Chapter 14: The Photon Computer

Words : 1573 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

After completing the final comprehensive inspection, Xiao Yu issued the ignition and launch command. The rocket’s tail erupted with pale yellow flames, and under the immense thrust, the massive rocket began to ascend slowly, its speed increasing rapidly. Within seconds, the rocket had climbed several dozen meters into the air. Its body tilted slightly, aligning with Titan’s rotational direction, and soared into the sky. This maneuver leveraged Titan’s rotational velocity, making it easier to achieve orbital velocity and conserving a significant amount of fuel. The Fengshen-1 helicopter ascended to an altitude of 10,000 meters, silently observing the rocket as it climbed higher. During this launch, Fengshen-1 served as a temporary communications relay station. One minute later, the rocket reached Titan’s orbital altitude, successfully separated from its engine, and opened its payload bay, releasing a string of twelve satellites tethered together. This occurred on the far side of Titan, beyond Xiao Yu’s direct monitoring range due to the lack of sufficient relay stations. In other words, these satellites had temporarily disappeared from Xiao Yu’s observation. From this point forward, their movements were no longer under Xiao Yu’s direct control but were governed by pre-programmed instructions. On the ground, Xiao Yu waited silently. If all went well, he would receive a signal from the first satellite in 30 minutes. At the latest, it should not exceed 40 minutes. If no signal arrived after 40 minutes, it would mean the launch had failed. Although Xiao Yu was confident in the programmed instructions, he couldn’t help but feel anxious. As the countdown ticked down, his anticipation grew. Floating quietly in Titan’s orbit, 100 kilometers above the surface, were two strings of objects resembling skewered candied fruits. With a velocity of 2.4 kilometers per second—exceeding Titan’s escape velocity—these objects would remain in orbit. Behind them, the rocket debris began its descent toward Titan’s surface. Having completed its mission, the rocket remnants would burn up due to atmospheric friction and vanish without a trace. The silence lasted only ten seconds. Then, faint noises emanated from the strings of satellites as their tethers suddenly detached, transforming them into twelve individual units. Their orbital parameters and velocity remained unchanged, so they continued flying in formation. Moments later, faint pale blue flames appeared simultaneously at the tail of each satellite. The gentle thrust caused them to spread apart in an orderly fashion. Once they reached sufficient spacing, the flames intensified, propelling the satellites rapidly in separate directions like startled frogs scattering across a pond. Each satellite followed its pre-programmed instructions to locate its designated orbital path. On the ground, Xiao Yu stared at the timer, his thoughts adrift. Thirty minutes had passed, yet he had received no signals from the satellites. “Don’t panic. Don’t panic,” Xiao Yu reassured himself. “There are still ten minutes before the deadline.” Just as this thought crossed his mind, a stream of electromagnetic waves reached Xiao Yu’s receiver. “Report to base: War God-1 is operating normally!” “War God” was the codename Xiao Yu had assigned to the satellites, numbered from War God-1 to War God-12. “Excellent!” Xiao Yu exclaimed with delight. With the first signal received, he quickly assumed control and commanded War God-1 to establish communication with the other eleven satellites. “Report to base: War God-7 is operating normally!” “Report to base: War God-4 is operating normally!” ... “Report to base: War God-12 is operating normally!” All twelve satellites were functioning perfectly. Xiao Yu breathed a massive sigh of relief. From now on, these satellites would form a comprehensive network in Titan’s orbit, covering the entire moon. Equipped with signal reception and transmission systems, Xiao Yu would now be able to communicate with any location on Titan’s surface. No longer would his control range be limited to a 500-kilometer radius. “All right, Fengshen-1! It’s time to head out!” Xiao Yu was brimming with confidence. With the satellite network now serving as an information and communication relay station, he immediately deployed the Fengshen-1 helicopter to continue exploration in the area previously surveyed. Although Xiao Yu had created a rough three-dimensional map of Titan before landing and had conducted a preliminary survey of its mineral distribution, the accuracy of high-altitude detection was far inferior to that of ground-based surveys. To obtain more detailed information about Titan’s mineral distribution, Xiao Yu had specifically constructed the Fengshen-1. Xiao Yu estimated that it would take about three months for the Fengshen-1 to survey the entirety of Titan. Afterward, he would select some valuable mineral deposits and use the Fengshen-1 to transport robots to conduct on-site exploration. If the deposits proved worth mining, he would then send over the appropriate