Corridor Chapter-7

The room was a pentagon. A transparent cylindrical structure formed the central pillar of the room. No other devices could be seen in the room. “Illuminate”, commanded Akshay, as he entered the room. “Good morning, Dr.Akshay”, a sweet girl-like voice welcomed Akshay, “What brings you here, that too, at this time of hour?”

“A very good morning to you too, Dorcas”, replied Akshay as he took his seat near the cylindrical structure, “Duty calls. And when it calls there is no night or day. Now show your self. Don’t play hide and seek with me. I have a resume to complete.” There was a glitter in the cylinder, as a respond to the request, and the structure disappeared. A girl of 16 appeared attired in Victorian gown. She held a writing pad in one hand and a quill in the other hand. “I’m ready, doc”, Dorcas said in a musical tone.

“Dorcas, knock it off, please”, pleaded Akshay, “The Victorian attire and looks doesn’t include a quill. And after all you are a virtual being. You don’t need any quill or pen to write the resume.” “I know that. But it matched perfectly with the attire”, replied Dorcas with a naughty smile, “I always wanted to ask you a question, doc. Why did you model me in the Victorian mould?”

A smile appeared on Akshay’s lips, “I wanted to have a piece of the bygone history all to myself. I could have given you the modern looks but it would have affected your behavioural pattern. I didn’t want you to be filled with modern rebellious ideas. Okay, let’s start working.”

“Yes sire”, replied Dorcas, “Subject…” “Sanjay Tiwari”, entered Akshay. “Date of ad….”, her voice trailed off into coarse, subdued and authoritative voice-the voice of Centra. “Attention Dr. Akshay, the patient of ward is vandalizing the burns wing.” “How could that be?”, questioned Akshay, “Hadn’t I told you to monitor him…” “My system went out of order for 2 minutes. The affected area was the ward no. . So I couldn’t sense his escape”, replied Centra.

“Okay, show the visual of the sector,” Akshay replied with a strong undercurrent. Dorcas was replaced by the visual. Chaos was ruling the wing. Sparks were everywhere. Every one was taking cover for their precious life. The wing had really become burns wing. The only person unfazed by the situation was the core of the situation – Sanjay.

“Open the doors”, thundered Akshay. “The lock-’n'-open system is going haywire. It’s not under my control”, replied Centra. “Then deactivate the surveillance system of this room”, Akshay ordered after a minute, “And disconnect the power supply to both the wings. Engage special powering to the life systems.”

“I cannot comply to your commands”, replied Centra, “They are against my directives.” “No they are not. Protection of the patients and other hospitaliers”, reiterated Akshay, “You can override the other directives in view of this situation.” “Suggestion accepted”, replied Centra, “Surveillance is down. Power to the aforesaid wings being disconnected. Emergency powering on. Dr.Akshay my services will not be available after this…”. The whole room was left in darkness.

Akshay moved towards the door. The only way to open the door is to hack through the latch system; with this thought in mind, he touched the retina scanner. The space near to the scanner slithered. A noise of clinking of mechanical parts was audible. Lo and behold! The door was opened. He ran towards the connecting doors.

It was at the other end of the corridor. “Activate sonar guiding system”, Akshay spoke to himself. Covering the distance in matter of seconds, he reached the connecting doors. The doors were three sliding panels controlled by hydraulics. They were the only piece of reminiscence left after the ‘apocalypse’. Each panel opened to different under ground tunnels. These tunnels were photo-chromatic and the rooms were visible from underneath. Each of these rooms had a sliding floor panel which were manually controlled. This provided a back door during emergencies. Akshay pressed a tile and the first panel opened leading to the subterranean tunnels.

He touched another tile on entering the tunnel. An aperture opened on the wall revealing a blue crystal shedding a dark, hazy light. As he covered the distance that aperture closed and another of the same kind opened. No one ever believes in their existence. And now I’m sailing past it’ thought Akshay.

In the hazy blue light the rooms had an out of this world appearance. It was matter of minutes to reach the destination. The entrance was located in an unoccupied room. He stamped on a dark tile. A stair case slid out from the wall and attached itself to the floor panel. He ascended the ladder, pushed a handle near the top of the stair case to elevate the panel. He noiselessly entered the room and closed the panel. Just then the door crashed inside.

