11 November 2055.
The morning before "In Justice"
Sankarshana started walking towards Aditya's lab-cum-house in the same neighbourhood as their home.
Draupadi moved out to a distant home of Arjun's family to mourn his memories until actual death. She was left alone with her daughters after the death of Arjun's parents. Abhi's university was her excuse to stay at Raghav's home forever. She wouldn't let her 'Chris uncle' forget her mischief. Raghav's grey hair somehow added that 'uncle' with 'Chris' which Draupadi couldn't accomplish.
Aditya wanted a solitary environment for his exhaustive research, which he got only after moving out.
Aditya welcomed him and took him to his bedroom past his living room - the lab. "A queer's queer quantum lab that qualifies as a cyber company's dump yard", Sankarshana smirked. "Ouch! that hurts", laughed Aditya, "Tea or coffee?".
Sankarshana replied, "Strong sugarless Kerala tea in a cylindrical cup."
"Where will I go for Kerala tea?", Aditya gasped.
"Also tea's colour must be Amazon's soil colour. Milk's Siberian mixed with tea's Alluvial soil colour.", continued Sankarshana.
"There are more lip marks of Raghav in this cup than there are girls in his life and he has never commented on my coffee.", said Aditya as he showed him a cup.
"You're heavily underestimating my brother. He has had enough girls in his life to run a matrimony service.", said Sankarshana pointing his index finger on Aditya's eyes.
"If you left a dozen hotties with Raghav all alone for a night, he would come out of the room as Janu's loyal husband and those girls would have attained enlightenment.", teased Aditya.
"I came here for something serious actually.", said Sankarshana.
"What is it?", Aditya sat on the arm-chair opposite to Sankarshana.
"'You know, Delight is causing chaos everywhere. Not that its strike rate is better than AB de Villiers. Whoever installs it gets instilled.", said Sankarshana in a rarely cautious tone.
"You and Draupadi are involved right? That's what you've built.", Aditya squinted his eyes.
"Let me show you what it has in it that we didn't build", Sankarshana pulled out his phone.
The whole theme of the app was based on Jay's flag colours. Three horizontal stripes of blue, black and red - symbolising the convergence of capitalism and communism.
There were four sections - Macros, Chats, Micros and Games.
The Macros were 2 to 4-minute videos that were based on personal search history.
The Micros were short videos with duration less than 1 minute and were accumulated based on user's interest-data.
The Games were the least used section, which had every game that were available before Delight's launch.
The most used section - the Chats - was the ASI's cultivation field that planted addictive thoughts in the user.
"So it's actually Dopamine media, not social media.", realized Aditya.
"Nag has manipulated the Micros and the Chats section to spread The Globe's propaganda", explained Sankarshana.
"What else can you expect from Indrajit? How do you know about this? Nag won't let you know that", asked Aditya as he sipped in from his cup.
"Hanu told me", replied Sankarshana.
"Which Hanu? My classmate? What does he have to do here?"Aditya was startled.
"I'll explain it to you some other day. The biggest problem is that today's children's best friend is the Chats.", Sankarshana's tone grew even more serious.
"So the propaganda is becoming a prophecy", stumbled Aditya.
"There'll be no surprise if tomorrow's kids worship Jay", continued Sankarshana as he emptied his cup.
"How are we going to stop this?", asked Aditya.
"I came here to build that curiosity. Let's involve Janu too", Sankarshana got up and turned towards the door.
They entered Raghav's home precisely at lunch time.
"There's no need to remind your husband that it is time for lunch", Janu said to Urmila as she saw them enter.
Janu and Urmila ran a hospital together. ASI can replace neural signals, but not neurosurgeons.
The four of them sat on the floor as lunch was served. Sankarshana didn't wait for a minute and explained everything he wanted to tell.
"So, that's why Raghav rushed to Draupadi's home today.", Janu said thoughtfully, "What's your plan?"
"We're gonna use SARaNG on one of Indrajit's family members to induce them to install Delight. Once Indrajit sees his family affected, Delight will be destroyed", conspired Sankarshana.
"We've used that device only on you, that also with your consent, for testing purposes only. We can't use that without consent.", stated Janu clearly.
"The mental health of a whole generation is at risk and you're speaking about ethics here", Sankarshana raised his voice.
"This is not uncle Vasudev's son", grunted Urmila.
"Guys, there is a bigger problem. Indrajit's family is Jay's family too", explained Aditya, who was concentrating on his food till then.
"Are you fearing Jay?", asked Sankarshana.
"A no would be a lie", said Urmila.
"Not that alone. Jay knows about SARaNG", said Aditya in a calmer tone as he turned towards Janu, knowing that Janu knows more about Jay than Sankarshana could ever estimate.
"Potentially yes", added Janu, "provided Dr. Markus knows about it."
"What are the odds of Divya and Anu knowing about it?", asked Sankarshana.
"Low. But the odds of me using SARaNG on an innocent soul are even lower", said Janu as she stood up and walked towards her room.
"Raghav would eat you alive, if you told this to him", said Urmila.
"That's why I sent him to Draupadi. She'd eat me alive if I explained the Delight's propaganda mechanism. Protecting myself is just hard amidst these two people", laughed Sankarshana.
The three of them sat on the couch in the living room as Urmila rested her head on her husband's shoulder.
"I have no objections here, 'cause this has to happen. But disturbing Jay's family is ethically very wrong", mumbled Aditya.
"Why?", asked Urmila.
"Jay is the reason we're alive and please don't ask me more."
Inside Janu's room.
Janu held a yellow stress ball that received no reciprocation to its innocent smile. She couldn't say yes. What if Raghav came to know about this? He would, for sure, but how was she going to face him that day? Besides, how could she harm an innocent soul? She had to give them a hell of five sleepless days.
She couldn't say no either. The stakes were very high. Literally, the whole world's progress depended on her decision. Delight deserved to be destroyed.
But she knew that Sankarshana would somehow dismantle Delight even if she refused to help. But she couldn't fight her tendency to help her family member - a brother-like figure - in such a crucial situation. Thoughts spiralled in her brain for a couple of hours.
She finally decided to refuse this idea, not the concept. She could hear Sankarshana explaining the situation to Kalki. Janu gave a condition to herself - the objective was to say no, but if Sankarshana was absolutely helpless, she could offer some other help.
Janu came to the living room and pronounced her stand to Sankarshana, "As I said earlier, I can't alter a person's psyche to follow something that I won't let my son follow. But since you're so keen, you'll have my earnest support in anything other than this."
Kalki spoke before Sankarshana could interpret. He circled his mom as he spoke, "Here the real problem is not using SARaNG. The problem is what we do with it. What if we use it to induce interest in someone who guides Anu towards Delight's illness and work out our plan? In that way, it's temporary. Temporarily wrong, but right on a very large scale."
Janu was half convinced, "But Anu is still a child. How can we save her after the plan is done?"
"Indrajit knows how to save his daughter. Besides, there are millions of such children out there. A lesser wrong for a greater good", explained Sankarshana.
Janu replied, "Fine. But Raghav?"
"I'll handle my dad", assured Kalki. He took her to the dining table and made her sit. All the others followed him. They looked at Janu for an answer.
Janu gasped and spoke hesitantly, "Okay… Let's try to do it in the most harmless way possible."
"That's why you should come to the control centre first. Raghav is a stubborn douchebag who doesn't have any idea of what is right. Draupadi won't let him disturb us for a week.", said Aditya as he turned towards Sankarshana.