Earth To Nole: Return of the Prince (4 page)

“What now?”, Gollow asked.

“I will try to talk to him tonight, after dinner.”, Joti replied. She believed she could talk Francis into making the right decisions.

“Would you like to come with me?”, she asked Gollow.

“I have other plans.”, Gollow replied.

“What other plans? I thought you were genuinely concerned about today’s meeting. What could be more important?”, Joti asked.

“I am meeting Holum and Ibu tonight.”, Gollow said hesitatingly.

“After all that they have done?”, Joti asked.

“Do you really believe Holum sold us out? I don’t. I saw them today, talking by the lake. They seemed concerned for the humans. I believe they understand what troubles lie ahead of us. It would be wise to consult them, don’t you think?”, Gollow tried convincing Joti.

“They have kept secrets from us all along, why would they divulge any information now?”, Joti asked, she wasn’t fully convinced yet.

“I believe they told us at the right time. You wouldn’t have discovered it on your own without Garry putting you to it that night. Holum and Ibu are both wise men. Tell me Joti, did you ever question their loyalty or their wisdom before?”, Gollow argued.

“But, that could also mean that they are clever and cunning. They hid their evil plan up until the last moment. They disclosed it only when they knew we could do nothing to escape.”, Joti was adamant. She now knew better than to trust anyone easily.

Gollow looked at her in despair. He knew in his gut that Francis was bad for the Union but he needed Joti’s help to fix it. She had been in the Union for a long time and knew many people here. He agreed to go with her to Francis one more time. He said, “Okay, count me in for tonight. But if Francis turns out to be an idiot, or an agent then we do what I say.”.

Joti agreed.

###

Back on Peele, Kevin and Boris waited as Keele operated a kiosk. They were at a place called “terminal-233”, it looked like an airport.

“We are on time, the shuttle leaves in 20 minutes.”, Boris said.

“I hate flying.”, Kevin confessed. He looked anxious right from the moment he arrived at the terminal.

“No shame in that, Kevin. I get anxious too when I travel.”, Boris tried easing his tension.

“No, you don’t understand. I love travelling. Meeting new people, seeing new places, it's all good, very good. But I hate flying.”, Kevin clarified.

“But, you flew for 300 years, although most of it in deep sleep, but still. Are you not accustomed to it yet?”, Boris was a bit surprised.

“No, surprisingly not. I felt it during my flight to Nole and then back to the spaceship. Also, on our way to Peele.”, Kevin confessed.

“What exactly do you feel? Do you feel you are going to die in a crash?”, Boris asked, he looked genuinely interested now.

“No, not that. I could die in a car crash too but I am never frightened there. It happens only when I am flying. I can feel every little movement of the vehicle. Every little tilt and turn…” Kevin started to explain but someone tapped on Boris’s shoulders for his attention.

“Boriri, is that you?”, A lady asked.

“Moriti! What are you doing here?”, Boris recognised her. Kevin remembered the name too, she was the third person in Boris’s group.

“I am going back to Mone. I was here for a conference. Who is the kid?”, Moriti asked.

“Kevin.”, Boris replied. He introduced Kevin to Moriti.

“Curious name!”, Moriti said.

“Hi Moriti! Boris is back finally!”, Keele said as soon as he got back from the kiosk.

“What do you mean, back finally?”, Boris asked.

“Moriti kept asking me about your return date. Now you are here, so...”, Keele explained.

“Did I? I am sorry, I didn’t realize I was being so interrogative”, Moriti seemed embarrassed. Boris smiled and they all started walking towards the shuttle.

“Is Boris your new nickname?”, Moriti asked.

“No. Just just a name I used on earth. ‘Boriri’ is not a usual earth name.”, Boriri explained.

“Wait a minute, is he Kevin from earth! Our prince?”, Moriti sounded excited.

Other hums who were lined up to get into the shuttle started looking around on hearing the word “prince”.

“Yes, he is.”, Boriri admitted with a confident smile. He was not trying to hide the fact, not even in the public.

