Ali Sam: Erapa - part 1/6

By Steve Howard

Ali Sam - Erapa is a story about friends on an adventure. It takes place in todays world. It starts like this and the first six chapters are free:

“What if they should take from the tree of life and live for ever.”
Unknown God

“It can’t be explained in a word.”
Ali Sam

chapter 01 _ billy takes sally for a joy ride

“Look Billy.”

Sally leaned against an English sport’s car.

“I want this one.”

Billy walked around the car once, checked the tires and the condition of the car. He wasn’t getting a car if it wasn’t in good running order. He nodded then looked up at Sally.

“It is quite an old model.”

“It’s pretty and I like it.”

“Okay. But I better test drive it first.”

“Whatever, Billy. Just get me the car. Please.”

Billy laughed. He loved to tease Sally. Sally always got her own way with Billy if she tried just a little. Sally gave Billy her, well, I’m waiting look. Billy took out his knife and cut the convertible roof off. Twenty seconds later he had the car running.

“What’s in the glove box.”

“No gloves. Oh, look. Some grass.”

Sally found all she needed to roll a joint and ignored the small handgun. They might shoot the tires out later to inspire a story. The police would try to track down the owner’s enemies. Sally and Billy set the framework for that story more than a few times.

“Do you have enemies.”

“One, obviously.”

“Do you have any idea who.”

If he did, or if she did, they would have an adventure. Sally and Billy thought the world needed more people on adventures. Adventures were fun. Fun made people happy. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong.”

“Can’t find a lighter.”

Billy pushed in the cigarette lighter.

“Holy shit. That’s a lighter.”

“Standard issue in this car. Do you know how many of these they built.”

“No. Look.”

Billy gave a quick look.

“You have talent.”

“And you have brains. Let team up and fuck some shit up.”

Sally laughed and lit the joint.

Billy looked at the beautifully rolled joint that Sally held up to admire after exhaling. He loved the big smile on Sally’s face. He gladly worked at putting it there when he could. He smiled at Sally and forgot about driving. Just for a second. Long enough to drive in front of a cement truck. That was the last thing that his brain recorded to memory for that evening.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Howard
• Release date: Sep 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463060360

Steve Howard

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 1960. Moved to London, Ontario, Canada in 1967. Started playing hockey and piano. Went to Sir Wilfred Laurier High School and played the trumpet.Studied Architectural Technology at Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Sciences. Started playing guitar and writing a little. On a trip to the mountains in 1982 with a friend I decided, or was awakened to the knowledge that I was going to pursue writing. Graduated 1984 and moved to Toronto.Moved to Saarbrücken, Germany in 1993.Have traveled many places in North, Middle and South America and Europe.Besides reading and writing also work on photography and music.

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Ali Sam

ERAPA

Steve Howard

PUBLISHED BY:

Steve Howard on Smashwords

Ali Sam

ERAPA

Copyright © 2018 by Steve Howard 773U5

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission by the copyright owner and the publisher of this book, except in the case of quotations embodied in critical articles, essays and reviews.

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***

Table of Content

Ali Sam - Erapa 1/6

chapter 01 _ Billy Takes Sally for a Joy Ride

chapter 02 _ Sally and Billy Head to Canada

chapter 03 _ Sally and Billy’s First Assignment

chapter 04 _ Sally and Billy in Brussels

chapter 05 _ Sally Writes a Story

chapter 06 _ Sally Works With Caprice

***

What if they should take from the tree of life and live for ever.

Unknown God

It can’t be explained in a word.

Ali Sam

chapter 01 _ billy takes sally for a joy ride

Look Billy.

Sally leaned against an English sport’s car.

I want this one.

Billy walked around the car once, checked the tires and the condition of the car. He wasn’t getting a car if it wasn’t in good running order. He nodded then looked up at Sally.

It is quite an old model.

It’s pretty and I like it.

Okay. But I better test drive it first.

