Mainak Dhar - Vimana

Maya's left hand was now around Aaditya's throat, and with his right he was trying to reach for a weapon he had holstered at his waist. The vimana was now at an altitude of perhaps a thousand feet and had come to a standstill as the two occupants fought for their lives. As Aaditya felt Maya's grip on his neck tighten, he hoped that the Devas had picked up his signal and would be coming soon.

'I should have gutted you when I had the chance. You are a treacherous dog like your father was!'

The mention of his father gave Aaditya new found strength and he leaned closer to Maya, brought his head up, the top of his head making hard contact with Maya's chin. Maya was unbalanced by the sudden move, and his grip loosened. Aaditya seized the opportunity and landed a blow on Maya's exposed neck with his right hand. Maya seemed to be winded for a second but then quickly recovered and struck back with an open handed blow to the face that sent Aaditya reeling back, bleeding from the nose. Aaditya was fighting with all the strength, anger and desperation he could muster, but even he knew that this was a battle he had little chance of winning. Maya was just too strong and too quick for him to take on in hand-to-hand combat. But if these were going to be his last moments, he would take Maya with him. The monster who had destroyed his life by capturing his father, and had later killed Kartik, would not walk away today.

As Maya loomed over him, trying to strangle him again, Aaditya kicked out at the control panel with his right foot. The vimana suddenly lurched to the left and Maya was thrown hard against the wall. Aaditya grabbed for the weapon from Maya's holster, but before that Maya had picked up the blade Aaditya had dropped. He brought it down hard on Aaditya's right thigh. For a second Maya looked down at the blade sticking out of Aaditya's thigh uncomprehendingly, wondering why there was no bleeding or pain.

And Aaditya resolved never again to curse the fact that he had one artificial leg.

Before Maya could recover from his surprise, Aaditya brought up the weapon in his hand and fired a burst at point blank range into Maya's chest, and then another burst as Maya fell back hard, a spider web of cracks showing in the canopy where the Asura's head had struck it.

Before Aaditya's eyes, Maya seemed to implode in on himself, his body collapsing into a red-hot dot and then reduced to a pile of smoking ash. That was when Aaditya knew he had perhaps finished himself as well. His second burst had opened a gaping hole in the side of the vimana, the craft was beginning to wobble dangerously as the cold air streamed in. Aaditya jumped into the pilot's seat but before he could do anything the vimana entered a nosedive.

He suddenly heard Kalki's voice boom over the intercom. 'Maya, we've been under attack in the hangar, but all the attackers are dead or gone. What is going on up there?'

With the last reserve of courage he had, Aaditya tried to still his mind. Even if he didn't make it, he didn't want Kalki to discover his deception.

'This is Aaditya,' he said, grabbing an earpiece lying near the pile of ashes.

'Where's Maya?'

Aaditya's mind raced, trying to think of something to say. 'They must have sabotaged the vimana. There was an explosion. Maya is gone and I'm about to crash. I don't know what to do.'

He heard Kalki bellow in rage as the vimana impacted the water. A split second later freezing water streamed in through the hole. He swam out, gasping at how cold it was. Once he had been a good swimmer, but now tired from the fight, slowed down by his artificial leg, and in the freezing ocean waters, the best he could hope for was to paddle about and try and survive long enough till the Devas got there.

His whole body felt numb, and he began to give up hope. He looked up at the night sky, bright with stars, and watched as a couple of the stars seemed to blink brighter than the others. He was slipping into shock rapidly. Then the stars seemed to come closer. He thought he heard someone calling out to him. He heard a splash in the water nearby and strong arms grabbing him. He was too tired to resist, even if it was Kalki himself, but the last thing he saw before blacking out was Shiva's smiling face.

'I've got you, son.'

The first thing Aaditya felt were Tanya's lips on his own, a wonderful and welcome sensation. He drifted in and out of consciousness, but remembered two things that kept him going. One was the knowledge of what his father had done and the second was hearing Tanya repeating that she loved him and was waiting for him. When he finally came to, Tanya was by his side, holding his hand, tears streaming down her face.

'Hey, beautiful.'

Tanya hugged him close. If it hadn't felt so good, he may have asked her to give him some space, since his body still felt like it had been in a car wreck.

'Thank god you're back.'

Aaditya looked at her, cupped her chin in both his hands and kissed her. 'Tanya, I love you. More than anything or anybody else in the world.'

The next few days were spent filling in the Devas on what he had seen inside Kalki's lair, and about the one weakness in Kalki's base that he had learnt of.

'December 21 is just a couple of weeks away. We should just hover nearby and attack whenever any craft takes off from his base.'

Brahma looked at Shiva and silently shook his head, indicating his disapproval.

'Shiva, if we just hover around his base all day, he'll suspect something is wrong. We need to wait for the day before we act.'

Indra was sitting in a corner, lost in thought. 'Aadi, we should just launch a few nuclear weapons down that bloody tube when his craft come out. We can deal with them in the air and the nukes will wipe out his base.'

Aaditya didn't need more than a split second to respond, Leslie and Jim's faces looming large before his eyes. 'There are thousands of innocent people there. We can't just slaughter them to get to Kalki.'

Shiva started to object, but Brahma raised his hand, as if indicating that the debate was over. 'The boy is right. If we stoop to that level, we are no better than Kalki. Indra, we need to have a plan ready. The challenge is we need to time it with Kalki's plan. If we act too soon, he will suspect something is wrong.'

That evening, Aaditya was seated with Tanya on a perch overlooking the main hangar. Their hands were intertwined, her head on his shoulders. For the first time, he had told anyone else about what he had learnt about his father's last moments. He had not realized it at first, but his eyes had filled with tears. Tanya held him tight.

He finally left her only when Shiva sent summons to join them for a meeting. It was a chaotic affair, with every one of the Devas having his or her own opinion about what to do. Aaditya walked away feeling more than a little afraid. For all their power and technology, it was clear that the Devas had not really figured out any real way of stopping Kalki.

On his way back he bumped into Ganesha, who called him over into his room, where he had been sitting in front of his monitors.

'I've called Narada and Tanya as well. I thought we could chat about an idea I have.'

Aaditya had never seen Ganesha this intense before, his normally jovial features obscured by a mask of intense thought.

'Ganesha, what's on your mind?'

'Here they are. Folks, just gather around.'

Both Narada and Tanya seemed as clueless as Aaditya.

'They're going about this all wrong.'

Ganesha was pointing in the direction of the conference room where the other Devas were assembled. Narada tried to say something, but Ganesha continued speaking, cutting him off. 'They are angry, and they are afraid, and so they are doing nothing more than react to Kalki. We cannot win if we just wait for him to make his move.'