Chapter 99: DT03
Chapter 99: DT03
Stopping the ongoing global volcanic eruptions entirely was still very difficult for human civilization’s current level of technology.
But it was possible to make the volcanoes erupt more violently, shortening the eruption process,
and to force each volcano to release everything trapped near the bottom of its vent that could erupt soon.
Human civilization’s current technology did allow for that possibility.
However, to avoid making the global eruptions worse,
people couldn’t just target key points and rely on chain reactions to impact large areas, like they had with the global heavy rains.
For the global volcanic eruptions, the plan had to target one area at a time, addressing each volcano step by step.
This was to prevent the worldwide eruption plan from going badly wrong.
First, because patterns of underground movements were messier and harder to predict.
Second, even though the strategy seemed similar to the one used for the heavy rains, this plan had much less room for error.
But this was okay for human civilization right now.
There was enough industrial power and plenty of energy.
Expending some resources and time, moving step by step, area by area, to carry out this plan would work.
After Qin Yu also approved this plan,
the effort to shorten global volcanic eruptions and push the volcanoes into dormancy early began.
The Geological Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute and related study teams
made detailed plans for each area and volcano, based on the local situation.
The Underground Refuge Cities and Underground Shelter Cities focused first on fixing the eruptions happening closest to them.
This prepared for when human civilization could return to the surface and start rebuilding.
The data and information the Geological Research Institute kept gathering from monitoring volcanoes and other underground acts also helped now,
saving people some time.
But most people didn’t need to get involved in making or carrying out the specific plans.
The researchers from the Negentropy Research Institute were enough to finish the work.
…
Year 289,
After the plan to handle the global volcanic eruptions started,
beginning near the surface areas above the Underground Refuge Cities,
many volcanoes, pushed by human actions, began erupting even more powerfully.
Think of it like squeezing a balloon getting pressurized even more.
Instead of trying to plug holes that popped open from the pressure,
the Negentropy Research Institute’s plan was more like poking even more holes in the balloon.
Once most of the trapped ‘energy’ was gone, the eruptions would naturally get smaller and weaker.
But this guarantee meant the provoked volcanoes would have even fiercer explosions for a while.
Everything on the surface
turned bad again very fast, like right after Asteroid 2801 had hit.
The wildly erupting volcanoes seemed to roar and scream, pouring out the earth’s fury.
Stuff blasted so high it reached the stratosphere and beyond.
The junk floating in the air, washed away by the super-rain, returned thick and fast.
It felt like all that rain had been a giant waste of time.
The whole surface was covered in grey, foggy haze, choked with dust and poison that blotted out the view.
It became very hard for signals to move through the air.
In many places, ground that had cooled into dead rock got covered again by roaring rivers of fresh lava.
Pouring from the craters, the lava didn’t just slide down the mountainsides; instead, it shot up in high towers challenging the sky.
During this time, the people living underground felt more earthquakes and shakes from underground movements.
But,
since everyone had been told about the plan to make volcanoes erupt harder now to be quieter later,
instead of just feeling nervous about the extra shaking, people also held onto hope.
Almost everyone understood these huge, constant eruptions everywhere
were probably the biggest problem blocking their return to the surface.
If this problem could be solved, moving back up might actually happen soon.
“Erupt! Erupt harder!… That way you fall silent sooner. I can’t wait to feel the sun on my face!”
“I’ve thought about it. First thing when we get topside, I’m dragging a chair out into the sunlight and taking a long nap.”
…
Year 290,
In the early part of the plan to handle the global eruptions,
the surface didn’t get better. It actually got worse even faster.
But the researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute had seen this coming.
Now,
surface temperatures, affected by everything, kept climbing, hitting 80 degrees Celsius.
Things were a little better over the sea, but only a little.
The air grew thick with ash and filth pumped out by the volcanoes.
It wasn’t quite pitch black, but almost, as visibility kept dropping.
However, when things reach their worst point,
it also means they are about to start getting better.
Near the end of that year,
after pushing the volcanoes to shatter themselves in huge, wild, man-made eruptions,
some of the erupting volcanoes finally began running out of fuel.
