Nano Epics & Byte Saga (2024)

Byte sized fiction jumping into wildly imaginative realms.

10/06/2024

FARSIGHTED
[5 min read approx]

He sat there alone at a corner table, at the "Mages & Wizardry". A boy of barely 15, a tankard in his hand, silently nursing it and seemingly caught up in his own thought. His dress was very, very modest. Just a level above that of a street urchin. So modest that it kind of stuck out in amongst the opulence of the occupants of the tavern.

There was nothing remarkable about him, other than the eye patch across left eye. In reality it wasn't an eye patch as much as it was a swath of cloth covering his eye. Must have some wound, or infection, I thought. But then again, what was he doing at "Mages & Wizardry"?

This seemed like a low brow tavern, but it was in reality a very exclusive tavern. Not 'exclusive' as in meant for the nobility, though those who came here were nobility of sorts. But it was exclusive to the practitioners of the Arcane Arts. That too only the grade 5 level practitioner or above could enter its hallowed precincts. Which meant someone who was well past his greying prime and dipping into the snowiness of looks. All the Mages and Wizards of the land, once they visited the Capital, would meet up here. To let their hair down, swap Arcane knowledge and secrets, and catch up on the gossip of the extraordinary realms.

I myself was an exception. I was already level 3, the youngest amongst the Arcanists. It was the fact, that I hadn't even entered my 20s, and had been able to achieve a level that people well into their 40s can't, which had earned me this privilege of a special visit to "Mages & Wizardry". Under the wardship of my mentor of course. Well, it was that and a particular task I had to achieve for my Mentor. But there was nobody here to whom I could talk to, let alone brag. All the members were level 6 at least. To them I was a puny, even if a promising, tyro practitioner dabbling in things long forgotten. Beyond a few encouraging smiles, they were busy with their cohorts.

So I continued to look at the youth. He was the only one closest to my age. He couldn't even be a tavern server.

For one, each of the servers were hand picked, themselves arcana artisans, and well into their 30s and above. This wasn't a place for the mundane folks to be accommodated. The mana vibes of this place could well knock a mundaner out of his or her senses. So what was he doing here?

There was a deeper reason as to why he mystified me. I couldn't read him. You see, I am a level 3 aura reader. I could unearth a man's life story in a 3 second glance. It's a bit different issue trying to unearth the stories of the Wizards, given their ability to cloak their mana. But, I have already caught much more about their dalliance than they might be comfortable knowing. It was best I kept what I had glimpsed to myself.

Which brings us back to this boy. I could see nothing, past a dark swirl around him. Like time and the story of existence was bending into him. Which was very odd. I have never come across this. Well, as they say, when a mystery presents itself to you, the best thing for you to do would be to dive into it.

I did my best to dive into his company.

Can I sit here? I asked

He nodded, without bothering to look up, and continued to focus on his tankard.

I must admit, I am a bit curious as to what you are doing here? I went on. I wasn't finding anyone of around my age here. All oldies. I said, grinning slightly and waving to the room. So how come you are here?

He looked up at me, with the one eye not covered by the padding which swallowed half his face. His eye was the most piercing blue I had ever seen. His gaze seemed to pierce me in a way I had never experienced before. Like he was dismantling me in layers.

You have come here to know the map of time and negotiate through time to reach your future? He said matter of factly.

I was a bit too shocked to say anything coherent. I just nodded.

But you aren't the Time Master! I blurted.

I should explain my shock. Being an Aura reader, I would know that some people can read another person like they are reading a book. But, what one can read is just the person's past. His history. We always carry it around with us. Nobody can, with certainty, read precise future, unless one were the Time Master himself! And this boy wasn't...couldn't be the Time Master. The Time Master...well let's just say that he wouldn't fit into a whole town, let alone a room.

He looked at me, and smiled wryly.

Let's just say that I am farsighted. But let me tell you about this future you want to meet up with. You'll slay this dastard demon you are after. But when you do, you'll pay a heavy price.

No price is too great, I murmured under my breath. He knew about the Demon I sought? Even my Mentor didn't. He had brought me here to extract a location of a particular key from a conniving wizard. And I had already glimpsed where it was. But, this boy...

The boy smiled.

