Hawk One en route to waypoint three. Hawk Two has some FOD and is coming home.
Hearing his father's voice again was like an electric shock for Aaditya. Everyone else in the room had stepped back, leaving Aaditya alone in front of the holographic display. He watched a blue dot representing his father's plane move across the green tinged landscape. He knew that his father's wingman had aborted the sortie due to what was called in aviation parlance 'foreign object damage', which turned out to be a small bird hitting one of his jet intakes. The next ten minutes were routine reports from his father on the progress of his mission, which has been to test out flight characteristics of his aircraft after being loaded with the newly inducted Brahmos cruise missile. Then came the first sign of trouble.
I see something emerging from the water. Do we have a submarine in the area?
Hawk One, negative. Please confirm it is a submersible.
Going down to take a closer look.
It's large and spherical. Not a submarine for sure.
Hawk One, confirm your last transmission, please.
I see two craft taking off from its surface and coming towards me. Radar shows negative.
Hawk One, can you ID the bogeys?
They look like…..saucers, one has a red tip. They are flanking me now. Intent seems hostile, request authorization to take evasive measures.
Then there was silence. Aaditya fell to his knees. Narada made to come towards him but Brahma waved him back.
'They said it was an accident. Why did they lie?'
'Because no government likes to make such incidents public,' said Brahma.
Aaditya's mind was in turmoil. He had no idea what he should do. 'Aadi, perhaps it was fate that got you involved in all this, but we had no idea whatsoever of who you were till you posted online about the Delhi incident and we had to start doing background checks. Believe me, we would rather have not got you involved at all.'
Shiva knelt down beside Aaditya. 'I am a father. I nearly lost a son today, so I feel your pain. But I also think it's best that you get back to your life. You're young and have your whole life ahead of you.'
'A life spent knowing who my father's murderers are. No, I cannot do that.'
Indra raised Aaditya up.
'Son, what do you want to do?'
'I want to help you destroy those murderers.'
'Don't be foolish. What could you possibly do to help us?'
'Let me fly,' he pleaded.
'That's impossible!'
'I flew one of your vimanas back here, didn't I?'
Brahma intervened and motioned for Indra to back down.
'Aadi, you're angry, and I can understand that, but take some time to think it over. If you really want to stay and help us, we will not stop you, but don't be reckless. Your flying the vimana back was impressive but flying in combat against Maya and others like him is totally different.'
Aaditya was about to protest when Shiva spoke up, 'Look son, we don't just fly around. It gets up close and dirty, as you have seen. And there, you wouldn't last a minute.'
Aaditya thought Shiva was referring to his handicap, and he exploded in anger.
'Yes, I have a damned handicap that robbed me of my dreams, but if nothing else, I'll fly one of your vimanas in a suicide mission.'
At this point Brahma ordered everyone to disperse and told Aaditya to get some rest, saying they would talk again in a few hours when he had had more time to think things over with a cool head.
Aaditya was stewing in his room when Tanya came in and sat down on the sofa next to him.
'Aadi, I'm so sorry. I had no idea about your father.'
'All I want is to get a chance to avenge his death. That's all I want.'
Tanya placed a hand on his arm. 'Are you sure you want to stay?'
'Yes.'
Tanya sighed. 'Aadi, you would not be the first one to say that.'
Aaditya turned to face her, as she continued, 'Many more have come in contact with them over the years. Lost travellers, crashed pilots, accident survivors, and explorers. At first, many of them want to stay, especially when they guess what's going on. But inevitably, they cannot bear being away from their normal lives and accept the full reality of what they're involved in. Without being mentally prepared for this, the pressure gets to them. Some go mad, others beg to return. When they are released, their description of what they've seen makes them objects of ridicule or worse. That's why they are so hesitant to have you stay.'
'What's your story, Tanya? You aren't like them, and you clearly haven't gone mad.'
Tanya looked away wistfully, as if bringing back memories she had not thought of for a long time.
