Wounds leave scars

Cross Story

(The following story has been written by Shiva and me over the past few weeks. Do check out his awesome blog! Looking forward to writing another story with him some time soon!)

As she squeezed the tube, the toothpaste spurted out and started floating in mid air. Wielding her brush as a samurai sword, she started chopping the paste into a million tiny fragments. Having achieved her primary task, she now squeezed out some more. Just another normal day at the space station.

With a practiced hand, she slapped the paste onto her hello kitty toothbrush and started to go through the motions.

The screen in front of her flashed a bright red emergency symbol and sirens rang menacingly.

What was it now? Did an intergalactic cat break into the station? Yes, she was feeling quite sleepy. Blasé about the matter at hand, she continued with her morning activities.

She took her own sweet time finishing up. Afterwards, she leisurely made her way to central control, not because of the screaming alarm, but because it was the quickest way to get to the kitchen. And because she was in the mood for some nice freeze dried ice cream sandwiches.

Hearing footsteps in the background, she quickly devoured the ice cream sandwich and pocketed two more for later.

No... No need to panic. She knew how to deal with this; she'd done it before. It was a good thing they'd relaxed that rule forcing you to wear your uniform on the station at all times. She quickly pulled down one of the straps of her tank top, and emphasised her bosom by folding her arms. Finally, she seated herself and crossed her legs. A seductive look on the whole.

Just as she had finished, the captain walked into the room. Seeing her accentuated avatar, Mr. Joe's jaw dropped.

"Miss Rogers, wh-what are you doing...?" He stammered, and then his voice trailed off. His face was as red as a beacon.

"Why, captain! I was just on my way to the deck, but can't seem to find my way."

The captain cleared his throat, "Erm, yes. Well, hurry along now, there's an important issue at hand."

"Alright, and what about you, captain? Won't you come with me?" She was laying it on thick.

"I-I... There's something else I've got to tend to first, I'll be along later. Carry on, Miss Rogers."

And with that, the captain made an about turn and hurried off.

Being the only girl on the space station sure had its perks.

Phew! That was close! Heaving a sigh of relief, Julie Rogers made her way towards broadcasting chamber of the control room, the source of the beacon.

As she walked in, she was shocked by what she saw.

The screen contained a hundred cute cat photos from Google Image Search!

Then she realised that she was looking at the wrong screen.

What's more, she was still scantily dressed, and she was supposed to be at the deck?!

"I'm so damn scatterbrained," she groaned, then made for her cabin to change into something a little less eyebrow-raising.

But then she thought: Nah, let it be. It might just save her on another occasion and definitely prevent her from being questioned further.

Then she glanced at the other screen and understood why the beacon had been sounded.

An unidentified object had recently been launched from a Chinese satellite and had latched onto the hull of station. The problem was that it was laying dormant there. There was no telling what it was going to do!

With the Chinese, you never knew, and that was the problem.

She made her way to the main deck, where she found four of her crew mates all neatly dressed, all nicely assembled, all men.

Being men, they couldn't help but caterwaul as soon as Julie walked in.

Pointing to the man in front, she "asked" him to brief her about the current status and also fetch her another ice cream sandwich - adding a bewitching smile at the end for added effect.

The man scampered away as the others eyed him enviously.

It seemed China and its silly little antics had been forgotten as Julie had a bit of fun playing master and slave with the boys aboard the ship. But when Corporal Smith hovered into the deck on his antigravity board, a hush fell over the gathering.

Seeing Julie's attire, he gave a disappointed look. Some suspected he wasn't straight.

Presently he overshot the gathering as he forgot to turn off the board and crash landed onto the wall

"Corporal!" She shrieked, and ran over to fallen man. The poor fellow seemed to be down for the count. She rested his head on her bare lap for comfort.

Slowly he opened his eyes, he was coming to.

He looked at her, into her shimmering eyes, and murmured, "I died and went to heaven?"

"Corporal...?" Everyone else had crowded around him.

He realised where he was and quickly sat up, clearing his throat. In a grave baritone, the Corporal started, "We've contacted the Chinese Government but they are denying the launch of any object from their satellite. Something is fishy here."

