The Yoga Zapper--A Novel, page 28
The first wave of combatants clambered up the tight path. The monkeys, high on the mountain sides, uprooted huge boulders and sent them crashing on their heads. Hundreds of Raks lay crushed under these rocks, further constricting the pass. Kalki Avatar’s soldiers, though hugely outnumbered, fought bravely, without fear of death. The enemy came in waves, threatening to burst the dam created by the narrow pass, but just as the Avatar predicted, the bottleneck slowed the prodigious army.
Suddenly a rocket, two hundred feet long, screeched through the late afternoon’s dimming sun and struck one of the flying obelisks dead on in a thunderous, bludgeoning blast, smashing it into a million pieces which scattered straight up into the sky, resembling orange marmalade through which the sun crackled and sparkled.
“Hide yourselves!” shouted the Avatar. Steve and Jack jumped behind a rock as the Avatar’s army hid under their shields. The orange sky descended and millions of shards of crystal showered down, impaling hundreds of thousands of unfortunate enemy soldiers. They fell, screaming in pain as the translucent stones embedded in their heads, faces or torsos. In quick succession, the missiles destroyed other obelisk vimanas, which in turn sent even more knife-sharp crystals bombarding the enemy, causing uncountable causalities.
Kallin adjusted to the strange battle. He brought in large, slow-moving planes that set upon the flying flowers with great fury, pounding them with a strange dark venomous powder until they fell softly to the earth, poisoned, their once great orange and red petals turning a morbid brown.
The enemy shot exploding rockets, dozens at a time, shattering the bowl-shaped vimanas, and purple ceramic pieces, by the thousands, littered the ground. Other strange vessels took off from the enemy base. One, composed of two large, black carbon tubes, each about a hundred feet long, stuck together with a small cabin on top near the back, meandered slowly across the sky. Steve, fascinated, surveyed one of these absurd-looking craft with its hollow tubes and unwieldy appearance, slowly hunting, like a snail would a slug, a stretching and rolling mercury vimana in a herky-jerky motion. The chase looked comical, but the intent remained deadly. Blasts of fire shot out of the two barrels of the enemy machine. Hanuman watched with horror as the vimana turned red, gold, blue and boils appeared on its skin. It exploded in a ball of white gas; the mercury vaporized by the intense heat.
A similar fate befell the bubble vimanas. The enemy fetched large transparent balls filled with a clear liquid, loaded one into a howitzer, and before Hanuman understood what happened, shot it at a flying bubble. The round exploded just as it touched the vimana and drenched it with the liquid. The bubble instantly melted, dissolved by nothing more than sea water! Soon bursts of salt water filled the sky as the bubble vimanas disappeared.
Slowly but surely, Kallin pushed the Avatar’s soldiers back as the fighting became fiercer. The Avatar was correct about one thing though; the enemy aircraft provided little useful assistance, the pass being too narrow and his soldiers too well shielded. Kalki Avatar looked up in the sky, his thoughts moving to the rishi and the others in the grand vimana. It had disappeared with the dimming sun.
* * * * *
Standing on a rampart on the wall encircling the floating island, Steve examined the grand vimana. It contained marble palaces, their walls detailed with bas-reliefs of ancient battles and fantastic creatures, their golden spires reaching high into the air; pavilions with roofs in the oriental manner composed of a multitudes of eaves; small gardens of fruit trees with rounded bridges under which flowed flower-filled streams; pools with huge, red koi fish and courtyards paved with colored stones. In its middle rose a fantastic temple three hundred feet high, wide at the bottom and tapering at the top like an elongated pyramid, built with huge gold-gray stones, looking like a miniature Mount Meru which stands at the center of the universe. Small openings appeared at its top, one on each side. Gigantic doors opened in the front while enormous sculptures of lions stood on each side.
