Arith : The Undiscovered Planet
CHAPTER 7

The day came for Eric to go for his space travel. Derek, his dad drove him and aunt Tessy to the headquarters. When they got there, his dad hugged him and Tessy.

“I know you can do this son, every truth has to be revealed”.

“We are doing this Derek, everything will be successful” said his aunt hugging his dad.

“Thanks for trusting me on this dad and … oh dad do not turn around now. Zach is headed this direction” Eric warned.

He didn’t want his dad to be taken unawares over the arrival of the enemy.

“The devil is here”? Aunt Tessy asked in a whisper.

“Mmmm” Eric hummed in affirmation .

“Eric”? Zach said and he hugged Eric , having ‘greeted’ Derek and aunty Tessy. Well … the greeting was one sided. Derek and Tessy just stared at Zach.

“Remember, I got you and always know that I love you bro”. Zach said to Eric while hugging him.

“Thanks Zach”. Eric couldn’t say 'I-love-you-too' to an enemy.

As they were saying their goodbyes, an astrovan (Astronaut Transfer Van) came over to pick up Eric and Tessy and conveyed them to the launch pad. Their pilot Mr Dylan, was waiting for them in the space craft at the launch pad. After they had dressed and been strapped up, the space shuttle shot into the atmosphere …

*****

Eric and his aunt floated around. They had arrived an hour ago . They looked into siredanium and there was no indication that anyone was stealing the element. Siredanium was in abundance and intact. Eric who was hardly skeptical, was now. He certainly knew that element had been tempered with. He never doubted his mother.

He and his aunt drifted around until she gave a signal that since nothing was stolen , they should head back to the shuttle. But Eric who was not convinced, turned back to the element and really looked around it. He kept searching until he felt sore.

He shouldn’t relent in his search, hence, he continued searching. That was when he saw a bracelet with 'star' sign, coloured red. He frowned at this. What the hell was this bracelet doing here? This only meant one thing : that the bracelet belonged to one of the people stealing the element.

He picked up the bracelet and just looked at it. Looking at it closer, it occurred to him that he had seen the bracelet before now. The question now was where ? He tried remembering but couldn’t. Well he would definitely recall later. For the moment, he had to show aunt Tessy his discovery . He signalled her , she was patiently waiting for him by the ISS, all these while. Hence she floated to him and he showed her the bracelet . She looked confused at first and then he knew when it dawned on her the implication of this discovery ; that someone or a group of people were actually stealing the siredanium.

She nodded and gave him thumbs up, to show her admiration . As they searched around the element, hoping to discover more secrets, Eric and his aunt felt a great pull and push in their stance. Without further warning, they were spinning uncontrollably, without direction. At this moment, he managed to look at the shuttle, and discovered that their tethers were removed. This wasn’t possible to Eric. How? Where the was the pilot? The pilot couldn’t come out to help them? Well of course he had his ‘safer’ . He tried using it but it was not there. Where was the bloody safer? He couldn’t understand how it vanished. Well he checked it before launch, didn’t he?

He spun so wildly and prayed for help. He prayed to avoid hitting the Earth’s surface. He hoped that if at least he would die, it shouldn’t be through burning. He felt so guilty when he saw aunt Tessy spinning wildly like him. She was frantic like him too, calling for help.

This was his last thought as he became unconscious .

********

Eric felt hands touching him. He heard voices around. He felt so bloated in his upper regions , he also felt very hungry, thirsty. Infact he felt all sort of things. He didn’t know if he was real or a phantom. He clearly remembered floating away. So how was he still here feeling pains all over? He wanted opening his eyes but decided to stall for time. Well that was until he heard :

“This is my nephew, thank you for helping him . I think he’s awake now”.

Eric knew he had to open his eyes . They could see beyond his pretense , guess he wasn’t really a good actor. He opened his eyes slowly as he recalled the voice calling him 'nephew' . Who was he related to, here? As he opened his eyes, he saw a man bending over him, looking at him. He man looked so happy to see him . Maybe he is happy that I’m alive , Eric thought. He decided to ignore this man for now and looked around to see a group of people smiling at him. They were all delighted to see him. Hmm, this was all so strange ; the people, the environment and all. He looked on in wonder.

Seeing nothing more of interest, he looked back at the man sitting by him. The man looked at him with interest, so he did the same. Looking at the man too . He took a long long at him . Wait … this man has familiar eyes Eric said to himself. Eric felt he had seen this man somewhere . Well, it was this man who called him nephew right? So how had he seen him? Right … he searched his brain.

Oh… that was when he realized that he was staring at his mother’s eyes. Looking at this man,he remembered his uncle Kelvin, his mother’s twin brother. The man who taught him to play the piano, to sing and lots more . The man he thought had died some fifteen years back. Oh this is uncle Kelvin. Eric said silently, he was so glad.

Kelvin who was looking at Eric , his nephew, knew when it dawned on Eric that he was his uncle… A wonderful reunion. He held out his hand to help Eric sit up.

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