Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 205 Hydrogen Bomb, Launch!
"Reporting to Director Yu, the nuclear wastewater cleanup work has been completed."

In the command room of the 1154th breeding base, an administrator solemnly reported to Professor Yu Qing.

Through monitoring, Professor Yu Qing clearly saw the situation on site.

The nuclear wastewater that had been flowing freely on the ground has disappeared, and the readings on the radiation meter have returned to normal.

Of course, this is only considered normal for the breeding base. It's still much better than a normal environment. It's just that we can't expect that much at this moment.

What is the condition of the workers who were splashed with nuclear wastewater at the time?

"The doctor reported that they had accidentally inhaled some vapor, and internal radiation is a difficult condition to treat, so..."

He didn't finish his sentence. But Professor Yu Qing had already discerned the unspoken meaning behind his words.

"Tell the hospital to spare no expense in providing them with the best medical treatment. Whatever the outcome, we must do our utmost. Our group has dedicated funds, so don't be afraid to spend money."

"Yes."

After a pause, Professor Yu Qing said in a low voice, "You guys have been working at this base for five days now, haven't you?"

"Yes."

"Let's evacuate now and bring in the next group."

The person in charge looked at him with some surprise: "According to normal regulations, shifts are rotated every ten days, and it's only been five days..."

"Today, a nuclear wastewater leak occurred. Even if there are no physical effects, the psychological impact is unbearable. I will coordinate the replacement."

"Thank you."

Professor Yu Qing waved his hand and turned to walk towards the helicopter next to him.

After flying all the way to the temporary rest stop, he looked at today's briefing and said to his secretary, "Make arrangements for us to go to Base 0589 tomorrow."

The secretary said cautiously, "Director Yu, you have been traveling between different bases recently, and the radiation dose you have received has exceeded the standard value."

According to regulations, you will not be able to visit the base for the foreseeable future.

Yu Qing paused for a moment, then slowly nodded: "That's true. Xiao Li, you've worked hard following me around these past few days, and your dosage is almost up to standard, so I'll give you a break and let you stay at the hospital for a while."

Xiao Li immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you for your concern."

With a wave of his hand, Xiao Li left, and Yu Qing picked up the phone: "Xiao Wang, is that you? Still not resting? Okay, report to me within three hours. You will be my secretary for the next period of time."

Three hours later, the young man called Xiao Wang arrived: "Director Yu."

"Okay. Please make arrangements for me to inspect Base 0589 tomorrow."

"Yes."

Time slips away quietly, and a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

That day, Professor Yu Qing returned to his lounge and worked until late at night before finally going to sleep.

At seven o'clock in the morning, he opened his eyes on time. He wanted to get up, but felt sore and tired all over his body.

"Sigh, I'm getting old..."

He shook his head, struggled to get out of bed, and went to the sink to wash up.

I picked up a comb and brushed my hair, feeling a slight stinging sensation on the top of my head. Looking at the comb, I saw that there were a few more hairs on it.

He paused for a moment, then reached out and gently gathered a handful of hair on his head, revealing a small clump of hair between his fingers.

Looking in the mirror, Professor Yu Qing could clearly see that his once thick hair had become much thinner at some point.

He shook his head, took out the electric clippers he had prepared beforehand from the drawer next to him, and placed them on his head.

The last remaining hair was also shaved off. Afterward, he took out a wig that he had prepared beforehand and carefully attached it to the top of his head.

He looked in the mirror and nodded in satisfaction.

Everything was normal, and even I couldn't see any difference.

"Little Sun, let's go. We'll eat on the way."

"Yes."

Professor Yu Qing felt that his health was getting worse and worse. Every day, every moment, he felt like his body was a rusty old machine, with aches and pains all over his body.

His nosebleeds became more and more frequent, but he managed to hide them well each time.

He never showed it outwardly. In everyone's eyes, even his personal secretary, Professor Yu Qing always appeared radiant and full of energy.

The time has finally come to the 50th day since the nuclear proliferation program began.

On this day, while sitting in his office, without going to any base to handle emergencies or conduct inspections, he finally received a report.

"The last batch of plutonium-239 has been delivered to the hydrogen bomb factory, and the planned 3.6 tons of nuclear fission material has been fully produced."

According to the hydrogen bomb factory, they will complete the production of the final batch of 16,000 standard-type hydrogen bombs and ship them to the launch site within two days of receiving the raw materials.

call……

Professor Yu Qing stood up, walked to the window, basked in the intense midday sun, and let out a long sigh.

He felt a slight warmth in his nose again. Almost reflexively, he turned around, pulled out a few crumpled pieces of paper, and stuffed them into his nose.

After calming down for a while, he went to the bathroom, pulled out the wad of paper, and sure enough, it was covered in blood.

He casually tossed it away, his expression remaining unchanged.

He had long since gotten used to this situation.

"Yu Qing, this is the punishment you deserve."

