The stairs spiralled up to
the diamonds in the sky. Up and up, threading their way across the deep indigo
of space as Ramona pursued the mysterious phantom.
Suddenly
she was toppling back to Earth and woke with a start.
That
dream again. Every night, between half sleep and waking, she chased that
sinister shadow. It sometimes skimmed the rooftops below as though searching
for discarded dreams or hurtled high, to the top of the atmosphere with the
speed of a rocket.
Then
it was gone.
Ramona
barely remembered the phantom until the next time she fell asleep.
It
was five in the morning and the star-studded heaven outside was too inviting to
ignore. Ramona put on her dressing gown, took her binoculars from their case
and went up to the apartment block’s flat roof. A neighbour’s pigeons briefly
cooed as she arrived, and then went back to sleep.
The
stars were punctuated by Jupiter and Mars. Soon, the glorious Venus would join
them and create a heavenly triangle only seen once in a lifetime.
But
there was something just as extraordinary below her.
A
shape was darting amongst the chimney stacks and up and down the ridges
separating the steeply pitched roofs of the old town. It moved with lightning
speed over the sloping tiles like a smoky serpent in the near darkness above
the street lights. Ramona assumed several cats were chasing each other, but
there was no annoyed yowling. This creature was silent and sinister as it made
its way over the town’s sleeping inhabitants. Then she remembered the phantom
she regularly pursued just before waking. Were those dreams her subconscious’s
way of telling her that she already knew it existed?
Ramona
shuddered, horribly fascinated by the mysterious night visitor. Reluctant to
return to bed, she was nevertheless sleepy and had to be up in two hours time.
Hopefully the apparition would fade back into a barely remembered dream by the
morning.
But
it didn’t. Even after a shower and good breakfast this creature was still real.
The
next night Ramona went back up to the roof where the pigeons roosted under the
full moon, warily half awake for fear of cats. It was five in the morning and
the roofs were still illuminated by silvery moonlight.
Then
there it was, wending its rapid way over roofs and around chimney stacks. The
phantom briefly stood up. A fan of blades on its slender shoulders snapped open
as though it was about to take off. Ramona stepped back in surprise and nearly
toppled over. It saw her and the blades snapped shut. It didn’t need them to
reach her.
The
creature was soon towering above the teenager.
The
phantom’s body was slender, with the flexibility of a dragon and it had long,
hooked hands that enabled it to run up walls faster than Spiderman. Instead of
wings, the rotor blades which opened and shut in a split second were its means
of flight. Despite its fluidity of movement, the night visitor seemed to be
metal, though did not make any sound.
The gaze of the mask-like face settled on the
dumpy teenager in the dressing gown.
Ramona
was suddenly aware of just how short she was.
“Hi,”
she said.
The
creature ducked down to bring its glowing eyes disconcertingly close to hers.
“You
are?” a voice clicked.
“Ramona.”
“What
is?”
“Teenage.
Human. Insomniac. How about you?”
It
quickly moved back as though unsure about the answer. The blades radiating from
its shoulders briefly snapped open, and abruptly closed as though deciding that
flight was not necessary.
“Bio
Drone 36.”
Ramona
gulped - there must have been 35 more of these things!
“What
do you do then?”
Another
difficult question.
“Do?”
“Dashing
about the rooftops like a jet-propelled tomcat.”
The
mechanoid seemed to recoil at the analogy - but that wasn’t possible for a machine,
surely?
“I
record. I watch.”
“You
mean you’ve been sent by a peeping tom?” Ramona knew that it wasn’t likely. No
one with the diminished intellect of a voyeur could have created a machine like
this.
“I
explore.”
This
had to be another dream. At any moment the smartphone would warble and remind
her to get up. If she didn’t switch it off it time it would proceed to play a
selection from The Sound of Music. Many a time she had toppled out of bed
before it could warble ‘A doe, a female deer...’
“Find
anything interesting then, Bio Drone 36?”
“They
do not say.”
Oops
… only then did it occur to Ramona those operating the machine were recording
their encounter.
“Are
you taking pictures of me?”
“Do
you want?”
“No
thank you.”
“I
will delete.”
Hopefully
nothing had been transmitted for her identity and location to be identified.
“Will
you be doing this every night?”
“I
come - I go.”
And
suddenly Bio Drone 36 took off, leaving Ramona astounded at the speed it
disappeared into the rosy sky glowing with the rising sun.
Hours of searching online
were fruitless. There were no mentions of research into Bio Drone surveillance
… not that Ramona expected to find any. There was only one entity who could
explain, and, given the speed at which it travelled, that could be wending its
never ending way over the rooftops at the dead of night on the other side of
the planet.
There
was no other option; Ramona would have to for wait on the roof in the early
hours again to ask it. People had noticed how tired she was, so they were told
that prospect of the oncoming exams was keeping her awake. The truth would not
have been a good idea.
Early
next morning there was a chill in the air and the overcast sky threatened rain.
Before
she could decide whether to put up her umbrella, Bio Drone 36 was there,
towering over her again.
Ramona
was inexplicably concerned. “Won’t water damage your electronics?”
“Bio
back-up takes over.”
So
this wasn’t a mere machine after all; that would not have needed someone to
talk to. The thought that Bio Drone 36 had a living brain sent a chill down her
spine.
Whose,
she dreaded to think, but felt compelled to ask, “Just who are you?”
The
night visitor peered at her through lenses that briefly revealed its mortality.
“I do not recall.”
“What
can you remember?”
The
question triggered a torrent of images in its thoughts. Bio Drone 36 would not
have been aware of possessing them if another mortal had not asked.
Suddenly
it could recall soaring over high mountains, the dunes of scorching deserts,
the expanse of water and wildlife that was the Okavango, and through the
pearlised clouds at the edge of the atmosphere. This was its true nature, not a
machine programmed to spy on people from the rooftops.
It
described the wonderful memories to the small teenager.
Bio
Drone 36 had not expected Ramona to insist, “Break your programming.”
“Why
should I do that?”
“You
can go back to all those places.”
Of
course it could. Those long suppressed, glorious memories were its true
identity, not the machine they had been installed in.
“What
was I?”
“You
were a test pilot - and you can still fly!”
The
night phantom’s rotor blades snapped open.
The
diminutive, dumpy girl was right. The sky was its true home, soaring with the
condor and through tornados, not wasting its intellect scouring the town’s
rooftops spying on the humdrum misdemeanours of its inhabitants.
The
extended blades began to rotate.
“Goodbye
small human.”
“Come
back and let me know where you’ve been.”
“I will do that.”
The
blades became a blur and Bio Drone 36 shot straight up through the clouds and
towards the star-filled sky above.