Night-Ridden

Written by Nanda Nair A

Armineh was born in the wrong country.

With the heavy headlights and a bag, she snuck out of her constricted house.

“Armineh? Armineh?” her brother called out twice but then realized almost immediately what she must be up to. He silently went back to sleep.

Beads of sweat were already building upon her forehead. Her armpit wetted her cloth like an infant urinating on the bed. The bag was heavy. But she wouldn’t drag it, for it will damage what’s inside.

She gazed up. Headlight erased a path of darkness.

“MILKYWAY!” she remarked. Then shushed herself. For an entire minute, she probed around, to make sure no one is watching her. The terrorists would kill her any second.

It was mid-summer and the heat was unbearable. She undraped her hijab respectfully and folded it to keep in her bag. Then she took out the telescope and her laptop from her bag.

The laptop was gifted by her uncle from the states. He was killed last month.

The telescope was bought online when the Taliban hadn’t yet taken over the country.

Reminiscing on her uncle, she embraced the telescope before setting it up.

Then she switched on her laptop.

“Allah please. May this be the right time”

She opened the SETI application: SETIA.

She had built it all by herself.

On the 18th of October, 2017, she received a message from an unknown source. On further investigation on the matter, she discovered that the signal is unlikely from a quasar or a star.

3 years of rigorous study on the matter fetched her the answer. Maths proved that they are from an unknown intelligent species. When circumstances permit, she communicates with the aliens using her telescope and SETIA.

On 1st May 2021, the Taliban took over Afghanistan. After the fall of the government, the Taliban took over the country’s financial deals. And now Afghanistan is unable to pay for the electricity imported from neighboring countries.

Parwan has been lacking electricity because the Taliban destroyed its electricity plants.

Armineh seldom used her appliances. Within a few months, the solar system she's observing will disappear behind a huge dust cloud, making it impossible to study the aliens for the next 100 years. It would take another 100 years for the solar system to come out of the huge galactic dust cloud. This was her last chance to transfer the available info to NASA. She has to mail them immediately. But for that, she needed a piece of crucial information, for which she is probing tonight.

“Oh! SETIA uses so much memory and energy!! Please, Allah! Please!! Make this thing work…. It’s my years of hardwork.”

She opened the application. She aligned her telescope to the right spot and connected it to her laptop.

It’s been three days without electricity. Rumors say that they will never get electricity. Financial stability is spiraling down….

The second her application began running, her computer halted. From 15% of battery, it ticked to zero within minutes.

The information that she so long needed couldn’t be gathered. And she never will be able to.

In the dark night when the owls hooted, Armineh wept.