The First Born did not say a word. Instead, Hao Ren felt a burst of confusion and a jumble of thoughts coming into his head. He thought he was being attacked again. But soon, he found many inexplicable memories and knowledge filling his mind. When he came to grips with what happened, he realized this was a more advanced way of communication: the First Born probably thought that verbal dialogue was too inefficient, so it shared its mind, knowledge and experience with him.
Hao Ren was stunned after browsing through the memories. "This is..."
The First Born on this planet had no brain because the brain had evolved into other form ten thousand years ago!
In normal circumstances, a mature First Born would have a number of brains but not more than ten. But, this one here was different. In order to accommodate the complex virtual world, and to achieve better compatibility with the programming language of the people of Zorm, the First Born had performed a planned transformation of its body. It broke down its own brains into numerous nerve clusters that spread evenly throughout the body. These extra nerve clusters could grow more nerve tentacles, which were the key organs connected to the machines. Dividing the brains into several small parts had another advantage: Backup! Even if disaster struck two-thirds of the planet, the remaining one-third of the nerve clusters could still maintain the integrity of the virtual world.
The First Born had essentially divided its brains and spread them all over its body. There were more than a million 'mini brains' scattered on every inch of the planet, and most of them were now surrounded by magma and sea of fire; they were dying en masse.
It was impossible to move it. Even if Hao Ren could find an interstellar engineering team now, it would take a long time to remove all the mini brains from the planet. The distributed arrangement of the brains were originally security measures against disasters, but now they had become the biggest obstacle to the preservation of the civilisation of Zorm and the First Born.
No one could have thought ten thousand years ago that the planet would suddenly fall towards the sun.
"What if abandoning the data of the virtual world and only compressing humans and your soul into a few 'mini brains'? Would it work?" Hao Ren asked, desperately weighing options. "Isn't the capacity of mini brains sufficient?"
"Mother once said that soul is the most complicated data. More than half of my mind is used to contain the souls," the First Born replied. "Other details in the dream only occupy a very small space. So with or without these details is irrelevant."
More than ninety percent of the First Born's mental capacity was dedicated to hold the souls of a billion people of Zorm, and the rest of the virtual world, including mountains, rivers, and all other landscapes were insignificant. It was impossible to pack all the civilisation of Zorm in a compressed file.
An incoming message from the Petrachelys interrupted Hao Ren's train of thought. "Buddy, the sun has set but the planet is seriously devastated, I'm afraid the communication link between you and the virtual world will not last. I've detected that the surge signal in the planet's interior is weakening."
"I want to sleep," the First Born's voice also spoke in Hao Ren's mind. "I'm drained... it's too hot here... I'm afraid human in the dream will also feel the situation in the real world. Just let me sleep. Everything will be fine after that. Mother will come back—"
"I said I will bring you to your Mother. I mean it!" Hao Ren cut in in a loud voice. There was a thought came to his mind. "Communication... communication... that's right! There is a way!"
The First Born curiously observed him.
"Soul, in a sense, is also composed of bits and bytes, isn't it?" asked Hao Ren, looking at the amorphous shadow in front of him. "If the people of Zorm could save their souls into your body through the machine, so in theory, the souls in your 'brains' could also be exported somewhere else!"
The First Born hesitated. "In theory... yes. But—"
"There is no but, as long as the theory is feasible, it is better than dying a euthanasic way," said Hao Ren, glancing at the white light. "I can't take the body, but I can take away all the souls! Send me the database and transcoding method of the virtual world; I will transfer the souls out to a safe place!"
The MDT was listening to the conversation, it suddenly chimed in. "Theoretically, this is possible. But, first, we need a massive storage; one billion souls and the First Born are no small amount. Where are you going to hold them?"
"There is one; CARS," Hao Ren said. He felt that his mind was clearer than ever, his brain was in tiptop working condition. "It is a research station, designed specifically for the study of the First Born. Its storage capacity is several times larger than the brain of the First Born."
"How are you going to send the data over?"
"Build a communication link. We have drone clusters; they can relay data from Zorm to CARS. We can also use the high-power antenna of the Petrachelys if bandwidth is insufficient. There is always a way."
"What about the interface? How do you retrieve the First Born's memory from Planet Zorm? You need a high bandwidth interface to do that, otherwise it is impossible to transfer all the soul of more than one billion people within just a few dozen hours."
The MDT bombarded Hao Ren with so many questions that his mind suddenly seized. At this time, the First Born suddenly spoke. "Near the equator, there is a data release port with high data transfer rate. I can export the data from there... but I can only use it once, the sun will burn it once exposed."
"Data release port?" Hao Ren asked in surprise. "What is that?"
"Brothers and sisters had thought of going back to the real world, but that was before the planet fell."
Then it struck home; Hao Ren remembered the facility of the 'return to reality' programme that the First Born had mentioned before. He did not know that the facility was actually buried in the ground and still functioning.
He clapped his hands and said to the MDT, "Well, it seems we've finally sussed it out. Any other problem?"
"I have sent out instruction to the drone clusters and started writing the drivers needed for the data link. The only problem left now is time—Planet Zorm will disintegrate in thirty-six hours. Let us race against the sun."
"I will outrun it," Hao Ren arced the corner of his mouth slightly as he looked up at the shadow of the First Born's soul. "Now I have to return to the real world to get things prepared but I will keep this communication link open. You know Nolan? The communication is linked through her. We have thirty hours, so—"
"I will do my best," a voice sounded in Hao Ren's mind. "Mother always tells us to see the mission through."
Again, it was Mother said so.
Hao Ren smiled and quit this wonderful mental connection. Nolan's emotionless face reappeared in front of him. The massive data overload had overwhelmed her mind. She could only vaguely make sense of what was happening right now without giving any meaningful reaction. Hao Ren knew it was not the time to talk nor explain. He held Nolan to sit down in a safe place and said, "I have to go now. Just hang on here."
Nolan looked at him, finally nodded slightly.
As soon as Hao Ren came back out to the real world, Vivian and Lily scrambled to ask about the situation. Hao Ren motioned to them. "Leave all the autonomous robots here to keep the data link online. We need to go back on-board the spaceship."
The autonomous robots gathered around the ganglion of the First Born, took over the position of Hao Ren and placed their mechanical arms on it.
A moment later, they were back in the flight deck of the Petrachelys. Hao Ren quickly came to the console. "MDT, what is the situation?" he asked.
"The drone clusters are moving closer towards here and have switched to the high-speed communication mode. The drones have limited bandwidth, so it's necessary to design a dedicated link to ensure the transmission is successful. We will only know the exact bandwidth needed once the data is retrieved. The CARS' capacity should be sufficient. But CARS lacks virtual reality program, we need to build a virtual world in the main computer on CARS to accommodate all the souls of Zorm people when the transfer is complete."
"What about the communication link with the First Born?"
"Repositioning is completed. Now we rely on the autonomous robots to keep the link open," the MDT said. It brought up the hologram on console, a faint glow and a few lines of text emerged; it was the First Born saying hi.
"The mind of the First Born is very different from ordinary creatures. The simple communication link couldn't translate hundred-percent of its ideas and thoughts, so text is the best thing we can have now."