As the autonomous vehicle drove itself, the two men sitting in seats a few steps away from the steering wheel watched the outside through the window. The stark white interior of the truck made the two men feel as if they were in a madhouse. The absurdity of the mission they had accepted only reinforced this feeling.
It was going to be a long journey. Throughout the trip, Azrak couldn't sit comfortably because of his friend Jul, who was on his back. Usually, if he was going to sit in a chair, he preferred to turn the chair around and lean his chest against it rather than resting his back. But apparently, there was nothing to sit on except the seats leaning against the truck's chassis. "Maybe I should travel standing up," he was thinking, just as Hikmar stood up.
"Did something happen, Hikmar?" Azrak asked. "We just hit the road."
While both were sitting in the seats against the chassis, there was a gap between them. This gap opened directly into a corridor leading to the Cryo-V unit in the back. "I just got curious about the back," Hikmar said, bowing his head as he stepped through the door.
He descended the steps and entered the cargo area of the truck where the Cryo-V crate had been placed. As he stepped in, the lights on the ceiling began to turn on one by one. In the room, besides the Cryo-V crate, there was a broken television, scraps scattered across the small floor, and a workbench. Oh, and there were the massive cables of the crate; presumably, when the vehicle stopped, they would have to shoulder those cables and carry them to the charging area themselves. Because this truck, which could be considered primitive, possessed no advanced technology.
As he walked toward the Cryo-V crate, he noticed that the crate's cameras were following him. Labiba had installed cameras so that no one would open the crate. Why? Not because she thought this creature could be stolen. She was afraid someone might wake it up. She had explained this to Hikmar and Azrak, saying:
"There is a reason for this creature to be asleep, dear friends," Labiba had said.
"And what is that reason?"
"This creature is a very dangerous creature."
"I don't think so," Hikmar had said. "A creature so devoid of sensory organs, so frail, and certainly lacking in muscle fiber cannot easily be a danger to anyone. Freezing this creature is an embarrassment to the science of biology."
"We thought so too," Nuskul chimed in. "But from what we've seen, this creature can produce energy."
"Every creature can produce energy," Hikmar said. "Life itself is energy."
"Yes… But this is different."
"How is it different?"
"It can transmit the energy it produces."
"Like the stingrays of the old world or…"
"No, you misunderstand. I'm not saying these creatures throw electricity. I'm saying they transmit energy."
"How so?" Hikmar asked in surprise. "By radiation?"
"Yes…"
"By radiation, you mean… at the level of ionizing radiation?" Hikmar asked.
As Hikmar waited intently for Labiba's response, there was a moment of silence. This silence was as deep and thought-provoking as the vacuum of space. Finally, Labiba spoke, but her voice no longer carried its usual commercial tone; instead, it held a rarely heard scientific gravity.
"Not ionizing radiation, Hikmar. At least, not the alpha, beta, or gamma we know." Labiba's voice was low and measured; she weighed every word. "Our spectrum analyses showed that what it emits is not electromagnetic radiation. It doesn't appear on any electromagnetic spectrum, but we measure environmental effects in the area—not ionization, not heat, not a pulse…"
"Strange, isn't it?" Azrak said.
"If it can't be detected, how do we know it's radiating?" Hikmar asked.
"The energy it releases during radiation is often signaled by electrification between its horns. When it radiates, the electricity formed between these horns can be utilized. But most importantly, if you enclose this creature—just like in nuclear facilities—and try to contain those radiations with the right chemicals, you can produce more energy than even a nuclear plant," Labiba said with great excitement, despite her corpse-like frame.
"There's no need to get so excited… More energy is already produced with fission energy than in most nuclear plants anyway."
"No, you still don't fully grasp it. What we have is no ordinary biological being. This creature doesn't just release energy while digesting molecules; it can break bonds at the subatomic level. That is, the energy it produces is not at the chemical level—it's at the nuclear level as we know it. Moreover, it can store this extremely high energy through special chemical and subatomic configurations in its own tissues. And the energy it stores is not stable; in terms of stability, it's almost at the same level as highly enriched uranium."
