Chapter 163: Construction Completed

Human United Era (HUE) 84.

In civilization, most of the smart industrial productivity went to the building of the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.

To some extent, as a show of what productivity could do in the Intelligent Era, the resources dug up by intelligent machinery in the Solar System every moment got split into two parts.

Right then, material resources from Venus’s surface, Mercury’s surface, and mining areas kept coming without end.

Through the ‘big lifeline’ that hooked planet surfaces to space, electric-push orbit lifters, or electric-push lifting platforms, they got sent to the zones near Venus and Mercury with industry belts.

Some of these resources got made directly into finished goods there.

Others went through first steps to become raw metals or things.

The outputs all got moved by intelligent machinery to big starships joining the Venus and Mercury industry belts.

At the same time, in Venus and Mercury orbits, many starships mostly going between Venus, Mercury, the Earth-Moon System, and Martian Orbit were busy.

Under the control of intelligent programs, they went in and out of stellar ports near Venus and Mercury industry belts in tight order.

Starships full of stuff made in the Venus and Mercury industry belts, like products, materials, and partly done resources, were heading to other places in Human Civilization’s space.

Meanwhile, in the Earth-Moon System and Martian Orbit, electric-push lifting platforms also hooked up surfaces to space.

These gave ways for big starships arriving non-stop at crowded ports.

Finished goods from other areas, under the Brain Intelligence Project run by strong artificial intelligence, would go to spots across Human Civilization’s living cities.

They would be used up for keeping society going.

Other resources dug up from all over got divided into big and small bits.

The small bit also went as support for running society in Human Civilization cities.

Strong artificial intelligence used smart industrial clusters in each place to make different products.

It filled orders based on plans from the Negentropy Research Institute and needs of stellar cities and areas.

The big bit, if it was before, might have been for growing Human Civilization space or some big science projects.

But now, this carved-out bit only went for the super project by Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization: building the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.

These resources got turned straight into parts of the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility by the smart industry in the Earth-Moon System and Martian Orbit.

Or they might be used up indirectly while making it.

As starships mainly from Venus, Mercury, and the Asteroid Belt came into the Earth-Moon System and Martian Orbit, at the same time, stellar ports in these places had starships setting off again.

Full of outputs from the smart industry in the Earth-Moon System and Martian Orbit, they raced to edges farther out in Human Civilization’s space.

Similarly, at Human Civilization’s outermost edge right then, Neptune’s Orbit, things were much the same.

Resources from orbits like Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune poured out without stop.

After Neptune’s Orbit smart industry made them into things like intelligent machinery, machines, or devices, the finished goods, or bits of them, kept rushing to spots in the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility build zone.

And in the build zone for the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility, it happened that parts just finished by Human Civilization or Stuo Civilization showed they were ready in their assigned zones.

Looking from far away, all of Human Civilization’s space reached even into the Kuiper Belt, where Stuo Civilization was back then.

Every place in both civilizations was busy all at once, working hard.

From that broad look, scenes inside both civilizations in the huge space of the universe at that time could be called really awesome.

And this was a normal year during the super project where Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization pushed together to build the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.

…

Human United Era (HUE) 85.

For Human Civilization’s Negentropy Research Institute, its many related study teams, and institute researchers, and even for Stuo Civilization’s own linked thinkers, the over thirty years from deciding to build the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility to finishing it were tough times.

For the group of researchers in Human Civilization’s Negentropy Research Institute who had a hand in designing the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility, even with Academician Qin Yu taking on the biggest load of pressure and blame, each one still felt heavy mental weight they couldn’t escape.

If it weren’t the Intelligent Era, if Human Civilization wasn’t a stellar civilization with enough total productivity, if this call wasn’t made by Academician Qin Yu—who people trusted fully and had full authority—putting over sixty percent of yearly productivity into a basic science project that might not pay off, in most past time periods, it would have let people talk and spread stories of trouble with unease.

That could have split the Human Coalition into pieces and got it fighting itself.

And even though the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility design was done by then, and building it fell to the smart industrial cluster and strong artificial intelligence with little room for people’s hands, people still worried without a way out.

They wondered if turning the plan into real building might hit a snag somewhere.

After all, the whole Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility was too huge, and the piled-up mess of it was way too high.

And if a problem popped up during building, ending up being in some spot handled by a study team’s smaller system, no one even had to chase them down for blame.

A debt that big could crush them dead on its own.

From their own views, the group of researchers could barely picture what weight Academician Qin Yu was holding at that time.

…

And in truth, for Qin Yu himself.

To say there was no pressure wasn’t really possible.

He still had ups and downs in his feelings, even as an absolute immortal.

If huge effort brought no fruit, he might feel let down too.

But to say Qin Yu’s pressure was huge also wasn’t real.

From where Qin Yu stood, if Human Civilization was to keep growing, this hard step had to be taken now.

Taking it made productivity costs but didn’t add pressure for Qin Yu.

Qin Yu also could take a loss in this team-up project on building and trying out the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility and basic science.

For him though, if Human Civilization failed this time, getting it back on track just meant more work.

So, pulling off a win this go-around was still best.

…

Human United Era (HUE) 86.

That year, Qin Yu turned 150 years old.

By this time after much back-and-forth between Stuo Civilization and Human Civilization, Stuo Civilization naturally knew why Human Civilization had put a time cap on building the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility before.

If tech had let them, Stuo Civilization would have been dying to give Qin Yu more life then.

