Earth To Centauri_Alien Hunt

by Kumar L

  His triple system was a rarity. Generally, people had one or two, at most, transceivers implanted by the service providers. Having a third one was very uncommon but not unheard of. Since the transceivers drew their power directly from the heat of the human body, they could effectively function indefinitely in sleep mode. There was no need for an external interface since the audio signal could travel to the ears by bone conduction. External interface could be activated as needed only for video. For the people who liked it, signals could also be directly sent to the brain through biological neural interfaces.

  He tapped a portion of his skin and was immediately rewarded by an acknowledgment in his ear. “Welcome back, Commander Ryan, how may I help you today?” He smiled at his allies and asked the system to locate and call his wife, Joan.

  It took less than a second for the system to respond, finding Joan's details and placing a call. They all waited expectantly for her to answer. Ryan meanwhile interfaced their transceivers locally so that they could all participate in the call. “I’m gonna have to pay for not being in touch with her, so please disregard the language,” he whispered to his confederates.

  “Hello?” a sleepy voice finally answered.

  “Hey, honey. Sleeping?”

  “It's 1 a.m. Ryan! Of course I'm sleeping!” she replied grumpily. “Where have you been? And why are you calling me at this time of the night? Are you coming home? Is everything all right?” her voice betrayed her concern.

  “Everything's fine but I won't be home for some time. We’re still in the middle of something. Listen, be an angel and call up Lieutenant Manisha for me, will you?”

  “Are you serious, Ryan? You woke me up in the middle of the freaking night to play secretary?”

  “Joan,” he said soothingly, “it's imperative. Can you connect me, please? I'll explain everything when I get back.”

  “You'd better,” Joan replied, still sounding irritated. “How do I reach her?”

  “Just ask for her care of the Indian Air Force and patch me in.”

  “Ok. Hold on.” The line went quiet while Joan connected the call.

  Shortly another sleepy voice came into their ears. “Hello? Who's this?”

  “Manisha! I’m so glad we got you. Listen, it's me, Ryan and I have the Captain and Major here with me.”

  “Commander! Captain!” Manisha was suddenly wide awake. “Is something wrong?”

  “No, no. Everything’s fine, but we need your help. I can't explain right now, Manisha. I want you to come over to this address on the double. I also need your personal computer system and ComNet. Don't ask anything more now, don't talk to anyone and try not to leave any traces. Just get here as fast as you can.”

  “Of course, sir,” she replied dutifully accepting the odd order like a good trooper. “I'll be there in an hour.”

  “Hey, soldier!” Joan was back on the line as Rawat and Anara disconnected. “Mind telling me now what this is all about?”

  “I'll tell you soon, Joan, as soon as I get back. That's a promise. It's a matter of national security.”

  “Yeah, yeah, what else is new? Come home soon. Bye.”

  “Good night, babe,” Ryan signed off.

  “We're back in business, Captain. I suggest that we grab a bit of shut eye till Manisha gets here.”

  “Might as well, I guess. I do hope she'll get here soon.”

  “Patience, Captain. Patience. We just need a little more time.”

  The rain continued to rattle against the windows as the three of them made themselves comfortable on the sofa to try and catch some sleep.

  T minus 18 hours - INHS Asvini

  I t had been a long night for the team of doctors even though they were all used to this type of challenging assignments. Lucy had been in labour for over six hours. Her child, it seemed, was refusing to be born naturally. The specialists had been ready to go and deliver with a C-section, but Dr. Khan had prevailed over them to allow nature to take its course.

  Finally, late that night, the tension in the room was split by the wailing of the child. They cut the umbilical cord, and the child was taken to be cleaned up and checked by a team of neonatal specialists. Lucy was exhausted from the effort and had sunk in torpor.

  After numerous tests, the girl, all of seven pounds and two ounces, was pronounced wholly healthy and brought over to Lucy for nursing. Dr. Khan stood watching over the happy scene like a proud grandparent, which he truly believed himself to be.

