The Thar Incident - 15

Continued from Part 14.

******************

The NSA had turned and walked out the door.

Dominic found himself staring at the door - Strategize with what?!... his mind raced. They had a whole lot of nothing ... in terms of information - there was blank sheet - who were the Aliens that the Americans made contact with? where did they come from? - how do you communicate with them? and how do you verify what they say... sure they tell you they are from planet X ... how do you verify something like that? ...

Dominic recalled the conversation he once had with a friend at during his engineering school days. At that time Dominic used to write the science fiction section of the student newspaper... and his friend who was training to be a physicist thought this was a ... well.... not an occupation for people of technical learning to do. After reading one of Dominic's pieces in the morning his friend had shouted out to him across the breakfast table in dorm... You know man ... this whole science fiction alien thing is total bullshit ... it all just human dramas set to the backdrop of space - even giants like Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury and Issac Asimov ... its all about Humans meeting other Humans .... it is such shit... I mean, seriously, wanting to fuck someone from another culture is one thing but... from an another planet is a bit much. Forget travelling between planets - merely recieving a meaningful signal from another planet is pretty much impossible. The earth is a tiny speck in the sky - any signal emanating from any other point in the sky would expand radially outwards. The earth would capture only as much of the signal as its solid angle permitted it to - the farther source from earth - the less signal it would recieve... distinguishing it from background noise would impossible - even if you knew what the exact communication protocols used were. Without the protocol in hand... even if you recieved a signal you would be hard put to not dismiss it as noise... and over and above that we have the sun to deal with - I mean imagine the noise that makes - a giant fusion reactor a few hundred times the size of the planet itself that the spews off all manner of radiations ... ultimately there is no escaping the laws of physics... even in space.

Ultimately there is no escaping the laws of physics ... even in space. The phrase had stuck in Dominic's mind. As the years had gone - Dominic had often wondered, how many of these universal physical laws ... were really laws... or merely products of our own inability to measure things that voilated these laws..

It was only moments later that Dominic realised that Khalid and Amit were staring at him with the same intensity that he was staring at the door that the NSA had walked out of...

"Kya Dominic... kahan kho gaye..?" drawled Amit from the back of the room and even Khalid bore a curious look on his face.

Dominic turned towards Amit and spoke.. "Yaar, I was wondering, how do we verify anything the Aliens tell us?... for a moment ignore how they us.... but say they tell us something ... how do we know they are telling the truth. There has to be some verification mechanism."

Khalid cut in tersely.. " Sure.. but what can we verify... hamare pass toh spaceship etc.. nahi hain... - Tomorrow they say that we are from Orion... we can't go there and verify it.."

Dominic retorted "precisely... sure they say this is our spaceship it travels through interstellar space ... how do we verify that?"

Amit picked up a magazine on the table in front of him.. "So Dominic... since you have framed the question... I assume you have an answer too..?"

Dominic smiled and said ... "not exactly " ... " but assume for a moment the Aliens are real. The natural question then is ... how do they travel across space? - we can't do it - even if we chalk of things to biological differences - they must know things we don't."

Khalid cut in again .."Such as what?"

Dominic replied " Like laws of physics that we are unaware of... or atleast they should be able to tell us where our laws break down... "

Khalid and Amit eyed each other... "Laws of Physics? - you mean the crap they teach in high school? - those laws... those don't break down..." said Amit.

Dominic thought for a few seconds before he replied ..." Well... some laws have to breakdown... may be not conservation laws they teach in school ... but perhaps other held notions that may be specific the little bowl of space-time that we live in... must be wrong.. or at least only approximately true on the interstellar scale.."

Khalid and Amit both open up at once ... "What?!"

Dominic gave startled look before he realised what had happened ..."We have natural laws ... right? based on our observations of things... Sure we can measure things like energy and momentum and we can say ... yes these are conserved quantities and based on that notion we can explain a number of other phenomena we observe. and because of that ... we can make the claim... that the conservation of energy and momentum are... universal laws... However... the flip side... what we have not measured ... we cannot make laws for."

Dominic saw the puzzlement on their face .."so that is how we know they are real Aliens... we ask them to show us new and hitherto untested laws of nature"... he paused ... "Only when we independently test and verify the laws they inform us about - do we accept their claim as being genuine."

Amit began to look back at the magazine in his hand - "Sure if they give us time to do such a thing... we can do it.."

Khalid had also finally understood what Dominic was driving at - "Okay ... in principle that seems fine... since we have no real alternatives anyway.."

Khalid continued... "The more immediate problem is .."

Now Dominic cut in .. "that how do we talk to them in the first place... yes I know".

Amit quipped... "There is no air in space so they aren't going use voice .. so using normal linguistic tools is out..."

Dominic continued where he left off.. "Come to think of it - we are probably the same to them as the amoeba are to us... so my guess is that they would communicate with us in a similar fashion.. electrochemical signalling of some kind.."

Khalid looked at him.. "So how do we convince them not to kill us.."

Dominic stared quietly at Khalid and wondered ... why on earth had he left engineering school and gone into the business of killing people... such a lot of time wasted either killing someone or wondering about how someone was trying to kill him. Dominic imagined what his life would have been... a simpler life with a day job, a wife - some kids, a house in Bombay... a cup of tea in the morning, office at 9, a bit of oogling at the secretary, some flirting with interns, a lunch cooked by the wife, some timepass before afternoon tea and then a jarring ride in the local train to get home followed by mind numbing harassment from his kids... a much much simpler life.. no kill or be killed nonsense....

Amit spoke to break the uncomfortable silence.. " I agree with Khalid... this communication protocol is the most difficult thing ... if it some complicated electrochemical scheme they use... we may not be able to maintain security in our communications".

Khalid spoke .."but why assume it will be electrochemical.." That sparked off a retort from Dominic and then one from Amit... and it went on like that for hours.

The lengthening shadow of the peepal tree outside the house announced the arrival of the evening. This had been a long session, not that anyone was really keeping track of time. Dominic had done most of the talking, Amit and Khalid had just put in their two cents from time to time. They were all tired but they struggled on. The discussion kept going round and round the basic question, how to screen the information about previous contacts from this new one.

In reality the question was more complicated, no one knew what the Aliens were capable of doing to a single human being's psychology. It seemed plausible that the E.T.s might have some way of remotely tracking the production of stress related chemicals, or perhaps even of detecting changes in muscular tension in facial muscles. Alternatively it was possible that they might even have ways of dulling the neurological activity and induce a stupor of sorts. These techniques were currently in vogue among the intelligence communities of various countries as means of extracting useful information.

If the E.T.s got wind of the fact that the Indians were hiding something, they would focus their strengths on getting information out of the Indians, that was an unpleasant prospect. Alternatively if the Americans got wind of the fact that the Indians were hiding something they would be very keen to find out what the Indians knew and they would use all the means at their disposal to get the Indians to cough it out. With each iteration in the discussion, the risks seemed multiply.

Dominic was of the opinion that for the risk to be minimal, actual contact should be carried out by a team of people who had no knowledge of previous contacts. This way if they were captured or subject to some form of mental scanning, they would be disposable. Khalid and Amit initially disagreed as this would add unnecessary gaps into the process of contact but over time they came around to Dominic's point of view.

After another round of discussions it was decided that the communication with the contact team would be carried out in a screened fashion so that none of the team members would know the true identities of the controllers.

Another risk that surfaced in the discussions was the possibility of the contactees being infected with some form of subversive thought. A number of options were available for keeping track of subversive tendencies ranging from regular interviews to sensory deprivation. Whatever the exact choice of options, clearly a mechanism would have to be devised to continously check for the possibility of subversion.

It was at this point in the discussion Amit asked a question that had been bothering him for a very long time...

"What would these Aliens want from the Earth now? or ever? ..."

Dominic replied faster than anyone anticipated, "There are really three things - which are in abundance on this planet: liquid water, labour and ofcourse a replenishable supply of complex carbon-hydrogen compounds, abundant food if your diet is carbon based..."

Khalid cut in, " That doesn't make sense to me. Labour utilisation is possible only on the planet itself, preferably on a specific landmass - otherwise the cost of transporting this labour is too high. The same applies to water, yes we have plenty of it here but how do we get it off the planet? and so also for food. If their demands for either of these things were significant, we would notice this publicly... there must be something else they are after here..."

Dominic thought for a second "okay .. what about low abundance in general? Ozone, some rare earth stuff, heavy isotopes of lighter things -Deuterium, Tritium C-14? "

Khalid spurted out .. "but space will have much more of those..."

