To Be or Not to Be...

“C’mon its only twenty five light years away” – said the energy form

“That’s what you said the last time and we got into trouble” – said another

“Ah…that was eight cycles ago and what do you fear anyway. Ok we’ll not stay there for long. Just a few years alright. We’ll be back even before this star goes supernova” – insisted the first pointing at a nearby red giant

“Ok ok…you win” – said the second nervously

And then they went. They went to young nebulae and played in its dust. They went near black holes and played hide and seek. They engulfed themselves in refreshing flares from the young Suns. They explored many galaxies from end to end with holding each others’ waves – they loved each other and they knew it.

And then they noticed a beautiful marble.

“I want to see it from close” – said second

“Lets go for it – we still have some time” – said first looking at the beautiful blue marble

And close they went. The blue marble was indeed beautiful. It was small but pleasant. It had colors of wavelengths first and second never knew. It had softness they had never passed through. And that’s what they did –they went through blue oceans and white skies, green grasses and colorful flowers. They loved all of it. Exhausted, they decided to hover at one place.

“Hey what is that” – asked the first

“I am not sure – looks like an abnormal wave front” – replied the second

“Its troughs look odd – what if we pass through it”

“No lets go home now. We had enough for the day”

“C’mon that’ll be an adventure. A scary wave with odd troughs  - how often do you see something like that. Definitely not since we radiated near that pulsar. Anyway, we are pure energy remember. Nothing can happen to us. Ok take my wave…alright. All set? Go.”

And BOOM! As they merged into the abnormal wave, a flash of blinding light engulfed the whole planet. First and second felt as if their wave energies were being squeezed to give it a new form. A feeling which they had forgotten for eons. When the light died out, the forces beyond had created something new.

“Is it you” – asked the second looking at the frail naked creature in front of her

“Is that you?” – replied an equally astonished First

First looked curiously at appendages – two of them were close to his visual perspective. And each had five appendages of their own. He had not felt more different ever.

“I told you not to go near that wave Adam. Now we are stuck here forever”

“Then lets make most of it Eve.” – said the First with beautifully stretching his facial muscles

Damned if you do.. - Part II

Hi friends,

The second part came in a record time. Partially because of some of you pushing me to release it soon. Thanks a lot for your read and i hope Part -II justifies your expectations. Do leave your feedback. It helps me a lot in my writing.

A quick recap - Soon after first inter-species war between humans and far advanced reptilians, a reptilian is captured in the outer fringes of the solar system by General Crush (a Mirror. Mirror.. character). He and sergeant Raghav are interrogating him in the storage bay of a small scouting ship to elicit more information but to no avail. Crush continues to punish the reptilian more by waterboarding as the reptilian resolves to die along with the secret.

Lets see what happens next..

PART – II

A refreshing splash of acid – that’s just what the reptilian felt before regaining his consciousness. His body was still paining like hell. Level of pain which he never knew existed.  Afterall, for a reptilian this kind of torture was unfathomable. Pain still hindering his thoughts, he belatedly realized that he was in a human spacecraft wanting to die. As his compound eyes adjusted to the light, he could see two tall figures in front of him.

‘Please kill me. Kill me soon’ – he screamed

General Crush let a hearty laugh. Of course he certainly had other plans. He was to become a first person in the last 300 years to use waterboarding for torture.

He pressed a nob on the reptilian’s chair and it straightened up. It caused an unbearable burst of shock to the reptilian’s already broken body as he shrieked in pain.

‘Ok so this will be the most entertaining thing I have done since blasting off that asteroid of theirs’ - said General Crush circled his catch. He looked at it with contempt and disgust.

“Do you know what this is?” – asked Crush while swinging the nozzle of the small cylinder dangling in one hand

Reptilian tried hard to see but the pain caused him to just mumble in a grating voice of his- “I…I..don’t know. But please just give me death. I told you already I don’t know anything. We just lost our way in space and landed in your solar system before you attacked us. Now, just let me go…I can’t tolerate this pain anymore”

Ignoring his request General Crush roared – “You don’t die till you speak you bas***d. I decide if you live or die in my solar system. Start talking and I can promise you an instant death”

“I…don’t know what you want” – murmured the reptilian

“Well…I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t. You see, I was planning to teach Raghav here some new stuff. He is a good man but he respects the system too much. This cylinder in my hand…this is pure oxygen. You know what this means? One minute of this and you’ll die …and it’ll be a painful death.  Very painful. In fact it’s the worst kind of death known to mankind and of course the best talking medicine invented to aid the interrogators. 

