Chapter 747 - 720: Arrival in Space

As Yushu Base welcomed new members, the crew of March also received visitors who had traveled all the way from Earth.

"March Space Station Commander Li Sheng, on behalf of all the March crew members, we welcome your visit and guidance, salute!"

Li Sheng’s voice was high and powerful, and behind him stood the crew members, arrayed in five columns and five rows, neatly formed into a squad.

Beside the crowd, a separate column of special "crew members," with highly synchronized movements, stood out.

Now that March was still under the Aerospace Development Committee, Li Sheng, after careful consideration, saluted and greeted the person in front of him with a military posture, consistent with the appearance of the March experimental fleet system.

Lu Jianfei, who hadn’t completely adapted to weightlessness, struggled to maintain his posture, tensing his muscles to prevent himself from tipping to one side while seizing the opportunity to return the salute.

"Greetings, comrades, you’ve all worked hard."

Having said this, Lu Jianfei’s posture had already begun to noticeably tilt, and Lin Ju decisively reached out to steady him, then stepped forward with a smile.

Suddenly, a New Yuan employee in the ranks called out:

"Hello, boss!"

"Mr. Lin!"

"President..."

"You’ve all worked hard; I’m just here to take a casual look around."

Lin Ju waved his hand nonchalantly, but his eyes continuously scanned the March’s functional cabin, taking in its layout.

Knowledge about handling zero gravity returned to his body, and he floated steadily above the floor, looking at the six attractive life butlers:

"Care mode, help him adapt to gravity."

The robot at the front, without any hesitation, lightly touched the cabin wall and gracefully drifted over like a sprite, stopping accurately next to Lu Jianfei to support him.

The others behind "her" followed suit, floating over to assist the visitors one by one.

"Hey, hey, hey..."

Lu Jianfei, suddenly supported by a "beautiful woman" with an excellent figure and appearance, instinctively wanted to back away but was firmly held at the waist and arm. His body, which had been on the verge of losing control, was immediately stabilized.

"I am the life butler Wen Xin. Please relax your body. Under my guidance, you will be able to adapt to the weightless environment faster; please..."

The synthetic skin, which was much cooler than a human’s, actually helped Lu Jianfei to relax. He was awkwardly manipulated by her, and even his weathered face couldn’t help but blush.

In front of him, Li Sheng, expressionless, suddenly turned around and said loudly:

"Everyone, come with me to move the supplies immediately."

"Yes!"

The crew scattered—in the physical sense—navigating through the space with the agility of spiders, floating toward the docking port from both sides and all levels, in a complex yet collision-free dance, like a coordinated pod of orcas hunting.

Yu Man awkwardly pushed away the "woman" by her and tried to reach Lin Ju, but he had already taken the initiative to hold her waist.

"Don’t kick so hard; do you remember how it was when swimming, like this..."

Lin Ju patiently taught her how to master the movements, in a way making up for his own shortcomings.

Four days ago, on July 20th, Lin Ju ran into Lu Jianfei in the Capital, and saw him running around with four lieutenant colonels. He learned that these were the foundational members of the inaugural team being formed for the Space Force.

Featuring one from each of the army, navy, air force, and rocket force, the main focus was fairness.

In the weeks that had passed, the organizational structure of the Space Force had been quickly perfected with collective efforts from above, but when it came to the actual recruitment of personnel, it still required the boss to personally woo potential members.

The Space Force did not need superhumans or seasoned elite NCOs; just like how the air force and navy were jokingly referred to as first and second-grade forces, the later a branch was established, the higher the standards for the foundational qualifications of its personnel, and the scarcer their numbers.

The members of the Space Force must first have an adequate technical and cultural background, be relatively young with a high capacity for learning, have excellent physical fitness, sound mental health, and ideally, broad knowledge.

Being in the formative stages, the first team of the Space Force would greatly influence its future direction. Both leaders and members must have visionary insight and exceptional creativity.

Though there were young talents who met these criteria, they were the darlings of their own units, carefully nurtured, and it took Lu Jianfei great effort to gather these four promising youths.

Finding higher-ranking staff or technical officers was somewhat easier, but they were generally over the age of 55, more focused on strategic research, and therefore attention still had to be concentrated on junior officers and younger forces.

At that time, Lu Jianfei coincidentally spoke of needing to familiarize officers, who were transferred from other military branches, with the Space Force. Lin Ju immediately suggested that the best way to do this was to visit space firsthand.

It was just like corporate culture training for new hires; there was even a bit of ceremony when new soldiers joined their units. People of the Space Force needed to have a basic concept of space first.

As it happened, after operating continuously for one month, March would have a seven-day downtime for maintenance and resupply. Storm, having just completed its rest and refit, was about to undertake the supply mission and could easily take five people along for a trip.

Lu Jianfei’s initial reaction was that it was not protocol, but considering the situations both at New Yuan and domestically, things couldn’t be done by the book, so he reported upwards and immediately received approval...

Without adaptation training and only a full-body examination along with a three-hour safety briefing, on the 24th, the five men boarded the ready-to-launch Storm at the Qiongzhou Launch Site.

The reason they could be taken along was simple: after delivering supplies, Storm would not immediately return to Earth but, after emptying the cargo, head to the Moon to operate as a ferry between Earth and Moon. Therefore, the cargo bay was fitted with modular crew capsules, with some seats unoccupied—taking a few additional people was no burden at all.

As for the return trip for the guests, it was to be done by aero-space plane, with both Ruiyun and Cloud Ascend ready for use at a moment’s notice.

Ten people in total: six from the Space Force and two pilots.

Lu Jianfei only realized after being strapped into his seat that two heads had emerged in the front row. When Lin Ju and his wife greeted him, it was already three minutes into the countdown.

"How did you get up here!"

"Pre-wedding trip, going to get our license when we come back down."

"I’m asking who had the guts to approve this!"

"The same person who approved yours."

"..."

"Better buckle up, I’m organizing a family banquet for the wedding, make sure you’re there."

"..."

In an instant, Lu Jianfei understood why he had felt things were amiss in the past few days; he hadn’t expected to be caught off guard like this.

However, regret came too late, and all he could do was pray for a safe voyage.

In fact, he was somewhat relieved that Lin Ju had followed protocol. Since the advent of aero-space planes, traveling to space had become too convenient. From New Far Base, it didn’t take two hours to get off the ground, as convenient as catching a regular airliner.

If Lin Ju suddenly felt like getting away from it all at night and there happened to be an aero-space plane in the hangar, he might just be floating in space before you know it, and in the blink of an eye, he’d already be driving a lunar rover on the Moon!