Dominic replied ," Maybe.. but it may be cheaper to extract it here"

Khalid stuck to his case .. "If they wanted it so badly - keeping it out of the public eye would have been hard..."

Dominic cut in "maybe they are mining it and we don't know about it because we don't see their activities - I mean we don't know what is going on underground or the seas or very high up in the sky.. so in theory .. at the very least we have a giant mount of molten iron and other magnetic materials and god-only-knows-what-else in the earth's core... if someone took some of that how would we know?"

"Great.. so we have no idea why they are here..." drawled Amit.

Dominic looked at him sourly..." I feel it has to be water... there is so much on this planet - if they were taking some away - we simply wouldn't notice.."

Khalid looked unconvinced - this was not going as planned... there were simply too many unknowns in situation.

Amit yawned... and that reminded Khalid that they hadn't had a meal in the entire day... he reached for the phone and called up some food.

The Thar Incident - 14

Continued from Part 13.

******************

The 2nd Lt. was on his first tour of the Northern LoC. This was his first visit to posts on the Kargil area, he was still a little out of breath from the climb but he was doing his best to look sharp in front of the men. Even as a freshie he had to admit that this was by far the most amazing view he had seen in his life. As the Lt. approached the sangar, the men had all tumbled out and saluted the 2nd Lt. as he walked past them. The R/T man stood some distance away. The 2nd Lt. really didn't know how things worked here, which is why he was surprised when the civilian appeared from inside the sangar.

The men looked unfazed, but the 2nd Lt. marched up to him, and staring straight at him asked the obvious question.

"Who are you?"

the civilian replied.. "Amit."

"Amit who?"

the reply, "actually its only - Amit"

"What are you doing here?"

the reply, "civilian contractor"

"at 20,000 ft? for whom?"

the reply "for Mr. Sinha".

"Mr. Sinha who..?"

the reply "Mr. Sinha of New Delhi..."

"And what are you.."

the reply was more terse, "doing?... contract work".

The 2nd Lt. was more exasperated,"What work?"

the reply, "assisting you"

"In what?"

the reply, "whatever you are doing here"

Now the 2nd Lt. was about to blow a gasket when the R/T man called out "Janaab, Top for Amit on Charlie-9"

The freshie Lt. was a little stunned, Charlie-9, the encrypted channel; Top, an unfamiliar call sign, most likely one of the civvies at Brigade or God only knows who else.

Amit asked," May I ?"

The 2nd Lt. very sarcastically replied, "Oh by all means... be my guest.."

Amit walked towards the phone with a smile. The 2nd Lt. would get a sermon when he returned to base, he should have remembered what a Captain in his unit had said just before the Lt. went out on patrol, civvy contractors working for the NSC were in the area doing something no one was supposed to ask about. "Civilian Contractors", or the people formerly associated the R&AW, as the MI types would call them.

Forty eight hours later Amit was sitting in the guest house at Arjangarh across from an old friend..

Amit eyed his friend quietly, and after pulling the cup of tea away from his mouth asked casually, "Kya Khalid meri yaad kaise aaye?"

Khalid smiled, "read this.." and dumped a file on top of the coffee table.

Amit picked it up and began reading.. after about twenty minutes, he looked up at Khalid and said, "and?"

Khalid replied "I need a 2iC."

Amit looked at him carefully, "Kaam kya hain? exactly..."

Khalid, "as it suggests manage a first contact with little or no information"

Amit "and remuneration.."

Khalid, "reasonable... but better working hours than your current posting."

Amit, "retirement benifits.." (laughing)

Khalid, "Yeah yeah, role in a hindi picture as the hero with..." (Laughing).

Amit, "and the Catch?"

Khalid, "Not fair, first tell if you are in or out?"

Amit, (carefully wiping the tea off his lips) "Yeh bhi poochney ki baat hain?" gently nodding his head..

Khalid, "Soch lo ek baar, phir mat bolna ki chance nahin diya..."

Amit.. (nodding more firmly...) "Yes in.. "

Khalid.."Good..."

Amit, "So catch?"

Khalid, "Good thing you said yes, the offer was a one way street.."

Now even the great Amit was taken aback, "are you serious?"

Khalid, "that what they did to me.."

Amit let out a low whistle... "So who is Top"

Khalid gestured to the figure that was now silently standing behind Amit.

The NSA cleared his throat, "Technically Top is the very Top.. but I am here as a cut out."

Amit sprang to his feet and saluted, the NSA waved it off, "Aaye ... none of that here."

The two men knew each other from an age ago, "So Amit, what suggestions?" asked the NSA.

Amit replied, "Sir, looks like science fiction, we should get a science fiction writer and a few more dabs of paint here and there and we will have a best seller.."

The NSA laughed, "Good one! and we'll both retire rich! "

Amit continued,"No Sir, seriously a good science fiction writer will come in handy, he will help fill in the blanks"

The NSA raised one eyebrow and asked "You have one in mind?"

Amit smiled, "Yes..."

The NSA looked skeptical..

Amit reassured him "He used to work for us, in the old days, after the changes he went private."
The NSA was surprised, "For us?"

Amit replied "Yes sir, he was the Information Control, under Watali - you know CT-5 - the alignment wallahs."

The NSA dredged the large archive of names and faces in his mind, Watali he did remember, J&K cadre IPS officer attached to the old R&AW's Counter Terrorism - Division 5, in charge of detecting and destroying broken arrows and aligning other proliferation scenarios. His information control officer, the chief strategist for all his psyops and policy planning, a face jumped into the NSA's mind.. but the name... what was the name...

"Suresh.. Sumeet... Sudee.. Susheel..Susheel ki baat kar rahe ho?" the NSA

Amit's eyes lit up, "Yes sir same one - his callsign was Dominic. he left the service after Watali retired, he is now a science fiction writer, runs a small magazine for children, I think his girlfriend's father is the proprietor."

Khalid remembered him, their paths had crossed a few years ago in Kiloland, Khalid couldn't remember why...

The NSA stared at Khalid, "Aap ki kya raay hain Khalid?"

Khalid replied, "He is good, he was in Kashmir for a while, I forget why"

Amit smiled, "Khalid's getting old!... Dominic was there with Watali, to find out the rest of the Khatib story.. remember the pilot story.."

Khalid's memory was jogged, "A-ha.. uska kya hua end mey?"

Amit looking at the NSA, "I think saale ko thok diya na?"

The NSA nodded..

Khalid remembered, "New York mein pakda tha usko, JFK mein thoka... that one.. yes yes.. Americans took the credit and footage... Yaad aya... saw that bullshit on TV."

The NSA looked at Khalid again, he nodded, "Dominic will do."

NSA now stared at the file on the table, "chalo one more question solved"

He started towards the door, looking over his shoulder, "Parso tak kuch discussion karo on strategy, I want to hear what you have to say.."

The next morning a bleary eyed Dominic was sitting in front of Amit and Khalid, he was reading the brief that had been handed to Amit a day earlier. Clearly not an early riser, Dominic was not happy about having been "picked up" out of his house at 4 AM and then flown by the IAF to Arjangarh. It was all SOP in the life he had lived before, but that is why he had left that life behind, this was simply too stressful and he needed his sleep. Now suitably disgusted by what he saw before him, Dominic finally stared at Amit and Khalid and spoke with his customary clarity,

"You dragged me out of bed for this b-grade science fiction plot that a kid who watched Star Wars could have written?"

Amit and Khalid looked at each other, and then both replied "Yes."

Dominic was a sufficiently sharp cookie to know something odd was going on. It was too elaborate to be a practical joke, he continued on his half incredulous rant..

"So we are going to make contact with Aliens for the first time.."

Khalid cleared his throat, "Well... Not Exactly.. " Amit looked at the floor

Dominic cut him off "Okay for the first time by an Indian..."

Now it was Khalid's turn to look at the floor.. Dominic kept the rant going," You dragged me out of bed to be part of this gang of people that is going to be the first Indians to make contact with a non terrestrial species. "

"Not exactly, " said the NSA who had just entered the room. Dominic turned towards the voice and saw a familiar face. He was simply stunned and frustrated... closing his eyes slowly and opening them he asked "What do you mean by not exactly? - Sir"

"You won't be the first Indians to make contact" replied the NSA.

Dominic shook his head "Sir, a stupid question, if there are other Indians who have already made contact, why not just ask them to do it again.."

" They have passed into the pages of history" replied the NSA.

"So we have to do it all over again.." chimed in Khalid.

Dominic shook his again, "Surely they left records?"

The NSA replied "Yes they did.."

Dominic replied "And?"

The NSA continued " The records indicate that these are not the same species that we made contact with earlier."

