As the cave descended deeper, it transformed into a labyrinthine chaos, reminiscent of an ant colony. The walls curved and branched, the ceiling lowered, passages narrowed, and in places, water seeped from the damp stones, forming small troughs. Each tunnel opened into small recesses and interconnected natural chambers, varying in size and function.
Some had been used as shelters, with pieces of old cloth tacked to the walls; others were spaces that resembled storage, filled with rusty cans, broken bottles, and piles of bones. Overseeing a cave with so many chambers must have been an exhausting task. There were even small holes between some walls, barely wide enough for a person to crawl through. What mysteries lay in the depths of this cave?
As we ventured deeper, the air grew heavy, and a mixed scent of mold and iron clung to one's lungs. After I requested to see Elder Jack, Hank quickened his pace.
"Does this colony have a story, Engineer Hank?"
"Ah... Our Elder and his family set foot here centuries ago. To escape the Republic..."
"This looks like quite a large colony."
"We're not far from the Republic Network. This planet is the perfect fit for many fugitives..."
"So, there are many spaceships that come here, is that right?"
"Yes..."
"If so many spaceships have landed here, where is their technology?"
"In the Engineers' Room..."
"Will I be able to see it?"
He suddenly stopped and turned to me, laughing: "Of course, Mr. Aldoux. You will be able to see it..." Then he continued walking.
"Kael tells me that a lot of young people are leaving the colony."
"There have always been heretics who won't make sacrifices for science."
"I hear you're having food shortages."
"We are having shortages of quality food. We have provisions... We just can't please the young people."
"I see..." I drawled.
"Leave your next question for the Elder, Aldoux. Please follow me."
I had seen few colonies this strange in my life. Even the colonies founded by the settlers who had fled the Maxerth Vilian ship, driven mad after being struck by chemical weapons during the Interstellar War, were not filled with so much nonsense.
Look, it wasn't the hierarchical order that bothered me here. It was the absence of everything. People had no spirit, and no reason to work. The only food harvested was some ridiculous plant, and they were all lying on stones inside the cave. Well... I had seen some people sleeping in beds as we wandered through these ant-colony caves. Perhaps only the most primitive ones were kept outside. Because, as we went deeper into the cave, people had started showing reasonable behaviors and expressions.
Elder Jack's quarters were one of the cave's chambers. Right in the middle of the room, the Elder lay motionless inside a capsule filled with a green fluid, surrounded by a carved stone amphitheater. The pipes beneath the Elder's capsule must have led to a system for constantly changing the fluid. The electric wires above the Elder's capsule were connected to a reactor. What fuel could the reactor be using to generate energy? Why would this man need these electric wires? Then I thought for a moment.
The green fluid this man was in was the life fluid. At least, that's what it was called in our family. It contained many agents that could heal tissues and provide energy to cells. Preparing such a chemical was quite difficult. It didn't sit well with me that this engineer named Hank had managed it. There must have been a better community of engineers somewhere. A community capable of preparing that chemical.
And the electric wires... Those electric wires were likely running something. The valves were mechanical... The chemical inside the capsule didn't need electrification. If that fluid was the life fluid, the Elder wouldn't need electricity to sustain his life. I examined the electric cables briefly. They disappeared into small holes in the ceiling. But... I noticed something just then. The number of holes in the ceiling was quite large, and even with a quick glance, I could see suspicious eyes scrutinizing us through those holes. We were being watched...
I was walking toward the capsule. The only people in the room were praying elders, pregnant women, and the disabled. How had a rich man who once owned an old colony suddenly become a sacred object for a people? How could they view this room as a temple?
As I approached the capsule with slow steps, I could see the Elder looking at me with tired eyes from the other side of the glass, though it was dirty. His body was intact. He looked quite vigorous, completely naked. A mask was placed over his mouth so he could breathe comfortably, with his graying hair falling toward his eyes.
"The Outsider wishes to speak with you, Elder," said Engineer Hank, bowing.
"Why are you here, outsider?"
Brilliant! I'd figured out the purpose of the electric wires now. Normally, this man would use the air tubes to speak directly from inside the capsule. But the voice that came out was electronic. It was as if someone else was speaking in place of the Elder, pretending to be him. A developer's ear would certainly not miss the difference in this voice. As my eyes searched for a voice device:
"I came because I need help," I said. I hadn't had to search long for the voice device. They had placed it inside the capsule. I could clearly tell this from the electric cables that ran along the edge of the capsule's glass. I could probably see the device if I moved a little closer to the glass and looked beneath it.
"And what kind of help do you seek?"
"My spaceship broke down. If your engineers can assist me..."