A stream of sparks whizzed past his ear. He ran out into the scene. Sanjay had not ceased. Both the guards and the doctors were helpless watchers. Akshay’s eyes met a pair of steel gray eyes. “Stop it now”, thundered Akshay. The replay to it was a cruel smile. Sanjay’s face had the look of a psycho. “Eukreeta! Eukreeta!” , called out Sanjay and leaped towards Akshay. The space in front of Akshay slithered. Sanjay fell back with a thud. “Samhuia”, Sanjay cried and pointed his fingers at Akshay.

Instantaneously a stream of sparks leapt out of his hands. The frontal space rippled again. The sparks were halted midway. They collided with invisible obstacle and burned out with a flash. Just then Akshay felt a shock stroking from the inside and the pain shot up from the thighs. His gaze became unsteady for moment, but recovered quickly. A smile appeared on Akshay’s face. Then suddenly his face hardened.

His gaze at Sanjay smelted into a stare. The bloodshot eyes of Sanjay blinked for a second. Then the expression of his face faltered from unabated cruelty to that of extreme pain. He clutched his head and sat down on the floor ,broke into sobs, “Help me Akshay. Help me. I’m trapped. I want freedom. It is killing me…..”. The voice trailed off into the abyss of silence. Everything seemed normal. Akshay let a sigh of relief and turned his attention towards the ailing victims.

A cry arose from his back. Before he could understand anything he felt a jab at his lower back. He felt a sharp pain arising from the lower back of the neck. Before recovering from this pain he felt a jolt at thighs. Unable to contain the pain, he fell down.

Sanjay’s fist rushed towards him to send him over the edge of consciousness. But a timely roll towards the right saved him. Without wasting another moment he took to his feet. On entering the room he stopped at the retinal scanner, dropped a silver buck and ran towards the system portal. The portal was working on the emergency powering. “Reconnect power supply at once,” Akshay commanded while taking deep breaths. The command was carried out at once. The emergency power on signal turned red.

“Log on to SAMURA MATR CYBER SPACE” , he said as he took out a green case from the pocket of his uniform. “SAMURA MATR CYBER SPACE logged on”, reported the voice of Centra. The VDU was filled with glittering stars. He placed the case on the object scanner. “Upload the contents of the case to the SAMURA MATR”, Akshay spoke to the system. He was perspiring profusely.

“Uploading complete”, declared Centra. “Log out and erase the contents of this file from your memory. The for erasing procedure is ERAZ-EX”, Akshay commanded the central system. “Code accepted”, replied Centra , “Deletion complete.” A smile appeared on his face. At the same time Sanjay’s war cries mixed with groans of pains could be heard from the door.

“Centra be ready to secure the patient”, Akshay told Centra, “And don’t fail me this time”. With these words he stepped towards the door. Akshay was met with damning Sanjay with his body trapped in an electric net. “Sanjay calm down”, he said sternly and placed his index finger on his forehead. An invisible wave rushed towards Sanjay’s forehead creating ripples in the empty space. Sanjay let off a cry of agony and fell unconscious.

Corridor Chapter 6

The veils of pandemonium descended on the ward but for few minutes. The E.R. members admitted Dr. Johnson to the first aid ward. Akshay assumed the position the head. Kareena occupied the seat of chief assistant. “The manual control is not responding.”

“CENTRA activate the virtual anatomy guide”, ordered Akshay. “Charaka activated”, reported Centra. Instantaneously a holographic impersonation of the ancient surgeon appeared near the table. “Standing by for further commands”, Centra declared. “Pass the auto mode controls to Charaka,” commanded Akshay in an ice cold voice, “And thanks for the cooperation.” “The pleasure is mine, Dr.Akshay” announced Centra as she relapsed into silence.

Akshay put on the headgear and took on the controls. “Welcome Dr. Akshay. I’m presently uplinking myself to the nano signal decoder,” explained Charak. The eyepiece of the gear came back to its mode. The intraveinular images filled the quarter of the eyepiece. “Charak reassign the probes to their previous site” Akshay relayed to the virtual assistant.

The eyepiece images changed from intra-veinular to that of spinal discs. “How could it possibly be?” exclaimed Kareena, “The spinal discs are undamaged.”

