Chapter 724 - 699: The Experiment

David seemed to have already seen those Chinese people with flames burning in their chests, and whatever the reasons, they had ultimately chosen to resist.

Xu Rang must be proud of his country’s decision, which is why he could show off his scorn so haughtily:

"You ran away, we stayed behind, we will die, but we’ll die with dignity."

The anti-missile test was a warning to their own side not to try to interfere with the development of space weaponry; David even suspected that United Mining’s use of hydrogen bombs for blasting was part of the plan, a first step towards breaking through the "Outer Space Treaty" restrictions.

Although David didn’t believe that the Chinese resistance would succeed, from his own perspective he truly admired such a romantic demise.

After he stated his reasoning, the atmosphere fell silent for a while before Claire spoke up:

"You’re somewhat right, but I don’t think it’s entirely like that."

"The Chinese people must also be aware of the difficulty of resistance but are also unwilling to go to the Kuiper Belt like us unless they could flee even further.

But regardless of which choice is made, humanity’s current technology is far from sufficient, and there’s a need to first greatly advance aerospace technology, as well as construct a large number of spacecraft, such as super space stations, extraterrestrial bases, and so on.

We’re the same, within the next ten years, the tasks we have to do are essentially the same."

"Behind the threat, there’s cooperation!"

Sullivan had been combing through the entire sequence of events, and now he finally felt he’d found the truth.

He stood up from his chair, a bit excitedly pacing as he spoke:

"Whether to flee or to stay, we all need to invest massive resources in space, and such a large investment requires a reasonable explanation, just like the current space competition.

But whether it’s them or us, trying to achieve this solely on our own comes at a great cost, and many frictions and collisions will also interfere with this process.

They want to cooperate, or at least not interfere with each other; they don’t want to spend their energy on internal friction."

John and McMaster both nodded slightly, the Federal Government also had this in mind, otherwise, they wouldn’t show such a compromising attitude.

Without talking about joining hands, as long as both sides communicate on this matter and intend to avoid possible frictions and conflicts, a lot could be saved.

"So you’re saying... the Chinese will come to us again."

John drummed his fingers on the table, speculatively guessing the next move.

"That’s right, we previously needed to reach some sort of accord, or maybe a secret memorandum; in any case, for the future, we should both free up our hands to focus as much as possible on space.

How to deal with alien civilizations and whether to disclose this to others will also need to be discussed according to agreement," Sullivan said and then suddenly started to laugh:

"Aside from being completely suppressed, this is even a good thing."

However, McMaster didn’t see it that way at all, his gaze more focused within the atmosphere:

"Gentlemen, please remember one thing, our current opponent has surpassed the Union in all aspects, yet we are not vigilant enough!"

...

"Yes... I understand... I assure you, the mission will be completed!"

Li Sheng brought his heels together and saluted the camera with a standard military salute before stepping up to turn off the video call.

This action would have been impossible before, but under 0.3G gravity, basically anything that could be done on Earth could be done in space.

He looked behind him through the large porthole, only to see a bright blue arc.

Currently, March was operating on the dark side of Earth, and due to the lack of a reference, one could hardly feel the space station rotating.

However, this was only temporary, when the vast expanse of land flowed through the porthole, even the most well-trained astronauts couldn’t help but feel their feet float, they could only suppress the sensation of dizziness.

Li Sheng didn’t know how the astronauts on the ’Isaac Newton’ felt, but after March began to rotate, all of the crew members who had lived there for three months felt a huge discomfort.

Most of their previous experiences were no longer applicable, the 12 centrifugal cabin segments were better; if all else failed, they could pull up the partition and not look outside, and they would adjust after a while.

The biggest nightmare was when two astronauts attempted to go to the functional cabin at the center of rotation to retrieve some materials from the docked space shuttle, and they almost injured themselves from disorientation on the way back.

According to the operational manual of March, personnel should not approach the axis during rotation as the closer one gets to the center, the more they will intuitively feel the angular velocity of the rotation, and if it’s absolutely necessary to go, it should be done by the housekeeper.

However, for the sake of the test, Li Sheng still approved this action, the two astronauts were fine crawling through the radiating cabin, but the real nightmare began once they entered the functional cabin, as if stepping into a giant tumble dryer, they became disoriented in a matter of moments, uncertain whether it was they or the space station that was rotating.

It had been only 3 days since the space station started its rotation, after the initial novelty had passed, the side effects were so severe that almost everyone was relearning everything.

Li Sheng was not only busy with daily concerns about the astronauts’ conditions, but he was also informed of a new mission.

"Captain!"

Lian Xinwei appeared at the doorway of the cabin, calling out routinely, then saw Li Sheng salute very solemnly, pausing briefly before quickly returning the salute.

Although he was also on active duty, half of the 26 crew members aboard March were from the New Yuan, and such hierarchy and formalities were not common in space as they were within military troops.

Fortunately, Li Sheng’s warm expression suggested that there was no emergency, allowing Lian Xinwei to make a joke:

"Li, you’re not seriously playing captain now, are you?"

Li Sheng didn’t speak but maintained his smile, causing Lian Xinwei to involuntarily widen his eyes.

"Not just me, but you guys as well.

The order from the ground asked that, once we’re familiar with operating the space station, we start an experiment to implement management in a naval system, temporarily I am the captain, and all of you are crew members, seamen, first mates."

"A warship or..."

Lian Xinwei suddenly thought of Li Sheng’s previous gesture, instantly understood the answer, and then pressed:

"What about the ranks? Half of us are not even in active service."

"As I said, it’s an experiment, not really doing it; there are positions but no titles, and in the next supply, we will receive a batch of custom-made shoulder straps, valid only during the mission."

Li Sheng wasn’t concealing anything, as this information would be discussed with everyone shortly, and it was normal to tell Lian Xinwei who was a psychologist.

Moreover, experimenting with the warship system didn’t mean wholly copying the Earth’s system; aside from borrowing certain titles, many aspects including job responsibilities and executing regulations had only rough drafts, which needed to be initially created and gradually fine-tuned by the astronauts aboard March.

Understanding this, Lian Xinwei also felt the pressure on Li Sheng; adopting such measures would make the military presence on the ship extremely pronounced, something that had never happened before.

While thinking deeply and frowning, Li Sheng patted his shoulder:

"You can think about it when you have time these next few days, I’ll speak to you about it sometime later. I have a feeling, what we’re going to do in the future will be very important."