Chapter 24
Hunger pains woke Rama.
He could tell he was awake, but had no idea where he was. He did hear his stomach growling.
Hunger pains woke Rama.
Had he fallen asleep again?
The pain was enough that he pulled his knees towards his chest.
His knees bumped into something hard that he couldn’t see. He actually couldn’t see anything, as it was pitch black. But he could tell that something was changing, and whatever he had bumped was now moving away from him.
Hunger pains woke Rama.
This time, he also felt something tickle his shoulder. He reached over and felt… a string? A rubber wire? A tube? Yes, he told himself, a tube, as he felt the tip with his fingers.
He could smell it as well now. What was the smell? Sour milk or spoiled rice came to mind. He was able to get a drop of whatever was in the tube onto his finger and put it into his mouth. Well, it was more than water. He put the tube in his mouth and sucked on it like a straw. And, whether by will or magic, he was able to get something to come out.
Rama ‘drank’ the liquid as long as he could. It sated his hunger pains.
This time he recognized he was falling back to sleep.
Rama woke with a pain in his stomach. It wasn’t hunger. He was feeling nauseous, put his hands out to find what he was lying on, found the edge and leaned over to vomit.
When he finished and laid on his back again, he noticed a very faint light above. He focused on the light and his breathing to control the nausea.
Finally, he decided to sit up, and that’s when the bed began to move.
Rama could tell the bed was tipping him up, and he tried to balance himself as it rose, but his balance was not at all good, his vision wasn’t clear, especially in the dim light, so he slid off the furniture and hit the floor awkwardly, ending up on his left side.
‘What is happening with me?’ Rama asked himself.
‘I should get off the ground,’ he told himself, ‘Nothing is going to change if I just lie down here’ and Rama rolled over his stomach.
A strong smell entered his nose, and Rama began to gag. ‘Oh, lord, is that vomit?’ he thought and pushed himself up on his hands and knees.
He saw the footrest on what now looked like a chair form, and pulled himself upright, leaning heavily on the alien-looking furniture.
‘Alien furniture?’, he thought somewhat fuzzily.
Once standing, Rama looked around and saw a shadow to his left, to his right, and when he turned around, leaning back against his own chair, a shadow in front of him. He started, unsteadily, towards that shadow.
After a few forward steps (and a larger number of stumbles out and back to center again), his out-streached hands reached the object taking shape in front of him. His hands actually stopped sooner than he would have thought, since what he saw was further away.
‘A covering of some sort,’ Rama thought as he felt over the hard, smooth surface. He got close to the covering to see what was under it, and he could sort of see the outline of a face. The light was still too dim to see any features clearly, even though he thought there was something familiar about that face. But nothing became clear after a minute of looking, so he slowly moved down the covering, hands continuing to run over the surface to try and find any break.
“Female,” he said out loud after a few seconds, noting what he thought to be obvious breasts on the torso. He made his way to the end of the covered table, and looked around. Again, a shadow to his left, his right, and ‘forward’.
Again, Rama decided to go ‘forward’.
This time, there were fewer side-steps and he reached the next platform more easily. This was also covered. In it was another body. This one male.
None of this helped clear his head. ‘Maybe I just need to walk this off,’ Rama thought, and began going from table to table, unsteadily at first.
He looked inside the clear covering as he passed each table, naming the gender of the body he saw, ‘Male.’
‘Male.’
‘Female.’
‘Female.’
‘Male.’
His preoccupation with sexing the occupants of the enclosed beds ended at this point, as the row of tables stopped.
‘A wall,’ Rama thought. ‘I should follow it around to see how big this room is.’
Rama started walking along the wall, with his right hand both touching the wall to follow its contour as well as to help hold himself upright.
He walked a number of steps, but it didn’t seem as many as he thought before he came to a corner.
Rama turned the corner and continued walking. This time, he went much further. ‘Maybe this is a corridor,’ he thought, but as soon as that came into his mind, he reached another corner.
‘OK, concentrate,’ he said to himself. ‘How do I know what sort of room I’m in?’ Then, after a few more seconds of thinking, ‘I’ll count my steps along the wall.’
Having decided that, Rama turned this corner and began counting out steps. ‘One, two, three…’ and continued up to ‘… thirty-seven, thirty-eight’ when he came to another corner. He turned and counted up to one-hundred fifty before encountering yet another corner. Starting over on the next wall, Rama got up to thirty-six when he was stopped by another wall.
‘This isn’t helping me. I don’t know what angle these corners are, so how can I determine the shape of the room,’ he thought. And then decided, ‘I’ll count the covered beds. Maybe they’ll be in a configuration I recognize.’
At this point, walking over to the bed nearest the corner he was in, Rama noticed he was walking a bit steadier than when he first approached the wall.
‘One’, take a few steps, ‘Two’, take a few more, ‘Three’ and so on until ‘Nine’ when he reached the end of the row. Turning and counting again, he ended with twenty-eight. Repeating the moves twice more, he counted to ‘Nine’ and then ‘Twenty-eight’ a second time each.
