by Abhishek Roy
He was looking at me, bug-eyed.
CRACK! The sound of the wooden shards falling on the stone platform below reverberated throughout the shaft.
“That was a close call,” he mumbled. We wasted no time and resumed our climb.
Again, two thirds of our way up, I heard a ‘crack’. I craned my neck to look down and saw Ram dangling from one of the rungs of the ladder. A second later, he set his foot on the next rung and when he was stable again, he looked at me. “I reckon we need to be extremely careful with this thing.”
“Sure,” I replied with the torch held in between my teeth. Finally, the torch showed us the end of the shaft. Although we were elated, we refused to hurry up the ladder and decided to be careful with the rungs for if we fell from there, then we were done for. Finally, after the 5 minute arduous climb, I gripped the cold stone ledge at the top and hauled myself up. Ram came up next and after helping him up did I see where we were.
Both of us had arrived at the base of an immensely voluminous, octagonal vestibule. The whole structure was made up of oak wood save the floor which was made of stone. Along with the base, there was a single tier about halfway up the walls. The roof itself was about 4 stories high and was also octagonal. At the centre of the roof was an oculus through which one could see the sky.
Stretching from the base, through the upper tier, up to the roof were eight columns on each of the eight vertices of the octagon. These sturdy and bulky columns were not only made of oak but also had beautiful carvings on their faces.
From the point where we were standing, the vestibule had two corridors leading deeper inside the structure.
The whole place appeared to be deserted and really old. Moreover, the hall in its entirety was cold and dark but the carvings on the columns and some of the walls made it look a wee bit more elegant.
However, our attention was attracted by what was kept at the dead centre of the hall. Well illuminated by the sunlight pouring through the hole in the roof was a cylinder, a little less than a foot tall. This cylinder was black in colour and appeared to be made out of stone. But in the sunlight, something glistened.
We adjusted our gear and walked up to the cylinder kept on a wooden pedestal. On a closer look we found the cylinder to have four transparent glass-like bands, which started from the top of the cylinder and ended at the middle, equidistant from each other. The bands were dark but reflected the sunlight. In addition to the glass bands, there were a bunch of keys, ports and electronic slits.
From a closer look, we also observed that the cylinder was placed on a similar, black stone receptacle.
“The handwork and wood carving of this place is not ubiquitous in India. Neither does it look Hindu nor like a Buddhist monastery,” analysed Ram, while gazing at the architecture.
“What do you think this is?” I asked him.
“God Knows,” he replied blankly. “I have never seen anything like this before. It looks like some electronic device. Maybe you would know what it is.”
“The cylinder must definitely be electronic. Look at the ports and switches. That thing...” I pointed at the base of the cylinder, “must be a receptacle, providing it with power. But what is this device doing in such an ancient place?”
I went forward to touch it when Ram pulled me back, “Don’t touch it Mathias. We are not sure what it is.” But it was too late. Somehow my proximity would have triggered the cylinder to power up.
Suddenly, the bands started glowing in an incandescent light. The topmost band and the third one glowed golden and the second and fourth glowed blue. Instantly, white light emitted from the pinhole at the apex of the cylinder. A ball of white light appeared at the mouth of the cylinder, which grew and grew until abruptly it collapsed into the shimmering shape of a man.
Ram jumped back, shocked.
The man was holographic but unlike the holograms in Star Wars who appear in a monochromatic blue, he appeared resplendent in full colour. He was pretty lean and fit and was wearing a skin fit, dark red jacket with a pair of golden embroidered lapels. He wore black pantaloons that accentuated his toned legs along with a pair of tightly fitted black boots. The material looked like it was clinging on to him with a life of its own, and was adjusting itself according to his movements. The three bands on his wrists and neck looked odd and there were signs of bulges in his jacket, which indicated hidden objects and gadgets.
However, I was amazed that I could even see these details in a hologram. The projector must have been extremely advanced.
“Blimey! “exclaimed Ram when suddenly the hologram spoke.
“Greetings Thorson and your fellow Mandaa accomplice. Do not be startled since I can communicate to you only in the form of a hologram. Hence, I cannot physically harm you in any way.”
The hologram had called me Thorson instead of Thomson just like the men in Meerut who pursued us. God knows what he meant by Mandaa.
“Who are you?” I asked confidently.
“I am Baldr, the Pure!”
“You think you are a God?!” exclaimed Ram, awe struck.
“Depends on the definition of God,” he replied dryly.
***
Uttered in a matter of fact tone, it sent a chill up our spines. After the last few days of travelling halfway across the world and being chased all over the place by strange men, and almost getting killed in the process, we were ready to believe anything.
The week had however started pretty well for us, well ensconced in the comfortable orphanage we knew as our home for all of our life in London. We were blissfully unaware about what was to unfold and change our entire lives.
Kapittel 2
Elsewhere
(4 Earth days before)
VALHALLA, ASR-GAWA (otherwise known as Asgard)
March 6, 2017, Monday, 0857 hours Earth GMT
The gargantuan building of Valhalla towered over a raven which materialised in a building akin to a vertical doughnut many dimensions away in the realm of Asr-Gawa.
