Chapter 149: Energy-s.h.i.+eld Booster
Xia Fei’s video-call to Quantum Holdings connected, and the screen was filled with figures one after another. Upon hearing that Xia Fei was calling a meeting, the company’s main team all came.
Having not seen one another for a year, these people that Xia Fei trusted had all changed by quite a bit. Sarah had learned how to put on makeup and was becoming more particular with her clothing choices. Her light-blue attire was professional and adequate, even wearing a pair of subtle diamond earrings. She was giving off more of the air that a young woman should have than before, though that sense of wildness in her had not entirely faded.
Sonny was wearing a suit; that gleeful grin on his face was unchanged, though he did seem a lot calmer and more capable. The only one who was still the same was Boateng; he was still wearing denim overalls, a work cap on his head, and a pair of universal pliers strapped to his waist.
Xia Fei did not tell Boateng that he was on his way to the Dark Abyss to find Old Porter, and he was feeling somewhat guilty about it. The journey there and back would not only take a long time but also be fraught with danger. Boateng, who was just a regular mechanic, would probably have difficulties protecting himself and might likely require Xia Fei’s protection if they went there together, which would bring him unnecessary trouble.
Besides, there was no telling whether Old Porter was dead or alive; Boateng would surely be inconsolable if Porter was dead, which was something Xia Fei would be unwilling to see. To such a staunchly honest man, death would be an indescribable pain, so he decided it was better off keeping this from him to give him a bit of hope.
Xia Fei smiled at everyone present. “Very good! Since everyone’s here, we can officially begin this meeting.”
With a light tap of his finger, Xia Fei transmitted the blueprint right to everyone’s hands via the interplanetary internet. “This is a new product called the energy-s.h.i.+eld booster. I’ve already done my research, and up until now, there’s not one manufacturer making this type of product anywhere in the Alliance. The next step for us would be to make this energy-s.h.i.+eld booster our company’s flags.h.i.+p product, ma.s.s-produce and sell them, but you all must look at the blueprint first and ask me if you have any questions about it.”
Everyone anxiously nodded their heads and checked the information in their hands. Sarah glanced at the design and continued to stare at Xia Fei. She could not make heads or tails of the diagram in front of her, so she decided to just sit there and observe the facial changes Xia Fei would make.
Her gaze was fiery, seemingly able to channel her pa.s.sion through it. This woman who came from the Wild Star Region was straightforward in presenting her emotions, not at all beating around the bush. Xia Fei was unperturbed, letting her gaze fall on him however she liked.
Boateng was the first to understand what had been drawn. After all, wars.h.i.+p components was his line of work, and the decades of s.h.i.+p maintenance experience had given him a decent foundation.
“Xia Fei, that’s quite the bold product you’ve envisioned. In all my years doing s.h.i.+p maintenance, I’ve never once come across such a thing. Will it really work?” Boateng asked, astonished.
Charlie also set aside the blueprint and laughed bitterly. “These diagrams are too profound; I can’t understand anything about them at all. Mind if you give a simple introduction on what we are seeing?”
Xia Fei’s design had borrowed plenty of advanced technology from the ancient civilization. Even Boateng only managed to make sense of the energy-s.h.i.+eld booster’s uses. As for the theory behind the product, he could not make sense of it either.
However, any s.p.a.ce vessel in the vast s.p.a.ce, small or big, would have energy s.h.i.+elds. Be it to protect their s.h.i.+p from random floating s.p.a.ce debris or to defend them from attacks, it was a piece of very common equipment to have on all wars.h.i.+ps.
Upon encountering an a.s.sault or ambush, the strength of the energy s.h.i.+elds would continuously drop until, finally, they collapsed completely. This was when an energy s.h.i.+eld recharger would be helpful.
s.h.i.+eld rechargers worked like a maintenance mechanic, able to rapidly replenish the damaged s.h.i.+elds, and it was especially important when in a s.p.a.ce battle or when dealing with a meteor shower.
What Xia Fei had designed was a piece of equipment called ‘energy-s.h.i.+eld booster’, which was able to further improve the effects of the s.h.i.+eld rechargers without any additional consumption of energy. If they were able to put it into production, it would definitely be a new line of products transcending ages.
For example, if the s.h.i.+eld strength of a wars.h.i.+p was rated at 100 and it dropped by half after taking damage, s.h.i.+eld rechargers would need five minutes to get it fully repaired. But by installing the booster, the time needed would be reduced to three minutes, greatly reducing the repair time and effectively increasing a wars.h.i.+p’s defense.
