Chapter 136: An Unforeseen Crisis

“Sigh.” Fario let out a heavy breath, and many of the Viridians on the bridge fell silent alongside him. Their civilization was still too young. They had never encountered a situation quite like this before, leaving them entirely at a loss for a viable solution.

Or perhaps, humanity’s bluff was simply too convincing, frightening them down to their very roots.

The Viridians had witnessed wars between other advanced civilizations before, though they rarely understood the reasons behind the conflicts. Their standard protocol was to observe from a safe distance before engaging their faster-than-light warp drives and fleeing the sector. While the universe wasn’t necessarily a dark forest full of hidden hunters, it was certainly no peaceful paradise!

Based on their limited experience, the older a civilization was, the more advanced its technology and the more dangerous it became. Conversely, relatively young civilizations were easier to manage. They didn’t fully grasp what was happening in this star system; they only had a vague, terrifying suspicion.

The Viridian Empire had actually made distant contact with a few other interstellar civilizations in the past. However, these encounters were entirely superficial. Both sides would keep their distance, like dragonflies briefly skimming the surface of a pond. They would remain wary of one another and then quickly part ways. There was no hostility, nor was there much communication, just a mutual understanding to keep their distance and maintain the peace.

That was their reality, right up until they encountered that barbaric, overwhelmingly powerful civilization!

They had been ambushed without warning. Their entire fleet was crippled, a flagship was completely destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of their people perished in the cold void of space.

“…It must be our faster-than-light capabilities that saved us. Once we exceed the speed of light, the ship essentially becomes a ghost, rendering it nearly impossible to detect by conventional means. That is the only reason we managed to escape,” an expert analyzed grimly during the emergency meeting. “But we are not absolutely safe. Our damaged engines are leaking massive amounts of infrared radiation, which can easily be used to track us.”

They needed to repair the ship as soon as possible and resume their desperate flight.

Although they had entered the interstellar age, they still felt so entirely insignificant against the vast backdrop of the universe. There were simply too many unsolved mysteries. When compared to ancient civilizations that had existed for millions or even tens of millions of years, the Viridians were like infants standing before giants.

“Fortunately, we were able to shield the coordinates of our home planet… At this distance, our pursuers have no way of finding it!” one official noted.

“Yes… I just want to go home,” another Viridian whispered, yearning for the warm sunlight of their homeworld.

Fario interrupted the bleak discussion, pointing a frustrated appendage at the image of the Noah on the main screen. “Alright, enough! We need to be discussing how to deal with this local civilization, not drowning in our own misery!”

He understood his people’s nature deeply; they were simply too timid, and even he leaned toward caution. Throughout their history, the Viridians had experienced very few internal conflicts. They simply weren’t built for war.

It was perfectly natural for the strong to bully the weak, but it was suicide for the weak to challenge the strong.

They were now entirely convinced that this spherical space fortress belonged to a civilization leagues ahead of their own. However, it couldn’t be one of those ancient, violently insane empires, or it would have simply opened fire by now without bothering to send a warning!

They desperately wanted to avoid a war, so they needed to draft a response that would appease this terrifying entity.

“Yes, that’s how we should phrase it. Make it more conciliatory…” a conservative elder continuously instructed the communication officers. “As long as they aren’t completely psychotic, every civilization appreciates respectful words.”

While the Viridians were holding their frantic emergency meeting, a similarly tense gathering was taking place within the human leadership. The sole topic on the agenda: the crashed Martian UFO!

Jason stood at the head of the conference table, his face dark with stress. “Damn it! Do we know if that fleshy mass inside the UFO can intercept the alien signals? Could it interfere with our operations, or worse, broadcast a message to the Viridians?!”

He slammed his fist against the table, the impact loud enough to make the metal ring. “It already learned our language! And more importantly… it absolutely, without a doubt, knows that we are a primitive civilization!”