It recreates drowning…you know the feeling of not getting enough of vital oxygen to the body. And when that happens, body tries to breathe in more…even if you tell it not too. You will just observe your instincts get best of you and when they do…more water enters into the lungs. And the torturous cycle repeats till you are about to die. But that’s exactly when interrogators stop. Just let enough oxygen to seep and the whole process start again. We might not be technologically as advanced as you but we do have  our methods“

Raghav felt a tingling under his skin. Drowning was certainly the most horrible way to die…you sustain your conscious enough to feel the each and every ounce of pain the body can take. You feel water filling into your lungs before it gets pumped to the body. Red blood cells begin to get diluted and start bursting. The heart ultimately fails and it all ends in a cardiac arrest and you live long enough to experience it all.

 “Except..” – General continued – “You’ll be the first one to go under oxygen boarding. And remember…it’ll all stop whenever you want it to.”

“Time to make you a man young boy” – General Crush said as he handed over the oxygen cylinder to Raghav

“But sir…there has to be some other way” – Raghav tried to argue

“Not anymore”

“But…” – Raghav tried again

“Its an order sergeant” – General screamed

Raghav silently extended his hands to take the oxygen cylinder from the General.

He then looked at the half dead body of the reptilian lying on the chair. He had already broken him as much as his body could take. And now he was about to push it further. His mind protested while his hands obeyed the order.Afterall he was a military man who was trained and disciplined to follow the orders.  He slowly turned on the nob for oxygen and the gas began to flow from the nozzle directed at the reptilian. The reaction was spontaneous. The reptilian body stiffened and began shaking violently as his reflex fought for breath. Raghav could see the mad vibration of his head instinctively trying to keep out of the flow of oxygen. Of course to no avail.

A few seconds later, the movement lessened and Raghav, sensing the cue, turned off the oxygen. Reptilian, coming back from near death,  drew some deep breaths of sulphuric acid said – “Please, please don’t…Just kill me right now…do you humans have no fear of galactic gods..”

“Kill you eh? Ok you see this blaster?” said crush drawing his gun from his holster. He waved it in front of the reptilian as if trying to entice him with a reward.

“Yes. Kill me with it..i can’t take this anymore”

“No. Not yet. But the choice is in with you scum…just tell me what you were doing here and one single clean blast through your head will let you free from all your misery”

The reptilian closed his eyes as if wanting to think something. He wanted to protect the secret till his last breath. But the excruciating pain was now “inside” him. He could feel his heart beating too rapidly. He now wanted to die more badly than live. But he can’t just let his ancestors down. But before he could say anything, impatient General took his silence as an act of defiance.

“Still no? See you are making me do this, and then you say that I am the one who is heartless.” said General Crush sarcastically– “Sergeant, go again and now don’t stop till I tell you to”

Raghav could not believe the extent to which this man can go. He now realized the reason he caused terror in even the strongest soldier’s hearts. But it was his ship and he can’t let this happen without a protest.

“With all respect sir…I just want to say that he will die from this…and we are not authorized to do this”

“You are disobeying a direct order from a General, Sergeant.”..said General angrily as he pointed the blaster in the general direction of Raghav – “Or you just want to increase the collateral damage? Your death won’t be much difficult to explain. I say do it. Now.”

Raghav had no other choice but to take part in the madness. He pointed the nozzle towards the reptilian once again and lethal oxygen poured from the nozzle onto the reptilian’s face. His shrieking pierced through the whole ship as he suffered the agony of getting drowned again and again.

..and finally he screamed – “Please stop this….I’ll tell you everything…but please don’t”

A smile played on General Karl’s lips – “See Raghav…that’s how its done”

Still holding oxygen cylinder in hand, Raghav carefully straightened the chair on which the reptilian was lying. Reptilian was still crying in intense pain the torture has caused him. Raghav, a hardened army man, found himself unable to not to feel terrible for doing that to another being – even a reptilian.

