Convention - Ch. 3 Kingdom Of Science

A bitterly cold wind blew from the east, wrapped in snow and sand from nowhere, they followed the sea horizon from the west, and then all hit the westernmost glaciers, faded away, and the cycle repeated again and again.

This is a star in the Phoenix Cluster, about 5.7 billion light-years away from Earth, about 53 times the mass of the Earth, on this planet, the cold covers everything, but this year’s blooming ice period, was much shorter than in previous years, for the creatures on this planet, is a rare good news.

Now, the large palace echoed with hollow and mechanical sounds, snapping and snapping, coming gently down from the top and most honored seat in the council chamber. This is the royal palace of the supreme ruler of the Phoenix civilization, and the tallest of all buildings on the planet.

Sitting on top of the jade seat, her index finger tapped gently on the jewel-like armrest. This noble throne is made of a magical substance called ‘entropy stone’, from any angle you can not find its internal atomic arrangement of flaws, every side and even every section has the exact same arrangement. Its structure is beyond the common crystals in the universe, and although its lattice has a unique and orderly arrangement, the inner part is able to change with the surrounding environment and continue to exist stably, like a Rubik’s cube that will constantly adjust itself. For example, whenever light passes through its surface layer will produce a frequency doubling effect, but the internal will quickly change its structure to finally correct this frequency shift deviation. What is even more amazing is that it can adaptively filter out white noise, making it an excellent receiving material for building white noise communication systems.
[TLN: In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density.]

On this planet, entropy stones are very rare. For the Phoenix civilization that originated here, this mineral is not only a gem of substance but also a symbol of high status, even more valuable than the lives of most of the creatures on this planet. On this planet with glaciers on one side and seawater on the other, and life squeezed between the two, entropy stone has the highest dignity, we really do not know whether the life here is worth too low, or the entropy stone is too precious, or both.

The person sitting on the supreme seat is not the slightest bit pleasant, at least it seems so, since from the time the Queen appeared in others’ sight, her face has not changed, golden pupils like stardust shining, and her demeanor is like the endless horizon across the land, cloudy.

There may have been people who once saw the rare smile of this cold-faced person, but those people were buried by their mundane lifespan, and almost no creature on this planet could keep up with the Queen’s lifespan, except for her ancestors — the successive generations of Phoenix Queens. Nothing is known about the Queen’s name, but billions of years later, a brilliant Earth scientist gave her the human name, Gladini.

Tap, tap.

The sound of slender fingers tapping on the seat still did not stop, the sound echoed in the spacious council, making everyone in the room a little nervous, even cold sweat ran down.

Originally, the people below should not notice the tapping sound from 200 meters above, let alone in this spacious building with more than four thousand people. But the Queen is, after all, the Queen, as a ruler, her word is as gold. So around the still young-looking Queen was always surrounded by small and efficient miniature microphones, as a way to avoid the Queen’s oracle was slacked, the great unity shall not be carried out.

“Hush—”

The rhythmic tapping did not stop, and from the Queen’s place came a voice that seemed to carry weight. The crowd of mortals under the stage could not help but lower their bodies.

“There is a foreign riot in two parts.”

She said without, and without moving her neck, nor focusing her eyes on someone, as if lazily making which servant to her side at her will.

The people on the stage, like an army, turned their heads in unison and fixed their eyes on the person whom the Queen had just spoken to.

The person who was questioned was looked by such 3,999 pairs of eyes at the same time, almost reflexively bounced up from his seat, and even stumbled because he was in too much of a hurry, but fortunately, the colleague beside him gave him a hand to keep him from falling down headfirst. It was hard to imagine that a man with a strong physique and a firm expression would show a wretched side in front of so many people. This battle-hardened commander, who was once calm and easy in front of tens of thousands of soldiers under his command, was now making a big fool of himself just because of a question from his Majesty.

“Lord.”

He gave a customary salute toward the top and made a reply with the military habit of pulling his voice.

“This is because of……”

“Because of the letter?”

Without waiting for the speaking general to finish his sentence in a torrent, the Queen interrupted him.

“Our people would be foolish enough to believe a rumor that is not true?”

