"I know…" I said, putting myself at ease. It had always been like that. When I looked at my own face after taking a shower, when I saw myself in a puddle of water, and at many other times, I would always say the same thing. "I know, but… But there's nothing I can do."
I ran my fingers over the hologram documents in my hand. "p-OG245," "Unify," "Volem." All these words were between my fingers. I didn't know what to do.
There were sands under our feet. The waves of the beach were wild, and the windy weather was cooling me down quite a bit. I could hear the sounds of people having fun among the waves of the beach. Some were playing volleyball, some were competing by swimming in the sea. Everyone was having a good time with the sun, cold beers, and pleasant music. But on this beautiful beach, there wasn't a single child. Because all the people were either developed or cybernetic. There was only one human on the beach. And that was a woman named Flora, the coordinator of Unify on that planet.
Flora was a tall woman. Although she was thin, her bones were big, so she looked a little bigger than me. She had shorts on under a black bra that was tight on her small breasts. Her hair, which was stiff from the seawater, was busy sunbathing on a lounge chair a few steps away from the table I was sitting at. Her skin was tanned by the sunlight. If the old world were still standing, her ethnic background could have been called Latin. Although she looked like she was sunbathing so happily, I could actually see her looking at me from time to time from under her sunglasses. I also had glasses on. They looked like simple glasses, but they were high-tech, able to handle the sunlight and help me read the hologram.
A robot took the empty lemonade glass from my table and left a new glass with ice. I thanked it with my hand. The robot also left my side in the same way.
"Have you made a decision, Master Vale?" asked a black man named Kohn. He was the first man who had greeted me at the door, and he looked a little more tired with each passing day. I didn't know I had such effects on a person.
"Make a decision?"
"I thought that was what you were doing right now." I glanced at the black man standing at the head of my table. As if that was enough for an answer, he bowed his head and went to the side of the coordinator Flora. I could see Kohn and Flora whispering while looking at me.
The things happening here seemed to be above my knowledge and authority. For the first time in my life, it felt like I had encountered something called fate. During my time as a Galactic Intelligence Agent, nothing would happen above us. Now, for the first time, I could see the game being played, as a part of the game.
That's why I didn't know what to do. After the Maria incident, I had withdrawn, been thought dead, and lived as a fugitive, leaving my identity behind. For the first time in a long time, I was showing signs of life. More accurately, for the first time in a long time; I was becoming a part of a game.
"210…" I called out. My drone assistant, which looked like a yellow box, was at my feet. It was in sleep mode, buried in the sand. At least, that's what it looked like to an outsider, because it was actually using all its power to analyze the surroundings with its scanners and cameras. When I called my assistant, it rose from the sand. As it glided toward me with its jet, the sand on it was falling to the ground.
"Yes, Master Vale…"
"Can you call the woman named Flora to me? I want to meet with her alone."
VFA-210 glided through the air toward coordinator Flora, while Flora gestured with her hand for the man named Kohn to step back. While my drone assistant was talking to Flora, Flora suddenly clapped her hands. As soon as the sound of her clapping was heard, all the holograms in the room started to malfunction. The sun disappeared, the sea water stopped waving… As the metal walls and small white lights returned, the people who were having fun started to pack their belongings and slowly leave the vacation area. As the sand on the ground was being vacuumed by a few sweeping robots; Flora was walking toward me. It was as if the whole room had taken on a somber atmosphere with the sun gone and the deadly cold of the metal returning. The screens along the walls of the room slowly folded and the cable systems behind them were revealed. The gigantic door of the room opened and the sterilized people left the room.
I didn't lose my composure. While I was examining the hologram on the table, Flora sat down in her chair.
"You want to talk now? After months, now? In the middle of my annual leave…"
I looked at Flora over my glasses. Then I took a sip of my lemonade. Kohn was coming to hear what we were talking about, but my drone assistant intervened.
"We will talk alone, Ms. Flora." I said.
"You can go, Kohn." Flora said, gesturing with her hand.
"Are you sure, ma'am?"
"I'm not afraid of the man in front of me, Kohn. You can go…"
As Kohn left the door, I noticed something. The cameras on some of the screens that covered the entire room were watching us. Probably there was a weapon in those cameras. They were ready to fire at us at any sign of excess.
