Project Muavens Part 2

Far away from the humble cottage of Juno lay the sprawling complex of the Federation where 20 thousands people worked. Their leader Tarak was in his large room that occupied whole of the 20th floor. He stared at a slide on the screen. Daler waited for his comment. Daler was the head of the Project Muavens. He looked at least 20 years younger to his actual age and was quite athletic. Tarak on the other hand looked at least 10 years older than his actual age and didn't try to hide his protruding paunch.
"So the first batch will die within this month!", Tarak repeated the words written on the slide. Daler nodded his head.
"Very well!", Tarak said, "Tell me again why you made us indulge in this exercise!"
Daler gulped. Tarak was notorious for losing his temper. Strange things used to happen to people with whom Tarak got displeased. His right hand man Kishore sat in the corner of the room and he immediately looked at Daler with interest. It made Daler uneasy. Kishore's eyes were beady and quite fish like. Daler disliked Kishore looking at him for then he would have to look in the dead eyes of Kishore and it made him want to puke.
"Sir", Daler said keeping his eyes focused on Tarak, "There are many things that we learn only from actual specimens. Our labs create artificial environment and it is not enough for us to learn of the impact of the changes that we have done to the genes of our subjects. This particular experiment will give us loads of data that will enable us to find faults with our original plan and to rectify any mistakes that we might have made. It was decided that we would deliberately create a gene structure that will collapse after a month so that the next batch of Muavens wouldn't have to interact with their predecessors."
"I hope that you retrieve all the data quickly", Tarak spoke drily and Daler nodded his head eagerly.
"We are tracking each one of the close to 2000 specimens quite closely.", Daler said, "Each one of the specimen has one dedicated volunteer to study every single minute of its life. We are leaving no stone unturned for this!"
"Good for you!", Tarak said, "The Federation is almost bankrupt now because of this silly exercise! You know very well that there will not be enough money to make a second iteration of the Muavens. You have to fix all the issues now and forever live with the knowledge of watching your pets degenerate into something you will fail to recognize. Just one chance to correct your course!"
Daler didn't reply. He just nodded once, got up, politely thanked Tarak for his time and left the room. He knew what was at stake and he didn't have to be reminded of his responsibility.
Tarak turned to look at Kishore.
"What is the progress of the ghettos?", he asked.
"We have till now targetted 20 villages of the rebels", Kishore said, "There were more than 800 perfectly healthy specimens that I have handed over to Daler and his team. I gave the order to cull the superfluous ones, the ones who were not healthy or the ones who were old. We have already found 7 more villages hidden amidst the forest of Kanha and we will soon target them."
"Where in Kanha?"
"Near the banks of the river Kanhaveri"
Kishore tapped a button on his phone and the screen in front of Tarak began displaying a satellite map of the forest of Kanha. The red circles marked the villages that had already been raided. The blue ones marked the villages that were not yet attacked.
"Very well!", Tarak said. He closed his eyes and rocked on his chair. Kishore heard the creakings of the chair protesting its load and the thought of the chair breaking down suddenly appeared in his mind but he kept his face passive.
"What about the paradise?", Tarak asked after some time.
"Work in full progress, sir!", Kishore said, "The city will be ready within six months! Work on residential quarters has already begun!"
"How many of them?", Tarak kept his eyes closed but he had stopped rocking his chair.
"175!"
"What was the original number given to you?", Tarak glared at Kishore whose face didn't show his panic as he fished through the various orders given to him by Tarak. He at last found the relevant order.
"720", he said. When he looked up from the screen he saw Tarak beaming at him.
"Good!"
Tarak snapped his fingers casually.
"Any news from Clara?"
"The last update from her mentioned that she has tracked Juno and that she is working closely with him."
Tarak stopped snapping his fingers.
"Does he suspect her?"
Kishore took his time.
"She has begun snooping on Juno using some nanobots. Juno doesn't trust her story fully but doesn't hold it against her either."
"Good"
Tarak seemed lost in his thoughts.
Kishore waited precisely for 30 seconds before getting up and making himself scarce. Tarak noticed him leaving the room but ignored him. He had to go through his plan again. He had to ensure that nothing went wrong with his plan.
Kishore didn't tell Tarak about Juno's plan of sending Shakur to the dome number 12 from where Clara had purportedly escaped. He didn't mean to bother his master about such details. He could easily take care of Shakur. A conveniently arranged accident would take care of it. By the time Juno began to suspect something amiss with the death of Shakur, Tarak's grand plan would already be rolling on. Kishore whistled a tune under his breath. Everything would be taken care of. Everything would be just the way his master Tarak envisaged. It was just a matter of time now.
****
It was still early morning when Shakur gently woke Puru up.
"Come now, kiddo. Time for us to go for a ride."
