‘The old man thought about it and the way he explained it to me was that the blast in the cabin killed us all, the both of us strapped in our chairs and Henna, standing by the bomb. Our deaths on Earth had opened a quantum portal to deliver our consciousnesses out of there. But, instead of two, it picked up all three of the consciousnesses there. The old man put ours back in our bodies and still had enough to make up nearly a full consciousness. He held that unknown quantum of consciousness in some sort of a ‘consciousness cage’, bringing it along with him. The girl that jumped into the water, when they fished her out of the river, she was dead. The old man drained the third consciousness into her.’
Jai listened without even blinking his eyes, his brain furiously trying to make sense of all this.
‘So, you say that Henna is here.’
‘Well, her consciousness is here, just like the both of us here’ he raised his hands to Jai’s face, showing the bronzed arm to Jai.
‘That means she is a bronzed new version of herself’ Jai’s tears had dried by now and there was a look of relief mixed with bewilderment on his face,
‘Why is all this happening? What exactly is going on?’
‘A war is going on.’
‘What are we? Where are we? Who are fighting whom here?’
‘We are what we were before – trans-humans. The people of this planet are descendants from our Earth back in our time. They left Earth many thousands of years ago to reach Nova, a habitable planet in the Mouse-tail galaxy, light years away from our galaxy. We set up home here and this planet changed us. Some of us evolved, adapted or trans-mutated to our present-bronzed forms on this planet.’
‘Who are we fighting against?’
Ludvig laughed
‘Well, we are fighting against ourselves. There were a lot of us from Earth who refused to settle on Nova and continued with their journey further into the farthest reaches of space. They have returned to Nova now, changed and trans-mutated into an evil marauding species, much different from us, intent on decimating and colonizing us.’
‘Oh…’
‘Well, Nova didn’t change all of us. Some remained unaffected, remaining the most human-like amongst us. They call themselves the Sterling-Humans or the Sterlings. We call them the white-demons and yes, we were at war with them too. A home-grown variant of civil-war that is currently on hold in face of a bigger threat from outside.’
Jai held his head and collapsed on his bed, the turned to Ludvig
‘Where is Henna now?’
‘You were out cold for the past five days. Henna waited by you for three days. When you refused to come by, they moved her to a more secure base. She is safer there. She is a sort of celebrity here now. They are calling her ‘Skyball Lyra’ now’
Jai’s face had aged in minutes, his forehead furrowed in wrinkles and the bronze appearing faded.
Ludvig held Jai’s hands
‘Don’t worry, she is safe now. She did not want to leave your side. I persuaded her to go, promised that I would look after you here.’
Jai nodded his head and sighed, probably dazed by all the information that had had to process,
‘Why do they call her Lyra?’
‘Lyra was the name of the girl who jumped off that cliff.’
Jai sighed,
‘What do they call us?’
Ludvig looked up and his eyes went up in a smirk
‘Well, that’s interesting. They call us JAI and Ludvig.’
‘How is that possible?’
Ludvig shrugged his shoulders,
‘Maybe a coincidence. I don’t know.’
Jai looked unconvinced. Nevertheless, he could not think of anything to explain that. Moreover, he had a hundred other questions in his head,
‘Why did the humans leave Earth?’
Ludvig looked at Jai and shook his head
‘Do you want to go there now? It’s a very long story, the story of humans fighting the odds and winning and yet ultimately losing the one thing that was dearest to them, their home, the Earth.’
‘Where did you find out about this? Took some lessons in history?’
‘Well you can say that. I did read about it but it was not a history book that I read. They call it ‘The Exodus Story’. No one knows much about the author and if it is all true but it sure is an entertaining account of what happened all those years ago. He must have been on the ship that escaped Earth and probably had a ringside view of events as they happened or perhaps he researched the topic, met people who were in the thick of it and wrote a fictionalized account of events as they transpired. It is however, by far the most popular book on the topic. The elders discount it as pure fable but the masses love it.’
Ludvig got up from his chair, reaching a wooden cabinet on the wall to fish out a book.
‘Here you go. Since you have nothing better to do and need to rest here for a couple more days, I would suggest you dig into it. I am sure you will not be disappointed. I will come back with something to eat. And hey! Don’t run away.’
Jai smiled, accepting the book off Ludvig’s hands.
(to be continued...)
Glossary of Cuss-Words and Other Less Fortunate Words
Baburao – Obscure origin. Otherwise a common Indian name but somehow slanged to refer the male organ of procreation, the penis. Something like ‘John’ or ‘Little John’ or ‘Dick’!
Bhadwi – Of or from the vagina (used for a female). Generally referred to for a whore.
Bhai – Meaning brother, elder brother. An underworld salutation meaning Boss or Don.
Bhosdi – Of or from the vagina (used for a male). Generally referred to for a pimp.
Bliad – Russian for whore or rather, slut, the differentiator being that a bliad generally does it for fun and not money.
Cyss – A Dae’ityon kiss, that involved a very passionate entwining of tentacles in addition to the oral ministrations of a kiss.
Habshi – An Indian/Pakistani term for an African-Arab captain of ship. Possible origin was to mean ‘from Abyssinia’. Oftentimes now relegated to refer to any black man.
Haraami – Someone who is of Haraam, the Arabic Koranic-origin word referring to that which is forbidden. Generally refers to a person having been born of a forbidden act of fornication. A bastard.
Janta – The public.
Kaffir – An Arabic-origin word for non-believer. It stems from the great need to differentiate those who believe in Allah from those who do not, in the religion of Islam. It has been so in almost all religions where unlike science, the belief system is enforced by fear of persecution rather than that through understanding and acceptance.
Mader-chod – Here we go, back to cussing the Madre! This is Hindi or Indian for motherfucker. Purported to have been used by a famous Indian cricketer on field for an opponent.
Peti – Refers to a lakh of rupees. Lakh (alt. lac) is an Indian numerical denomination equalling a hundred thousand.
Pizda – Refers to the vagina. Russian/Italian for whore or slut.
Saala – Brother-in-law (wife’s brother). Derogatory when used for someone who is not actually your wife’s brother; thereby insinuating that you would like to get between his sister’s legs!
Saana – Wise man. Generally derogatory for smart-ass.
Wacal – A Somali cuss-word, which means ‘bastard’. Generally refers to a fatherless child, insinuating a loose mother. So, the offensiveness of the word stems from an indirect insult to the character of the mother.
Immortals Page 23