“That’s good”, commented Akshay, “Turn on the sensory and motor neuron monitor. Register and calculate the deviation from the base pattern. Detect the source of the deviation, if any. Replay the projection saved from last minutes before 1.” “Neuron pattern monitor activated. Saved projections replay in one minute. Total projections saved 3 K.B. Specify the area concerned”, Charaka replied in sage like tone. “Muscular fibers of left as well as right arm. Compare and calculate the response to brain waves pulses. Enlarge the area of epileptic spasms.” “Specifications illogical and with out regards to the saved projections”, declared Charaka.

“Charaka, clarify your statements”, Akshay ordered in a strong tonal undercurrent. “The saved file does not contain the specified data”, replied the virtual surgeon. “Continue with the neuron patterns”, Akshay redirected his commands, “Are there any deviated patterns?” “No deviations registered. No haemorrhage detected. Neuron fibers unscathed. Motor neurons functioning is above normal”, Charak read out in a metallica mixed humanoid voice, “No other abnormalities detected.” “Repeat the fourth specification”, Akshay spoke into the voice modulator, “And magnify the neuron fibers’ image of the arms.” “Motor neuron functioning is above normal”, repeated Charaka. At the same time the fabric structure of the neurons of the arms were magnified 19% of the last image. Akshay’s eyes scanned the images and the variations were being recorded by the ‘image recaptor’. “Kareena load the images into the Centra’s archives”, Akshay directed Kareena while scanning the images, “Centra! Activate 3-D virtual reality conversions.”

“Images being loaded into archives. The TVRC has been activated. Images being processed. Conversion successful.”

“Charak reactivate the periphera and the bionica”, Akshay ordered the virtual surgeon. “Periphera and Bionica active”, Charak replied in his sage like voice, “Specify the effected sites.”

“Epithelial tissue sectors of spinal discs and posterior skull. Calculate the rate of blood loss and the probability of brain haemorrhage”, Akshay directed Charak, “Save and process the data to recreate the effects of the maximum injury sustenance and the aftereffect of the collision and the possibility of paralytic conditions.” “The commands have been executed”, Charak reported after a time lag of 5 seconds.

The executed commands brought the both arms into activity. Bionica revolved itself to the frontal of the skull. The sys ledge rotated 180 degrees to expose posterior of the skull and back. Bionica shifted towards the bruises near the spine. The eyepiece simmered with the images of platelets forming web to coagulate the blood proteins. The index finger of Bionica silted and the strain was administered at the site. The image modified and displayed the regeneration of the skin. The blood platelets’ web aligned itself to facilitate the strain. The regeneration process was completed within seconds. The complete process took half an hour to conclude. Kareena’s face gleamed with the joy and excitement of the successful completion of her maiden operation. Akshay placed his headgear on the zero-gravity stand and spoke to Centra, “Engage the scanners and electro-magnetic wave monitors and update power controllers to facilitate any kind of power surge. And never, I repeat never, shut down the monitors in the face of any emergency.” With these directions he returned to the corridor.

Akshay was joined by Kareena at the resume’ coding wing of the octagon. “Why did you engage em monitors?” asked Kareena as Akshay was entering his ID code. “I want to avoid any of the gymnastics performed in the hypermobile”, answered Akshay with an icy smile as he entered the room.

Corridor Chapter 5

The hospital building was octagonal in structure. Each arm of the octagon was an academy of casualty specialists. The unusual design had bagged it the name of OCTAGON. The entrance was at the first arm. The entrance led to a corridor devised to register the presence of toxic materials or cinders which were common in encounter casualties. The corridor led to the emergency ward’s level. The level consisted of thirty two emergency rooms. “Room number twenty-seven,” directed the head, “Only Dr. Akshay will assist me. All others wait for my further instructions.” With these words the team parted, Akshay followed the attendant biots to the ward. The ward had a capsule holder in the middle, adjacent to it were the various biotic arms, now in a folded position. The holder was surrounded by photo-chromatic glasses which performed the function of command executioner.

“Activate the surgeon biots”, ordered the head ,”Dr. Raj, take your position.” Akshay sat near the main controller, put on the virtual motion controllers and the head gear. “Activate virtual control on”, Akshay ordered to the system.

Akshay’s command brought life to the system. “Inject nano probes,” he commanded. One of the arms took a syringe containing a glowing solution and pressed it to Sanjay’s vein and retracted. Instantaneously the head gear’s eye-piece was flooded with the inter veinular images. Akshay’s finger touched a non existent control screen.

