136: Chapter 136 Fifty-six Academicians, Hear My Command! Trump: I've come with sincerity!
Pangu Laboratory, B2 Level, 9:47 AM.
Su Che saved the final acceptance report of the 252-meter main beam to the supercomputer background and pushed the keyboard away.
He stood up and walked around the console twice; his legs were a bit numb.
From the adjacent automation workshop came the muffled sound of the overhead crane operating; the outer frame of the third Xuan Nu was taking shape in the laser cutting area.
Lin Waner woke up on the folding chair.
She rubbed her eyes, saw Su Che's hoodie draped over her, and lowered her head to sniff the collar; it had the dry smell brought back from the desert.
"What time is it?"
"Almost ten."
Lin Waner jumped up from the chair. "I'll go make you breakfast."
"No need, there's big work coming up later."
Su Che spread out a blank task assignment table on the console.
The 252-meter skeleton was there, and the stealth suit was on, but the inside was empty.
The propulsion system, Anti-gravity payload, integrated command and control, and directed-energy weapons—four core subsystems must be advanced in parallel; relying on him alone wouldn't be enough even in a month.
He wrote down four directions on the assignment table.
Propulsion Integration Group—responsible for matching the Adaptive Variable Cycle Aerospace Engine to the 252-meter giant platform, re-doing thrust distribution and installation commissioning.
Anti-gravity Payload Group—responsible for full-platform integration testing of the Anti-gravity field and structural coordination.
Command and Control System Group—responsible for building the integrated command and control hub, with deep embedding of the Yiren AI Core.
Weapon System Group—responsible for the ship-borne integration of the directed-energy weapon array and fire control joint debugging.
Behind each direction, he left a blank space, waiting for names to be filled in.
10:02 AM.
The explosion-proof door on the B2 level was pushed open from the outside.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan walked in the front.
Unlike in the Southern Theater Command command post, today he was wearing a service uniform; the three gold stars on his epaulets shone steadily under the fluorescent lights, with two plainclothes guards following behind.
Behind him was a long line of people.
Liu Huaqiang, Dean Liu, walked in the second row, black-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, holding a folder in his hand.
Academician Qian Zhenhua walked right next to him, his hair whiter than the last time they met, his trench coat collar turned up, carrying a thermos.
Academician Wen Bo, Academician Li Zhengyang, and Academician Chen Shian walked side by side.
There were more behind them.
Optics, Materials Science, Precision Engineering, Quantum Physics, Automatic Control, Aerospace Propulsion, Electromagnetic Compatibility...
Su Che stood next to the console and counted them.
Fifty-six.
Six more than the time they worked on the Quantum Lithography Machine.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan stood still in the center of the hall, scanning this 2,000-square-meter underground space.
His gaze landed on that "empty" spot; nothing could be seen with the naked eye, but the guide markings on the floor indicated a length of 252 meters.
"Is this the bones of the luan bird?" Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan reached out to probe, his fingertips touching the cold alloy surface.
"The verification version, ten-thousand-ton class." Su Che walked over.
"Can't see it."
"Yeah, it's currently switched to stealth mode; if you could see it, it wouldn't be called stealth."
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan withdrew his hand and turned to face the fifty-six academicians behind him.
"From today on, Pangu Laboratory is designated as the sole assembly base for the Nantianmen Project." Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.
"Su Che is the chief engineer; all technical plans are to be decided by him. Academicians, follow the dispatch according to your groups. If you have questions, raise them in person; once raised, follow the orders."
He glanced at Su Che.
"You go ahead."
Su Che picked up the handwritten assignment table on the console and walked to the front of the crowd.
Fifty-six pairs of eyes stared at him.
Among these people, the youngest was twenty years older than him, and several were people whose photos were printed on the covers of the textbooks he studied at the National Defense University.
Su Che turned the table over, facing the crowd.
"Propulsion Integration Group, led by Academician Li Zhengyang, responsible for the thrust matching and installation of the six Adaptive Variable Cycle Aerospace Engines."
Academician Li Zhengyang nodded without wasting words. His foundation in nuclear physics and propulsion engineering ranked in the top three in the country.
"Anti-gravity Payload Group, led by Academician Wen Bo. Full-platform coverage and collaborative testing of the Anti-gravity field, and docking with the structural coupling nodes."
Academician Wen Bo took off his reading glasses to wipe them, then put them back on.
"Command and Control System Group, led by Liu Huaqiang, Dean Liu. The Yiren AI Core needs to be embedded into the mother ship's central nervous system; your experience with the Sky-Breaking Bow quantum network will come in handy."
Liu Huaqiang, Dean Liu, pushed up his glasses. "I've already looked at the data interfaces; there are three compatibility issues."
"I know, come talk to me about it later."
"Weapon System Group, led by Academician Qian Zhenhua. Ship-borne integration of the directed-energy weapon array, and fire control joint debugging of the quantum-enhanced laser cannons."
Academician Qian Zhenhua unscrewed the thermos lid and took a sip of water. "How many sets of laser crystals have arrived?"
