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Today’s Maynia Prompt: squealing chicken
Today’s Daily Freewrite Prompt: two varieties
Writers can choose to use one of the prompts, both the prompts or not use the prompt at all. It is all up to you!
I wish to make this into a sci-fi novel. Let’s see how it progresses! 😊
Continued from Day 6. You can read it here.
The mood was sombre despite a pleasant Saturday morning. It was three days since the attack on the CBI office in Bhopal and the subsequent evacuation. Akash was admitted in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital in Delhi. He had a hairline fracture on one of his ribs from Sarvi’s kick and was in a rock hard mould covering his chest and part of the abdomen.
Akash reached the IB office for a meeting with the director. He could maintain a brisk pace despite the pain in his left chest, which was a significant improvement in two days. The office was empty being the second Saturday of the month and only a skeletal staff was working. Radhika had messaged Akash a few minutes ago that she had reached and he guessed that she would be already with the director. He headed straight for the director’s cabin.
“Good morning, sir,” Akash headed into the room where Radhika was leaning on the desk with her back to the door. From the director’s less-than-happy countenance, Akash could gauge that they would have been talking about the incident that happened a couple of days back. But Arvind still managed to break a smile to welcome his man.
“I see that nothing stops you,” Arvind said, “have a seat. You could have just rested. Radhika could have briefed you later.”
“Ah, no, sir. I was so close to that clown, and yet he shot Gangesh and Sarvesh,” Akash said. “I am going to show no mercy if we have another encounter.”
“Hmm. Not only them. There were two more. They weren’t killed but hurt,” Radhika said.
“Collateral damage?”
“Not really. He had to overpower the real serving guys to take their place. That must have been it,” Radhika opined.
“What do you think of this case?” Arvind looked at Akash while brushing his French beard at the chin.
“I think let’s hang all of those idiots. I… I..”
“No, not an emotional response,” Arvind bent forward, leaning on the desk. “A rational assessment. What would you do?”
The room fell silent. All three were thinking, but none of them had any ideas on the matter.
“Arvind, I think first of all we need to understand who these guys are,” Akash said, “the last I remember was Gangesh telling us that they claimed to be from another planet.”
“Won’t be wrong from the looks of it,” Radhika replied.
“Why?” Akash noticed that Radhika was sifting through a pile of papers on the desk, “what makes us so sure?”
“The IAF report,” Arvind said as Radhika handed over few papers to Akash.
“Turns out that those objects which ISRO had captured are space travel vehicles,” Radhika said, “a kind which none of our agencies has seen.”
“Oaey, pace back Earthlings,” Akash involuntarily laughed, but Radhika and Arvind maintained their stone-etched expression. He felt that there was enough and more that had happened in the past two days, which he was yet to know. “None of our agencies have seen means nothing, right?”
“No, but we cross-checked with the U.S. as they were snooping too much around the incident,” Radhika said.
“How did they know?”
“If ISRO had seen the freak lights then chances are most other satellites around the location would have too.”
“Hmm. Luckily, it was just the U.S.,” Arvind said, “I suspect no other country, at the moment. Otherwise, we would have picked up something by now.”
“So, those are spaceships, and the U.S. knows about it,” Akash smirked, “a lot has happened over the last two days.”
“It turns out there have been more alien contacts than we were aware of; the U.S. has had its fair share, and so does Russia. There could be more countries, but this is the first in our experience.” Radhika had cupped her palms and kept tapping the desk with her knuckles, periodically. The last Akash had seen Radhika that way was during the assassination bid on Dr Manmohan Singh, the ex-Prime Minister of India.
“What else had happened?” Akash asked, focused on Radhika, who continued to look at her fist.
“A team of Americans had visited the site along with the IAF. They confirmed that the ships were technically as advanced as those that the Americans had encountered,” and Radhika tapped again, “not human-made.”
“And that is bothering you so much,” Akash smiled while Arvind looked on.
“The U.S. has offered to help,” Arvind pitched in. The last he wanted was a brow-beating contest, “they can take over custody of Sarvi and Olyint and logically conclude this mess.”
“One of their kind has killed our people. I am not taking any help to put that alien on the gallows,” Akash said.
