Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 230: Third Kind of Encounter!

Several seconds later, the liaison officer of the Earth Era received a reply from the other party.

"Reporting to the superior, the other party has agreed!"

Thus, another shuttle emerged from the mother ship, matched the speed of the 6-meter-long, 4-meter-wide space capsule, and, with the success of the mechanical arm docking, two soldiers and a related security expert jumped in...

Li Junkang and Guo Qiang both swallowed hard, extremely nervous. They saw the space capsule was crammed with more than a dozen pangolin-like creatures, all clad in space suits, their dark eyes staring at them.

"Don’t be nervous! They are probably more nervous than you," came a voice through the earphones, "Just maintain the necessary humility."

Major Guo licked his dry lips and remembered his mission, then spoke into the translator on his body, "Welcome to all friends from the Gleize Civilization, to our mother ship..."

"Please come this way... board our small spacecraft for a security check."

A hundred kilometers away, inside the mother ship, Zhang Yuan stared intently at the large screen, his eyes hardly blinking. These pangolin-like creatures had a pair of black eyes and were quite short, the tallest being no more than 1.2 meters.

"Hello, friends from human civilization! I am the leader of this diplomatic team. You can call me Ganyador," one of the leader-looking Glizerians also spoke through the earphones.

With the translation device’s processing, understanding them wasn’t difficult.

The soldiers conducted a thorough inspection of the entire spacecraft, and with no suspicious points found, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Bring them into the mother ship!"

Thus, the first—third type of contact—between humans and an alien civilization officially began!

Zhang Yuan was very excited, his heart filled with caution on one side but immense curiosity on the other.

Humans couldn’t possibly never intersect with alien civilizations; the Gleize Civilization could undoubtedly make a great interlocution party if possible.

Their technological strength appeared to be slightly weaker than that of humans, at least on the surface... The new civilization possessed most of the technological foundation of Earth Civilization. Given enough time, its developmental potential far exceeded what was currently apparent.

For this contact, the whole human civilization had been prepared for a long time, even completely transforming a small area within the Earth Era to accommodate these anaerobic life forms, which also had a minimal respiratory function.

High concentrations of oxygen were toxic to them. Therefore, they also had to prepare a mixed gas with the same atmospheric components as their home planet, alongside nearly the same atmospheric pressure, humidity, etc... They also needed to create an entirely sterile environment lest these creatures be killed by human bacteria and viruses.

Instead of calling it diplomacy, it seemed more like dealing with a group of demanding patrons!

But people had to do so, just in case one of the pangolins died accidentally, it would be a diplomatic incident, akin to dropping mud in one’s pants.

As they sat on the orbital vehicle, the Glizerians looked around curiously, but obviously, all of the creatures restrained their curiosity—none of them looked around excessively or touched anything randomly.

Then, they arrived at their living area.

"...Generous and hospitable human civilization, we must praise your delicacy. Living here, it feels like we have returned to our Mother Star, quite comfortable." After a while, this Glizerian named Ganyador sent out a message, "Even the gravity environment is quite pleasant; we sincerely thank you."

The temporary living area had been transformed into a convoluted, pipe-like bizarre state. To accommodate their eyes, all the lights had been dimmed.

Every Glizerian’s room was extremely small, just like a cardboard box and less than two square meters. Surprisingly, these fellows found it quite comfortable; they seemed to enjoy such cramped environments.

Seeing all his companions chuckling around him, Captain Zhao couldn’t help but cough and said, "Don’t laugh, everyone. This shows that due to different living environments, the thought processes of two civilizations can actually be very different... Fortunately, communication is still possible. Ah, let’s agree to disagree."

Zhang Yuan said, "We should let them rest for a while first. Traveling such a long distance by rocket must be tiring. Rockets are not like the Space Elevator; they have to endure huge accelerations, which are not very comfortable."

"Anyway, this kind of negotiation can’t be completed in a day or two." ƒгeewebnovёl_com

Zhao Qingfeng agreed, "That’s right, let them rest first... However, we can study the food they brought along and some of the biological specimens they carry."

A group of diplomats and biologists hurried over enthusiastically and proceeded with the exchange. They then received a pencil-box-sized storage box, which contained specimens of alien plants and insects.

These items were supremely important. Biologist Yamamoto Ichiro’s hands trembled as he carefully placed the storage box into a specific safety deposit box. Excitement aside, caution was necessary to avoid causing biological contamination.

Alien life forms had to be studied safely within a Biological Safety Level 4 laboratory, also known as a P4 laboratory.

Then, a human diplomat hurriedly said, "Thank you very much for bringing these biological specimens! Feel free to rest in this living area, and we can consider the matters about the diplomatic conference after you’ve rested."

After completing the exchange, these Glizerians really did begin to comfortably assign rooms, consume food, and rest, and some curiously examined the limited equipment aboard the spaceship... This included some video devices and a few art albums and other entertainment products.

A few hours later, these fellows seemed genuinely tired, each dozing off lazily like turtles hibernating...

They slept...

For more than ten days!

This made all humans anxious. After patiently waiting day after day, Zhang Yuan believed that letting them rest was truly a horribly bad idea!

It was only after explanations from the biologists that everyone tacitly understood that this was the normal sleeping routine for Glizerians!

They were not being deliberate or lazy; it was just their way.

"Because anaerobic respiration provides so little energy, they need long periods of sleep to conserve energy... This unique biological phenomenon is something we’ve encountered for the first time."

Yamamoto Ichiro, red-faced and excited, explained, "We dissected some insect specimens and found that these insects generally have a special organ for energy, which we’ve named the Energy Core. It’s their primary energy organ."

"While in hibernation, they can slowly digest food inside their body. The main component of their food is glucose, not much different from ours. Their unique biological enzymes can store the energy released by anaerobic respiration in the Energy Core and quickly release it when they wake up... They have an extremely high utilization rate of food, but the digestion is slow due to anaerobic respiration."

"So, due to different respiratory functions, the organisms here generally have long dormancy periods and grow very slowly, even insects are not exceptions. At the same time, this method of breathing also allows them to achieve longer lifespans!"

"I estimate these Glizerians could easily survive for five to six hundred years, and with the assistance of technology, surviving for one to two thousand years wouldn’t be surprising..."

Surviving for one to two thousand years!

This speculation left people somewhat dazed. These were creatures even longer-lived than tortoises, although they required long periods of sleep, dozing off for more than ten days at a time...

Professor Yamamoto quickly continued, "But we can also speculate that their reproductive capabilities are not high. Reproducing an individual really consumes a lot of energy... Of course, this is just my speculation, and oviparous reproduction is most likely predominant."