The space-craft was on it's way back home.

Aboard the space-craft Bharadhwajan was on a new high. Coming back home after a
long foray into space was always nice. The consignment of precious ore mined on a
way-side asteriod sitting snugly in the payload added to the elation. Back on earth it
would be worth millions, enough to make him a super-rich guy. Sure enough reason to
make him the hottest eligible bachelor. The most beautiful girls on earth would be vying
to get him. As he began to sing softly, buoyed up by the lifting moods, the emergency
alarm went off, cutting short his riverie!
The control panel emergency light sprang into life and red lines came over the monitor
screen:

FUEL TANKS ON FIRE

Damn! He stopped singing and studied the fuel-control screen. Spotting the tanks on
fire he pressed the command:

DELINK ALL FUEL TANKS

Seconds later, red lines came over the monitor- screen:

NOT POSSIBLE. DELINK SYSTEM BLOCKED

Oh, God! That meant he had to lose the whole space-craft. That included the capsule
which would serve as a shelter till such time someone came along to rescue.
Without any further thought, he swiftly picked the survival-kit, tucked it into his space-
suit, sat on the ejection seat, fastened himself to the seat and pressed the ejection
button:

ZOOM!

The next instant, the escape-hatch opend out and he was propelled skywards with a
tremendous thrust. He continued to rise high and high and high ..... there was no gravity
to counter his acceleration upward. The propulsion motor beneath the ejection seat still
whirred to elevate him farther up.

Eventually, he came to a halt at a very high altitude.

BANG!

The space-craft exploded underneath at the same moment he came to a grinding halt.
He gloomily watched the space-craft disintegrating into tens of millions of pieces. Now
he was a lone man somewhere in the black space.

Pulling himself together, he opened the survival kit and took out the inflatable dome. He
drew out the air-pump from the space-suit, connected it to the opening in the dome and
pumped the air in. The dome swelled and floated up before him. He opened the hatch,
crawled inside and closed it tight.

Till such time someone came over to rescue him the dome was his sole means of
survival. Specially built to serve as a shelter on exigencies of space craft being
abondoned. It was made of special grade material to withstand the zero gravity
depressurisation. In a depressurised atmosphere things tend to expand and expand
with no full stop and the dome managed stay put in fixed size due to the toughest
special grade material. Deflector shield on the outer wall, warded off cosmic rays
without which he would be radiated to death.A battery powered lamp illuminated the
interior and there was a pothole for observation. Once inside, he reclined on the
sleeping couch and operated the built-in transmitter.

"HELLO, HELP, HELP, HELLO!"

Soon after he started sending SOS signals, a space-craft arrived and pulled up beside
the dome. The next moment, Bharathwajan was taken into the space craft. He looked at
those inside the space craft- he was shocked! They were aliens!

They gestured to the terrified Bharadhwajan to stay calm. When they make to lie down
on a platform and started examining him, he began to choke.

"What's the matter"


"Oxygen"

"Oxygen?"

"Yeah. That's what i inhale. It is almost exhausted" he said pointing to the oxygen
cylinder attached to his suit.

The alien inspecting him called out:

"Verola"

Some one came near. She was a girl!

Verola bent down to look at Bharadhwajan and asked,

"Is this what you inhale?"- pointing to the cylinder.

"Yes. Oxygen is it's name"

"Oh! we have no Oxygen. Timitron is our breathing gas. Anyway let us see whether we
can produce this"

She went to the cylinder, opened the valve, siphoned off a sample quantity into a flask
and left.

After some time, she came back with a cylinder.

"I produced this in the lab. More or like it is like Oxygen"

She connected the cylinder brought by her to tube leading into his nose.

The gas from the cylinder gushed into his nostrills and he stopped choking. His
breathing became even again.
On Earth, only Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Sulphur and Phosporous are the
basic elements essential for survival. The aliens, perhaps, had a different element
chemistry. In that backdrop, it was indeed baffling to see that the gas produced by them
suiting him. Nevertheless he was content to be safe and alive and the day passed off
peacefully.

