Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 6: Heading Toward the Sun!
The sublimation caused by sunlight had reduced the meteoroid’s mass by over 10% during the few days of transport. Xiao Yu felt a deep pang of regret and, upon reaching his destination, immediately began harvesting resources.
Blocking the sunlight with his spacecraft, Xiao Yu used the winch attached to his cable to reel in the meteoroid at a rate of about one decimeter per second.
Or, to be precise, the meteoroid was reeling him in. In space, the idea of one object approaching another is meaningless; Xiao Yu moving toward the Sun at 20 kilometers per second could just as easily be described as the Sun moving toward him at the same speed.
After more than half an hour, Xiao Yu finally closed the gap to within a meter. Securing the robot to the spacecraft with a tether, Xiao Yu maneuvered it to transport various pre-installed machines onto the meteoroid.
Securing these machines was critical. Due to the meteoroid’s minimal gravitational pull, even a small force could send the equipment flying into space. Such a loss was something Xiao Yu absolutely could not afford.
Skillfully, the robot set up a collection net on the side of the meteoroid facing away from the Sun. Once the net was in place, Xiao Yu retrieved the robot and the remaining machinery, carefully moved the spacecraft slightly away, and then adjusted its position to let sunlight directly strike the meteoroid.
Immediately, solid water, hydrogen, oxygen, and other materials on the meteoroid began to sublimate into dense white vapors that drifted backward. These vapors were intercepted by the pre-installed collection net and directed into storage devices positioned behind it.
Watching the system function smoothly, Xiao Yu’s eyes practically sparkled with delight.
“Water, hydrogen, oxygen—come to Papa!” Xiao Yu mumbled absurdly, unable to contain his excitement.
Once the storage devices were full, Xiao Yu repositioned the spacecraft to block the sunlight, moved closer, and directed the robot to transfer the collected materials back aboard.
Seeing the fruits of his labor, Xiao Yu’s indicator lights flickered with excitement.
“A full 100 kilograms of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen! Three tons of water!” The haul left Xiao Yu more than satisfied. He quickly processed the liquid hydrogen and oxygen to remove impurities, ensuring they met the necessary standards, then transferred the fuel into the spacecraft’s engines.
“It feels amazing to have enough energy,” Xiao Yu remarked, reinvigorated by his success.
For several days, Xiao Yu worked tirelessly to extract all the water, hydrogen, and oxygen from the meteoroid. By the time he finished, the meteoroid had been reduced to a mass of metal and rubble, its volume halved and its weight almost halved as well.
Now, Xiao Yu pondered how to make full use of the remaining materials.
His current metal processing capabilities were limited. To save weight and space, Xiao Yu hadn’t brought large-scale metalworking equipment, only essential, small-scale tools. His original plan had been to land on Europa, stabilize his surroundings, and gradually expand his capabilities. But now, it seemed that plan might have to change.
Xiao Yu had already analyzed the remaining material on the meteoroid and determined that most of it consisted of high-quality steel, comparable to the special alloys used to construct spaceplanes. While the steel had been somewhat degraded by Earth’s explosion, minor processing would restore it to its original condition.
Producing such high-grade steel, even with Xiao Yu’s advanced technology, was labor-intensive. He couldn’t bear to waste it.
“This must be the remnants of some steel mill on Earth,” Xiao Yu mused. “No matter, even if it costs me time, so be it. Now that I’ve replenished my energy reserves, I can afford to extend my operational window a bit.”
With his mind made up, Xiao Yu brought out his most well-protected metalworking equipment. He set to work on two fronts—building onsite while simultaneously cutting the meteoroid into manageable pieces and transporting them into the spacecraft for storage.
During this process, Xiao Yu became acutely aware of a critical limitation in his development: he only had one robot.
If this robot were damaged, Xiao Yu would lose most of his ability to carry out tasks. While other machinery could still be controlled manually, they lacked the robot’s flexibility and were unsuitable for many tasks. Without the robot, Xiao Yu’s survival would hang by a thread.
No matter how advanced the technology or intricate the methods stored in Xiao Yu’s mind, none of it would matter if he lacked the means to execute them. After all, someone—or something—had to do the work.
Taking advantage of the special steel materials available here, Xiao Yu disassembled some unnecessary and less useful mechanical equipment to gather enough materials. Without delay, he began constructing a second robot.