The images at the eyepiece began to proceed in a controlled manner. The area near the fingers simmered with control icons. He touched the ‘operation control’ icon. The base of the biotic arms swirled and adjusted itself at exactly at 130 degrees above the body. His fingers played on the nano probe controllers. The images readjusted themselves to fill the whole area of the eyepiece. Akshay’s fingers were still shifting the focus controller to 30 degrees bottom-left of the image area. The area showed a puncture in the vein. His finger activated the panacea icon on. The arm followed the nano-probes signals and reached the outer segment of the affected area, the index finger’s tip slited ,a hair thin segment of medicinal strain appeared. The finger slowly placed the strain on the skin and let out a strip of cellular insulation. The area began to recover immediately. A smile decorated Akshay’s lips.

“Over to you Dr. Johnson”, he said giving over the controls. “Monitor and record the internal activity. Don’t miss anything,”, replied Dr.Johnson taking over the controls.

The recapacitating of the cellular growth spanned two whole hours. Each internal cut was detected, the medicinal strain was administered and insulated. At the end of two hours almost all the internal and external bruises were cured beyond any recognition except that of the skull and spinal cord. “Stage one successful”, complemented Dr.Johnson, “Lets proceed to next stage. Revert to manual control.” Akshay entered the inner room.

A twitch of Sanjay’s left arm caught his attention. He looked at his senior who was also aware of this movement. Dr. Johnson was approaching the arm. The twitching upshot into leptic lapses. The veins of the arm bulged tightening the muscles. The muscular arm was drooling with muscles. With a jerk, Sanjay broke himself free of the bounds. Dr.Johnson leapt forward to rebound it but a small outward movement of the arm sent him flying, and he crashed into one of the screens. The alarm was already resounding at the top of its pitch. Akshay rushed out towards the main controller, reactivated the voice mode and spoke out “Arm three! Rebound the left arm of the patient. Periphera! Inject anesthetic. 233 oz.”

The arms became active instantaneously. The grip of arm 3 was unbreakable, and the administered anesthetic registered its effect at once. Sanjay’s whole body became limp at once , the muscles became relaxed and the palm opened dropping two jet black glittering coins.

Brainwave Part II

When I opened my eyes Jack was standing in front of me holding a CD, “So the case is more bizzare than I thought, isn’t it otherwise you wont be invoking brain resistance”,he said. “Just revising the lessons. By the way try to find more about the relations of Dr.Thayer”, I replied. Jack handed me the CD saying ‘Old crimes have long shadows’. The biography unfolded a dark side of Dr. Thayer – his denunciation of genetically restructured child : Shirac.

The GR had made him mentally unstable leading to his denunciation.

The pieces were settling at their proper places. “A work well done,” I appreciated him while handing him over a piece of paper, “Transmit it on inter and intra net.” “So the net is being woven”, mused Jack.

I was compiling my results just then a wave bomb exploded inside my head pushing me over the edge of consciousness.

* * * * * * * * * *
I felt a shock pulling me back I saw Shirac. I was handcuffed. Shirac smiled and again I felt the same compulsive shock. But, I was ready. Within moments his smile altered into a rage which dissolved into a cry of pain. His whole body convulsed, veins of face bulged, turning his face bloody. The next moment his skull exploded, even without letting him cry.

* * * * * * * * * *
“So the whole case was ever happening revenge using 3rd wave pattern as a weapon”, quipped Boss, “And the user was Thayer’s own son”. “Yes I was aware of it the moment I saw his life history . But his rage turned on others too who used emotions for aspirations”, I explained, “Holding emotions for his fate”. “But how did the wave really functioned,” queried Preena.

“The alpha patterns awakens the body while beta relaxes it”, I explained, “But this new wave provocates emotions. Each message is an electric impulse which could be blocked, provoked and manipulated.

Shirac was able to do the trio. When I arised my mental resistor his impulses struck back. He was unable to contain
it where as others were unable for such a blockade. Which drained the whole brainial capacity to produce emotional impulses. Thus becoming devoid off emotions”. As we were taking leave of the office Boss asked, “What about Shirac?”

With a smile Richard quoted,

“Matters of gray, writhing for prey,
Feeding on emotions, devouring by suction,
In a state of suspension, waiting for resurrection“

and added, “In the MORGUE”.