The very next day, Bharadhwajan started choking again.
This time, the cylinder brought by Bharadhwajan himself was tried and he regained
normal respiration as some more oxygen was still left in his cylinder.
But the oxygen was on the brink of exhaustion. Unfortunately, the gas produced by
Verola did not suit him.

Now everyone aboard the space craft ringed him and inspected the Oxygen cylinder.
With very little oxygen left, they decided to put it on ration reducing the flow from the
cylinder. Not enough, of course, still enough to give him some more time to prepare for
any alternative. They weighed his chances.

"It would be ok for another half a day. Not more"

"Oh!"

There was a sudden gloom in the atmosphere. No one talked. The aliens were silently
staring at him. All seemed genuinely concerned about this stranger they had never seen
before. The girl Verola was the most affected over his plight. She was weeping.

"Father! You must save him"

"Verola I wish I could but ....."

said Zorum, Verola's father, standing near to Bharadhwajan.

"No but's. You must save him. You are a biologist and an electronic expert. You can
save him if you try"

Zorum looked astonishingly at his weeping daughter. How strange! This girl had never
seen this stranger before. Still she has come to love him like anything. Anyway his
daughter Verola was everything to him and he had to save this alien for her at any cost.

He was silent for some time. Suddenly he had a flash! Oh! He could try it.

"Verola. Stay calm and sit beside him"

"Ok, but are you going to do something?'

"Yes. I 've an idea"

"What's it?"

"Got to verify it first. I am going to the laboratory to do exactly that. I'll tell you when i
come back"

With that he left.

Verola sat beside Bharadhwajan. He looked soothingly at her.

"Don't worry. I am an alien, after all"

"May be, but I won't let you die"

She seemed insane to him. What was she saying? 'I won't let you die'! All he had was
half a day's Oxygen and half a day's life left and nothing more. His survival seemed
virtually impossible. Nevertheless he appreciated the girl's spirit and said,

"Thank you"

"Thanks for what?'

"For being so nice". He soothingly placed his hand over hers. Both fell silent, continuing
to look at each other. It seemed an interminable time since Zorum left. Probably he was
afraid to come back, afraid to tell them that he had no means to save him. Now
everyone was resigned to the inevitable. Hours relentlessly dragged on.

And Zorum came back. All surrounded him.

"We can save him" he announced.

Verola jumped to her feet. "Father you are superb"

"Wait, wait, my girl. Hear me first"

He explained his plans.

First, he was going to produce a brand-new body with brain and all internal organs with
their chemistry with the aid of the bio-processor. Then Bharadhwajan's brain would be
scanned, every bit of memory would be recorded and then all the memories would
transferred to the brain of the body produced by the bi-processor. Since all the
memories constitue what Bharadhwajan was, he could start living in the new body anew
with their chemistry. He could inhale Timitron, eat their food and be one of them.Still his
present body need not be thrown away. It could be kept in suspended animation. If
Bharadhwajan could go back to his planet and live in his original atmosphere he could
swich back to his present body.

"So you are going to transfer my memory to a body with your chemistry?'

"That's the only way out. I need your permission to do that. First, the body has to be
produced, brain has to be scanned, memories recorded, transferred to the new brain
and your original body has to be kept in suspended animation.All these operations have
to be carried out in double quick time before your Oxygen cries out"

Bharadhwajan thought for some time. He had to acquire new body and live as an alien
with them. The chances of getting back to Earth appeared very slim and he had no
choice. He had to carry on living. He could not have access to Oxygen either. All that
led to only one way out. He made up his mind. Banishing the persistent cry within him -
the OXYGEN PLEASE - he said to Zorum,

"Yes"

The alien set to work on him straightaway.
In the next few hours, he transformed into a new man, AN ALIEN! But Bharadhwajan
still. Only difference was he had sweet Verola with the OXYGEN PLEASE SYNDROME
forever gone.
*******
-Mohan Sanjeevan