"Where are we going?" Puru's voice was sleepy.
"Far and away"
Puru got up after that and went about his daily ablutions. In the meantime, Shakur and Petya got the kayak ready.
"What does Juno want you to find out there?" Petya asked. She was adjusting the gunny bags arcoss the kayak to distribute weight.
Shakur grabbed her from behind. Petya gave a squeal. Shakur brought his face close to her and then whispered.
"Juno's hut is bugged. When he told me to go to the old dome, he only wanted me to step out of the village. That is why he waited till it was too dark inside so that the tracking device couldn't capture his facial expression."
"And you could see his face?" Petya placed her cheek over Shakur's rugged chin.
"Yes," Shakur whispered. "My eyes get adjusted to darkness much better than others. Now I believe that one of these tracking devices would be soon coming after us. We have to dodge it. For that reason, I have made some preparations. That is why I made you wear these clothes."
Before Petya could ask about how Shakur was planning to dodge a tracking device, Puru came bounding towards the Kayak.
"I am ready," he screamed and then jumped in the kayak. Shakur caught him mid air and gently released him with a pronounced "ooof" that made Puru laugh.
"Now don't be like that," Petya chided Puru who instantly became docile. Petya made Puru wear a rain coat and made him sit in the middle of the kayak and tied him to his bench using a make shift seat belt.
"I want to row too," Puru said. So Petya shifted him to the right and Shakur gave him a small oar.
"Don't lose it," Petya warned. Puru promised her that he would hold the oar tightly.
Shakur tousled his hair but Puru didnt' complain. He was very interested in the fast currents of the river that seemed to be waiting for them. With a heave, Shakur pushed the kayak in the river and a timed leap brought him to his seat. The kayak violently tossed about when he landed inside but before they could recover properly the current of the river pulled the kayak along swiftly.
Shakur used his oar judiciously to avoid the rocks and the rapids. After about ten minutes of tossing the kayak about, the river suddenly became calm.
"What a ride! Wheeeee!" Puru shouted. He had been left drenched by the waves but apart from his ruddy face and his hair, nothing had got wet. Petya wiped his face clean using a towel and rubbed his hair dry. Shakur was constantly looking behind and all around him in order to spot anything that moved suspiciously. For some minutes nothing moved. Petya began to suspect that Shakur might have got Juno's message wrong but then she spotted a brilliant flash on the right bank that immediately died down. She caught Shakur's eye and gestured to the general vicinity where she had seen something move. Shakur nodded imperceptibly. Then with a smile he began pulling the kayak ahead. Soon he spotted the small metallic object that flew on the right bank. The nanobot had taken the shape of a dragonfly and it kept to the shadows but everytime sunlight glinted off its metallic back Petya and Shakur saw a brilliant flash.
Then, when Shakur snapped his fingers, Petya quickly tore open the gunny sack near her feet. She was astonished to see a straw dummy that wore similar clothes to her. In other gunny sacks, she found the dummies that were to pass off as Shakur and Puru. Petya put her fingers to her lips to warn Puru who watched the proceedings with bright eyes. She had to wait till the kayak passed behind a large rock that had been left inundated by the river. She propeed up the straw figures quickly. Shakur and Puru had by then jumped in the river. Petya joined them a moment later. She noticed Shakur and Puru heading towards the rock and she began to swim towards them. She kept her movements gentle and slow. Shakur made Puru sit on the protruding edge of another rock and crawled on his fours to check on the nanobot. He had the satisfaction of seeing the nanobot going uninterrupted on its way ahead. He beamed at Petya and helped her come off the river.
Shakur had brought a small satchel with him and he got out dry clothes for them.
"Why are we doing this?" Puru asked once. He was the only one with the dry clothes because he was still wearing the rain coat. He waited for Shakur and Petya to change into dry clothes.
"This is like a spy drama," Shakur said as he helped Petya put the wet clothes in the satchel. "We are going back to the village and spy on them."
"Oh, you want me to spy on Carla?"
Puru's innocent question brought a smile to Petya's face.
"How did you guess?"
"She was once playing with some shiny dragonflies but when she saw me looking at her, she pocketed them and gave me a candy. I never found those dragonflies again. Then today I saw one of them following us. So I knew she had sent it to spy on us but now we will go back and spy on her."
"Bravo" Petya called out and thumped Puru's back. Shakur shook his head but he sported a big smile as he turned towards the village and started walking. The day had not yet turned warm.
"Let me know when you are tired," Petya whispered to Puru who nodded his head sagely. They followed Shakur in his wake.
***

Project Muavens -- part I

"Any news?", Shakur enquired as he sat down heavily on the only available settee. Juno had been looking out of the window lost in thoughts and Shakur's entry caused a minor disruption in his train of thoughts irritating him to no ends. He looked up at the tired face of Shakur and his irritation evaporated. Shakur's young face appeared exhausted.

