章 12: Jacquerie

1st January 1892. Tenenbaum was making his way from Surat to Meerut through the riverways. He was aboard the ship Carina with his soldiers. His plan was simple. He would go to Meerut, meet up with colonel Kallis, who was in charge of the EIC there and then start suppressing all the pro-freedom organisations brutally. Nandita had made her plans as well. Courtesy of Sanjeeva's network, she had prior knowledge of the route that Tenenbaum's ship would take. Her idea was to intercept the route of the Carina midway to Meerut and obliterate the entire ship which just had Tenenbaum and his crew. The entire operation depended on her outfit doing what they were supposed to do stealthily. This was also a special occasion as Nandita was going to go public with her appearance after this incident. She had decided to be no more in the shadows. Rather, if this operation took place without a hitch, she intended to become the face of the pro-freedom outfits in that part of India. With all that in mind, Nandita was captaining her ship: Jacquerie towards the Carina slowly but steadily.

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Meanwhile in the querencia:

The man named, Atan had returned to the room with the mechanical contraptions. This time he had a lady guest with him. They were both staring at the machine with their eyes glued to the screen. Suddenly, the lady asked: "Do you know what the subject is doing now?" Atan: "I know exactly what she is doing, Katrina."

Katrina: So, can the sequence injection happen now?

Atan: No, not right now. She is on inhibitors. Hence, the system will perform precise calculations to understand the optimal time for the sequence dissemination.

Katrina looked at Atan. He was intently looking at the machine screen while the white light in the room was hitting his face. He had wavy white hair curled into themselves. His face was showing a few wrinkles. It would have been very difficult to guess his age correctly as his demeanour suggested he was quite old but his eyes shone with a greenish hue. Katrina had known Atan for a long time. They are very close friends. She knew the scope of what they were trying to accomplish together. The fate of the entire universe depended on a positive outcome of their efforts. She asked Atan again: "Will we be successful this time?"

Atan: Most probably not. This will not be over in just a few iterations, Katrina.

Katrina: I understand that. But, we must keep in mind that THOSE are coming for us. We don't have the luxury of time, Atan.

Atan: Rest assured. I have made sure that we will not be found out. I will not fail this time. You know the consequences of our failure as much as Ido. The entire universe will burn if we are not successful.

Katrina: Have you heard any news about our comrades? Have they been detected?

Atan: Not yet. But it's just a matter of time. They will be found out. But when that happens, they know what they have to do.

Katrina sighed at the inevitability of the situation and said:" Sometimes, I wish we were oblivious to this entire situation like the hundred thousand other inhabitants."

Atan: Yes, that would have made this life easy for us. But we still would have been under an illusion. And I am at least thankful that I am no more that man.

Katrina: What do you think the subjects think just before the sequence injection is terminated?

Atan: I think they get the shock of their life. Their mind tries to process the information dump and tries to make sense of it. However, this is my conjecture. I have never gone through it. So I may be completely mistaken.

Katrina: Do you think we are doing the right thing by interfering with their life?

Atan: I have stopped thinking about the moral and ethical conundrums of what we are doing a long time back. I cannot afford to think about such things. They will not yield any results.

Katrina: I have a thought. Can we not help the subject a bit in her endeavours? This will in turn pay dividends for us in the long run.

Atan: No. That will be akin to us changing the timeline. This will not do us any good. You know more than me the effects of an unstable timeline and what that implies.

Katrina: So, we have no option but to wait and watch.

Atan: Yes. Let's do that. This is the most optimal way for us to ensure that the sequence injection happens successfully.