Chapter Twelve: A Fine Place

Amidst continuous study, Li Qingsong controlled a clone to operate metalworking equipment and crafted a rudimentary glass production apparatus.

This equipment could not function in a vacuum environment; instead, it required adequate atmospheric pressure. To achieve this, Li Qingsong found a small cave and sealed its entrance with a thin film, thereby creating a suitable environment for the equipment to operate.

The apparatus consisted primarily of several components: first, a raw material processing tank.

On Roshen Planet, there was an abundance of silicon dioxide with reasonably high purity, which could be used directly. Inside the raw material processing tank, the silicon dioxide was mixed with sodium oxide, limestone, and other substances.

Next, the mixture was transferred to a furnace, where it was heated electrically to temperatures exceeding 1500 degrees Celsius, causing it to melt completely.

Afterward, a clone responsible for glassblowing would dip a long blowing pipe into the molten glass and blow into a mold, shaping a glass tube.

Once cooled, the glass tube was ready for use.

At this stage, Li Qingsong employed an extremely simplified manufacturing method. Glass tubes made this way had poor transparency, many burrs, and were prone to breakage—numerous drawbacks.

Yet all these flaws were outweighed by one paramount advantage.

At this stage, the fact that it could be made at all was the greatest advantage!

Among the 27 clones—17 assigned to agricultural production and base maintenance—the remaining 10 were allocated by Li Qingsong, with two clones dedicated to glass tube blowing.

Of the remaining eight, two drove planetary rovers to search for mercury and argon based on earlier reconnaissance data.

These two elements were indispensable for fluorescent lamps.

Of the last six clones, three remained on Roshen Planet's surface to operate blast furnaces and metalworking equipment, producing tungsten filaments, metal sheets, and other components necessary for fluorescent lamps. The other three carried these products back to the Deep Space vessel, where, in the ship’s laboratory, they manually assembled starters and similar devices.

All 27 bodies were once again fully occupied, with no idle hands.

When colorless argon ore and silvery solid mercury—both frozen—were discovered and retrieved by the clones, the first batch of glass tubes, starters, and ballasts had already been manufactured.

Li Qingsong then directed a clone to begin the final assembly work.

At this rudimentary technological stage, the most challenging step should have been vacuum pumping.

After all, the interior of a fluorescent lamp tube needed to be evacuated before filling it with argon gas.

Yet this step posed no difficulty for Li Qingsong.

The reason was simple: Roshen Planet’s surface was a vacuum everywhere, so there was no need to pump it out.

Thus, small devices and wiring were inserted inside the glass tubes.

After manufacturing a fluorescent lamp, Li Qingsong carefully connected it to a power source.

At the next moment, bright light burst forth from the tube, causing the clone nearby to squint involuntarily.

“Not bad, not bad.”

Li Qingsong was highly satisfied.

Having verified the capability to produce fluorescent lamps, the greatest obstacle to constructing the second planting base was eliminated.

Among these 10 clones, five were assigned exclusively to manufacture fluorescent lamps, while the other five operated various equipment to begin fabricating planting racks.

These planting racks resembled bookshelves but featured open sides.

Each rack measured about one meter in width, two meters in height, and three to four meters in length.

Inside, they were divided into two to four tiers, depending on the requirements.

Two-tiered racks accommodated taller crops, such as wheat and rapeseed. Four-tiered racks were reserved for shorter plants like lettuce and sweet potatoes.

Some racks had no tiers at all; these were used to grow corn.

Li Qingsong produced a variety of planting racks.

This time, building the planting base was not merely about planting a few crops. Everything useful was intended to be cultivated. Even if surplus existed, it could serve industrial purposes.

Time passed slowly; months flew by. Li Qingsong’s group expanded again by five clones, bringing the total to 32.

Under the constant work of a single tractor, which transported fuel and ore for more than ten hours daily, and with 32 clones laboring tirelessly, and the blast furnace smelting nonstop while metalworking equipment roared continuously, all the equipment required for the second planting base was finally completed.

Even a larger generator, specially prepared for the second base, had been built.

At last, the time for actual construction had arrived.

Fifteen clones, resolute and spirited, wearing tattered, heavily taped, low-quality spacesuits, arrived at a vast cave previously surveyed during reconnaissance, with an internal area reaching 11,000 square meters.

Such a colossal cave without any central supports could only exist on a low-gravity world like Roshen Planet.

On Earth, it would have long since collapsed.

Though enormous, the cave’s exit was modest, measuring only about a dozen square meters.

The 15 clones worked together to transfer materials, then sealed the entrance with specially manufactured steel plates, effectively closing off the cave.

They left an entrance and an isolation chamber beneath the door to facilitate clone movement.

The cave’s interior was sealed by rock, and its entrance by iron doors, thus isolating the interior from the outside environment.

Again working in unison, the 15 clones installed long metal pipes as underfloor heating ducts throughout the cave in just a few hours.

The steam generator roared as immense heat was transmitted through the pipes, warming the ground.

Large quantities of frozen substances began to vaporize directly and rise into the air.

Under normal circumstances, these gases would flow naturally toward lower pressure areas. But with the exit blocked by iron doors, they accumulated inside.

At elevated temperatures, the gases caused the rock walls and ice at the cave’s ceiling to melt and vaporize, raising the internal pressure.

When the pressure reached the equivalent of one atmosphere, a clone opened the gas outlet.

The mixed gases surged out like a long sword.

After flowing several meters, they were cooled and fell as snowflakes.

Once the internal pressure dropped, the vent was sealed, and heating resumed.

This cycle repeated multiple times, eventually clearing all the miscellaneous gases from inside.

Only then did Li Qingsong command a clone to introduce relatively pure solid oxygen, solid nitrogen, a measured amount of carbon dioxide, and water ice into the cave.

Once these substances melted and vaporized, filling the entire cave with gas, Li Qingsong directed a clone to enter the interior of the second base.

Removing the spacesuit and breathing the slightly humid air, looking around at the vast, empty cave, Li Qingsong murmured with heartfelt emotion, “A fine place indeed.”