The Virus: Part 5

 5. An Alien Next Door

Prithvi sat numbly at the back of the Presidential Limo making way to his home, flanked by the whole motorcade of police vehicles. A few helicopters flew ahead for a recce. He looked out of the dark tinted window towards the pavement that was lined up with flashing cameras. He tried to talk to the driver, but he didn’t respond and instead raised the partition. He was already a pariah.

He didn’t care much about what would happen to him. But what about Rebecca and Alia? He should have turned down Estella when he had a choice. She played him on his hopes to see Alia walk again and he fell right into the trap. And now he has not just put his family but the whole of humanity in an unknown danger.

Prithvi stepped out, the neighborhood was as empty as on the red curfew. But by no means unmonitored, he thought uncomfortably. Surely, there is an entire battalion stationed just outside the safe radius.

‘She is already in,’ said the stout secret service agent posted outside his home. ‘You are on your own now, we have been asked not to interfere.’

Perhaps for the last time, Prithvi entered his home.

She was there, sitting on the living room sofa, looking radiant as ever. Her countenance showed no trace of any ill will. Rebecca sat next to her, fidgeting with her hand nervously. Her disheveled face and unkempt hair stood in complete contrast with their unwelcome guest.

‘Good morning, Prithvi,’ said Eris, benevolently.

‘Good morning, madame Eris. I hope you were well hosted.’

A smile stretched on her godly face. ‘Most pleasantly, Prithvi. Rebecca is an excellent host. Would you like to sit?’

Prithvi sat next to Rebecca and held her hand to comfort her. She kept shifting her gaze nervously between Eris and the bedroom.

‘I apologize if I am making it inconvenient for you or your family, Prithvi. Unfortunately, this is our custom. We are supposed to spend some time with local families to learn about local culture and families. Just a few days and we will be departing from your planet. Don’t mind me at all, consider me as part of the family.’

Prithvi’s first instinct was to bring up Lizzies’ arm-twisting of the Earthian government. He composed himself. It was an offer to be gracious in a coerced situation. Better to suck it up and play along. Moreover, any escalation might put his family into more trouble.

‘It is an honor of a lifetime to host you madame Eris. We were just concerned if we would be able to serve you at par with your stature.’

‘Oh, please, Prithvi.’ Eris chuckled. For a moment Prithvi saw her dropping her guard. She might as well be a long-time friend visiting the town. Only if Prithvi didn’t know for what she really was. ‘I was getting tired of fancy hotels and pretentious ball-rooms. I am feeling pleasantly at home already.’

‘Please do make yourself comfortable madame Eris. We will make your arrangements in the guest room.’

‘Thank you,’ Eris said. ‘Just one more question. Is there anyone else in this house?’

Her suggestive tone indicated that she had already known, however, politeness took precedence.

Rebecca responded, ‘Our daughter Alia, she is sleeping in the bedroom right now. She is five… well almost six years old.’

‘Oh, how wonderful. I would love to meet her,’ Eris said, cheerfully.

Rebecca was smiling by now. Even Prithvi found himself giving in to the false normalcy of the situation. He reminded himself forcefully. She is an alien. And she is not what she looks like.

###

The next day, Prithvi and Rebecca introduced Alia to Eris. From her bed, Alia blinked as she looked at Eris and a thin smile stretched on her round face. She lifted her tiny hands and, with an uninhibited affection that only a child can express, put her fingers on Eris’ face. Eris, surprised at first, reciprocated by cuddling her hand.

‘What has happened to her?’ Eris asked once they were out of the Alia’s room. ‘Why is she different than other humans?’

Prithvi took a moment to absorb the question. For all this time that Lizzies were on Earth, they had never met a sick person. Earthians were busy parading the best of themselves --actors, scientists, powerful men and women--but never the infirm. Alia, to Eris, was an entirely different kind of human being who was imperfect and weak.

Rebecca’s expression changed. She replied, plaintively, ‘She was born with a rare condition; her heart is too weak to be able to pump enough blood to her brain and body.’

‘Her motor functions are not developed, and she can’t walk or do other normal things.’

‘Will she ever get better?’

Prithvi shook his head. ‘We don’t know.’

Rebecca jumped to her child’s defense. ‘It doesn’t matter to us. She is an angel and we are so lucky to have her.’

Eris seemed puzzled. ‘But will she be of any value in human terms when she grows up?’

Prithvi was surprised, but he had been in the alien company enough to sense the innocent curiosity behind the seeming insensitiveness. Rebecca, on the other hand, recoiled and a stream of tears rolled off from her eyes. Prithvi jumped to her side and consoled her. ‘I am sorry madame Eris. Rebecca is very protective of Alia.’