"What do we get in return if we help you?"
"I was in one of the END colonies before I came here. I'm carrying a large amount of valuable minerals. It was difficult to sneak past the Republic's radar, but it was worth it. I can share a portion with you in exchange for your help."
There was a moment of silence. Then: "Engineer Hank..." the voice said. "...Please take care of our friend."
"Of course, sir," he said, curtsying. Then he came up to me and said: "You are very lucky, young man! Elder Jack has approved of us helping you."
It was a very simple, brief, and concise conversation. As the curtain on Jack's capsule closed, a chill of uncertainty gripped me. Hank said he would host me in the Engineers' Room. Before going to the Engineers' Room, however, I told him I wanted to talk to Kael, as he knew my ship's location better.
To reach the Engineers' Room, you had to pass through a small tunnel and emerge into another cave. The view from this cave was quite beautiful due to its height. An entire forest lay beneath your feet.
But let me tell you the truly interesting thing about this room: the Engineers' Room was genuinely a room where engineering took place. After the poverty below and Engineer Hank's strange behavior, I had thought there couldn't be anything resembling engineering in this colony. Yet, I was wrong...
Spaceships lined up one after another, all undergoing maintenance. Opened cockpits, disassembled engines, and many other parts were spread out on the metal floors. One or two people in engineer uniforms stood by each one, examining the parts meticulously.
A man was welding on the wing of a spaceship... The weld was not masterful, but he was still performing a job that required skill. A woman had connected a computer to a spaceship's engine and was running tests. A man was trying to fix a jammed valve with a hammer in his hand. Everyone... Everyone was busy with a task.
"You damned sons of bitches! If you have all this technology, why aren't you helping the people down below?" I wanted to scream, but decided that I needed to calm down after this scene, which had broken my preconceptions. It was best to be calm and observe.
I saw a blonde woman in the distance holding a holographic paper. She seemed to be educating the young girls and boys gathered around her. She was pointing out the materials lined up on the shelves one by one, and having them touch the machine parts. She warned those who weren't taking notes with a metal stick in her hand, and the children poked by the metal stick presented a genuine sight. Look... I said a genuine sight. Honestly, I was expecting children being beaten with a metal stick here.
"I hope you liked our Engineers' Room," Hank said. "I hope it met your expectations."
"Yes... It mostly did."
"If there's anything you'd like to ask or see..."
"No worries. I'll just wander around on my own."
"But please... Please don't touch anything."
Of course, I wouldn't touch anything unless necessary. Just watching and examining would be enough, but I didn't just want to look around. I was looking for a sign as to why Elder Jack below was silenced or why someone spoke on his behalf. I wandered everywhere until I came to a small sealed container in one corner of the room. That container, that was the time-accelerating agricultural capsule that creates artificial plants. It usually contained a genetically modified plant. Since this plant could not survive under normal conditions, its needs would be met in that capsule, allowing it to grow quickly and be harvested.
The plant living in this capsule was not a familiar one. It didn't look like it was being harvested either. The plant was crushed at a certain temperature, and the liquid that came out was carried away by pipes. This liquid in the pipes was the same as the fluid going to Elder Jack. So, these maniacs had managed to create a plant that contained all the needs of the life fluid; they had even managed to mass-produce this plant. To be able to put the diversity of hereditary traits required in the life fluid into a single plant, without the backing of any corporate power, was genius.
"Is something catching your attention?" A slightly older, blonde woman approached me.
"This is truly beautiful engineering work. Who made this, I wonder?"
"It was already here when I arrived."
"When you arrived?"
"I wouldn't exactly call myself a native here. I arrived 10 years ago. I used to be a prostitute. My boss was one of the richest men in the galaxy. I had no choice but to go outside the network to escape his tyranny. I managed to get outside the network with great difficulty, risking death, and eventually found myself on this planet. The people here... The people here took care of me."
"Yes... Especially since they made you an engineer."
"What do you mean? Are you saying a prostitute can't become a scientist?"
"You misunderstood me. I only..." Before I could finish my sentence, she walked away from me and went to her engineer friends in the distance to gossip about me.
Why did no one in this facility take the damned science seriously? A prostitute could become a scientist, yes, but not overnight. Downstairs, a stupid-looking plant called Rootlant is being cultivated, but no one cares. The population wanders around like they have no brains, but the engineers are working diligently here. It's as if this planet is under the influence of a substance...
Wait a second... Did I just say 'under the influence of a substance'? Could it be that my enhanced body is immune to the drug, so I don't feel anything? The people downstairs are wandering around like imbeciles. The engineers upstairs are working diligently, but judging by Engineer Hank, they don't look very smart either. Why was Elder Jack silenced? I have so many insane questions in my head. Damn it... Why did I end up becoming the detective of this cursed colony?
