Chapter 4036  Convening Council

"Have. Established. An. Understanding. With. Gaian. Civilization."

Within the depths of the Laminar world ship, the Tendril of Light floated within a zero-gravity environment, partaking in a virtual meeting with the blurry figures of the other leaders of Laminar Civilization.

Superluminal communication across the galaxy was very difficult, but the most cutting-edge quantum entanglement communication technology allowed for it, even if reluctantly. While Earth was in a hurry to iron out the Gaian Alliance, to accelerate their interstellar projects, their space warfare power, and the many new priorities that they hadn't paid as much attention to as they should have, the Tendril of Light reported to the other leaders of its civilization.

The other integuments listened as the Tendril of Light explained the tentative agreement that he had brokered with the Chancellor of Gaia. By the time he was done, not a single one of them could keep quiet.

"Good. Framework. Gaian. Civilization. Very. Precious. Key. To. Source. Realm."

"Compromising. Agreement. Should. Annihilate. Infected. World."

"Stress. Need. For. Path. Research. Material."

Very few of them were completely satisfied with the agreement in its entirety, but they knew that they wouldn't be able to simply get their way. The Laminar Civilization had many thousands of world ship leaders, and that created a large diversity of political opinions. Despite the fact that they were bonded through transparent consciousness, it wasn't enough to prevent a diversity of opinion within the Laminar Civilization species. They had merely evolved to get along, no matter what disagreements they had, and had a high tolerance for divergence in thought, even if behaviorally, they were dogmatic.

"Have. Gathered. Intelligence. That. Swarkha. Civilization. Is. Deploying. Hyperspace. Convoy. Destination. Unclear. But. Most. Likely. In. Same. Sector." One laminar integument's message drew attention from the Tendril of Light. "Most. Likely. Civilization. Detected. Source. Realm. Anomalies. From. Solar. System. Most. Likely. Seeks. To. Investigate."

The Tendril of Light was not 'pleased' to hear that, the color of its light growing darker at that intel report. Right now, its relationship with the Gaian Civilization was too young. It would have preferred to establish a stronger relationship with the Gaian Alliance and have a strong reason to defend them from external alien threats.

Unfortunately, that depended on how much Rui could help them achieve Paths. Though the Tendril of Light was of the opinion that Gaian life ought to be protected simply because of the existence of Paths and the hope that they gave them. "Convoy. Armed?" The Tendril of Light.

"Affirmative."

"Estimated. Time. Of. Arrival?"

"Unclear. Higher-dimensional. Superluminal. Travel. Obscures. Speed."

"Recommend. Providing. Support." The Tendril of Light was conveyed to the council of leaders. "Motion. To. Deploy. More. World. Ships. To. Protect. Gaia."

Unfortunately for the Tendril of Light, the motion didn't pass, much to its frustration. As for the Tendril of Light was concerned, the other leaders simply didn't understand how amazing Gaian Civilization clearly was because they hadn't experienced it the way it had. But alas, there was nothing it could do. Laminar Civilization was a parliamentary federation in its political structure, and that meant it was impossible to leverage the power of the civilization without an overwhelming majority of the admiralty of the world ships.

It would have to do tremendous coalition-building in order to build support for Gaian Civilization. However, it would first have to provide concrete results surrounding Paths. If Paths were phenomena that were absolutely impossible to tap into, then Laminar Civilization as a whole would be less interested in them. Thus, until Rui managed to give it concrete results, the amount of help the Tendril of Light could mobilize for Gaian Civilization was always going to be limited. At most, it could help them identify threats and overcome some problems, but it couldn't even deploy the power of its own world ship without oversight from the council. They were still part of civilization, after all.

The Tendril of Light, however, held out great hope that Gaian civilization could leverage its uniqueness to generate true value for the Laminar Civilization. It also held out the hope that they would be able to grow strong at a much faster rate. Their technology level and power level had long reached the level where expansion could be conducted without excessive fear.

And indeed, Rui had communicated their intentions to expand through the cosmos. The stronger they grew, the more they were worth befriending and allying with. "For. Now. Have. Deployed. Research. Team. To. Gaia. For. Risk. Virus. Risk. Evaluation." The Tendril of Light informed them. "If. Risk. Found. To. Be. Negative. As. Expected. Then. Will. Deepen. Relations."

Even as it spoke, a research team's ship entered Gaia's atmosphere over the Panama Continent, slowing down as it traveled towards the epicenter of the planet. The team was in a soap-bubble-like ship that withstood the friction from the planet's atmosphere, exerting a thrust to decelerate as the ship entered the planet's atmosphere.

Martial Sages guided its descent into Gaia as it gently landed within the epicenter of the Beast Domain with a light bounce, as if it were a beach ball.

BUMP

The spherical ship burrowed into the ground halfway through, leaving only half of its body above-ground like a hemispherical dome. At a distance around the ship were Martial Sages who kept watch from afar, never once letting their guard down as the ship began vibrating, gathering samples from within the depths of Gaia immediately to evaluate the risk of the planet exploding with a negatron overload.

It would decide whether or not there would be peace or war between Laminar Civilization and Gaian Civilization.

While the laminar research team began an exhaustive process of confirming whether or not Gaia was safe, Gaian Civilization was busy to the very neck as the Gaian Alliance increasingly took shape as the various rules and regulations were ironed out and the frame of the entire system was established.

Simultaneously, renewed priorities caused a shift away from old priorities towards newly raised priorities as the space programs of various civilizations and polities were bombarded with funding. Each and every single person of power, influence, and authority was consumed by the transition of Gaia into the future.

In just the blink of an eye, a month passed.