Their explosions got noticeably smaller. Some even stopped completely.
This proved
the Negentropy Research Institute’s plan to handle the global eruptions was working.
The project sped up.
The Negentropy Research Institute used the industrial power managed by Strong Artificial Intelligence
to push on, tackling more and more volcanoes across the planet’s surface.
…
By the time the year reached 291,
with human civilization, currently residing in Underground Shelter Cities, allocating a significant portion of its Smart Industrial Cluster’s productive capacity towards the global volcano response plan,
corresponding measures were taken by people on most large volcanic regions across the surface. These measures stimulated the volcanoes to erupt more violently within a short period.
After the surface, across vast land areas, was covered once more with a thick layer of volcanic lava,
the average atmospheric temperature first hit an extreme of 86 degrees Celsius, then began to fall.
Surface temperatures fluctuated, balancing between the effects of volcanic debris blocking sunlight and the greenhouse effect.
It first plummeted quickly into the seventies, then slowly declined to below sixty degrees.
By this time,
a considerable portion of the globally erupting large volcanic regions had entered a dormant state. An even larger portion saw their eruptive power gradually weaken, and their overall impact on the surface environment lessened substantially.
The incredibly resilient 236 Algae, which had been dispersed into various bodies of water earlier,
began to thrive after enduring the harshest period. It started spreading through the waters: rivers, lakes, and the oceans.
The oxygen content ratio in the atmosphere was already showing some positive changes.
…
Year 292.
Guided by the various Underground Refuge Cities, they harnessed the vast amounts of water vapor evaporated during this period of heat,
resulting in a widespread heavy rainfall, though it didn’t last very long.
Nevertheless, it washed away most of the floating volcanic debris and other materials in the air.
By now, the entire global volcano response plan was also gradually reaching its conclusion.
Inevitably,
even at this point, numerous volcanoes across the Earth’s surface were still erupting.
But their impact on human civilization, or rather the surface environment, was no longer as severe as before.
Therefore, most of the preparations needed before human civilization could return to the surface were complete. The only thing left was to wait a little longer.
“Huaxin News Agency reports.”
“According to an announcement from the Geological Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute. Currently, following the global volcano response plan and after years of joint effort by all researchers and the entire civilization.”
“The latest monitoring data shows global volcanic activity has fallen back within safe levels, meeting the fundamental criterion in this field for human civilization’s return to the surface!”
“…”
After this news was released on the network at that moment,
people naturally cheered.
If each generation has its own wish,
then for the generation living in the Underground Shelter Cities after surviving Asteroid 2801’s impact,
their present wish was to return to the surface.
And seeing the tangible goals required for their return being achieved one by one through the civilization’s efforts,
how could they not feel excited?
“The problem of global persistent rain is solved, the global volcanic eruptions are under control, those potentially threatening meteors in Earth’s near-space are mostly vaporized by Lunar Surface Laser Weapons, and the oxygen issue is already being addressed. Doesn’t this mean we’re very close to returning to the surface?”
“Yes, very close… Although we still have some problems that need time, the major obstacles on our path back to the surface are gone. We are very, very close…”
“That’s wonderful… It’s been nearly ten years since we came to these Underground Shelter Cities. Just last night, I dreamed I was walking on a beach by the sea… My hometown was originally a seaside city.”
“I can hardly wait. I can’t wait to hear Academician Qin Yu announce to everyone: Human Civilization is returning to the surface.”
Their excitement was hard to fully describe in just a few words.
That night, upon hearing this news, many people couldn’t sleep. They gathered friends at restaurants run by intelligent machines, excitedly talking over and over about the efforts and achievements Human Civilization had made over the years to prepare for the return to the surface.
…
In the same year,
another event occurred that made people excited, even elated.
The DT03 Electric Propulsion System was born.
Led and spearheaded by Qin Yu, the Energy and Power Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute and other relevant research teams,
after the initial DT02 Electric Propulsion System was created, had not relaxed their research into even more advanced electric propulsion systems during these years while simultaneously working on a series of preparations for the return to the surface.
