Song Han's words made the corners of the two men's mouths twitch with bitterness. Thinking of their own resting areas, which were just sleeping bags occupying less than two cubic meters, and the need to tie themselves to the cabin wall when sleeping, the bitterness in their mouths grew even stronger.
After a moment, Zhu Qing was the first to come to his senses. Just as he was about to use the force to move closer, he heard Song Han's somewhat casual voice.
"Change your shoes."
With two crisp sounds, after changing into the unique magnetic boots in this luxurious cabin, the two men walked in somewhat cautiously.
This was a positioning and movement device in microgravity that had been demonstrated many times on the ground. It allowed people to work and live in a way similar to how they moved on the ground, eliminating the need to adapt to working and living in a microgravity environment.
However, when the engineering quality required to install this system was calculated, the aerospace department shelved it.
The power and influence were really something hard to fathom sometimes.
For the same bedroom, if it were on Earth, the two of them might be more relaxed. But this bedroom was 400 kilometers above the Earth.
Everything in it made the two of them extremely cautious.
Song Han took out two cans of cola from the refrigerator beside him and handed them to them. He took a big gulp himself.
Holding the cola in his hand and seeing the rich variety of fruits and drinks in the refrigerator out of the corner of his eye, Zhu Qing felt reluctant to take out the dozen or so carefully wrapped lychees he had brought.
He had spent a great deal of effort last month calculating the payload mass allocated to him and managed to set aside a little extra space to have these sent up.
Originally, there was a kilogram of lychees, but after his craving for them over more than a month, only a dozen or so were left.
Silence...
Silence was the theme of this meeting.
Song Han was obviously more familiar with dealing with silence.
He ignored the two men beside him and changed the video played on the projector to a newly released movie.
In the classic voiceover as the dragon logo appeared, the chubby figure of Jia Yu showed up on the screen.
After a while, Yang Dahai, who had been secretly observing this private cabin, interrupted the silence.
"Leader?"
"Hmm?"
"When the transparent observation window of the cabin is not in use, it needs to be closed in multiple layers. The button beside it is used to close it. Compared with the multi-layer protection structure already considered during the construction of the cabin, the external observation window is just a single piece of glass. If it is accidentally hit by space dust or a small meteorite, it will cause a serious leak."
Song Han was taken aback for a moment, but he didn't get up to close the transparent window beside the bed.
"How do you know that?"
The corners of Yang Dahai's mouth turned even more bitter.
"I'm the on-board mechanic. I went out and installed the defense module outside the window when this cabin was being built."
"I see."
Song Han opened the refrigerator and took out two more apples with a smile.
"If you don't like drinking cola, have an apple instead!"
The two men looked at the cola in their hands and reluctantly returned it to Song Han.
"We don't deserve to drink it..."
"What do you mean?"
"Carbonated drinks like cola may produce bubbles, which can affect the operation of the equipment and systems on the space station. High concentrations of carbon dioxide may also cause some discomfort to the astronauts' bodies. So no type of carbonated drink is allowed to be brought up here."
As he spoke, Zhu Qing seemed to think of something and asked curiously:
"Carbonated drinks weren't on the inventory list of our recent batches of supplies. Where did you get yours, Leader?"
Song Han, who was drinking cola and watching the movie without turning his head, said:
"My room has a special external connection port. There's a courier delivery every week."
"Cou... courier?"
"Yeah!"
Song Han picked up the tablet adsorbed on the coffee table, opened Tmall Supermarket, selected a few items in the fruit section, and placed an order.
"It's just that there's no free shipping. It needs to be transferred through the Aerospace Center."
"Do you guys want to buy anything? I can place an order for you together. The delivery for my orders doesn't take up the payload mass of your station."
"Is that really possible?"
The two men were overjoyed upon hearing this.
"Hey! No big deal. You can come and visit me more often when you're free. I really like chatting with young people like you!"
The two men looked at Song Han's young face, exchanged a glance, and didn't refute.
After all, they also wanted to make progress!
Zhu Qing and Yang Dahai took the opportunity to put forward their requests for goods.
"Ultra-large linear range particle detector? XL-3000G high-precision laser cutter?"
Upon hearing this, Song Han frowned and realized that things weren't that simple.
With a frown, his fingers unconsciously tapped twice on the tablet as the two men's hearts were in a state of anxiety.
"Can these things be bought online?"
The two men looked at each other and were silent for a long time. It was Yang Dahai who finally explained:
"We have new ones of these in our ground laboratory, but we haven't been approved for the payload capacity, so they haven't been sent up yet."
"I see."
Song Han picked up the tablet and opened Instagram.
"Add me on Instagram. I'll send you my courier address later. You can contact the ground and send the things there. The courier should arrive in a couple of days."
After getting the address they wanted, the two men thanked him profusely and took their leave.
