Sati moved effortlessly through the carpet. The climate conditioner was at full blast at this time of the day. She sipped at the cold water she held and felt it slip down her throat, feeling the cold through her lungs. The journalist on the Ariel was screaming at the top of his lungs over the disappearance of a power station engineer a month ago. The peacekeepers were clueless about the incident. The head of the crime branch, Mr. Harry was being accused by the nameless journalist of the Canneti TV Network. Sati rummaged in the shelf in front of her and found the remote control. She pressed the button to change the reception but her comm rang. A blue wireframe of Indrani popped up.
“My laws have been accepted” Indrani said breathlessly.“That’s awesome!” Sati wanted to ask her how it had all gone but then a news flash on the Ariel caught her eye.She quickly dropped the comm device and turned up the volume.“This just in! BilliIn the early 3100’s global warming and rising sea levels rendered Earth inhabitable. Governments’ & corporations around the world scavenged for a habitable planets across the vast Space and one group, led by ISRO, settled on the TRAPPIST’s binary system with a red dwarf sun. The planet was teeming with alien life, but most astounding was the humanoid race, now extinct, that were indigenous to the planet. They resembled humans and had pyramid shrines. Refugees from Earth divided in two cultural societies: One that believed the aliens to be Gods and the progenitors of humans on earth – The Ancients and other that believed in the one true God – The nameless God ‘Yesus. Humans took over and made the place their home. The world was built without any boundary, one big nation Annicet land with the capital Canneti. November 26, 3498. Planet R-786 TRAPPIST Planetary system, 40 light years from the sun.
January, 3505, Planet R-786 TRAPPIST Planetary system, 40 light years from the sun. Twilight crawled in nice and slow over the white dwarf sun and doused the city in orange. A bleak and uninviting breeze picked up pace and drove most of the men inside. Nocturnal beings ventured out. A rectangular hover craft zoomed past the empty city, people unaware of its existence. It slowed down and dived steep towards the deserted street of Canneti and pulled up just in time. The diver relaxed his grip and glanced back with a boyish grin towards a government labour regulations office, a grin stretched out from his scarred face, like remembering something. Seven years ago the monster within him had raised its hood, frightening him to his core. He had since mastered the monster but kept him alive. On the outside he was the chief of one of the biggest slave traders of the planet, inside he was a serpent. Venomous and vicious. Suddenly, he heard a soft voice, "Please" it call
Kane rode straight to the visitor’s entry of the Ministry of Labour. He fumbled with his comm module for a second and scanned the code on the dilapidated gate. A female voice chimed, Mr. Kane, Registered A class Contractor,-Slave Trade Visitor number 247. A badge with his name and visitor number rattled through a small chute. He picked it up and entered. Not talking to Indrani twelve days in a row had not been a particularly pleasant experience for him. In his school days, Sayan would always be there to talk to. And there were a thousand other distractions if you were a student of St. Louso’s school of Protoplanet Exploration, but this was not school anymore. Kane reached the Atrium. A collosal gold fountain displaying the Ancient Aliens loomed in view on the spot where the Fountain of Lord Luso stood less than a year ago. The Slave Rebellion had eaten up lives of twenty Ancients along with the seat for the previous government. The bi-party system meant that
"The trouble with the demilien community," Indrani exploded, emphasising each words with a thump on the polished mahogany round table, "is that the Ministry doesn’t have a complete representation. There's the Demilien’s council and there's a Human Council, and the thing the Demiliens’s call the law. Surprising is the fact that how often it is used as a weapon to choke other creatures! And to what end? To discourage originality and progress?" The Prime Minister, Kingsley Rutherford, moved slightly deeper into the chair he was sitting, sliding from left to right. He saw the newspaper report that Indrani had so vehemently read aloud to the room full of ministry employees. He raised a hand and asked softly, “But my sources confirm that the demilien was just threatened…”“By a tiny dwarf?” screeched Indrani turning towards the prime minister, “Be honest Mr. Rutherford, did anyone of them actually attack or assault the demilien E
An ornate gold label read : Mordant Financial Services: Make Stoners the Goblin Way!Broot pushed in the door that creaked just before reaching its breadth. Inside a goblin sat in his executive chair reclined back, legs over the table. The office was not a shabby affair likes of which flanked the Kayfaith alley. Its furnishings were rich and opulent that shone off the glow of the nautilus shell chandelier. The gold and black of the thick carpet glowed in the soft pink light. On the wall behind the table hung a huge portrait of him shaking hands with another man with long black hairs and a beard that had a streak of silver running down the chin. Below the frame was a brass plate saying ‘Mr. Mordant, Director M/S Mordant Financial Services with the Twentieth Prime Minister of Annicet Land Mr. Pious Simmons.’The Minister in the portrait looked uncomfortable like trying to hide himself but a greedy looking Mordant pulled him forward with a wide grin. The cha
