To Keep or Not To Keep

All the news pointed at the fact that Sia was a link to the information they wanted to gather as a part of their mission. But to trust a complete stranger has always been a tricky decision to make. Each one was pondering what to do with this young lady. Well, everyone other than Rick, of course. His brain, which ran on and off a short circuit, has now blown the fuse. So he was incapable of doing much thinking, only staring at the beauty before him.

Yes beauty! Sia had an ethereal feeling to her looks. Her short hair, silver in color, matching her pure white wings. She had pale blue eyes, just like sapphire. Her small nose and heart shaped face all had such an innocent and pure vibe to them. Rick was getting mesmerized every moment by it. As if he was being bewitched.

Meanwhile Aryaan was mind-linking with Purushottam. 'Guruji, I don't think she is revealing all her truth.' thought Aryaan. 'Probably so. We are perfect strangers to her. Besides, I also think she is being followed.' replied Purushottam. 'I am more worried about her spiriting my stupid twin away!' Len interjected. Aryaan smiled while Purushottam grimaced at that. Phew! To keep or not to keep, such a conundrum. Eventually the trio decided to play it by the ear for now.

Purushottam spoke up. "So Sia, we are actually here to collect data on the war that happened to destroy the planet. Also we are constrained by time. If we trust what you told us, we need evidence to prove it. What do you say? We help you with your mission, while you help us with ours?"

Sia's eyes widened in disbelief. "Will you really help me? I....I will try my best to get you any evidence for what I said. I should know the general direction where to find any related stuffs. But will you really help me?". She looked absolutely elated.

"Sure thing. But as Guruji said earlier, we have time constraint. So we need to know the scope and nature of your mission." replied Aryaan. Sia nodded and said, "It's better if I showed you what I need to do for now". No sooner than she said it that her eyes shone a bright silver, and numerous holograms started appearing in front of everyone.

Well this was another ability of a Saarikan. They could project holograms with their mind. Well guess Saarikans would never need movies to be shot by real actors. They could just very well project their imagination on a screen, or table top in Sia's case. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A table filled with satellite view of a region of the planet appeared in front of everyone. They have seen machines projecting such holograms. But living beings doing it, was a first for them. They started to believe more firmly that Saarikans were bio-engineered, by now. But the truth was yet to be verified.

Sia explained to the lot, the plot of landmass she was to cleanse. It started from 300 miles north of where they are at the moment, to another 110 miles south. According to her, she needed to purify the flora and fauna in this region. Coincidentally, the place that she claimed to have some clues about the war was in the area yet to be cleaned out. It seemed like that was the place of the last round table discussion among the powers, who fell out within a year of the said meeting.

The place before destruction of the planet was known as Swargadwarika[1]. It was used for most geo summits and global meetings. It was an underwater cave which had been modified with the reinforced metal and glass, such that pressure of water can't even make a scratch on it. It was within the then Indian ocean. But currently the ocean receded and the tectonic plate have now surfaced above the sea level like an island. But instead of being surrounded by ocean it was now surrounded by a deep chasm that was wide enough to engulf a smaller continent.

The group decided to divide henceforth. Purushottam would go with Len and Sia, while Aryaan would go with Rick. This made our wanna be Romeo so sad that he almost bawled his eyes out as soon as he was out of sight of Sia. But the group could not just bundle up together and go places, since they had little time in hand. Aryaan took it up on himself to search at the site of the bombing to find out what exactly happened in there. While it was safer for Purushottam to be with the group that went with Sia. Initially Aryaan wanted to bring Len with him, but looking at the way Rick was messing around more than usual, whenever Sia was around, it was decided that Rick can't go where she went. Thus was the split made. This actually had some benefits to it too. Len and Rick were not just normal twins, they shared an odd telepathic connection, which could be initiated by either at extreme moments of stress, danger or joy. Thus they would immediately know if either teams were in distress.

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Aryaan had finally consoled Rick enough for him to get back his appetite to eat a roasted foul that they had stored in their food supply from the station. Aryaan only took a few pieces out of it and had it with warmed soup and bread. Rick gobbled the rest of the foul like a hungry beastie. "Slow down Ricky boy! You are gonna choke on a bone or something otherwise." Aryaan warned Rick half smiling while he rolled his eyes. "Wo vul ve ohkgay" (I will be okay) is all what Rick could reply with his mouth full. They had been traveling on jadeskates[2] for a while now. It moved at a considerable speed, even though the terrain was rough. They had covered almost one third of the distance they needed to travel. So they made a pit stop in another abandoned city, that looked more like a trailer park, for the night.

Why trailer park you ask? Well the ruins of buildings and other debris have almost been cleaned up! Now small camps for the cleaners and trailers have been placed for any organization or individual who wishes to come to this planet for various purposes. You only need to show your registration mark that you received at the station before coming to the planet. No mark, no reservation.

Meanwhile Purushottam and Len used their costume's in-built functions to glide in the sky while Sia used her wings to fly ahead of them leading them to Swargadwarika. They had to make pit stops at various rock structures they found within the gorge that formed with the receding of the sea. These rock structures were like mountains rising from the sea bed. The obvious bi-product of tectonic plate movement. The pit stops were made solely to let Sia take a break and keep her wings steady. As for the two men, their suits would recharge as soon as they replaced the cosmic crystal in the armor. So they were not tired.

The estimated time for team Sia to reach the given destination was almost a week. In this week Sia got more comfortable with the strangers. She, infact, started feeling an odd kinship towards them. Being silent yet perceptive, Len was first to notice this change in her and informed Purushottam. And the journey of the two teams continued in this way.