The blaft anthology of t.., p.37
The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Volume 3, page 37
The two of them took turns running to and fro. It seemed to Lu-Soon that his chances of catching her were as slim as the chance of two airplanes colliding in midair. Finally, he came to a decision: I don’t want to take part this tournament. “I think if I want to catch you, I’ll need to study gymnastics.”
“Well, you have to catch me before we can go on to the rest of it,” she said adamantly.
Aiyyaiyo! It was tough to catch her in that spacious room. He jumped once more, in a passionate fury. She tried the same move she had done the first time, placing her hands on the floor to do a backflip. Suurrrrrrrrrr! He lunged at her leg, knocking her off balance. She fell—and in one smooth motion, Lu Soon undid the knot of her headcloth and then pulled back to quickly unbutton his shirt…
It was announced that Gabriel had returned. Michael reacted to the news was as if he had been handed the keys to the Earth.
Gabriel, too, greeted him with enthusiasm. “Michael! I came back just to see you.”
He told him that both worlds had fallen into the hands of the scientists. Michael thought about the plus and minus points of the new situation, unsure whether he should welcome the development or oppose it.
Michael said, “I’m not sure I comprehend what you’re after. But I’m going to tell you what I desire; that should be easy enough to understand. We need to send everyone here back to Earth. Or else we need to change everything here so it is as it was on Earth. The people will not be able to adjust to all this technology so fast.”
“You’re wrong. Everyone here on the new planet is supremely happy at the moment,” said Gabriel.
“Is that true? How?”
“Technology is the reason.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“Today, every man and woman on the planet still young enough to have a lustful flicker in their eye has been given a dose of MDMA.”
“What!” shouted Michale. “You’ve given them all molly?”
“Yes. A drug that induces the temptation to love. I gave everyone a small dose. They’ve all gotten into the mood.”
“What have you done! What was the need for it?”
“There is a reason, and I’ll tell you.” Gabriel put his arm around Michael with an air of camaraderie, and began to talk.
²²
The two men walking through England’s famous Humberside Airport in Lincolnshire could not have been much more than twenty years old. They were holding documents to go to Norway—but it was not to Norway that they were headed. When they entered Gate N, they were told by a smiling lady security officer: “Shoes, metal, electronics, pens, etc. must be placed in the tray for scanning.” They had already been through security checks three times, but still, without their control, their hormones produced droplets of sweat on their faces.
The items went into the belly of the scanning machine and toddled out the other side, where they retrieved them. The lady security officer smiled another one of her timed, programmed smiles.
There was a half hour left before the plane would take off. Many passengers had already been waiting for a while. The two youngsters sat on chairs. In front of them, on the Star TV network, the leader of some country whose name they didn’t know was asking people to apply quickly to go to the new planet.
The two youngsters grabbed the headphone wires from their ears, pulled out the batteries from their walkmans, and pulled out two small sticks each that had been hidden in their shoes. Acting fast, they assembled these pieces into a device, and connected it to the watches they were wearing.
Just at that moment, a news flash appeared on Star TV. Bomb threats have been called in for all international flights leaving Europe... The words flashed across the screen quickly; but things in Humberside Airport changed even more quickly than that. In a flash, the place was filled with policemen. It was impossible to say how they had arrived so fast.
For a moment, the two youngsters could not decide whether to run or detonate their device. Assessing the situation quickly, they tried to disassemble the bomb to its components. Before they could finish, the Lincolnshire police walked up to them and took whatever equipment they held in their hands. Quickly, and without any further trouble, they cleared them from the gate.
On their clothes was written the slogan: No Violence. No Drugs. Down with Operation Nova.
In other places with less stringent security than London, the world news companies began screaming about bomb blasts tearing through their airports. In Africa, in Latin America, around the world, airports both small and big were reporting serious damage. The bombs had all detonated at the same moment.
What movement should be blamed for the attack? It couldn’t have been any particular ethnic group, for countries of all races had suffered calamities. World leaders were all scratching their heads so hard they nearly drew blood, wondering: Who was responsible?
The responsibility is ours, came a statement from the Radical Anti-Nova Movement. The organization claimed to have branches throughout the world—“oppressed people” who could not afford the hundred million dollar entrance fee to travel to “Nova”. (They had adopted the code name of the H.D.C.’s once-secret operation, and applied it to the planet GL 581g.) In one day, the mercury level for poverty had risen higher by many crores. The terrorists posed a simple question: Were only multi-millionaires truly human? To those who had set the price on travel to the new planet, it seemed that the question hadn’t even arisen.
So they were attacking airports. No one yet knew from which country the LW chambers heading to GL 581g would launch; but wherever it was, the multi-millionaires of the world would have to fly there. And if no flights could take off or land at any of the world’s airports, that would be hard to do.
Once the news of the attacks came out, every youngster in the world who had studied a bit of software or hardware was spending sleepless trying to devise schemes for setting off more blasts. They connected online, via Facebook, through their cell phones. They were determined to make the world sit up and take notice.
