by Mainak Dhar
'What was the second?' Aaditya asked.
'Homo Sapiens. Your species.'
Aaditya stopped, stunned by what he had heard, as Narada continued,
'Aaditya, he just provided the initial spark all those thousands of years ago. How humans have evolved since then has been the result of your own choices and experiences, and our assessment was that the development of intelligent beings like humans was certain. Kalki just seemed to have accelerated that a bit, but that interference itself was against our rules.'
Aaditya digested everything he had heard, realizing just how complex and layered the connections between the Devas and humans was. Narada spoke again,
'He was Brahma's favoured son, and many of us kept warning Brahma that Kalki was fast getting out of control, but perhaps even he is a father first. So when he did finally order Kalki to cease his activities, Kalki claimed that he was being betrayed, that the other Devas were just jealous. Since then, he has fought two battles-one for survival with us, and the second, for control of those he created and claims as his own-your people.'
Aaditya walked back to his room, feeling confused. Whom should he believe? He was about to turn into the corridor that led to his room when Kartik came running.
'Aadi, where have you been? Come on!'
Aaditya hurriedly followed Kartik towards the hangar.
'Two Asura vimanas just attacked targets in Iran. Looks like they're trying to spark a war in the Middle East, and we tracked two more flying towards Israel.'
'So what do we do?'
'Blow them out of the sky!' replied Kartik with a grin.
Aaditya got into his vimana, still a bit confused by the rapid turn of events. He followed Kartik out of the hangar on the way to his first real-life dogfight.
***
They were five hundred kilometres away when the Asuras showed up on Aaditya's display.
'Hey Kartik, should we fire?'
'No, at this range they'll detect our astras coming and have a pretty good chance of evading them. Plus I like to get up close.'
With that Kartik took his vimana in a steep climb, accelerating to more than Mach 6 and Aaditya followed, knowing what was on the Deva's mind. They would swoop down from above at the Asuras. Given how superior their vimanas were, it struck Aaditya as a bit of overkill that the Devas had sent two of them against two Asuras. He saw the clouds zip by him as he climbed to over 75,000 feet, and then leveled off.
The Asuras were now within Israeli airspace. On the way, he had learnt that an Asura strike had destroyed an Iranian air defence site and this attack was headed straight for the Israeli nuclear facilities near Dimona. Both Israel and Iran would deny the attacks, but the chances of the attacks triggering an all-out war were only too real. As Brahma had told him, part of Kalki's game plan was to bleed and weaken the major human powers, and a conflict like this would no doubt drag the US in.
'Aadi, now's your chance to put all that practice to work. Good hunting.'
Aaditya realized he was being given the first shot, and he closed his eyes for a moment. Could he take another life? Literally, with a thought of his, another being would cease to exist. Could he live with that?
Kartik must have sensed his dilemma.
'Aadi, they're no more than a couple of hundred kilometres from their target. The radioactive fallout of this attack alone may kill thousands, not to mention what may happen if Israel retaliates in kind against Iran. Let me go in if you want.'
Aaditya didn't respond but guided his vimana into a dive aimed at intercepting the Asuras. He was still a hundred kilometres away when a red circle appeared around the dot representing his vimana on his display. The Asuras were tracking him. There was now no backing down.
He picked the lead Asura vimana on his display, and focused his mind on sending two astras to destroy it. No sooner had he thought it, than two balls of blue light emerged from under his vimana and streaked away towards the Asuras. The second Asura pilot, now seeing that they had been ambushed, aborted his attack run and turned towards Aaditya.
The astras, represented by glowing blue dots on his display homed in on their target. The Asura pilot seemed to be maneuvering desperately, but in vain. The blue dots kept closing in towards the red dot on Aaditya's display till they merged, and all three disappeared from the display.
'That's a kill.'
