Vimana (15 page)

Aaditya soaked in the information as he kept looking at the red dots on his display, now closing in towards him and Kartik.

'Unfortunately, Brahma has forbidden combat this close to our base, since we don't want to attract attention in case any humans spot explosions. So today, we fly away.'

Kartik's vimana dove away, and Aaditya followed suit. By now, while not nearly as fast or as quick as Kartik, Aaditya had reached a point where he could fly without requiring too much instruction. As he flew back to the base, he thought that, for the first time outside of his dreams or video games, he could truthfully say that he was a pilot.

He found Tanya waiting in his room. A quick kiss, and then she was about to leave.

'Brahma wants me to work on a special project. I'm going crazy with work.'

'What project?'

'He's asked me to think through what people's reactions could be from a religious standpoint if the Devas make their presence public.'

Aaditya had heard mention before about the Devas thinking of how they would handle their first official contact with humans. He asked what Brahma had in mind.

'He doesn't tell me, but I think he's worried that with the way Kalki's going, it may become inevitable if the war comes into the open.'

As Aaditya started to change, Tanya stopped at the door. 'Hey Aadi, I found a weird looking plug in one of your pockets. I was about to throw it away but thought I'd ask if you needed it. Be back soon, sweetheart.'

Aaditya looked at the small plug lying on the table, and his heart stopped for a second. In all the excitement of the last few days, he had forgotten all about it. He reached out with shaking fingers to pick up the plug that Maya had given him in Afghanistan.

What did Kalki have to say to him about his father?

***

'I am honoured to be speaking to Ghosh's son.'

The deep, measured voice sounded like it belonged to a sports commentator rather than a renegade god out to destroy the world.

'What a twist of fate! The son of the man who served me so well now serves my enemies. I hear you are quite a favourite of the Devas, and if you are half the man your father was, I don't blame them. Words are cheap, and you may not believe me, but I am not who Brahma and the Devas make me out to be. If ever you really want to learn what happened to your father, come to me. The Devas know where I am, and I know exactly where they are. Since we cannot break each other's defences, we play our game of cat and mouse all over your planet. But I do hope to get a chance to see you.'

Aaditya took the plug out and sat back, thinking about what he had just heard. What had happened to his father? What was the truth about Kalki? If his father had indeed lived after the accident and worked for Kalki, why had he not come back?

That night, as he and Tanya lay on the couch, watching TV, Aaditya asked her, 'Hey, I was wondering what the deal with Kalki is. I mean, he's Brahma's son, isn't he? So, why's he such an enemy of the Devas?'

Tanya propped her chin up on her palms and looked at Aaditya. 'They say he was Brahma's favourite son. The strongest, the smartest. That's perhaps why the Devas took his betrayal so hard. But what's with the interest in Kalki? How's your flying going?'

The next day, Aaditya went to meet Ganesha, who was still lost in his monitors and data.

'Hey Ganesha, was thinking of doing some research on the Asuras. Any idea where I could start?'

'You've come to the right place. Sit down on the red chair there. That's where we bring up our archives. I'm afraid you may not be able to access everything, but whatever's cleared for you to see is there. All you need to do is ask.'

Aaditya got all he wanted to know about the Asuras and their vimanas, and then some. There were detailed manuals on the daityas and how best to defeat them. For some reason, a strike to the back of the neck seemed to work. He learnt about battles from Earth's ancient past. Under other circumstances he would have loved to sit and learn about how the Devas defeated an army of daityas in battle on the banks of the Euphrates River using tactical nuclear weapons more than 12,000 years ago. But, try as he may, he got no hits on Kalki. All he got were references of him leading the Asuras, or to plots he had hatched. But there was nothing about who he really was and why the Devas hated and feared him so much.

