Ari was not having a good day. His day had started after his team and the lingering continuum soldiers had cleared the temple complex of the enemy enthralled. That had not been hard with the armoured soldier’s weapons. The weapons he had been so weary of had come in handy when they were trained on their mutual enemies. He was still a bit hesitant on turning his back on the strange soldiers and that mostly stemmed from their technology.
The continuum was strange. The way they didn’t communicate with each other verbally and always hid their faces behind that futuristic armour unnerved him. How could he trust people he couldn’t look in the eyes. Also, their weapons which on first inspection looked two generations ahead of Earth’s were actually following a completely different weapons philosophy. They were somehow merging this place’s strange magic and technology. That on its face didn’t faze him. The fact that these people implanted pieces of this tech into their bodies unnerved him.
But that was not why he was not having a great day. To be honest, he was not having a good week on closer reflection. He had been out there on desk reviewing troop deployment orders one day. Breathing in the cold Arunachal air with the sweet smell of fresh cut glass and now he was sweating it out next to three soldiers stuck in a temple dedicated to a fire god out of ancient texts.
A god that one of his people had gotten obsessed about. The fact that the man was famously an atheist before coming here didn’t seem to factor in his mind. In fact when anyone tried to point out his conversion and his vehement devotion, the unhinged look they got in return usually ended the conversation right there and then. And now this same man who was healing his second in command with green tinted fire while muttering some mantra under his breath in a haunting echoing voice.
Ari watched Singh. His naked torso lying on a granite stone while Doctor Joshi somehow directed the fire from the statue of the Yaksha Agni to wreathe his body in fire. The fire instead of burning his old friend was sucked into his body where it found the disease slowly killing the man, and burnt it out.
“Take a step back, commander.” Joshi glanced at Ari
“Hmmm?”
“I need some space to work.” Joshi
Ari took a few steps back and let Joshi work. Ari had been the first one to go through the procedure and now somehow he knew that his cancer was gone. His lungs felt lighter than ever and his deep breaths no longer hurt. But unlike Ari, Singh was suffering from a disease that affected his whole body. Where Joshi had burnt out the cancer from his lungs, Singh was diabetic. That meant Joshi had to periodically shift between Singh’s blood and pancreas.
The whole process sounded more gruesome than it looked, Abesh had gone through something similar with his autoimmune disease. The only complicating factor over there had been the syphilis that the boy wonder hadn’t been upfront about. Joshi had just snorted and literally cleared it out with a burst of fire.
All that was good but the man who was healing them, he wasn’t. Joshi was slowly turning into the source of all his worries. The strange looks aside the man had started to ramble when he had been working on Nameer and the spinal injury the boy had taken on a boat. When both he and Singh had tried to calm the man he had pushed them aside and raged.
Fires had erupted out his mouth and flowed down his chin. Most of his ramblings were incoherent but something about a pile of ash flowing into the trap of an asura stuck with Ari. When he and Abesh had finally restrained him, he had looked at them with a cold distant gaze. The kind of gaze that didn’t belong on the old man’s face. A moment later, he was back and looking at them blankly.
Then in his usual crackling voice Joshi had asked “Uh… Abesh? Commander? Why are you tying my hands behind my back?”
When they had explained to him what had happened he had just nodded and decided not to elaborate on what had happened to him. Thankfully, Joshi had been coherent after that. And his team was now mostly healed.
Ting!
Quest - Take out the trash.
Clear the Enthralled off the Temple Grounds
Rewards Received
Class 1 Healing from Yaksha Agni
5/5
Fire blessed shards
1/5
Ari blearily looked at the boxes that were clouding his vision. He read through the notification and nodded. Now all his men were healed. As for the shards? He didn’t want them inside him or his men after what one of them had done to Joshi. It had turned an intellectual into a raging religious lunatic.
“You know, you are sweating a lot, Ari. Maybe you should step away for a while? ”
Ari who had been lost in his thoughts suddenly felt the heat on his face and wiped some sweat off his brow. He took a step back, away from the fire and faced the door where his men slept and recovered.
