Shaan and Megan had reached the place where Anti-Cursor's module had landed. It was a daunting place. Megan's memories of the night she was at the place of no direction ran chills through her spine.

'So here we are, Ryan must be inside. We have to be very careful.'

'Yes.' Give me cover with your SpinorG.

'Move ahead.'

Megan and Ryan started crawling towards their target. It was a big dome-shaped structure whose exact color was not clear in the night. The top of the dome seemed open but Shaan and Megan had no way to reach the top.

'We have to go through the back door.'

'I know Shaan, but this doesn't have any door at all. It seems symmetric, no doors at all.'

'Doors must be there because Ryan must have entered inside.'

'How are you sure that Ryan is inside? The Anti-Cursor might have left him in his spaceship.'

'No, I don't think so. Because he must have thought about an alternative strategy in case the humans refused to accept his demands. And he will use Ryan as a shield to avoid possible attacks against the module.'

'But Shaan, he said that the module is loaded with huge piles of nuclear material and he will blow it up if there is an attempt to attack it.'

'That is only to inculcate fear into human beings. He knows that humans are basically fear-driven animals. If he had that much nuclear material why did he ask for a regular and permanent supply of power for his Anti-Cursor headquarters.'

'Hmm you have a valid point.'

Megan winked at Shaan, he nodded. The next moment Shaan was standing in front of the module.

'You start when I say.'

'Yes, commander.' Said Shaan saluting Megan with his right palm near his forehead.

Megan crawled further very near to the module. Shaan stood up and came in front of the module and started the fire with SpinorG. A few shots landed on the outer surface of the module without any impact. A circular patch opened up from the module, Megan could see that inside it was bright. A photon soldier emerged from the circular opening just formed over the surface of the module.

The photon soldier was looking at a giant humanoid filled with light. His whole body was looking like glass with hundreds of light bulbs attached to it. His motion was not steady but it had recognized its target. Shaan did not make a mistake and took aim at him. The photon soldier got dismantled with a single shot. Shaan came nearer to the opening. As soon as the photon soldier got dismantled two new photon soldiers emerged from the circular opening. Shaan took aim at them. One was dismantled but the other reached almost near him. Shaan ran towards the opening firing backward. The number of the photon soldiers kept on increasing, Shaan engaged all of them with his SpinorG.

Megan understood the opportunity and jumped into the module through the circular opening. Shaan kept holding on to them and jumped into the circular opening.

'Megan, now you are inside, disrupt, do something. They are so many and I don't think I can hold all of them for long.'

'Shaan, don't fire your shots incessantly aim at them and then fire.'

Though this required some patience on Shaan's part this way one shot was enough to dismantle one soldier. Megan searched for something in the interior of the module. The walls did not give any hint of the system of power supply. Something hit her mind.

'Shaan, just fire with your SpinorG at this place.'

Shaan turned back and fired there. The inside of the module went dark. The photon soldiers disappeared.

'What did you do?'

'Nothing just blew up their power supply.'

The lights came back.

'It must be the backup power supply of the module.'

'But how can we blow it up?'

'We shall not blow it up otherwise we will be left in dark. I am sure it will not have enough power to produce more of those soldiers.'

'Ok commander.'

Shaan and Megan sneaked further inside into the space module.

******

Ryan was lying upside down on the floor of the Anti-Cursor module. The floor had hit him hard on the face. There was a blood streak from his forehead. Anti-Cursor kept on painting a gloomy picture of the state of humanity.

'Ryan, come on, you are not so weak. I haven't yet fought with you properly. First let's get to know each other closely.'

Ryan did not reply thinking that it is better to seek as much as possible from the Anti-Cursor. Humanity will take longer to arrive at a decision, especially when its existence is in danger and no way out seems possible. Ryan just kept lying without any movement. This irked the Anti-Cursor.

'Dear no, don't do this. You are an intelligent human being. On top of the food chain in the ecosystem of earth, you made your Gods resemble you... not the other way round. Sometimes you think you are yourself the God. You sucked the life out of the animals and reduced them to furs. You suck oil off the earth and make it barren. You did not leave either the air or the waters.'

Ryan still did not move a bit.

'Do you think you can fool me by lying like this. All your body essentials are being monitored. All the space modules made by the Aliens of Proxima Centauri are made like this to have maximum security. You humans can never reach their level of technology because of one simple reason because you value your past more than your future. Most of your battles are fought to glorify the past or to salvage the mistakes of the past. You people can never ever have a fresh beginning.'

A fresh drop of blood separated from his forehead and dropped on the floor of the space module of the Anti-Cursor.

'Oh dear, I can't see you in this condition lying bloodied on the floor of my space module. Why don't you stand up and vow to join me in my fight against the most unjust and unworthy creatures of the universe? I can spare you from destruction. After all I need to show at least one living example of the human being to the Aliens of Proxima Centauri, for their museums of extinct species of the universe. Stand up.'

