Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 25: Signs of a Lost Civilization

Chapter 25: Signs of a Lost Civilization

The purple creature had a pair of sharp fangs, and it had six limbs below its torso. Its face resembled a horse, and it had a pair of large ears. Its eyes carried a ruthless glint as it roared at us fiercely, acting as though it was going to attack. We nervously gripped our weapons tighter.

"What monster is it this time?" Zhang Bao'er grumbled. "There are as many monsters here as there are ants on Blue. This is way too intense."

The priest gestured at us to calm down. He chanted repeatedly before slowly approaching the creature. Then, he slowly reached out to the creature with both hands, lay on his stomach, and raised his tail. All the while, he never stopped chanting, and it also sounded like he had reached a crucial part of his incantation.

I could hear the word "Domo" being repeated consistently, to the point I even wondered if that was the creature's name.

Slowly, as the priest chanted, the creature calmed down. The fierce glint in its eyes also turned gentle. Then, the priest nodded at his follower. The follower took out something resembling a fish from his bag and respectfully placed it before the creature. After sniffing the food, the creature howled at us a few more times before picking the food up. Then, it vanished into the thick forest.

After the creature departed, the priest gestured at us to continue forward. We arrived at the cave entrance and saw that it wasn't too big an entrance. Two majestic statues of the people of Sirius stood before the cave, standing imposingly with their weapons in their hands. After the Sirian locals finished their prayer, the priest brought us into the cave. We entered a world of gold.

"My god. All these are treasures!" Zhang Bao'er exclaimed.

We were all stunned by what we saw. The entrance wasn't big, but inside was a massive cavern. In fact, judging from the size of the cavern, I even suspected that the entire mountain was hollow.

Hanging right above us was a replica of the Sirius System. The replica was carved from two massive precious stones. Sirius A was a shining blue sphere that illuminated the entire cavern. Sirius B, on the other hand, was made from a sparkling ruby-like stone. Through principles and methods unknown to us, the two stones hovered in the air and orbited each other.

Apart from the two main celestial bodies, the air above us was also filled with numerous multi-colored and shiny precious stones. They all hovered in the air, resembling the numerous twinkling stars in the universe. Beautiful seven-colored clouds leisurely drifted through the replicas. The entire cavern was grand and imposing, shaking our very souls with majesty.

"This is too beautiful. This must be how paradise looks like," Zhang Xingxing said. "This is basically a virtual world of precious stones."

"I don't know which of these precious stones is the one we need. I keep having a feeling that this place is filled with danger," Dodo said.

"We had survived so many dangers to come here. Comparatively, this place seems so peaceful. What is there to fear?" I said.

My words seemed to trigger Dodo; the android immediately sank into silence. However, its body started ringing out with clicks as though it was simmering in anger.

While we were taking in the amazing sight before us, the Sirian locals, led by the priest, brought us to a massive wall. Numerous star charts were drawn on it, and when we studied the charts, we found that they greatly resembled what we saw in Nommo's room. They were the charts of various star systems alongside their descriptions.

The priest pointed at the wall and let loose a string of words to me, but I couldn't understand a single word. However, from his gestures, I understood that he wanted us to look for the planet we came from.

"Blue must be somewhere in there as well," Zhang Xingxing said. "This might be the clue to my father's and Aunt Cassie's whereabouts. Everyone, look for Blue."

Everyone carried out the team leader's command. The five of us and Dondon split up and searched the wall for a star system with eight planets. Although the Sirians could not understand us, they all followed their priest's lead and started watching silently as we searched. We carefully observed the paintings on the wall. Suddenly, I saw a familiar chart with eight planets. On the chart, the sun and planets I had seen so many times were visible.

'Yes, there's no doubting it,' I told myself.

Unfortunately, I could not understand the description beside the chart because they were all written in Sirian script. Not even our database could detect anything similar to these scripts.

"I found it," I called out. "Blue's chart is here."

Everyone came over and when they saw that I had really found Blue, they grew excited. I gestured to the priest and pointed at Blue, telling him that we came from Blue. The priest understood me and nodded. He called out and talked to a young Sirian from among his followers. The youngster nodded and walked up to us.

