Wang Ping'an's crew should embark on the journey to Mars on the fourth day after arriving at Sun-Earth L2.
But on the third day after arriving at Sun-Earth L2, their work began.
Wang Ping'an's crew needs to go to the port to supervise the routine maintenance of the cargo ship and the shipment of goods that they will be responsible for.
This is also a routine process for the Space Force. On Earth, the cargo shipment of cargo ships is basically managed by the first mate. During loading, the first mate is also responsible for handing over to the handover officer.
However, the spacecraft does not have a detailed division of labor among the captain, first mate, and second mate, and the related preparations before the spacecraft sets sail are also very complicated, so the two astronauts need to work together with the port handover team, cargo team, and maintenance team
.
Wang Ping'an and Angeli went to the port at 0600 that day.
While floating on the trestle in the port area, Wang Ping'an suddenly said: "The rate of turning around is a bit high. Is the Silver Star so attractive?"
According to regulations, after receiving a medal, space officers and soldiers must always wear it. Those in regular uniforms should hang the medal directly on their chests, and those in training uniforms should wear the medal's brochure.
In addition, in theory, astronauts with medals should use paint to draw corresponding logos on their spacesuits. However, because the Space Force cannot dedicate spacesuits to just one person, most of the time a group of people take turns to use them, and they have to paint them every time.
The medal logo was too troublesome, so the instructors turned a blind eye to this rule.
Wang Ping'an was now wearing regular clothes, so he wore a metal Silver Star Medal. He gently touched the surface of the medal and muttered: "Why do I feel like everyone is looking at me..."
"Look here." Angele patted his shoulder and pointed to her face.
Wang Ping'an: "What's wrong? Can I help you see if there's any gum in your eyes?"
"What's wrong with your eyes? It's not you that everyone is looking at, it's me."
"Are you sure?" Wang Ping'an asked, "Maybe they see me as a troublemaker!"
"...Then I really can't argue with you, it should be up to you." Angele decisively changed her statement.
Wang Ping'an smiled. At this time, he saw the hull number of the spacecraft outside the window, and pointed at the spacecraft and said: "Look, that's the spacecraft we are going to take, PQ51. Judging from the number, it should be transporting luxury goods and fresh supplies to Mars."
and all kinds of bulk cargo.”
Angele: "Fresh supplies?"
"Yes, for example, breeding stock for large-scale breeding farms on Mars. Crash the livestock and a complete circulation system into a container. Even if the container is thrown into space, the animals inside can still survive."
Angele: "Can't Mars produce these breeding animals?"
"The varieties cultivated on Mars are quite different from the varieties on Earth due to environmental differences. For example, cockroaches on Mars can survive storms on the surface of Mars..."
"Why are there cockroaches on Mars?"
"Although I want to tell you a story about a fatal mistake caused by human negligence, it was actually brought there intentionally by humans. Cockroaches are very good biodegraders. They can throw anything into the cockroach pond for them to eat, and then
Then crush the cockroach, and the best biological protein is completed."
Angele frowned and covered her mouth: "You won't tell me that Martians eat food made from this thing, right?"
"Of course not. The biological proteins produced by cockroaches are all used to feed meat poultry. They are the kind of meat poultry that have been genetically modified so that one chicken has twelve wings."
Wang Ping'an suddenly lowered his voice and whispered: "Of course, some biological proteins are directly made into synthetic food for human consumption, but no one will tell you this, so don't eat synthetic food on Mars."
Angele looked worried at first, but she immediately rolled her eyes: "No, you seem to be lying to me."
Wang Pingan laughed loudly.
After laughing, he said sternly: "As I just said, all living animals are packed in closed containers with circulatory systems. We don't need to feed them at all, or even care about their life or death. As long as there are no traces of the container being opened by external force, the contents inside
If something dies, it’s the container company’s business, we’re just doing the work.”
Angele: "The Space Force actually transports this kind of thing."
"The companies that place orders for us are usually large companies with production planning management committees. We don't accept orders from private companies. Private companies have their own transportation methods, and then..."
Wang Ping'an pointed to the Torch Cruiser that was setting sail outside the porthole: "Look, this is probably going to inspect private company ships. They will transport all kinds of contraband to Mars."
"I thought Torch Cruisers were used to deal with enemies."
"What kind of enemy, octopus-like Martians? There are indeed Torch Cruisers fighting against pirates, but space is too vast.
"There are half a million asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Except for the few hundred resource-rich ones occupied by the Space Force, such as Ceres and Vesta, the rest are mined by private companies.
