#Sciencefiction. The journey
“Go to the world where you belong! And never ask me about where I was or where I am from? Because you will be shocked to know that where you are heading, nobody lives there. Everyone died 10 years ago. The entire population was wiped off by a strange incident or was it something else? Well, I do not have the words that would suffice the exactitude of what and how I wish to explain it. So, let us settle with what I felt. To me it was an untoward incident that killed them all. And don't you ever dare to talk to me like that again. Never!
Mind it from here on!”
These were the desperate vocal frequencies and the yelling of the man I was with. Walking beside him, but least with him. Because according to him he had come face to face with the devil himself. And so far I had no reason to believe that he might not have.
At times he turns completely delirious and refers to incidents that have no association with the topic of our conversations- Whatever little conversations we have had so far.
So, I have every reason to believe that if he has not seen the devil, he surely has been in a situation where he felt like a foot long moth, squeezed into a cocoon of few centimeters, and making it alive with wings intact, must definitely have been nothing less than hell. And I had every reason to believe he was deeply hurt but unscathed! (Excuse me for my failure to find a better euphemism.)
And I respect him for this. Because he still yells, he still feels, he still smiles at times, and most of all, he still is a very good human being and not a monster. That most of us would have turned into if we were to be in his situation. And this is why I am interested in his story.
You too would be. Just in a few moments as you know more about him and his world.
By the way, I am Hanseif and the man I am walking beside, pronounced his name as Shareil.
It was yesterday that I arrived in this new town, and I was here to find someone, but I was shocked to see that this place was like a ghost town. Because there was nobody on the streets, as if every human being had disappeared. It was then that I met this man who actually appeared in front of me, while I stood at the town square wondering what to do next.
At that moment I felt like a clock tower in the middle of a city where four roads intersect. And throngs of people march towards this point from every direction i.e. towards me, the clock tower. But rarely anyone looks at the hands of the clock ticking slowly. And I felt like these monotonously and purposelessly tick-tocking hands of the clock.
“Obviously you cannot live in a town where there is nobody. Leave alone finding someone here!”
He just said this line, and since then I have been following him and trying to know how he knew what I was here for and what made him tell me this.
And so far I have not succeeded in getting either of the answers. However, I will not leave until I know his skill to interpret human thoughts. Or should I say, his ability to read minds and know so much about human desires and human wishes. Maybe he has other gifts, or skills too, who knows!
But, I am here to know about these gifts, and to begin with I am working very hard to get to know him first, or at least get him to like me at least. And the rest shall follow. As of now, he is just interested in his theories and unwilling to even acknowledge my existence around him. Maybe this too is a part of his skill. We shall know in due time, and through me, you shall know it as well. That is a promise!
“Hanseif, didn't you know about the tragedy that struck this town? I am surprised that you walked into a town of ghosts and shadows. How could you be so foolish or you are making up a story just to fool me!
It sounds as if you entered the room and closed the door behind you. Then as you left the room, you were clueless about the person you met and the room you saw. It is impossible, is not it Hanseif!”
His concerns, or should I say, sarcastic enquiries were valid, but the place I hail from is popular for its vibrancy and the opportunities it offers to all who seek their joys here. And work with mind and heart.
As of now this town does not match any quality of my place of origin. And when I am with someone like Shareil, it seems a remote possibility.
I had finished dealing with these thoughts and I decided to address his query, “According to the people from my town this is one of the best places thriving with commerce and life. But I suppose none of that is true! So, I was misled because I believed in facts which I heard from others and never bothered to verify myself. And here I am now, in this ghost town and beside you!"
I tried to say this with as much professional credibility as I could.
“Good that you realise you are only beside me and not with me.” was his instant response.
It came across as a livid comment brimming with lament and abhorrence towards me. For whatever reason that might be, but for now it was obvious that I was accompanying him against his will and he wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible.
I had every reason to feel like a river where both the banks are as old as the river, but they do not know each other. And due to the void between them, they always fail to know each other.
Yet I persuaded myself to believe that it could be otherwise as well, though rude in his disposition, he did offer an opportunity to enter into a conversation. ( A river that was finally trying to narrow down the void between the banks )
Maybe it was his style and he was warming up towards me. That could be possible as well. And if it was not so at all, at least it was a good way to convince myself that being beside him was not that bad afterall. And for now being with him was my only mission.
“So what led to the destruction of this town and where did the residents go?” was my way of maintaining the tempo of our conversation. And I was waiting for him to respond.
After a few minutes he responded, “It was the summer of 2075, there was no rainfall. They say there was no rainfall anywhere in the world that year. At least it is true for this place. While we were dealing with nature's fury in the form of a water crisis, the wise people who used to live in those hills, issued a warning that a planet half the size of Earth will be passing by; and its major impact zone will be our town. And it was in the best interest of the residents to vacate the town because it will leave this region shattered and changed forever.
None of us paid much heed to it then and we went by our daily routines. And after a week we all were looking at the sky. It must have been 11:00 am or so. The sky had turned dark and the sun was partially visible. And it was not a lunar eclipse; it was at this moment few of us realised the authenticity of predictions made by the wise people, who by now had left the town.
The darkness grew and the strange noise got louder with every passing moment, then all of a sudden the surface of the Earth shook tremendously and I was thrown into a deep well that had very little water in it.
In a matter of seconds I heard screams and every sort of sound one could imagine. Then for a moment I felt something was pulling me out of the well, as it did so, it managed to pull me out halfway and then let go of me. Perhaps it was the gravitational force of the planet that was dragging me out.
