Her Alluring Eyes

“She finally understood who she was, and the entire game changed.”

Date: 21st March, 3019 A.D.

Sahara Desert, North Africa

Commander Eleanor was on the ground, wounded but alive. She checked her health statistics in the display of her Sky Goggles. Almost half of her organs were failing. But the display suggested that her eyes were still strong. She looked ahead & clearly saw the massive Mothership floating high in the atmosphere. Now is the time to act swiftly, she thought.

Date: 26th March, 3519 A.D.

Aryabhatta Colony, New York D.C.

Almost 500 years after.

Eleanor sat down in the hypersonic jet, capable of flying 10 times faster than the speed of sound. Along with 4 other top ranked soldiers from the 4 different colonies around the world, they were on a mission which could change the future of the entire world and all the generations coming henceforth. She checked her health readings on the display of her goggles. The Alien Bacteria injected inside her was doing its work.

She then remembered the conversation that she had with the General, a couple of weeks ago.

She was urgently called for a meeting with him, for she had successfully captured Sector 45A outside the US Colony from Alpha Terrestrials, who were now ruling the earth.

"500 years ago, in year 3019, in just a span of 1000 years, technology had expanded exponentially. Greed to become the biggest ever superpower nation on earth started prevailing amongst humans. One such Cupid country therefore called these Alpha Terrestrials, the most intelligent species of Alien Artificial Intellect, to use their tech for our benefits. Unfortunately….. These aliens betrayed us. They came in the form of asteroids & deposited themselves on earth. Multiplying rapidly, they spread harmful gases in the earth's atmosphere. Humans tried fighting them back, but they were outnumbered a lot. No human could survive the attack. Since then, Alpha Aliens are ruling earth. They have taken over the entire life of our planet, making it inhabitable. No climate cycles existed after that.The harmful gases blocked the sun’s view, creating Barren Lands which we see today. Most of the water & air got washed out, making Earth a deadly Brown planet. But... Some of the humans survived. All the survived created colonies in different parts of the world..."

"World...? There are colonies elsewhere around...?" Eleanor was shocked, as till now she had assumed their colony, called the Aryabhatta Colony, of about 5000 people, was the only surviving one left.

"There are 4 colonies in different parts of the world..." saying this, General opened the world map and showed the zones marked in red color. There were 4 zones marked in total, about the size equal to that of their zone. Eleanor couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"The survivors created their own colonies, staying hidden away from aliens. The aliens knew this, and they keep attacking these colonies, with the intention of destroying them. However, every colony has their own army, the way we have ours, headed by one Supreme commander. All these commanders are the best in their army, the way you are here."

"Launching program... Initiated...!" Eleanor said as she pressed the green button. Instantly, the jet propelled up. Taxiing ahead it went and stood exactly in the middle of the runway, the software inside it awaiting further instructions.

"Launch sequence initiating in... 3...2...1...Launch sequence initiated...!" With a humming sound in the engines, the jet propelled ahead.

"Velocity increased to 10,000 kmph and further increasing... Take off sequence initialized...!" As Morris, the head pilot said this; the jet glided with tremendous speed on the runway with a thunderous booming sound and took off swiftly.

As Eleanor kept an eye on the auto controls, she thought of the mission again.

“The scientists of all our colonies worked together & created a Wormhole, an Einstein- Rosen Bridge, which will take you back in time to past, almost 500 years back. Your mission is to locate those asteroids and destroy them. “ The General told her.” Remember, doing this in the past will alter the future...!! Once you'll be back... You'll see a totally different world here...!"

A sudden jerk brought her back to the present. The jet was now speeding faster. The Wormhole was located 1000 kms exactly above the North Pole, which was now shifted by 30 kms due to Green House Effect.

“We need to cruise a speed of more than 1, 00,000 kms per second in order to enter the Wormhole & escape from the other side…!” Yaana, the soldier from the European Colony said amidst the humming of engines.

As the Jet approached it, Eleanor saw that it was not a hole but a Sphere, a circle in 3 dimensions. The earth looked totally barren from this height. It looked entirely Brown, with no clouds & no water at all on its surface.

Suddenly Eleanor felt something. Her instincts told her something’s wrong.

