Mainak Dhar - Vimana

'Look, I'm alone, unarmed and now your prisoner. Do you really need all this security and for me to be handcuffed like this?'

Maya leaned close, his rancid breath on Aaditya's face. 'My puny little cripple, we are not afraid of you, but we are all afraid of Kalki. Terrified, in fact. He has commanded that you be delivered to him without a scratch, and if you try something stupid and get hurt, all of us will get roasted alive. Get it?'

Aaditya just nodded and continued, now even more nervous about what lay in store for him. The corridor ended when it intersected another, this one lined with doors. Maya swiped a card in front of one of the doors and it slid open.

'Rest here till I come to get you.'

Maya unlocked Aaditya's handcuffs and as he entered the room, lights on the ceiling turned on. He tried opening the door but could see no way of doing it. He was truly a prisoner now. As he turned to look around the room, he saw that it was not too uncomfortable. The room itself was quite large, perhaps almost as large as his apartment back home in Delhi, with a thin wall partitioning the living and sleeping areas. There was a large bed in a corner of the sleeping area, with a comfortable looking mattress and pillows and a sofa set against the wall. There was an attached bathroom and a writing desk in the sleeping area with a lamp. Not having anything else to do, Aaditya sat down on the bed, wondering what he had got himself into. Now there was no going back at all-for all his planning and thinking, he realized that now he was going to be entirely at Kalki's mercy. He only hoped that he could bluff Kalki into thinking that he did indeed have something to bargain with, at least long enough to learn how the Asura base worked. As for getting away, Narada had installed the beacon, but first Aaditya would need to get back to the surface, or at least out of the base. It struck him that being sent on such a mission, which even he could see had gaping holes, told him just how desperate the Devas really were. If he had been asked to volunteer for such a mission in any other circumstances, he doubted he would have had the suicidal courage to go through with it.

But he was here not only for the Devas or indeed only to help foil Kalki's plans. It was much more personal than that. If only he learnt what had really happened to his father, even this crazy mission would be worth it.

Aaditya lay down on the bed, and despite all his anxieties, dozed off for a few minutes. He woke up with a start, his throat dry with thirst. There was a jug of water and a glass on the table. He had poured himself a glass when he saw a photograph lying face down on the table. He picked it up, and turned it around to have a look, and dropped his glass in shock.

The photograph was one of him and his father. He remembered it being taken on one of his birthdays and showed the two of them standing before a MiG-29 fighter. His birthday gift that year had been a new watch, but what he had cherished most was getting an hour-long briefing on how the fighter's weapons worked, from his father and the chief maintenance officer at the base. Those fond memories were now replaced with a knot in his stomach-what was this photo doing here?

He opened the drawer of the study table and found a thin writing pad. The first page had a doodle of a fighter plane. He did not need anyone to tell him who had drawn it. His father had been a gifted artist, and he had seen numerous such doodles around the house.

Now Aaditya's mind was in utter turmoil. Was his father still alive? Had he been put in this room to share it with his father? His pulse pounding, he looked around to see what other signs of his father he could find. He rummaged through the bedside table and the living area but could find nothing else that would show that his father still lived in this room. He then saw a sliding panel in the sleeping area. With no visible controls to open it with, he stuck his fingers to push it open, but as he did so, the panel slid aside with a soft hiss.

It was a wardrobe. On a hanger was his father's old flight suit and helmet. The suit was torn in a couple of places and the helmet looked dented in several places, but it was unmistakably his father's flight suit, with the name 'Ghosh' embroidered on a patch at the chest.

Aaditya took a couple of steps back, his mind churning out the possibilities. Could it be true that his father had indeed survived the crash, and had worked for Kalki? Was it possible that his father was still alive?

Just then he heard a voice boom over some unseen speakers in the room. It was Kalki.

'Welcome to our humble home. I think now it's time I finally met you.'

***

Ten minutes later, Aaditya was standing in some sort of control room. It was full of screens that covered the wall. Some of them showed what appeared to be radar displays while others showed grainy black and white videos that seemed to be real time visuals from drones or vimanas on reconnaissance missions. There was a large padded chair in the middle of the room with its back to Aaditya. He could not see who was sitting in it, though he had a fairly good idea of who it must be.

Maya, who had accompanied him to the room, seemed to have transformed. Whenever Aaditya has seen him previously, he had been aggressive, even cocky. But now he had his eyes lowered and spoke in a submissive whisper.

'I have him here, Kalki.'

'Go now and leave us alone.'

Kalki voice was deeper and more full throated in real life than he had sounded in his recordings or broadcasts. Maya and the others bowed deep and left the room.

Now it was just Aaditya and Kalki. 'So, tell me one thing. Why are you with the Devas?'

'Because you or your people killed my father.'

Aaditya had answered without thinking, and wondered just how true that was. And if it were true, then were his motives in siding with the Devas so selfish? Kalki chuckled.

'Honesty. I love that. You are honest and brave, but like so many of your people, you are also gullible.'

Aaditya realized that he was not really expected to reply, so he waited for Kalki to continue.

'Actually I don't blame you. You've had the very best deceivers to take you for a ride. Know who I am talking about?'

Again Aaditya kept quiet.

'Your Devas, that's who. For all their pretensions of trying to save worlds, they do enjoy the attention. That's why they secretly love being considered gods, and look at the fat lot of good organized religion has brought your world. People tearing themselves apart, in the name of god.'

As Aaditya listened to Kalki, he had to consciously remind himself that this was someone who had killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and not an innocent victim of the Devas' machinations. But Kalki was such a convincing speaker it was hard to not get carried away by his story.

'But you know what their ultimate deception is? The one that I find the hardest to fight?'

Another rhetorical question, another pause before Kalki proceeded. By now it was clear Kalki liked to do all the talking.

'Their biggest deception is that they have successfully demonized me in the eyes of my own children.'

The statement was so strange that Aaditya found himself blurting out, 'What do you mean your children? Where do they come into all this?'

Kalki laughed, a sound like that of an engine idling.

'My children. You. All of you. All the humans on this planet. I created the first of your ancestors, elevating you to become the dominant species on this planet from being little more than apes. And far from being treated as your creator, the Devas have labeled me as Satan, the Devil, Shaitan, call it what you will, while they enjoy the status of gods.'

He spat out the last few words.

'From what I have seen and heard, you've been quite liberal in killing off your so-called children to meet your goals.' Aaditya had found his courage and his voice, both born out of rising anger at Kalki's complaints and platitudes when just over the last few weeks, he had witnessed thousands of people dying due to the tsunamis unleashed by Kalki.