  Lucy, somewhat lucid now, smiled through her tears looking at her daughter. “I will name her Anara, after the Captain. Do you think she will mind?”

  “Of course not, Lucy. I'm sure she'll be delighted. Did you know that Anara means passionate wanderer or powerful woman? Both of these are very descriptive of the Captain and your child. She is after all the daughter of two worlds.”

  “I only wish her father and the captain were here to see her,” said Lucy. “Where is she?”

  “She is busy with her duties, but I'm sure she'll be here soon. In the meantime, I want you to rest.” He motioned to Nurse Aisha to take the child and put her in the incubator to sleep.

  He’d tried to project a brave face but inside Dr. Khan was worried. It was unlike the captain not to be present for the birth. He desperately hoped everything was alright. He had been unable to get through to any of the senior staff of Antariksh for the last few hours.

  T minus 18 hours - NIA Station

  M adhavan had been running computer simulations since he'd reached the NIA control room. He was trying to figure out the ionizing radiation he expected the alien vessel to be giving off. He had access to the database on Antariksh and was also connected to Narada. He felt he was making good progress. He was now programming the detectors placed across the city and on the search ships so that the probe for the radiation sources could start in earnest.

  It was much more difficult for him to work alone. He had become used to leading a team of engineers and had forgotten a lot of the programming required. If only Manisha were here. She'd have done this in a jiffy. The girl is a genius with computer systems.

  Earlier in the day, he'd heard some murmurs among the technicians working in the centre and soon afterward they'd become a little chilly toward him. He had ignored it at first, having enough on his plate. But when people stopped talking whenever he was around and looked at him suspiciously, he had gotten worried. He had tried speaking to the DG but had been stonewalled by her assistant. He wondered what exactly was going on to cause this change but had not found any answers.

  There was a small buzz, and a voice spoke in his ear. “Incoming call from Manisha. Answer or ignore.” Deciding to be cautious, he diverted the call to text and opened up a window on his screen.

  “Manisha, what a surprise! I was just thinking about you,” he typed.

  “Good to talk to you too, sir. Are you alone now?”

  He glanced around quickly. Everyone seemed to be ignoring him. “Yes. We're good. What's up?”

  “We don't have much time. I'm sending you some instructions. You need to connect me to the NIA computer system. I'll take over from there.”

  “You want me to help you hack the NIA? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “Not hack, sir. Just borrow. Captain's orders.”

  “Captain’s orders? Is she there with you? Man, I've been getting some weird vibes here. Is she all right?”

  “We're all fine, sir. The setup please?” Manisha was trying to be patient, but the captain was breathing down her neck, and she knew Anara was desperate to get going.

  “Ok. Ok. Hold on.”

  “Is he doing it?" asked Anara.

  "Yes, Ma’am. It'll take a minute for the files to get installed.”

  “Where did you learn how to do this?” Ryan asked, impressed by her skills.

  “Self-taught ethical hacker, sir. Three times university champion. This was also a required course for my communications training with the air force.” Her pride was unmistakable,
and Anara couldn't help smiling. She patted Manisha on the back.

  “Will the NIA be able to find us out? Will you be able to hack their system? I thought it'd be invulnerable.”

  “With all respect, Captain, no system is completely foolproof. There are always loopholes. It just takes time to locate them. However, in this case, I realise your urgency. So, instead of hacking the NIA system, I am just ‘borrowing' it.”

  Everyone looked at her quizzically, and she realised she needed to explain further. “I believe the ComNet service providers have a weaker system security. So, I'm going to ride on the NIA network and route a request to the ComNet server and fool it into giving me the information I need.”

  This girl is going places, thought Anara as she looked approvingly at the petite figure sitting in front of her virtual keyboard. “And you still prefer a keyboard instead of using a neural interface? Won't a direct brain connection be faster?”

