by Mainak Dhar
'Sit please.'
Aaditya sat down as Kartik ordered two Somas and downed them in quick succession.
'When we first came here and men started thinking of us as gods, we were surprised and a bit embarrassed, and we tried telling them we were not gods. But it was of no use so we went about our work.'
'Do you believe in God?'
Kartik smiled at the question.
'We may have seemed godlike to them, but we certainly are not all powerful or all knowing. There is a power out there beyond all of us, and it's best that we respect it, even if we cannot always understand it. As you may have gathered, though we are from another world, our egos, our politics are not that different from yours.'
Aaditya thought back to what Kartik had recently done and snorted, 'You could have fooled me.'
Kartik continued without responding, as if he was keen to get something off his chest.
'While early man may not have been as technologically sophisticated as us, he certainly was an astute observer, and our squabbles, politics and internal struggles were recorded down in many of your texts through snippets of gossip and information leaked by humans we had kept as helpers or students to nudge them along on the path to progress. I can still remember some of the early scribes exclaiming in glee when they recorded just how screwed up the so-called gods were.'
Aaditya had no idea where this was leading or what it had to do with him, so he began to fidget. Kartik continued, as if not noticing Aaditya's lack of interest.
'In the Hindu Puranas, there's a fascinating story. My younger brother Ganesha and I are competing for the mango of wisdom that Narada has on offer, and we are supposed to race around the world. I do just that, but Ganesha just circles our parents, saying they are his world, and he wins. Do you know what that means?'
Aaditya had no idea, and just wished Kartik would get to the point.
'It means that despite me being the elder brother, he was always the favoured one, the smart one, the beloved of our parents. I was a grunt who had a talent for killing Asuras, nothing more. You see it in how humans remember us-Ganesha's statues are in hundreds of millions of homes in Asia, regarded as a source of luck and fortune; I am remembered as a god of war.'
Aaditya began to see what was troubling Kartik.
'All my life, I have lived in his shadow, but at least had the consolation of being seen as the best pilot, of being the one my father would count on to march next to him in war. When you beat me with everyone watching on their displays, I just took all that rage out on you. I am sorry. I've already confessed to Brahma and you can fly now. As for me, I got an earful and am now grounded for a month.'
Aaditya didn't know what to say. As he looked at Kartik's face, he realized immortal demi-god or not, Kartik was also in many ways a young man with issues that he could understand and empathize with. He had no fancy words to offer, but thought back to how he would have handled the situation with any of his friends.
'Look, we all screw up some time or the other. You are the closest thing to a friend I have here, and I don't want to lose that. I can't help you with all your issues, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I'll be your wingman.'
That broke the ice. Kartik smiled and then roared in laughter. 'Four more Somas for us.'
They would have kept drinking more had Tanya not rushed into the club. She was surprised to see Aaditya and Kartik drinking together after all that had happened, but something else was on her mind.
'Tanya, what's wrong?'
'Another huge quake has struck. This time just off Hawaii.'
TEN
Aaditya, Tanya and the Devas sat huddled before a giant screen in the conference room. The screen was broken up into several portions, all but three of them showing news feeds from major TV stations. The remaining sections, arranged vertically along the right hand edge of the holographic display, showed real-time satellite imagery of various areas of the Earth, overlayed with coloured dots representing air traffic. There was a frenzy of green dots near the United States' west coast as rescue and evacuation efforts went into full swing.
The earthquake had struck just a hundred kilometres to the west of the island of Oahu, and while all the news reports said that rescue efforts had been launched, everyone knew that they would not reach before the tsunamis did. Aaditya heard Brahma mutter to himself.
'Nearly 900,000 souls live on Oahu.'
Reports were now coming in that the first tsunami waves would hit the coast in less than fifteen minutes. Residents all along the coast were said to be in a state of absolute panic, and roads were jammed with cars and people trying to get away. News helicopters were covering the disaster and Aaditya felt sick seeing the helpless people on the screens before him. Tanya had been busy looking at something on a handheld screen and suddenly she exclaimed, 'Ganesha, what time did the earthquake strike?'
