142: Chapter 142 Absolutely Zero Delay! Need Two Tons of Coolant? Su Che Will Make It Himself!

7:00 AM, the courtyard house on the Third Ring Road.

Sunlight crossed the blue bricks and grey tiles, shining into the floor-to-ceiling windows of the main room.

Su Che pushed open the bedroom door and walked to the dining room.

In the center of the mahogany dining table sat a white porcelain plate containing a pile of black, charred meat.

Lin Waner was wearing an oversized home T-shirt with an apron tied around her waist, and she walked out of the kitchen holding a pair of long chopsticks.

She handed the chopsticks to Su Che.

"Try it." Lin Waner pointed to the plate. "I followed a recipe to make braised pork ribs."

Su Che took the chopsticks, picked up a piece, and put it in his mouth.

The meat was very tough, too much soy sauce had been poured, and two extra spoons of salt had been added.

He chewed a dozen times and spat the bone into the bone dish beside him.

"How is it?" Lin Waner pulled out a chair and sat down, resting her chin on her hands.

"The heat was on for fifteen minutes too long, and the sodium chloride content exceeds the standard by thirty percent." Su Che picked up another piece and put it in his mouth. "Use less dark soy sauce next time."

Lin Waner reached out to take the plate.

"If it's unpalatable, don't eat it. I'll have the kitchen redo it."

Su Che held the edge of the plate down with his chopsticks.

"I didn't say I wasn't eating it."

He ate six pieces in a row and picked up the glass of warm water beside him, drinking half of it.

Setting down the glass, Su Che stood up.

"I'm going to the laboratory."

Lin Waner stood up and reached out to straighten the collar of his hoodie.

"Come back early tonight."

At 7:30, the bulletproof Hongqi SUV drove out of the hutong.

Qin Lan sat in the passenger seat, turned her head, and handed over a tactical tablet.

"The infrastructure team for Su Family Village entered the site at 11:00 last night. The First, Third, and Eighth Bureaus of China State Construction are working together, and the foundation for the two-way four-lane road has already begun excavation. The equipment for the Quantum Communication base station will arrive this afternoon," Qin Lan reported.

Su Che took the tablet and glanced at the construction schedule.

"Did my dad say anything?"

"The Elder complained that the excavators were too noisy and were affecting Auntie Wang's pig's sleep." Qin Lan pulled up a field report. "The Ministry of State Security's undercover posts have been set up, and three cordons have been established around the perimeter of Su Family Village. Even a sparrow flying in can be checked for its sex."

Su Che nodded and handed back the tablet.

"Ask The Elder to bear with it for a few more days."

...

8:20 AM, B2 level of Pangu Laboratory.

The hall was filled with the screeching of metal cutting and the roar of hydraulic pumps.

In the center of the underground test area, a massive circular linkage assembly was being built.

Academician Li Zhengyang stood in front of the main control console, his hair as messy as a bird's nest, and his signature thermos cup sat on a pile of blueprints.

Su Che walked over.

"Academician Li, good morning."

Academician Li Zhengyang turned his head, the red bloodshot eyes clearly visible.

"Chief Engineer Su, you came just in time." Academician Li Zhengyang grabbed a piece of printed paper and slapped it on the table. "There's a big problem."

Su Che pulled over a swivel chair and sat down.

"Tell me."

"The single-unit nuclear fusion coupling is fine, with thrust stable at 5.2 times." Academician Li Zhengyang pointed at a pile of garbled code on the screen. "But last night we tried to connect the data interfaces of the two engines in parallel, preparing to perform a dual-machine synchronization simulation."

He called up a piece of surveillance footage.

"The data crashed directly."

In the recording, the moment the simulated data streams of the two engines connected to the bus, the screen froze, and then a red overload warning popped up.

"The plasma jet of the nuclear fusion coupling, temperature, pressure, magnetic confinement field strength—these parameters refresh one hundred thousand times per second." Academician Li Zhengyang's throat felt dry. "With two running concurrently, the traditional fiber-optic data bus experienced a 0.05-second delay."

Su Che stared at the delay data on the screen.

