214: Chapter 214 You Have Your Clever Plans, I Have My Ways

John Wilson rushed to the Director's office and, without a word, placed the intelligence documents directly on Rodriguez's desk.

Rodriguez looked at John with suspicion and slowly picked up the documents, while John Wilson stood by, panting heavily.

The big boss of the CIA took one look at the documents and sat up straight, quickly flipping through a few pages as his expression turned solemn.

"Didn't they say they were forming an Interstellar Fleet? So they're just hanging around their doorstep? What are they doing on the Moon? Shouldn't we be doing something too?"

Rodriguez threw out all his questions in one breath.

"The Interstellar Fleet is likely just a gimmick, a standard move to win over neutral countries. As for what they're doing on the Moon, that's really unclear. Director, doesn't NASA have lunar orbiters? Let's have them assist us."

"We first need to figure out what they are doing before we can decide how to respond next."

"Right, right, right, I was so frustrated I lost my head. I'll call them immediately."

Rodriguez grabbed the phone on his desk and called the NASA Director directly. They were old acquaintances. Rodriguez kept it brief, giving a short introduction to the intelligence they had, nodding repeatedly as he listened.

After a long while, he hung up the phone.

"We should have news by tomorrow at the earliest. NASA happens to have two reconnaissance satellites in lunar orbit. John, what do you think they're doing? Why go there? Is there something special about the far side of the Moon?"

Rodriguez asked, picking up the intelligence documents again to read them carefully.

"Either they've discovered something, or... no, that should be impossible."

John Wilson frowned in thought, then shook his head.

"Speak up. What time do you think it is, playing riddles with me now?"

"There's another possibility: they are researching something there, or even—it's even possible they're building something, like a space station or a Lunar Base."

"Right, the NASA Director mentioned something to me just now. There's a signal interference zone there. Their previous lunar orbiters detected this anomaly. Their analysis suggested it was caused by radiation from some kind of metal, but the specifics are unknown."

Rodriguez struggled to recall the contents of their conversation.

"That's all?" The sensitive John Wilson seemed to have caught onto something key.

"That's all. You know, their funding has been decreasing year after year. The US Congress now prefers to invest money in places with tangible returns. Space exploration and development are inherently ethereal; they didn't have sufficient funds to verify this discovery."

"Fine, then we'll wait for the satellite data tomorrow. The answer might be revealed very soon."

Rodriguez nodded.

"John, do you ever get the feeling that China's current actions are becoming increasingly incomprehensible? It's as if they've suddenly lost interest in Earth and in us. I feel like the US is being ignored by them, and this feeling is very unpleasant—and dangerous."

John Wilson nodded in agreement. Thank God, someone finally felt the same way he did; he had been feeling lost because of this for a long time...

The far side of the Moon, South Pole-Aitken Basin.

The construction crew was in the heat of building quay crane facilities. The dock's crane cluster consisted of 30 quay cranes.

According to the plan for the Lunar Base, this place would be built into a true dock, connected to the factory and living areas via tracks to facilitate the transport of supplies and the future reverse transport of resources.

This was a long-term plan; the dock didn't need so many quay cranes for the time being.

Following Chu Ge's suggestion, only one-third would be built in the initial phase, enough to handle the operations of one transport Engineering Ship. The rest would belong to the second phase of construction.

Unlike on Earth, quay cranes on the Moon could only be built one by one. The first one was the most troublesome and time-consuming.

Engineers needed to overcome the adverse factors of the lunar environment to build the tower foundation bit by bit before slowly building upwards.

The subsequent ones would be relatively simple. The first quay crane was built right in the middle and then extended to both sides. With the help of the first crane, efficiency would increase significantly.

Therefore, the engineering materials on the Engineering Ship only included the individual parts for one quay crane; the rest were all semi-finished products that could be stacked like building blocks.

This was the optimal way for the Lunar Base to coordinate with the Earth Dockyard Base. On the surface, there were fewer than 1,000 construction personnel at the Lunar Base, but in reality, there were tens of thousands of engineers behind them continuously manufacturing semi-finished products.

Chu Ge watched the real-time monitoring footage. The first quay crane was nearly finished. He checked the time.

"Commander Wang, at this rate, building the quay cranes will consume nearly half of the lunar daytime..."

"It shouldn't. The first one is the slowest. The second and third will start construction simultaneously, assisted by the first crane on either side as we extend outward. The speed will be much faster."

Chu Ge hummed in response, rubbing his forehead as he watched the monitor.

"The second batch of supplies is mainly large construction vehicles plus surveying equipment, right?"

"Yes. The Gravity-Gravitational Wave Device needs to be buried deep underground. The surface layer of granular sand and soil here is about 10 meters thick on average. We need large machinery to clear it all out before we can dig the foundation trenches."

Chu Ge didn't reply. None of these steps could be skipped. Currently, they could only move forward step by step according to the plan; there were no shortcuts.

After a long silence between the two, Chu Ge walked to the porthole and looked out at the desolate land right before his eyes. He suddenly thought of Li Gang and the others.

"Commander Wang, has the researchers' work already begun?"

"It has. Everyone is very busy, especially regarding the environment, materials, and lunar resources. We've already brought back several hundred pounds of lunar soil; it's right beneath our feet, and they can have as much as they want. Haha, they all feel like wealthy landlords now. It's no longer like before, where various Research Institutes would fight tooth and nail over a single gram of lunar soil."

Chu Ge smiled. This was the true significance of the aerospace carrier: to research wherever it went. Once they researched black holes, the mission of this aerospace carrier would be considered complete.

As the two were talking, an astronaut suddenly stood up.

"Report! The aerospace carrier has detected a total of 14 reconnaissance satellites belonging to different nations in lunar orbit. The orbits of two of them have suddenly changed. Based on their current trajectories, they will fly over our landing zone in 80 minutes."

"Do we know which country those satellites belong to?" Commander Wang asked.

"Unknown."

"We can probably guess which country. Those on Earth with this capability can be counted on one hand."

"What do you think, General Chu?"

"Let the [Soul Blade] go play a game, then."

"Huh?"

"Slicing watermelons. Haven't you played that, Commander Wang?"

"..."