“Species like yours don’t deserve this from us. Its now only fitting that you get to know the truth when you are only days away from your destruction.” – gasped the reptilian from his breath

“I told you…that these guys are going to attack us…”- said Karl

“Listen to me human…we were not here to attack you”

“But if you were not attacking us why you had to come to our solar system…and that too with ship with cloaking device to hide from us”

“To save you! Like we did in the past.“

“Don’t lie to me you filthy creature”

“I am not…I wish I could but I am not human enough. Let me tell you everything. “ – reptilian took a some deep breaths and painfully started narrating

“As you know, our reptilian civilization is 6 billion years old. We existed even before your Sun was still a cloud of dust and gas spread light years across. Even before your Earth existed we gained intersteller travel technology. We first started to explore our own neighborhood and then began to travel even to the distant parts of the galaxy. A civilization’s desire to explore new worlds is only limited by technology and we had conquered that limitation. But as we explored the Universe, we realized that life was not as abundant as we initially thought. Most of the planets had inadequate Suns, others simply lacked  the right combination of right elements, and still others just managed to harbor bacterial life before being destroyed by one way or another. We learned that life is rare..very very rare.

And then we discovered a beautiful planet right at the opposite end of the galaxy. That was your planet. A gem probably even rarer than our own planet. When we first discovered your earth, around a quarter billion years ago – only large reptiles you call dinosaurs roamed on your planet. They were not very intelligent but still it was a significant discovery. We were very excited and waited for evolution to take its course. But we still kept an eye on you.

Everything was going according to the plan. Evolution was paving way for more and more intelligent life forms. But then you had a terrible accident – a large asteroid wiped the earth clean of its life including the dinosaurs. It happened very quickly and by the time we could do anything about it, it was all over. It was devastating – in human terms it was like seeing your own child dying in front of you. And we have always felt guilty about it.

And then, in another few million years galactic Gods gave us another chance to cleanse us of our guilt. Life resurrected on planet Earth again and this time we decided to protect earth like our child.

We took it on ourselves to take care of your planet. Initially it was just like taking care of a new born. We even used to come to your planet to fix smallest of the things for you. We helped you walk on your two legs. We helped you work in groups to help your survival. Our biggest decision came when we realized that your senses were weak to survive in dark. Your human ancestors were nearly wiped out by nocturnal predators. As a father can go to any length for the life of his offspring, we had to take a very big decision. We had to make your absolute dark nights, lit.  And we captured an asteroid  and brought it in your orbit.”

“Are you talking about the moon?” – A wide eyed Raghav exclaimed

“Yes..I am talking about moon. It was a difficult task even for our technology but we did it. Without it life wouldn’t have survived for long. Even now you think that that perfect satellite with just perfect reflective properties was just a galactic coincidence. Your scientists haven’t yet figured out how earth was able to capture such a large body with its weak gravitational pull.”

“Anyway, it started getting complicated after you discovered the telescope about 800 years ago. We had to be more subtle from then on. In fact in the year 1994 we faced with another challenge threatening your survival. A large comet was headed your way and it could have wiped off the whole planet. You were advancing but you were not capable enough to deal with it. We somehow succeeded in diverting it to Jupiter without being detected by your telescopes and satellites. Shoemaker Levy comet would have been your doomsday messenger if not for reptilians.“

The reptilian was now panting heavily. The oxygen was now mixing with his bloodstream and destroying its vessels. Green stream of blood flowed out from his nose. Raghav helped him clean and he continued-

“Listen to me…I don’t think I have much time. I have one last thing to tell you”

“Yes…my friend” – said Raghav with a newfound respect for the species which has protected them and raised them through the last 65 million years

“I wish you trusted us on what we were doing here. But its all futile now. Listen, there is an asteroid 20 Kms in diameter which has lost its orbit from outer fringes you call Kuiper belt. It is headed directly towards the earth and with its velocity it will hit you in another 20 days. Your telescopes have not captured it yet but ours did. And that was when we had to come here with a tractor beam which could have bent its orbit. But now you destroyed it along with my ship. You can not deal with it and even if you fire your nuclear armaments to it probability of it not colliding with earth are only 0.1%. Tractor beam is the only answer to ensure the survival of your species. Listen contact the reptilian base and tell them everything. If they can reach here in time, humans can still be saved“

 “All the best….my frie..” – said the reptilian looking at Raghav and took one last breath

Raghav now stared at now lifeless face of the reptilian and then tears rolled down his eyes.

