Gaia Life?

It wasn't that memes were inherently bad, because cultural phenomena were memes too.

Definitions mattered.

Dawkins had said that humans were the only species capable of resisting the tyranny of genes, because humans had thoughts and could think. The weapon humans used to resist the tyranny of genes was called memes.

Of course, from humanity's current perspective, that was intelligence—or rather, the source of intelligence. Digging deeper led to ultimate questions such as why life produced intelligence.

That was not something to consider in the current situation. Humanity only needed to understand that the consciousness-based communication method the other party had displayed was dangerous.

So the question now became: how could they convey information to the other party?

To understand what the other party actually was and what its purpose was, communication was essential. But how could they communicate? The Star Alliance had no ability to communicate through mental consciousness.

As the saying went, Someone Brings a Pillow When You're Sleepy. Just as humanity was at a loss, the Probe Team inside the star system sent back more information.

It was not language in the conventional sense, but information that, like before, directly made individual lifeforms understand it within their consciousness. According to the Crimson Flame Civilization lifeforms, the first part roughly meant greetings and welcome, while the latter part told them how to respond.

There were many Crimson Flame Civilization lifeforms in the Probe Team. To avoid mistakes, they did not relay merely one Crimson Flame Person's interpretation of what they had heard in their consciousness. Instead, they consolidated the information perceived by many Crimson Flame People, only sending it back to the Lyra once everyone's impressions matched.

The response method provided by the other party was simple: silently recite the response in one's heart—or rather, within one's consciousness.