If Only He Had Noticed

He looked at Venkatesh and Mahendra, who were studying something, their eyebrows furrowed. "Found anything?" he asked, hoping for good news.

"No," Mahendra sighed, 'It's like the dimainum disappeared from the sea."

Ishar looked at the scriptures thoughtfully. How could something just disappear? Without a single trace? Except…

Ishar's eyes widened as realization hit him. Of course! Why hadn't he thought of it? He hurried over to their table and said,

"Maybe, you can't find anything in the sea, because the dimanium never reached the sea! Maybe, the Moriyas hid the ship somewhere else, knowing that it would be too obvious to search the Arabian Sea!"

Venkatesh's eyes widened. 'Of course! The Great Storm that happened millenia ago, during the time of the war. The ship must have moved due to the force of the storm. Mahendra, where did you say the ship was last spotted?'

Mahendra checked his notes and replied excitedly, "Just a bit north of the camp! Somewhere between this beach and Aralam forest!"

Ishar clapped his hands giddily. "Great! You two go there right now, and search for the dimanium. Quick!"

They nodded and headed out the opening. Just as he was about to step out, Venkatesh stopped and turned. 

"Here Ishar," He took something out from his pocket and held it out, "To help you in a time of need."

In his hand was none other than the small piece of dimanium that Ishar had seen, on the velvet pillow inside the cave. He gave a gentle smile as he took the luminous material into his hands.

"Thank you so much, for trusting me to have this."

Venkatesh gave a firm nod, and disappeared out the tent opening. Ishar tucked the piece of dimanium safely into his pockets. He looked up at the sky through a window. The large spaceship seemed to ominously shine, the moonlight reflecting off it's rocky covering. He glared at the spaceship and turned back inside.

"Gargi, Anjani, any progress?" Ishar asked hopefully, not wanting to be too pushy.

Anjani gritted her teeth in frustration. "It just isn't working! We tried absolutely everything! It's as if our ancestors had something we don't have."

Gargi gave her a solemn, consoling smile, hiding her anxiety beneath her eyes. Ishar sighed. 

"Can you give me a strong, portable weapon? By which I can blow up the power source of Pralaya-1?"

Gargi nodded. She led him towards a black box and opened it. Inside were various gadgets and gizmos, spyware and defense tech.

"Why are you carrying these weapons around with you?" Ishar asked, incredulously.

Gargi just smiled sheepishly.

Anjani held up a small device, completely black with golden linings. On top of it, were three buttons- one red, one green, one blue.

"This is one of the most powerful, yet small, defense weapons we have ever created. We call it Missile-0. We predicted that it has only one-fourth of the power held by the astras, but it should work just fine."

She threw a wistful look at the astras, as if pitying them for not working.

"Now listen carefully," Gargi explained,

" This bomb will explode two times. The second explosion will be after 5 minutes, when you least expect it. The red button will explode this missile immediately. The green one has a countdown of 10 minutes to the explosion, giving you time to escape. The blue button will stop the second explosion. However, you can only use it after pressing the red one. Understood?"

Ishar looked at the missile for five seconds, wondering why someone had made something so complicated. He slowly nodded his head, his hand outstretched. Anjani dropped it carefully into his palms.

Naren and Tanik, who had been watching with great interest at the missile, said, "It's not fair. How come he gets cool stuff, and we don't?"

Gargi shrugged. "To be frank, he is going into the spaceship. Not you."

Tanik rolled his eyes and Naren glared at her.

Ishar looked at his watch again, his heart thumping anxiously against his chest. 4 hours had gone. 3 hours to go.

Naren looked at the screen. "Hey, look. Pralaya-1 has reached 7,000 kilometres in altitude already. Come on Ishar. I will lead you to Tejas."

"Wait!" Tanik said. He handed Ishar a screen, which was still broadcasting Pratap's satellite view.

"Here. Pratap, Aniket and Karan will guide you inside the spaceship. They will be your eyes. And remember, as soon as you take off, all your communication will be disconnected. It might only come back once you are inside the spaceship. You both will be flying blind until then."

Ishar nodded and thanked him. It was then, when his phone suddenly started ringing. It was a call from Mahendra. In a quick haste, Ishar picked up the phone.

"Ishar!", Mahendra's voice rang through, "We found it! The dimanium! It was inside the ship! All of it!"

Ishar almost shouted in happiness. Naren gave him a weird look. 

"You and Venkatesh come here, right now, and bring the dimanium. We have to protect it."

Mahendra gave a hum of affirmation and hung up the call. Ishar rushed back inside the tent, grabbing Naren along with him, to deliver the great news to everyone. For the second time in hours, everyone's face rose up from the hopeless despair they were going into.

As Ishar smiled in joy, his eyes spotted that some golden trident that he had admired at the lab. It stood there gleaming- perfectly and elegantly. He moved towards it, reaching out for the golden beauty.

"You know what? I'm going to take this with me. Just in case."

Gargi gave him a weird look that said 'are you out of your mind?', but didn't say anything. Ishar seemed to be relying on his intuitions a lot lately. 

Ishar grabbed it and stored it effortlessly in his bag.

However, if he had paid the slightest bit of attention, he could have noticed the trident glow golden, a slight hum radiating from it, as it brushed past his pocket.