The cybernetic, resembling an ancient sage, advanced between the two four-armed creatures. His steps were in near-perfect rhythm with the monsters; they weren't dragging him, nor was he lagging behind. This was not the walk of a prisoner, but of an authority held under supervision. As the trio approached the table, everyone's attention in the room instinctively locked onto them.
The three-armed cybernetic man carried a heavy metal cane in his third hand on the right. Every time the cane struck the floor, a dull, mechanical sound echoed—a sound that replaced unspoken sentences. His arms were thin and frail, but his torso was surprisingly large. This disproportion suggested that his power came not from muscles, but from somewhere else entirely.
Despite his bulk, his face resembled that of a kind, elderly man. His wrinkles weren't harsh; they seemed to have formed from years of smiling. However, this familiar expression was disrupted by a black eye patch, reminiscent of a pirate's, covering his left eye. The fact that he looked out with only a single eye made it uncertain what intentions or knowledge he hid behind his gaze. It was hard to tell which was more dangerous: what he saw, or what he didn't.
The most striking detail, however, was that his upper two arms were connected to each other by metal shackles. This didn't make him look like a captive. On the contrary, it gave the impression of a very deliberate precaution. These were no ordinary shackles; they were circuit-breaker cuffs integrated into his wrists. They were designed to instantly neutralize any sudden signal, data transfer, or the slightest connection that could be established with the Supreme World Republic (SWR).
"And who is this man?" Lara asked. Her tone was calm but excessively self-assured; she had the ease of someone who already thought they knew the answer.
Hogna, one of the four-armed creatures, stepped forward. Epra pulled aside with a nearly imperceptible fluidity, leaving his body in the dim shadows while never taking his eyes off the old man. When Hogna spoke, instead of the expected crude, primitive grunt, the voice echoed as if coming from somewhere else entirely. The words didn't vibrate in the air; they seeped directly into the mind. It was as if thoughts were hearing, not ears.
"He was found near the transport vehicle, Holy Shepherd," Hogna said.
"And why did you bring him here?"
"He was talking to the transport itself."
There was a brief pause behind Lara's visor.
"You could talk to Volem, is that so?"
A heavy silence fell over the room.
The old man used this silence not to answer, but to observe. Leaning on his cane, he scanned the surroundings. His single open eye wandered slowly over the faces in the room. It glided over Sevda, stopped for a brief moment on Lara, and then met Edmond's eyes.
Edmond flinched.
This was no ordinary look. In these eyes, there was an intellect that surpassed the boundaries of wisdom. The eyes of someone who had broken ties with order but hadn't gone completely mad... Free enough to be called crazy, aware enough to be called dangerous.
"It's very interesting that you know about Volem…" the old man said finally. His voice was soft, but something sharp was hidden beneath it. "…It seems we have quite a lot of information we can give to each other."
He took a short breath, the corner of his lips curling almost imperceptibly.
"But one must be cautious," he added. "For every secret comes with its own burden."
"I agree…" Lara said without hesitation. This answer was more an acceptance than a compromise.
The old man bowed his head slightly.
"Then let me introduce myself first." He struck his cane on the floor once more. The sound echoed in the room. "My name is Hikmar," he said. "A member of Exosanguis… A relic hunter."
"What business does a relic hunter have in a mission like this?" Lara asked. There was no curiosity in her voice; only a suspicion seeking logic.
"I believe we should go in order," Hikmar said calmly.
Lara's gaze hardened.
"As a prisoner, you are making too many demands. What makes you think you have such rights?"
Hikmar's lips curled slightly. This wasn't a smile; it was more like a defiant habit.
"I love overstepping my bounds, dear Shepherd," he said. "Because I fear very little. So, it will be as I say... If you want information, you will give information. Everyone will take a step. Only if I trust the sincerity of your steps will I share my secrets with you."
The room grew tense. Hogna didn't move, but Epra's horns tilted slightly in the shadows—a reflex of threat.
