Earth To Nole: Return of the Prince (12 page)

“Of course Kevin. Your father, his father and his father’s father, they were all royal descendants. This is how it works. You already know that, don’t you?”, Boriri asked a rhetorical question. He continued without allowing Kevin to reply.

“Kean was the one I was looking for. He already knew why I was looking for a royal descendant so it was easy for me to convince him to come to Peele. Within months, we left for Peele. Holum stayed back and joined the Union. He now understood that the Union needed people who really cared about the humans. I told him that the best way to serve is to be a part of the system.”

“My father was here?”, Kevin was shocked now. This was brand new information for him.

“Not only your father, Kevin. Your pregnant mother too.”, Boriri added. He had an emotional vibration in his tone.

Keele was surprised by this disclosure as well. He asked, “How come I don’t remember it?”

“You would if you unlocked those memories.”, Boriri explained.

“What do you mean?”, Kevin asked.

“Keele was reset by someone when your parents were visiting Mone, Kevin. During the reset, Keele lost access to all of his volatile memory, almost 4 days of it.”, Boriri responded.

“What volatile memory? I don’t get it still…”, Kevin grew restless.

“Let me explain.”, Keele interrupted. “I have two kinds of memory, Kevin, volatile and storage. Everything I see, hear or do is rapidly collected in the volatile memory. Every week or so, I sleep for a couple of hours during which my volatile memory is processed and the data is compressed, filtered and finally stored in the storage memory. If I am reset at any time then the volatile memory is encrypted and dumped in the storage but only the person who reset me could retrieve that. It needs the password which was chosen at the time of the reset.”, Keele finished.

“So, all your memory from when my parents visited is gone?”, Kevin asked.

“Not gone, Kevin. It is still with him but protected with a password.”, Boriri replied.

“What happened then? Why isn’t my father the king?”, Kevin went back to the original story.

“I am not sure what happened. Your parents stayed for a couple of days on Peele and then came to Mone with me. I had to travel to inform my friends of the royal descendant I had found, so I left them in Keele’s company. But when I came back they were both gone. I found out that they took my shuttle back to the Earth. Keele was reset and in a very bad shape due to dormancy. I stayed for his transplant so that he could help explain the situation but he woke up without his volatile memory. Finally, I rushed to Earth to look for them but no one knew where they went.”, Boriri said with disappointment.

“What did Holum say?”, Kevin asked impatiently.

“He knew nothing. He was surprised too that they left without saying anything to me. I kept looking for them for a year but there was no trace of them. They knew the colonies too well. It was impossible to find them if they didn’t want to be found.”, Boriri said.

“So you exposed them and then left them all alone against Igogo? They were mere humans. They did not stand a chance against Igogo or his army.”, Kevin said with anger and tears in his eyes.

Boriri knew they were his responsibility. He had nothing to say in his defense.

“This explains it all. This is why my parents were always on the run. I don’t remember staying at one place with them for more than a week.”, Kevin said as he stood up and stormed out. Keele reacted to stop him but didn’t know what to say. Boriri knew Kevin needed some time to come to terms with this fact. He silently watched Kevin leave.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”, Keele asked Boriri after failing to stop Kevin.

“I don’t tell you things that I intend to hide from others. You are not equipped to lie and I cannot let Kevin come to the same fate as his father.”, Boriri replied bluntly.

“Did Igogo kill them?”, Keele asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know.”, Boriri replied trying to dismiss the possibility of Igogo’s involvement.

“You mean you don’t have proof.”, Keele challenged him. He appeared as disappointed as any human would be.

“Do you believe I am trying to save Igogo? I have spent my whole life trying to bring him to justice, to save hums from him and now you doubt me?”, Boriri pushed back.

Keele didn’t reply. He knew Boriri was doing his best and also that he was right about not having concrete proof against Igogo. They both sat silently in the room feeling guilty for the fate that had been brought upon to Kevin, his family and the humans due to Igogo. Their guilt was rooted in the fact that even after all this Kevin was still helping them. Far from his friends and dear ones, he was here on Mone trying to fix the hum society, doing what they asked him to do.

Weeks passed by but Kevin continued to ignore Keele and Boriri. He had never felt so alone in his life. He missed Joti and Gollow the most during these days. He often felt tempted to fly out to them but didn’t know how to face them. He just hoped they were in a better condition than he was in.

Things however didn’t look as bad on Nole as in Kevin’s imaginations. Most of the roco bots deployed on Nole were actually stationed on a ship which was orbiting Nole. Only a few dozens were stationed on the ground and that too hundreds of miles away from the human landing site. However evil be the intentions of Igogo, he was still bound by the laws of engagement of Hums. But Kevin was not the only one who was concerned by their presence on Nole. Joti and Gollow were offended too by their presence but they had a bigger problem to solve. They had to prove to Francis that they were now loyal to him.

“Do we really have to hold hands?”, Gollow asked. He already hated her plan to portray both of them as a couple and now having to hold her hands in public was too much for him to agree to.

“What? Are my hands that bad to hold?”, Joti asked with a fake romantic smile on her face.