‘OK’, he thought. ‘It’s a rectangle shape.’
As Rama was wondering what that could mean, he heard a sound like a combination of dozens of small animal feet combined with an electric motor. Looking intently to his left, he saw a shape moving from the wall and then disappearing between the beds. Thankfully it was just two rows down, so he could see where it disappeared even in the very dim light.
Rama’s body still couldn’t run yet, but he focused on taking longer and faster steps than before. Turning down the aisle in which he saw it disappear, Rama saw the shape moving forward and followed it as fast as he could. Still, because of the lack of light and lack of speed, he lost it in the gloom after a few moments. ‘Keep going,’ he told himself. ‘Maybe I’ll catch it when it stops.’
And after not too long a time, his hope was realized. He saw a shape in between the rows of beds.
Slowing down, Rama approached it cautiously. The shape didn’t move or turn to face him when he got closer. Finally Rama was nearly standing over top of it. The thing was running a hose on the ground, sucking something up.
“A robot,” Rama said softly. He stared at it more closely, saw it ‘stood’ on three track-pad feet and thought, ‘It doesn’t look like any robot I recognize.’
He looked at what it was next to and saw a chair shape instead of a covered bed. Looking back at the robot, he thought ‘That must be hoovering up my vomit. But it’s a strange looking robot. An alien robot.’
And as soon as those words were thought, his head snapped up.
“The alien ship!” he whispered forcefully, and then turned left and right to see if anyone or anything heard him.
No sound other than the robot, which finished its job, turned around and – noticing Rama in front of itself – maneuvered around him to go back down the aisle.
Rama followed, extending more effort this time, but eventually still not enough to keep up. He saw it roll past the last row of beds, and then through an opening in the wall.
The opening slid closed before he was able to get to it.
Rama turned around and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
‘I’m on the alien ship,’ he thought, looking around the space again. He could now see the first two rows of beds, whereas before he could only see one. ‘What about these other people? What about the ones I met before I left? Why can’t I think of anything clearly? Maybe they’ll be near where I woke up.’ And with that thought, Rama went back up the aisle he had just run down through.
He saw his chair ahead, and started looking at the faces in the covered beds again. None of them looked familiar, until he reached the bed in front of his. It was the first face he saw after falling out of his chair. The woman’s face was pleasant looking and calm.
‘Is that a smile?’ Rama wondered. He wanted to knock on the clear covering to see if she would open her eyes. ‘No, she’ll wake up on her own. I don’t need to scare her,’ he concluded.
Rama went to the case beside his chair and looked inside. This face he also recognized. A man who had a more angular face. Rama estimated he was close to his height, but this man was thinner than Rama.
Then another awareness moment hit Rama. ‘I’m naked. Why don’t these aliens believe in clothes,’ he wondered.
His musings were interrupted when he saw movement on the floor at the end of the next bed.
Rama prepared to move away if needed, but the shape didn’t approach him or move away. So Rama approached it.
It was two square patterns on the floor.
Rama bent down to look more closely.
It was as if the floor were growing bumps or sprouting columns. But the ‘growth’ was incredibly slow.
‘This is too much to take in now,’ Rama thought. ‘I need to rest.’
Rama returned to his chair, closed his eyes, and leaned back. He startled upright when the chair started reclining. But upon realizing what was happening, he leaned back, closed his eyes again and let the chair return to its horizontal bed form.
After some time, Rama awoke. ‘Now I know it’s brighter,’ he thought as he stared at the ceiling. He began to sit up, and the bed began its transition to a chair. He could see the six beds laid head to toe in front of him, and could discern more than a dozen rows off to his left and all of the rows to the wall on his right. At the foot of his bed, he saw two square columns, one about a meter tall, and the other slightly shorter.
Then Rama heard the motorized padded-feet sound again, this time behind him. He hopped down from the chair. ‘Much smoother, that time,’ he noted. He turned around and saw a similar, but different robot moving from a column one row over and stopped next to a column at the foot of the bed behind him. He saw a robot arm extend, place a cube on the taller column, and return inside the robot body. The robot moved forward to the next row and repeated the action, placing a cube, then proceeding further down the line.
Rama walked up to the column behind his bed and picked up the cube. It was about three centimeters to a side. As he raised it to his face, it felt semi-moist and he could detect an odor. When he brought it to his nose to sniff, the smell made his dry mouth salivate and triggered a hunger reaction in his stomach. Instinctively Rama bit off half the cube and began chewing. He felt his hunger increase, ate the rest of that cube, and then looked down the path the robot had taken. He walked over to the column table at the foot of the next bed over, picked up the food cube, and put the whole thing in his mouth to chew.
‘Why doesn’t it leave a decent amount to eat?’, Rama complained inwardly and went to the next table.
After visiting five tables and consecutively popping the food cubes into his mouth, Rama felt his hunger abide, with a slightly full feeling in his stomach. He walked back to his chair / bed.
‘Perhaps I’ll recognize other people,’ he thought as he reached his aisle. He looked in the covered bed behind the angular-faced man, and again, had a sense of recognition. “Hello, Srikanth,” Rama said softly with a smile, after looking at the face for a few moments.
