A Journey Into Unknown

by Aditya Kumar

  After spending hours on it, Mark decrypted the message. He found that it is just a coordinate, time and a message. Message was simple, but not that simple… ‘Want to defeat Quaiak, come to mentioned location at mentioned time.’

  ◆◆◆

  CHAPTER 9

  Alpha-

  5

  There is a lot of mystery going on in every moment. What are we? What actually are we doing? Do we exist in real or just a hologram of some larger and greater mysteries, made for experimental purpose? If yes, then who made us? What was their intention before making us? But these are larger mystery, about which, we are not ready to solve yet. There is also other mysterious thing, like Love and Happiness, what we feel on particular incident and why? Can we solve this and reach one step closer to meet with our creator?

  Understanding our mind and its feeling is one of the most complicated things. Every individual contains trillions of neurons. This is literally, uncountable number. How can we know, how an individual neuron reacts on observing particular incidents or what is the secret message hidden by creator, inside those neurons. These things are literally, impossible to find out. But what we could do is that we can study and know the effect of the incidents. We know that we want joy and happiness, and no one wants pain and suffering. Why... I don't think, any one tried to know and also, we don't need to know. We just need to know, what can make us happier and what can take away our pain and suffering... and today, Mark is doing the same thing to eradicate the dark and show all of us a streak of light.

  Every moment in life becomes challenging. We don't know what will happen next. We can try to predict the future, but as much we try to unravel its mystery, it gets more complicated. We don't know what future contains within itself and where we will end up, but we can try to make our present better and can hope that future will follow our present. We can just flow in the current of time. We are not authorized to control its current. Well, whatever will happen, we need to be ready.

  Now, Mark got a way to meet some other who also hate Quaiak as much as Mark do. Only difference is that they called everyone to unite there… they got courage to send this message in open without even knowing to them. Mark really wanted to meet them… and know them… know their powers which gave them that much courage to start an open war. So, Mark, against the opinion of every other, decided to go there. They helped in figuring about the mentioned time that it is after 54 hours … and considering their distance, that time was a lot. But… he had to go. He went to Emily.

  “Heard that you are going to that unknown place alone,” Emily asked, “Do you think, that would be safe?”

  “I don’t know, but I can’t stay here and do nothing.” Mark said.

  “I know you concern… but don’t you think it would be better if you would not be going alone. You can ask some of them to accompany you,” Emily was a little scared.

  “No… That would be too dangerous for any others,” Mark said.

  “Yeah… I understand. They said distance is around little more than 1 astronomical unit from our perspective. What does this mean,” Emily asked.

  “Little more than distance between Earth and our Sun,” Mark replied.

  Emily said, “And you will fly for that much distance…”

  “In space… however, running and flying both would be same… but I guess, ‘flying’ word looks better,” Mark told sarcastically, “Don’t worry, it will hardly take few hours for me.”

  “What is your speed,” Emily asked surprisingly.

  “You can find out,” Mark said this and went for his mission. Emily sat back smiling and thinking about him.

  Mark went for his mission. He saw a tiny planet in nearby and used the position locator device given by Gleberians to confirm that he is at the right place. The planet color was unusually white like it is fully covered with ice. He went closer to it… but suddenly a bullet hit him. He turned back, but there wasn’t anyone. Also, bullet didn’t show any impact on him. He landed on the planet, and as he had speculated… the planet was covered with ice and so temperature was around minus 100 degree Celsius.

  It would be very much difficult to survive there for any common people. Moreover, planet wasn’t showing any kind of life. Suddenly, he saw a large and disfigured creature having Earth’s elephant like structure. That went towards Mark to attack on him, but he was faster. He saved himself, but that creature tried to attack again on him… but even before that creature could able to do anything, Mark came beneath that creature and with his strength, he lifted that creature and threw upward. As that was coming down, Mark used his electron beam coming from his energy blast and he ultimately killed that creature.

  Mark saw a light somewhere there. He went there. On reaching there, he saw there was many kinds of species, but very few in number. Perhaps, they all were representatives of their own species. There on seeing circumstances, he figured out that there may be some large meeting is about to start in a few moments. Everyone's face is clearly showing terror. They all were taken to a particular room.

  Then a girl came there. Like everyone else, Mark has met till now including Quaiak… their body structure was similar to Earthling… and that girl was also same as Earthling. She greeted everyone and told, “Whatever you saw in that journey was a part of test. You hit by the bullet… that bullet was specifically designed for killing Quaiak. So, we tried this on everyone to ensure that you are not Quaiak. And, then extreme cold… and that dangerous creature… you all had to run away and find this place,” then she said pointing towards Mark, “You don’t need to kill that creature. That creature is very rare and so, we had come here with only 4 of those creatures, to complete this test.”

  “I was hungry… and I needed the food,” Mark told with a fun making smile.

  Everyone there burst into laughter. That girl went back after providing this information… and said everyone to wait.