Kartik's voice was exultant. The second Asura was now less than thirty kilometres away and had fired two of his own missiles at Aaditya. He responded without conscious thought, his instincts honed by the hours of flying with Kartik. No sooner had he seen the missiles on his display, than two astras of his own streaked out to intercept them, vaporizing them before they even got close to his vimana. Still clutching on to his lucky charm like an imaginary joystick, Aaditya took his vimana through a tight turn to the left. Now he was heading straight at the Asura, the two vimanas closing in at each other rapidly. The Asura pilot fired one more missile, and Aaditya immediately fired two astras to intercept the missile and also two more at the Asura craft. He watched the four blue bolts streak out into the sky ahead of him, and a fireball glowed briefly before disappearing, signaling the successful interception of the Asura missile. Both remaining astras tracked into the Asura craft. He was so lost in watching the display that Kartik's frantic call jolted him.
'Watch out!! Straight ahead!'
Aaditya looked up to see the Asura vimana was now just a couple of kilometres away, its dark saucer shape plainly visible to the naked eye, and as Aaditya watched, both astras slammed into it. The Asura vimana exploded into countless fragments in a flash of red, and began collapsing upon itself. Aaditya swerved his vimana hard to right, missing the collapsing fragments of the Asura craft by a whisker. When he looked back, there was no trace of the Asura vimana left.
Suddenly, explosions buffeted his vimana on both his left and right.
'What's that?'
'Situational awareness, my friend.'
Kartik had said nothing to the effect, but Aaditya knew how badly he had screwed up. He had been so engrossed in the air battle with the vimanas that he had forgotten all about who else might be watching. His display told him that he was now barely five thousand feet above the ground, and must have been visible to Israeli ground forces, who were peppering him with anti-aircraft fire. His display also showed two green dots closing in on him-Israeli F-15 fighters who, were no doubt being guided by ground forces to intercept a strange aircraft flying overhead.
He looked around and did not see Kartik's vimana, though his display showed that Kartik was just to his right. Lesson learnt, Aaditya willed himself to be invisible. Immediately his display went blank. He watched in fascination as the Israeli fighters passed within a few hundred feet of him, puzzled at the sudden disappearance of the intruding craft. When the fighters had left the area, Aaditya and Kartik charted a course back to base.
When Aaditya got out of his cockpit, he saw a veritable reception committee waiting for him. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Indra were all there, as was Tanya, who ran up to him and hugged him as soon as his feet hit the ground.
The next few minutes passed in a blur of congratulations and smiles, but when Aaditya was back in his room, he finally got time to reflect on what he had done. He had killed two beings-Asuras or not, they were living things whose lives he had snuffed out in an instant. Tanya must have sensed what was on his mind, and she came into the room, sitting down behind Aaditya.
'You know what they say about being careful what you wish for.'
Aaditya turned towards her and held her hands. 'As a kid, I had once asked my dad how he dealt with it, especially after the bombing runs he had done over Kargil during the '99 war with Pakistan. He told me what drove him was not just protecting his country but the men who flew with him and counted on him. He said that he wished nobody ever fought wars, but since men do wage war, he wanted to ensure all his boys made it back home.'
'I thought you wanted to fight to avenge your father.'
That evening a small celebration had been held in Aaditya's honour in the club, and he found himself bombarded with congratulations. He met Durga after some time, and she explained that she had been away on a mission in Africa. Narada slapped him on the back, while a visibly drunk Shiva kept referring to Aaditya as 'my new brave warrior'. Of all the Devas, only Brahma seemed to sense that there was something else on Aaditya's mind. The elder Deva sat down next to him, a glass of Soma in his hand, as Aaditya watched Shiva and Kartik on the dance floor.
'Aadi, this is what you wanted, isn't it?'
Looking into the Deva's eyes, Aaditya realized it would be better to stick as close to the truth as possible.
'Brahma, killing others does bother me, but I've also been reading up on Kalki. Is he really the villain I was told he is?'
Brahma averted his eyes, as if not wanting Aaditya to see his reaction.