"So, in a way, no matter what it grinds up, it makes it as unstable as uranium while storing it, is that it?"
"Yes…"
"May I ask where you learned this?" Azrak asked. "Did you experiment on the creature?"
"We didn't," Nuskul said. "The man who delivered it to us did, and he told us… Our boss has another intermediary."
"Great…" Azrak said.
"Well, returning to our topic…" Hikmar interrupted. "From what I understand, you're saying this creature can break the bonds of subatomic particles. Then, it forms new bonds while storing… This means it can shatter stable atoms and store them in an unstable manner in its body. Wait a second… This creature is a being created to elevate non-dangerous energies to dangerous energy levels."
"Yes… That's what we're trying to say."
Hikmar paused suddenly, his eyes widening; the chain of thought was completing rapidly in his mind.
"Wait a minute…" Hikmar said, his voice trembling with awe. "According to what you say, this creature doesn't just break subatomic bonds; it rebuilds those same bonds, storing the energy in a way that is unstable—meaning, nuclear-level unstable. This… This means!"
He grasped the air with his hand, as if holding an invisible truth.
"This being shatters ordinary matter and transforms it into extraordinary energy. It makes the harmless harmful. It turns matter into an evolutionary reactor! In other words, this creature is not biological—it is a bio-nuclear organism."
Azrak was still looking on in confusion, glancing at the others as if trying to understand what he had missed. Hikmar pushed his point even further:
"Its small size is only the beginning," Hikmar said, his expression growing increasingly serious. "It will grow as it feeds; because there is no advanced organ system to stop it. It doesn't have the growth threshold, control mechanisms, or balancing hormones we see in complex beings… none of them. Therefore, its growth is limited only by the amount of matter it takes in."
He took a deep breath.
"And the more it grows, the greater the energy radiation it will emit. Because this being grinds and restructures everything around it—organic or inorganic, it doesn't matter—at the atomic level. It's like a walking exploitation colony… a structure that gathers matter from everywhere it passes and turns it into itself."
He turned his gaze to the others, his voice almost dropping to a whisper:
"This… this being could be the next step of evolution. Rather than a regular system, it's like a limitless growth algorithm built on raw energy and hunger."
He took another deep breath:
"Maybe it works like our trash incinerators… but for it, there's no such thing as 'trash.' It turns everything it touches into fuel. Not just trash… it truly eats everything."
He took a few steps in the room, stopped, and prepared to speak after a small theatrical laugh. This was the first time Azrak had seen this old man laugh. "So, what do you feed this creature?"
"With a mixture…" Nuskul said. "…a mixture of several chemicals…"
"And is it cheap?"
"The cheapest fuels on this planet…"
"A real trash incinerator, then! Incredible! Ah… If this creature can truly exploit all energy and make it usable, it is very dangerous for it to be present on a planet uncontrolled. Moreover, if this creature dies, the energy stored inside it is suddenly released and can create an effect with the power of a nuclear explosion. That's why this creature is very dangerous, and you are quite right to freeze it. But what I wonder is this: who created this creature, and who would want it, and why?"
But neither Labiba, Nuskul, nor Azrak had an answer to this question. Actually, Hikmar had an answer, but he would keep it hidden until he was sure of everything. Because the guess he made could swing between fantasy and real science, and might cause him to be mistaken.
Azrak was a hunter; he should have been sitting at the front of the truck, watching the road. He could track, feel misfortune before it arrived, and ward off bad luck. He would look at the sky, look at the ground, look at the horizon, and understand where danger might come from. He possessed the instinct and technology of a true hunter. But he couldn't understand the true danger.
That was why Hikmar sat on the floor as if meditating and began to mutter prayers as a priest of Cyoh Katum in the face of the true danger. You couldn't ward off true danger, but you could be prepared for it and save yourself. Therefore, the wise Hikmar would sit in the back of the truck, meditating and diving into his thoughts.