212: Chapter 212 ZM08 gives birth! Another batch of city-state steel bars arrives.

9:00 AM.

First Floor, Livestock Farm.

Liao Dacheng hooked his clipboard onto the fence of the ZM08 Farrowing Room and bent down to check the sow's belly.

ZM08 lay on the bedding, the rise and fall of her abdomen much heavier than an hour ago.

The frequency of her kicking limbs had developed a rhythm; the chaotic squirming from yesterday was gone, replaced now by intermittent bursts of effort.

Labor pains had begun.

"Ma Dong," Liao Dacheng said without looking up, "what time is it?"

"9:04." Ma Dong set down the bucket in his hand, leaned closer to the Farrowing Room to take a look, and lowered his voice. "This is faster than ZM07. ZM07 started at after eight in the evening; this one is much earlier."

"Every pig is different." Liao Dacheng interrupted him, placing his hand flat against ZM08's flank to feel the strength and interval of the contractions with his palm.

Once every three or four minutes, with moderate contraction strength.

Still early.

"Can Sun Ke come this morning?" Liao Dacheng asked, straightening his back.

"I gave him a heads-up last night." Ma Dong checked ZM08's water trough and added some water. "He said there are two elderly people from the relocation who need follow-up exams this morning, and he'll come down once he's finished. Old Liao, how many do you think this one can have?"

"Depends." Liao Dacheng patted his trouser legs. "Roughly the same as ZM07, ten to twelve. But this one is sturdier than ZM07; I reckon it'll be a smooth birth without any major hitches."

He tucked the clipboard back under his arm and pressed his communicator.

"City Lord."

"Speak," Lu Chen's voice came through, mixed with the low hum of the main engine's throttle being pulled back. The main engine had just finished decelerating.

"ZM08 started labor pains at nine this morning," Liao Dacheng reported. "Earlier than I estimated. Sun Ke is coming over this morning."

"Good."

"One more thing," Liao Dacheng cleared his throat. "Regarding the ewe, I went to check at five this morning. The due date is today."

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the communicator.

"Probability of twins?"

"Based on my last assessment," Liao Dacheng reported honestly, "looking at the abdominal girth and fetal movement, the chance of twins is over seventy-five percent. A single birth is possible, but unlikely."

"Can you handle the monitoring by yourself today?"

Liao Dacheng rolled the question around in his mind.

ZM08 was farrowing today, and the ewe was due today; the two species were not in the same pen.

He could manage the running back and forth, but being able to run between them and monitoring them closely were two different things.

"Barely," he said truthfully. "But if they both start at the same time, I'll have to let Ma Dong take over for a while. Ma Dong has been with me for a bit, and his basic operations are faultless, but his experience is shallow. He'd be lost in complex situations."

"Did Chen Li screen the roster for you yesterday?"

"He did." Liao Dacheng opened his clipboard and pointed his finger at a line of text. "He gave me a name: Zhou Hai. A former herder from the Sixth-Floor Ranch Area of The City-State. He's worked for eleven years, mainly with sheep and cattle, with less experience in pigs."

"Have him come over today."

"He arrived this morning," Liao Dacheng added. "I had him go familiarize himself with the sheep pens first. I'll have him watch the ewe while I keep an eye on ZM08. Sun Ke can lend a hand when he gets here."

"That arrangement works."

"One more thing," Liao Dacheng changed his tone. "City Lord, after your meeting yesterday, it was said the Iron Hoof Legion would arrive in seven days at the earliest. Do the people below know about this?"

The Cockpit was silent for a moment.

"They don't need to know the specific time," Lu Chen spoke. "But you must be prepared. Schedule the Livestock Farm's work according to the evacuation preparations. Give me a draft of the transport plan for the piglets and breeding stock today."

Liao Dacheng processed those words.

A transport plan.

This ship was leaving soon; time was tight.

"Understood." He hung up the communication.

He stared at ZM08 lying in the bedding for a while.

ZM08 rolled over with a grunt, the rise and fall of her abdomen becoming more rapid.

Liao Dacheng pulled over a nearby low stool and sat down, taking out his clipboard to start drafting the transport plan.

10:17 AM.

Lin Wan stood before a temporary communication terminal.

Lin Xiao's voice came through, distorted by electrical static, from across the thick metal hull of Black Rock City-State.

"Lin Xiao," Lin Wan got straight to the point, "I need to ask about the remaining stock of steel bars in the City-State Industrial Zone warehouse. Six-millimeter spring steel bars. Five bundles were taken yesterday; are there any left in the warehouse?"

The sound of a chair scraping against the floor came from Lin Xiao's side, followed by the noise of someone rummaging through things.

"Give me a second."

A pause of about ten seconds followed.

"Yes," Lin Xiao replied. "In the warehouse materials, there are three bundles of six-millimeter bars left. Each bundle is two hundred to two hundred and fifty meters, totaling six hundred to seven hundred and fifty meters."

Lin Wan quickly calculated the numbers.

To replace forty sets of edge springs, she needed six hundred and forty meters.

Six hundred to seven hundred and fifty meters would cover it.

"Good," Lin Wan pressed, "can you arrange for someone to transport these three bundles over today?"

"No problem," Lin Xiao agreed. "They'll go with a batch from the Relocation Team. Lin Wan, what is this for?"

"Shock-absorbing Layer," Lin Wan explained simply. "Polaris has to run at full speed when it evacuates. The shock absorption of the edge Hydroponic Racks isn't enough; we need to change to a different spring specification."

Lin Xiao gave a grunt of affirmation and stopped talking.

Lin Wan waited a beat.

"One more thing," she paused for a moment, "Brother."

She rarely used this form of address; it was a first in an official communication.

Lin Xiao's breathing became slightly heavier.

"Speak."