A muffled voice commented, "This guy is smart," and the whole crowd burst out laughing. Luckily, the Corporal didn't notice that snide remark.

"Why don't we just go and blast it with a bazooka or something?"

"Too risky. If it contains explosive materials, then the ship will get badly damaged."

"We could try to go and reprogram its circuitry."

"No. They would've definitely made it foolproof and might initiate a self destruction mechanism in case changes are made without the appropriate access codes"

In the middle of all this confusion, Julie suggested, "Could we use an EMP grenade and just pick up and throw the Chinese object away?"

Everyone stared at her in disbelief. Although most of her ideas were unheard of or crazed out, they actually were simple and effective. She was among the smartest people on board and that was the reason she'd been sent to space. And not for her looks.

"Why, that's a splendid idea, Miss Rogers," said the Corporal. "But might I suggest one little change to your plan? The Chinese are denying having had anything to do with this, er, doohickey outside. If we can somehow manage to secure the device once we've disabled it with the grenade, this could be our big chance to laugh them out of the UN General Assembly!"

There were cheers from everyone present.

Equipped with the EMP grenade, one of the men aboard got into his suit and moved into the evacuation chamber. A set of hydraulic doors screeched open as he made his way to the outside. Activating the countdown on the grenade, he placed it near the Chinese device.

3...2...1... A bright flash ensued.

Then a most unusual thing happened!

The device which had been detached as a result of the high energy pulse from the EMP grenade activated it's thrusters and latched onto the hull again!

One of the men shouted from the control room.

"Corporal! We seem to be losing power! And fast!"

So that's what it was!

Julie now understood what the ugly little device was. It was a Leech. A device which drains power from other machines, until there's nothing more to drain, following which it uses the harnessed energy to self destruct.

The more the energy drained, the more powerful the explosion.

And here was one, right in front of her very eyes.

Not good, not good at all.

Crap. EMP ineffective.

That could only mean one thing.

She had heard that the internal circuitry, if analog and not digital, remains unaffected by EMP. It would take a completely different approach to get through this.

Then another idea clicked in Julie's mind.

Voltage fluctuation!

If they could manually vary the power in the hull and make it fluctuate erratically, they would probably be able to cross the safe threshold of the device thereby causing a meltdown of the wires inside.

There was hope.

But the only problem was that if they fried the Leech's wiring, it could result in the bomb being triggered anyway. It was a Catch 22 situation. There were so many complications, it was scary.

It was a risk she was willing to take.

Unless they acted now, the magnitude of the blast would keep on increasing.

They only thing they could try is to contain the blast and reduce the damage done.

That would depend on the type of explosive present inside.

What type of explosive gets charged up by electricity?

She wasn't an expert in the field of explosives.

Or wait? Why not make their own leech?

Sure, why not? It was 2049, it wasn't exactly rocket science. And she above all knew exactly how difficult rocket science was.

She made her way to the storeroom, ransacked the place till she found what she needed, then set to work making a Leech.

She had an idea.... It was just crazy enough to work... Possibly.

She quickly made a simple version. One that sucked electricity, but didn't store it. It would dissipate the energy rapidly in the form of light waves.

She just hoped that the Chinese didn't have any more tricks up their sleeve this time.

She pulled on her space suit and stepped into the evacuation chamber. The steel doors shrieked open as she walked out into wide open space, with nothing connecting her to civilisation except a single harness. She gently walked along the hull, her magnetic boots made this possible. She activated her Leech and gently placed on top of the Chinese Leech.

The newly built leech began its work. One of its appendages bore a minute hole in search of power. Having found it, it started the sucking process.

But the rate was not fast enough and this would result in the whole ship's power to be drained out to the Chinese leech and them wasted by the other one!

A final resort.  Julie had all her hopes on this one. If this happened to fail, they'd probably be doomed.

Shutting off the power to the hull. Surely it would disrupt the geosynchronous orbit and may cause problems in other sectors but Julie calculated that most of the damage could be undone.

Putting forward her proposal, through the radio intercom, to the one at the controls, she closed her eyes and stood there watching and waiting.

The characteristic humming of the power generator, which she had gotten so used to, suddenly stopped. The lights flickered and went dark. Power stopped coursing through the hull.

