My Oblivious Friend

Summary (Science Fiction & Fantasy)-

Dereck set out with his friends to find a treasure hidden deep in the ocean bed but things didn’t go as planned. A storm leads them into a strange place where their life gets in danger. They do their best in order to save their lives but in the end are captured. When all hope is gone, a ray of light emerges. Will this ray of light be enough for their survival?

My Oblivious Friend

It was 7 minutes past midnight. Never had I seen such terrible weather. It felt like a never-ending roller coaster ride, the only difference being that we had no idea what swing will be next. The pitch dark black sky made the situation even worse. I was steering the ship which was also our beloved home for the past 27 days. Even though I had spent most of my life on sea and witnessed uncountable sea storms but this was not the usual storm. I had a bad feeling about this one right from the start. “What the hell is happening? Say something,” Louis screamed. I said in fear, “I don't know.” Bryan said, “What do you mean by you don't know?” I said, “Guys we need to be calm, please!” But it had no effect on Bryan. He questioned,” Calm? You serious? We are going to die.”

I used to be a fisherman. Two years back I met Louis and Bryan at our school reunion, Louis discussed this idea of going after the treasures lying on the sea bed. These treasures were gold, diamonds and other precious metals that were carried by merchant ships in the first half of the 19th century and drowned due to some reason.

This was our third expedition and the most ambitious one till now. In the previous voyages we had to bear some financial losses. We decided to go after something big and we zeroed in for SS Gairsoppa, a British merchant ship, which set sail from Calcutta (Kolkata) in December 1940 but was sunk by a German U-boat before she could reach home with her cargo of 70 lac ounces of silver (1 ounce = 28.3495231 gm) among other things. As per the records the ship sank somewhere in North Atlantic near the coast of Ireland. There was a mysterious thing around this ship. None of the ships which went looking for the remains of SS Gairsoppa returned back. The area where SS Gairsoppa sank is believed to be haunted and no captain in his right mind will dare to pass through that area. I am not sure what we were thinking while we were planning for this voyage. We were fools!

Meanwhile a humongous wave hit our ship and it turned upside down. Anytime the waves would break the upside-down ship into two pieces. I looked at Louis and Bryan in the faint light through the waves and we knew that this was the end. I was drowning and trying my best to stay afloat but the waves were too strong.

I got back to my conscious. Slowly I opened my eyes. “That was a pretty bad dream”, I thought to myself. Soon I realized that I was completely drenched in water and all my clothes were wet. There was pain in my bones and muscles. I was feeling a burning sensation on my hands which were later confirmed as injuries. And the most importantly I was lying on a ground. I was completely dumbstruck. I observed my surroundings and it did not appear as normal. There were plain yellow grass and it was twilight. I was feeling a bit lighter when I tried to move around. I stood up and looked around, I saw Louis and Bryan at a distance. They were lying unconscious.

I shouted, “Louis! Bryan! Hey wake up guys! You need to see this.” Brian took a while and uttered in panic, “Ah! My back hurts. Are we still alive? Is this afterlife? Are we in heaven?” Louis got irritated and replied, “Can you please shut up for a moment!” I continued, “I think the waves must have carried us away and dropped here on this island.” Bryan laughed and said, “In that case, we would have been lying on a beach and not in the middle of nowhere.” Louis asked, “What is this place? Someone must have picked us from the beach and left us here.”

There was something odd about that place. There was no breeze, no clouds, not a single tree, no animals, birds, insects, no sign of civilisation. How did we land here after that horrific incident in the ocean? Something strange has happened. I looked at Louis and we both were completely blank. I looked at my palms and I could see blood coming from the cut which I got on the ship. It was pretty much clear that everything was real and we were not dreaming.

Now it was quite some time that we had spent there, the sunlight was still the same, the sun did not set. All decided to move and explore the area. Louis in his usual tone started saying, “This place sucks! No water! No Fruit! No veggies! How these people even live here?” Bryan replied, “I don't know mate. There are no people here. I don't like this feeling. I hate to say but something is not right here.” Louis continued, “Chill man you are just exaggerating like always.” I said, “No Louis, I'm with Bryan. Our watches are not working. But still I can say that we have been here for almost 4 hours and when we woke up it looked like sunset, so by now it was supposed to get dark.” Louis said, “Common stop being ridiculous. You are tired and starving. Your mind is just messing with you mate.” Bryan in panic, “Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. I think I heard something.” (Short roar from a distance). I thought it was some animal and said, “Yeah, me too. It must be some animal.” Louis replied, “Cut it out guys!”

