[Short Story Science Fiction – A WAR IS COMING]
A WAR IS COMING – Short Story Science Fiction
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The spaceship tore the air as it descended into the dwarf planet’s atmosphere, the sun sank below the horizon.
“we have been cleared for landing in the planet, commander.”
“location?” the commander inquired
“east quarter , zelton bay, 146th arena ,port 7 as been allocated for us” replied the young man, still fixing his gaze upon the control panel
“ 17 minutes to landing then” the commander rested his hands on both side of his seat and frowned across the transparent weather shield windows as he admired the magnificient view of the planet
“so nathiran, atleast now will you tell me why” said the young man as he turned to face his commander
“what?” he replied
Shaking his head in disbelief , he rose from his chair and put up a more serious tone “there is a war brewing out their “ he pointed towards a random direction as he said so “the vyoman’s have declared war on us… they might attack any of earth’s 7 colonies at any moment… you and your troop of soldiers are supposed to defend one such colony ,planet rikta, remember?” he said with an hint of sarcasm,and then continued “I never questioned you when you asked me to accompany you,but I don’t understand why we are flying to this rock of a planet out of the war zone”. There was a brief pause filled with awkward silence ,and then he continued again “you might be the youngest commander in earth’s history ,but you were my friend before you became that .i cannot question my orders from higher authority but as a friend I’m asking you…what are we doing here mate?”
Nathiran broke his silence and gave a wry smile ,and then he spoke in a soft hushed tone “I can understand your curiosity yashwanth. i was merely waiting for the right time for explanation
“this seems as right a time as any” said yashwanth
Nathiran continued “in order to make it more understandable I have to recollect a few events from the past two years.as you known ,a man from our planet earth discovered a new planet two years back.it was rich and abundant in natural resources . earth rightfully claimed it as one of its colonies and named it kepler-35b “
“yes, I do remember that “ nodded yashwanth
“but the vyomans didn’t appove of it . they put forth a counter argument that kepler-35b inhabits animals and other lower beings which closely resembles the common cattles of planet vyoman ,both genetically and physically. They now claim that kepler-35b biologically relates to vyoman and by which it should be declared as one of their colonies”
“their claim isn’t bad either “ yashwanth interrupted “I mean, if kepler-35b as almost the same kind of life form as vyoman ,then both planets are related .but then again,we discovered it first. In order to obtain unbiased judgment, a third neutral party as to proceed the case
“exactly” nathiran pointed out as both men took their respective seats “that’s why the hundred and eight major races along with humans and vyoman’s formed a governing body known as “ united galactic federation “ which functions much like the UNO in earth . UGF took up the case and announced kepler-35b as a neutral zone and that none shall claim over it until the judgment as been passed . two days ago something terrible happened ,something that plunged us all into an inter-galactic war much like the world war in the ancient times of earth”
Yashwanth leaned forward to listen more carefully as nathiran continued
“ an unknown terrorist organization as destroyed the planet kepler-35b to fuel the hatred between earth and vyoman . the UGF’s guardian ships arrived late and the terrorists escaped in their battleships ,but the vyoman’s refused to believe that it’s the work of terrorists and blamed it all on us for destroying the planet, unable to digest the rumours of possible victory for vyoman’s . Since the terrorists escaped, we didn’t have sufficient proof to prove them wrong . now all we need is an evidence so that UGF might support us over vyomans”
Yashwanth shrank back in his seat “but you still haven’t told me why we are here “
Nathiran begun even before he finished his sentence “this morning I received a message from my twin brother ,he is one of the most prominent scientists working for UGF… he said his recent invention will help us stop the war…he said he as a plan which should only be secretly executed… I was supposed to come alone… but I brought you with me coz I trust you “
Yashwanth spoke “ but how….we are hours , maybe even minutes away from war. I can hardly think of any possible solutions your brother might come up with”
“ask me no further, for I know none above what I told you . I am as curious and inquisitive as you are” at that moment the AI control system blared out the landing announcement . the two men regained their controls and carefully maneuverd the spacecraft to a smooth landing .
yashwanth turned towards nathiran “whatever your borther’s plan might be, I just hope they are good enough to invest precious time upon”
they exchanged a quick glance while the spaceship touched down.
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The profound complexity and the astronomical level of impossiblness nailed nathiran and yashwanth to the floor. They were awestruck by the mere scale of the plan that the entire plan itself took a while to sink into their heads .
“c-c-come again” stumbled nathrian
“this was excpected” the twin brother muttered under his breath as he went and slouched in his chair.
