Deceit - Part 1

Chapter 1

Anish’s eyelids seemed to force themselves open as he squinted through the bright white light shooting into his eyes. He felt immobile - so immobile that he thought paralysis had taken a strong hold on his body. His limbs seemed to be stuck to the soft mattress that he was lying on like glue, and he began to have the feeling that he was in his deathbed, ready for demise to embrace him into its arms. He tried to take in a breath, and air suddenly rushed into his lungs. Anish began to feel nauseated as his lungs inflated and deflated like a balloon. His heart seemed to be beating faster now, much faster than before. He tried to get up, but groaned as his limbs screamed for him to stop moving.

“Anish Deshmukh,” a voice chuckled. “Former RAW agent and India’s most trusted commando at the age of twenty two.” Anish opened his eyes completely to see a woman standing above him. The woman seemed to be reading something next to Anish’s hibernation pod. She then looked down at Anish and grinned, showing her perfectly white teeth. She pressed something below, and suddenly, smoke began billowing from the bottom and sides of Anish’s little confinement. Within a minute, he was able to freely move his limbs as though it was just another normal day.

“Wh-Where am I? And who are you?” Anish croaked as he tried to get back his voice.

“My name is Lucia Alvarez, and I am the leader of this group of remaining humans,” a female voice with a Spanish accent replied. “I was the Prime Minister of Spain before we left Earth. We are currently in the artificial planet of Athonus, which is orbiting the star Sirius D3, our new sun, situated in the fourth universe. Oh, and I forgot to mention that you are currently over four hundred years old.”

“Huh?” Anish asked, completely puzzled.

“It will take you some time to grasp all this information. I suggest that you first climb out of your pod, freshen up, after which we can talk.”

“A-Alright,” Anish whimpered. He slowly climbed out and wiggled his arms and legs, which felt very wobbly and numb. The dizziness in his head was starting to ebb away like a tide moving into the vast sea. He found the nearest washroom and splashed water onto his face like there was no tomorrow, and then followed the exit sign out of the labyrinthine spaceship. When he got out, he gasped.

The land was painted green with blades of grass sticking out from everywhere as though the place was a savannah, and ponds seemed to peppered on patches of the greenery. The sunlight shone on the white walkways, illuminating any darkness which may be residing there. Anish could taste the orange rays of light in his mouth, and it tasted quite sweet. He looked up at the sky, which seemed to be blue as it always was, as though this place was nothing but Earth. Villas and bungalows lined a certain area of the land, which were filled with people having several conversations. Anish broke his gaze and began looking for Lucia, who was leaning on the side of the spaceship a few hundred feet away. Anish strolled towards her and began bombarding her with questions.

“Lucia, what is this place? Why are we here? How and when did we get here? And most importantly, how am I four hundred years old?”

“Calm down, Anish. As I said, this is the artificial planet of—”

“Artificial? What do you mean by that?”

“When we left Earth four hundred years ago, we were given a device that would automatically construct an entire Earth-like planet in just ten hours that could house a few million people. That device self-destructed after it created this,” Lucia waved her hand at the beautiful scenery before her.

Anish nodded. His memory seemed to be returning to him slowly but steadily. “Why did we even come here in the first place?”

Lucia’s smile disappeared and she gazed sternly at the horizon. “Robot uprising,” she said wearily after a few moments. “All the major leaders of the world decided that they could not let humanity and its great history sink into the ocean. Therefore, they all came up with a plan to send very few selected people anonymously to a universe far from Earth’s, so far that the robots would never find us.”

“So far, that it took four hundred years to reach there,” Anish added with a smirk.

“Yes. There are fifty of us, and everyone was put into separate hibernation pods when we left Earth. The pods supplied everyone with sufficient nutrients. The ship flew through several wormholes to reach this universe — the fourth universe. A few days ago, the other three crew members and I were awakened. We guided this gargantuan ship to its final destination, created Athonus and here we are.”

“This is pretty interesting, I must admit,” Anish said, grudgingly impressed.

“You find this amusing?” Lucia groaned with gritted teeth and stared into Anish’s eyes like a hawk.

“No,” Anish replied calmly.

“Good,” Lucia replied as a smile etched itself on her face again. “Now follow me. We will begin regular classes from tomorrow onwards.”

