Noura (A Short Story)

Noura

A Short Story by Sara Fiza

“Drop it!”

“……”

“Drop it, now!” a man with robotic voice pointed out his gun to another man in a black suit.

Noura woke up. A white light room bedazzled her bleary eyes. Her head ached. And the room was all blur in her vision. She usually could heal faster. But at this time, she was drugged. And this is the first time she felt really weak. She turned her head to the right, tried to seek the robotic voice which waken her up. She saw through a looking glass, a man in a black suit put his hand in the air. All is blurred.

“Bugh!”

“Argh!” the man in the black suit screamed as the electricity bullet knocked him out in his chest.

“Oh my god!!!” Noura freaked out. “Who is that?!What is happening?!”

Her vision was getting clear and he saw the man with gun approached her in a hurry.

“Let’s get out of here!” said the man with his robotic voice.

“wha.. what?!” Noura confused.

“Hurry up!” The man held Noura’s hand and dragged her. “Come on!”

Noura walked in confusion, her 13-year-old-body is too weak to resist and her brain was too confused to understand this entire scenes in her eyes.

The strange white room, the man in a black suit, and this robotic-voiced man that was still dragging her harshly were something that she couldn’t understand.

Noura and the man walked quickly. Then, they run as the sound of emergency alarm screamed in the building and all the white bulbs turned out into red and blinking very fast.

“I am your savior” Said the robotic-voiced man. “I am your personal humanoid.”

***

Noura. February 29, 2225. 06.30 a.m. somewhere on earth.

I was staring down the crowded city below me. The buildings were like spears, mounted high against the gravity. The cloud sometimes blocked my vision and looked like hiding a lot of flying cars that bustling up in this peak hour. I flew in a Personal Air Vehicle—or I always called it “The Flying Car”. My family—I and my brother—used to have one. And I just realized that the flying car not only owned by human, even the humanoid have it now, Cool and Odd! The Humanoids, no matter how great they are, never have any flying car before. My head was getting better, but the confusion was still in the worst state. I only remembered that I was having a breakfast with Ethan, my big brother, and then a group of men in a black suit broke into our house. They captured Ethan and one of them was injecting something to my arm, “All right” he said. But I know nothing would be right. Then everything was blackened.

“Argh!” my head started spinning again. I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. I tried to remember what happen then, but the projector in my brain only showed me the time when the humanoid dragged me out from the white room. What happen before that?

“Are you all right, Noura?” said the humanoid while sitting down by my side.

I gazed at the driver seat that was left empty.

“It’s okay; I put the PAV[1] in automatic driving”

“Who are you? Why are you here? What is happening to me? Where is my brother?” I had him with many questions at once. I didn’t want to lose any single details.

“I am Dexter; I am your personal robotic-humanoid”

He didn’t answer my entire question at once. This humanoid didn’t seem as brilliant as his perfect appearance that very much alike a human, like a man in twenty years old actually. As I know, the government and the scientist agreed to keep the robotic humanoid in their robotic shape because of a lot of reasons that I didn’t want to know either. If this humanoid didn’t speak in robotic voice, I might not know that he is a humanoid. Great! This condition was only make my confusion list became larger. “Why did I have a personal humanoid, when there is no civilian have it? Only scientist and the national military owned it. And why did you resemble a human very much?”

“Your confusion will be answered” said Dexter.

Dexter took out a memory chip from his pocket and put it in the monitor in the flying car. As the flying car was still flying, a man appeared in the monitor. He smiled nicely. It was Ethan!

“Hello Noura. It’s finally come, huh? You might be there on my secret flying car, right? You may not recognize it as my PAV, because I’ve been saving this cool one for this protection program, haha” Yes, it was Ethan. He laughed. He smiled. But I hate the way he laughed. I hate the way he acted as if everything is all right, while I was here terrified with this entire kidnaping thing. Ethan stopped laughing and he said, “And I’ve prepared a realistic humanoid for you. It’s Dexter. You know as the scientist I have one. But this one is special. I’ve prepared it myself. Against the law, I’ve made it like a real man. So he can protect you completely and freely without worries that someone will notice” Ethan paused and exhaled.