"Fine," Lara said, "if your secrets are so valuable, why do you want to share them?"
Hikmar leaned a bit more on his cane. It was as if this question was an invitation he had been waiting for.
"My secrets are valuable, but they are insufficient on their own. I need to strengthen them. That's why I'm always open to any kind of information." He paused. A metallic breath passed through his mechanical chest. "Also…" he continued, "…the secrets I possess need to be revealed now. They've been under this damn metal skin for too long and haven't been of much use."
He lifted his head slightly. His single eye locked onto Lara's visor. "I hope," he said, taking a short breath, "you can… deserve my secrets."
"Oh… wonderful…" Lara said wearily. She brushed the hair falling over her face back. Her movement was harsh, almost angry. This woman had a rebellious air; as if she hadn't even met the authority she possessed by her own choice. "Among all my work, now I'm going to try and please an old cybernetic."
She took a step forward.
"I am Sharon Lara," she said in a clear voice. "A scientist at the Dermovox Xenobiology Science Facility on planet s-MP044. My friend Edmond and my other friend Sevda…" she said, indicating the duo with her hand.
A real change occurred on Hikmar's face this time.
"So you are a scientist…" he said. "…that has earned my respect."
"How lucky for me," Lara said with dry mockery. "Your turn."
"I am Hikmar," the old man said. "A long time ago, I was a Cyoh Katum priest on the planet CLAUDIS IX. Until that perverse cybernetic named Raiden von Claudis came and declared tyranny..." He struck his cane on the floor. "I even had the opportunity to know Emperor Claudis closely."
Lara furrowed her brows slightly.
"A Cyoh Katum priest acting as a relic hunter, is that so? The world truly continues to surprise me every day. But these still don't explain why you are here."
Hikmar tilted his head.
"Isn't it your turn to give information?" he said. "Or do I remember incorrectly…" There wasn't the slightest panic in his voice. "Please, don't hesitate. I am the one who is a prisoner here. If I am of no use to you, you can kill me in silence."
This sentence left a cold echo in the room.
Lara scrutinized the old cybernetic for a long time. She couldn't tell if he was bluffing or if he was truly in such a void that he didn't care about death. But it was clear that if the conversation continued this way, it would become increasingly sterile and dangerous.
"Fine…" she said finally. "So be it…"
And with those words, everyone around the table understood: there was no turning back now. Secrets would be revealed, no matter the cost.
"These two friends…" Sharon Lara said, pointing to the four-armed creatures. "…are the products of my work as a scientist." After a short pause, she continued: "In the facility, we were trying to develop aliens with superhuman strength who could adapt to any condition. Their purpose was to assist colonists in the Interstellar War. However, these studies were never completed. Because the SWR noticed the facility and shelved the research immediately."
As he listened to the story, the interest on Hikmar's face grew.
"But," Lara continued, "a man named Dante Shade appeared. He bought the facility. He also took the scientists inside under his protection." Hearing the name Dante Shade, Hikmar leaned a bit more on his cane. It was as if a veil had been lifted from his eye.
"Before he disappeared," Lara said, "Dante Shade spent almost all his fortune on most of the scientists in the facility. He funded their cybernetic transformations and bought new lives for them outside the facility. Then he left the facility under the control of helper robots."
She lowered her voice slightly.
"Everyone left the facility with these new lives they found. Only I and Director Lehstorm remained. And an old friend of Dante Shade's… Joe."
"Could it be Joe Stone?" Hikmar whispered.
Lara's gaze hardened for a moment.
"Do you know them?" she asked in surprise. "Or… were you friends? For years, I've looked for people who might have seen or known them."
"Please continue," Hikmar said calmly. "I don't want to interrupt your story."
"The only reason I stayed at the facility," Lara said, "was because I had nothing else. I couldn't accept a purchased life outside. And I couldn't leave the Dermovoxes unattended." At that moment, she glanced at the giant four-armed creatures. Was it just Edmond thinking so, or was there truly a strange motherly look in the eyes of this beautiful woman named Sharon Lara? "So I continued my research. I conducted experiments. But the Dermovoxes never made that leap I expected."
