Two-Person Galactic Journey: Earth Was Destroyed While Imprisoned in Space Prison

Chapter 254

Chapter 254

After reporting to Tuna, Kait and Emotion left the planet and sent Queen Bee toward their next destination without returning to the Central Star Cluster.

Planet Mardila. Though it lies within the Federation's sphere of influence, it does not belong to the Federation. Moreover, it is not under observation by the Federation either.

Also known as the Declining Planet Mardila. Although civilization developed there under intelligent lifeforms, it collapsed before reaching the standard threshold, resulting in its removal from the Federation's observation list.

"So, this Danga... Lesion? That's the animal with a flavor best suited to Earthling palates?"

'That seems to be the case. Since it's a declining planet, only a few records remain from the initial captures made for investigation. Unfortunately, the personnel stationed on the artificial celestial body who observed the Dangaresion belonged to species that didn't favor its taste, so only the bare minimum data was preserved.'

When it comes to food, Emotion becomes even more talkative than usual. Still, Kait now understood why Dangaresion had become a legendary ingredient. Even if he captured an animal suited to Ritimiele's palate, he probably wouldn't go out of his way to study its flavor in detail either.

The biological data on Dangaresion had apparently been stored in the Federation's database, but when Mardila was designated a declining planet, all that data was archived. Back when the data was public, it was easy to access information about its culinary use, but now it required extremely cumbersome procedures, which was another reason why Dangaresion had become a 'phantom ingredient'.

There was also the option of acquiring it from an eccentric collector who privately owned the data, but the reason Kait left that as a last resort was simply because his curiosity had been piqued.

"In reality, we don't even know if Dangaresion still exists on Planet Mardila, right?"

'Correct. Mardila was removed from observational status around five hundred cycles ago, according to Mardila's calendar. The environment has likely changed drastically since then, so the chances of survival are probably low.'

A planet whose civilization has collapsed typically follows one of three paths.

The first is complete environmental collapse, turning it into a dead planet. While some lifeforms might survive in extremely limited environments, the chances of complex ecosystems or intelligent life surviving are virtually zero.

The second is the extinction of the intelligent life that created the civilization and any species dependent on that environment, leading to the birth of a new ecosystem. For a new intelligent species to arise and build a new society would require an astronomical amount of time.

The third is that the intelligent species that created the civilization somehow manages to preserve its lineage and restore its civilization. This happens only on extremely rare, near-miraculous occasions.

In any case, because the second and third futures sometimes occur, the Federation occasionally re-investigates declining planets.

"Still, it's strange, isn't it? There's no specific rule prohibiting entry to declining planets."

'It seems there weren't many Federation citizens who went out of their way to colonize declining planets. Originally, the reason for refraining from entering planets was due to concerns over unregulated colonization activities.'

"Now that you mention it, that's right."

Earth, where Kait grew up, was one of the planets sacrificed to the colonization by the Divin people. The method of colonization used by the Divin people was extremely malicious, but in essence, those who wanted to colonize were only interested in planets with a future. No one was foolish enough to reach for planets whose civilizations had already collapsed and held no promise.

And of course, the collapse of civilization isn't a rare phenomenon. It can happen due to natural disasters, plagues, technological stagnation, or political corruption. Civilization can come to a halt all too easily.

Only a tiny fraction of civilizations ever manage to venture into space. That's in part because there are so few planets where life arises in the first place.

"Well, that's exactly why the Divin people could get away with unlawfully capturing and selling Earthlings."

'Is it better to simply wait for extinction, or to preserve the species' lineage even if it means being sold to another race? It's a difficult question.'

The Divin people attempted to colonize many planets besides Kait's Earth. Kait and his people were relatively late among them, and in the planets that had already faced collapse, the surviving intelligent species were retrieved by the Divin people and sold off across the galaxy. Some of them even ended up in the Corporation, and there were times when they viewed Kait as the enemy who had killed their benefactor.

Do intelligent lifeforms still survive on Mardila? And if they do, can Kait pretend he didn't see them? With these slight worries in mind, Kait guided Queen Bee toward Mardila.

'Shall we descend immediately?'

"Before that, we should investigate first. We have permission, but if the Dangaresion we're after doesn't exist, there's no point in landing."

'That's true.'

Queen Bee isn't a research vessel, so it can't conduct fully specialized investigations, but with Emotion and Queen Bee's functions, they could at least get a decent understanding of the surface. If more intelligent life than expected had survived, they would likely need to consult the Federation about various matters.

In any case, the investigation was more Emotion's job than Kait's. He waited for the survey to be completed using Queen Bee's cameras and various sensors.

'...Captain.'

Emotion called out in a confused voice after some time had passed.

"What's wrong?"

'We've confirmed the survival of Dangaresion.'

"That's good news. But you don't seem very happy about it."

'Yes. The thing is...'

"Yeah?"

'It seems that quite a few intelligent lifeforms have also survived. It's like... they've kind of rebuilt civilization, but also kind of haven't.'

It was a vague answer, but something was clearly happening on Planet Mardila.

Alongside capturing Dangaresion, they might also need to observe the current state of the intelligent life to some extent. Depending on the state of civilization, they might even need to call the artificial celestial body back again.