As I settled again at the bottom of the well, I could hear the planet rubbing against Earth and it shattered everything and caused fire as well. Then there was complete silence and the noise got fainter as the planet drifted away from Earth. But it had already caused a lot of damage and changed everything forever.
Nobody survived the impact and now this region receives no rainfall because it has been aligned more towards the equator and as you might have read in your geography books, your region used to be different in 2075 than what it is now. It was all due to that cosmic event.”
“But why haven't you left and what keeps you here? Moreover, how do you survive?”
I was very restless to know his response.
And he responded after inhaling a few deep puffs of air, “Luckily, a steel rod along with some driftwood stumps got cast into the well. I somehow was not hurt by these aerial bombardments. I used the steel rod to extract bricks from the well so that I could reach the top of the well by placing my hand and one foot in these openings. It took me 3 days to rescue my own self.
I secured whatever scraps of food I could find from the rubble of the homes and commercial buildings.
I often looked at the flattened ground where nothing stood taller than me. Everything had been devastated and there was no sign of any living being. None at all.
During this time I felt like a vulture, a scavenger who just wanted to survive somehow. And I ate almost anything edible that I could lay my hands on. Everything that I was sure was not contaminated and could be eaten. So I was half vulture and half human.
Until, after a week something very strange happened. The government officials conducted an aerial survey of the area, and as I had expected and even wanted them to, they went away after realising there was no survivor and it was good to abandon the town forever. But it is strange that your people do not know about it.
Fortunately they dropped some non perishable and preserved food cans and packets, just in case anybody might have survived this grazing with the devil planet. And I stacked it all in a den nearby, I took it as a gift from the government. Haa haa!
A gift from the government!
Without it I would have felt like a cat cast in the midst of a flock of pigeons, who exist as holograms. That would have been a miserable way to curse my own appetite.
I still feed on that stock of preserved and canned food items. It shall last me another year or so. And then, I will think about alternatives. Right now I am wondering where did that planet come from and from which part of this planet have you come?
I am intrigued by this thought.
I am curious to know how come your people do not know about this place and the fate it met in 2075. That is surprising.”
Before his curiosity died and I lost the opportunity to maintain our conversation, I decided to speak the truth, “ I want to confess something. I am not here for the job. Actually I represent a community of Universe Masters. We manage galaxies and planets.
You on Earth have made a mess of physics and every related stream of #science, it tends to complicate space travel, and management of planets and galaxies. Whereas, if you look at the fundamental laws of physics that govern the universe and galaxies, they work on very simple principles. We harness their energy to manage, not manipulate galactic orientations.
In 2075, while we were managing few planets and realigning them by using gravitational and magnetic energies, our system miscalculated the gravitational and magnetic pulse needed to pull the planet towards a star that would be its ideal Sun. Making the planet habitable and Earth-like in few years.
As the two forces pulled it and managed to extract it from its orbit, it exerted its mass based force and broke free from our gravitational and magnetic pull. This flung the planet in the direction of Earth’s orbit.
However, our engineers recast it into the two forces to make sure it did not collide with the Earth. We managed this too, but it was not enough to prevent it from coming too close to Earth’s magnetic field. This led to your town being completely destroyed.
And I have actually been sent here by my community. And the community of Universe Masters wants to take you with us to our planet. We know you have done some secret research on magnetic and gravitational fields, and we would like to train you and make you a member of Universe Masters. We like your logic and your approach to solving problems. You could prove to be an asset to our community.
What do you say sir? As for my lies, with all due respect I seek your pardon and I extend my apologies sir! I am sure you know the intention was not at all ignoble”
“So you are the culprit. And everyone had been blaming God for it. When do we leave? As such my food stock will be exhausted soon.” This was his very well pondered response. Something that I liked about his personality. His ability to disqualify any need to condescend.
I looked at him and replied, “Whenever you wish. But I guess you want to leave now. And I shall not delay it any further. We have another planet to realign next week. So, let us leave now sir!”
I held my beacon and in a few moments the spaceship arrived. The old man got in, I looked at the devastation and safely sealed my devise where I had recorded the scale of damage and coordinates. Important data that would help us to understand how the planet managed to free itself from the magnetic and gravitational forces generated by us to keep it under control.
Then I too boarded the ship. And in a few seconds we were in a different universe. A world where we have utilised the maximum energy of galaxies, and we have already begun our work on developing Earth like planet nurseries. And soon our species will be everywhere in the universe.
Now with the old man we plan to chase infinity and our experts believe he knows something that will help us with this. And we will make sure he is happy there. The Universe Masters believe he belongs there, and whenever he is reminded of Earth, he can fly his spaceship and revisit his old world.
And I am sure you will remember him as the old man who survived, who dared, who held his ground, and with his conviction he compelled the Universe to listen to him. Just like the boy in the famous novel “The Alchemist!”
While he is there now and learning new ways of life, it is important for all of us to be the responsible citizens of Earth. And part of this responsibility is to know what the world might look like in 2075. It is time humans developed a strong predilection for issues like Global warming and Climate change, and how their lives might change in 2075.
Here is a #sciencefiction novel titled, They Loved in 2075, that offers a detailed insight into the world that will present itself to the population of humans alive in 2075.
In 2075, humans will be facing an emotional crisis as they will come in direct and dangerously overwhelming contact with self aware machines. But this #scifi novel is a romance scifi; and how romance will evolve in 2075, is where the true beauty of this #scifi novel actually lies.
To experience futuristic romance and an intense love affair, read the #sciencefiction titled, They Loved in 2075.
I must attend to the old man now. Until then, adios!
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