Eris gave a confused nod, apologized, and left for her room.

###

The incident changed a few things. Eris became much more interested in Alia. She made sure she was in Alia’s room as much as Rebecca tolerated. She watched intently whenever Rebecca fed Alia her liquid meal, or administered her medication, or even cleaned her bodily excretions.  Eris did ask a few questions here and there but remained conscious of her words and tone, especially with Rebecca.

Rebecca also grew accustomed to having Eris around, even enjoying addressing what seemed like childlike inquiries from her. (What is the function of a teddy bear?)

On the third day, as Prithvi prepared the bedpan for Alia, Eris asked politely if she could do the job. Hesitantly, Prithvi stepped back. He watched intently as Eris took care of Alia silently without any signs of revulsion.

On the same day, the alien spaceship ceased leaking a tremendous amount of energy.

JUMP TO

Part 4: Failed Gambit                                         Final Part: The Virus Revealed

The Virus: Part 4

 4. Failed Gambit

The next event was the inauguration of HEO, High Energy Observatory which no doubt was made possible with the Lizzy Technology. It allowed for deep space observations and communications with the Lizzies. Lasers powered by micro-fusion could emit 60-petawatt beams, pointed in the correct direction, could communicate across the cosmos.

Prithvi couldn’t care less about the observatory; he stared at the three Lizzies through his dark glasses walking alongside them to the inaugural area. While one scientist was trying really hard to impress the Lizzies, Prithvi caught Eris looking back at him. For a brief moment, it felt as if her gaze was burning him from the inside.

Does she know? The thought crossed over his mind. He as quickly shrugged it off, as the formal ceremonies took over.

After the inauguration, Marsh D’Mello, the Chief Contact Officer, played a tour guide and led the rest of the contingent. The facility was indeed impressive expanding several blocks. Moving from section to section, Marsh D’Mello animatedly described the purpose of different instrumentation to the alien guests, who, as always, made appropriate remarks at the right times.

‘On your left, you can see the tower called ‘Absolute Zero’, here we cool down the gases near absolute zero where it transforms into Bose-Einstein condensate – WATCHOUT—‘

A loose piece of metal came off and brushed Eris, it was sheer luck as the heavy block crashed the spot she stood a second ago.

The tour was cut short and several apologies followed including the one directly from the President. Soon all was forgotten, nobody suspecting any foul play. Who would deliberately try hurting the benevolent Gods?

###

The Next morning, Prithvi was woken up by a violent and screaming vid call from Estella.

‘Where the heck are you?’

‘What do you think, Chief, my duty doesn’t start until… what time is it?’

‘He doesn’t know,’ Estella said to someone off-screen. In the background, a large screen was delivering the morning news.

‘Haul your ass as fast as you can to my office, use the back door, and don’t talk to the press till you see me.’

Estella hanged the phone before he could mutter, ‘What press?’

Prithvi stood dumbfounded, holding the receiver. What had transpired in the morning? There was no time to think. He dressed as fast as he could and rushed out of the house. That’s when he understood what Estella meant. Reporters and cameras swarmed him the moment he stepped out of his apartment. Dozens of overlapping voices bombarded questions, several cameras jostled for space around him.

‘Why do you think you were chosen?’

‘What is your family’s reaction to all this?’

‘What arrangements have you made?’

His resistance didn’t deter them. He managed to wade through them to reach his car and pressed the ‘privacy’ button. The glasses turned dark and the outside noises reduced to a muffle. He took some deep breaths. They didn’t help. He could think of only one reason why he was the center of the attention -- His little side-project with Estella had gotten out in the open.

With trembling hands, he turned on the car’s vidscreen. A news feed came to life:

‘ – the unusual choice of hitherto unknown security officer Prithvi has surprised many Lizzy experts. We have with us Dr. Dave Lock from the Institute of Interplanetary Sociology, Luna, who will throw more light on this new demand from the Lizzies.’

‘Dr. Dave, what do think of this unusual request from the Lizzies and why do you think Officer Prithvi was chosen?’

Dr. Dave adjusted his glasses and spoke in a deep monotone academic voice.

“Well, thanks for having me this morning. I think this is another aspect of inter-species cultural exchange. This cross-pollination of cultural ideas is what would make two distinct life-forms understand each other better.”

“Some skeptics are comparing it to native-habitat observations that we do on animals. How do you respond to that?”

“That is completely uncalled for after what they have done for us. This is as much an opportunity for us to get to know them as for them to know us.”

“And what about this Officer Prithvi?”

