The stars, but they become the gray wind

Eli and several space agency astrophysicists, who were sitting around the coffee table in the office, rushed to the control hall with the astronauts.

.........

On the Rover, Zao Chiqi brought Xuan Zhang Wu Ke, who was planning to go to Earth to study and observe the behavioral phenomena of humans as biological beings, and drove a small shuttle equipped with anti-gravity technology out of the Rover's hangar and headed straight for somewhere on Earth.

In a court in Houston, a hearing is underway for a former space agency director who defected.

"Your Honor, I have always been attracted to the concept of justice, which is why I embarked on the path of engineering and aerospace. That sense of clear-cut right and wrong, the sense of being able to judge right and wrong very clearly. But in fact, the world is not as simple as we think. It is not black and white, it is gray, and it is not as simple as we think. It is not black and white. It is gray. It is not as simple as we think. It is not as simple as black and white. It is gray. It is not as simple as black and white ... not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white. It is not as simple as black and white.

Outside the court building, a silver-white delta-wing aircraft with a length of more than 70 meters hovered next to the court building. The roar produced by the running omnidirectional vector propulsion engine frightened the crowd below into panic.

"What are you doing with an air-breathing vector engine?"

"Huh? Didn't they say it's better to make louder noises?" Zao Chiqi touched his head stupidly.

"It's not that big. Turn down the power a bit. Don't scare those guys down there to death. If they scare them to death, why would I even be observing?"

"But I've already switched to the lowest gear?"

"Huh? Oh, really? Then just shut off the air-breathing engines and use the anti-gravity hover gear. This thing is so loud, I almost forgot that even the regular jet engines on one of our shuttles are powerful enough to raze an entire city on this planet to the ground. Sometimes we get so used to having these things available anytime, anywhere that we often forget how powerful they are. They can easily turn an entire city-sized area into glass with just their tail jets."

"Oh, I see." Zao Chiqi obediently turned off the shuttle's dedicated air-breathing fusion turbojet engine for use within the atmosphere. The city residents below, who were panicking and seeking refuge, suddenly discovered that the terrible noise above their heads had disappeared. The aircraft hovering above their heads instantly became extremely quiet and quietly hovered next to the court building.

The police who had just arrived at the scene were completely helpless in the face of the aircraft overhead that clearly did not look like human technology. They could only use walkie-talkies to ask their superiors for instructions. However, the superiors of these police officers, that is, the city management department, obviously had no channels to communicate with alien life, so they could only continue to ask for instructions. Upon hearing about this, reporters from various news media who had already rushed to the scene had gathered under the alien aircraft that suddenly appeared here.

"Hey! What is that thing!" A photographer carrying a camera pointed at a vortex-shaped wormhole interface portal that suddenly appeared on the steps in front of the court.

Xuan Zhang Wu Ke and Zao Chi Qi floated out of the micro wormhole portal, and two white spherical drones also appeared beside them. The crowd around them suddenly became quiet, and everyone stared with wide eyes, looking at the two aliens who suddenly appeared in disbelief. The two aliens had tentacles on their lower bodies, bodies shaped like jellyfish, but two eyes on their upper faces.

"It should be here, right?" Xuan Zhang Wu Ke asked.

"That's right, this is it."

The two glass eels didn't care about the people around them who were scared by them. They followed the drone up the stairs and arrived at the gate of the court.

In front of the court gate, two security guards who were trembling with fear at the aircraft overhead were completely at a loss. When they saw two obviously non-human creatures flying directly in front of them, the fatter one of the court security guards almost collapsed to the ground in fright.

"Move aside, human, we need to go in and find someone." Xuan Zhang Wu Ke turned on the translator and converted the eel language into human language.

The security guard, who was so scared that he sat down on the ground, first heard the alien creature in front of him make a singing-like sound, and then it began to speak this sentence in very standard American English with a slightly mechanical tone.

"Gudong..." The two security guards were obviously smart. After all, no one knew what the consequences would be if they blocked the aliens' way, and their work regulations obviously did not state that they had to prevent the aliens from entering the court. Moreover, the two drones behind them, which used unknown technology and were floating in the air, were not easy to deal with. The salary of the two security guards was not worth it for them to fight with a group of aliens of who knows what species. What's more, the mothership of this group of aliens was parked in the earth's orbit. Anyone with eyes that can see the mothership as big as a flying mountain above their heads, and anyone who is not a fool, knows that alien intelligent life and civilization with this level of technology and engineering capabilities to cross the starry sea and come to the earth are definitely not easy to deal with. Therefore, the two security guards guarding the door of the court also wisely stepped aside.

Xuan Zhang Wu Ke, Zao Chi Qi and two drones flew into the court hall in a swaggering manner, scaring everyone in the hall and making them move away. They found the room where the Magao hearing was being held without any obstruction.

