I was quite enjoying myself. While Hulk and I walked side by side, whispering in the back, Doctor Lara was giving us a tour. Our Jose was having an electrical problem, but it wouldn't take more than a few hours for him to return to his old self. As soon as Jose woke up, he would give them our information, and it would be revealed that we were inspectors. It would be revealed, but Director Lehstorm already seemed convinced that I was an inspector.
Doctor Lara glanced at us, and we were giggling. We were both quite pleased that the woman who had been acting like a dog just two or three minutes ago was now saying, "Please, sir."
Lara was giving us a tour of the facility. This was something I wouldn't have done before Jose woke up, but I was really, really enjoying Lara's tour. Every once in a while, I'd stop and ask her to repeat something she had explained. I would say I was tired and rest unnecessarily. I'd occasionally criticize Doctor Lara for speaking too fast or giving unnecessary information. In short, I was really enjoying this bullying.
"Did you say Dermovox?"
"Yes..."
"Hmm..."
"Dermovoxes are the native creatures of this planet," Lara said in front of a screen.
"Oh, my, my... Look at that..." I said, and once again let out a "Hmm..."
On the screen was a creature with four front legs and two hind legs, a body that resembled a slightly hunched ox, but with a face that indicated it was a predatory animal, and armor that looked as hard as dragon scales. "I've heard of Dermovoxes..." said Hulk, and the bespectacled blue dwarf moved closer to the screen. He began to scrutinize the creature's anatomy.
"Very interesting... Dermo... Dermo...Vox..." he said, and I was watching my feigned air of understanding annoy Lara. It was a very enjoyable task.
"If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask, Mr. Mehmet."
"No, thank you."
"We can continue, then," she said and was just about to start walking when...
"Please stop... Don't go, I have a question. So why is the name Dermovox?" I said, and let out a "Hmm..."
"Dermo is a word added because they are famous for their hard skin. Vox, on the other hand, was added to emphasize their telepathic side. This planet is largely devoid of oxygen. That's why these creatures have evolved to not require much oxygen. They don't like to move much and therefore don't need much food.
I should probably mention the structure of this planet. There's nothing on the surface, but the planet's surface is filled with cracks that go very deep. Some of these cracks can even go down to the layer protecting the core. There are many caves in these cracks. Thanks to the Umbrelium plants in these caves, some habitats have formed there. In other words, natural living spaces. Small living spaces containing plants, small animals, and fungi."
"The Umbrelium plant is a very special plant," Hulk had said, turning to me, but I was listening to Lara mockingly with my hands on my chin. "It can sense where sunlight strikes from miles away and grow roots toward it. The flowers that bloom from its roots absorb sunlight, providing power to the plant itself..."
"Yes... Absolutely..." I had said.
Lara had rolled her eyes and continued to explain.
"These caves are not very common, so the Dermovoxes, who don't like to move much, constantly split off and search for them. When a Dermovox finds a cave, it wants to tell the ones nearest to it. That's why it sends a signal. Like a telepathic signal..."
"So that's why their name is Dermovox, huh..." I had said sarcastically.
"Wait a second..." Hulk had interjected, pointing to the screen with his finger and saying to the woman, "This was the experimental race in the Interstellar War of 2648 that was said to change the course of the war. It was claimed that it failed..."
"It would be more accurate to say that they didn't make it to the war, rather than they failed," said Lara.
"Is this important information?" I had asked. "Because I really can't handle another history lesson."
"Is the Interstellar War important?" asked Lara in surprise.
"Yes... Thinking about it, it sounds important."
"It was a war that changed the course of the universe. There were hundreds of thousands of fronts, billions of martyrs, and millions of heroic stories in the war. The war was fought between the Supreme World Republic (SWR) and the Colonies.
The reason was clear. The purpose of creating the first space colonies was to help humanity. By spreading across planets, the population of the home planet would decrease, scientific discoveries would accelerate by spreading to other planets, and the resources of the colonized planets would be shared between the Colonies and the Republic. The Republic, in turn, would support them with its institutions, acting as a guiding hand from above. However, the Republic had not kept any of its promises.
While the Colonies struggled with hunger and injustice, the corrupted Supreme World Republic (SWR) was prospering with its corruption. The institutions were not functioning properly, and the necessary support was not being provided to the colonies. When the Colonies began to raise their voices, the Republic first silenced them so the public wouldn't hear. Then, when the uprisings began, the Republic, which had not seen war for a long time, unleashed all its fury on the colonies. The massacres that occurred were beyond measure.
