Chapter 355 - 330: Conclusions and the Choice of Questions

Chapter 355: Chapter 330: Conclusions and the Choice of Questions

January 15, 3:00 PM.

Three hours had passed since the Fire Thief released the alien individual.

Three hours can be short, about the time it takes to watch a long movie.

But three hours can also be long, long enough for the contact delegation to complete its first contact with the alien individual.

After paying the price of twelve lives, the delegation on-site had reached several conclusions:

1. The alien individual can communicate, but it must be provided with food.

2. Humans can serve as food.

3. Although not yet verified, the amount of food required may vary depending on the question.

4. After a question is asked, the alien individual will begin to search for food on its own, rather than waiting for the questioner to provide it.

5. The alien individual does not seem to treat the "questioner" as food.

Some felt these conclusions were worth the dozen or so lives sacrificed, while others found it absurd.

Louis, a representative of those who felt it was worthwhile, was now surrounded by a human wall of Sisiya Mobile Team soldiers, strictly supervised and forbidden from approaching the alien individual.

"What are you stopping me for?" Louis tried to get out, but several soldiers held him firmly in place.

Sikokun, standing to the side, said, "Our Governor Yelena has issued an order: until the latest Human Federation meeting concludes, no one is to ask the alien individual any more questions. If we didn’t stop you, you wouldn’t be able to control yourself, would you?"

Louis pushed up his glasses, glaring at Sikokun in annoyance. "I’m from the Soloma Space Agency! You Sisiya soldiers have no right to restrict my personal freedom!"

Sikokun replied coolly, "This is Sisiya Country’s territory. Since you’re standing on it, we have the right to manage you."

"You!"

Louis was about to retort when a colleague from the contact delegation, also from the Soloma Space Agency, berated him.

"Louis, shut your mouth! It was your reckless questions that got those ten people killed. If we hadn’t known what would happen, we could have maybe excused you for your ignorance. But now you know, and you still want to ask more questions and get more people killed?"

"Their sacrifice was valuable! At least we obtained useful information!"

"You bastard!"

A young man rushed forward to hit him but was stopped by soldiers under Sikokun’s command.

The young man roared, "My friend was one of those ten! Next time someone else asks a question, let’s see you put on a brave face when you’re the one set aside as food!"

Louis froze at his words. He stopped trying to break through the human wall and said after a moment of silence, "If it means obtaining valuable information, I have no problem being the food."

"..."

"Everyone, stop fighting. Let’s just wait for the Human Federation’s decision."

"Dammit!" The young man clenched his fists. "What useful information did we even get in exchange for those ten deaths?"

After the alien individual devoured the ten people, no one could understand the meaning of the sounds it mumbled, making them feel like they had gained nothing.

But Louis didn’t think so.

He spoke up, "I believe it did answer my questions. The answers just couldn’t be expressed in any human language."

"You mean..."

"I just asked for its name and where it’s from. I’m guessing its name and home can’t be spoken in human languages, which is why we couldn’t understand its reply!"

As much as everyone wanted to punch Louis, they had to admit his words made some sense.

On the magnificent scale of the cosmos, the differences between civilizations would naturally be immense. The fact that this alien individual could communicate with humans through a form of "language" was already an extremely improbable event. The Fire Thief must have "hand-picked" it for this purpose.

Even among humans, there are certain ancient languages with words or intonations that require specific physiological vocal structures to pronounce. One has to learn them from childhood; after growing up, the physiological structure is set, making it impossible to learn how to produce those sounds.

If Louis was right, then this was definitely not good news for humanity.

If its name and home couldn’t be expressed in human languages, could the answers to other questions be expressed in them?

No one present was a fool. Upon learning that they could ask questions by paying a price, they all immediately thought of one thing: give it food and ask the most critical questions.

The top experts and scholars in any field would surely be chomping at the bit.

Scientists, for example, would want to obtain breakthroughs in key scientific and technological fields that have long plagued humanity, like how to miniaturize nuclear fusion or achieve room-temperature superconductivity.

Biologists might want to know the origin of humanity, how exactly we evolved.