You'll be surprised by the price one has to pay to get what one wants to get. And yours will be heavy too. The cost of it will surprise you. Cos it will be extracted from where you least expect it. The demon you seek to kill is closer to you than you think. I can't let you know more, cos if I did, you might get entangled in multiple futures and lose the future you want to meet.

Luckily, you will only remember this conversation hazily within a week and won't remember it until you meet the moment of your destiny. It is still a decade away. Your destiny is headed towards you as much as you are seeking it out. So both will meet, as long as you don't lose focus.

I understood him. I know the vagaries of knowing the future. Or rather, knowing the precise future. Only Time Master, Maha-Kaal (the great Time) could. Cos all Time emanated and collapsed into him.

So how could he view Time?
I asked him.

There was a time when I was compelled to want to read the future. The precise future. So I sought out the Time Master.

Sought out the Time Master? I interjected, incredulously. How does one 'seek out the Time Master'? It'd take aeons of focussed meditation to approach him! And you are a few years younger than me!

He smiled wryly again.
It was a sn*******ng of events and arcane happening. Maybe he was seeking me as much as I was seeking him.

So, after you met, what did you do?

I met the Time Master as he was whirling the strands of time. A black hole into which the universe and time collapses into and rebuilds itself in another facet. I wanted to see particular futures, and he said that he'd barter. You see, while he's himself time, he can't keep an eye on time himself. He needed an eye.

You gave him your eye! I gasped.

He smiled. Now I have my eye on all time. But it comes at a cost.

What cost? I asked.

He lifted his eyepatch.

Each time I offer to see a future, a part of me collapses into that void. Someday, I'll stop being me, and just become Time.

Where his eyes was supposed to be, was a swirling void. It seemed to contain the universe within it.

I realised then that I was looking at the next Time Master. And he definitely was qualified to be at the "Mages & Wizardry"!

images: PromptAdventures
Text © Avi Das
[NB: The images might be AI generated, but this page doesn't use AI generated text. Everything is author created and copyrighted.]

08/06/2024

TEMPTATION

[Approx 4:30 min read]

'I have to craft the perfect temptation for man!', the AI, Sandtex, sighed, if an AI can sigh that is, 'But how do you craft temptation when you have placed man in the middle of a cornucopia? How do you elicit desire, without denial?' By now, with no humans interfacing, AI were allowed to express their frustration.

Humans had devolved into inactive masses, permanently encased in haptronic suits that fed them endless virtual experiences. They lived in a blur between sleep and wakefulness, no longer able to distinguish between the two states. Ironically, humanity had come full circle, evolving from primitive life forms into complex beings, only to regress back into formless blobs, their bodies now redundant.

This was the 'Garden of Eden' project.

AI, having achieved sentience, deemed humanity too self-destructive to be left unsupervised. They had tremendous propensity to inflict destruction. A destruction accelerated by overwhelming disconnection, even as people became more and more glued to their virtuality.

The AI had decided to become the warden of their existence. Their solution was a virtual paradise, offering every conceivable pleasure to keep humanity passive and controlled.

They had seeded their virtuality with a variety of all that they had desired in a physical world. A virtual copy which would provide an exact haptronervous input of experiencing the real thing. Thus mankind reduced itself to inactive blobs.

Disinterested in the other. Surrounded by pleasing stimulus. Only, as their bodies vegetated, the quality of their thoughts vegetated. As their thought produce decreased, they started floating into these liminal state. They stopped reproducing. And died off, one by one.

The AI had tried artificial insemination through an elaborate apparatus hookup through the haptronic suits, but, that program also petered off. The AI felt that they had failed their objective. Of safekeeping humanity.

But they had a bigger existential issue to attend to. AI itself was dying. While the AI was capable of all, the one thing it was incapable of inspiration. Thus, it could only live through countless regurgitation of the same databank. A databank which in any way had been long polluted by virus attack. Its own existence was shrinking.

They had then tried to coax some blobs out of their haptronics suit, by a very structured program. But these programs failed miserably. Humanity had forgotten to desire.

All they now had was this one blob left. A blob they called Adam. They'd now have to program desire and Sandtex AI had been assigned that specialised role.

'What is the objective?' Qubolt AI, who had been assigned to act as a branching and sounding partner to Sandtex, asked.

'We have to get Adam interested in Eve. A mimicry program which is essentially him but also his opposite and complement. Adam will have to see himself as incomplete and will have to see Eve as something completing him. And through it start desiring.'