Startled, Ganesha pulled up a screen. He quickly went through a series of news reports and the websites of various government agencies. 'The general consensus seems to be 8:03 a.m. local time. That's when the first seismic monitors picked up the tremors.'
Tanya sat back, a slightly shocked look on her face.
'Then why did the first email to news channels reporting the quake go out at 8 a.m.?'
Everyone in the room was staring at her.
'Are you sure?'
'I've hacked into the email servers of ABC, Fox and CNN. All of them received the same email, supposedly from the US Government. The point is the government's own sites don't report the quake as having started till three minutes later.'
'Maybe it's just an anomaly on the sites,' offered Indra.
'Or maybe someone wanted the news channels to cover the chaos,' said Tanya.
'Who?'
That question was soon answered when the satellite displays suddenly filled with red dots off the Hawaii coast. Aaditya counted at least two dozen.
'Does Kalki even have so many vimanas?'
Brahma answered, his face grim with determination, 'He has hundreds. Only a few are piloted by Asuras.'
Kartik volunteered the rest of the information. 'The others are remotely controlled drones, or to use your terms, Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles. In terms of technology, they may be no more than ten years ahead of the UCAVs the US has under development, but he has a lot of them.'
'So what do we do?'
In response to Aaditya's question, Brahma stood up. 'This is a direct challenge. Whatever his plan is, it is clear that Kalki is behind these quakes. And by parading his vimanas like this, he is mocking us.'
Kartik was now standing up, his voice choked with anger. 'Send me and a dozen drones. I'll teach him a lesson.'
Aaditya could feel the rising tempers in the room, and wondered if the Devas were letting their emotions get the better of them. He looked towards Brahma, hoping the elder Deva would offer a voice of moderation. He was disappointed when Brahma thundered, 'We are not of this world, but our mission was to shepherd this world into development. I cannot sit by and watch any longer as Kalki slaughters thousands of humans in his quest for power. Kartik, I think it's time we showed them what we can do.'
Kartik raced out of the room to ready himself for the upcoming mission. Aaditya followed him to the hangar. There were at least a dozen new craft he had not seen previously. Each seemed to be shaped like a Deva vimana, but was less than half the size. He guessed these where the remotely controlled craft.
'Kartik, I'll come with you.' Kartik was already halfway into his cockpit when Aaditya called out to him.
'My friend, this is what our wars of yore looked like. Dozens of us against them. No prisoners, no mercy. You are a good pilot, perhaps even a great one, but I don't want to risk you in this mission.'
Aaditya rushed towards Kartik. 'We are a team. I'll come with you.'
Kartik looked down at him with eyes whose wisdom seemed to be belying his reputation as a mere jock. 'Aadi, Kalki is not new at this. He will have cards up his sleeve that we cannot see
yet. You don't need to sacrifice yourself.'
'And you do?'
Kartik's expression turned to one of sadness and he entered his cockpit. 'I have already disgraced myself by betraying you. The least I can do is redeem myself in this mission.'
Aaditya watched as Kartik's vimana slid out of the hangar, followed closely by the drones. He rushed back to the conference room to see what was happening. Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu were each sitting in front of the large display, their faces frozen in masks of concentration. Narada whispered to Aaditya as he sat down next to him. 'Each of them is controlling six drones with their thoughts.'
Aaditya felt a hand slide into his and looked to his right to see Tanya there. He watched the display as the nineteen dots representing the Deva vimanas appeared and then moved at high speed towards the US coastline. By now the first tsunami waves had struck and the death and devastation was being carried live into billions of homes by the news helicopters. There were still several red dots circling the disaster zone, as Kartik and the drones closed in.
