Chapter 26: Chapter 26

EARTH

The journey was eventless and Ave the spacecraft reached

the exact place from where it took off from the Earth

nearly a year ago…

On the Earth Frank was counting the days and on fifteenth

day he told the both Redim and Christina that they would

go and wait near the exit of the Nest of the

extraterrestrials!

Christina was ready even before anyone had come down.

She knew, they would not be able to travel immediately as

the Reans might need some recuperating time from the

arduous journey. She had collected few items like her

laptop, cell phone, toiletries, jeans and tops in her

backpack.

Redim had packed all the medical tools and medicine

needed as well as blood for transfusion. She had packed

just some essentials and few reference books on coma

patients!

Frank had not thought much about it and he took his

overnight backpack that he usually carried whenever he

had gone on long trekking…He told Mary the housekeeper

that they would be going to be trekking and might not

return for two months. He told the same thing to Frank’s

father Timothy.

Frank thought it was prudent to use his car as he told them

he would be back in two months. He must hide the car

somewhere so that no one would find it until they

returned.

They left to the Nest’s exit at the other side of the

mountain in the night of the fifteenth day. The villagers

were used to see them going for drives and waved at

them…

They were not talking much as they were immersed in

their own thoughts. Frank was an aerospace engineer, but

he was not able to comprehend the intragalactic

interplanetary journey! The Proxima Earth was four and

a half light years away. It was unthinkable for the present

scenario to have a speed hundred times that of light. It was

mind blowing possibility but yet the Reans had invented it

thousands of years earlier!

He remembered what the Reans said about the earthlings’

flaw… only the available material had been used and no

new optimum material were invented from the available

one. How very true!

When they arrived at the landing site, their priority was to

hide the car. They looked around and found a deep crevice

in the mountain which would hide the car perfectly! Frank

parked the car inside the crevice and covered it with live

creepers and plants. Unless someone come in search, the

car would not be seen by on lookers!

They took their baggage and climbed to the landing area

from where the Ave took off.

This was the first time Christina had come to the Nest…

She was observing everything curiously and in awe…

Frank told her to go through the point of entrance/exit to

the Nest. The rock columns were exactly left as it was but

the vegetation has grown in places where water was

seeping and it was dark.

Frank was amazed to see the transformation. He had

always seen the Nest as a bright place with lots of floating

lights but now it remained dark. Redim walked around

using her cell torch. In the light it looked eerie. A lone calf

was wandering aimlessly and Redim remembered that they

had cattle she went near the calf which was pale and sick

and directed her through the exit. The calf couldn’t make

out the way as it was dark but now it was free!

They came back to the landing area and sat. They knew

they had to wait but they didn’t want to miss them!

They were talking about everything that they knew about

the Reans and Christina was listening keenly and asking

questions like a child… Frank and Redim had a long day

of arranging their two month’s anticipated absence. They

had to issue several circulars to keep their business going

in their absence. So they were exhausted and slept.

But Christina was awake as her excitement and the fear of

the unknown had kept her alert. Moreover she was not

used to overnight camps or trekking. The landing was

cleared... it was around forty by forty ledge on the

mountain which had a small cave that led into the Nest.

It was a clear starlit night and she gazed at the sky. She

had a habit of wishing for something whenever she saw a

shooting star.

She was amazed to see a shooting star and immediately

wished Richard should be alright. But the shooting star

didn’t disappear, instead it was still visible. She stood

there looking at the shooting star that looked as if it was

coming straight at her… She ran inside the cave and stood

there trembling. Frank and Redim woke up and stood with

her.

Frank was certain it was the Ave and it landed smoothly

and noiselessly on the specific spot and the light died

down on its own. They waited for the wings to open and

did not open for a long time.

Then slowly the outer cover lifted like a shining veil and

the wing opened and the steps appeared but no one came

out! Redim thought that they had sent an unmanned

spacecraft!

Then they saw him. They thought it was Richard, who

came down on the steps… All the three were using their

torch and in the light they mistook him for Richard.

He stood on the ground and Christina ran towards him

calling Richard’s name. He looked at her as if she was so

precious. The look of wonderment was all to see…

Now Christina had some misgiving …she tentatively

called, ‘Richard … Richard are you ok?’

The Cynig replied, ‘I am not Richard! I am the Cynig of

Arda!’

‘What?’ She took two steps backward and bumped into

Frank.

Frank extended his hand and said ‘welcome to the Earth’

‘You are Frank! The dear friend of King Richard’ the

Cynig beamed…

Redim came forward, ‘you are the healer! Thank you

healer for accepting to revive Richard’

Redim with her usual bluntness asked, ‘are you a clone of

Richard … you look like him!’