'My story is different. My family was killed in a plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean, and I was the only survivor. One of the vimanas saw a five-year-old girl floating on a life raft and picked me up. They tried to send me back, but the problem was I had no family other than the one I lost. In the months I was here, they got attached to me, and being a kid, my mind was open enough to take in who they were. So I grew up around them, they educated me, and when I was older, they offered me a chance to go back. By then, this was home.'
Aaditya was looking at her in wonder.
'So, you never wanted to go back?'
Tanya smiled.
'This was the only life I really remembered, and over time, I made myself useful, serving as the contact for anyone like you who happened to stumble upon them.'
'Tanya, who are these guys? Their names…their aircraft…they certainly are not the CIA, nor do they look like any other government organization.'
'That only they can tell you. Aadi, can I say something?'
'Yeah, of course.'
Tanya was holding both his hands.
'I would be happy if you stayed. I have nobody I can relate to, nobody else here who will grow old like me. One day I will be an old woman and they will still be what they are. But do think hard about your decision, it will not just change your life, it will become your life.'
Aaditya had no idea what she was talking about. But he was sure he could not just walk away after learning what had happened to his father.
'Tanya, believe me, I wish I had nothing to do with all this. I wish I could just get on with my life. But for better or for worse, I am here, and now I cannot walk away. I'll stay, whatever that means, and try and do something. I threw away the dreams my father had for me, but now I will not let him down.'
As he spoke, he banged his fist against his right leg. Tanya caught his hand and looked him in the eye. 'Aadi, you're a better man than you give yourself credit for. Now, if you really want to stay, I imagine Brahma will want to talk to you soon.'
An hour later, Aaditya was back in the conference room, except this time there was nobody else other than him and Brahma. The old man asked him to sit down on one of the chairs and sat down next to him.
'We are forced to keep our existence a closely guarded secret. But if someone chances upon us, we believe in giving nothing but the full truth. Do you know why?'
Aaditya shook his head.
'Because the day is coming when we may have to reveal ourselves. And the last thing I want is for your people to mistake our secrecy for hostile intent. Are you really ready to hear the truth? I ask you one last time, because once they hear it, many people wish they had not.'
'I'm ready.'
Brahma motioned towards the centre of the room, where a holographic display materialized. It showed the Earth as viewed from space. It filled the screen rapidly, growing from a distant blue dot to a blue and green sphere ringed by clouds, where Aaditya could begin to make out features of the continents.
'What a beautiful sight. Aadi, do you know what that is?' Brahma asked.
'The Earth of course.'
'Yes, of course it is. But this is more than just a video of the Earth from space. It is a recording that I cherish dearly.'
Aaditya saw the wistful look in the old man's eyes and wondered where he was going with this.
'This, Aadi, is a recording of the first time I saw your planet.'
Aaditya's head swiveled towards Brahma in shock.
What did he mean?
'Yes, Aaditya. This was when I and my crew first came to your planet.'
A million questions were racing through Aaditya's mind, and not knowing where to start, he blurted out, 'So you're aliens?'
Brahma smiled.
'So many people say that. What a curious word: Alien. Considering how long we've been here, one would have hoped for more hospitality.'
He laughed at his own joke, and Aaditya stared at him, wondering if the old man was crazy or trying to tell him a tall tale. Oblivious to Aaditya's incredulity, Brahma continued.
'What you choose to believe is of course up to you. I can but share the truth. This, Aadi is a recording of our first descent to Earth.'
Aaditya turned to the image again. It showed what seemed to be North America, but as the ground loomed even closer, Aaditya was mystified by one thing.
'I see no lights, no cities, just barren earth. Why is that?'
Brahma turned towards Aaditya with a smile.
'You see none of those, my son, because this recording was made 15,000 years ago.'
***
Aaditya sat in stunned silence as Brahma continued with his tale.
'We are part of an alliance that seeks out planets that can harbour intelligent life, and we nudge them along till they develop to a level of self-awareness where we can ask them to join our alliance.'
'An alliance. Like a military alliance?'
