The chief, agitated by the stranger’s indifference, thrust the pouch of seeds off the table, sending them hurtling across the floor. Irritated, Mor bent over to pick the seeds up. It was hard. He felt a nudge. The repulsive chief had come closer and, bent over as Mor was, kicked him in the back. The gang was laughing out loud. Mor stood up and went closer. The moment they saw him standing bolt upright, they got scared. Mor grabbed the sturdy chief by the neck, and lifted him up in the air.
“Leave me alone, you hear me?”
The chief’s face darkened. He clumsily flailed his feet that were hanging. Mor slowly brought him down. As soon as the man stood on his two feet, he grabbed a gun from the one behind him, and took aim. Just a few metres away, he pulled the trigger, and instantly a metal net trapped Mor. He gave up. He flailed his hands, trying to steady himself. The strangers gave him sarcastic looks of contentment. Suddenly, the metal net covering Mor began to melt. He looked around, puzzled, while on the strangers’ faces contentment gave way to fear. Mor wasted no time. He shot to his feet irritatedly, and charged them. He grabbed their chief, lifted him up in the air, and hurled him onto the wall. Before they had time to react, Mor snatched the one standing behind him, and sent him hurtling across the room, while with the other hand he struck the third one, flinging him away. The rest of them didn’t wait long. They beat a hasty retreat out of the shop. Mor sat at the table.
“Will you bring me something to drink?”
The owner, panicky, snatched a bottle, and ran to leave it on the strange visitor’s table. He smiled and whispered something. Mor grabbed the bottle, and took a swig.
“I don’t know what this thing is, but it’s good,” he whispered. He gulped it down voraciously. Not only was it sweet, but it also gave him a sense of euphoria. He left the half-empty bottle on the table. He had quenched his thirst. The owner, with fearful eyes, motioned for his assistant behind the bar, who brought a third bottle. He left it next to the half-empty one. The owner stood still. “He must be in a mood for a little chat,” Mor thought. He was looking at the pouch of seeds, and the bucket. “He must know what all this is.” Mor looked at him and smiled. The owner heaved a sigh of relief, and smiled back. The smile was the password. The music began to play again, and everyone went back to their tables. Mor thought he didn’t have any money to pay for his drinks. He got hold of a piece of metal, and gave it to him. He took a bow, and walked away. Mor’s eyes followed him.
The owner went behind the bar. He called his daughter, and showed it to her. Both of them were very happy. “It must be a rare stone,” he thought. He felt a tug at his ripped uniform that hung loose. He turned around in surprise. A child was looking at the pouch of seeds. He gave him a pleading look, with smooth, green skin, triangular face, and big black eyes. Mor realised that the child wanted his seeds. He gave him some, and the kid smiled. That very moment, the owner made him go away.
Mor looked around at the other regulars.
“At least now, they’re gonna leave me in peace,” he thought. He sipped some more drink out of the bottle. He felt great! “Whatever it is, it’s good!” The owner brought him some food on a plate. He didn’t have to think twice to guess what it was. Meat from those reptiles he had seen roam the desert. It was cooked, the whole chunk! That’s what the others were eating. Mor had never tried such a thing before, but he was so hungry, he didn’t have to think hard. He grabbed the meat, and bit into it ravenously. It was well done and delicious. The owner came closer and began to talk to him. They didn’t understand each other, but they had to make an acquaintance. Mor smiled at him as fear was still painted across the owner’s face.
“Good, good!”
As soon as he saw the smile on the face of that stocky customer, the owner let out a sigh, relieved.
“Me Mor…M-O-R…MOR. You?” He touched his chest with his finger.
“Da-dee…Da-dee…”
“OK. Now, we understand each other. Glad to meet you, Dadee.”
Mor reached out to shake Dadee’s hand cordially.
“You’re the first one I meet here.”
When Mor smiled, Dadee smiled, too. After a prolonged handshake, the owner stopped and looked serious again. He showed around and added:
“Halux, Halux.”
