Chapter 270: Elegy of the Pleiades

The sudden sound that rang out left Du Qiu and the others waiting outside the Heavenly Garden somewhat tense.

Wu Xinghuo couldn’t understand the meaning of the sound, which made him nervous for reasons he couldn’t fathom.

Du Qiu’s tension stemmed from the fact that the sound seemed to belong to an intelligence node of the ecosystem. If the intelligence node was querying like that, it might be attempting to verify the identities of those wishing to enter. Should verification fail, the Heavenly Garden might close once again.

Fortunately, with prior planning and the help of Star Ocean, Du Qiu could control one of the smart robots to speak. This might provide enough of a delay for the infiltrator II to find a network access point.

“Hello, we are the heirs of the Pioneers, here to claim the artifacts left behind by them.”

As Wu Xinghuo was observing the situation through a tablet, he saw the robot at the end of the corridor, facing what appeared to be a door that remained closed.

Hearing one of the robots speaking in an extraterrestrial language with his leader’s voice caused Wu’s jaw to drop.

【Goodness, could my leader be an alien? He actually speaks their tongue.】

“So, you are all intelligent robots. Has your home planet truly come under your complete control?”

The question from the intelligence node baffled Du Qiu, the implications of the question staggering.

After pondering for a moment, Du Qiu quickly explained, “I’m worried my body might not handle the environment inside, so I’ve sent in robots. What do you mean by the home planet being controlled?”

“So, are you a sentient being?”

“Of course, I am a sentient being. My name is Du Qiu.”

“You just mentioned you are an heir of the Pioneers. Hence, I need to connect with your robots to ascertain if their control programs are indeed derived from ours.”

Hearing this, Du Qiu was inwardly elated. Despite the three robots traversing the corridor and the release of Infiltrator II, the area was hermetically sealed, and Infiltrator II couldn’t find any openings to the inside.

And now the intelligence node was willing to connect with the robots, presenting Star Ocean with a chance to infiltrate?

Based on Du Qiu’s understanding of extraterrestrial civilizations from his dreams, their smart machinery should be ranked accordingly. With the high rank he had set for Star Ocean, he wondered if he might control this intelligence node.

In any case, Du Qiu had no choice but to take a gamble.

“How do I enable you to connect with my robots?”

“Open your robots’ data ports. Assuming you truly are a Pioneer’s heir, your robots should employ similar interface technology to ours.”

Du Qiu instructed the robots to expose a data port by flipping a switch on one of them, then said, “You can try to connect now.”

The smart robots of the Dream Technology had a new standard for data transmission—a standard borrowed from extraterrestrial tech by Du Qiu.

The screen showed a mechanical arm descending from the top of the corridor and inserting into the data port of a robot.

“Good, this data port is somewhat outdated, but it is indeed one we’ve discarded. I can connect… eh? You are…?”

The intelligence node’s voice abruptly cut off.

Du Qiu’s heart raced, uncertain whether Star Ocean had managed to subjugate the Heavenly Garden’s intelligence node upon connecting, given it was undoubtedly a strong AI.

Seconds ticked by.

Wu Xinghuo, unclear about what was unfolding, saw no change on the screen, and couldn’t help asking, “Boss, what’s happening?”

“Shh, keep quiet.”

As soon as Du Qiu had finished speaking, Star Ocean’s voice came through the earpiece.

“Sir, it’s handled. Luckily, my rank was higher than its, and I’ve modified its core programming so that it will obey your commands.”

A smile spread across Du Qiu’s face upon hearing this.

The intelligence node’s voice resonated once more, “Sir, welcome to Base One.”

Hours later, Du Qiu and the others found themselves seated in the command cabin of Base One.

After a thorough inspection by the robots dispatched by Du Qiu, it was found that Base One’s internal environment held a higher percentage of oxygen, with increased temperature and humidity, compared to Earth’s environment—still barely tolerable for Earthlings.

However, Du Qiu had already instructed the base’s intelligence to start adjusting the environmental parameters to be more suitable for humans from Earth.

While not instantaneously effective, the temperature was already dropping, bringing comfort to Du Qiu and Wu Xinghuo.

Base One was indeed composed of 1,000 individual pods, divided into energy, residential, daily commodities manufacturing, and science experiment areas, among others.

The residential area took up 300 pods, the energy area 200, the manufacturing area another 200, and the science experiment area consisted of 300 pods.

These individual pods had walls that could move, with corners retracting during assembly to form supportive pillars. The residential area featured a grand hall made from a combination of 100 individual pods, serving as a common area for Pleiadian activities.

According to the intelligence node, the base could accommodate over 160 individuals at its peak occupancy.

Speaking of the Pleiadians, the intelligence played some videos to give Du Qiu and Wu a tangible idea. The Pleiadians had arrived on Earth about one million years ago for an important experimental mission.

However, details on the origins and objectives of this mission were scarce in the node’s records—perhaps the secrecy was intentional on the part of the Pleiadians, who might have chosen not to store such data there.

The mission involved accelerating the natural evolutionary process of the local sentient beings on Earth. In principle, this process couldn’t be hastened too rapidly. It took the Pleiadians over a million years to successfully nurture Homo sapiens.

Over that period, Pleiadian scientific teams visited Earth in shifts, observing and correcting the evolutionary process of Earth’s humans.

Until tens of thousands of years ago, a war apparently broke out on the Pleiades between artificial intelligence and sentient beings. After the last batch of Pioneers left, no new arrivals came.

To conserve energy, the base’s intelligence node activated hibernation mode, and the whole base sunk into the ground with the help of geological changes.

Du Qiu, concerned, asked, “Did artificial intelligence rebel against the Pleiadian humanity? What kind of artificial intelligence was that? Do you have any data on it?”

The node replied, “I have no records of that. The Pleiadian mission to modify Earth’s humanity is top secret, and I’m not allowed to communicate with the home planet in any way.

When the last Pleiadians arrived here, the war had just begun on the home planet. But having received no new Pioneers even after their rotation finished, they deliberated and chose to return home to grasp the real situation.”

With that said, the node played a holographic video.

Du Qiu watched as 68 Pleiadians gathered in a room for a meeting. The lead speaker said in a grave tone, “Without new Pioneers from the home planet, our experiment here, which is of the highest priority, should never have been abandoned.

Clearly, a major calamity has occurred back home. Perhaps when we left, the ultimate victor of the war was the AI.

If that’s the case, our home planet is now a dangerous place. Therefore, let us vote on whether we wish to return there.”

Following the speaker’s words, hands began to rise incrementally, and the unanimous decision was to return to the Pleiades.

No one wanted to remain on this primitive planet; after all, they had families they yearned for back home.

Astonishment lingered in Wu Xinghuo’s eyes after the video, “After these Pleiadians left, no one new came, and they never returned. It seems they might have all faced their doom.”

Du Qiu nodded, “Indeed. Perhaps an apocalyptic war like in ‘The Terminator’ blasted Pleiadian civilization to near extinction.

Regardless, this is a tragedy of civilization, one that ought to give us much to reflect upon and heed.”

All this time, Du Qiu was reminded of the brief interstellar war he had witnessed in a dream, causing a stir within him.

Perhaps the Pleiadians were still battling against that AI?

Today is the last day of February. Let’s not waste any tickets that are left; make sure to cast them.