Chapter 366: The Complete Reasoning

Just as the room was deeply divided over whether to evacuate, Jason suddenly realized something. He looked directly at Cole, the alien diplomat sitting in the corner.

"I have a question for you. In the grand scale of the universe, are Gaia entities that have developed true self-awareness extremely rare? Can they be artificially cultivated in a lab?"

Cole was stunned. He was still trembling from the rising panic, but wasn’t Jason’s question completely obvious? If a Gaia entity could be mass-produced, it wouldn’t be infinitely valuable. It would just be a standard resource for any advanced alien civilization.

Forcing himself to speak, he stammered, "Yes... yes. A self-aware Gaia entity is entirely the product of cosmic coincidence. It is exceptionally difficult to replicate naturally, let alone artificially..."

How humiliating! My voice is shaking! Cole pinched his own thigh hard, making himself flinch. The sharp pain grounded him, and his speech became much more fluent.

"Such entities are incredibly rare on a galactic scale—far rarer than advanced alien civilizations! The ultimate bottleneck is the spark of true self-awareness. That is the most crucial, impossible hurdle."

"As for artificial cultivation... it’s impossible! Well, maybe not entirely impossible, but cultivating a self-aware Gaia would require technology far beyond anything we can comprehend. It is infinitely more complex than engineering standard organic life. A Tier-4 civilization absolutely couldn’t do it. Neither could a Tier-5. Maybe a Tier-S civilization could, but I have never even seen a Tier-S civilization."

Hearing this, Jason’s tone grew urgent. "What about biological collectives without self-awareness? Are those rare?"

"Well..." Cole hesitated, thinking it over carefully. "Collective life without self-awareness isn’t unusual at all. Take bee colonies or ant hills, for example. Those biological collectives possess a base level of swarm intelligence and can self-regulate, but they don’t have true self-awareness."

"In some complex ecosystems, an entire planet can function as an organic whole with self-regulating mechanisms. So, no, a mindless biological collective is not strange or rare at all."

"Exactly!" A glimmer of hope flared in Jason’s eyes. He slammed his hand onto the table. "Everyone, calm down and think critically. How long ago did this UFO arrive?" He emphasized his next words heavily. "Thirty thousand years!"

"Therefore, I strongly believe that this UFO was merely an automated research probe controlled by a basic AI! Thirty thousand years ago, this massive algae colony did not possess true self-awareness. It was just a relatively common collective organism."

"It was massive and held some biological potential, but it wasn’t exceptionally rare back then... correct?"

"So, this alien civilization conducted a routine scientific survey, dropped an automated observation probe, and simply left. They probably leave similar automated drones on every potentially valuable planet they chart across the galaxy!"

Cole’s eyes lit up as he eagerly interjected, "That is highly probable! When my people traveled through deep space, we constantly dropped automated observation beacons to monitor interesting star systems."

"Commander Jason is right. It was almost certainly an automated drone. No highly advanced civilization is going to park a manned fleet in this remote backwater for thirty thousand years. But because the algae colony had a minuscule fraction of potential, they left a drone behind to keep an eye on it."

"That logic holds up," an officer muttered in agreement.

"But why didn’t these aliens just capture the algae back then?" another officer asked, puzzled.

As the initial wave of blind panic subsided, the room began to calm down. Most of the Senior Scientists and military brass present had already survived numerous existential crises; their psychological resilience was formidable.

Jason waved his hand dismissively. "Because they knew they lacked the technology to artificially cultivate a true Gaia entity, so they just let nature take its course.

Forcing a spark of self-awareness is nearly impossible. It requires a perfect storm of environmental opportunities and cosmic coincidences. Left alone, they likely assumed it wouldn’t succeed for another hundred million years, if ever."

The room stared at Jason, hanging on his every word.

"What I mean is..." Jason spread his hands confidently. "Since this was likely just a wide-net automated survey, their main fleet probably doesn’t attach much importance to this planet!"

"It has been thirty thousand years! Think about that time scale! Do you honestly think an advanced armada would linger around this godforsaken system for that long? Statistically speaking, their main forces are likely halfway across the galaxy by now!"

"Which means we might have a lot more time than we thought!"

This theory wasn’t entirely bulletproof, but it offered a massive wave of reassurance because the logic was fundamentally sound. If thirty millennia had truly passed, and the alien civilization had shown zero active interest in the interim, they certainly wouldn’t still be loitering in the local sector.

For any advanced interstellar civilization, thirty thousand years is an eternity. Therefore, the probability of an enemy armada being in the immediate vicinity was infinitesimally small.

"But that entire theory relies on the premise that the natives’ timeline is accurate," Arthur Lambert suddenly pointed out. "This damned planetary civilization doesn’t have a reliable historical record! Maybe their ’thirty thousand years’ is actually only three thousand, or ten thousand years! So, Commander, that assumption of safety isn’t entirely sufficient!"

Jason frowned, pondering the critique. "Then we need to reverse-engineer the timeline of this entire incident."

The room full of Senior Scientists and tactical analysts put their minds to work. Within minutes, they had deduced a complete, logical timeline for the crisis.

Tens of thousands of years ago, an alien research vessel or fleet visited Planet Dige. They collected biological specimens and cataloged the primitive native society, conducting a standard scientific expedition. Their scans revealed that the most valuable asset on the planet was the marine algae colony, which held the latent genetic potential to develop self-awareness. The primitive natives, caught up in endless tribal warfare and fanatical god-worship, were entirely worthless by comparison.

"Or rather, the natives were completely ignored," Arthur noted. "In the grand scale of the universe, standard intelligent life is a dime a dozen. The aliens deemed the algae vastly more valuable because of that minuscule probability that it might one day evolve into a true Gaia entity."

Knowing the astronomical value of a self-aware Gaia, the unknown civilization left behind an automated probe to continuously monitor the ocean.

Naturally, the algae lacked any self-awareness at the time, and the probe was programmed not to interfere with its natural development. Since the birth of a Gaia entity is a miraculous rarity, the alien researchers likely didn’t hold out much hope for success.