Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 241 - Chapter 241 Chapter 241 Journey of Breaking the Ice

Chapter 241: Chapter 241: Journey of Breaking the Ice Chapter 241: Chapter 241: Journey of Breaking the Ice Regarding the issue of cooperation between both parties, it needed to be considered very carefully. Li Zhendong was the first to stand up and question, “I’m not opposed to the contact and negotiations between civilizations, but the most important thing is the issue of security. After we provide what the other side is trying to obtain, will we end up nurturing a threat? After helping them out of their predicament, will they turn against us?”

Captain Zhao thought for a while and replied, “Even if we don’t know exactly what difficulties the other side is facing, I feel that the probability of them turning against us after a trade is not high. In the process of helping them, we can control many things. For example, if we can mass-produce a product while they can only produce it in small quantities, once their people get used to this product, we will gradually hold the power of discourse in this area.”

“Moreover, as exchanges expand, the likelihood of war decreases… After all, war doesn’t bring much benefit to anyone.”

“Furthermore, what we need is time. The more time we have, the stronger our civilization will become, and this is beyond doubt…”

“Our potential and heritage should be higher than what they imagine.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, unable to dispute this point. People still had this confidence.

Zhang Yuan stood up and asked, “What kind of valuable items do they have for trade? We surely can’t just help them for nothing, right?”

“Or rather, what is it that we need?”

After some discussion, people realized that there was a lot of content that could be exchanged, including academic knowledge, as well as some common cosmic knowledge between interstellar civilizations, and even… potential alien technology!

The first interstellar civilization, the Enlightener Civilization, might have information that is too sparse due to the distant age and brief stay known by the Gleize Civilization.

But the second civilization had been hand-held through their development from the Stone Age to the Electric Era, so there must have been much more extensive exchanges.

The Gleize Civilization should possess relevant cosmic knowledge.

Yes, Cosmic Sociology, a subject in which humans are severely lacking!

Compared to the 200,000-year history of the Gleize Civilization, which was visited twice by more powerful interstellar civilizations, the ascent of humans spans just a mere 10,000 years, and Earth people have no serious recorded history of visits from alien civilizations.

Nobody can be sure whether the various online speculations are real or just seeking attention.

The only substantial record is the dialogue between Zhang Yuan and the Gaia Civilization. But at that time, he was confined to Virtual Space and had only a brief chat with the Artificial Intelligence Yita through a screen–the amount of information was far too little.

The second point is that, apart from knowledge about cosmic civilizations, other subjects could be exchanged, including the mathematics that the other civilization prided itself on, as well as various other disciplines, including the arts and entertainment.

Zhang Yuan once deceived a mathematical paper from the super-life Zero-XZ during an encounter, a paper that approached an unsolved human problem from a very novel perspective.

A single paper couldn’t cause a qualitative change in human civilization, but it offered a glimpse into a different culture. The ways of thinking between different civilizations surely had great referential value.

As for the third point, in the process of assisting this civilization, humans would receive a lot of positive feedback.

The production process could accumulate a significant amount of experience, which couldn’t be useless.

Zhang Yuan added one more point at the end, “Resources are definitely not that valuable in the universe. What’s valuable is information, knowledge, and the experience accumulated over a long time.”

“Even if there isn’t a very good trade to be made, just understanding more about their history and enriching our New Civilization History is also good.”

And so, after this discussion, the people decided to send a real high-ranking human official to embark on a “groundbreaking journey” between the two civilizations, to negotiate specific cooperation matters.

“Let me go.”

Zhang Yuan willingly took on this task!

The current Department of Foreign Affairs was short of talent, just a few insignificant figures, and held no real power compared to the authority of the New Civilization Development Department with real influence. Zhang Yuan was considered an influential figure on the spaceship, with Captain Zhao overseeing the development of productive forces from the rear; Zhang Yuan’s venture into diplomacy was a clear decision in the division of labor.

After the meeting ended, communication personnel swiftly sent a series of messages about “human high-level decision to visit,” transmitting them via electromagnetic waves.

Before long, Earth Era received a reply from the other party.

“Respected human civilization, we are very much looking forward to your civilization’s high-level leaders’ visit. Please allow us some time to prepare, to construct a larger ecological park, which we estimate will take one to two months. We believe that the first ice-breaking trip should focus primarily on exchanges in art, science, and culture…

“We hope your civilization can select more candidates related to these areas.”

“No problem.”

Captain Zhao nodded, “We also need a month’s time to make the various personnel selection preparations. Zhang Yuan, the work from here on is up to you.”

…

In six hours’ time, news about peace negotiations quickly spread throughout the entire spaceship, becoming the hottest topic!

As for the civilian groups, overall, they were more celebratory than worried, and even hosted a spontaneous celebration dance in Central Square.

Over these years, the shadow of war hung over people’s hearts, with weapon production dominating to such an extent that it greatly reduced their quality of life, even worse than the days of hibernation…

But when faced with the threat of an unknown alien civilization, even though some war-weariness emerged, common people dared not voice any complaints.

Jokingly, this wasn’t an intra-species war. If it were, even if defeated, there was the possibility of surrendering; in modern society, no matter what, it’s inconceivable to massacre civilians.

But with an alien war, it was different… In many people’s subconscious, if a war really erupted with an alien civilization, it would be a battle to the death with little chance for surrender. If defeated, extinction could be a reality!

So, however harsh life may be, they just had to endure it.

But then again, aside from some natural-born warmongers, who wants to fight to the death all day long?

Who wouldn’t want to lead a better life?

Thus, once the whispers of peace negotiations spread, even though there were various skeptics online, the main sentiment was “if we can make contact, we should make contact first”–direct warfare was definitely the worst option.

There were even those who felt that allowing the government to make some concessions, as long as they weren’t on principle issues, and if it could buy time, that was still considered a good thing.

However, this opinion ended up sparking a significant debate. “Necessary concessions” in some people’s rhetoric became “surrender,” and it was unclear what was going through their minds.

The Propaganda Department rushed to clarify that the New Civilization government would never simply surrender or betray human principles…

In conclusion, the problem with public opinion wasn’t too severe; most of the populace still trusted the government’s decisions. Everyone was in the same boat, sharing both the glory and the losses.

Internet censorship wasn’t too stringent, and as long as one didn’t blatantly fabricate rumors to agitate the public, the cyber police wouldn’t arbitrarily arrest people…

With such a small population, the government was still very efficient in action; as production lines began to rapidly adjust, no longer was there a need for large-scale reserves of living supplies. On the fifth day after peace negotiations were announced, some government officials started to sell the previously reserved massive amounts of living supplies at low prices to the citizens.

Long queues formed outside supermarkets, but there was no cutting in line or panic buying.

People chatted and laughed, their spirits greatly lifted even if they only bought a little bit of synthetic meat.

Meanwhile, in Central Square of Area A, a large recruitment of diplomats was underway, to embark on this “ice-breaking journey”!