“Hilsener Huginn” said Heimdalr to the raven that flew past him.
“Hilsener Huginn” was Norwegian for “Greetings Huginn” Huginn being the name of the raven.
Huginn and Muninn were the two messengers of Odin. They were a pair of ravens that flew all over Mandagaar and brought information to him.
The actual fact is that Huginn and Muninn were two cybernetic-organisms. They were the result of the backbreaking work of the Asurian engineers.
Huginn and Muninn looked exactly like ravens seen flying in the sky but up close one could see the glistening, black fuselage of the 25 cm long aircraft and the aerodynamic radome that looks like the beak of a raven.
Huginn and his twin Muninn flew low across the renowned Bifrost Bridge, better known as the “Rainbow Bridge” towards Valhalla.
The flight was smooth except for a few jerks and tilts due to their low power left. They were literally running on fumes and for that reason their engines were shutting down abruptly. Instantaneously, their auto stabilizers kicked in and supplied them with minuscule amounts of energy that they had left. They were trying hard to reach Valhalla where they would be able to charge themselves up.
When only 50 feet away from the chateau’s grand doors, Huginn and Muninn soared up like fighter aircrafts, bound for the zenith of the tower of Valhalla. On reaching the top, they maneuvered their way through a narrow ventilation shaft. It was filled with hot gas, decreasing the visibility. The heat also put extra stress on the cooling unit at the base of their turbines. Some of the pipes had a faint red glow to them and the two cybernetic organisms tried their best to skirt the pipes which popped up from here and there and finally entered the huge, cylindrical shaft of the tower.
The two of them flew down the length of the tower and arrived in a massive vestibule. From there they flew through a tunnel of some sort on the other end of which was the high backed seat of Odin, the Principal Elder of the Aesirs — the room where Huginn and Muninn always came back to show the Asur
ian king the fruits of their finds.
This time however, both of them veered into a corridor on their left and attached themselves swiftly to a Makto Powerpod on the wall. Instantly their power surged up and they could send out a beacon which drew a man to come to them; a man much younger than Odin; a man whom people worship as the pure and the carrier of pure light. It was Baldr himself.
“Hilsener Huginn, Hilsener Muninn, “ greeted Baldr.
“Hilsener my Lord Baldr” both the robots said in chorus, their mechanical voice ringing throughout the room.
“First things first, show me all your collections.”
“Cer…… tain…… ly,” managed Huginn.
At the dead centre of his fuselage, a circle of incandescent polychromic light started to grow brighter and brighter until suddenly a holographic image of a Mandaa boy was generated. This boy had a good build, was quite tall and had light blonde hair. This levitating image of the boy was in the pose of running towards a destination not specified. What was specified in the computerised box next to him was rather intriguing to Baldr.
Reading that Baldr smiled as his eyes were fixated on the last line-
BLOOD GROUP: CONCEIVABLY ASURIAN
“I was right! This is my ticket to power. I have to lay a trap,” muttered Baldr as he walked towards the Conference room.
Baldr along with all other senior members of the Aesir clan had been called for an urgent meeting. When Baldr had asked him about the topic of discussion Odin had simply refused to tell him anything about it. He had said that the topic needed to be discussed with all the elders together. Baldr, however knew that his slight hoodwinker like behaviour after he came back refrained people from disclosing various things to him easily. Still he knew that he was going to know about it at the time of the meeting and hoped that Odin had something new to share. Hence, he kept his patience.
Baldr adjusted his beautifully adorned coat while he walked and finally arrived at the huge ornate doors and took a deep breath - a ritual he followed before every such meeting, and pushed open the doors to enter a massive spherical room. It was a room the size of three fourths of a soccer field. It had a ceiling made up of hexagonal tiles, the edges of which glowed golden, providing light to the people. There were a few windows on the far end of the room to allow some starshine in. There were some big speakers to the right and a few hologram cameras to the left. At the centre of all this was the long meeting table which was built to support all the elders in the clan. Baldr was heading to this very table where all the elders were settling down for the meeting. They gave a look to Baldr before he sat down on the plush couch made for him but didn’t say a word. Baldr was not really used to such neglect but since the atmosphere was grim, he decided not to bother.
When everyone was settled, a very old Odin started talking. He was seated in his usual hovering chair which he had been confined to for the last decade. His language resembled Norwegian, and was very similar in places, but was a strange dialect nevertheless.
“Hilsener stipendiat eldste. I apologize for calling you on such a short notice but the problem we are suffering from is grave. We have been hiding the fact from you for a few years now but I realised, the time has come.
My fellow Asurians due to the extensive usage from the last 100 years, we have arrived at a shortage of Makto,” Odin decided to convey his point directly to the audience which instantly caused a lot of murmur in the council members. Some were agitated while some maintained their calm.
“We respect you Herre Odin but we also do not expect you to hide anything from us. We are after all members of a single fraternity!” said one of the council members who displayed his dejection through carefully chosen words. Display of emotion was normally not expected from Elders of the clans.
