One Flat#
Apprentice technician Men Tu'er walked into the house and found that the old technician Ka Quan was studying the machine that he hadn't finished yet. Men Tu'er hadn't figured out how to implement the key structure in his mind.
The eyes on the other side of Ka Quan also saw Men Tu'er. The young man's fever zone was becoming more and more obvious, and he would soon be able to start seeking mating. "So, what did you say?" the old technician asked.
"Big news!" Men Tu'er danced happily with his second main limb. "There will be a giant whale falling, and the prophet already knows the exact location."
"Are they going to migrate?"
"They said they will leave in twenty days." Men Tu'er's four attached limbs also started to move. This would be his first major migration, so he was very excited.
"There will definitely be other countries competing with us."
"Don't worry, our country won't lose."
"You young flats." The old technician didn't continue speaking and started discussing the new machine concept that his apprentice had come up with. Theoretically, this machine could generate kinetic energy by boiling water through high-temperature reactions. "How do you plan to solve the safety issue? Poor isolation can be very dangerous."
Men Tu'er walked to the side of the old technician and gestured with his first and second main limbs, each grabbing a bone tube in front and behind the small demonstration machine. "My idea is simple. Add an inlet in the front and an outlet in the back, which is an additional layer of flowing water cooling outside the working cabin. The flow rate can be controlled by limiting the size of the pipe channel. As long as the temperature is appropriate, there won't be any danger. But this structure is not easy to implement."
"This method will dissipate a lot of heat and is not economical."
"Flats don't have to be too close, they can be placed in a separate area in the factory."
"Well, that's true. It would be great if there were good insulation materials." The old technician sighed, "I feel like this thing will change the fate of our entire country, maybe even affect our entire flat tribe."
"It's not that exaggerated, is it?" Men Tu'er felt a little embarrassed.
The old technician raised one of his attached limbs and pointed at the top, "Maybe it can take us alive into the realm of gods without exploding."
Two People#
Captain Nakamura Kozo of the ship Kyushinmaru had been racking his brains recently. The anti-whaling ship Whalesong had been following them like a shadow, and ever since the navigation whales appeared in their sight, the converted old warship anti-whaling ship had been using loudspeakers to shout at their whaling ship every day.
"Whales are sentient beings!"
"Whales feel pain!"
"Whales will go extinct!"
...
Sometimes they would start shouting before five in the morning, which was very annoying. If it weren't for legal constraints, Captain Nakamura might have detonated the remote-controlled unmanned submarine bomb he had in the bottom of the Whalesong.
They continued to stalemate, and the Whalesong prevented the Kyushinmaru from approaching the whale pod, so the whaling ship couldn't operate, wasting time and energy. However, one of the whales in the pod was close to natural death, and Captain Nakamura wanted to talk to the people on the Whalesong to see if they could give him that dying whale and then he would return, so he wouldn't return empty-handed. After all, it was meaningless to continue like this.
At the invitation of Captain Nakamura of the Kyushinmaru, three people from the Whalesong came over - Catherine Zhang, Ellie Frankt, and Robert O'Brien. They were all members of the "Ocean Guardians Association," an organization that often took action when necessary, but these three people seemed easygoing, perhaps because there hadn't been any obvious conflicts between them yet.
The wind was calm, and they sat on the small iron chairs placed on the deck of the Kyushinmaru.
"Captain, I hope to hear the good news that you have decided to give up," Catherine Zhang said, she should be the leader of this small team.
"Almost there." Captain Nakamura frowned, "I just want to discuss this with you."
"There's nothing to discuss." Robert O'Brien said, "You must leave."
"The thing is, our purpose is for scientific research..."
"Shh." Frankt interrupted him and waved her hand, "You continue."
"Our scientists have found that one of the whales in this pod is about to die, so we want to kill that whale. Then we will leave, guaranteeing not to harm other whales."
"After it dies, you can recover the body, but you can't kill it." O'Brien refused decisively.
"Exactly." Catherine Zhang nodded.
"Then we might have to spend a few more days here, and the scientific value will decrease after natural death."
"I think it's because the taste is not good." O'Brien was a little annoyed.
"Scientific research." Captain Nakamura was also a little annoyed, "Let our marine biologists explain it to you."
The marine biologist was also Japanese, an elegant old man named Yamaguchi Kiyoshi. He said that he had also studied the whale songs and had determined that the oldest whale in this pod would die soon. Because he found a pattern in the songs of this whale pod that only appeared when a member was about to die, and he had confirmed the death of that whale through observations with a telescope.
"Just because it's about to die, you think you can kill it?" O'Brien's face turned red.
"Why not? It's going to die anyway."
O'Brien stood up and kicked the chair he was sitting on, "Whales are sentient beings, and you want to kill it in front of its family!"
The marine biologist also stood up, "Killing and being killed are both natural laws. These whales eat a large number of fish every day. How do you think the families of those fish would feel?"
"Those fish don't have sentience, whales do, and they might be smarter than you."
Yamaguchi didn't answer and sat back down.
"I'm curious," Catherine Zhang said, "why did you join such a whaling ship?"
"Of course, it's for scientific research."
"Both you and I know that the main purpose of this ship is not scientific research."
"Give us that whale, and the problem will be solved." Captain Nakamura interrupted.
"No!" O'Brien said, "You can only recover the body."
"Fine." Catherine Zhang also stood up, "We'll discuss it and give you an answer as soon as possible."
Three Flat#
Thirteen days after the announcement of the falling of the giant whale, the government's flat announced that the military had taken control of the most advantageous position at the target location. Seven days later, the migration began.
The old technician and his apprentice were assigned to the fourth team, and their neighbors were basically from their own district. The priest of their parish and his apprentice were also nearby. Looking around, there were flats on both sides, stacking their luggage in their transport bags and moving forward slowly. These transport bags were mostly made of whale skin and could be sealed after loading the goods. They were then filled with the appropriate gas to float in the water. Flats could tie a strap around themselves to prevent the transport bags from floating away, and then they could transport their luggage or goods relatively easily. This method of transporting goods was the most commonly used by flats, and some flat technicians even developed large transport bags that required ten flats to operate together, with a transport capacity of more than fifty times that of a single flat.
The marching speed of the team was not fast. Ka Quan looked at the increasingly bright red light on his apprentice's body and casually chatted, "It will be the breeding season in half a year."
"Yes!" Men Tu'er nodded excitedly, "My first time, I'm looking forward to it, and now there's a new giant whale!"
"The resources are abundant, so there should be many excellent young flats born this time."
"That's for sure."
"We flats are becoming fewer and fewer."
"Because the giant whales are decreasing." The priest said, "But we still don't know the reason."
"Some flats say it's because there's a war between the gods."
"Some flats say that the devil has entered the heavens."
"And some flats speculate that this is a great blessing bestowed by the new god."
Then a flat said, "This is not so convenient to say, but it is said that some prophets have heard the cries of the giant whales."
"I have also heard this rumor." Men Tu'er said, "I thought it was a horror story."
"I told you it was all speculation." The priest closed his mouth, feeling that he had said too much.
"Then it might be because the giant whales are decreasing that these problems have arisen." Ka Quan said.
"It's possible." The priest said, "There may be other reasons. Our country has already reduced its flats by one-sixth, and that's after merging with another country. It is said that some whales have disappeared before the falling."
"How could that be?" Several young apprentices looked terrified. Could the rumors be true?
"This is actually not convenient to say, but it is said that some flats have heard the cries of the giant whales."