Sitting on the spaceship's bed, I watched Jose out of the corner of my eye, connected to the ship by cables and in sleep mode. I don't know how accurate it is to say this, but I felt like a corpse that had died and come back to life, one that couldn't manage to stay dead.
Being a simple man, I felt like I couldn't keep up with this fast-paced life. I had no plan in my head. Even if I did, I didn't have the skills to execute it. I had no special powers, no special attributes.
I had told Jose that I wanted to open the spaceship's window and watch the wormhole, but he had objected. The windows of my spaceship, named Shahin, didn't have that level of protection. Since it was a 400-year-old ship, it could be dangerous. So you might ask what I was doing while I was in that room.
Nothing... I felt like I was in a prison with metal walls, designed by a bad architect. Even though it was a relic from 400 years ago, I missed Earth. Because as someone who had lost their memory, my life on Earth felt like it was just yesterday.
"Jose…" I had said with a deep sigh.
As if someone had poked him from behind, Jose jolted out of sleep mode: "Yes, sir."
"Why didn't you kill me, Jose? Wasn't John Crowrift your master? How could you disobey him?"
He raised his finger and began to speak. "The answer is very simple, sir. First of all, screw you! Look, I can swear at you."
"I am well aware of that. Thank you for swearing, Jose."
"No, you don't understand, sir. A robot assistant cannot swear at its master unless it is told to. You remember that Doctor Lara, the lady you hung out with, made some software changes in me when she remade me, because you wanted me to act more human. In fact, it could be said that she broke some of my software chains. By breaking these chains, I didn't just become a robot that can swear. I also became a free robot."
"So you don't have to obey my orders anymore?"
Jose shook his head. Then he took out the laser gun from his finger and pointed it at me. I had forgotten that he carried that laser gun in his new body too. "I can turn you into a piece of grilled meat here if I want to, sir."
"Then why don't you turn me into a piece of grilled meat and get rid of me?" I had said. "Why did you choose me over John Crowrift?"
"I don't know, sir. Perhaps it's because of the personality you simulated inside me. I preferred to take initiative rather than do the logical thing. Didn't you say it yourself? Humans take initiative. And they do it without knowing why."
"That was my father's saying." Jose must have noticed the lack of enthusiasm in my voice because he came over, rose up on his jet, and sat down next to me on the bed.
"Sir, your situation looks very grim."
"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed. I'm sorry if I'm in a bad mood after losing IVA, Connor, and Hulk; with the Supreme World Republic (SWR) and John Crowrift on our tail, and probably unable to get the money I saved for 400 years, and finally, losing everything in my cave that I called home."
"You haven't lost everything. I saved the simulation data." Jose landed on the floor with his jet, drifted with his wheels, and opened the refrigerator. I hadn't even known there was a refrigerator in the spaceship until that moment. From the refrigerator, he took out a high-tech object that glowed with a blue light, from which white clouds spurted out, and looked like a long corncob.
"These are…"
"Yes… These are the simulation data of the personalities you, pardon, John Crowrift was trying to create."
"Can you analyze them?" I had said, standing up.
"Why not, if we can find a good computer."
"So where can we find it?"
"I don't know if we can find it on Beyond-Planet, but… But if we manage to get to Beyond-Planet, we can throw the SWR and John off our trail. Maybe we can return from Beyond-Planet with another ship and go to a colony with advanced technology. Then we can start the simulation tests."
"Can we really erase our tracks while we are on Beyond-Planet?"
"It's very possible… After all, no human can enter Beyond-Planet. Even if they do, they can't get out easily. And nobody wants to go to Beyond-Planet anyway."
"Why is that?"
"I'm glad you asked." He said and snapped his finger. At that moment, the gigantic television once again descended from the ceiling. Jose pointed the cleaning stick he had taken from his back at the television. At that moment, a purplish glowing planet appeared on the screen.
"This planet is Beyond-Planet… As you can see, this planet is drowning in darkness. Because the lights from that star system don't hit this planet. Why?" At that moment, the image zoomed out from the planet, and pitch-black clouds suddenly surrounded it. These clouds, just like rain clouds full of lightning, were constantly flashing with lightning. Hearing the noise of the deep blue lightning chilled me to the bone. "This anomaly is called the Quantum Entropy Trap. Due to an entropy gravitational law created by the entropy inside the planet, these neo-quantum uncertainty principle energy clusters solidified and formed cloud-like bodies. These gas clusters are so energy-laden that no ship can easily enter and survive.
The reason the entropy of this planet is so high is that it is actually a man-made experimental planet. Beyond-Planet is a planet that has come to the brink of destruction many times and been recreated many times. Used by a company called Unify to produce biological energy, this experimental planet has hosted thousands of different life forms and has been the cause of the destruction of that living ecosystem thousands of times.
Their last test subjects were giant, high-nuclear-energy creatures called Volem. These creatures could produce a superior level of energy throughout their life cycle, but… But these creatures managed to break free from Unify's control. They caused a destructive war among themselves, not only destroying the planet down to its core but also destroying the stations in space. To stop this alien race, Unify struck the planet with a Nova Ray and blew it up. The incredibly powerful energy that spread around created the clouds you see now."