"The relocation speed." Lin Wan articulated her words clearly. "Can today's third batch exceed eight hundred people?"

"Today's group leaves at one in the afternoon," Lin Xiao said. "I'll tell them to take more, but it's not just a matter of numbers."

"What's the problem?"

"On The City-State side," Lin Xiao lowered his voice, "some people have found out about the Iron Hoof Legion. I don't know where the leak came from. No one knows the specific time, but the news that 'the Iron Hoof is coming' has already spread through the Fourth-Floor Residential Area this morning."

Lin Wan's knuckles pressed hard against the casing of the communicator.

"How is the public sentiment?"

"It's stable for now," Lin Xiao said. "But people have started asking when they can board Polaris. Some are desperately stuffing personal items into the Storage Area, and two families forced their way into the Relocation Team before they left last night. I let them through."

"How many extra people?"

"About thirty more." Lin Xiao paused. "I already had Zhou Yuan call the floor leaders of each level for a talk today. I told them the relocation follows the plan, no scrambling allowed. Anyone who causes trouble will have their eligibility revoked immediately."

"Is it working?"

"For now, yes."

Lin Wan stopped talking, having gotten the picture.

News of the fifth signal had leaked in The City-State.

Even without a precise time, the four words 'the Iron Hoof is coming' were enough to make the emotions of thirty thousand people begin to ferment.

"Brother," Lin Wan emphasized her words, "if you can exceed eight hundred this afternoon, do it. If you can reach a thousand, reach a thousand. Save as many as you can."

Lin Xiao was silent for a beat.

Three seconds passed.

"Lin Wan," he spoke, his voice dry, "are you doing okay over there?"

"I'm fine," Lin Wan replied curtly. "I have to set up the compost circulation today and keep an eye on the Strawberries. I have to be okay."

Lin Xiao let out a soft breath on the other end, hard to tell if it was a laugh or a sigh.

"Alright," Lin Xiao promised. "The three bundles of steel bars will be sent to you this afternoon. I'll try to squeeze as many people as I can into the Relocation Team today."

The communication cut off.

Lin Wan gripped the communicator in her hand.

She stood in the passage on the south side of the Greenhouse. Outside the window, the full-spectrum light array spread a warm yellow glow overhead.

The seedlings of the third crop of wheat were just two steps away, a dense mass of tender green, quietly shooting upward.

She opened her notebook and wrote a line at the top of today's page.

Steel bars confirmed. Three bundles. 600 to 750 meters. Arriving this afternoon.

Putting her pen away, she walked toward the first set of Hydroponic Racks.

She still had ninety-nine sets to fill with Compost Liquid today.

2:03 PM.

Han Zhengqing sat in a corner of the first section of the Storage Area, gnawing on a piece of dry flour cake.

Beside him lay the three bundles of spring steel bars that had just been unloaded.

The binding ropes were not yet removed. The silver-gray steel bars were stacked together, gleaming with a cold, hard metallic luster.

Xiao Zhao squatted opposite him, using a tape measure to measure the cross-section of the first bundle.

"Same as last time," Xiao Zhao looked up and reported the number, "six millimeters."

"Obviously," Han Zhengqing stuffed the rest of the cake into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. "Why would we bring them if they were different? Tell Technician Lin that the materials are here. I'll coil them for her tonight."

"How many people tonight?"

"Still six." Han Zhengqing brushed the crumbs off his hands. "They worked around the clock until after one in the morning. Let them rest for half a day this afternoon. We start at six tonight. At yesterday's speed, we can finish them by the early hours of the morning."

Xiao Zhao retracted the tape measure, glanced toward the corner, and lowered his voice.

"Chief Engineer Han," Xiao Zhao leaned in closer, "I heard about the Iron Hoof Legion."

"You heard?" Han Zhengqing didn't look up, pulling a tool bag toward him and rummaging through it.

"People coming over from The City-State were spreading it today." Xiao Zhao rubbed his palms together. "They say the Iron Hoof Legion is coming. Seven days or eight days, no one knows for sure. Is it true?"

Han Zhengqing fished out a roll of welding rods from the tool bag, rested them on his knee, and looked up at him.

"It's true," he said.

Xiao Zhao swallowed the second half of his sentence.

"Then we..."

"We finish coiling the springs tonight," Han Zhengqing stuffed the welding rods back into the bag and stood up. "Install them tomorrow, test them the day after, and then this ship runs. You're working with me; stop asking about miscellaneous matters. Ask more about 'how to do it' and less about 'why'."

Xiao Zhao didn't say a word and just nodded.

"Chief Engineer Han," Xiao Zhao swallowed, "those forty sets of springs on the edge... after we replace them, how fast can this ship run?"

Han Zhengqing glanced at him, his jaw muscles twitching.

"The City Lord tested it this morning," Han Zhengqing spoke. "Forty kilometers, the central sets are steady. After replacing the edge ones, there will be no resonance throughout the forty-kilometer range, and the loss of wheat seedlings in the Greenhouse will be kept under five percent."

Xiao Zhao shut his mouth tight, his breathing hitching.

Han Zhengqing picked up the tool bag and walked a couple of steps toward the exit before stopping.

"Xiao Zhao."

"Yes."

"You go help with coiling the springs tonight." Han Zhengqing didn't look back. "If you're slow, I'll give you a thrashing."

"Understood."

Han Zhengqing slung the tool bag over his shoulder and strode out, his figure disappearing behind the partition of the Storage Area.

Xiao Zhao stared at the three bundles of silver-gray steel bars for a while.

Forty kilometers.

No resonance throughout.

He didn't understand the technology, but he understood one thing.

This two-hundred-meter hunk of iron was about to run.

And it would run fast and steady.

He squatted down and began to untie the ropes of the first bundle of steel bars.