Road to science and technology

"clear."

Sighing secretly, Shang Shaojian decided to follow and play his role well.

Following Weber to the temporary camp office, Shang Shaojian saw that the temporary office built with a tent was not large, but it was well-equipped.

There are rows of computers on both sides of the door. The staff are sitting in front of the computers to work, or walking back and forth to transfer files. Everything is orderly. There is a relatively large table in the middle, with some printed pictures and some written documents placed on it.

"Mr. Colonel, let's talk about your current progress first. We need to evaluate your previous work to determine how to proceed." Walking to the document table, Yue Yuanzhou said first.

"Please wait a moment, Dr. Banks is in charge of this matter these days." Colonel Webber nodded, and then shouted to the civilian staff in the office: "Hey, Townsend, go get Dr. Banks."

"Okay sir." Townsend responded.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yue Yuanzhou glanced at the documents on the desktop and saw a crescent-like image printed on many papers. There were many burrs around these crescent-shaped patterns, just like the effect caused by splashing ink.

"Are these alien writings?" Yue Yuanzhou asked.

"Yes sir, but if you want to understand their meaning, you have to wait for Dr. Banks to come. She is a very good linguist." Webber waved his hand and explained.

"Well, let's wait."

Yue Yuanzhou said wait, but he couldn't sit still. So in the moment he couldn't wait, he peeked through all the information about contact with aliens in the US military computer.

Out of caution, Yue Yuanzhou did not rush to peek at the creatures inside the twelve alien spacecraft, but the US computer had image data of these creatures.

These alien creatures have seven long limbs. When standing, the long limbs radiate from the four sides to the center. A barrel hanging on the axis is their torso. The overall shape is extremely symmetrical, and any one of the seven limbs can be used as an arm. Or feet, but normally they walk on four legs with the other three limbs each curled to one side.

From the image data, Yue Yuanzhou saw that their seven limbs did not have any obvious joints, but they moved freely and very lightly. There is a circle of eyes arranged around the upper end of the barrel. There are seven eyes in total corresponding to the seven limbs, and there are no eyelids.

"Heptapods? Is this what these people named alien creatures? The name is quite vivid. It also comes with a 360° non-dead-angle viewing angle. It seems that this species does not distinguish between front, rear, left, and right directions. Obviously, if it is It will be difficult for these creatures to understand the directional words such as front and rear in the dialogue," Yue Yuanzhou said secretly.

He has seen many different types of races, so he quickly discerned some information from the physical characteristics of this creature.

At this moment, the door of the temporary tent was opened, and a woman and a man walked in one after another.

The woman has fair skin and is about in her early thirties, but she seems to be overworked and looks a little haggard. The man was about thirty-six or seventy-six, with a short-cut haircut, clean and tidy, and his eyes showed the unique confidence of a physicist. He looked very energetic, but at this time, there was a little worry on his face, especially inadvertently. This is especially obvious when looking at the woman next to him.

"Colonel, who are they? We have made full progress. If you do this, it will undoubtedly slow down the deciphering speed. You can't do this. Give us a little more time." After entering the temporary office, the woman walked directly in front of Weber and said.

Obviously she thought that Yue Yuanzhou and Shang Shaojian were sent by their superiors to take over her and Guilei's work, just like she had come to take over the previous one's job.

"Dr. Banks, you misunderstood. They are not here to take over your work, but to guide you. Oh, that's what the boss said, but I personally think 'assistance' is more appropriate." Weber spread his hands with a dark face. , expressing his helplessness and indignation.

He didn't like the two coming, two Asians, but the superior's documents were there, so he had no choice but to silently curse his superior in his head for being caught in the door.

"Assist?" Dr. Banks raised his eyebrows, "So are you physicists? Mathematicians? Or linguists?"

"It's guidance."

Shang Shaojian on the side suddenly emphasized that he seemed to have entered his role. "Please briefly describe the results of communication with aliens so far so that we can formulate the next step of our work."

When nothing happened just now, Shang Shaojian looked at his work permit. Although he was speechless by the certificate, as a navy with excellent psychological quality, he chose to enter this role.

Crab special!

Gary Donnelly cursed secretly in his heart. He hated this kind of layman intervening in an expert's matter. But even Webber couldn't do anything about it, so there was nothing he could do except shoulder the burden.

"My name is Gary Donnelly, Ph.D. in physics." Gary, who was feeling MMP in his heart and smiling on the outside, introduced himself.

"Louise Banks, majoring in linguistics." Dr. Banks had no choice but to introduce.

Seeing this, Shang Shaojian said without blushing: "Shang Shaojian, United Nations special operations dispatcher."

"This is Mr. Yue Yuanzhou, uh. Yes."

Seeing that Shang Shaojian didn't know what to say, Yue Yuanzhou responded: "Expert on extraterrestrial civilization research."

"All right."

Banks shrugged, then walked to the table in the center of the temporary tent and picked up a piece of paper with the words "Heptapods" printed on it. He turned to look at Yue Yuanzhou and Yue Yuanzhou who had appeared inexplicably, and began to reluctantly introduce his and Guerret's recent research. Results.

"In the previous stage, we communicated with them orally through loudspeakers, but this method was generally aimed at pure spoken language without words. Later, I thought that they should also have written expressions like us, so we began to explore them through written words. language, using digital cameras, and large television screens.

We displayed the written words on a large TV screen, and then used a camera to record the words they wrote, hoping that they would do the same thing as we did. As it turns out, we succeeded. "

Dr. Banks raised the paper with one hand and gestured on it with the other hand, and continued: "We call them heptapods, and this is their text, seven texts! So far, we have confirmed that seven There is a writing system in the limb barrel language.”

"The heptapods are an advanced civilization. How could they not have a writing system? Even if they develop to the point where they don't use words, they will definitely retain words. This is the basic law of the development of cosmic civilization." Yue Yuanzhou pursed his lips and said, "Okay Okay, you continue."

He asked Banks to continue mainly so that she could tell Shang Shaojian, because he had just done a little scan and already knew the results of the US side.

Banks was a little unhappy because he thought Yue Yuanzhou was belittling her professionalism, so she decided to point out some key points: "There are two ways of writing the heptapods. Their writing and speaking are two independent languages. I will Their spoken language is labeled 'Heptapod Language A', and their written language is labeled 'Heptapod Language B'."

Before she finished speaking, she was interrupted by Shang Shaojian, who had been listening carefully: "You mean, it's like the Chinese classical writing system and the modern spoken language we use today?"

Banks obviously didn't expect what Shang Shaojian would ask, so she was stunned.