Age of Cosmic Exploration

Yao Yuan had another secret meeting to discuss the entomologist’s proposal.

There were two arguments that were brought forth in the meeting even though they were basically the extensions of a singular one, which were: does the flesh alien have intelligence? If they do, was such an obvious exposure of its embryo a trap? Could it be possible that the exposed embryo was just a useless extension of its body, like the tail part of the lizard?

It could have used this method to lull mankind into a false sense of security. When mankind was certain they had the alien under control, it actually had another part hidden away from sight that was growing into another mother nest.

This was entirely possible. If the alien had sentient intelligence, the possibility of this happening was more than 70 percent.

The counter-argument cited the mother nest’s action when it was being pushed into the sun. If it had any semblance of intelligence, it would have known what mankind was up to. However, it was primitive enough to only focus on evolving into the supercell and passively allowing itself to be pushed into the sun. Furthermore, various surveillance videos had shown that the mother nest had reached the supercell level moments before it was pushed into the sun. Theoretically speaking, it could have used the newly acquired technology to absorb and grow from the solar winds. However, it didn’t do so. It resisted the sun’s gravitational pull when it should have leaned into its force and used the energy from the sun’s gravity and solar winds to align itself into the sun’s orbit.

This proved that the flesh alien’s intelligence was still primitive. Its basic understanding still equated the sun to death. The alien technically could be said to be sentient, but it wasn’t an intelligent sentience. It had something that was more of a basic instinct. Its only missions were to consume and to evolve.

There was equal support on both sides. For example, Guang Zhen was adamant that there was a hidden growing mother nest elsewhere, because the location for this one was too obvious. It had to be a trap. There was no way it wasn’t a trap. It was biding its time, waiting for mankind to lose its vigilance and then it would strike, like how it did with the aquatic civilization!

Therefore, Guang Zhen was totally for burning it up. Not only this embryo, any other places on this planet that appeared to be suspicious needed to be neutralized. He even guaranteed that none of the monsters in hiding would come to save this mother nest, because they would be too busy protecting the actual nest.

On the other hand, both Xiao Niao and Ren Tao, who were still recovering, were of the other opinion. Both Thinkers believed that the embryo’s vulnerability was real and the plan could work. The reason was simple: if the alien did have high intelligence, mankind would have been dead when it evolved to become the supercell. There was no need for it to drag the whole thing out unless it had a sadistic streak, which it didn’t appear to possess. It could have easily gotten mankind’s DNA when it was at its supercell stage, so there was no need for it to jump through all these unnecessary hoops.

Arguments kept on mounting from both sides, each with support from their own scientists and experts. They reached a stalemate, and finally both decided to pass the decision to Yao Yuan.

Yao Yuan was caught in the fray. Instinctually, he was on Guang Zhen’s side. It was better to rid mankind of this huge problem before it could fester into something worse. It was for the sake of their future generations. They were the pioneers, so they couldn’t leave a huge problem for their future generations to handle.

However, rationally, he was on Xiao Niao and Ren Tao’s side. Logically speaking, the flesh alien wouldn’t have a high IQ; otherwise, it would have squash mankind when it had the chance. There was no need for it to lose and then restart everything from its embryonic stage just to toy with them. Furthermore, Guang Zhen’s plan was going to cause irreparable damage to the new home planet’s flora and fauna.

In the end, he settled for something that was in the middle. He announced, "I’ll go for a plan that utilizes benefits from both sides. First, we’ll use the bait plan and see whether any monsters will come to its rescue. Secondly, the surveillance crew is going to continue its work, but there will be limitations on the scope of deforestation. The focus will be on detecting abnormal growths underneath the planet’s surface.

"The operation will be called... Operation Bait."

So a weirdly named operation was born. Most of the defense unit was assigned to surveillance and scanning duty using the shuttles since they were not suited for close quarters combat. The troopers, on the other hand, were separated into 3-member teams to conduct the ambush part of Operation Bait. They were ordered to kill any monsters that emerged from the embryo, or any monsters that ran into their perimeter.

Both parties carried on with their assigned orders for a month. A month later, the troopers had killed about 70,000 monsters, while the defense unit located 2 more mother nest embryos...

It turned out that both sides had something wrong and something right.

With the discovery of 2 other mother nest embryos, the Bait Operation was extended to cover 3 distinct locations. The Hope’s surveillance team utilized everything at its disposal to search the planet, its deep mountains and deep seas especially, for more mesomeric actions, but it couldn’t pick up any more of those signs. They were certain there were only 3 mother nest embryos on the planet.

To compensate for the workload increase, the Black Star troopers were also separated into 3 parties, each responsible for one embryo. After another month, none of the troopers came across any other returning monsters. Yao Yuan finally ordered everyone to return after they destroy the 3 embryos.

Other than that, he gave an order to the Hope’s surveillance unit that they use their best device to scan every corner of the new planet on the 1st of every month. This order was to be continued after his death. In other words, as long as human civilization continued to exist, the order would have to be obeyed.

Lastly, the cleanup crew would be cut to 100 members, but they would continue on with their responsibility to burn any spots that they considered suspicious. This too was to be continued after his death. The size of this crew would only increase with 100 as its minimum.

However, at this juncture, everyone could finally sigh in relief. They had finally reached the true ending with regards to this flesh alien. It meant that mankind finally had a new home planet. Needless to say, there was another huge celebration that lasted for 3 days following the defense unit and Black Star Troopers’ heroic returns...

"What? The House of Representatives is discussing the validity of the Confinement Order?"

This was after the long celebration and Yao Yuan was back at the captain’s room going through the documents that had piled up over time. This was his response when he heard Barbie updated him on things that were happening on the political end.

Barbie waved her hands with much frustration as she added, "Well, it’s not actually entered the official discussion yet. It’s just that some of the representatives are questioning the validity of the Confinement Order on the side, and a select few of them had some... less than pleasurable views."

Yao Yuan smiled as he put down the document. "Go into the details. We’ve worked with each other for so long; you know I’m not the kind of person to order political execution."

Barbie hesitated before revealing, "These people are saying the reason the government is not doing away with the Confinement Order is because it wants to continue its autocratic reign of the Hope’s citizens. It is afraid that when people start colonizing the new planet, the new countries and governments will pose a threat to the government’s authority and validity. The Confinement Order is to ensure that the people will not have the sovereignty and a land to call its own so that it will not be threatening to the Hope’s government..."

Yao Yuan lost his smile, and his expression gradually became serious. After a long while, he said, "They’re right. The Hope’s government was indeed created in a rush, and we eventually have to open the home planet to the people... In that case, I believe the time is ripe to create an actual and valid central government. I can’t allow the same thing that happened on Earth to repeat itself on this planet, so the creation of hundreds of countries is impossible! Mankind does need a government, and the arrival of a new home planet means that we no longer have to wander around aimlessly in space and expose ourselves to various dangers. As long as there is no civil war on a gigantic scale, it is safe to say that human civilization will not meet its end, especially after we’ve entered the 4th revolution...

"So, after the mass release of the Ultimate Vaccine, we should think about setting up the constitution."