“You will face a grave danger out there. You will always be chased until they have caught you. All you have to do is following Dexter to move to the outer human colony in Mars. If not, you would be caught by that bad organization. You were chosen as their perfect experimental object. Because of your superb metabolism inside you that can heal faster, move faster, and stronger than anyone. You would be manipulated. And with your blood, they could create hundreds, even thousands army. Then, they would start a war against the government. I know you will be shocked, terrified, and… ah, I couldn’t imagine my little sister have to face this kind of danger. I don’t have much time left. Take care, Noura my sweetheart. I don’t know whether I’m alive or not by the time you watch this. But, it’s better for you to mourn me now. Good bye!” He smiled. And the monitor was turned off. My body may heal faster, Ethan. But, my heart was not.

***

February 29, 2225. 09.00 a.m. in the other side of the city.

A woman was preparing a rifle in her room. Her green eyes tried to peek through the rifle, “Done!”

“Orion, are you ready? Copy!” a voice of a man was heard from her earphone.

“I’m ready!” said the woman who was called Orion.

“We’ve prepared your PAV for this mission in your garage. Find Noura and that mysterious man. Ensure Noura’s safety, keep her alive. She’s the only one who left.”

“Roger that! And the man? Am I supposed to keep him alive?

“Bring him to me, dead or alive.”

“Pleasure, sir!” She smiled.

She took her rifle downstairs to her garage. She walked quickly to her blue PAV.

“Welcome, Agent Orion!” a woman robotic voiced was welcomed her nicely right after she went inside her Flying Car, “Manual drive or Automatic?”

“Manual drive, please!” said Orion, “It’s my hunt! I’ll take care of it”

Orion’s eyes staring at the GPS[2] monitor, a blue dot named Noura was moving not far from her position. “Lucky! That man hasn’t realized the Tracking device that the company put in Noura’s arm. Here we go!”

She spurred her flying-car at high speed. The crowds of Flying-car in the air traffic do not stop her. She winded, dodged, and moved swiftly her Flying-car. This unification of plane and car was her forte. She glanced at her GPS monitor; her target moving faster. They flew southward. It Looked like the man has no longer activate his automatic drive. She shocked when she realized their driving route. “This route, It’s a path across the space station. They are in the half-way down to the space station!”

Orion spurred faster her vehicle further. Her thoughts that were initially peaceful then in a sudden went over to a mess. Her adrenaline continued to slide as the vehicle accelerated. It would be tricky to deal with inter-space security. This project should remain a secret. Noura's face kept turning in his brain. He should be able to bring the child safe. It’s not about her career that she was fighting for. It is about something bigger. Then Noura’s face disappeared from her head, now the face of her daughter was flying inside her brain. “She has to live!”

And the picture of her daughter in her mind made Orion gone wild. She flew faster and she no longer follows the path of the air traffic. She cut off the road, passed between buildings, avoided bridges between buildings, and broke through the intersection. And finally she found the PAV that brought Noura.

Orion was focusing his sight to her target. Then she flew higher than Noura’s PAV, she move faster, she pushed the Nitro-oxide system and she flew extremely fast. Her PAV was getting beyond the target. “Automatic Drive!” she shouted.

When her PAV was in automatic mode, she took out the rifle and she tied her legs to the safety belt. Then she began to pull out the body of his PAV. Her body was upside down with her legs tied to her safety belt. She saw the target still drove underneath her PAV. It is not easy for anyone to take aim a rifle with these conditions. The body was not only inverted, but her PAV also move around up and down to avoid collision from many sides because she was not in the actual track. But for Orion it was something that she could do easily. After aiming the man in the driver seat, she pulled the trigger, “Dor! Dor!.”

The man fell, she saw Noura screamed hysterically. Her target’s flying car was unstable and began to crash other flying cars. Orion moved quickly and propelled herself into her PAV. She made a maneuver and glided closer to the target’s PAV. The target’s PAV fell down, Noura was hanging on the PAV door which was nearly broke off. And Orion launched its PAV faster down the target. Just when Noura could not hold the door anymore and began to fell; Orion’s PAV was right down Noura’s PAV with an open roof.

