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GOD
Of A Man
Infinity
Confined
“Faithful
think about their kind, faithless about every kind!”
No
dawn, no dusk.
Dated:
25th March, 2460.
It is true that faith
has a very strong unifying influence, but only amongst those who share it. It
at the same time creates a very sharp divide between those who share the faith,
and those who don’t. The reason religion was able to foster so much hatred
amongst God loving humanity was the power of attachment it created amongst the
adherents of various religions. Those who believed in a God were always ready
to defend their love for the supernatural, at the expense of everyone natural.
Ironic how it was only those who believed in some God, who were ready to kill
others who didn’t believe in a God, or believed in some other God, while those
who never believed in a God always wished for everyone to live.
One might be inclined
to consider if God really was the Satan, out to destroy humanity by making it
fight amongst itself. But to believe in a Satan would itself be a matter of faith.
The result would still remain the same. Perhaps the relevant question was never
“what should one believe in”, but rather “why should one believe in anything.”
But who could have directed humanity when its leaders were lost in “how to
spread our faith” than “whether it would be appropriate to question another
faith.” Problem with faith lies in the fact that rather than questioning “how
is my faith better than yours”, everyone is keener on explaining “how is my
faith better than yours.” When the starting premise of the debate is conflict,
how could the result then be productive?
Humanity is never
shaken out of its’ stupor better than by a catastrophe. The third world war
changed the way humanity looked at God and religion, but now the nature has challenged
the very basis of human civilization; the relationships. At the center stage is
not a faith in God this time, but a faith in future. And who would know this
better than the handful of minds in control of the supposedly last human bastion
in two universes; the spaceship “Maa”.
“The thermal signature
is coming from the last chamber on the left, just beyond the coolant towers,”
Jhiang directed Captain Bradley Connors, who was looking for the intruder on
the space ship, “I don’t have a visual. The person is hiding under a sheet of
linen.”
“Don’t worry, I got
him,” Bradley replied just as he approached the door of the small knee high
chamber. In a flash he flung the door open and yelled, “Get out and show me
your face unless you want me to fire the gun first and then talk to your dead
body.”
“Please don’t shoot, I
mean no harm,” a trembling but familiar voice replied, as the intruder finally
crawled out of his hiding spot.
“You,” the hatred on
Bradley’s face was palpable, but he was anything but undisciplined. He knew
what his job was, and immediately grabbed his culprit from his neck and dragged
him straight to the flight deck.
“Norman, how dare you,”
Commander-in-Chief Anne De Villiers yelled out as soon as she saw who the
unwanted company was.
“You son of a bitch,”
Captain Chris Davis immediately lost his cool on seeing him, and jumped out of
his seat. “My wife is dead because we couldn’t afford an extra person on this
craft, and here you are; the unwanted and most useless of all human beings! I’ll
kill you!” And he immediately rushed at Norman and grabbed him from his neck,
trying to strangulate him. Bradley immediately intervened and saved Norman.
“Let me go!” Captain
Chris Davis however yelled as his temper got the better of him.
“Behave yourself
Captain Chris Davis, and mind your seat,” Commander-in-Chief yelled at him.
“Why should I?” Chris
however retorted back, “My entire family is dead, and he gets to live. How is
it fair?”
“What is fair in this
universe Captain Davis; the law of nature?” Anne yelled back, “And what family
are you talking about? Those who are dead cannot be brought back to life, but
you have a new family of one hundred and twenty people under your command and
control, whose lives depend upon your expertise. What about the welfare of this
new family?”
“What to me? They all
can die, just like my family?” Chris however would have none of it, as he
wrestled to get out of Bradley’s iron hold.
“Your family is still
alive,” Anne’s reply subdued him slightly, “You have a child to take care of;
your only child. He is one of the hundred and twenty lives that breathe the air
on this spaceship. How can you forget him?” And finally Captain Davis realized
there was still something at stake that demanded judiciousness in behaviour.
Sensing that things
have calmed down, Norman finally spoke, “I knew your wife Captain Davis. She
hid me in your compartment at the facility while I was there.” He then pulled
out a ring from his pocket, and thrust it towards Captain Davis.
“That’s our wedding
ring,” Captain Davis immediately recognized the piece of jewelry and grabbed it
from Norman’s hand, “You scoundrel, how dare you take it from her.”
“She gave it to me,
last night,” Norman explained, “She said that I should tell you, that she
forgives you.”
And Norman’s reply finally
broke down the man, as Chris collapsed on to his knees crying, “She knew it! Oh
she knew it all along.” Bradley immediately stepped by his side to comfort him.
Comfort is as much in
lack of pain, physical or psychological, as much it is in making of a similar
gain. But at the end of it all, it is just a relativity quotient; between what
was and is. It may not necessarily be a complete redress of the grievances, but
is certainly an advancement in the right direction.
“Bravo one to Alpha one,”
Lieutenant Jake Reginald called out on his two way radio. He was leading a four
member team for a reconnaissance of the land that lay in front of the NSS Full
Bloom.
“Loud and clear Bravo
one; go ahead,” Rear Admiral Gurubaan Ahluwalia’s voice boomed from the other
end.
“Sir, you won’t believe
what we’ve just found,” a very cheerful Jake replied.
Only those things can
be found that have been lost by someone. Everything else is discovered. And yet
people meditate or become recluses, to discover what is inside their minds. It
is arguable if they are really discovering something they didn’t know of
already, or they are just recovering something that they lost inside their
selves in some days gone by, or had left it untouched so far. But whichever way
one classifies the journey and its’ fruit, the loneliness it entails is hard to
miss.
“Aman! Aman,” a lonely
Jenny yelled out loud, hoping it was just a nightmare that would pass away. A
sun was still above her head, yet the lonely beach felt stone cold. Being
almost bare physically was the least of her concerns. She was bare emotionally,
and not to mention, scared and scarred.
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