“Halux?”
He nodded.
“Halux, the name of the place or the city…or the planet? I guess the city,” Mor concluded. “He can’t know I’ve never been to this planet before. Halux, my friend. I see.”
The sounds of their language were heavy, most of them laryngeal. Mor would find it hard to pronounce them. He gave Dadee yet another piece of metal. His pockets were full, after all. He held it, and took a bow, thanking him. Mor stood up, thanked the owner, who was waist-high, patting him on the back, and left, sated.
“Mor, Mor!” he heard a voice behind him. It was the owner’s daughter.
He stopped short and turned around. She smilingly handed him a flask.
“Thanks a lot, miss. Thank you.”
He opened it up and smelled it. It was the same smell as the one he had drunk earlier.
“What’s that called? What is it?”
Difficult questions!
“Me Mor,” he showed himself. “You?”
“Gen.”
“Good. This?”
“Kalar.”
“I see. Good. Thanks a lot!”
He took out a seed, and showed it, puzzled. She got the message. She took it, and began to speak. Mor nodded his head. She bent over and showed the ground.
“I see. Thanks!”
He walked to the vehicle, satisfied with the turn of events. As he looked behind for one last time, he saw the owner standing outside. He stopped short. He put the ounce of metal into a container, flicked a switch, a light flickered, then stayed lit.
“Interesting,” he thought. “Metal that produces energy.” He turned around and drove away.
On his way back, he thought he had found the city, made a couple of friends, and learnt quite a few words. He had the metal and the seeds. He would gradually learn all there was to be learnt. When he got on the vehicle, he looked at the seeds. He put one in his mouth. It was too hard to chew. It was a tasteless, round, dark red thing. He had to plant it. “In the dry soil?” he wondered.
He found his way back with ease, thanks to some rocks. When he was half way back, he noticed some flat spots on top of the rocks that shimmered, like very deep pits full of sand.
He reached the caves.
“My home,” he thought to himself.
Whoever he might encounter, that was his own cave. He had to survive somehow. He had to look for some more of that metal, which seemed so precious. Maybe, that’s what others did, too. They looked for this, as well as other metals.
He held that small seed, thinking. How would he cultivate it? The soil was too dry for it to grow in. There were so many questions and only a few answers. He felt too wearied to think. He began to feel the cold of the coming night. He shut his eyes, and plunged into a deep slumber.
***
While the cold lulled him to sleep, the heat woke him up. He opened his eyes, as soon as the two suns were up in the sky. The horizon was covered in some strange yellow, orange, and brown shades that strangely reflected off the desert sand, and turned pink-orange. The landscape was wildly beautiful. He opened the flash, and took a few sips of that sweet drink. He looked at the ground of the cave in surprise. The round seed he had just left at the entrance began to bloom. It was light pink on the inside, and its dark red shell gave off some small shoots. “It must retain the night’s moisture, grow fast, and be resistant.”
He buried some seeds in the ground. He was going to wait and see what would happen. He looked out on the horizon. On his right hand side, far afield, sprawled Lux. He looked on the left, wondering what might lie there. He would explore it. His vehicle had charged from the sunlight. He moved in the opposite direction. As he drove past the desert and the rocky areas, he came a
cross other similar vehicles and forms of life that went up and down the caves.
“They must be looking for metals,” he thought.
No matter how far he drove, he didn’t find any other city. He decided to go back, but outside the cave he was in for a surprise. Another vehicle was parked there, and two strangers carried metal. He instantly got off and went up to them in an angry way. When they saw him, they let go of their cargo, and made for their own vehicle in panic. Mor thought that what had happened the previous day must have made the rounds. Thankfully, they would leave him in peace.
