The deep, measured voice sounded like it belonged to a sports commentator rather than a renegade god out to destroy the world.
'What a twist of fate! The son of the man who served me so well now serves my enemies. I hear you are quite a favourite of the Devas, and if you are half the man your father was, I don't blame them. Words are cheap, and you may not believe me, but I am not who Brahma and the Devas make me out to be. If ever you really want to learn what happened to your father, come to me. The Devas know where I am, and I know exactly where they are. Since we cannot break each other's defences, we play our game of cat and mouse all over your planet. But I do hope to get a chance to see you.'
Aaditya took the plug out and sat back, thinking about what he had just heard. What had happened to his father? What was the truth about Kalki? If his father had indeed lived after the accident and worked for Kalki, why had he not come back?
That night, as he and Tanya lay on the couch, watching TV, Aaditya asked her, 'Hey, I was wondering what the deal with Kalki is. I mean, he's Brahma's son, isn't he? So, why's he such an enemy of the Devas?'
Tanya propped her chin up on her palms and looked at Aaditya. 'They say he was Brahma's favourite son. The strongest, the smartest. That's perhaps why the Devas took his betrayal so hard. But what's with the interest in Kalki? How's your flying going?'
The next day, Aaditya went to meet Ganesha, who was still lost in his monitors and data.
'Hey Ganesha, was thinking of doing some research on the Asuras. Any idea where I could start?'
'You've come to the right place. Sit down on the red chair there. That's where we bring up our archives. I'm afraid you may not be able to access everything, but whatever's cleared for you to see is there. All you need to do is ask.'
Aaditya got all he wanted to know about the Asuras and their vimanas, and then some. There were detailed manuals on the daityas and how best to defeat them. For some reason, a strike to the back of the neck seemed to work. He learnt about battles from Earth's ancient past. Under other circumstances he would have loved to sit and learn about how the Devas defeated an army of daityas in battle on the banks of the Euphrates River using tactical nuclear weapons more than 12,000 years ago. But, try as he may, he got no hits on Kalki. All he got were references of him leading the Asuras, or to plots he had hatched. But there was nothing about who he really was and why the Devas hated and feared him so much.
His curiosity aroused, he remembered what Brahma had told him-that Kalki was also the same evil creature that lived in human memory as the Devil or Satan. If the Devas were not going to help him, he could always turn to Google. Back in his room, he brought up a web browser on the holographic display and searched for 'devil and the gods'. The world's religions essentially mirrored the story that Brahma had told him, that Satan, or Lucifer as he was known in the Bible, had been one of the angels, and was cast away by God. But why? What had caused this war that was still raging? He came across a passage from the Koran, whose translation read: 'It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels prostrate to Adam, and they prostrate; not so Iblis (Lucifer); He refused to be of those who prostrate.'
(Allah) said: 'What prevented thee from prostrating when I commanded thee?' He said: 'I am better than he: Thou didst create me from fire, and him from clay.'
That evening, Aaditya sought out Narada in the Devas' club. Narada was sitting in a corner, sipping on some Soma. Aaditya picked up a Coke and sat down next to him.
'You missed your flying today. All well?'
Aaditya certainly didn't want to reveal anything about Kalki's message, but he did tell what his searches had revealed.
'I've just been trying to find out what exactly happened to cause this war with Kalki. But I keep drawing a blank. If he was one of the Devas, is this all just about his greed for territory or something more?'
Narada took a long sip and then replied, 'Aadi, there is one thing Brahma may not have told you.'
Aaditya stopped, waiting to hear what Narada had to say.
'Back home, Kalki was the prodigal son-smart, strong, ambitious, the natural heir to Brahma. But when we came here, we all saw that his ambition had a dark tinge. He was not content to wait for his turn to ascend to the top. As your holy books say, he figured it was better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. But then he did something that we should have put an end to.'
'What was that?'
'He interfered in your evolution.'
Aaditya waited for him to explain as Narada drained his glass and filled another.
'When your books say that God made man in his own image, they are not exaggerating. Kalki used genetic engineering to make slightly smarter versions of your Neanderthal ancestors so that he could have an army of his own. Many of his experiments resulted in freaks that did not survive. But two did. The Daityas, whom he used as his muscle.'
'What was the second?' Aaditya asked.
'Homo Sapiens. Your species.'
Aaditya stopped, stunned by what he had heard, as Narada continued,
'Aaditya, he just provided the initial spark all those thousands of years ago. How humans have evolved since then has been the result of your own choices and experiences, and our assessment was that the development of intelligent beings like humans was certain. Kalki just seemed to have accelerated that a bit, but that interference itself was against our rules.'
Aaditya digested everything he had heard, realizing just how complex and layered the connections between the Devas and humans was. Narada spoke again,
'He was Brahma's favoured son, and many of us kept warning Brahma that Kalki was fast getting out of control, but perhaps even he is a father first. So when he did finally order Kalki to cease his activities, Kalki claimed that he was being betrayed, that the other Devas were just jealous. Since then, he has fought two battles-one for survival with us, and the second, for control of those he created and claims as his own-your people.'
Aaditya walked back to his room, feeling confused. Whom should he believe? He was about to turn into the corridor that led to his room when Kartik came running.
'Aadi, where have you been? Come on!'
Aaditya hurriedly followed Kartik towards the hangar.
'Two Asura vimanas just attacked targets in Iran. Looks like they're trying to spark a war in the Middle East, and we tracked two more flying towards Israel.'
'So what do we do?'
'Blow them out of the sky!' replied Kartik with a grin.
Aaditya got into his vimana, still a bit confused by the rapid turn of events. He followed Kartik out of the hangar on the way to his first real-life dogfight.
***
They were five hundred kilometres away when the Asuras showed up on Aaditya's display.
'Hey Kartik, should we fire?'
'No, at this range they'll detect our astras coming and have a pretty good chance of evading them. Plus I like to get up close.'
With that Kartik took his vimana in a steep climb, accelerating to more than Mach 6 and Aaditya followed, knowing what was on the Deva's mind. They would swoop down from above at the Asuras. Given how superior their vimanas were, it struck Aaditya as a bit of overkill that the Devas had sent two of them against two Asuras. He saw the clouds zip by him as he climbed to over 75,000 feet, and then leveled off.
The Asuras were now within Israeli airspace. On the way, he had learnt that an Asura strike had destroyed an Iranian air defence site and this attack was headed straight for the Israeli nuclear facilities near Dimona. Both Israel and Iran would deny the attacks, but the chances of the attacks triggering an all-out war were only too real. As Brahma had told him, part of Kalki's game plan was to bleed and weaken the major human powers, and a conflict like this would no doubt drag the US in.
'Aadi, now's your chance to put all that practice to work. Good hunting.'