Brahma shook his head. 'No, far from it. It is an alliance that shares knowledge and resources; that seeks to nurture that most precious thing in our universe-life.'
A map of the Indian subcontinent came into view.
'We first landed near what you today know as India, then set up bases across the world.'
Red dots emerged across multiple locations on the map-Egypt, South America, India and Europe.
'At that time, we found that your people were barely entering the phase of what you consider civilization today. It was far too early for us to make contact. We debated that last point, but the question for me was sealed when some of your people chanced upon us and began to think of us as gods.'
Realization dawned on Aaditya.
'That explains your names. Those are all names of Hindu gods.'
'People in other regions gave us other names, but having landed here first, we adopted these names over time. You know, Aadi, we should have never stayed. What we should have done was go back, and report that it was still too early to visit Earth.'
'Then why did you stay?'
'Because some of us broke our faith.'
The angry response had come from Indra, who had walked into the room flanked by Shiva and Vishnu.
'One of us got greedy. Seeing the primitive stage of development here, he decided to enslave your people and rule as a false God. He built monuments to his vanity and caused untold suffering. He began to corrupt others in our crew with promises of power.'
The holographic image now showed slaves pulling huge stone blocks towards a giant half-finished pyramid. Vishnu took up the tale.
'We tied to reason with him, pleaded with him to not go down this path, but he was beyond reasoning. When we threatened force, he took his many followers and set up a base here.'
A dot glowed in the Mediterranean Sea.
'We knew him and his crew as Ashwins. Indian mythology calls them Asuras and we became known as the Devas. The land they hid in is known to your people as Atlantis.'
Aaditya's eyes began to roll over, and noticing his reaction, Brahma stopped.
'So you don't believe me?'
'I'm sorry but you expect me to believe that you're 15,000-year-old aliens? That sounds too far out for me.'
Brahma wiped his hand and the holographic display disappeared.
'That is your choice. But what I can tell you is that if you do not believe us, I really don't see any point in you staying here. How can you help us when you don't even believe in us?'
Indra now spoke. 'As Tanya may have told you, we initially welcomed people who stumbled upon us, since we hoped they could act as a bridge to your people when the time comes to reveal ourselves. But nobody really stayed. If you want to stay, we would be happy to try again, but as Brahma said, you need to fully understand what you're involved in.'
Aaditya pleaded with him, 'Look, I would love to believe you, but this is so weird that I'd rather believe you're some kind of secret government organization that's saying this to prevent me from knowing the truth.'
Vishnu asked the others to step back. 'Aadi's stakes in this are much more personal than for anyone before him, and let us not forget that Kartik lives today because of him. So, let me take him on a trip and try and show him some of our history at close quarters.'
Five minutes later, Aaditya was in the hangar, in front of a large vimana that had a beak like a hawk and wings drawn on either side along with sharp talons. Vishnu asked Aaditya to get into the cockpit. 'This, Aadi, is my vimana, the Garuda. Put one of these on as well.'
He handed Aaditya an earpiece similar to the one he had taken from Kartik. In an instant, they were out of the hangar doors and Aaditya felt himself flattened against the seat as the vimana accelerated nearly vertically. When it stabilized in level flight, Aaditya saw the holographic display showing the vimana at an altitude of 100,000 feet and a speed of more than five thousand kilometres per hour. Vishnu looked at his expression and smiled.
'Garuda is not even being stretched here, but I thought for starters, I'd lay your doubts to rest about this being an aircraft from Earth. You know your planes, so tell me, is there any craft you can think of that could do this. Or this?'
Aaditya shook his head mutely as the vimana accelerated to six thousand kilometres per hour and climbed to the very edge of space. Aaditya found his breath being taken away by the sight he saw-pitch black space above, and the Earth far below.
Vishnu kept talking, taking up the story where Brahma had left it.
