A new fleet of warships, having completed their mission handover, departed from the habitat of the Gray Wing tribe. This time, they carried a large number of male Zerg, heading toward new planets for resettlement.
Before leaving, Xiao held Ge La in a silent, lingering embrace. Ge La gently patted his back.
"If you are afraid, you can stay," the white Zerg said. When assigning tasks, he always took the feelings of the recipients into account, unwilling to place high-pressure burdens that exceeded their capacity onto the shoulders of his friends.
"I’m not afraid." The light-brown medium-grade Zerg shook his head and smiled. When he looked up, his eyes were sparkling. "I am just happy. Very, very happy."
The short-winged Zerg, who had lost his wings, gave a soft hum. "I never imagined I could become so capable—traveling to a strange planet to help others just like me. This is a future I never dared to dream of before. Compared to the past, we are doing very, very well now."
The remaining three members of the Broad-wing tribe also set out with Kara, looking out for one another.
Before their departure, all the male Zerg waved nervously and shyly to the manager of the Great Information Nest, then boarded the ships in their new capacity as workers. Once, they had been moved countless times as mere merchandise, stored in cargo holds or entertainment nests. Now, they were reaching out to their own kind who were still struggling in agony, pulling those males who had not yet attained the status of "living beings" out of the mire.
Standing a short distance away at the docking bay, the leader of the combat-type Zerg watched the farewell scene and gave Ge La his word.
"The Gray Wings will ensure they are not harmed." His dark gray, powerful scaled tail swayed slightly behind him. "My subordinates have always been excellent; they will complete the mission well."
"Thank you very much for your help." The leader of the Great Information Nest smiled and touched tails with him. Kleiman instinctively wanted to flare his scales, but due to certain indescribable emotions and his desensitization training, he suppressed the urge.
Noticing this, Ge La said nothing and did not tease him. The other's rate of growth was remarkably fast; he no longer buried his immaturity under a mask of coldness like a green youth, nor did he treat the unknown with savagery and violence. That explosive helplessness was gradually being replaced by composure.
"It’s nothing." The expressionless combat-type Zerg cleared his throat. The swaying of his tail became more pronounced, though his "cool and aloof" persona remained perfectly intact. "Let’s go. You have a meeting with Arthur, and I need to further confirm the arrangements for the trip to Kamran with that human."
Business was business. To this day, Kleiman still didn't quite like the blue-eyed human. The man was strong, and he had indeed rescued the Sub-King of the Gray Wing tribe from the brink of the collapsing Old King’s Nest, but something just felt off. His intuition—extremely sharp on the battlefield but usually dull in matters of emotion—was faintly signaling an alarm, but the "straight-as-steel" Zerg couldn't for the life of him figure out what the real problem was.
Ultimately, he decided it was likely because the human occupied a large portion of Clark's attention. For Zerg, kin were resources to be vied for, so it was only natural to feel disgruntled. It seemed a perfectly reasonable explanation.
***
"You’ve been staring at me for a long time. Is there something on my face?"
The young man posing the question faced the combat-type leader across the table, a gentle smile always playing on his lips. Arthur was in a visibly good mood; unlike his usual polite and formal smile, this one contained elements of genuine happiness.
This caused the dark gray female Zerg’s unease to spike instantly.
Ge La, the male Zerg who was too far away to eavesdrop via mental power, cast a thoughtful glance at his friend. Something was wrong. A new situation had definitely arisen.
However, all interest in idle gossip had to temporarily give way to official business. The tug-of-war meetings with the Flash-pattern and Mandible tribes were headache-inducing enough; now, layered with a negotiation with the humans, the difficulty of multitasking had doubled.
Beyond that, there was something Ge La cared about quite deeply.
When the Great Information Nest was fully activated, he had browsed through too much data that was difficult to decipher. One part of it was deeply etched into his mind, impossible to let go, and it had led him to a new hypothesis. Those bright red "Failure" prompts, the characters for *Human Gene 013* and *Contamination Sequence*, signaled a fate he had glimpsed through something akin to intuition.
"Arthur, I need your help."
"Speak," the young man replied straightforwardly, returning his friend's honesty with his own. "What can I do for you?"
After a moment of hesitation, the male Zerg whispered his suspicion. "I was wondering... if there is autonomous data exchange occurring between all the surviving models..."
On this subject, Kleiman was an uninitiated layman, so the conversation between Ge La and the human turned into an encrypted language of fantasies. Upon hearing this conclusion, the young man sat up straight, his expression becoming focused.
"I mean, small-scale data exchange in a non-connected state," Ge La added slowly, trying to explain his intuition. "A long time ago, when I was trying to unlock the permissions of the Great Information Nest, I read a large number of files with inexplicable origins. They stored human information—completely random: novels, history, poetry, art... like different pigments spreading from one puddle to another along a crack."
Back then, the male Zerg had even found some "mpreg" novels in there, which led him to quite seriously ask his partner whether human males could lay eggs. He had also found history regarding the Shamanu Empire, and had lain in the nest with Sacdi discussing the abolition of the Liam Act and labor systems. All of these originated from data fragments that had mysteriously appeared within the Nest.
"They are themselves carriers of deep-space communication, inheriting some characteristics of the Akashic Rift."