Chapter 2

Anish was given a three bedroom villa where he resided with two other passengers, Alec Johnson and Zach Reed. Alec explained how he worked in the CIA as a crime analyst and Zach described his experiences as a fighter jet pilot in the Royal Air Force. The next morning, one of the experts, who said that her name was Guang Zhang, knocked at the door and told the three of them to assemble at the meeting ground.

“So Guang, what did you do for a living on Earth?” Anish questioned as they walked towards the amphitheatre.

“Well, I was the field marshall for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” Guang replied softly. “Therefore, I am also the expert for warfare on this planet, and you will be attending my classes.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Anish acknowledged. When they arrived at the amphitheatre, Lucia was climbing up to the stage to address the whole audience.

“Good morning everyone,” Lucia began. “Today, we will commence classes for all you passengers according to your job profiles on Earth. We have three groups, and two experts for each - one head expert, and one supporting expert. The three other crew members and I will be monitoring the recent space movements in the control room to make sure we all remain alive. The groups will be - warfare and spying skills, military intelligence and technology, and leadership. Now, everyone please disperse to your respective groups.” Anish scanned the area for Guang and stood next to her. Beside Guang was another young man with shabby hair and a very well built and muscular upper body. Soon, there were about fifteen people in the warfare and spying skills group including Zach and Anish. They walked to a building about a hundred meters away and settled down when Guang began to talk.

“Let us all quickly introduce ourselves before we begin,” Guang commented. First to go was Guang and then the supporting expert, Moshe Bar Heim, who told the class that he was a Mossad agent on Earth. Anish remembered a few other names after everyone introduced themselves, such as Sarah Jones, who claimed to be a US Army sniper and Martina Alfonsi who was an Italian spy.

“Now that that’s settled, let us begin with target practice,” Moshe advised. The fifteen of them were divided into groups of three, with Anish, Sarah and Zach in one group. Anish slowly picked up his gun and fired a shot. The recoil caught him off guard and Zach sniggered.

“You said you were a sniper, but you seem to be missing a lot of shots,” Zach commented to Sarah with a laugh.

“Yeah, but I guess it will take some time for me to get back into shape. I actually retired from the military a few years before we left Earth, but I was still sent here solely due to my experience in warfare,” Sarah grinned.

“Oh,” Zach replied.

Suddenly, an alarm began to ring loudly and Anish slammed his palms on his ears as though he was slapping himself. The lights flickered and then went off swallowing the room in darkness. Panic ensued as shouts flew across the room. The sound of the alarm was suddenly drowned by the overturning of furniture. Guang screamed for everyone to get beneath their respective tables and keep quiet. After a few more seconds, the alarm stopped and the lamps flickered back on, enveloping the room in light.

“Argh!” Moshe bellowed at the class. “Haven’t you people ever learned to keep quiet in drills? If that was a real invasion, then we would long be dead!” Just as the word “drill” escaped Moshe’s mouth, sighs filled the room as relief flooded into everyone’s minds.

“You people are just hopeless!” Moshe roared and stormed out of the room.

“Well, he has a very short temper,” Sarah whispered in Anish’s ear.

“Yeah,” Anish agreed. Guang then told them all to increase the distance to their targets and continue firing until lunch came around the corner. Just as the session ended, Anish, Zach and Sarah rushed to the refectory as their stomachs seemed to growl in hunger. Sarah finished early and went to her room to refresh herself while Anish and Zach ate like there was no tomorrow.

“Hey Zach, Guang told us to change into our pilot suits right?” Anish asked Zach when they finished lunch.

“Yes,” Zach replied with a grin. “This is going to be fun. I’ll beat you all in air warfare.”

As they entered the classroom, Anish’s eyes fell upon Moshe’s face, and his eyes narrowed. He nudged Zach.

“Hey Zach, do you see those burns on Moshe’s face?” Anish whispered. Zach shifted his gaze towards the expert and gasped just loud enough for Anish to hear.

“There’s only one way he could have acquired those burns,” Zach pointed out.

“Electrocution,” Anish replied.

“Yes,” Zach replied. Then, it dawned upon him. “The control room. Moshe must have tried to get into the control room without permission. Entering the wrong passwords activates the electrocution machine. He must be a traitor.” Just as these words left Zach’s mouth, an alarm sounded and Lucia’s voice boomed across the room through the speaker.

“Attention! There has been a security breach! I repeat, there has been a security breach! This is not a drill!”