'For some years, the Ashwins were content to live in their land, and rule over their domains in Egypt and South America, and we kept trying for a peaceful solution. But perhaps we waited too long. They mistook our patience for weakness, and began a campaign of conquest. We were always few, perhaps a hundred of us, and a similar number of them, so they needed foot soldiers to occupy and hold land. Know how they did that?'
Aaditya shook his head, as an image came up on the display in front of him. It was that of the kind of men he had encountered at the Old Fort and on his roof-large, dark, and with the ridged forehead.
'Daityas,' Vishnu continued, 'They took some of the early proto-human species and created cloned monsters. Strong, ruthless and obedient, but not very smart. With those demons, they unleashed their reign of terror. They sided with human dictators, promising them power and helping with these demons and their technologies, but in reality making them slaves.'
The display now showed vimanas flying high overhead, as a medieval looking army laid siege to a fort. Aaditya interrupted Vishnu. 'If this is true, and they were interfering in human affairs with these daityas and their vimanas, someone would have noticed it.'
Vishnu smiled.
'They did. In a way, we are lucky that you modern humans have such short memories and that you've come to trust nothing but what you discover for yourselves. Otherwise, our existence would have been no secret.'
He pointed to the display where text emerged in a language Aaditya did not recognize, and then dissolved into its English translation.
Vimanas, decked and equipped according to rule, looked like heavenly structures in the sky. . borne away they looked like highly beautiful flights of birds.
'That's from the Indian epic Mahabharata, written some three thousand years ago.'
Another quote appeared.
The Puspaka Vimana that resembles the sun and belongs to my brother, was brought by the powerful Ravan; that aerial and excellent car, going everywhere at will, is ready for thee. That car, resembling a bright cloud in the sky, is in the city of Lanka.
'That's from your Ramayana, written even earlier. And it isn't just your people who recorded it. Another quote.'
A rushing windy great thundercloud like flying craft flew out of the north. The vehicle had the appearance of brilliant glowing fire all around it and the centre of the illumination the vehicle was polished metal.
'That's Ezekiel speaking, in the Bible.'
Seeing Aaditya's expression, Vishnu added with a smile, 'If you don't believe me, Google it, as you say nowadays.'
'Did you fight these Ashwins then?'
'Oh we had to. We couldn't let them continue. Not after they crossed a threshold we never imagined they would.'
'What did they do?'
In response, Vishnu took the vimana into a gut-wrenching dive and sped towards the Earth.
'Look down. What do you see?'
Aaditya saw a lake…no, as he looked closer, he could see that the water was contained in a depression of some kind.
'Looks like one of those meteorite craters that you see on Discovery Channel.'
Vishnu nodded.
'Looks like one but it isn't. This is in Lonar, just a few hundred kilometres from Mumbai, and the crater you see is over six thousand feet in diameter and was formed over 12,000 years ago. It looks like a meteorite crater but no evidence has been found of an impact. Do you know why?'
Aaditya shrugged his shoulders.
'Because it's not a meteorite crater at all. It is the impact point of the first use of nuclear weapons in the history of Earth.'
***
Aaditya sat wordlessly as Vishnu took his vimana on a trip crisscrossing many continents at speeds well in excess of five thousand kilometres per hour, pausing only to show him a site of interest before moving to the next.
'The Ashwins used the nuclear weapon to support one of their human client states in a war, and then repeated it several times. It emerged that the first use was executed on the orders of one the Ashwin generals, a wonderful specimen called Maya, whom I believe you know well. When we sought to intervene to stop this madness, they used nuclear weapons against us.'
Aaditya involuntarily clenched his fist at the memory of the snake-eyed monster and also the fact that his father's last transmission had mentioned a red-tipped craft like the one Maya piloted.
'So many years later, the traces remain. In Rajasthan, near Jodhpur, there is still a mile wide area of high radioactivity. In the Middle East, there are peaks that seem to have been cleaved off, and their tops still show radioactive traces. Look below you and see the blackened top.'
'And I suppose that this use of nuclear weapons is also recorded?'