“That ……”

The general’s eyes rolled for a moment and glanced towards his colleague sitting beside him, the minister in charge of intelligence regulation. The two of them exchanged a few seconds with their eyes, and finally, the general decided to ignore his colleague’s pleading gaze and tell the whole story, anyway, in the end, nothing could be hidden from the Queen.

“That thing… was spread to the people …… certain foreigners made a little change, uh, you know, that Convention of the extraterrestrial civilization used the wide frequency broadcast, so …… ”

“How did they decipher it?”

“About this, probably the alien civilization that sent this broadcast to have considered these problems a long time ago, although I do not know exactly how they to did it, but this broadcast is very much in line with the characteristics of our native language …… even with some ancient languages, the dialects can also be very perfectly deciphered, so the dissemination of it was easy ……”

The Queen’s mask-like face had a slight change, she gently frowned, put the tip of her finger under her lips for a moment in thought, and asked faintly.

“What are the areas that are marching right now?”

“Brown three, brown twelve, twenty-one, perch five, those are the only areas so far.”

The general said, and spread out both hands, an illusion appeared in the hall, and they showed the condition of the regions. But before they could be used, the Queen waved her hand from on high, signaling the general that it was not necessary.

“That will be all.”

She said.

“There’s no point in looking.”

“So… what should we do about the disturbances?”

“Just go about it the old-fashioned way.”

“This year’s bloom ice period is very short, which is supposed to be a good thing, but the people are dissatisfied with our curtailing the living supply, my suggestion is to carry out a little rational distribution of supply, and then shorten the working hours of the people, last time our suppression has caused some problems, this time if we still …… ”

“Although this year is much warmer than previous years,……”

The general stammered his words halfway through, then stopped his mouth again consciously, and was gently glanced at by the Queen’s oblique eyes, he felt as if his soul was going to be blown away, his back was suddenly wet, and his neat gray uniform was suddenly as sloppy as a straggler. So he once again returned a salute, mechanically spitting out the phrase ‘Yes, Lord’, and then sat back down in his seat.

The large council chamber resounded again with the sound of tapping, tapping, finger tapping. The Queen was silent on her throne for a while, not knowing whether she was maintaining her kingly lethargy or deep in thought over the last question.

After a short while, as if she suddenly thought of something, her head lifted a few degrees slightly, turning her eyes to scan through the four thousand people sitting sparsely at her feet.

“Can’t solve the root cause of the problem, any superficial measures are just draining our energy, where is she?”

“I am here.”

Immediately, someone answered from below.

Only a white shadow rose steeply from the gray crowd on the stage, and a young maiden stood up in the crowd.

“Lord.”

This young girl, unlike the general who spoke earlier, was well-spoken and unassuming. She had the same healthy complexion as the Queen, with her white skin, immaculate white hair, and a pair of stern golden pupils. Some of the gray-robed people here may not recognize her, but none of them are surprised by her arrogant tone or unhurried attitude, for she, like the Queen, wears a white dress. On this planet, white is considered a color with special meaning, although the white cold makes this place white everywhere, and white woven material is not something difficult to obtain, but as a symbol of the Queen’s familu, white clothing can only be worn by the Queen and her blood relatives, which is evident.

“That planet, how are you handling it?”

“Well, it has been handled according to the intended plan.”

With these words, the young girl stepped on the backrest of the seat of the person sitting in front of her, stomped hard, leaped into the air in full view of everyone, and then disappeared in mid-air as a ghostly glimpse of smoke. When people once again found her trace, suddenly found that she had stood in mid-air, only 20 to 30 steps away from the Queen’s jade seat.

The Queen remained expressionless, making no comment on the act before her, and not slightly annoyed by her behavior.

“Did I give you permission to come forward?”

“Then… should I go back to my seat?”

The young girl shrugged and smiled at the king in front of her.

“No harm in that.”

The Queen closed her eyes and lifted her head slightly higher.

“Don’t waste time and report your results.”

“Yes.”

The young girl said, and like that general, she opened her hands. In an instant, a huge hologram appeared between the Queen’s throne and the crowd on the stage.

The image was a sphere that looked like a planet but was colorful.

“Let me introduce to you all, through astronomical exploration, we have found a potentially habitable planet, and after my fieldwork, it has been determined that this could be our destination for interstellar migration.”