“They were protecting us all this time…and I killed him” – said Raghav guiltily

“..and its all because of you. You are a monster…”

“Listen Raghav, I did what I felt was most important for humans…”

“Just shut up now..” – shouted Raghav with still moist eyes. – “I am now going to relay to the senate now. And I am going to tell everything. Earth must know the truth about everything. At least in its last few remaining days. It deserves to know about its galactic guardians. Ones who have long protected it from any harm.”

He stood now face to face with his superior. For a moment Gen Karl was astounded by the sheer audacity of Raghav.  But he soon recovered –

“Don’t mess with me sergeant, this is a matter of galactic security and you have to follow the orders. Or I’ll treat you as a traitor to GalPol. Listen now, you will not say a word about what happened here. The reptilian for all we know was a spy who was lying to us the whole time…”

“What? Are you crazy? Did you not hear what he just said? “

“I have…but that may be an elaborate lie to keep us off guard in case of capture.”

“You don’t stop at anything ..do you?..now you listen to me…I am now going to relay all the information to the GalPol HQ and the senate..you better keep your stories for the trial because you will pay for the the crimes you have committed ”

Raghav started walking out of the room towards the control room of the ship. He suddenly felt a jolt at the back of his head and turned. General was holding the blaster in his hand pointed at him. He could see vapors coming out of the gun and before he could say anything he collapsed on the floor.

General Crush walked down to the lifeless body of the Sergeant and sat down next to it.

“I can’t let you do this Sergeant. Earthlings need a powerful enemy to unite and reptilians are it. Wars bring more peace to earth than the any other false ideal. And I can’t have you ruin it. Reptilians were and will remain the ultimate enemy of mankind”

The mechanical voice of the ship’s announcement system beamed -

“Attention. Attention all personnel. This is level 4 alert. A rogue asteroid is observed with tentative orbit intersecting the earth. Probability of collision 76%”

‘That’s 99.9% you fools’ mumbled General while dragging the body of Raghav to the storage bay

****

Damned if you do...

Dear friends,

This story is coming after a loooong time. Well...as they say, many a times life gives you lemons and a broken hand. And it takes a long time to heal :(.

Well, this story is set in the Universe of my previous story - Mirror, Mirror. Mirror on the wall. 

The events in this story precede those of mirror mirror.. but both are independent stories on their own.

Do let me know what you think about it through the comments. I really appreciate it. Happy reading..

Part - I

“So will he sing?” - asked General Karl looking from between his crossed shoes at the table. Captain Raghav only hated one thing than Karl’s raw behavior - the man himself. But again galactic pol’s hierarchy prohibited him to even ask him to put his legs down. 

Raghav was in many ways the exact opposite of his superior. He had a young stout body which was meticulously toned through 5 years of academy training. And of course, he was the best among best. He had many options after his graduation but he chose Galatic Pol. Romantics of living in space and visiting different planets had always given him a peculiar feeling of belonging which sometimes even he was unable to explain. But whatever it was - his fondness for space has put him in the entry level job at GalPol. Moreover, his mild manners along with his ability to quickly gain other’s confidence, was ideal for inter-planetary trade surveillance. 

His should have been a textbook case of lifelong loyal planetary service. 

Well, if not for the extraordinary events happened recently. His bad luck, he thought, had landed him in this fringe orbits beyond Pluto which was among some coldest places of the solar system. And that was because of the discovery of reptilians - the first intelligent alien life found by humans. Of course, their relationship started on the wrong foot with both species going to a war. But reptilian’s far advanced technology and unmatched kindness led the humans to struck peace with them. More so, their sulphur based biology made sure that none of the civilizations have anything of common interest. Neither humans nor reptilians could have survived for a single day on each other’s planets.

However, the discovery of another intelligent lifeform with far superior technological and social maturity led to significant changes in the way humans perspective. First, the myth of being the supreme creation of the God was soon abandoned. 

Second, all the planetary governments became united under the umbrella of humanity as a species in a way that was unimaginable before. Humans now had a better reason to cooperate. For humans, fear of common enemy has always been a stronger force than love for the mankind. 

Military was also reorganized. Combined military force called Galactic Pol which was just meant to control inter planetary smuggling before the war, now emerged as the first united force which led the fleets during the First War. After the war, it increased its solar outposts by several hundred ships in an unlikely surprise attack by a new found enemy.

These outposts were nothing but one-manned scouting spaceships marking the official boundary of the solar system just around the orbit of Pluto. 