  “Never trusted neural interfaces, Ma’am. You never know what else it might pick up from my mind. Keyboards are less obtrusive and more private. Besides, I enjoy working on a keyboard,” Manisha answered with a smile.

  “And we're good to go," she announced as her screen showed the NIA logo. She rapidly entered a series of complex commands and started responding to various inputs her system was providing. Her concentration was complete, and the other three backed off to give her space.

  “I knew she was good, but this is genius level work, Ryan,” commented Anara.

  “I know. That's why I thought of her first.”

  “Can someone get me a cup of coffee?” Manisha called out. Then, suddenly realising who she was addressing, she added “Please,” a little sheepishly.

  “It's all right. I'll get you a cup,” Rawat said as he moved towards the kitchen. “I'll see if I can order something to eat too. I don't know about you, but I'm famished.”

  ********

  An hour later, Manisha was still working on her system while the rest lounged around waiting for her to complete the task.

  “I'm in,” she declared suddenly. A final tap and the screen showed the logo of the ComNet. “Where do you want me to start, Captain?” she asked with a sparkle in her eyes.

  “That's bloody incredible, Manisha. Ok, let's see, we need to download the call records for all the personnel who were aboard Antariksh. After that, we need to look for aberrations - specifically people who have not been using the ComNet at all. Let's keep the date range for the last two weeks, starting with the day we landed.”

  “Sure. I can get the list of people from Antariksh's computer, but it'll take some time to download all the records.”

  “Then we'd better start immediately, hadn’t we?”

  Manisha uploaded fifty-five names and waited for the reply. A long series of names, numbers, dates and times scrolled across the screen.

  “Our guys sure have been busy,” Rawat smirked as he looked at the screen. “That's a lot of data. How do we analyse it?”

  Anara had been expecting the hacking to be difficult but apparently so was data analysis.

  “Well, since you're looking for people who have made very few calls, I can sort these into the number of calls made per person.” Her fingers input the commands on the virtual keyboard. The system would have readily accepted voice inputs from her, but she still preferred the two-part keyboard.

  A fresh set of data resolved itself on the screen. “This is it. All listed from low to high.”

  Anara thought it over once more, and then instructed, “Narrow down the date range, Manisha. Start from the time the alien ship landed on Earth.”

  Manisha selected a section of the data, and a new set of numbers and names was displayed. There were five on the top of the list who had practically not used the ComNet at all.

  The very first name was Dr. Khan.

  “Rafiq? I don't believe it!” exclaimed Anara.

  “Hold on, Captain. Let's not jump to conclusions,” said Ryan. “He's been at the hospital the whole time. He would not have been able to call anyone. He was probably unable to use the ComNet in the sterile room at all. And he had made calls to you. Look here.”

  Anara relaxed as she received this confirmation. The next three names were hers, Ryan’s and Rawat's but she could not quite place the last name - Nish.

  But Rawat recognised him. “What the … Of course! Why didn't I think of it earlier?”

  “I vaguely recall that name, Rawat. Wasn't he one of your security people who went down to HuZryss with us?”

  “Yes, Captain. He was on the surface with us.”

  “That's right. I remember it too. He was one of the security personnel. But how do you think he got turned?”

  Rawat paced around as he tried to piece everything together in his mind. “I can only guess what could've happened. You remember, when the TrueKifs were landing I dispersed the security team and asked them to hide? Nish was one of them. We did not make contact with him again till he met Lieutenant Keisham while he was placing the bomb on the TrueKif ship. That means he was missing for almost a day. Those TrueKifs must have gotten to him then. They're even more cunning than I realised. It's all my fault.”

  “I don't see how you could've prevented this from happening, Rawat. Anyway, the important thing is - what do we do now? Can we locate him using his ComNet signal, Manisha?”

  “I'll try, Captain,” she acknowledged as she bent over her keyboard. “He's not showing up on the system. It looks like he's turned on the privacy function. Sorry.”

  “That definitely implicates him in my books!” declared Rawat with finality.