0.05 seconds.

On ordinary machinery, this was less than the time it takes to blink. But on a 100,000-ton aerospace carrier, a 0.05-second thrust difference between two engines would produce a yaw moment that would tear the carrier's titanium alloy frame into pieces.

Not to mention that this was meant for 72 units working in tandem.

"The hardware can't handle it." Academician Li Zhengyang rested his hands on the console. "We must change the data bus material, or lower the parameter refresh frequency."

"The frequency cannot be lowered." Su Che pulled over the keyboard. "Lowering the frequency is equivalent to giving up precise control over the plasma jet; the engines will explode."

His fingers tapped on the keyboard, calling up the underlying control interface of the Yiren AI Core.

"Of course the fiber-optic bus can't handle it." Su Che entered a string of commands. "In the retrofit list I gave yesterday, that set of 3-nanometer quantum chip drive adapter modules—where did you connect them?"

A young researcher nearby hurried to answer.

"We connected them to the main control board, but the quantum chip's communication protocol is incompatible with the existing bus architecture, and the data won't go through."

"If it won't go through, rewrite it."

Su Che's ten fingers landed on the keyboard, the tapping sounds merging into one.

The garbled code on the big screen was forcibly cleared.

He called up the multi-machine load balancing algorithm library he had redeemed last night.

"Physically disconnect the fiber-optic bus." Su Che ordered. "Activate the local parallel channel of the Quantum Communication module."

The researcher was stunned for a moment, then immediately ran toward the test assembly, unplugged the two thick fiber-optic cables, and pressed the activation switch for the quantum module.

Su Che's gaze scanned the screen rapidly.

He directly nested the aerospace full-domain variable cycle millisecond seamless adaptation technology from the algorithm library into the underlying logic of the quantum chip.

The code cascaded down like a waterfall.

Ten minutes later.

Su Che pressed the Enter key.

"Restart the dual-machine simulation."

The researcher pushed down the control lever.

On the screen, two massive data streams instantly flooded into the main console.

No lag, no red lights.

In the numerical box representing latency, the number was fixed at 0.0000.

The data transmission of the quantum entanglement state ignored physical distance and bandwidth limitations, achieving absolute zero latency.

Academician Li Zhengyang stared at that zero, and the pen in his hand dropped onto the table.

"It's connected just like that?"

"It's an algorithm problem." Su Che leaned back in his chair. "The quantum chip has its own language. If you use the method for teaching elementary school students to teach university students, of course it won't listen to you."

He pushed the keyboard back.

"The dual-machine is fine, immediately connect the third and fourth units. Within two weeks, I want to see all 72 units hung on the linkage assembly."

Academician Li Zhengyang picked up his thermos, unscrewed the lid, and took a big gulp of water.

"Get to work!" Academician Li Zhengyang roared at the researchers behind him.

The entire power group was running again.

Mechanical arms grabbed heavy alloy parts, and welding sparks flashed all over the assembly.

11:00 AM.

The third engine retrofit was completed and connected to the quantum bus.

Su Che sat in front of the control console, staring at the real-time thrust curves of the three engines.

Engine No. 1: 5.20 times.

Engine No. 2: 5.18 times.

Engine No. 3: 5.21 times.

"There's a thrust difference." Academician Li Zhengyang pointed at the screen. "Machining tolerances are unavoidable. This 0.03-times thrust difference will produce dozens of tons of lateral shear force during full-power operation."

Su Che didn't speak.

He called up the extreme condition power self-fault-tolerance self-healing compensation control technology module.

"Core, take over thrust distribution." Su Che input the command.

The Yiren AI Core intervened instantly.

The three curves on the screen jittered slightly.

Through the quantum bus, the Core adjusted the opening of Engine No. 2's nuclear fusion energy injection valve in real-time, while slightly suppressing the magnetic confinement field strength of Engine No. 1 and Engine No. 3.

One second later.

The three curves completely overlapped.

The thrust was locked at 5.20 times, without any fluctuation.