Rama could see his chest raising and lowering in slow, deep movements. “Sleep well, my friend. There is nothing happening out here, so don’t rush awake anytime soon.”
This made Rama curious. ‘Is Venkata still sleeping? Perhaps others are starting to be brought out of hibernation,’ he thought. As he turned to walk towards the bed holding the angular-faced man, the full feeling in Rama’s stomach began to surge. He bent over and then, when the feeling became overwhelming, dropped to his hands and knees and began to heave.
With limited warning, Rama found himself vomiting for the second time in the same day. The volume of content that came out of his mouth far exceeded the few cubes he had ingested a few minutes before. This made Rama quite anxious.
‘Is there something growing in my stomach?
Did the aliens trick me?
Are my organs melting and coming out of my mouth?’ were the quick series of thoughts passing through Rama’s heads between the succession of heaves.
Finally, the vomiting stopped.
After a minute of resting on the ground, Rama pushed himself to a sitting position and leaned against the pedestal at the end of Srikanth’s bed.
After another minute, Rama could see the food robot coming down his row of beds. It stopped after placing a food cube on the pedestal in front of Rama’s chair, turned its cameras to face Rama, ‘looked’ to the ground where the vomit was, and then back to Rama.
“Even here I can’t avoid a disapproving look,” Rama said to the robot.
After a very quick pause, the robot returned its gaze towards the next pedestal, and continued on its path delivering food.
Rama remained on the ground, still feeling too weak to rise. ‘Why should I rush?’ he reasoned with himself.
Before long, Rama could hear the now-familiar sound of robot pads approaching. The robot came from behind him so when it approached, it had to steer around Rama’s outstretched legs to get to its target. The hose was extended and it began sucking up the recently placed vomit pile. ‘This is almost as nice as a convenience hotel,’ Rama thought wryly.
When the hoover-bot was finished, Rama turned to look over his shoulder, since this time the sound was different.
It was another robot, but this one was larger. In fact, it wasn’t just one robot, but two of them, one following the other. The first robot placed a carafe on the pedestal next to the food cube and proceeded to the next station. The second extended a hose arm similar to the hoover-bot, but instead of sucking anything up, it released a clear liquid.
‘Water?’, wondered Rama. ‘It’s tempting, but I think I learned my lesson. I can wait for Mr. Robot to make his way to my spot.’
While he waited for the water robots to make their way down the first set of beds and back down his row, Rama saw yet another machine make its way along the colonists resting spots. This time, he saw the robot send a camera along the length of the bed, he heard an internal sound from the machine and it placed something on the lower of the two pedestals.
Rama finally got up off the floor to take a closer look as this unique robot approached the next bed. Up close, he could see it scan the body of the colonists lying under the glass. After a few moments of noise, a robot shovel arm extended carrying something on it, and then dip down to slide the tan-colored contents onto the pedestal.
After the robot moved onto the next bed, Rama walked over to the pedestal and took hold of the object the robot had placed there.
‘Most excellent!’, Rama smiled and said to himself as he held up a tunic which had been printed by the robot. ‘I had better go back and lie down so I can get my own measurements taken,’ he thought as he returned to his chair and reclined it to a horizontal position a second time.
After fifteen minutes, the water bots came along.
And after another five minutes, the tailor bot appeared over Rama. His body tensed, especially when the robot sent the scanner over his body a second time. ‘I’ve had clothes printed for me dozens of times for specialty shoots,’ the former VR actor told himself. ‘Nothing to be nervous about. This is just a little faster process.’
After the tailor-bot finished its job and deposited the clothes on Rama’s pedestal, Rama raised his chair, and stepped over to try on his new outfit. It was comfortably loose, but the length and width fit his body perfectly.
Rama walked over to his friends’ beds. Venkata was breathing a little faster now, which Rama took to be a good sign of things to come.
When he approached Sāradā’s bed, he didn’t see her breathing. ‘Her breathing pattern must be different,’ Rama thought to himself. He stared at her chest, waiting to see it rise and fall, even if slightly. After a minute, he stepped back, feeling uncomfortable staring at her like that, even though no one was watching him.
Rama walked to another bed which held a woman. He quickly stepped back when he saw her body taking breaths.
He approached a third bed with a female occupant, and began shaking his head when he saw her chest gently rise and fall.
Rama went back to Sāradā’s bed. “Breathe,” he said, looking her in the face. “Breathe!” he said louder. But she didn’t move, nor change her position. She still had the same pleasant, calm appearance he noticed, was it hours ago now?
Rama continued standing at her bedside, not paying attention to the time.
Finally, he heard something that took his attention away. A familiar noise that itself sounded alien in this alien environment.
“Hello?” a voice said tentatively. Then, a bit louder. “Hello!”
Rama walked towards where he thought the voice was coming from. He saw another chair had been raised, and walked around to see the occupant sitting in it, looking afraid and confused.
“Namaste, friend,” Rama said, approaching the scared looking woman.
