by Abhishek .
For Daddu,
My maternal grandfather, Ashim Bhattacharya, a
master raconteur and passionate writer who has written
hundreds of poems and short stories and still writes
whenever he finds inspiration. He used to narrate
fantastic stories to me before our afternoon siestas when
I was younger. Now, this is my story for him.
“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” Leonardo da Vinci
The most famous Italian Renaissance artist,
polymath and inventor
“The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.” Charles Darwin
English biologist and naturalist and the
father of modern evolutionary studies
“You may delay, but time will not.” Benjamin Franklin
Famous polymath, inventor, and one of the
Founding fathers of the United States
Acknowledgments
I never thought I would be able to write a whole novel, let alone two! Now that two have happened, I cannot but think of the inspirations that I drew from people and events around me the first time around. I would like to thank my parents, Baishali Roy and Joydeep Roy, for believing in me and encouraging me to express myself through many media, music, art, sports and the most creative of all, writing. I have really found great joy in combining my knowledge and imagination into something which grows by itself the more I write.
This is the second volume of the trilogy that I have planned, to tell the complete story of Mathias and Ram.
I would like to also thank my entire extended family of grandparents and cousins who have constantly encouraged me.
I have to acknowledge the active support and constant critique and help from my publisher Anup Jerajani and his entire team from The Write Place, Crossword: Manish Purohit, Ushnav Shroff and Indur Vaswani. This book has been made sharper through the incisive editing as well as imaginative cover design from the team.
I would also like to thank all the people without whom the first book wouldn’t have been possible – Sam Mukherjee, Subhayu Mishra, Leticia Gomez, Deepali Naair, Manisha Lakhe, and Rohan Vij.
Mythologies, folktales and ancient history come to my rescue every time I conceive of a complicated plot and then want to find an escape. Science, especially quantum physics, is turning out to be so versatile that whatever difficult situation my imagination conjures up, it finds a solution within the science of this era.
The doubts that I had about writing a novel are finally all gone. The third novel is coming and many more to follow. This has become my lifelong passion and companion.
What Happened in the Father of the Gods
Is God a celestial entity who is omnipresent and has the power to control all things or is God simply... another civilisation? Norwegian mythology worships the Aesirs, the citizens of Asr-Gawa (mythologically known as Asgard), believed to be Gods. To this day those heroes are speculated on and films and comic books revere them. Hindu mythology called it Swarg and Persian mythology called the beings, Ahuras.
Actually Asr-Gawa is an incredibly technologically-advanced earth-like planet in a parallel dimension, capable of dwarfing the mythological magic simply by application of quantum physics in everyday world. They call their planet Asr-Gawa and the residents, Asurians. They have managed to travel inter- dimensionally, control the other dimensions in the multiverse and were responsible for creating sentient life on Earth by advanced scientific techniques. Presently, almost devoid of the alien element Makto, which is an essential ingredient in their ability to travel anywhere in space and in time, they are desperate to synthesise it from all the Silicon on Earth, which would reduce the mass of Earth significantly in the process and hurl Earth out of its orbit. Baldr, an Asurian warrior is entrusted by Odin with the task, but he has the enemies of Asr-Gawa from Jargantaam on his side and is secretly conspiring to usurp power. But to do that he needs a certain boy from Earth. The exact reason for his need will be revealed in this book.
All the technological advances of Asr-Gawa have been explained through the harnessing and application of Quantum Physical forces in everyday activity.
Unwittingly caught up in the midst of this is Mathias, a 17-year-old, British-Norwegian orphan on Earth. Unassuming but a brilliant student, gifted with athleticism and an exceptional brain, Mathias is a superb computer hacker. His closest Indian- British orphan friend, Ram had received coordinates from his long lost scientist father who disappeared in the Himalayas and they embark upon a journey to find him. The journey gets forced on them when their orphanage is attacked, and the person in charge of the orphanage before dying whispers to Ram and Mathias that in order to find their fathers, they need to find the Father of the Gods!
Chased by strange men with light hair and fair skin, they survive many fights, some by accident and some through utilisation of Mathias’s amulet left with him by his parents. They arrive in India, navigate roads from Meerut to the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, and discover an old Viking/Norwegian shrine in the middle of the Himalayas. Mathias’s hacking skills come in useful in rescuing Vivek, a young ISRO scientist at a secret base in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in India resulting in a close bond between them. Baldr manages to trap them at the shrine through the Jargantaans, and it takes a lot of ingenuity on the part of the boys to find an escape route under a lava lake formed by an earthquake.
The route to reaching the alien dimension seems to be referred to in the cryptic verses left by Mathias’s father in a diary to be on the top of the world, which they understand to be Himalayas, but the actual fact behind that will be revealed again in this book.
