The Yoga Zapper--A Novel, page 29
Chapter Thirty Five
The Moon, End of Kali Yuga
The sun came back from the dark side of the moon while they hesitated. They had run out of weapons, out of craft, out of time. Steve’s heart hurt. Tears ran down his face. What had happened at the grand vimana? Did Shanti survive? Had Kallin won? Was all lost?
Jack and Steve, piloting the two remaining vimanas, had retreated and spent several hours discussing possible choices. But a solution escaped them. They were alone and out of ideas.
“We have only one option,” uttered Jack finally.
“What is that?”
“It’s called a kamikaze mission.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we ram ourselves down the throat of the cave.”
“You know what you’re saying?” inquired Steve, shocked.
“Yes. We came quite close to the installation, maybe less than five miles, before they started firing.”
“So?”
“If we backed up and came at it at our fastest speed, there’s no way they could stop us before we hit it.”
“But what about the missiles? Couldn’t they strike us before we reached the target?”
“Maybe,” replied Jack. “But if you’re worried about that, let’s fly one behind the other. That way, even if they hit the first craft, the second one will certainly strike the installation.”
“I guess.”
“And at the speed we’d be going, there’s no way we couldn’t inflict maximum damage.”
“You’re right, but do you really think we should do this?”
“We need to continue. Parvata Rishi, Shanti, Kalki Avatar, Hanuman and all the others are counting on us. I know how much you love Shanti. You need to take responsibility for her and for her father, what to speak of saving humanity from the clutches of a madman.”
The brothers lifted themselves to a distance of about two hundred miles above the moon’s surface and spread their wings as far as possible to gather energy, resembling sails on ships navigating the cosmos to eternity.
“Let’s do it,” stated Steve, as he turned his craft to face the gray orb.
“I’ll go first,” volunteered Jack, bringing his craft to the front. He waited for a moment. “Are you sure you want to continue?”
“Yes, but I’m worried about Shanti.”
“Do the right thing and don’t worry about the results. That’s the best you can do. In fact, it’s the only thing to do.”
“But is there a way we can do this without getting killed?”
“We may die, but we need to continue the mission. If we don’t, Kallin will win.”
“Will we succeed?”
“Don’t worry about success or failure. We can die at any time. It may be now, it may be tomorrow, it may be years from now. Instead of worrying about death, let’s act with honor—that is, do the right thing, no matter what the circumstances.”
Steve arched his eyebrows. “Where did all this courage come from?”
“I’m done running away, Steve. It’s a hard lesson I had to learn.”
“What changed?”
“Myself,” came Jack’s simple reply.
“You know, someone wise once told me more or less the same thing.”
“What’s that?”
“That we grow by making commitments. That we won’t know what’s on the other side of the bridge until we cross it.”
“Hey!” remarked Jack, starting his descent, picking up speed by the second, his brother following close behind. “We finally agree on something!”
“Does that mean we’re both finally grown up?” questioned Steve, laughing grimly.
“Yeah, I guess it does.”
“So let’s get this thing done. Brothers forever?”
“Brothers forever!”
Chapter Thirty Six
The Battlefield, End of Kali Yuga
Egged on by the Hand of God, the Raks reacted in rage against the Avatar’s forces. Kalki Avatar and his army found themselves in a dire situation, pushed half-way down the pass. Where once his army numbered in the millions, now only a few hundred remained monkeys, bears, the rest, human. Exhaustion became as big an enemy as the Raks.
“Oh Lord,” shouted Hanuman. “How long can we keep fighting?” The situation turned desperate. The enemy, though decimated, outnumbered them heavily and at this rate, they would be overwhelmed at any moment.
“We will keep fighting until the last man,” roared the Avatar.
* * * * *
“How can we stay here on the grand vimana?” asked Vishnuyasha. The airborne island’s pavilions were destroyed, the trees and gardens uprooted, the courtyards scorched black, the great pyramid’s sides blasted through, and the red fish floated belly up in the waters. The entire vimana, unsettled by the bombing, started to shake.
“We will have to get off,” cried Parvata Rishi.
“Where can we go?” questioned Vishnuyasha.
“There is only one place to go; Shambala.”
“What? Didn’t we leave Shambala because it was too dangerous?”
“This vimana has suffered great damage. If we stay here, we will surely be crushed by the falling temple or, if the vimana breaks apart, fall to the ground. If we return to Shambala, we will be protected by Kalki Avatar, for however long that may be.” The rishi raised his eyes. “Our real delivery will come only when the brothers destroy the moon-base. That is, if they are still alive.”
Another ominous rumble shook the floating island. “Come, let’s leave this place,” he yelled. They all rushed together and held hands. The old man chanted the mantras and instantly, they found themselves back in Shambala.
* * * * *
“Those people on the station in the sky made our job easier,” yelled the Hand of God. “They have returned to the valley. We got them exactly where we want them!”
Indeed, not much hope remained for Kalki Avatar’s army. In the space of a few days, they went from what they thought was certain victory to facing overwhelming odds. Pressed up against the pass, the only access to Shambala, their numbers were decimated. Kallin brought in over a million men; the Avatar had just a few hundred left.
