Celeste Gao

Mr. Cunningham

10H English

27 December 2021

2248: Awakening

Soon1, humans will no longer be able to survive on Earth, but they could rely on

technology to successfully find a new galaxy in space. And fortunately, the newly

founded galaxy is habitable, with all kinds of resources. Humans, thanks to their

advanced technology, have become the masters of the galaxy2.

"Wake up, wake up." He3 shook the girl violently as she lay on the lab stretcher.

It was a day after the girl opened her eyes. She blinked. Suddenly alerted, she

sniffed carefully. Brush, the girl suddenly sat up, put a fighting posture, as if to

prepare for the upcoming threats. One side of the three people was momentarily

stunned, and quickly clarify: "we are good people, we saved you from the lab, do not

hurt us." At the word "lab”, the girl's head jerked4.

"Is your name Ulrica? "Asked a child beside him. She points to her name tag,

which is marked with her birth date and identification code:

Year 2248, Jan.1. Ulrica #2248001 Female.

1
Science Fiction
2
Flashforward
3
Third person objective
4
Foreshadowing
 Then a man came out of the darkness, and Ulrica recognized him immediately.

This was the man who had saved me that day, she thought.2

"I'm Clarence, and there are four people on my team, all of whom I rescued from

the science base. You can either join us now or go back the way you came." Ulrica

hesitates for a moment and asks, "Why are you doing this?5"

"I've hated it there since I was a child. They think of humans as experimentalists,

as machines to defend themselves against foreign enemies. They control our brains

and force our ideas to serve them." Ulrica was quick to sign up. But what she does not

know is that her brain is still equipped with an unfinished chip6, hidden deep inside.

That day, after wandering the corners of the galaxy, they came to a cosmic rest

stop. The rest stop serves alcohol, and the room was covered in darkness. People came

and went from time to time. Ulrica sits alone on a bench. She looked down at her

arms and legs. Her body was as smooth as wax and seemed to glow with gold. After

gently stroking her hair, she found her hair turned blue and purple, just like the color

of the universe.

Just then, the hair on her body suddenly bristled, as if danger were approaching.

She turned nimbly and saw two strong men approaching. She looked at the two men

from top to bottom, who were laughing with a bottle in one hand. Ulrica had a hunch

that the two of them might have something against her. And just as they were closing

in, alerted by her body, she kicked them several miles away. She picked up a knife and

stuck it in both men's backs with one brush. No matter how much her teammates tried

5
Direct Discourse
6
Symbol: the chip
to persuade her, she just went up and slashed again. Just as she was about to continue,

she began to twitch and her head began to hurt again. At that moment, her head of the

side from time to time also issued a red signal light, a flash. She was writhing in pain,

though her body was intact. Her teammates took umbrage at her behavior, believing

that her maverick, tyrannical personality was causing them too much trouble, and left

her alone in the break room.

After a while, when she calmed down and looked up and saw blood all over the

room, she realized something was wrong. A memory flashed before her eyes.

Scientists had placed a chip in her head that they said would monitor her movements.

It’s just like hearing people around her saying, “Control, control, control……”

Before, she didn’t set off the alarm because her emotions are stable. However,

because of her emotional outburst today set off the chip, and she also knows that the

base has known her whereabouts.

Just as she was looking for a place to take shelter, she heard the roar above her

head and saw countless drones have surrounded her. Although she was built to be a

female warrior, she was exhausted from the fight. A white light shone on Ulrica, who

was surrounded by drones. She tried to open her eyes, but the high intensity of the

light broke the protective layer of her eyes, forcing her to kneel helplessly and cover

her eyes. Not only that, it's like the intense light triggered the chip in her brain. Her

brain burst into pain, like a tear, and the red light lit up. Faster and faster, brighter

and brighter. It was like a buzzer, stimulating her meninges. At that moment, a
thousand memories flashed through her mind. She thought of her childhood7 running

through fields with her friends under the glow of the setting sun; she thought of her

favorite game when she was 10, and she remembered her mother’s smile and the

feeling of her hug……Countless memories in her mind seemed to be the only warmth

that the cold chip could bring her, evoking something deep in her mind. It was

indescribable. It was as if there was the heat inside her that empowered her and made

her part of herself again. At this moment, her four teammates came back. Clarence,

flying the plane, tells her to hurry up. But just then, a drone blew up the wings of their

four-person plane, and the plane was unusable.

In desperation, Ulrica watched as she and her friends were taken back to the base

again, and in her mind, she's already plotting something.

Back at the base, without any delays, Ulrica is pushed up to the interrogation

stand and faced all the humans. She walked slowly to the center of the stage to face

the crowd. She lowered her head and said, " I have a strong body, tenacious will,

strong psychology. I'm just a perfect person. But an accident caused me to lose the

chance to be that perfect one. It was taken away by these people around me. But

during this time, I realized many different feelings. It's not so much strange as

familiar.”

“I was so-called people's soldier, but the people of this wicked land have not told

you of their ambitions. They said I was created to be the strongest warrior among all

humans, with the toughest fighting skill and cleverest mind. However, luckily, I

7
flashback
haven’t satisfied their wants. In another word, I’m flawed. I have extremely unstable

emotions with a chip unfinished in my brain.”

The crowd erupted, whispering and questioning the veracity of Ulrica's words.

One of the chief leaders of the scientific base came out and said to the crowd, “Don't

believe what she says. Everything we do is for the people, for the pursuit of a better

quality of life, for the benefit of mankind. For hundreds of millions of years of human

history, we have been waiting for this moment, this moment when we can become the

masters of the universe. She just lost her head for a moment.”

Ulrica signed, “I know you may not agree with me. Please calm down now and

find a voice of your own. Think of the happiness of your childhood, the warmth of

your family, or the spiritual satisfaction of a little flower on the side of the road. For

so many years, we seem to forget our identity, every day in the ordinary.”

“They want to control all our brains to turn us into elite warriors to help them

conquer other lands, or even engulf the universe. Remember there’s one quote from

Huxley’s Brave New World8, when Bernard talks to Lenina, he says, ‘I want to know

what passion is, I want to feel something strongly.’

“The current world reminds me of what Huxley had described. With no personal

identity, we’re born to be machines or even weapons of our world. But now, even my

only friends, for now, are going to be killed in front of me. I hope all of you can

support me, support us, against the current world without human rights. We are going

to stand up and take back what is ours."

8
Intertextual Reference to Huxley’s Brave New World
 There was silence in the crowd. No one spoke. Ulrica was thought to be hopeless.

But then, "I Agree!" Said an old man, rising slowly to his feet. Then, one by one,

everyone rose, hands in the air, and shouts of "Objection, objection!"