Looking at his slightly aged face in the mirror, he said in a low voice, "You have committed a grave sin against the entire world, the entire civilization, and the planet that gave birth to our civilization. You deserve to die."

After cleaning it up so that no trace could be seen from the outside, he walked out of the bathroom.

dong dong dong-

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in." "Director Yu, these are some plans regarding the follow-up treatment of the nuclear breeding base. Please...Director Yu!"

He clearly saw that Professor Yu Qing, who was always full of energy, swayed slightly and fell to the ground like a cooked noodle.

"Director Yu! Someone come quick! Call an ambulance!"

……

Yu Qing slowly opened his eyes. What came into view was a white ceiling and several figures in white coats around him.

"Professor Yu, you're awake? Please don't worry, you're fine. You'll recover after a good rest."

Yu Qing remained silent.

After resting for three days, Yu Qing's condition improved. A person who looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before, walked in.

"Professor Yu, hello, I am Jiang Yang. I have come to visit you on behalf of the World Government Decision-Making Group and Council."

Jiang Yang looked at the frail old man with concern: "How are you feeling now?"

Yu Qing gave a weak laugh: "I'm fine. Um... how's the black hole interception project going?"

"Everything is going smoothly. If there are no unexpected problems, the last batch of nuclear warheads will be sent into their designated orbits within an hour."

"You didn't lie to me?"

Jiang Yang solemnly said, "I come on behalf of the World Government. You can trust me completely."

call……

Professor Yu Qing let out a soft sigh.

He knew very well that there were three main difficulties in the entire black hole interception plan.

The first issue was the shortage of nuclear fission fuel. Of course, this problem has already been solved by ourselves.

The second challenge is that after the hydrogen bomb is launched into Earth's orbit, it needs to undergo further processing before it can be sent to a solar orbit ten million kilometers away from Earth.

This inevitably means that a great deal of work needs to be done while the Earth is in orbit.

With 360 million hydrogen bombs, plus auxiliary navigation satellites, communication satellites, laser ranging satellites, etc., the payload mass required for launch is as high as more than 1500 million tons.

This is an even larger launch mission than the Lunar City Project mentioned by Comrade Jiang Yang.

The current few thousand astronauts are far from enough; we need to increase the number by at least tenfold.

In just two months, tens of thousands of astronauts were trained to perform payload transfer missions in Earth orbit, and they actually succeeded.

This seems a bit unbelievable.

The third challenge is computing power.

The orbits of millions of solar payloads, their coordination, and so on, mean an unimaginably massive computational task that would be completely insufficient even if all existing supercomputers were mobilized together.

Where did the world government find so much computing power in such a short time? It couldn't have been from building new supercomputers, could it?
From a time perspective, it's completely too late.

Compared to these three difficulties, the other challenges, such as manufacturing a large number of rockets and producing enough hydrogen bombs in a short period of time, are nothing. They can be accomplished by mobilizing sufficient manpower and resources.

But... the World Government actually completed it all?

Somewhat to Jiang Yang's surprise, Professor Yu Qing did not ask how the World Government had accomplished this. After learning the conclusion that it had been completed, he simply closed his eyes.

"It's good that it's finished..."

"Professor Yu, please rest well and get proper treatment. It won't be long before you witness the actual execution of the black hole interception plan."

"You don't need to comfort me. I know my body is beyond repair."

Jiang Yang was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "You shouldn't have spent so much time at the nuclear proliferation base back then."

Even ordinary workers know to rotate shifts every ten days to avoid receiving excessive radiation doses. You are a leading nuclear physicist, how could you be so foolish?

Yu Qing closed his eyes and remained silent, seemingly already asleep.

"Please get some rest."

Jiang Yang sighed softly and turned to leave.

Upon seeing Jiang Yang enter the office, the attending physician stood up.

"Advisor Jiang, if Professor Yu is willing to cooperate, with the current technology, we can ensure that he survives for more than five years."

But now, as you've seen, the patient has absolutely no will to live, this…”

Jiang Yang patted him on the shoulder: "Do your best."

"Yes."

As they walked out of the hospital together, Jiang Yang asked in a low voice, "Do you have a solution?"

"I don't have any good solutions either."

Zhou Yu frowned: "Professor Yu's main problem is that deep down he believes he is a sinner, that he should be punished, and that he deserves to die."

No amount of psychotherapy will be effective if this knot isn't untied.

"take it easy."

Having ended the topic, Jiang Yang raised his head and looked up at the sky.

It was morning, the sky was bright, and all the stars had disappeared.

Even at this moment, he could still clearly see the points of light in the sky.

He knew that they were massive space stations, spaceships, and the glow of engines blasting exhaust plumes.

There were so many of them that even the sun could not block out their light.

He looked at his watch.

"In 39 minutes, the last batch of hydrogen bombs will be launched..."

(End of this chapter)