The blaft anthology of t.., p.36
The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Volume 3, page 36
Sensing Akilan’s discomfort, Catherine said to Vinodhini, “It happened without our knowledge.”
“It’s true. They did not know,” confirmed Beetle.
Vinodhini gave them a look that could have burned up the whole planet.
Luckily for Akilan, at that moment The Mother began her speech. Everyone had gathered before the stage that had been set up was in front of the cabins.
“Here there is no illness. And here there is no corruption.” The Mother’s speech resounded throughout the whole planet simultaneously, with no time delay.
“Yes! Yes!” cheered the crowd.
“Here there is no debt. But here there is duty.”
“Yes! Yes!”
“Here there is happiness. And here there is no death.”
“Yes! Yes!”
“What shall we name this new prince of our planet?”
The crowd went silent, as each person started to think.
“Then shall I give a name myself? I propose the name Marcus Aurelius. The name of a Roman emperor who lived 2000 years ago. He encouraged us to be like a vine; a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for nothing more once it has produced its fruit. In the same way, we must all pledge to help others without expecting any returns.”
A bunch of people in the crowd began to shout “Marcus! Marcus!”
The baby looked in the direction of the cheers, and laughed.
“The danger posed by the Durphies has been eliminated. The Agro Department has made spectacular achievements. Atmospheric equilibrium has been achieved across the planet. I have many reasons to be happy,” said The Mother. “Now: What more do you desire? And Dr. Zhin, please don’t tell me again that you want freedom. We’ve been granting you more all the time; you’re up to 73% free now.”
For most of the audience, the ability to think independently enough to desire a thing and ask for it had been quashed a long time ago.
“Will we have the chance to give birth to children ourselves?” asked Aki.
“Yes, every woman will have the right to make the choice to give birth. But the child won’t be yours alone. It will also be the government’s child, The Mother’s child; and its growth, education and clothing will all be the responsibility of the government.”
There was a lengthy round of applause. The Mother went on to declare that Marcus would be the prince of the new planet, and that she would raise him as her own. The rulers of the new world would be chosen from those with the healthiest bodies and the sharpest, most intelligent minds.
“Do we have permission to go back to Earth?” asked Zhin.
“Zhin, you seem to have a developed a habit of asking bigger and bigger questions all the time. But you’re not alone; the residents of Cabins 645 and 718 have been demanding the same thing. One of our number, Gabriel, has already made the trip back to Earth. Let him return; we’ll think about the situation, and then come to a decision.”
The Mother blew them kisses, and bid them farewell.
The freedom to couple with whomever they chose, and the freedom to bear children! Everyone seemed eager to take advantage of it. Vinodhini saw Lu Soon, the Chinese man, pull Aki and another beautiful Japanese girl towards him. “Shall we give it a go?” he asked.
Aki broke free and walked over to Akilan. “I think maybe I’ll try dating outside my race,” she said, giving Akilan a playful punch in the stomach.
“You people don’t have any shame or what?” hissed Vinodhini angrily into Akilan’s ear.
Michael, Zhin, and Vasiliev had come up to them. Happy at the chance to escape Vinodhini’s anger, Akilan turned his attention to them, to hear the news they had brought. As soon as they had moved away from the others, they removed their ear devices to keep their conversation secret from Beetle.
Michael began. “It’s as I told you: the light wave chamber is operational here. We can go back to the Earth. But before we do, we need to know why Gabriel left. I’ll ask him as soon as he returns.”
They all hoped they would find a solution to their problem once Gabriel returned. They took a small walk and stopped in front of a thousand-acre wheat field that was being ploughed by robots. In a few months the cereal would be ready for harvest, and they would finally have freedom from their nutrition tablets. They could see small insect-like creatures jumping among the stalks.
“They’ve been so worried about creating a new food chain,” said Akilan. “But look, here—there’s a whole new ecosystem emerging on its own.”
“Living here under The Mother’s government is like being a yoked bull walking around and around in a circle at the grinding mill. Of the forty people in our cabin, it’s only the six of us who are still thinking of how to escape,” said Michael. “Well, the world has always been run by those few people who split from the crowd and think differently.”
Alice took it in with a smile. “Did you tell Rosie about the name I gave the Greenies?”
“Long ago, in my country, there lived a man named Kaniyan Poongunranar,” said Akilan, “who sang that all countries are our home, and all men our kin. And there was another man, Valluvar, who sang: ‘Just as your hand goes to catch your garment when it slips from around your waist, the same way you should go to help a friend when he is in need.’ Those poets lived 2000 years ago,” said Akilan.
“You’re upset that your child was named after a Roman emperor, are you? Well, call him Valluvan or Poongunranan, then. The Mother can’t object to that. The Tamils were the ones who guided the Greeks towards culture, you know. I could prove it, too, if I only I had the chance to continue my research,” said Zhin.
“Is any of that really still important?” asked Michael.
“The history of human civilization has been recorded incorrectly! Don’t you think the world should learn the truth?” said Akilan. “The English language has held sway for just 500 years, and yet it gets more respect than the Tamil that was spoken for 5000 years before.” It was painful to him that it was out of his reach to do anything about it.
