Chen Hao kicked open the lab door. Still in his diving suit, he slumped into a chair like a soaking wet rag. He was panting heavily, his hands were still trembling, but a grin was on his face.
“That thing can really fly,” he said. “But it almost made me fall apart.”
Nana stood in front of the control panel; the screen was already lit, and the interface cable had automatically popped out, waiting for the thruster to connect. She didn't speak, but simply raised her eyes, her metallic pupils contracting slightly.
Susan peeked out from behind the recorder: "You're still alive? We just saw the signal drop three times."
"It broke and then got back together." Chen Hao patted his chest. "I fixed my own clothes. But... that thruster, if it keeps vibrating like that, my internal organs will mix up on their own before the enemy even has to lift a finger."
Karl leaned closer and touched the outer shell of the thruster; his fingertips immediately turned black.
"Carbon buildup?" He frowned.
“It’s not carbon buildup.” Nana connected the device, and the data stream instantly filled the screen. “It’s resonance residue. When the main motor runs at high frequency, it generates coupled vibrations with the casing, causing material particles to detach.”
On the screen, a red curve kept jumping around, like it was having a cramp.
“The faster this thing runs, the easier it is to shake itself to pieces.” Chen Hao pointed to the diagram. “We’re building a propulsion system, not a massage chair.”
Susan flipped through the log: "Battery life is also unstable. The first half of the time the power consumption was normal, but the second half suddenly spiked, dropping by almost 30%."
"Changes in water flow resistance caused excessive power compensation." Nana pulled up another set of parameters. "The control system misjudged the situation, mistakenly believing it was encountering a strong flow, and automatically increased the output."
"So it not only shook me, but also exerted force recklessly?" Chen Hao grinned. "It's more panicked than I am."
Carl chuckled: "Then shouldn't you teach it to calm down?"
"Why not teach it not to do anything stupid?" Chen Hao pushed the thruster onto the table. "Do you have a way, Nana?"
Nana has already begun disassembling the model. In the holographic projection, the thrusters are peeled away layer by layer, and the parts float in the air, as if being held up by an invisible hand.
“The problem isn’t with the power source,” she said. “The energy conversion efficiency has reached its theoretical limit. The bottleneck lies in the structural design.”
"Speak like a human." Chen Hao grabbed an energy bar and took a bite.
“The current nozzles are too rigid.” She zoomed in on a part of the nozzle, “They can only output at a single frequency and cannot adjust the spray rhythm according to water pressure and flow rate. It’s like a person running; if the shoes don’t fit, no matter how big the steps are, they will still rub your feet.”
"So we need to get it a new pair of shoes?"
"To be precise, it's about teaching it to change its own shoes." She pulled up a new set of drawings, "Referring to the swaying logic of the tail fins of deep-sea fish, we designed a gradient alloy nozzle and used a pulse frequency modulation algorithm to dynamically adjust the thrust frequency."
Susan stared at the picture for a long time: "It sounds like a fantasy."
“But it’s feasible.” Nana nodded. “There are similar cases in the database. An adaptive fluid propulsion system was used in an undersea tunnel project three thousand years ago.”
“Isn’t that just a legend?” Karl asked.
“It’s a forgotten technology,” she said. “Not a myth.”
Chen Hao spat the energy bar crumbs into the trash can: "So we're going to go back to the old ways now? Using our ancestors' things to save our lives?"
“Technology isn’t about being new or old,” Nana said. “It’s about whether it’s suitable or not.”
"Alright." Chen Hao stood up, patted his stomach, "Then hurry up and get to it. I don't want to go down there next time and die from my own shock before I even see the monster."
Nana has already begun modeling. Her fingers glide through the air, and the parts are assembled one by one. Susan is organizing the materials list beside her, while Carl is bringing up the stress simulation program, preparing for subsequent tests.
Three hours later, the first version of the design was completed.
"Printing begins." Nana pressed the confirmation button.
The robotic arm slowly started up, and metal powder condensed layer by layer under the laser, gradually forming a new thruster casing. A faint smell of burning metal filled the air, like sheet metal being roasted over a fire.
Chen Hao leaned against the wall and dozed off, chewing on his second energy bar.
Suddenly, the alarm went off.
"The temperature is too high!" Carl shouted.
Everyone looked up. The readings inside the high-pressure testing chamber were fluctuating wildly, with the core area approaching critical levels.
"Stop the machine!" Chen Hao rushed over and slammed his hand on the emergency stop button.
The machine stopped. The hatch opened, and a rush of hot air hit us.
The thruster casing was reddish and the edges were somewhat deformed.
“The heat dissipation is inadequate,” Susan frowned. “The internal heat can’t escape.”
Nana approached and scanned the area: "The cooling channel design is too narrow. Under high pressure, fluid flow is obstructed, causing heat to accumulate."
"Then widen it?" Carl suggested.
“We can’t simply widen it,” she said. “It would affect the structural strength. We need to redesign the airflow path, add micro heat-conducting fins, and increase the surface area.”
"We still need to use that coating," Chen Hao reminded him. "That black stuff we scraped off from the ruins last time, it's heat-resistant."
