17. Circeei’s Day

Christian slid along the bed until he fell from it. He immediately stood up on his legs and looked through the window to see total darkness outside. But there was enough light inside for him to notice that there were many inscriptions inside the room and also a symbol of cross. The walls seemed to be made of some variety of mud and the colours were all brownish and silver. There was the smell of spicy food around, and a few books were around, but none of them were made of paper.

“So you are finally awake” a voice from the darkness inquired.

Christian turned to the door to see the lady who was on his right side in the torture chamber. She was wrapped up with so many white bandages on her body that the very little silver clothing made her look like an Egyptian mummy covered in silver. She was moving with the help of two walking sticks and from the way she looked, there seemed to be some trouble with her eyes.

“You are alive. It didn’t seem so at that time. There was so much of blood loss and your whole body looked mutilated. The thought of the pain which each part of your body might have endured made me wish that I was dead rather than go through all of those” he said.

“Of course, I am alive. They never really had enough to kill me – it is not that they never had the power, but they wouldn’t make death easy for me, and that helped me in bailing out more than once. As you can see, I am still standing”.

“Who are you? What is this place and what kind of demons from hell are those creatures? Or on scientific terms, what kind of miserable sadistic aliens are they?”

“You can call me Circeei. It is not my real name though. To be frank, I never really had a name. Throughout my life, I have been known by code names, and they have slowly developed into Circeei replacing those 2s with Es and the 1s with Is, and as you might already know, it stands for the Goddess of Magic, for that spell which I have to cast for these people to save them. I was just born when myself and my parents were taken prisoners of war from the beginning of the third world war when the Northern Bloc became the most powerful of the superpowers. We were separated and we children were put in their experimentation cells. The plan was to create super-soldiers to change the direction of the war, but unfortunately for them, the war ended too early. But, they came up with a better plan later to increase our endurance to hostile environments and make us the first creatures on Titan. There were nine hundred of us, forced to run around under different test environments. As our survivor skills were tested, only three hundred and fourty eight of us remained”.

“But all the concentration camps in the Northern Bloc were decommissioned. The human rights groups checked each and every corner of the globe for anything that remained. The Northerns were even applauded for being the first Bloc do so and in the most efficient manner”.

“There lies the irony in it. They were the greatest champions of human rights on Earth, but on the Moon and later on Mars, they brutalized us with no mercy. One has to wonder what they call humans on another planet – aliens? After we were declared the slave champions who were to test the underground of Titan which could support human life, we were chained and taken into one of the largest space ships ever built, and were sandwiched between their code-signalling machines in the basement so that they eight thousand men and women from the Northern Bloc could use the vast world inside the ship and see us live in that underground and learn” said Circeei showing the writings on her body. “Some of the faded signs do go a long way back though, and I don’t want to talk about it” she added.

“These are codes? The secret transmissions which the Northern Bloc denied existence? So they planned this throughout. No wonder they were so hostile in claiming most of Titan. They must have always knew there was scope for pure life in the underground of Titan”.

“Unfortunately for us, they could hide all of these from the media. They literally own Titan. They could even hide this big a spaceship with the help of signals from Titan. They could also jam any signs of life here. What you entered was actually the entrance to this giant ship which covers the original entrance to the underground. It is not just a ship, it is big enough to be called one of the districts of the Imperial Bloc. I am actually surprised that they allowed your Bloc to exist here. I feel that you might slowly disappear from the map sooner or later. This symbol seen on your clothes of your Bloc on this planet might slowly be erased like our very existence were erased from the world, and there are so many things they can blame it on, including a little human negligence or a natural disaster of high level”.

“I should go and warn the others of my camp then. Some of mates have also gone to a Northern Settlement. From what I hear from you, none of them might survive”.

“You can’t go out right now. They might be outside. They are incredibly powerful in the darkness. We are effectively trapped out here. Lets see if we can work out a plan. We are going through desperate times even as I have seen worse. Even the concept of hell has remained just a word for me, as I have gone through most of it in reality, in this life itself”.

There were strange screams outside, but none of them seemed to bother Circeei. Despite of her lack of steadiness and the bandages, she didn’t seem to be in a mood to sit or take rest. There was a strange determination of the highest quality on her face. Christian was never this much affected by a revelation before, and he was keen to hear more about this new world of terror.