The next day, the seed grew even more. Now, it split in two. It was red with some dark shades on the inside, and its endpoints, much longer now, were pink. Mor was very happy and curious to see what it would develop into. He got hold of a stone, and took to digging its surface to see if its colour would change, and if there was any other metal hidden underneath. He had survived, thanks to mere coincidence. He smiled. As a scientist, he didn’t really believe in coincidence. Everything was a matter of mathematics. He knew full well that something with zero probabilities could happen, just as something bound to happen could not occur. Only a chance was enough for the impossible to happen.
His mind scurried back to last night’s nightmare. Neuron exploding into space. He opened the wristband, and took out the device. Since everything is interconnected, time has no beginning or ending, and it can be warped, thanks to the passageway, while the future or the past can’t be defined, Mor could pass through their galaxy before the explosion. But how could he predetermine that Neuron would appear at the end of the worm hole? He knew the data of the voyage are recorded at the gates, that’s why it was highly unlikely that he could repeat the same voyage. With these thoughts, his eyes grew heavy, and he dozed off.
The following days stole by more pleasantly. The seeds had given off shoots with a hard red shell and little thorns. He took a seed, and opened it up by crushing it with a stone. Its white kernel turned up. Bitter-and-sweet and delicious! He began to cultivate them at the mouth of the cave, inside and outside. They grew and blossomed very fast. He knew he would always have something to eat, thanks to these seeds. Not only that. The cave was full of grey metal called ‘sihour’. He had found it almost anywhere he had dug. He collected a great amount of it. Part of it, he hid in the cave, while the rest, he was going to take to the city.
Besides the seeds and the metals, he had also made progress in terms of food. He had tasted the meat from the reptiles that roamed the planet, and it wasn’t bad at all. He had made a mechanism, something like a bow shooting arrows that he had scraped with tree branches. Reptile meat was tasty, but it took a long time to cook. At night, when he went back to his cave, he enjoyed his dinner with a little drink he brought from the city, meat, and seeds.
***
With time, Mor adjusted to his new abode. The planet was a vast desolate stretch of land with no beginning or ending. A planet with two faces, one during the day and one during the night. Lethal heat and cold. A time unit was the duration between two sunrises. That was a ‘dava’.
Halux was the centre. The biggest and most famous city. He became yet another peddler at the flea market in front of the shop. He arrayed his seeds and metals on his counter. Nobody ever told him anything. After all, who would dare contradict him? They were all scared. Every time he went there to sell his stuff, he observed the visitors. They were all kinds of scum. The dregs of society. Runaways, outlaws, headhunters, criminals—they all stopped there. That planet was a haven for all forms of power. Government-owned ships avoided stopping over, even for bunkering. But Saabah, as it was called, was a precious planet, thanks to its caves rich in mineral deposits. Many times, governments tried to occupy it and build bases. Yet, all these attempts were quelled, leading to a lot of bloodshed. The precious metals fell prey to all kinds of criminals, who were more powerful.
His great love, space, was always on his mind. Mor often tried to observe the sky. Next to the seeds he cultivated, he placed others in the position of the celestial bodies. He wondered which galaxy he had come to, what secrets the place held, and where Taurus was. They had warped time, but space was such a relative dimension. A single metre might make the difference, opening a different gate with another worm hole. But could two different gates lead to the same passageway or the same planet? If everything was connected, through which dimension could this happen? The temporal one? On the one hand, he felt wearied and disappointed. It took lots of courage and perseverance to make a new start on a god-forsaken planet. On the other, there were times when his scientific curiosity was piqued to explore the unknown, uncharted universe. Still, he didn’t have the courage to flee again.
That morning, he woke up in low spirits. After troubled sleep, he went to the square downtown to sell his seeds. With quite a few coins in his pocket, he went to the bar to slake his thirst.
He looked around indifferently and went to the only empty table in the back. He didn’t look right or left. The owner ran to serve him. Mor was one of his best customers and, every time he came over, he left quite a generous tip. When he stepped into the bar, there were some whispers. “Zozma, zoom,” he heard. That’s what they called him. He didn’t know what it meant, but he didn’t want to learn.
