January 15, 3:00 PM.
Three hours had passed since the Fire Thief released the alien entity.
Three hours is short — it’s enough to finish a slightly long movie.
Three hours is also long — long enough for the Contact Delegation to complete the alien entity’s first contact.
After paying the price of twelve lives in total, the delegation on site had reached several conclusions:
The alien entity can communicate, but it must be fed.Humans can serve as food.Although not yet verified, the amount of food required might differ depending on the question asked.Once a question is posed, the alien entity will start actively searching for food by itself, rather than waiting for the questioner to provide it.The alien entity does not seem to treat the questioner as food.
So people thought those conclusions were worth the cost; others thought them absurd.
The faction that thought it worth it was represented by Louis, who at this mont was being strictly guarded by a human wall ford by several Xisiya mobile team soldiers, prevented from approaching the alien entity.
“What are you stopping
for?” Louis tried to step forward, but several soldiers held him firmly down.
Beside him, Sigaochin said, “Our Administrator Yelanka has issued orders: until the latest Human Consortium eting concludes, no one is allowed to ask the alien entity any more questions. If we didn’t stop you, you wouldn’t be able to hold yourself back, would you?”
Louis pushed up his glasses and glared at Sigaochin in annoyance. “I’m with the Suroma Space Agency. Your Xisiya soldiers have no right to restrict my personal freedom!”
Sigaochin replied coldly, “This is Xisiya territory. Since you’re standing on this land, we have the right to control you.”
“You—”
Louis wanted to argue further, but one of his colleagues from the Suroma Space Agency in the Contact Delegation scolded him.
“Louis, shut up! It’s your reckless questions that got those ten people killed. If you’d done it without knowing beforehand, you might be excused, but now you know, and you still want to ask questions that will kill more people?”
“The sacrifice of those people was valuable! At least we got useful information!”
“You bastard!”
A young man lunged forward to hit him but was held back by soldiers under Sigaochin’s command.
The young man shouted, “One of those ten was my friend! Next ti, make soone else be the food — put you aside and see if you still dare say that!”
Hearing this, Louis paused, no longer trying to break through the human wall. After a mont of silence he said, “If it can bring valuable information, I have no problem being the food.”
“……”
“Everyone, stop. Wait for the Human Consortium’s decision.”
“Damn it!” The young man clenched his fists. “What useful information did those ten deaths even get us?”
After the alien entity devoured the ten people, its murmuring sounds conveyed anings nobody could understand, so many felt there had been no gain.
Louis, however, disagreed.
He said, “I think it answered the questions I asked. The answers just can’t be expressed in our human language.”
“You an…”
“I asked it its na and where it ca from. I suspect its na and hotown can’t be spoken in human language, so that’s why we couldn’t understand the responses it gave!”
Although Louis was the kind of person people wanted to punch, what he said now nonetheless sounded plausible to the others.
On the grand scale of the universe, the differences between civilizations are inherently vast. That this alien entity could communicate with humans at all, in anything resembling language, was already an extrely unlikely occurrence — likely sothing the Fire Thief had specially hand-picked.
Even among humans, so ancient languages exist that require special vocal anatomy to pronounce certain words or tones. Those sounds can only be learned from childhood; once physiological developnt fixes, they can no longer be produced.
If Louis was right, that was bad news for humanity.
If its na and hotown cannot be expressed in human language, does that an every other answer can be expressed?
Everyone present was no fool. Once they learned that questions could be asked in exchange for lives, the first thought that ca to mind was obvious: feed it, then ask the most pressing questions.
Top experts in any field would be desperate to ask. So scientists would seek breakthroughs that have long plagued humanity, like how to miniaturize nuclear fusion or achieve room-temperature superconductivity.
Biologists might want to know the true origin of humanity, how we evolved.
Even humanities scholars, like historians, might want to ask how much of recorded history matches the truth.
More broadly, the public or governnts might want to know what exactly the Fire Thief and the Doomsday Rules are.
There were countless questions to ask, but equally many unknown limitations.
One of those limitations was that so of the alien’s answers were incomprehensible; to solve that would require cracking its language system first.
Another factor: it is only one alien entity, not an omniscient deity of the cosmos. It cannot possibly know the answer to every question.
For example, regarding the Fire Thief, it might not know more than humans. If it possessed power to stand against the Fire Thief, why would it have been captured and released on Tianshui Star?
Additionally, one more crucial question remained.
That very question was now being discussed at the Human Consortium eting.
“Drum roll…”
A rumbling sound drew closer from a distance, breaking people out of their thoughts.
They looked up to see several large Xisiya transport trucks approaching.
At first the Contact Delegation assud the trucks carried more Xisiya soldiers as reinforcents. When the transport vehicles stopped and the doors opened, they discovered otherwise.
Inside the cargo compartnts were many cages holding large numbers of cattle, sheep, pigs and other animals.
Everyone suddenly realized: they were going to try whether Tianshui Star’s nonhuman animals could be offered to the alien entity as food instead of humans.
……
At the Human Consortium eting, each representative committee mber stood for the will of the nation they represented.
Before every session, committee mbers receive directives from their nations’ highest decision-making authorities, then act as delegates to communicate those decisions to the others.
So although Gao Liangwei’s military rank was only Senior Colonel, in the Human Consortium eting he now represented the decision-making authority of Beixing. Other committee mbers were the sa.
“We must carefully consider the questions posed to the alien entity,” Gao Liangwei said. “If other creatures cannot substitute for humans as food, then rashly asking major questions could lead to massive human casualties!”
Other committee mbers nodded in agreent.
If the alien required differing amounts of food depending on question difficulty, then asking a difficult question would demand a heavy price.
“At the mont the information is not public,” one committee mber said anxiously, “if the public knows about this, there could be enormous protests.”
“Right. Who would be willing to beco the price for these questions?”
“If only your Suroma robots could be used as food,” one committee mber joked to Mary, “that would solve the humanitarian problem.”
Mary did not laugh. She simply glanced at that mber with a faint look and said, “If you don’t want humanitarian issues, isn’t there already suitable food available?”
Xisiya committee mber Torafuto imdiately understood Mary’s aning.
“You an use parasitized forms as food?”
“Exactly. Parasitized forms are humanity’s natural enemy. Killing them is one thing; might as well make them contribute to humanity.” Mary looked at Gao Liangwei. “Chairman Gao, what do you say?”
Gao Liangwei was silent for a few seconds, then said, “If other animals can’t substitute for humans, then that would be the only option. However, I must also say: besides those who admit they are parasitized forms themselves, we still do not have a scientific thod to distinguish who is a parasitized form.”
Mary smiled. “You an worrying about people being wrongly killed?”
“That term isn’t quite appropriate here.”
“Heh, the idea’s basically the sa anyway.”
Torafuto then said, “If mistaken identification is a concern, then have the Joint Force transport those captured in the Black Flag Country to Xisiya. Since the Black Flag Country has been overtaken by parasitized forms, the people who fought the human coalition there can at least be considered parasitized forms.”
“Hmm, you make a good point.” Gao Liangwei nodded, and other committee mbers expressed agreent as well.
“Then let’s discuss the specific plan for questioning the alien entity. We need to place certain limits on the kinds of questions asked,” Gao Liangwei said.
“Agreed.” Mary was the first to second the motion, scanning the room. “His Majesty specifically instructed : he does not want so idiot from any country asking ‘What is the truth of the universe?’ or the like.”
“Indeed.” Torafuto added, “Pursuing excessively grand questions is aningless and might cost human lives. We should ask questions that practically and directly address humanity’s current dilemmas.”
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