53: Chapter 53 It's just a matter of getting a spot, no big deal... Wait, how many do you want?!
Official efficiency was high.
Early the next morning, the list was delivered to the Old Commander's desk.
He glanced at it, his hand trembled, and he nearly knocked over his tea.
One thousand people.
"So many?" The Old Commander frowned and picked up the detailed list to examine it closely.
Fields such as nuclear physics, materials science, power engineering, automated control, and armored vehicle engineering were all represented by individuals capable of handling matters independently in their respective industries. Some departments even wrote in the remarks column, "Bringing our own canned food, not taking up a quota," just to secure a spot to board the ship.
Only then did the Old Commander's brow relax.
Not a single person on the list was there just to make up the numbers.
The Old Commander did a quick mental calculation: "One thousand people, one thousand tons of canned food per day."
"Even if they investigate for a whole month, that's only thirty thousand tons."
For the national strategic grain reserve, this amount was a drop in the bucket.
Trading thirty thousand tons of canned food for top-tier interstellar technology?
A massive profit.
Sign it!
The Old Commander picked up his pen and signed his name on the list without hesitation, a smile on his face, feeling as though he had picked up a massive bargain.
On the day of boarding, the dock was as lively as the New Year.
The one-thousand-person inspection team carried bags large and small, lugging various testing equipment, recorders, and analyzers; they even brought portable X-ray machines.
To avoid wasting a single minute on board, many people even carried compressed rations and sleeping bags on their backs. Before setting off, everyone's face was filled with irrepressible excitement.
But at the first checkpoint of boarding, everyone was startled.
Greeting them were not technicians in uniforms, but dozens of mechanical skulls floating in mid-air, their red optical lenses aimed directly at them, emitting a faint humming sound.
"Holy crap!" A young man carrying a spectrometer recoiled, nearly dropping the equipment.
"What are you panicking about?" The Old Academician turned back and glared at him. While he scolded the young man for being inexperienced, he himself stepped forward, his nose nearly touching the Servo-skull, his eyes shining like light bulbs.
"Interesting... No external power source, no propellers, no magnetic levitation field reaction, purely anti-gravity levitation?"
The automation professor behind him reacted instantly, gasping:
"Pure anti-gravity? And it can achieve centimeter-level precision hovering?"
"Our laboratory has been working on this technology for ten years, and we haven't even touched the threshold!"
Suddenly, a deep voice came from the side: "I am the Tech-Priest leading your tour. You may call me Father Karen."
Everyone turned around to see a figure emerge from the shadows.
Half of his face was covered in a metal prosthetic, his right eye was a glowing red mechanical ocular implant, and he held a long-handled mechanical axe in his hand.
Everyone subconsciously took another half-step back.
This was no human; it was clearly a half-mechanical monster.
Father Karen swept his gaze over them, his eyes showing not the slightest bit of interest.
A group of uncivilized, backward mortals.
He raised a hand and pointed at the floating skulls, introducing them in a tone devoid of emotion:
"These Servo-skulls will be responsible for accompanying you throughout the tour and providing explanations. They will answer your questions and guide your visit."
"If you have any needs, speak to them."
Having said that, he turned and left.
Not sparing the group even a single extra glance.
"A bunch of mortals making a fuss over Servo-skulls; they aren't even as good as gear-boys." Father Karen felt only disdain in his heart.
The Old Academician took a step in pursuit: "Wait, what is the intelligence level of these skulls?"
"If it can answer a question, it will answer," Father Karen said without stopping. "If it cannot answer, it means you should not be asking."
The Old Academician was stunned.
An automation professor nearby muttered softly: "This attitude... is it too arrogant?"
The Old Academician waved his hand, unbothered.
He stared at the Servo-skull, his interest growing even stronger.
"Let's go, let's go inside and take a look."
Upon entering the first checkpoint in the ship's corridor, everyone stopped in their tracks.
At the end of the corridor stood a massive device.
It was three meters tall, shaped like an ancient metal "altar," with its surface covered in dense pipelines, and a huge transparent container embedded in the center.
Inside the container was, shockingly, a... human?!
This person had no limbs, and countless wires and circuits were connected to their body.
From the brain, extensions connected to the surrounding crystal circuit boards. Those crystal boards were layered, glowing with a faint blue light under the weak electric current.
"This... what is this?!" The materials science expert's voice trembled.
The Servo-skull floated to the front of the device, its mechanical voice steady: "Cogitator Array System, ship-borne core computer, responsible for data calculation, fire control calculations, and course planning."
"The core processing unit is a biological brain, mostly manufactured in batches through cloning."
"The auxiliary storage unit is crystal circuitry."
The scene instantly erupted.
"Crystal circuitry?! The Soviet Union tried this back in the day, but failed. They actually turned this into a large-scale industrial product?"
"A biological brain as the core? Using living tissue as a computer's arithmetic unit? How is signal synchronization achieved?"
