116: Chapter 116 Three old swords welded together, I call it the Dragon-Slaying Sword!
Bunker No. 3, 3:15 PM.
By the third version of the sketch, Su Che had crumpled up the first two and thrown them away.
Not right.
The optical path design for the quantum-enhanced laser was fine, and he could draw the energy interface for the nuclear fusion directional output module with his eyes closed.
But to cram both of these into the engine's main frame, he had to solve one fundamental engineering problem—heat dissipation.
The waste heat generated when the laser was operating, combined with the residual heat from the nuclear fusion module's energy conversion, would overwhelm the heat suppression field of the "Kunlun Alloy" coating if applied directly to the engine body.
The 0.73 Hz frequency was for the turbine section, the 2.19 Hz frequency for the nozzle section; there was no third frequency left for the weapon module.
Su Che chewed on his pen cap, staring at the area on the sketch marked "To be resolved" regarding heat dissipation.
Three seconds later, he spat out the pen cap.
No need for a third frequency.
Hang the weapon module on the engine's outer wall instead of stuffing it inside.
An external pod.
The laser and the nuclear fusion power supply unit would be encapsulated in an independent pod, drawing power from the engine body via a standardized energy interface, but the heat would travel through the pod's own cooling channels, bypassing the engine body.
The pod shell would use carbon fiber silicon carbide, with a layer of "Kunlun Alloy" coating on the inner wall, and the frequency...
He opened the scanned copy of his grandfather's notes and found the fundamental frequency harmonic table in the "Kunlun Alloy" physical property data.
The fifth harmonic, 3.65 Hz.
The corresponding effect: not heat suppression, nor cooling.
It was heat conduction.
Under 3.65 Hz resonance, the "Kunlun Alloy" coating would form a one-way heat conduction channel, directing waste heat from the inner wall to the outer wall, then exhausting it through the silicon carbide's radiative cooling surface.
Su Che added a line of parameters to the sketch and drew an arrow pointing to the rear of the pod.
Two rows of cooling fins would be opened at the rear for passive radiation; no additional cooling system would be needed.
Simple, crude, but effective.
He spread out the third version of the sketch and went through it from beginning to end.
Quantum-enhanced laser—he had already built a prototype of the core components during that fireworks show at Su Family Village, so the parameters were etched in his mind; using "Candle Dragon" to "grow" a new set would take two hours.
Nuclear fusion directional output module—he had built it in an hour in front of a room full of military industry bigwigs at the Beijing Military Science Commission; the blueprints were still stored in the military supercomputer and could be called up directly.
Pod shell—carbon fiber silicon carbide, off-the-shelf material; "growing" a shell would take half an hour.
Less than three hours in total.
Adding the joint debugging and testing with the engine, he would leave a four-hour buffer.
The timing would work.
Su Che pulled over the "Candle Dragon" terminal, imported the 3D model of the sketch, and began scheduling the processes.
The blast door chimed.
Lin Waner walked in carrying an enamel mug, steam rising from it.
"Ginger soup. Colonel Zhou had logistics boil it, saying the bunker is damp."
She set the mug on the edge of the console and glanced at the force field workstation.
The silver-white main body of the engine hovered quietly on the assembly bracket; the temporary shelves nearby were empty, and all components were in place.
"Finished assembling it?"
"Finished. It's loading the program now."
Su Che didn't even look up, his fingers swiping across the terminal's touchscreen.
Lin Waner didn't press further; she walked behind the shelves, gathered the scattered packing boxes and discarded securing straps, and stacked them in the corner.
As she bent down, Su Che's peripheral vision caught sight of the sand-covered sneakers on her feet.
The side of the shoe had split open, stitched with black sewing thread, the stitches crooked and uneven.
"Why didn't you say anything when your shoe broke?"
"It's still wearable."
"I'll have Colonel Zhou find you a pair of military boots later; sneakers won't hold up in the desert."
Lin Waner straightened up and looked down at her shoes. "Military boots are too big; my feet are small."
Su Che stopped his work and turned to look at her.
"What size?"
"Size thirty-six."
He created a new file on the terminal, named it "Shoes - Size 36", but deleted it after typing two characters.
Making shoes wasn't his job.
He rummaged through the bottom of the toolbox, pulled out a roll of high-strength industrial waterproof tape, tore off a piece, and crouched down.
"Stick your foot out."
Lin Waner hesitated for a moment, then moved her right foot forward half a step.
Su Che gripped the tape, applied three layers along the split in the shoe, pressed it twice with his fingertips, and smoothed out the air bubbles.
"It'll hold for two days, no problem. I'll buy you new ones when we get back to Beijing."
He stood up, dusted off his knees, and sat back down at the console.
Lin Waner looked down at the three layers of silver-grey tape.
It looked ugly.
But it was sealed tight.
She pushed the enamel mug closer to Su Che, said nothing more, and turned to leave.
After the blast door closed, Su Che picked up the mug and took a sip.
Spicy.
However, it tasted pretty good.
He grinned, finished half the mug, and pulled the "Candle Dragon" control stick.
The "growth" process for the pod shell started.
The carbon fiber silicon carbide preform floated into the force field, and atoms began to strip and reorganize.
At the same time, Su Che opened another window and pulled up the blueprints for the nuclear fusion directional output module archived in the Beijing Military Science Commission's Pangu Quantum Computer laboratory.
He scaled the blueprints to match the pod's inner cavity and re-labeled the position and size of the energy interface.
The interface specifications matched the engine body's output ports; he had reserved two redundant ports when designing the engine, not sure what they would be used for at the time, but now they were perfect for connecting the weapon module.