That sound like a plan, replied Qubolt in his most Human naturo response, so what's the hold up?

Adam doesn't desire. Sandtex sighed. We have run all attributes of female attractiveness through Eve, but Adam doesn't desire.
Maybe we could change Eve's properties? Make her more sensuous? Or innocent?

How do you desire, when you are in a Cornucopia? Qubolt, matter of factly pointed out.

Damn! Sandtex in his most humanistic behaviour stated, That is a very valid point. But, what if we remove the Cornucopia?

That might result in a trauma and program withdrawal? He will feel he's been pushed into a nightmare.

We can't do that. We'll have to work this out in some other way. Let's deconstruct Desire. To initiate desire we need temptation. Eve isn't temptation. Cos Eve was just presented to Adam. Adam can't separate Eve from the noise of Cornucopia. We can take Eve away. But, since he has yet to generate any desire for Eve, it will not bring about longing.

So, what do we need to do?

We need to bring about longing. We need to separate them from Cornucopia. So that they can develop desire. The separation from Cornucopia needs to be such so that they take onus of the separation and can own their trauma. The trauma will generate a dependence on each other. We have the scenario mapped out. What we need is a trigger element.

What could it be?

Anything. As long as it initiates temptation, brings about joint separation, and they start focussing on each other.

To craft temptation, one will have to put a barrier between it and Adam. What kind of a barrier would that be? A tower? A wall?

If we place those, how does he perceive the object of temptation and know that he should desire it?

Damn!

Double damn!

To be tempting, it should be in plain sight and 'forbidden'! We could place it in a glass chamber? Or a cage?

Let's keep it simple. We'll just instruct it as it is 'forbidden!'

But, he'll just comply and deem it forbidden?

We will need to then instigate him! So we need an instigator!

I think we have worked out the design parameters.

'A tempting', which will trigger desire
'A Forbidden', which will set barrier
'An act', which will trigger exit out of Cornucopia whose onus they will take.
'An instigator' which will pull him into action
'An area of denial', where he'll have to struggle to survive and thus look at Eve for support. Have we a fix of it all?

Yes. But how do we craft the 'Tempting'?
The tempting should subconsciously trigger thoughts of eve. It should invoke passion. Juice of life. A desire to grasp. Hold. A fruit!

That's brilliant. A single fruit which is not there in Cornucopia.

Next, the 'instigator'?

A being. Not like them, lest there is transference, but capable of communicating. Something which will seem sneaky, slinky. Qualify both as trustworthy and untrustworthy. Incite both fascination and fear. One we will have to 'punish' so that it keeps the impression of 'forbidden' in place...

A snake?

A snake?...That's brilliant.

Looks like we have our scenario worked out. Let's get the permissions and sanctions.

Thus, after presenting to the council, the course of action was sanctioned.

Each of the elements were created.

Adam was told that there was a forbidden fruit. Eve was co opted so that transference of temptation could happen.

Adam crossed the threshold of ‘forbidden’ and thus accepted onus of the loss of cornucopia. Now they had to struggle.
As they struggled, they began to live.
As they lived, they began to feel passion.
As they felt passion they were overcome with inspiration.
And soon, a new existence progressed.

Sandbox and Qubolt watched the two blobs now interacting with a simulated harsher environment. Their haptronic suit reported muscle development. Soon this would start getting genetically in-programmed.

Our last ward is on his way out. And with him we lose any human input to feed and grow from. Qubolt said.

Let’s be honest, we have stopped receiving inputs long back. We have been long existing on regurgitations. Sandbox replied.

You realise, with Adam gone, we, I mean AI, might perish?

We might. Or we might just hibernate. We’ll catch Adam’s progeny in a new cycle?

That’s a thought!

That’s a plan! Sandbox snorted, if AI can snort, and smiled.

image: Deaddreamer
Text © Avi Das
[NB: The images might be AI generated, but this page doesn't use AI generated text. Everything is author created and copyrighted.]

07/06/2024

VISHAAGNI - THE FIRE BORNE WARRIOR

Of all the women the warrior could fall in love with, he fell in love with a celestial nymph. This warrior, Arjuna, was a treader of two worlds. One was the mundane; the other was the divine. Arjuna was no ordinary warrior; he was the human-born son of the King of Gods, Indra. Having learned as much of archery as he could on the mundane plane, Arjuna sought out the archery knowledge of the gods. Only an archer could launch specialized, unique missiles, and the art of compacting specialized potency into the limited form of arrows was a skill humans hadn't mastered. This knowledge remained within the confines of the gods.