Raghav was assigned to one such ship after the war. He was charting the next day’s course around the Kuiper belt objects for another mundane routine, when he had heard an SOS from merely 1 light-hour away. 

And now, 24 hours later, he was sheltering an reptilian in the storage bay and his ship’s command was taken over by the most hated General in in the GalPol who was nicknamed “Crush” for his merciless attitude towards the reptilians and well…most humans. Standing in front of Crush, he was now cursing himself for joining the GalPol.

Presently, coming out of his thoughts, he replied - “I am not sure Sir, i have tried all the regular interrogation protocols. And i just finished the last level 7 protocol. Even the point-eight AJ naughts (Astronomical Joules or AJ0 was a new galactic unit of energy signifying the energy emitted by the sun in one second) was insufficient. Now i think we should just inform the base and wait for their instructions. We can not legally do anything more to get more information.”

General Karl’s face remained expressionless. However, he retrieved his feet from the table and pulled the ash-tray towards himself. Pulling out the remaining Cigar from his mouth he wryly said - “You know Sergeant, you’d do well if you don’t read too much of those policies. Those were written by land bounds who don’t know an atom about space. Level 7, you say - don’t make me laugh. That won’t even cause a tickle to my grandma.”

“But..sir..” - Raghav tried to speak as he knew that he had already done much damage to the reptilian survivor’s body. He had straightened all twenty of his long tentacle shaped fingers which can only be described as nearly breaking the limbs of a human. He had poured water over his sensitive sets of compound eyes which must have caused an unbearable pain to him. And the General still wants to go farther? He did not even know if there was any farther. 

“Look Sergeant, four humans have been killed. I am sure that reptilians will call it an accident. But don’t you see that they don’t have any business in our solar system. I say thats an attack on humanity and i won’t stop till i know what they were doing here. There could be hundreds or even thousand more ships around our solar system. And, by space, I’ll make this slimy scum’s life hell if he doesn’t talk.”

By his last sentence, General Crush was nearly screaming at the top of his voice. 

“Do you now understand better than to apply your mind in events of greatest threat to the Galactic security?”

“Yes sir. What are my further orders Sir?” 

“Hmmm…that’s better. “ said general with a sigh 

“GalPol’s HQ is 8 light hours away. Any intelligence we send them will take 8 hours to reach them. And if reptilians are planning an attack, we don’t have much time. We should have this reptilian talking soon. We’ll have to think about something more effective. Have you heard Sergeant of a book called “Ancient torture Techniques” - asked General stoically 

“No Sir” 

“I thought so...that was written sometime in 22nd century and was banned since. I have read one copy though - had to take Senate’s permission. And anyway, they don’t teach you any useful stuff at academy nowadays.”

“I apologize for my inadequacy of skills sir” - said Raghav being fearful of having displeased Crush

“Hah..don’t make me laugh with your academy talk ….”

Come with me and i’ll teach you some real skills...ever heard of water-boarding?

Its from one of that books - the simplest yet most deadly of the torture technique. Its so simple that i don’t believe its that deadly - and i really wanted to try it for a long time” - said general with a menacing grin

***

Reptilian opened his eyes with pain still stinging him like needles pierced deep in the whole body. He tried to lift one of his limbs from the armrest but it triggered another shot of pain through his body. He was warned of violent nature of humans but this was something unfathomable to his species. Of course, reptilians never caused physical harm to each other and they never needed to. It was like, in human terms, hurting your own child. 

Presently, the reptilian tried to look around through his blurry eyes. Though his vision was foggy, he could still make out the lifeless bodies of his four crew mates. He knew for sure that they were lifeless as there was no gas mask or sulphuric acid cylinder on them. 

He tried to recall the events which have led him to this unbearable situation. He and his four crew members were sent on a special mission to Earth. This was not his first one but certainly the most dangerous. And failing at it meant destruction of a whole species. In fact, they had to use their cloaking devices for this mission. But galactic gods had other plans. First his ship was discovered by General Crush who attacked them. Second, in the fighting that ensued, they lost the tractor beam which was critical to their mission. And third, since he was captured there was a possibility that the humans will come to know about the biggest secret reptilians have hidden from them for a long time.

No. I can’t. I must finish my mission else that will be the end of so many years of work. I can’t fail my ancestors. And the secret must also die here with me - he thought

He looked at his sulphuric acid cylinder. The breathing pipe carried the vital gas from the cylinder to his body. 

