The negotiations with the alien civilization were long and tedious. The elder of that deathly pale-skinned race looked decrepit and frail, yet his mind was perfectly clear, and he was exceptionally cautious and earnest during the talks,
insisting every so often that the Earthside negotiators stop and carefully explain each of Earth's measures in detail.
Only then did the people from Earth finally learn the specific reason these Aliens were asking for help—
having lived long-term in a sealed underground environment and subsisting on the meat of irradiated organisms, the genes of these alien survivors had undergone irreversible mutations,
and though their expeditions repeatedly risked the journey to the surface, searching for data and collecting electronic devices in an attempt to reconstruct their technological tree,