"Hey Aldo!" a voice shouted. The owner of the voice was Kael. An engineer seemed to have accompanied him this far.
I took Kael with me, and we pushed ourselves through the door in the middle of the glass partition and onto the spaceship landing area. As I dragged Kael, he was anxious and yet curious. The other engineers were watching us from the other side of the glass.
"What are you doing? Why are you tugging on my clothes?"
"Why am I tugging? What kind of ridiculous colony did you bring me to?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not going to sit here and talk at length about the stupid things going on. I just want to ask you this: have you felt any difference since you came to the colony?"
"What kind of difference?"
"A headache, nausea, whatever."
Kael looked up at the sky for a moment and thought. "Actually..." he said, and thought a little more. "...Nothing at all. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. It's as if the whole colony is under the influence of something..."
"They are already."
"How?"
"That Rootlant plant... The reason it's cultivated is for the narcotic substance in its leaves. We sometimes use it to light the fire, just so we can sleep comfortably."
"Why?"
"Look, Aldoux. This is outside the Republic Network... Most of the people who come here live a life that's like a damned torment, and they escape here as a last resort. Their children have no purpose in life. That's why the only thing they think about is taking drugs to relax their minds, and maybe filling their stomachs a little. Of course, some have children... And the children are given some chances. They can become engineers and continue their lives differently. But unfortunately, the chemicals in the Rootlant plant's leaves are so harmful that the mothers who use it either miscarry or have mentally slow children."
"What about the engineers?"
"They were a team founded by Elder Jack's son back in the day."
"And who is his son?"
"Hank..."
"Then why didn't you tell me all this before I came here?"
"You didn't ask..."
"Wonderful... And why do the engineers speak instead of the Elder? Is the Elder too lazy to talk?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying, why are the engineers speaking in Jack's place?"
"Where... Where did you get that idea?"
"Ah... So you were unaware of this situation."
"Do you realize the seriousness of what you're saying? If this gets out, the whole colony will rebel."
"Why? Is Elder Jack that important?"
"Jack is the only person who can talk back to the engineers. Yes, the workers may have preferred a life worthy of death, but some people don't want to give up their rights so easily. Jack is the only authority who can defend the rights of the workers against the engineers."
"I don't understand one thing. What are the damned workers expecting from that damned life that they think the engineers can take from them?"
"Their dreams..."
"What does that mean, Kael?"
"Even if the workers don't try to improve themselves, they live with the dream that they will get better one day and that their engineers will accept them. This dream must not be broken..."
"So, why do you think the engineers silenced Elder Jack?"
Just then, I thought I heard the sound of a small mortar explosion in the distance. Kael was taking a defensive stance against something, but I only realized what was thrown at me when it hit my head. As I writhed in pain from the impact on my head, Kael bent down and picked up the cloth ball on the ground.
"What is this?" Kael asked, taking the communication device out of the cloth.
"It's a communication device..." Then I glanced at the direction the thing that hit my head came from. "They're using my weapon!" I could see the scope glinting; the fools were still using the night vision scope. It was a miracle that they managed to hit me despite that scope. I could see Velsil and Goma waving at me. Taking the communication device from Kael's hand, I put it to my ear without the engineers seeing.
"How did you find me?"
"Goma was already following you because she didn't trust the kid. She had returned after finding your location," said Velsil.
"Weisshafen!" Ilya yelled, cutting in. "Where are you?"
"I'm busy dealing with the shitty job you gave me."
"Couldn't you have sent a message in the meantime?"
"Velsil couldn't set up the communication satellite."
"Let's not say 'couldn't', let's say it took a long time to learn how to set it up," that was Velsil's voice. "I've never set up a communication satellite before."
"You only had to follow the instructions!" Ilya said. "It shouldn't have been that difficult."
"Your weapon is legendary..." Goma said, picking up the weapon and shaking it. "...I've never truly used a weapon before. You know, I've been practicing for a few days while you were gone. I feel like I'm close to knowing enough about guns to kick the Custodian's asses."
"This is not the time, Goma," Velsil and Ilya said simultaneously.
"So, how are things going with the colony?" Ilya asked.
"Complicated... It would take a long time to explain."
"Tell me, I'll listen."
With that sentence, the reciprocal question-and-answer story-telling, which would last for more than half an hour, officially began. The storytelling was so boring that I could hear Goma yawning and dozing off in the background.
"So, we don't know why Elder Jack was silenced, is that it?" Ilya asked.
