Episode 2: Do Silicon-Based Life Forms Truly Perceive Organic Life Forms?
After shaking off Gorou and heading toward Radia ahead of the Corporation’s fleet, they pass by a massive silicon-based life form devouring a planet.
“A whale, huh.”
Kaito had that impression as he watched the planet-eater spitting giant rocks into the air from what was probably its dorsal side.
Its meal must have finished, as it slowly crawled out from within the planet. Even during this process, it continued spitting out rocks, making it quite dangerous to approach.
The Corporation fleet that had been chasing Kaito and Queenbee had moved away from Queenbee to surround the planet-eater. There was no response from Gorou. His priorities had probably shifted from Kaito to that creature.
“More like an eel than a snake, I’d say.”
[What exactly is the difference?]
“Look, it has gill-like things.”
[Oh my]
When the planet-eater shook its entire body, gill-like holes opened up all over its sides.
More like an eel than a snake, and the way it spewed rocks from its back was like a whale.
“Rather than planet-eater, ‘giant space eel’ feels more fitting, yeah.”
[Either is fine with me. But what on space is it doing?]
“Probably the cause of that sound from earlier.”
Even from Kaito’s distant observation point, he could see the massive amount of air being expelled from the gills. The creature’s full-body trembling caused the air expelled from its gills to vibrate.
Rock masses near the planet-eater were being pulverized. The range gradually expanded, causing the fleet to hastily increase their distance.
“I see, so that’s how that planet’s rings were formed.”
[The range of destruction by vibration doesn’t seem very wide.]
Around the area where the fleet had retreated, the vibrations still reached but didn’t cause destruction. Pushed out by the expelled air, the pulverized sand particles slowly spread outward.
Apparently its meal wasn’t finished yet, and satisfied with the cleared surroundings, the planet-eater twisted its body back underground to continue feeding.
As the planet-eater’s form disappeared into the planet, the fleet slowly approached the planet.
Inside Queenbee, Kaito crossed his arms and made a sour expression, thinking “Now this is quite a problem.”
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The artificial celestial body Radia is an observation facility for the planetary system named Namibifu.
When organic life forms were observed on Namibifu’s sixth planet, this planetary system became a Federation observation target. This planet, which had developed gradually, supposedly hadn’t yet produced intelligent beings capable of constructing societies.
The being that greeted Kaito upon his arrival at Radia was from a species with six eyeball-like organs on their face.
“We have been waiting for you, Kaito, Third-rank Citizen, Enek-Ragif. I am Stomato. I received a report from Lacofril, who handled the earlier response. We have also confirmed that the Corporation has begun protective activities for that creature.”
“Nice to meet you, Representative Stomato. It’s an honor to meet you.”
As Stomato closed all six eyes and bowed his head respectfully, Kaito followed suit.
When they slowly raised their heads, Kaito somehow sensed favorable emotions from Stomato.
“This way, please. We must formulate a strategy. Radia’s staff is assembled, so we’d appreciate your input.”
“Understood.”
Led by Stomato, they proceeded through the generated corridor. The specifications of Federation artificial celestial bodies seemed similar everywhere. The corridors were identical to those of Zodgia and Abakia.
The dead end opened, and stepping through revealed a large room. Most appeared to be of Stomato’s species. There were machine intelligences and several other unfamiliar species scattered about.
“I’ve brought Kaito, Third-rank Citizen, Enek-Ragif. Please take any available seat. Sixth-Rank Citizen Emotion Abu-Rug as well.”
“Understood.”
As Kaito and Emotion settled onto nearby protrusions, Stomato moved to the center of the room and looked around at everyone.
“Well then. Let’s decide on our strategy. The basic policy will be the elimination of the target. This has also received Federation Parliament approval, but the problem is how to handle the Rare Organism Protection corporation.”
Kaito was surprised. Contrary to his expectations, the field personnel had already made the planet-eater’s elimination their established course. The only issue was apparently how to handle the nearby Corporation.
“Does this mean entering a state of war with the Corporation?”
“It won’t escalate to war. The branch fleet engaged in protection—Arzavoid 23—will inevitably engage in combat, but once the target’s elimination is complete, the fighting should also cease.”
“Isn’t that still war?”