Whatever, Billy. Just get me the car. Please.

Billy laughed. He loved to tease Sally. Sally always got her own way with Billy if she tried just a little. Sally gave Billy her, well, I’m waiting look. Billy took out his knife and cut the convertible roof off. Twenty seconds later he had the car running.

What’s in the glove box.

No gloves. Oh, look. Some grass.

Sally found all she needed to roll a joint and ignored the small handgun. They might shoot the tires out later to inspire a story. The police would try to track down the owner’s enemies. Sally and Billy set the framework for that story more than a few times.

Do you have enemies.

One, obviously.

Do you have any idea who.

If he did, or if she did, they would have an adventure. Sally and Billy thought the world needed more people on adventures. Adventures were fun. Fun made people happy.

Shit.

What’s wrong.

Can’t find a lighter.

Billy pushed in the cigarette lighter.

Holy shit. That’s a lighter.

Standard issue in this car. Do you know how many of these they built.

No. Look.

Billy gave a quick look.

You have talent.

And you have brains. Let team up and fuck some shit up.

Sally laughed and lit the joint.

Billy looked at the beautifully rolled joint that Sally held up to admire after exhaling. He loved the big smile on Sally’s face. He gladly worked at putting it there when he could. He smiled at Sally and forgot about driving. Just for a second. Long enough to drive in front of a cement truck. Sally’s smile was the last thing that his brain recorded to memory for that evening.

Alarms went off in the company. The two subjects were being watched. Not because of their hobby of petty theft and auto theft. They were of interest to the company because of Billy’s brain. They wanted it. Billy and Sally were on their future recruitment list. The company had invested already in the two. Twenty-four hour protection surveillance.

A medical helicopter was sent to the accident scene without decisions being made. An ambulance would take too long and they would die in a clinic even if they weren’t already too far dead. The brain would hold out for a few minutes if they were dead. They would save Billy if his brain wasn’t mush. They would save his friend too.

The medical helicopter landed on the street. The medical crew cut the seat belt off Billy and rushed him to the helicopter. He had no hands or feet and the rest of him looked worse. To add to the nightmare, he had a piece of metal in his head. As soon as he was brought to the helicopter, Sally was already being removed from the wreck.

She didn’t look as good. She looked more like hamburger. The body could not be repaired. They would take what they could. First priority was the brain. That would be enough. If they had that they could work from there.

They weren’t going to a hospital. A hospital was not equipped to do what they could do. So the helicopter landed at the nearest airfield and the medical team and the remnants of two crazy kids were transferred to a jet and were transported to an airfield close enough to the clinic that it was better to use an ambulance for the rest of the journey to the clinic and in the elevator and up to a surgery room like no other in the United States. The surgeons were robot operators. There would be no hands on doctors for these patients. They needed the best care. Technology could rebuild them. At least it could rebuild Billy. Sally was more of a problem. Had she not been leaning over to smile up at Billy with a joint, her head would have also been hamburger.

Sally’s case wasn’t hopeless but after quickly determining that they could save only her brain, heart, lungs and liver she was connected to machines to keep her in a controlled coma.

She would have to wait for a body donor.

Billy had serious internal damage but after sixteen hours of perfectly executed surgery he was alive enough to start growing replacement parts. They would make new bones with material from Billy’s bones. Billy’s bones would be optimized. He would have a design that looked like his original bones but his new bones would grow a little longer and stronger then his other bones would have. He would also get an optimized balance of muscles in his arms and legs.

Billy would be stronger than he was before. His potential to get even stronger was greater. It wasn’t a necessary thing for a brain recruit to be strong. It simply was no more work to make him better. The robots just had to know what had to be done. They were patient and precise.

Doctors came in to look at him and talk to him. He was not in a coma after the surgery. He couldn’t talk but he could hear in one ear. The other ear had to be made. They would make both ears new with 3D printing and insert them with simple surgery. Aftermarket edition. It mattered that Billy knew of the outer world so his stock ear was left in while his new ears were being made. His brain needed to be responding to the environment. So either doctors talked to each other, a doctor talked to Billy, or anyone might come in and read to him.

