The Tellurian Threat: A Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Thriller (The Tellurian Archives Book 1)

by Debashish Das

  Damian didn’t even have to think about it. “I didn’t pick him. He was chosen to help me. He did so unknowingly, yes, but he played the role that was meant for him.”

  “What?” Rohan and Kyle spoke at the same time. “What do you mean?” Kyle asked.

  “How else would you explain it all? I met you when you were just being shifted to R&D. I didn’t even know that you were going to work at OneTech. You seemed to have a very unique problem that just happened to catch my eye. I was able to install my script on your phone just a few days before you actually shifted to OneTech. It can’t all be coincidence. Either it was preordained, or someone set you up as bait knowing that I would take it. And here we are.”

  “Set me up as bait? What the hell are you talking about? I posted in the forum asking about my car. No one else knew what was going on.”

  Damian shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he already knew what was going on? Maybe he orchestrated the whole thing; the delayed updates for your car, your forum post’s visibility, everything. Maybe he even knows that we are meeting here.”

  Kyle seemed to be battling confusion and anger at the same time. He didn’t speak, but Rohan did. “Why are you so obsessed with Patrick? What are you not telling me?”

  Damian turned to face Rohan with a smirk on his face. “Well, at least he hasn’t brainwashed you completely. You want to know why I left? What made me abandon everything and disappear? It was because of him. It has been him all along. You should ask him about it the next time you meet.

  “But it doesn’t matter anymore. That’s all in the past, now. Without him, I may not even be here today. So maybe, he played the role he was meant to play, too. I can see the future more clearly now, and I know exactly what to do.”

  “Do you even hear yourself?” Rohan asked, astounded by the change in his behavior. “I won’t pretend to understand what you have been through in all this time. But I have been looking for you since the day you disappeared. I won’t even ask you to forget whatever happened, but please, tell me what’s going on. Let me help you build this future that you can see so clearly. You don’t have to do this alone,” Rohan pleaded.

  Damian started laughing. “Which future are you talking about? The one you think Patrick is helping you build? Or the one that Patrick is using you to build? Wake up, Rohan. Neither of those are what we had dreamed of.” The laughter died suddenly, and he looked at Rohan pointedly. “Do you remember when we made it rain?”

  That caught Rohan off guard. He looked at Damian, trying to see through the trick he might be pulling. “We didn’t.”, he said warily.

  “Those were the days,” Damian replied, as if he hadn’t heard. “We were not so powerless back then. Naive, but not powerless. I did what I had to do to get that power back. I am in control now.”

  “We failed, Damian. All the simulations failed. We never even got close to proving our theory.”

  “You’re right, the simulations failed. But not because the idea was flawed.”

  Rohan frowned. “That was exactly the point of the simulation, to find out if the idea was flawed or not. And we proved it was.”

  Damian shook his head. He still doesn’t realize it, he thought. “We didn’t prove anything, Rohan, other than the fact that no one was interested in investing in our idea. That it did not have a financial payoff.”

  “But…”

  Damian stopped him before he could raise any objections. “Just because our simulations didn’t work didn’t mean our idea was flawed,” he said shaking his head. “We lost faith in our idea because no one was willing to invest in it, to fund our research.”

  Rohan reached out and placed a consoling hand on Damian’s shoulder. “We wouldn’t be here today without that failed experiment. Patrick saw the potential and helped us, didn’t he? We are so close to doing what we set out to. OneTech needs you, please come back.”

  Damian laughed derisively and swept Rohan’s hand off his shoulder. “Patrick? You really think he would have made that offer if he hadn’t seen any gain in it?” He grabbed Rohan’s shoulders in a tight grip. “He’s using you, Rohan, he has been using us since the first day. I saw the code when I hacked into the servers; it’s not at all what we had planned for Al. He’ll use it as a weapon to bully the other SubHabs into submission. Once Al is loose in the world, Exel will have full control over everything, and Patrick will be the one in power over all.”

