novelraw Chapter 194: Prevention
Chapter 194: Prevention
Austin remained silent for a long time before finally waving his hand in defeat. "Whatever, you’re the captain... But I’ll say it again, Jason: we still need to be vigilant! Even if it takes years or decades, we cannot let our guard down around that thing!"
Jason nodded seriously. "You’re right. The Federation Security Department will handle this containment protocol. Is that alright with you?"
Once Austin was appeased, the council finally reached a consensus on how to handle the extraterrestrial memory entity.
They immediately began drafting specific integration plans. This psychological operation required a gradual, highly confidential approach. There was absolutely no need to disclose this information to the public. If word leaked out that an alien consciousness was aboard the ship, it would cause widespread panic and potentially trigger mass riots.
As the discussion deepened, a massive psychological hurdle emerged: how easy was it to force an individual from a god-like civilization to willingly serve a lower one?
Needless to say, the difficulty was astronomical.
Putting themselves in the alien’s shoes, if a human suddenly woke up trapped in the body of an ape, could they truly pledge allegiance to a tribe of seemingly foolish apes? It would be difficult, nearly impossible.
If you wanted that human to work for the apes, you had to systematically break their spirit.
"This entity needs to truly understand that it has become an ’ape’—a human. It is no longer part of its original race. It can never go back to its past."
"Its race is extinct; now it’s the age of humanity. We are the ones in charge!"
"...We need to gradually eliminate its wariness, force it to adopt human survival instincts and thinking habits, and truly integrate it into our society."
The resulting psychological strategy felt bizarre, full of dark conspiracies and manipulation. Jason stroked his chin, feeling that comparing humanity to a tribe of apes was a bit insulting, albeit accurate.
However, with the containment plan finalized, an even larger, unresolved issue remained. The council pivoted to the terrifying topic of "memory weapons." Now that they knew such insidious technology existed, they had to establish strict countermeasures. Scavenging alien tech wasn’t a game; careless salvaging could wipe them all out!
"Theoretically, this weapon utilizes an electromagnetic wave or a bio-current to carry its massive data payload. Otherwise, it would have no physical way to rewrite neural pathways... It can’t overwrite memories out of thin air without a transmission medium," Dr. Roman explained. As the lead biologist, he was the primary authority on the subject.
"Based on this, we can infer that the transmission waves can’t be excessively powerful; otherwise, the brute force would simply fry the host’s brain cells instead of cleanly rewriting them. Therefore, preventing a localized infection is relatively easy. We simply need to mandate the use of our new radiation-shielding alloys and specialized neural insulating materials..."
"Memory modification is a highly delicate, microscopic process. The weapon’s effective attack radius can’t be very large."
"Exactly!" Dr. Arthur Lambert nodded in agreement. "I firmly believe this specific weapon wasn’t designed for outright combat. It was designed for reproduction... or resurrection!"
"Imagine an advanced civilization facing an irresistible, world-ending force. When all physical life is about to perish, they launch these memory-altering seeds into the cosmos as a final, desperate bid for survival!"
"Assume that eons after their extinction, one of these seeds is accidentally salvaged by an inferior civilization who studies it like a divine treasure."
"Suddenly, the weapon activates, massively overwriting the neural pathways of the lower lifeforms. In doing so, it achieves a bloodless, disguised resurrection of the dead empire..."
Although Arthur’s theory was pure speculation, it aligned perfectly with the known facts.
Wouldn’t any primitive civilization be overjoyed and lose all sense of caution when stumbling upon the advanced tech of gods? Even if they conducted basic biochemical and radiation tests, so what? Would they truly have the willpower to destroy a technological goldmine just to be safe?
No. Whoever salvaged it was destined to be infected.
The weapon was so perfectly concealed that if a species didn’t conceptually know memory weapons existed, they would never even think to shield against them. That hypothetical primitive civilization would think they had struck gold and would eagerly drag the artifact into their most populous labs, little did they know, they were inviting their own annihilation!
Without a doubt, the Federation was exactly that kind of eager scavenging civilization. Humanity had just gotten incredibly lucky this time. What Jason had dragged out of the Martian ruins wasn’t a mass-casualty memory bomb, but an individual AI terminal that could only fire once, severely limiting its destructive potential.
Think about it: what was the difference between having your entire memory and consciousness overwritten, versus dying? It was a fate far more insidious than physical death.
If the alien seed had successfully established its first "insider," spreading the infection would be easy, and the number of compromised citizens would increase exponentially. Once the infection hit critical mass, the entire population would be overwritten!
The biological bodies would remain human, but the minds driving them would belong to a completely different species...
Realizing how close they had come to this horrific fate sent chills down everyone’s spines.
It was vicious, absolutely vicious! Under these cosmic rules, a primitive civilization was no different from cattle being quietly led to the slaughterhouse!
"But... even if the neural overwrite is successful, their original bodies still died, right? They’re just being resurrected digitally. Is that kind of survival really necessary to them?" Marcus asked, clearly puzzled by the alien logic.
"The universe is vast. We can never project human morality onto alien races. Even the fundamental definition of ’death’ might vary drastically between civilizations," Arthur jumped in to answer Marcus. "Back on Earth, when our medical technology was primitive, we used the cessation of a heartbeat as the legal standard for death. Decades later, we evolved to use brain death as the standard."
"We humans believe that once our physical brain activity ceases, we are truly dead. After that point, the physical world is irrelevant to us. But that is strictly a *human* standard!"
"Perhaps some alien races believe that the preservation of their data and core memories is the only true measure of life. They might believe that as long as their data exists, they aren’t dead. By transplanting that data into new biological hosts, they achieve a roundabout immortality."
"Or perhaps this is literally just how they reproduce! They might prefer propagating their species through parasitic memory injection rather than biological mating."
"This parasitic method directly transfers a massive amount of accumulated knowledge and experience. It is infinitely more efficient than raising an infant from scratch."
"Or perhaps..." Arthur added darkly, "they simply view lower civilizations as free biological resources. By overwriting a few key leaders and instilling a servile ideology, they can bloodlessly conquer an entire species from the inside out, how effortlessly efficient!"
Arthur’s chilling breakdown left Marcus completely speechless.
This weapon wasn’t designed for outright physical destruction; its raw kinetic power and blast radius were far inferior to a standard nuclear warhead. But when it came to pure, insidious cruelty, a nuclear bomb didn’t even come close.
Everyone in the room was highly intelligent. They knew better than to judge an unknown cosmic predator by human ethical standards. In reality, human morality was likely a cosmic joke. When measured strictly by evolutionary self-interest, morality was a severe tactical burden.
Even human morality wasn’t actually that pure; it had only ’improved’ once their material lives on Earth had become comfortable and affluent. When empires were actively conquering and enslaving populations throughout Earth’s bloody history, there was a 100% chance they would have deployed memory weapons if they’d had access to them.
Every empire loved an obedient, useful slave.
The secure conference room fell into a heavy, contemplative silence.
Jason finally broke the silence. "Alright, everyone. We need to immediately draft and implement a series of strict security protocols to defend against this type of cognitive weapon."
Humanity couldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. If they encountered alien derelicts in the future, they couldn’t afford to ignore them, they still had to salvage them.
"Also..." Jason added, his eyes narrowing. "We need to drastically upgrade the Noah’s internal military security."
"My plan is to establish a heavily fortified secure corridor and demarcate a strict military quarantine zone within a few kilometers of the primary airlocks and loading bays."