Chapter 155 Turning Point

Gao Yuan had been running back and forth, eager to settle the personnel and establishment issues of Da Hong Third Company. Why was he in such a hurry? Because he was about to leave for Ji City.

Who could predict what consequences would follow his trip to Ji City? Although Gao Yuan had undergone mutations, that didn't render him completely invincible. Should anything happen to him, wouldn't the only seed of Fierce Tiger Brigade and Da Hong Third Company be lost?

So Gao Yuan's thinking was quite straightforward: resolve any worries for the future before embarking on a high-risk mission.

That meant setting his affairs in order, just in case he died in Ji City, ensuring the legacy of Fierce Tiger Brigade would continue.

Now that things had settled, although there were only Yu Shunzhou and Nie Erlong, there were successors indeed.

Yes, successors indeed was quite fitting.

Gao Yuan, who felt as if he had inadvertently taken advantage of Yu Shunzhou, smiled to himself, then followed Shi Lei into the conference room where the scientists were meeting.

Six scientists were already waiting.

"Hello everyone, the task of retrieving materials from the laboratory ultimately falls on Comrade Gao Yuan," said a man in a suit.

An old man in a suit nodded and extended his hand to Shi Lei with a serious expression, "I am Qian Damin, the head of the National Laboratory of Nuclear Physics. Please take a seat, and I will brief you.

"Our laboratory stores a lot of nuclear materials. The two small nuclear power plants currently operating on the base use nuclear fuel rods from our lab. Our previous research focused on controlled nuclear fusion using low-enriched deuterium-tritium-lithium at five percent, but according to the information provided by Xinghe, we need materials with over fifty percent concentration of deuterium-helium-3. Fortunately, our laboratory indeed has sufficient deuterium-helium-3, and the concentration can be processed to the required level."

Clearly, Shi Lei did not understand; Gao Yuan did not comprehend either, but they did not need to understand.

"Is the nuclear material in solid form? How big is it? What is the weight, and is there radiation?"

Shi Lei was asking about things that they could understand and needed to know.

Yet Qian Damin proceeded with excitement, "Let me finish. To achieve nuclear fusion with deuterium-helium-3, temperatures of billions of degrees are needed. Our current technology simply cannot reach that; hence our focus was on the deuterium-tritium reaction, which requires the least temperature and pressure, already achieved in the Tokamak device. But we never imagined that controlled nuclear fusion was not as difficult as we thought. It's difficult because we didn't find the right direction."

After finishing, Qian Damin suddenly grabbed Gao Yuan's hand, his face full of excitement, "I need to thank you. I thank you for bringing Xinghe to us, allowing me to fulfill my life's greatest ambition within my lifetime. I'm telling you this to let you know that controlled nuclear fusion became a reality because of you."

Gao Yuan quickly said, "You flatter me; this matter... doesn't have much to do with me..."

"I know it doesn't have much to do with you, but you can meet Xinghe! Xinghe said without you, he couldn't have come. So, I have to thank you!"

Well, Xinghe had exaggerated again. Gao Yuan felt quite embarrassed, whereas Shi Lei suggested, "Director Qian, perhaps you should answer our questions first. The more you speak of things, the more we don't understand."

Qian Damin nodded repeatedly, then said gravely, "Alright, back to the main topic. The nuclear material weighs a total of seven thousand six hundred grams, solid state, stored inside a sealed container with a zirconium shell, looking something like this."

Qian Damin pointed towards a sealed canister. Gao Yuan glanced at it, finding the canister was shiny, resembling a metallic post.

"The container weighs one hundred twenty kilograms and ensures no radiation leakage. However, the container for the nuclear material is further sealed inside a four-ton lead alloy container, which is housed within our large safe."

Shi Lei said, "That means, once we enter the lab, we just need to take the small container, not the four-ton storage canister, right?"

After thinking for a moment, Qian Damin said, "Theoretically, it's not necessary, as the container itself is sufficient to be safe."

Shi Lei sighed in relief, "Adding the nuclear material, that's one hundred thirty kilograms... Hm..."

Gao Yuan suddenly said, "One hundred thirty kilograms? No problem, I can carry that easily myself."

Shi Lei was at a loss for words; he habitually assessed the operation based on the strength of a normal person, neglecting that Gao Yuan's strength was no longer on the level of a regular individual.

Gao Yuan looked at Qian Damin and asked, "Director Qian, could you tell us how to get into the lab and how to open the safe and container for the nuclear material?"

Qian Damin chuckled, "The 'safe' is actually a vault, like the bank vaults you see in movies, very large, with a door one meter thick. It's impossible to enter without the password and key. Of course, you will know the password and will get the key."

Gao Yuan felt this was sufficient. Since they had the key and password, they would just go in, take the nuclear materials, and that would be it.

