209: Chapter 209 Cross-Media Window: The Critical Point of 0.02 Seconds!

Countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship, 81 days.

Pangu Laboratory, B2 Level, weapon adaptation area, 4:00 PM.

Academician Li Zhengyang loaded the final version of the cross-medium strike automatic switching logic into the three scaled-down launch modules on the test bench.

What ran successfully yesterday was the pure particle beam mode.

Today's test is about the switching: starting with a particle beam to hit a deep space target, then as the target dives into a planetary atmosphere, the weapon automatically switches to laser mode to continue the pursuit.

"The scenario has finished loading." Academician Li Zhengyang tidied up the data cables on the test bench, confirming that all three lines were securely connected.

Simulation environment initiated.

The virtual target changed trajectory at an acceleration of 12 Gs from two million kilometers away, with its movement path cutting from the vacuum into the boundary of the simulated atmosphere.

The particle beam chased the target for six and a half seconds.

The moment the target touched the atmospheric boundary, the switching command for the launch module was sent, the particle beam was cut off, and the laser cavity was powered on.

A yellow warning popped up on the main screen.

Switching time: 0.02 seconds.

Within 0.02 seconds, the target had displaced nearly 70 meters under 12 Gs of acceleration.

A 70-meter blank window.

By the time the laser re-locked, the target had already deviated from the original predicted trajectory. It was a hit, but it was off-center.

Deviation: 11 centimeters.

It doesn't matter when hitting a fixed target, but when hitting a high-speed maneuvering target, 11 centimeters is enough for a laser beam to graze past the edge of the target.

Academician Li Zhengyang clipped the warning log.

"The 0.02-second switching window—there is a hardware-level dead time between cutting power to the particle beam cavity and powering up the laser cavity; it's not something that can be compressed by software."

Su Che walked over from the main console and stood at the side of the test bench.

"Where is the bottleneck of the dead time?"

"Both cavities share a single superconducting energy storage bus. After the particle beam cuts power, the bus needs to undergo an energy polarity reversal before it can supply power to the laser. This reversal requires physical time."

Academician Sun Qiwen had walked to the other side of the test bench at some point, with two pencil stubs stuffed into his work uniform pocket—one sharpened and one unsharpened.

"Energy polarity reversal is a fundamental physical process of the superconducting circuit; it cannot be compressed."

"We won't compress the reversal time." Su Che stared at the layout of the launch module's energy storage bus for five seconds. "Add an independent laser pre-storage capacitor."

Academician Li Zhengyang zoomed in on the layout diagram.

"Attach an independent capacitor set next to the laser cavity. When not in use, it slowly siphons power from the bus to charge. When switching is needed, the capacitor discharges directly to the laser cavity, bypassing the bus and not waiting for the polarity reversal."

Academician Sun Qiwen pulled the sharpened pencil stub from his pocket and calculated a set of numbers on a piece of white paper on the edge of the test bench.

"How large of a capacity does the independent capacitor need?"

"Just enough for the laser cavity to support the startup power consumption for 0.02 seconds." Su Che reported the power consumption figures.

After finishing the calculation, Academician Sun Qiwen tapped the paper twice with the pencil stub.

"37 Joules. Using a Sub-nanometer chip-grade solid-state supercapacitor, the volume is smaller than a fingernail, and it weighs less than two grams."

"Two grams." Academician Li Zhengyang turned a page in his notebook.

Academician Zhang Weide called out from halfway across the hall.

"There are seven kilograms of payload margin left; you can add the two grams without any issues."

Su Che turned to look at Academician Sun Qiwen.

"What is the charge-discharge cycle lifespan of the solid-state supercapacitor?"

"Over 100,000 times—enough to last until retirement."

"Does Kaitian Base have any ready-made ones?"

Liu Huaqiang leaned halfway out of the communications area, his notebook already turned to a new page.

"There is a batch of solid-state supercapacitor substrates in inventory; they were redundant parts previously prepared for the Near-Earth Orbit Base. I'll ask Zhou Dehai if the specifications match."

The holographic projection connected to Kaitian Base.

Zhou Dehai stood next to the dual-cavity main console of the new Zhulong, with two sets of components growing synchronously behind him.

"Solid-state supercapacitor substrates?" Zhou Dehai thought for two seconds. "Yes, in the seventh grid of the third row of the constant-temperature warehouse. The factory parameters are similar to what you need, with a slightly larger capacity—42 Joules."