I looked behind. Though I didn't see anything but still I could hear something was approaching us. I ignored the sound but the strange feeling was still lingering on me. This uneasiness could be now seen on the faces of Louis and Bryan. They were taking short and slow steps. Nobody was saying anything. Our silence grew into fear. We had no intention of getting noticed by anyone on that vast open grassland. It felt like someone's been watching us.

After walking some distance, we again heard something and this time we could actually see it. It was moving slow. It had a very thin body, long legs and tentacles like hands and almost negligible mass in the central portion of the body. Just a small thin structure connecting the head and the long legs and tentacles. We were first amazed to see that weird creature. Louis said in fearful voice, “Oh my God! What is that thing?” Brian in shock, “I have never seen something like this before. It is moving too slow. Is it injured?” I said, “Guys! We need to get out from here. This doesn't look good.” Louis in hesitation said, “Wait, wait, wait! I think it's harmless. We are stuck in a weird place with weird creatures. It's a great discovery I wish I had a camera with me.” Brian exclaimed, “Stop your nonsense!” The slowly moving creature took a jump went into the sky and landed and again took a high jump. Now it was heading towards us with a great force. Bryan screamed, “Run! Run! It’s after us!

The creature was shouting "mumbles". We understood that this creature is going to harm us as I gathered courage and looked back while I was running and saw it had something in its hands now and was shrieking loudly. We started running in the other direction. We were out of the grasslands and there were stranger things around us. We saw giant spheres which were tied to the ground via ropes. We thought of stopping there and having a closer look at those things but we realized that we couldn't stop or else the creature running behind will get hold of us. We turned back and to our surprise there were 3 creatures now.

After running for a while, we came across a diversion on the road. The road was split into two. We didn't have time to select among the two paths. I took the right one while Bryan and Louis took the left. After running for some more time, I turned back and no one was running behind me. I guess all three went after Louis and Bryan. I was worried. I felt helpless and was completely tired. I didn't remember when I collapsed. The next thing I remember was me lying in a box like structure made up of glass like material. I could see blue gas around me. There were also some blue particles floating in the gas. I tried moving myself but I couldn’t move. My hands and legs were stuck to something. I gathered some energy and moved my head to see what was stopping me and I saw Louis lying beside me with his back towards my side. Both our hands and legs were tied to each other. I tried waking up Louis but it was of no use.

There was no response from his side. My heartbeats increased. The fear of Louis being dead engulfed me. I was trapped into endless series of nightmares. I moved my head on the other side and tried to figure out what is outside the glass chamber through the blue gas. I could not see anyone around the chamber. There was no one around the box but I could see a round opening on the uneven walls and the sunset. The sun was still in the same place. I had lost track of time but I could sense that I was not sleeping for the past 24 hours. This opening was the only source of light. I became tense. I started thinking how I would go back to my home and at the same time the fear of death started haunting me. My throat and body went completely dry.

Just when my mind was getting blocked with all these thoughts coming from every direction, I heard some movement coming from outside the box. There were two creatures similar to the ones running behind us earlier. They moved around and one of them did something on a panel fixed on the wall of the box. There was a loud noise and the door opened. They came inside and had a closer look at me and Louis. I was sweating. I knew this was my end. I was thinking about the ways in which that creature would kill me. Both of them tied the elastic like rope once again and made sure it is properly tied. I was quiet. These creatures had a height which was definitely more than mine. It must be around 7 feet in height.

The surface of their bodies was slimy and had a whitish complexion. They appeared to be fragile and flimsy. I thought of pushing one of those creatures but I was too scared to do that. Meanwhile Louis opened his eyes and I was filled with joy immediately. Louis was alive. He looked at me and whispered in pain, “They killed Bryan! They killed Bryan!” The joy was turned into sorrow. Tears rolled down my eyes but we were helpless. In a shrill voice, the big one uttered “I hope you are feeling good now”. I was astonished to see the creature speak in English.

