Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 357 Area B
According to the original design of the space station, Area B was originally intended to be a large hangar, specifically used to park aircraft entering and leaving the space station. If the partition between Area B and the unloading area is opened, even smaller transport ships can be docked inside the space station.
But now, after the renovation, the originally empty hangar has been filled with cabins that are even smaller than "capsule hotels".
Each bunk in the capsule hotel has at least one meter of space. Although it is easy to hit the head, at least people can sit up on the bed. The height of each cabin here does not exceed 50 centimeters. If the entire area B was not in a state of microgravity, it would be impossible to get into those cabins with higher floors without some skills.
Ke Lan felt that it was not appropriate to describe these cabins as capsule hotels. In his opinion, these cubicles were more like refrigerators used to store corpses in hospitals.
Probably to save energy, the gravity simulation device in Area B was adjusted to the lowest power level. The gravity here is only about one-fifth of that on Alpha. The new miners have not adapted to the gravity here. As soon as they stepped into it, they floated up because they couldn't control the strength of their steps.
But the residents of the sick village seemed to have anticipated this. As soon as the miners floated up, they were pulled down, and they themselves reached out and grabbed the steel pipes that were close at hand.
These steel pipes are not handrails specially prepared for weightlessness, but scaffolding that has not been removed from the outside of the capsule cabin. These scaffoldings welded from steel pipes are almost everywhere, extending from the ground to the top wall more than 50 meters high.
Many scaffoldings are wrapped with intricate wires. The insulating rubber layer on the outside of these wires has aged severely and even started to fall off. In addition, the scaffolding itself is made of metal, so it would be very easy for electric shock accidents to happen here. However, for some reason , the residents of the sick village don't seem to want to repair these circuits.
"Strange...why are there so many scaffoldings here?"
Logically speaking, the need for scaffolding in a zero-gravity environment is not as significant as on the ground. Except for a few places where frame structures are needed, in most cases, construction workers and building materials can "float" to high places. When working, only a safety rope is needed to keep people suspended in the air... It can be seen that these frames should have other uses.
While Ke Lan was thinking this, the "priest" had already brought them to a scaffolding built in the corner. There were a lot of shelves fixed between the horizontal bars of the scaffolding. These shelves were about 1.5 meters long and more than half a meter wide. They were covered with a layer of waterproof cloth stained with unknown stains. Most of the shelves had holes on the edges and were strung with dirty ropes.
Before he even got close, Ke Lan already smelled a very strong odor.
"Newcomers, this is your temporary residence." The "priest" said to Ke Lan and the others, "Someone will bring you bedding later, and food and water will be distributed on time. None of you can leave this place before someone notifies you, otherwise it will be a violation of the rules."
Ke Lan's previous problem was solved - it turned out that the construction team thought that building the capsule cabins was a waste of materials and time, so they simply simplified the second half of the project into this: a scaffolding with dozens of shelves was equivalent to dozens of beds... This ability to save costs has reached the pinnacle. Even those black-hearted real estate developers in the old era can only bow down in front of this construction team.
One third of the berths on the scaffolding in front of Ke Lan and the others were already occupied. They were covered with what could barely be called bedding, and their dirty clothes were draped over the steel pipes of the scaffolding.
Most of them were curled up on the shelves and sleeping soundly. The ropes on the shelves fixed people and bedding to the bunks to prevent them from floating outside because of turning over in their sleep. Only a few people were awakened by the noise here, turned their heads, and looked at the newcomers with indifferent eyes.
"You can choose any bed as long as it's empty, but it's limited to this building... If anyone performs well in the future, they can live there." The "priest" said, pointing to the capsule cabin in the distance.
In the concept of local people, a scaffolding is equivalent to a dormitory building, the partitions on the scaffolding are equivalent to "economy class", and those capsule cabins with slightly better conditions than the scaffolding can probably be regarded as "business class". As for the place where people like "priests" live, it should be "first class".
However, Ke Lan had no idea where the "first class cabin" was or what the conditions were like.
After explaining to them some "rules" that they should follow, the "priest" took his people away. Then, the new miners began to choose the bunks they liked.
In comparison, the bunks on the upper floors are definitely cleaner than those on the lower floors, and there are relatively fewer odors. However, most of the bunks on the upper floors are already occupied, and the highest bunks left for them are only on the fourth and fifth floors.
The miners immediately started fighting for the few available high-rise bunks. If the "priest" had not forbidden fighting, they would have probably all been fighting each other by now.
Finally, the two strongest miners squeezed aside the others and occupied the last two empty beds on the fifth floor. Those who were squeezed down could only settle for the second best and choose the relatively cleaner beds on the third and fourth floors.
Ke Lan and Asano Akira did not join in the scramble. They waited until most people had decided on their own berths before selecting two berths on the third floor and ducked down to get in. The angles of these two berths were just right for observing the berths of the two "missionaries" diagonally opposite. However, due to the height difference and the obstruction of other berths, from the "missionaries'" side, Ke Lan and Asano Akira's berths were mostly in the blind spot of vision.
The excellent observation position, coupled with Asano Akira's terrifying hearing, meant that every move of the two missionaries was basically under the surveillance of Ke Lan and his team.
At this moment, the man lying on the upper bunk suddenly leaned down, looked at Ke Lan, and asked in a low voice: "Are you all new here today?"
