My Mouth Had Gone So Bland Birds Could Fly Out
They traveled in silence, returning from the Sixth Disk where the Neutrino Communicator was located to the Fifth Disk, and then headed straight for the Armed Forces Department's canteen.
The canteen is actually a cabin, but it utilizes the entire suspension module. A single floor of a suspension module has a total area of 180 square meters. Because the Fifth Disk is the concentration of military, political, scientific research and office space, the canteen is also very large, with a total of 15 floors. The canteen of the Armed Forces Department is on the 15th floor, which is closest to the inner circle. The other five floors are used to store food. After all, this is the design of the large cylindrical spaceship, so it is impossible to have an entire large canteen.
Since it was past lunchtime, there were hardly any people when the two took the elevator to the canteen. However, the canteen on the Hope was not staffed by human chefs. Robots handled everything from ingredient preparation to cooking, with humans only participating in a small part of the process.
After arriving at the cafeteria, Yue Yuan casually ordered a few steamed buns, two fish-flavored artificial protein pancakes, and a bowl of vegetable soup. Man Yuemei, on the other hand, ordered a few cabbage-filled buns, a Soup of the Day, and a cup of dairy products.
This was the food on the Hope. Most of the meat was replaced with artificial protein. The scientists doing food research tried their best to make more artificial proteins with different flavors, but compared with real meat, the taste was still far inferior.
Since the technology for artificially synthesizing starch is quite mature, and humans have previously propagated and stored related fermentation enzymes, there is no need to worry about staple food issues as long as there is sufficient energy and Carbon Dioxide.
However, the scarcity of food varieties remains an unresolved issue, and food research scientists have dreamt countless times of humanity encountering a Life Planet.
The same was true for the people on the Hope. Every day at mealtimes, the most common thing said in the canteen was, "My mouth is so bland it's like a bird's nest."
Yue Yuan carried the food box to a seat by the window, then used voice commands to open the heavy alloy curtains, revealing a thick, round, special translucent glass panel.
Outside the glass is the outer space.
While waiting for Man Yuemei to approach, Yue Yuan glanced out the window. There were no stars, only a red-glowing star slowly moving towards the bottom of the window.
At this distance, the star appears very small to the naked eye and is not dazzling at all, looking like a bright red disc set against the dark sky.
"What are your plans?" Seeing that Man Yuemei had taken her seat opposite him, Yue Yuan looked away, picked up a steamed bun, and took a bite.
"I want three ships!" Man Yuemei swallowed a mouthful of steamed bun and held up three fingers.
"How so?" Yue Yuan raised his eyelids slightly.
"Three ships: one transport ship and two transport boats." Man Yuemei took off her military cap and placed it on the left side of the dining table, then tidied her hair. "The transport ship has been converted into a living environment for the Moke Star People, with a hydrogen bomb inside that is triggered when the signal is interrupted. 'Silver Mist' has the ability to block our signals, so the triggering device needs to be equipped with a mechanical structure. As long as the signal is blocked, the hydrogen bomb will be triggered immediately. This is a precautionary measure."
"The other two transport ships will be used to transport the 'Mining Area Patrol's' belongings. Since that guy said he has a base, there must be a lot of good stuff inside. We'll take it all. We'll also deploy hydrogen bombs on these two transport ships. If the situation changes, we'll have to blow them all up."
At this point, Man Yuemei paused for a moment. She picked up a dairy product from the table, took a sip, and ate a slightly dry bun before continuing, "Besides that, we must also make a backup plan. After all, the Moke Star Civilization is more than one level above us. If all of this is a hoax, there might be ways we don't know that could prevent us from detonating the hydrogen bomb."
"Therefore, I believe that simply deploying hydrogen bombs on transport ships and cargo ships is not enough. We must add another layer of protection by deploying 10,000 hydrogen bombs with a yield of 100 megatons each in planetary orbit. If the hydrogen bombs on the three ships fail to detonate, we will have the hydrogen bomb devices in orbit change course and bombard Ross 154 with orbital hydrogen bombs. Meanwhile, we can take advantage of this time to set sail and leave this Star System. The Neutrino Communicator seems to be working fine. If possible, we should have the relevant experts add neutrino signal triggering devices to those 10,000 hydrogen bombs. It's always good to have an extra layer of protection."
Ten thousand hydrogen bombs with a yield of one hundred million tons. This woman really dares to dream. Where would humanity get so many hydrogen bombs right now? Yue Yuan thought to himself as he listened to Man Yuemei's words.
However, he also realized that Man Yuemei did not think that humans should immediately send a transport ship to help the Mining Area Patrol escape, but should make sufficient preparations first, which coincided with his own thoughts.
Furthermore, she mentioned setting sail to leave this Star System, which means that she believes that if humanity is to carry out a rescue operation, it must ensure that it has the ability to escape.
This aligns with Yue Yuan's thinking: humanity will not launch a rescue operation until it masters Controlled Nuclear Fusion. In any case, that Mining Area Patrol has persisted for over 20,000 years; surely waiting a few more years won't matter.
"That's settled then. I'll have the Engineering Department set up a special team to handle the deployment of the hydrogen bombs. But ten thousand is too many. If we make that many hydrogen bombs, we won't be able to do anything else. Two thousand at most." Yue Yuan munched on his artificial protein biscuit, and seeing that Man Yuemei had no objections, he changed the subject and said, "I didn't expect you to also think that the Mining Area Patrol are problematic."
Man Yuemei finished the last bite of her steamed bun, shook her head, and said slowly, "It's not that. I just think aliens are unbelievable. Our ancestors once said: 'Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts.' If this is true of other races, how much more so of aliens!"
Setting down his soup bowl, Yue Yuan looked at Man Yuemei, who was wiping her mouth with a napkin, and nodded, saying, "That's true, but the risk is worthwhile. If all of this is true, the benefits we will gain are unimaginable. You can tell by how excited those scientists are."
"I won't be attending the exchange meeting with the Moke Star People this afternoon." Man Yuemei didn't respond to Yue Yuan's words, then picked up her cutlery and stood up.
"Okay." Yue Yuan also stood up, picked up the tableware, and placed it on the nearby sanitary table.
Anyway, what follows is just arguing with the Mining Area Patrol, it has nothing to do with her, so it's better to let her go back and carry out the hydrogen bomb deployment work.
The two walked out of the canteen. Man Yuemei headed towards the Armed Forces Department, while Yue Yuan first returned to the Supreme Military Headquarters to issue a formal approval to the Armed Forces Department before heading to the Neutrino Communicator cabin.
When Yue Yuan arrived, the group of scientists and scholars were already there and engaged in discussion, presumably because the Mining Area Patrol had already replied to the message.
"So, what did that Mining Area Patrol say?" Yue Yuan asked directly after sitting down at the head of the conference table.
"He/She said she didn't know." Zhao Youqin answered while having 'Tianhe Light' display the Mining Area Patrol's answer again on the big screen.
(P. S.: Please give me some money, my readers. It's almost 200,000 words. Those who are supporting the book can start reading now.)