Chapter 432 Galaxy 6 Upgraded Version

The door was pushed open without knocking. Ma Yuejin stood on the threshold, took a couple of breaths, and then spoke. "Director He, the liquid nitrogen... only lasts for three days." He emphasized the word "three days," as if squeezing it out from between his teeth.

He Yuzhu's pen nib pricked the paper, leaving a dot of ink. He looked up and saw the sweat stain on Ma Yuejin's back, soaking from the collar to the belt. The outside temperature was less than ten degrees Celsius.

"Two truckloads arrived last month, two thousand yuan per truckload." He Yuzhu put down his pen and pulled out the page. His voice wasn't loud, but Ma Yuejin knew it wasn't a question.

Ma Yuejin walked in and placed an energy consumption report on the table, not daring to push it too close. His finger trembled slightly as he pointed to the red line on it. "After Galaxy Six was upgraded to 30 quadrillion calculations per second, its power consumption skyrocketed from 800 kilowatts to 2 megawatts. Even with all the air conditioning in the server room running, it couldn't keep up. One compressor burned out, and the spare one got too hot. We started using liquid nitrogen to cover it up—but it's one truckload every three days, costing 2,000 yuan per truckload. In just half a month, 20,000 yuan is gone." He looked up, his eyes a little red. "The institute's budget…"

He Yuzhu didn't reply. He stared at the two megawatts figure on the report for five seconds. During those five seconds, Ma Yuejin could hear his own heartbeat.

"Where is Qian Zhiyuan?" He Yuzhu stood up, the chair leg scraping against the ground with a short, sharp scream.

Ma Yuejin paused for a moment. "The basement, over by the superconducting ring."

He Yuzhu had already reached the door, his hand on the doorknob, and paused for a moment. "Don't spread the word about the two megawatts yet." He didn't turn around, pushed the door open, and went out.

The motion-activated lights in the corridor flickered on. He Yuzhu walked slowly, but each step was firm. The elevator doors opened, and he pressed the button for the basement. The doors closed, the metal box sank down, and the light above his head flashed briefly.

The basement was so cold it gave you goosebumps. Qian Zhiyuan squatted next to the superconducting ring, holding a thermometer in his hand, without even lifting his eyelids. Frost had formed on the liquid helium pipe in front of him, and his fingers were red from the cold.

"Dean He, the liquid helium is almost ready too. We just replenished it last week, and now there's only half left." He put the thermometer on the ground, and his knee cracked as he stood up. "If you're here to talk about liquid nitrogen, I can't help you. We don't even have enough superconducting rings for ourselves."

He Yuzhu didn't respond. He squatted down and drew two lines on the dust with his finger. "Could we add a heat exchanger to the liquid nitrogen loop of Starship Six and the liquid helium loop of the superconducting ring, so they could work together?"

Qian Zhiyuan stared at the two lines on the ground without saying a word. After a dozen seconds, he also squatted down, erased the lines He Yuzhu had drawn with his palm, and redrawn them. "Liquid helium is 4.2%, liquid nitrogen is 77%. The temperature difference is too great; directly changing the heat exchanger will cause the tubes to freeze and explode. We need to add a liquid nitrogen buffer tank in between, and then do a two-stage heat exchange." After he finished drawing, his finger stopped on the last line, "At least two weeks."

"Two weeks? Starship Six was shut down for three days, and the data link for the warp simulation was lost."

Qian Zhiyuan slammed the thermometer to the ground with a loud crack, and the battery cover popped off. "Then what do you suggest we do? Not enough liquid nitrogen, not enough liquid helium, the machine is overheating, I can't produce anything—" He stopped talking, his chest heaving, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

He Yuzhu didn't get angry. He picked up the battery cover, put it back on, and handed it to Qian Zhiyuan. "Come with me."

The two returned to the ground. He Yuzhu went into the office, closed the door, and even drew the curtains halfway. He sat in his chair and remained silent for a few seconds. Ma Yuejin stood at the door, not daring to come in.

He Yuzhu opened the system space and stared at the points column—295 million. He stared at that number for a long time.

He opened the folder "[High Temperature Superconducting Materials]" and redeemed it for 30 million.

My finger hovered over "Confirm" for three seconds.

In those three seconds, he recalled the frost on the liquid nitrogen storage tank, the redness in Ma Yuejin's eyes, and the cracking sound of Qian Zhiyuan's knees.

He pressed it.

A flash of light streaked across the table, nearly tripping Ma Yuejin from the doorframe. A silver-white metal box sat on the table, unmarked but radiating cold air, as if just taken from a freezer.

He Yuzhu opened the box. Inside lay twelve black ceramic rods, smooth in surface, neatly arranged, each twenty centimeters long.

"Here you go. Yttrium barium copper oxide, critical temperature 93 Kelvin. It can be superconducted with liquid nitrogen." He Yuzhu pushed the box to Ma Yuejin.