  After some time, a lady came and greeted all of them. Then she made to close all the doors… that is, because of keeping the sound into room and not going out. She started, "My name is Amelia and it is my great honor to speak before all of you. I know you all have great mind as well as heart. I believe that you are here because you were able to decrypt my message. However, this does not only tell that you all are intelligent, but also indicates that you are brave too because I just sent the coordinate and you came to here, believing the message and without giving a second thought. But more prominently, it indicates the terror of Quaiak, which is forcing all of us to be here and think something together."

  She added, "But today is the time when we will take our freedom back. We will do whatever we have to. We will tear them apart and hunt them down like a tiny bacteria. But, for this mission we need to remain united. This is universal fact that unity not just add the strength of every individual, but actually it multiplies them. And the time will come when Quaiak will have the terror of death and extinction. I want everyone to keep patience and spread hope."

  She continued, "I want all of you to never give up. Hope is the only thing which keeps us alive. It makes us capable of living. It may give us death but that would be better than living like morons. Hope is the only path which can lead us to victory. I guess you are with me."

  Answer was affirmative. Everyone there wanted to destroy Quaiak and this was their only chance.

  "That was an incredible speech," Mark met Amelia after meeting.

  "That is unbelievable. How did you passed my security," Amelia asked Mark.

  "That is not a concern. You don't know me even I don't, but I want to tell you that I killed one of those elephant shaped creatures, with which you all came here," Then Mark told his whole story.

  “Elephant shaped… really… I don't know what is elephant but I know what you meant,” Amelia said.

  “So, what are the strategies, you are going to use to destroy Quaiak,” Mark asked.

  "That is quite interesting that we are making a team to destroy them, and I know deep inside in my
mind that this is impossible. We will all be killed or suffered much worse fate than death. No one can defeat them," Amelia said in despair.

  “You even have the weapon to kill those Quaiak. How can you talk like this,” Mark asked.

  “That bullet doesn’t kill them. They told you wrong information. This hardly injures them… and this is just a way to distinguish Quaiak from any others,” Amelia told.

  "Whatever is the thing… I don’t care, but this seems like you assumed defeat even before starting of war. But my instincts tell that you know Quaiak. I want you to tell me everything that you have. I may be chance to destroy them," Mark told with confidence.

  "What made you believe that you can destroy the most power civilization of this universe? But if you think and you want to know about them, you will have to prove it to me," Amelia told.

  "I know you don't believe me, but I have already killed more than five of them. I know what I am capable of. But if you need proof, just tell how can I prove my capability," Mark asked.

  "Just by a fight with my man and me," and then Amelia signaled her bodyguard.

  She called their five most trained people for Mark. But there weren't sufficient. In next moment, they all were on the ground. Then she herself came to him but one super power punch, and she didn't have courage to stand on her own feet. It didn't take him more than a minute to put her on the ground. Mark was too much faster than anyone there.

  After a small fight, Amelia took Mark to her chamber and started saying, "I thought that I am the most powerful being present here. I also had the thinking that I am the member of most powerful organization who took oath to defeat this rogue civilization. But I was wrong. You outsmarted me without any competition. So, I am going to tell you everything about Quaiak and our organization that I know."

  "I am the member of ancient organization whose mission is to take down any instability that is affecting our universe. We know that there are many things in this universe that is even beyond our understanding. But what I understand is that we fight for every life form. We are here not to save the universe itself, but its living. We can sacrifice even our-self to protect the universe. For that purpose, we needed a lot of energy to continue our mission. So, we searched a star which wasn't the cause of any life form for any planet, to utilize its energy. We were trying to make Dyson sphere around that star. That Dyson sphere's name was supposed to be given as Alpha-5," she added.

  "What is Dyson sphere," Mark asked.

  She replied, "Dyson sphere is a structure that encompasses the whole star to harness its most of the energy. If we would have successful, then we could have a lot of energy not to only continue our mission, but also to evolve as a powerful defender of the universe. But that all just remain the dream. We not only remain unsuccessful but suffered a terrible defeat against a strong civilization. Then we were first introduced by Quaiak. This all happened around hundred thousand years ago."

  She continued, "But then our leader dealt our lives with the technology that we had. Our approach was always to sacrifice our self before revealing any secret which cause any harm to the universe, but he couldn't do this. That was perhaps, a terrible mistake committed by them. We still feel the guilt of what we did that day. Suffering of even a single individual, makes us realize that we are the reason behind it. We feel like we trade our life for all the other living entity. Whenever, I hear a scream of any one, my rage hidden inside burns my mind, and it makes me cry tears of blood,"

  "Whatever, your ancestor may have done, there must be a reason for it. Just tell me everything, that you know. May be, I can be helpful in coming up with a solution," Mark tried to comfort her.

  "It's not that simple. You don't know Quaiak," Amelia told.

  "Yeah... I know them very well. I spent 18 years of hell within their roof. I was suffering that pain, from my birth. When they came and made my own planet full of slaves. So, just don't tell that I don't know about them," Mark told with a little bit of anger.

