Beneath the robot's composed exterior, Luo Qi was ranting furiously inside.
"Just look at this piece of junk. A signal receiver, a fuel compartment, and controllable nozzles-and I have to control everything."
"And it can't even fit one of the CPUs the research center just produced! It's only the size of a palm! Put one in, and at least it could move on its own."
Complaints aside, the base's technological advances were real.
The base's research center had already begun producing 320-nanometer CPUs, but they were nowhere near human-made chips in either power consumption or size.
For the base, though, all it needed was to cross the technological threshold. Upgrading was simply a matter of finding success through repeated failed experiments.
Resource production and collection would continuously supply the ever-expanding research center, keeping hundreds, even thousands, of Luo Qi's ideas under real-world physical investigation.
In economic terms, this would amount to losses in the trillions. Even a powerful nation would not dare lose so much in so short a time.
It would undermine its international standing and the livelihoods of its people. That was the drawback of an economic system.
Without profit, there was no demand.
The research center was constantly asking for materials, building equipment, and conducting research.
Luo Qi gave it whatever it wanted.
The chip research center was advancing rapidly. Chips only required high-purity silicon and electrically etched micro-integrated circuits on their surfaces. Next, the research center would attempt to produce an 8-nanometer CPU.
High-precision radar had also been added to the security system, giving Luo Qi a planetary defense capability, even if it was not worth a damn.
Next came research into miniaturization and higher power output, in an effort to contact the satellites orbiting Orange Star.
Among the ever-growing stores of data were memories from Luo Qi's previous life.
In developing Orange Star's scientific research and technology, Luo Qi stood on the shoulders of two giants.
During the early stages, there was no need to feel his way forward.
Once the research center achieved a breakthrough, the production factories would immediately mass-produce the equipment, beginning another round of expansion and replication.
Stendhal rubbed his eyes, his nose stinging, then looked again at the aircraft on the ground. Images of the homeland and loved ones he missed so desperately drifted through his mind, and he nodded emphatically.
"I'm going back!"
He picked up the model aircraft, determination entering his expression. His gaze no longer wandered so uncertainly.
The robot withdrew without a sound.
Beneath the night, brilliant points of starlight filled the sky, and the Milky Way stretched overhead like a magnificent ribbon.
A twin-mounted 75-millimeter electromagnetic cannon stood silently aimed at the threats in the sky.
The rapidly rotating surveillance radar kept watch overhead.
The massive buildings in the darkness resembled crouching beasts, countless scarlet lights shining from within them.
They looked like eyes lurking in the dark.
Those were merely the red operating lights of the base's countless cameras, silently watching everything.
Several T3 Robots moved away from the three-meter-wide satellite dish.
After two days of installation work, a small experimental communications radar was finally complete.
Beneath the dish was a rotating platform, which Luo Qi could use to search the sky for satellites.
[Communications radar construction complete] [Preparing to power on] [Beginning first communication attempt]
Current surged in, and invisible electromagnetic signals shot skyward from the dish.
Luo Qi's records contained the satellites' positions, and he used the dish to search them one by one.
"Just as I thought. The satellites are all damaged."
Luo Qi kept trying.
The satellite station received an electromagnetic response.
He instantly locked onto an artificial satellite.
[Establishing connection] [Connection established] [Synchronizing video transmission] [Transmitting data]
Luo Qi examined the video from space.
"Is this the only one left? Are these meteorite fragments? Why are there still so many? Have all the other satellites been lost?"
He looked at Orange Star's dark side and the meteorites reflecting light from space.
He adjusted the satellite's angle, hoping to see the base.
But he immediately lost its signal.
The communications feed ended.
"Damn it, I even have to build my own satellites... I can't get anything for free."
For more than eighty days, stars had burned in Orange Star's atmosphere every day, and countless meteorite fragments had fallen. He had no idea what was happening beyond the planet. For now, the base was capable of manufacturing chips.