Brainwave: Part I

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Normal, abnormal, paranormal, supernormal. These have wafer thin demarcations. Man with his uncontrollable emotions surpass these marcations which result in hanging of Damocles sword on head of humanity. The shrill cry invading the foggy silence of DECEMBER NIGHT still echoes in my ear. The next moment a body fell on the bonnet of my car. It was the body of a man, limbs slashed with bruises, torn garments and an expression devoid face.

A week later Jack was debating the implications of the discovery of third wave pattern of the brain with me. Just then virtual walls were replaced by intra spacial 3-D screen showing the photograph of about Dr. James and his work and his last recorded message was replayed dated three days after the incidence.

For a moment I felt nothing extraordinary. But in the next moment I became aware of the subliminal message within the message. He was trying to caution the listener from an enemy – the brain.

“So why was he trying to frighten us about our brain” inquired Dr. Rajaneesh P. “More important is that why did

he do it by decipher, why not in open?” questioned Dr. Preena. “That’s why I’m giving you this assignment. Be as discreet as possible, I’m counting on you and your team Captain Ray”, replied our boss,”Panick is a possibility.

“With this warning in our mind we stout to find answers. Jack and myself took on the task of understanding Dr. ‘Greewa’s’ research, Dr.Preena was assigned the task of interpreting medical report especially EEG, Dr. Rajaneesh’s duty was to analyze Dr. Thayer’s psyche.

“So ,you are saying that Dr. James was admitted by you and you are knowing it now”, mused Jack. “It is the truth, Jack. His face was disfigure by bruises and how the hell could I remember every single person’s I-D code which he had uttered I admitted in the hospital.” I reiterated, “But how, in the heven’s name , could the face be restructured in just three days time. “Why restructure the face, just restructure the image output”, Jack replaid with a smile. We were speeding down 21 North Street of suburban New World where every street , every town was named in codes. History flashed past my eyes- unification of the world, setting up of New World Parliament in a newly discovered island and renaming of the countries by geographic location code and emergence of our group.

Dr. Thayer’s lab-cum-appartment was in 25-S of 21 North Street.

The lab was a typical hexagonal structure occupying three fourth of the appartment. Jack had no problem in accessing the main frame computer, but all the files in the Brain sub directory had been deleted.

The safe in the attic was in a level 3 break age state, but the last level was unbroken. As I was going through the unpublished hypothesis I became sure of the fact that Dr. James knew much more than what he had jotted down and whatever it was , it had greater

implications, in this case than any thing else. Jack, later, informed me that he was able to undelete one file. It contained the bio-data of ‘Shirc Thayer’. Just then my cellphone beeped. “Three more cases have come to light”, reported Dr. Preena, “All are similar in all respects.”

The interpreted reports were in front of me. The case was drastically similar. Their alpha and beeta waves had receeded the base value ,then also their vital organs functioned normally. They had become emotion devoid and selective amnestic. “Can you find a relation between a scientist, a musician, an actor and a poet” said an irritated Jack,

“Except that they are famous and the last three are artists. It fails me”.

“You ignored a spotlight of a relation. Jack, they were all creative and emotion was there fountain of creativity.But I’ll explain it later. Now try to get more information about Shirac. Everything upon which you can lay your hand”, with these words I set out to meet Dr.Thayer. It was a long session. I was surprised by his memory. He related each and every point of his new discovery. The more I found the more uneasy I became. On my return I found Dr Rajneesh waiting for me . He produced the result of his analyse of all the four. The report confirmed my fears. Someone had found the access to the most dangerous of all the weapons-the Brain.

Corridor Chapter 4 : Section II

“This is worse than the worst”, Akshay murmured, “The only escape route is disembarking” With these thoughts in mind he plunged towards the control straps of the capsule, clutching to the lid of the capsule he started un-strapping the capsule. Hanging upside down, he detached the last strap and gave the lid a jerk. The capsule flung open, Akshay snatched at the protector net to reveal Sanjay’s limp body; scooping his hand beneath Sanjay’s neck and another beneath his back, he stopped resisting the force of gravity. However, nothing happened. To give more power to his jerk he lounged in wards, which not only gave away his hair thin balance but also led him to a collision course with the inner case. As he regained his balance his eyes were caught by the virtual screen on the lid, which was displaying the status of Sanjay’s vital organs.