“No. If the Federation covers the repair costs for the Corporation’s ships and the resurrection expenses for the dead, reconciliation will be achieved. Both repairs and resurrections are paid services with the Corporation, you see.”
“I see.”
Faced with the gap between Federation and his own common sense, Kaito could only nod.
Setting the Corporation aside, both were recoverable aspects for the Federation. Perhaps the Federation had entrusted the resurrection system to the Corporation specifically to facilitate smooth settlements when such conflicts arose.
While calling it confirmation, Stomato was explaining various things to Kaito. Since this was the opportunity, he decided to ask about everything that concerned him.
“Sorry for disrupting the meeting by joining late. There are various things I’d like to learn about.”
“Of course. Kaito, Third-rank Citizen, Enek-Ragif hasn’t been long since joining the Federation. Please ask anything.”
“First, what role are you all expecting me to play as reinforcement?”
“Ah, that would be…”
What came from Stomato’s mouth was:
“Pure combat power to exterminate that creature.”
It was the second most unpleasant answer among those he’d expected.
The total length of planet-eaters varies by individual, but this opponent seemed slightly larger than previously encountered specimens.
The Federation had used two methods to eliminate planet-eaters in the past: overwhelming single strikes by Terapolapanecio, and concentrated firepower from fleets.
Since Queenbee was originally the same model ship used by Terapolapanecio, the expected role would be the former.
“With Radia’s forces, we can probably only manage to suppress the Corporation fleet. Even without the Corporation present, we can’t concentrate enough firepower to destroy the target.”
Stomato’s explanation that this was why they couldn’t act until the Corporation arrived was quite convincing. This artificial celestial body was purely for observation and not combat-oriented. Zodgia, which had considerable combat capabilities, was apparently the special case, according to Emotion’s analysis from the adjacent seat.
Now, the problem was the planet-eater. Ultimately eliminating it was fine, but he wanted to confirm various things first. There seemed to be indications that the Federation—or rather the space jellyfish—expected methodologies other than elimination from Kaito.
“Representative Stomato. That space eel… my Corporation acquaintance called it [planet-eater], so I’d like to use that term. What methods were previously attempted to communicate with it?”
“planet-eater, is it? That’s quite a nice way to refer to it. They apparently tried everything conceivable. Eventually, even direct mental intervention by the Terapolapanecio folks was attempted.”
“Direct mental intervention?”
“Yes. A method of directly hammering words—or rather emotions—into the opponent’s cognitive field.”
“Ah, that thing…”
He recalled the telepathy of the space jellyfish that had swarmed to Earth. Indeed, if even that didn’t work, there truly seemed to be no methods left.
However, there was also the question of whether silicon-based life forms possessed brains or similar organs like theirs. If they wandered space purely on instinct without thought, then elimination would indeed be the only option.
But if intelligence existed within them, extermination wasn’t a welcome choice. Perhaps Terapolapanecio had obtained something that confirmed their intelligence. That’s why they expected Kaito to verify that something. Maybe he was overthinking it.
“Emotion. How long was the planet-eater again?”
“Estimated at about twice Earth’s diameter. If the data we received is accurate, that is.”
“I see. Representative Stomato, do you know how many Terapolapanecio there were when they attempted communication with the planet-eater?”
“Numbers? I believe a single Di-Kigaiya-Zalmos psychic-exclusive multipurpose craft defeated it, so there should have been one individual.”
“Is that so. Then it’s probably what I thought…”
“Kaito, Third-rank Citizen, Enek-Ragif?”
“Captain?”
Facing Kaito, who had somewhat grasped the cause and circumstances, Stomato and Emotion were left behind.
Wondering how to explain this, he briefly pondered and pulled up an unpleasant memory from his time on Earth.
“Simply put, Representative Stomato, up to what size of small insect would you find annoying?”
“Small insect?”
“To that massive body, Radia is the same size as its food, or about half. The Corporation ships, even the large ones, are about the same size as the rocks it spits out after eating. In terms of our scale, we’d be like insects or microorganisms.”
In other words, Kaito’s theory was that in terms of planet eater perceptual scale, they were simply too small.
“No matter how strong Terapolapanecio’s power, it was just one ship against that size. Whether the telepathy was even audible is questionable.”
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