To be continued…

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15. Partner in Agony

Christian hasn’t always been a patient listener. But this time, it was not his decision to make, and another thing is that this was not just a coversation, but a combination of so many things, and he was in need of something like this.

“It is indeed such a big shame. It was never supposed to be like this. They have made the devil proud, or rather too much of a vain creation that he himself might repent before these guys do. The power is within you, either use it or leave it; but keep this in mind, that the redemption is limited. You do not need to know yourself for that. You shall be revealed, by your actions to others and by your reflections on others to you, for you are a mirror, my spiritual ally – the world won’t finish accepting that change with your end, as it is a long process which can gain more strength by you ceasing to exist and your essence living on and gaining wings through an Icarus of the future who shall burn his waxen wings for the cause which you are going to start in this world”.

“How would I know if I am right? What if I do wrong? What if I won’t recognize my life’s purpose when most needed?”

“Well, you don’t know it or shall recognize it right now because it is not the time yet. There is a time for everything and everyone, even for the angels and the demons. When the right time arrives, not only shall you recognize it, but live through it and fulfill your destiny. If you do not, there is no purpose for that essence in you, and in that case, there would have been no ‘you’ from the beginning of your existence”.

“But I am not worthy and neither am I able. I am just an adamant human being, a weak and powerless…”

“You shall be ready, and it is not a promise that I make to you, for it is that belief that your essence has embedded your existence with, it is your faith in you and it shall shake the world sooner or later”.

“Please make it simple. I need directions, I need to be taught and guided. Look at me, everywhere I have been in chains, and now literally I am really in chains”.

There was silence all around. There was not even the air which moved, and the absence was threatening his thoughts. But there was no answer. He tried to make different sounds, but not even his echo followed him. Nothingness filled his world again, and he was still unconscious with no knowledge of where he was.

In the meantime, he had another vision. It was the same girl, wearing the same clothes, but of black colour. There was no writing on her body this time. Two of the creatures were holding her down. She was then stripped, and her arms were stretched up, to the maximum. A whip came down multiple times to her back as it hit her flesh, she screamed and tried to get loose, but couldn’t even come close to success. There was a pool of blood going down her thighs, and it slowly moved towards Christian. After she was weakened, the girl was dragged to a wooden wall and was balanced on the top of a stool. One of the creatures held her upright while the other held on to her legs.

Another creature came up with a box full of nails and a hammer. She seemed to understand what was going to happen, and struggled to get loose again with all the power that she had left, but it was of no avail. As the hammer swung back and forth, the nails pierced her arms and a cry of agony filled the air, and her legs were looking for land to place them as the stool went rolling over to a side. As she was sweating and struggling to breathe, suddenly Christian found himself on the other side of the wooden wall, with blood flowing from his own arms. The nail from the girl’s arms had pierced his own, and soon enough he noticed blood flowing from his legs too. He felt pain as if he had never felt before with his heart beating rapidly, and his back burned as if a chunk of flesh had been taken out of there. They were on the opposite sides of pain and agony, both feeling the same torment, as if moving towards the same end. The wooden surface was the only thing between their sufferings, and it served as the medium which transferred their pains. Meanwhile, a humanoid came in front of him and stuck a nail on his head which ended the vision.

In a world of uncertainty, there were only a few things that his unconscious mind was sure about, and one of them was that he was not dead; the second one was that the girl on his right side had suffered, and he might be sharing her pains like a silent partner, close to eachother in a bond shared by pain and misery. He never had a good partner to share his mental pains, but now as for the physical torment, this was his golden opportunity. But can he ever know how much she had actually suffered? How much did he wish not to be silent when she suffered? And what if she had already died? If she did, what did she die for? Is it for her ideology or just for the sake of the sadistic pleasures of these creatures? Would that land her in heaven or purgatory? If someone had suffered in their life like that girl did, won’t that be motivation enough to be lead to paradise? He still hoped that she alive so that he can do the knowing part.

