The Creators

10

Jasper ran down the cold steel corridors of the weather bureau, pursued by men in blue, the mind police. He tapped on a wall and pressed his thumb on what looked like a little switchboard. A door appeared to the staff washroom. He slid the door open and went in. The door shut and became like another smooth section of the wall. The mind police were confused. Jasper tried to reach out telepathically to the strange unknown girl who had been sending him thought messages earlier, warning him about the mind police. He came across a total blank. The mind police could sense he was around from and looking for Jasmine from his telepathic waves but they could not do anything because all their equipment had to be deployed in the presence of the person. The dream inducer was too slow a weapon for this situation.

Jasper, despite being from the technical dimension, had a strange sense of deja vu with the girl. He had machines read his brain waves to confirm the earlier messages. But the last few days he had been unable to reach out to her telepathically. However, the mind police had intercepted his messages. The mind police had a hunch that Jasmine might have a counterpart in the technical dimension and had traced him. The telepathic messages for further information confirmed their doubts. Jasmine had again blocked off all telepathic communication in fear of being traced.

The mind police had appeared in the technical dimension with exterminators, hoping to erase Jasmine’s technical self, Jasper. The security cameras had shown them entering the weather bureau, where Jasper had been working on an algorithm to keep the temperature steadily at 20 degrees Celsius. He had almost come to the end of the algorithm when he sensed a disturbance in his sense of equilibrium. His telepathic reader sent him warning signals by flashing a red light located at his desk. Jasper knew they had come for him. He rushed out telepathically telling his computer to shut down. But there were too many interferences, which would not allow his computer to function properly. It seemed there were other commanding mind waves. The mind police had managed to fog the security and machine intelligences with combined brain waves. They were really smart. Jasper was trying his best to block his mind from them. But, it was tough. He had been taken unawares. He tried hard to focus his thoughts on his next mathematical algorithm but it kept reverting to his situation.

The mind police had succeeded in jamming the weather machines. The outside started growing cold…people were zapped. Everyone was trying to contact Jasper. It would be easier to find Jasper if they were all looking for him. Jasper took out his laser knife and cut a hole in the wall of the washroom and jumped out in the open. It was growing colder and darker. Jasper had been forced to leave his communicator (a holographic phone) behind for fear of being caught. The mind police had pocketed it as a clue. Jasper skirted the edge of the building. He switched his jacket to winter mode and continued to move with caution. He moved cautiously, hoping to make it to his car. He had sent out a distress signal to his transporter with the remote. He did not know if it would come to his rescue. He saw a flash of red and silver against the glass and knew his transporter was flying to him. It had opened its doors. A robotic claw reached out and grabbed him. It seemed to swallow him like a flying saucer and made off into the distant sky. It became another red transporter, one among many that studded the sky.

The mind police realized they had lost him. They positioned their troops inside the building. The councillors in the creator’s dimension were really upset with them for persistently losing track of all the selves of Jasmine.

Most people had left for home. It was night and the wind was blowing strong. The mind police had put the setting at blizzard hoping that people would be forced to stay away from the office. That way the only person who could rectify the situation would be Jasper and he would be forced out of hiding to help his dimension recover. Jasper had become the chief of the weather bureau at the young age of thirty. He managed the weather of the technical dimension with gadgets made in harmony with nature. Jasper’s empathetic mindset, his telepathic gift and technical prowess had made him an excellent choice.

The mind police focussed on warmth indoors and sat at Jasper’s desk and inside the main entrance.

Jasper’s transporter whizzed into the sky and flew out towards his hideout in the hilly abandoned island. No one, except his immediate family knew about this hideout. On the outside, it continued to look like an uninhabited area. Jasper had moved his wife, parents, parents-in-law and baby into the hideout after getting telepathic messages from Jasmine. He had stocked it up with food and he already had a small self sustaining farm there, which could help the family survive for a good six months without contact with the outside world.

As his transporter flew over the ocean, he could see the gathering snow clouds. He flew straight at the mountaintop, which seemed to open like a gate at a command from his transporter and swallowed him up.

He was safe now against the mind police, he hoped. The landing pad gave way to a room full of computer screens and gadgets. His wife, Matilda, had been monitoring his rides while the baby played with his grandmothers in the enclosed courtyard.

“Good to have you home, honey, all safe and sound,” said Matilda.

Jasper kissed her on the lips and said, “Let’s hope for the best. They have got my communicator. That means I cannot link up to the office unless I create a new identity.”

“Don’t worry. Everything will work out. Come, let’s have dinner,” said Matilda.

“It is growing colder. I think they have tampered with the setting,” said Jasper as he followed his wife into the living quarters of his hideout.

It was quite a large villa concealed by foliage and hidden in a mountains island. In the middle of the villa was an open courtyard with an artificial unbreakable glass roof, which was now closed for safety. It let in the sunshine but the air inside the villa and the garden were controlled by computerized machines created by Jasper. Behind the villa was the organic farm managed by the family, again under a glass dome that could be opened or closed. Currently, it was closed for security. The temperature was always mild. It started to snow outside as the blizzard grew stronger. Soon the glass dome would be covered by snow and would become undistinguishable from the rest of the surroundings. The family was safe.

Meanwhile, Jasmine, Jacaranda and Gorge landed on the roof of the weather office. They did not know that the building was infested with the mind police as both Jasmine and Jacaranda had blocked off all telepathic communication for their own security. The wind was cold and it was starting to feel very cold. The three of them were shivering. Jacaranda started muttering an enchantment and, suddenly, the three of them found themselves clothed in weather appropriate clothes. They clung to the smooth glass top of the building wondering how to enter and find Jasper.

“What do we do from here?” asked Jacaranda.

“It is infernally cold and starting to snow,” said Gorge, his teeth beginning to chatter. “We need to get indoors.”

“The problem is I am scared to use telepathy and cannot get in touch with Jasper, our counterpart,” said Jasmine.

“We could go in invisibly. I have packed a set of invisibility pills, which can make us disappear for half an hour at a stretch,” said Jacaranda.