It was said when the seasons move on earth, the constellation of Big Dipper also completes a celestial swastika symbol. The polestar stays in the middle of it all. This swastika stood for blessing. Rani wrote that quietly in her notebook. She had copied it from the notes of Rohim, her mentee. He had drawn his inspirational images of the Big Dipper. It appeared on the painting as the entire galaxies fought for control, Big Dipper stayed constant, the true guide.   

She was moved by his potential. She knew his knowledge was limitless but Rohim put a strong lid on it. He showed the world what was required and nothing more. There was however a softness in his way of interaction with her, his mentor from the first day in the Agency. In the first introduction, she had felt a connection forged through centuries. Slowly the always friendly and helpful Rani had felt her heart melt to uncertain and unknown possibilities. These stayed hidden as she observed his subdued, underplayed performance at work. Yet he always provided the solution. A mystery and an enigma that no one else saw, leading Rani to wonder if they were blind. 

Soon he would be assigned to a senior scientist, and she would lose not just a mentee but a close friend. Her phone rang and it was Rohim on the other side, demanding that she come over and accompany him for dinner. It was not a new demand. He had always acted like a child with her and she had accommodated gladly. 

Their houses were quite close hence it was not a logistical problem, but it had to stop. She looked at the photo on the wall of her husband to be. Five years now, since he abandoned her on the day of their very loud and colourful marriage, to introduce to the world his first wife Savitri. It would have ended there but as they drove away, their car sped off the highway straight into the sea , hundreds of meter below. Surprisingly there were people who whispered she was unlucky for sending her groom to death along with his first wife. Some others claimed she was a witch cursing them to their death. She kept that image there to remind herself of life, but the curent day however, Rani could not bear the image and threw it at the dustbin. May be she would hang the image of the Big Dipper and its sage like stars, from Rohim's paintings. 

As Rani drove her car, she remembered that her father had gifted it recently. It was his way of saying a sorry and then she noticed, everything had stopped. Even the grip on the steering wheel felt lax, her feet on the brakes jumped up and started floating. Her head started bobbing up and down and her hair flew open, dragging her towards some unknown point of energy. She tried to grasp it all. Her statistical brain analysed it super fast for that was the only organ not impacted. Were they under a nuclear attack or was it a leaked chemical. She felt unknown atoms flood her system even as drawing a breath became an exercise. No this was an intense magnetic field , a gravitational pull nearby that was repelling everything it was not attracting.

As the magnetic field suddenly receded, just as it had appeared, her car hit the one in front before she could control the brakes effectively. It was a gentle dump till the one behind her smashed into hers and her head hit the steering wheel. She heard a loud shout, "Rani..." Before loosing consciousness, she knew the voice was of Rohim. Then another puzzle was solved. She caught a glimpse of the curvature in the air like a part of a tunnel, wrapping time, space and connecting dots, where masses flowed from one point to the other. She felt her hand break as car after car, started piling up, unable to control the return of the controls. She lost consciousness.

Rohim stood looking at the car pile up , unable to stop anything but howl her name. Ten years her senior, the kindest soul he had ever met would possibly die for the experiments of Jessica. He would have blamed Ira but then yesterday when returned to the Agency, he saw Jessica opening the secret panel to invite aliens to the world. There was a stunned, non comprehension on Ira's face. If Jessica was in his earlier world, it would have meant instant death, for such senseless action. Use of power just because one had it was the abuse most condemned. Yet he was not of that world anymore. He had voluntarily come to earth to be the grandchild to a man, no less divine than their divinity.

No one had spotted him in the Agency yesterday as he merged with the wall. His Leader had thought his capacity to camouflage would be most useful in this world, but alas he could only use it rarely. All the people he met were unmindful, not requiring the level of camouflage he could take. His people had regretted to see him give up one of his lifes to be born as a human. But it had been his decision. In his brief birth in the faraway galaxy a part of his soul seemed to have been left aside on this planet. It was only when he met Rani, that feeling disappeared.  

Magic was his forte and today he had to do it, for a chance to save Rani. With the knowledge passed on to him by generations of sages, he stopped the pile up of the cars to push them back wards gently. For the four crushing down Rani, he moved one after the other, shielding himself in the dust storm that had descended on the street. Rani was in his arms, he scanned her for harm. It appeared she had broken both her wrists where it held the steering wheel, her elbow was crushed too. Rest he had no calm composure to detect. Suddenly a rain started to fall from the dark sky, it had acid in it, very little though. Possibly a residue of the place whom where the outer space visitors had come.

