Science fiction. Imagine

 

Science fiction. Imagine

It was a windy, damp, cold; December afternoon. When a man, who was wearing his woollen black overcoat, lost his balance as he was walking along the edges of a precipice. And in a moment he was cut off and isolated from the rest of the world, because he had fallen into a landlocked flat land. Wherever he turned, he only saw mountains, never ending and ever stretching ranges of mountains surrounding him from every side.

He must have been lying there for a few moments when he heard a rustling noise in the nearby bushes. He got curious, but he felt scared as well, because it could be anything. And the view of this landscape was unlike he had ever seen, and it was nothing like his home. So, he had valid reasons to feel afraid.

Finally, after a few minutes the rustling had stopped. And he gathered some courage to investigate and find out what was causing this rustling. As he cautiously tip-toed towards it, he grabbed a crooked and dry stick that was lying there on the ground. Finally, when he reached the spot, he scrambled through the spiny twigs of the bushes, which appeared more like a thicket.

Ah, to his surprise he did not find anything there! So, he decided to walk in the direction of the setting Sun, and see if there was any human settlement nearby or he was marooned like Robinson Cruso, with the only difference that Robinson Cruso was on an island, and he was in a flat land covered with mountains from all sides. 

He was walking slowly and thinking about the story where a man had fallen from the precipice and landed in a valley that was landlocked too. And he was hoping that he would not be experiencing the events of that story in reality.

He must have walked for more than a mile, when he reached a familiar looking place and he decided to stop. He looked surprised and quite amused too. Then he turned left, and started observing every corner, and he knew something was not right or something very strange was going on. The place where he had fallen from the precipice looked exactly like this place, although he was more than a mile away from that spot where he had fallen.

“How could this be?” exclaimed Youreeb. ( That was his name )

Now it was evening and he dismissed this thought so that he could continue with his journey. The sky was lit with many stars, but there was no Moon. It was as if he had fallen into a land which had a different latitudinal and longitudinal orientation from the rest of the known Earth. Because on a clear and star strewn night, he should have been able to spot the Moon. But the Moon was not there and in the absence of the Moonlight, everything looked dark and appeared imperceptible. Yet, somehow he walked ahead.

He must have walked almost 4 miles that he stopped again. And this time Youreeb, was totally shocked and there was no explanation for this. After having covered so much distance, he again realised that this place was exactly like the place where he had fallen. Everything looked the same. So he decided to solve this puzzle before it invaded his mind and made him believe in superstition and voodoo.

So he opened his backpack, and took out a tinned can of  baked beans. He ate it to his fill and then drank some water from his water canister. After that, he convinced his mind that everything was fine and nothing is real than reality itself, and there is nothing like Aladdin’s Jinn. He took out a notebook and then with his pencil he plotted the stars that were shining right above him, and he mapped them with exactness. When he was convinced that he had marked all of them with exactness in his notebook, he walked hurriedly to the spot where he had crashed. He reached there in about 3 hours. 

Without wasting even a moment, he looked at the sky and plotted the sequence of stars on a different page in his notebook. After an hour, when he was sure it was done. He held it against the sky right above him, to make sure he had mapped every star. Then he tore both the pages and placed them together. One over the other.

"Ah haa, my good and gracious Lord! The placement of stars is very different and they do not match at all. So these are indeed different places, but for some reason they have a similar physical makeup.

But how can it be, that three places look the same? Exactly the same!” Thought Youreeb.

And to know the secret, he decided to wait for the moonless night to pass and wait for the daylight. Because then it would make more sense to investigate the area and find clues to this puzzle. Therefore, he found a corner near the foot of a mountain and he slept under the star lit sky.

Only to be awakened by the same rustling noise in the bushes. And rubbing his eyes, he paced towards these bushes. But once again he was disappointed because there was nothing. Anyway, he decided to retrieve a chocolate bar along with millet and nut bar, from his backpack and he savoured his sweet and nutty breakfast, under the mountain that was staring at him with a lot of keenness. At least that is how Youreeb felt.

Suddenly, he felt as if the natural forces that existed in this place were trying to help him. He saw the formation of a whirlwind laden with sharp edged and small stones, and the whirlwind after a few minutes gained enormous speed and it only moved along the edges of the mountain. Wherever there were hollow cave like structures the wind chiseled its sides with circular and all possible orientations of round patterns. And pushed these hollow formations deeper and deeper.

“Oh my good Lord! There you go. And thank you for providing me with this relieving hint.” Once again exclaimed happy Youreeb.