"What kind of leap?" Hikmar asked.
"The consciousness to build a civilization," Lara said clearly. "Creating laws, carrying traditions… In short, the transition from tribe to community. These magnificent creatures, capable of wrestling with a TerraNova Bear, hadn't even fully discovered the word 'law'."
"Wait a minute," Edmond interrupted. "Are you saying they could kill TerraNova Bears, which are dangerous enough to wipe out those primitive aliens called Deathseekers?" As he finished his words, Edmond involuntarily looked at the large four-armed creature waiting in the shadows and swallowed hard.
"Easily…" Lara said without hesitation. "…they have the strength to tear a TerraNova Bear apart. The Dermovoxes were created to be war itself."
"So…" Hikmar said, "…how were you planning to achieve this civilizational leap?"
"I had no idea," Lara said. "Until someone visited me."
"He must be a truly inspiring person," Hikmar said.
"Yes…" Lara said. "He was an interesting human."
"You mean an 'evolved'," Edmond said.
"No," Lara said. "He was a human. One hundred percent. With no mechanical enhancements."
"Then he wasn't an SWR citizen," Edmond said. "To be an SWR citizen, you must at least be an evolved."
"No," Lara said, shaking her head. "He was an SWR citizen. Now let me clear your confusion…"
She paused.
"This man was a bioethics inspection officer who had been asleep for four hundred years. His name was Mehmet."
"Could it be…" Edmond said, his eyes widening. "…the bioethics inspection officer the Calosians built a statue of? Did you meet him?"
Hikmar tapped his cane lightly on the floor. "Please don't rush the story, dear stranger," he said, turning to Edmond. "I want to listen to what is being told."
"This bioethics inspection officer might not have approved my facility. After all, we were continuing Dermovox research. But interestingly, this officer, who had been asleep for four hundred years, possessed the purity and ignorance of a human from almost four hundred years ago.
That was when I thought… What if exactly this is what the Dermovoxes need? What if the Dermovoxes need a leader who acts on primitive instincts…"
"Prophet Ogvetna!" shouted both Dermovoxes at once. Simultaneously, they struck their fists against their chests. The sound left a solid echo around. "Ogvetna, the prophet of Fuag!" The fists struck their chests once more.
"So what did you do?" Edmond asked. He was cynical. "Did you throw him directly among the Dermovoxes?"
"Yes… I did just that," Sharon Lara said. Edmond wasn't expecting this answer. "He was willing to have his brain copied and his mind transferred into a Dermovox body. I allowed him to live as a Dermovox in a habitat where he knew nothing, in a body and culture he didn't recognize. He was released into primitive life."
"Such willingness is unbelievable," Edmond said.
"It would be more accurate to say he was persuaded to volunteer," Sharon Lara said with a calm expression. "While the copy of his mind lived as a Dermovox, his original body would already be able to continue its own normal life…"
"Mehmet…" she continued, "…earned the respect of his tribe during his time as a Dermovox. He performed many 'miracles'. He was declared a prophet because he could control fire, and he gathered the Dermovoxes under one roof."
There was a brief pause.
"In short," Sharon Lara continued, her gaze behind her visor deepening in the dim light of the room. "Mehmet—now bearing the name Ogvetna—was initiating the next evolutionary leap of the Dermovoxes. However, while he was changing the lives of his people, our attention shifted to a much more savage and terrifying reality."
She took a deep breath; the weight of what she was about to tell had seeped into her voice.
"In the vast dunes to the south, we discovered a Dermovox tribe that believed in a completely different and perverse religion. Their god had no special name; it was referred to only as the 'Voice of the Tablets'. Because the only source of their faith was metal tablets engraved with strange symbols, which they claimed had been left before their ancestors centuries ago. This tribe…" she emphasized, her voice becoming an octave heavier, "…was incredibly numerous. According to observations, they made up nearly half of the entire Dermovox population."
