Earth To Nole: Return of the Prince (5 page)

“Does Boriri fly any combat vehicles?”, Kevin asked.

“Not at all. He has many qualities but being adventurous is not one of them.”, Moriti said casually. She talked about Boriri with a sense of possession. She loved his strengths as well as his weaknesses.

“You both seem close.”, Kevin guessed, he was sensing a love buried deep within their friendship.

“Yes we are. But we are not in a relationship.”, Moriti clarified with a smile and a hint of remorse.

“Why not?”, Kevin got curious.

“I am not even sure if he was ever attracted to me. He cares for me that I am sure of but nothing more than that. Moreover, he always had his projects to keep him occupied.”, Moriti confessed. It was clear that she had feelings for Boriri.

Kevin wanted to ask more but he saw Boriri and Keele return. He guessed Moriti would not be comfortable discussing this in front of him. He thought of continuing the topic later. Changing the topic, He asked. “What do you do on Mone? Are you with the government too?”

“You couldn't be further from the truth, Kevin. She is anti-government!”, Boriri replied before Moriti could. He was clearly teasing her. Moriti looked at him and replied sharply, “Same could be said about you Boriri! You have been trying to bring down democracy for centuries now.”

They laughed. They both knew they had more in common than they cared to admit. Moriti was less comfortable in her laughter though. She knew exactly how she felt about him.

Boriri continued answering Kevin’s question, “She is a journalist, Kevin. A government critic, to be precise. She writes news articles tearing apart government policies and decisions. Apart from government bashing, she has also authored several books.”, Boriri enjoyed teasing Moriti.

He continued, “I never planned for this but I think this is a fantastic coincidence that you two met at the terminal. She is a great teacher, Kevin. I hope she finds some time from her busy schedule for you.”. Boriri looked at Moriti. She agreed readily.

###

Back on Nole, Joti and Gollow stood in front of Francis’s cabin. It looked like they have been waiting there for a long time.

“I say, we forget Francis and go and talk to Holum.”, Gollow said what he truly wanted.

“Golli, you have said that for the 50th time in the last half an hour. Let’s give him a chance, at least.”, Joti was clearly frustrated of the waiting but she had to talk to Francis.

“He said he will meet you here at 9, right? It's 9:40 now. How long are we supposed to wait?”, Gollow was impatient.

“Let me talk to his armbot.”, Joti gave in.

“Finally!”, Gollow said with relief, he had been asking her to talk to the bot for a long time now.

“Is Francis in?”, Joti asked the armbot who stood in front of the cabin.

“No, he is in a meeting. Can I take a message?”, the armbot replied.

“What meeting? All the people from the Union are here!”, Joti was surprised that there is a meeting going on without her knowing.

“Let me get an update, miss Joti.”, the armbot tried getting an update. Joti knew that all armbots are connected to the spaceship’s network and can get updates on whereabouts of anyone on the spaceship.

“Mr. President was in a meeting with ministers and officers of the Union. The meeting just ended.”, the armbot reported.

“Is he coming here, now?”, Joti asked, she seemed a bit agitated.

“Yes, he will be here in a couple of minutes.”, the armbot responded.

Joti went back to Gollow and expressed her fear that Francis was upto something with his secret meetings. Gollow pointed out that the meetings are not secret just that the two of them were not invited. They kept discussing what this exclusion could mean when Francis arrived there.

“Oh Joti, my dear. I am sorry, I totally forgot about our appointment.”, Francis was calm as always.

“That’s ok, Francis. I am more concerned about not being invited to the meeting. What was the agenda?”, Joti asked straightaway.

“Nothing important dear, just some Union business to take care of.”, Francis responded casually as he walked into his cabin.

Joti followed him and confronted him with another question. Gollow waited outside. He was not comfortable following them in his cabin.

“Sir, with due respect, Union business is my business. After all, I am the executive secretary.”, Joti said, she was speaking in a formal tone now. She didn’t feel as close to Francis as she used to feel earlier.

