Great Construction

"Are we still doomed to extinction? If so, what's the point of working hard now?" Upon hearing this news, some pessimists immediately found it hard to bear.

"That depends on the reserves of fission minerals on Callisto. As long as Callisto has sufficient deposits of uranium, plutonium, thorium, and other minerals, we can hold on until the cosmic dust cloud thins out," Xu Zhenyi answered meticulously.

Would they have to remain on Callisto for centuries, perhaps even hundreds of years? And what if the reserves were insufficient? Would they all die together on Callisto? A wave of pessimism began to spread.

"What if—I mean, what if—we can achieve Controlled Nuclear Fusion within thirty years? The old Earth could do it, so there's no reason we can't!" A young researcher's words dispersed the spreading gloom.

Xu Zhenyi shifted the backside he had used for forty-three years, then looked deeply at the researcher and said in an extremely serious tone, "I participated in the Room-Temperature Superconductivity project, and I was fortunate enough to take part in the development of many core technologies. Although I later came to Callisto, that was only during the last ten years."

"Doesn't that mean we're at most ten years behind the old Earth in this field?"

"You could say that." Xu Zhenyi answered confidently.

But the problem was that nearly all the core technologies for Magnetic Confinement Nuclear Fusion had been lost. Callisto had no physicists or engineers who had worked on that field and been leading figures in it.

It was far too difficult.

Only then did everyone realize that their group had not fully inherited the technological achievements of humanity on the old Earth.

That was inevitable. After all, Callisto Base had not been designed to preserve Human Civilization. It could not possibly have everything.

"There will always be a way when the cart reaches the mountain." Yue Yuan spoke up at this moment and continued, "Since there is hope of recovering Room-Temperature Superconductivity, then we should research it. Technologies are interconnected. We've only lost part of our technology, not all of it.

"We may not have scientists who participated in Magnetic Confinement Nuclear Fusion projects, but we still have all the theory. Aside from the core technical materials, we have records of everything else.

"Just as that young man said, the old Earth could do it, so there's no reason we can't! I believe we will overcome this crisis!"

Although Yue Yuan did not offer any specific solution, his words had a calming effect.

"That's right. We will definitely overcome this crisis."

Everyone encouraged themselves in turn.

That was simply how it was. The same words, spoken by different people, could have entirely different effects.

Although this expanded meeting never came up with a concrete solution for Controlled Nuclear Fusion, it still settled many matters.

For example, the establishment of the New Human Government; the passage of the "lying flat" bill; the direction of the great construction effort; and the decision that humanity needed to leave Callisto in search of a new star. Many other scattered matters concerning the entire civilization were also decided one by one.

For example, they confirmed their name: Human Civilization.

Not New Human Civilization, because this group believed they carried the hopes of Earth's humanity and would forever take pride in their predecessors. Therefore, there was no need to add the word "new" to distinguish themselves.

For the same reason, Human Civilization did not adopt a new calendar, instead continuing to use the Common Era calendar.

Some had actually proposed switching to the New Era calendar. Their reasoning sounded quite lofty: humanity had just emerged from Callisto Base like mammals gaining new life after the dinosaur extinction, so the day they emerged should be recorded as Year One of the New Era.

Others proposed using the Yellow Emperor Calendar. That suggestion had considerable support, since most of them were from the Zhonghua Family, but in the end, the assembly still chose to continue using the previous Common Era calendar.

The reason? Now that almost everyone left was from the Zhonghua Family, couldn't they be a little more generous? Humanity was one whole. There was no need to change everything just for the sake of changing it.

In the time that followed, Yue Yuan was either organizing all kinds of meetings or on his way to deal with policy documents.

One major decision after another that would determine the future direction of Human Civilization was finalized. New Callisto construction projects moved from paper to construction one after another, while hypotheses about the cosmic background began to brew in such an environment.

Under the leadership of a single unquestioned voice, humanity, facing the threat of extinction, erupted with extraordinary strength and turned Callisto into a bustling construction site.

Exploration robots flew out from the base one after another. The blue flames they sprayed were like fireflies in the night against the utter darkness of Callisto, transmitting all kinds of post-disaster information back to humanity.

Surface images, thermal imaging, mineral distribution characteristics, reserves. In addition, these small machines temporarily served as early Network Nodes, providing precise positioning for engineering teams heading out to mine.

After that, all kinds of collection robots went into action.

The post-disaster environment of Callisto was vastly different from before. It had changed from a frigid satellite into a temporarily scorching world, so engineers modified these mining machines to adapt to its current conditions.

Their original rubber wheels were replaced with more heat-resistant tracks. Other sensor equipment, mining cutters, and circuit designs were also adjusted accordingly.

Gradually, the outlines of industrial structures reappeared on the desolate Callisto.

The first power station, the first steel smelter, the first chemical raw-material workshop, the first supporting-parts factory. Amid the constant work of all kinds of engineering machinery, industry returned to the surface of Callisto, and the dawn of Human Civilization once more ignited out of the darkness.

From mineral extraction to raw-material processing, from raw-material processing to parts assembly, from parts assembly to finished products leaving the factory. Primary-material processing, byproduct extraction—industrial production lines resumed operation one after another.

Steel produced by smelting plants was hauled into various secondary processing factories, where it became batches of alloys with different properties. It was then transported to precision processing workshops and turned into specialty steel, alloy steel, composite materials, and all kinds of components.

Secondary ores and other byproducts generated during smelting likewise flowed into various chemical plants, which produced batches of organic materials, inorganic materials, and all kinds of waste gases.

During this process, plastics and synthetic rubber were also manufactured in chemical plants.

The moment a brand-new robot emerged from an automated machinery factory, humanity's industrial power began to grow like a snowball. Machines produced machines, and those machines went on to mine more mineral resources to produce still more machines.

After three years of fervent infrastructure construction, humanity finally raised its foot toward the stars once again—the Orbital Mass Accelerator project officially began construction.

Because Callisto's escape velocity was only 2.4 km/s and its surface Gravitational Acceleration only 1.24 m/s², and because air resistance did not need to be considered, the orbital mass accelerator built on Callisto was far smaller in scale than one on Earth.

Moreover, the current Orbital Mass Accelerator was mainly intended for cargo transport, so the lengthy track required to account for the limits of human tolerance to Gravitational Acceleration could be omitted.

This undoubtedly greatly reduced the difficulty of construction.

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