Hearing English from these creatures is something that I never thought about. I didn't know how to respond to those words. I just gave a nod. It continued in its shrill voice, “Before we kill you, you should know the place where you are going to die. This planet is called Cyprus”. It further said, “You came here through a cosmic tunnel which connect Earth and Cyprus. My name is Hikai and this is Gikai. You might be feeling uneasy in breathing and that's because the oxygen levels here are slightly lower than that of Earth.” It took some time to understand and absorb the words said by Hikai. It was clear that these creatures or aliens know humans and Earth very well.

I and Louis came closer. The aliens took two steps back. Hikai continued, “We didn’t kill your friend. He was killed by another group of aliens, they will get the reward.” It seemed like Gikai is an assistant because Hikai did all the talking and Gikai followed the orders. “You two came from the same ship, right?” Immediately, I understood what happened to all the missing people who went before us to find the treasure and why they were missing. Hikai asked Gikai to explain this place and their relations with humans. Gikai said, “We call ourselves as pebbles just like you call yourselves as humans. Cyprus has low light for half of the year and darkness for rest half.

The days are longer here and one year at Cyprus is equivalent to 500 days on Earth. Unlike Earth, the Cyprus remains in the same position for half of the year. That’s why you can see the daylight is constant here.” They have a different star which they call Alcor. It continued, “Alcor is different than your sun. Even though Cyprus is far away from Alcor but it is still warm as Earth because there are certain elements in the atmosphere of Cyprus which retained the little heat energy from the Alcor’s light. The gravitational force here is less as compared to Earth. Alcor is the only energy source which we have.” Further, it said, “We do not have genders on this planet. Reproduction happens by division and that is how I came into existence when Hikai was split. As compared to humans, our bodies are fragile but we have higher intelligence,” gave a little smirk. The cells on their body surface retain moisture and water content which is essential for their survival.

Then came the major part, “Two decades ago scientists on Earth found out a mysterious cosmic tunnel in a separate dimension which connected Earth and Cyprus. It takes just few seconds to reach Cyprus from Earth using the tunnel which was formed by bending of time and space. While the actual distance between Earth and this planet is 291 million light years. The scientists visited this planet and interacted with us. They wanted to be our friends. That's how we learnt English and about humans and the Earth. When scientists from Earth used to visit this planet, they had to stay here for a very long time equivalent to two Cyprus years. The secret tunnel was completely dependent on the ruling star’s energy. When it has absorbed sufficient energy, it allowed passage of humans and pebbles. Now the sun’s energy is abundant on Earth but Alcor’s energy is scanty on Cyprus. Hence, for anyone to travel from Cyprus to Earth had to wait for a very long time but it takes few seconds to travel from Earth to Cyprus. Hence, many scientists from Earth would spend a longer time on Cyprus as going back was difficult. While spending time here in Cyprus, they taught us about the technology on Earth. We being intelligent, grasped it easily. We learnt about nuclear technology from humans and in return we allowed humans to study our planets and take away some of the resources which are found in large quantities here like those shiny gas particles which has capacity of healing the wound within a short period.”

“Few years back, the security force of this planet which also sets rules and regulations decided to go with the humans and settle down on Earth. The reason being Earth has abundant sunlight, water and oxygen which was needed for our survival. A team of pebbles was sent to Earth where they killed all the scientists who were involved in this cross-planet exchange. The ordinary people on Earth never knew about this program, as it was all done in secrecy. The team then came back to Cyprus and started working on the plan to capture Earth.” Gikai took a pause and Hikai said, “I was part of the team of people who killed those scientists. The creatures on both Earth and Cyprus are unaware of all such developments. Killing humans is very easy. Our body surface contains a white coloured substance called gliesh, if we remove some part of this slimy substance and throw it on your skin, you will die in minutes. We require a lot of moisture to survive and this planet has very less water.