“You certainly are, but I believe you have been very disturbed since that boy ran away with the hums. I didn’t want to bring it up earlier but now that you are here, let me express my concerns.”, Francis talked in a very different tone now. Joti was furious hearing his remarks for Kevin and the way he referred to him but she wanted to hear it all to see what he was holding within.

Francis continued, “Angels are seriously concerned about your and Gollow’s loyalty to the Union. Everyone knows you both were close, that boy…”

“His name is Kevin”, Joti reminded Francis.

“Yes… Kevin. Everyone knows you three were close. Now that Kevin has joined hums, I cannot trust you the same way I trusted you earlier. You have two weeks to prove your loyalty, after that I will have no option but to ask for your resignation.”, Francis said casually while preparing to go out again. He walked out, leaving Joti shocked and furious. Gollow saw him walk out alone and waited for Joti to follow. When he didn’t see her come out, he walked up to the cabin and saw Joti sitting down on the bed, looking helpless.

“What happened?”, Gollow asked.

Joti kept looking at the floor. She didn’t want him to see the emotions reflected in her eyes. She said in a calm voice, “We are going to Holum, right now”.

Joti rushed towards Holum’s cabin. She seemed determined to correct her past mistakes. Gollow followed her happily. He knew this was a step in the right direction. It was clear from Francis’s announcements during the day that he did not care much about anything. After all, none of his decisions were aligned to the stage 12 plan.

Joti expected Francis to bring transparency to the Union but instead Francis became the center of all speculations. Instead of leading the Union from the front, Francis was more interested in conducting secret meetings. Him and other ministers seemed to be preoccupied by their own secret agenda while the rest of the Union struggled to achieve a successful stage 12. She had known Francis since childhood and had always respected him. But he wasn’t the same man anymore. He seemed a lot different. She had to discuss this with Holum. She couldn’t let Francis toy with the lives of thousands of humans on Nole.

They reached the cabin and found Holum and Ibu sitting there.

“Yes?”, Ibu asked Joti. He was not expecting Union officers to be at his cabin at this late hour.

“Sir, actually…”, Joti tried to explain herself but she didn’t know where to begin. She had caused both of them a lot of embarrassment and now coming to them for help looked a bit out of the blue in retrospect. She couldn’t simply say ‘Sorry’. She looked across Ibu, into Holum’s eyes with regret.

“Let’s talk in here.”, Holum said out loud. He was aware of the matter that had brought Joti and Gollow there.

They entered Ibu’s cabin and avoided making eye contacts with either Ibu or Holum. Clearly they were ashamed of their prejudgements earlier.

“Let’s get to the point Joti. We have wasted enough time already. What are you doing here?”, Holum implied urgency. He was clearly not interested in apologies and complaints.

“We doubt that Francis is up to something, something bad. He is having secret meetings and has overridden most of the stage 12 guidelines that we came up with.”, Joti knew Holum and Ibu would understand the severity of overriding stage 12 guidelines, after all it was them along with Joti who came up with those guidelines in the first place.

“I know that. I also agree that it is a bad call by him. But why are you here? Ibu and myself are no longer allowed to consult on Union affairs.”, Holum asked.

“We believe that you and Ibu are the only ones who can help humanity now.”, Joti said humbly.

“But we can’t. You are certainly mistaken.”, Holum walked away, was he too hurt to help?

Gollow and Joti looked at each other. They knew Holum and Ibu were hurt and would not agree to help easily. Gollow assumed it was his turn now to try and convince them.

“Sir, please forgive us. We need your help.”, He said softly.

“You misunderstood what I said, Gollow. I don’t want you to plead. I simply don’t know how to help. The situation is much worse than you think.”, Holum clarified, he was indeed in no mood for apologies.

“What is it? I knew you two know more than what we know. Safety of humans is my primary concern. How am I supposed to make the right calls when no one tells me anything?”, Joti almost screamed with agitation, her outburst was legitimate.