By improving the recharge speed by thirty percent, while taking up less than thirty percent of the energy required, this was essentially quite the superior equipment for any wars.h.i.+p.
Everyone was utterly shocked when they heard this explanation. Even a fool could understand the immense value that an energy-s.h.i.+eld booster represented. Be it in a practical viewpoint or a military angle, installing such equipment in a s.h.i.+p would grant it greater defense, and if all the s.h.i.+ps in the Alliance were fitted with it, Quantum Holdings would most likely see unimaginable profits.
Allan wrinkled his brows. “After examining this design, the idea of using the energy fluctuation of the s.h.i.+elds to power themselves, compressing and then supplementing, is definitely well ahead in our time, but the technology behind this molecular compression tank isn’t simple, and I’m afraid that our current production capabilities just aren’t there yet.”
Allan’s worries were all very reasonable. The technological level of this equipment could even be considered as the top standards in the entire Pan-Human Alliance, and the demand for the production would be fairly high. At the moment, there was no way the Earth Federation could ma.s.s-produce such a design.
Xia Fei nodded. “I’ve already considered that issue you raised, but we can’t let the difficulty stop us from taking this step. I’ve decided to establish a secret facility for doing further research regarding the feasibility of manufacturing energy-s.h.i.+eld boosters.
“Anyone and everyone partic.i.p.ating in this project must keep things strictly confidential. Find an inconspicuous location that has no contact to the outside world. Also, Wulong and Allan, you two will be overseeing this.”
Wulong and Allan nodded their heads repeatedly, agreeing to Xia Fei’s a.s.signment.
Xia Fei paused for a moment before saying, “I’ll be sending over all the funds you will need right away. Plus, I’ll be registering the patent in the Alliance capital as soon as I can, just in case.
“Charlie, before the feasibility study is complete, our factories must be ready for the transition, making sure all the machineries and facilities will be devoted to this product in preparation for its ma.s.s production.”
“If my calculations are correct, the demand for this product in the Alliance will be astronomical. This is a major opportunity for our company, so everyone must give it their all to make it a success.”
Xia Fei slowly gave out his orders one by one. Everyone was excited at the prospect; there were millions and millions of s.p.a.cecraft of different types all over the Alliance. Even if only a third of them could have this booster equipped, that was still an imaginable sum.
When the time comes, Quantum Holdings’ subsidiaries would all be devoted to its production, and the production rate might be unable to match the demand. As such, what they needed was the company to make prior preparations, concentrating every available resource to ensure a successful ma.s.s-production.
Xia Fei thought about it some more before mentioning, “Boateng, Sarah, how’s the development of the transport s.h.i.+p pilot training for now?”
Sarah deftly tapped on the screen like a professional office lady and very quickly pulled out the training program on display as she reported, “At the moment, our flight school has successfully nurtured two batches of pilots, s.h.i.+p mechanics, and a handful of scheduling and management talents. In our current manpower capacity, we are able to operate a fleet of thirty industrial s.h.i.+ps at any given time, with no problems on the logistics and ground support.”
Xia Fei nodded. “Very good. Boateng, contact all your old friends in the wars.h.i.+p graveyard and buy from them forty-two industrial s.h.i.+ps as well as eight frigates. This way, we will have a total of fifty industrial s.h.i.+ps and ten frigates to form a complete transportation convoy. We need to quickly get people to recognize what we do; once we are able to ma.s.s-produce the energy-s.h.i.+eld boosters, our transportation orders will surely increase in scope and frequency as well.”
Boateng nodded. “I’ll get on it right away. Plenty of my old friends in the wars.h.i.+p graveyard will surely give me face. Give me three months, and the entire transportation fleet will become a sizable force to be reckoned with.”
Actually, if talking about large-scale transportation trading, only freighters would qualify as heavy lifters. After all, a single freighter could fit ten million cubic meters of goods, comparable to what forty industrial s.h.i.+ps were able to ferry. Furthermore, the automation of a freighter was far more advanced and the crew requirements were much less compared to industrial s.h.i.+ps.
However, the four billion star coins price tag of a freighter was a big problem for Xia Fei, and Quantum Holdings as of present could simply not rear such an expensive beast in their backyard.
Xia Fei still had around 8.2 billion in his bank account, but a significant portion of this money would be used in research and development, as well as buying the raw materials and the machinery necessary on top of building the transportation fleet.
Furthermore, Xia Fei still had to buy a set of equipment for himself. He had to make preparations for his very-long-distance trip, so Xia Fei had to save what he could on the fleet front.
