The Extra-Terrestrial Delivery

Nominated for the

INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2018!

In this third episode of the ‘Planet Hoola’ Romantic Science Fiction series, author Sudipta Das traces the evolutionary path of the ascent of the alien Hoo race, on a far away planet. In this work, the author has wonderfully combined the entire spectrum, from Physics to Metaphysics, and merged poetry into prose to intriguingly illustrate the Big Picture. His realisations are telling and connect easily.

A celestial comet is horrendously hurled towards Hoola, on a direct collision course. The collision could potentially wipe out all life on the uniquely colourful planet, including the technologically advanced Hoos.

The impending calamity notwithstanding, the Hoos find themselves faced with yet another predicament that creeps up from within themselves.

Meanwhile, silently blossoms love.

Will the Hoos come around to overcome both the external and the internal obstacles that threaten their very existence? Or will they crumble under the weight of their own spectacular and vibrant, but often divisive, diversity?

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Here is a glimpse at the Science Fiction Romance Book

"The Extra-Terrestrial Delivery" written by Sudipta Das

CHAPTER 1–The Backdrop

Sometimes, your experiences are so incredibly weird that the rest of the world finds it difficult to accept them, while you yourself cannot deny the truth of your own experiences. Something like that has been happening to me, Doctor Adam Smith, world-renowned psychologist and psychiatrist.

First, Kit arrived, seemingly out of nowhere, and claimed that he was from a technologically-advanced alien Hoo race from a far-off planet called Hoola, many a million light years away from our Earth. Taking him to be a lunatic, we put him in Cell Number 121 of our state-of-the-art asylum, under my direct supervision. Over the next two long decades, we continued to play our respective roles, I as Kit’s doctor and he as my patient. We became friends. But Kit showed no improvement. Then one day, he disappeared mysteriously from our asylum, leaving me his diary which contained vivid details of his earlier life on Hoola.

As I was struggling to figure out whether Kit was indeed an alien or just insane, I located him in the mountains. He was with his beloved, Ket. In a rather bizarre way, I accompanied them to their planet. For many years, I lived on Hoola, and witnessed many extraordinary things there. Then, under equally bizarre circumstances, I came back to Earth. To find, Earth had grown only seven months older while I had spent so many years on Hoola.

As if these were not enough, now Kit has sent me a technologically-amazing delivery from Hoola. The level of sophistication of the Hoo technology in this delivery is simply beyond the imagination and scope of the present-day human knowledge. How Kit managed to deliver it to me with such pin point accuracy, transcending millions of light years of space and as many years of time, is another mystery. However, the content of the delivery is most intriguing and invaluable. And this is exactly what compelled me to pick up the pen again.

CHAPTER 2 – The Delivery

After coming back from Hoola, I gradually settled into my work as head of the asylum. I consciously refrained from mentioning my Hoolan experiences to anyone. No one would believe my incredible journey to the strange planet. Inwardly though, in my mind, I continued to struggle to balance and reconcile my experiences on Hoola with those gathered on Earth. As often happens, our external environment, by constantly bombarding our internal psyche with external stimuli, affects and absorbs our consciousness. So, earthly matters tended to gravitate my being towards them. Hoola, however, remained alive at the back of my mind.

Little did I know then, that I was to visit Hoola again, though not physically this time. It happened quite unexpectedly, one day.

That post-summer afternoon, I was taking a leisurely stroll through the pebbled paths in the beautifully maintained garden of the asylum. The asylum has a huge compound spreading over a thousand acres of land. And the garden is spread over one half of this land. It has many wide-trunked old trees, landscaped and hedged lawns, orchards, pools and bridges. As I walked amongst the old trees, the crunching sound of the dried fallen leaves under my feet, the occasional calling of the birds, the scent of the air, the afternoon sun hovering over the hills in the horizon and spraying its rays through the canopies and branches, took me to a seemingly authentic wilderness.

Then, out of nowhere and in broad day light, a shooting star flashed in the sky. The star grew larger till it appeared like a ball of fire. It must be a meteor, I guessed. It was coming straight towards the asylum... no, towards me! In a moment, several thoughts went fleeting through my mind. In a few seconds’ time, when this meteor strikes the Earth with its tremendous momentum and unleashes its kinetic energy, I, along with my surroundings, will be instantly vaporised. Our asylum will be history. Half the globe will be destroyed. The very life on Earth may be jeopardised. How could an event of such enormity evade the watchful eyes of the astronomers, the scientific community and the defence systems of the world? Escape was not an option. My whole life flashed through my mind. And I submitted myself to the unavoidable calamity.

But nothing of the sort happened. Before my amazed eyes, the meteor slowed down rapidly. About ten seconds after I had first spotted it in the sky, the round object whooshed past my left side. Instinctively, I dashed to the right and took cover behind a wide-trunked tree. A couple of anxious seconds passed. There was no explosion, not even the sound of the object hitting the ground. Filled with curiosity, I peeped from behind the tree. What I saw made me lose my wits.