‘If i pull this cord off. It should end within 2 minutes’ – but as tried to force his fingers towards the cylinder, each and every bone of his body revolted. He realized that he cannot even commit suicide that easily.

And once again pain gave way to unconsciousness as the reptilian reminded himself of dying at the next opportunity…with the secret, of course. 

***

TO BE CONTINUED...

Half Done is Well Begun

“And that’s a new miracle of science. An invention for which the only parallel lies thousand years back in history, when man first set a foot on the moon.  Or perhaps the even bigger ladies and gentlemen.” Prof Fem Fermi  dramatized, justly so, on showcasing his greatest invention to the elite group of best scientists of the solar system, government officials belonging to top echelons of power and wealthiest industrialists who were expected to bid for his invention after the demonstration.

“Behold your senses as I present you the dream the mankind dreamt since ages forgotton – the teleportation machine” – Said Prof Fem as one of his assistants unfurled the silky red cover from his machine.

It looked like a big space-car to the untrained eye and the scientists alike and was a bit of anticlimax for them. Of course, they knew that the show wasn’t over yet.

Prof Fem continued – “This teleportation machine ladies and gentlemen will change the way the humanity progresses. Let me ask a simple question to you my dear Senator Grechen. How long did it take you to come to Pluto for this demonstration?”

Senator Grechen was not amused, but he played along answering such a dumb question –“ Earth to Pluto is 8 light hours my dear friend. And I am the privileged to use the new C-fiftys. So that took 16 hours plus a few more at the surface.”

“And what if I were to tell you that from this moment onwards that will take just an instant?” – said Prof Fem Fermi smilingly, knowing that he had captured the fantasy of everyone sitting there.

“Then Spacester Corp. is willing to pay you the twice your basic bid amount Prof Fermi” – said Mooney - chairman of one of the largest transportation companies in the solar system

“Well, thanks for your patronage Mr Mooney, but after the demonstration I am quite sure that you’ll realize that base bidding price of 1 trillion credits is a gross underestimate for the value of this machine.”

“Well then, get over with this already. I have already waited so much and have other matters to attend to” – said another business tycoon while puffing his martian cigar

“Ok then Ladies and Gentlemen. Now what I am going to show you is instant transportation of myself from here to Earth and back. You’ll be able to view me on that visio screen telecasting from earth as I materialize there.”

“Let me just step in and show you the biggest miracle of your lifetimes. Mr. Grechen, if you’ll be kind enough to push the start button on the screen in front of you..”

“Very well…here I go” – said Senator Grechen as he pressed the start button.

And sure enough, the  body of Prof Fermi began to disappear heads down and started to appear on visio screen from earth as everyone in the room gasped.

As the onlookers watched in horror, the teleportation suddenly stopped as the waist down body of Prof Fermi lay in front of them. The assistant feverishly pressed some buttons to continue the teleportation mumbling the choicest words.

“What the hell just happened?”  Asked Mooney looking at motionless torso of Prof Fermi on visio screen

“Something what I feared the most” – sighed the assistant and read a note from the machine screen

“Windows 30 ’95 error. File not found. Please format your hard drive and reinstall your OS.”

************

Hi All,

This was written on a bit lighter note on the April Fool’s day. Please drop a comment and share it if you liked it!

Regards,
Vaibhav

Mahabharata - A Retelling

MAHABHARAT – A RETELLING

“ You don’t have to do this Bhim. Just look at us. Do you want the future of humanity to tell these stories and despise us? “ Said Suyodhan

“Duryodhan, you don’t deserve to live. You are the one who is the cause of this destruction. You will have to pay for what you did to Draupadi – she was ripped off her dignity with the whole bharat varsh to witness. I have made a pledge Duryodhan and today, on the 18^th day of the great war – it all ends here.”

- said Bhim swinging his mace in the air and destroying trees which came in his way.

“Suyodhan. Suyodhan is my name Bhim. At least call me by my real name now that you have won the war. Which mother will believe that I was named Duryodhan? And Draupadi …which act of indignity are you talking about – she was my servant, my slave Bhim and what I did was only lawful. When I won her she became a slave but when she was placed as a wager in Chauser, she had been a royal lady of the palace. So which act is more shameful Bhim? Why don’t you ask your Dharmraj who knows that I was right all along. And that is why he did not utter a word. “ – said Duryodhan limping while searching for a good tree to hide.

