The modestly sized central control cabin held nearly twenty people, making it slightly crowded. Even so, no one felt that it was small.
As part of a spacecraft, this was only one of its six main compartments, yet it was already exceptionally large.
The first thing they saw upon entering the control cabin was a platform.
The platform had obvious mechanical components, as though something were hidden inside. It was fitted with various indicator lights, about one and a half meters in diameter and waist-high, embedded into the floor. Beside it was a control console. Judging from the button sections and labels, it controlled one of the compartments.
The others found relatively convenient places to stand and watched curiously as Chen Mo walked over.
"This is the aircraft's energy source."
Chen Mo pressed a button and entered his fingerprint and password.
In an instant, the bright silver metal cover atop the platform spread apart like a turbofan, and a transparent glass cylinder as thick as a calf slowly rose up.
Both ends of the glass cylinder were secured by intricate mechanical structures, like the two poles of a battery. It was filled with a clear, deep-blue liquid, and in the middle floated a pale-purple polyhedral crystal the size of a goose egg. The crystal was fixed by thumb-thick conduits connected to both ends, making it resemble a battery.
There were eight such "batteries," arranged in a circle within the platform.
"This is the Energy Battery," Chen Mo said.
There was no need to hide it. Some things should have been revealed once the Spaceplane and Ion Engine appeared.
While developing the Spaceplane, he had already considered the day when these technologies would be displayed before others.
"Impossible."
Several experts cried out almost simultaneously.
Could crystals no larger than goose eggs