Chapter 147 - 146: Celestial River
The method Li Qingsong was currently using to transport water into space was much the same as for other cargo: fleets of semi-annular cable cars ascended one side of the space elevator while others descended on the opposite side.
As for where the water came from, the answer was simple.
Many of the space elevators were built on islands, providing direct access to the ocean, which meant seawater could flow in continuously.
Those not located by the sea were built near rivers for convenient water collection.
And so, powered by 1,000 corresponding high-capacity nuclear power plants, the first batch of cable cars for all 1,000 space elevators were simultaneously filled with water.
The total interior volume of these cable cars was approximately 2,400 cubic meters. Thus, a single cable car could transport 2,400 tons of water per trip.
After some technical optimizations, Li Qingsong could now launch a car every minute. That amounted to 60 trips an hour, capable of transporting 144,000 tons of water!
At this moment, a total of 1,000 cable cars were positioned at the base of the 1,000 space elevators, ready for departure.
Launch!
In an instant, amid a dull, high-frequency hum, the heavy cable cars—fully loaded with seawater, river water, or lake water—shot out from the ground bases with a powerful acceleration of several dozen meters per second squared.
In just a few seconds, they generated a massive sonic boom as their speed broke the sound barrier.
But this was only the beginning. The speed of sound alone was nowhere near fast enough.
The total length of the space elevator was approximately 50,000 kilometers. Even traveling at the speed of sound, it would take nearly 41 hours to get from one end to the other.
Too slow.
Their speed would reach approximately Mach 6, or two kilometers per second. At that rate, factoring in acceleration and deceleration, they would need only about seven hours to reach the end of the space elevator.
One minute later, these 1,000 cable cars had already traveled a distance of 100 kilometers, reaching the approximate altitude of the Kármán line.
The Kármán line is the traditionally accepted boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
Once they crossed this line, the cable cars were considered to be in space.
At that same moment, the second batch of 1,000 cable cars launched in sync.
After another minute of flight, they too crossed the Kármán line and continued toward the depths of space, followed by the third batch, the fourth, and so on...
The 1,000 space elevators built along Earth’s equator stood like 1,000 colossal pillars holding up the heavens.
Every minute, 1,000 sonic booms erupted from various points on Earth, like rolling thunder from the heavens.
Vast quantities of water surged in and were whisked away. In the midst of this cataclysmic commotion, countless animals and plants were affected and perished.
But Li Qingsong couldn’t spare them a thought for now.
’In any case, I’ve already collected the genes and embryos of every animal. Even if they go extinct now, I can just restore Earth’s environment in the future and breed them back into existence.’
’Everything is secondary to the war at hand. If I lose, I’ll lose everything I have.’
’But if I win, everything I’ve lost will be returned to me!’
Several hours later, at the terminus of the space elevator, the first batch of cable cars finally arrived.
In the distance, space was filled with countless specks of light, a myriad of shining stars. Which of them were actual stars and which were the Blutuk People’s spy satellites, Li Qingsong neither knew nor cared to find out.
’There’s no way to sweep them all away, and secrecy is impossible anyway, so I might as well let them watch.’
It was just like how the Blutuk People couldn’t be bothered to deal with the spy satellites he had placed around Venus.
The first batch of cable cars arrived at the terminal processing bay.
The linear velocity at the end of the space elevator exceeded Earth’s orbital velocity at that altitude, so centrifugal force was the dominant factor.
This created an effect similar to gravity, only its direction was opposite to Earth’s.
Under the influence of this "gravity," the water from the first cable car gushed out of an opening—SPLASH—and flowed into a massive, spherical plastic container.
Li Qingsong had these specially made to contain the water in space, preventing it from dispersing in the vacuum and minimizing losses.
When a plastic container was filled, it formed a sphere with a radius of about 8.3 meters, perfectly holding the roughly 2,400 cubic meters of water from a single cable car.
Once the transfer was complete, the plastic container was sealed, and the cable car immediately returned to the surface via the descending track.
Then came the second cable car, the third, the fourth...
These giant water spheres were not immediately deployed; instead, they were temporarily transferred to a massive, mobile cargo bay to await the opportune moment.
Earth completes one rotation every 24 hours, and the end of the space elevator also completed one rotation every 24 hours.
When the terminus rotated to the point in its orbit closest to the trajectory for Venus, the massive cargo bay, filled with giant water spheres, was simply flung into the optimal transfer orbit without needing any initial acceleration, beginning its journey at approximately 12 kilometers per second.
These cargo bays were not proper spaceships by any means.
Aside from a massive cargo hold, they were equipped only with a few Thrust Devices, making them incredibly rudimentary.
But these few Thrust Devices were enough to perform the necessary course corrections for the cargo bay, ensuring it could truly fly toward Venus.
Of course, the cargo bay itself would not actually fly all the way to Venus.
After completing the course correction, the bay doors would open, and the craft itself would begin to decelerate. As a result, the giant water spheres would tumble out on their own, like cargo being tipped from a dump truck, and continue rolling onward toward Venus.
The cargo ship would then return to its station, ready to await the next batch of water spheres.
All 1,000 space elevators repeated this process.
In just one day, 1.44 million water spheres, each with a radius of 8.3 meters and a mass of 2,400 tons, were added to the trajectory between Earth and Venus.
Their containers were transparent. As a result, heat from the Sun instantly began to warm the water inside, generating large amounts of water vapor that immediately caused the containers to bulge taut.
With sufficient internal pressure, the water remained in a liquid state instead of instantly dispersing into a molecular cloud.
By the second day, the number of water spheres flying through space had grown to 2.88 million, and their numbers continued to swell.
The countless water spheres looked like a string of brilliant pearls.
They were distributed more or less evenly along the flight path, like a resplendent road paved with pearls, or like a true Celestial River, stretching from Earth toward Venus.
Depending on the relative positions of Venus and Earth, their journey would take anywhere from a minimum of 37 days to a maximum of 200. Upon arrival, they would merge with Venus, bringing much-needed moisture to its extremely arid atmosphere.
Not long after the deployment began, Li Qingsong saw the Blutuk People react.
Under a barrage of countless Electromagnetic Cannon Projectiles and sweeping laser beams, one giant pearl after another shattered, its liquid contents spilling out instantly.
The Blutuk People’s interception had begun.