To be continued…

9. Lone Wanderer

The world he knew was in chaos and it was time for him to take charge. The confusion was only getting worse. The hope was diminishing, and the faith was already gone. It was only in a little shade of belief that the whole thing was going forward. Hell might have had many names, but there was the need to make the world better than the infernal environment.

“It is time I make the difference” Christian told himself.

It was a wonderful evening if he was a photographer despite of the human sufferings. He walked and walked until he reached a cave. The machine had pointed towards the South as the right path which had more probability of survival. He believed in the machines and the signs. But the question remained how far the science had lead the humanity, and what other than chaos and destruction did it bring. The signs had become the better guide for him. It gave him hope which technology had taken away from him. He rested there for a day.

The new dawn had arrived and there was a strange music in the wind. He reached the side of what seems to be a frozen river, which was filled with a strange liquid in its frozen state. There was absolutely no contact with any life form yet. The light was high over the horizon. He decided to sleep near a tree-like structure. The silence had defeated the music and it didn’t take him much time to fall asleep.

The next day arrived and there was a lot of dust flying around for reasons unknown. He walked towards what seemed like a naturally created building. There was some movement around it, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. He felt that he could have a look and find out by himself. There was nothing else to be done.

Inside the structure, he found a path which lead downwards, and he was no longer guided by the machines, but by faith alone. He chose to go down rather than move straight towards nothingness which he encountered again and again. He went down the stairs which seemed never-ending. He could heard voices from inside the walls, but that didn’t stop him. Getting help was his only aim.

It took him about five hours to reach the bottom. There were a number of round mounds which seemed like houses of sand. There was an entrance to each one of them. None of them seemed to have life forms in them, but each of them had some pot-like things on the floor and seat-like projections extending from the walls. There were also some strange inscriptions on the walls which extended even to the tiny ventilations on the top. The whole thing seemed like a total mess.

He exited to pitch black darkness outside. There was nothing to be seen. But there were sounds of movements and there was something moving around for sure. The sounds had become incredibly creepy and as a sharp object touched his shoulders, he decided to run. His legs stopped only when his legs felt no ground, and he started falling a long way down until his body felt surrounded by water. There was something about the water that he couldn’t move at all. He was slowly losing consciousness.

He woke up the very next day, with chains on hands and legs, and he ended up staring at a humanoid with big green eyes and a small mouth from which fangs dropped out, and they were entirely without nose and the ears. It was wearing a black robe which covered its whole body which didn’t looked any less human except for the fact that they seemed to have just three fingers and the nails looked as sharp as the claws of a wild animal. It didn’t take its eyes off Christian. It was surrounded by many more similar creatures which were wearing almost the same type of dress and looking the same, the only difference being in the height. They were busy working on some kind of keypads which manipulated some strange signs on a huge black screen. There were also some creepy sounds around, none of them which were already heard on Earth or even on the surface of this moon.

When Christian looked on the right, he saw a beautiful girl who looked entirely human, also in chains, destitute of clothing except for the area around the waist and the chest. Her clothing was purely silver, and the eyes were tied up with a thin layer of white clothing. There was blood dripping from inside the white layer. Her skin was more brownish than anything else and her abdomen, lower back and tighs had the same writing as what was seen in the mounds earlier. The lower abdomen had a small cross-like symbol. The blood was flowing through these small carvings on her body until they reached a small bowl of blood which was almost full. She seemed to have no life left in her. He was shocked to find a bowl with just a single drop of blood just in front of him, which was slightly bigger in size.

On the left side, there were three male figures and a female figure who were completely bloody, and except for their heads, their bodies were completely covered in a white cloth which was almost red with the blood. There were holes instead of their eyes. The blood bowl in front of them was full and closed with a lid. Christian could feel the smell of death all around, and he could sense the strong presence of grimm reaper very close to him.

“Hell exists and so does the eternal torture and damnation, that is for sure. But what would I call this?” He asked himself.

To be continued…

7. Of that Faith

“Is this death?” asked the man full of burns.

There was a failure in the main generator which had caused an explosion which lead to eleven casualities and twenty four injured. The man was one of them. It was seemingly hell out there, and in the absence of the chief medical officer, it was only worse. The destruction of the main generator had resulted in the reduction of power by fourty five percent in a world where there was only the power for basic needs. The communications were destroyed by the explosion and even the medical equipment rarely work in the way it is supposed to be, due to the lack of sufficient power.