“Tandour,” the owner welcomed him cordially.
“Tandour,” Mor replied. This was their greeting.
“Kalar?”
Mor slightly nodded his head.
“Bring me something to drink,” he mumbled.
“Gdeva, Mor.” He didn’t know what this word meant. He assumed it was something like ‘yes’. He took it as ‘immediately’ or ‘of course’.
He made a gesture, and the waitress ran towards him, carrying the tray with the bottle. He filled his glass, and downed it. It was so relieving. He let out a sigh of contentment. He left his hat on the table, grabbed the bottle, and took a few swigs, till it was empty. He then wiped his lips with his sleeve.
He wanted more. A bottle wasn’t enough to quench his thirst. He looked right and left. The waitress was nowhere to be found. The owner was talking to another customer at a table. He would wait for him to finish. Still, he was taking long.
“Hey!” he shouted. His voice was so loud, it deadened the singer, who was out of tune. The regulars froze, the music stopped, and everyone turned around to look at him. The owner’s eyes were the most fearful of all. Dreading the prospect of another brawl, he hesitantly ran towards Mor.
“Mr. Mor?”
“Another one, Kalar!”
The owner nodded.
“Kalar,” he repeated.
Mor looked at the metal glass, as he turned it around in his palm. It was then that he caught a glimpse of a female figure coming closer, drawing up a chair, and sitting at his table. He had seen her a couple of times before.
“Tandour, Mor,” she greeted him.
Paid company. No matter how strange her face, there was something seductive about her eyes and gestures. Her skin was white, her eyes big, almond-shaped, not close to her nose. Actually, they almost reached behind the ears. She had no hair, and wore a metal cone-shaped helmet. She was tall and slender, and she hid her white skin inside a tight-fitting overall, much akin to that of the reptiles.
“Tandour,” he replied politely. He was in a mood for company. He couldn’t even communicate with her.
She had greeted him in a different accent than the rest. Mor guessed she must have come from a different place. She softly touched his hand. Her skin was cool and soft. He smiled and shook his head. He gave her a piece of metal. She understood. She politely stood up, said goodbye, and walked out of the place.
He raised his empty bottle, and showed it to the owner. He got the message. Within seconds, he grabbed another bottle from the bar, and ran to his table.
“Here you are!”
He suddenly felt a slight nudge, as if struck by electricity. He unconsciously fixed his gaze on the door. It opened up and in came a stocky man. The more
he looked at him, the more surprised he grew. It was his other self before the transition and transformation, with a different body structure. It was Mor in a parallel universe. He put on his hat discreetly. For an instant, he thought of going up to talk to him. No, it wasn’t a very good idea. That would disturb balance, and he wouldn’t like to do such a thing. His own passage alone had brought on a kind of imbalance. He took a careful look at him for some time. He sat at a table, and started playing cards. He was smiling, had a loud voice, and his hands were dirty. Was he an inhabitant of this planet and a mine worker, or some outlaw and fugitive? He wouldn’t learn that. Mor discreetly walked out of the bar, thanking the owner.
He went back to his cave early. He sat under the tree trunk, as always, to get some rest. On his way back, the image of that man at the bar haunted him. After all, it’s not often that you meet your other self in a parallel universe.
He fixed his gaze on the deep blue sky. It had a soothing effect on him, taking his mind off his worries. All of a sudden, a dark spot turned up high in the sky, like a cloud. Mor was puzzled. They were in for rain during the day? he wondered. After some time, a quite big metal sphere began to descend towards him. He realised he had visitors. He stayed calm, still seated under the tree. Within minutes, the sphere had landed, and out came three figures, tall and thin, with very long hands and white mantles. They walked in his direction. The oldest one was in the middle, while the other two on both sides were very much alike. The one on the left had a slashed ear.
“You have been chosen, You can follow us,” the old being thundered.
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