Together, the three manage to escape from the clutches of Baldr at the shrine but end up being chased by the Indian Army as they realise the presence of unauthorised people at the Biosphere Reserve and they have to dodge bullets and escape detection. In the middle of this Mathias discovers the phenomenon of Time Stasis which enables him to be mobile while everything else is frozen in time. This happens every time an Asurian opens up the portal to travel between the dimensions.
From Baldr, Mathias learns of his true alien origins as the abandoned son of Thor, and becomes as eager to reach Asr-Gawa as his friend Ram. They discover the secret of the Yeti, battle military guards, uncover secret pathways underground to Badrinath and crack codified ancient texts.
Their quest now leads them to Japan, in the ancient towns, finding secrets of Daruma dolls. They discover the fact that the one-eyed Daruma doll was fashioned after Asurian leader Odin who came down in ancient times and had become known as Bodhidharma. That is why there are 3,000 year old sculptures in Tokyo museum that seem to wear space helmets and goggles.
They flee from the Jargantaans again, and discover that they were being tracked with a very advance tracking chip embedded in Ram’s flashlight. They come to Tokyo and go through innumerable lanes and through a live Kabuki theatre and fight off these people to spend the night in a Capsule hotel where they decipher the ancient texts.
They steal an ancient artefact from the Tokyo National Museum using hacking skills to manipulate the security systems. The artefact has the code and the key as described in the scrolls of the Daruma temple. This key is supposed to lead them to find the Father of the Gods, whoever that might be. At this point the clues seem to point to a central African country and an ancient ruler there.
While they embark on their journey to find the ancient centre of the Greek, Roman and Persian empire, mistakenly understood to be Rome by their young minds, the book reveals a deeper conspiracy happening in
Japan where the curator of the museum is fully aware of the extraterrestrial beings and their powers, and they are moving fast to technological superiority through the same route to become the technological super power on Earth. The scene moves from Gunma prefecture to Tokyo to Kyoto and rapidly unveils the dual threat on earth. The theme obviously will be expanded rapidly in this book.
In the meantime, there are glimpses of beings from a totally different existence, from a fourth spatial dimension, who are keeping watch. They seem to get alerted everytime Mathias’s amulet glows, and connects through to them. They are a shadowy presence which Baldr dreads, and therefore a buildup of these beings will be expanded in Book Three.
Mathias, Ram and Vivek finally learn of their mistake and discover the true destination to be ancient Turkey and not Rome. They reach Istanbul and are led by cryptic verses to the unique underground cities of Turkey. Their goal is to activate a teleporter to reach Asr-Gawa. But the biggest secret of mankind is about to be revealed to them!
At the end of the book, they discover an incredible netherworld, beneath the eight-level cave cities of Turkey, having ancient predator animals, and finally uncover the secret behind the ultimate saviour of mankind whom everybody has heard of in every scripture and culture, but nobody is aware of? Who is the Father of the Gods? This is a revelation which is the pivot of the whole book. They find the carcass of Noah (known in Asr-Gawa by another name), who was actually the father of Odin, helped his own father to initiate life on Earth through Chronoscale travel and came in to save the earthlings from the enormous flood engineered by the Jargantaans to destroy their most beautiful creation. The ark did not contain animals but their genetic samples, and Noah managed to save and re-create the animals later on Earth. The ark did not float on water but actually flew above it and saved the beings. They find the carcass preserved within the ark.
While this discovery turns the book around dramatically, the boys in the meantime succeed in opening up the inter-dimensional portal, briefly through the use of power from a monopolar magnetic fuel cell built by Vivek at ISRO. However, due to inexperience in using these, Mathias fails to take advantage of it, and Ram gets sucked in the small black hole that opens up and reaches Asr-Gawa. Mathias and Vivek are left behind and they are joined by an Asurian lady who comes through the portal when Ram goes through Asr-Gawa (the reason will be revealed in this book as they learn more about Asr-Gawa) and now they have to figure other ways to reach the dimension. They also find an ancient Japanese regalia that had been missing for decades among the items underground in Turkey which clearly linked the reason the Japanese curator knew everything about these. Carvings on it will help them in this book to reach Asr-Gawa, but before that they have the problem of Silicon transfer from Earth to solve, to save the planet.
The book ends with Ram landing at Asr-Gawa and finding his long lost father there!
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
What Happened in the Father of the Gods
Characters
Prologue
Kapittel 45
Kapittel 46
Kapittel 47
Kapittel 48
Kapittel 49
Kapittel 50
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Kapittel 83
Kapittel 84
Epilogue
About the Author
Copyright
Characters: (in alphabetical order)
Athmor (Ath-maur): Black market businessman in Asr-Gawa.
Baldr (Bal-der) Nu: An Asurian and a member of the council of elders; son of Odin Nu; although known on Earth as the Viking god of purity and light, he is a mortal in the dimension of Asr-Gawa.
Chandra Shanbhag (Chan-dra Shaan-bhaag): The scientist father of Ram; missing for at least a decade after a mysterious expedition in the Himalayas.
Mrs Dawson (Mrs Daw-sun): The teacher at the orphanage who was closest to Mathias and Ram.