At least this damn place did not have a day night cycle. That would have made the heat unbearable. It was always dark grey. Like six in the morning on a rainy day. There was just enough light to bathe the world in a dreary murky light and make the abandoned city outside unnerving.
Ari took in a breath and continued to observe the doctor. Now that everything had calmed down, he needed to understand everything that had happened to him and his men. Even if they felt a lot better he needed to think about what had happened and how to proceed ahead. But there was a danger in doing that.
After he had calmed down from his head long chase into the horde, he had assessed his performance and cursed himself. The guns pointing at him and his men had only reinforced how badly he had screwed up. He had posted no sentries and no guards. And to compound that fact, he had rushed into a horde to fight with his fists.
Thankfully, the continuum soldiers had been friendly, or friendly-ish. He knew they had saved them because of the girl doctor and the psycho brat but why exactly, he was not sure of. But before he could tackle that he needed to…
“You know, I thought he was full of shit.” Singh’s gravelly voice brought Ari out of his thoughts.
“Singh?” Ari blinked and looked at his friend.
When had he gotten up? When had Joshi stopped healing him with his finger fires? Had he zoned out again?
Singh looked down at himself and touched his hairy chest “I mean his fires don’t even burn the hair off. How does he heal with fire and not do that?”
Ari smiled “We don’t understand this world, Singh. That is why I am not pushing him.” Ari nodded in the doctor’s direction.
“Also it is really annoying to talk to him.” Singh said sotto voce
Ari smiled. He knew. Oh, he knew. Conversation with the former doctor tended to end with, Agni told me or Agni taught me.
The last conversation they had had was full of that. Singh had asked him a rapid series of questions like, how do you know what is happening? How do you know those two are alive? How are you using fire like the way you are? All of those were answered with a variation of
Agni told me.
Joshi cleared his throat “The he in question is standing right here, Singh.”
Singh sat up, pulled his inner vest over his head and continued to ignore Joshi.
“Although he was right about one thing, the continuum people backed out of the temple as soon as the fires started to burn. Do you think the fires really hurt the continuum even inside their metal cans?”
Ari shrugged and answered with yawn “I don’t know. But the doctor seems to believe it.”
Joshi sighed and while walking away answered “Yes it does. But not all of them. Athena and her people are exceptions. They did not anger Lord Agni.”
Singh looked from Joshi to Ari and asked “Did you know that?”
“Yes. He told me that when you were undergoing your treatment. He also said that once the fires are lit all over and the temple is consecrated again he will be able to do more.” Ari ended his words with another yawn.
Singh looked at his commanding officer and said “You need to sleep, my friend.”
“I can keep watch. Why don’t you go get an hour of rest? I can stay up.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Singh looked at Ari and then turned his head to look at the rest of their team passed out in the corner of the room. He knew the way they felt. He was bone tired after whatever the crazy doctor had done to him. But if he had gotten rid of his diabetes, he would keep his mouth shut and not punch the man with the hollow voice.
And if he was feeling like that, that meant that Ari, the first one to go through the treatment was most probably dead on his feet. He didn’t know how he was still standing. The man had a superhuman will when he set his mind on something. But he knew if friend better than anyone else.
“Are you still beating yourself up about rushing in to fight those zombies?”
Ari flinched and muttered “I should have known better.”
“It’s not your fault. That neuro shard you have in your mind, it was not meant for humans.” Joshi said while looking at the statue of the fire god and added “After I go through my treatment. I will fix it.”
Ari grimaced but before he could say anything Singh asked Joshi “So, Doctor Joshi, who was that shard made for?”
“The Khara. They are an octopus like species. Space travellers. They are very docile. Their neuro shards make them more aggressive. Their people use the neuro shard to on their guardians and soldiers. Obviously they also have three brains so they can still reason better than humans.”
Singh raised his eyebrows and looked at Ari “Okay. We will need to fix that after you get some sleep.”
Ari shook his head “I am okay Singh.”
“Bullshot." Singh stopped when his curse came out mangled and quickly shook his head "You are swaying on your feet, commander. It’s time to rest.”
Ari sighed and looked at the boys resting in the corner and hesitated “What about you?”
Singh stretched until his back popped and answered “I will give the boys another hour or so. Then I will kick them awake and rest myself.”