With the ease of fish in a water Akshay dived towards the power cable dodging aside the crew members struggling for grip, taking the cable in his hand he redirected his movements towards the power portal , attached a small card near the hook of the cable and hooked the cable into the portal. This act resulted in reviving of the power supply. The vehicle stopped mid way dropping everyone on the floor. The lid was replaced automatically and the straps reattached themselves. The increased flux message was replaced by the ‘switching to auto mode’. All the vital signs were normal. “What in a blue moon dawn happened here?” asked Jones as every one was taking their respective seats behind the control screens,” One second I was on my feet the very next moment I was glued to the roof of the hyper.”

“The increased and varying magnetic flux generated extra electricity which was directed towards the power controller,” explained Akshay, “But the energy trappers were inactive causing high intake resulting in over load situation. This caused the computers go haywire which in turn caused the flaw in the life sys.”

“On the power cable being detached the source of power redirection was switched off. Due to the non availability of redirected power as well as the deactivation of the source the central controller had no means of control over the portals…”

“So it switched every thing including itself off without considering our well being. Couldn’t it sense our presence?”, concluded Kareena in an offmood tone. “I am sorry to interrupt you. My power controller was inactive without prior indication or any instruction. So for a total internal scan I’m switching over to default mode”, announced a mechanical voice, “My sensors indicate a secondary power readjusting device attached to the system portal.

Should I rearrange my setup to permanent facilitation of the device?” “There is no need for permanent felicitation.”

“It would disconnect at the end of this assignment,” replied Akshay. “What does this switching over do?” whispered Kareena to Jones. “Nothing much. CC wont answer any of the queries untill the scan is complete”, replied Jones. This was the last word spoken till the approach of hospital.

Corridor – Chapter 4 Section I

The next 15 minutes composed of hectic’ rescue arrangements’. The hyper mobile had reached the site. Sanjay was transferred into the life-sys capsule. Though the name was capsule it was a cabinet made up of translucent material having a celleric luster. It contained breath supporter, wave pattern analyser and cardiac diagnostic and coronary alarm system. The capsule was then reassigned to the emergency unit.

“Ajay I’m going with them”, informed Akshay,” In case of emergency contact me at JS hospital at 21-NE UP-STREET.”

Replacing the kit at the shaft, he rushed towards the hyper mobile. “My name’s Akshay Raj and this patient is under my sector,” declared Akshay to the voice recogniser, “The code is AFAC”. “Code accepted.Enter”, announced a metallica like voice. The hyper vehicle’s wheel retracted into the slots and the vehicle ventured into the dominion of twilight dawn. Akshay’s eyes were scanning the monitor for any abnormality in the basic wave patterns, but could not find any.

“That’s absurd,” said one of the ER members, “After such an accident, no deviation from the basic pattern. AR what’s the coronary pattern?” “Its also normal. But how is it possible?”, Akshay murmured to himself, “CAGS was pretty sure of cardiac wave abnormality. If there has been no coronary wave abnormality then what set off the alarm?….”. His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden change in the cerebral pattern .

At the same time, the monitor registered sudden incoming flux of electro magnetic waves. The whole vehicle stuttered and the monitor went berserk. “Nothing seems to be working,” the driver shouted, “Brace yourself, I’m switching to manual mode and going in for emergency landing.”

“That’s not good”, shot back the head of the ER. “But the worse is yet to come, sir”, Akshay relayed another news to the head, “The capsule is also losing its mind. We must take over from the system control.”

“Then go ahead,” replied the head member, “I’ll try to stabilize the oxygen inflow. Jones take the control of vent system and Kareena disconnect the capsule from the main power system. If this doesn’t works then be ready for the traditional way.” Just then the whole interior was pushed into darkness and the ambulance took to a nose-dive.

Oceania- Part III

The events that succeeded were incoherent for some time. The only thing I remember is the grave yet soothing voice of my dad and assurance of his strong hands. Three days thence, I was relieved from hospital and back at my house, decommissioned for three months. Things were sliding back to the mundane, yet something gave me fitful sleeps at nights. Those were the words of Armand. One night I awoke with a shrill scream. In the dark of the night, for the blink of an eye, I saw glassy yellow streams sliding down through thin air. It increased the shrillness of my scream. I felt a hand on my shoulder and sprang back startled. It was dad. At that moment everything became crystal clear. Even before realizing, my revolver was in my hand, its cold nozzle pressing at my temple. “What are you doing?” he cried out to me. “That should have been done before”, I replied, “And don’t play games with me.” “What games?” he asked trying desperately to get to me. “This is not real”, I answered sweat drops appearing on my forehead, “Then again why should I die? It should be you”, I continued with a smile generating at the corners of my mouth, “The brain of the mount isn’t it.”

