As he stepped out of the vehicle, the sight of the sun—appearing on the horizon and striking his metal body for even a second—left Azrak in awe. He constantly forgot that behind this barren sky, shrouded in dark green clouds, there was a sun. He forgot that this planet too was a home, that people lived here. This planet, too, was a part of the SWR Network.
As the truck pulled up beside the charging station, it began to charge through metal rods rising from the ground where it parked. Azrak turned his head toward the west. Toward the west that his friend named Jul had pointed to.
"I hope no trouble comes of it," he muttered to himself, arms crossed.
Meanwhile, Hikmar let himself down from the high door of the vehicle toward the ground, dropping nearly half a meter. He gripped his robe with his third hand to keep it from falling off. He took a few steps and stood behind Azrak.
"You're awake from your meditation," Azrak said, turning to the elder. The elder removed the blindfold tied to his head and tucked it into a pocket in his robe. With that hidden eye revealed, Azrak realized something was strange. A blood-red eye, devoid even of a pupil, was staring at Azrak. "Did something happen, elder...?"
As the elder walked toward Azrak with heavy steps, he held the metal staff in his left hand. "No... I just noticed something on you."
"Is that so? You were acting quite strange while meditating, after all. You were muttering something."
"So you heard..." Hikmar said.
"Did I hear something I shouldn't have?" Azrak asked.
"No... definitely not." When he threw his robe toward the ground, the elder's large but hunched body was revealed. "I just noticed there's something on you."
"What kind of thing?" Azrak was asking, but the elder moved suddenly. First, he struck his metal staff against the ground, causing it to change form. Now, that simple metal staff resembled an electrically charged monk's staff. After twirling the staff with his left hand, he delivered a very hard blow to Azrak with force gathered from his waist.
"Looks like there's a metal moth..." he said, and as he struck Azrak hard, Azrak went flying meters away. Realizing he was about to hit his back against a rock, Azrak reached behind him, pulled Jul off his back, and tossed him aside. If he had hit that rock with Jul on his back, the drone would likely have been shattered. After crashing into the rock, he could feel the combat modules within him beginning to activate one by one.
"What do you think you're doing, Hikmar?" he said. His back had created cracks and a small dent in the rock. He put his hand on the ground, straightened himself, and drew his crescent-shaped weapon from the metal plate on his leg. Jul, after rolling on the ground for a bit, recovered and lifted himself with his propellers; scanning Hikmar with eyes that had turned red. "Do you want to die?"
"What am I doing?" Hikmar said, walking toward Azrak with heavy steps, swinging his staff. "I wanted to hit the moth on you. You misunderstood me," he shouted.
"What do you mean? What nonsense is this... A metal moth on this planet? Those only exist on TerraNova, you fool!"
"Maybe you carried it with you."
"Fuck off!" Azrak was shouting when he noticed Hikmar's third hand signaling him to be calm.
"Trust me... I will definitely save you from those moths!" he shouted, and after reaching Azrak with heavy steps, he suddenly leaned toward his ear.
"There is a listening device in the vehicle," Hikmar whispered. "I want to talk to you about meditation."
"What?"
"Look, Azrak... while the SWR Network is down, they can't listen to us outside that vehicle. The Network being down means the satellite isn't active here. This means we can speak freely outside the vehicle. The vehicle, however, records our voices and sends them directly as a signal."
"And why don't we want them to listen to us?"
"Because... because I discovered something," he said, and then threw his hand toward Azrak's shoulder: "Stop! Those damn bugs have nested inside your metal plates! I'm taking them all!" he shouted.
"What did you discover? How did you discover it?"
"When Labiba put us in the Cryo-V crate, I placed a few nano-lice."
"Nano-lice?"
"Yes... the kind of lice carried in hair. I had to shake my head thoroughly to scatter them into the room."
"Are you crazy? Why did you do that?"
