New horizons, p.20
New Horizons, page 20
‘Anything else?’
‘I thought someone was the chief minister of Delhi, but it turned out to be someone else – from a different party altogether. I thought some brands had changed the fonts in the logos. One of my favourite shows Sex in the City was suddenly called Sex and the City. I ignored all of this. It didn’t really matter.’
‘Life was like a box of chocolates,’ said Forrest Gump from the TV, on which the film was now playing. They turned to the TV and then to each other. Sana’s eyes widened. ‘Adi, it is supposed to be life “is” like a box of chocolates.’
Adi nodded and smiled at Sana. He looked at her reflection on the sizeable walled mirror next to the bed. Sana looked at his reflection. She gasped and started breathing heavily.
She spoke in a feeble voice, ‘Mirror-Mirror.’ Adi nodded.
‘Yes, just like Captain Kirk and the boarding party were transported to a parallel universe, it seems we have also been transported to another universe.’
‘Is this the Mandela effect? When many people thought Nelson Mandela died in the 1990s and not in 2013. A false memory.’
‘Maybe, or it can be a derivative of MMDE. It stands for….’
‘I know what it stands for, you dummy – mass memory discrepancy effect.’
‘I could believe I missed hearing something about movies and music. But to experience it with someone I know…’ Adi stopped.
‘It’s real, Adi, I mean… Aditya.’ The atmosphere became somewhat formal.
‘You can call me Adi. I may be from a different universe, but I do have a connection with your Adi.’
‘My Adi is dead. I am alone.’
‘Well, there are two ways of looking at things. Either we stay together like nothing has happened. Or…’
‘Or?’
‘Or we find a way to get back to our original universes.’
AMSA: COSMOS, EARTH AND TIME
Hyatt Regency Bharat Hotel,
Bhikaji Cama, Ghera Road, New Delhi, India
20 June 2028, 10.35 p.m. IST
‘Sorry, sir, the pin you entered is incorrect,’ the receptionist told Adi. She was the same girl who had been on duty the night before.
Adi looked at her, somewhat surprised.
‘That can’t be, let me see…’
He took the card machine from the receptionist and entered the pin again, but got the same incorrect pin notification. He stood for a while, staring at the machine in his hand as he tried to recollect the pin.
‘Are you okay, sir?’ the receptionist asked. ‘Sir, excuse me, sir,’ she said again, louder, when Adi didn’t reply.
‘Let me get this,’ said Sana. She took out her card from her sapphire-coloured clutch and passed it on to the receptionist. This time, she raised her eyebrows and muttered something under her breath.
Sana gave her a stare, then looked down at the bill.
‘Just a minute.’
The receptionist looked up.
‘We had the continental plan and not the modified American plan that you’ve put down.’
The receptionist looked at the bill again.
‘Oh no, sorry, ma’am.’
‘Miss,’ said Sana with a quick smile.
The receptionist smiled back and turned away to correct the bill.
Sana craned her neck and was now gazing at Adi. Adi looked at her.
‘What?’
‘Well, at least one thing is consistent.’
‘About?’
‘My Adi also never checked bills. Always paid according to what was given to him.’
Adi smiled. ‘I am still your Adi.’
Sana kept quiet, but her eyes became moist and she looked away. Adi placed his hand on her shoulder. She gently moved and nudged his hand away.
‘Sir. Sir.’
Adi turned and saw the receptionist holding out a pink envelope.
‘There was this message for you. It was dropped off with your name on it late last night, but the room number was wrong. Instead of 2109, the sender wrote 2110. I almost forgot to give it to you. Miss Sana, the corrected bill and your card.’
Adi thanked her. Sana took the bill and the card, and watched Adi opening the envelope. It contained a Post-it note. His face grew ashen as he read it. She leaned towards him.
‘All okay?’
‘It’s getting serious.’
‘What’s getting serious?’
Adi handed the note to her. She turned it around to read the Sanskrit words written in English letters, and more.