"Is it her?" Xuan Zhang Wu Ke simply ignored all the humans present who were frightened by the appearance of their Erli Eel, and flew to Magao in the dock without saying a word. He stepped forward and looked at the human in front of him with his big eyes made entirely of pure melanin. As an object being observed closely by an alien creature, Magao was so frightened that he didn't even dare to breathe.

"Hmm... let me take a look. Your facial muscles are aging, you have osteoporosis, and you have some minor retinal issues. The joints in your legs are quite worn out, your hand muscles have minor abrasions, and a few teeth are loose. Your health isn't ideal."

"?" Margo was a little confused, because the alien in front of him suddenly used standard American English with a slightly mechanical voice to summarize his sub-health condition in a singing manner.

"But these are minor issues for our medical technology, Ms. Margo Madison. We would like to invite you to our spaceship for a discussion."

"Would you like that?"

"And... as long as you agree, we can help you solve all the difficulties you are facing now." Zao Chiqi pointed to the hearing room which was in chaos due to their sudden arrival.

"I'd like to... go with you to the spaceship to talk." Even for the experienced Margo, she had never imagined she'd encounter such a situation. Two jellyfish-like aliens brazenly stormed into the hearing, just to invite her to a spaceship for tea? Margo even thought she was dreaming. She pinched her face, and after feeling the sharp pain, she finally confirmed that she wasn't dreaming.

"She agreed, so this should be voluntary, right? This shouldn't be considered kidnapping, right?" Zao Chiqi deliberately turned up the volume of the translator's external playback device and asked Xuan Zhang Wu Ke in standard American English with a mechanical tone.

"Well... according to the definition of human society, this should be considered voluntary, not kidnapping or coercion." Xuan Zhang Wu Ke had the same idea and turned up the volume of the external voice playback device of his translator so that all humans present could hear the glass eel language translated into English.

"So...Ms. Margo Madison, do you want to walk out of the courthouse together and board the spaceship, or do you want to board the ship the way we usually do?"

"Commonly used? I don't quite understand. Can you explain it to me?"

"To put it simply, it's what you understand as teleportation technology."

"However, I actually recommend you choose the former, because it can serve as a warning to those humans outside."

"Reminder of what?"

"Don't persecute scientists and technicians for some very stupid reasons."

"I imagine you've seen this kind of thing quite a lot. Whether it's your mentor, your mentor's former rival, your old lover, or several colleagues, they've all suffered unwarranted persecution and discrimination from their own kind due to some foolish so-called political reasons in human society."

"And this is one of the reasons why the two of us came here to find you today."

Chapter 193: What are the qualifications of the Star Son candidate?

In the end, a former director of the space agency chose to keep a low profile. In the other party's surprised eyes, a water-wave-shaped micro wormhole interface was opened. After passing through the "portal", Magao found himself in a room with unknown equipment and pipes, and strange blue-green patterns on the walls and ceiling. Magao realized that he might have entered the interior of the small alien spacecraft outside the court building.

"Margo Madison, come with us." Zao Chiqi called.

Margo followed the other party through several corridors and cabins inside the spacecraft. Margo noticed that many cabins along the way were equipped with a large number of strange spherical cabins made of transparent materials.

"Our liquid sleeping cabin. Although we are amphibians, it is more comfortable for us to stay in liquid." Zao Chiqi explained.

Margo followed the two glass eels to a place that should be the cockpit of the spaceship, because this was obviously the head of the spaceship. Margo saw the city below through a huge piece of glass that was obviously integrated with the function of a holographic display.

"Margo Madison, find a seat, we're about to take off."

"Um...but there's no...chair here?"

"Wait a moment." Zao Chiqi waved his hand, and a large amount of silver sand and fibrous substances emerged from the cracks in the floor, gradually changing and growing into a chair that conforms to human ergonomics. Margo walked forward in astonishment and reached out to touch the chair that had grown by itself. Its appearance was not much different from the familiar airplane seats of humans. The flexible material on the seat also felt like the common flexible memory foam on airline seats, and on it, there was even the thing that humans are most familiar with: seat belts.

Margo tried sitting on it and found that the chair was indeed very comfortable.

"Prepare to return to orbit." Zao Chiqi casually clicked a few times on a holographic display screen, and the shuttle changed its attitude and climbed towards the sky. During the whole process, Magao did not feel any of the bumps and noises common in human aircraft, so much so that she even had the illusion that she was still in the same place while sitting in the cabin.

It was not until the system inside the spacecraft showed that they had left the atmosphere and the view ahead was gradually occupied by the giant mothership parked in a low-Earth orbit of 500 kilometers that Margo realized that he was indeed no longer on Earth and was about to follow two aliens into a giant alien spaceship the size of a city.