“I will die, won’t I? The only question is about what is taking death so long. I have thought about it throughout my life. I would have committed suicide if it was not a crime. There was never a point in life, for mine was full of pain. Forget the mental stress, but the physical side! I had abscess all over my body and each and every attempt to heal them has resulted in another problem. Science has failed me. The doctors have said that it doesn’t matter how many surgeries I undergo, it shall come back again. I have understood that it gets only worse with every surgery and time has acted as a catalyst to my pain, my life lost cause and now this. Death has been my expected saviour for a long time” he continued.

“No, this is not death” replied Christian. “Believe in God, for our Lord will save you. There is no death other than not able to reach paradise. There is no loss other than failing to become a saint. Please pray and believe. There is still chance”.

“Do you have any idea how much pain I am in right now? There was always the pain of the abscess, and it has taken from me my confidence and everything positive. It made me pessimistic. I kept myself away from everything, and I never had fun for the last fifteen years. I had to switch off my phone and run away to a world which had no human being around; sometimes it was my room and at other times, it was just a randomly chosen place where nobody could reach or an abode not that easy to find. My life is a collection of missed opportunities about which I lament every second of my life. It has burned me throughout, and now this burn which is slowly taking the life out of me. I have died in life throughout, and this is the eventual hell for me”.

“Do you really need to think about that now? Everybody has the highs and lows in their lives, and sometimes it is the latter that has the upper hand for a very long time”.

“It was the new fast food culture. There were negative health effects, and in my case, it was worse. There was no liquor, drugs or smoke, but this one was more than enough. Fast food chains might have had more money from me than anybody else. From the 2060s, the neo-augmentation process by those giants might have increased the quantity available for the same price, and has surely attracted so many more regular customers. But for me, it was more because of the fact that the options were less, and I was no risk taker. I went with the flow, but I lost myself in that powerful flow as I was weak, and was buried in everything bad. There was still no risk for obesity, and there was no cholestrol or diabetes. They could have stopped me. Why did they evade me? I wish there was a return to what I used to be, about eight or ten years ago. There are things I need to change, and there are things which I have to make right”.

“Forget all of them, and turn to God; you have this chance which not many had. Just turn your soul in the right direction and miracles shall happen, in this world or the other”.

“I had a dream, a few hours before this happened. I can’t say that I saw the dream, because I rather felt it. There were spiders, cockroaches and scorpions on my bed. There was a huge number of these insects and I fell from the bed. The spiders seemed to eat the rest and they got bigger. I felt that it was real, and even after regaining my senses, I could see those creatures. I waited for a long time for them to disappear; I washed my face and even tried pinching and hitting myself. But they wouldn’t go. Finally, due to the weariness, I decided to fall asleep on the chair. I still could not stop feeling the presence of the insects. When I finally woke up in the morning, there were none. Was this a sign? I could feel that I was sick in the morning. Or may be I am mentally unwell too”.
“Why do you bother? They are of no significance. Put your trust in God and close your eyes”.

He closed his eyes. He reminded Christian more of Count Ladislaus de Almásy from Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. He even has Herodotus’ Histories with him. He wished that the similarities ended there. But what had actually hit him was nothing other than the dream of the spider, the eight legged long thing which was the symbol of the Northern Bloc’s corporate group. He always gelt that it had made perfect sense for them to use that logo, as they also weave webs and catch their prey. Those were surely powerful and wide-spread webs, as not many are known to escape from the same.

To be continued…

6. To the North

It was dark, but the darkness had not spread well enough to hide the beauty of the land which seemed to sparkle in that little dim light which seemed to exist to show the magnificience of its motherland’s terrain to those people who never knew the beauty or awesomeness of the terrain of their own planet. The light kept its opponent right outside the door for a long time, and this period was part of that time when light struggled just like the power source of the Settlement 47.

Helios, the chief military officer rushed into the room with something that looked like a long paper. He looked worried as well as tired.

“Is the pathfinder available. I think we might need to go on a trip”.