Abruptly all the Red lights on the Main Console started blinking.

“We’re under attack…!” Eleanor immediately screamed. At once, about 4 drones, the size of a mini jet sprang up in front and started firing bullets towards them.

“It’s the Aliens….!” Eleanor immediately recognized the drones. “Morris, pilot us away from them…! Conan…activate the missile guns…!”

Conan, the soldier from the African colony, activated the Gun & started firing at them.

“Tag the drones and burn them…Yaana... how far are we from the wormhole…?”

“About 300 kms upwards..!” Yaana screamed.

“Morris…fire up all the engines & cruise fast towards the wormhole…We’ll have to enter it ASAP..!” As Eleanor said this, she used the missile guns on the craft to fire at the drones. Morris took a sharp left and went straight ahead.

With lightning speed, the jet moved in the direction of the wormhole. In rear camera, Eleanor saw a number of Alien Alpha Drones directly coming behind her. Suddenly the jet took a hit.

"Conan.... Fire at the leading one's left side..!" Immediately following her orders, Conan fired at the left of the lead drone. The resultant impact caused the drone to rotate rapidly. Missing its path, it collapsed on the drones following it, crashing them down.

The Red Lights on the console kept indicating the damage to the jet . However, Eleanor decided to continue the mission.

"We're entering the Wormhole....!" Morris screamed on top of his voice.

At once all the lights went off. It was pitch black dark inside the hole. The jet glided smoothly inside.

"Look, we are reaching the other side...!" Conan said as he saw ahead. Eleanor saw a small ray of light at the end of the hole. Gradually the hole turned bigger. With high speed, the jet escaped out of the hole.

The team was now 500 years back in the past, in year 3019 A.D. The earth was looking quite greener now. It had a beautiful green and blue color, with vast water bodies on it & wonderful clouds all over.

"Fuckk...! The Alien Drones destroyed our Jet’s main missile gun. The Take-off & landing gear is also destroyed...!" Conan said, looking at the red light.

"Let's continue the mission. We'll stop them with whatever we have...!" Eleanor exclaimed.

But she still felt something’s fishy. Why the aliens attack us? Why did they exactly destroy the Take-off & landing gear of our Jet?

And then Eleanor understood the problem.

"The Aliens knew that we are coming here...!" she exclaimed at once. "Shiitttt...! These Aliens knew our every move before we even started the mission. Now I realised why they attacked us during taking off...! That’s the reason they destroyed our missile gun. They're trying to stop us from killing them...!”

Turning towards Morris, she said, "Plot the co-ordinates where the aliens have landed on earth. We need to attack them at once....!"

Morris plotted the co-ordinates and patched them to the jet's software system.

"All the asteroids have come in.... The largest of them is in the Sahara desert in Africa. That's the mother hive mind which is controlling them while they are on earth. We need to finish it off….which will then top the other Aliens at once..!”

Morris somehow manoeuvred the damaged jet along the plotted co-ordinates towards the desert. The jet was speeding quite fast, making it difficult to control.

They crossed the earth's atmosphere and reached the desert.

“Let’s take them down with all that we have…!” Eleanor said as she cocked her gun.

All 4 of them responded back, nodding their heads.

As Eleanor got out, she saw the Jet’s entire left part was damaged. I think I’m not gonna go back, she said to herself.

Spotting the asteroid, they approached it carefully.

Eleanor was feeling a bit dizzy. What's happening to me? She kept getting visions she couldn't explain. They were flashes about something, some unexplained phenomena happening deep inside her mind.

"Remove your goggles commander... It's dark here...." Conan said as he removed his.

"l am ok with them..." She said. I hate my eyes. Never liked them though, she said to herself.

Cautiously, observing danger signals, they moved ahead. The asteroid was calm.

Suddenly Eleanor felt something. She observed her display pad & was shocked.

"The aliens are closing down the wormhole... they've trapped us in the past, closing down our exit...!"

"But how will we go back...." Yaana's voice was cut off as all of them suddenly heard a huge shrieking noise. They turned towards the asteroid.

"Take your positions....!" Eleanor screamed as she loaded her gun.

