The King is Dead.
Hit by a Deer.
He has done no great Deed.
The King is Dead,
He was a Devil,
But the Real Devil ….
Lives among us,
Through our Hipocrasy,
Through our Ignorance,
Through Our Selfishness,
Through our Idiosyncracies,
Through our Profitability,
Through our so-called, 'Nobility'.
-Unkown
"There was a time, not so long ago when we believed in something, we believed in the greater good. As time passed, not only time but centuries, the kings, the rulers, or whoever was in power promised us and we as a fool followed that person to our deaths of consciousness. Do people know or understand, what division leads to, what hate leads to… do people see the true horrors of war, who we fight, whom we fight, who are they, what are they, they are the same flesh and blood, you see…
"You support a mass frenzy, I don't know, your conscious is dead… I have seen the world, you see, there are so many things to discuss, so many things to explore, yet we fight among ourselves for petty reasons, we talk about unity, diversification… yet we end up controlling and hating each other… we do not talk about freedom from shackles of society... we tie ourselves to societal laws, shaming each other, YET, OUT OF ALL THE ATROCITIES WE HAVE COMMITTED ON OUR PLANET, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE REACHED PLANET APHRODITE…"
A big round of applause for Captain Rajender Gupta, who stands at the centre of the bridge of the Navigational Control Room, holding a cold champagne bottle, removes the foil, untwists the wire loop to loosen the wire cage on the cork, grips the body of the bottle at 35 degrees, twists the bottle and hold the cork, shakes it up, and a mighty spout of champagne overflows the deck at high velocity.
The crew members rejoice and pour their champagne into their glasses. They have all been on this mission for the last 10 years, away from their families, friends, lovers and their very own home town. They have been savouring the same, mission, and they have committed themselves to reaching out here.
Captain Gupta announces, "As we started with a 200-member crew, we have lost fifty of our very own people, in their honour, I propose to close our eyes and pray for them for a minute… we could not have reached what we have achieved today, a landmark in science, their names will be carved on the stone, and honour them, and serve their families as long as we can… their family is our family… Cheers!"
Another round of applause for the Captain, the crew members follow suit as the Captain closes his eyes, and prays for the people they have lost.
***
Captain's Log: MMDCL DIEBUS LOG I APHRODITE: As we have reached, Aphrodite, we will be resting for the next 48 hours on our starship, in the meantime we will start with the maintenance and check for any damages done. We will keep the ship on stand-by and report further at the same time after our rest period is over.
Captain Gupta, alone on the bridge, after registering today's log, looks at the planet, 2000 kilometres away from the Planet Aphrodite. He is mesmerised by the beauty of the planet as if painted by Botticelli. This planet has vegetation, full of flora, there are vast tectonic plates surrounded by water but no other life is present on the planet.
He sees his image on the glass, time has taken a toll on his life, success and regrets, for the benefit of mankind… his research, and his records will be fruitful for future travellers. He is proud of the current, each of the crew members is from various parts of Planet Earth, and also some from other planets wherever humans have started colonising dry and barren desert planet with no surviving life on it previously. There are a few Humans in this starship who were born on Mars, some from Venus, Jovian and Saturnian Moons.
This exoplanet, far away from our solar system, from our Sun, rotating around a star named, Hera, for millions of years, and yet there is no other planet in between the Sun and the moon. One of those rarest sights, you don't even know what you can find in this universe, infinite possibilities, and yet, we know so little. Captain Gupta, remembers his childhood days, when he was interested in art and later into science. His imagination of mixing art and science made him a celebrity scientist. His adventurous deeds in the scientific field made him the perfect captain of the Starship, ESS Enterprise Apollo 3000.
***
Captain's Log: MMMDCLXIV DIEBUS LOG II APHRODITE: As expected, we have sent signals to Aphrodite for further communications, but no response. We have scanned, the entire planet, except vegetation there is no further life as per the probes we have sent to the planet. Temperature recorded, very similar to Planet Earth, AQI is the safest and the cleanest recorded in human history. It is strange to note such vast vegetation, some of the images we have received from the probe, remind me of the Dragon Blood Tree from Socotra Archipelago, there are bamboo trees, Eucalyptus, and Root Bridge also. For further verification, my core crew members, Smith, Fyodor, Mifune, and Abeni, will be going down for inspection. Sofia, as usual, will be on the bridge for support and directions. Without Corporal Sofia, we could have died in the last two years easily. Such a fantastic operator from above. Her instincts are spot on which I have never seen before. Well, I recommend a promotion for her. Anyways, as we have gathered data through our probe, the air is breathable and exactly similar to Earth. As the AI Probe has suggested space suits are not required for this mission. But as a standard operating procedure, we will go down with our suits, and once we check that we can breathe, we will leave the same on our transport, Pegasus.