Edmond frowned. "The other Dermovoxes also considered war sacred. What was different about these?"
"Their communication abilities were almost atrophied," Lara explained with a bitter expression. "They communicated through grunts and body language rather than speaking. They had no culture, no art, no development. All they were molded by was pure rage, war, and blood. For centuries, they had been living in a massive cave complex hidden beneath the sand dunes, as if in a kind of dark temple."
The room went silent; only the distant hum of machinery from outside could be heard. Lara continued:
"We were extremely cautious toward them. We observed, we collected data. We even broke research protocols to contact Ogvetna directly and inform him of the situation. Understanding this anomaly was vital for the future of the entire planet."
"Ogvetna adopted a peaceful approach," she recounted. "He sent them food, technology, knowledge… various gifts. He tried to persuade them to join the main community and establish a common life. But he failed. To them, Ogvetna was nothing more than a 'heretic' who betrayed the teachings of the tablets. The only authority was those mysterious tablets."
"So," Hikmar asked, his three-armed silhouette flickering in the torchlight, "did you investigate the origin of these tablets?"
"Yes, and what we found was even more disturbing," Lara said. "The tablets had been left by an 'Heir'. This man claimed he had come to our planet to search for a 'lost alien relic', and we had allowed him at the time. After all, no one has the courage to stand against an Heir." Edmond smirked with a slight smile upon hearing Sharon's last words. Because he himself had killed an Heir. His name was Maelizen.
"Under normal circumstances, he was forbidden from entering the facility in any way. He was supposed to collect whatever relic he found on the planet and disappear," Sharon continued. "But using the advanced alien technology he possessed, he bypassed the facility's security, infiltrated the Dermovox habitat, and turned these tablets into sacred objects of worship for them. This Heir's name was…"
"Could it be Maelizen?" Edmond blurted out, a tone of familiar suspicion in his voice.
Lara lifted her head as if surprised. "That was indeed his name. Do you know him?"
"I've heard rumors that an Heir named Maelizen was a special operative for a man named John Crowrift, who handles dirty dealings," Edmond explained coolly.
"John Crowrift?" Lara's eyes narrowed, her hand instinctively going to her chin. "Mehmet mentioned this name to me… a few times. Is he the one behind all this?"
"Please continue," Hikmar called out gently, his voice soft but emphatic. "I believe we've come to the most crucial part of the story."
Lara paused for a moment to collect herself. "Ah… Where was I? Yes, Maelizen. I couldn't report his action because the fact that Dermovox research was still ongoing had to remain strictly secret. Instead, I began to track other anomalies within the facility. And what I saw sent shivers down my spine."
The tension in the room rose perceptibly. Lara's voice dropped, as if she were making a confession:
"The facility's robots… While a portion of them seemed to be carrying out Director Lehstorm's orders, a significant number were acting on their own, in a secret and coordinated manner. It was as if they were preparing that savage Dermovox tribe beneath the dunes—they called themselves the 'Douthkes', which means 'Black Death' in the Dermovox language—for something. Something big and terrible."
"I reported this situation to Director Lehstorm," she continued, a deep sadness appearing on her face. "He said he had no knowledge of this matter but promised to investigate immediately. However…" Lara's voice trembled, "…a few days later, Director Lehstorm died. He died despite being a Neo-Human."
"I've never heard of a Neo-Human's death before…" Edmond added.
"He had been erased from his system. I think… he entered a data layer he shouldn't have and got caught in a software trap. This was definitive proof that something bigger and darker was going on inside the facility than the facility itself."
"Afterwards…" she whispered, "…the way the robots looked at me changed. I began to sense a threat, a feeling of surveillance in those cold, electronic sensors. It was as if that science facility was slowly turning into a laboratory of fear. I took refuge in the only place I felt safe, the Dermovox habitat, with Ogvetna. After that, we joined forces. Our goal was to solve the secrets of the Douthkes and this hidden power guiding them."