mining and smelting equipment. With the satellite launch project wrapped up, Xiao Yu shifted his full focus to the development of the next generation of computers. On Earth, there were many directions for next-generation computer research. Broadly speaking, these included photon computers, quantum computers, and neural computers. Xiao Yu chose to focus on photon computers, as they were the most practical and had the highest likelihood of being realized. Photon computers boasted low energy consumption and high computational speed. Xiao Yu estimated that, with the same size and energy consumption, a photon computer would be several hundred times faster than the ordinary computers he currently used. When that time came, computational limitations would disappear entirely. Xiao Yu could even build a few more bases, and the computational power would be more than sufficient. Xiao Yu had already begun researching photon computers back on Earth. Originally, his plan was to equip his spaceship with a photon computer. However, due to certain unresolved technical challenges, he had been forced to use his current computers instead. Nevertheless, Xiao Yu’s research on photon computer technology was among the most advanced on Earth. Now, with the support of unparalleled computational power and exceptional innovative thinking, Xiao Yu overcame the technical barriers in just three months. The photon computer successfully transitioned from the lab to practical application. “With my current level of distributed computing technology, hmm, the optimal solution is to assemble 300,000 photon CPUs. Adding more would exceed the limits of distributed computing, potentially reducing computational efficiency instead.” Once he arrived at this conclusion, Xiao Yu immediately began large-scale manufacturing of photon computers. The assembly site this time was located at the center of the base. Here, Xiao Yu used the most advanced materials, even employing the help of “Specimen One,” captured from Jupiter, to enhance material performance before constructing the computer room. There was no alternative. Given that Xiao Yu expected to live here for nearly the next hundred years, he had to approach the matter with utmost caution. With this mindset, the sturdiness of the computer room was almost unimaginable. Even a close-range nuclear explosion would not damage its interior. The price for this was a 20% reduction in the radiation levels of Specimen One. Inside the computer room, over a thousand robots were busy installing photon hard drives into cabinets in sequence. Farther inside lay a pool of liquid hydrogen for cooling, where robots worked tirelessly to place photon CPUs into the submerged slots. The computer room, spanning several hundred square meters, was divided into smaller zones: a data storage zone, a computation zone, a linking zone, a caching zone, and more. Countless black-sheathed optical fibers connected every component. Once the photon computer was completed, Xiao Yu eagerly connected to it via data link. With just a slight mental command, its lightning-fast speed filled Xiao Yu with ecstatic delight. In the past, analyzing the behavior of electrons in a controlled nuclear fusion reaction and their impact on the final outcome required 5% of Xiao Yu’s total computational power for three hours. Now, it was done in an instant. Even calculating the trillionth digit of pi took only a fraction of a second. According to Xiao Yu’s estimates, the photon computer’s computational speed was more than a thousand times faster than his previous central computer. Overjoyed, Xiao Yu immediately began transferring data. Over the years since leaving Earth, all data had been stored on his old hard drives. Losing these hard drives would mean losing all this knowledge and information, something Xiao Yu could not tolerate. The massive data transfer, measured in petabytes, took nearly three months to complete. Once the transfer was finished, all interfaces were moved to Xiao Yu’s new “home.” Despite the continuous influx of vast amounts of data, the photon computer’s extraordinary computational power made these torrents of information seem like a tiny stream futilely attempting to breach a dam—utterly laughable. Xiao Yu effortlessly managed data from the skies, the ground, and even underground, enjoying a serene and leisurely time. During this period, Xiao Yu discovered a total of 365 mineral deposits, 96 of which had mining potential. These deposits encompassed all the elements he currently needed, except for titanium and zirconium, two critical metals for space travel, which he failed to find veins of. This left Xiao Yu rather disappointed. “Relying on associated minerals to obtain titanium and zirconium results in too low a yield. Hmm... On Earth, the reserves of titanium and zirconium are quite high. Perhaps I should consider launching a spacecraft to mine the asteroid belt near Earth. But that will have to wait until controlled nuclear fusion is successfully developed.” “Alright then, let the research on controlled nuclear fusion begin!”

Chapter 14: The Photon Computer

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