Chapter 34: Sen Mountain
Perhaps because she stayed up all night last night, and before that her spirit was tense and overly exhausted, in the sudden occurrence of such a major incident, Zhou Yu lay on the bed for a while and unexpectedly fell asleep slowly.
Hearing her slightly rapid breathing, Jiang Yang stood up gently.
“Get some good rest.”
He said softly, then Jiang Yang turned and left.
……
On the undulating mountains, various plants flourished lushly.
Even from high in the sky, one could not see the end of the trees at a glance.
This was a true forest.
In this mountain range named with “Sen,” in a gorge stood a somewhat abrupt cluster of buildings, with figures of large machinery working inside.
On the building, the words Sen Mountain Neutrino Telescope Construction Base shone brightly under the sunlight.
The helicopter landed with a roar, and in front of it, Sen Mountain Base Chief Scientist and Engineer You Zhicheng and his group were already waiting there wearing safety helmets and such.
Gu Changshan and Lu Zhaoming, along with the secretary, consultant, and others, got off the helicopter.
They simply shook hands, without pleasantries, and the group headed straight to the meeting room.
Looking at this tall and upright soldier in front of him, You Zhicheng felt a bit puzzled.
Professor Lu Zhaoming, as the chief academician, coming here for an inspection was a bit high-spec but understandable. This soldier coming here was a bit incomprehensible.
Although our base is a national key scientific research construction project, it clearly belongs to the scientific research field, and there has been no news of any relationship with the military industry……
Arriving at the meeting room, Gu Changshan got straight to the point: “The nation has an emergency mission. The Sen Mountain Neutrino Telescope must be completed in eight days, followed by two days of debugging before formally going into operation.
Professor You, please briefly introduce the current construction status of the Sen Mountain Telescope, and the difficulties involved if it is to go into formal operation ten days later.”
You Zhicheng’s prepared pleasantries were directly stifled, and he involuntarily widened his eyes, looking shocked at Gu Changshan, who had a steady and solemn demeanor like a mountain.
Not only him, the other managers of Sen Mountain Base were the same.
Wh……what a joke! You think this is kids building blocks? Eight days? Eighty days would be impossible!
Under normal construction, the Sen Mountain Telescope would need at least 14 months of construction time, and if lucky, half a year of debugging to go into operation; if unlucky, one or two years of debugging wouldn’t be strange.
That adds up to at least two years!
Compressing it to eight days, even the king of heaven couldn’t make it happen!
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, the shock on You Zhicheng’s face slowly faded, and he smiled awkwardly: “This comrade really loves to joke, hehe. Our base has currently completed about 75% of construction progress. The internal civil engineering work at the base has been completed, and the telescope main body construction has reached 90%.
We have organized a total of 460 people in the construction team working day and night, the progress is going very smoothly, and it is expected to go into operation in about two years, for our nation……”
Gu Changshan raised his hand, directly interrupting his words: “If going into formal operation ten days later, what are the difficulties?”
You Zhicheng looked toward Lu Zhaoming somewhat pleadingly for help.
Engineering construction, especially the construction of large scientific devices, also follows natural laws. This comrade doesn’t understand, but you, Lu Zhaoming, as a leading figure in the scientific community, don’t understand either?
You’re also joining in the nonsense?
He had originally thought Lu Zhaoming would say something fair, but unexpectedly, Lu Zhaoming just sighed lightly: “Professor You, having the Sen Mountain Telescope start formal operation ten days later is the nation’s emergency mission. It must, must be completed, with no room for maneuver.
Whatever difficulties and obstacles you have, you can raise them, and the nation will be responsible for solving them.”
Hearing the solemnity in Lu Zhaoming’s words, You Zhicheng fell silent.
After a moment, he probed: “Can you tell me what happened?”
Gu Changshan only said two words solemnly: “War.”
“War?”
You Zhicheng took a deep breath.
Although he couldn’t figure out how their side, which was merely a telescope for scientific research, was related to war— this comrade in front of him clearly had no intention of revealing details to their side either— but he understood one obvious truth.
Since it was related to war, there really was no room for bargaining or any maneuver.
Completing the Sen Mountain Telescope and putting it into operation within ten days was a hard task that must be accomplished.
“Please give me…… no, half an hour. I need to discuss with my colleagues.”
“Please.”
In another meeting room, the heads responsible for various aspects of Sen Mountain Base construction— power supply, logistics, equipment, data, cycle, civil engineering, etc.— all arrived.
Everyone had furrowed brows, as if facing a formidable enemy.
After half an hour like a quarrel, You Zhicheng and several senior heads returned to the meeting room.
“This is the list we made.”
After handing several documents to Lu Zhaoming and Gu Changshan, You Zhicheng’s tone was somewhat heavy: “First is power supply.
Our laboratory did not include neutrino oscillation research in the planning and design, so it is not equipped with a proton accelerator, and the power consumption is lower compared to some similar telescopes, but a comprehensive assessment puts it at about 5MW level.
This requires a dedicated power line, as well as the installation of a large amount of electricity infrastructure and equipment.
In our original construction planning, we planned to pull a line from nearby Sen City via high-voltage electricity towers, expected to be completed in 10 months.”
Gu Changshan opened his notebook and wrote down “5MW power line.”
“Next item.”
“Manpower.
The current personnel involved in telescope construction, including logistics and clerical, total about 600 people. This number is far from enough.
If going into operation in ten days, our construction speed must increase dozens of times, and the construction personnel needed would at least be……”
He pondered for a moment: “30,000. And not ordinary workers, but workers with experience in large scientific facility construction.
Moreover, above the workers, a large number of managers with scientific background are needed, those with rich experience in the overall construction of large scientific facilities, at least 2,000.”
Gu Changshan wrote “manpower” on the notebook, then noted the related demand behind it.
“Next item.”
“Logistics.
The personnel dormitories inside our base have not been built yet, related logistics facilities are not in place, and currently can support at most no more than 800 people working.
If the number surges to 30,000 people, not to mention whether there are enough tools, even eating and sleeping can’t be supported.”
Gu Changshan casually noted it down again: “Next item.”
“Equipment.”
……