Yojayitvātotānyeva
Praviveśasvayaṁguhām
Guhāṁpraviṣṭetasmiṁstu
Jīvātmāpratibudhyate
Time is running out. Make haste.
They are rules. I cannot say more.
‘Who sent this? This is Vedic cosmology stuff. I know it like the back of my hand,’ Sana said.
Adi sighed. ‘Well, it was sent by someone who is me and yet, not me. We need to discuss our next steps. Let’s find somewhere to talk.’
They walked away from the reception in the lobby and moved towards the lounge. There, they settled next to the fountain, which had cushioned two-seater sofas arranged around it. The sound of the flowing water encapsulated the closed zone around it. Adi did not want anyone hearing their conversation. He looked around before looking at Sana. ‘Go on then, what does it mean?’
‘It’s a verse which describes how the Supreme Being is part of every universe in the cosmos.’
‘Okay. Is that the translation?’
Sana re-read the Post-it note, her brown eyes moving quickly through its contents. Then she said slowly, ‘It can be summarized as “By bringing together all the separate entities into a compact mass, He manifested the infinite ordinary universes and also became the hidden parts of every extended conglomerate. At that time, those with life and soul who slept during the devastation were awakened.”’
Adi sat forward with his hands clasped together and his eyes closed as he heard her out. Sana blew air gently on his face, and he opened his eyes.
‘We need to break it down – only then we can understand it.’
‘The separate entities are different life brought together. So, universe creation.’
‘Okay, and He is hiding in this creation.’
‘Well, I would think it can be She – let’s say the Creator is hiding.’
Adi nodded. ‘Okay, and then there were lives and souls, which were not aware and became aware.’
‘Awareness can be the rise of consciousness.’
‘Yes, you are right, Sana. Now it makes complete sense.’
A paper boat was floating in the fountain water and reached near where Sana and Adi were sitting. It had ‘S&A’ written on it. Sana reached out and picked it up. She shook it gently for the water to fall out.
‘Isn’t this the boat from last night?’
Sana gave a quick nod. ‘Yes, but I had packed it in my purse.’
She opened her purse. To her surprise, it was not there. She looked again carefully at the boat and noticed something written inside it. Sana placed the paper boat on her lap and opened it. In the centre was written:
To open the box, the wolf whistles over I pet goat.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
They are rules. I cannot say more.
She frowned and passed the paper to Adi. He looked at it.
‘I know one part of it, and it points towards CERN.’
‘Which part?’
Adi took a deep breath and spoke slowly, ‘Well. “I pet goat” is a sort of code. In fact, certain elements say this set of words relates to CERN destroying the world.’
‘What set of words – “I pet goat”?’
‘Yes!’
‘And you don’t have any idea why?’
He shook his head and looked back at the paper. ‘What I don’t know is what “wolf whistles” stands for.’
‘That’s me. Do not ask me who, do not ask me how.’
Adi looked at Sana and squinted his eyes.
‘Okay, okay… I’ll tell you, but we have to go to a secure place.’
‘Where…?’
‘Just follow me.’
LEVITICUS: LAW OF PRIESTS
Suburbs of New Delhi, India
20 June 2028, 11.05 p.m. IST
Adi was now at Sana’s house. It was a magnificent two-storey villa within a large, verdant compound. Uniformed attendants moved around the grounds and greeted them as they passed. Sana had a large trust fund set up for her by her parents. She had come into this money when her parents went missing in their private jet and were presumed dead.
Upstairs, in Sana’s bedroom, she closed the door behind them and without a word strode over to what seemed to be her wardrobe. She opened it and to Adi’s surprise beckoned him to follow her. Adi realized it was not a wardrobe at all but a large room. She stepped in, moving multiple coats suspended on hangers. On the wall behind the coats Adi spotted a fingerprint scanner. Sana placed her left thumb on it and some bits of the walls parted.
A lift! What the fuck.