Her shoulders relaxed a bit. “Namaste,” she said. “Where are we?”
“I’m not sure,” Rama answered, “but if I had to guess, I would say we’re approaching the new planet.”
“Have you seen it?” the woman asked.
“No, we’re still on the ship,” Rama answered. “But I’m awake, and now you are as well, so that must indicate we’re getting closer.”
“What about the others?” the woman continued, leaning forward in her chair and looking around. Like Rama, her balance was off from the hibernation, and she started falling forward. Rama grabbed her shoulders to stabilize her, and leaned her back in her seat.
After a startled look, the woman turned to Rama. “Danyawad,” she nodded.
“Mīku svāgataṁ,” he responded.
“So now what?” the woman asked.
“I might suggest some food and water,” Rama offered. “Well, I believe it’s water. I’ve only had the food myself. I definitely suggest eating it in small quantities.”
The woman looked puzzled, but giggled at Rama’s response nonetheless.
She then looked over Rama’s shoulder, as something else caught her attention.
Rama himself turned around and saw the covering retreat from a bed in the next aisle, exposing another colonist to the waking experience.
Both Rama and the recently awakened woman watched this person struggle with the initial adjustment. After a few minutes, Rama walked over and offered his help to the man getting oriented to the environment.
This process continued, with additional beds opening up as the day ‘Morning? Evening?’ went along. Rama made a few more visits to recently awakened colonists, helping them adjust to their new surrounding.
Finally, he returned to his own chair for rest. He was about to walk over to Sāradā’s bed, but paused before he got there. ‘Let her rest. She’ll wake up when she’s ready,’ Rama told himself.
As was getting ready to sit down, Rama saw the food cube on the pedestal next to his space. As if on command, his stomach growled.
‘Be sensible,’ Rama told himself, and he reached out to pick up the spongy block. He bit off half, chewed it, and then drank some water.
‘Mmmm, that’s good tasting water,’ Rama noted, then ate the remainder of the food cube and washed it down with a large drink.
As he sat down and was about to close his eyes, three tones sounded, and a voice spoke from the ceiling. “Information in one hour – audio and visual. Approaching new planet.”
“So much for getting some rest,” Rama mumbled.
He looked around and noted the majority of beds had opened. He continued watching the crowd, appreciating the interaction of those fully awake, and enjoying the guilty pleasure of watching the few colonists that were still waking from their forced sleep and the different ways each person coped with trying to brush off the effects of hibernation.
‘How long has it been since I awoke?’, Rama asked himself. Then he smiled, thought ‘It appears I’m still brushing off my own hiber-sleep,’ closed his eyes, and began calling up images from his bioneural memory.
He was quickly able to scan back to when he most recently awoke, finding when he was able to see most of the room. Location unknown. Connection unavailable. Time unknown. 05:14:25 elapsed time. came up when he checked the placetime. ‘All these people awake less than five hours’, he mused.
Rama scanned back to the previous awake period. The image was a little fuzzier, as if he were in the middle of a Zone trip-out. Location unknown. Connection unavailable. Time unknown. 27:48:30 elapsed time.
He continued scanning backwards, and determined he had spent three hours chasing robots, counting beds, staring at bodies, and feeling the walls.
A final scan back ended up with the message Connection needed to retrieve additional content. Connection unavailable. appearing. Rama seemed to recall being awake prior to that, but no bioneural image was available. ‘Was I dreaming?’ he wondered.
The former VR actor opened his eyes to return to his current reality. He noticed two men walking towards his bed, speaking intently to each other.
“Srikanth! Venkata!”, Rama called out as he stepped down from the chair. But before he took his first step, Rama’s knees weakened and he felt dizzy. He quickly reached out to balance himself on his chair.
The two men paused and looked up when Rama called out. They smiled and waved to Rama, and began heading directly towards his bed. Along the way, Srikanth paused at Sāradā’s bed and looked inside the cover. After a moment of watching, he shook his head slightly and followed his friend to come to Rama’s chair.
“Namaste, Rama”, Venkata said with a slight bow. “Are you feeling well?”
“Namaste, Venkata. Yes, I was. Perhaps a little tired, which is why I came back to rest,” Rama explained. “But otherwise, I was doing well. Until I got up off the chair this time.”
Srikanth arrived at the chair, hearing the last bit. He looked over to the pedestal. “Did you eat anything?” he asked Rama.
“Yes, plenty,” Rama answered quickly. And then, seeing their puzzled looks, he added, “Well, plenty for, um, just coming out of hiber-sleep.”
“Then drink some more water,” Srikanth said, handing Rama the half-empty carafe.
“And perhaps you should have more to eat,” Venkata added.
Rama looked at the ground, and then back to their faces. “No, I wouldn’t want to take anyone else’s food.”
Srikanth smiled, “The robots will replace it with a new one.”
Rama quickly looked over at the pedestals from where he had taken those initial food cubes. And indeed, they were all topped with a food cube.
“Let me get you one,” Venkata said and started walking back towards Sāradā’s location.
“No!” Rama barked.
Both men looked back at Rama.
