The morning was knocking at the doors of the horizon. At the place of no direction it was a reddish glow in all directions. Ryan, Shaan and Megan were coming out of the space module of the Anti-Cursor. Ryan helped Megan jump out of the circular opening of the space module.
'Now it's over.' Megan's face glowed with hopes for the future.
'I hope so.' Shaan seemed a little bit skeptical.
'Your wound is...' Megan saw the forehead clearly for the first time in bright light.
'Yea... I am feeling ok now.' Ryan was much confident as he walked straight on the undulating terrain. They kept on walking for half an hour.
They saw a helicopter coming from a distance.
'It looks like heading towards us.'
They raised the hands and started calling the helicopter to attract the attention of its crew members. Shaan brought out his SpinorG and fired a shot on the icy boulder below. A huge geyser of vapor and icy water was created.
The helicopter headed straight to them.
******
The captain of the helicopter informed them that this had been sent specially for them. The whole of humanity was indebted to them. We are headed straight to a ceremony where all you will be felicitated.
'But there is an important task remaining before us.'
The helicopter changed its path.
******
Cracatau Volcano, Afternoon
The volcano was emitting millions of tonnes of ash-laden fumes. The caldera was huge. It was undergoing small explosions. The rim was also about to buckle. There were shining patches on the slanted surface of the volcano.
'See ... these bright shiny objects. They are patches of ultra glue which were put there to plug the surface holes after a complicated simulation run on the GRIID.'
'Shaan you know what to do.'
Shaan brought out his SpinorG from the backpack. The helicopter took a full circle of the volcano. Shaan kept taking aim and all the patches of the ultra glue on the surface melted. Fumes started coming out of the holes reducing the pressure on the caldera.
'Now the earth is safe. The volcano will explode but slowly. It's trapped energy will be released through these holes.'
******
President's Awards
The award ceremony started with the announcement of the Anchor.
Anchor addressed the gathering at the White House, ' Ladies and gentlemen we have come here today to recognize the extraordinary courage and determination shown by our fellow human beings.
This was the first such ceremony in the history of mankind where a human being was mentioned as a human being.
'The entire people of the earth who forgot the importance of such words as courage have come to understand what it meant.' The anchor was lengthening the speech since the awardees had not yet arrived at the ceremony.
'If we look at our history, it is full of such examples, be it ancient or modern, but we will always need glorifying examples like these young individuals to remind us of our true identity,' the Anchor added two more sentences to her address desperately looking for the awardees.
Ryan, Shaan and Megan arrived in the Land Rover of Megan just at the right moment.
'Our young Awardees have arrived, give them a big hand.'
Ryan, Shaan and Megan were taken to the podium. Ryan sat on the corner chair while Shaan did not want the middle chair.
'Why you always take the seat I want.'
'Nothing I saw it and just sat, do you want to come here?'
'No, it is ok, you chose that.' Shaan accepted that he did not take the vacant chair but liked it when it was occupied.
Anchor announced the names of the awardees asking them to come on the stage and take the awards.
They took the awards together as a team from the President and shook his hand.
'Dear young men this is an award in recognition of the truly indomitable spirit of mankind which we have forgotten. This is nothing but our thanking you with a sense of gratitude for all the risks which your whole team had taken in this pursuit.
We also express regret that it was we who failed humanity as a system. We could heed to the findings of Megan who warned us of it long back. We had no option but to sign that evil so-called the Great agreement. But I was ready to sign it off. Because I had enough faith that once we are on the way to normalcy. We as the human race will find something to solve the problems we were faced with.
If we did not have the LIGO group of satellites in space, humanity would not exist as we know it. It was this group of satellites that generated the gravitational waves which interfered with the upload sequence of the Anti-Cursor defeating its purpose. I would like to convey my special thanks to Mark who decoded the contentless messages sent by Parry the Pointer.
Let me declare that the human race today frees itself from all the obligations of the Great Agreement. We will once again go for achieving the high standard of human behaviors as set out by the forefathers of this great species.
Our researchers within a few hours of landing at the site of the space module have found that there were no big amounts of nuclear material hidden within it. It was only a coating of nuclear active material that circumvented our satellite-based spectrometers.
As far as the Aliens of Proxima Centauri are concerned, they are an extinct civilization. The Anti-Cursor who had watched a handful of their distress call videos thought that they were asking for help. However the original inhabitants of the planet near the Proxima Centauri star system were asking for help. The aliens on that space module perished during a catastrophe. Whether it was an attack of another alien race, infighting or lack of resources which caused this catastrophe is not yet clear. However the spaceship of the Aliens of Proxima Centauri has been roaming around the spaceship for at least 290 years.
Let me thank you once again for all your contributions. Let me once again remind you of the importance of the human spirit we all must preserve, persevere and celebrate.' President summarized his address with the reference to the efforts of Ryan, Megan and Shaan.
They also thanked the President and other dignitaries for this great opportunity.
=====================
YOU ARE READING
A Cursor Story
Science Fiction*****One of the Winners of Icey Penguin Awards under Science Fiction category ****** In the era of quantum computing where most of mankind's work is handled by a massive central computer the GRIID, the otherwise ordinary cursors grow into ultra-adva...
