Chapter 80: The Enormous Artificial Satellite

Previously, as Zhang Desen and his team ascended into the sky, Zhao Chengming, who had been anxiously watching the direction of the commercial firm within the city from the docks, finally witnessed the moment Zhang Desen’s ship took off. Relieved, he immediately gave the order to set sail back to the Western Capital.

At this moment, in the depths of space, Zhang Desen continued to pilot his ship toward their destination. Li Longfang, still unsettled, voiced his concerns again:

“Desen, about how long will it take us to reach that satellite? To be honest, I’m worried that the longer we’re out here, the more likely accidents will happen.”

Zhang Desen smiled and replied, “This ship’s top speed is several times faster than America’s Pluto probe ‘New Horizons.’ That probe crossed the distance from Earth to the Moon in just three hours, and our destination is only halfway between Earth and the Moon. What do you think?”

Li Longfang fell silent.

“Don’t overthink it,” Zhang Desen continued. “Just focus on working with me to complete the mission.”

“I understand…” Li Longfang answered.

“Now please sit tight,” Zhang Desen said. “We’ll soon be able to see our target.”

“Yes, sir!”

Zhang Desen then disengaged the autopilot and resumed manual control, steering the rescue craft toward its destination according to the coordinates. Still, to guard against any unforeseen incidents, he refrained from using maximum speed.

Meanwhile, at the Liu family estate in the Western Capital, Liu the Elder and his daughter were inside their ship, using its equipment to contact Zhang Desen’s rescue capsule still traversing space.

The connection was soon established. The news Liu the Elder and his daughter shared made Zhang Desen’s blood boil: the Crown Prince of the Grand Prosperity Kingdom had come to the Liu estate to propose marriage. Zhang Desen was livid.

It turned out that just hours earlier, before Zhang Desen and his team set out for their target in space, the Crown Prince, for reasons unknown, had abruptly arrived at the Liu estate to seek Liu Yuting’s hand in marriage, flaunting his royal status and claiming it would be a great honor for her to follow him.

Naturally, Liu the Elder refused outright, declaring that Liu Yuting had already been betrothed to Zhang Desen by imperial decree from Emperor Zhao Xinglong. The Crown Prince then threatened Liu the Elder, saying he could persuade his father to change the edict, and that if the family defied him, they would suffer dire consequences.

Ultimately, it was the Second Prince, Zhao Guangzhou, who intervened and helped resolve the situation, prompting the Crown Prince to leave in frustration.

After seeing the princes off, Liu the Elder immediately instructed Zhao Chengming’s brother, Zhao Chengliang, to send word to the Prime Minister’s residence, then took Liu Yuting to Zhang Desen’s base and activated the communicator to share everything with Zhang Desen in space.

As Zhang Desen listened, a chunk of space rock suddenly appeared before the ship. Instantly, he activated the onboard pulsed laser cannon and reduced the rock to fragments. Then he spoke:

“Thank you, Father-in-law, for your trust and support. For that wretched Crown Prince to pull such a stunt while I’m away—he must be tired of living. Rest assured, once I finish this mission, I’ll make sure he pays for this.”

Liu the Elder replied, “Desen, you needn’t worry. Our bond as family will not change. I’ll keep Yuting safe until your return.”

“Thank you, Father-in-law. I won’t let you down,” Zhang Desen vowed.

Then, turning to the screen where Liu Yuting appeared, he asked,

“Yuting, will you wait for me?”

Liu Yuting’s delicate face flushed crimson. After all, not only was her father present, but Li Longfang was also sitting in the copilot’s seat. Seeing this, Li Longfang quickly covered his ears and turned away.

Despite her embarrassment, Liu Yuting answered with conviction, “In this life, I will marry no one but you. I’ll wait for your return.”

On hearing this, Zhang Desen declared, “I, Zhang Desen, will never betray you.”

After discussing a few more matters, they ended the call and switched off the communicator. In truth, Liu the Elder had more to say but decided to hold off, knowing Zhang Desen had urgent business to attend to.

Zhang Desen resumed piloting the ship toward their target.

After about thirty minutes of flight, the radar picked up a massive signal. Exchanging a glance with Li Longfang, both realized their goal was near and accelerated toward it.

