Mainak Dhar - Vimana

***

'Check if the money's there. It should be in the overseas account you had specified.'

Aaditya had no need to check. Just before he had left, Ganesha had given him confirmation that the money had indeed been transferred to the account.

'So, Maya, what now? It would seem that I am now at your disposal.'

Maya grinned, revealing sharp-edged teeth. 'If you were truly at my disposal, I would have made an interesting spectacle of you. But my master desires that I get you to him in one piece. Follow me.'

Maya and Aaditya sat in the back seat of the Honda City that the two daityas had been driving, and soon they set off on what seemed to be a meandering drive through the city.

'Where are we going? Or are you just lost?'

Maya snapped in reply, 'Shut up and sit back. We can't be flying you out in broad daylight, so we'll wait till it gets darker and then get to the takeoff point.'

For the next three hours, Aaditya did little but fret, with Maya obviously enjoying his discomfiture. Finally, at 5 p.m., the car took the highway, and picked up speed. They drove for another hour before they came to a stop on the side of the road. Both daityas got out, holding handheld devices.

'No vehicles within two kilometres.'

'Now,' barked Maya.

Suddenly, it seemed as if the clouds had parted and the sun arisen again in the fading light. A bright light shone down over the highway. Aaditya saw a familiar shape descend and land next to the car. It was Maya's vimana.

'Get out quickly and follow me,' Maya barked at Aaditya.

Aaditya got into the cockpit, which had side by side seating like the vimana he had flown. However, as Maya took off, he quickly realized just why the Asuras seemed to have fared so badly in their aerial engagements with the Devas. While the Deva vimanas had seemed like something out of science fiction novels, with their thought controls and holographic displays, the cockpit of this vimana was not entirely unlike those of modern jet fighters. There was a glass heads up display and digital readings and screens of the sort that Aaditya had seen in magazine articles about the next generation of fighters. There was also a more conventional looking control stick. However, Maya seemed to be controlling the vimana with his voice commands, speaking in hushed tones into an earpiece. A voice controlled craft meant that at least his vimana would have an important reaction and speed advantage versus the other conventionally controlled vimanas the Asuras were supposed to have.

'I thought you only had kritika vimanas. Clearly you seem to have a mantric one. Still, if this is the best you have, no wonder you get wiped out every time you fight the Devas.'

Maya had taken off his sunglasses. He glared at Aaditya with his snake eyes, but said nothing. The vimana climbed to more than 20,000 feet and accelerated. The radar display was full of contacts, and Aaditya guessed that whatever their other shortcomings, the Asura vimanas were as stealthy as those of the Devas for Maya to be able to fly around with such impunity and no apparent fear of detection.

As the trip progressed, Aaditya found his curiousity and excitement gradually replaced by a growing sense of dread. Maya had said absolutely nothing to him since they had got inside the vimana, and it appeared that he had chosen to ignore Aaditya's initial insults simply because it was apparent who held the cards now. For all his planning, Aaditya was now at the mercy of the Asuras, and as he looked at the wide expanse of the ocean below him, he began to wonder if his plan had been doomed from the start.

Maya must have sensed what was on his mind, and whispered to Aaditya with a gentleness that he would have put beyond the Asura. 'You need not worry. Kalki has said that you are to be treated very well.'

But any relief Aaditya felt dissipated as Maya followed through, bellowing in laughter. 'Of course, when he's through with you, he may decide to feed you to the daityas.'

Maya kept cackling as the vimana continued on its path. Aaditya saw on the display that they were now quite close to the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, and the vimana entered a gradual descent. He began to breathe deeply, trying to still his mind and not panic. The vimana descended below five hundred feet and then continued in level flight, seemingly barely skimming the waves below. Just when Aaditya began to wonder what Maya was planning to do, the vimana came to an abrupt halt, hovering in position. Then Aaditya gasped as a giant black sphere began to rise out of the water in front of him. Even though only its tip was out of the water, it totally dwarfed the vimana, and its surface was polished smooth and gleaming.

A panel slid open on the side of the sphere, and Maya guided the vimana into the dark tunnel it revealed. As they entered the tunnel, the panel closed behind them. The light from outside gradually disappeared, and the vimana continued down the tunnel in complete darkness. Aaditya had entered Kalki's lair.

A sudden explosion of light nearly blinded Aaditya. They had been traveling in absolute darkness for what seemed to be an eternity when the darkness suddenly gave way to bright light.

'Home sweet home.' Aaditya heard Maya mutter. He lowered his hands to see that they had had emerged from what appeared to be a tunnel into the light. What he saw beneath took his breath away. As far as the eye could see, the surface was covered in rolling, green fields. He could see corn, wheat, rice and other crops arrayed in neatly arranged farms. Even though they must have been more than a hundred feet above the surface, he could see unmistakably human figures tending to some of the crops. Maya must have guessed what was going through his mind.

'You didn't really buy the cock and bull story about us being servants of the devil condemned to a hell of fire and brimstone, did you?'

'Who are those people?'

Maya smiled as he looked at Aaditya. 'Humans who know their place.'

Looming over the horizon was a gigantic pyramid, covered entirely in what seemed to be gold, gleaming from the reflection of countless lights that were on the roof of whatever base they were inside. Maya continued his guided tour.

'Down here, night or day doesn't really matter, but we all spent so much time up there, that we like to pretend it is daylight. Plus, one day we will return.'

If this was hell, it certainly didn't look anything like what Aaditya had imagined. As they came closer to the pyramid, a panel slid open near the middle and Maya guided his vimana into it. The inside of the pyramid was a stark contrast of the outside. If the land outside resembled some bizarre underwater rural idyll, inside it resembled the fortress of an army. Heavily armed daityas milled around the vimana, as if they expected Aaditya to single-handedly destroy their base. Arrayed around the hangar were several other Asura vimanas and countless drones shaped like Su-30s, F-22s and other top-of-the-line fighter aircraft.

When Aaditya stepped out of the vimana, two daityas pushed him roughly to the ground, while another frisked him, a bit too roughly, as if on purpose. Another ran some scanner over his body. When Aaditya got up, he saw Maya smiling broadly, as if enjoying his discomfort.

'Now strip.'

Aaditya stared at Maya.

'You heard me. Strip. We can't be sure what you're carrying. Then put these on.'

He handed Aaditya some plain loose-fitting white clothes of the sort he had seen the people working on the farms outside wearing. He slipped them on, feeling the coarse cloth bite into his bare skin.

Before he could say or do anything, a daitya slipped handcuffs around his hands. He was asked to walk into one of the corridors leading out of the hangar, and at all times, he had two armed daityas ringing him, while Maya stayed a few feet behind. As menacing as they looked, he thought he saw nervousness in the daityas' eyes. They walked for what seemed to be several minutes and finally, unable to contain his curiosity, Aaditya turned around to talk to Maya.