Chapter 112: Terraforming

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Chen Jin returned to the Base of Operations on Planet Haierfa. He left the base on an SUV, drove around 10 kilometers to the west, and on a slightly flattened hilltop, he encountered a massive vessel. The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens!

A space ship 512 meters in length, 76 meters in width, and 45 meters in height, that had a square-shaped exterior equipped with pneumatic structures. Its weight was over a whopping 500 thousand tons. With the spaceships monstrous size, it shook the ground upon takeoff and landing, with vigorous winds over 10 in scale sweeping through several kilometers of the surrounding area, hurling dust into the air and enveloping the sky. Therefore, it could only land further away from the base. Truly, the construction of The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens was at 100%, and she could be put into action.

Without further ado, Chen Jin deployed his robot named Da Li, took control of the spaceship, and took off at Wenjing Aerospace’s launching base. He flew the ship to the Base of Operations and formally announced the acquisition of the spaceship.

“Hm, decent controls, frosty texture, marble roads. It has such simple architecture yet it’s equipped with marvelous tech. Indeed… this is The Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens.” Chen Jin stood beneath the spaceship and stroked his hands on its grey husk. Upon her greatness, he felt small, yet pride surged from within him.

This precious is mine!

With a whir, the spaceship deployed its automated ladders. There were robots waiting at the hatch. Chen Jin climbed the ladder and entered the spaceship. The inside of the ship resembled a maze, with long corridors and countless hatches. It was only after walking three-to-four-hundred meters, going through five or six doors, and in two elevators before he managed to reach the control room.

The control room looked modern, yet smeared with classical elegance. Its walls were covered in antique patterns and it was equipped with a rectangular command chair and grilled partitions. A traditional aura seemed to flow all over the control room. The control room, filled with only Hua state characters, sparked pride amongst its kind.

“This spaceship is 100% made in Hua, every corner of this ship embodies the wisdom of the people.” Magnificent, magnificent indeed. “Come out, Nuwa!” Chen Jin called, as he stood in front of the main screen.

The screen flickered and a gorgeous woman wearing an ancient costume appeared. After she saw Chen Jin, she was shocked. How was it possible that there were still survivors from The Empire? “Greetings, child of The Empire, nice to see you.”

“You addressed me incorrectly, I’m no ‘child of the Empire.’ You should call me master.” Chen Jin shook his head, then commanded Tough beside him, “Tough, commence authority binding procedures. Establish me as the ships sole owner and the supreme captain.”

“Received.” After two minutes, a series of binding procedures had been completed.

“Master.” Nuwa finally changed her way of addressing Chen Jin. Chen Jin nodded. He felt that this version of Nuwa looked too dignified and serious, thus he called open the interfacing menu and adjusted Nuwa to look 16, wearing a fringed skirt with her hair double-braided. As for her personality? Naughty.

“Oh hello~ Master~” Nuwa greeted Chen Jin while winking her big round eyes.

Chen Jin nodded out of satisfaction; this felt so much better. He asked Nuwa some questions and obtained quite an amount of information. The purpose of the creation of the spaceship was similar to that of the Red Empire’s ‘Permanent Number of Truth,’ which was for the royalty and high officers to flee the planet. However, there were only seven seats on the ‘Permanent Number of Truth,’ while on the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens,’ there were over a thousand seats. It was for that exact reason that the ship went too far in size, causing it to have an elongated construction time. For 20 years during the nuclear winter, it was only 65% complete. After the robots rebelled, hopes to complete the ‘Dark Lady’ completely vanished.

It wasn’t until after Count Xiao Ming took over, and as the spaceship’s nuclear fusion reactor had already been installed, that the remaining 35% of the construction was completed with the resources gathered by the robots scattered across almost half of the empire’s territory. This included AI Nuwa’s core, a supercomputer that was also scavenged by Xiao Ming’s robots and used to create the ship’s neural core.

Chin Jin was very intrigued by the nuclear fusion reactor and inquired about its technical parameters.