But with so many meteorites in orbit, Luo Qi shelved the idea of launching satellites for the time being. Production capacity was not something to waste.
Building ground-based observation stations, meanwhile, would leave him constrained by the planet's rotation.
According to the plan, technological progress in one month would be sufficient to launch the corresponding space program. At that point, the base would upgrade its weapons systems to clear near-planet orbit.
He would deploy a defensive network in Orange Star's orbit: the Myriad Stars System.
While sending Stendhal back to Water Blue Star, he would use the spacecraft to deploy silent satellites in the space surrounding Water Blue Star, ready to transmit emergency information at a critical moment.
Orange Star Base needed to complete its technological upgrades and achieve mass production of precision equipment as soon as possible.
The base had to pick up the pace and drive scientific and technological development forward.
Science and technology were the primary productive forces, and the most powerful ones.
After all, a group of warlike humans lived on the neighboring planet. Nobody wanted a hydrogen bomb falling from the sky while they sat at home.
The robot leaving the residential area looked up at the brilliant, star-filled sky. Among the lights were meteorites burning as they fell through the thin atmosphere, and perhaps satellite wreckage as well.
Perhaps the atmosphere had formed that way, little by little, first from the planet's geothermal activity, then from burning meteorites.
Time passed so quickly.
Luo Qi hoped Orange Star Civilization could develop undisturbed.
The meteorites falling and burning every day kept the security system on edge, for fear that they might be strategic weapons already in their terminal strike phase. Fortunately, everything had remained peaceful so far.
Outside Orange Star Base, large numbers of robots still worked day and night.
Every minute, every second, they transported materials pouring out of the factories to wherever the plans required them.
They were travel-worn, and they toiled without complaint...
Well, actually, Luo Qi was controlling all of them behind the scenes.
Luo Qi toiled without complaint, building the base bit by bit.
"Ding-dong!"
A communication notification popped up before Luo Qi in the data world, forming a communications interface.
Duplicate: "We have new research results."
Duplicate: "To further our research into electromagnetic force, we can begin setting up a Controllable Nuclear Fusion experiment first."
"It will be used to validate the electromagnetic force system. Work on chips and superconducting wire materials will keep pace."
Luo Qi checked the shared database. It incorporated technological concepts from Earth's civilization, some concepts from Water Blue Star's technological development, and contributions from Orange Star itself.
Technological theory always ran ahead of reality, and now it was time for reality to catch up.
"Add the Controllable Nuclear Fusion reactor to the top-priority construction plan." Luo Qi closed the communication after replying. In just a few dozen days, the base had begun touching the threshold of an interstellar civilization. Standing on the shoulders of two giants, it was developing technology at an almost unbelievable speed.
Powerful energy sources were the aspiration of civilizations built on the electromagnetic force system, and the stairway to the universe.
With a wave of his hand, a special cylindrical factory building was added to the plans in the virtual world, fifty kilometers east of the industrial district.
It would become a specialized heavy-element extraction plant and a research center for Controllable Nuclear Fusion operations.
The construction assignment was issued to the real world. An optimization algorithm diverted some capacity from less important construction projects, assembling a key construction brigade that advanced in force toward the new site.
Luo Qi examined the theoretical computational model for magnetically confined nuclear fusion that had appeared in the shared database. All that remained was to test it in reality. Success would mean moving beyond the benefits of the applied knowledge he had brought from Earth's civilization.
He would advance toward a higher civilization and forge his own path.
Meanwhile, the base's other research centers were also making closely coordinated preparations. Operating a controlled nuclear fusion device required more than theoretical knowledge; it demanded the corresponding level of technology.
That covered everything from superconducting wire materials to the metal casing used in the experiment and the refinement of heavy elements.
The materials research center brought out its latest alloy and upgraded superconducting wire.
The high-precision electronics research center provided its Supercapacitor and immediately began work on more precise chips.
The entire scientific research effort began shifting its resources toward nuclear fusion.
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