Aaditya exulted as Kartik launched his first volley of astras from more than three hundred kilometres out, and his accompanying drones followed suit a second later. More than forty astras homed in on the Asuras at hypersonic speed. At such extreme range, the Asuras had time to react and no more than a dozen were lost to the first volley as the remaining Asura craft engaged in evasive maneuvers.
Within seconds, the blue and red dots were within touching distance, and the vimanas engaged in a swirling, furious dogfight. Aaditya turned to see the three senior Devas staring at the display in utter concentration. As one of the blue dots disappeared on the display, he saw Vishnu flinch, but then again focus on the unfolding battle.
Aaditya remembered something, and took out his flight ear plug from his pocket and inserted it into his ear. He could now hear Kartik. The young Deva's voice was methodical, almost calm, as he described the battle.
'Got one more Asura drone. They're sending the drones first, and we're swatting them like flies.'
Aaditya watched on the display as a couple of more red dots disappeared. This was indeed turning out to be a bit of a turkey shoot. Everything was going perfectly, but something was bothering Aaditya. He turned to whisper to Narada.
'If Kalki is indeed so smart, why has he sent his forces to be massacred like this?'
He was answered a split second later as Indra exclaimed.
'It's an ambush! Kartik, watch your back!'
Aaditya watched as the screen filled with dozens of red dots that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He now heard Kartik's voice again, seemingly calm, but now more on edge.
'Ok, there are at least fifty of them behind us. I'll hold them, but I need help.'
A second later, he spoke again.
'Brahma, get your drones to cover me. There's no point in destroying their drones, I'm going for the Asuras who are hovering at their rear.'
Aaditya watched as Kartik's vimana sliced through the others. It was flanked by four more blue dots that destroyed a red dot each. Kartik was headed for the six large vimanas at the rear. Vimanas piloted by Asuras.
'Maya, there you are.'
Several red dots were now trying to encircle Kartik, and Aaditya looked at Indra, who just nodded. Tanya sensed what was about to happen and squeezed his hand. He gave her a kiss and then he was gone, following Indra out towards the hangar.
Within minutes, he and Indra were in their vimanas. There was no time to be wasted. Indra accelerated to more than ten thousand kilometres per hour and raced towards the scene of the battle. Aaditya was not far behind, rapidly climbing and then following Indra at the maximum speed he could extract out of his vimana. Yet, even as he sped to help Kartik at speeds human aircraft could not yet dream of achieving, he wondered if their help would be too little, too late.
***
More than half of the Deva drones had now disappeared from the display, while the number of red dots increased as fresh reinforcements arrived from their underwater base or carrier to more than make up for their losses.
Indra had to shout to get Aaditya's attention.
'Aadi, slow down a bit when we're four hundred kilometres away. Brahma is sending drones to help us, and they're not as fast as we are.'
'Kartik may not last that long!'
Indra's voice was now more even, as if trying to calm Aaditya down.
'I know how you feel, but the two of us will get overwhelmed. There must be more than thirty Asura drones there.'
'Indra, how do I know which are the drones and which the Asuras are piloting?'
He had barely said the words when his display changed slightly to show eight of the red dots glowing.
'Aadi, those are the Asuras.'
The closest red dot was now less than five hundred kilometres away. Indra had slowed down. A dozen blue dots were following them. Aaditya's display told him that they were still ten minutes away. As he saw three more of the Deva drones fall to the Asuras, he decided that those were ten minutes that Kartik did not have the luxury of waiting for.
He saw four drones close in on Kartik from behind even as the young Deva downed one more drone. Aaditya's vimana screamed in towards the melee, firing a volley of four astras at extreme range at the four drones. Three hit while the fourth drone aborted its attack to evade the astra.
'Kartik, don't think you could grab all the kills yourself.'
'Join the party. Hold the drones while I get to the bloody Asuras. As usual, the cowards are holding back.'
Aaditya was now close enough to see the nearest Asura drone. To his surprise, the drone looked just like an F-22 fighter, painted entirely in black. Another drone to his left looked just like a Su-30, again painted in black.
