Steam

At Base One's current state, growing crops was clearly impossible.

First, Li Qingsong needed a stable source of heat to keep the interior of Base One at a sufficiently warm temperature.

Second, Li Qingsong needed a stable source of electricity. After all, there was no sunlight on Luoshen Star, and it still needed the illumination of Sunlight Lamps.

And Sunlight Lamps were major power consumers.

Neither of these needs could be met by the fission reactor aboard the Landing Spaceship. There was too little fission fuel left; once it was used up, it would be gone.

He had to find a way to obtain an energy supply from Luoshen Star itself.

All twelve of Li Qingsong's brains began thinking at once.

"Then I'll build the simplest Steam Turbine. I can use it to drive a generator and produce electricity. At the same time, the waste heat can be reused and fed into the base through pipes to raise its temperature."

Thus, the two bodies remaining aboard the Deep Space immediately began studying Steam Turbines, while two other clones started shuttling between the Deep Space and Luoshen Star's surface, bringing down all sorts of necessary materials and parts.

The remaining eight clones each boarded one of the only two Planetary Rovers and began speeding across Luoshen Star's dim terrain, which glimmered with a dark red sheen.

They were searching for and collecting minerals that would be needed later.

The principle of a Steam Turbine was simple: burn fuel to produce high-pressure steam, then use that high-pressure steam to drive a generator and produce electricity.

But simple principles were difficult to put into practice. The two clones on Luoshen Star's surface went to great lengths before they barely managed to assemble a Steam Engine using the available tools and materials.

This Steam Engine had two layers, inner and outer. The inner layer consisted of a Combustion Chamber and boiler like those of an ordinary Steam Engine, while the outer layer consisted of two independent Thawing Rooms.

Each Thawing Room was connected to the outside through its own feed inlet.

While the Steam Engine was being built, the other clones did not sit idle either.

They busied themselves dismantling the generator that had originally been connected to the Nuclear Fission Reactor aboard the Landing Spaceship, then linked it to the Steam Engine with gears and belts.

At the same time, clones brought a large number of pipes from the Deep Space—some leather, some metal.

These pipes, only a few centimeters in diameter, were all connected together and laid across the floor of Base One like Floor Heating Pipes.

Their inlet and outlet were also connected to the Steam Engine.

By the time they finished all this, the clones who had gone out to collect minerals returned in their Planetary Rovers.

Each of the two cargo beds carried minerals that were either transparent, milky white, dark red, or pale blue.

After the two loads were unloaded, the temporary Fuel Storage Point was completely filled.

"Then... the first ignition begins!"

Li Qingsong made the decision with solemn gravity. The two clones each picked up a piece of ore—one dark red, Tholin; the other pale blue, Solid Oxygen—and fed them through the two feed inlets into the Thawing Rooms.

Heat temporarily diverted from the fission reactor was transferred into the Steam Engine's Thawing Rooms, causing these substances, frozen into hard solids by the extreme cold, to slowly melt and gradually turn into gas.

Once the gas concentration reached a certain level, the two different gases broke through the many preset barriers and entered the Combustion Chamber.

With the appearance of an electric spark, the mixture of the two gases immediately began to burn fiercely.

Inside the boiler, water frozen into solid ice slowly began to melt under the heat, turning into liquid before gradually beginning to boil.

Feeling the slight vibrations produced by the Steam Turbine as the water boiled, Li Qingsong's heart filled with joy.

The water had boiled. Steam began pouring out continuously, and the pressure steadily increased.

Once the pressure became great enough, the heavy rotor was finally forced into motion, beginning to turn reluctantly. The force of that rotation traveled through the mechanical structure to the generator, and at last, an electric current appeared.

Ahead, the Lighting Lamps inside Base One, which had been pitch-black after its power supply was cut off, finally lit up, bringing light back to this dark planet.

But that was not the full extent of the changes.

As chunk after chunk of Solid Oxygen and Tholin was fed in, heated, melted, and burned, the steam that had finished doing work on the rotor but still retained immense heat traveled through the pipe connected to it and extended into Base One's "Floor Heating Pipes."

The ground of Base One, which had long since cooled again, began heating up once more. Oxygen, nitrogen, and other substances that had turned back into snowflakes due to the extreme cold began melting and rising again.

Base One, which had shriveled up, began expanding again as these gases appeared, eventually returning to its original state.

The cooled steam then returned through the ends of the pipes to the Steam Engine, where it was heated again, did work again, and was then drawn into Base One, cooling itself while also raising Base One's temperature.

Looking at this entire organically integrated system operating smoothly, Li Qingsong's heart was full of joy.

With this Steam Engine, he now had a stable source of electricity.

As for fuel, Li Qingsong was not worried in the slightest.

Billions of years of evolution and accumulation had left enough Tholin on Luoshen Star's surface—perhaps as much as a quadrillion tons in total. He could use it freely and never run out.

There were also many Solid Oxygen deposits on Luoshen Star to serve as oxidizer. Once they ran out, he could simply mine more.

At this moment, the temperature inside Base One was still relatively low, only around 0 Celsius. But that was fine. Li Qingsong knew it was because the Steam Engine was not yet operating at full power.

There was not much demand for electricity for the time being, so there was no need for the Steam Engine to run at full power. Otherwise, the extra electricity generated would simply go to waste.

With the Steam Engine completed, the clones became busy once more.

They repeatedly took the Landing Spaceship back and forth between the Deep Space and Base One, dismantling all the equipment from the spaceship's Planting Area and bringing it to Base One.

A piece of Grinding Equipment was brought over as well.

Once the Grinding Equipment was connected, the Steam Engine could finally begin operating at full power. The temperature inside Base One rapidly rose, eventually stabilizing at around 30 Celsius.

The grinder also began roaring as it operated, grinding ores Li Qingsong had found containing potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements into powder.

Inside the small Base One, ten clones bustled about busily.