He was observing the movement of the whirlwind, which was actually the official sculptor of this place. He noticed that the wind always flowed across the edges of the mountain. He decided to take a closer look, but first he wanted to note the course of the whirlwind, and check whether it always moved forward or it also could gain backward momentum to visit the previous spots again on the same day or within sometime- Whatever that sometime was. 

He recorded all these details in his notebook and walked towards the edge of the mountain. Now that he was sure the spot he was walking towards will not be experiencing the second round of sculpting from the whirlwind for at least an hour. He stopped at the spot and began examining it without worrying about the whirlwind loaded with shrapnels in the form of edged stones.

He picked a few stone-like shrapnels that the whirlwind had left behind as its obvious trail for Youreeb to recognise. Youreeb immediately realised that these shrapnels have small magnetic crestrations in them; and when he went closer to the mountain, he observed that the main rock of the mountain had three layers: 

1- Granite stone - Bottom layer

2- Sand stone  - Mid layer

and the top layer consisted of 

3- Stone with traces of magnetic lines 

And when the whirlwind gathered momentum it carried shrapnels lying on the floor, that added to its mass, and these shrapnels formed sledge hammer like, solid lumps of stones and pieces of magnets that held them together. Then as they moved in circular motion, they ground the edges of the mountain. And carved it into all possible shapes of round and oval. Most of the patterns were similar or almost similar, because all of them were carved by the whirlwind that always moved from right to left and in circular motion. And due to the presence of sand based rock in the mid layer, there were areas which had been chiseled deeper because the grinding impact of the whirlwind carrying granite and magnetic shrapnels was more effective on this rock.

“So, this is why, during the night, most of the spots appeared to be the same after having walked for a few hours. And in the darkness of the moonless night the similarity was almost indistinguishable.” Murmured Youreeb to his own self. Now silently smiling and ready to explore the region before he discovered a way out from this landlocked place.

He must have covered 8 miles, when he felt hungry. He again took out a can of baked beans and enjoyed it. And concluded his lunch in the wilderness of nowhere, with a sip of water from his canister. Where he had not more than two days worth of water left. That is, if he drank sparingly and without submitting to his desire to drink often in this sweltering heat.

Nevertheless, he got up and continued walking. After walking for two hours, he arrived at a place where he saw a few houses that looked like huts. But the place was covered in a veil of strangeness, a looming feeling of despondency because it looked desolate and forsaken. The overgrowth of bushes, gardens that had overgrown and grown wild, huts with dilapidated walls and worn out pavements that led to them; and the crumbling rooftops made the place look like a typical ghost town. 

“Maybe that is why even the Moon had forsaken this place. Because it looked so profane and unkempt. Maybe that is why the Moon did not want to appear in the night sky of this place.” These were the thoughts of Youreeb when he saw this place.

He was still thinking, whether to move forward or abandon this route and take another. Because Robinson Cruso had Friday to bear him company in his adventures, but Youreeb was alone, so alone that during nights there was not even the Moon to bear him company. Finally, after thinking for a few minutes, he decided to walk forth and discover the place further.

He reached the door of the hut, and as he slowly pushed it open, it creaked and then the rusted hinges made a strange sound and the cobweb that spread across the door like a silk curtain manufactured by nature. Initially offered some resistance to not let the outsider ( Youreeb in this case )  to seek the secrets of this household. But when Youreeb pushed harder, the cobweb slowly tore apart and gradually the door opened. Maybe it was after many years that the space beyond this door was greeted by daylight. And it indeed was so, because everything inside the rooms was covered in cobweb, dust, an evident layer of sadness, some hint of painful feelings, but overall the entire hut emanated one energy: sad and melancholic, and of desperation to be rescued and perhaps restored as well.

On being greeted with this overwhelming shadow of feelings of those who once lived here, and by the native sadness of the hut, Youreeb walked backwards with his steps slowly moving towards the door. He must have reached the edge of the door, when the wind, restlessly moved the broken windows and the door behind Youreeb, creaked as well. Youreeb, stood still and took a keen look at everything. Then he grabbed his crooked stick and removed the cobweb from the sofa and placed his backpack there. Then he went to other rooms and looked outside from the broken window in one of the rooms. He noticed it was dark and the night cover was spreading. This was a good reason to stay in the hut for a night and then decide the course of action in the morning.

He felt his backpack, and retrieved some chocolate, nut bars and some tinned tuna. 

