Sheetal walked Colonel Ari to the back of the hospital. She watched him take in the sight. The setting sun made the scene hauntingly beautiful. She had asked others what they saw when they looked at the motes. Some said they looked every other felt awed. But everyone she knew had been mesmerised by them.
Even Dr Joshi who tried to see logic in everything had just stood them and watched. After a while he had muttered “Its like a yard full of fairy lights, floating in the air and calling us out to grasp for knowledge.”
Sheetal looked at Colonel Ari who had been walking with her trying to avoid the elephant in the room and took pity on him by starting the conversation.
“So what do you think?”
Colonel Ari wet his lips “They feel dangerous.”
Sheetal nodded “This is the first time you have seen them. People have that reaction sometimes.”
“Yes, I was busy sorting stuff out to come and look at them before. Although, I did hear that some of my boys had a reaction to them.”
“Yes, I heard one of your captains spoke to Dr Joshi about one of the motes. He and Dr Joshi seem to have gotten tied together.” Sheetal smiled at the dark man.
Colonel Ari smiled and then his eyes locked on a mote “That one. It is grey.”
“More mercurial.” Sheetal responded and explained “Like the metal. Funny thing, that one. You would think that it would fade into the background because of its colour but every one of them are like…”
Colonel Ari nodded “Yeah, its like everything is sharper here. That’s what scares me. As a commando I have been trained to ignore distractions to look for sharp or pointy things. Then why do my senses keep telling me that the pointiest thing here are these things floating in the air.”
Sheetal watched Colonel Ari turn and twitch. Sheetal turned her wheelchair around to follow his gaze. All she saw from her vantage point was a bunch of soldiers.
“What is it?” Sheetal asked.
“It’s that, kid.” Colonel Ari spat out the last word like it was a curse and asked “What is his deal?”
“He is the son of Kavita Stalin. And Dr Joshi says he has some skills.”
“He is a killer.”
Sheetal snorted.
Colonel Arivarsaan looked at her and smiled gently “Doctor, that boy. I have seen people like him. We keep them out of our units. They are…”
“Sociopaths?” Sheetal held up her hand and smiled back “I know, colonel. I laughed because it seems you haven’t seen the viral video of him killing a guy in Myanmar. He is some sort of a hero on the black sites.”
Colonel Ari leaned back “Huh. Well, I just thought you should know.”
Sheetal smiled and asked “Are your men ready?”
“Yes, thank you for getting us the two days we needed to sort things out.” Colonel Ari looked at the motes and chuckled “You know what the biggest delay was? Choosing the motes. You shouldn’t have given us the thermal temperatures, the spectrographic reading and that other thing.”
“The density mapping graphs?”
“Yeah. We are soldiers, doctor. We are men of action. You gave us all these readings and we started to argue about their colours, the temperatures, and even the wind density and why and how feasible it would be to move them.”
Sheetal grinned “So, how did you all sort it out?”
“Dr Joshi helped. He told us to pick the ones which called out to us. For the ones who wanted the same mote we settled things with a coin toss.”
Sheetal was a bit disappointed with the answer.
“Hey wheels!”
Sheetal heard the call and sighed.
Colonel Ari grimaced “Why do you let him call you that?”
Sheetal gave him a pained smile “Just relax. If you just ignore him, he gets bored and goes away.”
“That is not going to be as easy as you think.”
Colonel Ari muttered as Ashoka pumped his hands and rolled himself faster towards them on a wheelchair.
Ashoka skidded his wheelchair to a stop next to Sheetal and grinned at her “Hey, Wheels. These are some nice wheels.”
“Is that my…?”
“Your other wheelchair? Yup. This is better. Why do you roll around on a battery powered, over engineered thing.”
Sheetal closed her eyes and visibly calmed herself.
“Wheels, Colonel Boring, have you been talking about me?” Ashoka asked with a grin.
“Yes.” Colonel Ari responded instantly.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Well, I have been thinking about you too? Why do you have an army rank if you are a commando?”
Ari scowled “Because I have cancer. I am not cleared for commando duty. I was transferred to the army to live out my time on earth.”
“Oh for crying out loud! I knew this mission was bad but sending me out there with soldiers with a death wish. I should have never killed that guy. Or at least I should have changed before doing that.”
Sheetal grimaced “Is there a reason you are here Ashoka?”
“Yes, I am coming with you. You know all the best glow balls here. I am picking the ones you choose.”
Colonel Ari sighed “I will be leaving you then. I picked the silver grey one. And so did most of my men.”
Sheetal looked at him and nodded “We start in ten minutes. I go first. Then you and your men.”