“Ummm… that is a curious choice I must admit. My hypothesis is that they wanted a normal everyday family but also someone who had been around them for a while and gotten used to them.”

“And as our analysis reveals, this officer was alongside the Lizzies as part of the security--”

Prithvi closed the vidscreen, his heart pounding and his mind racing.

###

It was a matter of rare exception where the President had to wait for someone. This was one of the rarest ones. As Prithvi entered Estella’s office, President was pacing across the length of the room. The moment he saw Prithvi, he pounced on him.

‘What exactly did you do?’

‘I… just… I didn’t do anything.’

‘He knows, Prithvi.’ Estella said.

‘Damn yes, we do. But too late. Only after Eris asked to move into your house, we started going through the security footage. Whatever weird shit you were planning with Anthony Jenkins; we saw that… and I think Lizzies got a whiff of that.’

Estella jumped. ‘We weren’t planning anything, Mr. President. We just wanted to know more about them. Those were my orders, and he didn’t have any say in the matter.’

Prithvi and Estella exchanged looks. Prithvi’s silently moved his lips. ‘Thank You’.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ President flared. ‘Once this is over, you will both be tried for high treason.’

‘But for now, we don’t have any choice, we just have to follow through with what Lizzies are demanding. Adonis listened to our politics for an hour and abruptly stopped the talks. We tried to reason but to no avail, they were quite forceful. Adonis and Ares went to their spacecraft and Eris explicitly asked to move in with you for five days. They said they will take everything back if we didn’t allow them their request. I have never seen them behaving like this.’

Prithvi swallowed.

Suddenly Marsh D’Mello barged into the room. He looked like he had seen a ghost. ‘M… Mr. President… one moment please –’

President Belikh barked, ‘NOW WHAT?’

‘B… But Adonis… and Ares… the spaceship…’

‘Get your bearings, Marsh.’

He gulped down the glass of water from Estella’s desk. ‘S… Sorry M… Mr. President. We had been monitoring the spaceship since it arrived. Since today morning, it is leaking energy.’

‘Huh? What do you mean?’

‘It is just a leakage, and yet it is so massive that the technician reported it in Yottawatts. Our scientists swear that this much energy in a such a small space is impossible unless…’

‘Unless what?’

D’Mello swallowed. ‘Unless it is meant to be a bomb. A bomb that packs more energy than the friggin SUN.’

A silence erupted in the room. President turned to Estella and Prithvi. His hands shook and his tongue struggled to put the words together. His demeanor long gone.

‘I am putting this on you two,’ he blared. ‘Y…You guys pissed them off and they want to deal with you personally. For all I care, they can hang you in a public street as long as they leave Earth without annihilating us.’

‘But he didn’t—’ Estella tried to protest.

‘Shut up, Estella.’ President fumed. ‘No more tricks, no more games. Prithvi, my agents will escort you back to your home. Then you just do what Eris tells you to do. There will have an army contingent outside your house, and I will personally be monitoring the operation.’

‘And as for you Estella, you are terminated with immediate effect. We will see what to do with you later.’ President gestured and two guards grabbed Estella by the elbows.

‘God help us. We are not ready for this.’ President wiped his forehead, where an involuntary bead of sweat had gathered.

JUMP TO

Part 3: Gods(?)                                                  Part 5: An Alien Next Door

The Virus: Part 3

 3. Gods (?)

‘The world changed more in the last two days than it had in the past two thousand years,’ Prithvi said, overlooking the three aliens who were now making their way towards the Presidential dinner.

‘You might be right for once, champ,’ said Estella in Prithvi’s comms.

‘You can just say that you were wrong for once,’ replied Prithvi.

Estella didn’t react to that remark. ‘The whole humanity has gone apeshit euphoric. Just three of them managed to do this to 10-billion people in two days.’

Prithvi saw all of that firsthand. In those two days, the three Lizzies participated in number of public events. It became quite clear that all three of them were not only Godlike in their magnificent appearance but depth of intellect too. The effect was hypnotic and not just on laypeople. They were as deft at talking about quantum nature of the universe as they were about music and arts. They were always careful to keep within the purview of human capabilities, ‘rationed their knowledge’ as someone put it mildly.

Perhaps it was too embarrassing to tell a tired stone-rubbing-caveman about the matchbox.

Eris seemed to be the leader of the group, she always spoke first in media interviews, while Ares seemed more proficient in matters related to arts. In one live interview, she got her own cult by live-painting the exact copies of Monalisa, The Starry Night and The Last Supper, all in 30-minutes flat. Adonis was most reserved of them all and seldom spoke. He liked talking about interstellar politics but often deferred to Eris if the interviewers prodded.