“That’s a narrow way of thinking,” Radhika said.
“I am not feeling sorry for my narrow thinking. I don….” Akash was cut short by Arvind’s desk phone ringing.
“Arvind here. Hmm. Hm. What?”
Radhika and Akash noticed Arvind’s frown melting as he kept listening. In a matter of a minute, he was smiling. Akash found the entire episode amusing and turned to Radhika, who did not flinch. He wondered if Radhika too had a rock hard mould on her face. Her expressions hardly changed since he came.
“That’s indeed good news, Sharma Sahab. Keep me posted,” Arvind’s smile had grown to gigantic proportions, “I will send my team soon…. Yes, thank you.” Arvind then placed the receiver down.
“This is a miracle. Gangesh and Sarvesh, both are alive,” The reason for Arvind’s ear-to-ear dental ad was now apparent.
“How’s that possible?” Radhika’s clutches loosened, “I saw a five-inch hole in Sarvesh’s head. How can anybody survive that?”
“You’ve got to go down there to witness it,” Arvind said.
“So, that’s our order for today.” Akash tapped on the desk, aping Radhika.
“Believe you, me, this order is much better than what I had in store for you till now,” Arvind said. Neither Akash nor Radhika were too eager to find what that other order was. All that they wanted to know is how two dead men came back to life.
“We leave now?” Akash thought he could get to know more of what happened over the last two days before leaving.
“No, after a month,” Arvind laughed out. Radhika too smiled, a welcome departure from her self inflicted oath of unhappiness, Akash thought.
“But not before some sandwiches and tea,” Arvind pressed a buzzer on his desk.
“No, sir, I had breakfast at home,” Radhika protested.
“Then you can have coffee while we both will have breakfast.”
“Absolutely, sir. Also, how about some non-veg sandwich for me?”
“Okay, one squealing chicken sandwich for you and one vegetarian for me,” Arvind’s mood had indeed changed from the call. Akash gauged that the death was what was bothering Arvind, as much as him and Radhika. So, all’s well that’s alive and well.
“Fine, I will have coffee,” Radhika conceded.
The government guest house where Olyint and Sarvi were held as state prisoners was an elaborate British constructed stone structure. It was a two-storey building nestled among teak wood trees overlooking a picturesque green meadow. A location surrounded by chirping birds and buzzing bees were what any traveller would pay tons of rupees to vacation. In fact, that would be a place where even a human prisoner would hope to be caught and jailed. The government officials did have some attractive perks.
But here were two aliens who had hardly noticed the surrounding or appreciated the five-star treatment meted out to them.
“Commander, why are we still here? Sarvi was pacing the room, “we can get out now if we want.”
“Don’t I know that? Let’s play along with these law-upholders. We will need their help.”
“For what? I don’t need any of them to catch Zarqui,” Sarvi almost yelled.
“You had your chance,” Olyint bellowed.
“There were too many humans in-between. I couldn’t do anything.”
“Sit down.”
“Comma…”
“Sit down.”
Sarvi walked backwards and made herself sit on a leather chair while not breaking eye-contact with Olyint.
“I know what you mean, Sarvi. But understand this. My pain is more than yours. I want to kill Zarqui with my bare hands, but I am not at the liberty of doing it as the Arlenian Commander.”
“I understand, commander, but…”
“Not completely. Tracing Zarqui would send us on a witch hunt where he will have the upper hand, but if we stay here, he comes searching for us. He did that already,” Olyint said. Sarvi saw the point. Instead of hunting for him, allow him to track you.
“But he kills these beings.”
“I know. Zarqui is lawless. He killed our own, so he won’t hesitate to kill them.”
“We cannot let that happen,” Sarvi stood up and walked again, “we can’t be the reason for more exterminations.”
“I am aware. We will get Zarqui in our next encounter, and we will allow no more casualties.”
Sarvi continued walking, finding reason in what Olyint said. Just as she was about to seat herself again, she heard a knock on the door.
“I will open,” Sarvi said and briskly walked towards the door.
On the outside, Radhika and Akash were puzzled with something they had got to know. They had to cross-check their findings with Olyint and Sarvi without letting them know.
Image Courtesy: Pixabay