Dominic now calmed down, "So why don't we ask the Aliens we do know about the Aliens we don't know?, if our friends are a space faring race that travelled all the way to the earth many years ago, they would know about the other space faring species out there? why not just ask them.."

Now all three of them stared at the NSA.

The NSA took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, "It is not that simple. In the past each communication with the Aliens we do know has been relatively free from the risk of proliferation. If we try to contact our acquaintances now, there is every risk our contact will be discovered by other nations. If indeed this story about a technology collaboration between these Aliens and the Americans is true, then the risks of discovery are much higher."

Dominic was not convinced. The other two were doubtful about this, it simply didn't add up.."So let them find out we have alien friends ourselves.. " retorted Dominic. "Surely such a display would enhance our stature in their eyes and change the dominance relationships?"

The NSA eyed Dominic sharply, "Why do you feel they are friends?"

Dominic was lost "What!?"

The NSA replied "You assume that the ones we knew were friendly."

Dominic replied incredulously "You mean they weren't?"

The NSA replied "It is difficult to explain, they were here for a reason. This planet served as an outpost in their wider scheme of things. They interacted with us in various ways, at first with great zeal as they wanted to learn much about us but after a time, they realised their interactions carried certain risks, so they reduced and finally cut off contact."

Dominic was now quite confused "I don't follow you, first they came here for some other reason, then they initially behaved as friends then cut of contact?"

The NSA decided that it was time to clarify," This planet was a outpost required to help them in protecting a resource found in this part of the galaxy. They used our populations as auxilliaries to support their missions and though this placed a strain on us, our relations were quite positive. However due to reasons beyond our comprehension, the Aliens were unable to maintain the stability of their own political system and its collapse created a massive fission in their interactions with us. As the subgroups vied for power at the centre of their political system, wars broke out within their federation for control over key resources. We were soon enmeshed into such wars, and the Earth played host to several terrible battles as the men attempted to fight as proxies for the Aliens. Not long after this war, their federation weakened and Earth and its inhabitants ceased to be a matter of interest to them. For our part the last great battle in this war proved too debilitating, it decimated the population of the planet and brought the global polity and economy to a standstill."

Dominic was in disbelief, "and so they cut off contact with us?"

The NSA replied "No, that would take much more time. After the war, their political system eventually stabilized and a more rational thought process took hold at their centre and a commission was established to carefully examine the causes of the war. The Commission comprised of some of the greatest scientific minds in the known universe and it identified incoherent contact with the inhabitants of lower races on various planets as one of the drivers of the conflict. The suggestion made was that contact with less developed beings fed delusions of a Godlike invincibility and grandeur in the Aliens and that initiated a clash of egos that caused the war. The Commission promulgated strict laws for contact with lesser developed species. Some thinkers from Earth also participated in the Commission's work and from our perspective, rational thinking indicated that humans were easily seduced by the possibility a gain by contact with Aliens. The basal human instinct for greed drove such notions of gain and this in turn invited the proliferation of alien technology on earth. Such proliferation lead to terrible wars on Earth. The decision to cut contact was mutual. From this decision the Old World Order was created."

Dominic was amazed "and why is this never told to any of us? "

The NSA replied "It is told, in bowdlerized form, in those epics everyone hears time and time again. Unfortunately presently a skewed sense of rationality dictates that those epics be treated as myth, a studied falsehood, and not as history - itihaas - a factual account infused with mnemonic guides."

Dominic and the others were speechless.

The NSA knew this was a natural state, he continued, "We do not know what will happen if we inform the Aliens we know about this new species that the Americans have made contact with. The Aliens we knew had decided that there would no contact and no proliferation of technology from their side to ours. The Aliens the Americans claim to have met seem to be unaware of the Commissions' rules. If our old friends find out about this and decide that the America's E.T. friends are a problem somehow deliberately violating the Comission's rulings, a new war could break out in space and our planet will be at the centre of it. Alternatively if the America's E.T. friends feel our old friends on the Commission could be a potential problem, then they could induce their American allies to drag us into supporting their ambitions against our old friends. I don't know which is more undesirable."

The NSA paused and took a deep breath, "In any case all this presupposes that the American E.T.'s actually exist. I agree that if they do and we percieve that they are ill intentioned, then perhaps we might feel obliged to inform our old friends about a potential problem, and some strategy may be concieved to rid ourselves of this infestation. Alternately if America's alien friends are somehow just ill informed, then perhaps they could be induce to peacefully accept the Commission's rulings and they could then transit into the federation without causing undue concern, but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Until we know that that America's E.T. friends are real, there is no point in further discussion."

The NSA stared carefully at the men... there was silence. Finally Amit broke it, "It makes sense to proceed under the assumption that the American contact is real."

Khalid nodded, "I agree, if we prepare for a genuine first contact scenario, we are more likely to spot a deception. "

The NSA stared at Dominic. He was still reeling under the information he had just recieved and took some time to compose himself but finally he too spoke, "Yes it makes sense, at the very least it will keep American suspicions about our role to a minimum, and will prolong their illusion of global leadership."

The NSA contined to stare at Dominic, interesting, thought the NSA, a very level-headed approach, despite having been burdened with information that would leave most people screaming, Dominic was thinking on his feet, he was a good man after all, Amit had chosen well.

The NSA cleared his throat, and spoke calmly "Well, that is a start. I need to see a more concrete strategy emerge on this matter. The basic parameters for our contact remain the same, we will conduct the contact in such a way that we do not let our anything from our side while gathering the maximum possible information from the Alien side. When we meet again tomorrow, I would like to see a more substantial evolution of this idea."

The three men nodded and the NSA turned to leave.

The Thar Incident - 13

Continued from Part 12.

******************

On his way home from the CO's office, Khalid stopped at a near by cyber cafe and typed the words "First Contact" on Google. What came up caused him to shake his head. After about half an hour of searching, Khalid decided he had enough and walked out of the cafe. The thoughts circled in Khalid's mind, "first contact", something about gold prospectors in Papua, something about Star Trek, something about a movie by Jodie Foster, the pattern was all to obvious but what was this specifically about?

It couldn't be the aliens, there was no such thing as aliens, though Khalid. This had been drilled into them by the officer teaching Psyops at the school in the forest on the Ridge.

"The human mind is prone to pangs of belief, even the most cynical mind seeks the comfort of hope. Even if all our science and investigation points to the complete absence of any kind of alien species in space, people still dream of ETs. The media industry churns out one blockbuster after another, public demands entertainment and Aliens always find their niche. More popular than pornstars, the Alien sucks our imaginations towards it. It should be no surprise to you all that the American Government's Psychological Operations Coordination Board chose to use the idea of Aliens to camouflage the secret activities of the intelligence services. It didn't matter what the actual cargo in the box was, it could be guns, nukes, drugs, someone's mother, you name it, as long as you said it was aliens, no one wanted to open it! Concievably the most successful psyops in human history"

So Khalid now wondered, was that what this was about? a deliberate psyops by the GoI's finest to pull the wool over someone else's eyes? a deception operation on a grand strategic scale. What exactly was this... the questions bounced about in his head. He decided that this was time to pick up those text books on psychology and read them up. He spent his next week reading.

The next time he called that number the NSA gave him. The NSA answered himself and gave him an address. It was a small farmhouse next to Arjangarh. To most it seemed insignificant, but Khalid knew enough to know that the farmhouses in that area were extremely secure, they were inside an electronic exclusion zone that surrounded the Arjangarh Facility. The entire area was systematically swept for transmitters of all sizes and the zone was kept electronically clean. This was where the great defector had been brought, Khalid knew because he was the one that had brought the defector home.

When Khalid arrived, he found that he was alone in the farmhouse with the NSA.

The NSA spoke, " Have you had a chance to think about what I have said?"

Khalid replied "Yes I have."

The NSA wanted to hear his thoughts.

Khalid now spoke with his customary economy of words, "This sort of thing has been done before, the psyops part. We could replicate it here but I couldn't say for how long."

The NSA mumbled, "hmm... good, by the way speaking of long, you will no longer be reporting to your CO. As far as they are concerned you are finished with them."

Khalid was expecting something but he was a little unnerved by the speed at which it had happened.

The NSA continued, "I gave them a fake intercept by NTRO that said that you and your man friday on the ground had been compromised, so they never want to see either of you again. Man Friday will go to Nahan as an instructor, he will live the rest of his life happily with his family, you will work with me. "

Khalid was now visibly upset.

The NSA continued, "Don't worry, I made it look like it wasn't no fault of yours. Your record is clean but you can't go back there..."