The shuttle flew into a hangar on the side of the spacecraft. Based on visual observation, Magao estimated that the height of this hangar alone was more than 1000 meters. Strangely, Magao did not see any structure or design similar to an airlock in this hangar. The entrances and exits of the entire hangar were directly open to space.

The shuttle landed steadily on the floor of the hangar, and the two glass eels led Margo down from a hatch on the side of the shuttle. Margo discovered that there seemed to be more than just the small spaceship he was on in the hangar, but at least hundreds of them. These spaceships seemed to serve as shuttles for landing on the surface of planets, and the rectangular entrance on the open side of the hangar in the distance seemed to be sealed by something like an energy barrier to prevent the air inside from leaking out.

[Could it be... an airtight shield?] Margo thought of something he had only seen in science fiction movies and novels on Earth.

Zao Chiqi asked the Rover's onboard artificial intelligence to prepare a cabin and area suitable for human habitation, and he took the human he had brought on board for a tour.

"I imagine you must be wondering why I want to see you and why I brought you aboard this ship, right?"

"The reason is actually very simple. I just don't want to see a scientist who truly wants to explore space being persecuted by his own species' stupid internal conflicts and so-called political reasons."

"The entire system is corrupt to the core, and mutual protection among officials is commonplace." The alien in front of him said something familiar to Margo in very standard English.

"This is our assessment of the current stage of human civilization.

Your species has used ideas that could have promoted the progress of your entire civilization as so-called political bargaining chips.

Just for their own benefit, rather than the benefit of the entire species II Jiu Mio Dance (Part 3) Peel Qi Yi Umbrella

At least at this stage, all I see in your civilization is deceitful intrigues and endless internal friction that wastes time and resources.

What's ridiculous is that you still naively believe that this endless, relentless game of back-and-forth is the best way and strategy to solve problems. For a tiny bit of short-term gain, humans are going to war and turning their swords against their fellow humans who coexist on the same planet.

"To justify this ridiculous game, you humans have created one -ism after another. Fictional concepts and narratives like dynasties, corporations, nations, and alliances have forcibly divided us and them. Then, of course, you use these ridiculous excuses to persecute and even massacre your fellow humans on the same planet."

"Putting aside the backwardness of human technology, we believe that the current model of human civilization development is in an extremely unhealthy state. Our current development model is merely a temporary solution to our current social problems, and the root causes of these problems will never be addressed."

"I imagine that as someone who's experienced it firsthand, you probably feel the same way. You, your mentor, your mentor's competitor across the ocean, or your mentor's other student from the East, all suffered what we consider to be utterly foolish persecution at the hands of human society."

"If I must use a metaphor familiar to human society, from our perspective, your persecution is similar to how you view the witch hunts of the Middle Ages, except that it makes you appear extremely ignorant."

"I..." Margo found that she really couldn't refute what the other party said.

"From ancient times to the present, human society has only been repeating this vicious cycle and bad habits that have existed for thousands of years."

"From our point of view and perspective, you must change, otherwise... this will never be open to you."

A holographic projection of a silver-white ring-shaped object appeared next to one of Zao Chiqi's tentacle.

"This is?"

"This artificial stargate has a wormhole channel anchored at Jupiter's second Lagrange point on its inner side, and tens of thousands of star systems in the Milky Way on its other end."

"A network of highways that connects the entire galaxy. Through it, any user can reach any corner of the galaxy in a very short time."

"Margo Madison, we would like you to be a witness from within human society and see if humanity truly has what it takes to make the leap from the cradle to the galaxy."

"Why me?" Margo asked in confusion.

"Because you have played a crucial role in the course of human history."

"Because of the asteroid?"

"That's really one of the main factors that you have incentivized humans to leave the cradle, even if it's not something most humans do voluntarily."

"So...what do you think?" Zao Chiqi extended one of his tentacle towards Mago.

"Before that, I need to know what the consequences will be if I agree or refuse."

"I will ensure that you have the opportunity to live to see the results in good health, and that you have all the necessary help to do what you want to do."

"Does this assistance for what I want to do include direct interference with the progress of human society? For example, is it okay for me to use your help to directly transform human society?"

"Of course, but in that case, we won't provide technology that's too far beyond the current level of human society. We'll only provide methods and ideas that are better than what human society can think of."

"What if I say no?"

"Then we will provide you with a place to live that is not affected by the so-called political factors of current human society, such as Mars."

"I need to think about it."

"No problem, you will have plenty of time to consider it." Zao Chiqi was not in a hurry about this. He had considerable patience with Magao, the person who had pushed forward the key process nodes in human history.