A heinous looking creature emerged from the asteroid or shell, with 6 hands or something like that. Its face was filled with tentacles. The sparkling spots on the top looked like its eyes. It was thin and tall, with long legs and a slender abdomen.

Shrieking badly, it shook itself and started expanding. Within seconds, it expanded to three times its size and to the entire team's horror, immediately started multiplying. Herds of smaller Aliens came out of it & started attacking them, sending out purple acidic liquids.

"Incoming.... Take cover...!" she screamed. The entire team ran, but it was too late. The acidic liquid hit all of them. Eleanor felt like her entire body was burning. As her vision faded, she saw Morris and Yaana getting burnt, their bodies rapidly evaporating. Conan fought back and ducked the attack, but the liquid burned him totally.

Suddenly Eleanor felt something.

This is not the real Mothership, her instincts told her, it's elsewhere somewhere on earth. I need to find it & destroy the thing entirely.

At once she heard footsteps approaching towards her. The smaller aliens were checking the bodies of her team. The Aliens came & crossed her, checking everything around.

Why are they not checking me? Eleanor thought. She then used her gun & fired shots at the aliens. They got alerted, but never fired back. Coming in her direction, they searched but couldn’t find anything. It was as if Eleanor just never existed to them.

Abruptly, she got a thought. The alien tissue inside me is working. They can’t detect me, as they think I am one of them. But how they detected my team, when they had the same tissue that was in me?

Suddenly she again got a vision. This time, she saw something.

She is down on the ground. Something huge is above her. She is trying to connect with the huge thing. What is this? Where am I?

Instantly, she opened her eyes. What vision was that? Straightening her goggles, she looked around.

At once she could feel that the aliens were conversating with each other. She could feel they were speaking about some mother mind, approaching the earth. Instantly she understood the thing. The Mother mind was coming here, she thought. But how should I destroy it?

From her crew, she was the only one left. I neither could go back to my time, nor could I ask for help, she thought. Finally,she made up her mind.

I should stop these aliens from destroying the earth, she finally decided. She was a Commander, a trained Marine. She remembered her training days when she was trained to fight against these Alpha Terrestrials. The best one in her fleet, she had won many wars on her own. She knew she was special in some way. Most of her friends & seniors had always told her the same thing.

Now she was in a very challenging situation, to fight a war on her own.

I’ll do all that I can…whatever it takes, her intuition told her.

She then shifted her attention to the aliens. Her mind could somehow connect with them. She slowly approached the aliens who were roaming around. She strained her mind, trying to read their thoughts.

Suddenly, the alien on whom she focused collapsed down.

The other aliens got alarmed, trying to search her. But they couldn’t locate her.

Eleanor was shocked. What’s happening?

She then focused her attention on another alien. As she tried to connect with its mind, suddenly it collapsed.

This was a new thing for Eleanor. How can I kill the aliens by looking at them?

At once her instincts told her something’s wrong.

The Aliens around are trying to locate me, her intuition told her. They know one out of those soldiers is alive. They know I am here. They know I have the power to destroy them.

Buckling herself up, she started focussing on all the aliens who were trying to spot her. Her Sky Goggles did most part of the job, just tagging the aliens in RED color. She would only focus on the alien, and it would collapse. She never knew how she got this power, but she was nicely making use of it.

The aliens knew the presence of some other power beside them, but they couldn’t locate it. They saw many of them getting destroyed without any firing. The main creature, through which the aliens had multiplied, sensed this. It realised one of the soldiers was trying to overcome them, & their powers were not working anymore. Therefore it decided to send a help signal to the Main Mother Mind.

The entire atmosphere was filled with some foul smelling gas. She could smell the gas, but somehow, the gases were not affecting her. These gases caused the entire mankind to vanish, she perceived.

Eleanor realised the heinous creature was asking for help. As she then focussed her attention towards the creature, suddenly she realised something’s coming.

She is down on the ground. Something huge is above her. Her entire body is paining. She feels she is now connected to the huge thing above her. The thing was huge, quite huge, covering the entire horizon of earth. She had never seen such a huge thing till now.

She came back to her senses. Again the unexplained vision. What was that huge thing?

As she tried to focus back, it was then that she saw it.

Multiple Alien drones were filling up the sky above her. A huge ball of purple light was slowly beaming at the horizon. Then suddenly, a huge thing rose up.