"Nothing good so far!", he muttered but Shakur was not going to be content with that answer. 

"So, we can't turn the Muavens back into humans?', he asked and Juno nodded.

"All my experiments have failed", he said. He was very particular about the truth even if he was not very happy with the version of truth staring at his face. He was going to be 63 next month and he was not going to temper his truth down just because someone might feel bad. Shakur was used to Juno's self loathing.

"You just need to look at the process with new set of eyes." Shakur said even as he fanned himself with his hand towel. Even though the sun was way beyond the horizon, the land still seethed.

"I already told you", Juno sniffed, "The process seems to be an irreversible one. The cellular structure of humans doesn't change easily. We have tried that so many times in our bid to make a better human being. The new structure always fails.It seems to be a very poor decision on part of the Federation to persist with the strategies that have already been marked as failures. For many years, they don't do anything and then suddenly they start on this useless experiment to turn humans into Muavens. The process once initiated can't be reversed. The new cellular structure of the Muavens is not stable so the victims are going to die a horrible death and we can't do anything but just watch them die."

Shakur listened to Juno's rant in silence.

"When you tell me that the new cellular structure will fail, how much time would it take?"

"It depends", Juno replied.

"Still", Shakur persisted, "would you say a timeframe of 1 day would be good enough for the symptoms to show?"

Juno sighed.

"A day would not be enough!", he said weakly, "and so far the Muavens seem to be sticking together."

Shakur winced at the use of the word 'sticking' for the Muavens.

"I visited them today", he said. Juno was aghast.

"I had requested you to not do so!", Juno pleaded with Shakur, "We have no idea of how badly this affects them. You might think of them as the Muavens or even humans but sadly that is not true anymore. Those people", Juno had to struggle to utter the word humans for the green entities, "might attack you. Their minds may get unhinged first."

"That's ok!", Shakur dismissed Juno's concerns with a wave of his hands, "In any case I won't be able to pay them a visit tomorrow. It seems the Federation is busy fencing the area for I saw some pods erecting fences all around. I gave them the slip and headed home!"

"You have been very injudicious in your actions", Juno reprimanded him but Shakur smiled mischievously. Juno had been very concerned about Shakur's rage at being orphaned by the Federation but as things panned out his concerns were slowly allayed when he saw the way Shakur interacted with the imp Puru and with Petya with whom he intended to start a family. There was a loud rap on the door and then Puru waltzed in the room. It was more of a leap for he crash landed somewhere near Shakur.

"Ha!", Puru shouted, "I scared you, didn't I?"

"Of course, you did!", Shakur tried to catch hold of Puru but he managed to evade Shakur's grasp.

"I heard you had a terrifying dream last night!", Shakur decided to taunt Puru a bit for he knew that the topic of his nighmares always managed to rile Puru but he was pleasantly surprised when Puru gave him a big smile.

"Actually I wanted to tell you something", Puru said as he hopped from one spot to another, "The dreams of green men are gone now!"

"That's a very good news!", Juno applauded it and Puru beamed again.

"You saw a green man", Shakur said, "and your fear of green men are gone!"

"yes", Puru skipped and hopped.

"So, why did you cry out loudly last night?"

Puru stuck his tongue out at Shakur and then he ran towards Juno and flung himself on to his lap.

"I followed your advice", Puru said, "You told me to not be scared of what I see for that is not really happened and I was able to see that the men who were muddy didn't change into green men!"

"Slow down", Shakur pleaded with Puru, "Tell me from the beginning!"

Puru smiled beatifically.

"In my dream I saw a man press some buttons and then walk up to the window to take a look inside. He then sees a lot of green men in pain. That always scared me but Juno told me to not be afraid of them so I didn't run away. Then I saw that there were some men who came out of the ground and they were not green. They had mud on their faces and on their bodies that made them look like monsters but they were not monsters."

"No, they were no monsters", Juno supported Puru, "They couldn't have turned into monsters."

"Yes", Puru said, "because they had mud on their bodies. That's why!"

"You are right!", Juno took out a small piece of candy and Puru took it from him with a smile and a polite thanks. Then he scampered out of Juno's lap and dashed outside. When he ran past Shakur he waved at Shakur once but Shakur didn't try to catch him. Puru ran out of the room a trifle disappointed but then he looked at the candy in his hand and was all smiles as he tore off the wrappings of the candy. 