"Private companies use a large number of contract workers. We have no idea how many people live in the asteroid belt. Many colonies run by small companies with only two or three ships are dotted around. The pirates' strongholds are hidden among all this.
"Even the Torch Cruiser can only patrol a small area if all the Deltas are used up. Clearing out the pirates is currently an impossible task.
"The elite fleet of the Space Force spends most of their time fighting smugglers, and the rest of the time is mainly responsible for dealing with all kinds of lunatics. The main mission of the ordinary Space Force force, in addition to transportation, is rescue and disaster relief."
Wang Ping'an paused and emphasized again: "And the most important job is rescue and disaster relief. Do you know there is a consensus in space?"
"I don't know, what?"
"If you're in danger, call the Space Force for help first. Even pirates would fucking do that. It's better to be tried by the Air Traffic Control Commission's court than to die."
Angele opened her mouth wide: "Uh... To be honest, this is a bit different from my understanding. Isn't there something more like a regular army's mission? In other words, if the Trisolarans come over, the Space Force will not
Just use cruisers to fight?"
"No, look over there!" Wang Ping'an pointed to the longest pier of the space port, "Do you see the big guy parked at that pier? That's a dreadnought, equipped with the most powerful plasma launcher.
One shot can evaporate ten tons of homogeneous armor. The Brave we were on before was half disabled no matter what angle it was hit by.
"The dreadnought itself also has thick armor. The entire ship's armor alone has a mass of nearly 20,000 tons. In addition, it also has a very large phased laser array that can evaporate most live ammunition weapons. Such a behemoth,
Two words, invincible.
"Then what do you think its main task is?"
Angele: "What is it?"
"Military parade. So we gave it another nickname, called the hotel. If you are assigned to a hotel as a soldier, you are out of luck, because what awaits you is endless deck wiping, etiquette training and no dispatch at all.
Useful combat training.
"People there are promoted very slowly, and they basically have to rely on years of experience."
Wang Ping'an curled his lips and continued: "On the L2 local network, I often see people serving in the hotel discussing the possibility of Jupiter or Mars being independent. Once an independence war breaks out, they can come in handy."
Angele asked curiously: "Is it actually possible for Mars and Jupiter to be independent?"
Wang Ping'an shrugged: "Jupiter can't do it, because Jupiter does not have a complete industrial chain. It is still a resource producing area, and industrial products are basically sent from Mars. As for Mars, they already have a complete industrial chain, but they cannot produce what is on Earth.
Luxury.
"In addition, there are only science and engineering schools on Mars. If you want to study liberal arts, you can only come to Earth. Also, the teaching and research levels of schools on Mars are not high. Even scientists who were born and raised on Mars will eventually have to study on Earth.
.
"Furthermore, the Space Force and the Production Planning Committee have been promoting the understanding that we are people from the Solar System. In places where the Space Force and the Production Planning Committee are strong, this is a consensus. It makes no sense for the people of the Solar System to be independent.
"The last thing is the large-scale popularization of Chinese. In Chinese culture, there is a concept of great unity, which spreads widely along with Chinese. Do you know that there is a theory called the Guangtu Giant Clan?"
Angele nodded: "I know, we have many scholars in France who hold this theory and say that we should become the sixty-sixth nation."
Wang Ping'an nodded: "Now this is the main theory promoted by Mars, and Mars is also part of the giant tribe of Guangtu."
Angele said oh.
While having these conversations, the two of them kept floating along the trestle at a leisurely speed, and finally they were almost reaching the loading deck of the PQ51 spacecraft.
The shift leader at the pier was already waiting. He stretched out his hand to help Wang Ping'an stop, and Wang Ping'an caught Angeli again.
After saluting each other, the shift leader handed over a tablet: "We have already filled half of the goods list this time. If you come later, you can check it directly."
Wang Ping'an looked at his phone: "We rushed here. It's only 0635 now, not even 0700."
"I'm not blaming you, I'm just teasing you. Don't be nervous." The squad leader glanced at Wang Ping'an's silver star and said, "Not bad. You risked your life to get it back, right?"
"It's okay." Wang Ping'an said lightly.
But the squad leader stared at him: "Oh...I remembered, you are the one who called the disaster!"
"Does even the engineering department know my name?"
"I didn't know at first, but I heard that you have a super beautiful French partner, so I knew it all. Damn, I should have noticed that the name on the manifest is French."