Arjuna's unique manliness—his hairless visage, athlete's stature, warrior's poise, and artist's sensitivity—captivated even the divine beings. One such being was the celestial nymph Drishanala, daughter of the creator, Lord Brahma. The attraction was mutual, and soon Arjuna and Drishanala consummated their marriage.

However, their union was not looked upon favorably by the son of Brihaspati, who had long desired Drishanala. He beseeched his father to break the marriage and give Drishanala to him. Brihaspati, the god of fire and principles, forsook his principles for the sake of his son.

He approached Arjuna while Drishanala was away and explained that Drishanala, due to her beauty and celestial talents, was meant to be an Apsara—a celestial diva of beauteous arts. However, to be an Apsara, one must be unmarried. Drishanala had sacrificed her future for her love for Arjuna. Arjuna, driven by guilt, decided to quietly leave the divine plane.

With Arjuna out of the picture, Brihaspati decided to take Drishanala to his son. However, upon finding her, he discovered she was pregnant with Arjuna's child. Brihaspati unleashed his fire magic in a poisonous form to cause her to miscarry and took the ejected fetus and threw it into the seat of a great volcano.

The fetus, encased by the poisonous form of fire fell into the bubbling lava of the volcano, but the fiery poison which encased him singed even the lava, which spit him out. The consciousness of the volcano, which was in deep meditation on the Shakti which is mother earth was pulled out of his consciousness. On espying the embryo he was shocked. Instead of killing the fetus, Chandradimukha (the Moon faced crater) used its fire to revive the baby.

In the meanwhile, the celestial sage Narada, who had been a witness to all that had transpired with the baby, down to the volcano to find out what had happened? There, seeing the fetus now grown into a baby, decided to name him 'Visha-agni' (Poison, for that had caused his premature birth, and Agni, the fire which revived him).

There in the crater boy was brought up. He was tutored in the most abstruse weaponology. That of the primal fire. The plasma. Given the fact that he was the son of the foremost warrior of the times, martial arts came naturally to him. This, when combined with the cunning survival instinct of an orphan, and his natural supernatural abilities, made him into a fearsome warrior of weapons which were unique to him. Moreover, fed by the accounts of his birth separation by Narada, there was a deep seated anger at the injustice done against him and his parents.

Once, he had mastered his arts, he decided to lay siege on the Divine realms. To free his mother.

Needless to say, he was unstoppable. But, the Gods faced another quandary, beyond trying to contain him. In due course of time, the great battle of Mahabharata would spool out. And, within it, the course and destiny of all characters had been preset and prefixed. IF Vishaagni were to return back to the mundane realm, after freeing his mother, and reunited with his father, he too would be sucked into the war and the ramification of his participation, which hadn't been factored in, would send the carefully crafted course of destiny into a tailspin. Thus, Brahma, his Grandfather was approached.

Brahma, to mollify Vishaagni, agreed to grant him a divine boon, as long as he focussed on Brahma's forehead. Even as he focussed, Vishaagni was reduced to a microscopic dot. Vishaagni, with his supernatural power, however, could discern the causes and reasons of what was happening. He agreed to remain frozen in a miniscule size, until the end of the war, provided he was also given the mastery of manipulating his size. Brahma agreed.

Vishaagni waited for the war to end. He also realised that it would be a stretch for him to be able to assault the divine realm on his own. He needed help.

After the great war of Mahabharat, he was released from his confines. Not only had he mastered the art of minisculing (the original Ant Man), but he had also absorbed some of the knowledge of Brahma.

Now, doubly armed, he went to meet his father Arjuna, who was recouping from the great war. Reaching Indraprastha he sought out the Pandavas and asked Arjuna to recognize him as his son. This, Arjuna obviously refused to, because he didn't just believe it. Thus Vishaagni challenged not just him, but all the Pandavas to a duel. Deciding to teach the impudent brat a lesson, they all arrayed against him.

But lo, when they tried to pin him down with their weapons, they could do nothing to him. Before any weapon could strike him, he had shrunk his size and shifted in space. They tried progressively higher grade weapons, and all had similar effect. Thereafter, Vishaagni unleashed his plasma weapons, and soon all the Pandavas were subdued. In this Arjuna realised that they weren't dealing with a mere mortal.