“Not Sāradā’s,” Rama said, more softly.
Venkata shook his head.
“How was she doing when you looked just now, Srikanth,” Rama asked.
“She has not yet awakened,” Srikanth answered.
“Not awakened?,” Venkata said with a questioning voice. “State the facts we both know, Srikanth. She’s dead.”
Rama looked from Venkata and then back to Srikanth. “She’s still sleeping,” Rama said, sounding only half confident. “She must still be in deep hiber-sleep.”
Venkata came back and placed a reassuring hand on Rama’s shoulder. “She’s gone, my friend. We watched her for many minutes, Srikanth and I. No movement, no breathing.”
“But not everyone is awake yet,” Rama countered.
“Correct. Some will still awaken, I’m sure. But all of them are breathing,” Venkata countered. “There are plenty of others who aren’t breathing as well. You didn’t expect everyone to make it, did you?”
Rama looked towards Srikanth for reassurance.
“I’m afraid Venkata is correct, even if he is a bit harsh with his choice of words,” Srikanth said looking at his friend with a slight scowl.
Then, looking back to Rama, “We have all heard of people that don’t wake up from our own hiber-sleep process.”
“But the aliens are so much more advanced,” Rama tried, sounding even less sure of himself.
“But even the aliens aren’t perfect,” Venkata finished.
Then the chimes sounded and the speaker from overhead said, “Information in thirty minutes – audio and visual. Approaching new planet.”
All three looked at each other with excitement.
Rama took his hands off the chair and stood up straight.
“Are you okay to stand?” Srikanth asked.
“Yes,” Rama answered. “In fact, I think I’d like to walk around some. Would you care to join me?”
“Of course,” Venkata answered.
Rama turned and began walking, making sure to go the opposite direction from Sāradā’s bed.
As the three of them walked, Rama asked the other two to share their waking experiences. They also came across a few other people the two men had met before the launch. Everyone was now getting very excited for the arrival.
Then, after what was probably thirty minutes but without any further warning, images started appearing on the walls. Everyone paused where they were to look at them.
“Plants and animals,” Srikanth said.
“And humans,” Venkata added. “Well, at least outlines of us.”
“Amazing!” Rama said with a small laugh. “After all of the foreign planet adventures I had been a part of, they always had much more bizarre life forms. And here we are approaching a real foreign planet and the animals have limbs in pairs, their eyes aren’t made of precious jewels, and they don’t breathe fire.”
“Venkata, What do you make of the human outlines?” Srikanth asked.
“That, while our aliens may not be perfect, they are smart,” Venkata responded. “I think they are trying to tell us what our menu should be.”
Rama looked at Venkata, “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand.”
“That fluffy animal,” Venkata said, pointing at the image on the wall, “is not good to eat, since the person is lying down next to it.”
The image on the wall changed. “And that scaly animal is safe to eat. See the human is standing up?”
Rama stared at the wall as the images continued.
Grey bird, human standing.
White bird, human standing.
Blue fish, human standing.
Purple plant, human lying flat.
“This is a nice gesture by our alien friends,” Venkata spoke up again, “but it is too much information. Why can’t they print off a helpful reference card for us?”
Rama replied, but didn’t turn to face his friend. “I think I may be able to help with that.”
“So in addition to being an actor, you’re also an artist with perfect memory?” Venkata said sarcastically.
“No, my drawing skills are horrible. But my memory is quite good – at least for forty-eight hours,” Rama said with a smile.
Srikanth clapped, “You’re implant!”
“Yes, indeed. And now I know why I may have ended up on this ship after all,” Rama said.
For the next twenty-five minutes, Rama stood there, not taking his eyes off the wall. He was trying to remember as much as possible, in case his neural implants had a fault. But he actually felt very calm, as he knew he could rely on his tech.
Finally, the tones sounded again, and the speaker said, ‘Lay on the bed. Arrival in nine minutes.’
There was a scramble as people made their way back to their beds – or taking the nearest one in some cases. Rama, Venkata and Srikanth all returned to their pedestals, and all of their chairs had returned to a horizontal position. Each of them glanced at Sāradā’s bed and saw her still entombed under the glass cover, but none of them walked over to check on her directly.
Rama laid down on his cot and waited.
The ceiling light dimmed.
At first, the quiet of the room was replaced by a low hum. This increased in volume to eventually sound like a large convoy of trans-vans rumbling along the motorway. As the noise increased, the fabric under him eased and he felt force, turbulence, gravity and weight, shifting his body in various downward or side-to-side movements.
Eventually the movement and the noise stopped.
The room was slowly brightening, but not from the ceiling, Rama noted. He turned his head to the right and saw a more natural light coming from the wall.
Some people had already gotten down from their pedestals. The beds were all reforming into chairs in synchronicity.
Rama himself hopped down from his perch, but resisted the urge to run over to the emerging door. ‘Don’t be the first one,’ he whispered. Then thinking to himself, ‘How many times is the first wave taken out in the adventures I’ve been in?’ But then, as if in reply to himself, ‘This is not a VR show or game, Rama. This is a totally new experience. Unlearn those old habits.’