***
Ms Sofia, one of the core crew members, will stay on board, and guide the transport for their landing. Mrs Abeni will be navigating the Pegasus for landing. Mr Mifune is the Cartographer, who will be guiding the team through the dense forest as he has deep knowledge of the terrain and has selected the Middle Stretch of the Planet to be explored. Most probably the Socotra Archipelago II. Dr Fyodor will be the on-field doctor, sampling expert and medical examiner. Lieutenant Smith, the military man, will be a weapons expert, and as per the Directive of the ESS, the weapons are put to Stun. As usual, Captain Gupta will be leading the team.
The Pegasus is a five-seater transport including one for the navigator. The navigator sits on the front with a front screen, and a square-shaped droid navigator attached to the wall on the back of the transport to check whether there are any attacks or any un-impending hostile is about to happen for the transport.
Mrs Abeni, on board the Pegasus, puts on the headset, switches on the Comm Channel, starts the ignition of the transporter, and says, "Good to go, Sofia! The Pegasus is ready."
Sofia receives the message, "Great, Captain Gupta and the team, are on the way!"
Mrs Abeni replies, "Too bad! You are not on the field, Sofie…"
Sofia responds, "I am good here, Abie, not too comfortable with dense forest…"
"When were you comfortable in the Desert Planet Sikkar…"
"That's a different thing… well, let's see what do we have here…"
The transport door opens automatically, Captain Gupta gets in first, along with, Mr Mifune, Dr Fyodor, and Lieutenant Smith.
Captain Gupta said, "Ready to go, Abeni?"
"Yes Captain, we are ready to go, fasten your seatbelts!"
"Right we are, madam", the captain replies.
Everyone takes their seat and fastens their seat belt. Sofia, on the comm channel, announces, "Good Luck, Team! Be careful…"
Captain Gupta responds, "You too Sofia, take care of the crew…"
"I will… Captain! Lieutenant Smith, be careful with the weapons… don't get hurt like the last time at the Planet Orion…"
"Aye, Aye… Corporal Sofia… Don't worry, there is no life form here…", Smith responds.
"Mifune, Take care of the crew…"
"I will… you take of yourself, my dear child! May god bless you with strength…"
Dr Mifune is the godfather of Sofia, he has raised her for the last five years, when she was just seventeen, she lost her parents during the pandemic on the starship.
"Dr Fyodor, be careful!"
"You be careful, love…", the doctor responds.
Dr Fyodor and Sofia have been in a relationship for the past three years. Dr Fyodor, almost thirty, joined the starship as a young practitioner, under Dr Kelley, who saved more than 150 crew including the captain from the Plague. Unfortunately, Dr Kelley died due to a last stage unexpected mutation of the virus for which he took his own life so that the virus would not spread further to the crew members.
Sofia announces, "Good to go Crew! Godspeed Pegasus…"
Abeni replies, "On the count of three! Captain… kindly authorise… "
Captain Gupta, clicks on the authoriser button on his command seat, "Done, Abie!"
Abeni on the comm channel to Sofia, "Second authoriser, Sofie!"
Sofia, holding a command tab in her hand, clicks on the second authorisation for the Pegasus, it's ready to leave the starship now. Sofia takes control of the bridge, "Shields down for Pegasus at the Docking Bay!"
The shield is down, the gate has been opened, and the Pegasus leaves smoothly out of the Starship. Now, the shield is up. The Pegasus is gaining speed slowly towards the Planet Aphrodite.
Sofia monitors the Pegasus from above and sees that some strange clouds are forming on the Planet, "Apollo to Pegasus, there is some kind of mist has formed in your direction!"
Abeni replies, "Pegasus to Apollo, we are about to face some turbulence… Captain!"