The setting sun, a large orange globe, shone low from the west and poured pure, strong light all over him while the atmosphere glistened a dark blue in the crisp, clear air. Dozens of large bird-shaped vimanas, piloted by young men and women, flew all around the floating island, their iridescent plumage sparkling, splintering the setting sunlight into a million multicolored shards, ready to join the battle below. Shanti appeared in a bubble vimana, while one of the few remaining obelisk-shaped craft followed her. Steve waved her a kiss and she did the same. He would have joined her, but he and Jack had a more important mission.
He glanced below. The mountains danced in shades of white and blue, with large patches of ochre where they gave way to the plains. A smudge became visible at the entrance to the pass. Did they fight the battle there, he wondered. He watched the tableau, spellbound, until it darkened and tiny spots of lights started winking below, understanding them to be bursts from the infantry’s ordnance. Even in the gathering dusk, the battle raged! Occasionally, larger bursts of light flashed, either when a howitzer round exploded or when a mystical weapon from the Avatar found its target.
“Steve, come here,” shouted Jack. Steve rushed down to the courtyard, joining his brother and eight other young men, just as Parvata Rishi started speaking.
“These young men will help you destroy the moon-base,” Parvata Rishi informed him with a sweep of his arm. Steve inspected his accomplices. In keeping with the nature of the community, they displayed diverse backgrounds, origins, and races. All stood proud and strong. He shook his head at their bravery. Most of them would not make it back.
“Are you ready for your mission?” the rishi asked the brothers.
“Of course,” replied Jack.
Steve hesitated. An unexpected tightening of the chest, a catching of his breath occurred. His face reddened and he averted his eyes from the rishi.
“What is it, young man?” questioned the rishi.
Steve didn’t know what to say. An awkward moment followed. He hated to bring things up, yet he had no choice. How could he explain his feelings about Jack? This was a serious mission, where they all needed to depend on each other. Jack spent his life running away from responsibilities and, despite claims to the contrary, he hadn’t seen much to contradict his opinion. Could he trust Jack with his life?
“I hope my brother is equal to the mission,” he replied softly, looking down on the ground.
Jack eyed him, shocked, the color draining from his face. The words cut him. He questioned Steve with knotted eyes.
“There is a lot at stake here,” said Steve matter-of-factly, glancing at his brother. “At the battlefield, you flew away, leaving me alone to protect Shanti. It really upset me.”
Jack gulped. “I’m sorry Steve. I screwed up again. All I can say is that I can do better. I’m trying to change, but obviously it doesn’t come easily. But I promise you, I’m not going to run away from anything.”
A crease formed on Parvata Rishi’s forehead. “Steve, are you sure you want to go ahead with this mission?”
Steve slowly nodded his head. What choice did he have? “Well, let’s go.”
“My sons,” the rishi instructed the ten young men. “You are entrusted with a most important task, a feat that will determine victory or defeat. Kallin’s power is dependent on his moon-base where his machines collect information that lead his forces to victory. Your objective is to destroy this base.” He looked gravely at the young men. “This is a dangerous task and chances are some, if not most, of you may not return.”
None moved.
The rishi produced some maps. “This will give you the location of the base. According to our General Contog, the machines are hidden deep within a cave in this particular area of the moon,” he said, pointing to the southern part of the satellite. “You have to destroy it as soon as possible. Now please ascend to your craft.”
Ten large bird-shaped vimanas slowly ascended to the moon.
* * * * *
“Sir, we have reports from our satellites that several airships lifted off that huge station in the sky,” remarked the national security advisor.
“What?” exclaimed the Hand of God. “Didn’t our reports say that it was unoccupied?’
“It looks like a group of persons relocated there just recently and that no one remains in the valley.”
“Interesting. Why would they move from the valley to the flying station? Maybe we’re getting too close to them.”
“But who are they? Why do they not engage in battle? Why would they need protection?”
Kallin stroked his beard. “Maybe we’ve had this wrong the whole time. Maybe the secret isn’t in the valley, it’s with those people.”
“Of course!”
“I will send ships to occupy the flying station and take them prisoner.”
“And what about the flying vessels?”
“We’ll send our interceptor satellites to handle them,” remarked Kallin, smiling.
* * * * *
“Are we there yet?” asked Steve. Over twenty hours had passed.