"Clunk!" Noura fell into the Orion’s PAV back seat.

“Aaaa!” Noura screamed. “Ethaaaan!” her eyes in tears.

After controlling her PAV, which slammed far down, and returned to the air traffic line. Orion PAV was directing her to her home. She ignored Noura’s scream in the back seat. Her green eyes stared straight, her mind was imagining the face of 5-year-old girl who smiled at her, and her heart murmured, "I'll save you, darling", a grains of tears hovered in the corner of her eyes. A voice in her earphones kept yelling, "Take him to the headquarters". But Orion ignored it. Her blue flying car moved fast as the memory of her daughter that was put in a grave stroked her. Orion remembered, her memory fool her around. Her daughter was no longer lived on earth. Her daughter passed away last year. And Orion burst into tears, “What was I fighting for?”

***

February 29, 2225. 02.00 p.m. Orion’s house.

Noura was lying awake in a black couch. She was sobbing. Her chest moved up and down. Her tears had run out and she was tired of crying. “Ethan, Dexter…” she sobbed, “Help me…”

Orion sat in the other couch in front of Noura. She stared at her and couldn’t think of anything. In Noura’s face she saw her daughter’s. If she alive, she must have been in Noura’s age. 13years old. Orion whispered in her heart. Noura’s lids closed slowly. It seemed that she was too tired to even ask Orion about her kidnaping. She was too tired after shouting, screaming, and crying. She was helpless. Orion took her blanket and covered Noura with it.

“Agent Orion, are you there? Copy?!” her wall turned into a monitor that visualize a slant-eyed man in a black suit.

“I apologized, okay? I’m sorry. I’ve got her. I’ll take her to you.” Said Orion

“Are you nuts?! She must be taken immediately to the Headquarter. You do know how dangerous it is to keep her out there. Anybody can take her anytime! This project will be revealed and the world will turn into a chaos! You do know about that, huh?! I’ll send a team to you, got it?”

“No, No, No, Don’t send anyone here, Mr. Kato! I’ll take her to you! Trust me! She was shocked, sir! She was not okay! Got it? I’ll calm her and I’ll bring her to you! I am taking the preventable method, sir! If I take her to you, there is a possibility that the mysterious man would come to the Headquarter again. He will take Noura again, and you will lose her again?!”

Two little-eyes wide awoke and hide behind the blanket. Noura gazed at Orion who was talking with a man in the monitor while pacing to and fro.

“Let me remind you again and let me make this straight and clear to you. Noura is a human clone! She was the last clone that still remains on earth. The idea of human cloning is a big mistake; we can’t compete against the God. You do know how it’s hard to capture all the clones in the project. Only a few people knew, but they had become crazy because of it. Everyone wants to have a clone as their back up organ. Imagine! Free organ trade, identity crisis because a lot of people want to have twins. Over population leads to high population density, and genes error which can be the cause of the genes divergent and new diseases. Noura is the last. She must be hidden from the world. We have to make her as the last of organ transplant and we have to ensure her death. Because she is the key of Prof. Ethan to make another human clones and turned the world into the worst place to go. Am I clear, agent Orion?”

“Crystal, Sir!” Orion took a glimpse to where Noura was lying. Noura turned her back to the other side.

“Thank you, my man will be there to pick you and Noura back to the Headquarter!”

“All right, Sir!”

Noura held her tongue. She closed her mouth by her hand, tried not to scream. Her eyes bugged out. Then, her eyes became glassy “I am a clone!”

***

“Argh!” Dexter, the humanoid, groaned and stood up. Red blood oozed out from his chest. He took out the voice converter from his collar. He crippled to his broken Personal Air Vehicle, “Activated!”

There is no robotic voice. It’s a voice that Noura would have recognized, even though she will not recognize his face.

A robotic voice came out from the PAV, “Welcome, Ethan! Automatic or manual?”

“Wait me, Noura. I’m not done protecting you for the world” he smirked.

--The End--

Sara Fiza, 2013

[1] Personal Air Vehicle—The Flying Car.

[2] The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.