Everyone held their breath, looking at the screen which showed the Leeches outside in space.

The Chinese leech started vibrating - it was harnessing all the power it had gathered to self destruct.

Hold on... It was directly outside the galley!

If it exploded now, it would tear a hole in the ship's hull and everyone - including her - would be sucked out of the ship!

"EVACUATE THE DECK!",  Julie screamed.

A countdown beep activated, growing shriller with every passing second.

Everyone moved on to the residential chamber. Julie made her way back into the station and progressed towards the air pressure control room.

By virtue of an array of cameras and the broadcasting system, everyone stared at the screen awaiting the explosion.

Then the beeping sound abruptly shut down with a hiss.

As Julie bit into another one of her stored ice cream sandwiches, she profoundly reflected, that no matter what the situation was, Chinese materials could not be trusted.

Anna - III

(continued from here)

Paralysed with fear, Anna felt the world shatter around her. She broke into a sob with no one around to comfort her.

Longing to be reunited with her son, she was worried about how and where he was?

No. She would have to be strong. However helpless she was, she had to focus and think this through.

The words in the message came hovering back to her mind.

"I forgot to mention about it to you today"

Wait a minute. That could only mean that the person who took her Ben away did know that she was with Greg the other day, Anna thought.

There were so many people at the party. She hardly knew a few but they didn't seem to have any issues with her. None of them would fit into the picture of a kidnapper.

Lost in her thoughts she hadn't noticed her phone ringing. It was Greg.

"What's the matter Annie? Is everything okay?"
"Nothing is okay. I think someone has kidnapped Ben."
"What? Where are you right now?"
"I'm at the entrance of the park at Madison Square"
"Wait there. I'll come right away. Just hold yourself."

Disconnecting the call, Anna stood there waiting for her friend as she wrecked her mind trying to think about cues that would point her to the whereabouts of her son.

Greg arrived at the scene within 10 minutes and rushed to where she was standing.

As soon as she saw him, she hugged him tightly and resumed her weeping. Comforting her, Greg asked her to narrate what had happened.

Slowly she told about the headache, the note, icecream, messages and the total blackout between receiving the messages and finding herself on a park bench.

"One thing doesn't make sense to me. You don't usually get headaches, even after drinking. Then why yesterday?"
"Now that you've pointed it out, it does seem odd. Oh my god! Do you think the bartender mixed something in the drink?"
"He did seem to be overly interested in you but then I thought that's how everyone reacts after seeing you."

Even in the tense situation he could let a wink and a wry smile appeared across Anna's face.

"So should we look for the bartender?"
"Won't help. He could easily have been tipped off. Show him a ten dollar note and he'd even wag his tail for you."
"So what do we do now? We're still clueless about Ben."
"Actually, no. We have a phone number at our disposal. I might be able to pull some strings and find out about its owner."

After making a few calls, Greg eyed her, with a look of disappointment on his face.

"Standard disposal phone. Bought yesterday morning. Current location is this park and I'm sure it's lying in one of the garbage cans around here."

(to be continued...)

Anna - II

(continued from here)

Anna anxiously followed the unknown footmarks. Every successive mark was becoming harder to spot. They led her to the main street, after which, she couldn't see any more marks.

She felt abashed at the thought of having lost her son. What made things worse was that she still couldn't remember how or why she made it to the park, that evening. She blamed herself for her recklessness and negligence.

Running over the last few events in her head, she finally recalled that she had been to a friend's house - a party infact.



The rooftop had been exquisitely decorated with fancy lights and there were tonnes of people all around. Most of them were drunk out of their minds and were dancing in a reckless and awkward manner. A few sat by the makeshift bar and gulped down their drinks enjoying the sight of the frenetic dancers.

The host of the party could be seen making hospitable conversation to the guests. When he came to where Anna was sitting, his expression changed to a charming smile and he offered her his hand.

After her divorce with her husband things went pretty downhill for her. People opined that it was probably for alimony. Only a few people truly understood what had made Anna take that irrevocable step. Greg was one of them.

