THE LAST WISH
Age: 10+
Genre: Sci-Fi
There are around 23 shelters on Mars. XÆ-1 to XÆ-5 belong to SpaceX, Bluzone 1 to 5 belong to Blue Origin, Mangalosphere 1 to Mangalosphere 5 belong to Hemisphere. Other than that Starland belongs to United States, Xin Hao belongs to China, New India belongs to India, Sputland belongs to Russia, Japonaland belongs to Japan, Europaland belongs to the European Union, Kiwiland belongs to Australia and New Zealand, and Afrikansland belongs collectively to South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. Japan, Russia and India have merged border and they act as separate states under a union called the Eastern Union. Since the The Great Tide that engulfed two third of Earth’s surface and more than half the population of Earth has shifted to Mars.
Mr. Motilal is a nonagenarian one of the last people who got to see sparrows and cows on Earth. He had suffered a lot due to the Great Tide and he was the one who had struggled to bring his family to Mars but now he was too old to do anything his robot Chandu helped him perform most of his tasks. Even though he spends most of the day watching Netflix, Hotstar and Prime Video but these video’s do nothing to entertain him now. He often cries remembering the good old days on Earth as a teenager. The artificial weather on Mars did not appeal him anymore. He wanted to feel the Sun again on his pale skin.
Today he had to go to the doctor because Chandu told him that he feels he senses a tumour in his Stomach. The doctor ran some X-Rays on him and found the tumour was cancerous. The doctor was not very worried because cancer is common on Mars. He told Mr. Motilal not to worry and admitted him into the hospital. Mr. Motilal had been cured in a week and sent back to home. After a few weeks he had to go to the doctor again because the tumour in his stomach had grown back. He was admitted for two weeks this time. As soon as he was discharged, he knew he had very little time left in this world. He was determined to go back to Earth one last time.
He told Chandu to quickly book the next ticket to Indian Siberia. Chandu said “Vistara ShuttleYZ leaves for Niznevartovsk-Modinagar International Airport at 10.30a.m. tomorrow. It costs 10000 rupeecoins.” Mr. Motilal felt excited after many years when he told Chandu to book the flight. He told Chandu to pack the bags for him. He spent the night half awake excited that he was going to travel to Earth.
Motilal got up early. In no time Chandu and Motilal were on their way to the New India Intergalactic Spaceport. They boarded the shuttle and in about 11 hours they reached Earth. When the space shuttle landed on Earth all passengers were given gas masks which are mandatory on Earth. As soon as he got out of the airport a smile filled his face when the sun rays fell on him. Mr. Motilal and Chandu then hired an e-taxi to the ITC Hotel in Niznevartovsk-Modinagar. Mr. Motilal rested at the hotel because he has to travel to Lucknow to see his house tomorrow
Next day they got on a plane to Dehradun, one of the last places in old India that are not underwater. There they took a submarine to see the ruins of Lucknow. The submarine passed over Delhi’s on the way. He thought about the time when he had gone to see his Uncle who lived in Delhi. A little while later a familiar place appeared, they had reached Lucknow. Mr. Motilal told the the driver to stear the submarine to Hazratnagar. In Hazratnagar he located his building. The building was reduced to a pile of concrete. On seeing his house Mr. Motilal became nostalgic started crying remembering all the happy time he had had there. He closed his eyes to imagine himself playing video games with his brother in his room and the eyes never opened again.
