201: Chapter 201 Ninety-nine days, fifty-seven knives sharpened!
sentry ship arrival countdown, day ninety-nine.
Pangu Laboratory, B2 level, 8:00 AM.
Fifty-seven chairs filled the hall.
The chairs were not uniform, but the people sitting on them were; they were all academicians.
Su Che stood in front of the main screen, not sitting.
Liu Huaqiang arrived the earliest, sitting in the first row on the east side, a mechanical pencil tucked behind his ear, and a notebook spread open on his knees.
Academician Li Zhengyang's thermos was placed on the floor by his feet, the latch unscrewed.
Academician Sun Qiwen held an enamel mug, half of the words "Xichang Satellite Launch Center Commemoration" on the body worn away.
Wen Bo moved his folding chair back by two finger-widths, making room to cross his legs.
Zhao Mingyuan held a goji berry in his mouth without chewing.
Academician Zhang Weide had his hands in his work pants pockets, an engineering calculator bulging in his left pocket like a square block.
Zhou Dehai's holographic projection connected from Kaitian Base, wearing an anti-static suit and standing next to the Zhulong machine tool.
Academician Qian Zhenhua sat by the wall, twirling a red ballpoint pen between his index and middle fingers.
Academician Chen Shian wore a new white work uniform, the collar buttoned tightly, sitting bolt upright.
The remaining forty-eight academicians were scattered throughout the hall; some flipped through documents, some whispered, and some stared at the main screen waiting for images.
Su Che waited for the last person to settle in, then reached out and tapped the keyboard.
The main screen cut to a deep space star map.
A red cursor lit up at the edge of the Solar System, with a set of data hanging beside it.
Speed: 800 km/s.
Direction: Earth.
The hall fell silent.
"This is the target locked by the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar before I set sail."
Su Che's voice was not loud, but the B2 level's fresh air system perfectly suppressed the noise, making every word clear.
"At the edge of the Solar System, an alien sentry observation ship. The speed is constant, no longer accelerating; the main god ai extrapolation predicts it will arrive at Earth in ninety-nine days."
No one spoke.
Zhao Mingyuan swallowed the goji berry in his mouth.
Liu Huaqiang took the mechanical pencil from behind his ear and wrote a number on his notebook: 99.
"Everyone here has signed the highest-level confidentiality agreement; this information ends here and must not leave this room," Su Che continued.
Academician Li Zhengyang bent down to pick up his thermos, unscrewed the latch to take a gulp, tightened it, and placed it back on the floor.
"Chief Engineer Su, has the firepower level of this thing been evaluated?"
"It is a sentry observation ship, not a combat vessel."
Su Che brought up the main god ai's analysis summary on the screen.
"Its firepower and interstellar navigation capabilities are far inferior to a proper warship, and it lacks spatial jump capability, but it has been able to fly to the edge of the Solar System and remain there for who knows how many years; its technological foundation will not be low."
Wen Bo put down his crossed legs.
"Can we beat it?"
"The 100,000-ton version of the luan bird is finished, the high-order fusion reactor is ignited, and shields, stealth, and supplies are all in place."
Su Che switched the screen to the Dry Dock, "The hardware is sufficient, but the Xuan Nu is not."
He tapped the keyboard.
The main screen changed to two side-by-side 3D models of fighter jets; on the left was the near-Earth version of the Xuan Nu, and on the right was the Solar System version.
"The one on the left can clear the field in three seconds in a 400-kilometer orbit, but it is scrap metal once it leaves Earth's gravitational circle."
"Cumulative flight control deviation, swarm communication latency, fire control without deep space adaptation—these are all fatal flaws."
Su Che zoomed in on the model on the right.
The wingspan was stretched from fourteen meters to twenty-five meters, and the fuselage was twenty-eight meters.
Four scaled-down improved adaptive variable-cycle engines, the belly weapon bay capacity doubled, and the Deep Space Main God AI airborne distributed unit was written directly into the underlying avionics.
"The Solar System version on the right is completely redone; everything from the bones to the skin to the brain has been replaced."
He turned around to face the fifty-seven people.
"The R&D cycle is twelve days, pushed synchronously across four lines."
Su Che didn't use a projection pen, instead gesturing directly in the air with his fingers.
"The first line: Deep Space Global Autonomous Evolutionary Decision-making Architecture; this is the brain."
"Zhao Mingyuan, you lead it. You get twenty percent of the main god ai computing power pool. Completely dismantle the 'obedient execution' logic of the near-Earth version and rewrite it into an 'autonomous combat' architecture."
"In extreme cases of communication interruption or loss of contact with the mothership, a single Xuan Nu must be able to independently complete the entire chain from reconnaissance to strike."
Zhao Mingyuan stuffed the bag of goji berries into his pocket and sat up straight.
"Twenty percent is enough; I wouldn't be able to use more even if I had it."
"The second line: Cross-orbital Ultra-high Maneuverability Control; this is the legs."