Ari looked at his friend and nodded. After a moment of thought, he walked to a corner away from the boys. He sat down and leaned on a wall and said “Wake me up in an hour, Singh.”
Singh replied with something but he didn’t catch it. His friend was up and everything could wait till he got an hour’s worth of rest.
Ari woke up with loud excited voices. One was enthusiastic. The one sounded annoyed.
“Can you imagine the possibilities? This could help so many people back home.” Abesh asked.
Singh scowled “You don’t have to sound so awestruck, kid. What’s next? Are you going to join the man’s cult?”
“Come on, Singh. Joshi said that he will activate a boon in and around the temple. Then all non fatal wounds will heal on their own wherever we are near the temple.”
Singh growled “How can you even believe that? The man is crazy. He is on fire. And mad.”
Ari saw Abesh open his mouth to respond and growled in frustration “Stop it, both of you. Not another word.”
He saw both of the men turn to look at him and wince. Nobody liked waking up their commander, especially when they woke up in a bad mood. And if he wasn’t in a bad mood, he was getting there.
Ari continued in a hissing voice “We are stuck here in an unknown world with enemies all around us. And you both are busy sniping at each other. I need you to get on the same page and focus. Understood?”
Singh nodded and stood at attention “Yes, sir.”
Abesh hesitated for an instant and then saluted “Yes, commander.”
There was a jar thrust at him suddenly from the side. He looked up and saw Nameer holding it up for him.
“Water, sir?”
Ari nodded a thanks. The navy boy was good. They always told him that naval officers knew exactly how to keep their superiors and there ship running without a hitch and he was seeing it here in person.
Ari drained the jar and watched Nameer fill it up with a water skin? Where had the boy found that ancient thing? Ari sipped the refill and looked at his men.
“Okay. Good! Now that we are on the same page, does anyone want to highlight any other issues to me?”
Nameer hesitantly raised his hand, getting an annoyed look from all of them. He soldiered on.
“Sir, umm… The scientist on fire. Again?”
Ari looked at Nameer blankly and then followed the boy’s pointing finger.
Joshi was indeed on fire. He was standing on one of the statues upturned hands and he was on fire. He looked strangely serene in posture with his hands held behind him and his head lifted at the sky. He looked like he was contemplating a deep thought while looking at the stars.
Ari took a sip of the water and then asked “Wait, did you say again?”
“Yes, sir. He was on fire when we woke up. A couple of hours ago he came out of it. Then he climbed back up and went whoosh again.”
Ari looked at Singh who was hiding a smile and grumbled “Great. You let me sleep for more than an hour didn’t you?”
Singh nodded “You needed it commander.”
Ari sighed “Any other issue?”
Nameer cleared his throat again “Sir, with the fire all around us. I can’t gather any more water from the air in here. We will need to go out to do that.”
Ari looked at Nameer and saw his shoulders deflated.
“That mad man is going to get us killed.” Singh muttered under his breath.
Ari closed his eyes “Singh. That man has created a safe forward operating base for us in the last two days. He has healed us. He has fought alongside us and he has kept us safe. I will not tolerate you or anyone maligning the doctor anymore.”
What was left unsaid was, in front of the boys. They could curse out the doctor in private amongst each other and they would. But outwardly they needed to portray a united front.
Singh took in a breath and exhaled slowly “Yes sir. And you’re right sir. I am just frustrated with his answers.”
“I understand that Singh. That is why I need you all to follow me. I am going to find someone to answer our questions.”
Ari turned around and began walking out of the temple. His men fell in behind him. They did not say anything to each other. Most probably to avoid their commanders ire. It just gave Ari a moment to collect himself. He took in a deep breath and when the expected pain did not come he smiled to himself. He was healed. He felt great. And now, he had to get the rest of his men here to heal them. So many good loyal soldiers who protected his country could get a second chance if only he could somehow get them here.
Three loud staccato sounds jolted him out of his thoughts.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Ari looked up. They were at the door and dust and smoke flew up into the air from deeper inside the abandoned city in explosive blooms.
“Mortars.” Singh announced while looking at the impact zone.
“Yes! It kills the soulless faster.”