Now Khalid's mind raced, so this was always a one way street, I should have known, curiousity had gotten the better of instinct again, if he could not go back to the boys, where could he go? it was here or a ditch on the banks of the Yamuna. What a choice...

The NSA seemed to sense what was going through his mind, "I am sorry, it was the only way.."

Khalid nodded but his inner voice spoke via his eyes, yeah! sure... easy for you to say.....

The NSA looked at him for a rather long moment and then spoke calmly,"What I am about to tell you is for your ears only. I ask that you leave your preconceptions of this topic aside. I have a challenging task for you, but I am sure you will be up to it."

Khalid's mind was off on its own, ah the pep talk before they ask you to kill people you don't even know.. it was surprising that people didn't simply tire of this.

The NSA did not stop, and told him of recent events, little by little, Khalid's suspicion and instinct gave way to his childlike curiousity yet again. After about forty five minutes, the NSA drew a deep breath and said, "Contrary to what we teach at the school, this is not a psyop at our end. We have a genuine problem that affects our national security and possibly the security of the whole world. We have no idea who owns the craft and what they will behave like if they come looking for it".

"How do we know that it is not an American psyop." Khalid asked.

The NSA replied, "The technology in the craft is far ahead of anything our spies report that the Americans can field even in their wildest dreams..."

Khalid was about to ask something but he realised he would not get a straight answer, so he stopped short of asking.

The NSA continued, "There is however a strong possibility that the Americans have aimed a psyop at us. Their representatives have alluded to a treaty signed in 1954 between the American President and the non-terrestrials. The treaty states that the Americans will recover any such craft and negotiate on behalf of the world with the non-terrestrials. The Americans over the past sixty years have gradually brought other nations into this treaty. A sub-clause in the treaty binds member states to hand over negotiating power with non-terrestrials to a committee comprised of a handful of international nominees. This international committee acts as the guidance council for a small secretariat which is the defacto power center inside this sytem, needless to say the secretariat is dominated by Americans. Perhaps you see why this would make some uneasy."

Khalid asked the obvious question, "Why would anyone submit to this? what does the secretariat do?"

The NSA replied, "Signatories of the treaty were all given economic benifits as membership rewards. These were channeled to them via an enormous international financial system that was created after World War II. The maintainence of this system was tasked to a political apparat. This apparat is sometimes called the One World Goverment. It operates invisibly under the guise of a number of international bodies to ensure that payoffs required to preserve the Treaty are made. The secretariat is responsible for four things, the smooth functioning of the apparat, the recovery and storage of all treaty items, the maintenance of global information control, and the regulation of all contact with non-terrestrials. "

Khalid was taking it all in, and said nothing, the NSA continued, "You should be aware that an article in the treaty forbids the direct development of weapons technology from recovered items and another clause severely restricts the kind of research and development activity that can be conducted on the recovered items while they are in storage. A special research and development organisation provides the necessary support to the secretariat, and though it is nominally attached to the secretariat, it is the only arm that is given independent access to the guidance council. There is a technology transfer section inside this R&D organisation, the section transfers harvested technologies to the civilian sector upon recieving instructions from the secretariat. This technology trade forms one of the corner stones of the pedestal on which the One World Government operates."

The NSA drew a deep breath again,"But whatever I have just told you is by word of mouth. We have no independent confirmation of this. This entire story could be a psyop on their side."

"If other nations are part of this, couldn't we ask them?" Khalid asked.

The NSA replied, "You can't ask a nation, I mean we are going to have to ask specific individuals in these nations, its not like everyone knows. Specific people could easily be turned to say whatever the Americans wanted them to say. That verification scheme would yeild no real results of value."

Then Khalid saw what the NSA was driving at, all this time.

"You see" the NSA said, "We have to do it from ground up."

Khalid looked at the NSA and bluntly asked "So are the Americans going to let us?"

The NSA replied, "Well temporarily we have asked them for a little time and we have indicated to them that we intend to investigate the matter to our satisfaction. They have requested that we keep them informed of our moves and that we keep our activities within the spirit of the treaty, and avoid starting something that no one can stop. The PM has acceded to this request."

Then Khalid asked to be sure "So the PM is ...."

The NSA cut him off," Yes, but you must understand that the PM has to keep the economic health of the nation a priority. That limits her flexibility. "

"Why not just take their pay off and be done with it?" Khalid asked again.

The NSA knew this was coming, "The answer to that is a difficult one. In the Ramayan, it is said that Ravanan, and his brothers, Vibhishanan and Kumbhakaranan carried out a brutal form of penance. The penance eventually succeeded in gaining them enlightenment and access through the gates of Eternity. However upon entering Eternity they wandered through timelessness and soon got very bored. It is said they sat down and laughed uncontrollably for a while and then after that they got up and left Eternity. They returned to Earth, without any shred of responsibility and lacking compassion, they became an endless scourge that nearly wiped out humanity"

Khalid's mind's reaction was ..Whoa... wtf is he talking about.. ease off on the crack cocaine dude...

Seeing Khalid's eyebrow raised, the NSA realised that Khalid was lost, "Once knowledge is imparted to someone who may not necessarily understand its value, the knowledge becomes an invitiation to boundless trouble. Power without purpose corrupts absolutely."

Now Khalid was a little confused. There must be more to this then the NSA was letting on, knowledge? the Americans were going to gain knowledge from the craft? Something that they perhaps did not have? how did the NSA know this? How could he know that the craft would enable the Americans to become more knowledgeable?

Why the concern over sharing knowledge when India did not have any itsel.. "But if..."

The NSA cut him off again, "Think it through... remember everything about the Mahabharat and the Ramayana.. think of them holistically, not as simple stories for children.."

Khalid tusseled with the doubts in his mind, it took a few minutes, and then it hit him.. those stupid mythologies, or were they meta narratives and nemonics for something else, the repeated emphasis on terrible things that happened in times gone by when some man or woman, driven to madness by personal inadequacy, petitioned the denizens of the Heavens for a boon and then the boon became a curse to humanity. The nightmare of proliferation playing itself out in full view each time as gifts of the Gods were misused to solve human differences...

And as he did, quite suddenly in his minds eye, a disturbing picture fell into place. They had known all along... all this while they knew it all... and soon Khalid didn't know how to feel.

The NSA saw his plight and took pity on him, "Today we live in a world where resources are not equally shared. A whole economy has sprung up around an imperfect distribution of opportunity. A misguided sense of superiority afflicts a few and misplaced inferiority dogs the rest. Yet in even in times past, bad judgement has been Mankind's most inforgivable sin. What makes the Americans less prone to such misjudgements? than us? So are we not abdicating our responsibility by simply handing it over to the Americans?"

For once the voice in Khalid's head had no answers, the only response it could muster was a voice repeatedly saying "they must have known this all along... all this time... they knew"

Finally after a long silence, Khalid spoke "So what do you want me to do"

The NSA looked straight at Khalid and said, "The Aliens will return to collect their ship. When they do you will make first contact."

Khalid asked, "How much time do we have?"

The NSA replied, "We don't know.. it could be today, tomorrow, ten years from now..."

"The Americans..." Khalid began, the NSA cut him off again.."will have to be handled but you.. you stay focussed on the Contact itself."

"Me alone?" asked Khalid.

"No, assemble a team, one that thinks before it acts." the NSA replied, " a composite team with the skill to do what it takes"

"Where is the craft now?" Khalid asked, the NSA replied "It is kept in a special place, the 22s have it under guard, you will go there with me soon.. but for now start thinking about your team and what you need. This farmhouse will be your base, use the telephone and the number to get what you need."

Khalid nodded.

The NSA got up, shook hands with him and left through the front door. Khalid heard a car starting up and speed away. It was then that Khalid realised that it was early evening and he turned the TV on.

A channel played an interview with the Minister of State for Science and Technology (MoS S&T). It was Ranjan Sharma's talk show Public ki Adalat, the PM's announcement that ISRO would carry out a manned space flight by the end of the year had become big news, everyone wanted to know what was going on - the MoS S&T was cutting footage, the election was only two years away, so the MoS was doing the usual thing of giving glib answers to questions from the public. The cute face of the government, the young man put in there to get some experience, a fellow being trained to sit in a warm gaddi somewhere else some other day.

It was all going fine until one of the members of the audience got up and asked

"So Mister Minister, Sir, I have heard that Government is doing this space flight because it wants to make contact with Aliens?"

The MoS smiled, "Now where did you hear such a thing?"

The man replied, "Sir, on the Internet, they are saying that there is a research facility in the Satpura mountains where Government of India keeps an Alien craft it has recently captured in the Thar desert and after it was captured the government wanted to find out who owns the ..."