Song Han smiled with satisfaction as he saw two new friends added to his WeChat contact list, which originally only had one old acquaintance.
Just as the two men reached the connection port, a series of urgent alarm sounds suddenly rang out in the space station.
"Warning! Warning! A high-altitude satellite has been detected to change its orbit temporarily. Its orbit overlaps with the operating orbit of the space station. The satellite will intersect with the space station in 40 minutes. Please raise the orbit in a timely manner!"
The alarm sound and the cold voice of the IA console suddenly broke the tranquility in the space station.
Zhu Qing and Yang Dahai tensed up, immediately realizing the seriousness of the situation. They grabbed the handle beside the cabin and pulled hard.
"Here we go!"
"Hmm?"
The heaviness of their bodies made the two men feel confused for a moment.
"Take off your shoes!"
At this time, both the core control cabin of the space station and the ground command center began to act quickly.
Commander Zhou Peng sat in the command position of the cockpit, looking at the orbital map on the screen and frowning.
"Starlink again?"
"Activate the left and right thrusters number one. Rotate by -13 degrees and output at full power. The time is too tight. Let's avoid them first."
With the commander's order, the pilot skillfully operated the console, activated the thrusters, and with the help of the ground control center, changed the orbit along a somewhat twisted route.
"What's going on?"
At this moment, Song Han rushed over curiously like a cannonball.
However, everyone in the core control cabin was fully focused on controlling the huge space station beneath their feet and didn't salute as they usually did, which made Song Han feel a faint sense of loss.
Zhou Peng, who was sitting in the command position, was contemplating the images on the numerous display screens in front of him. Seeing Song Han's arrival, he explained:
"The newly launched high-orbit satellites of the Starlink system of other countries are being deployed and changing their orbits, and their orbits overlap with that of our space station."
"High-orbit satellites?"
"Yes!"
Upon hearing this, Song Han became angry.
"I've only lived here for a couple of days, and they want me to move? If I don't show my power, they'll think I'm a pushover! I'll find someone to scold them!"
With that, Song Han held his phone and started typing messages cracklingly.
Compared to the safe house on the ground where he didn't know where he was when he woke up the next day, the space station, which didn't have restrictions on space-time coordinates and information control, was a rare paradise for Song Han!
The people in the cockpit unconsciously curled their lips when they saw this.
No matter how powerful you are, can you control people from other countries?
Commander Zhou Peng in the main position of the cockpit looked at the fuming Song Han somewhat helplessly.
Not to mention the other party's top-secret identity information, the disabled body, and the highest honor medal around his neck that he never took off.
Just the densely packed medical records of mental illnesses in the other party's file made him very tolerant of all of Song Han's words and deeds:
"Leader, you don't need to be excited. Currently, we have real-time monitoring of all the orbits of extraterrestrial satellites. They've used this trick several times. They also know that they can't do anything to us. It's just to be annoying."
Song Han ignored Zhou Peng's words. After sending the messages, he stuffed his phone into his pocket, turned around, and rushed out like a cannonball again.
"I forgot to pause my movie!"
...
On August 19th, the Ministry of Commerce met with Mark, the CEO of the company named "Sila".
At the meeting, the minister pointed out that the economies of the two countries were deeply integrated, and the two sides should strengthen economic and trade dialogue and cooperation under the guidance of the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation. The development of the world economy and human progress required open cooperation in the field of science and technology.
Mark approves of the relationship between the two countries, praises the vitality and potential of China's development, is full of confidence in China's market, and is willing to continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation.
In the news footage, people don't know the specific content of the meeting. They can only see Mark's expression when he left, as well as the complex look in his eyes when he finally looked up at the sky in the news broadcast.
"Is this the doing of the Chief?"
In the Tian Gong space station, looking at the scene in the news footage, Yang Dahai hesitated to speak.
"Although the Starlink system is nominally built and owned by Tesla, Tesla has extensive cooperation with NASA. Even the mainstream rockets they are currently using were only successful with the key support of NASA. Do you think he can ignore the arrangements of the military?"
"Just call him over and scold him like this? Why did he come?"
"Competition and cooperation. Although there are uncoordinated interests in competition between our country and theirs, both militarily and economically. But specifically in the economic aspect alone, the proportion of cooperation is also quite large. Unless Musk doesn't plan to continue to hold the super factory in China that accounts for 50% of his car company's production capacity and can get rid of the dependence on China's electric vehicle industry chain, if the country really calls him over and scolds him, he can only endure it."
Zhou Peng smiled and said:
"Although we know it may not be of much use, it's still quite satisfying to see the country standing up for us!"
With that, Zhou Peng laughed and picked up a can of cola:
"Here's to the Leader!"
Everyone echoed:
"Here's to the Leader!"