Vishnu shook his head, as if in mock despair. 'Ever the skeptic. But don't take my word for it. This is what the Mahabharata says.'
The holographic display glowed with a new set of characters.
A single projectile
Charged with all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of smoke and flame
As bright as the thousand suns
Rose in all its splendor…
…it was an unknown weapon,
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of death,
Which reduced to ashes
The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.
Aaditya was silent for a while.
'So you didn't retaliate?'
Vishnu began to set a course back to base as he responded.
'Oh we retaliated all right. We obliterated them. First we wiped out their major base in the Middle East-an episode that has gone down in human folklore as Sodom and Gomorrah. They had set up one of their generals in Lanka and we destroyed him, and then unable to break through their defenses, we used nuclear explosions to create giant tidal waves that destroyed their main citadel. And thus the legend of Atlantis was born.'
'And then?'
Aaditya could now see the Himalayan peaks over the horizon, as Vishnu responded.
'And then, we stepped back and looked at what we had unleashed. The Earth was devastated, the nuclear winter brought on a new ice age, and we left, vowing to return when the Earth was indeed more ready in terms of its evolution for us to make contact again.'
'But…'
Vishnu silenced him.
'I cannot give you all the answers in one flight. If you choose to remain, you will get all of them gradually.'
The vimana landed in a few minutes and Aaditya was back in his room, thinking over all that he had seen and heard. There was a knock on the door. It was Tanya.
'I heard about your trip. They must feel for your situation, otherwise I've never seen them take so much effort.'
Aaditya sat down beside Tanya.
'It all sounds so….'
'Crazy?' Tanya volunteered.
'Well, yeah.'
'Sometimes, Aadi, if there is no other feasible alternative than what you see with your own eyes, no matter how unexpected or improbable it seems, it is perhaps the truth.'
Aaditya turned towards her.
'I didn't realize you were a philosopher.'
She smiled. 'Hardly, but I've seen too many people discover this and then not be able to cope with it, or worse, use the knowledge to try and get fame when they go back.'
Aaditya just sat there quietly for a minute, still coming to grips with everything he had just learned. He felt Tanya's hand close over his.
'Aadi, I know just how tough it is to lose one's family, so I can understand your pain. If you do stay, and just want someone to talk to, I'm always here.'
Aaditya looked at her and smiled.
'Thanks. At least I have you to chat with and relate to. It must have been tough for you, being….alone here.'
Aaditya saw her face darken and mentally kicked himself for saying the wrong thing.
'Hey, I'm sorry if I said something wrong.'
Tanya quickly composed herself.
'I guess I'm used to it now. This is the only life I know. So while you were dating girls in college, I was handling lost explorers and half-crazy adventurers.'
It was said with a smile, but Aaditya thought he heard something more.
'That's too bad, if we had been in the same college, or if I had met you somewhere else, I would have asked you out for sure.'
'Why don't you?' she said with a sly smile.
'I mean, where would we go? To the hangar?'
Tanya got up, a twinkle in her eyes.
'The Devas don't just wage war against evil and fly around in their vimanas. They know how to throw a mean party as well.'
'You've gotta be kidding.'
'They'll only let you in there if you're staying.'
Aaditya hadn't yet digested everything he had seen, but he knew here was an attractive girl literally asking him to ask her out.
'Let's go.'
They walked together down a corridor, then entered a room that took Aaditya's breath away. There were flashing lights and music. Aaditya found it surreal, but they were playing Floyd. Tanya nudged him.
'They like this music a lot.'
Shiva was in a corner, drinking from his hip flask, next to Kartik who seemed to be nursing his own drink. Indra was seated at a bar where a small bartender was mixing a drink for him. The bartender was so short that only the top of his bald head was visible above the bar. Narada was sitting by himself in a corner, strumming a stringed instrument.
Tanya grinned. 'Come on, try it.'
The bartender handed Aaditya a glass of cream-coloured liquid. When he took a sip, he realized it was the same drink Shiva had poured for him. It was sweet, but he already knew how potent it could be.
