_____ March 9, 2018 _____

- nick -

He just said Kanishk? Wow. I mean, Wow.

I saw Avi. For once, his face brightened up and all of a sudden became dull again. I held his hand. He smiled. "It's Okay, Nick. I'm fine." Yeah, right!

Doctor continued...

"Now, to the second point. How can Infinity be used in daily life as a virus? Obviously no, it can't. It was created as a virus, but wasn't kept that way. In KRI, we had built a room, the same one where the blast occurred, which was for maintaining the needed temperatures and conditions to satisfy our theories. Basically, we had to keep Infinity in a theoretical world. That is, all the conditions that we needed to maintain Infinity was never tried by humans ever before. We had to go from 5000 degree centigrade to minus 6 real fast and the humidity in the room also had it's share of variance. The vacuum inside that room by any means shouldn't be filled with air, ever. So, every time we had to go in, it was a half an hour process. N number of more conditions added and then, after 89 days of living in there as a virus, Infinity would lose it's vitality and become a normal substance with it's properties still being the same. Hence, after 89 days of strict surveillance, nurturing and taking care, Infinity would become human usable. The virus form was created in a lab which didn't have any temperature conditions, but we had to do it a room containing a mixture of gases. So, basically we had to carry oxygen masks around while working on the Virus Infinity. But, once a substance, it was 100% harmless and lived in normal conditions."

"Oh! So, it wasn't a virus after all. Wow. It is a new concept. But, Doc, when you were doing something so amazing, why did you even hide it from the world?" Kukku spoke out.

"Ever thought, like how Infinity could make a war-free nation, what would happen if it was used to make the weapons that were used in the war? Imagine, if the bombs used in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki attack would have used Infinity in them, then instead of a city, the entire world would have been affected! Ever thought about it?"

Ah! That is exactly why it was kept a secret from the world! Alongside revolution, it could even be used as the ultimate destruction weapon, if the Bad Guys got 'em. Darn!

"But Sir, what were the properties of Infinity that made it so special? What was used in making it?"

"Oh, Dear. I'm afraid I can't tell you the contents and formulas used. Confidential, you know. But, it's features were what stopped us from sending the already created Infinity to the world. We still didn't know it's properties completely! We were still studying Infinity's behavior while still a Virus. What way can it affect people, what are it's weaknesses and strengths, all of that. 2 weeks before the blast, our first set of Infinity, which was 28 kilograms in mass, was created. We were supposed to test it in real world 2 days after the blast date. But, as a virus, the most special property of Infinity was it's power of attraction. When the first sample of the virus, that was an approximate 10 kilograms was created, it was tested for about a year regarding it's properties when still a virus. We found out that, Infinity had this uncommon property of attraction. It attracted anything that had a sense of life in it, now or before. Leaves, plants, insects, dead or alive, depended on mass. For example, if, I took 5 kgs of infinity in a room and kept 10 kgs, of say, leaves in front of it. It could never attract that huge amount in the daylight. But, as time passed by and night started crawling in, it actually could attract the entire weigh of the leaves into itself, completely! Time was a major factor for Infinity. Actually, the amount of sunlight, you could say. Works best when no sunlight. When day turns night, Infinity becomes The Hungry Eater."

Not in my entire life had I heard this silence in a room full of teenagers. The concentration, the staring, the analyzing inside them brains. God, it was worth watching! "But, Doc, where did all the things it solved in go? I mean, was it broken down and eaten? Or, that too was converted to a virus, or what?" Even I had my share of questions.

"Was hoping for that question. That's the main reason why we delayed every plan we had regarding Infinity. We had  to know where things went? It wasn't converted to anything. Neither was it eaten. It just vanished inside Infinity. Till date, no one knows where. We did every possible calculations and created every possible theories. Space Aliens, no!  Digested, no! Nothing! Then one of us gave away the fact that Infinity might get things teleported. So, we put our hands on that too. We bought a Histograph, invented teleportation tracker. Every device that spoke about teleportation was used! No use. By the way, Histograph is machine that tells if a substance placed in it has any historic explanations. It did show some waves in the beginning, but it all made no sense. We couldn't find out where those things went after Infinity swallowed them, till date!"

"So, you mean, the study of Infinity wasn't complete. You prepared the first sample of Infinity as a substance without knowing it's property as a virus? How did you even know it's properties as a substance?" T was talking well.

