[My new book "Resurrection Empire" has been uploaded. Next, "Savior" will have three days of extra chapters, totaling 18,000 words. Please collect, recommend and vote for my new book! ]

"In three days, we will be able to complete the last step of experimental data calculation of Z particle impact smelting method, and we can leave."

Ou Xiameng stroked the hair by her ears and said with a smile.

She is not tall and has a short ponytail. She has big eyes and delicate and cute facial features, which is somewhat similar to her ancestor Song Siyu. Covered by a loose white coat, Ou Xiameng looks like a precocious little adult.

Although she looks young, only in her twenties, she is actually 1,321 years old, including the time she spent in cryogenic sleep.

As a PhD candidate in the field of natural metal materials, and a professional scholar who can still engage in natural metal research in an era of extremely popular mass-energy conversion, she has almost reached the top of the academic pyramid.

In order to complete her doctoral dissertation and wait for the basic scientific research on the J919 mechanical planet to enter a critical stage where she needs to take action, Ou Xiameng fell into sleep 322 years ago, when humans first set foot on J919, and woke up 3 years ago and arrived here at the same time.

Three years later, Ou Xiameng and more than 3,600 professionals on J919 are conducting the final data verification and are about to reap the fruits of success.

Humans discovered J919 363 years ago and arrived here 322 years ago.

Unlike the big-handed actions on other planets, which only seek to complete development quickly, humans are much more delicate in the exploration of this ultra-dense planet located in the central area of ​​the Andromeda Galaxy.

At first, scholars observed from a distance and believed that the atmosphere of this planet was full of toxic and harmful substances, and the planet with a seriously excessive radiation index should be a lifeless dead star.

Remote scans also showed that there was no organic matter on J919.

But after a closer observation, the scholars were surprised to find that a very complete ecosystem has been formed on J919.

Large tracts of real rust that can expand and grow on their own float on the vast ocean of sky-blue saturated copper sulfate solution.

"Organisms" of various shapes and sizes swim, float, and settle on the seabed. The forms of "organisms" include crystals, metal elements, giant hedgehog-like steel seaweed forests, creeping metal frames like ghost ships...

The situation on land is even more complicated. From a distance, it looks like a garbage dump in a starship cemetery, but up close it is a "vibrant" steel jungle, in which some large or small, fast or slow mechanical creations walk and run, making it very lively.

Although humans have already set foot on many planets dominated by mechanical life, and even had a time-traveling encounter with the perfect half-biological, half-mechanical life of the Mi tribe in the early days, such a perfect and vibrant, extremely pure mechanical life ecosystem that almost covers an entire huge planet is still shocking and unheard of.

The subsequent discovery was even more surprising. On Earth, the source of life is composed of amino acids. There are no amino acids on J919. Instead, there is an extremely wonderful single alloy with life characteristics that can continuously aggregate metal atoms free in the earth and the solution ocean to grow spontaneously.

The metal ecosystem on J919 is built on this special single alloy with extremely strong ductility and self-growth ability.

It is both an amino acid and DNA, but also a metal.

Of course, compared to the complex molecular structure of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, the alloy is a bit simpler. Scholars have not found any traces of intelligent life in the prosperous ecosystem of J919. All the organisms on it are classified as non-intelligent life, that is, the level of instinctive life, which is similar to snails, caterpillars and blue algae on Earth.

After preliminary verification, the special alloy as the source of mechanical life can be used to further improve materials. If humans fully absorb this technology, it can bring about a small innovation in materials science.

At first, scholars found that the special alloy can only be formed naturally through the ecosystem on J919. The content of metal in plants and animals on the planet varies. It can be extracted by smelting the non-intelligent life on the planet, but the mining efficiency is not satisfactory. This does not meet the industrial production needs of humans in the cosmic era.