In just a few days time, every airport in the world had closed down, with every single airplane grounded.
Now let’s see how the world’s billionaires manage to travel to the country where the spacecraft is located, read the note that was faxed to the heads of the G7 countries.
“Think of it, Michael. On this planet you can obtain gold without even bothering to mine it. Think of the dollars.”
Gabriel had his arm around Michael’s skinny shoulder, and was massaging him gently.
Michael truly did not understand. “I’m talking about human beings, and you’re still talking about dollars.”
“There's a connection between both, Michael.”
“So you suffer from ‘dollar disease’ even here?”
“Oh, life would be drab without it. There’d be nothing to do but eat and sleep. Eventually everyone would get bored of eating and sleeping and wonder why they should bother to go on. That’s why I gave them the aphrodisiac drug, so that they would start breeding and creating families. Life will acquire some flavour only after they start building their nests. Then the hunt for money will start in earnest. And they’ll need a government. A technological government. Our government.”
“Your government. Don't include me in this.”
“Fine. My government. I'll rule over both planets. But I need your support.”
“What if I say no?”
“I’ll make your life hell. I’ll work you like an ox, I’ll shove spears up your ass, I’ll make you sleep with the cobras. But I won’t let you die; the torture will continue forever. Michael, you don’t need that fate. Already, your daughter is here under my control and care. Let me take care of you the way I’m taking care of her.”
The expression on Michael’s face was hard to read. Was it happiness or bewilderment?
“My... daughter?”
“Yes. The Mother. Rosie.”
Michael looked like he had come to a decision.“Where is my daughter? Show her to me, and I will listen to what you say.”
“Of course,” said Gabriel, smiling. He put his arms around him in a light embrace… and pressed the LW button on his wristwatch.
In a split second the two of them were in different place—the Central Research Center. Gabriel led Michael inside. Besides telling time, Gabriel’s watch had several other powers.
As they crossed a block of uniform glass doors, they could sense the reign of technology. As Gabriel walked, a series of doors opened automatically in front of him to let him pass.
An array of screens showed people at work in the various branches, intensely occupied with their research. Michael's eyes picked out a few known faces: Carter, Zhin, Hendrich, Akilan, Alice. As they walked, some female robots greeted him with polite gestures; they made no sound aside from their soft footsteps.
After a while Gabriel stopped at a glass tank, which contained some sort of organ floating in formaldehyde, perhaps a liver or kidney. No, Michael realized with a start, it was a brain... and when he looked past it, he saw that behind it were other brains in other tanks, connected to each other like links in a chain, the neurons spliced into copper wire and circuit boards.
“This is the supercomputer that will control both the planets,” said Gabriel, pointing to the floating brains.
As Michael stared, dumbfounded, he began to explain his plan.
“The planet Earth has aged. But GL 581g has young blood running in its veins, young elements. Nature here is is unimaginably rich. Over there is sickness, while here there is health. Back on Earth people are ready to throw crores upon crores to cure themselves of problems like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. They’ll need some human organs from time to time, ordinary things like hearts, livers, kidneys, islets of Langerhans. People will be ready to spend anything. We can produce spare body parts at a good clip from the human embryos we create here. If we can increase the frequency of disease on Earth a little bit, the money will come pouring in that much faster. We’ll be able to name our price. And even aside from that… there’s gold, there’s thorium, there’s anything you could want. Think of it. We can rule over two planets. We can beat death.”
“You’ll be cursed to hell!” shouted Michael
“Heaven and hell: I intend to rule over both. Tell me which one you prefer.”
“Show me my daughter first!”
“You’re standing next to her,” Gabriel said, pointed to the floating brain in the glass vessel.
Michael turned to look, in shock. The brain floated there, emotionless.
“Rosie! See who’s come to meet you,” said Gabriel.
“My father,” said a synthesized voice.
²³
Michael felt his body turn to ice. Everything seemed to fall into place… but he didn’t know how to react. Should he erupt in a frenzy? Should he break down and cry? Completely unbalanced, he stood motionless.
With a touch of pride in his voice, Gabriel asked, “What do you think?”
How could he rescue his daughter from this megalomaniac? “I’ll do anything you say,” he gasped. “Just give me my daughter back.”
“But this is your daughter, right here. See how peaceful she is! She’s been relieved of the burden of a body. Food, cold, disease, itching, aging… she doesn’t have any of those issues anymore. Isn’t that right, Rosie?”
“Yes, that’s right! I’m extremely happy! I don’t have to worry about my hair falling out, or catching a cold, or getting a backache, or knee pain. I can digest a lot of information in a tiny span of time. It took me only forty-two minutes to memorize all thirty-seven of Shakespeare’s plays. Fifty-seven minutes to read Das Kapital, twelve minutes for The Origin of Species. In about six months I could finish reading all the books in the world. I can leap across a hundred pages…”
“That’ll do, Rosie. What do you say, Michael?”
“What is there to say?” Michael wondered, amazed that madness had not yet fully consumed him.
