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 watched 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.
'Aadi, let's go back. Our work here is done.'
Indra's voice sounded strangely subdued, and Aaditya asked the question on top of his mind.
'Kartik?'
He was met by silence, so he persisted. 'It's only been a few minutes since he was hit. He told me we could recover you Devas if we had a couple of hours. Come on, what can we do?'
Indra was silent, and then he simply said, 'Let's go back. There's nothing more we can do here.'
His was mind in turmoil, rebelling at the thought of abandoning Kartik, yet hoping against hope that the Devas had some solution up their sleeves. Aaditya followed Indra and the remaining drones back to their base.
When they landed, Indra disembarked and walked to the conference room without saying anything to Aaditya. Aaditya found the Devas all silent, staring at the display in front of them. CNN was reporting that there had been at least five thousand confirmed deaths from the tsunami, and the death toll was only likely to rise as the full extent of the disaster revealed itself. Tanya was in a corner, her eyes red, as if she had been crying.
Indra sat down soundlessly next to Shiva, betraying his emotions with a simple touch on Shiva's arm. Shiva just sat there, and as Aaditya entered, for the first time, he thought he saw tears well up in his eyes. Aaditya still did not entirely understand what had happened and still harboured hopes that Kartik could somehow be revived. After all, the Devas seemed to be indestructible, didn't they?
Brahma was the first to speak. 'My heart cries for all the souls lost in Hawaii and for our Kartik.'
Aaditya was still in a daze. 'Kartik told me that Devas had a couple of hours in which they could be revived. Surely you can do something?'
Nobody spoke till Shiva walked up to Aaditya and put his arms around him. 'Thank you for what you did today, and for trying to save Kartik. We are warriors and for us, loss is something we must learn to deal with, but for now, let me go and grieve with Durga for the loss of our son.'
Shiva walked out slowly, and Aaditya felt tears streaming down his face. Having seen the evil that Kalki was capable of, he was now convinced that his father could never have served such a monster. His mind kept replaying the dogfight, wishing he had reached sooner, wishing he had at least managed to destroy Maya when he had the chance.
'We have an incoming audio message.'
Ganesha's words got everyone's attention.
'Play it.'
On Brahma's command, a section of the giant holographic screen turned blank and Aaditya heard a voice that he realized with a shock he had heard before.
'Greetings, Father. Hello my enemies, old and new.'
It was Kalki.
***
There was pin drop silence in the room as Kalki's message continued.
'Many ages ago, you began this war against me. I never started any aggression against the Devas. If only you had let me do as I saw fit with the humans, with my creation. You began that war, but I will finish it. What you are seeing today is but a small preview of what I have in store. I will have what is rightfully mine. This world and its inhabitants will be shaped as I see fit, and you will be able to do nothing but watch. Save yourself more loss and grief, and go back to that pretentious alliance. Humans are my offspring, and I will watch over them, better than my own father watched over me.'
Aaditya saw even the normally unflappable Brahma flinch as the message ended.
'Why don't you just nuke his base?'
Vishnu answered Aaditya. 'We considered that. First, if he is underwater, there's no telling we'll get him, and if he retaliates in kind, then billions could die on Earth. We could not risk destroying this world again. Second, even if we succeed, what would we say to the humans? Why would they trust or believe us if we unleash a nuclear war on their planet?'
'So, what do we do?'
Brahma was now pacing the room, his hands folded behind him. 'It is a peculiar stalemate. We cannot get him in his lair, and he cannot get us. But we cannot just wait to see what new evil he has in store.'
Aaditya remembered what Kalki had said in the message he had sent through Maya. 'Does he know where our base is? Why doesn't he attack?'
'Because we still have one trump card.'
Aaditya waited for Brahma to explain, but Indra brought up a display on the screen. It showed the Earth, with dots orbiting it.
'Satellites.'
'I don't understand.'
'Aadi, when we returned here, we had our satellites crisscrossing the Earth to offer us near total surveillance. But when Kalki returned, we quickly took out each other's satellites in a space war that humans were oblivious to. Since then, neither of us has our own satellites up in space. Kalki is thus blind outside of his short term sensor range of his vimanas and his base.'
'Are we as well?'
Indra smiled.
'So Kalki thinks.'
Ganesha pointed to several of the dots circling the Earth that were now blinking.
'I've hacked into several of the US and Russian spy satellites and put in a couple of our special sensors into them. The humans don't even know it, but through them, we get twenty-four hour coverage of the Earth. Every time an Asura vimana takes off, we know.'
Indra tapped the screen. It showed a video of a missile in flight, and then disappearing as a bright blue light connected with it.
'1968. That was the year Kalki discovered our base. He launched four nuclear missiles. We saw them the moment they took off, and we intercepted them. The US and Russia also picked them up and put their strategic forces on alert. Ganesha had to mess around with their computers so they thought it was a malfunction in their radars. Otherwise, the Cold War you humans talked of would have turned very hot.'
A chill went down Aaditya's spine as he realized the implication of what he had just heard.
'He launched four waves of vimana strikes. Again, as soon as a single vimana took off, we were ready. We ambushed and slaughtered them. He doesn't know how we did it, but he knows he cannot attack us here.'
'So, what do we do?'