The man spoke excitedly and seemed to continue forever without stopping for a breath, the MoS was now flashing his pearly whites and Ranjan Sharma had a huge grin on his face... ah alien conspiracy theorists the stuff of real entertainment...

Ranjan Sharma took the microphone "So Mantriji what do you say to this? Is this true? "

The MoS S&T replied "Well No we don't have any Alien things with us, yes there is military R&D for aerospace research which as you know has be secret, but there is no alien technology involved in anything."

Ranjan decided to bait the MoS S&T, "So Mantriji just to be sure I understand, you are saying there is no such thing as Aliens.."

The MoS S&T laughed and said," No Ranjan, none that we know of"

Ranjan saw a chance and took it, "So we are alone in the universe"

The MoS S&T replied, "Yes, thats what it looks like"

Ranjan jumped in"So then what is the point of going to space? isn't the Government wasting its time and our money with this expensive picnic in space.."

The MoS S&T had seen him coming, "Well I didn't say there would never be Aliens? I simply said we don't think there are any Aliens right now.. that could change."

Now Ranjan saw another chance to stick it to the MoS S&T, "So then the gentleman who asked the question is right. You are going to space to look for Aliens"

The MoS laughed again, "No no we are not going to look for them, we have no reason to believe they are out there but who knows we might see them.. we don't know what will happen once we get up there."

Ranjan was getting bored now, this was a little too easy, so he tried again "So the gentleman here is wrong?"

The MoS smiled, "look Ranjan, I know what you are trying to get me to do, you are trying to get me to make controversial statements so your ratings go up... Let me be clear, there are children and parents watching this show right now... at the other end of that camera is a young Indian boy or girl and they are thinking what is going on.. I have a responsibility towards them.. so I will be very clear.."

Turning towards the Camera, the MoS S&T said "To the viewers of this program I say this, as far as our science and technology can tell right now, we are alone in this universe. But science is not a static affair, we are always learning something new about the world. Our knowledge is ever growing and it has to be that way if human beings are to make progress. "

He continued"What we know today could change today, tomorrow, ten years from now... who has seen the future? Science is progressing and already we are answering questions that in my father's time we had no answers to, so it will be with you... "

" I say again, do not give up hope, you the little boy or girl watching the TV right now ... you could be the one that someday meets an Alien for the first time. So do not be afraid to imagine,
dare to imagine, for imagination is the engine that drives innovation and the growth of knowledge. "

And buy more model kits and toys of ISRO's rockets, though Ranjan, he knew the MoS S&T's brother-in-law was the biggest toy manufacturer in the country. But Ranjan's cynicism was drowned out by the round of applause that spontaneously burst out from the audience.

Less than a mile from the TV station, the PM and the PPS were watching the broadcast. The PM seemed preoccupied but she simply said "he is good, isn't he?", the PPS replied, "indeed he is.."

The MoS S&T was pleased with his performance, he had been a bit unnerved when the PM had called on him and told him what she wanted ISRO to do an hour before the INSA meeting he had rushed home to meet his father. The father listened to him and simply said, "Jao beta, abbu ka naam roshan karo." The only strategy that would work would be if both the people and the ISRO staff were driven by a spate of positive publicity so that was where this was all going to go. As he walked out of the TV station people were lining up shake his hands and a beeper indicated that his next meeting with the ISRO director was only twenty minutes away. Thats why we have these flashing lights on the car thought the minister as the motorcade sped away leaving the cameras and flashbulbs in its dust.

The Thar Incident - 12

Continued from Part 11.

******************

The National Security Advisor sat cross legged in front of the Sage.

Behind the Sage stood the great temple, with its towering gopurams constructed by great Hindu emperors and kings.

The National Security Advisor briefly took his attention of the Sage and looked at the beauty and majest of the temple. It was this beauty that had inspired the Traveller to compose the famed sivanandalahiri.

Without much warning the Sage rose, the NSA's attention shifted again as he looked at the Sage. The Sage anticipated his question and asked him to rise.

They began to walk, the Sage ahead and the NSA one step behind on his right. Seeing the Sage walking a number of junior priests at the Shrine walked towards him in case he needed some assistance, but he waved them away. In the distance the children of some visitors played and the Sage made his way towards the river.

"He is going to the Mandapam" the NSA thought. Legend had it that this was where the Veeracharam ritual was once performed, a supreme and bloody act of devotion, self mutilation as a form of surrender to the Almighty... "Ancient history" thought the NSA, but the Sage said nothing and the men walked in silence.

Slowly the two men made their way down the steps, towards the river and the NSA spoke,

"Swamigal, how does one know that this is not some conspiracy to get us to hand over what we have?"

Swamigal replied, "How does one know anything?"

The NSA continued not understanding, "We have no evidence of this treaty, we are reliant completely on their word."

Swamigal replied " What is evidence? the Truth is self evident"

The NSA sensed something,"If it is self evident, then why search for it?"

The Sage said nothing, the NSA continued, "Why not accept that position of ignorance?"

The Sage looked towards the river, the NSA spoke again "What is the price of ignorance and how does it compare to the price paid in the search for the Truth?"

Swamigal finally tired of this line of thinking and spoke "The Truth is self-evident, we seek only the negation of falsehood."

"Then Sire, what is falsehood" the NSA began.

"One can scarcely anticipate that, it is the removal of falsehood that one may seek with some success, the search for evidence of Truth, is a mere phantasm, the evidence will itself become a new falsehood, a shield to the eyes against the light of the truth.." the Sage replied.

" If the Truth is surrounded by Falsehood, its eternal light will cast long shadows. " the Sage continued.

The NSA was unsure, "If I assume that this treaty of 1954 is a lie, then I must treat it as the shadow of the Truth and then by induction"

"The tools of logic ill serve those that seek an end to falsehood. " The Sage interjected, "Look at the shadow and determine which way the Truth lies, and seek only the end to delusion."

Suddenly as the NSA saw what the Sage had been indicating all along.

The meeting ended shortly there after and the NSA prostrated himself before the Sage and left the Temple. Dressed in the most ordinary of ways and lacking any sort of escort, his arrival and departure had gone unnoticed.

As the NSA boarded the bus to the railway station a few miles away, He realised he would have to choose his man carefully.

A few days later a tired and weary Khalid, returned to his home in Delhi. It had been a very trying time back in "the shit", the kilos in their brilliant search for "self-determination" had managed to fill every single graveyard and in most places the only ones left alive were old women and children. Orphans and widows, that was all the Kilo dream of self-determination had left them with and yet the bastards managed to get seduced by it, time and time again.

Things were better now than in the late 90s, but what a pain in the ass, ingrates these kilos were. Though "the Shit" was a large place, Khalid was the Shahenshah of the Kupwara Kings. The title went back a long way to a time in the nineties when the Kupwara Kings had helped pacify a Kilo city. Their efforts had layed the groundwork for a seamless operation by the regulars who took the city in a few days after the Kings moved in. In a little known action, a major Kilo stronghold was reintegrated and the troublemakers done away with. The fellow who headed this was Rustom Kaikhusrao, a good man who went on to do much better elsewhere but Khalid had to stay behind long after Kaikhusrao's men were back down to their CASO routines. Eventually Khalid was moved to other places but now it was right boring, he had finally managed to get some leave to take care of his son's college admissions.

As Khalid relaxed in his house, he pondered what he would do. The bastards upstairs would not let him go farther, there was really nothing for him to do further up anyway, paper pushing was not his thing. He reached for his cup of tea and stared out of his balcony.

Khalid was pissed when the phone rang twice and then stopped and then it did that again. The beeper went off too. "F*CK!!" thought Khalid, a recall. Khalid now raced to his mobile and dialed the number on the pager.

"Khalid here" he said into the phone. The voice on the other end sounded metallic, "do you recognise my voice?" it said. Khalid replied, "Sir I do".

The voice continued"Good, come to see me right now"

"Sir." Khalid replied.

So much for time off Khalid said... and a few minutes later he was off. Well, atleast they don't expect you to dress up.

The trip was a short one, but Khalid was a bit surprised to see the other man in his COs room.
He knew the face, it was too well known among the people that count. As Khalid saluted the man, the CO quietly left the two alone in his office.

"Very fucking odd!" though Khalid.

The NSA sat down and asked Khalid if he wanted anything, and Khalid answered he didn't.

The NSA began, "So you were at North Sentinel Island during the Tsunami relief ops?"

Khalid replied," Yes sir, I was asked to provide aid to the Sentinelese tribals."

The NSA, " tell me more".