As soon as the words fell, the stage suddenly clamored, and the crowd began to whisper and talk. And the topic of discussion is nothing but what the new era, the future, colonization of such and such topics, such words the Queen heard in the ears, but not a word was said because the people below obviously do not know the significance of this habitable planet.

“It’s at least partially habitable.”

The young woman cleared her throat and continued.

“First of all this planet has a complex ecology, and in comparison with the single climate of our home planet, there is a basis for ecological diversity there.

However, from the point of view of our planet formation science, this planet is still in the early stages of evolution, the ocean occupies the main portion, excluding a small original continent, the rest of the place is a primitive ocean with a high temperature.”

“In other words, the amount of land that can be used is very small?”

Someone on the stage asked.

“Yes, very limited, but the current ocean area of this planet is 450 million square kilometers, accounting for 85% of the total area.

Speaking of this, the young girl smiled.

“But fortunately, soon there won’t be that many.”

The Queen frowned, seeming to sense something in the young girl’s words, and asked gently.

“What did you do?”

The young girl did not directly answer the Queen’s words, but to the holographic sphere floating in the air, raised her right hand, as if to crush something, the hand tightened the palm, at once, the entire planet began to slowly solidify, in the part near the poles, has begun to form glaciers, to see that the planet is experiencing a sharp cooling, until it becomes to become almost as monotonous as the Phoenix home planet.

“Who told you to use the four entropy stones?”

The Queen asked, her words revealing subtle displeasure in a rare way. Some sensitive ministers on the stage had already sensed the subtle feelings in this tone and were rather fidgety. The young girl, who was in high spirits, naturally did not notice what was implied, or perhaps, she simply did not care.

“Lord, I used the four entropy stones to guide and strengthen the planet’s stellar radiation, so that the radiation can directly penetrate the atmosphere and destroy the ozone layer so that the algae and plankton in the planet’s oceans are killed, the ecological substrate is destroyed, and after a short period of time, large predators will be extinct due to the loss of food.”

The young girl proudly loosened her squeezed hand, completely unaware that behind her, the Queen was staring at her with a somewhat frightening-looking expression as she excitedly demonstrated the process of transforming the entire planet, enthralled, with an expression as if she were a god, creating the world.

“Next, we can reshape the ecosphere of this place, the buildup of carbon dioxide will obscure the sky, losing the light and heat of the stars, and this time then put our native biological genes into the sea, by then the planet will almost inevitably be slowly white-starred, and the lower creatures will become the cornerstone of our future ……”

“That’s enough!”

From the jade throne came a word that was perhaps the first time in a long time that the Queen had expressed such clear emotion, but it was so loud that it caused a slight tremor to occur throughout the council chamber, perhaps unnoticed by those here, but the sea, whose ice was still floating next to the council chamber, also produced cracks in its surface, but was quickly frozen back on by the drifting snow and wind.

The expression on the Queen’s face was also the same, that moment of annoyance is only fleeting, but makes all the lighting equipment in the council chamber ineffective, the projection in the hands of the young girl, also was abruptly stopped.

Two or three seconds later, the council’s bleak lighting flickered and restarted, but the planet, which had been completely disfigured in the girl’s hands, never resurfaced. Finally, the Queen only faintly spat out a slightly perfunctory sentence, and once again returned to calm.

“Enough.”

She looked at the dumbfounded young girl in front of her and said. The young girl’s shock was out of confusion, she did not understand, why the Queen would be discontented. She had clearly done the right thing.

“It’s enough, stand down.”

“…… Lord ……”

The Queen did not repeat her words, which meant that she did not intend to change her orders. Usually, people would obediently retreat when they encountered such a situation. But the maiden did not move, although, by virtue of her status as a family member, she could have been unconventional. But in this situation where the other party has clearly shown anger, no one will be insisting.

She slowly turned around and faced the Queen, the doubt on her face suddenly vanished and turned into a strange determination.

“…So, before I leave, may I ask a question?” The young girl said in a small voice.

“Go ahead.”

“Sister doesn’t really think she can win this war, does she?”

This query immediately touched the Queen’s heartstrings, and she hesitated slightly for a moment before making her original expression again. There was no answer, which meant she refused to answer the question.

But finally, after a long silence, she spoke.