Qin Yu, in fact, devoted most of his energy to studying the DT02 Electric Propulsion System.
Relying on Qin Yu’s ‘Super Brain’, along with the collaborative efforts under his direction of the numerous Researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute’s Energy and Power Research Institute,
the Negentropy Research Institute once again achieved a triple leap forward in electric propulsion system research.
One reason was that during these years, the Negentropy Research Institute had gathered almost all the top geniuses within Human Civilization.
The gathering of these geniuses naturally possessed immense creative power.
On the other hand,
with Qin Yu, this ‘monster’, present in such circumstances,
he could harness the wisdom of all these geniuses, pulling it together into one cohesive force and guiding the direction of the entire research.
More than once, Researchers marveled,
Academician Qin Yu was simply the miracle born in the long history of Human Civilization,
it was as if he was born to shape human history.
It seemed no one had ever truly explored the boundaries of Academician Qin Yu’s knowledge and intelligence.
With Academician Qin Yu, solving a difficult problem wasn’t a matter of luck, just time.
Because, once a problem reached Academician Qin Yu’s hands, no matter how difficult, it would eventually be solved.
Conducting research under Academician Qin Yu almost felt like there was no need to worry about anything else.
One only needed to keep moving forward in the direction he pointed out,
and the final answer would eventually emerge before everyone.
Academician Qin Yu always seemed able to see the desired path through the fog whenever the research became entangled in confusion.
And when incremental progress from various fields converged in Academician Qin Yu’s hands, the entire project leaped forward significantly.
During these years,
the Researchers in the Energy and Power Research Institute and other related teams spent most of their time in states of exhilaration and excitement.
Under Academician Qin Yu’s leadership, it felt like they could see the entire project making rapid, impressive leaps forward every so often.
This process, watching one difficult problem after another being solved like this, fascinated the Researchers.
This time,
the major breakthrough for the DT03 Electric Propulsion System actually came from the field of materials.
Following SW281, relying on superconducting materials theory perfected earlier under Qin Yu’s leadership at the Materials Research Institute using Computational Materials Science,
an even more exceptional room-temperature superconducting material was developed. It was named SW292.
Replacing the SW281 material previously used in the Electric Propulsion Engines and Helium-3 Fusion power devices with SW292 material,
resulted in a considerable reduction in the volume of most components within the DT03 Electric Propulsion System, while simultaneously increasing the thrust output of a single Electric Propulsion Engine.
Combined with numerous other developments and breakthroughs, big and small, across various subsystems and the overall system architecture,
the DT03 Electric Propulsion System was finally realized.
…
By the end of year 292, the Researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute’s Institute of Energy Dynamics, and Qin Yu himself,
completed the overall development and detailed design of the DT03 Electric Propulsion System.
After handing the relevant technologies to the Strong Artificial Intelligence within the Brain Intelligence Project,
the Strong Artificial Intelligence began coordinating, and even establishing new Smart Industrial production lines, to begin constructing the DT03 Electric Propulsion System and its associated infrastructure.
Because it was the first build, and due to ongoing difficulties in travel and cooperation between the various Underground Refuge Cities,
even with the Strong Artificial Intelligence taking charge,
the complete DT03 Electric Propulsion System assembly wasn’t finished until March of the following year.
…
March of the following year.
The Negentropy Research Institute’s efforts for the return to the surface,
as well as its ongoing research into electric propulsion systems, continued in parallel.
That month, once the latest generation Electric Propulsion System was manufactured,
the Energy and Power Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute immediately commenced practical operation tests. The goal was to verify the data met theoretical predictions.
Compared to the previous DT01 and DT02 Electric Propulsion Systems,
the DT03 was a true, complete electrical propulsion system in every sense.
This time, the test wasn’t limited to a single Electric Propulsion Engine.
It involved a full operational attempt of the entire new generation propulsion system.
The test location also shifted – from the specially allocated underground labs within the shelter cities – up to the surface.
On this day, the area above the Lingchuan refuge city experienced very clear weather.
Everything, one could say, was perfectly conducive to the test.