The human uprising was insufficient against the Republic's robot armies. Space pirates, ostracized scientists, heroes exiled for political reasons, and colonists united and waged war against the Republic. Of course, some colonies, afraid of the Republic's power, had sided with the Republic. All of Mars's colonies, the TerraNova Colony, the Kora Colony, and the Mahtez Colony can be given as examples of this.
There was one problem. The Republic's technology was so powerful against the colonists that the colonists were simply subjected to a genocide. Even though uprisings broke out within the Republic, the Republic itself was the one that controlled all the technology. Quartez, Evoke Systems, and many other companies were working as the Republic's puppets. Weapons, technological devices, and robots were all under the command of the Republic.
The Colonies were building war robots, but due to cyber-attacks, those robots were also turning against them. No advanced technology weapon had an advantage against the Republic."
"Well, I'll be damned. What happened while I was asleep." I pulled up a chair and sat down. If there had been tea, I would have drunk it greedily and listened to the story. "So... what happened next? Did the Colonies win the war?"
"Of course they didn't win, you idiot!" Hulk interjected. "There wouldn't be a Supreme World Republic then. And you and your profession wouldn't exist either."
"True..."
"The Colonies, realizing this war couldn't be won, were looking for other solutions. The scientists wanted weapons that could at least stop the massacre coming down on them. That's why they tried to create biological creatures that could fight for them. The heroic Ronald Coldwer, who was the head of the Cosmic Innovation and Scientific Development Agency at the time, was a former colonist. He was born, raised, and educated in the Colony. He owed everything to his colony. That's why he established this facility by embezzling funds from his agency. This facility would be a place where scientists from the colonies could work together; it would produce weapons that would help in the war between the Colonies and the Republic."
"Wait a second... A director of a Republic institution established this place?"
"Yes..."
"So... this is both treason and massive corruption."
"Yes..."
"Hulk, do you notice? The word 'corruption' came out of our mouths just once, and now we're starting to see it everywhere. It's not leaving us alone..."
"I'm aware, boss."
"So what happened next?"
"When it was discovered that Ronald Coldwer had embezzled money, he was executed. The embezzled money could not be traced. And a very rich and pro-Republic man took over this facility and hid it from curious eyes."
"Let me guess... John Crowrift?"
"Who?"
"John..."
"No, I don't know anyone like that."
"Then who?"
"A mercenary named Dante Shade. We didn't know exactly where his money came from because he wouldn't let us know. I was a little colonist girl back then. When my father was working for him, he had enough money to turn some people into "Developed." We knew that a simple mercenary couldn't earn this much money. He was probably the leader of a terrorist organization rather than a simple hired soldier."
"Dante's name? I think I remember that name somewhere... If Jose were here, I would ask him."
"Did Dante abandon you later?" Hulk asked. "After investing such huge sums of money..."
"While most of the colonies and their people were being annihilated in this war, this facility and the colonist people working in it had become untouchable. Dante Shade must have been a major figure, as no one dared to enter his facility and harm the colonist people working for him. I don't think Dante Shade cared about the facility or the goals it was trying to invent. He might have taken this facility to save us from the war."
"Did he really disappear later?"
"He disappeared before I even became a 'Developed.' According to Lehstorm, he spoke with him before leaving and appointed him as director. In their last conversation, he said he was going to thank a friend."
"Why would Dante have taken this place?" I asked.
Lara had answered like this: "The day before he left, he picked me up and stroked my hair. Despite being so rich and a cybernetic, he was still completely human. As he stroked my head, he might have thought that by doing such a good deed, he could fill a void in his heart or soul."
I paused for a moment. "So where did all these people go?"
"After the war ended, there was no need to hide. Most of the scientists left their work to the robots they had trained and disappeared. Even my father..."
"But you didn't leave."
"Because I believed this facility would achieve something, even if it was late."
Lara had taken us to an observation center to watch the habitats. The floor beneath our feet was glass, and we had the opportunity to observe all four habitats. Desert, polar, forest, and swamp... All of this was also surrounded by a huge sea. Looking down beneath our feet, we saw human-like creatures. These were Dermovoxes that had been evolved to be turned into weapons.
Lara moved in front of another screen and showed me what the Dermovoxes had been transformed into. The Dermovoxes were now standing on two legs. They were four-armed, dark purple creatures whose entire bodies were covered in hard, armor-like scales and looked extremely tough. According to Lara, any standard bomb would have the effect of a fly's bite on their skin. The reason this race was preferred on the battlefield was their great strategic superiority in war. Each one could enter a common mental communication and constantly exchange information about the enemy. This telepathic structure was actually a structure that computers also possessed. Even if it wasn't as perfect as computers, it could get the job done.
