“We don’t need your land because it’s meaningless,” Golovin slowly said after he glanced at the representatives present. “If you are willing to rescue our starship from under the ice sheet, I can promise to provide a living space for five hundred people on our ship and take you out of this galaxy.”
There was no sound in the venue.
Lavrov took a moment to process the information and asked inexplicably.
“Why are we leaving here?”
“Because this place will be conquered in half a century. The seeds of Harmony will stain this land into another color.” In a flat and straightforward tone, Golovin narrated the cruel reality. He slowed opened his eyelids more, then continued, “In return for your friendship, we will preserve the fire of civilization for you. You can disembark in any galaxy we pass by and choose a new place to restart your civilization.”
“Do you think we will fail?”
Golovin didn’t answer this question. Instead, he looked at Lavrov with indifference in his eyes, which made the answer obvious.
As if he had heard something funny, Lavrov opened his arms, laughed, and continued, “You may not know that our fleet is already cruising in the Kuiper belt, and this is just the beginning! We will be there to build a fortress! Half a century is enough time for us to arm ourselves to the teeth so that its a one-way trip for the invaders from Gliese 581!”
“Really?” Golovin said without emotion.
For some reason, Lavrov felt anxious when he met the indifferent gaze.
“Standing here, I see a huge and complicated bureaucratic system. I have heard countless different voices. Had we not been observing you for decades, it might even be a problem to stand here and talk to you. At this point, your opponents are several times more powerful than you. At least, they have united their civilization.”
“I don’t agree with your point of view. A multitude of cultures is one of the attributes of Earth civilization,” Another representative from Finland stood up and defended.
“However, in the past few decades, I have only seen quarrels and arguments,” Golovin said calmly, “We never discuss the answer to an obvious question, nor do we waste time in repeated discussions. The problems facing you are far more urgent than you think, but all of you seem to have overlooked this point.”
After a pause, Golovin continued.
“If you want to defeat Harmony, at least solve your internal problems first. If all of you standing here, is not representing the entire human race, but only a certain country or institution, then my advice is to plan for a way out.”
Golovin’s proposal shocked everyone. Representatives whispered among each other. Some were filled with righteous indignation, some were dismissive, and some were unfazed. However, Golovin did not seem to care about their opinions. After he did not receive any more questions, he nodded slightly, then dispersed into blue particles of light.
“Arrogant. Is this the attitude of someone seeking help?” Lavrov cursed under his breath, then sat back down. After he fixed his collar, he took a deep breath and whispered to the assistant next to him, “Send the content just now to the Kremlin.”
“Now?” The assistant asked.
“The sooner the better.”
Although the arrogance of Golovin made the representatives feel displeased, after they thought about the data in the aliens’ hands, the dissatisfaction was nothing at all.
In the follow-up discussion, the countries quickly reached a consensus on assisting Golovin to rescue the starship. The only point of contention was what benefits could be gained from the starship after the rescue, and how the benefits would be distributed.
Although it was debatable whether this group of aliens were willing to call Earth home, Lavrov maintained his previous proposal. He could establish a “refugee camp” in Siberia to settle Golovin and his people and even promised to include autonomy and other benefits. The promises he made even made other representatives cast looks of surprise.
Hua was certainly not going to let the Russians monopolize the benefits of an extraterrestrial civilization, and it decisively raised a counterargument. Based on the advice of Foreign Minister Zhou Yi, another maritime city like Penglai was perhaps better for aliens to live in.
And this city could be built in the South China Sea, and Hua was willing to bear all the expenses for building a maritime city…
There seemed to be more opposition.
In an unpleasant atmosphere, the first day of the meeting came to a conclusion ahead of schedule. The next meeting was scheduled at the same time the day after the next. After all, the representatives also needed time to brief the situation back to their countries for internal discussion.
After the meeting, Golovin’s holographic image reappeared in the empty meeting place.
Jiang Chen, who hadn’t spoken much from the beginning, said with a smile.
“Your acting is good.”
“Really?” Golovin said, “but I’m not kidding.”
“Oh?”
“For the sake of being from the same place, I promised those poor people two things,” Golovin said.
“Which two?” Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.
He knew that the poor people Golovin mentioned were probably remnants of those that had been exiled in the void forever.
“Help you to achieve victory as much as possible,” after a pause, Golovin continued, “If nothing else can be done, save a trace of fire for the Earth civilization and take them to a new world dozens of light-years away.”
“So far, I haven’t considered the problems after failure,” Jiang Chen said with a smile, “Do you have so little confidence in us?”
“Your odds of winning are very low, even with our help,” Golovin said.
“Even with Gaia civilization?” Jiang Chen laughed.
“Oh?” Golovin looked at Jiang Chen and raised his eyebrows slightly. A human-like expression on his face was quite rare. “You found them too?”
“What do you mean by too?”
“A long, long time ago… Longer than when the Svetovid went through the wormhole, we found the remains of a civilization on Mars. They recorded past memories through the Flowers of Memory and called themselves Gaia,” Golovin narrated, then looked at Jiang Chen, “Although they are two parallel worlds, I think we should be talking about the same thing.”
Jiang Chen didn’t show any surprise. He expected that the countries in the apocalypse would discover the Gaia civilization. After all, the timeline did not diverge until the beginning of the twentieth century. For a civilization that existed billions of years ago, Gaia civilization was like an objective existence.
“To some extent, the outbreak of World War Three was partly due to the uneven distribution of the spoils,” Golovin said in the same emotionless state. “Many of the Flowers of Memory were lost in the battle for Gaia’s knowledge, but even just inheriting a part of the knowledge helped us tremendously. But if you think that the legacy of Gaia civilization alone is enough to defeat Harmony, you are a bit overconfident.”
“Even Gaia is just a group of people who have been eliminated by time. Their knowledge can’t even solve their own problems.”
“You don’t need to worry about this. We will use our own methods to solve this problem.” Jiang Chen said softly, “I will provide you with a place to rest on Mars as agreed. If you think we have no hope someday in the future, you can leave at any time.”
After he finished, he walked towards the door.
“We will stay before the final battle,” Golovin watched Jiang Chen leave as he calmly said. “Before we set sail, the door of the Svetovid is open to you at any time.”
