Bharat Baadal is twenty-one when he has an incident that changes his life forever.
He is on a solo road trip on his bike through the grasslands of Iklore state to discover himself i.e. his life’s purpose. For the third day, he plans to climb the largest mountain range in the state and reach the next motel, that he has booked. The ghat roads are dangerous during the night so he has to reach the motel before sundown. Hence he decides to leave the current motel early in the morning. But for some reason, he sleeps till noon.
“Aliens!”
When he wakes up Bharat feels as if some heavy weight just lifted from over his body allowing him to wake up. He curses seeing the time on his wristwatch.
Bharat rushes to the bathroom to get cleaned. While brushing he tries to think of the reason why he slept till late. Strangely, he remembers waking up at 5 a.m as decided. He also remembers brushing, bathing, and getting dressed. As a matter of fact, he also remembers riding his bike on the road approaching the mountains.
“Was all that a dream?”
While bathing, Bharat tries to re-live the dream. He remembers his bike breaking down on a roadside. Since he is carrying a map with him, he knows that there is no settlement to ask for help anywhere near. He certainly cannot walk back or forward. So instead he sits there leaning against a tree. He punches the ground with frustration while staring at the faraway mountains. He hopes that a passing vehicle would give him a lift.
The foggy steam in the shower triggers the next part of his memory. He sees a huge cloud resting on the mountain top. The cloud appears to be descending. Within seconds the entire mountain range disappears behind that cloud. Bharat gets this strange sensation that the cloud is alive. The cloud spots Bharat and starts approaching him at an unnatural rate. He freaks out. He wants to run but his body does not move. It’s frozen in place.
Remembering that moment suddenly Bharat feels heavy while in the shower. Even though he is in a hurry, he falls to the floor continuing with the dream. The cloud quickly surrounds Bharat. He is unable to see anything. Not even his own body. He then remembers seeing blue humanoid glowing figures walking through this fog.
“Aliens!” shouts Bharat as he wakes up back in the bathroom. Apparently, he fell asleep while he was seated. Both times his dream ends at that point, when he sees aliens approaching. He shakes off that dream, quickly finishes bathing, gets dressed, and steps outside the motel. That’s when he gets another shock.
Bharat finds himself already arrived at the destination. There is a beautiful view of the valley in front of him. The reason for his confusion after walking is that both the motel he stayed in are built by the same company using a standard design. But that only makes things complicated.
“So… that was not a dream? But then… how did I get here? Aliens?!”
Bharat uses the key to start his bike. If what he remembers happened for real the bike is not supposed to start. But the instant he gives a kick, the bike engine roars into action.
“This does not make sense.”
The receptionist only adds the confusion. First, he says that he does not remember. Then when Bharat tells his ‘alien theory’, the receptionist supports it saying, “Maybe you are right. Last night I too saw aliens in my dream.”
“So… it was not a dr…”
“Shh!” says the receptionist, “It’s best if we don’t talk about it. They might be watching us right now. and they won’t like us talking about them.”
Bharat returns to his room. He simply sits trying to recollect that dream, that happened for real. His logical sane mind rejects the ‘alien theory’ but he is unable to get it out of his head. How can he reject what he witnessed himself? He hopes to recollect the appearance of those blue glowing beings. Instead, all he recollects is the strong feeling he felt when his bike broke down and he was stuck in the middle of nowhere. At that moment Bharat felt fear. That scary feeling returns as he thinks about it while in the room.
There was nothing dangerous about the surrounding. Bharat was afraid thinking, “If I die right now, my life would sum up to be a complete waste… because I’ve not done anything significant in my life. I’ve been just a spoiled rich-family brat.”
Suddenly Bharat has the urge to cry. Since he is alone in his room he does not hold back.
“…at that moment I decided that I will do whatever it takes to meet those aliens one more time.“
An older-looking Bharat says this in a press conference.
“I want to thank them for saving my life and for giving me my life’s purpose. When I couldn’t find them on our planet, I decided to look at theirs. These HD images of a planet-not-ours, are a result of two decades of blood, sweat, and tears since that incident. I am disappointed to discover that our neighboring planet is barren and lifeless. But that only means that my search continues.”
Meanwhile elsewhere, two army officials are watching this conference on their phones while sitting on a valley-facing balcony of the motel.
“I’m glad that he did something constructive with his life after that unfortunate incident. Not become some mad conspiracy theorist. I can finally let go of the guilt I had these years for probably ruining his life.”
You see, the reason there was no settlement in that area of Iklore state is because there lies a secret army facility to test unapproved technologies. A couple of decades ago they were testing a sleep-inducing gas. The test, Bharat got caught in, was to observe and analyze how fast and how far the gas spreads. No one was supposed to be there.
Once the gas bomb was detonated, soldiers wearing airtight suits walked around to check the gas density at various points. That’s how they found Bharat, sleeping under a tree. After some basic checks, they dropped him at the motel he booked. Which happened to be secretly run by the army.
“But sir. I don’t understand the alien part. Who are those blue glowing aliens he is talking about?”
“Hallucinations,” says her superior, “The gas had a side effect. Our objective at this facility is to develop technology to neutralize our enemy in a non-lethal way. Unfortunately, when we tested this gas on soldiers, due to these hallucinations, they started shooting at each other. There was a huge moral debate about what to do with this new weapon. Thankfully, sane minds prevailed. Since we couldn’t fix that problem, all the produced gas along with its formula was destroyed.”
Being a new recruit this lady army officer has no clue about the gas except for what her superior said about it. She thinks for a while and then suddenly smiles, “Sir… I finally understand what you said to me two years ago… when I joined ISWD…”
A lie that is told for the good of others is better than the truth.
“I still disagree but now I understand.”
Both smile looking at each other. Finally, the press conference on their screen ends with huge applause for the astrophysicist/engineer Dr. Barat Baadal.
END
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Rexal World Stories