Vimana

by Mainak Dhar

  Maya unlocked Aaditya's handcuffs and as he entered the room, lights on the ceiling turned on. He tried opening the door but could see no way of doing it. He was truly a prisoner now. As he turned to look around the room, he saw that it was not too uncomfortable. The room itself was quite large, perhaps almost as large as his apartment back home in Delhi, with a thin wall partitioning the living and sleeping areas. There was a large bed in a corner of the sleeping area, with a comfortable looking mattress and pillows and a sofa set against the wall. There was an attached bathroom and a writing desk in the sleeping area with a lamp. Not having anything else to do, Aaditya sat down on the bed, wondering what he had got himself into. Now there was no going back at all-for all his planning and thinking, he realized that now he was going to be entirely at Kalki's mercy. He only hoped that he could bluff Kalki into thinking that he did indeed have something to bargain with, at least long enough to learn how the Asura base worked. As for getting away, Narada had installed the beacon, but first Aaditya would need to get back to the surface, or at least out of the base. It struck him that being sent on such a mission, which even he could see had gaping holes, told him just how desperate the Devas really were. If he had been asked to volunteer for such a mission in any other circumstances, he doubted he would have had the suicidal courage to go through with it.

  But he was here not only for the Devas or indeed only to help foil Kalki's plans. It was much more personal than that. If only he learnt what had really happened to his father, even this crazy mission would be worth it.

  Aaditya lay down on the bed, and despite all his anxieties, dozed off for a few minutes. He woke up with a start, his throat dry with thirst. There was a jug of water and a glass on the table. He had poured himself a glass when he saw a photograph lying face down on the table. He picked it up, and turned it around to have a look, and dropped his glass in shock.

  The photograph was one of him and his father. He remembered it being taken on one of his birthdays and showed the two of them standing before a MiG-29 fighter. His birthday gift that year had been a new watch, but what he had cherished most was getting an hour-long briefing on how the fighter's weapons worked, from his father and the chief maintenance officer at the base. Those fond memories were now replaced with a knot in his stomach-what was this photo doing here?

  He opened the drawer of the study table and found a thin writing pad. The first page had a doodle of a fighter plane. He did not need anyone to tell him who had drawn it. His father had been a gifted artist, and he had seen numerous such doodles around the house.

  Now Aaditya's mind was in utter turmoil. Was his father still alive? Had he been put in this room to share it with his father? His pulse pounding, he looked around to see what other signs of his father he could find. He rummaged through the bedside table and the living area but could find nothing else that would show that his father still lived in this room. He then saw a sliding panel in the sleeping area. With no visible controls to open it with, he stuck his fingers to push it open, but as he did so, the panel slid aside with a soft hiss.

  It was a wardrobe. On a hanger was his father's old flight suit and helmet. The suit was torn in a couple of places and the helmet looked dented in several places, but it was unmistakably his father's flight suit, with the name 'Ghosh' embroidered on a patch at the chest.

  Aaditya took a couple of steps back, his mind churning out the possibilities. Could it be true that his father had indeed survived the crash, and had worked for Kalki? Was it possible that his father was still alive?

  Just then he heard a voice boom over some unseen speakers in the room. It was Kalki.

  'Welcome to our humble home. I think now it's time I finally met you.'

  ***

  Ten minutes later, Aaditya was standing in some sort of control room. It was full of screens that covered the wall. Some of them showed what appeared to be radar displays while others showed grainy black and white videos that seemed to be real time visuals from drones or vimanas on reconnaissance missions. There was a large padded chair in the middle of the room with its back to Aaditya. He could not see who was sitting in it, though he had a fairly good idea of who it must be.

  Maya, who had accompanied him to the room, seemed to have transformed. Whenever Aaditya has seen him previously, he had been aggressive, even cocky. But now he had his eyes lowered and spoke in a submissive whisper.

  'I have him here, Kalki.'

  'Go now and leave us alone.'

