Chapter 1649: President of Tau Ceti?
Chapter 1649: President of Tau Ceti?
While Li Guangya was feeling a headache over Lu Zhou’s choice, Lu Zhou, Zhong Ziyu, and the others were standing on the shuttle to the East Asia Heavy Industries shipyard, chatting and laughing together.
Looking at the shipyard getting closer and closer outside the porthole and the behemoth perched on the berth, Lu Zhou’s eyes narrowed.
After a while, he said softly with emotion, "Before this, I was still hesitant, would it be a bad idea to spend hundreds of millions of credit points to buy this starship?"
Zhong Ziyu, who was sitting next to him, smiled and said casually, "What about now?"
Lu Zhou glanced at him.
"Do you really have to ask this?"
"Haha," Zhong Ziyu said with a smile, "After all, I am very happy you think this money is well spent!"
As they got closer and closer to the shipyard, the towering view outside the porthole made everyone stop talking. They focused all their attention on the starship under construction.
Objectively speaking, compared to a normal starship, this starship was more like an asteroid.
It was a rectangular parallelepiped structure with a length of more than ten kilometers. The silver-white shell exuded a sharp cold glow under the sun, like a sword that pierced the cold night, hanging in the air by the furnace of the god of flames.
"Because of the huge size, the Noah’s Ark had to be constructed in sections, then assembled and welded." Zhong Ziyu continued eloquently while looking at the Noah’s Ark outside the porthole, "Just to complete this starship, East Asia Heavy Industries also specially designed a shipbuilding equipment called the ‘multi-axis linkage adjustable construction platform’ to facilitate the assembly of starships too large for welding robots."
Lu Zhou: "How do you know?"
Zhong Ziyu smiled and said, "I read their insurance information… Well, here we are."
As the connecting cantilever docked, the shuttle was successfully connected to the lounge area of this shipyard. When Lu Zhou came through the gate of the buffer room, the engineer who came to greet everyone suddenly widened his eyes. He took the initiative to extend his right hand and greet him with joy.
"Are you Academician Lu? What a pleasure! My name is Feng Zhi, the person in charge here! You can call me Xiao Feng or Engineer Feng!"
"Feng Zhi is fine." Lu Zhou said with a smile, "I’m just here today to take a look. Don’t worry, just focus on your work."
"Haha, you can rest assured, Academician Lu, we will definitely not delay our work. All the work is proceeding step by step!" The old engineer, who was about 50 years old, smiled heartily and continued, "And you have no idea how much the design department admires you! The design of that warp drive engine is simply amazing. How did you come up with that design?"
Although Lu Zhou could hear that the old engineer was complimenting him from the bottom of his heart rather than kissing his a*s, but being praised like this suddenly made him feel a little embarrassed.
"Just applying physics theories… As for the specific design, half of it is
"No problem! Please come with me!"
Feng Zhi walked in front and led the group to the interior of Noah’s Ark.
Compared to the simple and monotonous style of the colonial ship’s appearance, the interior space of this starship was unexpectedly different.
Although Lu Zhou had already seen the grandeur of this colonial ship from the blueprints before coming here, when he really stepped into this area, he was still surprised by everything inside.
"I thought the design inside would be very compact." Lu Zhou looked around and continued with a slightly surprised tone, "I didn’t expect the inside to be so spacious."
"You haven’t even seen the exciting part yet." Feng Zhi smiled and said with a hint of pride, "I bet that even you will be amazed!"
After passing through the alloy gate, the smell of flowers and trees suddenly hit their noses. Just for a moment, Lu Zhou thought he was back on Earth. He looked at the dirt under his feet and the surrounding vegetation. He then reached out his hand and touched it.
After confirming that it was not a scene created by holographic technology, Lu Zhou murmured to himself.
"This is…"
He really was amazed.
Feng Zhi smiled and said, "This is the ecological zone; the natural oxygen producer on the colonial ship. It covers an area of 500 square meters, divided into upper, middle, and lower floors, corresponding to wetland, ocean, and forest environments. There are hundreds of samples of animals, plants, and insects stored in the ecological zone. This is not only a sample bank for scientific researchers to carry out biological research but also a garden for colonists to relax."
Lu Zhou nodded and didn’t reply.
He had seen a similar design in the Calan’s Ring world. The well-designed ecological environments could boost the mood of the residents.
Regardless of whether the designer borrowed the concept from the "online game" named Calan Empire, which was operated by Xiao Ai, Lu Zhou admitted that he was truly amazed when he saw such a beautiful natural landscape on a man-made object.
Zhong Ziyu looked around. He reached out and touched the leaves next to him, smiled, and joked, "I didn’t expect life on the ship to be so luxurious. If it weren’t for my work, I would buy a ticket."
Lu Zhou smiled and joked back, "How about going to Tau Ceti as the branch president? Or the Alpha Centauri branch president?"
"Haha, nice one… Being a president over there, no thanks."
The ecological zone was only one corner of the entire Noah’s Ark. The many amazing designs were all presented to Lu Zhou one by one.
Finally, the group came to the grand concourse of the entire colonial ship.
This was probably the main attraction of the entire colonial ship.
The spacious interior allowed every square meter to be efficiently used. Through elevators and conveyor belts, people here could quickly commute to any corner of the entire colonial ship within ten minutes.
Whether it was the bridge at the front, or the power room at the stern, or a cabin at a remote corner…
"It’s as perfect as I thought." Lu Zhou said in a very emotional tone after looking around, "It’s not so much a starship, it’s like an orbital habitat with both production and living functions."
"After all, in the original design concept, we considered that the colonists cannot land on the surface of the planet immediately." Looking at the high tower in the center of the concourse, Feng Zhi sighed and said, "To be honest, we can only finish it in another year at most. It is a pity to dismantle and smelt it…"
"You don’t need to worry about this." Lu Zhou smiled faintly when he heard these words. He continued, "It won’t be dismantled."
Feng Zhi was stunned. He said in a puzzled manner, "Won’t be dismantled? But I heard that the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation was bought out by the Fuxing Mining Company, who intended to dismantle it into alloy…"
Zhong Ziyu smiled and said, "Then do you know who owns Fuxing Mining Company?"
Feng Zhi looked at the people present. He said in a daze, "Who?"
"It can’t be made public yet, but it will be in a few days." Zhong Ziyu pulled Lu Zhou aside and asked with a smile, "What do you think? Is the space inside as satisfactory as the one outside?"
"I’m very satisfied, it’s perfect." Lu Zhou continued after thinking for a while, "But considering that the warp drive engine will be installed in the future, some areas still need to be improved."
Zhong Ziyu smiled and said, "You can discuss with Academician Yang Chongping. He is the designer of this starship."
Lu Zhou: "Where is he?"
Zhong Ziyu looked at his watch and said, "He’ll be here in a second."