"... So, to business." Nick looked at Shiller and asked, "What's your plan? Can you share something in advance? You know that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s responses are always..."
"Or shall we say, the only emergency response that keeps the whole S.H.I.E.L.D. working smoothly is only you, right?"
Nick chuckled; he stretched out his arms and said, "Be grateful, there's still me."
"I feel the idea of nation-building is impractical. Let's speculate: where would they want to establish this nation? Which continent? No matter where they choose, the neighboring countries would never agree. They'd desperately stop them."
"Alright, let's assume they have the power to build an island in the center of the Pacific, but you know well how the military behaves. They consider the Pacific as their aircraft carrier training ground, they will not allow any nuisance there..."
"In that case, why not let them move further away?"
"Further away? How far?"
"2.5 million light-years, what do you think?"
Nick stared wide-eyed and said, "Are you suggesting they move to an alien planet?? Forget about the practical execution, wouldn't they be reluctant?"
"Although mutants desire an independent homeland, they also seem to want to enjoy the achievements of human civilization. Sending them to such a distant place would essentially be a banishment, wouldn't it?"
"Not necessarily. Being banished means being expelled and forced to start over in an unknown and dangerous place. Nick, don't you remember what you saw when the Symbionts left their previous hosts?"
"What did I see?"
"Those aliens. A High Elf, a Spirit of Totem, and a giant insect...living aliens."
"Well, we've certainly seen living aliens before, like the Asgardians for instance."
"If we were to send a few humans to Asgard, would you consider that banishment?"
"Certainly not, after all Asgard is home to the God Clan, and their cities are much more magnificent than ours..."
"Exactly, now what about those aliens from the Andromeda Galaxy, do you think they come from a humble background?"
Nick recalled the High Elf among them. They closely resembled humans with two legs and two arms. Their height was close to three meters and their cranial structure differed from that of humans.
But, undoubtedly, his clothing showed no signs of primitiveness; it was, in fact, rather splendid. In him, Nick could see traces of a complete alien civilization: they had their own language, script, art, and unique aesthetics.
Even that insect race, it had some mechanical parts on its back armor that Nick couldn't comprehend at all, not to mention the semi-transparent Spirit of Totem.
"In fact, in the interstellar society, it's Earth that is considered a primitive outcast land. What do you think the Asgardians think of us?"
"Did you forget Thor's attitude when he first came to Earth? If he truly considered humans and Asgardians to be at the same level, would he dare to shout and yell like that?"
Nick nodded, "Makes sense. Even by imagination, I can conceive that any civilization with a spaceship is more advanced. We're struggling just to set foot on Mars."
"So, moving to a more civilized and prosperous star system is not a banishment, but an advancement."
"But every star system must have an owner, right? No civilization would welcome a sudden invasion by outsiders."
"Indeed, even if the landlord is friendly, the tenants always end up being submissive." Shiller nodded and then changed his tone: "But it doesn't matter. The interstellar society doesn't respect law, only strength. If the landlord dies suddenly, and the tenant takes over, as long as they can hold on to it, who could reclaim it?"
Nick widened his eyes again, raising an eyebrow at Shiller and asked, "Are you planning to take out the landlord of the Andromeda Galaxy?"
"Don't be ridiculous, I don't have that capability. Stop bringing up words like 'apocalypse'. Humans are a civilized race; we want to establish a good image in interstellar society."
"Human civilization is so weak that we can't even build a spaceship, let alone fight in the cosmos."
"Given this, we can't stop the Cosmic Sorcerer from fighting. The Sanctum has just begun, and all we can do is provide an escape route for the esteemed members."
Nick nodded and said, "I understand. When two armies fight, the innocent get hurt. We express our deep regret and are powerless to help."
"However..." Nick hesitated, "Aren't the Symbionts also living in that star system? So far, these cosmic special agents seem friendly and I think they could be useful."
"Do you believe parasitic species care who the other civilizations in their system are? Or rather, wouldn't the enemies of the Symbionts block them from existing if humans didn't go?"
"Furthermore, see, haven't the mutants already left a good impression on the Symbionts?"
Nick pressed his hand against his forehead and said, "I knew it, this is all part of your plan..."
"Contact Professor X, inform him of the Symbiont's characteristics and let him pick suitable mutants based on them."
"To enhance the abilities of the next generation, Professor X will not miss this golden opportunity. Meanwhile, you negotiate with the Symbionts to manipulate the minds of the new generation of mutants, strengthening their sense of belonging to the human race..."
"And then let the Symbionts feel that the next generation of mutants extremely compatible, and possess incredibly strong abilities, enhancing their impression of the human race..."
"There's more. I'm sure you know that the Symbionts have a gene catalogue. I learned from Loki that the interstellar society highly values the information recorded in their gene catalogue, because no race can understand the basic situation of another race as well as the Symbionts."
"Many civilizations like to view the Symbionts has a Universe Library. When they want to understand another race, they will find a host infected by a Symbiont and trade information for that recorded in their gene catalogue, or simply let the Symbiont infect them in exchange for the required information."
"If we could persuade the Symbionts to record some basic, accurate, fair, and indisputable information about humans in their gene catalogue, wouldn't it be beneficial to our future development?"
Nick looked up at the ceiling, lifted his hand, and gave a round of applause, but Shiller continued, "One more thing, ask Asgard to help send the previous alien hosts back. This would be a reasonable excuse for Strange to get in touch with Asgard."
"Contact Asgard, why?"
"We need to understand Asgard's position in this war, especially Odin's stance."
"I want to make a fortune with him, but I'm worried he hasn't gotten over the matters between his son and daughter..."
"What did Strange's intel say?"
"Let's find a safe place to discuss this in detail."