'Welcome to the wonders of Soma,' laughed Indra
Just then the music changed to a fast beat, and Shiva leapt on to the dance floor, moving faster and with more rhythm than Aaditya had ever seen.
'Care to dance?' asked Tanya.
Aaditya, feeling a bit light-headed after his drink, agreed, but as they were about to enter the dance floor, he stopped.
'Tanya, I'm not much of a dancer…'
Tanya hushed him.
'There's more than one way to dance.'
The two of them, oblivious to everything around them, held each other as they slow danced. As Aaditya held her close to him and looked into her eyes, he tried to remind himself. This is not the right time or the right place, and for God's sake, she lives with aliens.
But, in the battle between mind and heart, as usually happens, the heart won out. That evening, they left together. He did not ask her to. They had been holding hands, and when it came time to leave, it just felt right to leave hand in hand. They walked for a long time, talking, and then they stopped in front of Aaditya's room. As he faced her and looked into her eyes, without thinking about it, he leaned down and kissed her, a single tentative kiss. He pulled back, wondering if he had done something wrong. But then she looked up and smiled at him. It melted away all his uncertainties. It told him that in the midst of all the chaos he found himself involved in, this was the one thing that made sense.
The next morning, he went back to the conference room, having asked for a meeting with Brahma. He found Brahma studying something on a small holographic display hovering above his palm. He looked up as Aaditya entered, and the display disappeared.
'So, my son, what have you decided?'
Aaditya spoke with a newfound certainty. 'There is a lot I don't understand yet, and honestly, a lot that does not yet make sense. But it's clear that if I ever want a chance at avenging my father's death, it has to be with your help.'
Brahma beamed with pleasure.
'I am glad you made that decision, but you do realize that you will not be piloting a vimana into combat, don't you?'
'I do, but I will start by helping in any way I can and then one day, earn the trust to do just that.'
Durga came into the room, and stood just behind Aaditya. 'Are you sure there's no other reason for your wanting to stay?'
Aaditya turned around, not knowing what to say, but in her expression he saw no mocking, only a genuine smile of warmth.
'Aadi, we all see Tanya like our own adopted daughter. But one day soon, we will reveal ourselves, and then she needs a life back among humans. I cannot think of anyone better to help ease her into that than you.'
Brahma was about to go back to the display on his palm, when Aaditya interrupted him. 'There's just one thing I wanted to know. Vishnu told me that you all left after the nuclear wars, so why are you still fighting and whom are you fighting against?'
Brahma looked up.
'We are fighting the same enemy, Aadi. The same one who brought catastrophe to Earth so many years ago with his greed. He and a few of his generals, including Maya, escaped, as we were to find out later.'
He motioned to the centre of the room, where the large display reappeared showing footage of a fleet of large ships approaching the Earth from space.
'We monitored Earth's development, and though you suffered the growing pangs and pains of all civilizations, two hundred years ago, we were sure that you were on the verge of reaching a level of technological and intellectual development where we could contact you. So we came back, with many more of us this time.'
The display now showed a barren frozen wasteland.
'To ease our way in, we set up base under the snowfields of Siberia, where there was no trace of humans for thousands of miles around.'
Then the display showed a bright light streaking through the night sky, a flash of light so bright that Aaditya had to avert his eyes. When he turned back to the display, he saw a mushroom cloud forming over the snow-covered landscape.
'What your scientists call the Tunguska Event of 1908: a gigantic explosion in remote Siberia that they still have not been able to explain. But we know only too well what caused it. A nuclear explosion 1000 times more destructive than the first human nuclear bomb dropped over Hiroshima. An explosion caused by our returning arch-enemy. Many of us perished, but several of us were aloft in our vimanas and we regrouped at this new hidden base. And our struggle resumed.'
'Who is this guy?'
Brahma motioned for the display to go away.
'Someone we once held dear. One of us. Your culture knows him by many names, Shaitan, Satan, and the Devil. I know him by the name I gave him once as a proud father. Kalki.'