"With Ogvetna, we tried to decode the tablets and understand their symbolism. At times, taking my Dermovox guards with me, I would leave the habitat and infiltrate the facility again, venturing deep into the robotic networks at great risk. I think this situation bothered them. Because they had now openly taken a stance against me. They were coming at me like a dangerous swarm controlled from a single center. If it weren't for the loyal Dermovox warriors by my side…"
Lara's voice trailed off, she shook her head. "…I could never have won that war. The war between the machines and the Dermovoxes lasted for months. Although Ogvetna and his Dermovoxes won the war, the facility, not controlled by the robots, was left unattended. In short, the Douthkes were no longer being guided in any way. They were now free, and the Dermovox habitat was not being observed or controlled."
"First, famine began in the habitat," Sharon Lara continued. Her voice was tired; the regret seeping into her words betrayed the weight of the burden she carried.
"Resource production systems began to show mysterious failures one after another. Nutrient synthesizers would stop and lock themselves. The filters of the water treatment plants were becoming inexplicably contaminated. They all seemed like separate small glitches… but when taken together, it was impossible not to understand that this was not a natural failure."
She closed her eyes. It was as if the memories were coming alive in her mind again.
"This artificial famine…" she said slowly, "…unleashed the most primitive instincts of the Dermovox society. The fear of hunger gnawed away at order. Angry crowds began to go at each other's throats for dwindling resources. First there were arguments, then fights… and finally, open conflict."
She paused for a moment.
"As if the internal wars weren't enough…" she continued, "…massive attacks organized by the Douthkes against the main community began. It was magnificent… but equally terrifying. War upon war, far from curbing the famine, turned everything into hell."
Her tone became heavy.
"The streets… or rather the corridors of the habitat… became filled with mangled bodies and pools of rusted blood. There were claw marks on the walls, burn marks on the ceilings. The chaos grew so much that some Dermovox groups spilled out of the habitat. They spread to other parts of the planet. Small skirmishes were igniting the sparks of a planet-wide disaster."
She took a deep breath.
"Right in the middle of this mess," she said, "Ogvetna and I decided to descend into the depths of the facility's central software. If this was part of a plan, the traces had to be there."
She fixed her gaze on the floor.
"And there… we discovered an extremely strange protocol."
She looked up.
"According to the software codes, in the event that a specific spacecraft landed at the facility, this ship was granted unlimited authority. All doors, all data banks, defense systems, production networks… The entire facility would be automatically transferred to the control of this ship."
She scrutinized everyone in the room one by one.
"The meaning of this was clear," she said. "The facility had never truly belonged to us. It was as if the original owner or a power that brought it to this state planned to return one day. And the thing that created the Douthkes, that drove them into this savage faith, was most likely the same source."
"Couldn't you track the ship through its identity?" Edmond asked.
Lara shook her head.
"No. The ship's identity was programmed to be defined not by the place it took off from, but by its point of origin. The software was looking at a single data point as the ship's 'initial takeoff and existence coordinate': END99141."
A short smile appeared on her face, but it was bitter.
"So no matter where the ship came from, according to the records, it would have been 'born' from END99141. And its first stop… would be the Dermovox facility. In a way," she said, "it's like it's returning home."
"And then," Edmond said, as if putting the pieces together, "you fled before that ship arrived."
"Yes…" Lara confirmed. "Me, Epra, and Hogna… we managed to escape at the last moment."
Her voice trembled. "But it came at a high price. We had to leave our loyal friend, engineer Joe Stone, behind. As we boarded the escape pod, the Douthkes were tearing through the main steel doors. They were taking over the corridors. If he stayed there… they would have had no mercy on him."
"Are you sure Joe Stone is dead?" Hikmar asked with an unusual softness.
Lara's face contorted.
