Chapter 613 - 601: Three Yangs

"We should suggest to the ground control to change the head of Dawn One."

On the node cabin berth of the Tianhe Core Module of the Tiangong Space Station, Dawn One, which had been docked for nearly a month, finally welcomed its first passengers.

The four astronauts who arrived at the space station on the Cloud Ascend were checking the condition inside the command module, but in fact, the astronauts residing on the Tiangong Space Station had already tidied it up once, so Deng Lei started to complain about the command module of Dawn One instead.

Dawn One is essentially a nuclear-powered version of the Dawn Spaceship, and its command module, of course, is not much different, but increasing the number of seats to nine still seemed a bit crowded.

After getting used to the spacious space shuttle, Deng Lei was not comfortable with this compact layout, although the per capita space of Dawn One was even bigger than that of Shenzhou Spaceship.

"It should be changed to something more comfortable... like a proper passenger cabin in a science fiction movie, anyway, it doesn’t need to return to Earth."

"We still have to consider emergencies. If something happens, we can just throw it towards the Earth, and what you proposed would have no redundancy," Li Wei said.

Li Wei’s words did not convince him, and Deng Lei still shook his head:

"That’s too conservative. We should trust modern technology. It’s a pity that Storm is reserved for emergencies, otherwise we could have taken that one, which is fast and comfortable."

Currently, among the three serviceable H2’s, Storm and Glory are both still docked on March, ready for emergency evacuation of all 26 crew members from the space station if necessary, and will not be moved for the time being.

The fifth H2, which is the sister model to Storm called "Typhoon," has actually been built, but the base considered that future nuclear-powered spacecraft would be used more for Earth-Moon and Earth-Mars travel, needing some enhancements, and pulled it back for modifications; it is expected to take some more time before it can be put into service.

Deng Lei did not yet know that Great Wall One was also about to be put into use. By then, together with Dawn Two, there would be four nuclear-powered spacecraft in space, giving much more abundant transport capacity.

Li Wei said, "Then we can suggest to President Wu... Was Dawn One leased or purchased by United Mining? This could perhaps be considered a bid for better working conditions."

"I think it’s more reasonable to make suggestions to the boss. Maybe if we send over a nice sketch, they’ll start a project right away."

The two continued to chat idly for a while until they were interrupted by a voice.

It turned out to be Zhao Wei, the current Commander of the Tiangong Space Station, with several astronauts behind him.

"Take these with you, these are the new vegetables and cherry tomatoes we’ve grown, varieties not available on the Black Rabbit Space Station."

Li Wei took a large package filled with the Tiangong Space Station’s bounty.

He also noticed several people in white clothes inside the Tianhe Core Module; they must be the new group of tourists.

As for Lin Ju, he had been drawing the moon orbit tourism plan for quite some time but hadn’t started due to other priorities. Compared to those millionaires, he was becoming somewhat impatient.

"Thank you, when Skylight Three returns, we’ll try to send you bean sprouts grown in Moon soil. If we’re fast, we should make it in time."

After receiving the gifts, it was time to say goodbye as Dawn One’s travel time to the Moon was about the same as traditional spacecraft: three days. They needed to depart as soon as possible.

Beijing time, the 20th day of the month at 9:30 am, Dawn One detached from the Tiangong Space Station.

Under the influence of the RCS, it adjusted its direction and began to accelerate around the Earth.

The acceleration process took about three hours, just about two orbits around the Earth.

The timing of this launch was intentional; if everything was calculated correctly, the crew of Dawn One would have about a 35-minute window to observe the USS Wyoming launching missiles and to perform the final cleanup, a not-to-be-missed opportunity.

Sitting in front of the control panel, Deng Lei was clicking on something and then turned to look at Li Wei.

"How about trying the immersion mode?"

"Forget it, I’m more comfortable keeping an eye on the physical thing."

"Immersion mode" was an "upgraded" technology originally derived from the 360-degree holographic imaging system equipped in Xuehu, allowing the airframe to "disappear" and immersing the operator completely in the surrounding environment through coordination between the helmet and numerous cameras.

Considering that Dawn One’s conditions were indeed not as good as other spacecraft, to solve potential claustrophobia issues, Dawn One could also implement this feature through a dedicated helmet.

Deng Lei really liked this feature; it made him feel as if exposed to the universe, both frightening and irresistibly tempting.

"All right then, Old Liu, Xiang Jie, do you want to try it? The portholes are so small that they might block the view of the nuclear explosion later."

"Connect me."

"I’ll try it too."

Li Wei watched as the visors of their helmets gradually turned from transparent to white and once again checked the current attitude of the spacecraft, ensuring that the side port always faced Earth.

For him, the naked eye held more meaning.

...

"General Edison, you must ensure that the yield stays below 1,300 kilotons. This is a matter concerning the order of forty million people. I’m not joking," said Rafael Mariano, the top official of IAEA, speaking on the phone with the military officer of the Pacific Fleet from inside the control bunker in the restricted area.

The USS Wyoming had already quietly departed in the early hours of yesterday, and no one knew where it had gone or where it would launch its missiles.

Although the previous two missile launch locations were also kept secret, one could still deduce the general area based on public data, but it was hard to say for the submarine.

The USS Wyoming was one of the newest Ohio-class submarines with a service time that started quite late, equipped with the Trident II missiles that had a range of over 11,000 kilometers, capable of reaching anywhere in the Pacific Ocean.

It was now radio silent as if in wartime operations, and Edison actually couldn’t contact them.

All he knew was that there were two more 052D at Fuji Bay, definitely there for practicing interceptions of the Trident II.

As for the yield, he had no control over it—it was a matter directly managed by the Presidential Palace, almost turning Edison into a bystander.

The congress would definitely not agree to set the hydrogen bomb yield below 1.25 megatons, but he also knew that the yield of such a device could not be controlled precisely. Thus, he responded vaguely to Rafael’s inquiries.

"We have always placed the safety and property of the public as our utmost priority. You needn’t worry about the professionalism of our experts," Edison replied.

Rafael ended the call helplessly, only able to pray that America would be reasonable, lest IAEA’s reputation be tarnished.

Time passed quickly, and at 10:55 am, Tian Zhan, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, heard the tactical tablet emit the "beep beep" of an alarm.

The tablet displayed a map encompassing much of the Pacific Ocean, connected to the remote sensing satellite above.

On the map, a heat source with a temperature of thousands of degrees Celsius appeared in the South Pacific Ocean, moving faster than the speed of sound and rising in altitude.

Considering that Tuvalu was unlikely to have intercontinental missiles, it must have been the USS Wyoming making its move.