In a controlled environment, the patient was under watch. Yet the moment the staff went to sleep for the night, the patient was awake. There was no movement in him, no system alerted his wakeful stage. His heartbeat remained unchanged as he floated in and out of wakefulness. His profile was slim, not many would link him to his serious, pensive sister. Always the hero, always the brave brother, yet not strong enough to protect the family.. yet did he manage to do it. The monitor swung around to observe as it detected slight changes. But nothing beeped as the patient calmed down. 

Finally wakeful, calm, with his heart beat slow from years of intense training, the patient, Airavat looked around. There was no one there monitoring, yet he knew he was being observed closely. Was he in a war zone, was he been captured.. His body had memories of aches and pains. Was he hurt in a combat. He was not attached to multiple tubes, but in a safe, glass environment that beeped. The first thing that Airavat noted different was the pure air. It seemed the air carried the medicine. It went in soothed as it came out. Then he noticed that his body temperature was down. It appeared as if it had been regulated and maintained at low. 

Something drew a parallel to the time he was in his mother's womb, safe and sound but always monitored. For the longest time he simply laid there unmoving and breathing in and out. He remembered a childhood memory of his father telling him of just breathe in and out when nervous. He had some period of slow progress as a child, that made Ira anxious. Yet that had not enough to stop his father from deserting his family. In a sense he remembered he had done the same. But no one knew the story behind the ultimate betrayal that drove him to check on the facts. 

It was the day his wife declared she was pregnant, he noted William was elated. Then William's own wife was also pregnant. He gripped his head as the memories crashed with each other. At his movement a sound started to beep. It was slow but he knew it beeped throughout. While the movement was not restricted the glass capsule became fortified and Airavat started feeling furious. <Why was he in this capsule. Which enemy is this.>

But before long, the beeping stopped and there was a sound of the door opening. A face peeped in, noted his wakeful stage and typed some numbers to get the glass capsule open. Something in his face led her to take a step back and reassure, "Only for your protection and safety.." 

Then the door opened again and a lady with a bare head stepped in. A strange feeling washed over him, almost like he always felt when he met Ira. He looked at her sharp profile and remembered Ira who looking nothing like her. 

She rushed in and stood beside the capsule. 

"I am Doctor Janat. I looked after you as you recovered." She sounded emotional and his heightened senses detected guilt. Have they done some experiment on his body ? 

He kept looking at the doctor and tried to remember what was his latest mission. Most of his missions were secretive and undisclosed but her wife's pregnancy was a betrayal he would have never expected. He had wanted to complete his service with the top secret government agency before he thought about expanding his family. Hence he had been most careful about ensuing that no child would be conceived. He also felt he and his wife needed time. Her polite demeanour did not seem genuine and he held himself responsible for not being there always. 

Yet she found a partner in William, or so he concluded. That the child was not his was told to him in anger when he charged at his aunt's family. He closed his eyes, as memories came pouring in. Then he looked at the monitor. Other than a slight change, his parameters were all stable. 

Where was he.. ? He looked around. As he remembered, being saved by a storm. In that storm he felt the assistance of star like particles that wrapped around him, creating a cocoon, pushing him down a hole.  The hole flowed through and the journey was like a rapid-fire ferry's wheel. He kept remembering the glaring heat, the spine-chilling cold, the passage through stars and star ways. 

Was this what Ira longed to travel to? Where his grandfather tried to build a communication channel only to concentrate too much energy leading to a burst . May be if they ever built the spaceship he would drive it, for he had excellent navigation skills. It was usual for the astronauts to include a pilot who knew how to fly, though space flights would need training. His thoughts meandered on. He would have to think for dissolving his marriage before. But he needed to escape this place first. "Where am I ?"

No one spoke till Janat said in a whisper, " You are on an Aditya.." 

Airavat frowned. <Where is this place..? He was good in geography but he had never learnt of this..? This looked like a sophisticated place. Will they let him leave alive or use him for whatever evil experiments they have started ? > 

But then Airavat had never feared his work and his service. It was the real world that confounded him. His aunt cheated and coerced, his cousin knew and kept quiet, his cousin's husband may have had relations with his wife.. The monitors beeped indicating some movement in his brain and Janat ran to check the panel beside the wall. <Who was this bare headed woman and the soldier in him wondered why did his heart tell him he should know her> 

He sat up, no one stopped her, but everyone moved away. 

"No sudden movements.. I will send the news to our main.. location that you are awake. I believe your family is here, anxious to meet you."

Airavat looked at the doctor. His anger trying to get the better of him. He remembered the shot that pierced his skin and then like a tornado there was an earth quake and he.. was saved. 

"I have no family who will visit here Doctor. "

Janat quietly said, "It is your sister, Ira. She waits for you to awake, as does .. few others. "