"Yes..." I said. Kael was dangling his feet off the metal platform, swaying them, and yawning at the same time. I nudged Kael to make him pretend to listen, but it didn't really matter anymore. The engineers on the other side of the glass had stopped peeking at us. "...If I told them I needed a ship, would these engineers give it to me? Should I try that?"
"They might not trust you because you lied to them," Ilya said. "The moment they realize your ship is a corporate vessel, you'll become their enemy."
"We were supposed to give this colony agricultural land, right? In return, we would get permission to use their ships. It's questionable whether they need agricultural land... They have advanced technology. This just proves what a crappy plan you had, Ilya!" Ilya's plan falling through somehow gave me pleasure. Yet, our situation had fallen into an even worse state.
Ilya was speechless, and I cannot describe to you the pleasure that gave me. When a person you're used to screaming, shouting, and scolding suddenly falls into silence, that's when you reach the true, orgasmic pleasure of being right. That's why I might recommend you be as wrong as possible toward someone before you are right. They don't expect you to be right, and at that moment, you are rewarded with immense pleasure.
"I know why Elder Jack was silenced," Alora said.
"Were you on the communication too?" I asked.
"A notification came from the device while I was praying in my room. I'm still praying now, but I'm also listening to you."
"So, why was the Elder silenced?" Ilya asked.
"Because of Marcin Grom."
"What is that?" Velsil asked. "A vehicle? A name?"
"Isn't that the thing?" Goma asked. "The man in our capsule..."
"Yes..." Ilya said. "...but what does that have to do with it?"
"When I was fired from the facility because of Aldoux's alcoholic paranoia, and when I first found that capsule, a visitor came. This visitor was Hank."
"Elder Jack's son?" I asked.
"I assume he is, based on your description," Alora said and continued to explain. "Hank and a few engineers from his colony were constantly traveling to discover the planets around them. During these travels, they were chasing discoveries that might attract the attention of the Custodians."
"And why is that?" I asked.
"Because, fool... To ensure there is nothing the Custodians might want. They are after collecting and hiding the inheritances on the planets before the Custodians notice them. That way, the corporations cannot settle on that planet."
"But we settled..."
"Do you want me to explain the difference in work ethics between the Galactic Environmental Protection & Resource Management Agency and the Space Archaeology & Heritage Preservation Agency?" Ilya snapped. "Resource gatherers are only responsible for the excavation area on their planet. If an Custodian finds a worthwhile inheritance, the entire galaxy is their responsibility. But for an Custodian to be legally responsible for the entire galaxy, what they find has to be very, very valuable."
"Therefore..." Alora interjected. "...This Platoria planet team..."
"Is this planet called Platoria?" I whispered to Kael, gesturing with my eyebrows. Kael nodded in confirmation. "I didn't know that."
"...This Platoria planet team was traveling from planet to planet to see if there was anything that could be mortally important to the Custodians. I don't know what they used to research these important things, but..." Alora's sentence was cut short by Ilya.
"You said Elder Jack used to own an old mining colony, right? If he managed to escape the Hyperion ship invasion from the mining colony, he wouldn't have left his most expensive technologies in the colony, would he? He might have taken one of the scanners used to search for valuable minerals and modified it to search for radioactivity," Ilya said.
"The Elder mentioned having such a technology when I was little," Kael said.
"First of all, can you hear the conversation that clearly? The headset is in my ear."
"Yes... I can hear more or less when it's not fully seated in your ear. When it's fully seated, no sound escapes."
"Thanks for the heads-up, Kael. Oh, by the way, I realized I really forgot to ask something. What is the Elder to you?"
"Well... He's my great-grandfather. He's considered the great-grandfather of half the colony anyway. When they first arrived at the colony, the only men were Elder Jack and his son John. The rest were servant women working on the ship... He couldn't even save his wife and daughters from the Hyperion attack."
"So..."
"Even with the foreigners coming from the outside colony, most people here are considered relatives."
"Disgusting!" Ilya said from the back. "Too much inbreeding!"
"What is Hank to you?" I asked curiously.
"My cousin..."
"Great..."
"You damned fools!" Alora shouted angrily from the back. "How dare you interrupt me even though I'm telling the most important story?" Alora took angry breaths for a while. The breaths hitting the microphone were drumming against my eardrum. "Anyway... What was I saying? Ah... I remember... Hank and his team came to the shrine I made. They had no intention of harming me or the shrine in any way. All they wanted was to examine the thing that increased the radioactivity values. They stayed with me for a while and asked me questions. They had even suspected that the radioactivity was coming from me."
"And then what happened?"