As the wall turned into a walkway, Rama looked over at his friends.
“Let’s go!,” Venkata said, waving his friends forward enthusiastically.
Srikanth turned to Rama, smiled widely and nodded in agreement.
Rama slowly walked towards the opening, watching the colonists pour out of the ship. He was one of the last people to approach the door, and could see some of the world outside. But he stopped, looked back and saw an empty room with just a few of the beds still covered. He returned to one of those beds.
About ten minutes later, Srikanth came back up the ramp and looked inside. “Rama?” he called out. “Are you in here?”
“Yes,” Rama replied.
Srikanth stepped in, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom. Then, seeing where his friend was, walked over to him.
Srikanth looked down at the form under the glass.
“Her spirit is no longer in that body, Rama. She is here on this planet,” Srikanth said, not taking his gaze from her face. “Look for something created today, and that’s where you’ll find her.”
“I know she is no longer in that body,” Rama said. “I don’t like the idea of leaving her body behind. If her current spirit is on this planet, so should her former body.”
“That is beyond our control, my friend,” Srikanth replied. “Let us leave this place, begin our new lives on our new home, and search for Sāradā’s spirit out there.”
Eventually Rama looked up, nodded, and then walked to the door.
Many people were still milling around close to the ship. Venkata saw them descending the ramp and came over to meet them.
“This place is so bright!”, Rama said, shielding his eyes from the sunlight.
“You’ve been living in the dark for the past few months. A cloudy day in Kathmandu would seem bright to you,” Venkata responded.
“OK, so maybe it isn’t that bright, but that sun does seem bigger than the one I’m accustomed to seeing,” Rama replied.
“I’ll let the astronomers figure that one out,” Venkata said. “Let’s check out our new neighborhood.”
The three of them began walking away from the ship. They had been dropped into a large clearing in what appeared to be a larger green-tree forest. In front of them was an open space of a few dozen meters before the start of the trees. To their left was a lake approximately a half-kilometer long and three-hundred meters wide, with the forest running down the length on either side. To the right was some additional grass for a few hundred meters, leading to a sloping hill. And behind the ship was another small area of open space.
The ground slopped up for a few kilometers off to the right, based on line of site. As the trees obscured the horizon to the other directions, it was impossible to say how large the forest actually was.
Upon entering the forest, they spotted an animal climbing a tree.
“Look!,” Rama exclaimed, pointing at the animal that resembled a large, scaly sloth. “I recognize that from the images on the ship!”
“Edible or poisonous?” Venkata asked.
“Edible, I think”, Rama said. “Wait.”
Rama then looked at the animal and brought up the image comparison option from his neural implant. He paused the memory, and noted the standing human next to the image. “Yes, it’s edible.”
“This is wonderful!,” Srikanth said excitedly. “You’ll help us find food!”
“I can tell you what is safe to eat and what isn’t,” Rama said, “but catching it and knowing how to prepare it is a different matter.”
“We’ll make a collective,” Venkata said matter-of-factly. “There have to be some naturalists in this bunch that know some hunting techniques.”
Rama looked at some of the plants near the ground, saw a bush with bright colored berries, and matched that from his memory. He walked over, picked a berry and popped it into his mouth. “I’d prefer the gathering part, myself.”
“So that is safe to eat?”, Srikanth asked.
“Since he ate it, I’m guessing it is,” Venkata said sarcastically.
“What does it taste like?” Srikanth then asked.
Rama thought for a few seconds. “Like a sweet coffee bean,” he offered.
Srikanth and Venkata both went over to the bush to pick and eat a berry.
Rama walked a few paces, looked at another tree, and stared blankly ahead.
Venkata approached him and asked “Do you recognize it?”
“No,” answered Rama.
“How about his one,” Srikanth called from a few meters away, pointing to a bright blue cup-shaped fleshy plant hanging from a tree.
Rama stared at the plant and, after a few seconds, said “Horizontal human. I’d stay away from that one.”
“How long is your memory good for?” Srikanth asked next.
“Forty-eight hours,” answered Rama. “But that was already an hour in the past. And we’re never going to find all the plants and animals.”
“Then we’ll have to find an artist, and you’ll have to describe them all to him,” Srikanth explained. “At least perhaps we can have some drawings to work from.”
“Do we have anything to paint with?” Rama asked.
“That’s for the artist to sort out,” Srikanth said with a grin.
“I think I’ll just draw myself a menu for our first week on this planet,” Rama said teasingly in return.
The three continued for a bit and then stopped when they heard a commotion coming from the clearing.
Walking quickly back, they saw people gathering around the ship.
“Now what,” Venkata said with some exasperation.
Making their way forward, they could finally see some of the larger robots carrying long bundles down the ramp and around the back of the ship.
As soon as Rama was able to determine the robots were carrying bodies, he sprinted to the ship and ran up the ramp. Letting his eyes adjust for a moment, he then quickly jogged over to where Sāradā’s body had lain. The covering was gone and the bed was empty.