  Kalki voice was deeper and more full throated in real life than he had sounded in his recordings or broadcasts. Maya and the others bowed deep and left the room.

  Now it was just Aaditya and Kalki. 'So, tell me one thing. Why are you with the Devas?'

  'Because you or your people killed my father.'

  Aaditya had answered without thinking, and wondered just how true that was. And if it were true, then were his motives in siding with the Devas so selfish? Kalki chuckled.

  'Honesty. I love that. You are honest and brave, but like so many of your people, you are also gullible.'

  Aaditya realized that he was not really expected to reply, so he waited for Kalki to continue.

  'Actually I don't blame you. You've had the very best deceivers to take you for a ride. Know who I am talking about?'

  Again Aaditya kept quiet.

  'Your Devas, that's who. For all their pretensions of trying to save worlds, they do enjoy the attention. That's why they secretly love being considered gods, and look at the fat lot of good organized religion has brought your world. People tearing themselves apart, in the name of god.'

  As Aaditya listened to Kalki, he had to consciously remind himself that this was someone who had killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and not an innocent victim of the Devas' machinations. But Kalki was such a convincing speaker it was hard to not get carried away by his story.

  'But you know what their ultimate deception is? The one that I find the hardest to fight?'

  Another rhetorical question, another pause before Kalki proceeded. By now it was clear Kalki liked to do all the talking.

  'Their biggest deception is that they have successfully demonized me in the eyes of my own children.'

  The statement was so strange that Aaditya found himself blurting out, 'What do you mean your children? Where do they come into all this?'

  Kalki laughed, a sound like that of an engine idling.

  'My children. You. All of you. All the humans on this planet. I created the first of your ancestors, elevating you to become the dominant species on this planet from being little more than apes. And far from being treated as your creator, the Devas have labeled me as Satan, the Devil, Shaitan, call it what you will, while they enjoy the status of gods.'

  He spat out the last few words.

  'From what I have seen and heard, you've been quite liberal in killing off your so-called children to meet your goals.' Aaditya had found his courage and his voice, both born out of rising anger at Kalki's complaints and platitudes when just over the last few weeks, he had witnessed thousands of people dying due to the tsunamis unleashed by Kalki.

  'When my children stray, I need to keep them in line!'

  Kalki's voice had risen to a near shout, and Aaditya flinched as Kalki continued, 'You demonize me, you worship my sworn enemies, you deny me the world I shaped. And then you accuse me when I try and get you back into my fold! What has your independence given you? Genocide, wars, riots in the name of colour or religion? You humans have killed far more of your own than I can ever claim, and you lecture me about killing people!'

  Kalki's voice was rising with every sentence, and Aaditya was beginning to get afraid that he would explode in rage and have him put away or worse even before he had a chance to put his plan, hare-brained as it was, into effect.

  Kalki now stood up, and Aaditya immediately noticed two things. First, he seemed to be wearing a cloak that covered his head and his body, and second that he was huge. He was at least seven feet
tall, if not more. He still had his back turned to Aaditya, so all Aaditya could see was his hulking size. Suddenly, Kalki's voice softened.

  'You know Aaditya, it takes being a father, being a creator, to realize just how painful it is to be rejected by your own creation. You are yet young, so you may not realize it, but imagine how your father would have felt if you loathed him, if you loathed the very sight of him.'

  At the mention of his father, Aaditya's head snapped up. Before the rational part of him could tell him not to appear weak before Kalki, he said, 'What happened to my father? In the room I was in, I saw his things.'

  Kalki sighed, his breath coming out with a mighty gust.

  'We will come to that. Of course we will. That is why you are here in the first place. I don't think for a minute that you would betray the Devas only for money. But if the truth about your father is what you seek, then you must embrace the full truth about me.'

  Aaditya wondered what Kalki meant.

  'Aaditya, my greatest tragedy and the Devas' greatest triumph is not just that they have demonized me in your legends and religions. It is that my own creation has learnt to hate and fear the very sight of me. How can I stand before humans today and claim them to be my own? How can I convince them that serving me, their creator, is their destiny, when I have been made the object of horror and revulsion through the ages?'