The goal of the Z particle impact smelting method research that Ou Xiameng participated in was to use the idea of ​​space industrialization to fully develop J919 at the fastest speed, strive to dismantle the entire planet within ten years, and take away all the special alloys for the next step of in-depth research. The fundamental purpose is to thoroughly understand the synthesis method of this new material with extremely high technical level, so as to facilitate the "planting" of new J919 planets in other galaxies in the future and mass-produce more special alloys. After the

tragic destruction of Mercury in the solar system, this is the routine operation of humans to engage in in-depth development of planets. Once you taste the marrow, you will know the taste and never get tired of it.

At this time, near the planet J919, in addition to more than 3,000 scientific teams on the surface and in the deep sea, there are more than 60,000 large unmanned excavation robots waiting quietly in synchronous orbit.

As long as the final data verification of the new smelting method is completed and the feasibility is proved, these more than 60,000 powerful robots will start at full capacity and will be able to dismantle the entire planet within a month. In eight years at most, J919 will be divided into tens of millions of parts and taken away by the transport ships that arrive later. Among them, except for the special alloys that account for tens of millions of parts by mass, the rest are conventional substances that make up the planet. With the current level of technology mastered by humans, most of these things can be used, which can save a lot of processes. Although mass-energy conversion is omnipotent, it is always worthwhile to save one step in the synthesis process.

...

After hearing what Ou Xiameng said, Liang Zhichu's eyes flashed across her face, stayed for about 0.1 seconds, and then quickly turned away, revealing only a silly smile, scratching his head and saying: "This is still your credit, Dr. Ou. Originally, everyone thought it would take another seven or eight years to complete the verification. After you came, the project progressed a lot faster."

Ou Xiameng rolled his eyes at him, "If it was my mentor who came, it would be even faster."

"Yeah. You are always so humble." Liang Zhichu's heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and he said with a smile.

"Okay, work." Ou Xiameng turned his attention back to the projection, watching the mathematical calculation process flashing quickly on it, and a sense of arrogance that was not easy to be detected gradually emerged on his face.

This is indeed her credit.

Due to the special nature of the material, the calculation of the smelting method cannot be simulated using a quantum network and must be combined with actual experiments.

Behind each calculation process, there is a remote unmanned experiment for verification.

When Ou Xiameng arrived at the site three years ago, she combined the data from the field investigation and spent a month to redesign the experimental plan, refining the details of the process, greatly improving the progress of the work on the entire planet, and also establishing her personal prestige.

In this scientific research team, even the rigid and strict team leader Nur Ahong Suritang respects Ou Xiameng very much.

…

It takes 18 hours and 33 minutes for J919 to rotate once. So the night on this planet is relatively short, only less than eight hours. But because J919 is located in the central area of ​​the Andromeda Galaxy, the star density is high, and the atmosphere is thin and cloudless. Under the shining of the starry sky, there is no real night on J919, it is just slightly darker than the day.

In order to maintain the biological clock of human beings from the earth, each base usually closes the windows at night to create an artificial night indoors.

...

After a busy day, Liang Zhichu returned to his dormitory. As an assistant researcher with a formal position, Liang Zhichu has a single dormitory with an indoor area of ​​more than 70 square meters in the base.

He lay on his back on the bed, holding a half-opened 300-page hardcover notebook in his left hand and a pen in his right hand, writing on it in a rare and fluent hard-tipped pen calligraphy: "There are only three days left to complete the project. Based on my understanding of Dr. Ou, she will definitely be transferred back to the Academia Sinica after completing her work on J919. After this farewell, I don't know when we will see each other again. I still don't have the courage to confess, and I still dare not tell her that the inspiration for my undergraduate thesis came from the project she completed when she was in high school. My admiration for her makes me so nervous that I can't speak even if I just look at her from a distance. Three years have passed, and it's still the same. I really want to know her freezing code, and then turn on the freezing at the same time as her. Otherwise, there are only two endings for me. When I am frozen, she will have lived her life. Or when she wakes up, I will have turned into dry bones..."

Snap! Liang Zhichu closed the notebook, stood up, and put the gold-plated notebook on the bookshelf in the living room.

This is his "little secret". The notebook contains the "Secret Love Diary" that he has written intermittently over the past three years.

