or the Advent of Epilion.

  THE ADVENT OF EPILION

  2952 A.D. or 252 A.E. – The era of space settlement programs which mostly initially failed.

  254 A.E. – A new cult was formed by an Indian called Narma Surja, and was given the name ‘Leftists’ or the ‘Forwards’. The cult believed in a peaceful revolt against war and the warring parties.

  477 A.E. – The Era of medical development.

  560 A.E. – A small private institution called the Magnus Eutopium was formed by the Royalists of the central world who believed in the concept of ‘The best of all for mankind’. It was against the prevalent law of equality under the Communist ideologies in power. They considered evolution to be no hindrance to the survival of important cultures and tried to re-establish their importance.

  577 A.E. – Raul’o Mastiff... a Eutopian, was elected as the President of the Epilion Council. He formed the first royal space program namely RASORVE (pronounced Raps-aw) or RIMOR-ADVECTOR-SALVATOR INITIATIVE or the Explorer, Settler and Guardian Initiative.

  642 A.E. – Lurishim Wasalova... the residing president of the Epilion declared to dissolve it due to its inability to efficiently use the living and non-living resources available. The same principle of Spatial Exploration was grafted onto a capitalist skeleton, and a new council was formulated called ‘The Eutopium’. The elites of Magnus Eutopium headed the Council with Lurishim in the chair. In his speech, he clarified that it had been done because people required equity more than any other material. With equity came everything.

  650 A.E. was 0 E.E. OR 0 EUTOPIUM ERA.

  THE EUTOPIUM ERA

  3400-3680 A.D. or 50 E.E. to 330 E.E. – The time of successful Celestial Settlement.

  Syrobnium was declared as the world’s official language for all documentation purposes. It was a well-planned mix of Archaic Latin, Sanskrit and Greek, and went on to coalesce all other major languages of History. A new class of the Royal Eutopium Organisation with Greater Isolation from the prevalent Liberalism was created, known as the Hexagon. It was formed to cycle all Six of the main functions – Defence, Offence, Administration, Construction, Production and Management for the Royal Government.

  The ‘Leftists’ became desperate, and some of their extremists took over the cult and forged a violent revolution.

  The Principles of the Leftists Evolved. They started believing that the roots of war lied in Evolution. And Evolution was influenced by Science. So, they preached the opposition of ‘Change’ (as in constructive change) and formed the ‘Cult of Stillness’. The term ‘Leftists’ was replaced by the term ‘Stillites’.

  Hexagon class of the royal army circulated an order of a Royal Corps called the Officers. The most Elite 13 of this group were to be called as The Sentinels who were led by their captain or the ‘Xanethius’ (title for the Magnus elite). Ancient styled, Vintage themed, yet modern turbo tech-weapons were forged for the Sentinels and entitled as the Magnus Weapons. There was also a visible strengthening of the Armed forces of the Hexagon. The latent reason was to curb the ‘Stillites’ and their likes.

  395-398 E.E. –

  After a vigorous combination of volunteers, selection as well as training… 5 Officers were given complete freedom to hunt down rebels of the dynasty by any means necessary. They were entitled as the ‘Iconoclasts’.

  Hyperspatial Travel, preferably termed as Hexkon Thrust, was developed and preached by Dr Rif’g Daniels (using designs by his late comrade super-genius Dr Flexkon Damien Harper Dustener)

  401 E.E. – Dr Daniels proposed obscure charts to a possible answer for all.

  The charts were deciphered to an extent to form the designs of an H.T. capable space station fuelled by the stars themselves. The proposed Space Station would be called ‘Krikos’.

  The designs helped to form thermo-resistant uranium fusion machines which revolved around the Sun to extract its thermal energy and multiply it using another reactor.

  411 E.E. – 932 E.E. – Construction of the KRIKOS, the Star cored mega-space-station, for the proper settlement of the population, USING the Sun and material from the solar system.

  Eutopium, to honour the Late Dr Flex Dustener recalled by Legendary Dr Daniels as the ‘Actual father of the new Civilisation’, classified its best Scientific Officers under an organisation called Flex. The Engineering sub-class of the Flex class was named as the Ventzura Class, with its leader entitled as ‘Sachyon’.

  The master computer of the Krikos, called the Technocrux, as designed by Flex, enabled people to connect to one other in a millisecond across a million miles. The inbuilt brain of the Technocrux was named Genetrix. Technocrux also comprised of an inbuilt information accessing virtual chamber known as The Grid. The Grid was further comprised of the two sub-grids on the basis of the law of Information-Custody. The first was the Public Grid or the Flex Grid. The second was the Confidential Grid of the Eutopium, which would later be infamously called – THE LATTICE.

