What if the Earth was the other way...?

34. Mission: Destroy Evidence

Kulwant Singh

"Did you book the train ticket as I told you to, Kiran?" I asked my lazy sister who refused to book one because we didn't have a vacation.

"You asked me to visit you in Kerala so you can take me sightseeing. Is this how sightseeing works?" she asked me plopping down on a chair near the kitchen table to dice some onions for the special lunch Mrs. Thomas was preparing.

"I didn't know things would turn out like this. Besides it is for the best that we at least got one week of preparation before the next wave of problems crash." I sighed. She started chopping the onions aggressively.

"Hey Kiran, look I know we didn't have fun and it was really tiring for you to travel all the way here just to get stuck inside another house all your Sem break. But it was the circumstances that should be blamed. Next time, I will surely give you a vacation worth remembering. Didn't you say you had an internship programme you signed up for. Now do we need that to go waste? "

She looked at me. She started to dice the onions more slowly and carefully. "I booked the tickets for day after tomorrow. We will start packing to get back to the hotel in Calicut as the train is scheduled to leave day after tomorrow early morning. The flights are still cancelled."

I gave her a smile and patted her head softly. "Sorry for being hard on you. Abbi is a little worried about you. She didn't understand why all of this is happening. You should talk to her properly. Will you do that Bhaiya? (*older brother)" I smiled and nodded my head. With one last pat on the back, I walked towards the Professor, who was busy helping clean the front yard of the house.

"Ah, Dr. Singh, what is our next course of action?" He stopped sweeping and looked directly at me.

I let out a long sigh and spoke, "To be honest, I don't know. Everything seems to be getting out of hands. My job is gone. We have to do something before Nathalia becomes a test subject because she is deemed as extra-terrestrial. "

"It feels exhilarating to be in the wanted list. But, let me take this time to propose a new opportunity for you. What do you think of joining my company Aeronauticorps? I can propose a compelling job proposal and Eric Avra, my partner would be happy to take you in. "

I was taken aback by that. I didn't do all these for some reward. I did it because I felt like Nathalia didn't deserve to be imprisoned due to misinformation. But here he is, giving me a new opportunity when I thought my career was finished. I couldn't let this opportunity slip. "I would love to hear the proposal and whatever it is, I accept. I know you won't scam me." I let out a chuckle and he smiled at me. We made a great team from the get-go. Even though most of the time we ended up being at each other's throat, at the end of the day, we pulled out everything we set our mind to.

"As for Nathalia, we need to destroy the evidence that she is an alien. Or make it as if they are forging fake information to justify extra-terrestrial life. Now how do we pull off the plan, I don't know. Food for thought?" He gave me a small wink and proceeded to sweep the front yard.

I gave him a small salute and proceeded to find Nathalia. She had the most bizarre story and I loved every bit of that adventure. Even though it felt really fictitious, she had proof that it was real. Wait, that's it. If we prove to them that all this is just a sham, wouldn't NIRDESH be trying to fake information to sound authentic. Something started brewing in my mind. I contacted my mole inside NIRDESH and filled him in with a plan. I made sure to contact him using Mr. Thomas's phone number. He pretended to get frustrated over a telemarketing call. I had asked him to fix the ship the way it was and meet us at the railway station half an hour before my family boarded their train.

Nathalia seemed to be connecting the Wi-Fi on her phone to video call her parents and her best friend. She had closed the door in my face. I guess she didn't see me walking towards her. I went to have a chat with my mother.