by Mainak Dhar
'We made it!'
Aaditya took a deep breath. He accelerated his vimana and shot into the depths of Kalki's base.
***
Aaditya flew into the open fields he had seen before with the gleaming giant pyramid looming in the distance. The only difference was that this time the landscape was not filled with workers tending to the crops, but an army preparing for invasion. As far as the eye could see, dark shapes of daityas massed around large landing craft. There must have been thousands of them-all awaiting Kalki's order to spearhead his invasion once the tsunamis had hit. Some of them looked up at the three strange vimanas that had suddenly appeared overhead. Aaditya was tempted to fire into their massed ranks or to destroy their hulking landing craft, but this battle depended on their ability to stop Kalki before he detonated his underwater charges. One or two of the daityas took potshots as they passed, but when Shiva fired two astras right into the middle of a large group, incinerating more than twenty of them, the others scattered for cover.
'Follow me!' Aaditya screamed into his headset as his vimana roared towards the hangar opening on the side of the pyramid. There were a few daityas there, but they scrambled away out of sight. It seemed that they had no idea that some attacking vimanas had made it all the way into the innermost recesses of Kalki's base. Aaditya brought his vimana down in a corner of the hangar. Shiva and Durga's vimanas landed close by. As he stepped out, he realized that Kalki had indeed sent out all his drones for the battle that was now raging overhead. There were no drones or vimanas in sight, and any daityas who had been standing guard were nowhere to be seen.
'Now, that wasn't so difficult.'
Shiva had barely spoken when a beam of red light slammed into his vimana, missing his head by inches. The three ran for cover behind Shiva's vimana, their handheld vajras at the ready. Aaditya leaned forward and saw a group of four daityas at the far end of the hangar. Each of them held a long rifle-like weapon and they were firing pretty indiscriminately at the intruders. Aaditya turned to Shiva to see what he was thinking.
'They can't shoot to save their lives, but they don't even need to touch us. If they keep us bottled up here long enough, we've already lost.'
In the chaos and adrenaline rush of the dogfight, Aaditya had almost forgotten just how much of a knife's edge their mission rested on. Each of them had a holographic display over their wrists that showed a timer counting down till the moment when they anticipated Kalki would trigger his explosions.
There were only twenty minutes left.
Aaditya felt Durga come closer to him.
'Which way is Kalki's command centre?'
Two doors lead out of the hangar. One, to the right, almost directly behind the daityas attacking them led to the quarters, where his room had been. The other, to the left, led to a short staircase that ended at the elevator that would take them straight to Kalki's command centre. Aaditya nodded towards the left.
Before Aaditya could say or do anything to stop her, Durga sprinted out from behind the vimana and ran straight towards the daityas who had been shooting at them. She weaved left and right as beams bounced off the floor and walls all around her and cartwheeled across the floor, landing in a crouch behind a drone engine. The daityas realized too late that she had neatly flanked them, and one of them disappeared in a puff of dust as she fired her first shot. The others took cover and fired back at her.
'Durga, wait!'
He felt Shiva tugging at his arm. 'Come on. She is buying us time. Let's get to Kalki.'
The two of them ran towards the stairs and then into the open elevator. From memory, Aaditya pressed the buttons he had seen Maya pressing. As the elevator climbed up, Aaditya clenched the vajra tightly in his hand, wondering what would greet them once the doors opened.
The doors slid opened and he sensed more than saw two figures outside. He was about to open fire when he saw who stood before him. Bloodied, bruised, and holding the long weapons the daityas brandished, were Leslie and Jim. They seemed just as surprised as he was at seeing them.
'Jesus, Aadi, it is you!'
'Jim, what's going on?'
Jim was about to answer when he suddenly brought his weapon up and took a step back. Shiva had just walked out of the elevator. Aaditya held the barrel of Jim's weapon and pressed it down.
'Relax, he's on our side.'
'Is he one of the Devas you talked about?'