  932 E.E. – KRIKOS SET SAIL … population 39 billion...

  1002 E.E.- The Kyuron Spectrometer discovered type 16 gamma signature (similar to that of the Earth) in a far distant place … but the magnitude of cosmic rays was speculated to be higher … at least 1000 times that of the Sun. The possible solar system was termed as the ‘Alpha Helios’ and the planet as ‘Annaeax’ or in other words ... the one they could never understand. A mission was organised for the Combat Officers of the Hexagon to explore the depths of the Annaeax System. The mission was carried out by a Rimor class ship ‘The Hexagon Extra-terrestrial Intelligence Explorer’ under the then Xanethius called Wenzo Srivious. The mission turned out to be the weirdest one in the history of Explorers with the Explorer and its crew actually ‘Lost’.

  1302 E.E. – The great successor to Wenzo Srivious Xanethius was born... He was christened as Srivious Krawn... he grew up to be the finest in the arts of combat on the Krikos and was awarded the right to cycle his birth title … he was therefore called Krawn Xanethius. By the time he came of age, the Sentinel programme was disbanded due to ‘Scarcity of Conflicts and War’.

  1321 E.E. - Another birth took place in the birthplace of Krawn that was the District 9 Zone 2 of the Kri
kos. The man was named as Nahcas Dent. The boy grew up to be a contract worker for a private Engineering department.

  1347 E.E. – A diligent boy was born in the district of Sayofringium... or the district of the holy of Krikos. Being the aftermath of a Reproduction Simulation… The boy had no parents and so was adopted by an old Librarian, Verdo Hoko, who was on a pilgrimage to Sayofringium. Getting bored of monotonous names… Hoko christened the boy as VIN and gave him the title he had always longed for. ‘Die Kridious’ or the official Accountant of deaths… an old title from the Insignia Era. So, the boy grew up as VIN-die Kridious.

  1366 E.E. – The paths of Kridious and Nahcas met when they both found each other submitting to the want of Royal Credits and Fame. They both applied for the Tentative Evolution program as Human Samples. Unexpectedly, among the 37,891 human test subjects, only those two sufficed and that two with apparently positive results.

  Kridious’ body expanded to a reasonable level due to the overflow of blood to his muscles. After going through several rounds of muscle bursts, nose bleeding, and headaches, his body normalised. The conclusion – his physical abilities and mental and emotional strengths and perceptions crossed what was known as the “peak human ability”.

  Nahcas, being physically weak, was preferred for brain strength expansion. His domain, power, and speed of thoughts became inhuman. His perceptions and speculations were out of the charts. His learning process also enhanced to a much higher level.

  Kridious was inducted into the Royal Army on recommendation. From there, he was selected by the Officers Squadron and soon got promoted to be an Officer under Krawn.

  Nahcas was admitted to the Royal Scientists squad and got a direct recommendation to the Flex Organisation and rose to become the Sachyon. A few years later, he was also made an Honorary Officer under Krawn for his spectacular aids to the combat tech.

  The scenario was set for the upcoming action in the Krikos, The revelation of the great secrets and the reality of Flex. In this way, we can say that not only the Tubed-Alternated-Inverted-Gravity-Based inner structure of the Krikos gave it a Vertical Horizon, but the ongoings of life of the anthropocentric humans off and on the Krikos …also...gave it its Vertical Horizon.

  Diaries of Flex:

  Episode 1-

  What is the Krikos?

  The 4th century of the Eutopium Era: Time of many a greatness -as recalled by many a great. It was not long after the invention of artificial habitations that the new Rimor (Explorer) class ships were sent to different Planets for the sole mission of colonisation. I had recently returned from one of these ventures. “What went wrong?'' they asked, rambling on and on about the failure of the mission. The word ‘Failure ' - it sounded worse from their lips than mine. We lost more than a mission out there on the System of Jupiter. The year was 391 E.E., and in those days of early rehabilitation, Rimor missions were two a penny. Those perilous times required selfless heroes, the like of which are now found `only in legends and pulp fiction’. Perhaps the greatest among these was Flex D’Dustener. I am Rif'g Daniels, and this is the story of the part of my life which changed yours.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, now we shall conclude the conference,” announced the Chairman of the Hexagon.

  I sighed and waded through the huge clique of media representatives. All I wanted to do was to retire to my chambers in the Hexagon Residential Complex. Ha! Just an accident! They couldn't have been further away from the truth! But I couldn't enlighten the nomadic bastards now, could I? I ignored the questions and the idiotic queries the fools threw at me in their desperate attempts to suck out all they could from this ‘story’. It was all just a story to them, just another bold headline – just another piece of gossip! My legs carried me to my chambers - a left here, a right there, an enervated twist of the knob, past the brisk swipe of a card and there I was in my room. Standing before as I swiped my gaze across the room, I looked for the case... ‘The case!' I thought. “Where had I kept the old thing? Oh! There it is!” I exclaimed and grabbed hold of it. The intensity of Goosebumps, the plethora of thoughts, and a probability of answers, the very question “Why did he hand it to me?”, All these things forced me to open it; to open the Pandora’s Box, as I would later know it to be. And there they were – The journals of Flex D’Dustener! I gave a wry smile. The greatest minds were always the clumsiest. The only account of the mission was this highly unorganised mass of papyrus! The brown Velcro corners, the thick-lined sheets - all this reminded me of the erstwhile stereotypical and socially awkward super genius. “Can’t believe he’s dead,” I said to myself. With a brisk of smile dying on my face, I stared into the decaying lump of old papers tinged with brown spots. The ones which he valued more than his life -The ones which, not ironically, cost him his life.