Khalid," Sir no one knew their language and no one knew how they would react to seeing outsiders. There was a high risk of them attacking the relief units, and they had already tried to bring down an IAF Helo with arrows, so my squad was sent in."

The NSA said "And?"

Khalid, " we established contact with them and gave them medical support and food supplies."

"How did you communciate with them?" the NSA asked,

Khalid, " We used lookee-see-pointy langauge Sir. they seemed to understand what we were saying, I think they wanted to communcate as much as we did."

Now Khalid's mind was racing," WTF was this about? This shit was all part of civvy-aid ops from ages ago. What did the NSA care about this? was I going to be made a teacher for Sentinelese at the school for langauges? wtf..?"

The NSA gave nothing away, and continued to ask questions, "Give me more details, how many were in your squad, what did you have, communications wise, etc..."

Khalid began to respond, "It was just five of us with AKs and we had one handie between us. There wasn't much ammo, mostly food and medical supplied, IAF ops had reestablished at CarNic so they gave us a lift and dropped us on the shore. The tribals were ..."

This back and forth lasted an hour and by then the NSA knew he had what he wanted.

Finally he looked Khalid straight in the eye and said, "I have something for you to do. You will leave your current deputation and report to me.."

"Very fucking sweet" Khalid thought "And WTF am I to do" he said in his mind..

Seeing Khalid's silence the NSA eyed him again, "Assuming you are in agreement?"

Khalid realized it was not really a question but replied anyway "Yes Sir, but if I may ask, what is this about?"

The NSA now looked at him and after carefully considering his words simply said "It is similar to the Sentinel job, I think we shall call it Sentinel II."

Sweet Asss... though Khalid a paid vacation to the islands at GoI's expense... yahooo!! the last one in the Shit hadn't been nearly fun enough... now this

The NSA continued," Actually it may be a bit more but we will take it as it comes"

Khalid simply replied "Sir."

The NSA asked, "when does your leave end?"

Khalid replied "in a week sir."

"Well you might as well get some rest", the NSA said, "you deserve it. Report to me at this number (handing him a small piece of paper) in 7 days.."

Khalid was pleased, man it was good to be out of the Shit, that place was fucking boring. He sensed that the meeting was over and rose to salute the NSA.

The NSA waved off the salute and said, "You have no questions?"

Khalid replied, "I do Sir, but I figured that you would answer them when the time came.."

The NSA smiled, ah.. the SF.. the only ones you could one hundred percent count on..

"Good then", the NSA said as he walked Khalid to the door, "I have one request, when you get home, and are resting think about something called "First Contact". "

Khalid was a bit confused, he had heard that term used somewhere before but couldn't recall what it meant. "Sir" he replied and walked out of the office.

The NSA now sank back into the chair and stared at the list of honours on the wall. The CO walked in and asked him if he wanted any tea. The NSA indicated now was as good a time as any.

(with apologies to the Great Khalid himself and to Lethal Weapon who gave us Khalid as we now know him)

The Thar Incident - 11

Continued from Part 10.

******************

A review was not something that Matthew had really wanted at this point, but apparently the matter had gone all the way up to the Old Man himself. Not that Matthew expected it wouldn't but a review was something he really did not want, but this meant that Matthew had the Old Man's attention, that brought with it pressure on him to perform but also pressure on the Indians.

The Professor seated next to the Old Man was the defacto head of the Special Group as it was called. Not that it needed a name, but someone had coined this name years ago for something else and it had stuck. Next to the Professor was the one they called the Invisble Man, a legend in his own time, a high ranking bureaucrat widely reputed to be the reigning Archduke of the American Intelligence underworld.

Matthew concluded his report and simply said, "It wasn't unexpected, but there are many questions as to where they will proceed from here."

The Old Man replied, "Any ideas on what exactly they might want"

The Invisible Man answered, "The same thing the others wanted."

Matthew replied "They do not know about the others."

The Professor had watched the proceedings with an air of detachement, but then he leaned forward in his chair and adjusted his weight as he turned towards the Old Man, and then he began to speak,

"The Indians are traumatized by the colonial period. Much the same way as Jews are by the Holocaust. They view each contact with suspicion and post-colonial thinking dictates that they respond to the contact with extreme circumspection. They will continue to say nothing until they are on a surer footing of where we stand."

The Invisible Man stretched back a little in his chair and yawned, "And then they will want the same thing that everyone else wanted."

The Professor eyed the Invisible Man quietly, "Perhaps, and perhaps not.."

Matthew now listened keenly, the Old Man asked the same question that had been running in his mind, "How will they be different?"

The Professor continued, "Our studies suggest that the Indians take a fundamentally different view of the universe. Their entire emphasis is on gaining a processed form of information, containing raw data and analysis, a potent all encompassing knowledge laced with predictive power. Their civilization and history predisposes them towards such acquisition. "

"How is that different from us?" replied the Old Man.

The Professor replied, "On the face of it, it isn't but we are prone to material distractions, they are not and seek knowledge in its abstract form. "

The Invisible Man cut in,"Not all of them! we have studied a large number of their expats in our lands, they do not espouse any such desire and settle quietly for material gratification. "

The Professor retorted, "That analysis is skewed, when the west first re-connected with India prior to colonization, the West was driven by a desire to Christianize India, very quickly however the early contactees realized that the Indians carried with them a highly sophisticated form of civilizational power. The missionaries were more likely to be converted to the Indian way of thinking than the other way around. Despite several strategies, attempts at psychologically dominating the Indian elite through a visible religious framework failed, and more subtle means had to be used. However these too have largely failed."

The Invisible Man disagreed,"Failed? none of our sampling shows that trend, acceptance of western lifestyles and culture in India has been constantly rising. American owned newspapers call the shots in the English language media, and people crave to learn English to seek employment in Westernized trade and economies. "

The Professor calmly replied, "I think you are missing the point, the Indians have responded to the subtle culture war in a very sophisticated fashion. They threw back at us what we threw at them. We forced English on them, now they filled our enterprises with Indian employees, our local populations now have to compete with these Indians for jobs. We bestowed industrialization on them, they returned the favor by demanding energy to run these factories. We gave them ..."

The Invisible Man now recoiled, "That's ridiculous, our needs have changed we have been able to keep their system subservient to our needs using ..."

The Professor now cut in, "Have we really? We are no closer today to shaking their age old beliefs than we were a hundred years ago"

The Old Man stepped in, "That's enough, we are losing focus!"

He softened his tone, "I still don't see how they are fundamentally different from us"

The Professor tried again, "They will continue to ask questions long after we have stopped, we cannot guarentee that we have answers, or that we will like their questions."

The Invisible Man replied, " And what will they do if we say we don't have answers?"

The Professor replied, " I don't know."

The Old Man persisted, "This is different from the others how?"

The Professor tried once more, "The others could be bought off by material wealth. In most cases they were brought in at a time when their economies were crumbling and we could use economic leverage as a way of keeping them satisfied."

The Invisible Man replied, "We have leverage now too with Indians."

The Professor responded,"Yes, but we also have to deal with a wider picture of global trade."

The Old Man was getting a little frustrated now, "So do we treat them as hostile?"

The Professor replied, "No, that may precipate unpleasantries, we proceed with caution, friends not allies, is how we must think of them."

The Old Man was worried, "That might be too difficult to implement in practice."

The Invisible Man replied, "How about giving them the benifit of malice instead?"

The Professor was adamant, "Doubt offers greater flexibility than malice."

The three looked at Matthew and stared as if inviting him to comment, Matthew was sharp enough to know this was not the time to say anything, but stupid enough to be unable to keep his mouth shut.

Matthew spoke "What if we simply reciprocate ambiguity with ambiguity?"

The Professor replied, "It could simply lead to confusion."

The Old Man seemed to consider the idea, "It might force them to be more expressive."

The Invisible Man replied, "Look lets not make it too complicated, lets keep it simple", turning towards the Old Man," What do we need to know? we need to know what they are doing at all times before they do it, that is a rule they cannot break. And any contact they have with... that should be discussed with us before and after. Tell them we are worried that they might start something no one will know how to stop."

The Old Man apparently was won over, "That sounds clear enough to me."

The Professor looked doubtful but nodded, the committee had missed something in his line of thought but there was little to be done about it.

Matthew was convinced he had his marching orders. He rose along with them and soon after some minor pleasantries, they all left.

As Matthew drove on Independence Avenue, the Washington Monument loomed to his right, suddenly in his rear view mirror he spotted the familiar outline of a black government issue security car. The cars lights flashed repeatedly as if to suggest that the driver wanted him to move out of the way but there was plenty of room so why didn't he just overtake him. Matthew looked at the vehicle unsure. At the light for Jefferson Drive, the vehicle pulled alongside, and in the back window the Professor's face was visible, the Professor gestured him to pull over into the Monument Park. It was almost ten minutes before the men were able to get out of their cars and walk together in the park.