“The first thing is that the pathfinder is not designed to take people in it. The orders say that the pathfinder is to be left alone to its job. The second thing is that we are not here for a trip and there is nothing interesting out there for us to go on a holiday. There is nothing near us, and the pathfinder has confirmed it”.

“These are direct orders which asks us to go to the Settlement 44, the closest Northern settlement and get what we need to save us from a possible blackout which would also mean the end of our storage of fresh air”.

“We have started accepting help from them? In other words, they have started developing so much love for us that they are going to help us. As far as we know, they are the kind of people who would take wood from our coffin just to make sure that their total amount of resources exceeds ours”.

“Actually, there was a deal between the Northern and the Imperial Blocs. They actually won the auction for the control of air and water on Earth. They have come up with a common economic policy, and their share of resources would be 12-8 out of 20 in favour of the Northern Bloc. Seventy percent of the air and ten percent of the water is all our bloc shall get, and the rest goes to the Northern Bloc. There has also been the talks about sharing more resources especially outside Earth, which is why we have been notified and ordered to work with the nearest Northern Settlement, which is the Settlement 44, even if it is kind of far away. The pathfinder does have turbo mode, doesn’t it? So it will take only a few days, I guess”.

“So they have finally privatized air and water? I thought the fight between these six blocs would keep it undecided for a long time. Now we have to pay for every drop of water? Do they also provide fresh air in bottles too?”

“You are being a cynic again. This privatization has always done us good. It will make sure that the water and air we get are fresh enough. There will be more factories established to make sure that maximum cleaniness is maintained. The price is not going to be that high, as we have such good technology. The only disadvantage is that we had to agree to the Northern Bloc’s demand to establish one airbase, one naval base and three weapon manufacturing plants on our land. In my opinion, that is just a fair demand. After all, they are stronger and are investing more”.

“What Northern Bloc did was much expected. But still, the privatization of the basic needs? These factories do pollute air and water, don’t they? It doesn’t matter how much they try to hide it, the facts are still facts. Haven’t you heard about the Cochabamba protests? That was about eighty years ago, but the story of humanity still remains the same and you don’t need to see the Andes mountain range to know that part of history. Do you think that the price can be kept at an international standard considering the unavailability of water at some areas? If it is kept standard at an international level, do you think that the purchasing power can be kept the same in every bloc or in each and every nation which make the bloc?”

“Well, just wait till you get home. You will know how much our world has changed for good. There will be perfection and pure awesomeness in the working of both our water and air supply system. I wish they had privatized the Earth and the sky too, if such a thing was possible. You are free to like it or hate it, but what matters the most is that now we are on the side of the Northern Bloc, the most powerful of them all. There is no military collaboration yet, but that should follow, as they have established base on our lands”.

“Well, this is the last time I will be trusting the Northerns. We will obey the order for now, and after we reach Earth, I will decide if I have to trust anybody. For now, I shall not be accompanying you on your journey to meet your future best friends. You can take Zachary and let his assistant do his job here. I need to here, as I am the only qualified mechanic around here. It can only hold two people maximum, anyway”.

Helios stormed out without saying another word. Zachary came into the room and Christian dispatched him with instructions on how to drive the pathfinder. He could hear the pathfinder engine starting and the machine trying hard to move around with the extra one hundred and fifty kilograms which it was forced to drag around. Still, the machine should be good enough to reach the destination, as it is brand new, and can create energy from moondust, even though it would take them months if that source is to be used. The existing power can just get them here if driven in an economic manner. It was all in Christian’s report, but as it was a high priority job to reach the Settlement 44, that risk was to be taken. In simple words, there was no other option.

To be continued…

4. Tea Revolution

It was the first time Jack has been to such a place where there were more books than open space in a house. It was a clear violation of the government recommendations, but it was inevitable in Noah’s case. His eyes stuck at a book title which looked different, which was The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis.

“How come they didn’t take this one away? I thought they had gotten rid of everything related to religion?” Jack inquired.

“No, this one didn’t qualify as a Christian text, devotional book or religious work. It is just an existential work of fiction”.

“Are you actually on dope, or did your brain just fail you?”

