Fareeha and the Sky
The fruits of Angela's labour ripened today. She had been working on her new suit for the last few months, but I have no doubt that she had been nursing the idea for years.
She calls it the "Valkyrie swift-response suit", and it still needs a little work, at least from the aesthetics side. She designed it to allow her to fly between allies, so she can get to the injured more quickly.
Today was a beautiful, cloudless day. The perfect weather to test her suit.
A bunch of us older Overwatch members were watching Angela fly between the cliffs of Ilios, in case something went wrong. She had explained how it worked, but I couldn't understand most of the details. The most I got was that the suit is attracted to blood for now; she's working on finding a way to make it work with omnics as well. The halo-shaped helmet she designed is what detects blood, and she can direct her flight path by pointing it in the right direction.
That afternoon, she was controlling a drone carrying a vial of pig's blood we picked up at the butcher's, and chasing it around with her suit. It's not real controlled flight, but it looks pretty close. I asked her why she didn't just get herself a mech suit that could fly. Angela said that they're too heavy, use too much fuel, and are so noisy it would draw a sniper's attention right away. I agreed.
My cybernetic eye improves my vision by six fold, so I could see Angela's flight in crisp detail. I watched for any falters, any looks of uncertainty or fear on Angela's face. There weren't any, so I let my attention wander for a bit, and I saw Fareeha sitting on the edge of a cliff, watching Angela. She was wearing a white, sleeveless dress I got her.
She doesn't like wearing dresses very much. Fareeha likes to run at full speed, and either the dress gets in the way, or it rides up to reveal her bum. She wouldn't mind the second part if I didn't chastise her for doing it.
"They're not going to let me become a soldier like this", she had whined.
Exactly, I thought.
Although she doesn't like how dresses restrict her movement, I know Fareeha thinks they're pretty. Angela has a similar attitude, and the only dresses she has in her wardrobe are from me.
Fareeha jumped a little when I approached her from behind.
"You don't have to worry about her falling. Angela knows what she's doing."
"No, that's not what I was thinking", said Fareeha, moving her chin to let them rest on her knees. "I just wish I could fly like her. Wouldn't it be fun if we could play tag in the sky?"
"What are you saying? You can already fly!"
I picked Fareeha up under her arms, and put her on my back. I stooped over until my upper body was horizontal to the ground and stretched out my arms. Fareeha always loved to fly. No matter how sad she was, doing this never failed to bring a smile to her face.
With her arms outstretched, Fareeha laughed as children do: honest and uninhibited. I ran in circles, imitating airplane sounds, Fareeha's laughter my jet fuel. After a while, my lower back ached, but I did not stop until I heard a camera shutter.
Angela has an old polaroid camera. Ever since their invention in the 20th century, those instant cameras have been coming in and out of style. It's pretty common to make fun of people who like to use old technology. I find them awfully inconvenient, but they do have their uses sometimes.
"Having fun?" asked Angela, as she waiting for the photograph she had just taken to print and dry. "I saw you while I was in the air. My camera was nearby, and I just couldn't resist taking a picture."
Angela handed me the photo of Fareeha flying on my back, her white dress fluttering behind her. Fareeha likes to call Angela an angel, but my daughter is truly the one from heaven.
"Thank you", I choked, embarrassed at my sudden rush of emotions.
"Would you like to see what it's like?" Angela asked Fareeha.
Fareeha gasped and stared at Angela. "Do you mean…? Oh Mama! Can I go? Can I please fly with Angela?"
I wanted to say no. Half of me knew that I could trust Angela, but the other half insisted that if something went wrong, I'd lose both of them instead of one. But with the way Fareeha looked up at me, with her eyes wide and shining, there was no way I could turn her down.
"Wait for me here", I told the two.
I made a quick trip to the base to pick up the things we would need.
For her last birthday, Torbjörn made Fareeha a black, plastic suit that looked like a mech suit, but without any of the functionality. It did; however, have a button on the palm that Fareeha could press to make shooting noises. The helmet paid homage to Anubis, an old god, but I didn't bring it so Fareeha could feel the wind in her hair.
I helped Fareeha into the suit, but she had a growth spurt recently and had already grown too tall for it. We didn't attach the gauntlets or boots, and I decided to let her go barefoot to avoid the risk of losing a shoe in the Mediterranean Sea.
I picked Fareeha up, and put her standing on top of Angela's feet.
"Mama!" She protested, cheeks darkening furiously.
"How did you think she'd take you flying? By towing you with string?"
Angela laughed at my retort, and helped lift Fareeha's arms to the side. In my rush to keep Fareeha and Angela from waiting too long, I had grabbed the first thing I saw from the base that would work. Starting at the shoulder, I duct taped Angela and Fareeha together, making a thick "x", and then for good measure, around their midriffs and chests.
"Can you breathe?" I asked.
"No", said Fareeha.
"Good."
I handed each of them an earpiece and microphone, and put a set on myself.
"Tell me if anything goes wrong."
"Will do, Captain Amari", said Angela.
Angela gave Fareeha the controller to the drone, and without needing me to ask, wrapped her arms around Fareeha as an extra security measure.
I did my best to suppress my chuckle at Fareeha's flustered expression.
"One last thing", I said. Using my thumb, I traced a pattern, first under Fareeha's right eye, and then under Angela's. "It's the Eye of Horus", I explained. "For protection."
Then I nodded, signalling that they could go.
Fareeha sent the drone flying, and Angela launched them high into the air.
Fareeha made a strangled noise somewhere between a gasp and a squeal, and I watched her almost drop the controller, except that Angela grabbed it before it fell.
"Mama!" I heard through the earpiece. "Do you see me! Are you watching Mama? Look, Mama, I'm flying!"
I watched them soar through the clear, blue skies for a bit, listening to Fareeha's laughter. When it looked like they there going to be safe, I looked down at the photo I held of Fareeha riding on my back. I wondered if she would laugh like that for me ever again.
I turned off my microphone and cried.