His curiosity aroused, he remembered what Brahma had told him- that Kalki was also the same evil creature that lived in human memory as the Devil or Satan. If the Devas were not going to help him, he could always turn to Google. Back in his room, he brought up a web browser on the holographic display and searched for 'devil and the gods'. The world's religions essentially mirrored the story that Brahma had told him, that Satan, or Lucifer as he was known in the Bible, had been one of the angels, and was cast away by God. But why? What had caused this war that was still raging? He came across a passage from the Koran, whose translation read: 'It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels prostrate to Adam, and they prostrate; not so Iblis (Lucifer); He refused to be of those who prostrate.'

(Allah) said: 'What prevented thee from prostrating when I commanded thee?' He said: 'I am better than he: Thou didst create me from fire, and him from clay.'

That evening, Aaditya sought out Narada in the Devas' club. Narada was sitting in a corner, sipping on some Soma. Aaditya picked up a Coke and sat down next to him.

'You missed your flying today. All well?'

Aaditya certainly didn't want to reveal anything about Kalki's message, but he did tell what his searches had revealed.

'I've just been trying to find out what exactly happened to cause this war with Kalki. But I keep drawing a blank. If he was one of the Devas, is this all just about his greed for territory or something more?'

Narada took a long sip and then replied, 'Aadi, there is one thing Brahma may not have told you.'

Aaditya stopped , waiting to hear what Narada had to say.

'Back home, Kalki was the prodigal son- smart, strong, ambitious, the natural heir to Brahma. But when we came here, we all saw that his ambition had a dark tinge. He was not content to wait for his turn to ascend to the top. As your holy books say, he figured it was better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. But then he did something that we should have put an end to.'

'What was that?'

'He interfered in your evolution.'

Aaditya waited for him to explain as Narada drained his glass and filled another.

'When your books say that God made man in his own image, they are not exaggerating. Kalki used genetic engineering to make slightly smarter versions of your Neanderthal ancestors so that he could have an army of his own. Many of his experiments resulted in freaks that did not survive. But two did. The Daityas, whom he used as his muscle.'

'What was the second?' Aaditya asked.

'Homo Sapiens. Your species.'

Aaditya stopped, stunned by what he had heard, as Narada continued,

'Aaditya, he just provided the initial spark all those thousands of years ago. How humans have evolved since then has been the result of your own choices and experiences, and our assessment was that the development of intelligent beings like humans was certain. Kalki just seemed to have accelerated that a bit, but that interference itself was against our rules.'

Aaditya digested everything he had heard, realizing just how complex and layered the connections between the Devas and humans was. Narada spoke again,

'He was Brahma's favoured son, and many of us kept warning Brahma that Kalki was fast getting out of control, but perhaps even he is a father first. So when he did finally order Kalki to cease his activities, Kalki claimed that he was being betrayed, that the other Devas were just jealous. Since then, he has fought two battles- one for survival with us, and the second, for control of those he created and claims as his own- your people.'

Aaditya walked back to his room, feeling confused. Whom should he believe? He was about to turn into the corridor that led to his room when Kartik came running.

'Aadi, where have you been? Come on!'

Aaditya hurriedly followed Kartik towards the hangar.

'Two Asura vimanas just attacked targets in Iran. Looks like they're trying to spark a war in the Middle East, and we tracked two more flying towards Israel.'

'So what do we do?'

'Blow them out of the sky!' replied Kartik with a grin.

Aaditya got into his vimana, still a bit confused by the rapid turn of events. He followed Kartik out of the hangar on the way to his first real-life dogfight.

***

They were five hundred kilometres away when the Asuras showed up on Aaditya's display.

'Hey Kartik, should we fire?'

'No, at this range they'll detect our astras coming and have a pretty good chance of evading them. Plus I like to get up close.'

With that Kartik took his vimana in a steep climb, accelerating to more than Mach 6 and Aaditya followed, knowing what was on the Deva's mind. They would swoop down from above at the Asuras. Given how superior their vimanas were, it struck Aaditya as a bit of overkill that the Devas had sent two of them against two Asuras. He saw the clouds zip by him as he climbed to over 75,000 feet, and then leveled off.