Heimdallr (Haa-im-daal-ar): The technically-expert inspector of the teleporters in the dimensional realm of Asr-Gawa.
Hikaru (Hik-aroo): Vivek’s friend from the days in ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation); Katsuro Hamasaki’s nephew.
Huginn (Hoo-gin): An Asurian UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle); one of Odin’s pet ravens according to myth but actually a cybernetic organism.
Katsuro Hamasaki (Kaat-sooro Haa-maa-saa-ki): The curator of the Tokyo National museum.
Garm Lu (Gaarm Loo): Member of an anti-establishment organisation in Asr-Gawa
General Kiyoshi (Kee-yo-shee): Retired General of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, leader of a secret Japanese organisation.
Lifana (Lee-faanaa): Asurian lab assistant, accidentally displaced to Earth.
Mathias Christopher Thompson (Math-aa-yas Kris-to-fer Thomp-son): The hero of the story; a 17-year-old orphan who finds himself drawn into an adventure of epic proportions.
Migdur (Mig-door): The Jargantaan general of Baldr; the most intelligent of Baldr’s Jargantaan men and knows how to deal with his irascible attitude.
Muninn (Moon-in): Another Asurian UAV; according to lore, Odin’s pet raven along with Huginn; same as Huginn.
Odin (Ow-din) Nu: The current head of the Council of Elders in Asr-Gawa; worldly wise and one-eyed; the most important of all ‘Norse Gods’ in mythology but really a mortal in the realm of Asr-Gawa and has also influenced many parts of earth over the years.
Ram Shanbhag (Raam Shaan-bhaag): Mathias’s best friend and fellow inmate at the orphanage who wants to find his father at all costs.
Sif (Sif ): Thor Nu’s wife.
Thor (Thaw-r) Nu: Mythologically known on Earth as the god of thunder, lightning and strength; actually mortal in Asr-Gawa, erstwhile Commandant of Military Forces, brother of Baldr Nu; son of Odin Nu.
Vivek Bindal (Vee-vaik Bin-dul): Ex-ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) scientist; sued for smuggling dangerous equipment out of the laboratory; was saved by Mathias and helps him in his adventure to pay his debt.
Distrik Poulsäja: The chief operative of Internal Security.
Samuel: A junior Analyst in NASA, Washington DC.
There are some characters who cannot be spoken of lest some secrets be revealed.
Locales:
Valhalla (Vul-hul-la): The parliament building and residence of most of the elders of Asr-Gawa.
Asr-Gawa (Asra-Gaavaa): The inhabited planet in an alternate dimension in the same universe as ours; the residents are called Asurians and are technologically ahead of us by many years.
Jargantaam (Jur-gun-taam): The inhabited planet in another dimension in the same universe; average climatic temperatures are lower than Earth’s; residents are called Jargantaans.
Mandagaar (Mun-daa-gaar): Earth as named by the Asurians.
Hatay (Haa-te): Province of Turkey in the South.
Derinkuyu (Der-ink-ooyoo): A town and district in Central Turkey.
Soffut (Sofoot) district: The district in Asr-Gawa under the autonomous control of an anti-government organisation.
Hel: As per Norse folklore, another Dimension. As per Asurian histor
y, it is a place of energy production.
Prologue
Mathias’s story
Airborne somewhere over the Mediterranean
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 0549 hours EET
Three people were standing in front of me, their countenances indiscernible. Bright light shone behind them such that their majestic silhouettes made them look like the elusive creator of heaven and earth. I craned my neck upwards to look at them and then looked down to see my surprisingly tiny feet. I was in my younger self once again. Whether it was the brilliance of the light, I could not tell, but my heavy amulet glowed with a luminosity that made it look alive. Gradually, the visages sharpened. My chest tightened as I beheld my parents and Mrs Dawson. An inexplicable paralysis overpowered my urge to reach out and embrace them all.
Oddly though, I remembered them talking like this from an earlier dream of mine, just before my parents walked out of the door.
As my eyes adjusted to the lighting and the reception materialised, I could catch a few lines from their hushed discussion.
“What will you do now?” Mrs Dawson asked my father with her brows furled.
“Submit... self,” he replied in an incomprehensible guttural voice. I strained to hear more.
“What’ll... to you?” My mother spoke up.
“.... Kusanagi, I ...” I couldn’t grasp my father’s reply but my chest felt like a knotted rope when I heard ‘Kusanagi’ from his mouth. The image of the shield we found in the Ark floated up in my head. Did my father know something about it? Surprisingly I seemed to be completely aware of my current self with the memories of the most recent events.
Everything thereafter happened in a matter of a few seconds. My parents walked out reluctantly, dismay and sadness in their eyes, even if they wore smiles on their lips. Mrs Dawson held my hand and I expected her to take me to my classroom but this time, something else happened; almost as if my latent memories had overridden this dream and spliced a different detail into it.