Nuwa said, “This nuclear fusion reactor is The Empires most advanced third-gen ‘God of Fire’ reactor series, which uses Deuterium and Helium-3 as fuel. Deuterium is an abundance which can be extracted from seawater. Helium-3 is mostly harvested from the moon. There are 500 kilograms of it on the ship, which will suffice for 50 years of operation. If it were to be depleted, we can go to the moon and harvest them.”

“Helium-3? Can’t hydrogen do the job? It too can induce nuclear fusion right?” questioned Chen Jin.

“It can work, but to create a nuclear fusion with Hydrogen, many criteria must be fulfilled; for instance, temperatures must reach one billion degrees! In comparison, for fusion to happen within the mix of Deuterium and Helium-3, the temperature threshold is significantly lower. Moreover, their nuclei tend to fuse more easily. Thus, the overall tech requirement is fairly lowered.”

“Alright then.” Chen Jin nodded his head. It seemed inevitable to employ mining vessels to the moon, which housed nearly a million tons of Helium-3, in the future. Besides, the 3rd Gen ‘God of Fire’ reactors peak power supply was one-hundred trillion watts, equivalent to ten times the total power supply of the Earth. However, considering the strain it might induce on the equipment, the power supply was limited to one-hundred million kilowatts under normal operations. In spite of that, this amount of power supply was still a hundred times more than the power the Base of Operation was able to generate. “With only the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens,’ our base will never have to worry about a power shortage again!”

…

After returning to the Base of Operations, a messaging gateway was established between artificial intelligence Alice and Nuwa. Chen Jin, Alice, and Nuwa could now converse within the same channel. Therefore, they discussed the future developments of the planet Haierfa.

Chen Jin asked, “Regarding the planet’s environment, is there a way to terraform the planet? Can she be reverted to her former lushness?”

“It can be done, master!” Alice answered firmly, “In fact, this planet has always been restoring itself, in around three hundred to five hundred years, Haierfa’s ecosystem will return to its normal levels… never underestimate a planets ability to regenerate.”

Nuwa added, “The surface of planet Haierfa is 71% water, thus there are more sea dwellers than land dwellers. Adding on, the environments regeneration is faster in the sea than on land. I spotted a variety of fishes beside the operating base of Wenjing Aerospace. The oxygen levels are gradually rising as well. But the aftermath of the nuclear winter is still in place. Around 70% of living organisms perished during the nuclear winter. It will require at least another ten thousand years for the ecosystem to rebound to its balanced state.”

“As long as it’s restorable!” Chen Jin’s enthusiasm rose. “Let us put some effort to hasten the planets restoration! May lush mountains, clear rivers, blue skies, and white clouds cover Haierfa’s terrain!” At that moment, Chen Jin became an environmentalist. It was after he was told by Alice and Nuwa that Haierfa could be restored that he made up his mind to reform the planet.

Why? Because this planet was not trash! This planet was not completely inhabitable and beyond repair. As long as efforts were made, may it be ten or a hundred years, life will flourish on this planet once again.

“Actually, there is no need for us to leave this planet, it might very well be the alien’s trap. You said that the scientific investigation on Haierfa is “locked,” but since you are able to achieve scientific breakthroughs in the orbit of Pluto, it means that the “lock” has been broken. Why is it even necessary to expand the human civilization to other planets? I might have seen too little and grew shrouded by ignorance and foolishness! But I am not going anywhere, it might be dangerous here, but it’s dangerous out there as well, and I would rather stay… There are also limitless resources here in the solar system. I will restore this planet. I might not have the chance to see the planet’s full transformation in my lifetime, but my next generation will be grateful for my efforts of leaving behind a beautiful planet for them.”

In fact, on planet Haierfa, advanced medical procedures already existed to elongate the human lifespan for up to more than 300 years. Within Nuwa’s database lay the information about the procedure. Therefore, living until 300 would not be a problem. That being said, there was now an even better reason to restore Haierfa.