My aim was set at the dead centre of his forehead. The figure had lost its voice and its face as well.Many faces morphed in and out on his head. The room was bulging intermittent by glassy streams. I concentrated on the streams. Gathering every ounce of my energy I muttered “Aztec”. A shiver ran down my spine. It was nothing like I had ever felt. Images appeared before my eyes. My iris contracted and a selection was made. Chaos ensued. The ‘morph’ degenerated into plasmodia, tendrils sprouting out of its cyst. My assumption became fact. The words uttered were ‘V.R.’ and not “We are”. My thoughts were interrupted by a déjà vu of being drawn out. Ice cool slashes of the saline water assured me I was indeed egested without being assimilated. “Beacon on”, I hissed, “Jets on”. I broke to the surface within moments. Through my ‘Eagle Eyes’ I saw the mast lights of my ships hovering nearer. The ocean was calm as ever.

“Incredible”, Boss retorted, “Just incredible. The Great Reef being a man eater.” “Tip of the ice berg”, I replied, “The whole system had evolved into an intelligent predator. Had it been given a century more, it may have became species of a rare kind.” “Still, how did it survive till now”, he asked after being silent for seconds.

“It lured the fish into the cave”, I answered. “Through sonar”, explained Jane, “the sonar appeared to us as phantom sonar. The pseudo rock-face being the make-shift base.” “Once trapped the ‘food’ was enough for months”, I took over from Jane, “But once platforms were erected, the marine provisions became scarce. After a century of evolution, this was not a great challenge for the Mount. It restructured its epithelia. Man being the prey. Unassuming divers were contrived in through the pseudo wall.” “Once inside, the electric circuitry was broken down by effective reverse current feed through tendrils”, Dr. Preena took over, “Having done that, sulphuric acid concoction melted the rexin covers. The next process is carried out by the gastric counterparts.”

“If this was going on for so long why wasn’t there any inkling?” asked Boss. “The Mount couldn’t consume everything. So it assimilated the fats and proteins”, explained Jack, “And deposited water soluble sodium silicates. Thus forming a statue. To really accomplish this, it inserted parasitic D.N.A strand into the prey’s genes.” “And now about the ‘We are’ thing”, Boss said in a lighter vein. “Its V.R. Virtual Reality. The mount injected chemical in the lines of Hallucinogens that interacted with the memories of the victim creating a virtually real world”, I said chill running down the spine, “But with me, my memories are not mine.” Boss nodded in acknowledgement and enquired, “So M.C’s all happy?” “No they won’t be”, I spoke in low tones, and “The chemicals I ejected to break free would not only pacify Mount’s hunger but also de-synthesize the petrochemicals into useless sewage. By the way the petrochems were the refusals of the Mount.”

“What if more such mounts exists?” Boss asked. I unconsciously quoted lines of an unknown poet of 22^nd century

“Daughters of Neptune, Calling out to Nuhn,

Brittled by tolerance, Crying for vengeance,

Tell me o’ man, where you stand,

When the daughters of gods are angered?”

A solemn silence had descended on the congressional room. No one dared to answer.

Oceania – Part II

Boss was not wrong about my antagonistic views about Marine Corp. More than a decade ago, Marine Corp had staked for sole ownership of the erstwhile Great Barrier Reef, now referred to only by its latitude and longitude. In a year long legal battle that ensued, Marine Corp won. Now they were the unchallenged leaders in Petrochemical products. Their insatiable hunger for money was thorn of contention in my mind against the likes of Marine Corp. It was this aspect of the Corp culture that led to the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef which, till the end of last century was an indispensable part of marine ecosystem. But the indiscriminate strive for profits led to the exhaustive exploitation of the Reef. Consequently mining led to structural faults in the Reef. The periodic seismic activity added with continental shifts was the fabled last straw. At the dawn the current century all that was left of the Reef was a mount. Today this mount was a gold mine for the petrochemicals.