“Kevin, I have so much to talk to you. Let’s all sit together.”, Moriti proposed.

Kevin entered the shuttle which looked very similar to the spacecraft on which he came to Peele, although a lot bigger. On the inside, there were 3 levels, all of which were being occupied by the passengers. Keele realised that Kevin was new to the shuttle so he started explaining the boarding procedure and the seating arrangements.

“There are 6 gates, two on each levels. Passengers are being boarded from all of them. The top level has no seating, it is for passengers who wish to sleep throughout the way. It is hardly 3 hours of flight but some people do love their sleep.”, Keele said.

“We are on the middle level. It is a single hall with seating for groups of two, four, six and eight. If you are lucky we would find a seat near a window. We would reach terminal M-12, which means 12th terminal on Mone, during its night. So, the view should be interesting for you.”, Keele said.

“How long are days and nights on Mone? Are they of same length as on Peele?”, Kevin wondered.

“No, that would have been fantastic. Peele’s days and nights are 14 hours long each. Mone’s are 7 hours each. It's not the same but we got them to align properly.”, Keele replied.

“You mean, you moved Mone around to get the days and nights aligned?”, Kevin was surprised, he knew something like this is not very difficult for an advanced civilization but still it was all very fascinating.

“Yes, we expanded to Mone about 400,000 years ago. At that time we tweaked its orbit, its rotation, its gravity and its atmosphere to suit us.”, Keele replied.

“So, when humans tried tweaking their environment they were not completely out of their minds, were they?”, Kevin asked as all four of them took seats.

“As I earlier said, you people grew technology before growing wisdom…”, Keele said before he was interrupted by Moriti.

“I agree completely. And it was our fault to begin with. Royals had strictly prohibited any aid or otherwise influence in the evolution of NextGens but some of us just couldn’t resist playing God.”, Moriti joined the conversation.

“Is NextGens what you call humans here?”, Kevin asked.

“No, Kevin. We call humans, humans. We came up with that name for your species even before humans knew how to speak. Most of your languages including the ones which became popular like Latin and Sanskrit were ours too. Don’t you wonder how every hum knows the English language?”, Moriti replied.

“I thought Boriri knew English because he went to the earth and had to learn it there. I thought Keele knew it because Boriri knows but yes, I agree there is no reason for you to know English too, this should have made me curious.”, Kevin was almost apologetic for not noticing it earlier.

“Never mind. But you get my point, right? We gave you our language, our technology, our scientific knowledge. This was not supposed to happen. We were supposed to populate your solar system and then never return back. We were supposed to only observe but we couldn’t refrain from meddling.”, Moriti paused.

“Who is NextGens?”, Kevin asked.

“All the 90 species that Kakoro created are called NextGens. Kakaro was a very powerful and wise king, he lived some 700, 000 years ago.”, Keele jumped with the explanation.

“Thanks Keele! As I was saying, some of us visited the NextGen planets frequently against strict guidance from the royals. Kakoro himself forbade any hum from going there but once he was dead, his rules were no longer strictly enforced. With the technology and knowledge hums had, they were treated like Gods wherever they went. It soon became common to visit a NextGen planet among the adventure seekers. Largely, hums respect what royals recommend and seldom go against it, but those few who were hungry for adventure couldn’t help. Moreover, those who went to the NextGen planets did everything they were not supposed to do. This included making monuments which were impossible for the natives to make, showing them technology they were not supposed to know existed and worse of all, mating with them. The reason most of the NextGens are extinct is that they were all meddled with.”, Moriti put her point.

Kevin looked at Boriri. He wanted him to comment. Boriri seemed to agree completely. He was looking at the floor, not able to defend what his people did. Deep down Kevin felt a sort of relief. He now knew that humans alone were not responsible for the mess they were in. Something more powerful and beyond their control was responsible for the most of it. Since Moriti and Boriri both already looked sufficiently embarrassed, Kevin decided to cut them some slack.