'So that's why they were chasing all those high-performance fighters. They've engineered their drones based on our designs.' Aaditya said to himself.
He moved his vimana right behind the F-22, still using his clenched good luck charm like a joystick. He could see the drone just a kilometre ahead, and as he focused, a red circle appeared on his cockpit screen. He had been trained in using the optically guided aiming system for the vajra by Kartik countless times and now he was putting all those lessons to use.
He moved his head slightly to target the drone, and the red circle followed his gaze. When it was on the drone, Aaditya fired two bursts from his vajra. Blue streaks reached out towards the drone. While the F-22 rolled away from the first streak, the second caught it on the right wing, causing it to explode in a bright fireball and then disappear in a mist of flame and sparks. The Su-30 was trying to get on Aaditya's tail, but he took his vimana into a tight roll that brought the drone right in front of him for a fleeting instant. Another burst from his vajra and the drone exploded. He finally took a look at his display and saw a dozen red dots disappear.
Indra and the reinforcements had arrived.
As Indra and the drones accompanying him cut a swath through the Asura drones, Aaditya saw that Kartik was now headed straight for the Asura vimanas, which had not yet joined the fray. The Asuras fired several missiles at Kartik, but he destroyed a couple with his vajra and evaded the rest. His first volley of astras brought down two Asuras. Aaditya now raced to help him. Kartik had come off on top in the first volley but it was still just him against six Asuras.
One of the Asuras was trying to maneuver behind Kartik when Aaditya caught him with a burst from his vajra, slicing the Asura vimana into two before it exploded. Now with five versus two, and given the huge superiority the Deva vimanas had, the odds were more than evened. Aaditya loosed two astras to destroy another Asura before he saw the red-tipped vimana scream towards Kartik.
'Maya.'
Kartik had just destroyed another Asura and not noticed Maya coming in behind him. Aaditya fired an astra but Maya rolled out of its way, continuing his relentless approach towards Kartik. At less than a thousand yards range, Maya fired two missiles.
'No!'
Aaditya wat
ched in horror as both of them hit Kartik's vimana and the craft briefly glowed bright red before exploding in a huge fireball. Then, as Aaditya had by now seen several times already, the explosion seemed to collapse upon itself till a single, incandescent spark remained. The spark glowed as bright as the morning sun for a moment and then there was nothing.
His mind a red mist of rage, Aaditya closed in on Maya. One of the Asuras was trying to cut him off, but in his anger, Aaditya smothered him with no less than six astras. Maya had seen him, and began a rapid dive towards the ocean. Aaditya was now no more than five hundred feet behind him. He fired two astras, but to his frustration, Maya swerved and evaded both of them. Aaditya realized that in his rage, he was not focusing and was shooting wildly. He stilled his mind and brought up the optical sight for the vajra.
One burst just missed Maya, who by now was moving his vimana in a series of tight turns as he descended towards the ocean in a spiraling dive. The other seemed to have clipped an edge of the saucer shaped vimana, but Maya kept continuing his descent, though he was now wobbling a bit from the near miss.
Aaditya glanced at his display to see that he was no more than three hundred feet above sea level. He slowed down, otherwise he would have slammed into the ocean, and then watched open-mouthed as Maya continued his dive.
What the hell was Maya doing?
Then, in an instant, Maya's escape plan became clear. The water churned as through the blue-white foam a dark shape emerged. Aaditya watched as a giant sphere of some sort emerged and a gap opened in its side where Maya's vimana entered. Aaditya fired several bursts from his astra, watching the blue streaks track in on the giant black submarine. To his chagrin, gun ports on the sub's side spat out streams of red light that intercepted his weapons. Then, as he watched in frustration, the sub slid under the water and disappeared from sight.
Aaditya pulled up from his dive to take stock of the situation. There were no more red dots on his display, but there were also only a handful of blue dots left. Indra pulled up alongside him and he soon heard the Deva over his earpiece.
