191: Chapter 191 The Heart of the Beast: Illuminating the Supply Blueprint for Deep Space!

Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 120.

3:01 PM.

Su Che pressed down with his index finger, bottoming out the Enter key.

On the main screen of Pangu Laboratory Level B2, the red curve of the constraint magnetic field strength broke through the physical limit scale of the first-generation fusion reactor.

It was still climbing.

Wen Bo rolled the material inspection report in his hand into a paper tube, staring at the real-time data returned by the gaussmeter on the secondary screen.

"Superconducting coil temperature?" Su Che asked.

"Negative 268 degrees," Academician Sun Qiwen stood to the side. "The micro-channel liquid cooling is holding up; the thermodynamic closed loop hasn't collapsed."

On the east side of the hall, the hologram of Kaitian Base was lit up. Zhou Dehai was wearing an anti-static suit, holding a walkie-talkie.

"The tensile test for the backup coil is being done in parallel."

He glanced at the heavy testing machine behind him. "The high-carbon-based composite material withstood twice the design stress without breaking. This formula from Wen Bo is tough enough."

The curve leveled out steadily at the design peak, a straight line without any fluctuations.

"Cold state test passed," Su Che cut off the test current.

The magnetic field reading dropped instantly.

Inside the Dry Dock manufacturing bay, that huge silver-gray cylinder was quietly embedded in the belly of the luan bird. The first hurdle had been crossed.

...

Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 121.

10:00 AM.

Academician Li Zhengyang was looking at the background radiation test of the neutron shielding layer.

400 kilometers above, inside the Dry Dock.

The robotic arm pushed the simulated high-energy neutron source into the core cavity of the fusion reactor.

"The absorption rate of the boron-containing polyethylene composite layer is excellent."

He checked off the paper form with a pen. "The radiation dosimeter reading on the outside of the beryllium-copper alloy shell is zero. The safety margin of the mothership's crew cabin is overflowing."

Academician Zhang Weide walked over from the U-shaped array area, holding an engineering calculator.

"The vibration frequency calculation for when the fusion reactor is operating at full load is complete."

He tucked the calculator into his chest pocket. "It's offset from the resonance point of the mothership's main truss by 20 Hertz. The base cushion doesn't need thickening; it can be rigidly connected directly."

"Archive it," Su Che tapped on the keyboard, inputting both sets of data directly into the underlying control logic of the Deep Space Main God AI.

Zhao Mingyuan slid over in his swivel chair, swallowing the energy bar in his mouth.

"I've finished running the concurrent correction script for the energy regulation scheme. The main god ai has taken over fuel injection and plasma density monitoring. There's no problem with the frequency band adaptation of the nanosecond high-energy particle detector."

Su Che pulled up the test schedule.

Cold state test, radiation shielding, vibration stress, and control logic were all checked off.

"Ignition tomorrow," he sealed all test logs into the encrypted vault.

...

Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 122.

5:00 PM.

The air conditioning vent on Level B2 emitted a steady hissing sound.

Academician Sun Qiwen walked to the main console with a thick stack of printed paper.

"The thermal cycle rehearsal of the fusion-mass-energy conversion module is complete."

He placed the paper next to the keyboard. "The flow resistance issue of the waste heat recovery system has been solved. After widening the pipe diameter, the heat exchange efficiency increased by 9%. The liquid cooling interlayer can divert all excess heat to the heat dissipation wings."

Su Che opened the first page.

"Finalized," Su Che picked up a pen and signed it.

Lin Waner entered from the side door.

She was carrying a plastic bag, which she placed to the right of Su Che.

Inside the bag were two packed dinners.

"The cafeteria added braised pork today."

Zhao Mingyuan poked his head out from the next room and took a look.

"The braised pork is yours, the greens are mine," he took one box.

Su Che unwrapped his chopsticks and popped a piece of meat into his mouth.

His left hand typed the last line of code for the fuel recycling scheme on the keyboard.

...

Alien civilization navigation timer, Day 123.

9:00 AM.

Pangu Laboratory Level B2 was at full capacity.

Liu Huaqiang took the mechanical pencil from his ear and tucked it into his shirt pocket.

He adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and stood behind the main console.

Academician Li Zhengyang carried his thermos with the cap tightened.

Academician Sun Qiwen held a large enamel mug filled with cool boiled water.

Wen Bo crouched at the edge of the operating console.

Academician Zhang Weide had his hands in his work pants pockets.

Fifty-six academicians were staring at the main screen.