  Rohan broke free of his grip and pushed him away. “It was you who designed Al to do what it is capable of today. You built that back door that would allow us to take manual control. I was against it, but you said it would be too big of a risk if we didn’t add it to the all-spark module. You disappeared without an explanation, then come back and hack into our servers, and now you want me to believe that you’re doing this to stop Patrick?”

  A sardonic smile played on Damian’s lips. “The true goal is to ensure a better future for the human race. You know it always has been.”

  No one spoke for the next few moments. Damian and Rohan stared at each other, one with pity the other with suspicion. Kyle’s voice finally cut through the silence and caused them to break their stares. “That still doesn’t explain why you used me to hack OneTech. But if it really is for the good of all, let us help. I remember what you told me about the medical professionals of the past, about cutting off limbs and stuff, and how it was necessary for progress. Is this one of those things? That seems bad when you look at it but is actually necessary for the greater good?”

  Damian’s smile widened. An unknown variable that suddenly turns out to balance the equation in your favor is always a pleasant surprise. If I could convince them that this is the right thing to do, it would make the next steps so much easier. He had nothing lose by trying. “I’m glad you’ve decided not to take it personally. And yes, this is one of those things. It will be years before anyone even acknowledges that it was the right thing to do, maybe even decades. That’s the problem with most people, they can’t think beyond their own lifetime. We have become the bringers of our own fate, a fate that will not spare us. But someone needs to save us from ourselves.”

  “We were friends once,” Rohan said. “I’d like to believe we still are. I may not have agreed with you always, but I know you have good intentions. You have one chance to convince me that you’re doing the right thing. Otherwise, I’m walking away and will put a stop to whatever you’re doing. And you know I can do that.”

  “I know you can,” Damian replied. “But I am doing exactly what we set out to do in the first place. I am going to wash away the failures of our past. The rain will cleanse it all.”

  “What? What rain? You’re not making any sense, Damian. Let’s go back, and we can work on this together.”

  “You never trusted me to do anything by myself. You always had to get involved, you always wanted to help,” Damian said, shaking his head sadly.

  “I have always trusted you,” Rohan replied, sounding hurt. “You were the ideas guy, I was the execution guy. That was our thing, we made a great team. Remember the screens you broke whenever you got frustrated with all the debugging?”

  Damian spread his arms and acknowledged it with a shrug. “I do, but it doesn’t change the fact that you never trusted me.”

  “Why do you think I’m here? He threatened to call the police, even go to Patrick,” Rohan said, pointing at Kyle, “but I convinced him to set up this meeting instead. I stopped him from going to Patrick. Maybe I should have been a little less trusting. You want to talk about trust? Tell me why the hell you hacked into OneTech servers?”

  He sounds quite agitated, Damian thought to himself. That was very unusual; Rohan was mild tempered even at the worst of times. Can I trust him? Does it even matter at this point? They stood staring at each other, the silence building up between them.

  Finally, Rohan broke eye contact and sighed deeply. “There are so many things I want to ask you about, that I don’t even know where to begin. I know you’ll not stop unti
l you’ve accomplished what you’ve set out to do. And I know that all this started the day you decided to disappear. But none of that matters. If you honestly believe that what you’re doing will help the human race, will result in a better future, you at least owe me an explanation. It was our mission, remember? We worked together; you can’t just leave me in the dark.”

  “Like I said, I am going to make it rain.”

  “Come on, Damian. We’ve been through this before. We wasted months and months on that project. You can’t expect me to believe that’s what you’re attempting again.”

  “See, even now you don’t trust me. Just because we failed in those attempts, you don’t believe I can do it by myself.”

  “It didn’t work, period. It’s not a case of who was working on it, you or me.”

  “Oh, but it is. The project didn’t fail, all the simulations did, the simulations that you had set up. The idea itself has been proven to work since the earth came into existence. Water on the surface evaporates, turns into clouds and falls down as rain. It’s only when humans interfered more than they were supposed to, that the planet began to dry up. We haven’t seen a single drop of rain in over a century because we have been busy protecting ourselves. If humans could only have seen beyond themselves, we might have been further away from extinction than we are now.

