Krikos: The Vertical Horizon

by Rishabh Dubey

  The Stillites... the cult founded about a millennium ago by the famous Epilionian philosopher Narma Surja. I have already told you about their motives for the formation of this cult. Originally termed as ‘Leftists’, the initial followers of this cult propagated non-violent revolution against those who supported and/or imposed war and terror. It had a belief that war sparks from necessity and necessity, from evolution and development, and those, from science. In the beginning of the 4th century of the Advent of Epilion (A.E.), the Leftist ideology started spreading to far-off lands. The Epilion saw to it that they were crushed and mashed up properly and intricately. What were they thinking? Opposing the people who support the war, or I may rather say those with weapons, with a non-violent revolution. We had only heard mythical stories of it being an archaic mode of revolution. But with ionic-impulse cannons which can decimate each molecule of any particular town, erasing the entire proof of any oppression in itself, no sane being would use non-violence as a mode of revolution. I guess the whole ‘leftist’ thing was an excuse to escape the general defame of a suicide attempt. By the middle of the 31st century, there were only a few leftist survivors. Among them were also those who were just too much dedicated to their cause rather than their principles. There was a ceremony which took place whereby 5 of the remaining leftists declared the new set of ‘Words of Illumination’. It enclosed many facts about the Stillness of the Universe and the theories about Krydon. But the basic and most important thing was that it re-christened them to being called ‘Stillites’.

  Stillites fought many wars with the Epilion, and later the Eutopium, but mostly on the political battlefield. There were certain encounters between them but the two councils never preferred a direct declaration of a high scale war against them. This was because, firstly, it would have always been high scale because of their ever-increasing populations and concentrations in various sectors of the planet. Secondly, the weapons possessed by the Stillites equated those possessed by the Royal Army. But it didn’t mean that the Eutopium was afraid. At some grounds, it was, considering the two councils which preceded it were both usurped by only a certain faith, one being the Eutopium itself. But Stillites hadn’t yet given a reason for the Eutopium to be afraid. They did attack at certain special events, but not very often.

  However, the scenario changed after the declaration of rehabilitation on different planets under the RASORVE (Rimor-Advector-Salvator Initiative, pronounced RAP-SAW) project. The number of Stillite attacks went on increasing. It never reached a critical level and the Eutopium was ignoring it, unaware of its temporary initial dormancy. By the start of the 3rd century of the Eutopium Era (E.E.), the Stillites had formed a stronger base for their faith with certain new theories. So, they elected a pillar over this base with the creation of ‘The political cult of Stillness’ as an anti-Eutopium movement. The cold war had become very public now (people knew about it … but no one had any first-hand knowledge). Till then, being a politician was not a declared crime under the Right to Principles. This time, the Eutopium was intimidated. But they had no resort because they couldn’t kill Cult representatives without any proven grounds. The condition worsened towards the end of the century. The numeric strength of the Stillites was just too much for the Eutopium to bear with. So, it took a stand and gave out a new royal law. Under this law – All the other political cults other than the Eutopium have to give up their political grounds and powers. People who give anti-Eutopium motivational speeches are to be arrested and tried in the Royal Court of Consensus and Justice. If the specific cults on a whole refuse to comply, they are to be phased out with force (if required).

  This created utter chaos and imposed an unofficial curfew in the big business concrete jungles of the Earth. Those cults which came under this law were infamously termed by the Eutopium as ‘Rogue cults’, and if the cults took to politics then they were termed as ‘Black-Flaggers’. The Stillites were gravely moved by this declaration. There were hundreds of death sentences and thousands of unreported killings and tens of thousands of abductions and life sentences. The harshest punishment was Space–Exile, where the guilty was left for dying in outer space with a 40 days’ oxygen tank. He would then die of either hunger, thirst or would go out of breath. It was termed as the ‘Great Frinxus Massacre’ because the declaration of the law and the Eutopium meeting, both took place in the city of Frinxus.

