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. 13 years
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.
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