Ari’s eyes focussed on a man sitting just outside the temple. He was larger than the rest but his smiling face and greying beard made him look like a kind grandfather. A grandfather who had cold bottles of an orange drink in an ice bucket in front of him.
The man continued “It’s not so much the projectiles you see. It’s the payload. It disrupts the potentiality in an area. That makes the enthralled fall to dust like puppets with their strings cut.”
Ari looked at the man with squinting eyes. His hud wasn’t highlighting the man’s name.
“Oh where are my manners.” The large man smacked himself on his forehead and introduced himself “I am Jay 7. The mentor of the continuum.”
“Mentor?” Singh asked.
“Yes, I am a trainer, warrior and a commander, when needed.” Jay 7 explained with a smile.
He popped a cap of a bottle with a thumb and offered it to them “Orange blast?”
Ari looked at the bottle and the man for a moment. Then with a shrug walked to him. He took the bottle and concentrated on his words so that they would come out right.
“I am Inspector General Arivarsaan of the NSG Commandoes from India.”
Jay 7 smiled “Good, a soldier. For a moment I thought you all were all civilians. You know like the ones we rescued? One has to be politically correct while talking to civis. They are all so touchy.”
Ari took a sip of the orange drink and then looked at it. It tasted like Fanta but it’s label said Orange Blast with a meaningless tagline that said, more orange for every blast.
“You know, I was going to let one of my people deal with you then someone told me that you were fellow Sindhus. So, I had to come and see fellow countrymen from a different universe.” Jay 7 said with a smile.
Ari choked on the mouthful of the cold drink “Different universe?”
Jay 7 grinned as he handed drinks over to his men “Ah, the priest didn’t tell you did he? Agni and his creatures do that. They leave out the important stuff.”
Jay 7 looked around and at his people. His eyes focussed on Nameer and the locket he was wearing. He pointed at it “That is a tabeez isn’t it? Are you a descendant of the Arabians?”
Nameer looked at the cyborg and put his drink down “I am a Muslim. Is that a problem?”
Jay 7 snorted “No. Of course not. It’s just, I haven't seen one of your kind for half a century. It’s a shame what happened to your people.” He took a sip and explained “Half of you were killed by the zulus and the other half, well you displaced and then the westerners wanted your land. Basically it ended badly.”
Nameer looked at the man blankly.
Jay 7 waved his words aside “At least that’s what happened in my world. I hear that in your world, Sindh was conquered?”
Ari nodded “Yes, it was. First by the Mughals. Then by the British and the Portuguese.”
Jay 7 nodded “Shame that. What if I can make sure that never happens again?”
Ari saw a shift in his men. They were all weary of the large man but now their guards were up.
Jay also saw the shift and smiled.
“You come from a nation that has the second largest military in your world. I need soldiers like you to fight the creatures you fought earlier. In return I will let them collect shards from their kills. Obviously we will have the first take on the rare shards but I think your leaders, the kings, emperors, or the ruling nobility would want super soldiers. I will offer you that.”
Abesh stepped forward “We come from a democracy. That means people rule, not some sort of a king.”
Jay 7 chuckled “Child, do you actually believe that? Sure, you elect a king every decade or so. Do you know who that helps? The ruling class. Your democracy means that instead of getting decapitated, your kings get dethroned. Peacefully. Then they get to come back again. It’s all a farce.”
Ari looked at Singh who gave him a look which said, the man has a point.
“That’s bull dung.” Abesh spat out.
“Is it? Then why aren’t your superiors contradicting me?” Jay 7 asked while pointing his bottle at Ari and Singh.
Ari stepped forward and in a stiff voice said “Sir, however we govern ourselves doesn't matter.”
Jay 7 looked at Ari for a moment and nodded “True. But what matters is that you all are stuck here with no way to go back home. I can send you back home but that will take a lot of resources. I will not waste those resources if I don’t see a return on them.”
“And by return you mean soldiers. Men and women who can fight zombies?” Ari asked.
“Zombies? Oh you mean the enthralled soulless. No, those are just vermin. I mean the Nishachars you fought earlier and the Vetaals.”
Ari took in a sharp breath “I don’t think we are capable enough to do that.”