  The Eutopium tried to calm down the commotion with certain compensation of both material and recreation. It clearly seemed as if the Eutopium was the greater warring side. The Stillite numbers had drastically decreased. But this was not the end of it. Eutopium created special task forces – Mastiffs. Their sole aim was to find and kill critically wanted offenders (mostly Stillites). This created a great fervour of anarchy amongst the remaining Stillites. In the starting of the 3rd century, the Stillites gathered together and declared the formation of a response combat squadron with elite skills. They were named as ‘Slate’ or the ‘Keepers of Stillness’ or ‘The holy warriors of Galacta’. It took them 4 years to assemble the squadron and form a class of elite marksmen. The slate was handed down weapons similar to those of the Mastiffs, that is weapons eligible for hunting. Their sole mission was to destroy the Mastiffs and also every obstacle that Eutopium placed between them and itself.

  The Slate was much successful in its activities in the beginning of the century. 47 Mastiffs had been hunted down and more than 50 armouries had been raided by the year 258 E.E... Then there came the 4th century. The era of a new war began. The legendary war. By the beginning of the century, the Mastiff order had been eradicated. This gave a great setback to the Eutopium. There was a re-formation of the Stillite political order. The Eutopium thought of taking a stand and formed the ‘Iconoclasts’, the attack squadron with kill-at-sight rights coming under no jurisdiction other than the First Speaker of the Eutopium. This squadron was formed to parallel and dominate the Slate order. But the slate was not taken by surprise. They were somewhat awaiting this. They were awaiting a mistake like this from the Eutopium so that people might lose their belief in the Eutopium. An all-out attack on the Eutopium may need no further justification than mere self-defense. So, they defended their own. The war began … not any war, though. THE war began. It had engulfed many innocent people, though. Many lost their loved ones including Flex. He lost Artha. The war had started, but what was worse was that it was being fought for two silly unjustified causes. A very wrong philosophy (apologies to Flex) created for an unachievable purpose, versus an arrogant and probably cryptically autocratic dictatorial government.

  Why am I giving you a lesson in history? My friend, the time you might be living in, this war might have been over. You will hear the story and grievances of the victor. The one which lost might be long forgotten with the mere animosity of legendary outrage and insolence. But you must know the purpose of why I am telling you ALL this. Reading was merely your choice while understanding after reading was a need. You must choose your own path. In the words of Flex – Don’t confuse Urge with need. The urge to remain and the urge to fight must be replaced by their need. After you have gone through my accounts, you must choose a path. If there is a need to fight, you must fight. But if there is a need to remain, you must pass down these accounts before your downfall. Flex passed me down his. His motive was to make me assess the situation and pass down a record of my own. The need was very unpredictable. But you must be ready accordingly. Wars will keep happening, Civilizations will keep falling and rising, Time will keep passing by, but you may keep the conflagration eternal.

  (EXCERPT FROM FLEX’S JOURNALS. GALACTA CANTOS)-

  The mother of all befalls but one,

  The righteousness that recalls none.

  Into The Dimension:

  Episode 12-

  Universe covered in smoke.

  S

  ilence. Sheer Silence. The omniscient being stood stunned, while those in the dark were being forged to darker ends. Then a heavy barrage
was heard in the soundless Universe. Befell the majesty of the Human Extravaganza. The godly vessel of Krikos. The primary thrust locks had been freed. The massive shrill of freeing of an entity. Not good nor evil. But the forbearer of the inner doom of eternal manoeuvrability. It was the sound of the Krikos getting ready for its seemingly satanic journey to Annaeax.

  “In a queue lad,” Shouted Kridious as he directed the locals to a Rimor transport.

  How ironic! Fighting all day never tired him, whilst a moment of a human job drained him to smithereens. Tired of all the stress of loss of action, Kridious ordered one of the Hexagon guards to take his place temporarily. His job mentioned that he was to stop any undesirous activity in the immigration. But it seemed like people had learned to ignore. He went close to one of the decoration pillars and took a Visi dial out of his pocket. He pressed a few interface buttons and started speaking- “Rambler… you there? Any news on Hoko?”

  An image appeared on the interface showing an officer in Hexagon Uniform – “NO Sir. I have been through five deep freeze facilities as well as doom prisons but I couldn’t locate him.”

  “What about Mrew? Has he been shifted to a safe house?”

  “Sir… Mrew... ammmm… is currently with me.”

  “WHAT!!! He is a level 3 robot. He is not programmed for undercover. I want you to leave him off now.”

  “Sir. He doesn’t let go. Follows me everywhere. Not programmed for undercover but very well programmed for opening doors.”