So, our bodies have learnt to survive in such conditions that’s because the gliesh on our body helps us to retain water content. But when the gliesh comes in contact with your skin, it raises the water content of your cells and tissues beyond the limit which ultimately leads to death. But you two are lucky, we need live humans to study their bodies. Your death will not go in vain. You will help us to get closer to our dream of capturing Earth.” Both Hikai and Gikai started laughing after this.

Hikai said, “Cyprus is waiting for the passage to get charged, once it is charged, a team will go through the passage to Earth and through our secret weapons we will destroy all the humans. Hikai ordered, “It’s about time, put both of them back in the droh and let’s take them to the lab and collect our reward.” Louis looked terrified. Gikai brought another rope and tied both of us firmly. He brought a box which they referred as ‘droh’ and was barely big enough to hold both of our bodies. Using a robot both of us were picked up at once dropped into the box. This led to a sprain in my right leg. The box was closed and it was dark inside. It contained the similar gas particles from the glass chamber and were glittering in the dark. We could hear both Hikai and Gikai talking.

The box started moving. Louis said in anguish, “Do you really believe whatever that ugly face said just now.” I couldn’t control my tears and replied, “Whatever is happening it’s all because of me. I will not forgive myself.” Louis tried to console me said, “Hey, hey, hey! Look man, it was our mutual decision. You are not responsible for Bryan’s death. We are going to avenge his death.” I replied, “No Louis, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me. I’m going to die.” I was not able to control my voice and cried loudly. Louis said, “No, no, no, you’re not. I couldn’t lose you after Bryan. I’m not gonna let them kill you. Do you understand?” I had no hope left in me. Louis continued, “Look right now we just have to deal with these two eggheads. They are dumb, we can easily manipulate them. We are great sailors, as long as we don’t panic, we’re gonna be absolutely okay. We will survive this.” I felt good after hearing this and said to him, “You are right mate. I’m not giving up until we get out of this miserable place.” Louis replied with a smile, “Attaboy!” I asked Louis, “Hey Louis, what’s the thing on the Earth that you cannot live without.” Louis thought for a while and replied, “Mmmm, cheese burger.” I asked, “What? A cheese burger?” Louis replied, “Yeah man, my stomach has started to eat itself.” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at his joke.

There was no space in the box to even move a little. Our body was aching. The tied rope was making it worse. Whenever the surface was not plain, our heads used to hit each other due to the uneven movements. We could feel the nature of the slope due to the tilting of the box. After spending quite some time inside the box, there was a never-ending incline. I was feeling dizzy due to the motion of the box. Finally, the incline ended. The noise coming from outside was now reduced. Suddenly I heard a loud thud and the box rolled and opened up, we were on the floor. I moved my head and saw around what was happening. I was stunned by what I saw. Hikai was lying on the ground and Gikai was holding something similar to a gun in its hand. Hikai’s body started turning into liquid. Gikai shouted, “Run! Follow me. We have no time”. We all started running. Gikai killed anyone who tried stopping us. An alarm started ringing. Me and Louis were dumbstruck and unable to understand what was happening. While running, Gikai told us that it was taking us to the portal and from there we can go back to Earth. He gave us an orange sphere and asked us to drop this into the cosmic passage while we cross it. “When you drop this sphere into the cosmic passage, a nuclear explosion will take place and the released energy will be trapped in the tunnel which will make it impossible for anyone to use this passage.” Gikai said hurriedly.

We reached at the entrance panting heavily. There were 4 guards around the entrance. Gikai was running in front of us and covering us. It asked us to go ahead and jump into the entrance. There was a spectrum of colors coming from the entrance. Gikai killed three of the guards. As we were about to enter the entrance, Gikai was shot down by the last guard. I saw him fell down. Louis turned back. I shouted at him not to turn back and jump into the entrance. We both jumped together and I drop the orange sphere. Two second later we found ourselves on to a familiar place called ‘Earth’***

Five years have passed since we returned to Earth. For the first six months, I hardly spoke to anyone. It was the same with Louis. I lost one of my best friend. The authorities found out the remaining parts of our boat on a nearby shore. It took some time for us to get back to our normal lives. All these years, I tried to understand what provoked Gikai to save us but couldn’t find any definite reason for its action. I guess I will spend my life thinking about this oblivious friend.

The End.