Aarush looked at Ishar and said, "Now do you understand why it's important? I need you to be alert and on standby. You are one of the most brilliant officers in our country…don't forget that. You are now dismissed. Jai Hind."
Ishar smiled with a patriotic sense of pride. "Thank you sir. Jai Hind!" he replied, and walked out of the military facility.
As soon as he reached the front doors, he called Pratap. Pratap picked up the call in the blink of a second.
"Were you sitting with your phone in your hand?" Ishar asked, amazed at how fast his friend had received the call.
"Shut up and tell me what happened." Pratap's answer came.
Feigning hurt, Ishar said,
"You can't tell your leader to shut up."
"Well, I can tell my best friend."
Ishar rolled his eyes. Only Pratap could retort with such confidence as that.
"Fine. Now listen…" Ishar started. In 5 minutes he had narrated the whole story. There was no response from the oth.er end.
"Hey, are you still there?" he asked in the end, thinking that his best friend had decided to abandon him at such a peak moment.
"You know," Pratap's voice finally answered, "I think it's aliens. I'm sure that they're here to attack Earth."
Ishar rolled his eyes. "Yeah, of course it's aliens, they just can't wait to attack Earth, right?", he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Wanna bet? I will give you ten rupees if you win, and you will have to give me ten rupees if I do."
"I'm fine with that, but I think that I will probably win." Ishar said, satisfied at his earning of ten rupees.
"Well, think whatever you want. It's 8:00 in the afternoon and I'm going home to eat dinner. Can't fight aliens on an empty stomach."
Ishar mentally imagined a hungry Pratap eating cookies while aliens were knocking on his door. He controlled himself from dying out of laughter.
"Okay, bye. Talk to you tomorrow." he said.
"Bye. Goodnight."
The call was disconnected, and Ishar sped back home, tired after a long, working day, with a small thought running in the back of his head, about a particular asteroid.