'Aadi, to a father a son can never be a villain, but sometimes even the most loving father must realize that his son has gone too far down the path of evil to be redeemed. In a perverse way, he is man's creator, not the benevolent god of your religions, but given human predilection for violence, perhaps that is not entirely surprising, is it?'
Brahma left Aaditya alone. After some time Indra came up and sat wordlessly next to Aaditya. He said to nobody in particular, 'The first one you kill is the toughest. After that, it's much easier.'
Aaditya asked the Deva general the other question that was on his mind.
'Indra, if we know that Kalki keeps creating mischief like this, why don't you just warn human governments and make contact with them? Sure, your technology is far ahead of ours, but if the major powers knew what was going on, and sided with you, Kalki would really have no plan.'
Shiva had come down to join them, and he passed a shot glass to Aaditya.
'Now drink a man's drink before I answer. Here's some Tequila.'
Aaditya usually never had anything stronger than beer, other than the night when he had gone and plastered his bike on the fender of a bus, but he did not want Shiva to stop talking. He felt the tequila burn its way down his throat as Shiva downed a shot himself.
'Aadi, do you think we haven't tried? Your bloody governments are just so greedy and power-hungry, sometimes I wonder if we should just leave them to Kalki's tender mercies.'
Indra raised a restraining hand, but Shiva was either too agitated, or too drunk to notice. 'In 1947, we established contact with the US government and set up a meeting.'
Despite feeling a bit tipsy, Aaditya sat up straight at the startling revelation. 'What happened?'
'The bastards ambushed us, hungry for our technology and weapons. Brahma had wanted for us to go in person. I was more cautious, having seen how humans have been over the ages, and sent a stripped down, captured Asura vimana with a Gana at the controls. The Americans shot it down, and what they got spurred on a lot of their advances since then in the areas of stealth and electronics. That was at a place called Roswell. Since then, we have decided to be more cautious.'
Aaditya digested what he had heard. He had heard and read about the infamous Roswell incident, where an UFO had supposedly crashed in the US, and since then, had been the subject of much conspiracy theories and countless books and TV programmes.
Just then, Ganesha burst into the room.
'Big problem, folks.'
As he motioned with his right hand, a giant holographic display appeared in the middle of the room. Aaditya saw that it was a breaking news telecast on CNN.
'As we have been reporting over the last few minutes, a major earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale has occurred in the oceans off Japan's east coast. A tsunami warning has been issued throughout the coastal area, and we are awaiting more details.'
An earthquake and tsunami had battered Japan just a year ago, and Aaditya wondered what new horrors this one would bring to that nation. He heard Indra mutter to himself, 'Kalki, what the hell are you doing?'
Aaditya asked Indra what a natural disaster had to do with Kalki.
'Perhaps everything,' came the Deva's enigmatic reply.
NINE
The next morning, Aaditya was awakened by a knock on the door. He saw that it was still only five in the morning. When he opened the door, Kartik ran more than walked in.
'Sorry to barge in like this, but come with me.'
Seeing Kartik's expression, Aaditya didn't argue much and followed him to the hangar. When he saw that Kartik was walking towards his vimana, he finally asked him what he was doing.
'I'm flying to Japan, and I thought you'd like to come along. I may need someone to watch my back.'
'Japan?'
'Yup.'
With little more by way of explanation, Kartik climbed into his cockpit.
'Come on, I'll explain on the way there.'
Aaditya got into his vimana and followed Kartik out, both of them climbing to high altitude and then setting a course for Japan.
'Hey Kartik, what are we supposed to be doing there? The tsunamis are still continuing from the last news reports I saw.'
'That's exactly why we are going there. We picked up some Asura vimanas flying near Japan just after the first quake struck, and Brahma wants us to take a closer look.'
Aaditya remembered Indra's words and asked Kartik how exactly the Asuras were involved.
'We are not really sure, but as your people say, once is an accident, twice may be a coincidence, but three times in a row is a premeditated plan.'
Aaditya was not able to ask much more as they soon found themselves over Japanese airspace. Their displays were cluttered with green dots representing relief helicopters and aircraft that were streaming towards the disaster zones. But there were no signs of any Asuras.
