Resistance (30 page)
Authors: Samit Basu
“Yeah, well, Norio is an idiot,” says Tia with feeling.
“Hang on,” says Aman, and shuts his eyes. Another Tia comes in from the kitchen with more food.
“Japanese,” she says. “It seemed right.”
After a few minutes Aman opens his eyes and takes in the sight of Uzma and two Tias shovelling sushi into their mouths.
“Third Wave,” he says. “The magicians say they’ve made a new dimension.”
“Let me guess,” says Tia. “It’s invading us.”
“What does it look like?” asks Uzma.
“Just mud, rock and water so far. No signs of life. They think it’s habitable. They want terraformers, super-architects, game designers and general world-builders.”
“And they want me to go in there because I’m super expendable,” says Tia. “Not going to happen.”
“We’ll talk about it. Right now they have this girl who makes short-term fictional characters, and they’re going to use them to test it.”
He gives them a huge smile.
“We’re going to colonise another dimension,” he says.
“Nice,” says Tia, and eats some more. “We don’t have any sake. Will vodka do?”
“Always,” says Uzma.
“They’ve also spotted what looks like a spaceship over Azerbaijan. Someone made aliens. I have no idea what that means. And what did they see in Iceland last night?”
“Dragon,” says Tia.
“How did you guess?”
“I have branches in Iceland. But they think it was a hoax.”
Aman leans back, his eyes glowing. “Sometimes I really like my job,” he says. “Third Wave, people. Large numbers of supers believing in things make them exist. Get excited.”
“Yay,” says Uzma in a voice of doom. “Does this mean we’re going to make more gods exist?”
“I said get excited,” says Aman. “Don’t make me panic.”
“You know, a new episode of our animated adventures is out,” says Tia. “You want to watch it?”
“No,” says Uzma.
Tia nods and waves the TV on. They watch in silence, eating like wolves. In the episode, Jason and Anima have a fight because of a devious water-manipulator, and Uzma stops a corporate tycoon from privatising drinking water in Africa. It’s not bad.
“Did you watch
He-Man
when you were a kid?” Aman asks Uzma as the credits roll.
“Haven’t even heard of it,” says Uzma. “What is it, wrestling?”
“I can’t believe you haven’t seen
He-Man
,” says Aman. “It was the most important thing in my life back then. We had just two channels, though, so it had to be. Sundays. It was right after the
Ramayan
. Or before. Or maybe it was the
Mahabharat
. One of the big epics, anyway.”
“I can see you remember it all very clearly,” says Uzma. “But I grew up in a different country, remember? And I was never into cartoons. I had real-life friends.”
“I can’t believe I love a girl who doesn’t know
He-Man
, but that’s not the point I’m making here,” says Aman. “After every episode, they’d have a bit where they sort of explained the moral of the show. Trust your friends, don’t tell lies, that sort of thing. The thing is, that doesn’t happen in real life.”
“I’m glad that you’ve figured out the difference between real life and cartoons,” says Uzma. “But if it has just happened, after, what twenty years? Bit worrying.”
“Deal with it. What I’m trying to say is, it’s perfectly okay if we don’t have some kind of life-changing realisation every time we have an adventure. Especially given how often weird things happen to us. We’ll do the best we can. It’s our job. But maybe it’s time we started actually enjoying what we do.”
“I do,” says Tia. “But then I have the best power of all.”
“You can’t actually enjoy your job, can you? Not if you’re supposed to clean up the world every day,” says Uzma. “Every movie star I’ve ever met has told me there are ups and downs and the only thing you can hope to do is survive and not go crazy. But they all reach a point where they hate it all. Because it’s work. And they’re just actors. I just wish the stakes weren’t so high all the time. People dying because I should have done my job better. And it never gets better, you know? Every day is a new battle. It never ends, you never win, and it never gets easier. Look at us right now. We just saved the world, right? I think we did. And we already have fifteen more global crisis-type things to deal with.”
“Fair enough,” says Tia. “But that’s just whining, isn’t it? We’re bloody superheroes. Think of it like you’re the most talented person in the world at something. Then you just have to keep doing what you’re good at, don’t you? You don’t really have a choice. Of course it’s going to be horrible sometimes. But what else is there? You two – you just worry all the time. Of course you’ll make mistakes. You’ll fail. And you’ll get up and do it all again. But do you ever sit down and think how amazing it is that you’re getting to do this? I was blown away when the world changed from cassettes to CDs! Uzma, you got off that plane thinking you’d have a little adventure. Just look at everything you’ve done. Did you ever dream any of this was possible?”