Eleanor realised that it was the same thing that she had seen in her visions. So this is the Mother Mind.

Yeah…finally I see you, she growled.

The Mother mind came up on the horizon. Eleanor saw that it was glowing in purple light, & it was so huge that it covered the entire skyline of earth. It was as if the whole sky was filled with it. Eleanor had never seen such an enormous thing in her entire life. She then felt the Mother Mind was trying to connect with her.

Suddenly she got a vision.

The whole earth is destroyed. Aliens are ruling the entire Solar System. All the 4 colonies, that she was living in, are already destroyed. The earth is now looking like a barren land, with no colonies & no human habitat. It was looking exactly the way she had seen before she entered the Wormhole.

“I will never let you do it...!” Eleanor screamed on top of her voice.

“You can do nothing…!” Suddenly a voice boomed inside her mind. It was the Mother Mind.

“All the power you have is given by us…You have alien bacteria inside your body, & you feel you are a superpower?” the Hive Mind mocked her.

That was the moment Eleanor realised the real fact. At the start of the mission, the scientists of the surviving colonies had injected alien tissues inside her team, so that they cannot be detected by the aliens when they travel back to past. However, the extra-terrestrial tissues inside her had got converted into an Anti-Alien matter, which was harmful to all the aliens. But how did the tissue convert itself?

“Your Mind, Commander…” The hive mind spoke to her, answering her question. “When the cells were injected inside you, your Brain, the most advanced one in all the human species, used it & created an Anti-matter inside you, rendering our species to be dangerous…!”

Now Eleanor came to know why she could destroy the aliens. Her mind was so powerful that when connected with the alien mind, she only thought about the alien getting destroyed. That way she had killed many aliens since the time she landed. That also explained the visions that she was getting. Her subconscious was showing her the Mother Mind, which will now govern the future of earth.

She then remembered those days when she was on a mission. She could easily detect any enemy movements. She could first-hand know the whereabouts of the enemy. Many times her sixth sense or her intuition had always helped and guided her through in many tough missions. Now her mind had become her biggest weapon, having transformed her into a threat to the Alpha Terrestrials. I'll use my power to defend earth, she thought to herself.

"You won't be successful in it human...!" The hive mind again read her thoughts & echoed inside her. It was now fully connected to her mind.

The Mother mind was so bright and glowing in purple light that Eleanor couldn't bear the glow. Without saying anything, Eleanor closed her eyes and imagined as if the whole hive mind is crushing down. But the mind read her thoughts and before she could think anything, she felt immense pain in her entire body. Bleeding heavily from her mouth & nose, she crashed down on the ground.

"I am controlling you now, Commander...!" the hive mind said ridiculously. "You are entirely in my command..!"

Eleanor felt her whole body was aching. She started getting thoughts of killing herself. The health display on her Sky Goggles indicated her condition was deteriorating fast. You won't be able to fight it, she said to herself, stop fighting and give up.

She tried thinking against this, but couldn't overcome the negative thoughts inside her. Stop now, again she got a thought. The hive mind is much powerful than you think. It has started destroying earth, and you won't be able to do anything...!

"No...!" Eleanor screamed at the top of her voice. She fought back all the negative thoughts and focused on the hive mind. Closing her eyes, she imagined it crushing down. She imagined it being destroyed by its own force.

"You can never do that, Commander...!" as the hive mind said this, Eleanor felt her entire body go weak. As she opened her eyes, her vision started blurring. She checked her health in the Sky Goggles. Her organs were slowly failing. Her mind was not in her control. She then felt the urge to give up. I can't fight more, she thought. The Aliens are too powerful. I can't fight the mother mind.

She then collapsed on the ground. Exhausted, she felt her hands go numb. As she looked down at her hands, she remembered a conversation when she was a kid.

“I hate my eyes…!” Eleanor had shouted at her mom when she told her to remove those goggles, “I don’t want anyone to look at them…!”

“My dear, one day you’ll realise how powerful your eyes are…!” her mom said.

Her mind then drifted to her training days.

“Open your eyes & focus on what you want to kill. Remember, your eyes are your most powerful weapon…!”