Every crew member is surprised now, that there has been no indication of bad weather since the day they arrived. Sofia to Pegasus, "Captain, Captain… the clouds are increasing at an accelerating rate… we can see some thunderstorm has already started… Come back, come ba…"
Captain reacts, "Sofia, what's going on, the comms down… Abeni get back to the Ship…"
Abeni tries to steer back the transporter but unfortunately, the turbulence is pulling them towards the Planet, with a force of Gravity, that is unseen, the pegasus shakes up like anything and is about to crash land on the planet.
Sofia is trying to reach them, but unfortunately, the Bridge Crew is unable to establish a contact. Out of nowhere, there is a sudden loss of power in the ship, every connectivity of power is shutting down. Sofia and the crew members are stunned, they are trying to reach the Engine Room through the Comm Channel to activate auxiliary power. But, failed. Sofia called out some of the crew members to go down and check the reason for the failure. As the crew members reached the lift on the bridge on the passageway, they collapsed suddenly. Sofia was shocked, and so were the other members, suddenly, something invisible, some unseen thing, got hold of her and the others in the air, as they were levitating from the ground, and her vision getting blurred, she was fighting not to lose her senses at this moment, she has to fight for the crew, for the core members of the ship in Pegasus, she has to save every one of them. But no, no, Sofia sees something, her dreams, dreams that haunt her, she can see her parents now… where is she now, is everybody on the ship dead? Have they reached heaven?
***
The Pegasus reaches the orbit of the Aphrodite, the speed automatically accelerates at an enormous rate, the crew members inside the transporter are helpless and cannot do anything to stop it. Abeni tries to take a manual takeover by shutting down the system but the manual override fails.
Captain Gupta says, shakingly, "Stay where you are, Abeni… Keep still everyone, sit tight…"
As soon as the transporter reaches the ground of the Planet, just an inch above the grass, the force of gravity stops right there but a huge jolt hits everyone inside the Pegasus. It stands above the grass in a slanting triangular manner.
Captain Gupta is unable to process anything in his mind. He asks everyone, "Is everyone, okay? Abeni, do we have power? Mifune, Dr Fyodor, Lieutenant Smith, are you alright? Abeni can you reach our starship? Are they alright?"
Abeni, coughs and her body is huge, she trembles, out of fear, "No sir, we have lost communication completely…"
Mifune screams, he seems to have broken his right arm, "What the hell is this? What just happened? DOCTOR… DOCTOR… WAKE UP… WAKE UP"
Dr Fyodor has lost his senses. He is unable to respond to anyone. The Captain unfastens the seatbelt to get to the doctor, and suddenly the transporter moves by itself towards the ground and lands properly on the ground just above an inch.
The transporter unlocks itself, and from both sides, Lieutenant Smith shouts out of fear, "CAPTAIN, WHAT SHALL WE DO?"
Abeni shouts exhilaratingly, "CAPTAIN… THE PEGASUS IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE…"
"ABANDON, SHIP! I WILL BRING THE DOCTOR. GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE…"
He unfastens the doctor's seatbelt takes him on his shoulder, and runs towards the exit as the others have gone out already, as soon as the Captain jumps outside the Pegasus along with the doctor, the transporter explodes violently into a million pieces but…
The explosion is stuck in between, there is full fire above the ground, but somehow it did not spread the pieces of the explosion, it's like some mysterious force has stopped spreading the fire so that none of the vegetation or the plants touch the same.
Every one of the crew members on the ground is astonished by this bizarre incident. They have never encountered such an incident. Captain Gupta holds Dr Fyodor on his back, but he notices something strange on the ground, "Oh my god!"
Lieutenant Smith, who was behind the captain, asks him, "What Captain?"
"Look at the ground, Smith"
Smith notices. He never thought such a thing was possible. He utters, "Oh sweet mother! This is impossible… where are we, captain!"
"This planet is protected by a shield itself! We can't touch them, we can't feel them! But this planet is only giving the freedom to breathe… as you can see the explosion of Pegasus, it's stuck right out there, so that the fire won't spread over their grass…"
One by one, realize that they are also standing above the ground by an inch. Abeni asked in disbelief, "Is this for real? Are we alive?"
"In a way, somehow this planet evolved to protect itself from any kind of pollutant… so a natural shield has formed."
Abeni replies, "So, we are the pollutants!"
