Chapter 102: Inspection Tour

“That must be really tough.”

After finishing his meal, Zhang Mingyang followed the base map to the tenth floor of South Mountain.

Pushing open the door, Peng Dongli and Tian Wenyuan were already there.

“Why are you so late?”

Peng Dongli greeted him warmly, “Come, let me show you our office.”

Zhang Mingyang looked around. The eighty-square-meter room was half filled with monitors; the rest contained three desks and three chairs.

“Senior, why are there so many monitors?”

Tian Wenyuan explained, “These monitors are basically connected to the surveillance system of the entire base. Except for a few key areas, you can see almost everything.”

“Isn’t that just like the security room outside a residential gate?”

Peng Dongli thought for a moment and agreed, “Well, just think of it as a monitoring room then.”

“Here’s your seat.”

Tian Wenyuan led him to a desk by the window, “The three of us each take one.”

Sitting in the heavy chair and gazing out over the inner area of the base, Zhang Mingyang felt a leader’s perspective for the first time.

“Senior Tian, what exactly is our job?”

Tian Wenyuan approached a large screen and opened the base map. “Our job is routine patrol.”

He then handed two ID badges to the others. “These badges allow access everywhere except the control room at North Mountain. Actually, our work is quite similar to security guards. The difference is, guards focus on fire prevention, theft prevention, and personal safety within their area. We focus on monitoring, surveillance, and protection of scientific research.”

Zhang Mingyang asked, “Senior, do we have specific divisions of labor?”

“Of course.”

Tian Wenyuan pointed at the floor plan. “We divide the areas according to our specialties. Since you studied energy, you’ll cover the Energy Department and the Power Department; Peng, you studied materials, so you’ll cover the Second and Fourth Factories; I’ll handle the Navigation Office and the Electromechanical Department.”

“Alright.”

“No problem.”

After assigning the roles, Tian Wenyuan mapped out their respective patrol zones.

---

“All right, it’s now eight in the morning. We’ll meet at the North District cafeteria at 11:30 a.m. If you find any issues during the patrol, report them directly to Director Wang. He’s in charge of our team.”

“Understood.”

With everything ready, the three left the office to begin their patrols according to their assignments.

Zhang Mingyang took out his communicator and checked his area. Familiar with the Energy Department, he decided to first visit the Power Department.

After quickly locating the Power Department on the map, he learned it was in the middle of North Mountain, just above the Energy Department.

Taking the elevator down, Zhang Mingyang clipped on his badge and headed toward North Mountain.

As it was working hours, there were fewer pedestrians on the road, which spared Zhang from being stared at.

Reaching North Mountain, he found a security gate labeled “Power Department.” Holding up his badge to the recognition system, the door automatically opened.

Pushing it open, Zhang heard the sounds of machinery and people shouting immediately upon entering.

Before him stretched a space hundreds of meters tall and a kilometer wide, seemingly endless, bustling with vehicles, personnel, and large machinery.

“Sir, who might you be?”

A young man approached and asked.

“Oh!” Zhang Mingyang quickly pointed to the badge on his chest.

“Inspector Zhang Mingyang?”

Seeing he was a leader, the young man bowed quickly and invited him in.

“Hey, young man, could you give me a brief introduction?”

The young man replied eagerly, “Of course. I’m an inspector here at the Power Department. Just call me Xiao Sun.”

“Good.”

Xiao Sun led Zhang Mingyang along one side of the area.

“Xiao Sun, could you give me a general overview of the Power Department first?”

“Certainly.”

---

Xiao Sun pulled out his tablet and displayed the Power Department’s floor plan. “Inspector, our entire Power Department is divided into three internal zones and one external zone. Right in front of you are the three internal zones. The external zone is five kilometers north of the base, where the engine testing area is located.”

“The three internal zones are the wind tunnel laboratory, the computer laboratory, and the engine design office.”

Xiao Sun first took Zhang Mingyang to the wind tunnel laboratory. Standing outside, Zhang looked at the enormous sealed space where a scaled-down spaceship floated.

“Xiao Sun, what is this for?”

Xiao Sun explained, “This is a one-hundredth scale model of a spaceship. It has a miniature engine installed at the back — a dark matter engine. We’re currently testing flight in zero-gravity conditions to simulate how the spaceship flies in space. Another test involves air movement, simulating atmospheric flight, which mimics how the spaceship would fly on Earth.”

“Both tests are conducted to examine the spaceship’s aerodynamic performance and gather engine transmission data. All collected data is then transmitted to the computer lab next door.”

Leading him there, Xiao Sun and Zhang entered through sliding doors.

“Wow!”

Taking in the scene, Zhang felt as if he had stepped into a satellite launch command center: a massive screen and rows of computer desks.

Xiao Sun introduced, “This is the computer lab. Data from the wind tunnel experiments arrives here. But here, we only analyze engine data. The aerodynamic data goes to Factory Two on South Mountain, which handles the spaceship’s outer shell data.”

Hearing this, Zhang was puzzled. “Xiao Sun, do you work separately like this?”

Xiao Sun smiled, “Our Power Department is responsible solely for spaceship engine design. The spaceship models you saw earlier were from Factory Two’s design department. Originally, the wind tunnel lab belonged to Factory Two’s design department too, but since this spaceship uses dark matter, the base decided to assign engine data testing to our Power Department.”

“Oh, I see.”

After touring the computer lab, Xiao Sun took him to the engine design office.

Opening the door, the atmosphere was quite different. The room was only about 150 square meters, with dozens of designers busy working with VR equipment.

Xiao Sun whispered, “This is the engine design room, the most critical place. These are some of the nation’s top rocket designers. See that VR projection?”

Zhang nodded.

“That’s the design imaging system. Designers create virtual models that are projected here. Construction teams then build according to this virtual data. Once built, the model goes to the wind tunnel lab for testing. The test results are sent back to the computer lab for data filtering. Then, the filtered data returns to the design imaging system, which automatically adjusts the engine’s design based on the experimental results.”