  Now Kalki was facing Aaditya. He was walking slowly towards Aaditya, his face still obscured by the cloak. Aaditya realized that Kalki was even larger than he had first guessed. Aaditya found himself looking up at a creature at least seven and a half feet tall and so broad that Aaditya guessed his shoulders must be at least three times as broad as his own. Involuntarily, Aaditya took a step back, as Kalki chuckled.

  'Aaditya, you have seen nothing yet. My size alone is nothing. Come, judge for yourself. Do I really look so repulsive?'

  With that, Kalki pulled back the hood covering his face.

  Aaditya found himself facing a red-skinned creature, skin scaled like a reptile, and whose red eyes seemed to blaze with a flame. At the top of his head were curved horns, and as he threw off the cloak, Aaditya saw that Kalki's bare body was rippling with muscles and crisscrossed with burn marks and scars. Two giant, leathery wings unfolded from behind his back. Kalki began laughing, as Aaditya shrank back in fear and horror.

  He realized that he had truly come face to face with the devil.

  ***

  Some hours later, Aaditya was back in his room, his mind in utter turmoil. It was one thing to show bravado when inside the cockpit of a vimana, quite another to come face to face with a monster like Kalki. Knowing that he was now totally at Kalki's mercy made things only worse. What kept him going was the hope that he could yet learn what had happened to his father, though it was hardly much comfort to contemplate the possibility that his father had served someone like Kalki. For his part, Kalki had refused to say much, saying that he would talk later at night, as he had urgent matters to attend to. However, he did say that Aaditya would find it well worth his time to go through his father's things and learn just how much his father had believed in Kalki's cause.

  Aaditya rifled through the writing pad on the desk, but other than the doodles on the cover page, there seemed to be nothing else. He then took out his father's flight suit and began to go through the pockets. In one of the hip pockets, Aaditya found a sheet of paper. He unfolded it and spread it out on the desk. It showed many hand drawn diagrams with several equations and numbers in the margins. Aaditya had been an aviation buff, but this was too technical even for him. However as he studied the diagrams, he began to get the gist of what they showed. The top diagram showed the missile engagement envelopes of the weapons the Su-30 carried. The bottom diagrams were what appeared to be maneuvers that could defeat a Sukhoi in air combat. At least that was what he guessed from the diagrams of saucer shaped vimanas attacking Sukhois at their blind spots.

  His mind began racing at the implications. There was no way his father would have carried such a paper on him before his take off, especially since they seemed to depict vimanas. His mind refused to admit the possibility, but if the paper did show what he thought it did, the implication was as clear as it was frightening.

  His father had been collaborating with Kalki in teaching him how to defeat human fighter aircraft.

  Aaditya folded the paper and put it in his pocket. If his father had not been able to resist Kalki, what chance did he have?

  As the lights in his room began to dim automatically, apparently signifying night, the door slid open. It was Maya.

  'Kalki wishes to have dinner with you.'

  Kalki was seated at the head of a huge oak table, which seemed to be laden with platters heaped with fresh fruit and hot breads. He motioned for Aaditya to sit down on the chair to his right. Aaditya found his stomach grumbling at the sight and smell of the food, not having eaten anything all day.

  'We grow our own bread and fruits, so these are as fresh as it gets. But the best is yet to come.'

  He snapped one of his giant fingers and two daityas came in, holding aloft platters of grilled prawns that were bigger than any Aaditya had ever seen. Kalki smiled, his scaly skin stretching back as he did so, making him appear even more hideous.

  'There are some advantages to being at the bottom of the sea.'

  For a few minutes, they ate in silence, but as delicious as the food was, Aaditya's mind was full of questions. Finally Kalki wiped his fingers and looked at Aaditya.

  'So, tell me, having spent so much time with the Devas you must have lots to share that I don't know. Where shall we begin?'

