As the green clouds turned dark gray with the night slowly covering the sky like a shroud, the sound of engines igniting with enough power to pierce the clouds shattered the silence of the night. This noise, causing a deep tremor in the ribcage, was accompanied by the sharp wind generated by the drones' massive propellers and the stench of the atmosphere. The clouds were dispersed by the hurricanes emanating from the power of these four gargantuan transport drones' engines; the ground beneath these engines was crushed by the pressure. Pebbles, sand, and many other things leaped from their places because of this force.
The chains attached to the drones creaked and strained as if they might snap at any moment under the weight of their cargo, turning the noise in the night into a demonic symphony.
As for the load… The cargo held by the four corners of the drones and carried through the sky was the Cryo-V crate. It floated in the air like Pandora's Box, snatched from the hands of the gods, moving with an unwavering, determined speed to curse whoever might open it.
Leaving the words "Uruzen TESO Factory" behind them, these drones landed on a plot of land at the foot of the mountain. This area had been blockaded by robots just hours before. Outside the wire-fenced area, the people of Uruzen were leaning against the wires, wondering what the magnificent drones were carrying, waiting with cheers as the drones lowered the crate.
When I say cheers, I am indeed talking about joyful cheers. This colonized people had perhaps seen Labiba outside the facility for the first time in years. That twisted, hideous, and despicable-looking man was like a holy figure to these Uruzenians. They believed they could never get rid of him, and that without him, Uruzen City—or rather the entire planet—could not exist. The cheers were for him. Those praising his power would add a sentence of plea to the end of their words. Those speaking of what a great man he was would mention their illnesses. As sentences lined up one after another, words of love and hate fused together, a situation that confused even a simple hunter like Azrak.
"These people have lost their minds…" Azrak said.
"Do you know where madness begins, Azrak?" Hikmar asked, playing with the staff in his hand. At that moment, the Cryo-V crate could not be lowered because its chains were swaying. It was expected that the stabilizing of the chains would reduce the swaying at least a little. No drone would land until the chains relaxed and the flight stabilized.
"In the heart of a lover? In the head of a drunk? In the mind of a motherless child or on the tongue of a loveless person… Where nature dies with hatred or where those fleeing from death are found? Do you think madness comes from God or from hell? According to that, its starting point definitely changes."
"Madness begins right here," he said, pointing with his third arm to the crowd of people behind the wires. The robots gave electric shocks to rein in the noise of the crowd. Although the people were tossed back a bit, they stuck back to the wires and continued to scream.
"How so?"
"These people have lost everything. Their lifespan, compared to ours, is as short as a dewdrop falling from a leaf to the ground… Their bellies are so flat from hunger that their spines would touch the ground if they lay face down. Due to misery and ignorance, they live on the foundations of a shattered moral system. But interestingly, they live."
"You mean…"
"Madness is life itself, Azrak." He glanced at Labiba. "These people who have lost everything must risk their only remaining thing if they want to gain everything. And that is their lives… But instead of losing their lives, they risk living by losing everything. What makes them commit this irrationality is madness—excuse me, life."
"What is the point of having everything if they are going to lose their lives?"
"Yes…" Hikmar said with a momentary zest upon hearing these words. "…immortality has dominated these realms for a very long time. That is why we have forgotten a mortal galaxy. Death might be a misfortune for us. Death might be a rich man's fantasy for us. Death might be a weapon that silences the poor or a malfunction in the body of a stingy, irresponsible man. But for us, death cannot be life."
"What does that mean?"
"In fact, death is within life. Plants, insects, lakes, and even stars die. It is death that brings life into existence in the first place. Because there is death, it is valuable for a plant to be plucked at its freshest moment. Because there is death, civilizations must be built before stars go out, and one must row on lakes before they dry up…"
"What does any of that matter anymore? A flower, a lake, or a star. Every star in the galaxy is in the palm of our hands… We can create as many lakes as we want and dry up as many as we want. Giving life is in our hands…"
"No, we cannot."
"How can we not? I have seen with these eyes planets built from scratch and planets crumbled into dust. I have witnessed countless creations and destructions."