"To be able to control the Cryo-V, of course..."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"To be able to talk to the creature... Look into my eye." He said, and stared into Azrak's eyes with his red eye. Azrak noticed the red patch opening. Inside the patch, there was a creature being tracked from four or five different points. The creature had awakened and was standing, held up by the cables it was connected to. While being supplied with nutritional supplements through tubes in its throat, it was constantly wandering around like a moth that had lost its way and purpose. It would look at a wall, listen to the wall, and then do the same to another.
"You... you woke the creature up!"
"Not exactly. The nano-lice infiltrated the technology of the Cryo-V crate. Using the nano-lice, I can control the temperature and other gases circulating inside. I also hacked into the cameras inside and tampered with the footage."
"So your meditations were for controlling those damn lice, were they? Did you forget? Didn't they say this creature was dangerous? That it could produce energy, and if fed with enough energy, it could cause an explosion the size of a nuclear blast..."
"Yes... that's why I keep the temperature in such a range that I constantly put this creature to sleep and wake it up."
"So you're torturing it!" Azrak said.
"I don't find it healthy at all for you to make a deduction involving human morality over a creature, especially one we can't even understand, Azrak. Especially when the creature is something like this."
"Fine... but why are you doing this?" Azrak then glanced toward the vehicle. He could see a camera on the vehicle looking toward them. It was as if they were starting to get suspicious.
"Are they watching? It doesn't matter, let them watch... Let them even be suspicious... It's not a problem as long as they can't hear us. Anyway... what was I saying? Yes... I did everything to understand this creature."
"Why would you want to understand this creature?"
"Let's call it a sage's curiosity for now. I'll explain it to you in detail later."
"And what have you learned so far?"
"I talked to the creature."
"Is that so?"
"Through the nano-lice..."
"How, then?"
"Actually, that creature talked to me. By sending energy currents, it interfered with my signals—the ones I used to control the lice through meditation."
"That doesn't count as talking, then."
"Yes... it was more like it responded to the signals coming from me with its own signals."
"So you haven't learned a damn thing, then..."
"Wrong!" Hikmar said and gave a small laugh. Then he whispered: "This creature understands the language of humans. Most likely, this creature is a human creation and lived with its creator for a very long time. That's why, while infiltrating my signals, it bent the waves of the signals in such a way that each signal corresponded to a letter."
"This... this is very strange."
"Yes... for a creature to have such mastery over energy might not even be possible according to the laws of physics we know. This creature is an evolution."
At that moment, something appeared before Azrak's eyes: Connecting to SWR Network. The same text appeared before Hikmar's eyes as well. They only had a few seconds left because the Network connection was returning.
"Damn it... they must have caught the girl," Azrak said. "Please... the creature must have told you something, right?"
"The creature said its name is Volem."
"And..."
"And it said it has a supplier waiting for it on the road to Calos."
"Is that all?" Realizing they still had a moment, Hikmar added one last thing.
"It asked whether Arthur Vale is alive or not."
"Who is that?" Azrak and Hikmar immediately changed the subject as they realized the Network connection was back. "Thanks, elder... I never thought I'd have a metal moth on me."
"No problem, young man. If you like, come, let's head toward the truck. It takes a long time for the vehicle to charge." He picked up his robe from the ground and put it on. Then he put his blindfold back on. "Let me tell you an anecdote from CLAUDIS II."
"Of course, Master Hikmar. I'd be happy to listen."
Just then, a voice was heard from one of the cameras on the vehicle. It must have been Labiba's voice. "Is there a problem, gentlemen?" he asked.
"Ah... Labiba, is that you?" Hikmar said. "Please don't scare us like that by suddenly speaking; my old heart won't take it. You're asking if there's a problem, right? Jul is an alien technology, but he isn't very bright. That's why metal moths infested him, and they spread to my loyal friend as well. I had to help him out."
"This..."
"Hikmar had warned me many times about not getting infested by metal moths," Azrak said. "His reaction was a bit much because I let him down, of course, but... but an elder must teach his student a lesson this way. Thanks, Hikmar."
"You're welcome, young hunter Azrak. You're welcome..."