"What is this about mud?", Puru was intrigued.

"Puru has had amazing dreams", Juno said, "I actually no longer call them dreams. They are more of visions."

"Green men! Hiding in mud!", Puru whispered, "What is the vision here?"

Juno took some moments to ponder over it. Meanwhile Petya ambled towards them. She was lugging a basket full of herbs and vegetables. Juno waved at her to join them. She sat beside Shakur who grew flushed at her proximity. Juno feigned ignorance of the change in demeanour of Shakur and began speaking of his observations on the dreams of Puru.

"We have been unable to track Puru's parents. You know it very well that Puru one day made his way to our village and has stayed with us ever since. The Federation stopped caring for us a long time back. They are more concerned about their enchanting domes and their awful society where the rulers take everything they want from the masses who struggle all their lives for basic necessities. Anyways, I don't want to speak about them. Coming back to Puru, it came as a huge surprise to me when I saw him one day walk in our village. Someone suggested that some people might have tried to escape the prison domes and might have got attacked by the Federation guards who for some reason spared the life of Puru. In any case, I was unable to find any sign of violence around our village. And so Puru's presence in our village mystified me. After some three months of his arrival, we first heard of the program Muaven. Many poor folks had been forced into becoming Muavens, a supposedly better version of humans. One batch of the Muavens landed quite near to our village when we first encountered them. They looked so beautiful! All the women had flawless white skins with perfect raven black hairs. And the lips were so luscious. Beautiful! All the men had blonde hair and handsome physique! We were astounded at their beauty. Then the guards arrived and beat us all black and blue. That was a very sad day for us."

He looked at Shakur with sad eyes. Shakur averted his gaze.

"That day you lost your parents, Shakur! And Petya, you lost your father. The guards should not have attacked us so badly. I understand that we were not welcome in their pretty village but by attacking us so brutally they crossed a line. Now they are building fences to keep them away from us. They should have done that earlier! There was no point in killing our men! But from our limited interaction, I had begun to suspect that the Federation was meddling with genetic structure again. Then we got a distress call from another village that lay 120 miles from here. You and I had gone there, Shakur! Do you remember how difficult it was to row the boat upstream?"

Shakur grunted. The river was flooded because of rains and it was impossible to make the boat go upstream. They were unable to even walk on the banks because the jungle had claimed them. Then Shakur had got an idea. He tied the boat to one of the overhanging branch so that it didn't keep getting knocked downstream. Once that was done, he tied a rope to another branch that seemed to be strong enough to hold on to their combined weights. Then he pulled the boat ahead using the branches to fight off the current. It was painful and super slow but it had done the trick. They had finally managed to reach the village that had asked for help. They had found the entire village to be reduced to mere rubble. There were only two survivors, one of them was insane who couldn't even recount what happened to him and the other a very injured woman who died shortly. Before dying, the woman had told them of how the Federation had sent one of its pods to attack them. All the able bodied men, women and kids were arrested. The rest of them were killed. Some of them had tried escaping to the jungle but the soldiers tracked them and killed everyone of them. Shakur and Juno had tried to bring the maniac with them but he took off from them and managed to disappear in the jungle.

"Then one day we found a dead Muaven washed up near our village. We drag him inside, we start checking his vitals, we check his genes and discover that the Muaven was a human whose cellular structure was modified. The poor fellow had died because of failure of his internal organs. Then more bodies began to wash up. I think I saw at least 22 bodies. Then the soldiers once again intervened and our supply of dead Muavens stopped. Two days back you told me that a new shipment of Muavens has been offloaded in the village especially created for them. With the fences all around, we would never know what happens to them but by now we have a fair idea of it all."

"Then Clara and her team arrived" Petya said absent mindedly. Juno nodded his head.

"Clara worked as a healer in one of the domes. She learnt about the unusual experiments and got so scared that she escaped from the dome where she lived."

"I can't believe that the guards would simply abandon their posts so that she could escape." Shakur spoke. He didn't trust Clara and he made no show of hiding his distaste for her. The feeling was mutual and Clara avoided Shakur like a plague. It was true that Clara's account of her prison escape was ludicrous. She claimed that the guards stopped patrolling the gates and seizing her opportunity she and her gang had safely made their way out of the dome.

"What will she get from here?" Juno asked and spread his hands helplessly. 

"Perhaps she is here for Puru," Shakur said. Petya looked at him with fearful eyes, trying to figure out if he were joking or if he were serious. She had begun to love Puru as her own son and the mere thought of forcible separation from Puru alarmed her. Shakur kept staring at something near his feet, squinting a bit.

