The Girl in the Gym

The last connection

2004

The emergency signal lit up one afternoon at the Zerowian space station. At the same time, Hemnath tried making contact from the earth's workstation. The blaring alarm kicked off a panic in the station. It had been used only once in all these years. Humans know it as the end of the Indus Valley civilization. The long drought, drying up of rivers, and freak storms had threatened to put an end to the Zerowians' station on earth, along with that mighty civilization. The Zerowians had been involved in the construction of their cities – the Lothal dock, bathhouses and granaries. Their involvement had dire consequences as their fate got entangled with the humans of that period. It was only with great difficulty that they had managed to shield their hidden station and technology. Unfortunately, after that very few Zerowians survived. Which was why only Hemnath and his family were the sole living descendants of Zerowians, the rest had been wiped out along with the Harappan civilization.

Fearing the worst, they prepared to teleport Hemnath and his family up to the space station, while the captain answered the distress call.

A panic-stricken Hemnath appeared on the screen. He looked dishevelled and on the verge of losing control. "They are ousting us from the mountain!" he groaned.

"What? How is that possible? You are the guardian of the technology," snapped the captain.

"Yes, I'll tell that to the government and they'll let us stay for free," replied Hemnath sarcastically.

Slowly, he filled them in on his predicament. They were being forced out of their home because of the new government, and there was no time to shift the ground control station.

"There is only one thing to be done. Destroy it, but keep your beacons activated at all times. We must head back to Planet Zero immediately and ask them what our next step must be," said the captain.

"I am taking my family to live in the town, but they have confiscated most of our money. Please make haste," he said.

"It will take some time, we don't know how much. We have not been to Zero in years, and the seniors will also need time to appraise the situation and make a decision. For now, save all the information and send it to us. Destroy all equipment and cave the room in after that."

"Yes, captain," said Hemnath shakily. The screen went blank.

The captain turned around to face the shocked stares of his crew. Within seconds, they jumped to their feet and headed to their stations for their journey home.

A month later, Hemnath sent them another message saying that they were relocating to a big city on the western coast of the country. "It is the commercial and cultural epicentre of India. It would be possible to build a better ground station here. I have to assimilate into the society here first," he had said.

They received only two messages after that, both stating that the family was facing some hardship and that he needed more money than he previously thought. They never heard from him again.

Hemnath and his family met one tragedy after another. And finally, they themselves met their end without ever getting the opportunity to share the secret of their existence with Inaya. His beacon got cracked when he was hit by that car, and finally destroyed in his funeral pyre. Chitra's beacon was not activated and had not sent or received any signal since then. By the time the Zerowian headquarters tried to establish contact with them, they were all gone.

Hundreds of years of preparation had been washed away, and they were left with no one on the ground. Or so they thought.