Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 723 Picture Exchange
It was still a ternary signal, and still the same digital star map as the previous broadcasting spacecraft.

"What do you mean?"

"Is this a picture telling a story?"

Seeing the pattern displayed on the holographic screen after being processed by a computer, Yue Yuan and others showed puzzled expressions.

Fortunately, this unknown civilization could think of using these forms of pictures to start the first step of communication with other civilizations. Although it is just a digital star map, the same as the star map sent by the previous broadcasting spacecraft, it at least conveys a message to humans or other civilizations: We are willing to communicate!

Obviously, this is a signal of goodwill, which will at least prevent two unknown civilizations that meet for the first time from immediately going to war amid endless suspicion.

As for what does it mean to pass on this star map again now?
This time, Yue Yuan did not ask the people present to speak and speculate directly, but instead speculated in his mind. With his intelligence, he quickly thought of two possibilities: one was to ask questions, and the other was to indirectly spy on the depth of human beings in the field of computer technology.

It's a question. Humans have clearly arrived in this star field, but this unknown civilization is still sending the same star map as before. In Yue Yuan's opinion, this behavior is like asking, did you come here because you received this star map we broadcast?
If this is not the case, there seems to be no need to send the same star map when humans have arrived here. It should be treated as the first encounter between two unknown civilizations, and then send some other information to find a way to communicate, such as starting with mathematics and gradually involving language communication, and finally reaching the point where both sides can communicate with each other.

As for the second possibility, the depth of human computer technology can be glimpsed by seeing how long it takes humans to respond after receiving information. Those with poor computer skills will find it difficult to arrange and combine ternary information into a correct digital star map in a short period of time.

"Chief, how should we respond?" Someone seemed to have considered this, so he reminded Yue Yuan while he was still thinking.

"Reply them with the same ternary information in tachyon form at the same frequency!" Yue Yuan had obviously thought about it, and when someone asked, he blurted out the answer.

Of course, Yue Yuan had already considered it in this short period of time.

There are two meanings to replying to the message in this way. If the other party means to ask, then it is to tell the other party: Yes, we came here because we received the ternary signal from the broadcasting spacecraft. If it is a test, then respond quickly to show that your computer technology is strong and that we are at the same level of civilization.

Since both parties are within their respective tachyon detection ranges, this method of sending tachyon information is no different from face-to-face communication, and it is real-time. So the human side just sent the digital star map, and within a few seconds the other side responded.

It was the same ternary digital information, the same arrangement and combination, and the same picture. The difference was that this time the image was no longer just a star map, but had something else added to the detailed map of the star system. From the outside, it looked like a bunch of spaceships.

由于这份详图里的0、1、2这三个数字足够多，所以在全息屏上的画面就如一副由0、1、2作为一个个点像素构成的画面，总体画面又大，故而那些飞船看起来很形象。

Although the exterior is very different from the spaceships humans know, and looks a bit like an irregular building, it is clearly distinguishable as a spaceship, because the picture moves after the "Light of the Milky Way" receives subsequent tachyon information and processes it and adds it to the picture.

On the holographic screen, humans saw a series of digital flows appearing at the tail of the spacecraft composed of digital pixels. It was very vivid and obviously represented the tail thrusters of the spacecraft.

It is a big job to construct such a picture with ternary numbers, and it is also a test of the level of computers and artificial intelligence to analyze it. It is also a blessing that this civilization can come up with such a means of communication.

After replying to this message, they continued to output, so humans saw a dynamic digital picture composed of 0, 1, and 2.

After the building-like spaceship approached one of the planets in the star system, some spaceships flew out from the planet and transmitted some numbers to the fleet, and then the fleet left the star system.

Then the numbers on the screen all turned to 0, and Yue Yuan and the others could tell that the screen had been refreshed. Sure enough, the next moment the screen showed the previous star system map again, and then another group of spaceships with different appearances entered from the edge of the image and arrived at another planet in the star system, and finally the same dynamic picture appeared as before.

This dynamic picture was refreshed again after a while. The appearance of the spacecraft that appeared for the third time was also different, as if telling humans that these spacecrafts represent different civilizations.

Looking at these dynamic images made up of digital pixels, Yue Yuan couldn't help but be speechless. This really is like talking through pictures, and images are really used as a language of communication.

Looking at the meaning of the dynamic picture, it seems to be saying that many civilizations have been here? So what exactly is this place? What is this unknown civilization doing here?
Could it be that this is a place where many civilizations have come and communicated? Uh. Civilization exchange, could it be another so-called interstellar trading market?

After thinking for a moment, Yue Yuan spoke directly to the air: "Light of the Sky River, use the same method to compile a three-dimensional dynamic picture with digital pixels. The content is that our fleet encountered the broadcasting spacecraft 320 light years away. After receiving its signal, we turned here to investigate."

The true situation of the human fleet could not be revealed. After encountering the interstellar trading market pretended by the Red Flame Civilization, humans naturally became much more vigilant.

I don't know if it's because this unknown civilization likes to communicate using dynamic images or for some other reason, but after the humans encoded Yue Yuan's words into a digital pixel image and sent it over, the other party quickly responded with a message, still a dynamic image composed of digital pixels.

However, humans felt that the content this time was a bit difficult to read, because the content was much more complicated than the previous times. The dynamic image not only showed a map of the star system, but also close-ups of the planets inside. There were also dynamic images composed of numbers on the top of each planet and above the heads of each fleet. They seemed to be annotations, but humans obviously could not understand what they meant.

It's a bit helpless. This kind of communication is like two people who have never learned sign language signing to each other across the air. They only understand half of it.

If we want to solve this problem, we need to communicate further, starting with mathematics and using images to tell the other party our own language information. Then, if the other party also cooperates and sends their corresponding language information to humans, then a communication system can be established.

So the question now is how to tell this unknown civilization that humans want to communicate further.

The human elites' brains were not rusty, and they quickly came up with a solution, which was to use digital pixel animation to tell the unknown civilization. As for the content of the animation, it was probably a process in which several small spaceships separated from the human fleet, entered the star system, and exchanged "digitally" with the planets in the star system.

(End of this chapter)