"Don't be alarmed, Petya" Juno said. "I have placed a tracking device on Puru and I have told him about the danger. He is a sharp kid. I don't think anyone would be able to kidnap him so easily. But then coming to your question, why would anyone want to kidnap Puru?"

"I don't know" muttered Shakur.

"I have run all the tests, Shakur," Juno said. "You raised this point some time back too."

"What tests?" Petya glanced at Juno.

"I got this idea that Puru is actually a Muaven" Shakur whispered.

"He is hundred percent human", Juno said. Petya kept staring at Shakur but he didn't raise his gaze to meet her. He didn't her to know about his concerns. He knew she would feel hurt about it. 

"Well, coming back to our story," Juno said. "Clara told us about the huge machine that uses a new kind of ray to drastically alter the genetic and cellular structure of humans. She was able to read only some of the reports, especially related to the temporariness of the changes on the human bodies. However it was more than enough for her to realize that the Federation has set its eyes on making a lot of Muavens. The Federation head Tarak has always spoken of giving the world to a better race. He had never hidden his disgust for his fellow human beings. So it is quite clear that if there has to be a head of operation for Project Muaven, it has to be him. The humans living in the domes are not safe."

"What about the green men?" Shakur asked. He seemed to be tired. Juno sighed.

"The green men are the first stage of the transformation of a human into a Muaven. The Muaven sheds the green skin in his final transformation."

"And the mud?" Shakur asked again.

"I can't make heads or tails of it but it seems that Puru believes that if humans hide under mud, they will be protected from the transforming rays."

Juno fished around in his pockets and took out one small page.

"This is a message that we received from one of the villages located in the nilgiri hills. The people over there were attacked by the Federation soldiers but some of them managed to escape and hide in the caves. They now claim to see a gigantic machine being built. The description of the machines seem identical to what Clara saw in the dome."

Here Juno's voice faltered but then he regained his composure.

"It is quite clear that the Federation is using the gigantic machines to turn us all into Muavens. The Federation believes that the time for humans is over and that now it is time for a new breed of super humans to take over the Earth. However we have also learnt that the project Muavens has been a spectacular failure. So I don't understand why Tarak is still going after making all of us Muavens."

Shakur shuddered at the thought. Night had descended rather quickly and it was quite dark in Juno's hut.

"Shakur, I want you to travel to the dome from where Clara escaped," Juno said. Shakur looked up at him but he couldn't see his expression for it was quite dark inside. 

"To do what?"

"Just look around and bring me back news."

"You want me to check if all people inside dome have become Muavens?"

Juno didn't reply to Shakur's question. Petya's hand had by now slipped over Shakur's hand. She pressed it slowly. Shakur couldn't understand her message. Was she trying to warn him off his mission? Was she trying to encourage him?"

"I will go," he said.

For a moment Petya's hand froze. Then she pressed it warmly.

"I will go with him" she said. From her tone it was clear that there was no point aruging with her.

"Take Puru with you" Juno said. This time both Shakur and Petya were surprised. 

"He will enjoy his time away from this dead village. Leave tomorrow." 

Shakur and Petya left Juno's hut and ambled towards their own hut. They found Puru playing outside the hut, chasing some fireflies. He left the fireflies alone when he saw them coming and raced to meet them on the steps of their hut. Shakur picked him up and threw him up. Puru squealed in delight. He and Puru helped Petya in fixing dinner and then in fixing their beds. By the time beds were rolled, they were so sleepy that they simply collapsed and slept till morning.

a dream come true

I have been quite disturbed lately. Even though I was able to fulfill my long cherished dream of getting a luxury car for my family, I managed to spend all the cash that was available to me and put my family's financial security into jeopardy once again. This has been a long running theme with me. I need to do something to stick to budget. Even Honda City VX model would have been good for me. I shouldn't have gone for CVT.

Now I have nothing against the car per se. It is a magnificent beast, a true luxury car. It is simply the most beautiful thing that I have owned ever! I love you car. 6433! beautiful, simply wonderful!

The car is gorgeous. It is very powerful too. The accelerator has to be pressed slowly and the car simply roars ahead. I am having some problems with the controls, most notably with the door opening and closing. It is embarrassing!

The AC is pretty effective although I have used it only in the morning and evening, the time when I leave for office and leave office for the day. The music system is not that good. It can only play CD. I wanted it to play DVD but it is ok. The ipod can be connected, my phone can be connected using bluetooth. The sunroof is an absolute delight. Everything happens with a touch of button. The brakes are powerful.

Like I said earlier, I love this car :-) :-) :-)