Pan Yongnian and Chen Zhengze had only been chatting for a short while when, from behind them, a voice that Pan Yongnian found vaguely familiar suddenly rang out:
"Xiao Pan, Xiao Pan!"
Pan Yongnian instinctively turned around and saw a staff member pushing a wheelchair not far away. An old man sat in it.
The old man was extremely advanced in age, with a square face, short hair, single eyelids, and the corners of his eyes slightly drooping — but not the slightest hint of sleaziness.
He was the one who had greeted Pan Yongnian just now.
Upon seeing the old man's face clearly, Pan Yongnian was first stunned.
Then he nearly broke into a trot to reach the man's side, asking in surprise:
"Sun... Sun Lao, why have you come?"
Pan Yongnian's expression was not put on; he was genuinely taken aback.
The old man standing before him was named Sun Guozhu — the only living recipient of the Two Bombs, One Star Medal today, an undisputed peerless hero of the Republic in the field of major scientific and technological projects.
He had once served as the first chief designer of the lunar exploration program and chief designer of the BeiDou satellite navigation system, participated in the development of F-1, and was the overall technical lead for the first satellite, Dongfanghong-1.
The inspiration for cross-world transmission of supplies to aid Lin Yi originally came from Sun Guozhu, with Pan Yongnian completing the theoretical verification.
Before Old Sun,
whether winners of the State Supreme Science and Technology Award or academicians of the two academies, all were mere small fries.
Some people considered being elected an academician or winning the State Supreme Science and Technology Award the glory of their lives.
But for Old Sun and Old Wang,
being able to make them win was the glory of those awards.
They truly cowed all charlatans and quacks.
The problem, however, was that Sun Guozhu was nearly ninety-eight years old!
It had already been difficult to get him to come to the Think Tank base earlier, and now he had personally come to Dawn Base, thousands of kilometers from the capital. What if something happened...
"Hey, Xiao Pan."
Old Sun had dealt with Pan Yongnian many times before and saw through his thoughts at a glance. He explained on his own initiative:
"You don't need to think too much. It was I who took the initiative to find Comrade Lin Huaian and propose coming to Dawn Base."
???
A question mark appeared on Pan Yongnian's face: "You took the initiative to propose it? Why?"
"Heh, what a novel question you ask," Old Sun said. Though a Northeasterner, after spending so long in the capital he had picked up plenty of the capital's sharp-tongued manner. "Count for me: in the whole Republic, apart from me, who has experience managing super-large projects? Who can still make you big shots submit?"
"If I didn't come here, should I stay in the capital listening to you big shots arguing all day, watching you perform long-distance crosstalk?"
Pan Yongnian was stunned for a moment, then fell silent.
That was true...
Dawn Base was of an extremely special nature, ranking high even in the history of the Republic.
In terms of scale and secrecy level, only those who had worked on mushroom bombs and the first generation of aerospace had experience.
And only their level of contribution could make those research bigwigs at the ceiling of their respective fields sincerely follow orders.
Alas, in recent years, one hero after another had passed away due to the objective factors of birth, aging, sickness, and death.
Especially not long ago, another hero, Wang Yaoping, passed away at the age of 105.
Now, apart from Old Sun before him, there was no one else in the country with the experience and qualifications to hold the fort at Dawn Base.
"However, Xiao Pan, I'll also be straight with you," Old Sun then said, patting the back of Pan Yongnian's hand, his tone candid. "My physical condition is what it is; holding the fort at the base and controlling the overall situation is manageable, but I no longer have the energy for specific project operations."
"So the burden on your shoulders will be heavy. You must be mentally prepared."
In the earlier transmigration point activation experiment,
Pan Yongnian had already proven his theoretical and execution capabilities — more bluntly, his past record was there to see.
Therefore, the core leadership's expectations — or pressure — on Pan Yongnian's team were somewhat higher than those on other research bigwigs.
Old Sun was the same.
In the film Sky Breaks, the actor Li Xuejian, playing General Feng Shi, once wrote a poem:
Lightly dancing, year after year,
The age-old dream of flying to the heavens —
When shall we ascend to the ninth heaven?
Sun Guozhu and his generation burned themselves out, and finally on October 15, 2003, turned the Chinese nation's thousand-year dream of flight into reality.
They thought that was the end of the dream.
But with the appearance of Lin Yi and the founding of Dawn Base,
the word "flight" seemed to have acquired another possibility on the level of meaning:
a possibility... that did not require tools.
This was also why Old Sun waited here for Pan Yongnian — to welcome an old friend, and likewise to pass on the mission and expectations.
After all...
their time, perhaps, truly was not much left...
.......
Looking at the venerable Republic hero before him with an aged face, Pan Yongnian suddenly felt his vision blur.
But soon,
he blinked hard, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed the thousand complex emotions in his heart:
"Old Sun, I'm ready."
"Fine, then don't stand around here," Old Sun nodded, pointing at the wheelchair armrest to Pan Yongnian. "Go push the chair from behind; let this old man enjoy the treatment of having an academician as an attendant."
Pan Yongnian quickly went behind Old Sun, took the armrest from the staff member's hands, and pushed the wheelchair.
Then, under the guidance of Old Sun's attendants,
the group walked on, and five minutes later arrived at a closed, square gate.
Chen Zhengze stepped forward and scanned his iris.
Di di di —
The gate slid to the right, revealing a row of small rooms resembling changing rooms.
Pan Yongnian and the others entered in turn, changed into experimental uniforms, passed through the air shower procedure, and smoothly regrouped on the other side.
Then the group successively passed several sterilization and verification procedures, finally reaching a spacious experimental hall.
The hall covered roughly two to three thousand square meters, was square overall, and a transparent barrier like glass separated the middle, dividing it into inner and outer layers.
At this moment,
in the outer area of the hall stood more than ten experts in experimental uniforms, holding reports, gathering in twos and threes to discuss and analyze something.
Hearing movement at the entrance,
except for a few scholars too engrossed and oblivious to everything else, everyone else turned to look.
Several seconds later,
"Hey, Yongnian?"
An expert standing somewhat closer recognized Pan Yongnian, clutching his report and quickly walking over to him, smiling: "Yongnian, you're finally here!"
"Academician Ma?" Pan Yongnian shook hands with him, his tone equally warm. "So the navy's leader this time is you. Come to think of it, we haven't seen each other for some years, right?"
"I watched that video of the three aircraft carriers' electromagnetic catapults; truly inspiring, awesome!"
.......
Chapter 30