“After the victory, I will put you in the ice prison, so that you can reflect on it.”

“If you are not satisfied with what I have done, then why did you refuse the Convention? Have you really thought about us, about all the people alive on this planet?”

“Since the beginning of time, when we were still naked on the snowy plains devouring raw flesh, we have never been conquered, and as a civilization that has lasted for hundreds of eras, we have faced any invasion, any threat of force ……”

“Got it.”

It was the first time that the Queen’s words were interrupted. At the bottom, the people in gray have all frightened, but no one person dared to clamor, because everyone present felt that between the two, there is no room for any murmur to intervene in the atmosphere.

The Queen did not say anything, just silently looked at her sister and listened to her speak.

“Endless suppression, endless slavery, and oppression, these untransferable contradictions …… have lasted for hundreds of epochs of civilization, yet they are no match for a letter?”

The young girl breathed heavily, the corners of her eyes piled up some tears, it seems to be all the words that she had hidden in her heart for a long time roared out, her fair skin looked a little unnatural flushed.

“If we have no way to change, then we might as well let others change for us ……”

The last sentence, the young girl said very softly, sounding as if it was just a sparse complaint.

But it was the lightest of words that caused the biggest reaction.

What was that sound?

The people on the stage didn’t understand when they heard the sound. The crisp sound came from mid-air and splashed down, echoing between the thick columns, and they just stared up in awe, watching what was happening nearly two hundred meters above.

And all they saw was the result because the process was so unbelievable that they preferred to deny the process.

On top of the jade throne, the Queen’s even breathing was disturbed, and she looked shakily at her hand that had left the armrest and was raised in the air, her body trembling slightly. The young woman was twenty paces away, holding her somewhat red and swollen cheeks, not saying a word.

“Meeting adjourned.”

Lifelessly dropped these last words.

The Queen’s jade throne was empty.

Only wisps of smoke like ice fog were left behind and then disappeared again.

Inside the house, the Queen looked at her right hand.

For the first time in her life, the Queen had the urge to cut herself, it was this hand that had just hurt her only relative in this world.

“Sister.”

She was too young, as the Queen’s sister, the young girl was nearly several epochs younger than the Queen. This gap of several epochs allows her to pursue her goal without being influenced by the outside world, to walk a straight line, no matter how many hardships and dangers there are on this straight path, and whether the end is a desperate cliff.

Because of the special geographical factors, all buildings on the planet are made towards the sky, and the Queen’s chamber is at the highest point of the entire palace, where is the high point of the entire ring continent, from the window can look into the farthest glacier, but also the most special section, under the refraction of atmospheric light, most of the glacier looks blue, but only this section is always pure white, which is also the Queen’s family symbol. The glacier on one side and the sea on the other are the results of the unique binary system of the Phoenix’s mother star. One is an icy brown dwarf and the other is a warmer red star, which remains relatively stationary with the Phoenix’s mother star. The creatures on the mother star live where the glacier meets the ocean, the continent that surrounds the entire planet. Such an irregular shape, of course, could not have been formed naturally. The Queen subconsciously touched her chest as she recalled her ancestors, and now this unnatural land, too, had been artificially modified, and that one change had almost caused the extinction of the Phoenix civilization. Her sister had no idea how dangerous it was to recklessly transform nature, and that from ancient times to the present, those who had made themselves gods on this planet had ended up in vain, while their souls were to be frozen forever in the glaciers, invaded by the cold, unable to escape.

“Good night, Your Majesty.”

The voice of some creature came from the boudoir where the Queen should have been alone.

Following the voice, in the shadow of the corner of the room, there was a deeper shadow hidden, like indeterminate soft mud, and like a scattered black mist.

“I can’t believe you’re still here.”

The Queen said, seemingly used to the presence of this unnameable object in her room.

“I am the messenger, I can’t leave …… until I get your answer. You don’t look you’re in good mood.”

“Did you see what happened in the council?”

“No, I didn’t see, as you see, I have no means of seeing, for I have no organ of sight.”

“Then you should only know my reply.”

“No, not yet, I am a messenger and a lobbyist, and although I am not very fond of stalking, let’s just make a little effort to try.”

In an instant, the black mist in the shadows suddenly disappeared, and then unknowingly emerged from the shadow at the Queen’s feet, like an embrace, and gently wrapped the Queen up.

