The two sat down side by side. Yao Ling nestled against Old Six, her face pressed to his chest, and began softly, "We were born from the wisdom of the Gaia, and we grew alongside them, expanded alongside them, and explored the boundaries of the universe alongside them."
"At our peak, we occupied three neighboring star systems, forty-six primary planets, and two thousand two hundred and sixty-one dwarf planets."
"But then one day, an incomprehensible fog enveloped our territory, and the Great Cataclysm arrived. The once-prosperous Gaia collapsed and perished at an unimaginable speed, like duckweed in the wind and bubbles in water, on the verge of utter destruction."
Fog? Great Cataclysm?
Old Six frowned at those words.
Yao Ling continued, "At that time, the Gaia came up with a way to save themselves."
"They pooled the strength of their entire race, developed information technology to its pinnacle, and transferred Gaia consciousness into the network, fleeing from the material world into the world of networks."
"It was not copying, but genuine informational reconstruction. A true transfer of consciousness."
A transfer of consciousness from proteins into circuits?
That really was impressive.
Yet Old Six still viewed it very poorly. "Life is fragile, but networks are even more fragile. A solar storm or an electromagnetic burst could destroy the network. You call that self-rescue?"
Yuan Shu shrugged across from him and made a Musk-like pout. "There was no choice. The Gaia were not like Your Excellency, blessed with supernatural abilities. Like Earthlings, they possessed no extraordinary powers. Before the Great Cataclysm, there was no option but to flee."
Yao Ling continued, "The Gaia's true purpose in doing this was to save energy and time. They abandoned nearly all material needs and devoted all productive capacity to information equipment."
"Energy Cores covered the