A foreshadowing he had planted for himself, now resolved by himself.
5:10 PM.
The pod shell was formed—a half-meter-long oval casing, matte black, with the "Kunlun Alloy" coating on the inner wall showing a faint blue tint under the lights.
Su Che tapped the shell wall with his hand; the sound was dull and solid.
"Good."
He began to "grow" the core components of the laser.
The essence of a quantum-enhanced laser is using quantum entanglement states to calibrate the phase and direction of photons, making scattering approach zero.
An ordinary laser fired a hundred kilometers away could have a spot size as large as half a football field;
A quantum-enhanced laser fired a hundred kilometers away would still have a spot size the size of a needle tip.
Last time at Su Family Village, he had used this technology to set off fireworks, blowing up the Eagle Sauce's Starlink satellites.
This time, he would turn the fireworks into artillery shells.
Laser crystal, optical path collimation assembly, quantum entanglement state generator—the three core components were formed one by one in the force field.
Su Che watched the growth progress while running the fire control logic for the weapon module in his mind.
It didn't need a very complex aiming system.
The engine's built-in quantum predictive control kernel could handle both flight attitude and weapon aiming simultaneously; its computing power margin was sufficient to carry an additional fire control system.
It was equivalent to the engine's "brain" moonlighting as the weapon's "eyes".
Killing two birds with one stone.
6:40 PM.
The nuclear fusion directional output module was complete.
A palm-sized, silver-white block, almost identical to the one he had built in Beijing, except the energy interface had been changed to the engine's standard specifications.
Su Che installed the three core components into the pod shell one by one, connected the data cables, and sealed the energy pipelines.
Finally, he mounted the pod onto the reserved hardpoint on the right outer wall of the engine body.
"Click."
The hardpoint locked, Van der Waals forces engaging.
Su Che stepped back two paces, looking at the engine that now had an "excrescence".
A bit ugly.
But it could fight.
He walked back to the console and wrote the control code for the weapon module into the expansion area of the quantum predictive control kernel V1.0.
The code wasn't long; the core logic only had three lines: Lock, Focus, Release.
Simple to the point of being crude.
7:00 PM.
All software was loaded.
Su Che pulled up the full-machine diagnostic program on the terminal for one last cold-state full scan.
On the screen, the data stream ran for forty seconds.
[Full-machine cold-state diagnosis complete.]
[Propulsion system: Ready.]
[Variable cycle valve group: Ready.]
[Thrust vector nozzle: Ready.]
[Quantum predictive control kernel V1.0: Ready.]
[Airborne directed-energy weapon module: Ready.]
["Kunlun Alloy" resonance coating · dual-frequency coupling + fifth harmonic heat dissipation: Ready.]
[Full-machine status: Cold-state ignition test can be executed.]
Su Che stared at the line "Cold-state ignition test can be executed."
He grabbed the encrypted phone.
"General, the engine and weapon module are completely finished."
Lieutenant General Peng's voice popped out of the receiver, filled with hoarse excitement.
"How soon can it fly?"
"It can fly as soon as the ignition test passes. But I need an open space, with no one within a fifty-kilometer radius."
On the other end of the line: "..."
"Get lost, you're standing in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert; there's no one within five hundred kilometers."
Su Che gave a dry laugh.
"Then let's do it now."
He hung up the phone, walked to the front of the engine, squatted down, and looked levelly at the slightly opened variable air intake.
Inside the silver-white metal maw, the six-stage compressor blades were layered, the "Kunlun Alloy" coating shimmering with a cold blue light.
It was like a sleeping beast, waiting to be awakened.
Su Che stood up, walked back to the console, and hovered his finger over the Enter key.
Zhou Qihang's voice came through the walkie-talkie.
"Su Che, the fifty-kilometer radius around the bunker has been cleared; all base personnel have evacuated to the underground protection zone."
"What about Teacher Lin?"
"She has already been arranged to the underground level of the command tower."
"Good."
Su Che's finger pressed down.
[Cold-state ignition test program started.]
[3——]
[2——]
[1——]
"Boom——"
A dull, low roar erupted from the belly of the engine.
It wasn't a rumble; it was a roar.
The reinforced concrete walls of the entire Bunker No. 3 began to resonate; the ground beneath Su Che's feet shook, and the tools on the console clattered.
The force field assembly bracket automatically released its locks.
That silver-white engine, its tail nozzle spewing a semi-transparent plasma stream with a blue-white glow——
Slowly, it left the bracket.
Hovering.
In the very center of Bunker No. 3.
Su Che stared at the data frantically jumping on the screen.
Thrust: Stable output.
Variable cycle valve group response delay: 0.07 milliseconds.
Turbine section temperature gradient: 0.00.
Nozzle section superconducting electromagnet temperature: Normal operating range.
Weapon module standby power consumption: Rated value.
All green lights.
Su Che leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
He picked up the walkie-talkie.
"General."
"I heard it! The whole base heard it!" Lieutenant General Peng's voice roared.
"Nantianmen Project, core propulsion system."
Su Che looked at the silver-white giant beast hovering in the air, roaring, his voice very soft.
"The heart is alive."
On the walkie-talkie, the side with Lieutenant General Peng suddenly went quiet.
Three seconds later, a voice that didn't belong to Lieutenant General Peng, an older voice, came through the channel.
"Comrade Su Che."
Su Che's back left the backrest.
"Number One asked me to pass a message to you."
The older voice paused.
"The first feather of the 'luan bird' is ready to grow."