Aaditya just nodded. Leslie quickly told him, 'About an hour ago, all hell broke loose. The daityas were really on edge, and we heard there was an attack of some sort. We had no way of knowing what time it was, but we put two and two together and figured out that today was D-Day. So we thought we'd help out.'
Jim tensed as he heard some movement around the corner and then continued, 'We had spread the word, and everyone knew what was going down. So we fought back. While you were flying around up there, we were taking down their pilots and destroying their planes down here. Some of us were trained to fight, but everyone joined in. Lots of them didn't make it.'
Aaditya saw a look of admiration on Shiva's face.
'That explains why more of their vimanas did not join the fight.'
Aaditya wondered what it must have taken for unarmed civilians to take on daityas. At that moment, he realized what Kalki had never really understood. As messed up as our world was, and as messed up as humans sometimes seemed to be, there still were a lot of good people out there. People who would sacrifice themselves to help others; people who would give of themselves without asking anything in return; people for whom love and loyalty meant more than power or money. They were people whom Kalki could subjugate and defeat, but never really conquer. People like Leslie, Jim and the other humans who had given their lives today. People like his father.
The thought gave him a renewed resolve as he rushed into the corridor.
'Shiva, Kalki's room is just around the corner, up some stairs!'
He ran towards the corner, only to be slammed against the wall by Jim, just as two beams of light passed, almost grazing his shoulder.
'There are two demons there. They're behind good cover, and we couldn't get past them. Going in there is suicide.'
With less than fifteen minutes left, Aaditya struggled to break out of Jim's grip. Shiva sat down on his haunches next to them, and told Jim and Leslie that Kalki's plan was about to be set into motion. The only way to stop Kalki was to get through the two daityas in the corridor.
Jim and Leslie exchanged a quick glance. Then Jim slapped Aaditya on the shoulder.
'You're a good kid. Your dad would have been real proud.'
And then he and Leslie were gone.
The stepped into the corridor, firing their weapons. None of their shots hit the daityas, who were concealed behind two large barrels. The daityas leaned out and fired. Leslie spiraled in mid stride and fell. Jim ran straight at the daityas, shouting and firing. Then he too went down. Then Aaditya was in the corridor, his vajra held before him. Both daityas had exposed themselves in shooting down Jim and Leslie. Aaditya fired a burst, hitting one of them. Shiva leaped across the corridor and cut him down the other with his trident.
Aaditya entered the command centre. Kalki was there, with no cloak to cover him. His red body was mottled with scars and growths, his wings were spread open behind him, his eyes were ablaze.
He took one look at Aaditya and spat, his spittle sparks of flame that landed just short of Aaditya. Kalki stood up straight, towering over him.
'You are too late.'
SEVENTEEN
'Shiva, my friend, it has been ages since our paths crossed.'
Shiva just leaped towards Kalki, bringing his trident up in a killing blow. Aaditya watched in astonishment as Kalki parried the blow with apparent ease and used one of his wings to literally swat Shiva away. Shiva came up rolling in a crouch, as Kalki advanced on him.
'I did not think I would have the pleasure of crushing you with my own hands. This is indeed a bonus.'
Shiva st
ood up straight, a blade in his hand. Even his muscled mass was dwarfed by Kalki's fearsome apparition. He gave a quick glance towards Aaditya, and nodded. That was all he had time for before Kalki swung with a curved blade. Shiva stepped out of the way, bringing his own blade up, a blow that Kalki blocked with ease, and their struggle continued. Shiva's signal had been clear enough-he would try and hold Kalki, but now it was up to Aaditya to figure out how to stop Kalki's plan.