"The first batch of forty sets has already been installed in the Xuan Nu No. 0, and the second batch of eighty sets arrives this afternoon."
After assigning the four groups, Su Che folded the table and stuffed it into his pants pocket.
"Each group should do a preliminary plan study today and submit a preliminary process table by 8:00 AM tomorrow; I will review them item by item. If there are technical disagreements, come to me; do not bicker between groups."
He paused.
"Time is very tight."
None of the fifty-six academicians asked "how tight."
They had all read the top-secret report brought by Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan pulled Su Che aside.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs just received a letter."
Su Che took the thin sheet of paper.
The header was the official letterhead of the Eagle State Department of State.
The content had only three sentences.
"The United States of America is willing to conduct a direct dialogue with the Dragon Kingdom regarding the situation in the Western Pacific without any preconditions."
"We propose arranging talks at the special envoy level between the two countries within forty-eight hours through Swiss diplomatic channels."
The last sentence clearly bore the personal imprint of President Trump.
"I came with sincerity."
Su Che flipped the letter paper over; the back was blank.
"Sincerity?" Su Che handed the letter back to Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan. "Twenty-one sunken ships plus a magnitude five earthquake, that's his down payment for sincerity."
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan put away the letter.
"The intention from above is that we can talk, but you set the conditions."
Su Che was stunned for a second.
"I set them?"
"No one knows better than you which technical blockades, strategic resource lists, and patent barriers involved in the Nantianmen Project are choking us. The conditions you set will be more effective than what those people at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs write."
Su Che put his hands back into his pants pockets.
"Fine, give me half an hour."
He walked back to the console, pulled out the keyboard, and created a new document.
Title: "List of Technical Conditions for a Ceasefire with the United States of America (Draft)"
His fingers hit the keys.
One, the United States shall immediately lift all technical export controls against the Dragon Kingdom, including but not limited to semiconductor equipment, aerospace engines, precision instruments, and rare earth processing procedures; no transition period, effective immediately.
Two, the United States shall close all facilities involved in the reverse engineering of the "apocalypse fragment," and all technical data, physical samples, and lists of research personnel shall be handed over to the Dragon Kingdom.
Three, the United States Pacific Fleet shall permanently withdraw from the First Island Chain, and no offensive military forces shall be deployed west of Guam.
Four, the United States shall pay war reparations of one trillion US dollars to the Dragon Kingdom, to be paid in full within five years.
Five, the United States shall not provide military technical assistance targeting the Dragon Kingdom to any third country in any form.
Six, once the above terms are breached, the Dragon Kingdom reserves the right to use all means to counter them.
He finished writing, checked it once, and sent the document to Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan's encrypted terminal.
"The second point is the most important," Su Che added.
Commander-in-Chief Wang Xueshan read it and didn't change a word.
"I'll forward it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
When he walked out the door, he looked back at the invisible 252-meter skeleton in the center of the hall.
"Su Che."
Su Che looked up.
"If your grandfather woke up and saw this bone, he would be overjoyed."
The door closed.
Su Che sat in the swivel chair and stared at the screen for a few seconds.
He reached out and touched the few broken eggshell pieces in the corner of the console; the crooked sun and the words "Go for it" drawn by Lin Waner were cracked into several pieces, but he had never thrown them away.
Lin Waner walked over with two glasses of water.
"Who was that, with so many people at the door?"
"Here to help."
"Help with what?"
"Help me install a heart and brain for that bird."
Lin Waner placed the water on the table and leaned in to look at the assignment table.
"Academician Li Zhengyang... Academician Qian Zhenhua... Aren't these the people who write the textbooks?"
"Yes."
"They listen to you?"
"They have to, whether they want to or not." Su Che picked up the water glass. "The country said so."
Lin Waner turned and walked out.
"Where are you going?"
"To make tea for fifty-six people."
Su Che watched her run out in her new sneakers, then lowered his head and took a sip of water.
Jiang Yingxue's tablet vibrated three times next to him.
"Su Che."
"Yeah."
"The final trace of Adam after getting off the plane." Jiang Yingxue pushed the tablet over.
On the main screen, the Yiren AI Core tracked the heat signal trajectory of the ground vehicle.
An off-road vehicle drove out from the makeshift airfield, followed an unmarked dirt road in the desert, and drove into a valley shielded by a caldera ridge.
In the center of the valley, satellite optical imagery showed a hemispherical metal building.
There were no markings on the surface of the building, but the energy spectrum scan results from the core had already popped up.
[ "God's Revelation" facility energy field intensity has been continuously climbing over the past ninety minutes. ]
[ The current energy signature's match with the original signal of the "apocalypse fragment" has risen from 99.1% to 99.7%. ]
[ New detection: High-dimensional quantum state transition signals have appeared inside the facility; characteristics are unknown and not within known Earth physical models. ]
Su Che stared at the last line.
High-dimensional quantum state transition.
The fragment wasn't being "used."
The fragment was waking up.