Chapter 367 - 359: Test Subject_1

"Jiuquan... after so many years, the changes really aren’t that significant."

Ye Changsi took a sip of water, having been dealing with the impact of the spy incident all afternoon, he seemed a bit tired now.

"Just two issues: launch pad and transportation.

Transportation is easy to talk about, we’ve always been airlifting. Even though there isn’t an airport capable of accommodating An-1250 aircraft there, we could expand it. We can just let the military lay out steel plates, and a runway could be made in half a month.

As for the launch pad, that would require Mr. Xu to modify the launch pad. Didn’t we entrust them before to develop the H2 heavy-duty mobile launch pad? It’s almost complete, just needs to be transported to Jiuquan, and most components can be airlifted. It should be installed by July."

"What about the cost? And the renovation time?"

"Not bad, with the help of the people from Jiuquan it’s within an acceptable range, mainly the launch position’s diversion channel and heavy-duty rails.

To be honest, apart from the latitude, Jiuquan’s conditions are better than Qiongzhou’s – mainly because there’s hardly any wind, and we can launch year-round. However, we’ll only have one heavy-duty launch pad there for the time being, and we’ll have to wait for a new one to be built in Qiongzhou, which is another expense."

Lin Ju nodded, this outcome was still acceptable. Launching from Qiongzhou always required keeping an eye on the meteorological department, like playing darts to find the right window for a launch. Once a typhoon hit, it might be impossible to launch even within a month. The advantages of an inland launch site were indeed numerous.

"Oh, and we found out who leaked the information – it’s Zhou Rui’s grandson, a junior high school student named Zhou Qingfeng."

"A junior high student?"

Ye Changsi nodded and explained:

"According to Niu Aihua’s confession, she had her eye on Zhou Qingfeng for a long time. When we went to investigate this afternoon, the boy was nearly scared to death. He confessed that he heard about it accidentally when he went to the bathroom on the base. We’ve basically confirmed it’s true."

"..."

Lin Ju: "So, it means our security system per se isn’t flawed, but it was an accident caused by non-base personnel. That means we can’t let non-base personnel in easily anymore. Even accidental factors could lead to leaks."

"But, many people can’t sign our research institute’s agreements."

"Hm..."

Lin Ju pondered and realized this was indeed the case. Not to mention the family members of the staff, the aerospace bureau often had staff come over for collaborative projects, and it wasn’t easy to have them all sign external agreements. Therefore, there were quite a few non-staff members in the base, but they almost all had confidentiality agreements, so for now, there seemed to be no problems.

Ye Changsi first stated his opinion: "I think for the relatives of the base staff, we must strictly control their entrance to the base unless necessary, limiting their activities to non-sensitive areas. Also, we need to reiterate the internal secrecy regulations and forbid discussing base secrets in insecure locations.

Although it’s not a permanent solution, it’s still somewhat useful."

Lin Ju: "Also, I plan to promote robotic security. Implementing it universally with Robot One will be problematic, so let’s start from Robot Two. Even though Robot Two wasn’t designed for military use, it’s still capable of performing guard duties. At the very least, we can extend patrol time to six hours if we outfit all Robot Two units with 600-watt-hour lithium batteries."

Ye Changsi: "I agree, but should we market the 600-watt-hour lithium batteries? Such high-performance power batteries should be quite profitable, and their cost isn’t too high. We could also recoup some research and development costs."

"No, we don’t need money for now," Lin Ju unexpectedly shook his head. Releasing a 600-watt-hour power battery to the market would be too disruptive. Ningde Times’s market value is only around 20 billion by now, releasing this technology would be like smashing everyone’s pot.

The demand for power batteries from electric vehicles could be satisfied in a few years, so there’s no need to covet this money. It might be better to release some technology to stimulate manufacturers only when battery technology development stagnates.

...

The official announcement on the Xinyuan Company website: "Commendation and reward notice for a project team from the Microelectronic department."

The entire "Brave" project team was awarded a collective reward for Robot Thirteen’s commendable performance, which was no secret within the base.

Robot Thirteen was even promoted to management, dressed in the Security Section uniform, and became an honored security guard, receiving a banner personally awarded by Mr. Lin.

The military even notified that they would issue a second-class medal of honor to commemorate the achievement, after all, Robot Thirteen also had the rank of Army Sergeant...

The "Brave" project team naturally gained significant prestige as a result, all of which was observed by the Shijian Department Human Life Science Group.

Because of the No. 304 Injection, the Human Life Science Group had effectively become independent within the base, having its own designated area for experiments, known as the 304 Laboratory.

Over the past month, the laboratory paid a high price to import ten specially selected experimental gorillas from abroad. Don’t think animal experiments come cheap – healthy gorillas that meet the clinical test requirements have to be specially screened and raised, and they are expensive and rare. Once a batch is made available, they are swiftly snatched up.

The lab secured ten of these via connections of an old classmate of Academician She, or they would have had a long wait.

Xie Miao injected these gorillas with the serum a week after they arrived and, after a month of careful nurturing, obvious results appeared.

All ten gorillas began to grow rapidly as expected from the injection, with the most robust male gaining 30 kilograms in weight. Its bone density increased to 1.5 times the original, and the proportion of muscle mass significantly increased.

This achievement has been reported to the base leaders, causing some stir. They demanded continued observation as the injection was used in a sensitive area, the side effects were still unknown, and at least three months of monitoring the changes in body metrics were necessary.

You should know the No. 304 Injection’s effective period is 1,000 days. Risking a tenth of the cycle for testing is quite adventurous by biological standards, and Lin Ju still has not approved human testing.

However, the three months of observing the No. 304 Injection’s effects won’t be idle time. Developing secondary drugs by mitigating the serum’s effects is another focus of the laboratory, so Xie Miao wasn’t left with nothing to do.

After returning to the laboratory, Xie Miao first gathered all personnel to emphasize confidentiality and then went to the observation room where the experimental subjects were kept.

Don’t think that biological labs are just animal cages; in fact, researchers often treat these experimental subjects possibly even better than themselves. Each gorilla is a precious sample worth millions.

Not only must their daily diet be safe and healthy, but they also need to be regularly relaxed with games to maintain a good mood. Being highly intelligent primates, they are prone to depression and various emotional issues, which can significantly impact their physical condition.

Among them, Number Seven was under Xie Miao’s personal care. This gorilla had the best response to the serum, the highest degree of enhancement, and its physical indicators nearly doubled, even its internal organs showed unbelievable strengthening.

Of course, even so, it couldn’t become a Caesar overpowering humans as in movies and novels. At least the intelligence tests show Number Seven has essentially remained the same; the No. 304 Injection does not include the "become smarter" function.