2 Dictatorship (2) - Downhill!
**(Yr. 2130 - Thunderous Veil Planet)
It all started in the Year 2130.
Ideally, a 10-year-old shouldn't be accompanying the Maiyatt team across the galaxy, but my parents didn't have much of a choice. Either come back to the scorched remains of 'home' or take me with them. They chose the latter.
That year, the destination of our journey was a planet called 'The Thunderous Veil'. It was a year-long journey from Earth and I was the most excited amongst the whole crew.
When we landed on that foreign planet, I was baffled by the magnanimity of the Ruin. It was a marvel of architecture that was ahead of humanity by at least a few hundred millennia.
There were large Arks made up of shiny marble-ish rock suspended in the air without support. Statues of creatures that could only be described as Aliens from humanity's perspective, but looked so real and lifelike as if they were frozen in time.
As we neared the centre of the Ruin, the 'glyphs' that were all around the walls of the Ruin started giving off lights as if they could sense the life that was coursing through the veins under our flesh.
The walls that stretched for kilometres on either end were covered in the glyphs that were written with computer-like accuracy in Sanskrit - The Language of Gods (logs).
The [logs] that were carved on these walls were about various subjects ranging from astronomy to battle-formations. The humongous Ruin that I couldn't even see the end of was larger than the total area I had covered in my 10 years of life on Earth.
Even though I was proficient in Sanskrit back then, it wasn't easier for me to record everything on the Altar with my hobbit physique. So I made notes on my tablet where I could reach and left out the parts I couldn't.
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**(Yr. 2131 - Earth)
When we arrived back at the sky-city of Akshaya after a year-long expedition, the first thing I noticed was that the eyes that earlier looked at us with curiosity and mystique had now changed into fright and terror.
As we neared our house, I saw a neighbour's kid running away as if a wild animal had just walked into the settlement of the humans. We were the wild animals.
Even father had noticed it and had quickly gone on the "Skynet" to search for something. I could notice the slight changes in his expression when he read the news titled "War against the Union inevitable, says the Military Chief" on the front page of the news hologram coming out of his wristwatch.
"What happened, dad?"
"Nothing for you to worry about", he puffed his chest and laughed it off as a minor inconvenience, but I was worried as the reaction from the people in the neighbourhood wasn't just "nothing".
"Now the vacation is over, ready yourself to do some serious study boy", he said with an awkward smile trying to divert the topic...
"Is the Union also aware of the Ruins?", I asked innocently. I wasn't oblivious to the tactics of "elephant in the room" either.
Union was the last remaining organization on Earth that could contend against Bharat's autocracy.
It was a time-old ancient organisation consisting only of the Gurus and their students. Union had never taken any part in politics and always lived in seclusion away from material affairs.
It was only this doctrine that had kept them safe from the pawns of Bharat when the "Great purge" that eradicated all the religions from the face of Earth was going on.
"Ruins aren't a complete mystery, and considering how secretive the Union has always been, it wouldn't be far fetched to believe that they were aware of the Ruins all along!"
"even before the Government?"
"hmm... quite possible"
"Dad, why does the Union want to go to war? Are they bad people?"
"Nobody is inherently good or bad, son. Union must have their own reason to discard their legacy and come out in open after centuries of hiding..."
"hmm...", I was left in thought.
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**(Yr. 2132 - Akshaya, Earth)
After reaching back home that day, I had completely immersed myself in decoding the [logs] that I had recorded on my tablet back in the Ruins of the Thunderous Veil. It was no minor task. Decoding the logs not only required a high-level knowledge of Sanskrit but also to understand the legends, the folk stories, and the history of various Dharmik religions of Earth.
On the surface, every log was just a verse from one or another ancient scripture, but decoding the symbolism represented by these stories and restructuring the complicated verses into common language was a lot harder than simply word-to-word translation.
Although the Sankrit ([Logs]) from the Ruins and Earthern Sanskrit used a similar script and vocabulary, the grammar and the use of various extinct lexicons made it near impossible for people without the mastery of Sanskrit to even read a single sentence of the [Logs].
As I became twelve, I was already half as efficient as my mother in decoding logs. While she required my father to explain the symbolism and dig out the relevant information from the ancient scriptures, I could do both my parent's portion of work alone. My father was an expert on Religion and my mother was an expert in the language.
While our family was still busy decoding the logs from the Ruin of 'The thunderous veil', another excavation team had made a huge discovery in this field.
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It was a very hot summer night, and the whole family had just had dinner when the Hunter News flashed at my father's wristwatch. It was a private hunter channel meant only for the members of the excavation team members.
[ Breakthrough: Team Calicut's scholar decode the secret of Prana ] was the title.