Aaditya looked around in panic. What could he do? How could he possibly stop Kalki's plan? The display over his wrist showed that he had now less than five minutes to go before the charges detonated. For an instant, he wondered if Kalki had already detonated the charges, and their assault had been in vain, but then he spotted a bank of monitors in a corner showing feeds from several news channels. Kalki must have tuned into them to see the reaction to the havoc he planned to wreak. None of them mentioned anything about quakes or tsunamis. So he still had time. He sat down in the large chair in the middle of the room and looked at a display on its armrest. It was counting down. A light below it glowed green. Aaditya tried to calm his mind, which was almost impossible to do, with the rising panic and the sounds of the life and death struggle between Shiva and Kalki behind him. He wondered if Kalki's systems worked like those of the Devas, which was a safe bet since he essentially had been one of them.
'Send up the sphere and open it for incoming craft.'
He watched with relief as he got an acknowledgement. Now the other Devas and the Ganas could come in. All he needed to do now was to terminate the explosions that Kalki had planned.
'What is the status of the charges?'
A holographic screen appeared over his right armrest. It had a simple message. 'All charges armed. Four minutes to detonation.'
'Abort. Repeat, abort.'
The message just stayed the way it was.
'Cancel. Terminate.'
He kept trying, but nothing seemed to work.
Aaditya was now on the verge of tears. Tears of panic and sheer terror. He could not have come so far only to watch helplessly as the world was destroyed before his eyes. He felt strong arms grab him from behind and lift him in the air. He struggled in vain as he was turned around like a doll and found himself face to face with Kalki.
He looked around. Shiva lay slumped in a corner of the room. Kalki brought his face close and Aaditya recoiled at the stench. It was the smell of death and decay-of dead mice, rotten food, of the fate that Kalki had in mind for all of mankind.
'I have waited thousands of years for this moment. Who are you to stop me? A mere boy? A cripple. You could have been on my side, now you can only watch as my rule on Earth begins.'
Aaditya felt his hair being singed from the flame that was in Kalki's eyes. He had spotted what was in Aaditya's pocket. The lucky patch. Kalki snorted dismissively as he took it out, still holding Aaditya in the air effortlessly with one hand.
'A pathetic token to remind you of a pathetic man. Fear not, you will soon join your father.'
Kalki spat on the patch, and it burst into flames, its ashes crumbling to the ground at Kalki's feet. Still dangling in the air, Aaditya saw a plug in Kalki's right ear and wondered if the thought controls worked the same way as for the Devas. It was a gamble, but it was the last chance he had. The problem was that he had no way of pulling the plug out. He could barely move.
Kalki opened his mouth, just inches from Aaditya's face. Inside, a fireball was forming.
Then, suddenly, Kalki's eyes widened and his grip came loose. Shiva's trident was impaled on Kalki's thigh. Shiva was at Kalki's feet, bringing his blade down for another strike. It gave Aaditya the time he needed. He reached out and pulled the plug out of Kalki's ear. Shiva's blade connected and Kalki dropped Aaditya, the plug falling a couple of feet away from him.
Kalki kicked Shiva away and advanced on Aaditya. Only twenty seconds were left till the charges detonated. Aaditya crawled towards the plug, but felt Kalki's grip on his right leg. Kalki began pulling Aaditya towards him, screaming in rage.
'I will burn you limb by limb!'
Aaditya's hand was just inches from the plug, but he was being pulled back, unable to resist Kalki's strength.
'Maybe I'll just burn your other leg and your arms so you can live like a cripple!'
Aaditya reached down to his right thigh and felt for the catch there. As Kalki roared in anger with Aaditya's prosthetic leg in his hand, Aaditya picked up the plug and put it into his ear. There was a flash of blinding pain. When he opened his eyes he saw Kalki leaping towards him, talons bared, his wings spread, like a predatory bird about to pounce on its prey.
Seven seconds left.
There was just enough time to still his mind and give the command to stop the detonations. Kalki must have known what he had done because he screamed as he bore down on Aaditya, determined to rip him to shreds and then detonate the charges again.
Aaditya closed his eyes, but Kalki never landed. He felt a gust of wind and heard a thud. When he opened his eyes, Kalki was in a corner of the room, his left wing sheared off in half. At the doorway was Vishnu, his hand held out to recover the discus that had just done the damage. Behind him were Indra and Durga. Kalki looked at them calmly.