Colonel Ari pursed his lips “Aren’t you going to reconsider? It should be us before the civilians.”
“Don’t worry Colonel Generic, I will keep her company.” Ashoka added before any of them could respond.
“Didn’t you just a few days ago think that this was suicide?” Colonel Ari asked in a heated voice.
“I still do. But I am now going with the person who knows best out these glowy thingies. That raises my survivability at least by ten percent. So, I am the smartest.”
“No, you are a conniving little weasel.” Colonel Ari loomed over Ashoka and Ashoka just grinned back.
Colonel Arivarsaan took a step back and asked Sheetal “Anything I can do for you doctor before…” He let his words hang as he looked at the poll of glowing motes illuminating the dark lawn.
“No, thank you Colonel. It was nice that you walked me here.” Sheetal smiled.
The colonel snapped her a salute and with a glare at Ashoka walked away.
Sheetal turned herself around and started moving towards her chosen mote. She heard Ashoka roll himself forward behind her and asked.
“You are not going to go away, are you?”
“Nope.”
“How did you get my athletics wheelchair?”
“It was just standing there.”
“In my room.” Sheetal let him catch up.
“Yeah, but your door was open.”
“Everybody’s who is going to go into the experiment has their door open. It’s so that we can get to their personal effects in case they pass.” Sheetal found her voice rising and visibly calmed herself.
“Well, not mine.” Ashoka responded with an impish smile.
Sheetal gave him an annoyed look.
“Hey, I have my sex toys in there. I don’t want anyone to see those or pass them on to anyone.” Ashoka shot back.
Sheetal opened her mouth and closed it.
“Why don’t you have any sex toys?”
Sheetal’s eye widened “You did not go through my things.”
“I did. Why do you have a CNC machine in your bathroom?”
“It need water. Why were you in my room?”
Ashoka looked around and then covertly scooted ahead in his chair. He flipped us the back of his t-shirt and revealed two baton like objects tucked in his back.
Sheetal stopped her chair and turned towards him “What? How do you even know… Why? What?”
“Wheels. Take a breath.”
“Why do you call me that?”
“What, wheels within wheels? Because its true.”
Looking at the blank look Sheetal gave Ashoka, he explained.
“Look, you think you run this place. Your word matters. And to some extent you do. But you and I are both aware of the fact that there are external factors who are interested in this place. And they might be doing similar experiments, somewhere else. That is why they take all your detailed reports and your findings. They also come back with advice which strangely works every time. So, that is why I believe that there is someone guiding the collective effort. And that someone is..."
"Your mother?" Sheetal asked in a deadpan voice.
"Oh, I hope not. She has no imagination." Ash said sotto-voce and then continued in a normal tone "I think we have a master with a bigger wheel churning it clockwise and anticlockwise. And you are on wheels. So, wheels within wheels.”
Sheetal blinked and leaned back “Huh. That sort of made sense in a crazy sort of way. It's wrong but okay."
Ashoka sighed “That’s what one of my strengths. I see past the nonsense.”
“Really?” Sheetal leaned forward “What do you see around you right now?”
Ashoka grinned at her and began pointing his hand around “High-definition cameras 50 yards away, other sort cameras much closer, all designed to see past the flesh and look at what’s happening inside us. Do you expect us to fail?”
“Is that it?” Sheetal ignored his question and pointed at the motes floating just a few meters away “What about them?”
Ashoka gave her a discerning look and stopped grinning “On the surface they are vibrantly coloured tiny motes of lights bobbing up and down without any rhyme or reason. But they are more…”
Ashoka’s voice deepened as he looked at them and his fingers twitched “They are responding to something, a sound that is guiding them. Or maybe I am just trying to mess with you.”
Sheetal looked into Ashoka’s eyes “Does that sound, sound like a hum?”
Ashoka leaned back “Oh, thank my glorious ears. For a few days there I thought there was something wrong with them. Every time I came around here, I could barely hear anyone over the sounds.”
“No, you are not going crazy, some of us can hear…”
“Crazy? I am not crazy. I will never go crazy. I am too awesome…”
“Shut up! Did you say sounds? Like in plural? Not just one?” Sheetal asked Ashoka with a fierce look.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”
“Because, I am too awesome to be crazy?” Ashoka shrugged.
“For god's sake. What is wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
Sheetal shot her hand out and grabbed Ashoka by his t-shirt to pull him towards her. He was surprisingly firm under his clothes. Still, he leaned forwards humoring Sheetal. And then ruined the effect by sticking out his tongue at her.