'Kartik, should we go lower?'
'There will be dozens of relief choppers around, and I don't want to be seen. Besides, if there are Asuras around, we'll pick them up.'
'Holy shit! Did you see that?'
Kartik had obviously been seeing exactly what had caught Aaditya's attention and the young Deva whistled.
'So our old friends are capable of learning new tricks.'
Aaditya looked again to make sure that he had not imagined it. Two red dots had appeared on his display for a few seconds and then disappeared. Then they did it again. The mystifying bit was that the Asura craft had seemingly come out of the ocean and then again disappeared into it.
'Kartik, can our vimanas go underwater?'
'Not these ones. We do have craft that can operate under the oceans, and so do the Asuras, but it looks like they're launching and recovering their aerial vimanas from an underwater craft.'
'Can we track their submarine or whatever it is on our display?'
'No. I've already asked Ganesha to have one of our satellites take a look, and Vishnu is on the way in one of our own underwater craft, but I imagine by the time he gets here, the Asuras will be long gone.'
'What are they doing here?'
They waited for a few more minutes, circling the area, but got no further sign of the Asuras. Kartik asked Aaditya to follow him and turned west. Aaditya's display indicated that they were headed towards Thailand.
'Aadi, here's a geography quiz. Name a few famous Thai islands.'
Aaditya was puzzled at the question but decided to play along. 'Phuket, Krabi. Let me think, Koh Samui maybe. Can't think of any more. What does that have to do with anything?'
By way of reply, Kartik took his vimana into a dive, and Aaditya followed, breaking through the thick cloud cover. He was soon flying at no more than 10,000 feet altitude and could see the green-blue waters of the ocean below them, along with scattered islands.
'Aadi, ever heard of a place called Hong Island?'
'No, should I have?'
He could hear Kartik chuckle, clearly enjoying the suspense he was building up.
'Slow down next to me, and look d
own.'
Aaditya did as he was told, and looked down to see a small brownish-green island, virtually indistinguishable from the dozens of similar islands scattered around it.
'Kartik, what am I supposed to be looking at?'
'That, my friend, is the island of Hong off the Thai coast. If you want to know more, catch me if you can!'
With that, Kartik suddenly accelerated his vimana and streaked away towards their base. Aaditya had initially thought that these flying antics and games were a ruse to train him. Over the months, he had come to realize that of all the Devas, Kartik was a bit of a prankster and loved to fool around. That suited him just fine. He accelerated and was soon just behind Kartik.
As Kartik's vimana turned sharply to the right and then to the left, Aaditya matched him move for move. Kartik took his vimana into a roll, to try and turn the tables on Aaditya, but he was ready. As soon as Kartik's vimana pitched up, Aaditya slowed down to a near hover and rotated his vimana, and when Kartik had completed his roll, Aaditya was right where he had been-on his tail.
Aaditya could hear Kartik grunt in frustration and the Deva took his vimana into a steep dive. Not willing to give up now, Aaditya followed.
What are you thinking, Kartik?
With Kartik continuing in a straight line, it suddenly came to Aaditya what Kartik's plan may be. Kartik brought his vimana to a sudden halt, the craft pitching up violently as it lost speed. He had hoped that Aaditya would overshoot him. Instead, Aaditya's voice came over his headset, 'Bang, you're dead!'
Guessing what Kartik was planning, Aaditya had slowed his own craft down drastically, so that when Kartik stopped, he easily stayed behind him.
Before they could continue their games, Indra spoke through their headsets. 'I know you must be enjoying yourselves, but I had sent you to do some work. Now please get back if you're done.'
Suitably chastened, Aaditya and Kartik flew straight back to Kongka La.
When they got out of their cockpits, Aaditya saw a new expression on Kartik's face, one he had not seen before. When Kartik asked him a bit stiffly to go and check what Ganesha was up to, he wondered if he had done something wrong. He was on the way when Narada caught up with him.