In an era when almost no one uses handwriting, Liang Zhichu maintains this traditional and ancient personal habit, writing down what he thinks in his heart by hand, recording it on paper full of historical flavor. It is very ceremonial and can comfort his beating and uneasy heart. Moreover, unlike the data stream storage carrier that needs to be synchronized to the quantum network, things written by hand on paper are more private and more at ease.

But he put the notebook in the living room again, conspicuously placed on the bookshelf. He would occasionally fantasize that if Ou Xiameng came to visit his dormitory one day and took this book off the bookshelf, he would no longer have to find the courage to confess.

People are so contradictory.

Back in the bedroom, Liang Zhichu rolled up the quilt and fell asleep.

...

I don't know when it started, but the sky was covered with a layer of hazy gray fog, which looked like some cities on the mother planet Earth when sandstorms broke out in the early 21st century.

These gray fogs are not specific climate phenomena in a certain area, but appear over the entire planet at almost the same time.

0.5 seconds later, a shrill alarm sounded at the No. 117 Research Station in the Tara Basin.

Ou Xiameng, who had just fallen asleep, immediately jumped out of bed, dressed as quickly as possible, and rushed out.

After a minute and a half, all the staff members of the No. 117 Research Station appeared in the lobby of the base's central control room.

In addition to Ou Xiameng, Liang Zhichu and team leader Nur Ahong, there were three other people in the research station.

They were Siceta Roy, a professional soldier with a flamboyant personality, tall stature and bronze skin. In addition to being responsible for the base's security work, he also served as the driver of a small fast armed ship.

Matsuda Masahito, a senior miner with a bad temper, who seemed to dislike everyone, behaved sinisterly, and was thin and brave.

Samantha Swan is a plump person who likes to wear relatively revealing clothes, revealing a large area of ​​white hair. She is passionate about everyone and is always cheerful. She is responsible for taking care of the daily life and medical needs of everyone in the base. She maintains a certain physical relationship with Sicetta and Matsuda Masahito at the same time. It is not only a work content, but also a physical need, and perhaps mixed with a little emotional factors.

At this time, the group is rapidly advancing their respective work according to their pre-division of labor in the emergency.

Team leader Nur Ahong is rushing in front of the control console.

He has opened the manual control panel that has not been opened for a long time.

The old-fashioned LCD display inside is showing the words "the backup system is reactivated."

After a short while, Nur Ahong said, "Our quantum communication with the outside world has been greatly interfered with. I just tested all the backup communication facilities such as gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves, and they have all failed. The base's intelligent computer subsystem has also stopped working, and now we can only use the most primitive mechanical devices. The backup system uses the miniaturized circuit semiconductor chip that I made for personal interest, but it has no data storage capacity. If I remember correctly, this kind of phenomenon has not occurred in the Empire for nearly 20,000 years."

Ou Xiameng and Liang Zhichu also had gloomy faces. The two of them just checked the experimental data, and it was completely impossible to retrieve it. The experimental auxiliary intelligence also stopped working inexplicably.

The two only rescued a metal plate engraved with special tree mesh symbols. These metal plates are the base backup of experimental data, using the symbolic language of the mechanical civilization Mi.

Sicetta reported: "I have good news here. The base has not been locked by long-range weapons. The data fragments obtained briefly before the instrument failed show that there are no uncontrolled war devices on J919." "

The question now is, if we can't restore contact with other bases, what should we do next?" Samantha looked very worried.

Ou Xiameng groaned, "The situation is unclear now, maybe we should evacuate in time."

Nur Ahong: "According to the provisions of Section 1, Article 2 of the Andromeda Scientific Expedition Safety Regulations, as grassroots personnel, when we encounter emergencies, we should first try to solve the problem by ourselves, and at the very least, we should collect more information before considering leaving. The current situation should be classified as a first-level anomaly. If we can find the initial cause of the anomaly, we can at least get a B-level evaluation. Then, when we return to our residence, we can at least be promoted to a second-level citizen."

