Research Mainbrain Too Important

Just moments ago, Barton had received urgent intelligence from an allied fleet, and its contents left him with only two words—absurd.

If he had to compare it to something, Commander Barton's current mood was much like a human hearing someone say, "The cooked duck flew out of the pot."

The psychic level of swarm organisms only went up to level ten. What level of psychic power would it take to drag an entire planet into faster-than-light flight?

Had a Void God descended?

Even Void Gods apparently had never made an entire planet travel faster than light!

The firm understanding built over so many years of fighting the Babel Swarm had suffered an unprecedented challenge. It was only natural that Commander Barton doubted this urgent intelligence.

The allied fleet commander was not surprised by Barton's reaction. He had reacted the same way not long ago. Shaking the wings on his back, he said, "Commander Barton, I know this is hard for you to believe. This is the battlefield recorder footage from Beaufour's fleet. Take a look."

After receiving the battlefield recording sent by the allied fleet and witnessing Nestworld's entire faster-than-light escape, Commander Barton no longer doubted the report.

"Nars, is this a new swarm species?" Barton asked the allied fleet commander.

"I don't know, but whatever that Nestworld is, it can't be good news." Nars's membranous wings trembled behind him as he continued, "This time, the operations staff has appointed you supreme commander of the allied forces. The fleets commanded by me, Beaufour, Gro, and Xun Sitan will be reorganized with yours into a joint fleet. The staff has only one requirement: leave that Nestworld behind for research into the Babel Swarm's changes, and exterminate every other swarm organism."

"Understood."

Barton accepted the mission. The connection between the two sides ended, and Barton contacted his fleet's deputy commander.

"Were any of the gravity disruption ships in service damaged during the previous battle?"

The deputy commander answered, "No. The previous battle only damaged the nano armor on some escort ships."

Commander Barton's four eyes scanned the damage report sent by his deputy commander. After a while, he issued his orders.

"The Babel Swarm has undergone an anomaly. We have an urgent mission and must depart immediately. Have all personnel on leave at the spaceport return to their ships. The damaged escort ships will remain in Starcity. Transfer escort ships from Starcity's garrison fleet to fill the vacancies in the interceptor fleet."

"When will the fleet depart?" the deputy commander asked.

"In two crystal decay cycles."

"I miss Earth. I miss my toilet at home..."

Lu Shang emerged from the toilet excavated by the worker bees under his command, looking utterly miserable.

The swarm mainbrain had studied Lu Shang's human physiology and genes. Though that mainbrain had already fled, the research data remained on Nestworld, so air, food, and water were not much of a problem.

The troublesome part was using the toilet. Babel Swarm organisms also excreted waste, but they never used toilet paper afterward. They did not even mind rolling around in their own filth, so naturally, there was no toilet paper for Lu Shang.

He had only noticed this halfway through squatting over the toilet. Thus, immensely depressed, he could only command the swarm from inside the restroom to gather the soft gelatinous shells shed after young bees mutated and use them as toilet paper.

Those soft gelatinous shells were barely usable as toilet paper, but they had a little too much friction. By the time Lu Shang emerged from the toilet, all he felt was a burning pain behind him.

"Hiss... I've been squatting too long. My legs are numb..."

"The swarm needs research-type organisms that understand gene editing. We can't wait any longer." Lu Shang muttered with a grave expression.

In truth, using the clothes on Lu Shang's body as material to produce a batch of dense, soft fibrous cloth for toilet paper would not have been a problem.

The problem was that not a single organism in Lu Shang's swarm knew how to edit genes. Only the hives could make minor adjustments to swarm organisms by altering their biological hormones.

Originally, Lu Shang had planned to deal with the Galactic Alliance fleets first, then address the swarm's internal research issues. But now, it seemed he could not wait any longer. If this continued, he feared his dignity as a human would not survive!

He needed swarm organisms capable of mental work!

The swarm needed them too!

Lu Shang focused his mind, connected to the swarm's psychic network, and issued an order to every hive on Nestworld.

"The swarm needs organisms capable of gene editing. Starting today, every hive must learn how to edit biological genes like the mainbrain."

Before long, the hives replied to Lu Shang through the psychic network.

[Gene editing is your responsibility, mainbrain.]

"Stop trying to shirk responsibility! Tell me, if one day the swarm encountered a powerful enemy that destroyed all of the Babel Swarm's mainbrains in an extremely short time, what would happen then?"

[If mainbrains are lost, the Overmind will replenish their numbers.]

"What if the Overmind died too? How would the number of mainbrains be replenished? Or would you create an Overmind yourselves?"

[...]

All the hives fell silent. If they could casually create Overminds, the Babel Swarm would already be full of them.

"The swarm's previous division of labor carries an enormous risk of extinction, so we must change! And we cannot wait—we need to change immediately, at once, and fast!"

[Understood. We will make changes.]

After delivering a leader-like lecture, Lu Shang finally persuaded the hives under his command to change. However, changing their operating patterns alone was not enough.

In terms of hardware, hives could not compare to mainbrains. Complex forms of thought such as imagination and deep contemplation were beyond hives and the other lower-tier swarm organisms.

Aside from mainbrains and Overminds, the brain structures of every swarm individual had been simplified by design.

Lu Shang had no idea what the mainbrains and Overminds who had designed them that way had been thinking.

Perhaps it made swarm organisms easier to control. Or perhaps they feared that mainbrains and Overminds might casually emerge within the swarm and seize control, so they had deliberately constructed a biological class barrier.

In any case, Lu Shang could not see how this biological design benefited the swarm.

For that reason, it became necessary to find a brain template from an intelligent species. Lu Shang first thought of himself, but after considering it, he dismissed the idea. He did not want others casually tampering with his genes.

Then Lu Shang considered capturing some aliens from the Galactic Alliance and using alien brains as templates.

But after thinking it over, he abandoned that idea as well. After all, they did not follow a biological path.

Naturally evolved brains likely contained a great deal of redundancy. Take human brains, for example: on Earth, there was no shortage of hydrocephalus patients whose cerebral tissue had liquefied by more than fifty percent, yet their overall health was no different from ordinary people's. Some were even healthier than couch potatoes who never exercised.

Furthermore, considering the incompatibility of social models, and the fact that Lu Shang had no swarm organisms capable of research to resolve that incompatibility, he gave up on this option too.

After thinking carefully, the swarm mainbrain's brain seemed to be the most suitable after all. It required no adjustments whatsoever and could be cloned for direct use.

Just as Lu Shang was considering whether he should attack some fleeing space swarms, he received an alert transmitted by other swarm organisms through the swarm network.

"Huh? A Galactic Alliance fleet?"