Soon, a gigantic spherical satellite, about 120 kilometers in diameter, came into view.

The satellite resembled the Death Star from Star Wars, but it was riddled with enormous passageways and almost no doors to close them off. Many of these corridors were so vast that even if Zhang Desen were piloting the larger ship docked in the Western Capital, not just the current rescue capsule, he could have flown it inside with room to spare.

Seeing this, Zhang Desen felt reassured. The intelligence they’d received was accurate, which meant fewer unexpected obstacles.

He glanced at the radar and, finding no unidentified objects nearby, switched from mid-range to short-range radar to reduce the chance of enemy detection. Besides, once inside the satellite, there would be no need to scan far; short-range radar was best for maneuvering and avoiding obstacles.

Selecting a nearby entrance, Zhang Desen piloted the ship into the corridor. According to previous intel, all these passageways interconnected.

Inside, Zhang Desen navigated toward the satellite’s core, following coordinates from the digitized map obtained at the Terror Mountain base. Suddenly, Li Longfang asked,

“Desen, this place is huge, but isn’t it suspiciously empty? Why are there no guards at the entrance?”

“What kind of guards do you mean?” Zhang Desen replied.

“In such an important location, you’d expect at least a couple of sentries at the gate, but it’s deserted inside as well…”

Zhang Desen answered, “Don’t worry about that. This is normal here. The place is vast, but it’s completely open—meaning it’s ownerless and fully automated. With no one competing for space, there’s little need for guards. If something needs repair, they simply send a crew up in a ship. Stationing guards would just waste scarce resources, requiring frequent resupply flights. In fact, in my previous life in my original universe, I was the one delivering supplies to space stations. And don’t forget, intelligence already confirmed they’re desperately short on resources, which is why they’re so eager to retake the surface world.”

“But there’s so much open space, you could walk or do other things here,” Li Longfang observed.

Zhang Desen replied,

“No need to imagine it. There isn’t even oxygen outside. Without a spacesuit, as soon as you step outside the capsule, the lack of air alone would be fatal, not to mention the absence of pressure and the extreme cold.”

“So what should we do now?” Li Longfang asked.

“Don’t worry. We have our extravehicular suits. Let’s get to the satellite’s core according to the digital map and see what we find. To be honest, I’d like to see how this satellite compares to what I knew in the past.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Li Longfang remarked.

“Well then, let’s press on and find out.”

“Yes!”

Zhang Desen continued piloting the rescue ship, following the coordinates from the digitized map they had acquired at the Terror Mountain base, heading steadily toward the core of the enormous artificial satellite built by the Terror People. What awaited them there, only time would tell.

Although Zhang Desen’s ship was capable of great speed, he dared not go too fast inside the satellite for fear of a catastrophic space collision—a risk not worth taking.

Because of this, traveling through the satellite actually took longer than the journey from Earth to the satellite itself. Before long, Zhao Chengming and others made a video call to Zhang Desen via the Liu family’s merchant fleet communicator, reporting that all was well.

After instructing them to continue their work as usual, Zhang Desen resumed guiding the ship toward the satellite’s core.

At last, the ship reached the heart of the satellite. Zhang Desen and Li Longfang were greeted by a forest of columns, sprawling in all directions, interlinked and intertwined.

For a moment, Zhang Desen was at a loss as to where to begin. Just then, the radar flared to life. It showed an unidentified vessel operating in the core area—an unexpected development.

“There’s an unidentified flying object,” Zhang Desen told Li Longfang.

Li Longfang was startled. “Do you think they know we’re here?”

“I doubt it,” Zhang Desen replied. “We have the plasma stealth device activated—they shouldn’t detect us easily. Besides, that ship doesn’t seem to be looking for us. Let’s observe carefully for now.”

“Understood.”

Guided by the radar, they soon located the unidentified vessel and concealed themselves behind a cluster of support columns and tangled wiring, their plasma stealth technology enhancing their cover.

From their hiding place, they peered through the gaps between the columns and cables. It turned out there was more than one unidentified ship, and several Terror People astronauts were busy at work.

This struck Zhang Desen as an opportunity. The activities of those astronauts might well make installing their data collection device much easier.