Vinodhini, who was sitting some distance away, turned her head ninety degrees. “So is it true, what she says?”
“It’s true,” said Akilan. “Our culture is much older than that of the Greeks.”
“Come on, that’s not what I’m asking about. The Mother said it was your child. You forgot about me; that must have been it. Right?”
“Aiyyo! Yes, it’s my child. But Vinodhini, it wasn’t made the way you’re thinking. I swear it,” he said, placing his hand on her head.
“Let me explain what happened,” said Michael, walking up to Vinodhini.
A moving scroll running at the bottom of every TV channel announced that the interview with Charles would be telecast that evening. New report from the new planet! The exoplanet has been prepared for human habitation. But will the Earth really be destroyed? Each channel chose a different sensational headline to suit its target audience.
It was 8:30 p.m. in Chennai when the broadcast began. The interviewer wore the same expression of astonishment generally associated with the winning contestant of the Miss Universe pageant the moment she is crowned, and it remained on her face for the duration of the interview. Charles calmly divulged some facts. Even if you increased the volume of the TV, you still had pay close attention to understand.
He began: “The world we are living on has become old. But we have found new ground on which the human race shall plant its foot.”
The broadcast of the interview went on until 9:30 p.m. The only people on the entire planet who failed to watch Charles’s interview were newborn babies and the mentally ill. The rest, nearly six billion people, watched in disbelief as Charles laid out what sounded like the plot of a new James Cameron film.
He explained that the Toba supervolcano had erupted once before, over 70,000 years ago, and that humanity had come close to being wiped out then. The eruption due in ten years’ time would be much forceful even than that. He explained everything as clearly as possible, from the breakup of Gondwana to the buildup of pressurized magma and the effect of ash on the climate; and while the details were lost on around half the world’s population, even they understood a great calamity was approaching, which would split the world in two.
“Because of this impending disaster, we have gone in search of a new planet that will support human life.” He went on to talk about GL 581g, and the ways they had surmounted the minor difficulties and dangers that had been present there.
Charles wrapped up the interview with a casual announcement. “Anyone who wishes to travel to the new planet can register tomorrow. The cost of registration is one hundred million dollars.” In Indian currency: six hundred crores of rupees!
Those few people who were sufficiently flush with cash to pay the entire amount in one cheque ran hurriedly off to register. The rest of the viewers sat frozen, staring at their screens in bitterness.
Once the interview was done Gabriel took Charles by the hand and led him away.
“You said it all exactly the way I told you to! Beautiful! That should be enough for now,” said Gabriel.
“You threatened me that if I didn’t, you’d destroy the world with a neutron bomb, you maniac!”
“You shouldn’t have believed me, Charles. What good would it do me to kill everyone one Earth? My entire business depends on them,” said Gabriel, smiling a smile that made him look like Count Dracula.
²¹
St. Helena, South Atlantic Ocean.
Once upon a time, Napoleon had been imprisoned here—poisoned with arsenic and slowly killed. He had wanted to rule the world; but instead, his life had ended on this island. Sometimes, a man’s death serves as a lesson to those who come after him. But this isn’t always the case. And here, off the shores of St. Helena, was gathered a group of people who had clearly never learned any lessons about limiting one’s ambitions.
The leisure cruise ship floated in the sea not far from the island, a giant challenge to nature. A poet might have said it appeared hewn from marble. It rocked slowly in the water, seeming alive.
The people who stood on the first floor of the ship were modern Napoleons, the leaders of countries whose businesses had extended their roots far into the soil of the rest of the nations of the world, and were slowly sucking out their wealth. These were the heads of the G7 countries: America, France, England, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. There was an important reason for the heads of these seven countries to meet in secret. In one day, the world seemed to have slipped from their hands, and into the hands of the scientists. All of those present were finding it a bit difficult to believe.
If you want to live, you need to migrate to a new planet. And the cost of migration is one hundred million per head! They couldn’t understand who Charles had consulted with before making the announcement. But now it seemed all the leading scientists of the world were on Charles’s side. They posed a challenge to the military and economic power of every country. The protection of the nations was no longer in the hands of armies, finance ministers and foreign affairs ministers but in the hands of scientists. It went against all the conventional workings of the world.
“We’re talking about settling a planet orbiting another star. How far do you think you’ll get without cooperation from the world’s scientists?” Charles had announced on behalf of the Association of Scientists. “If you try to interfere with us again, we’ll only head off to GL 581g by ourselves, and leave the rest of you in the lurch.”
They had already finished two rounds of talks; this was the final round. If they did not meet his conditions now, it would clear the Association of Scientists would make good on their threat.
At first, some of the G7 leaders proposed starting a third world war: not a war to be fought between different countries, but a showdown between a coalition of Earth’s nations on one side and the scientists on the other. The idea was soon abandoned, however, after everyone present acknowledged that there would not be so much as a cockroach left alive after such a war to celebrate any victory.
