Whatever We Talk About Appears

"Then can we talk to them?" Mayne asked excitedly.

Since the aliens were communicating, didn't that mean he could chat with them?

Seeing Mayne's expectant expression, both Faos and Maike looked a little awkward.

"That... can't be done," Maike said.

"Huh? They can talk, so why can't we?"

Mayne looked at his father in confusion. Still innocent and ignorant, he did not yet understand the gap between his civilization and the civilizations on the other end that were sending alien signals. He was too young and had seen too little to comprehend it.

Maike explained, "We don't have that kind of capability. Those aliens possess technology we do not."

"Then... then will those aliens come over and attack us? Like in the movies, flying space battleships here to attack us?"

Mayne thought of a question he was more familiar with. The movies he watched always played out that way: either they attacked aliens, or aliens attacked them.

Faos and Maike could not help but laugh at Mayne's question.

"Hahaha, don't treat movies as reality, silly child. What could we possibly have that would be worth them traveling all this way to seize? Is there anything we have that they wouldn't?"

"The atoms on our side aren't any nobler than the atoms on theirs."

Mayne only thought they were laughing at him. Unconvinced, he used his limited understanding to think of examples of why aliens might attack them.

"Um... money? There should be poor aliens too. Maybe they'll come here to rob us."

Faos shook his head. "Any aliens capable of reaching us, no matter how poor they are, would still be wealthier than our entire planet combined."

"Why would they be wealthier than us? I don't get it. If they only have one spaceship, then we should be wealthier," Mayne