She had met him in her undergrad university. Initially a shy and reserved person, Greg quickly opened up to her. Both of them coming from orphan backgrounds, could relate to each other very well.

Their friendship stood the test of time with countless sacrifices being done for each other.

Presently, she accepted his invitation and got up.
"Up for a drink, Annie?"
"You know I don't like to drink."
"A little will do you good."

Receiving a reluctant gesture of affirmation, he notioned to the bartender to prepare two drinks.

The bartender returned a few moments later with two identical glasses filled with a intense violet fluid - an '05 Cabernet Sauvignon from the vineyards of California - one of the finest wines ever to be brewed.

Giving Annie a cheeky wink, he handed her one of the two glasses.

"This one is specially for you, Madam!"

Greg looked at him disapprovingly and took took the other glass. But the bartender couldn't care less.

As they sipped their drinks, they felt the warmth and calm surging through their bodies. Deeply immersed in prattle, they hardly noticed the time flying, until a few guests started to leave. They bid adieu and Anna took a cab home.

By then, the effect of the drink had worn out and she was now overcome by a splitting headache and was feeling a bit dizzy. She saw a note lying on her dining table. Gently picking it up, she unfolded it to find her son's squiggly handwriting.

"Homework done mom.
Dinner was awesome.
Come home fast.
Love you <3"

She heard her phone beep, indicating the newly arrived message.



Unable to remember anything after that, she hurriedly took out her phone from her pocket and browsed through her messages. The last few had been from an unsaved number.

"Hey Annie!
Surprise for you and little Ben. Meet me at the park tomorrow at 9am :) "

"Sorry, but who's this?"

"It's me, Greg. I've got this new number for keeping contact with close friends. These office guys don't leave me alone. Now I'll just dunk my other phone in the loo when I want peace :P
I forgot to mention about it to you today"

"Oh cool! See you there"

She began speculating. She would've bought Ben an ice cream. While eating he would've dropped it and being the stubborn brat that he was, he would've made sure that he got another one.

Greg would've taken him to buy one more.

But she didn't recall seeing Greg in the park. Rather, she couldn't recall anything.

Nevertheless she called back on his new phone. No reply.

She tried his old number.

"Wassup Annie!"
"Where are you? Is Ben with you?"
"I'm at my place but why would Ben be with me?"
"But you texted me from your new number saying you have a surprise for us at the park!"
"I don't know what you're talking about Ann. This is my only number."

(continued here)

Anna - I

The winter zephyr caressed her sunlit face. She awoke to find herself in an unfamiliar suburb.

Despite how hard she tried to recollect what had brought her to this place, how she had landed up on a park bench - it was all a complete blur.

Staring at the half eaten ice cream lying beside her, she noticed that it hadn't melted yet. Someone had been there next to her. But who? And why would someone leave the icecream unfinished?

As she collected herself and rose, she saw the muddy prints of three pairs of footwear.

One was of her own sneakers.

Another was an erratic criss-cross of a large foot size. It looked like the person might've been in a indecisive state and made a frantic run once he had chosen where to go.

The third pair seemed to be of a toddler. But something didn't seem right.

The steps led to the bench and abruptly stopped after that.

It was only then, that Anna realised that those shoe marks were that of her son.

(continued here)

"If I cannot run, I will jog. If I cannot jog, I will walk. If I
cannot walk, I will crawl. But I will get there."

Night

The world is blurred,
Standing confused,
Faced with uncertainties,
Rather amused.

Feeling unsure,
What's bad and what's good?
Amidst midnight,
Long had I stood.

Contemplations, ruminations,
In the calm of night.
Blinded by the darkness,
Soon lost my sight.

Sat alone, ruffled,
Clueless 'n fuddled.
Usual insomnia,
Wish I got amnesia.

Burdened by guilt,
Oppressed by gloom.
When all of a sudden,
It entered the room.

Reminiscence,
Brought me back to life.
Obscure images,
Flashing through my mind.

Things I had forgotten.
Some that made me melt.
Those that never existed,
Or so I felt.

Retraced my steps,
In my mind's eye.
Until, exhausted,
On the floor I lie.

Wake up to a morning,
Sunny and bright.
Dazzled by the rays,
Recover my sight.