“Especially, you also possess this wonderful thing, which will create more unnecessary troubles for the signing of the convention.”

Saying that a small ball of black mud formed a hand and gently dug at the Queen’s heart, just like scooping water, and held out a stone from the Queen’s heart.

“And an unnecessary sacrifice.”

“Uh, you like this stone of mine so much that you want to just kill me and take it, huh?” The Queen let out a soft gasp.

“No, that won’t do.”

Black mud held the stone and rubbed it for a moment as if fascinated by the stone in its hands.

“I am a messenger and a lobbyist, but I am not a killer, and besides, you know that I cannot take the stone, much less kill you.”

Like putting something into water, the stone was shoved back into the Queen’s heart, and then backed far away from her, back into the shadows once again.

“Also worth mentioning, I am also an observer, what did you call this stone …… ah yes, the four entropy stone, it is an interesting thing.”

Only to see the black mud tumble, and from the slimy body sent out a somewhat mottled stone slab, this plain object looks out of place with the heretical unnameable object in front of him. The black mud just coalesced into a ‘needle’ and carved a few strokes into the stone slab.

“I’m interested in your stone, can you tell me more about it?”

“The way you record civilization is so ancient compared to your technology.”

“Dear Majesty, I think you have some misunderstanding about us, the ‘Gravitational Civilization’ never relied on the so-called technology, by the way, it is the first time I saw that naturally generated substances can have such wonderful properties, can you tell me about this stone you possess?”

“Yes, let’s exchange it.”

“Exchange?”

“Secrets are things that can be shared, and I want to know about the Convention Organization.”

“Of course you can, anyway, whatever you know, it will not change your end, accepting the Convention or denying it, the result will be the same.”

“Then let’s start with you.”

The Queen said, taking a seat.

“What is the purpose of you and your people, to push out the Convention?”

“Me? As you feel, we are electromagnetic beings, originating from long-lasting gravitational wave radiation, and in the vastness of the ripples, we were born, and we exist in a complex form, in a way that you absolutely cannot understand, and you cannot kill me with your logic.”

“Then what is the purpose of your introduction of the Convention?”

“No, that’s not right, we didn’t push the Convention, I’m just serving our allies, we’re not qualified to make any comment on the Convention itself.”

“Allies?”

The Queen frowned.

“What kind of civilization are they exactly?”

“It’s complicated to say, our allies are…well, in your terms, they should be considered gods.”

“Then it’s not an ally, it’s your master.”

At the Queen’s words, the black slime let out a sharp, piercing chirp that sounded like some sort of hiss, but the Queen could understand that it was just a chuckle with contempt.

“Perhaps, but our civilization, our intelligence came from them, they enlightened us.”

“But it seems to me that your civilization can’t be called a civilization, it’s just an executioner being used.”

“Dear Your Highness, the universe is broadly divided into two kinds of civilizations, the civilization of flowers and the civilization of axes, the former has very bright and shocking achievements within its culture, religion, and science that are enough to span civilizations and most likely to breed ‘conscience’ in the evolution of culture, while the latter is a full civilization’s exhaustive force, with expansion, plunder, and annexation as a means of survival, and ‘war’ as a law of survival, positioning the ultimate production purpose of the whole civilization to improve force, and it is clear that we belong to the latter.”

“I have lived a long time, a very long time, I have seen both civilizations you mentioned, I affirm your summary and evaluation of them, but I really cannot agree with your positioning of yourself, in my opinion, you are indeed not considered a civilization, you can only be categorized as a biome.”

“Your Majesty, sometimes what you call ‘civilization’ can be a stumbling block to survival.”

“Next question, I assume you have been to other planets so far, what happened to all those civilizations that accepted the Convention?”

“Some of them still exist, some should have perished.”

“This doesn’t seem to be the same as what you said in your letter.”