  “With the simulations, I understand that you were trying to protect us from a bigger failure, but that’s exactly why we failed. If only we had let nature take its course. But it’s not all your fault. I let you convince me to run those tests and simulations. Then again, without those failures, I would not have been able to see beyond myself. I might never have come into a position to make it rain again.”

  “You’re serious about this, aren’t you?” Rohan asked. “Fine, I’ll believe you if you can answer just one question. Cloud seeding only works if you can get clouds to form. But the temperature conditions on earth have made it almost impossible for the formation of clouds. How are you going to make it rain without clouds?”

  Damian didn’t reply, instead, he just smiled. “I can’t get clouds to form in the atmosphere, but there’s no need to. Waylain has its own atmosphere, an enclosed eco-system. It’s like earth, but on a micro-scale. Why waste the rain on the dust and desert outside when I can make it rain where humans live?”

  “What the hell are you talking about? Rain? Inside Waylain? It’s an underground city!” Kyle interjected.

  Damian barely even heard him, his eyes were on Rohan.

  All color had drained from Rohan’s face as apprehension dawned in his eyes. “Cloud seeding… rain… eco-system… Waylain,” he whispered. “You can’t be serious, Damian. I can’t let you do this.”

  Damian’s smile widened. “I knew you’d never trust me.” He lifted his right hand and crooked his fingers. “Besides, I’ve waited too long to get here. It’s not personal, but I can’t allow you to stand in the way.”

  Kyle suddenly moved and made as if to grab Damian, but he never even got close. Two shadows rose against the backdrop of the city lights. Kyle ducked and and started to shout, but the warning never left his lungs. Rohan never even realized what happened. It almost surprised Damian to see both Kyle and Rohan lying crumpled on the ground and the two thugs looming over them. He couldn’t help but smile. His predictions had been right. He couldn’t have hidden his hacking attempts for long, but he knew Rohan wouldn’t tell anyone before talking to him. Kyle had been a concern until he saw him turn up here with Rohan. With these two out of action, there was no one left who knew he was even alive, not even Patrick. Time to move to the next stage!

  “You think you can manage to lock these two up and keep them out of trouble for a few days?” Damian asked, kneeling next to Rohan, feeling around in his pockets for his mobile.”

  “This wasn’t part of the deal,” the taller thug replied gruffly.

  “Really? I thought your boss told you to keep an eye on me. To make sure I don’t get into trouble. Leaving them here would cause lots of trouble, but that would be nothing compared to what would happen when they wake up.” He stood up, having found what he was looking for.

  The thug stepped up to him, brows drawn together in anger, and stared down at him. Damian had never been the tallest of people, but these apes didn’t intimidate him. He knew they couldn’t harm him, not if they wanted to stay in the good graces of the bald man. He stared into the thug’s eyes, challenging him. “Why don’t you call your boss? Ask him and see what he says.”

  The thug continued to glower at him, but turned around after a few moments and instructed the other to grab Rohan while he reached for Kyle. “We’re going to lock them up. You better get back to your room and stay there. If we don’t find you there when we get back…”

  Damian wanted to laugh but felt it might not be a good idea to provoke these idiots. He nodded and started walking back to the city. “Make sure you get rid of his mobile.”

  That went well, he thought, smiling to himself. In fact, it couldn’t have gone better. In one move he had rid himself of the two people who could have posed a threat to his plans, and he had managed to slip out from under the thugs’ constant surveillance. He felt happier than he had in a long time and the excitement gave speed to his stride, in spite of his hurting knee. A few more days, he thought, and the human race will enter a new era.