“I had to make a good payment to make a few brains fail. They cleared it as existential fiction, along with Camus’ The Outsider and Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. It used to be the most widely read devotional work next to the Bible. It used to be considered a classic. Has any religious book other than Bible been translated into more languages than this one? I don’t think so”.

“Thomas à Kempis should be proud. Is this the last copy of the work, or does anybody who share your interests have another copy? Or have you another one for yourself?”

“I haven’t really bothered about it. Actually, there is something special about this copy. Just take it and have a look”.

“Christian [T7Z44], Chief Mechanic, The Settlement 47 (Imperial), Titan. Sometimes faith is all you got. Have faith. Hold it close to your soul” read Jack from the first page of the book. “This should have belonged to a strong believer of the 2080s after the colonization of Titan”.

“I don’t think that he is just another believer. There must be something more about him. The destruction of Titan and Mars seems to have made the situation a little more complicated, as it is more difficult to get any information from the archives. They have erased the two colonies from the records so that the people will move away from their past which includes religion and spirituality. I still have a few papers which were used as bookmarks in this book. They are small letters which seems to have used an encrypted language and I guess I can make something out of them. I have been trying to decode them, so that I can get something which would help my later progress towards restoring the faith in this world of lies”.

“You have already started planning? And I never even felt so”.

“What do you think about coffee?”

“The most prestigious and the official drink in the city-state. All the coffee is now artificially produced and the people are forced to pay for it and drink the same five times a day at a high cost, with a price which is even higher than fresh air. Eighty eight percent of the coffee in the Imperial Firmament is owned by Acheron, and this business makes him the richest person in the city, nine hundred and eighty seven times richer than the second ranked billionaire. Without it, he might still be three hundred and fourty three times richer than the second, but still coffee makes his business strong enough”.

“The more important thing is that the loss of coffee industry would be a big loss for him, considering the fact that he has identified the drink with nationalism, patriotism and his government. It would cripple his ability to control the middle class.”

“So your plan is to deny the common man their daily coffee? Well, they might be denied air and water, but Acheron will make sure that they will still get the coffee”.

“What do you think about the coffee vents that go to each home?”

“Made of Titanium and coated with Kevlar. One of the most powerful carriers of any medium in the city. You will never get through it”.

“That is exactly what I want. Once I block the flow of coffee and ensure an incredible supply of tea through those vents, they shouldn’t be able to stop it in the middle”.

“So that is how you plan it. Now I know why you changed your workplace for a lesser pay and a lot of working hours”.
“Exactly. I already work in the vents. The beginning of the coffee vents is just above my working place. It is going to be a very easy job. The best part of it is that I would automate the whole procedure before I submit my resignation. Nobody would ever come to know. The coffee vents are also the least checked areas in the city, as nobody would expect a sabotage of the coffee supply. I would easily finish the job and get another job”.

“And what about the large quantity of tea? Where can you find them? You know there is only little tea available in this world of capitalist coffee”.

“Tea is the drink of the common man, unforced and true. I have been getting a lot of it from outside the city, imported as coffee. They have been made to smell and feel like coffee, but not taste like it. I have had some contact with the outside world through encoded messages. They have already sent me enough to make an impact”.
The plan had shocked Jack, even as he didn’t show it. He had considered Noah as a man who had too many thoughts and no action. He was clearly a man of few words, and he had kept himself close to the rules on the outside. Jack had thought that he would do nothing significant in his whole life, and here he comes with an idea which is going to make a difference, even if there was no certainty what kind of a change it would bring to the Imperial Firmament.

To be continued…

2. On the Titan

The Settlement 47, somewhere on Saturn’s moon: Titan. In the year of our Lord: 2080.

Four months have passed since the colonization of Titan. There have been thirteen settlements on Moon, twenty nine on Mars, and there have been five on Titan so far. The last two colonizations had resulted in two world wars, but due to “The Treaty of 13”, there would be no war to follow this settlement at Titan. But the Fifth World War will be due by the expiry of the treaty, on Thirteenth January, 2089. It is an unavoidable fact. All the power blocs have accumulated enough weaponry to claim it in future which might be a devastated Titan. There are six of them right now, the Northern, the Southern, the Eastern, the Western, the Central and the Imperial.