“Charlie, calculate the funds the company will need to upgrade the equipment, expand our production capacity, and to purchase raw materials. I’ll transfer the money to the company’s account in a moment,” Xia Fei said.
Charlie nodded as he began to very quickly calculate the capital needed for this expansion right there in front of the screen. Meanwhile, Andre, who was mulling over something, hesitantly spoke. “Xia Fei, if we really do put this high-end energy-s.h.i.+eld booster into production, are we considering hiring researchers and technical engineers from other planets? That way, we can further increase the efficiency of our research by another level, greatly shortening our development time.”
Xia Fei dismissed this with a wave of his hand. “It isn’t the time to do that yet. I’ve already shown you all the blueprint for the energy-s.h.i.+eld booster; what you need to research now is how to ma.s.s-produce it. This matter is of grave importance; before our product makes it on the market, we mustn’t let anyone else gain access to our trade secrets. We ought to take precaution even against our fellow researchers from Earth.”
Xia Fei’s goal was very simple, and that was to leave a deep imprint of ‘made on Earth’ through Quantum Holdings.
To accomplish something independently without any extraterrestrials’ help was a type of challenge, and it was also a form of training. After all, there were plenty of problems and crises that the company would face in the future, so it was a good chance to help nurture talents while the company was still in its infancy.
After some time, Charlie halted the movement of his hand as he said, “Xia Fei, as per your request, for the company to undergo ma.s.s-production on a grand scale, it requires plenty of new equipment and raw materials; I’ve already transferred all the available company funds and done my best to reduce costs, but we still need 3.7 billion star coins more as an investment.”
Everyone was momentarily knocked out of their breath hearing that they required 3.7 billion star coins. It must be mentioned that Quantum Holdings’ total a.s.sets were approximately around one billion star coins at the moment, meaning that this project they were about to undertake far outstripped their company’s financial capacity.
Xia Fei nodded and, with a wave of his hand, generously transferred four billion star coins into the company’s accounts. “I’ve already made the transfer of four billion star coins; if that still isn’t enough, report to me as soon as possible; no matter what, we need to work together and get this project off the ground and operational. The moment we start ma.s.s-producing the energy-s.h.i.+eld boosters, Quantum Holdings won’t just be a small company that manufactures low-end products but will become a highly compet.i.tive manufacturer of battles.h.i.+p equipment in one fell swoop.”
Everyone felt extremely excited upon hearing this, their faces aglow with pa.s.sion, especially the earthbound Wulong, Charlie, and the others. Establis.h.i.+ng a company that could compete with other companies in Alliance from the backward Earth Federation, it was the aspiration all Earthlings shared. Now that the hope of fulfilling this dream of theirs was within grasp, there was no way these native Earthlings would not feel exhilarated.
Xia Fei spent some more time discussing the details of how the company would operate in the future before ending the meeting. Each of them, after being given a new directive, was eager to dive into work.
Andre alone was asked by Xia Fei to stay, and once the rest had turned off their screen and exited the video-conference room, Xia Fei asked, “How is Xiao Yu’s family doing?”
Xia Fei wanted to visit Xiao Yu’s home many times but ended up rejecting his thoughts every time. For some reason, he always felt that he owed that girl, which was why he had secretly gotten Andre to take care of Xiao Yu’s family. It was his way of making up to her.
Andre chuckled. “It’s been so long; I didn’t think you’d still be hung up on her. Actually, her disappearance had nothing to do with you; her family is well taken care of, so don’t you worry; I’m around to see this.”
Xia Fei nodded, “Then, I’ll leave it to you. As long as Xiao Yu’s family can lead a good life, money is not an issue.”
With that done, Xia Fei did a search on the interplanetary internet for Sunset Villa’s address. He would be arriving in the capital’s star cl.u.s.ter tomorrow, so as per usual, he wanted to prepare everything in advance.
The tract of land that Sunset Villa covered was much larger than what Xia Fei had imagined. There was a crystal-clear pool by the foot of Half Moon Mountain, called Half Moon Lake, and the locals called the piece of land Half Moon Mountain and Lake. The mountain and lake were part of Sunset Villa and, in fact, formed its backyard. The distance from this end of the villa to the other was around thirty kilometers.
Xia Fei sucked in a cold breath, knitting his eyebrows together as he mumbled, “Avril’s residence is huge…”
The fact that this was the Alliance capital meant even having a small house was already a symbol of unimaginable prestige and wealth; what more if one owned an entire manor encompa.s.sing a ma.s.sive plot of land with a beautiful backdrop?
Xia Fei took a closer look at the description of the villa. “Sunset Villa, owner of Starlink Corporation, the residence of the Jian Family.”