  Mrew jumped in the frame. “Ho HOOO… Is it Master VIN? I found it, sir. He doesn’t let me tell you.”

  “Shut up you haggard robot.”

  “What did he find? Hey! What did you find?”

  “He thinks it irrelevant this Hexagon scum. I found Master’s logbook. But it was full of idiosyncratic cyphers. I thought you might be interested.”

  “Old man’s book. What… were you able to decipher anything? And rambler… why was this info hidden from me?”

  “Sir… with all due respect… it is just an old man creating Sudoku puzzles.”

  “Oh! You don’t know Hoko, do you? Tell ya one thing. You were a hacker, right?”

  “It is one of my obligations to the Hexagon to be a good one.”

  “You can hack the Grid Interface?”

  “WHAT… no one … huh… no one can do that. It is controlled by the Genetrix…” Rambler replied.

  “Hoko did…. And earlier I thought that it is just the Flex Grid… but now I think otherwise.”

  “Wh… What do you mean by that sir?”

  “You were absolutely thinking it right. Hoko hacked the ENTIRE grid.”

  “The entire... Wait a minute… no way. Even Co…”

  “Even Code Lattice,” Kridious said.

  “So, is that why he disappeared? Sir… he has ACCESS to EVERYTHING. WE MUST FIND HIM.”

  “I have been trying to say that only.”

  “But Sir, if he has access to all of that, he needs an extraction point. There are 18 central Genetrix extraction points. We got to move fast,” Rambler said.

  “Extraction points. Oh, Galacta! Why didn’t I think of it before? Rambler… you need to move to Sayofringium. NOW… NO QUESTIONS… Move to the district Genetrix Flux.”

  “That is the north core extraction point. It is the closest one sir. Even I’d have moved there first.”

  “No… it is not that… it is something else I recall… Now move. And take Mrew along.”

  “Yes sir”

  The Visi screen shut but Kridious redialled some digits.

  “You there?”

  “Yes. Kridious … speak up. Any news?” Krawn’s voice was heard.

  “We found Hoko. And…. He got Lattice.”

  “What? Should I call in back on them?” Krawn questioned.

  “No, not now... We need to extract Hoko discreetly first. As such it is almost time for departure and things here have almost been settled. I am sure they won’t have us at the bridge during departure or the rest of the journey. And what about you? You found Witty?”

  “Rush is on to it. He believes him to be in Attolit. While Nahcas here is digesting archives about the first Hexagon mission,” Krawn spoke in his usual formal and elegant dialect.

  “When and where is the rendezvous?”, Kridious followed in his usual runny and rugged tone.

  “You’d be getting the green signal soon. Now disperse before the Genetrix starts tracking.”, Krawn said.

  “Ok then. Later.”

  ♦♦♦

  The time for the departure of the heavenly mass neared. Kridious scouted and scanned every district, through his various informants, to locate his old friend Verdo Hoko, or in clearer words… The man with the answer. Even the desirous scrutiny of the Hypothetical Pragmatic Observer couldn’t find the answer to the current ‘what’ and the everlasting ‘why’ as usual. It was rather more than probable that even more traitors resided the Krikos and that too at high-levels in the operative food-chain. But Krawn couldn’t bear wasted suspicion, for he had a little time before (according to him) the Krikos would have been completely decimated by the unknown technology of the Stillites, who had seemingly reached where the Krikos citizens couldn’t even hope to after the incidents of the previous centuries. Even the word Stillites was thought to have been erased from every mind as well as history books. The only thing enclosing the cryptic data was the Flex Data grid, having certain infamous mentions … and not to forget the Grid within the code Lattice. Kridious seemed very confident that Hoko just might have hacked into the crack-proof lattice. The combat elites were encircled in the mashed-up mess of the classical war phrase – “Know your enemy before you know yourself.” Stuck in the dilemma of ‘where to start?’ … they were compelled to take instantaneous action pertaining to war to defend not only their active conscious but also the curiosity within them.