“I don’t like this. I never saw you and Kevin show off this much. Is this really necessary for them to believe us?”, Gollow asked again.

“See, it is really simple. You are Kevin’s best friend and I am his…”, Joti paused.

“Girlfriend?”, Gollow said it as if it was an established fact.

“Okay… girlfriend.”, Joti pretended to agree for the sake of her argument. She continued, “So, when they see us together they would know that we would never do this to Kevin unless we despised him for forsaking us. This is our strongest proof that we no longer care for him.”

“Okay, but I am a ‘G’. So, don’t make me do things which are too gooey even for an ‘I’. They are not fools. A ‘G’ would never hold hands in public, even if he was madly in love.”, Gollow insisted.

“Fine! Put them in your pants then.”, Joti let his hands go, she was tired of arguing now. Gollow was relieved to have his hand back where it belonged, hanging freely as he walked alongside Joti.

“So, what’s next then? We have been up to this for weeks now.”, asked Gollow.

“We will wait for Francis to approach us. He must be observing through his spies. I am sure he has noticed us together lately and would be wanting to bring us in. After all he needs experienced Union officers like us on his team.”, She explained.

They finally sat down at a table in the canteen and began having their breakfasts. They were soon joined in by others who seemed to know them.

Joti talked to a girl sitting next to her and Gollow sat across from her, talking to another man on his side. The man sitting next to Gollow whispered in his ears. “So, Gollow. Dating a ‘J’, huh?”

Gollow stopped chewing his food. He did not know how to respond. He looked at Joti who was unaware of the question. Being the only one left to respond he said “hmm” in affirmation.

“Good for you!”, said the man with a wink. He then went back to eating his breakfast.

Another man sitting at the other end of the table asked, “So, Gollow. I hear we have alien bots on this planet, keeping an eye on us. Is it true?”

“I hear it too, Gabe”, Gollow replied.

“What are we doing about it?”, Gabe asked.

“I am currently on suspension from my duties so can’t comment on the Union’s behalf. But, I have been told that they are harmless.”, Gollow gave a diplomatic answer. He was aware that this conversation was being heard by people sitting all around him.

Joti joined the conversation as well. She said, “Let’s focus on settling, guys. We cannot afford a war now. Even if there are aliens here, they have not yet attacked us. We have no reasons to fear them.”

A woman sitting on the table next to theirs said, “I hope you are right but the Union needs to come clean about what it knows. You can’t expect us to behave maturely when you don’t treat us that way.”

“Point taken, Florence. But I am sure Francis is doing everything he can. He is the best person for the job so let’s show some faith.”, Joti replied. Gollow knew from her face that she was saying it out loud only for Francis to hear.

Gollow joined her. He said, “She is right, you know. I trust Francis completely. And, Joti is smarter than all of us. If she trusts him and then why shouldn’t we?”.

Joti was not comfortable being the sole guarantor for Francis but she knew she had to win him over to be able to influence Union matters, so she silently approved of it.

They both finished having their breakfasts and walked out of the canteen. As they expected, they were greeted outside by an armbot who conveyed Francis’s message to them. Joti’s plan finally worked. Francis wanted to meet them as soon as possible.

Joti and Gollow followed the bot into the elevator. The elevator rushed to floor 43 where Francis was waiting for them in his office. Joti and Gollow looked at each other and understood that this was the moment they have been waiting for.

Finally the bot brought Joti and Gollow into Francis’s office. Francis was waiting for them. He asked the bot to leave and offered seats to both of them.

“Looks like you two are an item now.”, Francis teased Joti. He wanted to appear friendly to her, just like old times.

“How do you mean, Francis?”, Joti pretended to blush. She knew this was the plan all along.

Francis stood up from his chair and walked across to the table in the corner of the room. The table had a tea pot and some cups kept over it. He started pouring from the pot into the cups.

“Don’t get me wrong, child. I was once young too.”, Francis said as he finished filling three cups with the liquid from the pot. He then picked up two cups and brought them to the table for Joti and Gollow. He went back and grabbed the last cup for himself.

“What is it? Green tea?”, Gollow asked reluctantly.

“I call it wake. This is the future, my friend.”, Francis said with an elitist pride in his eyes. He seemed to be enjoying it a lot.

Joti and Gollow both took a sip. They didn’t like it but Joti did a better job at hiding it.

“As all good things in life, this also needs getting used to.”, Francis said to them as he took his chair again.

“Which brings me to why I called you here today.”, he continued. “You both know that we have been brought straight into a trap by our last president. Of all of the places in the universe where we could have gone, he brought us here, the Karbaka star system, which is teeming with hostile lifeforms.”, Francis spoke with contempt in his voice, primarily for Holum. He also kept sipping his wake. It was interesting how much he pretended to despise the aliens but still loved their drink. Joti and Gollow, of course, had no idea about the origins of their drink.

He continued, “These lifeforms are much advanced, so much that we don’t stand a chance in an open war with them. We need to come to an agreement to our mutual benefit.”

“Sounds logical to me.”, Gollow said. He was trying too much to hide his anger for Francis.

“If we have to.”, Joti said reluctantly. She wanted to show some concern so that Francis believed her reactions to be original.

