The Last Army: The Inevitable Evolution

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

The Present Day

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

THE LAST ARMY

What will happen if aliens stop all our machines… right from cell phones to jet planes

How will we fight the final war against them?

This is a true story

of our near future…

Among the ethical dilemmas: How human is too human? It is unlikely that a pig with Homo sapiens blood would be considered part human. But what about animals with human brain cells? Generally, faculties like self-awareness, compassion, and the ability to reason—all cerebral traits—are held up as the defining differences between humans and other species. What if a mouse’s IQ suddenly jumped after stem cell implantation? Or a monkey with a partly human brain started speaking?

(An abstract from a recently held international science conference)

One fine Sunday morning, a small baby rat, after getting bored playing with his small animal toys, went to his mom, who was working in the kitchen. ‘Mom, what should I do? I am getting bored now. Sunday is such a boring day. At least, in school, I play with my friends. Here at home, no one’s there to play with me.’

His mom, who was preparing breakfast, said, ‘Where are the toys you got last Sunday, sweetie? You can play with them.’

The kid rat said, ‘I am already bored of them. Since this morning, I was already playing with them. Mom, please tell me some story.’

His mom said, ‘Kid, I have to make breakfast for your dad and your grandfather. OK? Go to your granddad. He can tell you some good, interesting stories. He is very good at that.’

His grandfather, an old rat, was busy making a flute in his study room. The kid went to him and said, ‘Dada, you promised me that day that you will tell me a story. Now please tell me. No one is here to play with me… I am bored.’

The grandfather saw the kid and smiled. He then kept down his flute and the tools and picked the kid up and sat him on a table; and with a very old voice, the grandfather said, ‘Yes, sweetheart, I promised you, and I never break my promises, and specially the one I make to my kiddie. But the story you want to listen is very fearful, very scary… It is full of demons, beasts, aliens, spaceships, humans, guns, fighting… Can you hear it?’

The kid got excited and asked, ‘Does it also have animals?’

His grandfather said, ‘Oh yes! Animals… They are the heroes of the story. Lions, tigers, cows, zebras, monkeys, all of them. And of course, the rats.’

The kid jumped in excitement. ‘Wow! That will be a very interesting story. Tell me, Dada, please tell me.’ The grandfather, laughing at the kid’s excitement, said, ‘OK, OK. Our story starts in India…’.

CHAPTER 1

T wo black horses moved swiftly through a city in the darkness. They were carrying hidden boxes on a cart, which was to be delivered to a jungle base outside the city. The horses didn’t have any cart driver to guide them, but they knew the route perfectly well. But it wasn’t the problem. The real problem was taking the box outside the city; it involved risk. They shouldn’t be seen by any soldier marching in the city, as its consequences could be adverse… for everyone. Slowly and steadily, they made their way through the city, hidden in the silence of the night.

The boxes were, at last, safely delivered to the jungle base. There, they were unloaded. With some high-profile officials, few experts and soldiers were present there. The boxes were then taken to a prison in the jungle base.

When they were opened, inside the boxes were two soldiers, the soldiers of an alien planet. They were lying there tied with chains. They must have been struggling too hard against the chains, as they were too exhausted when they were pulled out.

It was the first time that anyone saw them without their helmets. By the first look, they appeared to be a mix of snake and human. Scaled shiny skin just like snakes; two big poisonous eyes; no nose, just two holes instead; divided tongue, long and slithering; bald scaled head; ears somewhat like humans but no earlobes; height, a foot more than humans but a similar body structure.

They were chained to a prison wall. A scientist present there said, ‘If they are not dead till now, that means many things… They are not affected by the air and temperature here, nor by the bacteria and virus in the air. We should open their suits.’

A man in his fifties who seemed to be heading all the officials there nodded to the soldiers. An army captain present there analysed the suit; many signs were made on it. He tried to open it, but the alien soldiers were struggling too much, making it difficult for him. In the process, few equipment fell off. The head man realized one of them was the voice converter, which the aliens had used in their last visit. He picked it up and pressed a button on it. A blue light started glowing from it. The aliens were now looking at him in surprise. He said, keeping the equipment near his mouth, ‘Hello, brothers.’

Instantly some unknown converted voice came out from the equipment; it was in the aliens’ language, as one of the alien soldiers started laughing. His laugh was very ugly and piercing to the ears. In the middle of the laugh, he said something, and the equipment converted it back: ‘Who brothers? Ha ha ha! You are just our keeps… Just wait for some time.’ Agitated, the captain gave a hard blow to the soldier, who stared back at him with a crooked face.

Ten Years Back

Delhi, India

‘Now what’s the problem!’ exclaimed a voice. This was Arjun Dev, a junior scientist, in his lab at IIBTS (Indian Institute of Biotechnology and Sciences), located in the outskirts of Delhi. Arjun’s father was a renowned scientist of India. He brought up Arjun all alone after the early death of Arjun’s mother. He was a very passionate man and also a famous personality in the scientific field. After his recent death, Arjun was broken from inside and was left alone in the world.

Arjun now poured all his time in a project, in one of his dream project.

