War of Intelligent Machines

Chapter 4: I’m Pregnant

Chapter 4: I’m Pregnant

South Pole of the Moon, Qian Xuesen Scientific Research Base, Staff Dormitory.

"Mom... I'm pregnant!" Jiang Yu couldn't bring herself to meet her mother's eyes.

Before gathering the courage to tell her mother, Jiang Yu had mentally prepared for various possible reactions.

"You...?" Jiang Hui, who had been dishing rice, froze upon hearing her daughter's words.

The air in the small kitchen seemed to freeze for a full minute.

Jiang Hui’s mind raced, flashing through the images of the boys who often played with Jiang Yu.

"It’s Xiao Xu," Jiang Yu saw her mother’s shifting gaze and guessed that she was trying to figure out who the father was, so she directly admitted it.

"Oh... it's him..." Jiang Hui understood immediately. Xiao Xu was an engineer in the Laser Department at the base. He was quite handsome, about 1.85 meters tall. Although he was a bit shorter than Jiang Yu, who stood at 1.92 meters, it wasn’t much of an issue given Jiang Yu’s special circumstances.

"Mom, I want to keep the baby..." Jiang Yu lowered her head, feeling shy. She leaned closer to her mother and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

"Hmm, yes, you should keep it. If not, I’ll take the baby back to Earth with me," Jiang Hui, now calmer after the initial shock and confusion, smiled warmly.

"Go ahead, have the baby! I had you here, and you should have a few more here too! ... But if we’re going back to Earth with the baby, I guess I’ll have to leave you behind here!"

Hearing her mother not only not blame her but also promise to help her take the baby back to Earth, Jiang Yu hugged her tightly and started crying.

This was exactly what she had hoped for. She had always wanted a child of her own, but she didn’t want her child to be confined to the lunar base. She wanted her child to grow up on Earth, and then come back to visit her on the Moon when they were older.

Her mother’s reaction was the biggest encouragement and affirmation she could have hoped for. Now, no matter what came next, even if it meant facing life’s hardest challenges, she was determined to raise this child.

"What does Xiao Xu think?" Jiang Hui asked after Jiang Yu had finished crying.

"I haven’t told him yet. I want to raise the baby on my own. I don’t want to marry him," Jiang Yu’s voice cracked with emotion.

"Oh, living on your own is fine too. I’ve been raising you alone all these years," Jiang Hui replied with understanding.

...

Jiang Hui had been an astronaut who landed on the Moon twenty-five years ago. Back then, the Yadong Aerospace Group had set up two bases near the lunar South Pole. One base focused on extracting and refining helium-3 ore, which would be transported back to Earth for use in nuclear fusion reactors. The other base was named after the late aerospace pioneer Qian Xuesen and was dedicated to scientific research. Jiang Hui worked at the Qian Xuesen Research Base, primarily responsible for maintaining and operating the base's power supply systems.

Before coming to the Moon, Jiang Hui had trained as a fighter jet pilot in a military academy and was later selected to become an astronaut. Her psychological and physical qualities were excellent. Not only was she young and beautiful, but she was also highly skilled, making her an ideal astronaut.

However, she had one physiological problem that had caused her much trouble—she had been diagnosed with infertility and had never been able to conceive.

Because of this, she never had to take precautions during i*********e, and she didn’t like men using any contraception. Given the unique circumstances of the lunar base, she thought the chances of getting pregnant were essentially zero, so there was no need for any measures.

But, as fate would have it, she accidentally got pregnant.

According to the base’s regulations, anyone who got pregnant while stationed at the base had to be sent back to Earth, as abortion was not a viable option given the base’s poor facilities at the time.

Jiang Hui discovered her pregnancy in mid-September 2062. At first, she was more joyful than anxious because getting pregnant was something she had always dreamed of. To her, being able to conceive was even more important than her work as an astronaut. So, after confirming her pregnancy, she immediately confessed to the base leadership.

She had already made up her mind—she would return to her hometown in Yunnan and give birth to the child, raising it herself.

The male astronaut, after learning about her pregnancy, expressed a desire to resign and marry her. He even wanted to move to a small farm in the countryside of Dali, Yunnan, to live with her. But Jiang Hui gently turned him down.

Jiang Hui had never seriously considered this man as a marriage prospect. She believed she would be fine raising the child alone. She knew that spending too much time with any man would eventually cause her to feel bored. She was aware that she was not the type of woman who could live with a man for her entire life.

To protect her boyfriend from any complications, she refused to reveal his name to the organization, though it was well known among the staff who she had spent time with. The truth was, she didn’t blame the male astronaut, as it was she who had insisted on not using contraception.

At that time, the base's commander was Li Chunzhi, a veteran female astronaut. Li did not want to send Jiang Hui back, nor did she want to cause any trouble for the male astronaut.

After all, replacing an astronaut on the Moon was a huge expense. The cost of transporting an astronaut back and forth was exorbitant.

According to the Moon landing costs at that time, it cost nearly one million yuan per kilogram to ship goods from Earth to the Moon. Transporting a living person required a life-support system, which was equivalent to shipping at least one ton of cargo. This meant it cost around 1 billion yuan.

However, regulations had to be followed, and Li had no choice but to begin arranging for Jiang Hui’s return.

At that time, there were limited spacecraft traveling between Earth and the Moon, mostly cargo ships carrying helium-3 ore. It took five months for Jiang Hui to be arranged on a cargo ship, during which she had to continue working and hand over her duties.

Five months passed quickly, but by chance, due to the urgent need to transport over 500 kilograms of helium-3 ore back to Earth, the cargo ship informed her that they couldn’t allow her to board that ship because it would be overweight.

As a result, Jiang Hui could only board another cargo ship three months later, in mid-May 2063.

Li Chunzhi quickly calculated that by May of the following year, Jiang Hui would likely be close to giving birth. Even if she hadn’t given birth yet, it would be dangerous for a pregnant woman to board a spaceship. So, Li tried negotiating with the cargo ship authorities, but they said there was no flexibility. If necessary, Jiang Hui would have to give birth at the base and wait until after the baby was born to return on the next available ship.

Li Chunzhi, being a mother herself, knew all too well that delaying this situation would only lead to more complications and greater risks.

She then called an emergency video meeting to inform the higher-ups and other department heads about the situation. Everyone was helpless because the helium-3 ore was a strategic resource, and the group had no contingency plans for astronauts getting pregnant at the lunar base. It was impossible to prioritize a pregnant astronaut who had made a mistake by getting pregnant.

Moreover, the cost of bringing Jiang Hui back was an unforeseen expense. The cost of lunar-Earth transport was extremely high, and every kilogram of cargo transported was a million-dollar affair, unlike the situation on Earth where one could take high-speed trains or flights.