Renzi, the prime minister of Italy, spoke with great patience for a man so young. “It’s actually simple. The world is about to end. People need to be transported to the new planet. The arrangements for that need to be made by their governments. I just don’t understand why the charge has to be so high!”
“What value will that paper currency have if the world is going to end?” asked Obama casually.
“Haven’t you understood? There will be dollars on the new planet, as well,” replied the French Prime Minister.
“Can’t we bring the scientists in line?”
“That won’t be feasible. But they have made an offer. Out of every 100 million dollars they receive, 50 million will go to the scientists, and the other 50 million will go to that country’s government. For example if someone in China wants to go to GL 581g, he’ll have to give half to China and half to the scientists’ collective,” explained Obama.
“This is good!” exclaimed the German premier.
“Except that it’s not. Control is falling into their hands. The portion of money going to any one country is dwarfed by the amount going to the scientists. Soon our whole future, the future of the world, everything will fall under their control.”
David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, replied, “But Mr. Barack… what of that? We still have nine years left. Let’s concentrate on ruling for that long. There’s no need to worry now about what is going to happen in the future.”
The seven leaders went silent, as earthquakes rumbled around their heads. Seagulls were circling above like silent witnesses. The leaders sipped slowly from the glasses they held in their hands, deep in thought.
Either we make a compromise with the scientists, or we’ll all be destroyed. Two choices. Pick a finger.
“The may be scientific geniuses, and they may have limitless hunger for power. But they won’t be able to rule on their own. We’ll agree to sign,” said the British prime minister.
The statement made the American president smile. “Alright. Let’s do it that way,” said Barack Obama.
Happy to have come to a decision, all of them raised their glasses again.
Michael’s explanation managed to pacify Vinodhini a little. When he was done, he and the others were considerate enough to move some distance away from her and Akilan, so that the two of them talk could alone.
Vinodhini turned her eyes into a truth-detecting apparatus, and she probed Akilan with them.
You wanted that fair skin and those cat-like green eyes, and you forgot about me in a second, she said, without speaking anything out loud.
Akilan seemed to understand the meaning of the look. It was nothing like that, he answered.
“You didn’t fall in love with Catherine?” she asked innocently.
“When you were already there filling up my heart, how could another enter girl enter?” said Akilan, striking the target.
“Enough. All this overacting is bad for health.”
“Touch me here,” he said, pointing to his heart.
“Hey! Why are you putting on a big scene now? Listen, I get it. You figured that you wouldn’t be seeing me anymore and you thought you’d go for it. But I still don’t see what Catherine has that’s so great! Okay, she’s a little curvier than me. And you’re a drooler.”
“No Vino… It’s like Michael said. We didn’t even know…”
The truth was that right now, the fact that she had found him again, such a long distance from home, and that he finally recognized her again, was giving Vinodhini great comfort. “Your father, mother… everyone tried to cast me aside, but still the whole country was supporting me. Do you know on Earth they’re calling us the modern-day Satyavan and Savithri? By now they might have even built us a temple.”
As Akilan listened incredulously, she told him of everything that had happened on Earth. Though they came a bit late, buds of love began to blossom again within Akilan. When he heard about the struggles Vinodhini had faced for his sake, he was shocked and amazed. He even began to feel guilty. Did I love her this much? Would I have done the same for her?
Eventually they fell silent, the two of them sitting quietly in the lush grove of alien trees, speaking and understanding each other with their eyes alone.
Suddenly Vinodhini said, “Can you pluck that flower?” She pointed at an striking orange-and-blue flower on a branch of a tree a short distance away.
Leaping at the rare opportunity to express his love outwardly, he got up to go pluck the flower. A girl’s love for flowers will never change, even if she changes planets, he thought.
Akilan struggled to reach the bloom, but it was too high. It was not the sort of tree one could climb, either. He tried and tried, but the flower eluded his grasp, as though he were Rama and it was a golden deer that Sita had bid him to catch.
“Lift me up, Akilan. I’ll pluck it,” she said. He picked her up from below her hips. Then he kept holding her like that, touching her, smelling her. After she plucked the flower she thought he would lower her back to the ground, but instead he kept carrying her, and began heading back towards the rooms.
Meanwhile, Aki and Lu Soon had entered their room with a special thirst. Lu Soon was anxious to celebrate the new freedom that The Mother had granted them, before she could change her mind and take it back. But Aki was not in a rush. As Lu Soon, breathing hotly, began to remove his clothes, she told him, “I just have one small test for you. You have to pass it before we go on to everything else.”
“How about first we finish everything else, and then we can have the test,” he said.
“In Japan when girls are to be married, they cover their heads with a white cloth. I’m going to tie this white cloth on my head.”
“Okay,” said Lu Soon, confusedly, and waited while she did it.
“Only if you can undo this knot can you take me.”
“That’s it?” He went close to her.
Unexpectedly, she quickly turned a few backflips, and by the time he could straighten up she was in another corner of the room. This time, with keen attention, and both his arms spread wide, he advanced towards her. In one leap she got passed him and went to the other wall.