Before the Cynig could answer, Re replied, ‘No dear

doctor, he was the King of the oceans…you will faint if

you know his age!’

Frank ran and lifted Re and hugged him. It was heart-

warming to see the moist eyes of Re who never expressed

his feelings …Then Zo appeared and it was jubilation all

around…

Frank remembered Christina and asked her to come

forward and introduced her, ‘ Re, Christina here….

Richard’s girl friend’

Re smiled at her warmly remembering all the games of

hide and seek played by Richard… He even remembered

how she would follow him around without his knowledge.

He had an immediate connection to her…

The warm smile melted her and she knelt in front of him

to shake his hands. But instead of shaking the hands, Re

kissed her and said, ‘we know you from baby… we also

know that your affection for Richard had grown from your

childhood… I will tell you a secret but don’t tell

Richard… He loves you as much if not more but he would

never tell you. He thinks a school dropout is not suitable

for you!’

Christina forgot her inhibitions and lifted Re and kissed

him on his cheeks and everyone laughed.

Zo came near and told her,’ why Christina …no kisses for

me …I used to attend few of your classes and I must tell

you were a big show off then!’

Christina was red now but she kept Re down and dutifully

kissed Zo….

Redim wanted time to stand still! What a beautiful

reunion!

Now Re turned towards Frank and explained about the

purpose of the Cynig visit. They were amazed. But Frank

thought he could not be roaming around without a place to

stay. So he suggested that he could stay in his house as

guest until they returned. He would call and tell the

housekeeper to prepare a room.

‘What is your name Cynig? It is very unfamiliar… do you

know to drive?’

The Cynig just smiled, ‘I need to see once then I could

drive anything. As far my name, you can give me a local

name so that I can mingle with these earthlings’

Redim laughed and said, ‘please don’t call anyone

earthlings, because now you are one.’

The Cynig laughed, ‘you have a point healer! What is my

name?

Frank said, ‘you will be called as Robert … do you like it?

It means fame or glory or honour…’

The Cynig repeated the name, ‘ Robert… Robert… yes it

sounds good ... I will use it!’

Frank called Robert, ‘come Robert let me show you the

car…’

Zo intervened, ‘let him drive …I will go with him and

show the house and give him the map of the places

around. Then I will join you and we can leave

immediately'

Frank thought they might need at least one day to

recuperate but Zo was casually mentioning about the

journey!

Redim asked, ‘Don’t you want to take rest?’

Re replied, ‘What we do in the journey? We are induced

into a coma stage where all our physical activities would

be curtailed and nearly all our mental activities too! It

takes some time to come out of the stupor but we feel

refreshed after that!’

Frank showed the car and it was almost similar to that of

his Orb except it wouldn’t fly. Robert thought he would

modify the car to fly so that it would be easier for him to

move around.

Robert was very confident of driving the car. Frank called

Mary, the housekeeper…She picked the phone and her

voice came out drowsy as it was almost few hours past

midnight… He told her to expect one of his friends and he

had lost all his things so he might be in need of everything

including personal identification papers. He asked her to

make arrangement for everything and help him settle until

he returned from his tour…

As usual, she never asked any question but agreed to do

everything. He was happy as he knew how efficient Mary

was!

Re asked Robert to come down and when he knelt in front

of him, he placed the Link around his neck, ‘Robert,

remember this is the only link that you would have with

us! Go to a place and concentrate on any one of us and

connect… Use it when you are alone!’

Robert was grateful for his concern and he kissed his hand

and closed his eyes to try it.

He immediately felt the vibes from the Link and Re’s

voice came clearly to his mind!

Robert opened his eyes and smiled at him!

He sat on the driver’s seat and Zo sat beside him and

transformed himself as a grey parrot. He drove in a

breakneck speed but it slowed down and they could see he

had a perfect control over the car. They looked at the car

until the taillight disappeared from their sight!

Re told them all about Robert and the thousands of years

of loneliness. They were eager to listen to every word

about the Arda which they knew as Proxima Earth!

It was almost three past when Zo returned and Re wanted

to go before it became light. So he administered them in

the necessary life support and secured them to the floor of

the spacecraft where they had made comfortable berth for

them. Once all the three went into stupor, both Re and Zo

prepared themselves and Zo checked for the last time if

the return flight coordination and auto pilot were done.

Everything was perfect as he had done all these while he

was in Arda itself.

The last thought for Zo was that they would reach Arda in

fifteen days as he increased the speed to some extent.

The journey was once again eventless and they reached

Arda in the stipulated time … and landed safely…

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