"Mankind has been creating pollutants for so long, in the name of war, and destruction, and also in the name of development by displacing natural formations… Only, now that mankind has truly understood, how to live in harmony… with individual freedom… no societal pressure… not shaming each other out of jealousy and greed…"
"True! Thousands of years ago there were infinite countries, but there is no country anymore, no faith, no hate, only the belief of unity we have… togetherness… we naturalists today… we understand the economy of togetherness, we understood the balance of food chain, humans and animals… we understood the development, we understood everything, yet there were innocent souls were lost, out of greed, out of hunger for power… "
"Indeed, Abeni! We do not identify ourselves from which continent we belonged to except as history lesson…"
Dr Mifune and Mrs Abeni try to touch the ground, but they are unable to penetrate the shield to feel the grass but there is a sudden jolt pass through their body. An electric shock. The shock terrifies them.
Captain Gupta was amazed by such an event. He has visited thousands of planets over the past twenty years, mostly barren, and improbable to form a settlement, yet this is the most fascinating one. In some of the suitable, he has made the set up of research stations.
Captain Gupta puts Dr Fyodor on the ground. He calls out to Mifune.
"Yes, Captain!"
"Help me wake up the Doctor!"
"Sure…"
Lieutenant Smith, never felt such fresh air before. He absentmindedly walks towards Dragon Blood Tree. The probe droid information was right as shared by the Captain, it reminds him of his childhood days. He closes his eyes for a moment, he sees that he is back in his childhood days. It feels so real. He is playing at the seaside. He reaches out for his sister. They laugh together, something happens, the laughter stops, and he sees that his sister is no more. Drowned by the sudden increase in waves… Smith opens his eyes, scared. He falls to the ground. Gasping for breath. Abeni runs to him, "What happened, Lieutenant?"
The lieutenant is silent. She asks him, again, "What's going on? Tell me!"
"Close your eyes once, Abeni!"
"WHY?"
"Just do it!"
She closes. She sees herself as a teenager. She says in her mind, "Oh no! Please no, no, no… noooo… Please help, please… oh god… not again…" She opens her eyes forcefully. She breathes heavily.
The Lieutenant asks her, "What did you see?"
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT, SMITH!"
"The past that you don't want to remember, right? Your darkest fear!"
"Huh… what are you talking about? I don't understand you!"
"Abie, you have been my friend for so long… I have known you since our cadet days…"
"Do you know, why I joined the Cadet program?"
"I can assume!"
"Huh… you don't know a thing about me!"
"I know! Your darkest fear! There's nothing wrong with what you did that night… that was self-defence… I am sorry, out of excitement and fear I asked you to close your eyes! "
"I WAS IN PRISON FOR FIVE YEARS, GODDAMMIT! I killed those bastards!"
The Captain and Mifune are unable to wake up Dr Fyodor. But he is breathing, there is something, that he is in a deep sleep. They check his eyes. There is rapid eye movement, he is dreaming. They keep him on the ground. The Captain and Mifune fear something. They hear Abeni's voice.
"Abeni, are you okay?", the captain asks calmly.
"DAMN YOU, CAPTAIN! FOR BRINGING ME HERE TO THIS PLACE!"
"Abie, Abie, calm down, calm down, for a moment please… I know you are agitated… do you want to talk about it…"
"DO YOU THINK I AM IN A MOOD TO TALK? NO, NO… PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Mifune says, "Abie, please! We are here for you, will be there for you all the time… You have always seen us, even you, put yourself in line to save others, we are in this together, we always have been and always will be!"
Mrs Abeni calms down slowly. Lieutenant Smith tells about the strange event about seeing the past trauma which shaped their lives and currently, they are living in.
Captain Gupta says, "I see, I think Dr Fyodor is in a deep sleep due to the incident that has occurred. Is there a possibility can we connect by holding each other's hand? So that we can wake him up!"
Mifune replies, "Theoretically insane, but spiritually possible!"
Captain Gupta says, "What if this planet is one big spirit! A living breathing consciousness on its own! What do you say in terms of philosophy?"
"In terms, I don't know, yet we keep our positive thoughts in the present, I think we should forget our deepest fear, and we try to have a common goal, that we want to meet the entity."
Abeni exclaims, "Entity, you say? What kind of entity!"
