The Thar Incident - 14

Continued from Part 13.

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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.