His home was the best bet for Rani as hers were not a mortal injury. He picked her up and started walking home, wishing that there was a way to return to his true home. In his mind he drew equations. Jan was away. He would not be back for a month. Jessica was away for her birthday and Christmas. Only Ira did not celebrate anything. He started chanting to Ira, "Please stop this Ira. They may listen to you. Stop this travel. People , innocents, do not want to lose their loved ones to extra terrestrial accidents. Please go back to the agency and please.. " He stopped on his path. A memory intruded. Yesterday when he visited the Agency, Ira's telescope had acted difficult. Refusing to show anything but the Big Dipper, his celestial home. The seven sages there were his guiding light. Seven sages that Ira knew, each its own star, bright, sagelike and luminous. But he did not come from any of them , he came from the companion planet of Arundhati, the celestial mother star, faint to all but accompanying the Seven Sages of Big Dipper. When he chose this mortal life, his opportunity to return was removed, as was the rule, in this life. In his planet, the memories of past lifes never went away but the learning enriched a person. With expected births of seven, at times nine, Rohim knew he would not be given the chance to be born on this planet again. But his destiny in this birth was Rani, not the peace and quiet reverberance that all souls seeked. 

But even as he started walking with Rani farther away from the accident site, his heart was torn for his incapability of saving all. His only hope to save this world from fools like Jessica and many like hers, was an idealist one like Ira. In his ancient language, She was also a mother .. a mother of mystical beings, with her name now Iravati. May be she in her Iravati facade, will tame the untamable ones of Sirius and Orion, once and for all.

Rani recovered her consciousness and suddenly spoke, "Rohim.. do not go near. There is something strange there in that space. " Then her head rolled again as she shouted in pain.. a broken collar bone. Rohim stopped on his tracks, this needed medical care. He walked to where he had parked his car, intending to take Rani out for a fast drive, and softly settled Rani. Behind him cars were still piling, ambulances would arrive now as would Fire brigade and police. But he would not wait for them and drove to the hospital. In his mind he whispered to the semi-conscious lady, "Leave your ideals of religion, caste, creed behind, leave your ideals of age and suitability. In this world and in these galaxies, there may never be another one for you Rani the way I would be there for you. "

It appeared she understood as a tear rolled down her cheeks, indicating she was conscious but not in complete control of herself. The hospital was a calm space, but it would be moments prior the lunacy hit them. The collar bone may require time, and her wrist, elbow was put on a cast, sling to allow for natural healing. The doctor smiled, but in his mind that was tuned into another frequency, Rohim saw him tremble from tiredness even as he continued to handle patient after patient just prior to Christmas. The wise ones of Alkaid were looking at him, in his heart. He took the doctor's hand and whispered thanks. What he uttered in his heart was chantings of strength. Far away wise inhabitants closed their eyes. In the warm chambers of their hidden unified space, they looked through eyes developed through ages that created small peepholes into the earth world. In their hidden books a line stated, " Honour earth, the mother planet." Yet wisdom of earth, her knowledge, prudence had been lost. Rohim would not be able to change the earth, and that was not his mission. Though he was not aware of it. His mission was to bring another soul to their Big Dipper, a new deserving blood. Once with Rohim, they knew, the human would be born again and again in their star system. That is an exchange long agreed with earth's ancient inhabitants. But they were not aware that in the years that they selected Rohim, Jessica would not be the same innocent soul as earlier, an Ira would enter the agency and then there would be Rani. They kept quiet for true wisdom knew they could guide fate but not love.  

Rohim carried Rani to his home. As she shrunk into herself, he opened a trapdoor and showed his telescope. In the agency Rani stayed busy with statistical formula and administration, rarely visiting the telescope room. Here he gave her access to stars and galaxies to her heart's content. She turned the knobs and gasped. The clarity was unbelievable. What was this planet, what this a satellite, the moon. Who were the moving species.  

Then a sudden pressure and her head rolled back. A slight warning beeped in the always silent corner of the room. Rohim nodded to accept the message and sat down in penance, as Rani stayed unconscious. In an hour or so, he got up, his muscles shouted in protest as he bowed to the invisible , wise eyes and went about to wake Rani. His fingers played on her forehead as his other hand equally smooth played on the telescope. The focus now was as in the agency.