Thin curls of smoke rose in the air to fade away and gave rise to more, like a dragon lapping at the wind. The dome engulfed in flames, each glowing ember caught fire as the instants passed. A face stared down flat against the glass window with eyes that pleaded help. The face struck as an odd embellishment in the whirlwind of smoke, fire and death. A woman on the ground pointed the face to the nearby men, “Look!”, she exclaimed, “there are people there!” The crowed acted like one big organism and took a sharp in-breath. “There’
The day as dazzling as ever. Diamonds falling from the sky, splintering the white sunlight in a hundred shades. The white star cool as ever, flooding the streets with its bright white light. Kane wondered why the word sunlight stuck to this star. It was not the sun. Nor could it ever be. From what he had learnt in history, sun was a young star for the planet Earth from where the earthlings hailed. It didn’t matter. At-least not to him. He had accepted all things earth. The magnetic roads, the concrete dome houses, clothes, the internet. Even their school of thought, Socrates and Plato and the lot. They, the aliens on their own planet, were few in number and the ones left were mostly
Kane packed all his things in the engineer’s car and drove it to the middle of the swamp and killed the engine. He saw the hovercraft settle down. Kane was starving! The rain had lost its ferocity and he too was done cleaning up. He drew his overcoat tighter, turned up the collars and shoved his hands deep inside the black trouser’s pocket. He had a long walk ahead, back to his hovercraft at the abandoned cabin, a couple of miles at the least. Diamonds crunched under his feet and hissed as they dissolved into the air in a curl of smoke. He felt better now and somewhat exhausted. The avenger in him took the back seat and the slave trader Kane, the Kane with one billion net worth came back again. He walked slowly, head pushed down, thinking what he must do next. He did not want to face Sati. She would jump on any excuse to fight with him. ‘You should spend more time with me together..’ Or ‘You are never there for me…’ and the worst of all, ‘I don’t think It’s working anymore’ .He
Sati moved effortlessly through the carpet. The climate conditioner was at full blast at this time of the day. She sipped at the cold water she held and felt it slip down her throat, feeling the cold through her lungs. The journalist on the Ariel was screaming at the top of his lungs over the disappearance of a power station engineer a month ago. The peacekeepers were clueless about the incident. The head of the crime branch, Mr. Harry was being accused by the nameless journalist of the Canneti TV Network. Sati rummaged in the shelf in front of her and found the remote control. She pressed the button to change the reception but her comm rang. A blue wireframe of Indrani popped up.“My laws have been accepted” Indrani said breathlessly.“That’s awesome!” Sati wanted to ask her how it had all gone but then a news flash on the Ariel caught her eye.She quickly dropped the comm device and turned up the volume. “This just in! Billi
Indrani pressed her face against the window of her workstation and jumped back massaging her face as it felt a sting of the heat outside. She notched up the weather conditioner and sat back behind her desk clattered with volumes after volumes of black leathered tomes scattered carelessly over the desktop. The papers on the desk flapped in rhythm to her heart. The cabinet meeting was ongoing and she had tabled the Dwarf Reservation bill the third time this month. The Prime Minister, Mr. Rutherford, had politely asked her to give them an hour to decide. The last three attempts were thwarted by the cabinet, undoubtedly under the influence of some wealthy businessman -rather one wealthy businessman in which her husband was a partner. She couldn’t bear to fail. Not after what she had gone through. She remembered her grandfather reciting stories of the Kritakash Landing. The ship that landed on the TRAPPIST Planetary system. The planet was a paradise. One big garden with rivers and lakes
The dwarf lay motionless in front of Kane, a thin curl of smoke rising from his body. The rain had started and in a matter of seconds, diamonds falling from the sky would rip apart the human. Kane hurried towards Dilip and held him up, pressing his comm to summon his hovercraft. The hovercraft whooshed past the grove and drifted slowly towards him. He pulled open the door and shoved Dilip inside. Just as he was about to enter however, a loud voice boomed over a microphone and took him by surprise. He turned around to look at the speaker.“I’ve got you this time” said a familiar voice.Kane turned around, “Harry? What are you doing here”“What do you think?” He clapped his hands and a couple of peacekeepers walked out of the tree around the grove and marched in resonance, geared with the formidable railgun, camouflaged attire and black leather boots. Harry moved forward, a mousy looking human moved wit
