50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 265 Submarine Dock
Suddenly the red light on the telegram lit up, and he quickly grabbed his pen and paper to start taking notes. To reduce the noise of the waves, he also had to press one earphone firmly with one hand.

Fortunately, the call back was short, and the recording was completed quickly.

There was no time to translate. After recording the reply, he immediately closed the hatch and returned to the cockpit. Soon, the 'Memphis' submerged into deep water and stopped moving.

Only then did he have time to translate the telegram: "Listen, yes, 6th, Bird's Nest."

Looking at the telegram, Sun Zhiwei could tell from the three characters in the middle that it was a reply from home, but he was a little confused about the meaning of the two words before and after it.

Then, he quickly recalled that when he used to look at classified documents, the intelligence agents outside often referred to his home as the 'Bird's Nest'.

"So, 'Listening' is my code name?" Sun Zhiwei curled his lip in dissatisfaction. "What a terrible code name, it has no aesthetic appeal at all."

However, the code name was given by his superiors, and he had no choice but to accept it.

I've made contact with my family, and now I just need to get to the rendezvous point safely.

Six days was the travel time he had calculated. He would travel for six hours and then rest for six hours to ensure that there would be no problems on the road.

It is expected that the 'Memphis' will reach the Cape Verde Islands, more than 3500 kilometers away, in six days.

There's not much to say, let's set off. Sun Zhiwei kept the 'Memphis' at a steady speed of 20 knots and headed east.

The journey was filled with stops and starts, and unexpected situations occurred frequently, including encounters with whale hunting and migrating schools of fish.

On one occasion, he even detected a submarine passing by 120 kilometers away.

He had not systematically studied voiceprint analysis and could not identify which submarine it was, so he could only make an emergency stop and quietly wait for the other submarine to go far away.

Fortunately, the Memphis's sonar had a detection range of 180 kilometers, far exceeding that of its adversary, and coupled with its excellent stealth capabilities, it remained undetected.

Only after the other party had moved out of the maximum detection range did he continue to drive the 'Memphis' eastward.

Because of some delays on the road, he did not arrive at the designated waters until the evening of the sixth day.

However, now is not the time to show himself. He must first find a place to dock the 'Memphis' before he can disembark and reunite with his comrades.

After determining his current location, he recalled the general layout of the Cape Verde Islands and then steered the 'Memphis' toward Bulawa Island in the southwest corner.

Bulawa Island is a small island of 100 square kilometers, ranking last among the fourteen islands of the Cape Verde archipelago, excluding a few uninhabited islands.

Most of the island consists of rugged, desolate hills with sparse vegetation, and there is only one small town with a population of just a few thousand.

He remembered that the highest point on the island was in the northwest.

The entire coastline there consists of cliffs hundreds of meters high, with clusters of reefs at their base.

The reefs extend more than a kilometer into the sea, and coupled with the sea breezes and ocean currents that face the Atlantic Ocean directly, the hydrological conditions are extremely complex, making it impossible for surface vessels to get close.

If all the sea conditions and terrain were like this, Sun Zhiwei wouldn't have chosen this place.

The main reason was that he had read a geography book in his previous life, which mentioned the situation there.

The book records that although the surface conditions of that area were terrible, the underwater environment was surprisingly calm, and the depth exceeded 70 meters.

Sun Zhiwei decided to go and see for himself what was going on there. If it was feasible, developing a hidden submarine dock would be a worthwhile investment. It would simply require investing some money there later. For such a tiny, insignificant country, even a small amount of money from us would be enough to feed them.

However, he can only offer suggestions; it's not his responsibility.

The 'Memphis' soon arrived at the northwest corner of Bulava Island. The waves here were rough, constantly crashing against the reefs and spraying out countless white sprays.

Sun Zhiwei carefully surveyed the area around the reef using active sonar, finding several underwater channels that could be explored further.

Then they began to explore the space one by one, and carefully selected the deepest channel to sail in.

He took one step at a time, stopping three times along the way. When he encountered narrow terrain, he used space to cut through the underwater reefs, gradually opening up his path.

With this cut, he discovered the difference in the stones at the bottom of the water.

The upper layer of this reef is entirely black volcanic rock, but 20 meters below the surface, the black volcanic rock turns into obsidian.
If it weren't for his ability to cut through space, he really wouldn't have been able to deal with them. After cutting through mountains and rocks for an hour, the 'Memphis' finally arrived at the bottom of the cliff.

This is inside the reef group, where the bottom is very calm, forming a stark contrast to the crashing waves on the surface.

This place is practically a natural submarine port.

But that's not enough. In the future, satellites will rule the world. Anything exposed to the outside world will be caught in their sight.

Looking at the obsidian cliff face before him, Sun Zhiwei came up with an idea. He began to use spatial manipulation to excavate into the cliff.

At a depth of 20 meters, a 20-meter-diameter passage extends into the cliff face. Because the obsidian here is extremely hard, the passage requires no reinforcement.

After the passage extended for more than 10 meters, Sun Zhiwei began to make the passage turn. After doing this twice, he finally went deep into the cliff and dug a cave.

Only then did he begin to widen the cave, and then continuously scatter the cut-off rubble onto the reefs outside.

After working for three hours, they finally widened the cave to over 200 meters wide and over 50 meters high.

The water surface has been cleared to create a flat area, and the underwater section is now large enough to allow a Los Angeles-class ship to easily turn around.

With that, a simple submarine dock was built. Sun Zhiwei steered the 'Memphis' into the makeshift dock, and then the entire submarine surfaced.

When he opened the hatch and entered the dark cave, he felt that it was a bit damp and stuffy, probably due to the lack of proper ventilation.

After determining the location of the cliff, he used spatial manipulation to create some small, slanted holes in the cliff face.

Soon, the sea breeze blew into the cave dock through the small hole, and the internal air pressure quickly equalized, making the air much fresher.

After confirming that there were no problems, he entered the 'Memphis' and came up wearing a diving suit.

It took another hour for Sun Zhiwei to dive back to the distant sea from the cave dock along the original route.

Then he released a speedboat from his spatial storage, climbed aboard, and calmly changed into dry short-sleeved shirts and shorts.

Only then did they take out the radio and start broadcasting.

After several exchanges, the rendezvous point was determined, and Sun Zhiwei drove the speedboat to the waters off the pier of Fogo Island and waited quietly.

(End of this chapter)