Did you know that Frankenstein’s monster never had a name.

Never thought about it.

His name is Billy.

We’ve done a much better job than Frankenstein did.

You can say that again.

She might have just to be funny but both their phones rang at the same time. It was 03:36 so it could only mean one thing.

This might be your friend’s lucky day, Billy.

Billy made a visual reaction detected only by one of the machines.

Oh, look, he reacted to that.

We’ll come back, Billy. We’re going to fix up Sally.

He did it again.

He must really like Sally.

They had a body for Sally in Washington. It would be hours before it got to the clinic but there were things they needed to do to get Sally prepared.

The victim of a shooting was a friend of someone in the company. The victim had been of some interest to the company before she adopted a destructive life style. A new brain would be just the thing she needed. Most importantly, she was the same blood type.

When the legally brain dead woman arrived in the clinic she was ready to be operated on. Sally’s heart, lungs and liver were ready to replace the ten-year-older and very much-abused original issued. Not really necessary but too easy not to do it. Sally had better organs. The brain operation would be 36 hours of work for many robots. Sally had some damage where the brain met the neck. It was better to keep some of the dead woman’s brain and graft Sally’s to it. Not a human surgeon operation. But the robots could do it.

Everyone felt good about the operation. They watched on monitors to see what was going on inside Sally’s skull. They watched mostly to make sure everything was okay with Sally. The new Sally.

Everyone forgot about Billy until the next day. Billy was content to sleep. Sally became a project. They made some minor amendments to her muscle structure. They corrected a slight breathing defect. They agreed they grow her new bones in her feet. The dead woman had damaged the originals. They replaced her elbow and knee joints. They amended her breasts so that they would be stronger and bounce less when running. She was their racecar. Every little bit matter. She was naturally beautiful. She would be unnaturally strong. Like her friend Billy. Not a super human but closer to one than what she had been.

They allowed themselves a lot of time with very minor operations. They made new ears for Sally as well. It actually made more sense for her. They corrected a slight problem in her eyes so that she would have perfect vision. At least until she was 48 and needed reading glasses. They might have been finding excuses to wait to bring Sally back. Eventually there was nothing else they could do to optimize Sally. It was time for the girl to wake up a woman. There was still concern. Her brain wasn’t like Billy’s. Sally’s brain worked great in a coma. She was a wild creature to admire and a nice subject to work on. She wasn’t likely to be as peaceful when she woke up.

She was saved to be in the conscious world. They had to bring her out of her coma. She would need to stay in a full body harness for a while longer. There were still a few things healing. There were still many surgical cuts that were being told by very small computers how best to grow so there would be no scarring. It really was for her protection. Her muscles were being trained with electrical stimulation to make her heal faster and grow stronger. No one could guess how she would react to waking up quite a bit someone else. She would wake up a wild and reckless kid not at the beginning of puberty but a grown woman.

Sally, I’m Doctor Stern. You are waking up slowly in a clinic. You were in a bad accident. You were unconscious for a while until we fixed you up.

The doctors talked to Sally for two days before Sally attempted to look at any of them. She couldn’t quite understand what she was looking at but she had a framework to go on. Me Sally. In clinic. Fucking Billy.

Hello Sally. You should be able to hear me. Can you show me that you understand where you are.

Sally squinted at the doctor then closed her eyes again. It was too bright. She held onto the word doctor. She wasn’t ready to think about it yet but she would try to remember to think about it.

She didn’t have to think about it. When one doctor got tired of talking to her the next one came in and told her she was alive and healing brilliantly. They told her about her accident after a week. They often assured her Billy was whole again. Asking about her. Whenever Sally sensed they were worried that she wasn’t making enough progress, she grunted or focused on the doctor for a minute. This day she did both at the same time.

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