"Five Joules larger—that provides a wider margin." Su Che patted the edge of the test bench. "Send it over today, and Academician Li will solder it in directly."

On the other end, Zhou Dehai waved to a technician to arrange the transfer.

The projection cut off.

Not waiting for the capacitor to arrive, Academician Li Zhengyang first changed the power supply path in the switching control logic.

Changing from "bus polarity reversal → laser cavity power-up" to "independent capacitor instantaneous discharge → laser cavity power-up → bus takes over after polarity reversal."

With the two steps running in parallel, the dead time was directly filled by the capacitor.

...

11:00 PM.

The capacitor arrived.

Academician Li Zhengyang spent forty minutes soldering under the desk lamp in the weapon adaptation area, embedding the fingernail-sized solid-state supercapacitor next to the laser cavity of the launch module.

After soldering, power was applied.

The cross-medium switching test was re-run.

The virtual target again changed trajectory at 12 Gs, cutting from the vacuum into the atmosphere.

The particle beam chased for six and a half seconds.

The target touched the atmospheric boundary.

Switching.

No yellow warning popped up on the main screen.

Switching time: Zero.

To be precise, it was 0.0003 seconds; the capacitor's discharge speed was so fast that the system log could only record it using scientific notation.

The laser locked on in the same frame that the target entered the atmosphere, hitting with zero deviation.

Academician Li Zhengyang retrieved his thermos from the corner of the test bench, unscrewed the lid, and found that it was empty.

He screwed the lid back on and put it back.

"Cross-medium switching, version locked."

Su Che archived this version lock record at the main console and merged it with the version lock records of all previous sub-modules.

Particle beam spatial transmission, version locked.

Cross-medium automatic switching, version locked.

Global multi-target synchronous strike, version locked.

Deep Space Main God AI fire control linkage, version locked.

All four subsystems were complete.

"Let's run one final full-system closed-loop test."

Academician Li Zhengyang, Academician Qian Zhenhua, and Academician Sun Qiwen did not return to their workstations, standing right where they were to wait.

Su Che connected the four subsystems and loaded them into the Deep Space Main God AI's comprehensive combat simulator, with all parameters set to maximum.

500 sets of random deep space scenarios, 50 sets of cross-medium scenarios, 100 sets of multi-target scenarios.

After running all 650 sets, the final results flashed on the main screen.

Overall hit rate: 98.4%.

It was 0.2% higher than yesterday afternoon's 98.2%.

Looking at the cross-medium scenario hit rate separately: 99.1%.

It looked much better than the numbers before the fix.

Su Che packaged the complete technical package and labeled it as "Final Version."

Deep in his mind, a blue-and-white panel popped up.

[Ding! Main R&D task "Hit a target 3 million kilometers away, no deviation allowed!" completed!]

[Aerospace Directed Energy Weapon Cluster System Ultimate Upgrade R&D verification passed!]

[Particle beam spatial transmission achieved 100-cluster chain relay with 36-second equivalent coherence; cross-medium strike achieved zero-window automatic switching; global multi-target synchronous strike achieved zero-latency hits across three paths.]

[Deep Space Main God AI fire control system overall hit rate 98.4%; every beam of light struck exactly where it was supposed to!]

[Task Reward: 450,000 Skill Points!]

450,000 credited.

Su Che closed the panel.

B2 Level, 12:20 AM.

Su Che stood in front of the main screen.

Fifty-seven people—some standing, some sitting, some leaning against the wall—no one left.

"Directed energy weapon ultimate version, version locked."

No one applauded; this group wasn't into that.

"Everyone rest tonight; no meeting tomorrow morning."

Liu Huaqiang's pencil lifted from his notebook.

"What time do we start?"

"Sleep until you wake up naturally, then we'll see."

Liu Huaqiang closed his notebook, tucked the pencil back, and his knees popped when he stood up.

The lights on B2 Level dimmed one by one.

Su Che was the last to leave.

At the doorway, he turned back to glance at the corner of the main screen.

Countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship, 80 days.

...

Countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship, 79 days.

Pangu Laboratory, B2 Level, 10:00 AM.

Su Che was awakened by the vibration of his handheld device; the cot was as hard as a wooden board, so he rolled over and sat up from the edge of the bed.

B2 Level was empty, and the white noise from the air conditioning vents filled the entire space.

The academicians were clearly sleeping very soundly.