  Damian opened the door and went straight to the desk. His knees hurt when he sat down, but he ignored it. With the data from the OT servers, his program now worked perfectly. All four monitors were on, and he checked each of them twice, making sure he hadn’t missed anything. He couldn’t afford to hit a glitch at this stage of the plan. Satisfied, he reached into his bag and pulled out a metal cylinder, as big as a mug. He placed the cylinder on the desk and slid the bag with his portable console over his shoulders. He took a deep breath, fingers hovering over the keyboard. The time for stealth had passed. In all his calculations, this was the part that had the maximum risk of failure. He typed out the commands to initiate the mining bots. He wasn’t worried about anyone finding out about them, there were thousands of mining bots around Waylain’s periphery. But if anyone noticed where they were headed, they might try to stop them. That’s what he was afraid of. If he was not on a console while that happened, he would not be able to control the bots. He had to get there fast. It wouldn’t be too crowded at this time. He took another deep breath and hit the return key, executing the last command to initiate the bots.

  Then he turned his attention to the metal cylinder. The bald man had provided him with all the parts, and he had put it together himself. He opened the top of the cylinder and connected the two exposed terminals. In 30 minutes, the cylinder would let loose an electromagnetic blast, rendering all the electronic equipment in the room completely useless. He had worked out of this apartment for over thirteen months, and it had served its purpose well. But it had reached the end of its usefulness and would serve one last role. It was insulated from external electromagnetic interference, but it worked the other way round, too. An electromagnetic blast inside the apartment would destroy all electronic equipment, but even his neighbors wouldn’t be able to detect it.

  Damian took a deep breath as he closed the apartment door behind him and started down the corridor. All trace of his work would be erased, and he could disappear once again. But soon, he would rise again to save humanity.

  Chapter 15

  Kyle stirred, he could feel his body shaking. He could hear a voice, but it sounded muffled, like coming from far away. Consciousness crept in, and it hit him with the force of a sledgehammer. His head threatened to split apart, and he wished he could sink into the darkness again.

  Through the pain, he realized that his body was still shaking. Rather, someone had him by the shoulder and was shaking him. With massive effort, he managed to roll onto his back. His breathing seemed ragged and shallow even to his own ears. He tried to move, but his hands were pinned beneath him, bound at the wrist. His ankles we
re tied, too. He felt panic rise in his chest. No matter how hard he strained against them, he couldn’t break free, the binds seemed inescapable.

  Suddenly, all strength seemed to go out of him. Tired from the effort and with the headache still hammering inside his skull, he gave up. As his body relaxed a little, he heard the voice again. “Who…?” His own voice sounded hoarse and papery. It was a struggle to get out even a single word.

  “It’s me, Rohan. Are you alright?”

  “Rohan…” It all came rushing back. The meeting on the outskirts of the city, the ruse to draw out Damian’s plan, the sudden realization that they had walked into a trap, and an overpowering sense of alarm moments before everything blacked out.

  “It’s okay, you’re okay. The pain will pass, don’t fight it.”

  It was a few moments before he realized he was straining against the bonds again, and he relaxed. He felt weak and collapsed into a fit of coughs. “Damian,” he finally gasped, “he had us knocked out. It was a trap…”

  “Yes, knocked out and kidnapped, too. It seems we are stuck here. At least they didn’t kill us.”

  That’s when Kyle realized that his eyes were open, but he couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black. He felt his lungs constrict and the panic dig deeper. He could almost hear the noise rising and falling outside as the mob tore through the corridors. His throat was dry, his cheeks wet. No, he reminded himself. You’re not a boy anymore; that was a long time ago.

  “Where are we?” he finally managed to croak out.

  “I don’t know. I can’t see anything in this darkness.”

  “We have to get away from here.”

  “I agree, but in the condition we are in…”

  That much was true. He couldn’t even sit up, and even if he could, there was nothing he could do with his arms and legs tied up. There has to be a way out.

  “I am sorry you got dragged into this, Kyle. I never imagined that Damian would sink this low. His depravity has become deeper and darker than it ever was. I mean, he despised violence. But if he is willing to… I shudder to think what lengths he is willing to go to, now.”