Mifune replies, "Entity! A spiritual entity which created a shield for everything out here, there might be something here, which helped in the evolution of the shield of the plants that are protecting themselves from any kind of pollutants."
Captain Gupta says, "We don't know exactly what's going on out here. We have lost communication with our Starship! We don't know what's going on above. None of our communicators are working. We don't have transport, I cannot see our ship from here, it's too foggy… the only thing that we have now, is we have to believe ourselves that we can get out! Just hold our hands together, I will be holding the Doctor's right hand, Mifune you take the other hand of his, Lieutenant hold my hand on the left, Abeni you the right hand of Smith and left hand of Mifune. Remember, we should have, one thought, the entity, to reach the consciousness of the Planet. No past thoughts, no fear, nothing, just to the point. Once, I say, on the count One, Two, Three, we close our eyes together at three! Okay…"
Everyone exclaims, "Yes, Captain!"
"ONE!... TWO!… THREE!"
Once they close their eyes, the captain can only see himself. He is sleeping in his bed inside his Starship Cabin. He hears everyone screaming for help. He immediately gets up from his bed and opens the door. He thought the Planet Aprhordite was a bad dream. A simulation kind of thing, a cryo exercise, but no, no, that is not so, he remembers why people are screaming. It was the plague, the plague that killed fifty people, people were infected with a virus which was so unknown, the biggest regret of Captain Rajender Gupta. The biggest fear. He is back there again. He runs towards the Medical Bay, for help, and he sees people are dying, crying out for help! One who gets infected with the virus, people screams continuously, Dr Kelly is trying his best to give sedatives to all to calm them down… He feels hopeless, young Doctor Fyodor, a pupil of Dr Kelly, is assisting him along with the nurses. He sees Sofia, who is crying out for her parents… Captain Gupta breaks down in tears, he shouts and cries out for help, he does not want to relieve those memories. He utters, he stammers, "Please, no please… Oh please, let us escape from this madness! Oh God, please!"
In his conscious self, he closes his eyes, and he sees a tree in the middle, surrounded by yellow luminescence, and there is a flow of waves like energy particles running everywhere towards the tree in the middle like a bridge. He sees that people are standing by with their eyes closed. There are millions of people, all of them standing still. Only the captain is walking slowly on the bridge towards the middle, where countless energies are gathering together towards the root and flowing above the tree leaves after that it is expanding and breaking into stars or clouds. It reminds him, it reminds him, it was a drawing he made when he was in the university. A thought of unity among people, connected, a world without hate, a world with love, with compassion, with sympathy, a feeling of belongingness, we help everyone we can, we are one single being… we help each other… those were the words of Captain Gupta… He understands this planet is not a trap, this planet has been calling out to him for so long… yet after thirty years of university, he arrives here… this is the moment, this is the moment he has been living for…
"Rajender Gupta, pleased to see you!", a deep baritone voice calling out to him.
The Captain is awestruck by the beauty, living in his drawing, at first he cannot hear something or someone calling out to him.
"Rajender can you hear me!"
"Yes, yes, I can hear you! Sorry, I was lost totally! But how is this possible? It's a drawing, I drew so many years ago!"
"Your conscience, Rajender! You have been waiting for this moment!"
"Maybe, I am not sure… what is this place… this planet, suddenly I am into a conscious world! I am not able to understand…"
"Sure, you can… Think!"
Captain Gupta says, "Are we all connected? Is my crew alive? I was unable to wake up Dr Fyodor, what about the crew above? Are they safe?"
"They are safe! All of you are safe! But everyone is stuck to their subconsciousness, their fear and loss, their fears and regrets!"
"I see! Is this planet itself alive? How come the explosion of the transporter did not spread rather it stuck to only one place?"
"It's willpower! We have seen destruction like anything. When humans used to live on this planet."
"Humans used to live on this planet? But we have evolved from apes…"
"Yes that is true, humans evolved from apes, but they were first born here, they developed the planet like anything and destroyed the natural resources like anything. Once they saw that our planet was inhabitable for them, selected people left, and reached Earth! Once they reached Earth, they developed reverse engineering, the procedure was called, Devolution. For survival during the harsh climate of the earth, they went back to being apes…"
Captain Gupta was awestruck by hearing this, he says, "But how do you know all this? Is it our subconsciousness connected to this planet?"