"I'm really curious, why are you so interested in her?" Xuan Zhang Wu Ke asked Yuki curiously on the other end of the communication.

"Regarding this point, it's actually because she's similar to your Chi Chengsan. Ling, Wu Linjiu, Shanliu, and others all have potential in that area."

"You mean... the one that Master Yanzhe mentioned?"

"Yes, that's it."

"She also has that kind of potential, but like Chi Chengsan, it has remained undeveloped because it is not needed at the moment."

"At least not in the current situation. If we ever need to use the potential of Chi Chengsan and others like her to solve a problem, it would mean we've truly run into a serious problem that could lead to our own devastating consequences."

"But it's better to be prepared. At least at this stage, it's necessary to find such a 'Star Child' candidate in advance just in case."

"In every way, I hope we never need or use the untapped potential in these two."

"After all, for us now and in the future, it's best if we don't have to use their talents."

...Efforts to learn about the secrets of the house...

On Earth, although Magao chose a relatively low-key way to leave, the news that two aliens who looked like jellyfish swaggered into a court in Houston and took away the former director of the space agency who had fled to the Soviet Union in public spread like wildfire, causing media around the world to begin to pay attention to the former director of the space agency who was called a traitor.

At the same time, video footage of the two aliens' appearance taken by several reporters who happened to be at the hearing and outside the court was broadcast and studied around the world, and the relevant contents of the diary written by Kuznetsov during his time on the alien spacecraft were also transmitted back to Earth at this point in time.

All of a sudden, countless scientists and researchers were analyzing this video recording and the various information and intelligence about this alien species in Kuznetsov's diary.

"Based on the contents of Kuznetsov's diary and the information revealed by the other party during Kuznetsov's conversation, we have at least figured out one thing: it may be an aquatic amphibian intelligent life form. The preliminary analysis and judgment of its appearance by several of our biologists also confirms this."

In the space agency's conference room, a marine biologist who had nothing to do with the aerospace field reported his team's preliminary inferences about the appearance and species of extraterrestrial life.

"They're probably carbon-based creatures like humans, but compared to humans, they're likely to have stronger adaptability to the environment, able to simultaneously adapt to the different atmospheric pressures and oxygen content underwater. We're still unclear about the exact nature of their home planet's environment, but considering their body structure, we haven't observed any internal skeletal support structures like humans. Therefore, it's quite possible that their bodies are better adapted to living in a liquid environment. In other words, they might be an amphibian aquatic mollusk, and this mollusk might have muscle density far exceeding that of humans. It's precisely because of this high muscle density and strength that they can support their bodies on land without the buoyancy provided by liquid."

"They look like jellyfish. Do you think they are more closely related to jellyfish in terms of species classification?"

"No, I don't think we should judge alien life by the standards and thinking of Earth life, especially highly evolved alien intelligent life. If we must judge them by Earth life standards, I think they might be more like octopuses, rather than jellyfish, which have relatively simple body structures. Octopuses do have a certain ability to survive in terrestrial environments for a period of time."

"Their bodies appear translucent, what do you think this means?

"This means they may be living in an environment lacking sunlight and light, otherwise it would be impossible for their bodies to be nearly translucent."

"This may mean that the aquatic liquid environment they live in is relatively deep and does not receive much light from the stars in the galaxy."

"But they have eyes, don't they?"

"I'm just saying that the water depth they live in may be deeper than the amphibians we conventionally know, and the light they receive is also less, but that doesn't mean they live in a completely lightless environment. Organs like eyes often evolve under the premise of requiring light. For example, some creatures on Earth that live in the lightless environment of underground caves have highly degraded organs and functions such as eyes and vision. Since they have eyes, it means they have this need. Their living environment must be bright, which is why they need vision."

The marine biologist was introducing the information he and his team had speculated to others in the conference room. The same scene also occurred in many countries and other parts of the world at discussion meetings on the possible information of the several actual cases of alien life that are now appearing before human eyes.

"Of course, we are currently only speculating based on the information we have. As for the specific truth, we will need to wait for time to give us the answer, or for the other party to be willing to reveal more information to us."

"Uh, what about that...corrector on Mars?"

"Regarding this, considering the method they used to resurrect Kuznetsov and Parker, I think it might be something like a body after mechanical ascension."

"Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that it's some kind of carrier of strong artificial intelligence developed or manufactured by them."

"However, one thing that is certain is that the translucent prismatic cube that appeared on Mars and the two individuals that appeared on Earth must have regarded each other as fellow humans or friends. This has been confirmed by Kuznetsov."

"However, the strange thing is that according to Kuznetsov and Parker's experience during their time on that spacecraft, they didn't see any other living creatures on that ship except for the translucent prismatic cube and one of the alien individuals that appeared on Earth."