"Dynamic compensation." Su Che pointed to the overlapping line. "Mechanical tolerances are smoothed out by the algorithm. As long as it doesn't exceed ten percent of the single-unit limit, the Core can train 72 engines to run like one machine."

Academician Li Zhengyang let out a long breath.

He had spent his whole life in aerospace propulsion and had never seen such an unreasonable way of control.

"Chief Engineer Su, I'm convinced." Academician Li Zhengyang pulled over a chair and sat down. "Data and control are both solved; the rest is manual labor. Leave the assembly and welding to us."

Su Che nodded and picked up the water glass beside him to take a sip.

Two weeks to complete the hardware retrofit of 72 engines was still a very tight schedule.

He stood up and walked to the edge of the underground test area.

The massive linkage assembly had already had its bottom frame erected.

Su Che looked at the extra-thick high-strength steel plates laid on the ground, and his brow furrowed.

"Qin Lan." Su Che spoke.

Qin Lan walked over quickly from the entrance of the hall.

"Consultant Su."

"Go and invite Academician Wen Bo over." Su Che pointed at the steel plates under his feet. "Bring the core members of the Anti-gravity team."

Qin Lan turned and left.

Academician Li Zhengyang walked over, following Su Che's gaze to the ground.

"Is there a problem with the foundation?" Academician Li Zhengyang asked.

"There's a big problem." Su Che looked up at the design drawing of the linkage assembly. "72 engines, each with thrust increased by five times. During the full-power ignition test, the total thrust will exceed 30,000 tons."

He stomped on the steel plate under his feet.

"The foundation of this level of Pangu Laboratory cannot withstand the continuous impact of 30,000 tons. Once ignited, the reaction force will directly crush the load-bearing columns of the B2 level, and the mountain above will collapse."

Academician Li Zhengyang's expression changed.

He had been so focused on calculating the engine data that he had forgotten to calculate the physical bearing limit of the test bench.

Ten minutes later.

Academician Wen Bo arrived hurriedly with five people.

The old Academician held a stack of test reports on Anti-gravity nodes.

"Chief Engineer Su, what do you need me for?" Wen Bo walked closer.

Su Che pulled up the drawings of the linkage assembly and pointed to the base part.

"Academician Wen, the cluster test of the power group requires a base that can withstand 30,000 tons of reaction force. Physical materials can't handle it. I need you to temporarily lay a layer of Anti-gravity coupling node matrix under the test bench."

Wen Bo put on his reading glasses and stared at the thrust parameters on the drawing.

He took out a pen and quickly listed several formulas on the paper.

After calculating for two minutes, Wen Bo looked up.

"30,000 tons of directional thrust." Wen Bo took off his glasses. "The power of the existing Anti-gravity nodes is not enough. To completely neutralize this force, the number of nodes must be doubled."

He paused and looked at Su Che.

"Moreover, ordinary alloys cannot be used as a force field buffer medium. In that kind of extreme stress environment, the metal would be directly torn apart."

"What material is needed?" Su Che asked.

"High-purity graphene." Wen Bo stated a term. "At least twelve tons are needed to lay the stress conduction network at the bottom. And a liquid metal capable of withstanding ultra-high temperatures is needed as a coolant, otherwise the Anti-gravity generator will burn out within three minutes."

Su Che turned to look at Qin Lan.

"Check the inventory of the Military Science Commission's logistics department."

Qin Lan opened the tactical terminal and searched quickly.

"Graphene inventory is sufficient." Qin Lan looked up. "But for the liquid metal coolant capable of withstanding ultra-high temperatures, there is currently only one type of special Gallium-Indium-Tin alloy in China that meets the parameters. The purification process for this alloy is extremely complex, and the output is extremely low."

"How much is in stock?"

"Less than two hundred kilograms." Qin Lan looked at the screen. "We are still two tons short of the amount Academician Wen needs."

The hall went quiet.

Without coolant, the Anti-gravity base cannot be built. If the base cannot be built, the cluster ignition test for the 72 engines cannot be done.

The two-week deadline was stuck on the material.

Su Che looked at the drawing on the console.

He pulled over the keyboard.

Since it can't be bought, he will make it himself.