Angeli smiled, took the manifest from Wang Ping'an and said, "I'll confirm the goods."
"give it to you."
Wang Pingan watched Angele drift away.
Shift leader: "What a piece of luck. But let's not talk about it anymore. Let me tell you the business. There is a slight problem with the condition of the spaceship. The dynamic sensing system of the cargo bay is broken. We are repairing it. Generally speaking, it will be replaced directly.
But unfortunately there are no spare parts now. Your ship is an old one, can you tell?"
Wang Ping'an looked at the spacecraft and nodded: "Yes, the pipeline layout of the tritium reflection engine is old-fashioned, and cobalt is used for heat dissipation."
Cobalt heat dissipation is to eject cobalt particles carrying heat into space, and then use magnetism to collect the cooled cobalt.
The latest spacecraft now use liquid tin for heat dissipation.
Shift leader: "Yes, it's hard to find parts for this classic boat, so we can only dismantle some of the new ones we are using now, and then weld them on.
"It should be barely usable. As an alternative, we will use dynamic sensors to carefully search the warehouse before sealing it to make sure there are no stowaways hiding inside."
Wang Ping'an: "Well, that's a problem for you. But there are usually no stowaways on the route to Mars."
After all, Mars is also a civilized world, and most of it is controlled by the Production Planning Committee and the Aviation Control Commission. There is no "soaring opportunity" that the stowaways are looking forward to.
Generally, the most common way to smuggle people is to go to the asteroid belt. Headhunting companies continue to promote in the earth circle that the asteroid belt is full of opportunities and can start a new life.
A new life: refers to being frightened all day long and afraid of pirates.
Of course, there are also people who go to the asteroid belt to become pirates.
The shift leader continued: "The fuel given to you this time is 6,050 tons, of which 50 tons are redundant."
Wang Ping'an: "Wait a minute, why is there so little? Usually there are 500 tons of water as redundant fuel."
The new generation of spacecraft are beginning to use water—to be precise, hydrogen and oxygen in water—as propellant.
"There was something wrong with the work of capturing the new comet, so we adjusted the water distribution plan." The shift leader said, "The Air Traffic Management Committee knows this situation, so it should not arrange for you to perform other tasks midway. Follow the route honestly.
Flying, if you don’t need these fifty tons of water, you can even have a swimming pool on the spaceship for diving.”
Wang Ping'an: "Then I have to bring a big enough net."
When water is poured into a fine-mesh net in a weightless state, a relatively regular water polo will be formed. This is how gravity-free swimming pools are built in space resorts built by private companies for wealthy people.
Shift leader: "Then bring it. Bring your swimsuit by the way."
Wang Ping'an: "Is there anything else bad you want to tell me?"
"No, uh... there are some problems with the airtight lock a2, but it has been repaired. However, I still recommend not to use a2 for extra-vehicular activities. In the event of a severe loss of pressure, you may be ejected out of the ship. No more
Already.
"Do you want us to install any games for you in the spacecraft host? We can just stuff it in?"
"Give me more energy and time."
"Please, don't you have more suitable things to do to kill your time?"
"Are you kidding? She and I are partners, not a couple."
The shift leader shrugged.
At this time Angeli came back from inspecting the goods: "Oh my god, there is that smell in the warehouse."
"It's normal." Wang Ping'an said, "Live birds are like this. You have to be lucky that most of the smell is sealed in the container."
Angele: "I saw someone opening a container of luxury goods."
"That's what the customs is doing," Wang Ping'an replied, "Did you see the stuff being transported inside? It's shiny, right?"
Angeli shrugged and added: "I also found many containers of snacks, and the customs are opening and inspecting them one by one."
Shift leader: "Actually, opening is just a process. Scanning can determine whether there are any contraband in the container."
Wang Ping'an: "It's still necessary to have a formality, a sense of ritual."
Angele: "I have nothing more to say. We can just supervise the loading and unloading of these things today, right?"
"Yes, then we can move to the ship tonight and submit a departure request to the control tower at 0900 tomorrow morning."
Angele shrugged.
At this time, Wang Ping'an suddenly thought of something and said to Angeli: "By the way, we still have a series of paperwork, which should be completed by the extravehicular operator. I will teach you how to fill in the series of forms later.
"
Angeli looked at Wang Ping'an suspiciously: "Isn't it true that you are pushing my own work to me? Comrade Commander?"
"Of course not. I'm sure this job should be done by extravehicular operators."
But the monitor said: "Girls have prettier handwriting and better-looking signatures."