Even those in the humanities, like historians, might want to ask how different real history is from our current records.

The general public or officials would most likely want to ask about the Fire Thief and the Apocalypse Rules.

...There were too many questions to ask, but also too many unknown limitations.

The inability to understand some of the alien individual’s answers was one such limitation. To solve this problem, they would first have to decipher its linguistic system.

Secondly, it was just one alien individual, not an omniscient, omnipotent god of the universe. It couldn’t possibly know the answers to all questions.

For instance, regarding the Fire Thief, it probably didn’t know any more than humans did. After all, if it had the power to resist the Fire Thief, how could it have been captured and released on Celestial Water Star?

Furthermore, there was an even more critical issue.

This very issue was currently under discussion at the Human Federation meeting.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE...

A roaring sound approached from the distance, shattering everyone’s thoughts.

Everyone looked up to see several large Sisiya transport vehicles heading their way.

The members of the contact delegation initially thought the vehicles were carrying more Sisiya soldiers as reinforcements, but they realized they were wrong when the transports stopped and the doors opened.

Inside the cargo holds were numerous cages filled with animals like cows, sheep, and pigs.

It dawned on everyone at once: they were going to test whether animals from Celestial Water Star, other than humans, could be provided as food to the alien individual.

...

At the Human Federation meeting, each representative commissioner embodied the national will of the country they represented.

Before each meeting, the commissioners would first receive the decisions from their nation’s highest-level policymakers and then act as proxies to communicate with the other commissioners.

Thus, although Gao Liangwei’s military rank was only Senior Colonel, in the Human Federation council chamber, he currently represented the will of North Star’s leadership. The same was true for the other commissioners.

"Any questions posed to the alien individual must be carefully considered," Gao Liangwei said. "Putting all else aside, if other creatures cannot substitute for humans as food, rashly asking a major question could lead to a massive loss of human life!"

The other commissioners nodded one after another.

If the amount of food the alien individual required varied with the difficulty of the question, then posing a difficult question would inevitably come at a great cost.

"This information has not yet been made public," one commissioner said worriedly. "If people find out about this, there could be massive protests."

"Indeed. Who would be willing to become the price for a question?"

"It’d be great if your Soloma robots could be used as food," a commissioner joked to Mary. "That would solve the humanitarian problem in a flash."

Mary didn’t smile. She just gave the commissioner a cool glance. "If you don’t want a humanitarian problem, isn’t there already a ready supply of food we can give it?"

Commissioner Toravt of Sisiya immediately understood Mary’s meaning.

"So you’re saying we use the Parasites as food?"

"Of course. The Parasites are already mortal enemies of humanity. We’re going to kill them anyway, so we might as well have them contribute something to humankind." Mary looked at Gao Liangwei. "Chairman Gao, what do you say?"

Gao Liangwei was silent for a few seconds before saying, "If other animals cannot substitute for humans, then that is our only option. However, I must also point out that aside from those who have admitted to being Parasites, we still have no scientific way to distinguish who is a Parasite and who isn’t."

Mary smiled. "Are you saying you’re worried people might kill the innocent to claim credit?"

"That’s not quite the right phrase for this situation."

"Heh, the meaning is more or less the same."

Toravt spoke up then. "If misidentification is the concern, then have the Alliance Army transport the people captured in Black Banner Country to Sisiya. Since Black Banner Country has already been overrun by Parasites, then anyone there fighting against the Human Alliance Army can, at the very least, be identified as a Parasite."

"Mm, you have a point." Gao Liangwei nodded, and the other commissioners also expressed their agreement.

"Then, let’s move on to discussing the specific plan for questioning the alien individual. It’s necessary to place certain restrictions on the questions asked," Gao Liangwei said.

"Agreed." Mary was the first to concur, glancing around at the others. "His Majesty specifically instructed me on this. He has no desire to see some fool from some country ask a question like, ’What is the truth of the universe?’"

"Indeed," Toravt added. "Pursuing answers to overly grandiose questions is meaningless and might even get humanity killed. The questions we ask should start small and build upon each other, ones that can realistically solve the immediate crises humanity faces."