“Obviously I didn’t,” says Uzma. “Though I was an idiot then. And I’d never failed at anything. I just assumed the rest of my life was going to be a series of great successes. And of course nothing turned out exactly the way I wanted. I suppose it’s true for everyone. You think your life is going to be like a superhero story, and then it turns out your superhero story looks a lot like life. I just wish there was a break between sequels, you know? Where you loaf around, and people get excited because you’re going to be back soon. All I’ve ever wanted these last few years is some rest.”
“Then get some rest,” says Aman. “You don’t have to start running the world right away. We could all just go on holiday somewhere.”
“Right,” says Uzma. “Like that’s possible.”
“No, it isn’t,” says Aman. “But it’s nice to think about it. I think we just have to decide to be happy, doing what we do. That’s my
He-Man
moral for today. We decide to be happy because there’s so much good work left to do. So much we don’t know, and will find out. So many people we’re making things better for. We can be pioneers and inventors and bandits and pirates. And we can build a new world. Obviously there’s going to be a lot wrong with it, but maybe it’ll be better than it was before, and when we die people won’t be in a massive hurry to tear it apart immediately.”
“So,” says Tia. “What are you going to do now?”
“This,” says Aman. He opens a holo-screen in front of his face.
“Who are you calling?” asks Uzma.
“Everyone,” says Aman.
Every screen in the world lights up. On phones and TVs and floating screens, on space stations and deep-sea subs, Aman’s face appears.
“My name is Aman Sen,” he says. “I’m head of the new Unit.”
Uzma raises her eyebrows.
“Co-head,” says Aman quickly. “We’re going to make the world better. The Third Wave just started. We’ve built a new world, and you can start a new life there. We’ve made mistakes with this one, and we’re going to fix them. I know things look bad right now. Governments are falling everywhere – by the way, we can see you, China. It’s not just governments. I know the Utopic board is watching – and I think I know where you live. Anyway, I’m digressing. I just want to say – don’t worry. The world is in good hands. Our hands. So… yeah. Be nice.”
He looks at Uzma and Tia trying not to giggle, and frowns, and realises the world is watching him, and stops. He tries to smile reassuringly at the world instead, sees his own grimace in the screen, and shudders. He thinks of a thousand other things to say, cannot remember a single word in any language, is silent for a few seconds, and blinks in despair. The screen disappears.
“So, public speaking course,” says Tia.
“Was I terrible?” asks Aman.
“You were,” says Uzma. “But I love you anyway.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” says Aman. “I got it all wrong.”
“Yes,” says Uzma. “Deciding what you want to say helps.”
Aman opens another screen.
“I’ll try again,” he says.
The world of
Resistance
would not have survived without the dashing deeds of the following super-squadrons:
The Gootniter Squad: Super Sanghamitra and Josh the Bold.
Titans of Industry: Cathwoman, The Grand Sophie and The Green Gargantuan.
The Zeno Agency: Trusty John and Zesty John.
Home Base: Grasshopper Girl, Sister Sinister, Rocket Rehan and Fluffinder Singh Dhoni.
Assorted Toughs: Worker Sarkar, iBultu, Mr Thames, The Not-so-Old Brewer, Pu the Pugilist, Earthlight, Insidinus, Mega Minna and Team ARF.
Samit Basu
is one of India’s most talented and prolific young writers. He is the author of
The Simoqin Prophecies
,
The Manticore’s Secret
and
The Unwaba Revelations
, the three parts of The GameWorld Trilogy, published by Penguin Books India, and
Terror on the Titanic
, a YA novel published by Scholastic India.
Turbulence
was published in the UK to rave reviews and won
Wired
’s Goldenbot Award as one of the books of 2012.
Basu’s work in comics ranges from historical romance to zombie comedy, and includes diverse collaborators, from X-Men/Felix Castor writer Mike Carey to Terry Gilliam and Duran Duran. His most recent GN,
Local Monsters
, was published in September 2013.
Samit was born in Calcutta, and currently divides his time between Delhi and Mumbai. He can be found on Twitter,
@samitbasu
, and at
samitbasu.com
.
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