“No one is, at first. But then you learn and you create squads. Then you all get shards and then you fight them one on one. Like you did.”
Ari exhaled “That was hard, sir.”
“Yes, it is supposed to be. You are in the trials. Everything here is a trial.”
Ari opened his mouth and closed it. He wanted to punch this piece of trash and tell him to take his deal and shove it but he stopped himself. His shard was making him volatile again. He had good soldiers wasting away back home. He knew that every one of them would happily volunteer to fight if they could cure themselves and become super soldiers.
Jay 7 nodded “Think about it. Athena 45, my second is offering the same deal to the blackie zulu from your world. They tell me that there is no zulu empire in your world. Maybe we can start one. Whichever one of you agrees first, will get a door to their world.”
Ari closed his eyes, took in a large breath and opened it. He saw Jay 7 turning around to walk away and grabbed his hand.
“One minute sir.”
Jay 7 slowly turned around looking from Ari’s hand to his torso and touched the metallic piece over his eyebrow. In a measured voice he ordered.
“Everyone, calm down. Don’t shoot our guests.”
Ari looked at his chest and saw laser dots all over his torso. He quickly released Jay 7’s arm and took a step back with his hands raised upwards.
Jay 7 asked impatiently “Yes, what do you want to ask?”
“Our people. The ones with you. When can we have them back?”
The cyborg sighed “You can’t. They are warders. I need them to open a way to the asura so that I can kill it.”
Ari clenched his jaw “You plan to sacrifice them.”
“Yes. There are two ways out of the trials for us. One is with the blessing of a yaksha. The other way is to kill an asura. I will kill that asura and lead my people out of here.” Jay 7 announced.
“Is there no other way? Maybe speak with the priest of the yaksha. Reason with him?”
“No.” Jay 7 answered instantly and then snorted “I see what you are trying to do. You are trying to humanise a yaksha. They are not human, commander. They are elemental in nature and their goals are complicated.”
“So, don’t humanise gods?” Ari asked with a smile.
Jay chuckled “Oh, they are not gods. Most of them work hard not to become one. Gods are beholden to their worshippers. Yakshas like their freedom.”
“So the boy sir, that is going to be a problem.” Ari said while putting his hands down “He is the son of a.. Of a… How do I put this?”
Jay 7 nodded “A noble.”
Ari hastily nodded “Yes a noble. Also the one responsible for sending us here.”
Jay 7 shrugged “Is he important?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think he is even disgraced but his mother, the noble, wants him back.”
“Tell her to get another one. This one will serve his use soon.”
“Sir.” Ari started to reason but was cut off with Jay 7’s bionic arm.
“The choice is yours commander. A door to your world for soldiers or not? That is all.”
Jay 7 turned around and stomped away.
They all looked at the retreating form of Jay 7 and with Ari walked back into the temple, away from the guns.
As soon as they reached indoors Nameer let out a breath explosively “That... That was scary. Honestly commander, who knew those guys would go from zero to a hundred knots in a second.”
“You did. Didn’t you commander?” Singh asked Ari.
Ari nodded “We needed to see their response time and how many had us in their sights.”
Abesh nodded “I counted twelve.”
“Sixteen. Four of them were flanking us on the left.” Singh corrected.
“Did you notice that their stories didn’t line up?” Ari asked everyone.
“You mean that their General has different motivations from this mentor? Yeah. One wants to turn our lost lambs into yakshas and the other wants them to be canon fodder.” Singh elaborated.
“Also, the lady general, she had different soldiers. Their armour was more refined?” Abesh asked.
Nameer nodded “Yeah, it was a lot less bulky and without the sharp edges.”
“It was scaled.” Ari nodded.
Singh tapped his lips “How does that work? Scaled modern armour?”
“I don’t know.” Ari tapped his foot “I also don’t know what those two have gotten themselves in but what I know is that we need new orders.”
Abesh looked at the commander “Sir, you can’t be thinking about taking the deal. They are racists.”
“I am, and I need to before Mbungwa takes it.”
Singh looked at Ari and nodded “You are right. It’s us or them.”
Ari sighed “Isn’t it always?”