When Jason had read the sudden intelligence report on his datapad, he had bolted upright in bed, drenched in a cold sweat, and immediately convened this emergency session. They had all completely overlooked this massive liability; it took an ordinary parliamentary member to connect the dots and raise the alarm.

“This is a catastrophic loophole, and we must find a way to plug it immediately,” Jason continued. “Or rather… we need to assess the probability that our entire disguise has already been compromised!”

The conference room fell deathly silent. Everyone was mentally running through a dozen nightmare scenarios. Could that damned biological entity even receive electromagnetic waves? Could it decrypt them? They should have just blown the wreckage to ash when they had the chance!

“Doesn’t it lack the necessary power?” someone finally spoke up. “Besides, there’s no way it knows the exact coordinates of the Viridian ship.”

“Not necessarily. What if it does?”

The room erupted into quiet murmurs, with differing opinions clashing over the tactical table.

At that moment, a senior radio communications expert stepped forward, speaking with absolute certainty. “Director Jason, please rest assured. Given the geographical location of the Martian UFO, it is physically impossible for our transmission to have been intercepted by it, nor could it have sent a message back to the Viridians.”

He pulled up a simple holographic diagram. “The Noah and the crashed UFO are located on completely opposite sides of Mars. one in the Northern Hemisphere, the other in the Southern. Because we fired a highly directional, tightly integrated radio beam directly into deep space, the UFO’s sensors on the other side of the planet would be completely blind to it.”

But this technicality didn’t completely ease the room’s tension. They couldn’t rule out the secondary threat: what if the fleshy mass had received the incoming broadcast from the Viridians?

The radio waves sent by the alien ship had washed over the entire planet; anyone with a receiver could have picked them up.

Austin and Marcus from the Security Department looked murderous. They bitterly regretted not authorizing a tactical nuclear strike to vaporize the creature back then. It would have saved them from this agonizing uncertainty.

“The broadcast sent by the Viridians contained very little actual data; only one sentence was successfully translated,” a council member pointed out, furrowing his brow. “Based on that alone, the entity inside the UFO would have absolutely no idea about our grand deception. It might not even know that we humans have evacuated Mars and relocated to the Noah.”

It was a solid point. With only the Viridians’ short transmission to go on, the fleshy mass wouldn’t have enough context to ruin humanity’s bluff. It would only realize what was happening if humanity and the Viridians began communicating openly and frequently, only then might it find an opportunity to sabotage them.

“There is no need for everyone to panic just yet. I have a theory.” Dr. Arthur Lambert spoke up. He seemed to have zeroed in on the core of the issue and stood to address the room.

“Let me establish something first. The occupants of the Martian UFO and the Viridians are undoubtedly two entirely different species. If they were allies, the Viridians would have attacked us the moment they arrived to rescue their comrade. Shouldn’t two different alien species be naturally wary of one another?”

He paced slowly near his chair. “Let me give you a simple analogy to explain the current dynamic: Imagine an alien is trapped inside the wreckage of his crashed ship, unable to escape. One day, a group of wild monkeys carelessly wander into the ship, steal some of his equipment, and then run away when they sense danger. Please forgive the comparison, I’m just illustrating a point…”

Dr. Lambert deliberately paused. In his analogy, the “trapped alien” was obviously the fleshy mass, and the “monkeys” were humanity.

“The monkeys steal his things and run away, which infuriates the trapped alien. But he is stuck, so he cannot seek revenge. Then, a short time later, a group of massive, heavily armed tree-folk suddenly appear outside and inexplicably shout: ’We are claiming this territory!’”

Dr. Lambert looked around the room, meeting the eyes of the leadership. “These two alien factions are not the same race, nor do they share an alliance. If you were the trapped alien watching this unfold… what would you do?”

Having made his point, Dr. Lambert sat back down quietly.

The room remained silent, but the underlying tension began to dissipate. Everyone understood exactly what the doctor was implying, and they all began to ponder the strategic implications of this three-way standoff.

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