Captain Shahei's surprise seemed a little over the top. It even left Yu Lian at a loss, so he found himself getting curious instead. "Now, what's inappropriate about that? Roseite Industries is a renowned interstellar company when it comes to large mechanical components! And I've heard the new elastic material they developed with Xian Danu Heavy Industries is well suited for the flexible load-bearing components of large space stations."
There was no helping it. The orbital medical center's structure was different from that of an ordinary space station. The medical bays were usually in zero gravity, while the operating rooms and other functional areas had to maintain normal simulated gravity. That could throw off the balance of the station's structure, which meant its specialized structural materials had to meet rather demanding requirements.
And Yu Lian was asking for a super-large orbital field hospital capable of accommodating fifteen gene therapy pods and two hundred thousand ordinary beds.
At present, no country other than the Empire and the Alliance could independently produce components like these.
Little Gray had once given him a formula for a new material, as he recalled—one that seemed capable of meeting his design requirements. Yu Lian had already handed it over to his friends at the Red Star Agency for research. But no matter how much overtime they put in, there was no way they could finish in time for this project. If they did manage to recreate it, though, they could give the Alliance and Imperial companies a run for their money...
Well, that was assuming the Alliance capitalists and Imperial nobles didn't join forces to launch him and the new material into a black hole.
...Speaking of which, he had no idea where Little Gray had run off to. He'd kept urging her to visit New