Ma Yuejin picked up the box, his hands trembling. He didn't ask where it came from, only asking, "Is this... expensive?"

He Yuzhu leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes briefly. "It's expensive. So don't waste it."

Ma Yuejin turned around with the box in his arms, but He Yuzhu called him back. "Call Qian Zhiyuan up."

Qian Zhiyuan came in carrying the chill of the basement. He took a ceramic rod, held it up to the light, and examined it twice. Then he scratched the surface with his fingernail, leaving a faint white mark.

"Is it really yttrium barium copper oxide?" His voice was dry.

"You'll know once you measure the critical temperature."

Qian Zhiyuan put the ceramic rod back in the box, picked up another one, and examined its cross-section against the light. His hands were no longer trembling. "To make it into a conductor, it needs a copper sheath. Ceramic is brittle and can't be bent. I can find a wire factory in Beijing to process it; they have stretching equipment. Let's replace the data cables between the hottest processors in Galaxy VI first, and we'll make do with the others for now."

He Yuzhu took out a sticky note from the drawer and wrote a few lines: "Two months. Replace all the data cables for Galaxy Six with superconducting ones. If the power consumption doesn't decrease, I'll contact you."

Qian Zhiyuan took the note, glanced at it, folded it, and put it in his pocket. "Should we still modify the cooling system?"

"Change it. Add a liquid nitrogen buffer tank and a secondary heat exchanger. You said two weeks, I'll give you two weeks. Superconducting cables, two months. We'll take a two-pronged approach." He Yuzhu stood up, walked to the window, and pulled the curtains open a crack. Sunlight streamed in, illuminating the floor.

"Starship Six is ​​running a warp simulation. How much warp drive is left?" He didn't turn around.

Qian Zhiyuan glanced at his watch. "Lin Jianguo said there's still one day until the results are out. We'll shut down the machine and replace the cables after this round of testing, otherwise all the data will be wasted."

"Stop only after it's finished running. Back up the data three times: one in the server room, one in the archives, and one to my office. Then you work with Ma Yuejin to modify the cooling system. The cabling issue will proceed simultaneously."

Qian Zhiyuan picked up the box, walked to the door, and paused. "Director He, this thing... did you get it from the sea?"

He Yuzhu turned around and looked at Qian Zhiyuan. The two stared at each other for two seconds.

"Don't ask. Just make it."

Qian Zhiyuan nodded, pushed open the door, and went out. He Yuzhu heard him call out to Ma Yuejin in the corridor, and the two walked away. Their footsteps were quick, carrying an irrepressible excitement.

He Yuzhu sat back in his chair, opened the system space, and checked his points balance again. Two hundred and sixty-five million. Whether thirty million was worth it for twelve ceramic rods, he didn't know. But Star River Six would lose its data link for curvature simulation after three days of downtime, and the 30 Tesla superconducting ring test was still waiting for simulation results to guide it. Thirty million wasn't just buying ceramic rods; it was buying time.

The phone on the table rang. He picked up the receiver.

"Dean He, this is Lao Zheng from Jiangnan Factory. The second section's bonding is complete, and the strength test results are satisfactory. The third section will be hoisted tomorrow. The 20-day construction period should be no problem."

"Okay. Keep an eye on it, and call me anytime if there are any problems." He Yuzhu hung up the phone and wrote a line in his notebook: "The second section of the Kunlun is successfully joined."

He stood up and walked to the window. The sycamore trees in the yard were bare, and a few sparrows hopped and chirped on the branches. Old Zhao, the gatekeeper, was sweeping the yard, the broom scraping against the cement ground with a soft rustling sound.

The curvature simulation results for Starship Six will be available tomorrow. If the results are good, the 30 Tesla test of the superconducting ring can be scheduled. If the results are bad, we'll have to go back and readjust the parameters. Good or bad, we have to move forward.

He grabbed his coat and left the office. The motion-activated lights in the hallway came on, and he walked slowly. His mind was racing with plans for tomorrow—checking the simulation results in the morning, discussing Zhou Zhiyuan's training plan with Yang Xiaobing in the afternoon, and calling Qin Huairu in the evening.

The elevator doors opened, and he stepped inside. Before the doors closed, he took one last look at the empty office at the end of the corridor—Lin Jianguo was still in the server room, waiting for the curve to finish running.

The door closed. The elevator slowly ascended, and he closed his eyes.

The old jeep was parked in the yard, its roof covered in a layer of dust. He got in and started the engine. The engine coughed twice before starting.

The headlights illuminated the road ahead. He drove out of the research institute's gate, and in the rearview mirror, the gray building grew smaller and smaller.

A night breeze seeped in through the cracks in the car window, making him shiver. He gripped the steering wheel with one hand and took out a note written by Qian Zhiyuan from his system space with the other—"Two months, superconducting cable." He glanced at it, folded it, and put it away.

The road ahead is long, but the direction is right.