Chapter 4012  Hope

His words were wise. Indeed, even the preliminary intel analysis from the Gaian intelligence community suggested that pathwalkers were the only reason that Gaia had not been annihilated in the first minute of the war. Not to mention, the samples of aliens they had at their disposal suggested that aliens didn't have paths the way that human genetic descendants did. It was possible that Paths would become a species advantage that would benefit them greatly in the long term.

"Pathwalker enhancement in quality and quantity should be a major policy focus for Gaian Civilization, and something I intend to hammer in more deeply," Rui remarked seriously. "Secondly, we need to accelerate our Race to the Stars. Project Interstellar has become of crucial importance to our species."

They needed to expand their numbers, gain access to more resources and more energy and build bigger and more powerful weapons and technology. Their civilization needed to upgrade from a type-two and move closer to a Type-Three Civilization. That was the best way to secure their survival in a universe with much, much greater power than they could have ever imagined.

"Lastly, we need to be capable of presenting a unified civilization to the universe when we interact with the forces out there," Rui remarked with a serious expression. "The more divided we are, the weaker we are. Thus, I seek to create a Gaian Alliance that will unify all of our space matters into one."

The eyes of the ministers widened at those words.

What he was suggesting was similar to what his father had done with the Panama Continent upon entering the true world. Indeed, it simply made more sense for all of them to be unified in their mutual interests.

The survival of Gaia was a universal interest for all of them, regardless of their domestic disputes. They would need to work together to overcome the nebulars and any other hostile forces that there were across the cosmos. Ordinarily, unifying Gaian Civilization would be difficult, but at the current rank of power that Rui possessed, it was very much within his reach.

"And lastly, I'm sure each and every single one of you is deeply curious about everything that has actually unfolded in the past half day," Rui continued with a more relaxed tone of voice. "From your perspectives, the sequences of events that have unfolded our simply incoherent, I would imagine."

They turned towards him with a longing expression.

They sought to know.

What were the strange jellyfish-like aliens? Why did they come to Gaia? Why did the nebulars come to Gaia? Why were both of them trying to destroy the planet? Why did the former change their mind and then support them?

It was just an unfathomable sequence of events.

"For that, I call for an emergency Gaia Summit of all polities in the world today, right away. We don't have time to waste," Rui continued with a severe tone of voice. "I intend to explain everything that has happened and then set out the future trajectory of our civilization and give clarity on the past and the present of our civilization and our very planet and announce my bid for the creation of the Gaian Alliance."

His eyes sharpened. "From this day forth, our civilization will change forever."

Gaia shook metaphorically as the invitation to the emergency Gaia Summit hosted by none other than the Emperor of Water himself spread to each and every single relevant party. The leaders of the six civilizations and the countless minor nations and peoples. Leaders of prominent international organizations and the most powerful pathwalkers in the world were also invited.

It was a summit that would alter the trajectory of human civilization for eons to come.

While human civilization underwent an upheaval from the events of the recent past and event yet to come, the laminar integuments at the edge of the solar system were experiencing their own upheavals.

WHOOSH

Far away at the edge of Sol, the laminar army rapidly returned to their world ship. BLOB

BLOB

BLOB

One by one, the jellyfish and the soap bubble-like warships and spacecrafts returned to the giant laminar world ship in an almost osmotic process, swarming its entire surface.

Each laminar integument was beaming with a flux of light flashes, indicating their shocked state of mind. They had just borne witness to a native indigenous population that, while not as primitive as a lot of other alien lifeforms they had found, was much more primitive than they were.

And yet, this world had managed to overcome a nebular invasion.

The same nebular invasion that had destroyed their native world, an event that had happened so long ago, but still scarred their photonic consciousness. Laminar integuments could directly share memories with each other, allowing the original memory of the destruction of their world to be preserved forever as long as their species still existed. Because their memories were just a spectrum of chromatic stains and colors that could be activated with light, other laminar integuments could straightforwardly inherit the light from those memories and make it their own.

This mind sharing capacity was their greatest species advantage and the reason they had managed to become a civilization as powerful and advanced as they were.

And yet, that same memory was why they shunned living on planets. Their civilization had become permanently detached from physical planets, instead resorting to thousands and thousands of world ships across a vast amount of distance. The laminar integument that Rui had fought, known as the Tendril of Light, was the leader of just one such world ship.

Not the entire civilization.

And thus, it was accountable to the Laminar Council of which it was merely one constituency.

BZZZT

At the very center of the world ship, the Tendril of Light pressed a button on the control panel of the world ship, activating a hologram.

BZZZT

One that featured thousands of laminar integuments, each as large and or even larger than it was. Their colorful translucent bodies were each unique and special.

They each brimmed with great power within their depths. They were each leaders of their own world ship, at the same standing as the Tendril of Light. They turned towards it as an intense flux of light flashes emerged from them, washing over the Tendril of Light.

"Anomaly. In. Source. Realm. Detected. Demand. Explanation. What. Did. You. Find?"

The Tendril of Light found itself being questioned by the entirety of his civilization. A single response emerged from the laminar integument.

"Hope."