At once Eleanor got the idea. I’ll try to focus keeping my eyes open, she thought.

The Mother Mind at once read her thoughts & increased its glow. Eleanor then again felt her body go weak. Her power totally drained out, she almost felt she was dying.

Now down on the ground, she was wounded but alive. Almost all of her organs were failing. But the display suggested that her eyes were still strong. She looked ahead & clearly saw the massive Mothership glowing in purple light on the earth's atmosphere. Now is the time to act swiftly, she thought.

Then, for the first time in her life, she removed her goggles & directly looked into the Mother Mind. The Purple Glow was so bright that she felt her eyes burning. But she never budged. She continued to focus on the Mind, imagining the Mind collapsing & destroying itself. She strained her eyes, those eyes that she never loved, straight onto the Central Core of the Mother Mind.

“Your daughter is suffering from Heterochromia, which means both her eyes are different coloured.” She remembered the Doctor’s words, “For your entire life, your one eye will remain Grey & the other one Blue.” Fearing to be ridiculed by everyone, she covered her eyes entirely, always wearing a goggle & removing them only while showering & sleeping. She feared people, she feared the fun that people made of her, she feared the abuses, the taunts, the mockeries, everything related to her eyes.

To overcome all of this, she decided to join the army. She then emerged a wonderful soldier, a marine beyond everyone's belief.

Now she was down on the ground. Using her eyes as a tool, she focused entirely on the Mother Mind. While doing this, her mother’s words came back to her mind , One day you’ll realise how powerful your eyes are…!

Her entire life she hated them. But today, for the first time, she felt proud of her eyes.

"You won't be able to defeat me....!" The Hive mind echoed in her mind. But Eleanor ignored it. Inspite of multiple injuries on her body, inspite of the blinding purple glow that the Mother mind was emitting, Eleanor kept her eyes focused on the central core.

Slowly the glow began to fade. The mother mind tried hard to get her thoughts away, but Eleanor concentrated on the core. Her eyes were clearly open and with all her organs failing, she continued to bring the mind down.

Suddenly she got a thought. The Alien drones are about to fire, she just realised. The Mother mind had instructed them to do so. Even as she thought this, suddenly the drones started firing up on her.

The drones fired fire bullets on her, rendering her wounded. Her vision started fading again.

With full power, Eleanor again focused on the Mother Mind's core. Slowly she established contact with the Mother mind. She could now feel all the thoughts it was thinking. Absolute Destruction was its full motto. Putting all the energy in her thoughts, she concentrated on the mother mind.

At once the purple glow vanished. She couldn't feel its thoughts. All the alien drones had stopped firing.

"Nooooo..." the mind's voice echoed inside her brain. Without warning, the Mother Mind's core exploded. The booming sound was so huge, the whole earth shattered. All the Alien drones crashed down on the ground. Eleanor kept her focus, imagining the mind collapsing down and destroying itself. The Mother mind continued to explode, its shattered pieces getting scattered around in the earth's atmosphere.

As she laid down on the ground, on the far horizon, she saw someone approaching. Straining her eyes, she saw that they were the humans of that time, who were coming for her help. Fighter jets flew up in the horizon & started shooting at the remaining Alien drones, bringing them down. Soldiers on ground started firing on the leftover aliens. As she closed her eyes for the last time, she felt her body is healing slowly. She sensed her body healing slowly & all her organs slowly started activating.

500 years later

3520 A.D.

It was a bright sunny day. After winter spring had just begun. The climate on earth was awesome, owing to the greenery & abundance of water all around the world.

A small girl with her father was roaming around in the garden, having her favourite chocolate. The garden was situated just outside the Eleanor Research Centre, the biggest ever Soldier & Marine training Centre in the world.

"I want more papa...!" she said as she flung the empty wrapper towards a decompose bin, which immediately converted the wrapper into manure, useful for plants.

"No dear..." her father replied. “Greed is very bad.“ He then touched her face and said, “Legends say that many Aeons ago, our forefathers had gotten greedy for more dominance on the entire world and had caused destruction on earth. At that time, a beautiful girl had saved earth from destroying. And..." he bend down and looking into her eyes, he said, “There are stories which say she had beautiful & powerful eyes, just like you...!"

THE END