One of the properties of the Akashic Rift is that it is not constrained by physical space or time. This was how the Red Taisui, which could open the River of Time, was able to tear through a path and descend upon the Old King’s Nest.
Breaking down his absurd thoughts bit by bit, Ge La met the human's gaze. "When we tried to connect the Great Information Nest with the model remains of Kamran, there were instances where the units didn't match or necessary transcription templates were lacking, leading to link failures. But later, they self-adjusted. I think, if a similar possibility exists for the Data Firmament..."
Arthur understood what he meant. In a general sense, people accepted that starships had acquired independent personalities and autonomous thought, but the Data Firmament, the Great Information Nest, and the model remains of Kamran were classified as unconscious tools. They bore immense functions: anchoring the foundation of the River of Time, structuring the entire inner-ring network of the galaxy, recording all successfully uploaded consciousness fragments, and opening the gates of deep-space communication—yet they lacked an eternal soul.
"We have no way to verify it." His blue eyes calmly watching his friend, the young man also fell into thought. "Any expansive speculation involving the nature of the Akashic Rift is very difficult to verify."
"I have a personal request." The male Zerg changed his phrasing. He understood why his partner was so eager to go to Kamran. Aside from the factor of establishing a trade zone as quickly as possible, both he and Sacdi had things they wanted to confirm. "If possible, could you follow the roots of the model remains and conduct a simple search of the remnant planets of Kamran—without putting yourself in danger?"
"What are you looking for?" Arthur did not look away; he was equally curious.
However, Ge La did not yet fully understand what form the answer he sought would take. He could not answer the question. Perhaps it was a laboratory, perhaps a patch of broken ruins, or perhaps... a dilapidated, desolate grave.
"I... am not sure," he said.
***
"Are you sure you're alright?"
On the other side of the habitat planet, the black Core-type Zerg scrutinized his ally with a suspicious look. He had expected the other to be sarcastic about his opportunistic behavior in finding an excuse to run off to Kamran, but the meeting nest was so quiet one could hear a pin drop.
No, something was very wrong.
For the entire morning, the Sub-King of the Gray Wing tribe had been like a marionette, mechanically sitting at the table signing documents. The other appeared to be alive, expressionlessly swiping his fingers across the light screen and providing biological verification for important reports. But in the several stanhours since they had sat down at the same table, Clark hadn't said a single word.
It wasn't until Sacdi spoke up that the other finally looked up woodenly, a rare hint of daze in his eyes.
"I'm fine," the Sub-King answered slowly. He looked normal, but in this context, such normalcy only seemed more bizarre.
Out of his understanding of his ally and based on past experience, the Core-type Zerg was forced to make a hypothesis he deemed possible. "Did you have a disagreement with Arthur?"
It was a very tactful inquiry. In truth, he found it hard to imagine a scenario where these two would have a conflict. Clark’s tolerance for his foster son was nearly bottomless; even if the human poked a hole in the sky, it would be hard for the Sub-King to bring himself to discipline the "child."
Arthur would never shrink back out of fear, and he lacked the common sense that "being called by one's full name usually means you're about to get hit." Because the Zerg who raised him had never used violence or reprimands against the human child; even slightly stern words were weighed repeatedly, with serious principles broken down into ways a toddler could understand. Thus, the young man was unaware of the tragic truth that "most parents hit their children." His childhood had been entirely removed from human common sense.
Knowing nothing of this, the Core-type could only make such a guess. After all, it was hard for two parties separated by such a distance to have any substantive conflict.
However, as soon as he finished his question, he saw his good brother sit up straight.
Clark was heating up. A flush akin to shame climbed up the other's cheeks, and his fingers on the light screen signed several words incorrectly in a row. The silver-gray female Zerg exhibited a restless trend throughout his entire body, yet he still forced himself to remain silent, trying his best to maintain a cold expression.
"Ah..." The Core-type’s exclamation took a few turns.
Under the personal teaching of Teacher Ge La, he understood. What makes a person—or a Zerg—lose their mind? It’s "love-brain."
"Congratulations on falling into the river, brother," Sacdi said, just as slowly, his words sincere and final. "You’re never climbing out."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 肖 | Xiao | A male Zerg (drone) of the Gray Wing tribe. |
| 短翅种 | Short-wing type | A classification of Zerg, often used for males/drones with stunted wings. |
| 阔翅族群 | Broad-wing tribe | Another Zerg tribe/clan. |
| 克里曼 | Kleiman | Leader of the Gray Wing tribe, a combat-type female Zerg. |
| 武装种 | Combat-type | Also referred to as Armed-type; Zerg specialized in fighting. |
| 阿卡夏裂隙 | Akashic Rift | A sci-fi/metaphysical phenomenon involving space-time transcendence. |
| 红太岁 | Red Taisui | A specific entity or phenomenon capable of manipulating the River of Time. |
| 闪纹种 | Flash-pattern type | A specific Zerg subspecies/tribe. |
| 鳌种 | Mandible type | A specific Zerg subspecies/tribe. |
| 数据天穹 | Data Firmament | A massive data network or construct in the setting. |
| 利亚姆法案 | Liam Act | A historical legal act within the story's lore. |
| 沙玛努帝国 | Shamanu Empire | A historical human empire in the story's lore. |
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