"Because, my boy, Infinity was planned on as a substance. Nobody wanted a virus. As a substance, the properties we wanted were all there in our first sample of Infinity. All theories matched Infinity's first sample. The real world test couldn't occur due to the blast. But, as a virus, Infinity was highly impossible to decode, especially since we didn't know where all the entities it gulped in went. That boy I mentioned, Kanishk was involved in studying about the Histograph. He was kind of sure that Infinity had something to do with the past. But, he failed to convince others regarding it. So, we had to concentrate on the substance part more than the virus part."

"But, how could the blast occur when the security levels were that high? " April popped in again. 

"You are right there. Security and safety levels were 110% in KRI. On the day of the blast, the whole team was there as it was the success party of our first successful sample. We all were in Research Room 4, out of the 12 research rooms that were there. This room was the closest to the Thermal Conversion Chamber room. All of a sudden there was this huge sound. We realized it was a reaction that wasn't supposed to take place, taking place. We definitely were Scientists who had typical work ethics, but to each other, in those 2.5 years, we had become family. We knew, whoever goes in there to see what's happening will die. We switched off the power and the gas connections to the room. Yet, there was gas leakage and reaction sounds coming out of it. We had to go in to see what was happening. Else the whole place would burn down soon. We couldn't lose anyone. When were just talking about what to do, the boy I mentioned earlier, Kanishk, had already gone in. When we went to get him back, there was a boom! Half the people flew away with the fire. The heat, it was unbearable! Kanishk had done something that will stop the reaction instead of spreading it to every molecule and every wire of KRI which in turn would spread to the city. Infinity was made using some of the most spreading and mass- affecting substances. These could spread to places using electricity. Kanishk destroyed the base of them by giving it zero electricity. He gave himself. Grounded the electricity. As a result of which it exploded and there was a blast inside the chamber and people around it were affected bad, not the whole city. I was on the other side of the hall contacting some scientists in other places  to ask what should be done. Whoever weren't affected made efforts to save the people and the works involved in the making of Infinity. Neither could we save those 22 out of the 29 who were there, nor could we save the papers. Me, 1 senior and 3 assistants survived. But, we were completely dead inside. Seeing all our colleagues, and moreover those Amazing Scientists burnt and ashed, we lost all hopes regarding life. It took me 4 years to recover completely, yet KRI didn't let me do it." 

He opened up his right sleeve buttons. He had worn a full sleeve. He slided his shirt sleeve all the way up and what we saw was terrifying! He had a scar, long one. It was all blue due to the burn and the reactions. It was the kind of burn mark I had never seen before. God! seeing it gives me shivers as to the incident that might have happened there. I suddenly remembered Kanishk's body. He had the same kind of scars all over him, unrecognizable was his body! He is a strong man, the Doctor. 

It took 10 minutes for someone to finally talk.

"So, basically Kanishk saved us all?" Avi managed to tell after a while. 

"Yes, that boy really did."

Avi smiled. Everyone smiled. He had sacrificed himself for all of us. That's the Kanishk we knew. 

"The main mystery is, I still don't know what happened to the Infinity, that was on process of conversion and finished just 20 days in the same chamber room during the blast. Infinity was unbreakable, I mean, un-destroy-able. No Thermal Explosion could destroy it. 20 days, means infant. It was an infant virus and obviously had high power of spreading and possessing. I thought, there will be problems due to that infinity. But, as we know, nothing ever happened in Mangalore that was weird or that meant trouble regarding any unknown substance. So, basically that Infinity was gone! Also, I don't know, what happened in the reaction chamber that resulted in the blast. Everything was perfectly all right. There are so many questions that are unanswered when it comes to KRI!" saying this, Dr. Murugan Mohan's expression changed from firmness to worry.

"It must be somewhere inside KRI, or else, someone must have taken it away from there. Where can it go then?" said Jake, after a long silence. "And, it still is a virus. Because, you said you attained the conditions to convert Infinity from a virus to a substance only in KRI, right? And also, all the papers got destroyed. So, how can anyone possibly convert it to a substance? So, it's still a virus and since you said it couldn't be destroyed, it is still there with someone."

"Maybe! But, there is nothing that can prove it and no one that can tell us that!" Doctor was sad and a little angry.

"Actually, Doctor..."  I grabbed everyone's attention as I removed the bundle of papers from the bag. 

_______________________________∞