“I apologize for that. You see, until a couple of years ago when the situation had revealed itself in its true form, I was under the delusion that the problem could be controlled. You might remember the heralds across the city preaching the fact that I had decided to increase the value of Makto by 30%. Why do you think I would have done that? Obviously because we are facing a shortage.
“Initially, the decision had been effective. It was only a few years back when I caught a mistake in one of the scientist’s calculations. The real answer that surfaced was far smaller and far scarier than the previous. Everyone knows the implications if we run out of Makto.” Everyone in the hall was silent and listening to Odin giving him all their ears bar Baldr who looked as if he knew everything which he actually did. Over time, people had got used to his stinging disposition and even now, no one really paid attention to his boots that he had raised to the table.
“I have been informed by the statisticians that the element will last for probably two or three more years.” Once again, the audible whispers of the clan members hushed throughout the hall.
“So, I am assigning Baldr...” he paused and pointed towards him which made the audience throw a glance at him, most with one of their eyebrows raised, “to bring the element from Mandagaar!”
“For those who are new,” he continued, “Mandagaar is the 3rd planet in the white galaxy and in the planetary subsystem E-106, with a solar presence and an atmosphere conducive to us, in the Dimension XN. We have been communicating with the humans there for many years and my forefathers have played a significant part /in guiding their civilization. They are quite similar to us, but considerably weaker, emotionally more unstable and technologically relatively primitive.
“Yes my fellow clan mates! The metallurgists have informed me that Makto is present abundantly, mixed with one of the most abundant elements on earth-Silicon! Hence, I have assigned Baldr the task of shipping Silicon from Mandagaar back to Asr-Gawa,” he pointed towards Baldr and everyone turned their gazes on him for a brief second. “Our metallurgists will then successfully extract Makto from the element!” Odin’s face beamed with excitement.
“Why haven’t the Mandaas known of Makto’s presence in Silicon?” asked a council member.
“Isn’t it obvious? They are just too primitive still. They are yet to discover the presence of such an element which I am doubtful they ever will.
“You say Herre Odin, that Makto is present in one of their most abundant elements. How abundant is it and how much will it add to our Makto reserves?” questioned a wise member of the Council.
“Well, if my memory serves me right, then Silicon contributes to around 28% of the mass of Mandagaar. Out of that, 15% is Makto,” Odin answered.
“But if we do transfer 28% of Mandagaar’s mass to Asr- Gawa, won’t the diminished mass have some effect on its orbit around the sun?”
On hearing the dreaded question, his face became sombre. He exchanged a quick glance with Baldr.
“It surely will,” he replied after a pause. “The decreased mass will cause the planet to adopt a new elliptical orbit which means that it won’t stay in the same golden region of life. First of all, the decreased gravitation will disperse the atmosphere into space. It will be hurled from its orbit and travel nearer to the sun so not only will the ultra violet rays but also the heat of the sun will scorch the planet. Life will cease to exist.” “Then it will be genocide at the galactic scale!” yelled one of the clan members.
“I implore you to maintain your calm please,” Odin said, sternly and with a deep voice, showing his dislike for such behaviour. The Council Member complied.
“But the Mandaas are advancing rapidly. They might just get to know of our presence and decide to defend themselves,” interjected another clan member.
“Well, you see, the silicon that we need isn’t just any silicon. Otherwise, we could have brought it from their planet when humans hadn’t evolved at all using the Chronospace Shifter. What we require is microwave-enriched silicon that can be found only now. Earlier, there were infrared waves in their universe. After they celebrated the second millennium on their calendar, they have been using electronic devices everywhere for communication. This has caused
an increase in the microwaves in the environment. Microwave enrichment is important for the Makto to be usable. So, we have chosen a specific time frame using the Chronoscale when their microwaves are more abundant and where we can obtain this microwave enriched silicon,” Odin answered at length.
“Don’t you think radio enriched silicon would be better?” asked the same man.
“Of course it would be. However, by the time the microwaves in their universe turn to radio, the Mandaas would be developed enough to defend themselves. The crucial time is calculated. Not a year here and there would do,” Odin replied. “As you all know, the Mandaas are young. They have no idea about the other dimensions and are contained in their world while we play the most important role of managing almost all dimensions. Our position is of paramount importance and if the people in Nidavellir, Hel and Muspelheim get to know about our growing weakness, they will not hesitate to attack. We need to protect ourselves if we want to protect the multiverse.. .even if it means the sacrifice of Mandagaar,” said Odin solemnly. “So who all are with me?”
Everyone in the council raised their arm reluctantly. Odin had spoken out the ackward truth and though many were uncomfortable, they understood that they themselves had no option. At the same time, the Mandaas were naive. Killing them would be like bringing down an anthill by an elephant for the greater good of the entire colony.
Kapittel 3
Elsewhere
TAKASAKI, GUNMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN
March 6, 2017, Monday, 1700 hours JST
Evening light poured in through the small windows and made the little wooden shop look even older. It made the hundreds of antiques and daruma dolls look somewhat alive.
While a gentle wind blew in, an old man who had been here all his life, pulled out a few manuscripts and splayed them out on his low desk. He dusted them and began reading them, oblivious to their age.