Adi stepped in and had just registered that the lift had no buttons when Sana whistled and the lift started moving down.
Oh! Sound activated!
In a few seconds, the door to the lift opened and they entered a larger room, which Adi concluded was in the basement. The room was dimly lit in a green hue. The air-conditioning felt pleasant. One of the walls had multiple monitors, each showing a different area of the property. Security cams. A large table, semi-circular in shape, stood facing the wall next to the one on which the security monitors were set up. The table had two pairs of monitors on it, each connected to a large companion Corsair keyboard. One of the monitors was running the Norse live attack threat map. The other three had screensavers running on it. These were images of Adi – images which he could not recollect.
Settling into an ergonomically designed red chair, Sana moved the mouse and the screensaver faded away. She motioned Adi to look at the other monitor and as she placed her finger on a scanning device next to the keyboard the screens came to life asking for a password. Adi saw Sana enter the password: ‘AYd0ppBA3l64BTUn63r.’
Woah, that is a complex password. But why are there such high levels of security?
The screen then asked for retina verification, which Sana gave.
Then, it dawned on Adi. Fuck! Sana is a hacker. This is a top-notch hacking set-up. Adi froze, feeling a rush of blood around his legs. Sana was looking at him now.
‘So, tell me, how good is your security clearance at CERN? Are there protocols hidden from you?’
Adi was taken aback by the question. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Well, according to the notes sent to us from ourselves, I would need to hack into CERN.’
‘Hack! Why?’
‘Well, I need to whistle over I Pet Goat to open the box.’
‘Whistle… You mean hack? I’m confused!’ Adi clasped his now sweaty hands. ‘Well, CERN has multiple programmes. I don’t have access to all the folders, but I do know most of the experiments that run.’
‘If you see a folder that may be out of place, can you identify it?’
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘Okay, let’s get started. There will be hidden folders and secured layers. That’s where I’ll find this box.’
Sana began to type furiously. Her eyes were focused on the screen. She accessed CERN’s intranet website.
‘How good are you?’ he asked, sounding naive even to himself.
‘I am the best.’
‘Ah… right!’
She made a face at him. ‘I never liked sarcasm, you know.’
‘Aren’t you scared?’
‘My ghost is active. And I have multiple re-directs. It is my own power-analysis attack.’
Sana entered the site via the back page and moved quickly through different layers of security. Seeing her cracking the folders, Adi’s mouth fell open.
‘You are good.’
‘Yes, baby. My hacker name is Whistler-Priestess.’
‘You are the Whistler… the Whistler-Priestess?’ Adi was incredulous. His throat felt dry.
Sana smiled at him, winked and turned back to the screen.
‘You hacked the NASA and Area 51 computer networks?’
‘I was looking for information.’
‘What information?’
‘Udantakshari,’ said Sana and gave a gentle laugh.
‘UFOs?’
There was a moment of silence. Adi saw Sana continue to work her magic. After some time, Sana stopped. One of her programmes was doing the cracking now.
‘Two folders were present. It’s show time, baby.’
The first folder had a set of PDF files. She opened a few of the documents and squinted as she read them.
‘Gibberish.’
‘No!’ Adi was breathing heavily, his nostrils dilated.
‘You’re angry,’ Sana said.
‘They lied to me.’
‘Who?’
‘My superiors. They said no other experiments were on. And it looks like they were running some off the official records.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, and it seems things are getting complicated.’
‘What does that mean??’
Adi pointed at a graph in one of the PDFs. He explained the experiment to Sana. The chart showed higher energy output than was being inputted. The energy units were passed across space and dimension, and more energy was returned where it should have remained the same. It did not make sense.
‘So, it’s as if one hundred units are sent into a doorway, and a hundred and ten come back. Which means there is energy coming from the doorway.’
‘And a doorway means dimensions. Which experiment is this? The God particle, the Angel particle, or something else?’