"Unfortunately, yes. His last life signals were cut off in the main reactor section of the habitat. A large explosion was recorded shortly after." She fell silent for a moment. "Maybe this was better. At least… he wasn't condemned to live in that darkness. He already had a life full of pain. But before he died, he had locked many systems and managed to send many software files from the facility to us."
A heavy silence fell over the room.
Finally, Edmond asked: "So what did you find here, on this planet? What brought you to this town?"
"When we first arrived," Lara said, her gaze drifting away, "all we encountered were the disillusioned local people. People struggling with technological waste, trying to survive… They made contact with us. They helped us set up a small research base away from prying eyes."
She gave a short smile.
"We used them as a kind of camouflage. Someone looking from the outside should think this place was just a scrap worker town and we were strange but harmless foreigners."
"Over time…" she added, "…this relationship turned into sincerity. We worked together. We fought together. We were like a family now. While we taught them the foundations of resistance, we secretly continued our main research."
"Ogvetna," she said, "was tracking traces in the chaotic battlefield on s-MP044. Our mission was to find the truth here, where we believed everything began."
Her tone changed; it became more vivid, more tense.
"Until one day, a local brought us strange news. The great lake… had receded unusually that summer. From under the waters, a rusty metal lid had appeared."
"Near the old boundaries of the TESO3 factory," she continued. "It looked like a forgotten industrial door left over from uranium mines. This was an ordinary door, and its being there wasn't very surprising. But a suspicion had sprouted inside me." Her eyes sparkled. "What if the thing we're looking for…" she said in a whisper, "…has been hidden somewhere else under this dirty lake all this time?"
"We mapped the lake bed with scanning devices we brought from the Xenobiology facility. Epra…" she said proudly, "didn't hesitate. With a sensor-laden diving suit, he dove into the toxic waters and bottomless darkness. He pushed the limits of his body."
"And the data…" she said, her voice trembling, "…confirmed our suspicion."
"On the lake bed, there was a structure not present in old maps… too smooth to be explained by geology, too symmetrical. Its geometry didn't fit any known ship or structure."
"It was a ship, wasn't it?" Hikmar whispered.
"Yes," Lara said, with both awe and fear in her voice. "A ship with no records, bearing no corporate logo, with no serial number. We were one hundred percent sure it was handmade."
She took a deep breath.
"As if…" Sharon Lara repeated, feeling the weight of her words, "…it had been built by a genius or a madman… in a place no one would ever find, to be carefully hidden." She looked up, at everyone in the room. "And now… we had found it."
She took a deep breath and dived into the details of the discovery:
"We infiltrated the ship. The software systems inside were surprisingly primitive. There was no advanced artificial intelligence, route planning module, or navigation support system. In short, this ship could only perform the most basic function: going from one point to another. And it could only do this with simple, linear commands pre-loaded. The main reason such primitive systems were preferred was the power source. In fact, it was something interesting—this ship was so primitive that it had no choice but to move as soon as energy was applied. As a result of our extensive research, we reached a file named 'Project Volem' in the depths of the computer systems."
"According to this project," she explained, with a technical precision in her voice, "the ship was to be powered by a biological energy producer called 'Volem'. This situation made the ship almost impenetrable to cyberattacks while also making it 'invisible' to SWR surveillance satellites. There wasn't even a trace of a standard starship engine in the ship's records. So this vehicle would only appear as an asteroid, a piece of debris in space. It was a 'ghost ship'. And because of this, Volem was the deadliest, most critical part of the entire plan."
"So what was the ship's ultimate purpose?" Edmond asked, rhythmically tapping his fingers on the edge of the table.
"The ship was to go to planet s-MP044 and fill a certain 'load capacity'," Lara replied. "You must understand, this ship is massive… Large enough to carry at least tens of thousands of Dermovoxes. It takes up a terrifying amount of space even at the bottom of that great lake. Since it was this large, it had to be hidden from the SWR in this way. Yes… This ship was to collect the Dermovoxes—specifically the chosen Douthke tribe—take off, and land on PD-11. It was to transport them there."