A notification tone snapped me out of the memory lane. It was the repot filed by Dr. Preena. The report confirmed my fears. Dr. Armand’s body was a silicate ghost of its previous self, sodium silicate to be exact. The superceding of sodium silicate over cellular matter was even in the lower extremity, scant in the upper extremity, especially near the skull, and uneven near the abdomen. Though they were able to arrest the process but were too late. Armand’s dying words were ‘We Are’. These words could be the blabbering of a dying sea-man, yet they stuck in my mind like a fly caught in a web. My broodings were interrupted by a sharp knock succeeded by Jack’s face. “Marine Corp. has you issued a carte-blanche”, he declared, “That too without any provocations”. “It includes…”, I interceded. “A prototype of scuba gear”, he said nonchalantly. I gave a smile as an answer. “But I’ll have to caution you about your intentions. They are suicidal”, he cautioned me. Untold fears were dancing across his face. With a nod I accompanied him out to the deck which was now facing the platforms erected on the mount by the Marine Corp.

Solitary scuba diving was the most dangerous of all the water sports in vogue. But it were not the dangers but the report on the phantom sonar coupled with Armand’s inability to switch on his beacon were the thoughts that transpired my mind as I was descending the walls of the mount. The sonar scanner was getting active as I approached the spot where Armand had gone missing. As I ventured nearer, the proximity curve started to ascend. The spot was not isolated though not frequented. The more I wavered towards a small slit in the rocks, more acute became the ascend of the measurement. For the split of a second I hesitated, then stepped towards it. One moment I was on the verge of a steep rock, trying to peer through the slit, in the next I was falling into a cavity hidden by the pseudo rock-face.

The sudden fall deprived my lungs of air. The steep descend was broken as abruptly as it started. It felt like a cave filled with decay giving out acrid pungent smell. I raised my arm to activate the air filter at end of the oxygen synthesizer. At that instant I felt a prick at the nape, the only exposed part of my body. I tried to reach the spot by working the arm through left. In the water it was exhausting. Before I could reach something stung at the same area. This time pain exploded into my brain like ball of fire, clogging my voice. The (dark) world went white. Reality lost solidarity.

Oceania – Part I

The following is from the journal notes of Captain Ray – the leader of the Expeditor’s Group. The only evidence in support of the notion that EG were the first and the last line of defense in the face of paranormal and supernatural.

OCEANIA

Oceans- the daughters of Neptune. Man, in his greed for wealth, has plundered their depths for centuries. But never even for once has contemplated on the consequences that would raise their hoods when serene and calm daughters of Neptune are angered. Still now I wake up in the dead of night, sweat adorning my forehead when the world sleeps peacefully for it has not seen the angst of these daughters of gods, their acrid tears degenerating my body and mind. But again this could be fully owed to the experiences that succeeded that September evening. The trench, the phantom signals and the screams of the old sea-man still haunt my memory in the stillness of the dark and cold desert nights.

That September evening was usual in all its sense except for the recurrence of the phantom sonar. Dr. Jane Slater, our oceanologist was busy explaining me the implications of this re-occurrence when the holographic images of frequency analytics were replaced by that of a melting humanoid. “21 NE of 44”, boss’s voice commanded. It was code alpha red.

The pallid eyes staring into nowhere through the translucent eyelids did not belong to human but to that of a sculpture carved in frozen mercury. The scarcely used wing of the Marine Research now brimmed with activity. The Electro Encephala Monitor (EEM) registered a low activity. The extremely low temperature of the ICU had started to reach through my heavy outer insulations. With a nod Boss called me out.

Jack was already with him. He led us into the conference room. Every member of my team had already taken their respective seats. “He was one of my best men”, Boss said when we were finally seated, “Three months of extensive search without any result. And now spoof, he appears brain-dead in the form of an ice statue.”

I was able to fathom his frustration. It was one of our ‘failed’ cases. Dr. Armand Nicholson, the marine biologist had gone missing near the erstwhile Great Barrier Reef. Three months we sieved the area but with no result. Now he had reappeared.

“Where?” asked Dr. Slater with curiosity dancing all over her face. “On the lee-side of the barrier” came the reply, “As if he was egested.” An eerie silence settled in the room. “He was discovered by aquanauts of Marine Corp.”, Boss broke the silence. His comment was superfluous in this context as the report was in front of us but I was grateful to him.

“Though unofficial, yet MC has confirmed our fears that this is not an isolated case. They have lost as many as four of their personnel in the last one year”, he continued; “Now the ball is in our court. So, Captain Ray, set sailing.” As I stood up to leave Boss retorted, “I know of your antagonistic views about the motives of M.C. But don’t let it take precedence.” With a nod I resigned myself into my office for preparations.