‘Different, not the Higgs boson. But a newer version of the AWAKE experiment, th…’
‘The proton-driven plasma Wakefield acceleration experiment.’
Adi looked at Sana, raised his eyebrows and nodded. ‘Yes, but we’re not using plasma. It’s something else.’
‘What? Are you opening portals in other dimensions?’
Adi was quiet. Sana huffed. It was a secret that Adi did not want to share, but he felt an urge to. It was as though a voice spoke to him: Give her a hint. ‘All I can say is it has something to do with gravitational waves.’
A chat box suddenly opened on one of the monitors. A message pinged to life.
Adi looked at Sana. ‘We don’t need to answer. It could be an AI security bot used for tracking.’
‘It isn’t.’
‘How can you say that?’
‘See what’s written on it, and the username.’
Adi read the message. All your butt my duplicate. Username, provost.
‘Adi, it’s “all your butt belong to us” and my duplicate is my password reminder combination.’
‘What do you mean, Sana?’
‘This message is from me from another dimension.’
‘And the username is “provost”?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, in the message, should it not be “base” instead of “butt”?’
‘With all that’s happening, that’s all that’s bothering you? This is me communicating across dimensions. I thought of using this message just in case a multi-verse situation arose.’
Adi nodded, as Sana moved closer to the screen to chat.
Provost: All your butt my duplicate
-
-
Provost: Hi Wolf, This is Wolf. Hope Adi is convinced of our skills now.
Whistler: Yes, my priestess. @n63r
Provost: :) Talking to myself. I don’t have much time.
Whistler: Go on, sister.
Provost: Do not stop the dance. But dance with it. Sleep. Don’t be awake.
Whistler: ?
-
-
-
Whistler: @n63r.
-
-
‘She’s gone.’
There was a moment of silence. ‘Yes, I can see that. Any idea what you, I mean she, I mean your other you… damn!’
Sana was quiet as she began to type again. A satellite image of the CERN building in Geneva came up on the screen.
‘It is the Shiva statue,’ Adi said. ‘Must be… “Do not stop the dance. But dance with it.” The Shiva Nataraja statue. And “don’t be awake” has to mean that we need to stop any AWAKE experiment.’
‘Yes, I know about the statue – the cosmic dance. But do you know how to stop the experiment?’
‘I need to go to CERN.’
‘So, when do we leave?’
‘We? I need to go to CERN.’
‘Why can’t I come? I’ll pay for my own tickets, you needn’t worry.’
‘No, no! This is not about the tickets. Getting the visa will take days and we don’t have time.’
Sana frowned at him. Then she opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out her passport. It was burgundy red.
Adi’s eyes widened. ‘You… You’re a British citizen?’
‘Yes, I am.’
‘I thought your mother came to India before you were born, and…’ Adi stopped. ‘Damn these dimensions! Do you understand this?’
‘I think I know what you mean…’
‘We are from different universes.’
Sana nodded. Adi continued, ‘In this universe and the universe from where you’ve come, you are British. In my universe, Sana is Indian.’
‘So, I’m not your Sana now.’
‘No… No, no. She’s nothing like this.’
Sana smiled teasingly. Adi blushed.
‘We’ll go now, right?’
‘Yes. I’ll inform the family from the airport that I’ll be back in a week.’
‘Right-o. Let’s go into hyperspace.’
‘Light speed ahead.’
‘Engage.’
They raised their hands and high-fived each other.
RUDRA SAMHITĀ: FIRE IN THE SKY
CERN Area, Geneva, Switzerland
21 June 2028, 11.45 p.m. CET
‘It’s so impressive,’ said Sana excitedly. Before Adi could say anything, Sana raised her phone and clicked a set of selfies with the two-metre-tall Nataraja statue in the background depicting Shiva’s cosmic dance of creation and destruction. They were in the garden outside the main entrance. The security had requested Adi to bring his guest in with proper papers as her name was not on the visitors’ list. But Adi called his superiors, and they gave Sana permission to enter the garden area.