Su Che picked up the handheld device and took a look; it was the production line daily report sent by Zhou Dehai.

It contained the night shift output data for the new and old Zhulong, and a portion of the second batch of mass-produced components for the Solar System version of the Xuan Nu had already been completed.

He archived the daily report and sat down in front of the main console.

In his mind, a blue-and-white panel popped up.

[Ding! Detected that the ultimate upgrade of the Solar System version of the Xuan Nu directed energy weapon is complete, but the fire control linkage between the weapon system and the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar has not yet established a specific adaptation! Main R&D task triggered!]

[Task Name: Aim precisely to strike hard!]

[Task Content: The directed energy weapon has been sharpened, but no matter how fast the blade is, it must have eyes to watch the target! The current fire control system relies on general locking logic and lacks deep coupling between the Quantum Radar and the weapon platform!]

[Please develop specific Quantum fire control technology to achieve precise Quantum positioning, cross-domain target locking, and multi-weapon collaborative fire control, so that every shot from the swarm hits exactly where it is aimed!]

[Task Reward: 550,000 Skill Points, unlocks exchange permissions for Quantum precise positioning technology, cross-domain target locking technology, and multi-weapon collaborative fire control technology; requires 280,000 exchange points.]

[Current host main skill point balance is sufficient; do you want to exchange?]

Su Che finished reading the task description.

The directed energy weapon had just been sharpened, and the fire control specialization followed right up.

The logic holds up.

The navigation particles of the ultimate version of the directed energy weapon need the Quantum Radar to feed locking signals, but currently, it is using a general locking interface, not a deep adaptation specifically made for directed energy weapons.

The general interface is sufficient for a 98% hit rate, but if it encounters a more complex deep space electromagnetic environment than in the simulator, or faces a large number of targets simultaneously, the scheduling efficiency of the general interface will become a bottleneck.

More importantly, the Xuan Nu, White Emperor, and Mingdi Interceptor equipment all share the same set of Quantum Radar data. The fire control system must be able to perform collaborative allocation between multiple platforms—who shoots first, who shoots later, who is responsible for the finishing blow—it cannot be chaotic.

"Exchange."

[Ding! Consumed 280,000 main skill points; core technology unlocked!]

[System prompt: Supporting auxiliary technologies have not yet been exchanged, including: fire control system integration blueprints, target recognition algorithm library, Quantum fire control calibration scheme, fire control unit design; total exchange points: 60,000.]

[Current host main skill point balance is sufficient; do you want to exchange?]

"Exchange all."

[Ding! Consumed 60,000 main skill points.]

Four sets of technical frameworks flooded into his consciousness space.

Quantum precise positioning performed a dimension-reduction compression on the detection data of the Global Deep Space Quantum Radar, extracting the four-dimensional vectors of the target's position, velocity, acceleration, and turning intent from the massive point cloud in real-time, with an accuracy two orders of magnitude higher than the general interface.

Cross-domain target locking solves the problem of multiple platforms fighting over targets.

With 300 Xuan Nu, White Emperor, and Mingdi Interceptor units, all equipment shares a single fire control network. Each target is only assigned to the unit in the optimal firing position, avoiding repeated shooting and missed targets.

Multi-weapon collaborative fire control elevates the switching decision-making power between particle beam and laser modes from a single-unit level to a swarm level, with the Deep Space Main God AI uniformly scheduling which units use particle beams, which use lasers, and which pause fire during the switching transition period.

Su Che digested this for nearly five minutes.

He expanded the technical documentation on the main screen and pulled over the keyboard.

R&D cycle: six days.

The core of this line lies in the intersection zone between Academician Li Zhengyang and Academician Qian Zhenhua.

He picked up his handheld device and dialed two numbers.

"Academician Li, new job, Quantum fire control specialization, you lead the attack."

There was a pause of two seconds on the other end of the line.

"I'm in the cafeteria, just ate the first bite of noodles."

"Come after you finish eating; these ten minutes aren't urgent."

He made the second call to Academician Qian Zhenhua.

"Academician Qian, deep coupling between fire control and the Quantum Radar, you provide the interface."

"Done."

Academician Qian Zhenhua always used only one word when hanging up the phone.

Su Che put down the handheld device and started building the underlying modules on the system integration framework of the Quantum fire control.

In the corner of the main screen, the countdown to the arrival of the sentry ship hung quietly.

79 days.