“It has been included in the plan.” Nana pulled up the parameters of the new material, “Secondary encapsulation, outer layer sprayed with heat-resistant composite film.”
A new round of revisions has begun.
This time, Nana directly accessed the deep-sea hydrothermal vent pipeline structure diagram from the database. The principle behind these naturally formed mineral pipes, capable of stable flow transmission at 800 degrees Celsius, is multi-stage flow distribution and gradient heat dissipation.
"Change it according to this," she said.
The parts were remodeled, with the flow channels becoming thinner but doubling in number, spreading out like tree roots. The heat-conducting fins are arranged in a spiral pattern, conforming to the curvature of the shell.
“This should work.” Carl watched the simulation animation. “The heat dissipation efficiency has increased by sixty percent.”
"Print the second version," Nana confirmed.
The robotic arm started up again. This time, the process was much quieter.
Five hours later, the new thruster was completed.
The black casing has a matte coating and feels cool and smooth to the touch.
"Let's install it and see." Chen Hao offered his hand.
Nana inserted the thruster into the guide slot on the back of her diving suit, and the interface automatically locked. A system notification sounded: "Device connection normal, preparing for initialization."
"Get into the hyperbaric chamber," Susan said.
They sent the entire set of equipment into the simulation chamber. The program was set to a 400-meter deep-sea environment with a water flow speed of two meters per second and a temperature of minus five degrees Celsius.
start up.
The thruster started moving slowly, and the water began to flow. On the screen, the power curve rose steadily, without peaks or fluctuations.
“Vibration level?” Carl stared at the sensor.
“0.3 units,” Susan read out the data. “The human comfort range is below 0.5.”
What about battery life?
"Under the same power, the expected operating time is extended by 40 percent."
Inside the cabin, the thrusters continued to operate, and the outer shell temperature remained stable at 38 degrees Celsius, with no upward trend.
"Done?" Chen Hao leaned closer to the glass window.
"Preliminary verification has passed," Nana said. "Three more repeated tests are needed to confirm stability."
“Then let’s run it again.” Chen Hao plopped down on the floor. “I’ll keep an eye on it.”
Susan glanced at the time: "You haven't rested for more than a few hours?"
"You went down there and came back up to fall asleep?" He shook his head. "All I can think about now are those glowing umbrellas. They're flashing, like a hypnotic thing."
"Are you scared?" Karl laughed.
“I’m not afraid.” Chen Hao grinned. “It’s just that…it feels like they’re looking at me, not with their eyes, but with the whole sea.”
No one responded.
Nana continued to monitor the data, occasionally swiping her finger across the screen to adjust the sampling frequency.
Two hours later, the second test ended. The results were the same.
"Stability meets the standards," she said.
Chen Hao stood up and stretched his shoulders: "Next time I go down, I can run faster and won't be shaking like a leaf?"
“Theoretically, yes,” Nana said, “but I recommend starting with medium power and observing the actual response.”
"Don't you trust yourself?" He patted her shoulder.
“It’s not that I don’t trust,” she said, “it’s that I don’t trust accidents.”
"With so many unexpected events, it becomes a daily occurrence." He picked up the pusher from the charging stand; it was heavy, but felt very stable in his hand.
"It's fully charged and ready to use anytime," Susan said.
"Then let's wait." Chen Hao put the thruster back on the bracket. "We'll depart next time."
He sat back down in the corner and unpacked the third energy bar. The sound of his teeth biting down was exceptionally clear in the quiet laboratory.
Susan and Carl began compiling the report. Nana entered standby mode, her body drooping slightly, with only the indicator light on her eye still flashing slowly.
Time passed little by little.
Suddenly, Chen Hao looked up.
“Hello,” he said.
Nobody paid him any attention.
“I said,” he raised his voice slightly, “if those glowing things really are some kind of…organization, could they also have their own ‘propulsion systems’?”
Susan put down her pen.
Karl looked up: "What do you mean?"
"They swim so in such perfect unison, so fast," Chen Hao said, chewing his food. "Did they do it with their bare hands? Or... did they have some kind of equipment?"
"You mean, deep-sea creatures might also use technology?" Karl laughed. "Have you been watching too many science fiction movies?"
“I’m not saying they build machines,” Chen Hao shook his head. “I mean, their bodies themselves are tools. Like our diving suits, maybe they are born with a ‘propulsion system’.”
Nana opened her eyes.
“It’s possible,” she said. “Some deep-sea species control water flow through bioelectric fields to achieve efficient movement. If they cooperate as a group, they can indeed achieve a similar effect to mechanical propulsion.”
"So they don't need to build them, they are already here." Chen Hao grinned. "Then, in their eyes, isn't our thruster particularly stupid?"
“Maybe,” Nana said, “but at least we know what we’re doing.”
Chen Hao smiled and stuffed the last energy bar into his mouth.
He stood up, walked to the support frame, and reached out to touch the outer shell of the thruster.
Cool, stable, and fully charged.
He turned to look out the window. Outside the base, the seawater was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything.
But he knew that someone was waiting below.
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