Jiang Ye's daily life gained a new form of entertainment.
When tired from working at his desk in the office, he would activate the holographic projection to watch the construction site of the Sea Creation Plan.
The Sea Creation Plan could essentially be divided into three steps: water extraction, water transportation, and water release.
The planet Kestrel, located 1.3 light-years away from Spiral Star, was the first water extraction site.
From orbit, Kestrel presented a magnificent blue hue. Under the illumination of its star, the color was close to what is called robin's egg blue, hence its name.
The reason the entire planet was bluish was primarily due to its astonishing content of copper ions in water, which colored the valleys blue, the plains blue, the deserts blue, and the lakes, rivers, and seas a deep, dark blue.
Moreover, due to its great distance from the star, the average surface temperature of Kestrel was only minus thirty degrees Celsius. The planet was covered in blue snow and permafrost, obscuring rocks of different colors with a blue blanket.
The first time Jiang Ye saw images of this planet, he felt it was the homeland of the Na'vi from Avatar. Against the backdrop of the dark universe, Kestrel seemed like a drop of blue ink carelessly spilled by a god, eternally floating in the void.
A few days prior, Xu Yan's construction team had arrived at Kestrel aboard a warship and established the first water extraction stations.
The water extraction stations resembled ancient Arctic or Antarctic research stations, standing tall on the azure plains. They were elevated ten meters above the ground by support structures to prevent them from being buried by blizzards. Each station could accommodate fifty human employees and two thousand mechanical workers, in addition to a larger quantity of air-dropped construction equipment and supplies.
There were three methods of water extraction: deep well water, soil water, and air water.
On the plains surrounding the extraction stations, numerous shining, large-scale machines were drilling wells. In just one day, they could drill down to a depth of five hundred meters.
Following this, many mechanical workers descended into the wells, excavating in all directions underground. The process was similar to mining ore, and the ancient ice found deep within the strata resembled sparkling crystals.
Each ice extraction well operated continuously, with large ice blocks, half a meter to one meter in diameter, being hoisted out of the wellhead without interruption. These blocks were piled up near the water extraction stations, quickly forming small ice mountains.
Soil water collection utilized biotechnology. An artificial plant called water aloe, with extremely strong survival capabilities, could grow from seeds thrown on the ground. Xu Yan's construction team used agricultural drones to scatter hundreds of tons of water aloe seeds.
Upon falling, the seeds began to germinate within half an hour. Their developed root systems rapidly penetrated the soil, desperately absorbing water.
In just one night, a water aloe plant could grow into a massive mature specimen, containing over three pounds of water. Mechanical workers simply needed to use harvesters to gather the dense growth of aloe, and simple pressing would yield a large amount of ice crystals, achieving remarkably high efficiency and rapidly clearing the surface water resources of the planet.
Air water collection required the use of water nets.
The water nets were designed simply, resembling fishing nets deployed underwater. However, these water nets were spread out in the air, supported by slender metal rods.
The net surface had a special structure, feeling similar to sharkskin to the touch. It contained numerous pores suitable for concentrating moisture and forming ice crystals. Typically, within a day and night, a water net the size of a football field could condense half a ton of ice crystals.
The ice blocks excavated from underground, the water aloe collected after cultivation, and the white ice crystals on the surface of the water nets – all forms of water were collected and then sent to the water extraction stations for processing.
The processing involved over seventy steps, primarily to remove impurities from the water, such as heavy metals and dust.
In the surface environment of Kestrel, a large number of alien viruses, a small quantity of alien bacteria, and trace amounts of alien parasite eggs were also detected. Therefore, after collecting the water, it also had to undergo disinfection, sterilization, and de-worming treatments to prevent these waters from contaminating Spiral Star's natural environment and causing microbial species invasion once released.
In the official database of the Galactic Empire, Kestrel was classified as a completely dead planet, with no life originating there and no foreign personnel having set foot on it.
Therefore, logically speaking, this planet should not have had viruses, bacteria, or parasites.
However, their abundant detection in the environment made the situation very peculiar.
Jiang Ye consulted Hua Qing, who then inquired with relevant experts.
"The experts said this situation is quite normal. As long as it's within the territory of the Galactic Empire, regardless of the planet's condition, there will inevitably be some biological contamination," Hua Qing explained. "Common reasons include interstellar smugglers operating outside of regulation using uninhabited planets as staging bases. A very small number of legitimate interstellar transport ships also secretly dock on barbarian planets to save on docking fees. There are even cases where certain planetary factions quietly organize sizable teams to sneak onto uninhabited planets for unauthorized mining operations. Currently, about 8% of the Galactic Empire's mineral market has an invisible source; the ore appears out of nowhere."
Hua Qing's reply proved prophetic.
Just a week later, Xu Yan reported that while excavating for a new water extraction station, the construction team had discovered a massive underground mine. In addition to the mine, there were over a hundred tons of construction waste, several scrapped transport vehicles, mining machinery abandoned in the mine, and even alien books and purple crystalline feces.
It was clear that an alien race had visited Kestrel and stolen minerals.
The analysis of the purple crystalline feces identified them as belonging to the Toadmen, a race subordinate to the Galactic Empire, an alien species with skin resembling that of a toad.
The alien books were magazines, several hundred pages thick, but contained less than three thousand alien letters in total, with the rest being full-color pictures. The pictures depicted Toadmen in various suggestive poses, along with close-ups of their bumpy skin, giving them a highly suspicious artistic style.
Jiang Ye informed Dai Zhixing about the matter. Dai Zhixing stated that there was nothing that could be done. Although the Galactic Empire advocated for unity and friendship among various interstellar civilizations and prohibited internal warfare, theft was not strictly regulated. Theft of minerals between interstellar civilizations occurred daily; it was a matter of skill and daring, and could not be openly addressed with demands for justice.
Dai Zhixing also mentioned that if caught red-handed, one could privately contact the Toadmen's planet and negotiate for compensation. In interstellar practice, some compensation would be given.
However, if caught without direct evidence, only circumstantial evidence like feces, magazines, and construction waste was available. If presented, the Toadmen would either deny it outright or counter-accuse, claiming they were framed and that someone had simply planted Toadmen characteristics to falsely accuse them, demanding compensation for emotional distress.
After listening, Jiang Ye was initially speechless, then a thought struck him.
Since aliens could come to human territory to steal minerals, why couldn't he organize a mineral-stealing team and infiltrate alien civilizations' territories?