Someone asked with a trembling voice: "Why don't you use artificial intelligence? Wouldn't using AI as the core be more efficient than a biological brain?"
The Servo-skull's optical lens suddenly turned red, and its tone instantly went cold: "Strong artificial intelligence, the source of the Men of Iron rebellion, is a forbidden abomination that blasphemes the omnissiah."
"The Empire strictly prohibits any form of strong artificial intelligence research and use."
This single sentence brought a tsunami-like shock to all the researchers present.
They had not only seen computer technology far exceeding that of Blue Star but had also touched upon the underlying rules of a completely alien interstellar civilization.
The Old Academician stared at the floating photonic crystal, his fingers trembling slightly.
He knew all too well the weight of this thing.
If they could master this crystal circuit technology, Blue Star's chip industry could leap forward by thirty years.
Before everyone could recover from the shock of the Cogitator system, the military industry experts had already been drawn toward the hangar.
The moment the hangar doors opened, everyone gasped.
More than a dozen Leman Russ Tanks were neatly arranged, their heavy armor and tall bodies full of mechanical aesthetic beauty.
The valkyrie gunships nearby had their wings unfolded, their multi-barreled missile arrays fully exposed, and the laser cannons were particularly eye-catching.
The hatches of the Bison armored personnel carriers were open, and the life support systems inside were clearly visible.
A group of military experts instantly rushed over, like obsessed collectors seeing a rare treasure.
The professor from the Armored Engineering Academy lay on the armor plating of a rhino, stroking the metal surface, muttering to himself: "This alloy... I've never seen it before."
"And there's a biochemical isolation layer! The high-temperature resistance is off the charts! Even if this thing were on the edge of a nuclear explosion, as long as it wasn't at ground zero, the crew would survive!"
Another expert climbed into the cockpit of a Bison personnel carrier and exclaimed: "This closed-loop life cycle system! It can operate in nuclear, biological, and chemical environments, automatically filter out toxic gases, and maintain constant temperature and pressure. Even if it's minus fifty degrees outside, you could wear a single layer of clothing inside!"
"This is what a standard interstellar vehicle should be..." someone sighed with emotion.
What made them even crazier were the laser weapon arrays mounted in the corner of the hangar.
The entire hangar had become a paradise for the military experts.
Meanwhile, in the machine room, the Academicians of the basic sciences were still surrounding the Cogitator system, frantically recording every detail.
The one-day inspection time felt as short as the blink of an eye to everyone.
The Old Academician stood at the entrance of the hangar, watching this scene, his mood complex.
The technology was too good.
So good that it made people not know how to choose.
That night, in the temporary conference room at the naval port, the inspection team was in an uproar.
"We must prioritize tackling vehicle, armored alloy, and laser weapon technologies!" The chief engineer of the military sector slammed the table, his face flushed red.
"These technologies can directly feed back into our active equipment. With a 60-day cooperation period, we can achieve mass production within three months at most, allowing our national defense strength to take a huge leap in the short term!"
"Short-sighted!" the physicist Academician opposite him immediately retorted.
"Vehicle technology is just the surface! The Cogitator system, photonic crystal circuits, and anti-gravity technology are the core!"
"These things are the foundation for generations to come! Even if we spend ten or twenty years mastering them, it will be a contribution for all time!"
"Wait twenty years? The cooperation period is only 60 days! By the time you understand the core principles, they'll have long since left!"
"Copying homework will always leave you following behind someone else's butt! Only by mastering the core technology can we truly achieve transcendence!"
The two factions argued incessantly, spittle flying, neither able to convince the other.
The Old Academician sat in the middle, rubbing his temples.
He knew clearly that neither side was wrong.
On one side was immediate short-term gain, and on the other was a long-term layout that would benefit future generations.
He tapped the table, suppressing the argument in the room.
"What are you arguing about?" The Old Academician glared at everyone, his tone decisive.
"Children make choices; adults want it all!"
Everyone instantly quieted down, looking at him in unison.
The Old Academician stood up, his eyes flashing with sharp light: "We must tackle vehicle technology, and we must also grasp the core technology."
"If we don't have enough manpower, we'll add more people! If we don't have enough spots, we'll go apply for more!"
The Old Academician calculated quickly in his mind: the military sector would tackle the vehicle technology, and the basic science sector would attack the core technology. If both sides advanced simultaneously, the manpower would indeed need to double.
But doubling it would only be two thousand people; what big deal could that be?
The Old Academician patted his chest and shouted confidently: "Isn't it just requesting some people? Who wouldn't give my old face a little respect! Tell me, how many more people do we need to send?"
After some discussion, everyone gave him an answer that made his jaw drop:
"Academician, we've made a rough calculation. We need at least ten thousand researchers to complete the task within 60 days."
What?! Ten thousand people?!
The teacup in the Old Academician's hand nearly spilled, his hand, which had just patted his chest, froze in mid-air.
He suddenly felt that the voice he had used to speak just now was simply too loud.