The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 352: Across-Light-Year Meeting (2)

In a spacious room, several Ezki individuals sat on special chair-like structures designed for the Ezki body structure, surrounding a large round table made of organic polymer material.

Lin Yi was not sure whether there were any special customs within the Ezki civilization, but according to the mainstream method of later humans, they gathered in a circle to communicate, and no one had any objections.

At one end of the round table, behind a special structure, a figure that was obviously taller than the Ezki people also stood steadily in front of the table, shaking his head and the huge compound eyes on his head, looking forward.

The slightly raised slender front half, a pair of well-developed forelimbs and the iconic yellow and black stripes indicate its identity - a shadow dragonfly, a "special grade" among the nesting colonies that was originally designed for deep-seated reconnaissance in the environment, with diverse functions and a relatively balanced positioning.

However, the shadowfly's pair of ferocious forelimbs that looked like catching feet were completely removed, and the matching large spines under the femurs also degenerated, turning into a pair of normal forelimbs with grasping capabilities, as if they were those of an intelligent creature.

At this moment, from the special sound-making organ in the abdomen of the shadowfly, bursts of Ezki language signals accompanied by light signals from the pair of membranous wings were transmitted and captured faithfully by the huge compound eye-like structure in front of it.

What followed was still a familiar process. The sound and light signals were converted into radio signal output through special equipment, and then passed through the space synapse that could transmit the signal instantly and accurately, and broadcast across a distance of light years.

The choice of Shadowfly as the "representative image" of the nest when communicating with the Ezki civilization was not intentional at first. It was just that in order to better carry out the reconnaissance mission, a series of vocal organs that could imitate many sounds and complex luminous structures were installed to enable the nest to communicate with the other party in the simplest way.

However, in a sense, the appearance of the shadowfly not only has the roughly common image characteristics of individuals in the nest level - that is, a life form evolved based on the structure of arthropods, but also has the same alternative beauty of elegance and weirdness as the mantis, especially the head and compound eyes, which perfectly fit the stereotype of "alien" image.

In later human civilization's imagination of extraterrestrial intelligent creatures, the head structure of the mantis was initially referenced. The shadow dragonfly is particularly prominent in this regard due to a series of factors such as the proportion of its compound eyes and its head shape.

Lin Yi didn't understand psychology, especially the psychology of the Ezki people, but facts seemed to prove that it did have a certain effect - it could show that the nest group were all intelligent creatures, letting the other party know that they were facing a being with which they could communicate, while also having a certain deterrent power, ensuring that the other party would neither despise it too much nor be too hostile because of its appearance.

At this time, the tone of the improved vocal organs, which were specially designed for communicating with the Ezki civilization, was still deliberately a little weird, to an acceptable degree, but it was becoming more fluent.

"We don't know what happened on your colony planet number seven, but the known information shows that the creatures found in the underground environment of this planet do have some relationship with you."

A model of the pursuer was then transferred in after being transformed, along with some structural cross-sections and organ tissue detail comparisons. Then, some more critical evidence was also sent over sporadically.

"You have seen the images of us fighting these creatures before. But according to the comparison results, many of their structures are not similar to the native creatures of this planet. Instead, they are similar to you." "And perhaps some of you have already discovered it." Without waiting for the other party to respond, Lin Yi continued to transmit the signal synchronously, "The appearance of these creatures is surprisingly similar to a legendary creature in your culture."

An imaginary picture of the fundamentalist version of the "seekers" of the Ezki civilization also appeared on the screen, comparing it with the structure of the seekers underground on the Dikla planet: "It's just that their original membrane wings similar to those of flying insects have been replaced with flesh wings possessed by species on this planet."

The home planet of Ezgi, due to the limitations of the structure of the bony pod group called "brachia" by the other party, has no flying bony pods. The main flying creatures are large flying insects, and even some small vertebrates similar to flying fish have evolved fins into wings for gliding.

It is difficult, or even impossible, for people to imagine something they have never seen before. The same is true for the Ezki people. The legendary creatures in the Ezki culture naturally cannot have wings similar to those of the Dikla Star flying dragons.

But apart from the wings, its structure is not much different from the fundamentalist version of Seeker. This coincidence may not mean anything, but when all kinds of coincidences appear at the same time, they can gradually piece together a possibility.

"The creatures underground on this planet may be related to what you encountered on Colony Planet No. 7, and the other party should indeed have your genetic samples. After all, now there is more than one structure with similar similarities."

A picture of a special structure that looks like a giant starfish is also presented in the picture, including its internal cross-section structure - which is somewhat similar to the skeleton of the Ezki people, showing its unusualness.

"If the other party is really the one that caused a series of events on your colony planet No. 7, then obtaining genetic samples is certain. But this raises another question. Why would the other party use a form similar to that of a seeker in your culture?"

"This form does not have a significant advantage over similar traditional forms." Several pictures of small flying dragons native to Dikla Star appeared, "and this will lead to a partial decrease in cost-effectiveness, which is not good for this form of existence."

"There are experts in this field from your civilization here, and they should also have some understanding of that kind of existence. We can clearly state that we are a special case of this form of existence."

"Under normal circumstances, this form of existence, even if it has a high level of intelligence, is still relatively direct and mechanical in its behavior patterns. It directly regards survival and reproduction as its first goal. To achieve this, it is likely to use any means necessary and is often quite aggressive. It is also unable to communicate."

"For such an existence, a form similar to that of a seeker does not have much cost-effectiveness. Instead, it seems to be created to deliberately fit this image. However, such an existence has no reason or motivation to conduct in-depth research on your culture."

"This can only mean two things. One is that they are special cases like us, but this is unlikely. The other is that the relationship between these things and your civilization may not be simple."

(End of this chapter)