Chapter 01: An Uncalled Death

Vijay has always been an inquisitive child throughout his childhood, he loved learning new things, was relatively better in academics than his peers, and always loved to ask numerous questions to his parents and teachers regarding various things.

He often irritated his parents and teachers with his ever-growing questions which also became a part of his being when he grew up.

After completing his schooling he decided to graduate from IIT Mumbai one of the most prestigious institutes in India and pursue his career in the field of science and technology which fascinated him since childhood.

He often dreamed of working in ISRO, India's space research organization, carrying out various research projects in the field of astrophysics and astronomy, and learning more about the truths that were hidden within the unfathomable fabrics of time-space.

So after graduating from IIT with good grades in 2023, Vijay applied for various posts in ISRO to start his journey.

Even after failing a few attempts in various selection tests his resolve to succeed never faltered even once but only grew stronger to get himself a researcher post in ISRO. And so he did, he got himself a Scientist post in ISRO after clearing several highly difficult selection tests and finally began his journey as a researcher.

After a few years of struggling, learning, and comprehending the full scope of his work which widened his horizon, he finally got himself into the core projects of ISRO with his consistent hard work and passion as a researcher. He became a member of a team assigned to carry out detailed research and recording readings with the help of AstroSat using its full Multi-Wavelength Capability for the first time to unravel the Secrets of the Black Hole X-ray Binary MAXI J1820+070. AstroSat's CZTI Imager detects polarized high-energy X-rays from the accreting black hole Cygnus X-1

After Years of passionate research and dedication to the biggest project of his life, he and his team got their first breakthrough with groundbreaking findings in the Black Hole data with the help of AstroSat. They even won a collective award from ISRO and the Government for their consistent hard work and passion.

After achieving such great Success in his life he decided to take a break and meet his family to enjoy some quality time with them.

He booked a flight from Bangalore where the headquarters of ISRO is located to Mumbai where he lived with his family.

The flight would hardly take him about 2-3 hr to reach Mumbai so he waited for the flight at the airport. And while waiting he suddenly started feeling a vague sense of unease out of nowhere, he tried to relax and ease his mind but nothing worked, he thought this might be the effect of accumulated mental fatigue due to constantly being involved in work which required a high degree of concentration and attention that wore off his mind.

After a while the flight arrived and he proceeded to board with his fellow passengers, in the seat adjacent to his sat a jolly old lady, and soon they both began to talk, she started telling him about her son who was about the same age as him and her family, after a while, he started to feel at ease listening to the old lady's rambling. She was going to meet her son and his wife who lived away from them in Mumbai. Listening to the old lady, Vijay started missing his mother too. It had been a long time since he last met her, he was eager to reach home and meet her and the rest of his family, and so the flight proceeded smoothly. Halfway through he started having vague premonitions that something ominous was going to happen but he kept brushing off that feeling thinking it was just his imagination.

When there was only half an hour left for them to reach the Mumbai airport the plane suddenly started shuddering and all the passengers started panicking. The pilot and the staff tried to calm down the passengers but they themselves were shaken from within, all of a sudden the right-hand side turbine engine started letting out black smoke and eventually caught on fire. At this point, all the passengers knew that their chances for survival were very slim, so they started to pray to their respective gods and deities to save them while some started cursing and arguing with the staff members and the pilot, blaming them for everything. 

Vijay was too utterly shaken from within, he had a lot more to do, a lot more to learn, and a lot more to dream, all his ambitions and goals now started crumbling from within, and unbeknownst to him warm tears started flowing from his bitterly sorrowful eyes, the old lady beside him started crying and hugged him while crying out loud "I don't want to die before seeing my son and his family" he too started breaking down, when all of a sudden he felt a sudden pull to his very being…..like his very soul was being drawn to somewhere else, he couldn't explain that sudden indescribably alien feeling that he never felt in his entire life before. His mind was a mess and at this point, they were already crashing down from an altitude of 30,000 ft from the ground….

The soul-pulling feeling heightened even more as he felt death nearing him, He felt fear like never before, his pupils dilated, and he got goosebumps all over his body.

When the plane reached nearly 100 ft from land, the people below were already fleeing for their lives, it was a densely populated town below, and the plane came crashing all over it…..nearly taking the lives of 12,000 people with it.

 Before the plane crashed into smithereens while taking with it tonnes of concrete rubbles from the nearby building, as well as fragments of dozens of brutely crushed corpses scattered all over the area, Vijay felt utter helplessness and despair. Everything was over just like that within a span of a few minutes…..his whole life started flashing by in front of his eyes, and he felt terrible anger, bitterness, and regret, for he couldn't do anything but wait for death to come….he disregarded the strong pull to his soul that he had been feeling all along and ultimately he died, crushed to death under the accelerating mass of aircraft rubble which weighted in tons….he didn't feel any pain in his last moments as it all happened within a few spans of seconds.