  "What are you talking about? If your planet was enslaved by them, and they use the death shield, then how you came out of that. Who are you…," Amelia literally shocked.

  "It doesn't matter who am I or how I came out of that shield. I have my powers and I don't know how I got that. But I am interested in knowing that. I just want to know what happened then and how much do you know. Just tell me everything," Mark told like he will take the responsibility of upcoming event.

  "Alright, I am going to tell you everything, that I know," Then she started, "But what we had seen the result of Dyson sphere, we had thought that it was impossible to build a functioning Dyson sphere, facing the energy coming out of the star. We were not that much advance to control the energy of star even for a moment to build Dyson sphere. We had thought that we can but in reality, we were not. An accident occurred there, and that star's energy burnt many of us, and then a sudden attack by Quaiak... we had no chance. We were ready to die but our leader saved us by sacrificing our idea."

  She added, "Then Quaiak left us there and ran away. Our leader sent two of us to go before them by hiding, but those two couldn’t survive this spy mission. But before getting died or lost to us, they reported that Quaiak were going towards the edge of universe which I have no idea why. And Now, we see that Quaiak are the most powerful civilization of this universe. They got able to build many Dyson sphere and today their energy content is like infinite.”

  “What they do with that much amount of energy,” Mark asked.

  Amelia replied, “You have seen the how much advance their space ship is and their speed. No civilization can grow powerful without sufficient energy… not even Quaiak.”

  “So isn’t there any way to destroy their Dyson sphere,” Mark asked.

  “I don’t know. May be our chief and experienced member of our council would be able to help. So, if you want to meet them, I can take you to my planet and my organization who are devoted for developing technology to come up against Quaiak. That bullet, you got hit by, too was the result of that research," Amelia told.

  Mark asked, “So, where do you live?”

  “We can take you there, if you want to,” Amelia said.

  “Yeah… sure, let’s go,” Mark was ready to go.

  ◆◆◆

  CHAPTER 10

  Clan of Defender

  s

  Then Mark and Amelia went to meet with her organization which they call them self, Clan of Defenders. In whole path, Mark was only thinking about Quaiak's power and why they went to the edge of universe. 'What could be there? What more mystery is still out there to figure out. How can we come up with an accurate and stable plan, if every day, I will learn something new about them,' Mark really is feeling a little worried after listening all this, but now he has to lead every-one, and he knows this.

  Their leader seemed an experienced one. He introduced himself as Acra. He told, "We are one of the most ancient civilization of the universe who learnt to live their life for others. We have been functioning since 4 billion years after The Big Bang… The Big Bang, which created all the life form. We went into war many times. Every time, we succeeded. We used to be proud on our tradition and glory until one of our fool leaders burnt all the glory into ashes."

  Acra kept telling, "He made us live like nothing. We do not feel weak only, but also feel responsible for all the pain and suffering of every individual. This guilt is part of our lives for not only unable to saving the world but also for being the cause of its destruction. I personally feel terrible for a many time and still I know that we are not in position to fight them. We can't correct our own mistake."

  Mark also tried to comfort him, "Listen to me, you are not responsible for all this. You never were. They are terrible species. You gave them technology… it doesn't mean that you are responsible. May be in alternate way, also they could build Dyson sphere, or they would end up having something that would be much more dangerous. Your ancestors were just doing their job. They haven't done anything wrong on purpos
e."

  Acra replied, "I don't know. But to lessen this guilt, we were researching about Quaiak... their power and their technology and I think we have found a way to take out people from hell. I think, I finally know how to kill the whole planet that is under the threat of Quaiak. We can erase their pain by a single attack."

  "What ... What? You want to kill all those people. How come you conclude on this nonsense? We have a way. We can cure them and destroy Quaiak forever. Moreover, if you know to destroy planet, why not save the people first?" - Mark said. He still doesn't want to believe what he just heard.

  "Do you even know, with whom you are talking. You told my only way a nonsense! The way, for which I devoted my whole life. The way, which is the only way to take them out of hell. This is the only way for us to come out of guilt. And how do you propose to keep all the people of each planet safe? To send them into space without any resources… How they will survive without oxygen? Just come out of fantasy world. We have no other way around. There is no one to fight against them. The prophecy was just a rumour, and nothing else. Only, we are real, and we must act on it," Acra was clearly in anger.

  "Wait.... What prophecy you are talking about," Mark asked.

  "Those are just a rumour and there is no need to spread them anymore to give people a false hope. We have to destroy every planet, that is in control of Quaiak," Acra told.

  "If you had made up your mind to this, then I am going to challenge you," Mark is ready to give anything to save each and every individual.

  "I don't want to fight. Moreover, it doesn't matter even after you defeat me, then also you will not be a match for whole Quaiak species," Acra told.

  "There is got to be some way which can prove to you that I will give everyone real hope. Moreover, I also don't want to kill your people and even you," Mark told in desperation.