Rama looked around in panic, then ran back to the nearest robot, looking at the person it was carrying.
He then ran from one robot to the next, out the door, down the ramp, and around the ship.
“What are you doing?” Venkata asked.
But Rama didn’t answer and didn’t slow his pace.
After passing a dozen robots, Rama came across one carrying the body he was looking for.
He stepped in front of the robot, held up his hands and said “Stop!”.
The robot went around him.
Rama then went back up to the robot, reached out to take the arms of the person, and ended up falling in the attempt to lift the body from the platform on which it was positioned, knocking over the robot and having the body tumble to the ground.
The robot spun it’s tracks and positioned some outcroppings to push itself back up. It looked around and, after a pause, went rolling back towards the ship.
Rama went over to the body that had been unceremoniously dumped on the ground, bent down and picked it up as gently as he could. “You will not be treated like that,” he said, talking to Sāradā’s unresponsive face.
Her body was colder than Rama expected, which made him uncomfortable at first.
He carried her body back towards the ship.
Venkata and Srikanth met him along the way.
“What in heaven’s name are you doing,” Venkata said. “She’s dead!”
“I understand that, Venkata,” Rama said, breathing a bit heavily at the load he was carrying. “But that doesn’t mean her body can’t be treated with respect.”
“This is stupid,” Venkata started to say, but Srikanth put his hand on his friend’s arm to stop him from saying more.
Rama carried Sāradā’s body up the ramp and back to her station. He went to the pedestal to get the tunic still lying there, and put it over her head and torso. As he turned to retrieve the leggings, a robot approached the bed.
“Get out of here,” Rama said.
The robot moved forward and the platform and lift arms started extending.
“Get out of here!” Rama said loudly, stepping between the robot and Sāradā’s body.
The robot tried to move beside Rama.
Rama put both hands on the machine and pushed.
“You can’t have her!” he shouted, as he knocked the robot over.
The robot began the routine of getting itself upright similar to the recent episode outside. Rama used the opportunity to quickly pull the pants over Sāradā’s legs and waist, and picked her up again.
As Rama was walking away from the bed, he turned around to see if the robot was following him. Instead, it saw the open bed, and went down the aisle, looking for another body to carry.
Srikanth, Venkata, and now a few others were waiting at the ramp when Rama appeared. They parted and let Rama walk through, some giving a slight bow as he passed by with the body.
Srikanth and Venkata came up on either side of him.
“May we assist you carrying Sāradā’s body?” Srikanth offered.
“Thank you, but no,” Rama said. “I was able to get a much better balance this time.”
He had his right arm under her shoulder blades with the right hand ensuring Sāradā’s arm didn’t fall forward. Her knees were draped over Rama’s left arm with his left hand at her hip. He was cradling her entire body towards his, so her head rested against his chest.
Rama headed for the lake, and the three of them walked together in silence.
Once they arrived, Rama walked gingerly into the lake, eventually stepping out to where the water came up to his chest. He slowly lowered Sāradā’s body, keeping one hand under her shoulders to ensure she remained afloat. With his free hand, Rama cupped water and poured it over her face, chest, arms and legs, and gently wiped the water away.
He then repositioned both arms under the body and began walking out.
Rama’s foot slipped once but he caught himself. Venkata quickly stepped into the water to help his friend, supporting him around the shoulders as they climbed the bank.
Rama found a clear space next to the water and gently laid the body down, straightened out the legs, and crossed the arms over the stomach.
Rama turned to Srikanth. “Watch over the body, please. I’ll be back soon.”
Srikanth nodded, turned towards the body, and started mouthing words.
Rama then went into the woods.
Venkata looked at Srikanth. “I cannot believe we are really doing this.”
Srikanth paused his prayer. “Just because we have left our old planet behind for this one doesn’t mean we have to leave all of our former ways as well.”
“I thought that was the whole idea,” Venkata countered. “Come here to start over. Don’t bring our bad habits and abandon our wasteful wants and desires.”
“Is honoring our dead and helping their souls prepare for their next life a bad habit?” Srikanth asked. “If it is, then we have left behind our humanity.” And he returned to his prayers.
Venkata stood there a few seconds more. “This is ridiculous!” he exclaimed softly and began walking away.
Srikanth called after him, “Where are you going now?”
“I’m helping that crazy actor find some wood,” he shouted. “The sooner we get this over, the less chance of whatever you and he have in your heads will spread to others.”
Rama, Venkata, and a few of those that had followed the happenings from when Rama had retrieved Sāradā’s body from the robots returned to the place where Srikanth was standing watch over Sāradā’s body. After a number of trips into the forest, they had constructed a small pyre.
When the pyre was about a meter tall, Rama told those helping him “That should be enough.”
He paused, as if thinking, and then walked back into the water.
This time, Rama walked a bit further out, washed his hands clean of the dirt from gathering the wood and then immersed himself fully under water.
He returned to the shore and went over to pick up Sāradā’s body. Srikanth helped him get it aloft, as the body was starting to slightly stiffen by this point.