The hologram in my hand changed. This time, the one who changed the hologram was VFA-210. This hologram had a detailed drawing of the room. The locations of the cameras watching us, which ones were armed, where the weapons were in the room, where the robot covers were in the room, etc. I showed the hologram in my hand to Flora.
"You have a nice vacation room…" I said.
"This room has been here for years. It wasn't designed for you…"
"I know… Unify looks like a company with a higher security than I thought. A security that is too costly for a simple research company. But we know that Quartez is behind this company…"
"I don't understand what you want from us." Flora said, then showing her own body: "If we are going to talk about official business, can't we wear more official clothes?"
"No… This is fine… Because what we are going to talk about won't be official."
"What do you mean?"
"You don't have any listening devices on you… And in this room, no camera in any part of the room can hear us. Why? 210 is an advanced assistant." I pointed to the ground under my feet. The sweeping robots hadn't taken the sand from under our feet yet, so there was still sand under my feet. But in the middle of the sand, in the pit where 210 was lying, there was a hole. This hole had also pierced the metal platform. The cable and other systems under the metal platform were wide open in front of us.
"Did you hack into our computers?" Flora said angrily.
I took another delightful sip of my lemonade: "We only hacked into the camera that was watching and listening to this place. The room is so big that only a few cameras can listen and watch each area. Especially this angle where we are sitting in the chair right now… This angle is more than perfect to be invisible… Maybe a few cameras can see us, but there was only one camera that could listen. And what about the sensors and all the other communication devices? Small adjustments were made to the script of each one. Luckily for you, you are a genetic engineering company, Flora. You're not a software company."
"We apologize for the security vulnerability in the vacation room." Flora said with a sarcastic tone. Then she looked at VFA-210. "Did this robot really do all this?"
The yellow box robot named 210 had once again buried itself in the sand. It was probably secretly continuing to fight with the computers.
"Yes…"
"I didn't know the Bioethics Oversight Agency had such robots." Then she turned to me. "And is this robot a robot of the Bioethics Oversight Agency or is it your robot?"
"Ah…" I leaned back. "…the fact that you noticed things impressed me. Maybe now I'm starting to understand why the Unify company appointed you as a coordinator."
"So what do you want to talk to me about?"
I took off my glasses and put them on the table. I glanced at Flora. "Isn't it strange that the only human here is the coordinator? You don't trust them either, do you?"
"Who?"
"Them… The company owners, the politicians, the protest leaders, the dissidents, the colonists… Whatever you want to call them… Most importantly, Quartez… You don't want the investment they made to manifest in your body, do you?" I held out the hologram in my hand to Flora. This hologram contained the genetic codes of a creature named Volem.
"Do I look like a genetic data scientist?" the woman asked.
"No, I'm not expecting an explanation from you. I'm the one who will give you an explanation. Why? Because Flora, the devil has gained free will. It has gotten into the hands of the person it was least supposed to… Don't worry, you are not responsible for what the devil will do."
"Are you the devil here? I was told that you have only been an inspector for a few years. A man with no past… Or rather, a man with a made-up past… Who are you?"
With a smile on my face: "Who I am is not important." I said. "What I did in my past is not important either. But I will tell you some things."
"Why are you doing such a thing?"
"You are not even a developed person… You are neither connected to a computer with any mechanical system nor do you have a chip in your head. No one can get information from you, unless you want to give it to them… If you do want to give it, you will find me in front of you."
"What if I refuse your offer?"
"Then the company won't get the approval. The Bioethics Oversight Agency will descend upon you like death, and the whole facility will turn into a wasteland. Do you want this?"
"I'm not so afraid of losing my job at the company. In such a case, I'll return to my colony."
"But…" I started to speak while the hologram Flora was holding changed. Now, there was an image of a young girl in Flora's hand. "…a person can easily become a traitor with a few slanders."
"Are you threatening me with my daughter?"
"No… I'm not threatening you. It seems you didn't fully understand what you're doing here. There is an irregularity in the creature named Volem that you created. That's why I have to reject you, but I'm giving you a chance."