  In the Lab, I used to sneak up on him sometimes, when he was scribbling away on his beloved sheets of paper with an archaic Anno Domini writing instrument (one that he used to call a ‘pen’). Still, I couldn’t guess what was it that he wrote day and night? Those nocturnal hours, working his way as if the morrow was doomsday!

  I first saw him as a fresher in the Lunar University, sitting on the steps and thinking down some equations on his thought pad. I, being a year above him, was surprised to see that what he was concocting up was, in fact, a primitive version of the Hruwn's Algorithm -an algorithm that governs the behavioural dynamics of construction nanobots- something I had only heard of as it was taught only to final year students.

  “You're blocking the way, mate,” I said. He shifted towards the railings to let me pass without even looking at me.

  “Whatch'ya doing anyway, don't you have a class to attend?”

  “What's it to you?” came the prompt reply. His eyes were still stuck to his thought pad. I was taken aback, freshers usually sucked up to their seniors so they could avoid being hazed and also to get undue favours from them. This fresher clearly didn't know how things worked around there.

  “What do you mean what's it to you?” I said in a superior tone.

  “What it means is, that to you, I am only a guy who was blocking your way. Now since your way has been cleared for you to proceed, I should be out of the equation.”

  “Out of the equation?” I questioned, thoroughly nonplussed. That small dark being was not intimidated by the most famous blue-eyed senior. I was a trend back in the University.

  “I am no longer an inhibitor to your trajectory, and therefore you should now proceed towards your destination as if I wasn’t there in the first place. Asking me what I'm doing will only waste your time and mine since I can safely assume from my previous experiences that you definitely won't understand the nature of my work.”

  “Not true mister. I can see you're working on the Hruwn's algorithm.”

  “And what's that?”

  “What's it to you?” I had quipped before I could realise that he hadn't ever heard of the Hruwn's algorithm. He had derived the algorithm from scratch, a feat of theoretical engineering which took Hruwn eleven long years to complete. So, I told him what the Hruwn's algorithm was. Indeed, I wasn’t much acquainted with the fact that this very fresher would receive his first major in such an abstruse topic, and that too before me.

  “You mean I've wasted a month working on this?” he said with a look of devastation on his face.

  D'Dustener didn't seem to have any friends (or even acquaintances for that matter) in the University. He was much more sociable than the future D’Dustener or in other words ‘The Pariah from Moon’ who naturally rebuked the inherent and seemingly transcendental and paranormal force which made him open up to at least one person… that was unfortunately me. But I’d be coming to that later. Now I was telling you about his empty friend circle. This was a direct consequence of his high-headedness. I would eventually learn (the hard way around) that he was as inept at social skills, as he was brilliant in science. That was to say that till his dying day, he remained one hell of an arrogant bastard
with an ego of epic proportions. Something had always attracted me towards him, and we gradually became good friends. The Star Kid Rif'g Daniels (as I used to be known at the University) and his pal ol' Nerdy Dusty (as HE used to be known at the University), an unlikely pair if there ever was one. Now after all these years of working on the Resettlement project, a project that engineers would give their thought pads to work for, he’s gone for good... I thought of all this and more as I opened ol' Dusty's journal. A wave of sorrow struck me as I saw his handwriting, but I gathered myself and read on...

  Krikos

  The designs might just be ready, but the future isn't ready for itself yet. The thrusts are dysfunctional, but the capacitor module is just in the right place. The dimensions...

  I paused for a moment, intrigued by the conundrum of the mere word ‘KRIKOS’. The Professor never told me anything about a ‘Krikos’. Ha! I remember how we used to call him ‘Professor ‘, just another name for the idiot of a genius, (a sentence which was not a paradox despite appearances). Professor Flexkon Damien Harper Dustener- a name that is now known to virtually every human living. Thinking about the man, I remembered his flair for being uniquely disorganised. His brand of disorganisation never gave him any trouble. For that great mind, retrieval was never a mess. Although being with him for seventeen long years had taught me some tricks of the trade, yet I could never find his working table in his office below those pieces of raw old paper. “That must be it “, said I, as I held them in my hands. I was startled - his idea of a journal was a rough working manual! One where he had scribbled almost illegibly on any page he liked - whenever he liked. I continued reading, hoping to get some meaning out of this word, ‘KRIKOS’.