Matsuda Masahiro immediately became interested: "What's there to say? I just checked, and my armored tunneling machine can still be started in mechanical mode. Now I'm going to go out for a walk."

"Wait, let's try to check all the equipment first, then try to restore contact with other bases, and then make a decision." Nur Ahong suppressed the impulsive Matsuda Masahito.

Masahito Matsuda shook his head in dissatisfaction, "It's obvious that we can't get in touch, why bother? You guys think about your own things, I'm going out on my own and it won't affect you."

It was obvious that he was only a third-class citizen at the moment and was eager to make a contribution.

After saying that, Masahito Matsuda turned and walked out, as if he was going straight to his own tunnel boring machine room.

"Stop! Idiot." Sicetta grabbed his shoulder from behind, "You should obey the arrangements of the team leader. When the situation becomes complicated and unknown, obeying the decisions of superiors is the only way to simplify the situation."

"Asshole! You just want to stop me from making money! I'm a professional tunnel boring machine operator. I've already driven my Yamato around J919 twice! No one knows J919 better than me. There is no danger outside!"

The two started fighting.

Others were not surprised.

In the past few years, Sicetta and Masahito Matsuda would fight each other every few days in the base, as if they both had endless energy.

No one else came up to dissuade them.

As a professional soldier, Sicetta wore a transformable biochemical combat suit all day long. If the combat suit was turned on, he could subdue Matsuda in one thousandth of a second. Of course, according to military regulations, and also out of some bad taste, he would not use the power of the combat suit to deal with Matsuda, but only relied on his slightly stronger physical strength to fight with him. If the situation got out of control, he would rely on the power of the combat suit to quickly end the dispute without hurting Matsuda.

...

Nearly nine hours of daylight passed in a flash, and the team's efforts did not make much progress. Still unable to contact the outside world, they can only rely on the most primitive broadcast signals to transmit some extremely difficult-to-recognize Morse code-like signals.

However, since Morse code is too old, no one in the scientific expedition team has mastered it. In the past, if these old data were needed, they could be queried in real time through the seamless quantum network. Now, even the most powerful scientific researchers are caught off guard and unprepared after suddenly losing the information support of the quantum network.

As for the various spare equipment in the base, all the sophisticated equipment involving modern technology cannot be used. Only the power train of the small fast weapon ship used to leave the planet can still be used. Although without the help of the intelligent assisted driving system, it can only rely on manual operation to complete the take-off and escape from the planet's gravity, but with Sicetta's driving skills, it is still feasible. In addition, there are a few weapons that can also be used, but without the assistance of the intelligent computer, aiming becomes more difficult, but firing is still no problem.

Although they still don't understand the situation, after confirming that they can leave safely and that they still have certain armed capabilities, the pressure in everyone's hearts suddenly decreases a lot. Only Matsuda Masahito is very dissatisfied with wasting a day.

In the scientific expedition team, Ou Xiameng was originally a first-class citizen, Liang Zhichu and the team leader were originally second-class citizens. Sicetta is a professional soldier in the regular army and doesn't care about the citizen level. Samantha, who is only a fourth-level citizen, is not very ambitious. Otherwise, she would not have devoted herself to studying traditional cooking skills and become the life assistant of this scientific expedition team just because of her personal preference in an era when the food synthesis industry is extremely mature.

Matsuda Masahito is just an intermediate tunneling pilot, and his professional skills have reached the peak of his life. If there is no special opportunity, he will be locked up as a third-level citizen for his whole life. He believes that Nur Ahong's conservatism and Siceta's inexplicable hostility have hindered his progress in achieving a breakthrough in life.

But Matsuda didn't say anything more after all. He didn't rest much during the day, and he had to sleep to stay energetic.

Nur Ahong decided to allow Matsuda to drive the tunnel boring machine out early tomorrow morning, and he also had to take a handwritten letter with him, so that he could re-establish contact with other scientific research stations and exchange information. As for the paper and ink for writing the letter, Liang Zhichu provided them, and he tore off two pages from his notebook.