“Very well. This went better than what I had imagined. It seems the time off has worked well in terms of you both gaining some perspective.”, Francis was relieved. He opened the drawer in his table and pulled out two Identity cards.

“Here, I am offering your jobs back to you. To be honest, I could use people like you who have faith in the leadership.”, Francis gave their old identity cards to them.

“Thank you sir.”, Joti and Gollow said together.

“Let me now explain the current situation. You may or may not already know it but the aliens, or Hums, the way they call themselves, have deployed an army around our landing site. The army consists almost completely of bots who could run through our defenses like fish runs across water.”, Francis said.

Joti and Gollow listened very carefully. To Joti at least, his plan was clear. Instill fear among humans so that they agree to unreasonable totalitarian measures. Francis was tasked to establish a reign of terror on Nole. He and his masters wanted to control humans and what better way than to use terrorism.

“What do you suggest then, Francis? I hope you are working on a plan.”, Joti asked.

“Yes, I am. And you will know when the time is right, Joti. For now, help me in protecting humans from harming themselves. I have come up with a list of rules which would go into effect from midnight, tonight. I want you two to help me establish these rules into practice.”, Francis replied.

“What rules?”, Joti asked with anxiety. She feared Francis would ask her to implement his dictatorial ways and she would have no other choice but to agree to it.

“Nothing acute. Just a few restrictions, for their own safety. We don’t want them to be attacked by the alien bots, do we?”, Francis said, handing over a tablet like device to her. The rules were written on it.

Joti swiped through a few pages. She realised it was exactly what she feared. Instead of being more transparent and forthcoming to the public, Francis was going the other way. She knew the way this was going, it would ultimately result in a civil war but she agreed to it none the less. She knew she needed to be tactful.

Joti finished her wake quickly realising that there was nothing left to talk about. Gollow waited for her, he was in no mood to finish his anyways. They left the room together.

“What is written in there?”, Gollow asked.

“We are heading towards a civil war, Gollow.”, She handed over the tablet to Gollow.

Gollow started going over it. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He read them aloud.

“All groups, clubs, associations are banned.”

“No more than four individuals could sit or stand together”

“Armbots would guard all exits and entries of the landing site”

“Is he serious with this? Are we prisoners?”, Gollow said with frustration.

“I don’t think this is what the Hums want. I believe Francis has some other agenda.”, Joti replied.

“Let’s go to Holum tonight.”, Gollow yelled.

“Shhh… okay, but can you speak softly please?”, Joti agreed.

That night Joti and Gollow finished dinner early to avoid being held by acquaintances. That part was easy, the hard part was avoiding being seen together on Holum’s level. However, this was not the first time they were planning to go and see Holum in his cabin. They knew the exact time when it could be done and the exact way it had to be done. Now that they were no more suspended, it only made it easier for them to do it.

When they reached Holum’s cabin they were surprised to see a third person sitting there apart from Holum and Ibu. It was Boriri. Joti and Gollow entered the cabin reluctantly, they knew who Boriri was.

Holum tried breaking the ice by introducing them to Boriri, he said, “Guys, he is Boris.”

“Well it's actually, Boriri. And you must be Joti and Gollow. Kevin talks a lot about you two.”, Boriri said with a friendly smile.

Joti realised that Boriri would have news about Kevin. She grew anxious to know about his well being, how he spends his days among Hums, etc but how could she ask, she had been pretending to hate Kevin and Boriri both for sometime now.

Gollow on the other hand suffered from no such remorse, he was quick to ask, “How is he?”

“He is doing surprisingly okay. He has already made many friends among Hums. They like him.”, Boriri replied.

“Oh, good. I feared he would be alone there.”, Gollow said.

“He misses you guys a lot. In fact, he insists on coming here every now and then but I hope you understand that if he has to lead Hums, he cannot come out as someone who is entirely human.”, Boriri tried to explain.

Joti didn’t like what she heard, she asked, “And, why is that?”

“Let’s just say that Hums don’t think very highly of you humans. Humans are a nuisance, not evil but certainly a violent species.”, Boriri tried to respond honestly and with as much subtlety as possible.

“Your army had surrounded us from all the sides and threatens to bring down any human spacecraft which leaves Nole but it is us who are the violent ones.”, Joti made a sarcastic remark.

“I am sorry about that but that is the work of a single individual. He happens to be our prime minister and my efforts are focused in solving this exact problem.”, Boriri paused, he then continued, “but let me also point out that if it were humans who would have been in charge while some weaker alien civilization tried settling on a nearby planet, you would have already attacked them with everything you had.”

Joti was speechless. She knew Boriri was right. She sat down quietly on a nearby empty chair conceding to his arguments. Boriri turned to Holum and said, “I hope you understand that we cannot show any aggression to the roco bots. That is the only way Igogo can escalate this size. We don’t want to give him excuses.”

Holum jumped in. He said, “I completely agree. And, now that Joti and Gollow are back in their jobs in the Union, we should be able to maintain the peace.”

“Yes, good job you two.”, Boriri turned to Gollow and Joti to congratulate them, he said, “you two make a great team.”