“If your daughter was still flesh and blood, you would have got her married, she would have given birth to a few children, and after a little while she would have died. If you truly believe that would have fulfilled your duty to your daughter, then there’s nothing I can tell you that will change your mind. But it would be foolish to think that she would have been satisfied just to work for 30 years and then retire. Look where she now: the most eminent position on this entire planet. I gave that position to your daughter, and no one else. In truth, she is the one ruling both worlds. As they say in Indian temples: she is the moolavar, the primary deity; I’m just the urchavar, the proxy idol.”
Michael exploded in anger. “You lunatic! You’ve killed my daughter and now you’re babbling nonsense!”
“I’m going to need you to leave this earthly stupidity behind. Or else I’ll have to give you a little brainwash.”
Michael, having already experienced the brainwash once, glared at him, seething with frustration.
“It’s time to throw out all that sentimentality you learned on Earth. We’ve evolved from monkeys to men. Aren’t you fed up of hearing words like affection, love, compassion?”
No, Michael thought, but he did not speak aloud. Compassion...
He had a flashback to a spring day in Texas, when Rosie was still a schoolgirl, and he was teaching her how to ride a cycle.
“Dad, hold on tight, I might fall!”
“Don’t be scared, just ride! Nothing will happen.”
“If I fall I might bleed.”
“If you never try anything difficult you’ll never learn anything! Come on, don’t move your hips. Look straight ahead.”
“I can’t stand the sight of blood.”
“Dad’s here, right? So why are you afraid?”
Timidly, she began to press the pedals of her cycle. Michael ran behind her, holding on.
“Dad! I’m losing my balance! My legs are shaking! What if I fall and hurt my face? My friends will tease me!”
“What an imagination! Try putting your fears aside for a moment. Have some confidence. Try to ride.”
Reassured by his presence, she began to pedal, steadier now. Michael slowly took his grip off the back of the cycle. She kept moving forward.
“Very Good!” said Michael clapping his hands. Only then did she realize that her father was not holding the cycle anymore. In the second she turned around to see him, she faltered...
“Oh no... Dad!”
He looked up from his reverie, and stared at the floating brain. How could this be the same Rosie that had called him “Dad”?
“Rosie, can you see me?”
“Of course. I can see you well. Your beard has greyed; you have twenty-six more strands of grey hair on your head, too, since I last saw you. And you’ve lost seven kilograms.”
“Rosie…” He fell upon the glass tank, and wept.
“Enough, Michael!” Gabriel said, hurrying him out of the room.
Catherine, Alice, Vinodhini, Akilan, Heinrich, Aki, Lu Soon and Zhin were all gathered on the red grass lawn. It was their weekly day off. The other six days, they were put to work on various projects, leaving in the morning and returning in the evening. They only knew what job they would be assigned on any particular day after being transported to the location, often travelling over a thousand kilometres by hydrocopter in the blink of an eye. They were given healthy meals three times a day. In the evenings they were each allowed one alcoholic drink, called a “G Drink”. Drinking the G Drink was not compulsory, though; just a nighttime temptation.
“So what do you think of all these little changes in schedule?” asked Zhin, pacing in circles around the group of seated people. Her face was etched in deep thought.
“A lot of people are very happy with them,” said Catherine.
“The changes have been designed to make people happy,” corrected Zhin. She began listing out a series of concerns. It seemed as if the leadership had loosened its control over the people. A person’s efforts at work was measured according to what they produced. Records were kept of each person’s work by way of points stored on a magnetic card. In some ways, it was like money. Extra food or G Drinks could be purchased by deducting points from the card. “We’re earning, without realizing it, and spending, without realizing it,” said Zhin.
“So what?” was Catherine’s argument.
“As soon as money comes into the picture, so will corruption and bribery. Everyone will be out for a profit, and before you know it there will be chemicals mixed into our drinking water, and new religions will explode into rebellions.”
“Why should you look at everything negatively? We all wanted to go back to Earth, right? So if this place changes to become more like Earth, how is that a bad thing?” asked Aki.
Ever since permission had been given for people to couple as they pleased, a lot of the youngsters had begun supporting The Mother’s policies. The love drug had changed a lot of them. But Akilan and Vinodhini supported Zhin’s analysis. They had never been completely sure what was happening on the new planet, and they still weren’t sure now: it didn’t make sense to them to ally themselves with one particular side. Who were the people really in charge: scientists, or businessmen? It was a question that had been bothering Akilan since the very beginning.
How many people have gone missing? How many revolts have broken out so far? wondered Vinodhini.
“At first, The Mother spoke of her resolve that this place should not become like Earth. Why should she suddenly change her policy? What’s the reason for it? That’s what’s troubling me,” said Zhin.
“The residential quarters are coming up fast around the planet’s equatorial region. They’re all constructed from polyvinyl chloride; there’s room for lakhs of people. I’ve been working there for a few days now,” said Heinrich. “The Mother has some plan that she’s working towards.”
“Farming is getting scaled up fast, too. There are thousands of hectares under cultivation now,” said Akilan.
It was clear that GL 581g was gearing up to a huge change.