There was almost complete silence for the first few minutes of the walk, the Professor seemed to be searching for the right words, he broke his silence abruptly,

"The Indians are a tricky bunch to handle. They think a lot more. You don't give them a straight answer, they think you are hiding something. "

The Professor looked at Matthew and then back across the Monument.

"You are young, so they won't have the same sense of history they have with others we could send instead. I went there a long time ago, their memories are substantial. In my first meeting I said a few things, two days later we met them again and one of their officers repeated my words verbatim, this was before they had tape recorders and no one took notes, it was all from memory. "

Matthew was unsure what to say, but the Professor was in his own world, "be very careful with words"

Matthew was a little perplexed, "Why is this so important, they are a third world country, it can't be that hard to pry the thing lose from their hands..." he said.

The Professor stared at him," That is exactly the kind of thinking that will get you into trouble, get these notions of first world and third world out of your mind. They are simply words our own psyops people have invented. If the words seduce you, the Indians will read you like a book."

Matthew replied "Okay so I was inappropriate, but I still don't understand what makes them so hard to handle. We have the advantage of being the first ones on top of the hill so why do we worry that they are doing something we did a long time ago".

The Professor replied, "Misconceptions have a way of feeding on themselves, so lets clear some up here, for starters, they have been around for a long time, a very long time. There is a story that has been doing rounds repeatedly for centuries now, the story goes that they were the first ones to make contact. Every time around anyone from outside tried to confirm that story, they never gave a straight answer."

Matthew was stunned," What proof .... there is nothing in their current state of affairs to suggest.. we have all this technological run off where is their..."

The Professor replied, "Lets say for a moment that the clock has been set back. You and I have just made contact and instead of choosing to exploit things, we chose to keep all access to it closed, we took the knowledge we had and chose not to use it to change our world. Imagine what would happen if we were comfortable with our surroundings instead of constantly trying to change them?"

Matthew was completely confused "Refused to change our world? you mean reject even the benificial aspects of a contact... why would you do that? "

The Professor replied, "Forget the why ! just ask yourself can it be done?"

Matthew replied, " I suppose it can, but that would assume a time when everything was completely still. A time where the political and social structures felt no need to change or evolve, a state of complete stasis. "

The Professor suggestively replied, "Like when they were on top of the world?"

Matthew responded, " But that is not where they are now.... do they even know about this past episode? I mean if they kept it so secret."

The Professor was more conciliatory, "There is no way to know. The British took away a lot of records in the hope that someday they might be analyzed to gain some insight into the rumors, but we do not know if the Indians had other more substantive records. In general they seem to emphasize oral transmission of information, there is no way to be certain.."

Matthew was now more confused, and so being combative was easy," Does anyone know, does the committee know about this?"

The Professor replied, " No. no one knows for sure. The Old Man knows as much as I do, the others well, what they don't know won't... "

Now Matthew suddenly realized he himself had become special, very special. There was no declining the fact that knowledge was power.

The Professor went back to his more avuncular tone, "Look just be careful and don't get attached to too much of what you think you know. Keep your eyes, ears and mind open, just assume that they will watch you closely form now on. "

Matthew was a little taken aback, " you mean the Indians have a committee too?"

The Professor turned on his heel and walked into the distance, "is that really so surprising? best of luck..."

The shadow of the monument had just shifted past the spot they had been standing and Matthew was now standing in the warm sunlight watching as the Professor walked away into the distance.

A world away at a small reading desk in the Institute for Strategic Studies Islamabad, a young major in the ISI's India division peered up from the computer terminal he was sitting on. He tagged a newspaper article that he was staring at emailed it to his supervisor a Lt. Colonel.

A few hours later, the Lt. Col asked him to come to his office. The Lt. Col was wolfing down a beef samosa, "So what is so important about this?" he asked between munches of his samosa.

The Major worded his reply carefully, "The item says the Indians are building a biosphere."

"And" the Lt. Col. replied,

The Major responded quietly," A biosphere is a completely enclosed living space that is independently capable of growing food, running water, air etc... it does not need to communicate with the outside world."

"So?" the Lt. Col. interjected, not quite following him,

The Major replied, "Sir, you take a biosphere and put it underground, with a nuclear reactor as a power source and you get a long term survival bunker that can last atleast as long as the nuclear reactor can keep power running."

Now the Lt. Col. looked unconvinced " Don't they need sunlight to grow plants?"

The Major replied, "No sir, sunlight can be repoduced with special lighting sources."

The Lt. Col. was intrigued, "Double check everything."

The Major saluted and said "Yes Sir.." as he walked out he muttered to himself, "double check what! the madarchod sees it all in front of him, doesn't want to accept it... kya chootiya hain!"

The Thar Incident - 10

Continued from Part 9.

******************

The team from Washington was just setting up for its presentation. Matthew eyed the others on the table, the Prime Minister and the PPS, and wondered if these were the only people that knew.

In the room next door, the rest of them, the Chairman of the National Security Council Secretariat(CNSCS), the National Security Advisor(NSA), the Principal Scientific Advisor to the PM (PSA), the Cabinet Secretary (CabSec) and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) sat eyeing the screen which showed the scene before the PM.

One of the members of the American team, Maj. Gen. Nathan Walters, nominally an adminstrator in the Pentagon, began to clear his throat. The other person on the team was Carlotta Hills, nominally listed as a deputy assistant to the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The CNSCS stared at her image on the screen, a mixture of curiousity and foreboding filled his mind. The NSA too pondered where this road would lead them.

Maj. Gen. Walters began, and the men in the adjacent room all leaned towards the screen.

"In the late summer of 1929, the rocketry pioneer James Goddard was able to secure the interest of Charles Lindbergh, and members of the Guggenheim family in space exploration. With their financial backing he set up a small rocket testing facility at the Mescalero Ranch in a little known town called Roswell, New Mexico. Despite the setbacks due to the Great Depression, the Gughenheim family managed to keep the ranch funded, however in the early forties as war clouds gathered over Europe, a strong military presence was allowed to establish itself sub rosa at Roswell. Eventually the facility was host to a series of experiments proving the military value of rockets and the work there served as the starting point for a vast amount of research activity in the field of military and commercial rocket science. "

"The War period saw the Navy Department become the center of a vast range of military R&D activity. The nuclear weapons project, the first rocketry experiments etc... were all initially coordinated from within the Office of Naval Armament. The US Airforce at the time had not emerged from within the Army Department and the Navy was viewed as a logical choice for handling projects involving sophisticated machinery. It was at the Navy's insistence that a new test site for powerful explosives was set up near Alamagordo, New Mexico. However as soon as these weapons were developed, the Airforce emerged as the only service able to deliver them and took charge of the project. The Roswell area eventually came to house a major Army Airforce Base and this base was the node for all the subsequent atomic weapons testing held at the Alamogordo area prior to the end of World War II. After World War II, the Roswell Army Airforce base became the staging ground a wide range of nuclear weapons deployment related activities."

"In the early hours of the morning of June 23, 1947.... "

At this point, the men in the other room began to pull back. They all knew the story, the matter had been uncovered by a young Indian science fiction writer years earlier and then subject to a more thorough investigation. The investigation had provided some startling insights into events in the last fifty years and created as many new questions as it had answered, though not generally regarded as being reliable, the story had become familiar among those that needed to know.

It was almost an hour later that Gen. Walters ended his presentation. He was surprised to see that neither the Prime Minister nor the PPS had any questions.

The PM thanked the General and then turned towards Matthew and simply said, "I will send you my responses by the end of the day." With that the meeting ended, the PM and the PPS left through one door, the Americans were escorted through another.

As the PM and the PPS walked into the adjacent room, the men seated there stood up to greet them. The PM looked and asked "So...".

The NSA spoke first "We need to see something that proves this treaty of 1954"

The CNSCS chimed in, "There is no problem with returning the craft, but this agreement was concluded without our participation. How are we bound by it?"

The Cabsec and the CDS took more neutral postures, the PPS and the PSA said nothing at all.

The NSA continued, "Look we are completely reliant on their inputs for this treaty. While on the face of it, the treaty looks like something we would negotiate, how do we know this is not some elaborate ruse to get us to hand it over to them?"

The CNSCS picked up where the NSA left off, "So is there a finders fee? seems like the rules so far have been finders keepers."

The CDS was now getting a little nervous with the pace of this discussion, "So what if they get angry and do something? can we hold that off?"