Fate had done Dilip no favors this morning. He'd dashed from his office into the open road. A mysterious man had walked into his office seconds ago and demanded to know all about the Pridewen’s chest. He refused. The maniac pulled out a lighting gun and aimed straight at his heart. Dilip was holding a hot grubbly root drink. He flung the glass cup straight at his face and dashed out. The curb of the walkway had stopped him mid stride and swung him hard left before falling. Dilip was suddenly stumbling off balance into the blinding sun. When he’d looked up, he was heading straight for a cluster of trees across the road. He had a weak heart and his left knee was broken years ago in a freak accident. The gift of the chest. He jumped over, brushing a loosely hung rope and dashed in. By the time he realized where it led, it was too late. Now he stood in a confined cell of trees and caught his breath. His side burned. Narrow slats of sun streamed through the openings in the grove. He
Kane even with all the technology of this day wouldn’t have found it possible. The plethora of information recorded over the centuries, and classified genealogically. It made him swoon over the earthling. Satellites were useless in the intense heat of R-786. It made radio communication impossible. But earthlings had found the way out. They sent short burst of signals for a kilometer, captured it at small foot long heat attenuators or HAR and sent the signal forward. A network of these HAR poles all across the planet was what the earthlings had established. And for what? To allow someone like him to track down and kill the corrupt among them. He was certainly enjoying himself for he received the tracer back with data. Data that corroborated with the request for TASK. And he was flying at an altitude of about two metres above the shining slag covered giant magnet strips under the asphalt that the humans used to ride their wheel based vehicles. He preferred flying
Sati walked out of the Wockhart house and went straight to her office. She closed the door and making sure there wasn’t anyone in the hallway outside, she pulled out a piece of paper that had a code on it. She dialed the code and a wireframe three dimensional image of the 404 CONTENT NOT FOUND popped up over the comm. A deep voice answered, “I was waiting for your call”“I have news. He has moved in with her. That’s where he was for two weeks”“I told you he’s cheating on you”There was an awkward silence broken only by the static of the comm.“What should I do now?”“Listen to me. Do as I say and we might still get him.”“Get him how?” Sati screeched. Talking about separating was one thing. Being separated was other. She felt like a broken piece of furniture nobody cared about. “He has an empire and you were with him when he built it. You deserve your share. I’ll help you with the court case, but I need hard evidence. Stay at his home for a while and gathe
The tracer took four hours, sometimes five to return a search. Effie would be finished by then. Kane took a deep breath and decided to clear the air between him and Sati. It had to be done, no matter how much he hated her. He left the building and in fifteen minutes was at his destination. Everything around him flashed white blinding him for an instant and then he was back in a dim lit hallway of the Wockhart's residence. The tall form of Sayan Wockhart was standing right in front of Kane, eyes groggy and red, wearing a electric blue night robe with tiny hats printed in black all over it. A stone basin was shimmering in the corner. Sayan looked like he had swallowed a toad. “Where have you been, you moron!” Yelled Sayan raising his eyebrow. “You should try it sometime, funny how it makes you take the plunge” Kane looked at him with dull eyes and sighed. "Try what? Cheating on my wife? Disappearing for weeks
Kane Morgan sucked deep on the greenish smoke from the leaf cigar and leaned back on the bed. The darkness of the room pressed on in the feeble light from a lone lamp in the corner.It had been three days since he set foot outside. Efiie sat beside him on the bed. Luckily she had a virtual job. Kane found it amusing. He was the hardworking, bring-it-on kind of guy and didn’t understand how she could work wall those emotions in the soulless digital world. He offered her a puff and put his arms around her. She put out the cigar and he kissed her gently on the lips. Her mouth was sweet and he gents pulled her down on the bed. She closed her eyes and Kane felt her heart drum against his. They made love until it was time for lunch. After lunch they made love again and Kane asked, “what do you want to eat for the third meal?”She pressed against him “Just you” she said. “What will you say to your wife?”Kane had
Kane was wandering in the passover, diamonds bouncing off his shoulders and flying into blue smoke. He walked in the rainbow lights flickering off the falling rain. He had no sense of where he was going, the cogs of his brain whirring and moving as he traced every detail of his adventures with the power plant engineer. He was not in that shell that walked on the maglev roads, shining wet. And yet when the comm rang he knew it was Sati and he knew she would be bitter. His hands were already sweating as he grabbed the comm and answered. “Yes,” he said.“Where are you? Sayan said you left hours ago?” the annoyed voice said“I’m at work,” He said as casually as he could.“Really? You take me for a fool, huh?. Kane, tell me the truth” she yelled.“What truth” Kane said heart pounding, Harry had to go, he had made up his mind.“You are sleeping with her, aren’t you?”“Who… What are you talking about?”“That girl from the news, Effie. I know you were there last night”