Chapter 7: Harvest
On this day, aside from the two bodies standing guard on the Deep Space Spaceship and the one responsible for fueling the steam turbine, the remaining nine Clones all gathered in Planting Base No. 1.
The nine Clones set to work together. Some were responsible for harvesting the sweet potatoes, some for carrying them, and others for gathering the vines. The last few Clones tidied up the fixtures and recycled the nutrient solution. Everything was done in an orderly fashion.
It took a full day, but they harvested all the sweet potatoes from the nearly one-mu plot and piled them in a corner of Planting Base No. 1.
Looking at the large pile of sweet potatoes of all sizes stacked high before him, Li Qingsong was filled with joy.
He had already weighed the sweet potatoes. The result: their total weight reached 520 kilograms!
Of course, this was factoring in the relatively low gravity on Ceres. If they were on Earth, this large pile of sweet potatoes would have a total weight of around 4,160 kilograms.
Li Qingsong had originally estimated only 4,000 kilograms, but to his surprise, the yield slightly exceeded his expectations, with an extra 160 kilograms harvested.
’With these sweet potatoes, adding five more Clones will be no problem at all.’
Gazing at the sweet potatoes, Li Qingsong was filled with satisfaction.
At that moment, inside the Deep Space Spaceship, five brand-new Clone bodies were developing.
When the first batch of sweet potatoes had just been planted, the "seeds" for those five Clones had already begun their cultivation. Now, the cultivation period was more than halfway through. He expected that by the time the next sweet potato harvest came around, they would be truly "born," providing Li Qingsong with another group of helpers.
Besides the sweet potatoes, the small amounts of peanuts and rapeseed Li Qingsong had planted were also harvested, but the yields were minimal.
The peanut harvest was about 8 kilograms, while the rapeseed was only 7 kilograms.
There wasn’t enough to press for much oil, so Li Qingsong decided to save all of it to use as seeds for the future.
He left a small number of sweet potatoes at Base No. 1, and Li Qingsong transported the rest to the Deep Space Spaceship for storage using the landing craft.
There were no proper storage facilities on Ceres; they would spoil if left out for too long. For now, his only option was to store them all on the spaceship.
Along with the sweet potatoes, over a thousand kilograms of sweet potato vines were also transported to the Deep Space Spaceship. This was a treat for the livestock, chickens, and ducks being raised in the spaceship’s cultivation room, giving them a change in diet.
It wasn’t just for the livestock, chickens, and geese. Li Qingsong also took some of the more tender sweet potato vines, blanched them, and stir-fried a batch. Thus, the Clones and his original body, who were all used to eating vitamin pills, finally got to enjoy fresh vegetables, a delight for both mind and body.
With the first harvest complete, the second batch of sweet potatoes was planted immediately.
After all, there were no seasonal restrictions in the planting base; he could start planting whenever he wanted.
Preparing the nutrient solution was more troublesome. However, with the accumulation of manure over this period, supplemented by crushed plant waste, the supply of nutrient solution could just barely keep up.
In Li Qingsong’s operation, no organic matter was wasted—not the Clones’ feces, not the livestock’s manure, not even the animals’ fur and bones, nor the plant stalks. Everything was processed and turned into nutrients for the next cycle of growth.
With the new round of sweet potatoes planted, the total of twelve bodies returned to their previous routine for the next three months.
Two Clones remained on the Deep Space Spaceship to study, two served as Stokers, four handled mining, and four tended to the plants. They remained busy day in and day out, with no days off and no holidays.
Their diet consisted mainly of sweet potatoes, supplemented by the small reserves of meat, grain, and vitamin pills from the Deep Space Spaceship. They slept in the aisles between the planting racks in the base, a blanket on the floor serving as a bed.
There were two beds inside the landing craft, from which many of the internal facilities had been removed, but they were cramped and small.
Even so, only a Clone who was feeling unwell or was excessively fatigued earned the privilege of sleeping in one for a night.
Fortunately, these Clones had no consciousness of their own and wouldn’t complain. If they were normal humans, they probably would have revolted by now.
「Three more months passed in this manner.」
On this day, Li Qingsong’s spirits were lifted once again.
The sweet potatoes in Planting Base No. 1 had another bumper crop, yielding over 4,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes and a large quantity of vines.
But this wasn’t the main reason for his excitement. What made him happiest was the birth of five new Clone bodies.
After six months of careful cultivation, they had finally developed from a few initial cells into fully-formed humans, ready to be "born."
Under Li Qingsong’s control, the two bodies stationed on the spaceship carefully operated the cultivation pods. They drained and collected the nutrient fluid, opened the pods, and carried the five Clones, still in a deep coma, to the observation room to await their awakening.
At the same time, a new batch of five cell samples was placed into the cultivation pods, and the next round of cultivation began.
A few hours later, the five Clones opened their eyes one by one. But lacking any self-awareness, they simply lay still on their beds, motionless.
With a flicker of his will, Li Qingsong’s consciousness instantly spread out and connected to their brains. The next moment, the five Clones stood up.
At first, their movements were somewhat stiff and unnatural. But after some adaptive exercises, their bodies quickly returned to a normal state.
A meal, designed to be both easily digestible and nutritious, was already prepared and waiting for them.
After eating their first meal, they rested for a moment and went through some more adaptive training. Then, they were dressed in five sets of mismatched Space Suits that had been prepared in advance.
’Time to get to work.’
The landing craft roared as it departed from the mothership and once again descended onto Ceres.
With the addition of these five Clones, Li Qingsong’s manpower shortage was finally alleviated.
But at the same time, a new problem arose.
’Seventeen Clones will consume 51 kilograms of fresh sweet potatoes a day. That’s 4,590 kilograms every three months.
Once the new batch of five Clones is born, the consumption will be close to 6,000 kilograms every three months.
At this rate, even with Planting Base No. 1 at full production, there will still be a shortfall of nearly 2,000 kilograms each quarter.
After half a year of consumption, the surplus from Planting Base No. 1 is now less than 2,000 kilograms, which will only last for one quarter.
After that, I’ll have to start dipping into my reserves. That won’t do.’
Li Qingsong thought to himself, ’I have enough hands now. It’s time to expand the planting base.’