Sheetal growled “Listen you spoilt child. This experiment is the work of my life. If you have harmed it by not volunteering information, I will pummel you to the ground.”
Ashoka opened his mouth and muttered “Holy crap! They always told me that your kind existed, but I never thought I would meet one.”
“What?”
“A mad scientist. One who would do anything for an experiment. Not the comic book Hollywood version, a real life one. The one who would look past the pesky moral issues, the should nots, and towards a greater vision. So that’s what you have been hiding?”
Sheetal let Ashoka go and rolled her eyes “I am not a mad scientist.”
“Of course you are not.”
Sheetal turned her wheelchair around and rolled towards her destination in silence contemplating Ashoka’s words. They had hit too close to home. She had broken contact with her family, cow towed to the government and was now responsible for sending soldiers to their deaths.
“You know, it's not wrong to be selfish.”
Sheetal jolted up.
Ashoka continued “So, you want to walk again? It’s okay. You did everything to do that? That’s okay too. Everyone is here because they want to be here. What you are reflecting on is what societies archetypes. Dr Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll, and that vampire doctor from Hollywood. This is real life. We don’t dice up people. That is just messy.”
“Are you trying to make me feel better?”
“Yes. Also, sounds from the glow balls is kind of driving me nuts. So can you start talking and screaming again, please.”
Sheetal stopped “Dammit. Shut up. You’ll make me lose my train of thought again. The sound, come with me.”
Ashoka followed her with his curiosity peaked.
Sheetal sped towards a brown mote and asked “What does this one sound like?”
“Like a rumbling.... Brudadadadadada... Sort of sound.” Ash made the strange noise and the people watching him hid their smiles.
Everyone but Sheetal. She rolled herself to an orange one and asked “What does this one sound like?”
“Like a hiss. You know like water droplet on a pan.”
“And this one?”
“It’s red. It sounds like lava.”
Sheetal raised an eyebrow and then rolled herself to a grey mote.
Ashoka grimaced “That one, its… It starts with metal clanking and then transitions to whizzing blades, to thwacking, to drums. No not drums, explosions?”
Sheetal looked at Ashoka.
“What?”
“You said that you heard a sound. That all can’t come from a sound.”
“Now, do you understand why it is so annoying to be here?”
“No. But hold on.” Sheetal reached in her wheelchair bag and picked up a radio unit.
“Dr Joshi, did you get all that?”
“Yes, Sheetal.” A loudspeaker mounted on the hospital announced “Take him to the blue ones next.”
“No need. The clear blue one sounds like trickling water, the green blue one sounds like waves, and the deep blue one sounds like depth and drowning. The bluish white one sounds like a whoosh and the white one's sound like air.”
“Oh, my.”
“So, am I awesome or what?”
“Or what.”
“Hey!”
“You need to take him to them Sheetal.” Doctor Joshi said on Sheetal’s radio.
Sheetal nodded “Come with me.”
Ashoka followed Sheetal as she delicately maneuvered herself past the crowding motes to a space where they began to space out.
“Oh, you are taking me to the whistling ones.” Ashoka stated.
“Whistling ones?”
“Yeah, I found them yesterday when I tried to get away from the chaotic noises. Their melody keeps the other ones away.”
Sheetal stopped in front of six motes. Before she could ask Ashoka began to explain.
“The two golden ones on the right bobbing up and down tinkle and chime. The two in the middle, they alternate between a nothing when they are black and thuds when they are red. The ones on the left they are the ones that whistle.”
Sheetal looked at the motes in question “They are silver with streaming colours. Is the whistling melody caused when they change colours or is it because they are spiraling each other.?”
“No, they are both whistling together. We should pick these ones”
“Why?” Sheetal didn’t deny him but asked.
“Which ones were you going to pick?”
Sheetal eyes wandered to the golden motes.
“Seriously? What are you, a rapper? You see gold and you got to have that?”
Sheetal rolled her eyes with a smile “I will take your advice if you give me a valid reason.”
Ashoka looked at the motes for a moment with a pinched expression.
“I don’t know. They feel the most complete ones here and we should really grab them before the guys listening to us decide they want to store them for someone more important.”
Sheetal eyes went to a red painted metal rod, a marker to mark distance, and also a microphone.
“Okay, lets do it.” Sheetal nodded.
Ashoka grinned and rolled his wheelchair around the motes until he was facing Sheetal. He watched as Sheetal held her hand up and hesitated. Ashoka brought his palm to the mote and they stopped spiraling.
“Together?” Ashoka asked.
Sheetal steeled herself and placed her hand next to the now stilled mote. She took in a breath and nodded “In one, two, Three!”