"Academician Zhang Weide, you lead it. You tackle the issue of cumulative deviation in the underlying flight control. For long-distance maneuvering in deep space vacuum, attitude drift must be suppressed to the micro-arcsecond level."
Academician Zhang Weide responded, "Just give me the data."
"The third line: Massive Swarm Global Collaborative Algorithm."
"This is the neural network. Academician Qian Zhenhua, you lead it. You are most familiar with long-distance collaboration for space-based Quantum Communication. Scale swarm communication from small formations to hundreds of units online simultaneously, with real-time synchronization across orbits."
Academician Qian Zhenhua stopped his red ballpoint pen and clipped it back into his breast pocket.
"I need to recalculate the underlying communication bandwidth for the collaborative algorithm; the multiplexing rate of the quantum entanglement channel will need to increase several-fold."
"The fourth line: High-order Stealth Avionics Fusion; this is the skin. Wen Bo, you lead it. You produce the integration scheme for the ultimate stealth film and avionics system; it shouldn't just be pasted on, it must be grown together."
Wen Bo slammed his enamel mug onto the edge of the table.
"I'll take the materials side. Zhou Dehai, send me the atomic growth process parameters for the new stealth substrate from the Zhulong machine tool this afternoon."
Inside the holographic projection of Kaitian Base, Zhou Dehai patted the sleeve of his anti-static suit.
"The Zhulong machine tool is already running the previous batch of orders, but I will adjust the production schedule; the stealth substrate will be prioritized."
Su Che pushed the framework of the division of labor for the four lines onto the public screen.
"Academician Sun, the scaled-down nuclear fusion power supply module for the Xuan Nu needs three times the power density of the near-Earth version; you recalculate the thermodynamic closed loop."
Academician Sun Qiwen looked up while holding his enamel mug and tapped the body with the lid.
"If it triples, the area of the heat dissipation wings must increase accordingly, and the aerodynamic shape of the fighter will change."
"Therefore, Academician Zhang Weide's flight control and Wen Bo's stealth must be jointly tuned synchronously. I will coordinate the parts where the three lines intersect."
Su Che scanned the entire room.
"Academician Li, on the weapons side, regarding the airborne adaptation scheme for high-order directed energy components, the near-Earth laser cannon is enough to hit a target at 400 kilometers."
"To hit deep space targets millions of kilometers away, you must re-model energy attenuation and beam drift."
Academician Li Zhengyang replied, "Particle beams do not have atmospheric attenuation when propagating in a vacuum, but beam drift is a matter of pointing accuracy."
"I will coordinate with Academician Qian Zhenhua; his Quantum Radar lock data will be fed directly into my fire control model."
Academician Qian Zhenhua nodded in the back row without making a sound.
"Academician Chen."
Academician Chen Shian sat bolt upright in the third row.
"The Xuan Nu is a drone; it doesn't have much to do with life sciences," Su Che paused.
"However, the maintenance bay for the ship-borne swarm needs a microbial-based self-cleaning system to prevent contamination inside the hangar in a deep space environment. You have ready-made data from the last cycle of regeneration; make an adapted version."
"Three days is enough," Academician Chen Shian replied concisely.
"Dean Liu, you coordinate the industrial chain."
Liu Huaqiang had already filled two whole pages in his notebook.
"Sub-nanometer chips, scaled-down engines, stealth substrates, directed energy crystals, Quantum Communication terminals—you oversee the mass production schedule for all components and the military's logistics channels."
Liu Huaqiang tucked the pencil back behind his ear.
"The first version of the schedule will be out this afternoon."
Su Che turned back to the main screen.
The red cursor was still glowing at the edge of the Solar System.
"Twelve days to sharpen the swarm's fangs."
He sat back in the main seat and pulled the keyboard over.
"Meeting adjourned. Return to your respective lines. If there are any problems, shout in the encrypted group at any time."
The sound of chairs moving filled the B2 level.
Zhao Mingyuan slid his swivel chair toward his workstation, lowering his voice as he passed by Su Che.
"Ninety-nine days—it's not that many, all things considered."
Su Che didn't look up; his fingers were already on the keyboard, opening the first code branch at the underlying level of the Xuan Nu Solar System version's autonomous decision-making architecture.
"It is enough."
On the east side of the hall, Liu Huaqiang closed his notebook, stood up, and walked toward the communication area.
When passing the monitoring wall, he paused for a moment and looked at the image of the Moon in the lower-left corner.
The lights of the six buildings were shining steadily; on the lunar soil 380,000 kilometers away, the Dragon Kingdom's first permanent base was operating quietly.
He withdrew his gaze and continued walking forward.
In the corner of the main screen, the countdown number for the sentry ship's arrival jumped from 100 to 99.
The sound of Su Che's keyboard tapping and Zhao Mingyuan's keyboard tapping intertwined.
The B2 level was once again filled with code.