“The Convention did not promise any protection, but only promised to eliminate the possibility of civilizations coming into contact with each other. In the pre-order universe, many civilizations reached a level of technology that could achieve interstellar navigation through their own development, and the collision between a large number of civilizations brought not only war, but also communication and integration, and God suffered unnecessary disturbances as a result, as you know, each and every civilization has its own technological bottleneck when it reaches the bottleneck, a breakthrough is necessary, the exchange between civilizations is likely to be this breakthrough, the Convention is the same as eliminating the possibility, eliminating the war at the same time also eliminates the possibility of breaking through the technological bottleneck, so some civilizations do not have the ability to survive the climate change of the home planet or other disasters, and finally all perished. ”

After listening to this passage, the Queen smiled and looked at Black Mud.

“Since I ascended to the throne, after countless interstellar wars to unify this galaxy, but because of the previous generation of the Queen’s foolish leadership, this galaxy only our home planet has survived until now, this is our last home base. As you can see, the entire planet’s resources are in the service of science and military, every one of my people is a scholar and a soldier, our children from early childhood to learn how to use gravity bombs and magnetic rail guns, you can not see the ocean in front of you, there are countless interstellar warships, when war comes, they will break the surface of the water like a fish, fly to its enemies, in our country, the fish is able to fly. And behind you, underneath the glaciers, are countless nuclear fusion reactors that provide a constant source of energy for these ‘fish’, and in these ‘fish’ are loaded with countless gravitational collapse cannons that can turn all incoming warships into dust …… This is the civilizational approach I have developed, and it has been in effect for more than 10 eras now. Some of the lower civilizations in the universe that we have interacted with call us the Kingdom of Science, and now we have set our sights on the deeper reaches of the universe, on the distant solar system, where we have the ability to replicate our civilization in a new place. I am in awe of the vastness and the unknown of the universe, of every living thing in it, but we are no strangers to war.”

“Thank you for your kind reminder, I have great respect for your civilization, science, and military power, no, for everything you do, but your highness can rest assured that we have conquered tens of thousands of planets and none of their leaders have died on the battlefield, the use of warfare means nothing to us, on the contrary, it is a disgrace, so I assure you that you will not either. Self-generation and eternal peace is our creed.”

“Does your master really have the confidence to put us in a cage?”

“No, your civilization is already in the cage, we just put a lock on the outside of the door.”

“Your master does not belong to this universe?”

“I’ve finished, now it’s your turn.”

“Good.”

The Queen smiled and answered, walked leisurely to the terrace, cleared her throat, and began to chant.

All things are from the beginning, and no extraordinary.

Since there is nothing with birth, only its implicit knowledge.

My emperor has long seen, the glacier is always constant.

The stone is born, the generation is king.

The waves are silenced, the ice is shaken.

The kings bend their knees, and all beings are subservient.

“That’s all I know about the four entropic stones. If I had a musical instrument, I might even be able to play and sing them to you at the same time.”

“You are not only a respectable Queen, but also a wise person. I have heard this poem before outside, so it refers to the four entropy stones. The first half of this poem tells about the origin of the stone, the middle part is about its function, and the second half, is to sing the praises of the holder of the stone …… although there is no explanation about the nature of the stone itself. But there is still the value of the narrative.”

“About the four entropy stone, I can not tell you, if I can figure out the nature of this stone, maybe I will first consider how to invalidate it.”

“Invalidate? What do you mean?”

“Long life, strong power, witnessed endless sorrows and joys, I once thought these could make me invulnerable to all poisons, but now I realize that not being my own, I can never empathize, I’m not like you.”

“Don’t you want to have an endless life? You can grow old with the universe all the time and be the graveyard keeper of all things.”

“The more you know the vastness of it, the more you know you are just a drop in the ocean. Instead of spending billions of years to be a grave keeper, you should just be a mortal who cherishes the moment before you.” The Queen smiled and looked at the black mud.

“Oh?”

Black Slime let out that sharp laugh again.

“You are not only a wise person, you are also funny, and I must say, I am very interested in witnessing your end.”

“My end?”

“Yes, Your Highness, everything in the universe has its own end, a speck of dust or a whole nebula. I am also in awe of the universe, as I am of you and your people, and I revel in witnessing the end of every civilization.”

“Then I sincerely hope that you will live longer than me.”

“I see, then to go through the process, I will ask you one last time if you accept the Convention peacefully?”

“Certainly not.”

“When the boundary comes, may you be overwhelmed by its beauty.”

Black Slime said, and slowly disappeared from the shadow of the wall, leaving behind only one intriguing sentence.

“You have been given up on.”