Soaring18 Long Day: A Long Day

Preface:

"Science and art belong to the whole world, and before them, all barriers between nations disappear."

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[Part 1 · Born to Die]

"The power units for the Fangzhang Immortal Ship are ready."

Ms. Marlene reported the mechanical progress to Granduncle. Only the last six controllers remained in the control tower. All the other technical specialists had to board this bulky, crude deep-bore drilling machine.

Jiang Xueming and the others entered the decontamination room. After three rounds of routine physical examinations, they put on twenty-millimeter-thick aerogel spacesuits. The suits could shield them from temperatures as high as 130 degrees Celsius above zero and let them move freely at minus 193 degrees Celsius. This was the last bit of kindness Wood had left for his colleagues.

The Fangzhang Immortal Ship had no central climate control. Its sealed hull was all that kept out the temperature. The professional engineers going underground with the Celestial Worthy were Blood-giving Monsters, but their blood was no match for the fish-man hybrids' and had no heat resistance. For now, these clumsy spacesuits could keep them alive.

There were seven of them. Supporting one another, they climbed in stages to the Fangzhang Immortal Ship's entrance platform. Whenever Xue Ming had a free hand, he pulled the frail scholars along by their arms, helping them reach the right levels until they gradually filled the enormous machine, more than sixty meters tall.

The drill rings were already more than halfway through their preheating and startup sequence. Through the thick, insulated glass enclosure, they watched the ring-shaped teeth gradually accelerate. Suspended over Pit 16 by a hexagonal frame, the rings revealed streaks of strong, purplish-red muscle through the layers of biological gel. That was the elemental matter of the Lightning Stars.

Born into misery, these fish-man