“We can’t blame hums for everything, humans need to take some responsibility too.”, he said.

There was an awkward silence for a while. Keele pretended to be occupied by the beautiful view outside the window. The shuttle was already in air, it was accelerating rapidly through Peele’s atmosphere. Kevin and Moriti were engaged in a stimulating conversation up until now so he felt nothing this time, otherwise for Kevin, takeoff is usually the worst phase of flying.

“Wake anyone?”, Boriri got up to bring drinks to the table, now that the shuttle was stable and on its trajectory to Mone.

“I will have one.”, Moriti replied.

“I will have one too”, Kevin added.

Moriti and Kevin started talking again as Keele and Boriri left the table. She quickly noticed that Kevin was a bit uncomfortable. He eventually told her how he felt about flying.

“In the history of hums, you would be the only royal who is afraid of flying.”, Moriti appeared surprised.

“How is that?”, Kevin asked.

“Well, royals have always been known for their flyman skills.”, Moriti replied.

“You mean they were great pilots?”, Kevin asked.

“No, not exactly. They must have been great pilots too but a flyman is not the same as a pilot. A flyman is a person who controls the vehicle through neural connections to his brain.”

Kevin looked confused, so Moriti decided to explain what these neural connections were, “Neural connections make microsecond reflexes a possibility, Kevin. Normally, a pilot sees an obstacle only when his retina is fully focused on it. The signal then travels to the brain and then to the hand muscles which ultimately steer the plane. This involves too many muscle movements. First in the eyes and then in the hands, thus a microsecond reflex is not possible. A flyman’s brain, on the other hand, is directly connected to the machine. Thus, no muscle movement is necessary, either to process the input or to execute commands.”, Moriti finished explaining.

“This is certainly not for me then. I like cars and buses. Anything which moves on the ground.”, Kevin confessed with a nervous smile. He knew flying was not for him.

“I am sure this might not be your favorite topic but indulge me, will you?”, Moriti wanted to talk more about Kevin’s fear of flying. As a hum she mostly travelled through air and had never come across anyone who was afraid of flying. “I am curious what are you exactly afraid of?”, she asked.

“I don’t know exactly. It feels like fear of falling, like I am walking on a thin rope with my eyes closed. A slight miscalculation and I will fall. I feel that I am not in control of my body. Every time the shuttle tilts or turns, accelerates or brakes, I fear that I would fall off.”, Kevin tried to answer.

“That is very interesting. There is no doubt you have the royal gene, the bracelet is never wrong. But it is interesting to find out that you are afraid of flying when everyone in that genepool was exceptionally good at it.”, Moriti was curious.

“Are all hums good at flying too?”, Kevin asked.

‘Not all. We all have to pilot planes just like all humans have to drive their cars. Can you claim that all humans are good drivers?”, Moriti smiled.

“Ok, I get it.”, Kevin understood.

“I am thankful most of us know how to fly without crashing. Accidents do happen though, but they are rare. Our vehicles are very safe to fly and most of the operations are automated anyways. But these are consumer grade vehicles designed for day to day commute.”, Moriti started to explain.

“There are other special vehicles which only the experts dare to fly. These vehicles are used in flying competitions, sports and combat simulations. Although they require special training to be flown, I guess with sufficient practice any hum can fly them. Even you can try if you are upto it.”, Moriti continued.

“But, the skills of the royals are completely unmatched. They fly specially made vehicles which can be controlled through neural connections. One royal in his neurojet could easily take down thousands of the best skilled hum pilots in a single combat.”, Moriti said with pride in her voice. She really respected the royals.

“Why didn’t they train others to fly neurojets?”, Kevin asked casually.

“They did try. Whenever a skilled hum pilot approached them, they took him under their guidance, gave him their machines and trained them personally. But, no one has ever been able to fly the neurojet in neuro mode. If you are not flying it in the neuro mode then a neurojet is just another vehicle with a normal pilot. It has no edge above other vehicles whatsoever.”, Moriti paused.