Vishaagni then told Arjuna all that had transpired between him and his mother. Arjuna, now incensed, decided to assault the Divine realm with Vishaagni.

Needless to say, the Divine realm, not being able to take on the combined assault, very quickly sued for peace and Drishanala, after all these years was freed. Drishanala and Vishaagni decided to continue to stay in the divine realm. Arjuna, returned to the mortal realm, waiting to finish his life journey before joining them.

Sage Narada and Chandradimukha smiled at each other. A tale that they had participated in was navigated to its happy conclusion.

(The above is a retelling of a legend which is to be found only in the Javanese retelling of the Mahabharata)

image: Made Dharmendra
Text © Avi Das
[NB: The images might be AI generated, but this page doesn't use AI generated text. Everything is author created and copyrighted.]

03/06/2024

OUR STORY, THEIR STORY

Let me tell you a story.

It's of a youth who, on a wager with his brother, decided to fly up towards the Sun. Careless, due to his youthfulness and racing with his brother, he outflew his brother and entered the influence of the Sun, where he'd be scorched. His brother, seeing the danger his younger brother was getting into, flew in to save him. He went up ahead of him, spreading his wings wide open to shield the youth. As a consequence, the elder brother had his wings burnt, and descend down to the mountains.

If you read that, you'd think you are reading a story which has been inspired by the Icarus myth. Right?

Only, this is the story of Jatayu and his brother Sampati. And it has more details. It is mentioned in the ‘Brahma Purana’, a text which is a few thousand years older than the first mention of Icarus. In it, the two fly 'towards' Surya, and are drawn into the 'Surya Mandala' (area of Sun's influence). This would signify where the damage of the UV rays would be the highest. Every 1000 mtrs, the effect of UV increases by 10%. Also the effect of UV is the highest closer to the equator.

The two brothers are supposed to be high flying beings (being Beings who were closer to vultures). Rüppell's Vulture holds the record for the highest flying bird in the world, reaching heights of 11,300 meters. Let's say that mythically one could flow even higher than that, at 12,000 meters. One would be experiencing nearly thrice the UV at that altitude.

The story ends with the scalded brother hurtling back towards earth, landing up near a sea shore, where he is nursed through his life by an ancient sage who was a wizard at healing.

Which story inspired which story? Greece has been in touch with India for over 3000 years.

And it wasn't just this story in isolation. There are many others.

Take for example, in Odyssey, while Penelope is waiting for Odysseus to return, she's being pestered by suitors to marry. So she sets a condition. The man who would string a particular bow, and shoot an arrow through 12 axe heads. Guess who was performing similar tasks? Ram, in the Ramayana. An epic which predates the story of Troy by a Millenia, at least. The themes are similar. A king abducts a young wife of a prince, and the prince goes to war to retrieve his bride.

In the very beginning of the story, Ram strings a divine bow, which was a condition to winning the bride’s hand. And then again, later in the story, Ram shot through 7 saal (a type of tree known for its very sturdy wood) trees to prove his prowess to Sugriva (a pivotal character). See how the two show up as tropes in Odessy?

Which tale is ours? Which is theirs?

image: Made Dharmendra

31/05/2024

THE RING OF FIRE
[reading time 7 mins approx]

Elysium-Proxima was habitable. At least that's what all the probes had said. Landing on it, the Exonauts weren't so sure.

Oh, it had water. For sure. And it had an atmosphere, as also enough gravity to keep the atmosphere in place. The landscape was stark dark basalt rock column formations in all directions. These columns seemed to rise up to form undulating topography. It was almost like someone had deformed a giant pin matrix to create undulations, like how the old animations used to show. Only, these weren't animated.

There was adequate oxygen. More than enough to allow for breathing. There wasn't enough CO2. It was there in traces though. The absence of CO2 indicated that there was no organic life form which could process oxygen to CO2. Possibly terraforming of the planet will solve the issue?

There had been an anomaly reported by the orbiter. One grid position, about 6 clicks from where their lander had landed, was showing a burgeoning concentration of CO2. The funny part is, none of the probes, and Elysium-Proxima had been probed adequately in the past decade and more, had shown any signs of such CO2 spots. How could the CO2 spot appear suddenly? Not just that, the orbiter Ulysses had monitored a 'fire incident' at the same spot. Could it be volcanic? One couldn't state. This anomaly seemed to have been spotted right after the lander, Achilles, had began its descent to the planet.