"You don't quite understand me, my dear friend. Giving life is not in our hands. Perhaps transmitting life might be in our hands. But… giving life from nothing, giving meaning… that is definitely not in our hands."
Frowning with confusion, Azrak asked: "What do you mean, wise Hikmar?"
"A bunch of atomic particles came together, then molecules came together." Hikmar was playing with something imaginary with his hand. It was as if he was trying to imagine the images coming to life in his mind with hand gestures, trying to knead his thought as if it were a real object. "Finally, a piece of flesh was formed. Coming from nothing… something that shouldn't care even if it had never existed. So how did this piece of flesh gain consciousness?" he asked Azrak. "More importantly, why did this piece of flesh coming from the darkness resist so much not to return to the darkness?"
"You are talking about the sub-elements of evolution. Many scientists explain this through the law of energy transfer…"
"No…" Hikmar interrupted Azrak with great sharpness. "…what you don't understand, dear Azrak, is this: Life is this… Life is this law. The thing that allows plants to exist, that allows lakes to exist, that keeps stars alive and kills them is the law. I have never seen a scientist who could stretch the laws of science and physics, or create a law."
He took a few steps and moved away from the area where the drones would land. "While reasoning, you fall into a cunning trap that most people do. You talk about creating life but you exclude the elements that create life from this subject. If you do that, you are talking about transforming, not creating. If you truly want to create life, you must be able to create the laws of life, the death of life, and much more."
"Is life a cycle then?" As the drones' engines cut their power, the crate was slowly being lowered to the ground.
"In the current laws, it is," Hikmar said. "It is the transformation of energy. If you cannot get energy, you die, which means the life of someone else. But creating a life from scratch, creating energy from nothing… is not something science has been able to do yet, and as far as can be seen, the laws of physics will not allow it."
"Where is the madness in this?" Azrak asked. At that moment, the massive crate was left on the ground. As the dust raised by the crate falling onto the soil spread around, Hikmar pointed to the Uruzenians once more.
"There is the madness…" Then he smirked. "…Madness lies in those who do not choose a proper life just so they don't lose the energy that isn't even theirs, which the universe gave them as a loan and which they want to keep inside."
With the lowering of the crate, the chains were opened one by one. To ensure no one was hurt as the chains fell, robots climbed onto the crate and held onto the chains tightly. A few robots had been quite battered during this troublesome process.
As Labiba and Nuskul walked towards them, the gate in the wire fence opened and an autonomous truck backed up towards the crate. While two massive tracked loading machines lifted the gargantuan crate with difficulty and placed it inside the closed bed of the truck, Hikmar smiled, noticing Azrak looking at him in astonishment.
"Everything is energy…" he said. "…beyond that, adding meaning to life is madness. If you are going to add meaning to life, then you must live meaningfully. And if you want to live meaningfully, you must accept death. All these are deductions that trigger each other. But we humans just exist. That is madness. Because there is no logic in it."
When Nuskul saw the crate enter the truck, he put his hand on his waist and proudly shook the duo's hands.
According to the plan, they would make a three-day journey. Carrying such a heavy crate by spaceship would definitely attract the attention of TESO and factories in several other cities. Also, the Cryo-V was a crate that consumed a lot of energy. The energy required to cool the creature inside was not something that any spaceship or airplane could easily provide. Therefore, if they traveled by any aircraft, they would have to land and recharge constantly. Since they thought the journey would take too long due to the time loss caused by an aircraft constantly taking off and landing, they decided that transporting by land was more reasonable. Moreover, charging stations had been established at many points up to the predetermined location.
"We wish you a pleasant journey," Nuskul said.
"You talk quite confidently about there being no danger along the way," Hikmar said. "But then why would you need two relic hunters to protect the cargo?"
"I don't know that," Labiba said. "But my employer wanted it that way. Please… it's a bit too late to question some things. I hope you find out the reasons for the questions stuck in your mind during the journey. By the way…" he said, showing the hologram paper in his hand. "…half of the money has been deposited into a bank in Antay. The other half will be as promised, after the job is finished…"