  'How about my father?'

  Kalki chuckled.

  'You, my friend, have very little bargaining power, but let me respect what your father did for me. When we first heard that a human had suddenly become so involved, I was intrigued, but look at how fate works-when we ran your name, turns out you were none other than Ghosh's son.'

  Aaditya put the bread down on his plate and looked straight at Kalki. 'What really happened to my father? Is he still alive?'

  Kalki met his gaze.

  'We picked him up to learn more about the aircraft and its capabilities, to aid us in our plans. You see, after I was cast away by the Devas and spent years in exile, I did not have access to all the developments the Devas brought in their technology and also I was surprised to see how fast humans developed their own technologies after they recovered that Deva drone at Roswell. As you've seen for yourself, our vimanas are not really a match for the Devas and barely ahead of the best human fighters. That was why I was trying so hard to learn more about their technologies and tactics to create a fleet of unmanned drones modeled on human fighters to combat the Devas. But when he began to learn more about who we were and the nature of the struggle we waged, he chose to side with us.'

  Aaditya's skepticism must have shown on his face, so Kalki stopped.

  'You don't believe me.'

  'Look, I know my father better than you and I can't understand why he would ever choose to side with you.'

  'Tsk, tsk, the Devas have indeed brainwashed you well. Good and evil are so easy to understand when you think of them as black and white concepts, but reality consists of so many shades of grey. The Devas want to rule over you as gods. All I wanted was to give humans the freedom to choose. Call me a capitalist and them benevolent socialists. That's all the difference there is between us.'

  Seeing that Aaditya was still not convinced, Kalki continued with his account.

  'So he acted as my adviser on how best to both reach out to humans and how to defeat my adversaries in the air.'

  'What happened to him? If he served you so well, why is he not around?'

  Kalki looked at Aaditya, surprise in his eyes.

  'You mean you really think I killed him? The ones who killed him are your beloved Devas.'

  Aaditya's mind refused to believe that. He began to get up, but Kalki held his wrist with a vice-like grip.

/>   'That's why I wanted to meet you. If nothing else, I hoped that you would want to avenge your father and help me against the Devas.'

  As suddenly as he had gripped Aaditya's wrist, he let it go.

  'The choice is yours. Now, sleep over it and let me know what you choose tomorrow morning. I do hope you choose to cooperate.'

  There was no menace in Kalki's tone of voice, but the burning embers in eyes made Aaditya shudder. He was walking back to his room, escorted by Maya, when suddenly a loud siren rang out. Maya grabbed his hand.

  'Run, come on!'

  Maya dragged him along the corridor till they reached his room, and then faced him as the door slid open.

  'Something's going on. You get inside your room and wait till I come for you again or Kalki sends for you.'

  With that, Maya was gone, sprinting down the corridor. Aaditya was about to enter his room when it struck him. In his hurry to get away to deal with whatever had happened, Maya had forgotten to put Aaditya inside the room and lock the door. Aaditya was now standing at the threshold. If he walked inside, the door would close behind him. He thought about it for a second and then stepped back out into the corridor. Aaditya would explore for himself what exactly went on in this underwater world that Kalki had created for himself.

  THIRTEEN

  'Help me! For God's sake, please help me!'

  Aaditya had been nearly knocked off his feet by the man who had run into him and before he could recover, the man was holding on to his hand, pleading with him.

  Aaditya had been exploring the corridors of Kalki's fortress when he had stumbled upon a steep spiral staircase that seemed to lead deep underground. A good thirty minutes of climbing down the stairs led him to a narrow corridor then to a brightly lit area. He was about to return to his room when the man had stumbled into him.

  Aaditya pulled the man into the shadows and in the dim reflected light of the, he got his first good look. The man was emaciated, as if he had not eaten well for days, his ribs sticking out prominently through the thin white vest he wore. His eyes looked desperate, even crazed. His white hair was matted with sweat and clung to his scalp.