Somewhere! (Hunaak!) (16 page)

The information I got from Dr.
Ginzo was shocking! Oh my God! I thought the cartoons were just entertaining fiction! I never thought that one day a Mecha would carry all of this information and real technologies!

“
Dr. Ginzo! They are approaching!”
—
a member of the Research Center yelled.

The man directed the video feed from his screen to the main screen displaying a flock of shining dots moving fast across the sky.

“I shall teach them a lesson!” — the member of the Research Center said.

He then left in a hurry along with another
colleague that followed him. Dr. Ginzo then took us to another hall.

“
We have prepared everything Mr. Husam!” — Dr. Ginzo said as he showed me the suit and helmet. It was astonishing! This was the same suit that the Prince used to wear and it was the same helmet! I ran as fast as I could down the same corridors, I knew them very well. I had always dreamt to slide down that small side door to land on the jet bike racing.

Here I was now, I saw the path split into two, then, I jumped from the bike and I landed into the
Mecha’s seat… I saw him underneath me, he was enormous! How dignified! I was in shock as I was flying in the air towards him. For this moment, as if I was frozen in time, I took in all the details. In my head, I heard myself repeating how this experience was unlike what we’ve all seen in the cartoon. The cartoon was nothing but a very simple illustration to what I was living.

Here I was, inside a real spaceship! Every component divided into smaller parts with intricate detail. The horns that I thought were simple slick cones where, in fact,
detailed down to the plates and bolts.

When I sat on the chair, it completely absorbed me. The
screens automatically lit up in front of me and my helmet became my conduit to communicate with the machinery around me. I gripped the controlling stick and the path in front of me lit up and the gates opened, revealing an artificial water fall. I pulled the stick and the Mecha immediately slid forward in a speed only matched by my heartbeats. I was about to explode from the excitement!

A red and blue air weapon with diggers on its sides flew above me. I remembered it now! Malak
’s image appeared on the screen in front of me. She was wearing a red suit and a helmet with the letter M. This was the same suit and helmet that the prince’s sister used to wear.

“
Husam! We must catch up with them ASAP!” — Malak said.

I followed her and in the horizon we could see traces of a battle.
A fleet of enemy UFOs were battling the young man in his double jet and the girl in her marine jet. Malak caught up with them and now there were shooting tens of UFOs out of the sky. I pressed the second button from the group of buttons on my right as I remembered it well.

“
The rotating saucer!” — I yelled in uncontainable excitement.

I had always wondered why the Prince would always yell the name of the weapon he
fired, the answer was in that ecstasy that I felt when the two saucers flew following the exact path that I had plotted in my head. They then slashed a group of those miserable UFOs before they returned to the Mecha. Exactly as I expected, the helmet was the most important control device for this Mecha. There was no way you could control a machine this complex and flexible using just buttons and control panels. A wave of fear spread through the enemy lines when I showed up, they gathered to face me and their beams focused on me. Each beam collided with the Mecha’s body without any affect. I was able to melt half of them with the fusion accelerator and the rest vanished with a bolt of my space lightning. What was left of them fell into the ocean’s waters. This did not feel like a battle but a mere picnic. I never understood why they’d insist on wasting time with these UFOs.

The picnic was over when a pair of metal arms attacked me from beneath the ocean
’s surface and wrapped themselves around the Mecha and pulled it forcefully into the water. I involuntarily raised my arm towards a lever in the top of the cabin and pulled it, my seat slipped and raced towards a second cabin in the mecha’s head.

“
Come on, launch!” — I yelled.

The huge
Mecha’s thrusters ignited as it separated from the ship, the metal arms did not stand a chance against the thrusters’ ignition but they quickly gripped onto the Mecha’s legs and pulled it into the ocean’s water. I tried getting away but that thing had tens of metal arms that wrapped around me tightly, I inspected the monster’s details underwater and it was a metal saucer and those arms were coming out of the edges along with something that looked like a head. I launched the double blades slashing some of them, and the rest of them were torn by the marine cutter when the girl dove in to help me beat that monster that I had no idea when his arms grip on me would end! I fired my spiral fist towards him and he quickly pulled back his head. All of his arms disappeared inside his reinforced armor. After a crush in spiral ricochet, the monster attacked again and I tried to control my balance in the water and jetted towards him and the girl jetted along my path. Then, I docked with the marine jet and now my movement was easier and faster!

It was all a matter of speed when it came to maneuvers with this monster. He extended his arms to chain the
Mecha and his neck pulled us even deeper in the ocean’s waters. This time, I had a grip of one of his arms and prevented it from returning. I fired my double blades towards the monster and as he could not completely close his armor because of the arm that I was holding, my blades flew in through that small opening and the girl followed it with the marine cutter. As the opening widened up a bit, the marine cutter quickly chopped off the monster’s head. We released his arms and the girl pulled me up from the depths of the ocean just before a large underwater explosion propelled us  out of the water. Her image appeared in front of me and I heard her voice:

“
We have finished him off. I’ve longed for facing battles with the Prince!”

“
I also have wished to face these battles with you… even if in my dreams!” — I replied.

“
Mr. Husam… you love Ms. Malak don’t you?” — the girl asked.

“
ahhh… Yes! I do love her!” — I said.

“
Have you told her?” — the girl asked.

“
aaahhh…” — I said out loud.

“
Mr. Husam, I lived with the Prince for four years. I loved him more than myself and I would sacrifice myself in every battle that I faced with him… for him! But I never said it once!” — she added.