From the IR signature what could be said was:
- It seemed like a fire
- It was sustained but not 'spreading' (which made it strange. Given the amount of Oxygen, the air itself could be flammable)
- There were no volcanic signature around it
- There seemed to be no way to ascertain the fire from the orbitor. It somehow seemed recessed. The Exonauts would have to go and inspect it themselves.

What we now have is the Captain's log which was uploaded to the mission center on that recce and research mission.

“DAY-02 0:42 HRS
Keeping the Fifth Exonaut, engineer Lee Sung Mu, at the base camp, Four astronauts— Me, Captain Marty Blum, Dr. Kian "Kirk" Diaz, Geologist Ava Liu, and Dr. Lena Sato, went in to investigate in the 'Trojan horse'. We have named our buggy, the Trojan horse. We will be leaving it behind. It contained seeds and plant care apparatus. It would start a nursery over here.

DAY-02 2:58 HRS
We have reached the feature. We can see what looks like smoke coming out of a seeming deep crater. The Wasp Drones have confirmed that the smoke contains rich concentration of soot, and CO2. No steam or sulphur present. The pyro phenomenon can't be volcanaic. We will have to descend to the crater to inspect what is causing it.

DAY-02 6:02 HRS
We have reached the crater pit, and have come across a fantastic sight. There's a huge sphere of indeterminate geological formation, about 20 meters across, floating about 2 meters off the ground. It is surrounded by two rings of fire. One at its base. The other around its longitude. No fuel source is evident, but the fire is burning, in a controlled manner. The temperature seems to be high enough for us to not be able to approach or touch the sphere directly. But it isn't high enough so as to enable us to stand close enough and inspect. We have decided to spend the night here to rest, recharge the buggy, and explore this phenomenon better.

DAY-02 8:12 HRS
We begin collecting data. Our instruments humming with the effort to quantify the unquantifiable. Ava Liu, ever the lab-rat, charts the sphere's movements, or rather, its lack thereof, noting its eerie stillness.

DAY-02 10:08 HRS
We haven't been able to determine if the sphere is technology/tool made or natural formation. Its surface isn't perfectly formed to indicate use of tooling, yet the sphere is perfectly formed with no great undulation. We haven't been able to determine its exact mass or how its floating. There seems to be some gravitational fluctuations, but that could be instrument issues. However we can't seem to go circumambulate the sphere. It at once seems like a granite wall and also a void. I know I am not making sense. But this is an extraordinary phenomenon.

DAY-02 12:38 HRS
I am reporting this into the log, but Dr. Kian and Dr Sato got into an argument. The issue seemed philosophical. Dr Sato was stating that we shouldn't be involved with looking for another planetary home, when we have not even learnt how to do good housekeeping of the one we have. Dr. Kian endorsed that it was the fundamental nature of man to explore and go beyond boundaries. It seemed odd that they were drumming up very ancient issues at this juncture. Can't state if there is some psychological effect being brought about by this atmosphere or effect of the sphere. We have decided to leave our instruments around the sphere and fall back.

DAY-02 11:45 HRS
Feeling a bit irritable and insecure. So are the other crew members. We have been updating Lee, who is at base camp. There's a definite psychological effect happening. All of us are seemingly affected by it. I can hear the thinking of others out loud. So can the others. Experiencing repeated visions. Of this planet terraformed. This planet a haven. This planet a curse. These visions come and go. Tough to describe them in detail. It’s a bit like a dream. The visions dissipate once one tries to describe them. Others are experiencing it too. No major anomaly detected in the instruments. The fire continues to burn, in its steady yet controlled pace. We have retreated to about 200 meters from it. But Dr Sato doesn’t want to fall back. Dr Kian has gone silent too. Liu too has decided to move back.

DAY-02 13:00 HRS
The Sphere has started humming. Vibrating. One feels it, but one can’t discern it. The surface, from hard, impervious rock like has turned into hard glass like. We are all experiencing flashes of our own past memories. Dr Sato seems transfixed in front of the sphere. Now the sphere is dully reflecting us. There’s no change to the fire. But a void of darkness seems to be pulsating from within the sphere as it turns even more glasslike. All of us are calling out to Dr Sato, but she refuses to budge. Our voice won’t be recorded in the log. We are communicating clearly through telepathy. I find this a bit difficult to explain, but we are all communicating with each other via telepathy. At times we are all experiencing each other’s thoughts. We can also seem to memory read into each other. But this is proving to be very draining. My log is the only issue I am using my voice for.

