128: Talent Introduction Act

Tianqiong City, underground command center.

The massive screen bathed the entire room in daylight. The screen was divided into two parts: the left side showed the bustling scenes of the Solar System, with shuttles weaving through clouds, anti-gravity trains speeding between cities, and spaceships crisscrossing between planets.

On the right was deep space, 5.4 light-years away, where Grey Wind's nanite individuals were broadcasting the historic agreement signing ceremony on Kali Star in real-time.

Thanks to the quantum communication network formed by Grey Wind's ubiquitous nanite individuals, Lei Wen was able to transcend the speed of light and watch, without any delay, this purple planet that had just been incorporated into the territory of Human Civilization.

Watching Commander-in-Chief Li Zhenhua accept the crystal scepter symbolizing the supreme power of the Kari Civilization, and looking at the human warships floating across the sky, Lei Wen tapped his fingers gently on the armrest, producing a rhythmic "tap-tap" sound.

"Well done," he commented softly, a faint smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

Although the process had some twists and turns and the methods were somewhat heavy-handed, the result was perfect.

Human Civilization had finally taken this crucial step; it was no longer an infant curled up in the Cradle of its home planet, but a youth daring to reach out into deep space to grasp its own future.

It didn't matter if the process was slow. Even if it took forty years on the road, or several generations to build, as long as this step was taken and stood firm, it was a victory.

"That old man is very interesting."

Just as Lei Wen was deep in thought, Grey Wind's voice suddenly rang out.

The image on the screen automatically zoomed in, focusing on the crowd at the edge of Truth Square.

There, an elderly kari wearing old-style scholar robes, his face full of wrinkles, was staring blankly at the pacific in the sky. His cloudy vertical pupils were filled with tears, yet they burned with a near-fanatical thirst for knowledge.

"Are you talking about this… I remember his name is Walker Tala, right?" Lei Wen recognized the subject he had once monitored closely.

It was precisely because of this old man's keen intuition that Lei Wen had to have Grey Wind implement a decades-long "lockdown" on him, turning all his experimental data into a mess of garbled code, effectively strangling the golden age of a genius.

"That's right, it's this poor wretch I've been tormenting for nearly half a century." There was a rare hint of appreciation in Grey Wind's tone. "Do you know? When I was organizing the surveillance data on the Kari Civilization from the past few decades, I discovered a manuscript he had hidden in the deepest part of his private hard drive."

"What manuscript?"

"《Hypothesis on the Existence of Faster-Than-Light Particles and Possibilities for Observation Methods》." Grey Wind projected a file densely packed with kari text and complex formulas. "At the desperate moment when I had locked down all his conventional physical experimental paths, making him believe the microscopic world was chaotic and disordered, this old guy actually jumped out of conventional thinking. Relying purely on mathematical logic and observations of macroscopic celestial movements, he deduced the possibility of the existence of 'tachyons'."

Lei Wen's pupils contracted sharply.

tachyons, that is, faster-than-light particles. In the technology tree of the Faleim People, this was the key medium for achieving faster-than-light radar detection and interstellar communication without point-to-point entangled quantum pairs.

Although human research institutions had long invested countless personnel and funds in this field, limited by the thinking patterns of Earthlings and the foundation of material science, progress in how to "capture" and "apply" tachyons had been slow.

Currently, human deep space exploration still relied mainly on traditional electromagnetic waves and optical telescopes. Even the most advanced [Clairvoyance] composite detection array only utilized the gravitational lensing effect and had not truly mastered Tachyon Radar technology.

And this kari person, in the pre-space age, had actually deduced a method to observe tachyons with just his brain, without any experimental data support, and even while being maliciously interfered with by a higher civilization?

"Is his theory correct?" Lei Wen asked immediately.

"A very interesting approach," Grey Wind evaluated. "He designed a method to use crystal vibrations at specific frequencies to trap the energy trails left by tachyons. Although, because the material science level of Kali Star was too poor—which of course, I had a hand in—he couldn't manufacture such crystals to verify it, but from a theoretical model perspective, this path is viable! And..."

Grey Wind paused, her tone becoming somewhat strange.

"And this method of observation is even more efficient and energy-saving than the method the Faleim People usually use, which relies on forcibly distorting spacetime to capture tachyons. This is entirely a fruit from a different technology tree."

Lei Wen took a deep breath.

This was the technological complementarity brought about by the differences in thinking between different intelligent species that he had always wanted to see.

Human thinking tended toward engineering, modularity, and pragmatism; the thinking of the Faleim People tended toward extreme rationality and big-data brute force; while the Kari People seemed to have an extraordinary, innate intuition for subtle microscopic vibrations like waves and frequencies.

"It's not just him," Grey Wind continued. "See that young kari person next to him, holding him up? That's his student, named Kul."

A younger kari person appeared on the screen, supporting the excited Walker.

"This young man named Kul is no pushover either. When he was researching a cheap alloy for construction, to save costs, he mistakenly added an alkaloid extracted from a purple plant. This should have been a failed experiment, but I was busy interfering with another nuclear test at the time and didn't pay attention to him. As a result..."

"As a result, he created an ultra-high-strength alloy?" Lei Wen guessed.

"Bingo!" Grey Wind snapped her fingers. "A carbon-silicon-biological polymer composite alloy. Its hardness and ductility are not inferior in the slightest to the EL-17 type steel currently used on your human warships, but it is 40% lighter, and the production cost is only one-third of yours!"

Lei Wen stood up abruptly.

One-third the cost, lighter weight, equal strength.

