Chapter 122 Rescue (I)

Rose: “…”

Rose was slightly startled: "Are you the driver?"

"You haven't even seen the design of this old-fashioned starship." She shook her head. "The starship's performance is poor. Its response speed is slow, the power of its lift and thrust engines is low, and its guns are maneuverable and charge-recharging speed is low... Otherwise, we wouldn't have used it during several test runs."

"Although this starship has been modified, no pilot wanted to use it during its previous trials away from base. They felt it was too dangerous and there was no way back."

Mu Baixing: "There's nothing you can't drive." He said calmly, "Even the oldest model will do."

Rose was about to say something, but when she looked up and met Mu Boxing's gaze, she was stopped by the aura in his eyes and subconsciously swallowed the discouraging words in her mouth.

*

"This is the location of the fifth star in the North Star Region, which is where we are now." A few minutes later, when several people sat in the conference room again, the atmosphere was still depressing.

Rose projected the astrolabe onto the light screen.

She called Vita, who was also the head of the base, back and asked him to listen to Mingyu and Mu Baixing's plan.

"Okay, let's talk about driving that starship." Vita wasn't as knowledgeable about space travel as Rose, and he didn't have a strong sense of the old starship's poor performance, so he wasn't bothered by it. But he still wasn't very interested. He leaned back in his chair and watched the circle of light Rose drew. "It's already this late, and this isn't our first attempt. Let's not mess around, right?"

"The inhabited planets in the Northern Star Region are quite dense, but even if they weren't submerged by the Black Tide, using the previously developed route, even with the fastest starship, it would take at least five days to travel from Planet No. 5 to the Capital Planet." Vita turned to Mingyu. "You said that after the Battle of Dawn, His Majesty Lando risked his life to draw the Star Line. Crossing the Star Line significantly weakens the Black Tide's energy. Plus, the Central Star Region's border troops now maintain outposts at space stations near the Star Line, so we should be able to find rescue once we reach it..."

"But according to what you said, the location of the star line should be near the capital star."

"Who can sail through the Kuroshio for five days? Even without the Kuroshio creatures attacking, the starship's hull's protective layer wouldn't be able to withstand it. Furthermore, the starship we left behind at our base is an older model with questionable engine performance, so the sailing time will be even longer."

"Not to mention that we have no idea where the star line is going."

"The Kuroshio energy concentration outside is too high. All instruments can't operate normally for long periods of time. If you go too far, you'll get lost. This old starship wasn't originally designed for long-distance travel, and the energy storage in the energy compartment is probably not enough for long-distance travel."

Vita looked a little depressed and sighed, "I understand you don't want to sit and wait for death, but this plan is really not feasible..."

"Under normal circumstances, it's indeed not feasible." Mingyu had already finished a whole bag of nutrient solution when he just spoke.

The young man held the empty cup in his hand, undeterred by the question. He looked at Vita and asked seriously, "Do you know about Kuroshio Day?"

"?" Vita looked a little bewildered. "I know the strength of the Kuroshio energy varies from day to day, but what is a Kuroshio Day?"

Rose looked at Mingyu. As a border soldier, she vaguely understood what he meant.

"The black tide's energy occasionally intensifies and erupts outward, appearing to be invading human star regions... I observed this trend when I was a member of the border troops, but it wasn't significant."

"It was like this before." Mingyu recalled the historical changes in the human star field.

Before the outbreak of the Dawn War, the Black Tide Day was not as obvious as it is now. Or perhaps, humanity's safe star zone was larger and far enough away from the core of the Black Tide that they did not notice its expansion.

"Now, when the black tide energy increases, its impact on the human star field... especially the peripheral areas is much greater than before." Ming Yu said succinctly, "The black tide energy will increase significantly on black tide days, crossing the star line and flooding the free star field... the part behind the star line of the northern star field. When the energy intensity is high, it will even spread to the central star field."

"The Black Tide Day isn't a good thing." He held the cup and looked at Vita, "but it can be a help to us."

"With the outward radiating black tide energy, the starship's navigation speed can be greatly increased, and there is no need to worry about getting lost."

"The black tide invading the human star region can help point us in the right direction."

Vita scratched his head and sat up a little straighter.

"How much of a speed increase can you say?" he asked doubtfully. "How much can it reduce the voyage time? Four days, three days, two days?"

"Look at the energy intensity of this Kuroshio Day." Mingyu looked at Rose, then at Vita. "When you talked about the exploratory voyage, you didn't mention the corrosive and radiation problems caused by Kuroshio energy. Have you developed new materials for the starship's protective layer?"

"We did extract something from those Kuroshio creatures and made a new coating," Vita said. "It should be no problem sailing outside for two or three days."

Mingyu gave a thumbs up.

The current protective coating of starships can only sail in the Kuroshio Current for a maximum of three hours, which is a remarkable improvement!

"With luck, we'll be able to cross the star line in a day or two," the young man said optimistically. "Once we reach the free star region and wait for the Black Tide Day to pass, we can use normal navigation star charts to guide our way and request rescue from the outpost."

"I'll see if I can modify your old starship, improve its engine, and increase its speed."

“As the old saying goes, if you try hard, your bicycle will turn into a motorcycle!”

"Don't give up!" Mingyu said with a smile, "What if we succeed this time?"

Vita said nothing.

Shining above the young man's head was the cold, white, artificial light of the base.

For decades, in this underground base, Vita had only seen this color of light. Its illumination was bright enough, but without any warmth.

Like most people in the base, they still tried to survive, but inevitably became dull and exhausted. Maintaining their rationality and composure as human beings almost exhausted all their energy.

In fact, several years ago, Vita was prepared to be trapped and die in the underground base.