And just because Qin Yu’s age added haste for both civilizations pushing this super project, matching how fast it went with both sides striving, after Stuo Civilization and Human Civilization talked it over, they both upped how much productivity they poured into the super project even more.

Human Civilization put sixty-five percent of its whole productivity into building the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.

While the leftover bit was more than plenty to keep both civilizations’ societies rolling along, and Stuo Civilization was the same, for both sides, needs for the smart industrial cluster to be put to work went way beyond just society running.

For both civilizations, if they didn’t want to truly cause any bad effects inside their own civilizations due to how resources were divided,

the amount of production both sides put toward building the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility was pretty much at the limit already.

Then, for the time that followed,

the proportion of resources invested by both sides was kept just like that.

…

From Year 87 to Year 88 of the Human United Era (HUE),

while Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization worked together to build the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility,

research teams weren’t idle either. Teams from the Negentropy Research Institute, the Physics Department, the Energy and Power Research Institute, and even the Information Denoising Institute were busy.

Based on the design and plan for the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility,

researchers from Human Civilization were already working with researchers from Stuo Civilization.

They were discussing and deciding on specific detailed experimental plans that would use the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility.

They were figuring out which parts of earlier theoretical research needed testing first after the facility was built, and which could be tackled later.

You could say,

even before the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility was finished,

Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization started making early preparations for fundamental theoretical experiments.

This was to make sure that experiments and research could start the very moment the facility was completed.

Qin Yu also took part in this work.

Or, to be more exact,

Qin Yu led the work to decide several major experimental plans early on, plans agreed upon by both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization.

Qin Yu’s research and thinking on theoretical matters over these years had clearly been useful.

Because of Qin Yu, Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization had basically settled on the same core theoretical ideas.

…

From Year 89 to Year 90 of the Human United Era (HUE).

Almost ten years after both civilizations decided to build the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility,

maybe because of Qin Yu’s involvement, the early experimental designs and all the small details were finally worked out.

The preliminary research tasks were mostly done too.

For the researchers from both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization, the time after this felt like a long wait.

The researchers basically had two options:

they could either work on other research projects while waiting for the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility to be finished,

or they could just wait around doing nothing.

Besides, among the researchers who had finished earlier work on the facility, quite a few were older than Qin Yu.

During this waiting period, it couldn’t be helped – some researchers retired from the Negentropy Research Institute.

In fact, not every researcher made it long enough to see the facility completed.

This kind of situation, where researchers had to wait for something huge to be built and finished,

was really rare after Human Civilization entered the Intelligent Era.

But the fact was, the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility was simply enormous.

…

For the next twenty-plus years,

Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization kept pushing forward with building the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility.

As construction progressed and more mass gathered in the area where it was being built,

its overall shape became clearer and more noticeable from places like the Outlook Observation Array on the Lunar Surface.

Just as both civilizations had expected early on,

the construction process was now visibly affecting how mass was spread out inside the Solar System, to some degree.

Like ants moving grains, Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization were labouring across vast space and time.

They were processing materials originally scattered in the Inner Solar System and throughout the Kuiper Belt, moving them bit by bit to the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt. These materials became parts of the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.

Both civilizations knew for sure – there was no doubt about it – that if you squeezed together all the mass that made up this facility, it would be one hefty cosmic object. Definitely a significant chunk of stuff.

However, before starting to build the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility, when they worked out its design and the building plan,

researchers from both sides had thought ahead about this kind of issue and the risks involved. They controlled how much mass they took and carefully planned the whole structure and location of the facility.

They made sure its construction wouldn’t cause any serious artificial cosmic disasters.

In those same twenty years,

some people who had helped design the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility at the Negentropy Research Institute retired. Others passed away.

There was Professor Xun Yi from the Physics Department at the Negentropy Research Institute. She was the leader of a research team responsible for designing one part of the system during the facility’s planning.

Five years before the facility was finally built, she died.

Before she died, Qin Yu had gone to see her.

Professor Xun Yi was still quite clear in her mind at the time.

She gripped Qin Yu’s hand tightly.

Her hope was that when the Civilization-grade Fundamental Experimental Facility was finished, someone from the Negentropy Research Institute, or a researcher, would visit her grave and tell her that the part she designed had worked.

Only after Qin Yu comforted her, telling her he had already checked her work and didn’t see any problems with it,

did Professor Xun Yi finally relax and close her eyes.

In a similar way,

over those twenty years,

people saw Qin Yu also slowly but steadily aging.

His ‘Disguise’ ability allowed his outward appearance to always match his biological age.

Seeing this change happen to him,

knowledgeable people and the top brains in both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization felt time pressing down harder.

Honestly, by this time, pretty much everyone in Human Civilization didn’t want the great Academician Qin Yu to age anymore.

And over in Stuo Civilization, the vast majority of those who knew about him deeply and sincerely wished he would age a bit slower.

Finally,

it seemed others had some luck.

The Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility wasn’t finished within the most optimistic thirty-year estimate,

but it wasn’t delayed beyond the worst-case thirty-five-year limit either.

Most importantly, when the facility was finally finished, Academician Qin Yu was still alive.

Of course,

Qin Yu himself had actually prepared to stretch out this lifetime ‘a few more years’ just in case.

If absolutely necessary, he could ‘persist a bit longer’ and push past 180 – it was possible.

Lifespans naturally vary; some folks even lived to 190 in this era.

Still,

in the end, the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility was completed exactly thirty-three years after both civilizations decided to build it!