Chapter 1576 - The Promised Land
Chapter 1576: The Promised Land
The Svetovid was freed from the ice tower a month later.
The strength of its armor was stunning. If it was the Seagull or Envoy class that was frozen in this condition, even if the people inside could survive inside the hibernation chamber, the entire starship would likely be scrapped. It was precisely because of this that experts from different countries were so excited when the Svetovid was freed from the ice.
If such armor could be equipped on the Envoy class, or on the Constitution class still in its design phase, it would undoubtedly increase the combat effectiveness of the Earth Fleet.
The Svetovid, freed from the ice, was also quite generous and readily agreed to the request of the Earth Defense Alliance. The related technology was packaged and sold to Future Heavy Industries at a price of 500 million World Dollars, and a small portion of the loan owed to Future Bank was repaid.
Yes, a loan.
Under the Golovin Mental System, the Golovin people did not need a troublesome construct like currency. They possessed their own set of methods to more efficiently measure value, and all individuals in the system widely agreed with this standard. However, the trade between Golovin and Earth civilization needed a standard for value measurement.
Golovin I chose World Dollar, and he asked for a seat in the World Union Reserve to exercise voting and supervision rights in addition to the right to propose.
It was the practice of most countries that joined the World Union Reserve. After all, if the currency was issued indiscriminately, the interests of the entire economy would be damaged. However, what Golovin cared about was not the economic issues. They just had to ensure that the over-issued currency of the World Union Reserve will not harm Golovin’s interests.
The total expenditure of the icebreaking project was 113.1 billion World dollars. Although it was jointly funded by many countries in the world, the Svetovid also assumed 40% of the debt.
In three years, most of the debt was repaid by technology. Among them, the warp engine was auctioned at a high price of 50 billion world dollars, and it was finally won by the wealthy Future Heavy Industries. If it were not for the consideration made by other countries that the technological gap may be too large to digest, the actual price could have more than doubled.
Someone could ask, since the warp engine was sold for such a large sum of money, why the Svetovid still had debts to pay?
It was worth mentioning that these debts were not related to the icebreaking project, but owed elsewhere.
Based on the relevant resolution made by the Defense Alliance on the issue of the refugees from the Golovin civilization, three votes vetoed the proposal for Siberia and the decision was to ultimately select a piece of land on Mars as a resting place for the refugees from the Golovin civilization.
If no preparations were made, it was impossible to survive on bare Mars, even for the Golovins.
Therefore, after Golovin discussed this issue with Jiang Chen, Golovin decided to use the method from Earth civilization to solve this issue, which was to take a loan from Future Bank to build a city for the life of the thousand crews on the Svetovid.
To build a city on Mars, there were basically only two materials needed; one was steel and the other was graphene.
Because there was no need to consider the oxidation of the material, it was no problem to weld a house with clad steel, but the appearance was on the ugly side. If the building did not feel aesthetic enough, a layer of graphene or nano-ceramic interlayer could be applied on the outside, which would not only enhance the strength of the building but also increase its aesthetic.
Now the largest real estate developer in Heavenly Palace City was Future Development, which was spun off from Future Heavy Industries three years ago, and followed by B City Steel Group, which was controlled by the B City Consortium. Graphene and nano-ceramics were still dominated by Future Heavy Industries. Although Heavenly Palace City was open to foreign investment, these lucrative industries were still controlled by Future Group.
With 200 million tons of steel and 30 million tons of graphene composite materials, the steel and graphite factories in Heavenly Palace City almost operated at max capacity. The project took three years, and more than 100 billion World Dollars was invested to finally build a futuristic city on the barren desert.
Two months after the completion of the icebreaking project, the Svetovid, which was freed from the ice, repaired the damaged parts and restarted the warp engine. Under the watch of Europa’s colonists, it moved towards the synchronous orbit of Mars.
After the Svetovid passed through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, two Seagull-class ships equipped with gravitational shields and heavy-mass accelerators approached the ship, and after contact with the Svetovid, they assumed the escort mission.
Although the mission was an escort mission, in fact, it was inevitable that there would be a sense of alertness and vigilance. After all, the Svetovid was not an unthreatening civilian ship, and the row of mass accelerators on the side of the hull looked daunting.
But Golovin did not show any aggressive behavior, or that they did not take the two little ants next to them seriously. After the ship docked at the space port in the synchronous orbit of Mars, Golovin I passed the gangway specially designed for them and entered the space port. There, he met Hong Zewei, the mayor of Heavenly Palace City.
“Did you see the place? That is your future home.” Hong Zewei stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows of the spaceport, smiled, and pointed to the fiery red ground outside the window with a small silver-white spot on it. “We reserved the naming right for you on the map, and you can choose a nice name for this city.”
“Name? Then it’s called Svetovid,” Golovin I nodded slightly, “Thank you for everything you have done for us. As agreed, we will use our technology to build a shipyard on the synchronous orbit.”
For Golovin, there was no need for such a thing as a name. But as the ruler of Golovin, he certainly did understand the habit of humans who like to name things they hadn’t seen before.
“No rush. We can discuss that after you settle down first.” Hong Zewei smiled, with friendliness, then said, “City of Svetovid? I will help you register it on the colony map. In addition, according to the colony law, all people who enter Mars must register their identity information. Your situation is a bit special so we won’t have to register, but we have to take the liberty to ask, how many people are there on your ship?”
“Five thousand people.”
“Five thousand people… We will prepare the supplies and necessities that five thousand people need for a month, including water, liquid oxygen, gas, and nutrient supplies. The market in Heavenly Palace City is open to you at any time. If you need anything, please let me know,” Hong Zewei smiled slightly and said in a friendly manner.
“We will buy these aid materials at market price. You have provided us with enough help, which makes us uneasy.” As Golovin nodded to express his friendliness, he paused for a moment before he continued, “Pass my greetings to your leader, Golovin appreciates those who keep their promises. It seems that we will get along well before the end.”
Hong Zewei was slightly taken back, but he then quickly smiled and nodded.
“I will convey the message for you.”