“I can taste victory! And when I occupy the valley, the power of time travel will be mine! All mine!” Kallin looked at his troops below. “Time to get these dogs off their asses. Time for the final push.”
* * * * *
Hanuman gasped. The battle raged for days and the enemy, though decimated, came at them inordinately. He saw the silver orb rising in the west as dusk fell. If the brothers did not destroy the moon-base shortly, Kallin’s army would be unbeatable. Pushed back to the narrowest part of the path close to Shambala, only two hundred soldiers remained of Kalki’s once million man army. The enemy would break through at any moment, gain free passage to the valley and their mission would fail. His body was bloody, shot at many times, cut by shrapnel. He barely stood. “Oh, Lord, I can barely fight. I am about to fall!”
The Avatar heard his desperate cry. “Great warriors, we need to bear the unbearable, fight to the finish. Though battered and bruised, victory is certainly ours. Please keep struggling. Do not lose hope!” Hanuman raised high his bloody head.
“This is it!” continued the Avatar. “Now is the final test!” He turned his horse around to face his soldiers. “If we die, let us perish with weapons in our hands. For warriors, there is no greater glory than to die on the battlefield. We cannot wait for the moon to rise. At night, our foes are practically unbeatable. Let us all gather, prime our weapons and for one last time, push the enemy back.”
A great cheer went up. The soldiers girded themselves and held their weapons high. Every last one of them prepared himself for the hereafter. They prayed to their ancestors and made ready to meet them in the other world. Kalki Avatar, on his horse’s back, rose to the air in front of his soldiers, his luminous body glowing in the dark like an avenging angel, reflecting on the somber cliffs on either side.
“Charge!” he commanded, holding his sword high.
With smiles on their faces, lightness in their hearts and mouths chanting victory, the brave two hundred rushed forth from their lair with weapons blazing and headed into the gaping maw of the enemy. Their foes came at them from every direction and dozens of valiant warriors dropped at the charge. Hanuman’s eyes brightened. There is everlasting glory for those who die fighting for a just cause.
* * * * *
“Stop!”
“Stop,” came the voice again.
“Shanti! Is that you?” Steve looked at the console questioningly. It showed two objects a large cylindrical one and a small bubble-shaped craft. His heart jumped into his mouth. She had entered a dangerous situation—much more perilous than she may have realized.
She stopped next to him in her bubble-shaped craft. “I’m guiding the obelisk vimana right into the installation,” she said. The brothers immediately stopped, not more than fifty miles from their target. As they did, the obelisk shot by with enormous speed, sparkling with the energy of the sun, glowing brightly like a pillar of fire. Several rockets immediately shot off the structures at the entrance to the cave. Steve and Jack rushed down, intercepted the missiles and destroyed them with bolts of white lightning. The obelisk proceeded at enormous speed, heading straight for Kallin’s moon installation.
“Let’s get out of here!” screamed Jack. They turned around and flew away as fast as they could. The obelisk, its lasers blazing, drove itself through the installation, crashing right into the cave at enormous speed, disappearing like a needle into the moon’s body.
An enormous explosion shook the lunar surface. The shockwave reached the escaping vehicles and they wobbled, picked up by the blast and thrown forward for fifty miles. A huge, roiling fountain of fire, over ten miles wide and a hundred miles high, escaped out of the target and shot straight out into space, nipping at the heels of the desperately fleeing vimanas.
Steve gasped. It was a near escape. They turned around and looked. The whole east rim of the crater had been pulverized and huge explosions rattled all along its bottom. Enormous chunks of stone flew off in different directions, dropping miles away, creating new craters on the moon’s already pocked surface. A large cloud of black dust and balls of red fire collected over the point of impact and flew out into space, trailing from the site of the impact like dark blood streaming out of an open wound.
Chapter Thirty Seven
The Battlefield, End of Kali Yuga
Suddenly, the shots stopped. The enemy soldiers dropped their weapons and looked at each other, bewildered, as if realizing for the first time where they were.
The Avatar looked up at the moon. A small pinhead of orange blossomed in the southern quadrant of the satellite; surely explosions caused by the brothers! They had finally destroyed the moon-base! But at what cost! Of his army once numbering over a million, only two dozen warriors were left standing.
“Victory at last,” shouted Kalki Avatar. A cheer went up. The ferocious enemy that had fought as one now reeled in total disarray. They turned their weapons on their comrades and, killing them, cut off pieces of flesh and started eating. The discipline enforced on them by the pitiless system vanished and they reverted to barbarism. A picture of hellish savageness unfolded—it would have been safer to wade into a pack of rabid wolves than to try saving these unfortunate Raks. By the end of the day, very few, if any, would be left standing. The enemy aircraft veered off and headed back west, for what purpose no one knew.
“Where’s Kallin?” asked Contog. The platform had disappeared.
“He’s escaped!” exclaimed Hanuman. “We need to find him.”
General Contog face lengthened. “If he returns to Kallington, he can try to regain control. A great tree is most dangerous when it is about to fall.”
