Ira stretched herself and looked down at her gentle tummy roll. It was undetectable under her dress shirt. She was never a thin person, so it was not surprising that the hours of desk top gave its return. 

"They are good, fat storage for times when there may be a food shortage." whispered the voice. 

"Shut up!" She scolded and could feel the recoil and anger. Serves you right, she thought. Haunting me since a child. 

She typed a WhatsApp message to her aunt, "Apologies Auntie, I will be late today at work. As you know an urgent project involving the stars. We are all sitting and looking at the Canis Major that grandfather taught us. You all start the dinner. I would drop in with the gifts tomorrow morning if I can manage.  " Such white lies, had become a part of her relationship with her Aunt. The one who brought her up now claimed her house, suddenly a piercing pain shot through her heart and she stumbled. 

"Look at the telescope Ira.. Iravati.. Let me call you Iravati from now. Ira when you are being human.. Iravati for the celestial. You are the celestial being .." A white cloud seemed to envelop her in healing her troublesome ankle. 

The telescope started focusing on Sirius. She glanced and thanked the telescope. She had a secret name of her, Durasha. Jan always tempted or threatened her with access to Durasha. She could hear Jan's smooth voice and smoother walk asking her, "Do you need Durasha or I can give it to others. Her access can be better used by those who agree on the lunar project." That man had two faces, if not a million. 

In her mother's language Durasha meant, an impossible hope. Today the focus showed a blinking from Canis Major. A steady stream of light that her frequency caught and matched. It seemed to whisper into her mind, "Frequencies match, then there should be a worm hole, a white hole to ignore all the darks. Come and visit us. We need your intelligence and spirit to build the world of the future. Come or let us pick you up from your ancient place. Send us a signal Iravati, mother of all mythical beings, mother of Airavata." Ira stood silent at her seat. Her grand father's voice came from the memory, "I always told your mother to name you Iravati. You are anyways a little mother to the elephant Air.. That name fits you best." 

Grandfather had long gone to a strange burst in the ancient house as he was tinkering with some older telescopes, trying to fix them. It was the first day that she had heard the voice, " We never understood how frail humans are. Our apologies for the energy he attracted burned him to ashes. We know his last wish. We will be forever with you. " 

She refused to feel deeply after such hurts hence she she sang slightly, "Come to me, come to me, alien life, Show me what you have for me, Ashes and burnt alive or hope for a future .. green and wild ." What would be better that for them to manifest from her dreams into this room in their spaceship and for her to disappear forever. May be her home had a worm hole, that wrapped time and space. May be the intelligent beings formed a superior passage between planets and galaxies at will.

Someone echoed in her mind, "Yes ..For a few moments our world would be connected. But it would not be stable as these frequencies change and you would have to leave immediately. "

Ira got up and moved around. No she was alone. The voice whispered again, as always warm and masculine, "Confirm to me that you will come. We will explain the terms shortly. But come first , see for yourself. " Has she gone mad, what terms was she hearing now.

The voice in her mind waited for an answer. She kept quiet. The connection broke and she felt its slap on her waist. The power was punishing her.. she thought with a sudden realisation for her indecision. 

She realised the telescope was now focused on Sirius B the twin star of the radius of earth, and a blink came there to this room. She tried to focus into that space, for a second her eye was dazzled by the light of a million stars and then the image became clearer. A string of panets and satellites, were moving steadily away from Sirius B, towards Sirius A? Suddenly another star twinkled.. Sirius C.. a theory never proven but discussed for the changes in the Sirius's orbit. 

Were they not twin stars but triplet star system? She asked herself , then she asked again to the space. No answer came. Instead a cold wave engulfed her as if reminding how much of her life was the voice, its companionship and assurance. 

On the screen with clarity that was impossible for a telescope infront, she watched the planets look like warships fighting the terrible gravitational pull of the drawf star Sirius B. That blinking was a signal from them. She rubbed her eyes and focused again. The telescope was focused broadly on Canis Major now. She desperately focused it towards the brightest start of the night sky Sirius.. remembering in Sanskrit, the star was called Lubdhak, the dogstar that followed Orion, the hunter Kalpurush. So many memories of standing on the roof with her grandfather and learning the names.