'My war is not over. It never will be.'
He spat out a huge fireball into the middle of the room that blinded everyone for an instant. And then, Kalki was gone.
Everyone's eyes turned to a CNN news report on one of the monitors in the room. It showed thousands of people gathered at Times Square in New York. There were similar groups throughout the world, many praying, others crying, all waiting for what they had come to believe was going to be the end of the world. Aaditya could hear the newscaster speaking, a sarcastic smile on her face.
'For those of you joining us at this hour, it is 12:55 Eastern Standard Time on the 21st of December, 2012, and as far as I can tell, the world has not ended. Please stand by for the Sports News.'
***
The relief and joy of the victory had soon given way to several uncomfortable questions. What had happened to Kalki? Nobody seemed to know for sure, but the golden capstone that had stood on top of his pyramid was missing. It was assumed that it had been some kind of vimana in which Kalki had escaped. Badly wounded, without his weapons or his army, Kalki was little immediate threat, but the very fact that he was unaccounted for meant that his dark shadow had not been banished forever. The battle had also ripped away the veil of secrecy that the Devas had surrounded themselves with. For the first time in tens of thousands of years, humans were aware they shared their planet with beings from another world. The Americans had guessed as much as they went about the frenetic battle over the ocean. When one of their helicopters picked up Narada, who had been found afloat in the water, they got a chance to see them up close. It was reported that the first words spoken between them and the Devas, was, 'I'll be damned. ET looks like an old rock star.'
The next few days were filled with frenetic activity, Aaditya learning of most of the happenings from reports back in Kongka La, where he spent every minute possible with Tanya. If any doubts had remained about the truth of their story, the Devas dispelled them by bringing up the humans who had been kept as slaves in Kalki's base and handing them back to their respective governments. They then took some representatives of the world's leading powers to the sites where Kalki had laid the charges, and true enough, they found thermonuclear weapons embedded deep in the fault lines. There was a tricky issue of what to do with the hundreds of daityas who had been taken captive, and Brahma finally ordered that they be resettled in a heavily guarded camp in a remote area of Antarctica, where they would be under constant surveillance by the Devas.
It was a lot for human governments to deal with over just a few days, as they digested the full magnitude of the events and also how close the planet had come to a true apocalypse. Narada had started working on a plan on how best to communicate this to the masses, with Brahma deciding that there were now
too many people who knew the truth-pilots, government agencies, the freed human prisoners-for their existence to be kept a secret.
But for now, none of that mattered to Aaditya. The only thing that mattered to him was that he could feel Tanya close to him, holding his hand tight as they sat in a movie theatre watching the latest Bollywood potboiler. It was a spectacularly bad movie, but that was hardly the point. The point was that he had just spent his first day with Tanya back among humans. They had been dropped off by Shiva near Delhi, and they had spent the whole day shopping, eating out, watching people, and most importantly, reveling in each other's company.
There were so many things they needed to figure out. Where would they stay? Brahma had told them that they were welcome to stay at Kongka La as long as they wanted, but with the Devas' existence no longer a secret, Tanya's heart was in making a fresh beginning. There was also the question of what they would do next. Would he go back to college? With all that he had been through, could he really go back to the life he once had? Having tasted what it meant to be a pilot, could he live with never soaring through the skies in a vimana again? At least he wouldn't have to worry about money. Narada had told him that the money that Kalki had transferred to his account was all his to keep.
Aaditya's mind told him that he should worry about at least some of those things. But his heart told him that as long as he was with Tanya, they would somehow figure things out.
After the movie, as they walked out into the street, they looked at the stars in the night sky above.
'Tanya.'
'Yes.'
He brought his hand up to caress her left cheek.
'Happy New Year, sweetheart. This will be the first year of the rest of our lives-together.'
He kissed her as fireworks streaked across the night sky.