"What kind of irregularity? Enlighten me!"
It wasn't going to be easy to suddenly let out the secrets that had been knotted in my throat for years. In fact, I had to be careful with some words while speaking because, as I had learned, the SWR was listening to certain words with galactic satellites, and those words were forbidden to be said. I had to be firm and careful while talking to the woman in front of me because I didn't want to lose my dominance over her.
"The Incompatibles…" she said. "…I can't tell you why they came. But I know this."
"How?" Flora's face was shaken with a moment of shock. Maybe facing a man who knew one of the greatest secrets in existence must have increased the shiver inside her. Her hand trembled, so she put the hologram on the table.
"I can't tell you this."
"You're talking nonsense. No one was supposed to know this! You're lying!" she said with a shaky voice.
"They wanted you to think that way…"
"Who are you, man?"
"Who I am is not important!" I said and slammed my fist on the table. "What's important is what I want from you!" With me hitting the table with my fist, Flora had calmed down. "Look… The Incompatibles are a secret, so I can't talk much about them, but I have to tell you this. There was a scientist who was researching the Incompatibles. He was a crazy, drug-addicted, bad scientist who was doing illegal experiments on humans in the Justan Colony, but his knowledge was incredible. Since he could easily wander on the borders of what was not ethical, he had noticed the boundaries of science before other scientists."
"How do you know this man?"
"That's not important. What's important were this man's discoveries. This man's name was Polxaurneskova. They called him Po for short. This man's discoveries were not shared, and we had received a lot of information that this man's discoveries were a failure."
"What happened to this man then?"
"He was murdered. I don't know why or by whom. His death was at such a bad time that it couldn't be investigated. That's not the problem… The problem is this… According to this man's research, there was a hereditary substance that differentiated the Incompatibles from us. That substance could forcefully provide life by connecting the Incompatible DNA codes to each other. If that hereditary DNA could be used properly, it could even give life to a box. According to Po, this substance was a substance that God used to start life. But what this substance was, how it was produced, or how it could be analyzed was unknown. At least, that's what we were told."
"How do I know you're not making all this up?"
"Look at your hologram… These are the genetic encodings of the creature named Volem, aren't they? Your computers don't see an error in these encodings because the company that brought your computers is Quartez, isn't it? But the software of my loyal friend VFA-210 is a special software and is immune to any data obfuscation. Now look at the hologram one more time… This image you are looking at is the analysis made by my assistant 210… As you can see, there are many genetic encoding errors."
"So?"
"If this creature named Volem can live despite so many genetic errors, it means that…"
"So you're saying this creature named Volem has that hereditary particle of the Incompatibles?" Flora put the hologram aside and chuckled. "Stop talking nonsense, man… It's just a mistake…"
"Yes, I think it was created with that particle called the God Particle."
"Then how is this possible?"
"I don't know… But I think it's related to Po's murder. That's why I need to meet with Quartez. I don't know who their president is. I know there are four council members, but I don't know their names. I need to see them, know them, and interrogate them. Maybe then I can make sense of the events."
"You can get all this data from the Energy Control & Cybersecurity Agency."
"I don't trust other authorities."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to call one of their council members here."
"And then?"
"Leave the rest to me… Is it a deal?" I said and held out my hand. Flora held out her trembling hand to me. The sentence barely came out of the woman's crooked lips.
"It's a deal…"
I collected my hologram paper. 210 came out of the sand and came to my side. I was about to walk out of the gigantic metal door when Flora shouted from behind me.
"Didn't Quartez know that a Bioethics Oversight Agency Inspector was coming?"
I turned back and looked at her out of the corner of my eye. "Yes, they definitely knew. But the person who came is not a Bioethics Oversight Agency Inspector. And 210 is not a Bioethics Oversight Agency Assistant…"
As Flora looked at me with frozen eyes, I was walking out of the metal door with heavy steps.
"Sir, was it appropriate for you to say that?" 210 asked as it walked in the metal corridor.
"This isn't a secret, 210. It's impossible for a simple corporate robot to notice the error in the data. They will realize this too. And I'm curious about the havoc that will break out when they do."
"You mean them…"
"The Quartez Corporation…"