From his childhood, Arjun was a very obedient kid and was good in studies too, but his greatest asset was his keen observation. He used to marvel at nature’s designs. The flowers, the birds, the sunset, the rivers, he felt, all of them were so beautiful and so complete in themselves that no amount of technology or money could ever be able to replicate them he used to think. No machines could be compared with the internal designs of trees or animals. No machines can reproduce themselves as the animals can do. No machine can be as self-dependent as the animals or trees are on themselves; they can find their own food, fight their own diseases, defend themselves from the predators, etc. For the machines, someone else has to do all that. Just to make one leopard, how many different machines and systems would be required? One machine to locate prey, another to run fast behind them, then another to eat and digest them, then another to distribute this accumulated energy, then another whole set of technology to reproduce another leopard from the first one. So in such a small body, how many functions have been placed? He always used to think, ‘Who was the designer behind them?’ They were so perfect. They were even so long enduring; they have been here from lakhs and lakhs of years and are still surviving. Crocodiles are believed to be on earth for the last 200,000,000 years. Only one with supreme intelligence could have designed them.

From his most internal thoughts, Arjun had always admired the human brain for the immense potential it had. According to him, the most powerful thing nature has made was the human brain,’ many mysteries of which are not known till now.

So after his PhD degree and for the sake of his long-time fascination, Arjun started this experimental project, the project of developing a method to enhance animal brain into human brain. Through this, his main objective was to develop animal brain to think, act, communicate, and coordinate like humans. It was a far-fetched aim, but it was his dream.

For this experiment, he chose a method. The method was to develop a virus through genetic mutation such that when this virus is fed to the animals, it will modify their existing brain. Or develop a new brain, or at least, a partial brain having human tendencies.

This virus was developed by synthesizing a communicable waterborne virus with stem cells of human brain cells and then fertilizing it with neuron cells (which contained the gene MIR941, the gene responsible for the development of human brain over and above animal brain) followed by a magnetic process. He kept its name the ‘Hu-nome virus’.

This particular species of virus was chosen for its modification favourability, high frequency of reproduction and high resistance. The characteristic of the virus was it reproduced itself very fast whenever it was kept in water. So Arjun knew it will be there whenever he wanted them to; as it just required water for multiplication. Arjun, who was working in this project for the last six years, tested the resultant viruses through many experiments but always failed. He kept on modifying the processes as he was sure about the virus’s capability. No one was as good as Arjun in microbiology in the university. He used to test these viruses on rats, rats being the favourite experimental animals.

Today, 12 July, he found that the rats to which he was feeding these viruses were still not affected by it. Arjun was not able to understand what the problem was. He had made many changes in last few months and had tested the rats vigorously by various methods, but none of them showed any result. Now, he had no other option but to rethink the whole experiment again… right from scratch.

And as he was sitting there thinking about the problem, he heard a distant crack. And all lights went off…

He went to the window and saw no light… anywhere. He tried his mobile, but then his mobile was also not working. He then somehow reached the emergency light, hanging on a nearby wall; but to his surprise, it was also not getting switched ON. He shook it many times, tilted it, but to no use. He then tried to open the lab door, but as it was an electronic security door, it was also jammed in the absence of electricity. He was feeling helpless and was sweating by the attempt, and so he decided to wait for the generators to be switched on. He opened up a few windows, as a burning smell was also filling up the room. Lit up a candle and sat on a nearby table.

A newspaper caught his attention. It was last month’s paper with the headline: Aliens left earth with a wrecked relation.

And the news followed: ‘The discussions between the Scionians and ANR (All Nations Representatives), which ran for a month, now ended with an unsettling note. The demands kept by the Scionians were not accepted by the ANR, which comprised of the world’s best scientists, politicians, heads of top international organizations like NASA, ISRO, etc.’

This news brought back his father’s memories to Arjun. His father was also a member of ANR from the Indian side, a scientist known for his work internationally. Arjun still remembered the last call his father made to him that day. His father was tensed and was in sort of a hurry. He said, ‘Son, I have found something grave, they termed it the last weapon. I can’t tell you much about it, but I have called up the PMO for an appointment—’ and then the line was cut.

When Arjun reached home that day, he found his father dead on the floor, soaked in blood… It was the gravest day of his life. Arjun fainted then and there, and was hospitalized. Later police reported to him in the hospital that someone had searched his home and probably killed his father, but no one was able to guess who would have done that and why. His father was such a friendly man. Some even guessed that the Scionians must have done that. Arjun also had the same feeling, but there was no evidence and no apparent reason for it.

The newspaper article further said: ‘ANR’s statement was that the demands were not agreeable at all. Our unnamed sources said that Scionians demanded 50 per cent of earth’s water. And in return, they offered us an ally status in their planetary-expansion war. But according to ANR’s spokesperson, these demands were not acceptable as it would have resulted into mass ecological and environmental changes…’. And the article continued, explaining the event: ‘Yesterday they left for Scion at 9:30 p.m.’ A well-known scientist described the after-effects of such an action: ‘It would have created total imbalance in the ecology, to start with, higher temperatures, lesser rains, resulting in destruction of animals and trees and, later on, also of cities and towns. As the lack of rain would have adversely affected agriculture, a large portion of the population would have been left with nothing to eat; many would have died of hunger. Extinction of many species, steep fall in human population would have been its prominent after-effects. It would have resulted into a vicious circle of destruction. And in the end we would have