"PD-11?" Edmond's voice rose involuntarily in surprise. "That's an SWR regional weapons and surveillance base…"
"Yes, we know," Lara confirmed coolly.
"So what you're saying is…" Edmond murmured, putting the pieces together. "If the person who created the Dermovoxes and this ship is John Crowrift, his goal is to attack the SWR." Lara finished.
"Why would a human want to do something like that?" Edmond asked, truly surprised. "Is such a thing even possible? To fight the SWR…"
"I don't know…" Lara sighed, shrugging slightly. "It could be part of a hatred that pushes the boundaries of the mind or a much larger plan."
"Can the Dermovoxes really destroy that base?" Hikmar asked, with logical doubt. "Do they have such power?"
"The Dermovoxes, especially the Douthkes, are nearly invincible as ground forces," Lara explained. "There is very little that can penetrate their skin except beam bullets. Beam weapons are both very costly and extremely rare in this region. I think they are being sent as a kind of 'suicide squad'. They will land on the base and level everything. The SWR may find it difficult to stop them even with air forces. Maybe John's plan is to force the SWR to completely destroy that planet. But I think that's exactly John's goal… I don't know why that planet is so important to him, but he wants to destroy it. If necessary, he wants to sacrifice all the Douthkes for this cause."
"PD-11…" Sevda murmured, entering the conversation for almost the first time during the whole talk. Everyone turned to her. "…as far as I know, it's not just a weapons base, but also one of the SWR's most strategic surveillance centers. Due to its location, it can monitor three critical star systems. Maybe his goal is to eliminate that surveillance and hide the passage or attack of another power from that region. Or… maybe this whole event is just a 'distraction' maneuver for a larger operation. After all, Dermovox research and the construction of this ship must have taken centuries. John wouldn't want to sacrifice this for such a simple, single-use attack. He must have a deeper, definitive purpose."
"The possibilities are nearly limitless," Sharon Lara agreed, nodding respectfully to Sevda's analysis.
"Fine," Edmond reopened the topic, "didn't you track it as soon as you heard the name Volem? You must know that Volem were those failed subjects of Unify that caused the company to go bankrupt and the planet they were researching to be completely ruined."
"That trail would have distracted us from our main target," Lara replied decisively. "To track Volem's origin, we would have had to go to the Exoplanet. With the technology we have, that journey would take decades. Whereas the real threat, the answer, everything was here, on this planet. We couldn't leave here. Besides, right around that time, Labiba had started to build an access road reaching the lid under the lake and from there to the ship…"
"I see," Edmond interjected, as if a light had come on. "What kept you here, in this town, was actually Labiba and his secret transport project."
"Exactly," Lara confirmed, her face darkening. "That's what kept us here. And we gave all our attention to that road and its surroundings. We kept it under constant observation. We even tried to infiltrate the security systems of the factories around that road, to catch data leaks. Because if that ship took off, not just PD-11, but perhaps the entire regional balance would be leveled. And we still didn't know for sure whether Labiba was Crowrift's pawn or an independent actor playing his own game."
The silence in the room had now turned into a space where only thoughts collided. Each of them was turning the dark pieces of the puzzle over in their mind: A ghost ship, a warrior race, an invisible energy source, and two mysterious names pulling the strings in the background: John Crowrift and Labiba. The truth could be hidden much deeper than the ship at the bottom of the lake.
"Then how fortunate we are…" Hikmar intervened. "…that Volem was killed. There's nothing you need to worry about anymore, and your mission on this planet has come to an end."
Edmond let himself sink into the chair with a deep sigh. All these talks had tired him quite a bit.
"So it seems… But… But I'm not sure if this worked in our favor," Lara said. "We might have disrupted the plans being played over our planet, but there is still a civil war on our planet and…"
"Maybe I am overstepping my bounds by interrupting you," Hikmar suddenly broke in. "Please, let the old man say his words as well, and then let's decide on some things."