Angeli raised her eyebrows and looked at Wang Ping'an.
Wang Ping'an scratched his head: "Okay, actually it should be done by the commander, but... can't you share some mechanical work?"
Angele sighed: "Okay, mechanical work. Where do we start?"
**
At 2200 that night, Wang Ping'an's crew finally finished their work for the day.
They then took up residence on the small bridge of the spacecraft.
The bridge was much more spacious than the Space Force's standard two-person lieutenant cabin. Wang Ping'an lay directly on the bed and made a large font.
Then he immediately floated up.
The beds are arranged perpendicular to the axis of the spacecraft, so that when the spacecraft takes off, the acceleration during acceleration will press people on the bed board.
As for the deceleration process, the recoil engine of a modern spacecraft generally does not have as much thrust as the main engine, so it can only be used to adjust the attitude in a small way. The real deceleration process requires turning the spacecraft over and the main engine ejecting in the direction of speed.
So at that time, the acceleration will still press the astronaut on his bed.
Wang Ping'an kept the large letters floating on the bridge: "It's great, I don't have to be constrained by a single capsule bed anymore."
Angele: "Be careful not to drift towards me."
"Don't be so open-minded, we are partners, 32 weeks... um, how many weeks is the new voyage?"
"33, one more week."
"Yes, thirty-three weeks. It's normal to have some bumps."
As he spoke, Wang Pingan flexibly switched to the position of Venus lying in the air.
Angeli shrugged her shoulders, and this movement made her float downwards and land on the bed. She changed the topic: "By the way, it's all up to you to teach me how to pass the time during the voyage, teacher."
Wang Ping'an: "Well... now that we are two people, we can consider playing some Go or something. I used to play with the computer, but the computer is so bad that I can't win at all and it's no fun at all."
"I understand, you just use me to gain confidence, right?"
"You discovered it."
"By the way, you said you can also build models, where can you do this?"
"Well, you have to change the mode of the ventilation system, otherwise the bridge will soon be full of the smell of paint and pigments. You can do small modifications like this yourself. The disadvantage is that the ship will be inspected after the voyage.
The engineering staff scolded me and made a note on the violation record."
Angele opened her mouth wide: "Don't tell me about your numerous violations, many of them are because of this!"
"You guessed it."
"You, you, you." Angeli said helplessly.
**
The next day, 0800 hours.
Wang Ping'an changed into his training uniform, which still had a cloth silver star on the chest.
There is still one last thing to do before leaving the port, which is to hand over to the engineering team on duty today and then close the warehouse.
The cargo ship's cargo holds are designed to be inaccessible in space, making them less likely to be robbed by pirates.
Of course, there are basically no traces of pirates within the orbit of Mars. This design has no significance for the route from Earth to Mars.
But it is very necessary for a spacecraft from Mars to Jupiter. When designing the ship, the designer does not know what route the built ship will eventually take.
Wang Ping'an and Angeli tapped the number of containers in the warehouse for the last time, and then went to the loading and unloading deck to hand over the containers.
When the engineering staff was about to close the cargo door, Wang Ping'an suddenly shouted: "Wait a minute! The shift leader yesterday said that the engineer was asked to take a motion sensor to walk around the cargo room before closing the door."
"Is this happening?" the new shift leader looked puzzled, "Why? All warehouses have their own motion sensors?"
"Because the one on our ship was broken, we made a makeshift one."
Shift leader: "Okay, let's do a search for you. Come on, comrades, bring your motion sensor and go into the warehouse and have a look around. We'll check every corner."
An engineer muttered: "There are a lot of live poultry, cattle and sheep on this ship. It's normal for there to be some movement."
"Hey, it's easy to search around. Hurry up, hurry up." the shift leader urged.
At this time, the handover officer came over: "What's the problem? Why don't you close the door?"
"Just a small question, we have finished counting the containers." Wang Ping'an replied.
"Then sign." The handover officer stretched the tablet in front of Wang Ping'an, "Remember to pull out your hair, even nose hair."
After saying this, he started laughing, and it seemed that he thought this nose hair sentence was humorous.
But no one else laughed.
Wang Ping'an finished signing, and at this time the engineers who had just entered the warehouse to search also came out: "There is nothing except chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep."
"Are we closed?" the shift leader asked Wang Ping'an.
Wang Ping'an nodded: "Seal it, we are also ready to set off."
The handover officer saluted: "Have a safe journey."
"Thank you." Wang Pingan and Angeli returned the gift together.