The Asuras were now within Israeli airspace. On the way, he had learnt that an Asura strike had destroyed an Iranian air defence site and this attack was headed straight for the Israeli nuclear facilities near Dimona. Both Israel and Iran would deny the attacks, but the chances of the attacks triggering an all-out war were only too real. As Brahma had told him, part of Kalki's game plan was to bleed and weaken the major human powers, and a conflict like this would no doubt drag the US in.

'Aadi, now's your chance to put all that practice to work. Good hunting.'

Aaditya realized he was being given the first shot, and he closed his eyes for a moment. Could he take another life? Literally, with a thought of his, another being would cease to exist. Could he live with that?

Kartik must have sensed his dilemma.

'Aadi, they're no more than a couple of hundred kilometres from their target. The radioactive fallout of this attack alone may kill thousands, not to mention what may happen if Israel retaliates in kind against Iran. Let me go in if you want.'

Aaditya didn't respond but guided his vimana into a dive aimed at intercepting the Asuras. He was still a hundred kilometres away when a red circle appeared around the dot representing his vimana on his display. The Asuras were tracking him. There was now no backing down.

He picked the lead Asura vimana on his display, and focused his mind on sending two astras to destroy it. No sooner had he thought it, than two balls of blue light emerged from under his vimana and streaked away towards the Asuras. The second Asura pilot, now seeing that they had been ambushed, aborted his attack run and turned towards Aaditya.

The astras, represented by glowing blue dots on his display homed in on their target. The Asura pilot seemed to be maneuvering desperately, but in vain. The blue dots kept closing in towards the red dot on Aaditya's display till they merged, and all three disappeared from the display.

'That's a kill.'

Kartik's voice was exultant. The second Asura was now less than thirty kilometres away and had fired two of his own missiles at Aaditya. He responded without conscious thought, his instincts honed by the hours of flying with Kartik. No sooner had he seen the missiles on his display, than two astras of his own streaked out to intercept them, vaporizing them before they even got close to his vimana. Still clutching on to his lucky charm like an imaginary joystick, Aaditya took his vimana through a tight turn to the left. Now he was heading straight at the Asura, the two vimanas closing in at each other rapidly. The Asura pilot fired one more missile, and Aaditya immediately fired two astras to intercept the missile and also two more at the Asura craft. He watched the four blue bolts streak out into the sky ahead of him, and a fireball glowed briefly before disappearing, signaling the successful interception of the Asura missile. Both remaining astras tracked into the Asura craft. He was so lost in watching the display that Kartik's frantic call jolted him.

'Watch out!! Straight ahead!'

Aaditya looked up to see the Asura vimana was now just a couple of kilometres away, its dark saucer shape plainly visible to the naked eye, and as Aaditya watched, both astras slammed into it. The Asura vimana exploded into countless fragments in a flash of red, and began collapsing upon itself. Aaditya swerved his vimana hard to right, missing the collapsing fragments of the Asura craft by a whisker. When he looked back, there was no trace of the Asura vimana left.

Suddenly, explosions buffeted his vimana on both his left and right.

'What's that?'

'Situational awareness, my friend.'

Kartik had said nothing to the effect, but Aaditya knew how badly he had screwed up. He had been so engrossed in the air battle with the vimanas that he had forgotten all about who else might be watching. His display told him that he was now barely five thousand feet above the ground, and must have been visible to Israeli ground forces, who were peppering him with anti-aircraft fire. His display also showed two green dots closing in on him- Israeli F-15 fighters who, were no doubt being guided by ground forces to intercept a strange aircraft flying overhead.

He looked around and did not see Kartik's vimana, though his display showed that Kartik was just to his right. Lesson learnt, Aaditya willed himself to be invisible. Immediately his display went blank. He watched in fascination as the Israeli fighters passed within a few hundred feet of him, puzzled at the sudden disappearance of the intruding craft. When the fighters had left the area, Aaditya and Kartik charted a course back to base.

When Aaditya got out of his cockpit, he saw a veritable reception committee waiting for him. Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Indra were all there, as was Tanya, who ran up to him and hugged him as soon as his feet hit the ground.