A small landing ship cruised through the thick clouds of the second planet. After circling several times, it located the largest structure, a strange building over twenty meters tall.
In appearance, the building had a style that defied almost all architectural logic, yet it possessed an indescribable harmony. The landing ship was already far taller and larger than the building. To avoid causing them damage, Hu Yu and the scientists considered the matter and decided to land in a large lake five hundred meters from the building. Between the lake and the largest building lay an open expanse of grassland, covered in all kinds of strange green plants.
The lake was far shallower than anyone had expected, averaging less than two meters deep. The landing ship's landing gear could hold its hull above the water. To make it easier for personnel to enter and leave, the ship landed with the side bearing its hatch on land, so they would not have to wade through the water. Hu Yu and the others put on fully sealed protective suits and left the ship under the protection of more than a dozen armed guards carrying live ammunition.
By then, tens of thousands of native creatures had gathered on the land beside the landing ship. Packed densely together, they had nearly surrounded it.
These are the civilized species on this planet? They're obviously rabbits! Hu Yu and the others nearly dropped their glasses in shock as they looked at the creatures gathering around them.
The facts were clear: these were definitely a civilized species on the planet. If there was only one civilized species here, then it had to be them. Although they looked quite similar to Earth's rabbits, with fur of various colors and roughly the same size, they all walked upright like humans and wore a variety of ornaments, or perhaps clothes.
"Academician Zeng, Academician Xiao, this trip hasn't been for nothing. At least it's been an eye-opener. See that? A rabbit civilization," Hu Yu said excitedly.
"General, they only look similar. For now, we shouldn't act rashly and risk provoking their hostility," Academician Xiao said.
"We should find a way to establish a means of communication. They should be intelligent enough for us to communicate with them. From observing their various creations, I've also found that they must be very clever. Look at the building in front of us. Strange, isn't it? It looks like a child stacked blocks at random, but it actually contains incredibly advanced knowledge of mathematics, physics, architecture, and other fields. If we weren't a star system-level civilization, we might not even be able to discern its secrets," Academician Zeng said.
The group stood close to the landing ship as more and more rabbit creatures gathered before them. Their legs were not bent like a rabbit's but straight like a human's. In no time, there were more than a hundred thousand of them, the nearest just over ten meters away. They filled the entire clearing, making waves of indescribable noise.
Both sides studied each other as though looking at monsters.
"Academician Xiao, I feel like a celebrity," Hu Yu said with a smile.
"General, you go on being a celebrity. I have a headache on my hands. With this huge crowd packed together, even finding their leader to talk to is a problem."
"Don't worry, Academician Xiao. Look, their leader is here."
Looking in the direction Hu Yu pointed, they saw a path open between the landing ship and the building more than twenty meters tall. The rabbit-like creatures not only cleared a path but also turned all their attention toward the building, completely ignoring the landing ship.
A group of creatures, likewise rabbits, emerged from the building more than five hundred meters away. The helmet of a simple protective suit was only ordinary glass; such suits were generally used when personnel were moving around near the fleet. Heavy protective suits, on the other hand, came with multifunctional helmets equipped with multiband vision, communications, measurement, sampling, and more. Let alone five hundred meters, they could see clearly even at five kilometers. But they were also quite heavy, and wearing one for a long time on a high-gravity planet like this was grueling.
Several minutes later, the group finally got a clear look at the rabbit creatures coming down the path. An elderly rabbit was being pulled along in something resembling a wooden cart, surrounded front and back by a dozen or so noticeably strong young rabbits. As the cart moved forward, the old rabbit waved both hands at his people on either side of the path. The rabbits lining it grew almost frenzied. Their reception was far more enthusiastic than when the landing ship had arrived more than ten minutes earlier.
The wooden cart finally stopped in front of Hu Yu and his group. The elderly rabbit waved to his people behind him, and the great crowd immediately fell silent. The old rabbit looked at Hu Yu without making a move. Academician Zeng and several scientists were busily adjusting an instrument that could collect a species' body movements and language. Every intelligent species had its own means of communication: sound, movement, or even the telepathy of legend. Though these methods differed greatly from humanity's-for example, some species communicated through sound, but their frequencies were not necessarily within the range of human hearing-the instrument could collect such information to build a database and continuously run modeling tests. As long as enough data was collected, it would soon be able to tell what the rabbits in front of them were saying.
After working at it for quite a while, however, the scientists still failed to get the result they wanted. The instrument continued to produce an unintelligible alien language. Academician Zeng had no choice but to give up on it and prepare to establish communication by some other means.
"Academician, is there a problem with the instrument?" Hu Yu asked.
"There's nothing wrong with it. The problem is with these rabbits. We need a large amount of data, but I'd guess the rabbits in front of us are all talking about the same thing. We've been able to collect very little data, and the instrument simply can't build a database large enough to run simulations and comparisons." Academician Zeng sighed.
"Why don't we try a gesture first? Or use a display to establish communication bit by bit? We have plenty of time anyway, so we can take it slowly. There's no rush," Hu Yu said. In the past several hundred years, this was the only moment that had seemed less urgent; before, they had always been racing against time.
"Friends, welcome to Snow Star." A voice came through the helmets, its pronunciation less than standard. It sounded somewhat off-key, but it was clearly understandable.
"Academician, everyone, you're not joking, are you?"
Everyone looked at one another, but no one answered. They were all rigorous old scholars, hardly the sort to play such a joke. After a few seconds of surprise, they all turned their eyes to the old rabbit before them.
"Friends, hello. Welcome to Snow Star." This time, everyone saw clearly that the voice had indeed come from the old rabbit.
"Hello," Hu Yu replied. His voice carried through the planet's air via an external speaker.
"I am the chieftain of Snow Star, and these are all members of our Snow Tribe. On everyone's behalf, I welcome you. May I ask where our guests come from, and why you have come to Snow Star?" the old rabbit chieftain asked. Although he appeared calm on the surface, Hu Yu could still sense a trace of unease in him. It was understandable. If a strange civilization suddenly arrived on Earth, humans would likewise feel uneasy and afraid, and might even break into riots. The rabbit inhabitants of this planet they called Snow Star had already done quite well. Hu Yu did not know whether they really had never seen much of the world or were simply carefree.