"They said they wanted to move the shrine to their own planet. I objected at first, but then they told me they would help me set up a more beautiful shrine on their planet. I would rather go to another planet than live miserably on my own planet because of a stupid, spoiled, and perverted leader."
"She's talking about me when she says stupid, spoiled, and perverted," I told Kael. "You don't need to take it personally."
"I thought so too," Kael said. Before I could shout angrily, Alora continued telling the story.
"But they couldn't move this capsule when they wanted to. No force was enough to lift the capsule's weight. They even tried to pull it with their spaceship, but to no avail... It was as if there was an energy wall around it that could disrupt physical force or energy."
"What was the corporation doing while all this was happening?" I asked angrily.
"The satellite security sensors were off until I turned them on," Ilya said. "It's your fault, Aldoux, for not noticing them."
"I didn't even know such a sensor could be turned off."
"The Platoria team, unable to move the capsule, finally took photos of it and recorded the name written on it before they left. When they returned a few days later, the look of their greatest fear was on their faces. They looked like the walking dead. 'We showed it to our master...' Hank had said. 'And after what we heard from our master, we want to tell you this, Miss Alora. I think you should stay away from this man too. We can take you to our planet if you want,' he added. But I had adopted that shrine and that man as a sacred duty. That's why I couldn't leave."
"Now you've left and you're in our resource gathering facility," Velsil said in surprise.
"Is changing the planet the same thing, you fool!" Alora snapped angrily. "I go to visit the shrine every morning anyway!"
"Hmm... Hmm..." A few murmuring sounds came from Ilya. He was deep in thought. "Elder Jack has been alive for hundreds of years, hasn't he? He's been alive since the Interstellar War. He must know the name Marcin Grom."
"Should I search for this name on the internet?" Velsil asked.
"Don't..." I interjected. "...If this man is an important man, we'll get on the radar of the Republic and its corporations. According to Alora, this man could be the Custodian's favorite. Just think how much money this man could be worth... A man who looks like a high-ranking officer from the Weapons Security unit, who has been lying there for centuries. But if we notify the Custodians and they come, we won't get a penny of that huge amount of money! I'm telling you, they won't even let us smell that money... But if we manage to wake that man up, or if we can deliver that man directly to the Republic, that's when we'll hit the jackpot!"
"You're making the mistake of trying to put a price on a saint, Aldoux. The price of a saint is determined by the faith he fights for. You shouldn't wake up a saint without knowing what he became a saint for."
"Blah blah blah!" I suddenly shouted in anger. I shouted so angrily that even the engineers behind the glass were surprised. I turned to Kael and pretended to be talking to him. "Please save your damned gibberish until I get back to the facility! I'm actually dealing with a job right now."
"Why would we need that much money anyway?" Ilya asked. "Why should we antagonize other corporations?"
"For meat!" Goma said.
"Maybe that much money would make it easier for us to get the robots that brought us to this planet..." Velsil said.
"If we have that much money..." I interjected. "...We wouldn't need to buy robots and search for fossils. We could just buy three or four fossils directly from the black market."
"Wouldn't they realize those fossils didn't come from this planet?" Velsil asked.
"Filthy!" Ilya's voice thundered, sharp and clear. "Not just filthy, but blindly idiotic. The Republic's Fossil Registry records the carbon and mineral isotope signature of every single piece. Trying to pass off a fossil that didn't come from this planet as one that did is not simple fraud that can be solved with a few data entries. It would not only land us in prison, but it would cause us to lose all our licenses!"
"I just threw out an idea... Why are you jumping on me?" I said. "But money is money, right? It will be useful to us either way."
"I have an idea..." Velsil said. "...Our main goal with the money was to buy robots, right? If we have a lot of money, wouldn't it be possible for us to set up a robot facility instead of just buying robots?"
"Not a robot facility, but..." Ilya interjected. "...We could set up an excavation team. A team full of really good engineers. We would provide them with more equipment than they need and have them sign a non-disclosure agreement."
"Small teams under the main team, I don't like that at all," Alora said. "If the Republic finds out, they won't like it either."
"I think this is even safer than buying robots," Ilya said. "You could even list that engineering team as cleaners on paper. No one has to know what they're doing. They'll stop working when the inspectors come, and go back to work after the inspectors leave."
"Fantastic!" I suddenly shouted. "If everyone agrees that money is a very beautiful thing, I'm moving on to the next topic."
"What is that topic?" Ilya asked.
"We need to get information from Elder Jack about Marcin Grom. We agree on this, right?"
"Yes..."
"And I have a plan for how we can do it," I said.
"That's exactly what I was afraid of," Ilya said with a world-weary sigh.