Toyah's dilemma

2 weeks earlier..

Water..Toyah desperately needed water. Huddled up in her shack, her throat feeling parched like the Sahara in summer, with the last of her water over and no hope of getting any in the short term. In addition to thirst, her whole body was aching because of having sustained injuries in a scuffle, her prize for having visited a part of town that was rough and frequented by prostitutes and water black marketeers who called themselves providers of “nourishment of life”. She had gone to the city’s underbelly to find out about her sister who went missing 5 years ago along with her parents. However, though she didn’t find her sister that day, she did win an important lottery that could change her life…

She had long ago found out that her parents had died at the hand of Paani Pasha and his goons, but still had no clue about whether her sister was dead or alive. She chose to believe that her sister was alive and continued to search for her. Her life as a skilled auto mechanic didn’t pay her much and most of her customers were from Paani Pasha’s gang who never paid her for the work she dd but provided her with water for work, which she was not allowed to barter and was barely enough for her to survive. With her latest injuries and with her being unable to pay for her medical expenses, her life had reached a tipping point. She was willing to consider any alternative to escape given her present fate.

Water was a scarce commodity, with fresh water sources and underground water tables having been depleted irrevocably, with rain being rare and filtered sea water being awfully expensive. Free fresh water was now rationed for everyone (Toyah was not on the official ration list), with only the rich being able to buy water for their needs. Water suppliers were a new class of nobility, who were among the most powerful and influential people given they controlled the supply of the scare resource. They were led by “Paani Pasha” who had a large supply of fresh water supply and despite everyone’s best efforts to find out his source, it was still a mystery. Needless to say, he had total control over food production as well.

Politicians had been too busy getting and retaining power rather than designing long term solutions to drinking water problems forecasted by many scientists. By the time they saw the need to address the problem, it was too late, and they were all now subservient to Paani Pasha.

Lately, however there had been a lot of interest about a planet with water and the possibility of sustaining life. This planet was discovered in a nearby planetary system. Then Toyah had heard about an “Inter planet travel lottery “which was giving people from Earth once in a lifetime chance to travel and settle on this planet. Tickets for this however were brought mostly by the rich and the well-connected- however Toyah managed to get a ticket for this chance to travel. She got it from well-placed member of the Paani Pasha gang who thinking he never stood any chance of winning, gave her the ticket in lieu of debts with her for repairs. As luck would have it, she won the lottery and per the rules of the lottery could take one more person with her. Her sister, her only remaining family member, was however still missing, and she wanted to take her along with her for the trip.

She had found out about winning the lottery the day she got injured with the scuffle and was in dire need of water. However, now time was running out as the date of travel was fast looming and she still hadn’t found her sister.

Present:

She was now within a week before her shuttle departed and now attempting to search for her sister one more time despite her injuries and past failures. News of winning the lottery got her adrenalin pumping as she now knew she had a chance to escape from her present state, regardless of what awaited her in the planet she was travelling to.

However, before she could sink into despondency due to her failure to find her sister, for a change another piece of good news came to Toyah - her friends brought news of her sister. She was overjoyed, but in order to reunite with her sister, she had to first rescue her from the dungeons of Paani Pasha, for allegedly cheating the water black marketeers.

By selling whatever remaining assets she had and then making false promises to multiple people about selling her ticket, she managed to get into the dungeon which was supposed to hold her sister captive.

Once inside, she found a young woman, critically injured and wearing the heart shaped locket her sister had worn when she went missing. Initially she thought it was her sister. But she soon realized that she had been led into a trap to take away her lottery ticket, her one shot at escaping to a better life.

In realizing her situation, she ran toward the door to try escape, but it was too late, the door being shut from the outside. Desperately, she looked around for an alternate escape route, hoping against hope to find another way to escape. When her eyes desperately roamed the room, she almost missed the unnoticeable small cave in one of the furthest corners of the dungeon. Not having anything to lose she made a dash towards it. A faint glimmer of light led her to a hidden door which hadn’t been properly closed, which in turn led to a well light palatial room. It did not take her long to realize that she was in Paani Pasha’s bedroom. As she was wondered across the room, she found him sleeping in his bed. Remember all his brutal crimes against the people in her neighborhood, she had no hesitancy in restraining him with restraints she made from items in his room and started looking for a way out.

Now searching his room to find an escape route, she made another fascinating discovery - Paani Pasha’s room had a portal that connected to a human habitable place with lots of water. A quick survey showed that the place was greener and more hospitable for humans than the new planet she was supposed to travel to, and to her surprise she also discovered that Paani Pasha had also perfected a mechanism by which he could bring back billions of gallons of water to earth using that portal.

While she had been busy exploring and trying to figure all these out, Paani Pasha had managed to ungag his mouth and activate the alarm. Soon there would be guards barging into the room. She also realized that Paani Pasha, physically a big and strong man, was trying to wrestle his way out of the other restraints she had put him in.

She weighed all her options quickly – she still had no clue as to the whereabouts of her sister who she loved so dearly, but she couldn’t survive if she stayed back. Given the situation, multiple thoughts ran through her mind, ranging escaping from the room quickly before the guards came and escaping to the new planer or figuring out a way of staying back, possibly killing and then taking Paani Pasha’s position.

She could then use the portal in a more equitable way to bring water and share it on Earth for the greater good of society. Whatever be her plan, she needed to act fast as guards of Paani Pasha would be in the room any moment and Paani Pasha had almost freed himself from the restraints she had put him under. Time for her to choose and act, for a lot depended on her, including her own survival.....

The End....