Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 8: The New Base No.

While the original 12 clones maintained their original work content, the five newly added clones also became busy.

Based on previous experience, Li Qingsong once again controlled the two clones to use the existing parts and began to manufacture the second steam turbine.

The other three clones repeated the construction process of Base No. 1. First, they used electric heating equipment to clear the frozen gas in the cave except Base No. 1.

The total area of this cave is about 600 square meters, but only 200 square meters are currently occupied. Now that there are enough people, Li Qingsong plans to make use of the remaining space.

Electric heating equipment requires a large amount of electricity, but the power supply is currently limited. To ensure that the power supply to the fluorescent lamps and crop growth is not affected, the refrigerant gas removal work can only be maintained at a lower efficiency. It took nearly ten days to complete.

Afterwards, several clones were busy knocking off all the sharp protrusions on the cave wall and polishing them smooth to avoid piercing the membrane.

Afterwards, Li Qingsong brought over 80% of the special films stored in the Deep Space spacecraft, and laid them in this cave along the rock wall.

The original No. 1 planting base was directly incorporated into the new planting base.

After completing this series of work, including splicing, laying and fixing the film, checking the sealing, and installing temporary lighting fixtures, Li Qingsong looked at the huge empty hall and imagined the future. He was busy again and transported all the remaining planting racks and usable pipes from the Deep Space spacecraft.

By the time the planting racks were assembled, the pipes laid, and the fluorescent lamps installed, the second steam turbine had also been built, and a new generator was removed from the deep space spacecraft and connected to this steam turbine.

The new steam turbine has an installed capacity of 30 kWh, which is not enough to supply the electricity needs of the entire planting base on its own, but it is more than enough when combined with the first one.

"Power on!"

Following Li Qingsong's order, the clone acting as the fireman immediately threw the frozen tolin ore and oxygen ore prepared in advance into the thawing chamber.

The heat from the first generator spread here, slowly thawing it. After mixing with oxygen, it immediately began to burn violently.

The water ice melted, turned into liquid, and then into steam. The heavy rotors began to rotate, causing the earth to tremble slightly.

The surging electricity flowed out from inside and flowed into the fluorescent lamp, and bright light was released instantly.

At the same time, the water vapor that still has extremely high temperature after doing work also flows along the pipeline to the underground of the base. After cooling, it flows back into the steam turbine.

The temperature at Planting Base No. 1 immediately began to rise.

When the temperature rose almost enough and the atmospheric pressure was consistent, several clones stepped forward and directly removed the membrane of the original Base No. 1.

The two bases, large and small, are truly integrated at this moment.

The fixed materials, nutrient solution, sweet potato vines, etc. prepared in advance were planted in an orderly manner on the new planting rack.

From this point on, they will grow alongside the existing sweet potatoes.

The new planting base now has a total area of 600 square meters and a height of 2.3 meters. 400 square meters of it are still used to grow sweet potatoes, and the remaining 200 square meters have other uses.

The newly added sweet potato planting racks are still four-layered. As a result, the original 400 square meters of sweet potato planting area has been quadrupled to 1600 square meters.

This 1600 square meter planting area is expected to produce approximately 3 kilograms of sweet potatoes each quarter. Assuming each clone consumes 270 kilograms per day, or 37 kilograms per quarter, Base No. can currently support approximately clones with just sweet potatoes!
In addition to the area for growing sweet potatoes, 200 square meters of the remaining 80 square meters are used as a nutrient solution preparation room, temporary storage, lounge, kitchen, etc.

In addition, the additional 80 square meters, including the increased area brought by the second, third or fourth floors, totals about 200 square meters of planting area. Li Qingsong planted some crops such as wheat, soybeans, peanuts, rapeseed, oilseed wheat, and spinach.

Not much of each kind is planted, and the yield is not much either. They are used as seed reserves and as occasional snacks to adjust the diet.

The remaining 40 square meters are used for internal passages and other places.

Base No. 600, covering a total area of square meters, was fully arranged by Li Qingsong, and the space utilization rate almost reached the extreme.

As the cultivated area expands, the demand for electricity increases, and more manpower is needed.

The addition of these five new clones was just enough to keep the entire base running, leaving Li Qingsong with almost no manpower to do anything else.

The two steam turbines roared and ran all day long, like two monsters that were never full. No matter how much tholin ore and oxygen ore the clones brought, they would be consumed in a short time.

This forced Li Qingsong to add a clone to the mining team, bringing the total to five people.

The number of stokers also increased from two to three, working in shifts. Each person had to work more than 12 hours a day, which was barely enough to meet the consumption of the steam engine.

The bodies of the two people who stayed behind on the Deep Space spacecraft cannot be moved easily. In addition to the most important reason of avoiding team annihilation, they are also responsible for learning and cultivating new clones.

The remaining seven clones were all put into the planting base, spending their days repairing faulty circuits, mixing nutrient solutions, and taking care of crops.

There are 17 clones in total, busy all day long.

Time passed quietly under such circumstances, and in the blink of an eye, another three months had passed.

This time, the clones gathered at Base No. 1 again and worked together to harvest all the ripe crops.

A day later, Li Qingsong smiled as he looked at the more than 10,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes and a wide variety of wheat, grains, beans, peanuts, vegetables, etc. piled up in the temporary warehouse.

"The survival crisis has finally been temporarily resolved. With so many sweet potatoes, I no longer have to worry about starving to death.

but……"

Feeling the busyness at the moment, Li Qingsong's expression gradually became solemn.

"My current agricultural foundation is still too fragile. If something unexpected happens and the film is severely damaged, the air will leak out in an instant and all the crops will die immediately.

There is no industrial system at all.

Fortunately, we now have some food reserves, and we have enough manpower for agricultural production. Once we have more clones, we can finally move away from agricultural production and do other things."

(End of this chapter)