“Almost,” replied Jack.
In space, the wings of the bird-craft spread out enormously, sparkling brilliantly, billowing, looking like enormous butterflies, collecting radiation from the sun and flying at inconceivable speed towards the moon.
Steve looked at his map on the console. “We should be at the moon any time now.”
Suddenly, beams of high energy streaked by. They stopped.
“Where did they come from?” demanded Steve.
“They look like spaceships,” exclaimed Jack peering at the console, “Coming to shoot us down.”
The dozen rectangular enemy satellites, the size of trucks, bristling with cannon and rockets pointing at all directions, moved at them with great speed and incredible agility. They fired at all angles and at several targets simultaneously. Six surrounded the leading vimana and pummeled it with shot until it fell, a flaming wreck, to the moon’s surface.
The vimanas responded by shrinking in size. Their huge wings retreated into their bases in the bottom of the craft, their necks shortened considerably until they only jutted slightly out and their fuselages shrunk to half their original sizes. The vimanas, with their reduced dimensions, almost matched the enemy craft in agility and speed.
A fierce battle ensued. Steve followed an enemy craft, shooting rays from the wings of his craft, but it turned on a dime and his shots flew harmlessly into space.
“Jack,” shouted Steve. “Let’s do something quickly. Otherwise, we’ll all be shot down in no time at all.” Indeed, another explosion thundered as a second vimana shattered.
“Stay in one place and I’ll chase an enemy ship towards you.”
“Are you sure? It sounds dangerous.”
“We need to do something before we’re all destroyed.” Indeed, the space battle turned against them. Enemy spaceships buzzed around a third vimana, surrounding it, aiming to overpower it with their numbers.
Jack flew towards the besieged vimana and chased one of the enemy craft, shooting at it. The trick worked. It flew right into Steve’s line of fire and exploded as bolts of energy hit it. The others caught on. The battle evolved into a giant cat and mouse game, with the vimanas chasing the enemy from one to another, while the enemy flew off in bunches to set upon a solitary vimana like a pack of wolves.
They finally won the battle, but what a cost! Four of the vimanas were shot down, their brilliant wings torn off, their heads blown away, their remains lying on the moon’s surface, looking like dead dragonflies on the drab lunar dust.
But they received one bit of good news—the cave where Kallin hid his moon-base came into view, not more than twenty miles away. Steve studied the map again. It showed a large crater and on its bottom, along the eastern side, a large black spot circled in red.
He slowed down as the crater’s wall came into view. He stopped his craft and the other vimanas collected around him.
“Do you see it,” he asked Jack. A dark hole showed on the far side of the crater, just as the maps detailed. An installation of some sort, like a fortress, along with satellite dishes and several long metal buildings appeared at its entrance, probably providing living quarters, engineering shops and the like, deduced Steve.
“What should we do?”
“Let’s spread out. That will give us a chance to escape if attacked.”
“Yes, that makes sense.”
They slowly approached, not more than five miles away, lined up like a bow, with Steve and Jack at each end, and four others between them. The formation looked beautiful, the six vimanas sparkling with color, their thin shiny butterfly wings slowly beating, suspended in the blackness of space, the harsh sunlight glinting at them from behind the gray, colorless moon.
Suddenly four rockets escaped from the long buildings below. “Look out!” shouted Steve, veering sharply away. Jack broke off, but it was too late for the four vimanas in the middle. They exploded.
Steve fell in shock. Everything happened so quickly. He knew these young men, their mothers, fathers and siblings since Mahavan, and their remains now became smashed into uncountable pieces, flying away into deep space, never to find a resting place. His hands shook and his knees felt weak.
“I can’t go on,” he stammered.
* * * * *
No vimana remained guarding the island. The rishi anxiously scanned the horizon, his eyes filled with tears, looking for his daughter. The afternoon brought with it a dark mist, and just behind, thick black clouds.