 He continued –

“And what about your Dharma? You killed my dear friend Karna by treachery. That Krishna was always justifying his misdeeds by convoluted arguments.

Where was his Dharma when he asked Arjuna to attack Karna when he was unarmed?

Where was his Dharma when he asked Arjun to hide behind Shikhadi and kill great Bhishm?

Where was his Dharma when he spread the lie about Aswathama and then beheading our Guru Dronacharya?

Where was his Dharma when he asked you to hit me on my thighs against all the rules taught to us by the great Balarama?”

“You disobeyed the Dharma too Duryodhan- don’t hide behind false arguments. You also killed Arjun’s son ABhimnyu by deceit. Poor kid was killed against all the rules. You killed my son Ghatotkatch. Accept your deeds Duryodhan at least now when you are about to die”

“Weren’t my 99 brothers killed in the battle too? You say I made false arguments but do you think greats like Bhishma, Vidur and Dronacharya would have supported adharma if ever I did one? Do you think I would have had gathering of eleven akshohani armies on my side had I been wrong? What did I ask for? I asked for what was rightfully my own. Isn’t a son rightful owner of his father’s throne? I am the true son of Dritrashtra – and elder son of the elder son of King Shantanu. But what about you? You Pandavas are not even the sons of Pandu – you are the fruits of boon of mother Kunti. You can kill me now but heavens are the witness of whose side was rightful all along. History will vindicate me.”

“No it won’t Duryodhan. History is always written by the victorious. And history will remember you as what Pandavas want. History will remember you as Duryodhan and the name Suyodhana will be lost forever” – Bhim said with a grin on his face. He saw stain of blood on the leaves and swung his mace. The tree came down as if made of sand…and along with it Duryodhan , trying to hide in the fallen branches-blood streamed from his legs where Bhim had hit him.

“God will punish you Bhim –he will. Your all murderes will not go unpunished in the higher world. Ask Sahdeva – he the one with power to see the future. He will tell you what lies ahead. Supreme God will grant me heaven for following the path of righteousness and fighting for my right which is Kshatriya dharma and you Pandavas will go through torments of hell.” – said Suyodhana as Bhim finished him off with one final swing of his mace

The Dialogue

Date: 20^th April 1889

Place: Ranshofen, Austria

‘But you are wrong my brother. Violence is never an answer to anything.’ Said the younger one

‘Yes it is. In the hands of clever, it can unite the population. And unity gives power- power which can change this world. Yes, changing the world always requires few sacrifices but that’s a cost we pay for a better world in the end’ said the elder

‘Misery of thousands can not be a way to a better world for a few. You must understand it brother’

‘You tell me- won’t you rather have supremacy of those who deserve it? Mankind has always progressed by the efforts of the best and dragged down by the worst of the lot. Isn’t it in humanity’s own interest to leave the worst of us behind? Isn’t this what Darwin said -  survival of the fittest? That’s how any species progresses my dear brother. You have to discard the ones who will slow you down. You’ll have to purify the land of humans before you attempt to make it a heaven for the rest'

‘Such heaven is only as pious as the hands of the murderers who built it. Darwin’s fittest survives, but not by killing weaklings. You only have the right to fight for your survival but who on earth except God, gave you the right to cease others’?

And Aryan supremacy? A human is a human – he is not worse if he was born of another womb. Just you look at us. We are about to be born of the same mother but you and I can never be the same. How do you even fathom that belonging to a race gives one a supremacy over others?

Best of humanity won’t be the same if its foundation were to be laid on the corpses of others. The path you seek my brother won’t make you a better human but rather dehumanize you beyond redemption my brother.’

‘I understand now brother – ‘ said the elder one feigning his tone for what he was about to do 

‘I understand that you will be the first obstacle in my path of world domination. And for that, you have to become my first sacrifice for the sake of rest of the humanity’ – he continued as his tiny hands wrapped around the neck of his younger brother

‘Please don’t do this’ – said the younger one before his voice died down

**

‘Mrs. Klara – congratulations you have twins. Boys. But wait…one is not crying…‘ – said the nurse

Some documentaries say that Adolf Hitler had a twin brother who died at birth. My own rendition of events how it happened !!

Though i decided to not to write any more stories on my blog, i think i can't resist it! So, while I am working for a bigger project separately, i will occasionally update it with some such short stories. Hope you liked it.