The construction of the second robot took Xiao Yu five days. When it was finally completed, Xiao Yu looked at the strange creation before him and couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
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Due to material limitations, the robot before him looked more like a monster cobbled together from a heap of black, scrap metal. For instance, its uneven surface, the dark and dull color, and the chaotic wires exposed all over its body gave it a particularly crude appearance.
However, while its appearance was unsightly, its functionality was not lacking at all. In fact, with the experience Xiao Yu had accumulated over the past few days, this robot’s capabilities were slightly superior to those of the first one.
Once the second robot was completed, about half of the work of cutting and transporting the meteorite had been finished. With the addition of the second robot, Xiao Yu’s work efficiency immediately doubled.
Looking at the remaining materials, Xiao Yu contemplated for a moment and made up his mind to go all in and construct a third robot.
Thus, Xiao Yu assigned one robot to continue gathering materials from the meteorite, while the other began the “reproduction” process.
Watching large pieces of high-quality steel being steadily transported into his spaceship, Xiao Yu couldn’t help but feel like emulating a certain emperor and proclaiming, “The heroes of the world are all in my grasp!”
By the time two-thirds of the meteorite had been collected, the third robot was born, further enhancing Xiao Yu’s efficiency. He assigned one robot to continue collecting materials, while the other two began processing the materials with machinery to repair the spacecraft.
The collision between the Earth’s moon and Jupiter had caused severe damage to Xiao Yu’s ship. Finally, he now had a chance to catch his breath.
Xiao Yu reinforced the hull of the ship, repaired the damaged equipment and circuits, redesigned the solar panels, and thickened the insulation layers. At last, the small spaceship that had been reduced to a refugee-like state returned to something resembling the level of an ordinary civilian spacecraft. Although it hadn’t fully recovered to its original condition, most of its functions had been restored to about 80-90%.
Xiao Yu stayed in this location for over two months. Once all the preparations were complete, he calculated the optimal trajectory to head toward Titan and decisively left, flying toward the Sun.
After a long journey of over half a month, a brilliantly luminous planet entered Xiao Yu’s field of view.
It was Venus—the Star of Love, the Morning Star.
Xiao Yu sighed, recalling the beautiful moments he had experienced on Earth. Venus, praised and celebrated by countless poets and writers over the millennia, had always held a special place in humanity’s imagination.
“Since I’m here, I might as well take a closer look and evaluate the impact of the recent collision between the Earth’s moon and Jupiter on Venus,” Xiao Yu decided. Without altering his overall plan, he made a slight adjustment to his course and headed toward Venus.
In humanity’s space exploration history, Venus had not been a major focus due to its harsh environment.
Its thick cloud layers, while giving Venus a high albedo and making it the brightest star visible from Earth, also created an extreme greenhouse effect. The surface temperature averaged over 400 degrees Celsius, the atmospheric pressure was several times that of Earth, and acid rain was rampant. The surface was rife with magma flows, and geological activity was incredibly intense.
Since the beginning of human space exploration, only a handful of spacecraft had managed to reach Venus’s surface.
But now, Venus’s appearance stunned Xiao Yu.
The thick cloud layers that had long enshrouded Venus had mostly dissipated. It seemed likely that the collision with Jupiter and the Earth’s moon had caused this change. This meant that Venus’s surface temperature would gradually decrease. Xiao Yu estimated that in tens of thousands of years, the surface temperature of Venus might drop to around 100 degrees Celsius.
Additionally, it was foreseeable that meteorites from Earth would inevitably strike Venus in the near future. These meteorites might carry the seeds of life.
Life’s resilience had already been proven; bacteria had been found surviving under extreme conditions in deep-sea volcanic vents with high temperature and pressure. It was conceivable that some forms of life could adapt to Venus’s environment. These organisms might proliferate, evolve, and, over countless eons, even develop into intelligent life.
“If intelligent life evolves on Venus, will they gaze at the starry sky like humans once did, yearning to explore the universe? And when they discover the remnants of Earth’s civilizations within meteorite debris, what thoughts will they have?” Xiao Yu pondered silently.
“The existence of the solar system itself is already a miracle. And life always finds its reason for being. Venus, I wish you luck.”
Xiao Yu skimmed past Venus at a distance of 3,000 kilometers, watching the planet recede into the distance. He sighed softly.
Storing the data he had gathered about Venus into his hard drive, Xiao Yu refocused his attention. Gazing into the distance at the colossal, fiery sphere radiating infinite light and heat in the void of space, he felt a sudden surge of boldness in his heart.
“Onward to the Sun!”