"Honey, is this real? Did someone betray the Union?", mother exclaimed in shock.
"Don't worry, it shouldn't be possible for them to completely translate the [logs] yet. It is way too soon. Anyway, wait inside, I'll make some calls."
Even though I couldn't exactly follow their conversation, I immediately knew from the looks on their faces that something big had happened.
'Why does my parent not want other teams to find out about Prana?', I thought.
Having already translated and read a lot about [Prana] myself in the half-broken [logs] of the Thunderous Veil on my tablet, I was confused as to what all the commotion was about?
In my simplistic mind, I believed that it was a sense of competition that made my parents upset with the discovery of Prana by other teams, but I couldn't have been much farther than the reality of the situation.
(*PHATAAK!!*)
Suddenly a loud noise reverberated the balcony outside the living room.
"Ugh! Get ready. We are leaving."
Father's steps fumbled as he entered the room from the balcony with blood dripping from his shoulder.
"NOW!!" He shouted once more gathering all his remaining strength.
Mother, as shocked as she was, came to her senses after the near-deafening shout and quickly arranged for me and my father to leave our home.
"Maa, What is happening? Is dad Okay?", I asked in midst of all the panic.
She didn't reply.
Dad had already lost his consciousness due to the blood loss, and as a 12-year-old I was finding it hard to cope up with all the stress that was building up, and before I realized what was happening and fainted from exhaustion, we had left our home in Akshaya for forever.
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**(Mountain Base)
We arrived at the mountain base in the midst of an eclipse. The scene after exiting the vehicle was completely opposite of the one I had found on the "Thunderous Veil", instead of an advanced civilization, we had migrated back to Bronze Age.
"Mrs Purohit, we don't have enough medicine", Mark told my mother in a rigid tone.
Although Mark was a military man with great achievements and merit, he too was a fugitive of Bharat alongside my parents and me now.
"I understand Mark. How many personnel do we have here?"
"Including your family, now we have a total of 5 adults and a child."
"What about the village base?"
"Dead...", Mark stuttered to answer my mother's questions.
"All of them?"
"Hmm... we are the only remaining member in the whole northern province."
"How could this have happened? Which team decoded the [logs]? It sure as hell wasn't that dumb Calicut team!!!"
"It was 'his' team."
"What!! He was alive all along?"
I found it very later on that the "He" they were talking about was the sixth member of the Maiyatt team. He was considered dead while doing a side mission on a nearby planet last year. Although he was part of the team, he was not much of a team player and wasn't personally close to the rest of the five members of the team.
"He had us fooled since the beginning. It seems that the higher-ups in the government are already aware of the [seal]."
"Damm! Just one more year and we could have finally gotten rid of that goddamm seal", mother looked distressed, "What about the Gurus, are they alive?"
"Fortunately our spies in the government had warned them in advance."
"That's a good thing. As long as Gurus are alive...", she paused to look at me who was silently sleeping in the corner of the rundown room, "...Mark, get everyone together. We need to formulate a Plan right now!!"
Mark left the room with the same expressions as he came in. He was a military man throughout. He was also the reason why I had a good impression of the military and would join the Military as a Priest a decade later.
Had I known that, like Maiyatt, every other neutral team and military personnel were attacked, I probably wouldn't have joined the military at all.
"You can get up now."
My mother called out as soon as Mark disappeared from the room.
My acting which I thought was impeccable was seen through by my mother like sand in the desert. I had always wondered how well would she have had known me if she carried me for the whole 9 months in her womb instead of just 6.
"Will dad be okay?", I asked unsuspectingly, acting like I didn't hear anything about Gurus, Union, or the war.
"You don't have to worry about him. Now, do you still remember all the lessons your father taught you about the scriptures?"
"Yes.."
I answered looking at the ground.
"I'm returning the tablet for you to study what your father and I have taught you."
Her next words came with strict warnings and slight anger.
"I repeat, DO NOT PRACTISE THE [WAY]. I'm giving this tablet back to you only to study!! Okay!?"
"I won't do that again. Don't worry."
I lied.
"Good. Your father will be back to check your progress, don't be lazy!"
'Will he though?'
I shouldn't have thought something so ominous.
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The [way] was nothing but a special technique that was engraved on the altar of the Ruin on the planet of "The thunderous veil" from two years ago.
Just like a blunt knife can only bludgeon, my incomplete translation of the way which I had recorded on my tablet had only harmed me instead of benefiting me with the miraculous energy known as Prana.
Had I known that this one mistake would ruin my life and completely change the trajectory of my life, I would have probably not practised the incomplete [way], at the least not again!