Ryan knew he would be able to hold on just by keeping quiet. He would need to tackle Anti-Cursor by keeping him busy with his talks. He decided to stand up. He extended his arms and put them on the floor covered with white fumes. The floor was spread with small rectangular blocks like structures. They were spread all along the floor. This made it difficult to walk for humans. It is difficult to even stand up here. How could aliens have walked on such a floor... Oh aliens can walk on this kind of floor easily. I am also a fool. Why should I assume that they have two hands and two feet? Their physical shapes must have been something where these blocks can fit and support them. The reasoning struck his mind. A powerful medicine and successful reasoning both have the same effect on the human mind. They both energize, relax, and reinvigorate a tired mind.

Ryan further extended his arms to take the support of the hard surface from where the block was sprouting. His hand hit some cylindrical object. What is this?. Ryan palpated the surface again without letting any expression come on his face. He found something more, there was a pattern of arc-shaped grooves. When Ryan tried to move it, the whole moved but it was stuck up in-between the block pillars. Oh is this Caracas of the aliens. Are these Aliens of the Proxima Centauri dead. Then why this Anti-Cursor is going gung-ho about them.

Ryan stood up.

'Who are you to question our beliefs and our ways. Don't forget that if we can create you then we can also destroy you.'

'Wow, let me give a hint. I have to admire one thing about humans. They don't accept defeat easily. This is something which you people deserve and I cannot take it from you... You spoke about the creation. Let me tell you something more. This fact Chris also knew but never revealed it to you. One of the Creationists was Dr. Stevenson, the most talented and the most innovative of the three. He was the person behind imparting human-like emotional behavior to the Cursors.'

Ryan's face straightened hearing this, his eyebrows raised.

'But it was Mr. Awasthy who did it.'

'Don't get excited my human friend. I am not finished yet. Mr. Awasthy did work out the Artificial Intelligence part but the Emotional Intelligence code of the Cursors was invented and implemented by Dr. Stevenson. Still. All this does not in any way important to me. The next thing I am going to tell you is going to be very important to you.'

'What?'

Ryan wanted to blow the whole module up, but he still controlled his overflowing emotions.

'Dr. Stevenson was no one else but your father. That's how Chris the Cursor came to your computer. The secret project he was working on... was nothing but the cursor project.'

'Why should I believe you, and if you are right then tell me where is my father?'

'Your father is not alive now, I killed him at the same spot where I abducted your fiance and Awasthy. That's how you got your father's DNA when you searched there.'

The emotions which Ryan was holding so far burst open into tears. The drops lost in the fumes coming off the floor of the Anti-Cursor space module.

'Now it's your time.'

The laser beam once again appeared and started approaching Ryan. He did not try to hide. Instead under the weight of his emotions he just sat on the block pillars. The pinch of the block was less the pinch of the pain of his emotions.

The laser beam came near his head.

'Game over,' said the Anti-Cursor.

******

President had almost decided on his next course of action. Before his reply to the Anti-Cursor he wanted to know the views of his staff members for one and last time.

The Defense Secretary said that humanity had lost all means of retaliation. All the nuclear weapon loaded missiles had been rendered useless in view of the disappearance of the Cursors from the computers controlling them. The nuclear button which the President carried all time till he was in office was not going to help either because the state of nuclear deterrence was designed keeping in view the threat posed by rogue states like Iran, DPRK and Russia. The nuclear-armed missiles were targeted by default at high-value installations in these countries. If we wanted to target the space module of the Anti-Cursor, the coordinates could not be fed into the system.

The chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration took the mike and introduced himself since he was a regular invitee to these kinds of highly restricted Presidential meetings. President acknowledged and asked for his views.

'Mr. President, the Cracatau volcano has been fuming since yesterday night. We have been keeping it from exploding for the last few years identifying the weak areas on its surface using the GRIID based simulation. Now with GRIID down, we don't know how long we will be able to hold. Another thing is the Aurora... our results matched with the suspicion voiced by Megan that bright weather scientist with the Channel 9.'

President disregarded his last point as being of no use and moved on to the next. He was the chief of intelligence.

'President, the situation on the streets is going out of control. Definitely the Great Agreement snatches the dignity of humanity... but if we don't sign it. I don't think that humanity will continue to exist beyond a few weeks. That is discounting any invasion of the Aliens of the Proxima Centauri.'

President grinned at his remarks.

'Well I heard all of you. I also had discussions with all big world leaders including Russia, China, India, the European Union, African Union and the chief of the United Nations. If we don't have an alternative we shall move forward in the only direction which is available to us. But let me give all you a clear instruction that just after my decision and before the handing over of the control of the GRIID to the Anti-Cursor we have to find our way. I am going to send my response to the Anti-Cursor in a few minutes. Always remember the first principle of management: All Communication channels must be open, loud, and clear.'

The meeting ended with thanks to the chair by all present and participating.

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