“Ibu, why don’t you close the door?”, Holum began. He said, “We always knew Francis was an agent of Igogo but now we know what he really wants. We have been in touch with Boris for the last couple of days.”, Holum paused and looked around.

Gollow asked, “Who is Igogo?”

“Igogo is the prime minister of hums and is an evil man. He is as much of a threat to hums as he is to us. Although most of the hums have been led to believe otherwise, those who really care, wish to overthrow democracy and with it their current prime minister too.”, Holum paused again. This time Joti had a question.

“Why overthrow democracy? Why not simply elect someone better to rule?”, Joti had a good point.

“Democracy is tricky, Joti. It is really difficult to find a leader who is popular as well as right for the job. That is why hums have an alternative system where they hand over the rule to the king. The king makes sure that the people running the government are qualified and fit for it. Every 25 years they chose between democracy and the king’s rule.”, Holum clarified.

“Interesting.”, Joti commented.

“We will discuss their political system later, Joti. Currently, we are still trying to understand what Igogo really wants. However, one thing is clear, Igogo will soon deploy his army here on Nole and try to influence our day to day activities.”, Holum said.

Gollow was not happy to hear this. He said, “Let him try that, we have deployed our fleet in the orbit as well. We are ready for them.”, Gollow reacted predictably. He already hated Igogo.

Ibu put his hands on Gollow’s shoulders and asked him to calm down. He said, “Fighting back is exactly what he wants us to do. He has led hums to believe that we are here to cause trouble. Don’t forget that Igogo is a democratic leader, he needs public support for whatever he does. If we fight back, he would get sufficient evidence to prove that we are indeed a violent species and that we are here to harm hums. Let’s not help him.”, Ibu explained.

“And, let him walk all over us? His army would kill us all if we don’t do anything.”, Joti agreed with Gollow it seemed.

“That is not accurate, Joti. Hums have very strict non violence code. The army being deployed here are all bots and they would not, under any circumstances, harm us. They are being deployed as a preemption. Their orders are to stop any attacks on hums, that's it. It is imperative that we do nothing to show aggression.”, Holum said.

The room was silent for a while. Gollow didn’t buy the non-aggression policy and Joti was still trying to convince herself. This was big news for them. The alien threat was becoming real. Joti knew that if the hums wanted they could easily kill every man, woman and child on Nole independent of whatever resistance humans provided. Only hope for survival was to play along, for now.

Ibu started speaking, breaking the silence, “But, we don’t know what he really wants and this is killing me. I never believed the story about aliens controlling the Union and conspiring to bring humans to Nole but now that doesn’t sound so paranoid. Igogo certainly needs something from us and it was clearly not Kevin. What is it then? What can hums get from us that they already do not have themselves?”, he confessed.

“Well, let's just hope that Boris and Kevin find that out before it is too late, my friend.”, Holum replied. He noticed that Joti was still confused about Kevin. He tried to persuade her to understand Kevin’s actions.

“I hope you understand Kevin’s position, Joti. He loves his friends and humans more than you think. But, this is his path. He is the only chance humans and hums have against Igogo. He is the only royal descendant who can challenge Igogo in the upcoming elections. Once Igogo is out of his office, he would not be much of a threat.”, Holum explained.

“I knew Kevin is on our side!”, Gollow shouted with excitement. “I have never been wrong in my life when it comes to making friends.”

Joti sank deeper into her guilt on hearing this. She always wanted to believe that Kevin was on her side but facts were stacked against him. Was she supposed to overlook the overwhelming evidence and trust Kevin?

Holum saw it on her face. He knew Joti needed some consolation right now. He said to her, “It's not entirely your fault to be honest, Joti. Kevin, yourself, Gollow, you all are young and need to learn to separate your emotions from your judgements. Kevin had good guidance all along. Myself, Ibu and Boris, we all made sure that Kevin got the right message at the right time. But I must confess I completely forgot about you. You were left alone amidst all this to interpret the incidents around you on your own. This would not have happened if I was more careful. I am sorry you had to go through all of this alone.”, Holum meant every word that he said.