However, the smile on the young man's face was very vivid. It was filled with a kind of unyielding and unrestrained spirit, and a bright vitality that he had not seen in many years. Vita was suddenly enlightened.

A long time ago, when they had just hidden in the underground base and tried to drive the starship out of the base to save themselves, they seemed to have such courage on their faces.

Rose's expression shifted, and she looked up and said, "Are you a starship designer?!"

She could hardly believe that the two suspicious people who suddenly appeared in the base had the skills needed to leave the base.

It's like pie in the sky.

"Can you assemble a starship?" Rose asked, taking a step forward. "There is a starship workshop here, but it doesn't have a fully automated manufacturing assembly system..."

Mingyu shook his head and said matter-of-factly, "I can't."

Rose's expression darkened slightly. Just as she was about to speak, she heard Mingyu say with a smile, "But my brother Mu can do it!"

Mingyu remembered clearly that Mu Boxing had originally asked him to help him design and modify the exploration starship in the virtual mining area. That starship was maintained and modified by Mu Boxing himself.

Mu Baixing sat next to him and nodded.

"Let's take a look at the starship first." He stood up, his indifferent tone carrying the aura of a commander that was not strong but could not be ignored.

"According to the forecast, Kuroshio Day will arrive in two days."

"I don't want to waste my time on pointless arguments."

Rose and Vita looked at each other.

"The starport is located on the middle level of the base." The female border soldier finally spoke first. "I'll take you to see it."

The escalator rose rapidly, and when Mingyu arrived at the starport maintenance room, he finally had an idea of ​​the "old starship" that Rose and the others had mentioned.

The starship, which seemed very old from the perspective of fifty years ago, looked more like an antique model in Mingyu's eyes.

"A medium-sized starship converted from a cargo ship?" Ming Yu looked up at the square-shaped gray starship above the starport's orbital track and identified its model at a glance. "It looks like a laboratory cargo ship. It should have been retired long ago, right?"

It seemed that this starship was decommissioned and had not yet been taken to the recycling plant when the black tide broke out, so it was left in the laboratory's starport.

"Yes," Rose nodded. "The designers and maintenance technicians who stayed at the base modified it several times. They added a few more gun barrels to the front and expanded the energy storage tank, but they never touched the starship's engines."

Mingyu stood on the operating console and pulled up the suspension track. Amid the creaking sound of the old mechanical device rising, he bent down to look at the vertical lifting engine of the starship, and then looked at the propulsion engine structure at the rear, and he had an idea in his mind.

"Let's take the engine apart first. This old engine is actually easier to modify than a new one."

Mu Boxing pulled out the operating light screen and operated the robotic arm next to the maintenance room to disassemble the engine.

In the Star Navigation Competition, the maintenance and disassembly of the starships were all performed by Zimao, but Mu Baixing's movements were no slower than Zimao's.

He lowered his eyes, wearing sensor gloves, and slid his fingers across the light screen. His movements were quick, and he didn't seem to be thinking much, and there was no cautious look on his face.

But the huge robotic arm rose as his arm moved, spread out its five fingers, and accurately fastened the engine's snap interface, completing the action without any deviation and without damaging any delicate snap devices.

That looks kind of handsome.

Mingyu wanted to stand by and watch, but he knew time was of the essence, so he turned to Rose and said, "Is there anything in the spare parts room? I want to see what materials are available. I've seen this type of starship before, and it would be quick to modify it if I had the materials."

At this moment, Mingyu once again mentally thanked his professor of starship design history. To prepare for the exam on starship design history, he had carefully reviewed the designs of various starships from the past few hundred years, even memorizing some representative designs specifically for the exam.

And this old cargo starship model is among them.

A typical last-generation transport ship in the North Star Region, it focuses on stability and defensiveness, has a high load capacity, can carry a lot of things, and of course can also accommodate a lot of passengers.

Because it is usually used to transport valuables, this starship has several sets of backup lines inside to prevent crashes caused by damage to starship facilities as much as possible.

However, these redundant systems and conservative designs resulted in slow speed and high energy consumption, so they began to be retired one after another a hundred years ago.

In Mingyu's opinion, this starship is actually quite suitable as their means of transportation to leave the fifth planet.

Just like he said before, if the energy of Kuroshio Day can be used to spread, the problems of energy consumption and speed can be solved.

This starship's multiple redundant systems gave Mingyu ample room for modification: the ship's interior was fully lined with pipes, allowing for rewiring at various integration points to alter the routing. If this were a streamlined scout starship, modifications would require drilling holes and routing cables internally, a truly cumbersome process.

As he thought about this, he walked into the spare parts storage room with Rose.

“Chirp!”

After learning about the situation in the Fifth Star Laboratory, Mingyu confirmed that the surrounding environment was safe, so he relaxed his grip and allowed the bird to stick its head out of his pocket, but he still held it down to prevent it from jumping out of the pocket, for fear that it would get lost in this underground base.

Although the little firebird was overly energetic and always bit Mingyu's fingers with its pointed little beak, it showed great dissatisfaction with this, but it did not struggle violently.

Until Mingyu stepped into the room.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp!" The little brown bird chirped loudly as Rose opened the door. It puffed up its wings and fluttered, trying to jump out of Mingyu's hand. Finding it impossible, it chirped even louder. It looked toward a corner at the far end of the storage room, then jumped up and down anxiously, spewing a stream of tiny flames from its mouth, nearly burning Mingyu's pocket.

Mingyu had never seen Xiaoniao so anxious before.

Under Rose's bewildered gaze, he scooped up the bird and held it in his palm. While struggling to hold it in place with both hands, he turned to Rose and asked blankly, "Excuse me, what's in that storage cabinet in the corner?"