Just like it had been for a night and a day now, he again took a sip of water from his canister and sat on the sofa, where he had removed the cob web and dusted it a bit. As he was rolling the remaining water in his mouth, he thought it would be better to sleep on the sofa. Definitely more comfortable than sleeping on the hard floor of the mountain.

He removed the cob web from the sofa and dusted it with his hands and placed the backpack next to his head. He tried to sleep on the sofa, but in the hut that was haunted by everything except hope and future.

It must have been midnight when he heard something moving on the floor, and in the darkness Youreeb could not figure out what it was, but it certainly was something or someone who knew the hut like the back of his/her hand. Because everytime Youreeb tried to catch it or lock his eyes on it, it disappeared. It was as if a magician was trying to know if someone has the wit to recognise the tricks he played with the visitors who visited his hut. And from the confident movements of this thing on the floor and on the edges of the walls, it seemed nobody had succeeded in figuring out what was going on. But Youreeb knew, it was neither a ghost and for sure not hallucination, because there was nothing traumatising that would cause hallucination in him.

“So what could it be?” Thought Youreeb.

But for sure, the hut had an intriguing design and it was built to challenge the visitor. Again, youreeb took out his notebook, but he was unable to see anything, so he closed it and put it back in the backpack.

However, he again saw a pattern. This little thing appeared in the bushes that caused the rustling, this little thing appeared at several spots in the hut too but always at those fixed spots. And Youreeb, got up and blocked two spots with rolled up cobwebs. And then the movement got erratic because the thing had lost its fixed pattern as the scheme had now been altered, with two points blocked. And it was then, youreeb realised there was something intelligent that he was dealing with.

In the morning when Youreeb could clearly see every corner of the place. He plugged all the spots he had identified during the night. And waited on the sofa, staring at these plugged spots and not winking his eyes. Finally after 30 minutes, he heard something trying to push its way through the rolled mesh of cobwebs that blocked one of the spots. Youreeb walked slowly, and when he reached the spot, he carefully removed the cob web and examined it in his hand. And from the cob web fell a tiny, almost panting thing in his right palm. It was a pigmy. A miniaturised man who appeared stunned and completely frightened. Youreeb tried to do whatever he could not to scare him and make him feel comfortable.

Finally when Youreeb realised that the man trusted him, he placed him on the table and tried to ask him questions to see if he could speak or use some gestures to answer his questions.

It took Youreeb few hours to understand what his gestures meant and this man could talk as well; but his voice was so low that Youreeb had to hold him close to his ear to understand what he was saying. And he definitely spoke the same language. Once the man was convinced that Youreeb did not mean any harm he confessed the following:

“I am a man, a miniaturised man. I and my community look like this because of the different gravity and latitudinal shift experienced by this place. And it was our ancestors, normal men and women who built these huts. And when they all died, it became impossible for us to maintain the huts because they were too big for us. Eventually the place grew upon us, rather we growing in it." 

"Let me explain it in detail." Said the man.

This place experienced a latitudinal shift, and now the gravity experienced by this place is different from the rest of the Earth; and this is the reason the Moon cannot be seen in the Sky either. 

With the latitudinal shift this place began experiencing a different climate. This led to changes in weather patterns. As a result the local vegetation perished. And it took nature more than a century to adapt to these changes and reinvent new ways to survive. That is why the bushes here are shorter and thicket like, flowers are different. As you might have observed everything is different here. Even the whirlwind moves with its ferocity from the morning to afternoon and always in one direction, and the days are very hot, and from the vegetation it should be clear to you that this place experiences rainfall in August.

So this is our story, and we know about your story. We saw you when you fell from the precipice and we hoped you were safe.”

Then he called his community, and now Youreeb was surrounded by almost 225 tiny men and women from his community and in their presence he said with renewed confidence, “This is all of us left here now. Our ancestors have died. There was a cosmic event where a huge planet hurtled past Earth and its gravitational pull changed the latitudinal orientation of Earth. Such that, we no longer witness Moon in the sky and we experience gravity differently, especially in March and April. And here we are today. We cannot even leave the place, because the mountains have shifted too and they have blocked the exit points. Except the one from where you fell, but that is too high for us to climb. We are trapped and we do not know what to do. But one of our elders had prophesied that someone will come from the precipice and rescue us. Then if we leave this place, everything will be normal for us after sometime. 

So I ask you on behalf of all of us, “will you help us? Please!”

“This is the power of nature, this is the strength of the Universe, and this is the fact that almost all scriptures reveal and hint at i.e. if we humans alter anything in the Universe to slightest degree, we shall witness changes that our wit cannot fathom.” Thought Youreeb, still gazing at the miniaturised man who looked helplessly and innocently at Youreeb. Motionless and waiting to hear his reply.