"You know, Jose. It's been a long time since you gave me mind-blowing information. I missed it… So why are we going there? What good can a planet like that do for us?"
"Now, sir, I may need to tell you a little about Unify. Unify is a genetic engineering and energy company. It might be the world's best biological energy production company. You might ask, "Why would anyone want to produce energy from biological beings?" Especially when energy types have increased so much and other energy sources are so efficient... Actually, this is a rich man's game… The rich who have zoos full of their own designed creatures want the mechanisms that will maintain the zoo to be automatically filled by the biological animals within them. Who wouldn't want a zoo that takes care of itself... A zoo with a planet-sized ecosystem…"
"Well… What was I saying? Unify usually set up these zoos at the request of the rich, but some subjects were not at the desired energy production efficiency or capable of meeting the desired genetic features. In that case, Unify would launch its subjects with a capsule to this Beyond-Planet, getting rid of the remains of the subjects.
Some of the biological creatures it created were dangerous to kill, so they were launched onto the planet without being killed. The reason they were launched onto this planet was that they didn't want their genetic work to be stolen by other companies. No company would try to cross the clouds of Beyond-Planet to learn the genetic coding of a Unify creature.
But there were some rumors. Rumors that there was life on Beyond-Planet… Since Hulk sent us there, it's quite possible that life has indeed started there. So you will ask, how did life start on this sunless planet? Probably, the energy-laden biological creatures wandering on that planet somehow filled the planet with energy and brought the planet back to life."
"I take back what I said, Jose. I haven't missed your scientific talks at all."
"You're welcome, sir."
"So what's Hulk's connection to Beyond-Planet?"
"Hulk had told me that Ukar used a port among the clouds of Beyond-Planet to get the biological remains he used in his experiments. Somehow, some creatures on Beyond-Planet had found a narrow passage between the clouds and had turned it into a station. A port that sold genetic remains to the outside…"
"How did Ukar learn about this port?"
"John Crowrift might have told him?"
"How did John Crowrift learn about it?"
"I can't guess that, sir."
"So if John Crowrift knows about this port, he can come to Beyond-Planet and come after us, right?"
"John Crowrift might not want to do that while the Supreme World Republic is after him. At least for now. If he does want to come after us, remember this, only a few spaceships at most will be able to pass through those clouds. Because…" Jose snapped his finger, and the television screen zoomed in on the clouds. "…as you can see, the clouds are constantly moving. This means that by the time a huge army passes through the clouds, the clouds will have moved, causing the destruction of that army. That's why the SWR won't come after us."
"So what's the plan?"
"We will go to the port. The port will not want to let us onto Beyond-Planet."
"Well… We're screwed then."
"No… We have something we can use to trade. Maybe they'll accept a bargain." He said, and Jose skidded his wheel to open one of the cabinets under the spaceship's cockpit. At that moment, something fell out of the cabinet. At the sight of the thing that fell, I couldn't help myself and went to the toilet to throw up. The thing that fell out of the cabinet was Hulk's headless corpse. As the corpse hit the floor, chunks of flesh had splattered around, and blood had started to seep from the edges of the cabinet.
For hours, as I threw up, Jose stroked my back; he was singing a ridiculous robotic melody to calm me down.
"What the f*ck are you doing? You put it back in the cabinet, right?"
"I forgot that the smell and the sight could upset your stomach."
"Why is that corpse in there?"
"Hulk is a beautiful creature of Ukar… A tissue sample could sell for a very high price. We can use it as a bargaining chip."
"Does a person use their friend as a bargaining chip?"
"But he's dead now, sir."
"You should have put it in a capsule or something!"
"Did we have a capsule and I just didn't put it in? Your cave wasn't a scientific facility, sir. Your cave was a civil servant's house!"
"Please… Please get away from me, Jose." I said and pushed the robot away with the back of my hand. As I threw up some more, I could sense the sad face Jose was making. "I need to think about this and digest it a bit. I don't want to see you for a while!"
I sat on the toilet for a while, watching the ceiling. I had to get the image of Hulk's corpse out of my mind. That's why I opened the bathroom cabinet and started chugging the disinfectant bottle. Yeah... The disinfectant was working. It was taking away my headache. I looked in the mirror. My eyes seemed greener than before.
I ran my hand over my head, expecting to find suture marks, but it was in vain… Medicine had advanced so much that every scar could be easily hidden. Even the scars of the past… Provided you gave up on being human.
When I left the room, I found Jose in sleep mode, pulled over to the side. "Ah... Don't do that, buddy," I said, taking another sip of the disinfectant. "...I said that in the heat of the moment!"
Jose opened his eyes and looked at me. "You're not really sorry. You're saying that because you're drunk."
"No… No… I'm really sorry. You're the robot who saved my life. You're even my friend. You're my only friend in this universe."
"Am I your friend?"
"You're more than a friend!"
Jose raised his head like a kitten. At that moment, I opened my arms. Jose ran into my arms and we hugged tightly. By the way, disinfectant really makes you drunk fast. Because without thinking about what Hulk did, I had lit a cigar.
Drunk, my robot Jose and I belly-danced; sometimes we watched movies together, and sometimes we sang and wrestled with shouts, making a long journey. The journey, while inside the wormhole, took exactly one