probably has the charges in place already, so we can't stop that. We have two options really-nuke the hell out of his base or go in there and stop him.'
Aaditya was about to object when Brahma cut in. 'The morality of killing all those prisoners down there aside, the fact is that to do anything, we need that sphere to emerge from the water, only then can we think of going inside or firing into it.'
They broke the meeting, agreeing to meet later in the evening. Aaditya had felt a surge of confidence when Ganesha had put his plan into motion. For a while it had felt like they had some measure of control over what was going to happen, but he was not so sure any more. They badly needed a plan, and they were fast running out of time.
That evening, Aaditya was at the club, having a Coke with Tanya, and trying to not get too depressed by what was going on in the world. It was a losing battle, as the holographic TV sets floating in the air before them showed that whether or not Kalki ended the world, the human race seemed hell-bent on doing it on its own. Many cities were caught in an orgy of looting. Thinking they had one last chance to settle scores, a number of regional wars had broken out. North Korea had lobbed a few artillery shells into the South, and Iran was reported to be readying its missiles for launch. Al Qaeda suddenly seemed to be on a PR overdrive and had released three videos, all saying that the decadent non-believers were about to die, and those who followed them would get salvation.
Aaditya remembered what Kalki had told him about human powers supporting him after the tsunamis and quakes he planned to unleash, and also the contacts he had seen between the daityas and terrorists in Afghanistan. He began to wonder if all of this was also a part of Kalki's plan and these were pawns he was using to create more chaos and instability.
Durga and Shiva had come by to join them. The Devas looked as sombre as he did.
'Shiva, should we tell the world's governments what's going on?'
'We just debated that with Brahma, and it may actually make things worse.'
Durga explained. 'Most governments and leaders are barely hanging on to sanity, and to some semblance of law and order. If at the last minute, we suddenly pop up and tell them what this is all about, it won't help. They won't be able to do anything to stop Kalki's plans, but if they lose further grip on the tenuous hold they have, we would just have caused more chaos and lawlessness.'
'But do we have an idea of how we could stop Kalki all by ourselves? There's really no reason for him to get that sphere to the surface unless he feels his base is under attack. Without that, there's no way we could get in. I've seen the number of drones he has. He has few vimanas and Asuras to fly them, but he has so many drones that even if we all went in there, we'd have a tough time breaking through and getting into the base.'
'Aadi, what are you thinking?'
Aaditya looked at Durga. 'I'm thinking that we need a bit of a diversion. Kalki's plan after all is about destroying human civilization as we know it, and I agree we humans can be a painful lot. But since it's our world at stake, let's get some humans to help out, even if they do so for the wrong reasons.'
Shiva and Durga both looked puzzled, but when Aaditya told them what he had in mind, Shiva's face broke out into a broad grin. 'You had been spending way too much time with that son of mine. You're beginning to think like him!'
Shiva spoke softly into his earpiece and within minutes, Ganesha was there.
'Son, I think you and Aadi have some plotting to do. Let me go and ask the others to get ready.'
***
It was the dawn of 20 December 2012. Aaditya had never seen such a large crowd assembled in the main hangar before. All the Devas were there, with Brahma standing on a raised platform as he prepared to address his troops. Shiva and Durga were standing in a corner, watching the proceedings. Indra and Vishnu were near the platform, flanking Brahma. Narada was a few feet from Aaditya, and he saw with surprise that the Deva was carrying a handheld vajra and a long blade at his waist. Narada must have seen his expression.
'This is a fight none of us can be out of.'
Then there were the Ganas, hundreds of them, standing in neat lines, waiting for Shiva to address them. Brahma may be the leader of the Devas, but when it came to the Ganas, they took their orders only from Shiva. They would bear the brunt of the close combat against the daityas when they did manage to get into Kalki's bastion.
Tanya was standing right by his side, with Ganesha a few steps behind them. Aaditya slipped his hand into Tanya's and she gripped it tightly. Even though she and Ganesha would be staying back at the base, they were going to play a critical and perhaps decisive role in the battle that was about to come.
'Today is a day we had all hoped we would never have to see.'
As Brahma began speaking, everyone, Deva, Gana and human alike, stopped whatever they were doing and listened to him.
'But perhaps this day was inevitable. Inevitable since the first day one of us broke our faith and set out on a path of tyranny.'
Aaditya noted that Brahma did not mention Kalki by name, and wondered just how difficult it had been for the senior Deva to order his forces against his own son.
'You all know what is at stake. Now it is a matter of the very survival of human civilization-a civilization that we were appointed to be guardians of. At various times, all of us have wondered whether they are worth saving at so much risk to ourselves. Perhaps I have too wondered that at times.'
Both Aaditya and Tanya looked up, surprised at his candour. Brahma continued, looking straight at them. 'But the humans are no different from us. Some of them are evil and deceptive, but many, many more have nothing but good in their hearts, nothing more than a desire to leave their world a better place than when they found it. And that is what unites us.
'Many of you have seen battles before, so I will not speak to you of marching into battle with valour, since I know all of you will do that. The only thing I will do is remind you that we cannot fail. If we do, everything we have worked for, everything human civilization has achieved will be washed away by the rage of a mad person, my own son. Today we fly and fight to stop him, to erase forever the shame and pain he has brought to all of us. Today we end this conflict once and for all, so that humans and their planet no longer have to bear the burden of our wrongs. Now, go and fight like there is no tomorrow, because there will not be one if we fail.'
Soon Aaditya was boarding his vimana. He held Tanya, hoping it was not for the last time.
'If it doesn't. .'
Aaditya stopped her. 'We will be together. I promise you, whatever happens out there, I will be back, and we will be with each other.''
He kissed her, then, he turned and got into his cockpit. The Devas were all airborne in moments, only Brahma staying back to guide the drones and Ganesha with Tanya to put their own plan in action. The vimanas and drones were to scatter all over the world, so Kalki would not notice a large concentration of forces, and converge and act when the time was right.
With the sun just rising over the Himalayas, Aaditya flew his vimana to a holding pattern high over the Middle East. At the base, Tanya and Ganesha had started their plan. The first blow was a touch Tanya had suggested. The website of the People Liberation's Army of China showed a series of articles supposedly written by senior generals saying that the end of the world hysteria was being propagated by the Western media as a way of letting the US gain more control over the world. The Chinese authorities tried to take the articles down, but found they could not. The Americans, of course, took immediate notice. Then came articles on websites of leading newspapers about reports from reliable sources of Chinese nuclear submarines leaving their bases a few days ago fully armed with nuclear tipped missiles. Within a couple of hours, the Internet was abuzz with these reports. There was near panic in the US government. Everybody was going slightly crazy with the hysteria around what was likely to happen the next day, but nobody had anticipated that China would choose this moment to try and settle scores.
Official US protests and queries were met with vigorous denials by the Chinese, but in a couple of hours, the US got even stronger confirmation when one of their spy satellites picked up a submarine surfacing briefly no more than five hundred kilometres from the US East Coast. Quick analysis showed it to be a