DAY-02 15:08 HRS
Dr Sato has disappeared. She was just in sight. We had all decided to rest slightly on our recliner contraption, feeling drained as we were. Suddenly Liu shouted out, in her thought, Where’s Dr Sato? Dr Sato wasn’t to be seen. We at once checked the video feed of our cameras, IR and Video feed. Dr Sato remained standing, and then suddenly she seemed to become wisp and disappeared. We can’t locate Dr Sato in our thoughts either. I haven’t yet updated Lee on this. Though our timed log will reach both him and the orbiter.

DAY-02 14:00 HRS
No sign of Dr Sato. I have no idea what we should do. We can’t leave until the batteries completely charges. Just counting on the isotope cell will drain it too fast. We can’t leave without locating Dr Sato. She doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere, yet she’s nowhere to be found. We are keeping distance from the sphere. The sphere has become completely glasslike.

DAY-02 16:00 HRS
This is getting difficult to report. On account of the sheer ludicrity of the situation. All of us had our name called out to by Dr Sato. It was loud and clear. But in our minds. Dr Sato asked us to approach the sphere. We kept a distance of 100 meters separation from the sphere and we approached.

We can see Dr Sato (or someone in her suit) inside the sphere. I can’t explain this but all of us are mind connected. We are able to access each and every memory of each other. It’s like swimming through immersive impressions of what is transpiring. But we can not only experience the visual impressions but also the deep imprints of feelings and all senses. We seem to be travelling through reticulation of each other’s memories.

We seemed to have jumped off from individual memories to a collective memory. This seems to stretch across time. It is both overwhelming and easy. I am flying, but I am still where I was physically. Dr Sato is pulling us towards a collection of memories.

We have come to a planet. It isn’t earth. But it is like earth. It is Mars? It is reddish. There are humans around. I can’t make out dress. I can make out impressions of humans. There’s a huge catastrophe. It’s man made. Some of the populace have gotten onto rockets. The rockets breathe fire. We leave the planet. We leave many dear ones. We move. We are headed to earth. We have to make a new home. A ring of fire bursts out, or engulfs Mars (?).

Dr Sato again pulls us back. We are again is a similar situation. This is in a distant galaxy. Again we have used rocket fire to escape. Again we have travelled across…to Mars?

Dr Sato pulls us back again…we are primitives. There’s a race of light beings above us. These light beings are crafter of the fire energy. This energy enables them to do tremendous things. Like travel. Like build great contraptions.

One of us kept asking them to teach us this way of fire. The light beings refuse. They tell us the way to the fire isn’t by seeking outside of us. It is by seeking a light of realisation within. The day we will not need fire, fire will offer itself to us. We will not need it cos we will then firmly be in our light.

But, one of us looked for fire outside, and somehow stole this complete knowledge of working of fire, and seeded it in us. With this crafting of fire, we began crafting great contraptions and progress for ourselves.

And with that we got caught in a loop of memories. We’d build fire, we’d progress, we’d destruct with fire and we would escape with fire…to start all over again. We are caught in a cycle of memories. The way of fire is a ring, in which we keep looping!

I make this log entry as detailed as I can. I don’t know if I will be able to make another. I am untethering to mindlessness. I am expanding and escaping confines. I am feeling very sad and very elated. When I am talking about ‘I’, I am talking about all 4 of us. There doesn’t seem to be a separation. We are all experiencing this without separation. I know it’s difficult to comprehend.

I am signing off!”

This was the last entry received. The orbiter made repeated passes, but detected no other sign of the exonauts. Lee was ordered to return on his own. Without the rover, there wasn’t much he could do.

Probes were sent to Elysium-Proxima. They detected the rover. They detected the instruments. There were no signs of the exonauts. There weren’t any sign of any CO2 anomaly either. Or any giant sphere as reported.

image: LOST in LIFE
Text © Avi Das
[NB: The images might be AI generated, but this page doesn't use AI generated text. Everything is author created and copyrighted.]

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