Finally, Youreeb winks his eyes and resumes looking at him, then at his companions who were looking at his face with their chins held up and their eyes pointing more towards the ceiling of the hut and less at Youreeb’s face. 

Youreeb requests him to let him think, and admits he was planning to leave the place after finding a rope to climb back to the precipice from where he had stumbled. Which he believed could easily be made from the cob web. And leave he must because he needs to see his girlfriend whom he misses a lot.

But he still asks him to allow him to think and decide by tomorrow afternoon.

They all agree and prepare a feast for Youreeb, which he enjoys. And tonight he sleeps early and thinks about how he could help them. Finally on the afternoon of the following day he asks his friend to summon his people. Where he announces , he will help them, after he has met his girlfriend, and together they shall rescue them because it would need two to cross this mountain when it comes to crossing it along with 225 men and women. And that too all of them alive. 

But there is a problem, all of this needs to be done before the varying gravity sets in in the month of March. And to this Youreeb’s friend replies, “We have already made a rope for you, you can use it and cross the gorge, and we will wait for you here. We are sure you will not disappoint us and you will return for us and for our future, and who knows maybe your better future as well!”

“Who knows that. But I know one thing, I never detract from my commitments. So, I will return, rather we will return and we will climb this colossal mountain together and start afresh!” Responds an emotional Youreeb.

At this, all of them point at the rope that lay coiled on the floor and he picks it up and rolls it around his right shoulder, and his friends follow him to the spot where he had fallen. He gives all of them a warm and collective hug, almost like a goose gathering her goslings under her wings, and says goodbye to them.

Without wasting even a moment he hurls the rope towards the cliff. After having tried more than 5 times it latches on to something. Youreeb had tied the rope’s end to a small U shaped iron rod that had now got stuck in the crevice. He pulls it to make sure it is secure enough for him to climb and bear his weight. 

Then he takes a final and parting look at them and starts climbing the mountain, after 10 minutes, he appears on the edge of the same precipice from where he had stumbled, and waves his hands at them and walks briskly to the town from where he had arrived. There he meets his worried girlfriend who had searched for him everywhere. And he tells her about the accident that was more like an incident. Then he asks her if she would join him and help him rescue them, and she looks at Youreeb’s eyes and says, “Yes, I will, because they deserve to be rescued!”

They spend a week together and do some shopping and then head to the same precipice while making sure nobody is following them. Youreeb follows his girlfriend’s descent and the moment they set foot on the ground, Youreeb and his girlfriend are greeted by the same men and women with million expectations and hopes that now they shall be rescued.

And as the legend goes, Youreeb did rescue them and then he and his girlfriend lived with them forever. And this is the place known in the legends as “GraceLand!” The land of evolved beings who from being tiny, grew wise enough to walk as Titans of destiny with the entire Universe as their domain. At least that is what the legend says. 

As for the Youreeb in all of us, a new gravity and a new latitude of discovery and exploration always awaits us. The question is, whether after every fall we are willing to rise again, and again, and still have the magnanimity to be gracious enough to help someone, rescue someone from his/her misery. If you have this grace, I am certain you will always find the Youreeb in you and the GraceLand that the Universe has created just for you. Exclusively for you!

It was this belief, this healthy stubbornness of Youreeb, that motivated me to write my science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. This science fiction novel is a story of pure romance between a young boy and a girl in 2075. Who are facing a different kind of problem. Where self aware machines and super intelligent and human-like robots have invaded human emotions and feelings, and humans are unable to emote like true human beings. And this is the major concern for the male character in this science fiction novel, because his girlfriend is unable to relate with his feelings of love.

This science fiction is about technology, mind boggling inventions and scientific advancements, evolved human relationships, extreme climate that has led to mutations in few humans, and the war at galactic scale where a super advanced community of men and women, who live in an isolated but most secure zone of Earth, are planning to invade Earth and enslave every human being to make them the puppets, who execute wishes of this advanced community of men and women. 

To know whether in the end love wins or technology overpowers everyone, read the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075. I am sure you will come across Youreeb and you will realise that the rope of hope is very strong and endless too. Only if you are willing to believe and take the leap of faith!

They Loved in 2075, is a romance science fiction, where faith, hope, will, and Youreeb are one entity, a single feeling. Experience it well and fully, and try to be someone’s Youreeb whenever you get a chance!