Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 498 - 496: The Second Expedition

Chapter 498: Chapter 496: The Second Expedition

In the blink of an eye, three months had passed. Zhang Yuan led six young men and women from the laboratory aboard a small transport ship for their second visit to the interstellar trading market, accompanied by some interstellar soldiers and rotating human diplomats.

Their main trading counterparts this time were the Tos Civilization, a civilization adept at magnetic field perception. Humans were very interested in this strange race, not only in its physiological structure but also in the civilization’s historical culture.

Of course, the history and culture of others were not so easily accessible, and even humans were unlikely to promote their culture and ideas gratuitously, which would be a taboo and could compromise their own safety.

Talking about this, Zhang Yuan solemnly said, "So, even if you’re curious, don’t talk recklessly. Our main goal is to purchase some magnetic field sensing organs from the Tos Civilization, that is, biological organs. If we can also acquire more academic papers, that would be great. Without existing biological organs, fabricating one from scratch would be too difficult."

"But will they sell them? I think it’s very unlikely. Even if we use AmiBa Points for the purchase, I doubt they’d be willing," said a bespectacled young man.

The cells in an organ would inevitably contain all of the genetic material of the Tos Civilization, and if humans obtained this genetic material, they could easily clone a Tos person!

This was another huge taboo in interstellar etiquette.

Imagine, if another civilization cloned humans and then used this clone for biological experiments, dissecting them. Even if the clone did not represent human will, it would still cause a huge stir within human civilization, potentially leading to significant conflicts and even war!

Or, a civilization with malicious intent might engineer a specific biological virus targeting human genes.

Therefore, within human civilization, the sale of any material related to one’s own cells, even a single hair, was strictly forbidden.

Theoretically, the same applied to the Tos Civilization.

Zhang Yuan chuckled, "So, trust between civilizations is very difficult, not even a single cell is willing to be exposed... But we can’t rule out those civilizations that are indifferent to ethics. Let’s see how it goes."

"If it really doesn’t work, we’ll have to settle for less..."

Soon, they reached the inner ring trading area, and the human spaceship connected to the Tos’ communication signal.

Having conducted several transactions, the relationship between the two sides was moderately good.

"Respected Human Civilization, what novel ideas do you have this time?" spoke this peculiar-looking alien life form on the screen. It was their first appearance on the screen.

He looked like an oversized Axolotl, with limbs slightly longer than those of the Axolotl, and six very flexible fingers. His only difference from an Axolotl was that instead of eyes, he had two protruding antennae on his head.

That is to say, individuals of this civilization could not perceive any light, probably because they lived in dark caverns in ancient times, where they had no access to light.

For this reason, the technology tree of the Tos Civilization was significantly different from that of typical interstellar civilizations. Their technological products did not require light-emitting screens but needed devices that could emit special magnetic fields.

The variations in magnetic fields formed the civilization’s text and images.

Their most commonly used tool was a strong magnet, which, when brought near other ferromagnetic materials, would magnetize some materials and thus, could easily identify them through magnetic field sensing, forming pictures and text.

Of course, while the Tos people’s brains could perceive magnetic fields, they could not sense higher-frequency electromagnetic waves, let alone emit them, so they still spoke out loud. The frequency of their voices was very high, all in ultrasound, a kind of sensory complement.

To human ears, these high-frequency sounds were completely inaudible.

So, they perceived the outside world through magnetic fields, ultrasonic waves, touch, smell, and taste, which somewhat compensated for their lack of eyes. But it was only to a certain extent.

The Tos People, after learning about electromagnetic waves, also longed for light.

These were basic civilizational data.

After Zhang Yuan explained his purpose, the individual on the screen twisted his body, and a line of text appeared on the human’s screen, "I apologize, esteemed Human, according to our internal security regulations, we cannot sell our organs, even if you offer a substantial amount of AmiBa Points, it still cannot be done."

"In fact, the vast majority of interstellar civilizations with the same morals would not do such a thing."

"No problem, no problem, we understand!" Zhang Yuan hurriedly said, "We just want to acquire the technology information, but without an actual organ, we really cannot design it from scratch..."

He quickly proposed another plan, "If your civilization is willing, we can apply for an open biological laboratory in the interstellar trading market to exchange sensory cells with each other. The entire experiment would be mutually open, without measuring genetic sequences, and after the experiment, all samples would be destroyed, only leaving the data, and nothing would be allowed to be taken away."

"We are willing to provide 167 different biological eyes, including human eyes, and share knowledge about bionic eyes. How do you find this proposal?"

Zhang Yuan added, "Of course, the points for the biological laboratory will be paid by us."

Renting a laboratory, at most, would cost 0.1 AmiBa Points.

After listening to Zhang Yuan’s trade proposal, the Tos on the screen thought for a long time but did not respond.

As a rare species able to perceive magnetic fields, they actually had quite a bit of interaction with other interstellar civilizations...

Experiments similar to what Zhang Yuan proposed had been conducted, even more than a hundred times!

However, more than twenty thousand years had passed.

They still hadn’t seen real light. Other interstellar civilizations took away the Tos’s magnetic field perception data and left, but the Tos, who lacked eyes, could not conduct many experiments well, especially biological ones—it wasn’t possible to endow all organic matter with a magnetic field.

Reliance solely on ultrasonic waves and magnetic fields made obtaining data in this area extremely difficult.

It was too hard, really too hard, not being able to see the light, relying only on magnetic fields, the disadvantages were too many!

However, the Tos Civilization was a civilization with strong self-respect, with many resilient scientists, developing from challenging environments to present, a feat not possible without exceptional qualities.

After a long while, the communicator received a contact; the scientists were willing to engage in such experiments because they had received another opportunity...

A free opportunity!

The Tos diplomat sighed deeply, even though he knew that these experiments were highly unlikely to yield anything, allowing the other party to take advantage of them freely. However, even with a one in ten thousand chance, it was worth pursuing.

After the deal was confirmed, the team led by Zhang Yuan also couldn’t help but cheer jubilantly, spending just 0.1 AmiBa Points for a chance to acquire relevant data was an overly fortunate situation for humans.