Brahma sighed.
'If only we knew the secret to Kalki's base. If only we knew how to break through his defences. If only we could get even a small glimpse into what's happening inside his base.'
Aaditya realized that as omnipotent and powerful as the Devas seemed, they were as clueless as he was now. They disbanded, planning to meet the next morning.
Aaditya had a rough night. He kept thinking of Kartik, of his last conversation with the young Deva. Not able to sleep, he called Tanya, and the two of them sat near the hangar, both gripped with despair and sorrow at Kartik's loss. He held on to Tanya, and she tried to comfort him, but she knew the guilt he felt would perhaps heal only with time.
At about four in the morning, when Tanya had finally fallen asleep with her head on his shoulders, Aaditya fell into an uneasy slumber, his mind a jumble of thoughts. The dogfight, Kalki's message, the stalemate the Devas found themselves in, the sudden spurt of tsunamis, Kalki's reference to his father, Kartik's death. All the disjointed thoughts swirled in his mind, as he tossed and turned, and then he had a sudden flash of clarity.
When Tanya woke up, Aaditya debated whether or not to tell her about his plan. At first, sure that she would refuse, he decided that he would go straight to Brahma, and if he agreed, then try and convince Tanya. However, when he saw her looking into his eyes over breakfast, he realized that he could not do that to her.
'Why are you looking at me like that?'
Aaditya just smiled and asked Tanya to join him for a walk. They walked all over the base, covering the length and breadth of the hangar, then walking to the underground chambers where some of the Devas slept and where their research and production facilities were hidden away. Aaditya brought Tanya to a bench overlooking a repair area for vimanas, where Indra's vimana was currently being tended to by two robotic mechanics. Over the dull hum of the machines, Aaditya told her what his plan was.
Tanya refused outright. Then, when he told her the full story, she fell silent. She held on to his hand, as if unwilling to let go, as if afraid that once he left, she would never see him again. Finally, she kissed him and held him so tightly it felt as if she would crush him. Then, she simply let his hand go. She kept sitting there, staring into nothingness, as Aaditya got up and began his long walk to the conference room to meet Brahma.
'Are you out of your mind?'
Aaditya had guessed that Brahma would not welcome his plan, but even he was surprised at the outright rejection from the elder Deva.
'What other choice do we have? Did you yourself not say that the only real way to find out a weakness in Kalki's base was to get someone inside?'
'And why should Kalki ever believe you? Why would he not just kill you as a possible spy?'
Aaditya thought about that for a second. He had not yet told anyone other than Tanya about the message he had got from Kalki, and even now, he was not sure he should be revealing it to the Devas. He was less worried that they may question his loyalties, but that if they ever got to know that Kalki himself had reached out to him, they would never let him go. And with that would disappear any chances of his ever getting to know what had really happened to his father.
'Brahma, I'm not sure he will believe me, but you yourself said that his biggest weapon is temptation. He knows the one human weakness he can count on to exploit-our greed for money, for power. He has been doing that for years now. I could pretend that I have been seduced by an offer of money or power?'
By now, Indra, Vishnu, Shiva and Narada had come into the room. They had overheard much of the exchange and Vishnu spoke next.
'Aadi, it is brave of you to make such an offer, but there are too many unknowns. He may never believe you, the Asuras may just kill you outright the moment they see you, even if you do make it inside, and there is no way we can guarantee we can get you out.'
'And, my boy, there is also the risk that if he does want to extract information from you, you end up revealing too much of what you really know. After all, being the one human to have got so involved in our struggle, what you have in your head is what would make you most invaluable to Kalki.'
Aaditya started to protest at Indra's suggestion, but the Deva stopped him.
'Aadi, I know you are brave and you will say that you won't do anything like that, but even the strongest and bravest man will break under torture, especially the kind of torture Maya and his underlings are capable of dreaming up.'
With all the Devas against his plan, Aaditya began to lose hope. Suddenly, Ganesha burst into the room.
'Turn on the display. There's a message from Kalki.'
Kalki's voice boomed across the room once more. This time, his message was as short as it was menacing.
'Bye bye Bali.'
Aaditya watched as the Devas quickly brought up various news channels on their display. They all had the same leading news. An earthquake measuring over 8 on the Richter scale had struck the sea just off Bali. A monster tsunami wave was reported to be forming in the water.
Aaditya felt his pulse quicken, and his eyes sting from the tears that were beginning to form. How many thousands more were going to be sacrificed in this hellish game that Kalki seemed to be intent on playing? By now, the quakes and their devastating aftermath had become only too predictable, and as the Devas watched their satellite display, ten red dots appeared over Indonesian airspace.
'The bastard!'
Brahma spoke with a heavy sigh, ignoring Shiva's outburst. 'Turn it off. I don't want to watch more innocents be slaughtered without us being able to do anything about it.'
Narada had now come up behind Aaditya, and he felt Narada's hands on his shoulder, as if offering support. 'Brahma, perhaps the boy's plan, as crazy and hopeless as it sounds, is the only chance we have.'
All eyes in the room turned towards Brahma, knowing that the decision was his to make. Aaditya watched with bated breath as the Deva seemed to be weighing the decision before him. Finally he said just two words and walked out of the room.
'Do it.'