“.......”
Amir and everyone else in the room sat in stunned silence, unable to even clear their throats, let alone speak. What they were witnessing was so shocking, so utterly beyond belief, that it rendered them motionless.
For people who had already experienced the impossible, the creation of new life shouldn't have been this overwhelming. Yet, none of them displayed the composure or understanding one might expect. The sheer scale of what they were seeing, and the completely unfamiliar thod by which it had happened, made it feel like an entirely different kind of revelation.
On screen, a ti-lapse played, beginning with the capture of Lee Joon Ho and progressing through a surreal sequence of events, leading to the birth of entirely new races from the fruits of enormous trees.
Elves, both normal and dark. Dwarves. Fairies. Giants.
The narrator’s voice cut through the heavy silence.
"Although they may look like sothing out of a fantasy novel or other forms of dia, that is precisely because they are. Each of these races was inspired by the mories of Lee Joon Ho. However, do not mistake their appearances for signs of a different species. Beyond minor variations in size, ear shape, and a few internal and external features, their DNA is a match to ours. Just as an Asian and a xican can have children together, we can reproduce with all of them, with no adverse effects whatsoever."
The narrator paused, allowing ti for the information to settle.
Still, no one spoke.
"I'm sure so of you are wondering if a giant man reproduces with a normal-sized woman, would there be any side effects? The answer is no. The child will be born like any other and will only begin experiencing rapid growth after puberty," the narrator stated, anticipating a question that was undoubtedly lingering in many minds.
There was an attempt at humor in the explanation, perhaps ant to ease the tension in the room. But instead of laughter, it only added to the awkwardness, as if the joke had been designed to fail in order to force everyone's thoughts away from the sheer enormity of the revelation and into the odd discomfort of the mont.
"Are we being pranked or sothing?" Ramsey finally spoke, breaking the silence. His voice carried the weight of disbelief, directed at his friends as if seeking reassurance.
"I don’t think so," Amir replied, eyes still locked onto the screen. "There’s no reason for them to ss with us like this, especially not when this briefing is already delaying our reunion with families we haven’t seen in a decade. It would be cruel, and completely out of character for the empire."
The ti-lapse continued playing, showing how the empire had raised these newly created people.
At the sa ti, Researcher Zhou, seated among his colleagues from the sa research team, found himself murmuring, "I know I should be one of the easiest to convince, having been in direct contact with the material, but seeing this happen twice, through completely different thods, doesn't feel like a coincidence at all."
He paused for a mont before adding in a low tone, almost as if speaking to himself, "Maybe our understanding of the universe is flawed… constrained by the limited observations we were able to make from within our own star system."
Despite his hushed voice, the heavy silence in the room allowed those nearby to catch his words.
"What do you an?" Dimitry, the head researcher of his team, asked, his curiosity piqued.
Although montarily surprised by the question, Zhou took only a brief mont to gather his thoughts before explaining, "Before the empire, we based our entire understanding of life on a single data point—Earth. Given our circumstances at the ti, it made sense to assu that life required millions of years to evolve before intelligence could erge. But now, we’ve witnessed two docunted cases of life forming from re materials, one through a simple touch, creating a fully realized human, and another through inspiration alone, resulting in the birth of five new intelligent races."
He glanced at Dimitry before concluding, "With a two-to-one ratio contradicting our initial assumptions, who’s to say that we, too, didn’t co into existence in a similar way?"
Following Zhou’s explanation, another round of contemplative silence filled the room. But it didn’t last long before another researcher spoke up.
"But we have extensive evidence of evolution, detailed records of how life on Earth developed. While there are so gaps, the available information should be more than enough to validate the theory."
Zhou didn’t hesitate. "That’s not an argunt against my theory," he replied, his confidence unwavering. "If anything, evolution actually strengthens my point."
It was clear that Zhou had been pondering this for quite so ti, and the recent revelations about the newly ford races had only solidified his thoughts, filling in the gaps he knew still existed in the evolutionary record.
"What part exactly?" the researcher asked, intrigued by how his own counterpoint could support Zhou’s hypothesis.
Zhou leaned forward slightly. "The initial catalyst of life," he said, pausing for emphasis before continuing. "Evolution explains how life diversified and adapted over ti, but it doesn’t fully account for how the first single-celled organisms erged. Yes, we have theories suggesting they ford under specific conditions, but despite our best efforts, we’ve never been able to replicate those conditions in a way that produces actual life. The furthest we’ve gotten is creating amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) but not life itself. And since then, no further progress has been made."
He let that thought settle before posing a question that refrad the discussion.
"Now, what if, during Earth’s early history, there was a material similar to the one found in the TRAPPIST-1 system or around Proxima? What if soone or sothing triggered the conversion of that material into a single-celled organism… and then simply left it to take its course?"
“...........”
Instead of receiving a response, he was t with silence. However, no one nearby questioned whether it was due to deep contemplation or simply a lack of a plausible counter-argunt, not even Researcher Zhou himself.
His attention, like everyone else's, was now locked onto the screen. The display showed the castle where the emperor was eting with the five Proxima elders. Thick roots coiled around the structure, forming a cocoon-like barrier. Then, without warning, an explosion erupted.
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