"Nothing!" she screamed in anger as Sirius B looked faint, Sirius A the usual majestic star and nothing more. She searched her heart and mind for that voice that promised to open the worm hole. No answer. 

How was it even possible for this telescope to see in the details she saw, of a planetary system, eight light years away. What was the threat of the white star Sirius B. Why did they want her there. These concepts were beyond her knowledge. The door swung open and their lunar program director Jessica stepped in. She looked at the telescope and her focus and mocked, "Still wanting to find that intelligent life. I honestly should not listen to Jan to allow you in his team. I should move you to a place where you would have to align to what your Manager said."

Ira stepped forward, "Please give me some more time. Six months? one month please. I feel I am close to a breakthrough. I saw a blink today when the telescope adjusted, and I am not imagining it. A blink from an intelligent life form, trying to reach to us, desperately."

Jessica stood looking at her for the longest times and then she looked at the telescope and said absently, "I believed years back I had made contact too. But then in my sleep I heard that they just needed my soul. Their planet was beautiful but soulless. I even believed that I had stepped on their planet near to... anyways wherever. "She paused. "I think I saw in my dream of a race, so intelligent that they could defeat the gravitational pull of a dead star. Yet so soulless that love, affection meant you were the lowest category of life in that planet. It came in vivid details. I fell into the lowest category and managed to save my soul by running away before the unstable connection between my home and the planet was snapped. "

Ira listened transfixed; she would not believe that this was the no nonsense Jessica speaking. "It had not been the Orion belt though that attracted me. " 

There was a sudden silence. Suddenly a voice spoke in Ira's mind. "Big Dipper constellation in Ursa Major. She had dreamt of  a future there. " It suddenly made sense. She knew Jessica had named their lunar mission Alkaid, even though it was not a name proposed by anyone. Today she related it as a star from famous cluster of seven stars under the Big Dipper. Yet Alkaid unlike the others did not form a part of the Ursa major moving group.

"That was why she chose one from the group, yet apart.." Was the voice back or just playing with her. There was a slight chuckle and complete silence.  

Jessica continued, "But I can do a favour for you Ira for you remind me so much of a person I was prior to that dream. Let me approve you the usage of the last signal, which had been part of a super-secret but well-funded mission. This was to establish contact with the last life form even if at the ends of this galaxy. All of those were used. Only one was left. I meant to use that the day I retired, telling them that I was again ready for their world. My life is lived. "

She opened a well-locked panel, that Ira had never seen opened and started pressing keys. Soon a blink went out from their station towards the stars. Jessica looked at the screen towards Canis Major, Sirius A and B. "Oh the magnificent Sirius, and its insignificant twin. I had however been consumed by its twin post my obsession with, well, the others. I miss those days of being a passionate Astronomer. Spoils you for life.."

Jessica smiled softly as the beeps went on in rhythmic way. Then she was composed, poised Director again, "Ira... You have till the next weekend. You wanted a month , you got 9 days ? If nothing happens. you are in lunar project or I would have you on a desk job, working out distances of stars that are pending quality checks. Jan is not back for another month, he will not have his say this time. This telescope similarly would be dismantled and replaced. " Ira touched the telescope urgently .. No Durasha can not go. Durasha panicked and started moving.

Jessica walked back to the entrance, stopped and looked back, "I had believed that the telescope had a life of its own too. It focused on planetary systems that it could not otherwise. It did not really any sane sense. But it was just a bug that no one could fix. Now you have a weekend and the holiday season to prove otherwise. "

The signals beeped out to the intelligent life somewhere, a secret between Jessica and Ira. The intelligent life in multiple locations through the vast unknown universe looked up and noted the message. The girls have changed in these years. The passion had not. One thought of their strict regulations governing their souls and chose to ignore the mistake of before. The other needed the passion of Ira's to fuel the life on their planets under the risk of being eaten by the intense gravitational pull of the Dwarf Star to anything explainable even by their super developed science. The mundane of the earth, the laughter, the joy, the passion, the things they once shunned for brilliance of science and innovation. Life must be more simple than the flying and fighting interstellar challenges. They had long noted her name Ira.. she would be theirs and she would be his, their master's. But her will is necessary. Their master was in travel, they will soon know his wish too.