Sci-fi Novel - The Dream Artist - Part 49

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21
Part 22
Part 23
Part 24
Part 25
Part 26
Part 27
Part 28
Part 29
Part 30
Part 31
Part 32
Part 33
Part 34
Part 35
Part 36
Part 37
Part 38
Part 39
Part 40
Part 41
Part 42
Part 43
Part 44
Part 45
Part 46
Part 47
Part 48

Part 49

My quadcopter descended over Selim Ozben's house, ventilating the yellow leaves on the ground. Instead of going straight home from the quadcopter, we decided to take a short walk like the first day we arrived. Autumn brought a great richness of color to the grove, with shades of green, yellow and brown. The weather was calm. As we walked down the path towards the deep of the woods, the leaves rustled, and the smell of soil and dry leaves came to our nose. The birds on the branches of the trees seemed to have adapted to the calm of the sky and the wind.

I said, “We're about to visit Selim Özben.”

"Painter C. had an excellent intuition of an artist when he argued Selim Özben was neither dead nor alive," said Peri.

“Let's see if we can find him,” I said.

Galip and Marlo were sitting in the pergola next to the stone mansion. “Hello, can we join you?” I said.

”We didn't expect guests," said Galip.

"Maybe we brought you some interesting news.”

“Did you find him?" he asked in a sarcastic tone.

“Please, sit down,” Marlo said, exhibiting the hospitality that his boss didn't have.

We sat in the water-tight seats. “My dear android friend Marlo was distraught last time we met, he had been subjected to a serious lockdown,” I said.

"You must have learned that you cannot reach conclusions with a view from the top.”

"Yes, I learned my lesson; I apologized to you about it before.”

“But you continue to bother me by coming here without an appointment.”

“I'm sorry, we don't have much time to put an end to the investigation, but we have to present our report to our minister of internal security and the United Nations delegation tomorrow. Besides, I didn't think you'd be here.”

“I'm accepting this place as the heritage of Selim. That's why I come often.”

“Selim Özben, I hope he will return to us as soon as possible,” I said, looking at Galip Salik.

"If I remember correctly, the task you were given was to find him, but you're not successful.”

” I always cared to satisfy my curiosity rather than success or failure."

“Do people care about you?" asked Galip.

“I guess they care as much as I care about them. I have discovered the freezing process of Cyronica company applied to Selim Özben's body. I thought his body was kept in the only room that didn't move in the stone building next to us. I don't know if I am wrong?”

I had explained my hypothesis to Peri, but I didn't tell her where the body was; I saw a chillwave passing through her beautiful body as she was surprised.

“Your imagination is quite advanced. I suppose you've seen too many movies,” said Galip.

“My dear friend Marlo works for Chronica. Selim Özben's body should receive uninterrupted electricity; the necessary chemicals should be fed to the system regularly, the maintenance and repair work of the main cabin is too sensitive to be left to a human. Right, my dear friend Marlo?”

“All procedures were carried out following legal regulations and ethical rules,” Marlo said.

Galip was trying not to give color, but I could see his face fading. “There was no cure for Selim's illness that today's medicine and technology could provide. He was already dead when he was frozen. And we have provided him a place for him to be resurrected. Your tampering does nothing but upsetting his relatives.”

“My job is not to judge people. I'm sorry about what you've been through. Legal authorities shall make the necessary assessment.”

It was evident that Galip was shaken.

“Marlo, would you please take us to the room where Selim Özben's body is located?” I said.

Galip had the familiar warrior and proud face again after the astonishment. He gave Marlo the necessary approval, leaning his head slightly forward. We entered the main gate of the mansion and stood by the door that said “no entrance.”

“Please wait here for me,” said Marlo.

“If we entered this door the first day we came, we'd have figured it out,” said Peri.

“The supply depot means nothing by itself,” I said.

Marlo came back with a pencil-sized piece of metal with a sharp tip. Under the leadership of Marlo, we walked out the outer door behind the mansion and started to step into the woods. After a while, we reached a humid and dark area where the trees almost completely covered the sky. In the deep silence of the grove, the autumn leaves were rustling under our feet. Marlo went into the trunk of a massive tree with a full bucket and invited us to join him.

"Could Marlo called us here to kill?” I asked.

“His mind is controlled by the ethical layer of the operating system,” said Peri.

“We will move soon, don't be surprised, " Marlo said, dipping the sharp pointed pen on the ground. A few seconds later, the ground trembled slightly first, then jolted us down to the ground. In the narrow corridor with low ceilings, we moved in a row and reached the spacious and comfortable control room where Selim Özben's frozen body was. “For medical reasons, I cannot allow you to enter that compartment,” said Marlo, who saw us carefully looking inside the window with the Cyronica emblem on the corner. Selim Özben must have been lying in the cube where dozens of hoses and cables came in.

“It is a sad image; he had been like one of our family,” said Peri.

“What kind of planning did you make? Is there any hope that he will be back with us soon?” I asked.

“Things are developing faster than we expected, serious progress has been made in the treatment of the disease,” said Marlo.

“So there may be a wake-up call recently?”

“Waking up is a risky procedure, so we have to wait."

“Wait until when?”

“We have to make sure that the treatments that are said to be available for the disease provide permanent recovery, and the risks of arousing are decreasing as the years go by,” said Marlo.

"What about the risks of keeping his mind and body frozen?" Peri asked.

“Our estimated optimum wake-up time is eight years,” said Marlo.

“Dear friend Marlo, how does it feel to be dedicated to the service of people?” I asked.

“We have duties, not feelings,” said Marlo.

“You had a temporary crash in our last conversation that you tried to escape from my questions."

“To be honest, I did a lock-down trick,” Marlo said, "because it puts the body at risk I'm responsible for, there's no lock-up possibility for me."

“That's how I want you to be, man; I've always looked at the android generation with sympathy, you don't have to hide anything from me.”

“Thousands of algorithms that have been tested and selected for decades have made us susceptible to serving people,” Marlo said in a thoughtful tone.

Image Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/1L71sPT5XKc