* * * * *
Kallin’s hands shook and his left eye twitched uncontrollably. His unkempt face sagged and his eyelids hung heavy from a lack of sleep. The bunker, a thousand feet below the International Legislative Exchange, contained a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom and a security control room lined with monitors, computers, and controls. The unadorned concrete walls, illuminated by bare fluorescent lights, displayed no paintings, curios or knick knacks. In the bed lay Jini, her blue eyes open, staring into infinity, her blonde hair spread out like a fan on the pillow. A round, red hole showed on her forehead and blood her dripped from her hand to the floor. On the living room sofa sat the national security advisor, a handgun in his hand, his head blown off.
The Hand of God sat on a chair in the security control room. A picture came up on one of the monitors. Directly above him, flames engulfed the enormous oval building. A huge mob murdered everyone escaping the conflagration, while looters ran out with computers, furniture and anything they could grab.
“This is serious. Now how the hell will I sell my ETAs?” mumbled Kallin. Other cameras confirmed the worst. Airplanes bombed Central Prison and criminals took to the streets. The Raks knew well their tormentors. In huge numbers, they overran the city, destroying any emblem of the elite, killing whoever they caught, and everywhere, turned on each other with knives, guns, and metal rods, smashing, cutting and shooting, just to taste blood and flesh.
He slammed his fist on the desk. “This is the end. If I can’t have it, no one else can. The Raks will get what they deserve, as so will those savages in that valley. No one can ever take what belongs to me. Never.” He punched in some instructions on the keyboard.
* * * * *
At first, the explosions sounded indistinct, like distant thuds, barely heard above the rushing waters. After a while, the sound became more distinct, like a bass drum sounding far in the distance. Kalki Avatar first noticed it. He jumped to his feet and cupped his ear, listening keenly to the disturbing sound for several long minutes.
Parvata Rishi came running to the Avatar. “Dear Avatar, what is this sound that comes softly, closer and closer, but echoes like death itself approaching?”
“I will find out,” exclaimed the Avatar of the great blue-skinned supreme Lord. He quickly mounted his flying steed and stayed suspended in the air for several long moments before swooping down breathlessly.
“I saw explosions, dozens of them, in the great distance, covering the entire horizon. Each looked like a dozen suns rising from the earth at once, followed by gigantic clouds resembling trees growing from the earth to the skies, like enormous mushrooms. I cannot imagine what this dreadful weapon is.”
Contog stood up. “Kallin must be trapped, with no way out. These terrible bombs will destroy all life on this planet. And he will especially destroy Shambala as he cannot own it.”
Kalki Avatar’s eyes flashed angrily. He removed his sword from its sheath.
“What are you doing?” asked Contog.
“This is not an ordinary sword,” replied Kalki Avatar. “Its handle is courage, its hand guard is justice, one side of the blade is truthfulness, the other side is austerity and the tip is mercy.”
“You mean that they represent those qualities?”
“No, the sword doesn’t represent those qualities; it is actually those in reality. This sword embodies these qualities in full.” The Avatar paused momentarily. “Kallin’s heart is lust, his eyes envy, his hands greed, his mind violence and his intelligence, pitilessness. When his body is pierced by this sword, it will destroy not just him, but all his bad qualities.”
The Avatar swung his sword with all his might and let it go. It flew like a lightning bolt, illuminating the battlefield like ten thousand suns exploding instantaneously, and even the Avatar’s hairs stood on end. It flew straight west, across the sky like a meteor, over the bombed and burned cities on the coast. Kallin’s weapons had destroyed everything and not a man nor woman, farm animal, or even a single building stood. The entire earth resembled a scene of utter devastation. The sword flew low over the roiling, churning oceans which hissed and sizzled at the heat of this indestructible weapon. It reappeared at the coast and entered the desert, flying over vast tracts of dry, dead land, scorching the sands black behind it.
It entered the ruined capital of the great dictator’s once powerful empire. The deadly sword slowed down over the egg-like Exchange and elevated itself to a height of a thousand feet, right over Kallin’s bunker. The Raks looked up dumbly, not comprehending its nature or mission.
Then suddenly, the roaring weapon swooped right down into the ground and the earth around it blew up like an exploding volcano. It blew open the top of Kallin’s concrete bunker, entered into the mad dictator’s lair, and hung in the air, emanating sparks.
The Hand of God watched the weapon, not comprehending what was happening. He gasped, eyes bulging in his head, sweat rolling down his face, legs shaking, his hands quivering hysterically. For the evil ruler, it came as death itself. He jumped in a futile attempt to escape. In a blink of an eye, the sword descended into his body. The great dictator screamed in agony as fire enveloped him and, within moments, reduced him to ashes.
* * * * *
Shambala, Beginning of Satya Yuga
The next day, as the community cheered, the two bird vimanas hovered a few feet above, deposited Steve and Jack on the ground, and disappeared. The bubble vimana descended, slowly stopped spinning, and then popped. Shanti landed on her feet. Steve rushed over and embraced her.