"Helium-3 fuel injection," Su Che issued the command.

The command passed through the Quantum Communication network. Inside the Dry Dock, the valve of the fusion fuel storage module opened.

"main god ai, take over the underlying control of the high-order fusion reactor," Su Che placed his hands on the keyboard.

The minimalist cursor of the Deep Space Main God AI flickered.

The computing power usage of the Sub-nanometer chip array jumped directly to 45%.

"Ignition," Su Che hit Enter.

400 kilometers above.

Inside the core cavity of the high-order fusion reactor in the belly of the luan bird, the high-order superconducting magnetic constraint coil was instantly energized with full-load current.

The plasma was squeezed tightly in the center of the vacuum chamber by an invisible giant hand of magnetic fields.

The temperature curve took off vertically.

50 million degrees, 100 million degrees, 200 million degrees.

"Temperature reached the high-order tokamak constraint threshold," Academician Sun Qiwen thumped his enamel mug onto the folding table.

"Magnetic field steady-state maintenance is perfect," Wen Bo stared at the gaussmeter reading and rubbed his palms.

The fusion reaction occurred.

The mass-energy conversion module instantly operated at full load.

The output power reading on the main screen jumped crazily, finally stabilizing at an astronomical figure.

"The single-reactor output power is 45 times that of the first-generation micro-reactor," Academician Li Zhengyang looked at the number. "This 100,000-ton behemoth's heart has started beating."

Zhao Mingyuan slid his chair over, staring at the energy distribution chart.

"The shield energy storage unit is fully charged in 30 seconds. The reserved power interfaces for the adaptive variable-cycle engines have all passed the overload test."

He tapped the keyboard a few times. "The energy regulation of the main god ai has zero latency."

In his mind, a mechanical voice hit Su Che's consciousness space right on time.

"Ding! Main R&D task "Give the behemoth a heart that can run a marathon!" completed!"

"High-order iteration of Controlled Nuclear Fusion system-wide test passed! High-order tokamak constraint is stable, fusion energy conversion is efficient and lossless, and fusion-mass-energy conversion is operating at full load! The core energy source for the 100,000-ton class luan bird's long-term endurance within the Solar System is officially ready!"

"Task reward: 750,000 skill points!"

750,000 skill points arrived, and the number in the main skill point pool rolled over again.

Su Che closed the system panel.

He leaned back in his chair, looking at the 3D cutaway view of the fusion reactor running steadily on the screen.

"Dean Liu," Su Che spoke up.

Liu Huaqiang stepped forward.

"The high-order fusion reactor is finalized; the power hub of the luan bird can be sealed," Su Che pushed the finalization file to the public screen.

Liu Huaqiang picked up the tablet and signed it.

Su Che picked up the portable smart milk tea machine from the edge of the table.

The machine lit up green, and a cup of warm milk tea was pushed out.

He bit the straw and took two sips.

"Let's do the math," Su Che pushed the milk tea machine away and typed a set of simulation calculation codes on the keyboard.

A full-range star map of the Solar System appeared on the main screen.

"For a round trip to Jupiter, in a fully loaded 100,000-ton state, is the existing long-term fusion fuel storage module enough?" Su Che asked.

Zhao Mingyuan pulled the keyboard over and entered the real-time consumption rate of the fusion reactor and the mass parameters of the mothership.

Three seconds later, the calculation result popped up.

Zhao Mingyuan looked at the red negative number and slid his chair back half a meter.

"Not enough," he pointed to the screen. "By the time we fly one way to Jupiter's orbit, the fuel tank will be 70% empty. We won't be able to come back."

The hall was quiet for a few seconds.

"The mothership can't drag a tens-of-thousands-ton fuel tank around the Solar System," Liu Huaqiang pushed up his glasses. "That's not a warship; that's a coal carrier. Its maneuverability and stealth would be completely useless."

Academician Sun Qiwen picked up his enamel mug and took a sip of water.

"The energy conversion efficiency of the high-order fusion reactor is already approaching the physical limit. Unless you can rewrite the laws of thermodynamics, you can't lower the fuel consumption."

Su Che looked at the long route extending from Earth to Jupiter on the star map.

The Solar System was too big.

For a 100,000-ton steel behemoth, this deep space was a desert without supply stations.

"Not rewriting the laws," Su Che tapped his fingers on the tabletop.

He pulled up the blueprints for the resource processing system of the Lunar Development Base and isolated the Helium-3 extraction module.

"Add fuel wherever we go," Su Che zoomed in on that blueprint.