Presently, Prithvi stood guard at the bottom of the stairway in the grand ballroom of the Presidential Residence.

‘You must be tired by now.’ Estella enquired.

He pressed on his earpiece. ‘Last couple of days were hectic, too many high exposure public events. But I will not lie, I loved every second of it.’ Prithvi said looking around at the grand ballroom. President had pulled all the stops at show and pomp. The select crowd -- Hollywood celebrities, rock-stars, billionaires, Nobel laureates, business magnates -- had completed the atmosphere. Expensive Tuxedos and Evening dresses filled the room. ‘Gosh, this place smells like a Chanel factory.’

‘Do I hear you complaining?’

‘Hell no. There is not a single soul on any of the planets that won’t give their right hand to exchange places with me.’

‘I thought as much. Anyway, you will have easier days from now on, there will be only closed-door discussions with the leadership --  heads up.’

The three Lizzies appeared at the first-floor balcony of the ballroom, looking majestic as always. The esteemed crowd gathered below the carpeted imperial staircase. On cue, lights were dimmed, and a spotlight focused the three aliens as they walked down on the red carpet, waving and smiling all around. Eris and Ares donned shimmering gowns while Adonis wore a suit. The colors of their seemed to gradually change every few minutes.

As three of them came down the stairway, holding hands, Adonis stumbled on a wrinkle in the red carpet. A collective ‘ooh’ echoed in the hall, but Adonis quickly recovered with some help from Ares, while Eris continued to smile and wave. Soon, the minor gaffe was forgotten, as the three Lizzies mingled with the people in their separate clusters of attention.

Prithvi watched the incident with interest. ‘Did you see that Estella?’

‘See what? The stumble?’

‘Yes. Noticed anything peculiar?’

‘No. Is there something I should know?’

‘It is probably nothing, but I have a hypothesis that I need to confirm. Arrange for my replacement.’

Prithvi moved around the grand-hall, away from the Lizzies who were now surrounded by three layers of celebrities.  In one corner, Prithvi spotted a familiar face sitting at the bar counter, sipping his drink. Prithvi took the next spot and grabbed a beer for himself.

‘Mr. Anthony Jenkins,’ said Prithvi loudly. ‘Congratulations on your recent Oscar, fourth one I presume.’

‘Fifth.’ Anthony downed a glass without paying any attention to Prithvi. ‘No autographs please, I am not in the mood.’ Anthony said throwing a glance in the direction of the Lizzies.

‘I understand, Mr. Jenkins. These are just crazy times, right?’

‘Bonkers. Look at that crowd.’

‘Are you not going to meet them? Lizzies, I mean.’

Anthony’s face contoured as if in physical pain. ‘Not like these pedestrians. I am the Anthony Jenkins, I deserve a more exclusive access.’

‘You are right, Mr. Jenkins. Art is as important as politics… but these politicians don’t get that.’

Anthony nodded in a agreement, loosened his bow and motioned the bartender for another drink. Prithvi moved his stool closer to Anthony.

‘I think we both can help each other,’ Prithvi said. ‘I can get you up close with all three of them… with dedicated time. Imagine how would a photo of you look on H-Town’s cover page, with Eris and Ares.’

For the first time, Anthony looked properly at Prithvi. ‘Can you do that?’

‘I can. But you’ll have to do something in return.’

‘How about a million credits right now?’

‘Not money, Anthony, something else. Come here.’ Prithvi leaned in and whispered in his ear. ‘You will have to do as I say. You will have act like a different person to for each one of them.’

‘Who are you?’

‘I am a part of Lizzies security. Consider this as a small prank I want to play on them.’

Anthony thought for a second.

‘Just imagine how much your PR team can do with pictures of you meeting with the Lizzies.’

‘Alright what the heck. I am not sure what is the point of all this but if you guarantee those photos then I am in. How about if I use my movie characters?’

‘That sounds good Mr. Anthony. This will be bigger than your four Oscars, I promise.’

‘Five.’

Prithvi had to pull some strings, but shortly after, Anthony was being escorted by the security and meeting with the Lizzies. Prithvi stationed himself in the monitoring room and watched as Anthony pulled off his magnificent performances of a Russian politician for Eris, a European business mogul for Adonis and an American innovator for Ares, all in the same evening.

Later that night, as Prithvi watched and re-watched the tapes of those meetings, his mind exploded with revelations. Lizzies were not what they looked like. 

JUMP TO

Part 2: The First Contact                                                    Part 4: Failed Gambit