"Correct. You know where your heart lies, Rajender! All our spirits, all our souls, your memories of where you are from are all connected here."
"But how does the Planet has only trees or vegetation, nothing else? I do not understand, why there is no other life out here?"
"Because once humanity left for a habitable planet, all those man-made creations were turning to dust and breaking down itself, and we trees started to grow back, slowly by slowly we evolved, so many people died out of hunger, we were unable to grow back ourselves due to so much of pollution, every single thing became uninhabitable, but their souls are here, and we got mixed in consciousness, after that, we become one, we knew what needs to be done, to protect our planet. With our willpower, we developed our shield for protection. We developed our inner electricity, that passes through the shield, yet our souls are connected to all the Earth people… but most of them ignore that… yet, humans have developed not to destroy each other again… You wrote a poem, not in your current lifetime, but a lifetime thousands of years back, about a king who is dead, hit by a deer, and done no great deed… it was you when the world was seeing the ravages of fire… you were just a child then, but people were on a note that Frenzy killed you…"
"What? I wrote a poem. How many lives that I lead till now?"
"Uncountable. You were barbaric in your first lifetime, next, you were a treacherous king, after that, you were a poor beggar who died out of hunger, after that you started to improve upon yourself from each time you were born… and now you become the best version of yourself, you weep for others, as I weep for you!"
"I… I don't know what to say!"
"You are what you are Rajendar, you are…"
"I see… it's too heavy for me to take…"
"I know… this is your last life! After that, you become one with consciousness!"
"Sorry, you mean to say, I become part of you! This consciousness of the universe."
"Yes!"
"So, now what's next!"
"You get back to your ship, don't worry, you will not have the memory of the next five minutes, because we do not want to reveal ourselves how we work… that you will know, once you become one with us!"
"But the Transporter… it's destroyed, right…"
"HA! Dust thou art, to Dust Returnest, my boy!"
***
Captain Rajender wakes up from his deep sleep as he is sitting inside the Pegasus. He is at a loss for words, he looks at the others. He sees everyone is speechless, and wondering about themselves. Is it true? Is it real? Captain Rajender checks his pulse, he is alive.
Abeni announces, "Pegasus to Apollo, we are about to dock. Please open the gates!"
The comm channel is live again. Sofia's voice comes through, "Yes…Yes… We opening… Oh Abie, it's great to hear your voice again! Is everyone okay? The Captain, Fyodor, Mifune, and Smith!"
"Seems to me, we are in one peace! Hey, why don't you all say hello to Sofie!"
Everyone at once, "We are good Sofie. I hope you are alright!"
"Never felt better. I got so scared of you all people. I thought we were all dead. I saw my parents you know… in my dreams."
"I met mine too…", Abeni answers.
"I met Dr Kelly!", Dr Fyodor replies.
"I met my sister!", Smith responds.
"I met my…", the captain takes a deep breath, and says, "… My Father."
"I met my daughter, Lily! Just like you, my child! I never thought that I would see her once again…", Mifune answers.
Sofia says, "Our soul has been cleansed of regret, then! We are what we are at best at!"
"Always, Sofia, always!", The captain answers.
The Pegasus reach the docking bay, the shields down, and gates are open for landing. Abeni makes the landing in a very swift manner. As the other crew members on the ship rejoice in their return. Sofia awaits the crew at the Docking Bay.
***
Captain's Log: MMMDCLXX DIEBUS LOG I APHRODITE: Certain events do occur in your life, is it fate, is it destiny, is it … I don't know… what can I say… all this life we have been searching to feel our emptiness, our desire, our true meaning of life, once you get that answer, you understand the true meaning of life. Your destiny, your birth, everything is written. You just have to know, how you can be a better self. This expedition at Aphrodite has made me learn, made me understand things, things which I thought I would never get an answer to… but here we are, we got our answers, and we will be leaving soon, and reaching Earth. In the meantime, I have submitted my resignation from the ESS as a captain of the starship and filled up the application for an academic position at the University to share my experiences of Space Travel and interstellar travel for the rest of my life. I would recommend, any of the crew members to be the captain of ESS Enterprise Apollo 3000. This is Captain Rajender Gupta, signing off for the day.
-The End