Rama began walking around the wood pile, chanting a hymn.
Once the hymn was complete, Rama placed the body on the wood. He went over to a fruit he had brought from his trips to the forest, opened it, extracted a couple of seeds, and went back over to the body, opened Sāradā’s mouth, placed the seeds on her tongue, and closed the mouth again.
Rama then moved to her waist, and placed his thumb on Sāradā’s forehead.
“Yama” he said, drawing the thumb down to her belly button.
“Kala” he said, drawing another line from her left shoulder to her left thigh.
“Sāradā” he concluded, drawing a third line from her right shoulder to her right thigh.
Rama then stepped back and looked at the ground, appearing a bit lost as to what to do next.
Srikanth stepped over, placing a hand on Rama’s back.
“I had no idea you were a religious man,” Srikanth said quietly.
Rama softly replied, “I was raised in a religious household. My mother tried hard to have us learn prayers and rituals, but I personally had no interest, and stopped any practices as soon as I went to university.”
He then turned his head slightly to his friend and continued with an embarrassed looking half-smile, “I was in a custom game last month where I played the eldest son of a murdered raj. This is all from what I had to learn for the script.”
Srikanth laughed softly.
“And now the fire,” Rama said with some trepidation.
“Do you know how to start one?” Srikanth asked him.
“The fx people actually made the fire appear,” Rama said. “I know the motions, but will see how it goes.”
He then walked over to where there were some sticks, dried weed-like matter, and small twigs, and began rubbing one stick between his hands with the bottom tip on a flat piece of wood.
As the minutes passed with no effect, people began walking away.
After fifteen minutes, Venkata turned and walked away, leaving only Srikanth and Rama.
Another half-hour passed, and Venkata returned with another person. As they approached, Rama sat back on the ground, sweating heavily and looking exhausted, with a small, darkened hole forming in the wood, but no smoke and no fire.
“This is Daven,” Venkata said, introducing his companion.
“Namaste,” Daven said, bowing to Srikanth and Rama.
“Namaste,” Srikanth replied.
“Daven has experience starting fires in the wild,” Venkata shared.
“I have been told you are trying to start the funeral pyre, Mr. Rama,” Daven said. “I would be honored to help.”
Rama stood up and said, “Thank you. That would be most appreciated.” and he handed the stick to Daven.
Daven went over to the pile, moved the wood base and other supplies to a slightly more sheltered spot next to the pyre, found a different stick, picked and shaped the end as desired, and began the rubbing motion between his hands again, but this time with much more speed than Rama had employed at any point.
After two minutes, there was the smallest amount of smoke rising from the point where the tip of the stick was rubbing against the wood base.
Another few minutes and the smoke was noticeable. Daven moved a very small amount of the fluffiest portion of dried plant material next to the hole.
After some additional effort, the smoke increased, and Daven was blowing on the friction point. Eventually, a small flame could be seen.
More dried plant matter was added, then a few of the smallest sticks.
Once the flame reached about two centimeters in height, Daven motioned for Rama to come over, and he handed Rama the fire on the wood base.
“It is ready,” Daven said.
Rama nodded, and carried it over to the pyre. He placed it under the wood beneath Sāradā’s legs.
“Some smaller sticks will help the flame grow,” Daven suggested, handing Rama some kindling.
Rama added the sticks, blowing on the flame to help it catch more wood on fire.
Finally, the wood in the pyre began to burn. Rama stepped back.
By this point, the sky was noticeably darker and the sun was completely behind the trees.
As the flames grew, and the night darkened, more people were attracted to the pyre.
Some of those that had gathered sung some additional chants.
One person went to the front of the pyre, and looked closely at Sāradā’s head through the fast growing flames. He then searched the ground where the leftover wood was sitting, found a long stick with a pointed end and a small piece of solid wood, and walked back to the pyre. He placed the pointed end of the stick against Sāradā’s skull.
“What is he doing!” Rama said anxiously.
This time it was Rama’s arm that Srikanth grabbed, restraining his friend.
“Releasing the soul,” Srikanth said, as the unknown mourner smashed the wood against the opposite end of the stick, piercing a hole in Sāradā’s skull.
After this, the fire quickly consumed the body.
The crowd began slowly dispersing again, with many of them coming by Rama to offer their condolences.
Rama didn’t respond, not knowing what to say, or even make of it all.
Eventually, the flaming pyre became a pile of coals, with outlines of some of the bones still visible. Rama was the only person remaining, with Venkata and even Srikanth having left him alone nearly an hour earlier.
Rama came over to the remains of the fire.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t feed you on the ship, Sāradā,” he said aloud. “This was not the way your adventure should have ended. If there is a purple tiger on this world, I promise to capture it and bring it to you.”
With that, Rama retreated a few steps, laid on the ground and closed his eyes in exhaustion. His own stomach growled in hunger, but he was too tired to do anything about it.
‘This is real,’ Rama thought. ‘No pause in the action. No extra life. If I make a big mistake from which I can’t recover, there is no next game.’ That added to Rama’s sense of depression, but before he could worry more, he fell asleep.