"Please, go ahead," he said.

Qian Damin glanced at the people behind him, and the person in charge of guarding the nuclear materials began explaining how to enter the lab. Gao Yuan listened carefully, while Shi Lei recorded the entire process with a camera, to study it slowly upon returning.

As Gao Yuan listened intently, someone knocked on the door. A very senior bodyguard, the kind that exclusively followed Li Wen, entered the room and whispered in Gao Yuan's ear, "Comrade Gao Yuan, Xinghe wants to see you, and it's urgent."

While Gao Yuan conversed privately, Shi Lei turned off the camera and moved away from the scientists with deliberate respect.

Gao Yuan felt that Shi Lei and the others could not hear them, so he also asked in a low voice, "He's not pondering what to eat again, is he?"

"No, it's a real issue this time, and the commander is also here."

Well then, I had to go.

Gao Yuan stood up and said to Shi Lei, "I'm sorry, I have to leave for a bit. It looks like I'll have to come again, or wait for your explanation."

Shi Lei nodded and said, "That's fine, you go ahead with your business."

Having an alien's favor was a good thing, yet the downside was the inconvenience of having to be on call at all times.

Gao Yuan felt that he was fast becoming Xinghe's personal attendant.

In a hurry, he arrived at a small conference room, where Gao Yuan found that the people waiting for him were not only of high rank but also all wore serious expressions on their faces.

Except for Xinghe.

Gao Yuan didn't bother with pleasantries. As he entered, he asked, "Commander, what's the matter?"

Xinghe smiled at Gao Yuan and then casually said, "We've detected the medical pod's signal."

"The medical pod's signal?"

Before Gao Yuan could understand what was happening, a general next to Li Wen said in a heavy tone, "Alien communication device, our code name is Revelation. Revelation has the ability to detect alien energy fluctuations. We didn't know how to use it before, but after Xinghe arrived, we could use all its functions. We have been searching for the medical pod but have never been able to find it. Before, Revelation could only display a rough location, but now, just twenty-four minutes ago, Revelation detected the precise location of the medical pod, very, very accurately."

Detecting the medical pod was one thing, but what could be done with it?

And what did this matter have to do with him?

Gao Yuan could only assume that Xinghe refused to communicate with others without him present, so he looked helplessly at Xinghe.

But after smiling, Xinghe nodded and said, "I want to find the medical pod."

"Hmm, what?"

This time Gao Yuan was genuinely surprised. Xinghe wanted to find the medical pod?

Xinghe continued nonchalantly, "I want to go find the medical pod."

"Why?"

"Because we need to find the medical pod first in order to combine it with the communicator. Only by combining them can we have enough energy for signal-free detection."

Gao Yuan shook his head and said, "I don't understand."

Xinghe patiently explained, "Let me clarify, many of our devices have more than one function, or rather, they are part of a system. For instance, the medical pod doesn't have a detection function, but the medical pod has a more powerful battery, right? With a strong battery, it can operate for a long time, while the communicator, aside from communication, also acts like a radar. However, the communicator's built-in battery cannot support the full functioning of the radar. If we had enough energy on our spaceship, it wouldn't be a problem, but if we want to leave the communicator on Earth, away from the spaceship's energy supply, and have it scan slowly over time to try to discover our lost prototype, then we can only combine the use of the medical pod and the communicator."

After finishing his explanation, Xinghe changed his tone and said, "Our ancestors piloted the most advanced spaceship prototype to Earth but disappeared. Later, someone came looking for them but couldn't find the spaceship, so they left the medical pod and the communicator here on Earth to keep scanning and searching. And then, your ancients separated the medical pod and the communicator, rendering the communicator unable to continue scanning or to send signals back to us. Therefore, I had to come personally, but my spaceship was also damaged, so now I must use the devices left by our ancestors to continue the search. Now do you understand?"

Not just Gao Yuan, even Li Wen looked as if he'd just had a revelation.

Gao Yuan looked at Li Wen, then turned to Xinghe and asked, "Is this the first time you're saying this?"

"Yes."

Gao Yuan exhaled and said helplessly, "Why didn't you say so earlier? Didn't I tell you to inform us if there was anything important?"

"I'm telling you now."

"I said us, including them..."

Xinghe glanced at Li Wen, then at the others, before frowning and saying, "Okay, but they didn't ask either."

"How would we know to ask about something if you don't tell us? If we don't know, we can't ask."

Xinghe nodded and said, "It's still an issue of information asymmetry. But now you know, isn't that good enough?"

Gao Yuan had to resign himself to the situation. He turned to Li Wen and asked, "Commander, what do you think?"

Li Wen looked at the others, and with hardly any hesitation and just a mutual glance between them, he said firmly, "Retrieve the medical pod! Contact Poseidon!"