Nathiran spoke again ,now with a clear voice “abiran, come on you have to be more clear than that,we don’t have much time “
Abiran sighed and then proceeded “ there is a parallel universe for every possibility of a situation, see for example consider a situation where you ,while walking along a road in the woods come across a cave . at this point two possible situations may occur
One, You enter the cave and get killed by the lion inside
Two, You ignore the cave and take a different path
now, say for example in our universe you choose to ignore the cave but in another alternate universe you walk into the cave foolishly and die . like this there are a number of possibilities for every situation and therefore each possibility occurs in its own universe
Yashwanth frowned and shook his head “go on”
“so there are are infinite number of universes where you and I exists but living under different situations and living different lives. There might be a poor you in one universe and a dead you in another . you might not even have reached my home yet in some other universe.
Nathiran was processing it all in his mind “ok I get it” he lied .” there is a universe for every possibility of a situation”
“now for the actual plan” abiran spoke softly, seemingly unaffected by the gripping tension of war.” By what you said, the UGF troops arrived later which subsequently lead to the escape of terrorists . but there is another possibility where the troops might have arrived earlier ,thereby stopping the terrorists. I recently invented a special spaceship which could open portals to alternate universes. With that we shall travel to that universe and stop the terrorists and bring them here and produce them before UGF
“but…” started yashwanth
“the terrorists wont even know we are from a parallel universe and the UGF or any others doesn’t have to know about my portal-ship.. we have no time to waste. I have tracked the path for the alternate universe…we have to get there before the UGF troops arrive ”
A series of loud noises and metal clang burst into the room . the AI security system gave a warning alarm about unauthorized intruders
“oh what fresh hell is this “abiran shouted angrily at the two of them
Yashwanth tried to explain “we came closer to a vyomen colony on our way here . some vyomen soldiers mistook us for spies and chased us. We thought we lost them near an asteroid belt ,but they seemed to have picked up our trail “
The three of them turned towards the direction of a more threatening sound .the vyoman soldiers blasted open the outer gates and were heading towards the room in which the three of them stood.
The trio loaded their laser guns with power crystals as they waited to massacre their enemies
“this would have been way more fun if we had more time “said abiran and smiled playfully at his twin brother
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A point of nothingness in space cleaved and a massive vortex of a dark substance spiraled and grew ,through which a spaceship emerged and headed towards kepler-35b
The space ship carrying abiran ,yashwanth and nathiran sailed towards the planet. Nathiran started explaining the plan “ok , from now on , it should be quite easy for us. There are only two terrorist ships and there should not be more than two in one ship. With our advanced battleship ,it should be easy for us to ….”
“wait…” shouted yashwanth
The twins turned towards the direction he pointed .there they saw a similar ship like theirs attacking the terrorist ships .the battle was already nearing its end. The terrorist ships took a massive hit. There were clearly some negotiations going on between the two parties. The terrorist ,seeing that their ship could not take another hit like that ,gave up the fight and surrendered. They were captured in a special space-pod and locked inside the look-alike ship . then the ship opened a portal and vanished into thin space
“unbelievable” abiran muttered under his breath “how could I have missed it”
“ do you care explaining to us too” yashwanth spoke in an irritated voice.
Abiran begun to explain as he crouched forward in his chair
“when we planned to travel to this universe and abduct the terrorists ,two possible situations arised as a consequence and therefore two universes
One, universe were the plan becomes successful and the other where it fails, the ones you just saw are the abiran , nathiran and yashwanth from an alternate universe who have just now executed the plan successfully , hence they belong to the first possibility which leaves us to be the 2nd possibility where the plan fails and war is never stopped in our universe
“and we were delayed due to the attack of vyoman soldiers which ultimately lead to our alternate selves coming here first and capturing the terrorists “ said yashwanth
Abiran nodded . a brief silence and immense disappointment filled the air .abiran started a portal for their journey back home
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EPILOGUE:
The ship neared “rikta” one of the earth’s colonies . nathiran could see an array of battleships floating in mid-space , all locked and loaded with sufficient ammunition, waiting for his command. He could also see hundreds of enemy ships approaching them . he gave a series of high pitched orders to his soldiers from his command module. Yashwanth disengaged from nathiran’s ship in his own battleship and joined the array of soldiers
“I couldn’t believe after all we have tried, we still couldn’t stop the war” abiran distracted nathiran “if they attack us ,then other planet races which have allied with us will attack them and their allies will attack us . soon most of the major planets will all be at war, an inter-galactic war . we are weaker than the vyoman’s ,we might lose.
Then nathiran spoke “if at all millions of years of evolution and history as taught us something ,it is that the size of an army never shifted the balance of war . to die defending your cause is more honourable than running away from war. Our universe might have fallen under the possibility were war was never stopped but I believe that it also falls under the possibility were we win the war.”
With that he turned to give his final orders to his soldiers before they plunged into full scale head to head-to-head combat
“fire everything you have got, fight for our women and children, fight to defend the honour of human race, fight to see the dawn of tomorrow”
With maximum thrust the hundreds of battleships moved forward to meet the enemy ships head on . and so begun the greatest war the universe has ever seen.
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