I saw her tears flow from behind her helmet.

“I never said it when he was with me… and now he is in another planet… another galaxy… another world… I cry for every moment we had together and I did not let him know that I loved him…” — she added.

I then disconnected my
Mecha from her marine jet and just before I reached the ground, I was hit violently on my back and my Mecha fell to its face. As I tried to stand up, I saw a UFO coming my way and carrying an insignia that I knew very well, it was the star of the special forces. These were their most ruthless forces. Around the saucer’s rim, teethed cutters popped-up and they were rotating fast. As the UFO came closer, I released the anti-gravity storm to change its heading. The other young man threw his dual cutter towards the UFO but it did not even scratch it’s armor. It changed its direction and went in a collision course for Malak. I launched a storm towards him but the UFO’s armor only absorbed it and then released it towards Malak’s ship, causing it to stop in mid-air and then her ship started falling!

He then fired a beam that engulfed her with a magnetic field and pulled her behind him as he rocketed upwards
… to space!  I ran as fast as I could, jumped and re-docked the Mecha with his ship speeding after the UFO to save Malak. The rest of them tried to catch up, but their ships retreated as we exited the atmosphere and stormed into the darkness of space. Since they could not handle the lack of pressure and reduced oxygen beyond forty kilometers.

This was a
brilliant plan on their part! They knew that I would come to rescue Malak and they wanted to detach me from Earth which was the source of the Mecha’s energy and weapons. At the same time this eliminated the support of the two other flyers that had been assisting me from the equation to deal with me alone in space!

I caught up with him but I was afraid to fire my lightning bolt and harm Malak in the process. I detached the
Mecha from the ship to surround the UFO from two sides. Then, I fired the fusion accelerator and his teethed blades appeared as he attacked the ship destroying its wing, part of its tail, one of its engines and it also caused it to lose its balance. I released my rotating saucers from the other wing but they had no effect in the UFO which had slammed into the ship, giving Earth’s gravity a stronger grip to pull it down!

The UFO finally opened and an enormous giant robot appeared. His giant arms came out of the two teethed shields and he attacked me and pointed his teethed blades towards me after he had firmly gripped my
Mecha’s neck. He fired beams from his eyes and horns and they paralyzed my instruments. He pushed me towards Earth as his cutters started rotating and destroying my Mecha’s face, the blades were just ahead of me and the only thing between me and them was the cabin’s protective glass. The glass did not hold the blades for long as they began giving-in with a loud crackle into the cabin. As the glass shattered, I saw the rotating blades come closer to me, this was my end!

Malak cut into that moment of despair and his beams and blades stopped. I saw the drills of the piercing weapon appear from the monster
’s chest after Malak had attacked him from his back in a desperate attempt that succeeded because of his preoccupation with destroying me after coming out of his shell. Malak’s intervention was a fraction of a second too late, The blades stopped the moment one of them reached my chest and sliced through several of my ribs. Blood exploded everywhere and I felt paralyzed in my left side, not to mention the pain! If I was to die now, I would not leave Malak under the mercy of that monster, I started to feel cloudy and I tried to control the Mecha with my right arm alone. It, I released me piercing fist to destroy his head followed by space lightning, but he came towards me, and closed his armor on my Mecha’s arm as it went in flames! He decided to blow up with me attached to him, I tried to release the Mecha’s arm but it was of no use. I had to do something fast!

I fired the double blades towards the arm that was stuck in the monster
’s armor to amputate it. I then pushed myself into space towards Malak. I caught her ship the moment the UFO exploded and this pushed us towards the rocks. Only seconds separated us from the collision… Malak’s engines were destroyed with the explosion and I stuck what remained of my Mecha’s arm into her driller and docked with her releasing the anti-gravity storm at its maximum power towards the ground to avoid the collision and we survived miraculously!

The
Mecha was now scattered between land and sea. I was nothing but a corpse letting out his final breaths inside of the Mecha. Malak came for me and she collapsed when she saw me in this state with my exposed ribs coming out of my chest. She carried me out of the cabin, took off my helmet and her tears were pouring down on my head while I was resting on her lap as we sat on the Mecha’s open palm.

I felt those were the last moments we had together, I could hardly take a breath as my blood filled my mouth. I smiled and since I wouldn
’t let this moment pass in silence, I said:

“
Malak… you have designed everything in this world, am I right?” — I asked.

She answered me with a smile that floated above her tears and pink nose

“Everything? Even my looks?” — I continued talking.

“
Everything! What you’ve seen here is nothing. It is a very simple projection to grant you everything you wished for in your life!” — Malak added.

“
You mean to say that this is not everything?” — I asked.

She gently nodded with her head with a no.

“I must appear to you in a form that you could understand” — Malak added.

“
So, if you designed everything, where did all of these disasters come from?” Who is so insistent to kill me with such ferocity and take me away from you?” — I asked.

“
Mr. Khaled and his wife. They are the only ones who can intervene in this world and all they care about is for you to go back to your sister Maram. At the end, they have succeeded and I have failed!” — Malak added.

I feel my soul leaving me with each of my breaths. I wouldn
’t waste whatever seconds remained with my questions as I knew I would find out everything soon enough.

“
Malak… I love you!” — I said.

She exploded with tears as she held my head.

“I love you too Husam! I will die without you, please do not leave me and go!” — she added.

“
Malak, if I was not concerned for my mother and sister I would not have hesitated to stay here with you!” — I said.

“
So, that is it?” — she asked.