"We are doing everything we can to make them a warrior race," Lara had said. "We constantly start wars between their tribes. We constantly release stronger biological creatures into their habitats to train them against great dangers. For example, last month, we put a huge TerraNova Bear into their habitat. It took them about a week to deal with it."
"A TerraNova Bear?" Hulk had turned to me, his eyes wide as saucers. "They should have been extinct. Did you clone them and throw them in?"
"Yes..." Lara had said.
"Cloning a creature as large and genetically flawed as that is a very arduous task. Just so you know, Boss. The TerraNova Bear was a creature created by scientists in the TerraNova colony to destroy the creatures called the 'Deathbringer,' which were a threat on their planet. It was a truly dangerous creature, but it couldn't reproduce, couldn't evolve, and didn't live very long. It didn't have many instincts. It was just a deadly bear-like creature, 5 meters tall with sharp spikes."
"Wow, how interesting. I can't stay still from the excitement," I had said sarcastically.
"So how do you direct these Dermovoxes while they're inside the habitat?" asked Hulk, who was settling his glasses firmly on his pointed ears.
"With fire..."
"How so?"
"We've integrated a fear of fire into the Dermovoxes' culture."
"But aren't these creatures created to be weapons? Their fear of fire means they're afraid of most things in war."
"No, you don't understand. We added a fear of fire to their culture because according to their religion, only the one worthy of ruling fire could touch fire. We use flint to create fire. It's a very simple thing to find. But instead of waiting for fire to spark by rubbing flints together, we developed a tree. This tree's genetics were altered so that its core essence interacts with the smallest spark from a flint to create huge flames. By using the trees as fire barriers, we've controlled these creatures quite effectively." My eyes had teared up from yawning while Lara and Hulk were talking. Were they talking about interesting things that I just wasn't getting, or were they truly boring?
"So you'll direct them with fire as long as it suits you. Then, when they're ready for war, you'll make them feel the zeal for a holy war with their prophet who rules over fire, in a sense. So how will you persuade them to fight when the time comes?"
"Their prophet will be in our hands. They will want to listen to him."
"What if they resist... what if they become rebel groups? You've instilled this culture in them through inter-tribal wars. You wouldn't want to poison the minds of a race with such developed war intelligence and advanced war instincts with computer chips, would you?"
Lara had smiled. "You're asking questions by anticipating that this race will go to war. And I'm answering you as if they will, but the war is over. Maybe these races will never fight, but..."
"But what, Doctor Lara?"
"But when they need to fight, they will listen to their prophet."
"Even if they are told to fight for humans?"
"Even if they're told that."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I believe it will be this way," she said, looking at me for a long time. As if I were the key to this whole thing happening.
After a period of silence, Hulk couldn't contain himself and asked one more question, pointing to the Dermovoxes below.
"So how have they become so culturally advanced? They've already been able to develop some tools, like early Homo sapiens. It looks like they've discovered the spear. They have a well-progressed civilization, even though they don't use fire."
"Because we are constantly trying to make progress by combining human and Dermovox DNA," Lara had said.
"Wait a second, this... this isn't normal, is it?" I really wished Jose was with me, but I wasn't so stupid that I couldn't understand this was unethical. "This is absolutely unethical. I know that combining human DNA with other DNAs is forbidden according to BEDK laws." "Or maybe I'm guessing."
"But you will not reject this facility in any way," Lara smiled.
"And why is that?"
"Because I recorded your conversations with Lehstorm," she said, showing me a chip in her hand. "You offered him a bribe."
"If this gets out..."
"You'll be disbarred from your profession."
And that would prevent me from taking the money I had saved up by laying low for 400 years, and I couldn't accept that.
"You deliberately cornered me there. Both you and Lehstorm!" I shouted.
"Yes... And you fell for it. You thought Jose being put to sleep was also by chance, didn't you? I neutralized him with a communication frequency. It's a shame... Old models can break down so easily."
"Why did you do that?"
"If your assistant friend had been here, he would have talked to you about rights and laws, and prevented us from deceiving you, right? Of course, I couldn't have predicted that you would be bombed once he passed out. Or that you were such a bad pilot... It's a good thing you didn't die, isn't it?" It was as if a world continued to live beneath our feet. In this world filled with plants and animals, the Dermovoxes were roaming around and hunting, just like humans in primitive times. "The missile attack was useful for us. It strengthened our hand." Lara ran her hand over my shoulder as she left the glass room. "I'll be waiting for you to approve this facility. After you give your approval, your friend Jose will join you."