What did this mean?

It meant that if this material were used to build warships, the scale of the human fleet could be expanded threefold under the existing budget! Or, the saved weight could be used to load more weapons and thrusters, elevating the warships' endurance and firepower to a whole new level!

These were not just two technologies; these were two huge treasures.

"Talent…" Lei Wen looked at the old and young aliens on the screen. His eyes no longer held the indifference of viewing the conquered, but the burning intensity of viewing rare treasures.

"Grey Wind, lift all technical blockades on Walker and Kul, and their related laboratories."

"Also, help me draft a list. I want a list of all scientists in the Kari Civilization who have made unique achievements in the fields of physics, material science, and biology."

"What do you want to do?" Grey Wind asked, knowing the answer.

"What do I want to do?" Lei Wen adjusted his collar and turned toward the elevator. "Of course, it's to 'recruit talent'."

"We want to absorb them and let their brains serve the Human Federation."

Three days later, New York, Earth Council headquarters.

An executive meeting regarding "post-war disposal of the Kari Star System" was underway.

The atmosphere of the meeting was originally relaxed; after all, it was just a civilization far more backward than humanity, and with the strength of the First Interstellar Fleet, there shouldn't be any surprises.

Everyone was discussing how to divide the fruits of victory, how to zone mining areas, and how to allocate colonial quotas.

Until Lei Wen threw out a document titled "Special Act on Absorbing Outstanding Talents from Extraterrestrial Civilizations into the Human Federation Scientific Research System."

As soon as this act was introduced, the originally harmonious meeting room exploded.

"I object!" A conservative representative from Europe stood up first, his face flushed. "Director Lei, you are inviting wolves into the house! Those who are not of our race must have different hearts! If those aliens were conquered by us, they must be full of hatred. Let them enter our core research institutions? What if they sabotage? What if they steal our technology and use it against us?"

"I also think it's inappropriate," another representative echoed. "We conquered them for resources and living space, not to let them teach us how to do science. Human technology should be mastered by humans themselves; this is a matter of principle."

"The security risks are too great." The head of the global intelligence agency also shook his head. "We cannot guarantee the loyalty of these alien scientists; we cannot afford such risks."

Facing everyone's questioning and opposition, Lei Wen sat there with a calm expression. Only after everyone had finished expressing their opinions did he slowly tap the table.

"Everyone, what is it that Human Civilization has relied on to get to where it is today?"

He did not argue directly, but instead asked a question.

"Is it our intelligence?"

"No," Lei Wen answered himself. "It is because we know how to learn and how to be inclusive."

He stood up and clapped his hands. white flower immediately controlled the screen behind him, which lit up with the abstract of Walker Tala's paper on tachyons, as well as the simulated test data of the new alloy from Kul.

"Look at these." Lei Wen pointed at the screen. "This is intelligence that a Faleim People's research ship scanned and transmitted to us out of curiosity when it passed through the Kari Star System."

"An old man trapped on a backward planet, with nothing but a pen and a brain, deduced the tachyon observation theory that we have spent trillions on and have yet to fully understand even with the use of supercomputers."

"A young lab technician developed a cheap alloy with performance superior to the armor of our main warships using only rudimentary equipment."

The meeting room gradually quieted down, and everyone looked at the data in surprise.

"We can indeed conquer their bodies and destroy their armies." Lei Wen's voice became stern. "But if we arrogantly believe that we also completely crush them in intelligence because of this, then we are not far from destruction."

"Intelligence in the universe is diverse; different physiological structures and living environments will breed completely different ways of thinking."

"Scientists of the Faleim Civilization once told me that the progress of technology often stems from the collision of thinking."

"If we just shut these geniuses out because of arrogance and fear, or even make them dig rocks in mines for their whole lives..." Lei Wen scanned the room coldly. "That is not only a huge waste of resources, but also a crime against the future of civilization!"

"As for loyalty..." Lei Wen waved his hand dismissively. "We have plenty of ways to ensure their loyalty."

"We will provide them with the best treatment and the best laboratories. For a pure scientist, as long as we can provide them with a platform to explore the truth, most of them will be willing to serve us."

"At the same time, we will implement the strictest classified management and physical isolation for them. Core technologies will be kept secret from them; we will only let them be responsible for specific sub-projects, and their families will live under our 'protection'."

"In one hand is truth and bread; in the other is shackles and a sword."

Lei Wen rested both hands on the table and leaned forward, his presence full of pressure.

"Gentlemen, we are now an interstellar civilization. Can't our minds be a bit more open?"

"What we want to build is a great civilization that embraces everything, gathering the wisdom of the entire universe for our use, not a closed and exclusionary small tribe."

"If we don't even have this bit of self-confidence and control, what are we talking about when we say we want to conquer the sea of stars?"

As Lei Wen's voice fell, the meeting room fell into a long silence.

The opponents looked at each other, unable to find any reason to refute.

The benefits were real, the risks were controllable, and the grand vision described by Lei Wen of "all nations coming to court, gathering collective wisdom into one" struck the deep-seated ambition of every politician.

"I... support Director Lei's proposal."

Finally, the Chinese Representative raised their hand first. "The sea admits all rivers, and greatness comes from tolerance. As long as it is managed properly, this will be an opportunity for our technology to leap forward again."

"I also support it." The American Representative (actually an agent for the knowledge manager) followed suit.

Immediately after, one hand after another was raised.

"The act is passed." The rotating chairman struck the wooden gavel.

With this crisp sound, Human Civilization finally crossed the threshold named "racism" at a psychological level.