The NSA looked askance and said,"By their statements, the treaty itself specifically forbids harvesting the technology to build weapons."

The CDS was more than a little exasperated,"It forbids *DIRECTLY* harvesting weapons technology, there are no limits on lateral exploitation. They could have technology development cycles that run parallel to their investigation and develop technologies which they never actually field, waiting for such eventualities."

The NSA continued,"But if they could take from us by force, they would have done so already.."

The CabSec had had enough, look at the PM, he simply said "that way madness lies.."

There was a long pregnant pause.

The PPS and the PSA had remained silent. It was not the PSA's place to provide political advice and the PPS was holding back in case a deciding vote was needed. He needn't have done that the PM had made up her mind.

"Well.." She cut into the silence, " I have to give him some reply, since there is so much to take in, I might as well tell him the truth, that I need time to think things through", turning to the NSA, "you seem to think that there is something we can verify?... okay proceed."

The CabSec, much as he knew and liked his friend the NSA, could only think one thing,"Well my friend, now you know what it means when someone says you have a very big mouth.."

Turning to the CNSCS, she said, "If there is a political angle, find it". It was not the CNSCS' turn to look worried, had he too like the NSA perhaps bitten off more than he could chew?

The CDS now wanted to disappear before his number came up, but it didn't and the CabSec did his best to pretend like he wasn't really there, it wasn't very hard, it was an art he had practiced for years now, so he too seemed to get away without any more work.

With that the PM trooped out with the PPS and the PSA in tow. Back in the privacy of her office, she turned to the PSA and asked him, "you were very quiet back there". The PSA replied, "It appears that despite all pretences to the contrary, the Americans don't have all the answers either." The PPS joined in, "It was just as well for them that we asked no questions."

The PM looked at the picture of Jawarhalal Nehru on the wall, and said, "you know he was right about the verification, and the political angle is not implausible."

The PPS was a master of sensing the mood, " Why close our options.."

The PSA now jumped in, "Well the best verification would be to make contact ourselves..."

The conversation went around a few more times but died soon after. The men left the office and the young Minister of State for Science and Technology entered.

Late that evening, at the beginning of the inaugural dinner of the Indian National Science Academy's annual session, the PM rose to give her speech. The jaded scientists and bureaucrats anxiously awaited the food and hoped that the PM would get her speech over with so that the gorging could begin, the Kashmiri wazwaan might get cold, then where would India be? such was their state of mind. Within minutes it was clear to the unfortunate scientists that this was not going to be an ordinary speech.

About ten minutes into the speech, an incredulous Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre stared at his boss, the Director of ISRO. The Director of NAL looked speechlessly at the Minister of State for Science and Technology, whose face gave no hint of emotion.

Half an hour after the PM's speech ended, that the first headlines began to appear on the TV news services, soon after that websites were carrying reports and before long the first opinion editorials were being churned out by blogs everywhere. After that a dozen TV channels were bringing every expert they could lay their hands on to talk about it

Matthew recieved the PM's reply a few minutes before he saw the news on TV. As Matthew watched the ticker run, he eyes narrowed on the words in the letter before him "no further actions pending a more complete evaluation"

By the next day the Gray Lady ofcourse had weighed in on the subject her opinions on what India, a country with 200 million starving people, was capable of and even the Daily Times of Pakistan, widely suspected to be an Inter Services Intelligence mouthpiece ran the following headine,

" Indian Prime Minister says India Will Put A Man In Space Before The End Of The Year".

Matthew was not a happy man, he had been warned this would happen.

The Thar Incident - 9

Continued from Part 8.

******************
The young assistant professor of Computer Science at IIT Bombay walked towards his office in the bizarre building that houses the Computer Science Department in Powai. Having completed a PhD at MIT and he had returned like so many others to the place he graduated from. Part of the desire to return to India had been due to the poor health of his father, but also no one in the US had any real interest in his branch of Chaos theory and barring a few mathematicians most considered his sub-field too arcane.

Dodging the undergraduates rushing about the halls, he turned the corner past the wooden divider, and he saw his office door ajar. Stepping through it an odd sight greeted him. Seated in his office was his father, and his father's old friend from college. The assistant professor was taken aback. His father occasionally would come down to his office unannounced but his father's friend was an academic celebrity, the country's most respected sociologist, the head of a very influential think tank in Bangalore, his visit usually drew a parade comprising the Director of IIT and the various Deans and atleast a dozen heads of departments, and yet today no one was in sight.

Extremely odd thought... the young assistant professor. Upon sensing the son's entry, the father leaned back to face him and then motioned him to sit in the chair before them. The assistant professor greeted them and began to sit his chair when he realized that he had nothing to offer his guests, he stopped short of sitting and blurted out his mind, "I'm sorry perhaps I should get some coffee from the shack!"

But his father chimed in "no no, I'll get it... this is Professor ..."

The son replied before his father could finish the sentence,"Yes yes, I know.. I am honoured and surprised to see him.."

The father continued "You sit, I'll get the coffee".

The Assistant professor was now even more uncertain, this was incredibly odd, his father never got coffee, he always insisted that the son get it for him. It was part of an old game, they played, the father lording it over the son.

The father shuffled out of the room and his friend, the Sociologist began, " So how is your work going here."

The Assistant professor was confused, why was the sociologist paying any attention to him, their fields and paths had never crossed, but to avoid looking rude, the assistant professor began enthusiastically rattling off details of his more recent work, his graduate students and grants. Very soon he ran out of generalities and began to talk about the specifics of his work, his interest in developing algorithms that predicted specific forms of organizational chaos and the extention of the modelling work done earlier in the US by various corporate groups.

The Sociologist showed no sign of the customary boredom that crept into the demeanour of non-specialists by this point in most conversations, to the contrary the sociologist began to ask pointed questions about the nature of the work and the specifics of the research, curiouser and curiouser, thought the assistant professor. For almost twenty minutes, the assistant professor felt himself being probed by pointed questions from the sociologist. With each passing minute the assistant professor realised that this was not a casual visit, the sociologist simply knew too much about his work.

His father entered precariously carrying three cups of coffee on a small carboard tray. The assistant professor looked up at his father for an instant before he got up to help him with the tray. As he laid out the plastic cups on the table, his mind pondered was this related to something in the government? the assistant professor's father had once been in government, but he never talked about what he did there, some little known department attached to the Department of Cabinet Affairs. The thought appealed to the assistant professor but then why would the government be interested in organizational chaos theory?

The meeting eventually lasted a full hour and half, by the end of the meeting the assistant professor was exhausted. It was only a combination of respect and amazement that kept the assistant professor from asking the sociologist why he was so interested in this work. It was time for the assistant professor to go teach a class and so he requested his guests to excuse him.

The Sociologist suddenly looked at the clock and exclaimed that it had been almost two hours, the assistant professor's father seemed ambivalent but softly told his son to go back to the class and that they would let themselves out. With a few prefunctory goodbyes and a promise of another meeting, the assistant professor left the office.

The father got up to pick up the coffee cups and clear the table, slowly after that he sank into his son's chair and stared at his old friend across the table,

"Well what do you think?" he asked.

"It looks workable, what do you think?", said the sociologist.

The father now replied, "It is much more sophisticated than anything we used in pattern analysis or prediction, but to our defence we never had such computational power before. Before we had access to the Met department's Cray, we had very small statistical models for anything."

Many decades ago, the father had been a bright eyed officer of the Cabinet Secretariat, heading one of the most sensitive and secret teams that attempted to develop advanced computational tools to solve the secretariat's myriad problems. The work was still classified and the small team was now a behemoth, employing dozens of scientists. The father had technically retired almost ten years ago, but does one really retire from "service"?

The sociologist looked on,"So do you think that this is computationally tractable? in present resources"

The father replied, "perhaps, but we need to spur the development of more advanced computational tools any way, so the investment will be worthwhile."

The sociologist's doubts were eased,"in that case we'd better tell him when he gets back.."

They met again later that day at tea at the assistant professor's house, and the sociologist but into his marie biscuit and said " we have a job for you..."

"We want you to give us a way of simulating the spread of information, the flow of an idea across a population. The transit of thoughts and ideas in the minds of a billion, and their reactions. We suspect that this process will be chaotic and prone to all manner of complex phenomenologies and need a clear framework to base our understanding of it on. Would you be interested?"

The assistant professor looked carefully at his father and realised that it was not a question.

He nodded and was about to ask about possible funding commitments,

The sociologist anticipated the question and simply said "Don't worry about anything else just keep your eye on the core problem. Let me worry about the rest."

Now the assistant professor was impressed.