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions so fast. Just because he has not been communicating does not make him a traitor,” offered Ryan. “We can’t just condemn a man on one piece of evidence. I think we should get to Tej with this info, Captain.”

  “I'm not going back to that … that …,” Anara lost control. “Certainly not after she’s burnt me.”

  “Captain, we need to be reasonable here, " Ryan said to calm her down. "She and the NIA are the only ones who can search for him if he's the perpetrator and is off the grid. There's much more at stake than your hurt ego. This may be the very lead the NIA has been looking for.”

  This deflated Anara a bit. Am I petty? she questioned herself.

  “You may be right but I just can’t bring myself to go back to NIA. All right, we will try and meet her, but you do the talking this time. I'm not sure I can keep my cool. Manisha, you can stay here. Try to get some sleep. I'll call you if I need you again and that was a damn fine piece of work.” She was not surprised to see the young girl blush at this praise.

  “Lead us on, Rawat. This was your idea after all.”

  Dawn was just breaking over the sea, bringing a tinge of red to the overcast sky.

  T minus 12 hours - Panvel station

  B iw woke up with a start. Damn, did I sleep through the night? This was not good. They had lost sight of their objective, even if only temporarily. Good thing the Chairman was not here to see them sleeping in the derelict building instead of diligently working to fulfill their purpose. They would have lost their heads by now. Rolling over and giving a considerable nudge to Jur, the was rewarded was a grunt and a curse. Jur sat up too, blinking its eyes, just as surprised as Biw to find itself in this position. They looked over to see the Nish sleeping; spread out in the corner, snoring lightly.

  Ignoring him for the moment, they gathered their weapons and got ready for the day. Still not very clear on the actual plan, they knew that their success depended on the traitor peacefully sleeping in the room.

  Finally, unwilling to wait any longer, Jur went over and kicked Nish in the back. This made Nish cry out. He sat up and looked at the two mercenaries in irritation. His dream of ruling a kingdom had been rudely interrupted. He got up, nodded curtly and collected his own weapon and took a sip of water.

  “So, what's the plan?” asked Biw, now impatient to get on with the job. Once that part was finished,
another matter needed to be taken care of - the real task.

  Nish stretched and wished he could get a cup of tea. However, these two barbarians would not understand the importance of the morning cuppa, he thought. So instead he reconciled himself to sipping some more water and taking a bite from a nutritional bar from his backpack.

  He outlined the plan succinctly. The truck was ready and decked up to carry the idol. It would be with them shortly. In the midst of hundreds of vehicles making their way into the city for the immersion, they were guaranteed anonymity. He would be sitting with the driver in front while Biw and Jur would be in the back of the truck. Nish had a brilliant if not insane idea to hide them in plain sight. The two aliens would be mythical demons being crushed by the God. This was a recurring theme in Hindu festivals - the end of tyranny through the generous and courageous act of a god. That would be the theme for his idol too.

  He hoped no one would pay closer attention to the two demon figures lying supine at the bottom of the truck covered in flowers and various offerings,. To any inquisitive eye, he would explain them as masterful copies made by unknown craftsmen. Even in daylight, they looked formidable; at night, they'd be frightening.

  Jur and Biw had no idea what he was talking about but as they had no other alternative, they had to stick with whatever wild idea Nish had dreamt up.

  They would need a few hours to navigate through the crowded streets. The truck would not move faster than a few miles an hour once it entered the main thoroughfare for the immersion. There would be plenty of music and dancing going around, and the festivities would be a sight to watch. Too bad it would all end in mayhem before the night was over.

  They would take the main Mumbai-Pune Highway before turning into the old Eastern Express Highway. Then onto the suburb of Sion, cross over to the western part of the city and continue onwards to Chowpatty beach. He'd have to time everything very carefully. Too early and they'd be sitting at the beachside being harangued by the cops to move the truck and make way for the others. Too late and they'd never manage to get to the beach, being crowded out by the mega idols making their way.