The rishi’s face suddenly dropped. Four enormous black ships, each a thousand feet long, four hundred feet high, emerged unexpectedly from the thick clouds. He shook his head. They had no way to resist. Others saw these giant craft and raised the alarm. The monstrous craft pulled alongside the grand vimana and thousands of soldiers boarded the flying island, jumping off the top of the hulls and onto the vimana’s parapets, looking like an invasion of tiny poisonous mites on the petals of a beautiful golden rose.
“We need to find shelter,” cried Parvata Rishi. Those left—the rishis, yogis and maybe forty others—ran inside the great temple, shots blasting around them. They strained and pushed the enormous doors shut just as the enemy soldiers pumped thousands of rounds into the wood. The rishi gasped, beads of sweat collecting on his forehead, as they gathered at the middle of an octagonal-shaped, marble-inlaid hall.
The aircraft commenced firing rockets at the great structure, causing huge square stones to crash down and thunderous explosions to fill the hall. The very foundations of the vimana shook as bombs dropped on it. At this rate, the whole structure would come tumbling down in no time at all.
“What should we do?” cried Vishnuyasha.
“I will invoke Durga Devi, the embodiment of material energy, to help us,” cried the rishi. Within seconds, an incredibly beautiful, six-armed goddess wearing a red sari with a gold border, sitting cross-legged, her fingers held in various mudras, hand gestures, emerged out of thin air and floated a dozen feet above. Her skin resembled antique ivory, her hair the tint of the dark night and her light brown eyes looked half-open and her incomparable beauty didn’t allow Parvata Rishi to keep his eyes off her. Her smile graced the small gathering.
The rishi brought his palms together and bowed his head in honor of this most beautiful, most merciful, goddess. “Oh Durga Devi, Mother of the Universe, shelter of the weak, great Compassionate One, please protect us in our hour of need!”
“As you wish,” agreed Durga Devi. “I will transform into my terrifying shakti, my most frightening Energy known as Kali Devi, and destroy the enemy on this vimana.”
Durga Devi slowly changed into her most fearsome form as Kali Devi. Her skin turned black and her eyes and lips, vivid red. She opened her mouth and a large, bright red tongue dropped out, extending down to her breasts. Her dark hair fell around her neck and shoulders and she held her six arms around her. She looked at once exceedingly beautiful and exceptionally horrifying. She floated to the top of the great temple, flew out of one of the openings on top and, hovering above the pyramid, expanded to the size of twenty men. Kali Devi shut her eyes and eight expansions of her form manifested immediately and floated in a circle above the tip of the pyramid. Upon seeing them, the dictator’s men stood frozen in fear and shock.
The nine Kalis swooped down, opened their mouths, and let forth ear-splitting shrieks. The men dropped their weapons and held their palms to their ears. The original Kali pierced the chest of the nearest soldier with a spear. He shrieked in pain and surprise. Using the chopper in one of her other hands, she lopped off his head. As it rolled off, two other hands caught the head and tied its hair into a knot while the body fell to the ground, spurting blood from its neck. The last two hands held a needle and thread, which she slipped through the knot of hair. The entire process took less than a second. Kali spied the next soldier, pierced his heart with the spear, repeated the procedure, and his head ended up on the thread next to the first one.
Kali Devi sped up the process. Within a very short time she created a wreath of decapitated heads, cut the thread, secured the knot and threw it around her neck like a macabre garland. The eight other Kalis attacked the army with unbearable screeches, mowing through them like a scythe would through a field of wheat, each creating the horrifying wreaths of heads. Some soldiers hid behind rocks, in pavilions and in pools, and as they did, huge tigers, the animal associated with the goddess, jumped out from behind blocks of stone, snatched the unfortunate men with fearsome jaws and shook them like a terrier would a rat. Soon, hundreds of tigers, all snarling fiercely, their mouths dripping blood, filled the floating island.
Kallin’s remaining soldiers, looking at the apparitions with unbelieving eyes, dropped their weapons and fled, many jumping to their deaths off the parapets of the vimana. Not a single enemy soldier remained standing and the enormous abandoned ships floated away like gray ghosts disappearing into the black clouds, following the air currents, and when they ran out of energy, turned belly up and hurtled to the ground.