"Looks like the prophecy, the secret of Sirius, and Captain Zhang Han's whereabouts will all be solved soon," I said in excitement.

Zhang Xingxing, Old Du, and Zhang Bao'er were just as excited as me. We looked at the young Sirian in anticipation as he approached us.

"&@*#&$^!*#^$," the young alien gestured at us while speaking, but we couldn't understand a single word. We all looked at Dodo.

"I already analyzed their language with all the languages in our database, including the Dogon language. However, no match was found. Their scripts do not exist on Blue," Dodo said.

"This is impossible. If these are not scripts local to Blue, why would they be written here?" I said. "When I was searching, I noticed that each star chart is accompanied by different scripts. Thus, common sense dictates that the script beside Blue should be one that is local to Blue as well."

"Perhaps this is the script of an ancient civilization?" Zhang Xingxing suddenly said.

"What ancient civilization is this that none of us know of it?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"In the history of human evolution, there is a blank period of about 200,000 years. It is suspected that there once existed four major civilizations in that period of lost history," Zhang Xingxing explained. "Because the civilizations are more legends than actual history, they are not included in the interstellar exploration courses."

"That's right. It was once suspected that four different civilizations once existed on Blue," Dodo said.

"You must be making this up. What civilizations? List them out," said Zhang Bao'er.

"You don't know this, but in Blue's history, there are four lost civilizations, resulting in a blank period in history," Dodo explained.

"Blank period in history? What are you referring to, exactly?" Zhang Bao'er asked.

"First of them is the Gendaya civilization, also known as the superpower civilization. The second is the Mesopotamia civilization, also known as the food and drink civilization. The third is the Lemuria civilization, also known as the bio-energy civilization. And the fourth is the Maya civilization.

"In fact, we have more civilizations lost at the bottom of the ocean, such as the Atlantis civilization. All these civilizations were lost to history, leaving no trace on Blue," Dodo finished his explanation.

"Gendaya civilization? What an odd name," I remarked.

"Yes. It was said that the Gendaya people are one meter in height, with their males having a third eye. In the legends, the third eye contains a superpower, and each third eye possesses a different superpower. The females of the Gendaya people did not have a third eye or a superpower. However, they could commune with gods through their wombs, allowing them to become the vessel of the gods that wish to be reincarnated," said Dodo.

"That is way too mystical. The evolution of Blue is truly inconceivable. However, Blue is Blue, and Sirius is Sirius. Will there be any similarity here?" I wondered.

"Looks like Nommo had visited Blue more than once," Old Du concluded.

"Yes, I agree. But these characters must be the script of a lost civilization. Therefore, we weren't able to translate it," Zhang Xingxing said.

"What should we do, then? Canyue, think of something," Zhang Bao'er said.

Everyone sank into silence yet again. It was truly disheartening when we were disappointed so soon after seeing hope. This vast shift in mood was not something just anyone could withstand.

At this time, I saw the expression of disappointment and exhaustion on Zhang Xingxing's face. For some reason, I felt deeply unwell seeing her like that. Although this was just a mission for me, my heart seemed to have formed a connection with the team leader. Whether the mission was successful had unknowingly become personal to me.

The Sirians seemed to have sensed our disappointment as well. After an hour, the youngsters who were in charge of translating looked at his priest helplessly. The priest nodded, and they all sat down. They started chanting, as though they were praying for us.

"I have an idea!" a loud voice rang out.

We all looked over, and the sight of the speaker gave me a shock. Old Du, the one who had always been someone of few words, was the speaker.

"You have an idea, Old Du?" Zhang Xingxing asked anxiously.

"I have a train of thought, but I don't know if it's feasible. We can give it a try," Old Du said.

"Tell us. Don't keep us in suspense," both Zhang Bao'er and I were losing patience. "Kid, hurry up."

Instead, Old Du sank into silence. He seemed to be considering his choice of words. Everyone sank into silence, including the Sirians. We all waited silently for Old Du to voice his thoughts.