There are many common men who have volunteered to go to the new settlement at Titan in spite of the poor facilities there. Out of the five settlements on Titan, the latest of them is the Settlement 47, and the man in charge of that small world is Christian. It is the only settlement of the Imperial Bloc on Titan. The other four belongs to the Northern Bloc, the most powerful military force in the whole of Earth, against who the Eastern and the Southern has formed an unofficial alliance which might be official with the next world war. This alliance is already planning on a possible future colonization of Jupiter’s moon, Callisto. The Northern Block owns eight out of the thirteen colonies on Moon and twenty three out of the twenty nine colonies on Mars. As the rest owns one each on Moon and Mars, the Central Bloc owns one extra on the latter.

In the fog, and under the light, sat two people in silver outfits. There were guns, books and a few gadgets which shows low battery.

“We are not really the ones supposed to be here, I guess” remarked Zachary, the chief medical officer.

“You are one of them, my friend, it is just me who doesn’t belong here” said Christian with a big frown on his face.

“There are no places of worship here, and building one is out of the equation. There is nothing more of the green world out here, not even a part of what remains on Earth. There is also nothing to be done”.

“I thought religion and spirituality might be the least of your concern here. Now, I do wonder if they sent you here so that you could be taken out of those fixed set of beliefs”.

“They are not just a set of beliefs; and I volunteered to be here. I had even volunteered to go to Mars, but I was a minor then, and had to fulfill the promise to my parents”.

“May be you did. But they still manipulated you into it, for you don’t know the corporate world nor do you know the government. You are just that typical everyman character who knows nothing about what happens behind the scenes. This is just the beginning – wonder how much of a dystopia our world will be, after fifty or sixty years; if there is something left of our world by then. The Northern Bloc already has enough firepower to destroy all the three Settlement planets along with Earth”.

“It is because you are into all of these as an employee. I believe that we will be saved. We might not live long enough to see it, but humanity will find its salvation one day; whoever is left to find it”.

“The one thing I have always been sure about compared to most of the other things; it is easier to convince a corpse compared to you. But I respect that, for there are only a few people left who got opinions of their own, and that number has been going down. Soon, there will be only puppets in a dystopia on a hundred percent dead world”.

The Pathfinder machine breaks the conversation, as it arrives from under the canyon after doing the usual check for unidentified life-forms. There is nothing new to report on its long list of descriptions about the large number of turns it had to make. Christian considered it a waste of power at a time when the settlements were trying hard to keep the lights on. But he had to obey the orders.

Christian made his routine checks on the machine. That was the only thing he enjoyed during his stay there. He has been an expert mechanic right from his childhood, as he repaired his own hover-car, never giving it to the workshop. Zachary had his own problems in the medical fields, as the atmosphere of Titan had something infectious about it, always creating more than one abscess on the body.

The storm alert started blinking. It was the time to get into those titanium-hybrid abodes and have some rest. This resting was such a major thing in their life, that they found it an important event of the routine. There was always the option of exploring more and more, as the next settlement was too far away from them. But there were bots assigned to do the same, and the local exploration was the job of the Pathfinder. A regular journey through the surface of Titan was not healthy enough for a normal human being.

It was in such a world that Christian spent his life. There were just the books on technology and gadgets short of power to keep him company, along with a good number of people who failed to share his interests. Most of the available power had to be used by the machines for the exploration of the surface and underneath the planet in a consistent struggle to keep the settlement safe from any unidentified organism or infectious disease. There were mistakes made on the Moon and Mars, and the experts on Earth were being extra careful during this settlement. To add to it, the Imperial Bloc has been new to the Titan surface, and the experts predict it a colossal task for them to keep themselves working there, with absolutely no help expected from the comparatively well-settled Northern Bloc colonies.

As a representative of everyman who had too much love for nature, God, poetry, art and all the things of a beautiful past, the world was never enough for him. It is out of the situation where the world becomes not enough, that rebellions occur. As long as Christian is considered, there was such a thing already boiling in his mind and soul. He was denied both his spiritual and intellectual satisfaction, and his aesthetic sense had nothing to be satisfied.

To be continued…