  ♦♦♦

  The Eutopium council quietly sat in its respective chair while the final preparations were being made for the launch. The whole Krikos watched as the Genetrix counted down the departure of the huge mass. Celebrations all along. Perhaps a Universe covered in Brightness. A Universe covered in blinding light. The Universe of Humans that is. Even the Sentinels hopelessly watch from their different Positions in the 13 districts, waiting for a command. Even a small signal from their Captain would have worked; but the Xanethius stood even more aimlessly, waiting for a signal from fate itself.

  The massive sound of the starting of the Krikos Thrust was heard. People waited and waited but sheer silence followed it. Nothing more than the silence of emptiness. The common Visi Screens of the Krikos shattered the expressions of every inhabitant, and more importantly the Eutopium, by displaying in clear big font “Server Access Denied. Launch Failure.”

  “What the hell!!!” The phrase common to every bored lip and tongue on the Krikos. Perhaps too much of peace and lack of struggle had channelled the sadism amidst the beings aboard the Krikos.

  The Flex scientists got to meticulous work and found that the server number four, located in the Holy District of Sayofringium, had been reprogrammed at scattered frequencies. The Eutopium immediately ordered a complete ground analysis of the situation. Kridious, after knowing about the server failure, somewhat put up his conscious guard.

  “Can it be?” he said to himself.

  The surveillance security at the Sayofringium, though not as advanced as the Visi tech, was good enough to display the ground scenario in unparalleled clarity. There it was, the Genetrix Server which had been seemingly reprogrammed, a thing infamously called as “Freakishly Impossible” by even the scariest of private programmers. One of the Cameras caught some old man running through the levels of the Sayofringium district Central Tower. On close observation, Kridious found that it was none other than his old chap Hoko.

  “I knew it is him… I knew it... But I still don’t know why now? What did he find?” he spoke in his Sentinel mini-
Holocron Beacon.

  “All of you… stand guard. All we can do now is trust Kridious’ assessment of the situation. No direct action,” Krawn commanded his fellows.

  “Pursue him… Hexagon Royal staff. He is a traitor. He must not escape,” Dragomir Lunarte said.

  The Hexagon Intelligence office started to ID his hair to find his name and address. They immediately dispatched Military forces to arrest him.

  A few minutes later, Krawn got a beacon call from Mira – “I found him. He is injured. I have hidden him here behind the tower near the Radiator.”

  “What? HOKO…. Mira… you shouldn’t be there… get him out of there… wait… NO… There is no other Officer in your District. You stay there. I am calling up”, Krawn uttered in his not so frequent panicky tone, something which only one person in the entire Universe could extract from him. He switched channels to speak up to the other members “Mira... she found him and needs our help….”

  “He has been found… there is a woman there too.” The Visi screen narrated out in a custom Hexagon tone.

  “They have been captured, Your Majesty. We are bringing them.”

  “No. They have mocked us with the filthiest treason” shouted the Speaker… “Kill them…”

  “What sir? That is not under our jurisdiction.”, replied the Royal Army Senior Detective in-charge of the pursuit team in Sayofringium.

  “No… Kill them. They are traitors. This is a big treachery. I don’t want to know why but just want to set examples for anyone else.”

  The puppet-like Hexagon Officers drew out their Custom Gladiuses. The Visi-screen marked the horror of both Krawn and Kridious. They clutched their fists and teeth and hopelessly ran in the direction of the respective screens closest to them. What could have either of them done? Pushing people away, clearing the way in front of them so that some sort of begging or pleading could save their families. The screens suddenly shut down again, midway the hurling of the Hexagon-Gladiuses. The two Elite Warriors stopped and stood stunned, awaiting the minutest form of hope. About after 30-seconds of holding their tears inside, the Visi-Screen lighted up again. The same officer’s face covered the entire screen. ‘The mutineers have been taken down. Fatality count- two,’ said the officer, moving away from the screen frame to show two bodies wrapped up inside the portable incinerators. Krawn fell down and burst into tears at that sight. He looked up, eyes all rolled up in shock and grabbed his chest. Kridious started walking dizzily and almost fell forward in his half-consciousness. He balanced himself over his right-fist and tried to regain his senses. He didn’t let his tears go through though. ‘The ‘improved’ humans are maybe lesser than what the word ‘human’ represents’, thought the Hypothetical Observer. ‘Or perhaps the improvement enhanced the fears and the emotions rather than curbing them… Perhaps withholding them is less painful than giving in to them’, he continued thinking in his virtual head.