After more than half a month as a cosmic scavenger, Xiao Yu came to a profound realization: comets were essentially all show and no substance.
In terms of volume, comets near the star could be considered the largest objects in the cosmos. Their tails could extend over a hundred million kilometers, resembling an enormous broom sweeping through space. But once you got closer, you quickly realized just how weak and fragile these comets really were.
After traveling through the tail of a comet for over half a month, Xiao Yu had managed to collect less than five kilograms of water. The material density in the tail was so thin it was barely worth mentioning. If Xiao Yu still had hair, he would have probably been pulling it out in frustration.
At present, Xiao Yu was positioned about 30,000 kilometers above or below the ecliptic plane. In interstellar space, the concept of "up" and "down" didn't matter much, so he could refer to it either way. The ecliptic plane was a conceptual plane that could be understood as the path followed by most planets in a star system. This plane was essentially the orbital plane for the majority of the solar system.
Xiao Yu was now getting very close to Earth's original orbit. Through his optical telescope, he could see countless small dark asteroids above him, shimmering with an eerie glow that made his skin crawl.
He had already adjusted his orbit and decided to follow Earth's asteroid belt around the Sun for a while. After all, gathering materials was his main task, even if the process was slow.
As the optical telescope swept across the dark void, an inconspicuous shape appeared in Xiao Yu's field of view. It was an irregularly shaped asteroid, about thirty meters long, seven or eight meters wide, and five to six meters high. The reflected light from nearby stars illuminated it, and Xiao Yu's telescope captured the light.
Xiao Yu's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately ran a quick analysis of the asteroid. The results made him sit up straighter.
The analysis showed that the asteroid was made up of about 30% water, 69% iron, and trace amounts of nitrogen, silicon, hydrogen, oxygen, potassium, and other elements, with hydrogen and oxygen being the dominant trace elements.
"Is this… a gift from the heavens?" Xiao Yu's heart surged with excitement.
This asteroid had a volume of about 1,000 cubic meters and weighed over 3,000 tons! Even if hydrogen and oxygen each made up just 0.1% of its mass, that still amounted to six tons of fuel! That was an immense amount of fuel, enough for a lot of things.
Most importantly, it had over 900 tons of water! Once closer to the Sun, the water could be ionized by solar radiation into hydrogen and oxygen—another significant windfall. There were also over 2,000 tons of iron, which would be enough to repair the ship to a reasonable degree.
"Capture it! I must capture it!" Xiao Yu immediately made up his mind.
At this moment, the celestial body blocking the asteroid moved away, and sunlight bathed the surface of the asteroid.
Under the heat from the Sun, the solid water and solid hydrogen-oxygen compounds on the surface of the asteroid began to vaporize rapidly. The fluffy surface of the asteroid started emitting streams of vapor, and the entire core was enveloped in a hazy white mist, trailing a long tail behind it.
Xiao Yu was alarmed. "Those are my treasures! They can't just evaporate like that!"
Without hesitation, he maneuvered the ship between the asteroid and the Sun, using the solar panels to absorb the Sun's heat. Without the direct sunlight, the temperature in the vast expanse of space, which hovered just a few Kelvin, immediately cooled the asteroid. The long white tail dissipated rapidly, visible to the naked eye.
Xiao Yu breathed a sigh of relief, then started thinking about how to properly collect this gift from the heavens.
When a delicious cake is placed in front of you, you have plenty of motivation to prepare the right tools. Xiao Yu didn't care about energy consumption anymore. He immediately instructed the robot to rummage through the storage bay, even dismantling some non-essential equipment, intending to repurpose the materials.
The equipment manufacturing room, apart from the main control room, was the most protected area of the ship. Here, Xiao Yu had gathered all the essential mechanical components necessary to ensure he had sufficient manufacturing capabilities once raw materials were available. Fortunately, the manufacturing room had been spared significant damage during the previous catastrophic collision with the planet.
With the robot working tirelessly, a mechanical claw, connected to a strong, three-hundred-meter cable, was quickly assembled.
Xiao Yu was now only a few kilometers away from the asteroid. In astronomical terms, this distance was considered quite close, but in terms of Xiao Yu's precision, it was still a bit too far. He carefully controlled the ship, keeping the engine power at the lowest setting, inching closer to the asteroid, meter by meter.
This was risky. A few kilometers might seem small in space, but for maneuvering a ship, it was the shortest distance possible. If an asteroid happened to collide with this one and deflect it toward Xiao Yu, he wouldn't have time to evade the collision and would be destroyed.
"Fortune favors the bold, damn it. If I pull this off, I'll be living the good life!" Xiao Yu steeled himself, though his actions were cautious.
The distance continued to shrink: 2,000 meters… 1,000 meters… 500 meters...
Just when victory seemed within reach, a small, inconspicuous object suddenly entered Xiao Yu's view. He was startled and saw the object collide with the asteroid at a relative speed of several hundred meters per second, causing a burst of flames and a violent reaction. The impact caused the asteroid to tumble, and the heat from the collision caused the solid water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen to begin vaporizing, creating a massive cloud of gas.
The collision also changed the asteroid's trajectory, and it began flying off in a different direction. Within moments, it vanished from sight.
Xiao Yu was furious and anxious, cursing the rogue asteroid a thousand times. Afterward, he calmed himself and turned the telescope to search for the asteroid.
He knew the asteroid wouldn't have traveled far due to the recoil from the vaporized gases and its original momentum. Sure enough, after two hours of searching, Xiao Yu found it again, about 600 kilometers away, in the direction of the ecliptic.
Xiao Yu dared not increase his speed too quickly, keeping the relative velocity between the ship and the asteroid at a modest 50 meters per second, or about 180 kilometers per hour. He slowly closed the gap.
At this pace, it took Xiao Yu over three hours to reduce the distance to within 3,000 meters.
"Damn it! If anyone else screws this up, I swear I'll use my laser gun to destroy them!" Xiao Yu muttered to himself, his resolve growing.
The distance continued to close, and Xiao Yu's focus intensified. Finally, the distance was reduced to 280 meters!
At this range, the mechanical claw Xiao Yu had built could finally reach its target.
Xiao Yu aimed the gun and gave the command.
The recoil from the launch of the claw caused the ship to wobble. The wobble affected the accuracy of the claw, which shot out like an arrow but missed the asteroid by about 50 meters.
Xiao Yu gritted his teeth in frustration. He controlled the robot to reel the claw back in and adjusted the recoil parameters, preparing for another attempt.
The next attempt failed again. This time, the claw passed within 20 meters of the asteroid.
Adjusting the parameters once more, Xiao Yu fired again.
This time, success! The claw struck the center of the asteroid, piercing through its fluffy outer layer and opening up inside, locking the asteroid firmly to the ship.
The asteroid, now subjected to external force, began moving in the opposite direction, pulling the ship along with it.
In the weightless environment of space, strange things could happen. If this were on Earth, firing a claw at a rock would result in the rock staying still, unaffected by the force. But in space, without Earth's gravity, the asteroid reacted to the force. It was as if Xiao Yu had tied himself to the back of an arrow, then shot the arrow—he was now being pulled along with it.
Xiao Yu had anticipated this and wasn't worried. He didn't attempt to stop immediately because that would place too much strain on the cable, possibly snapping it. Instead, he eased the ship's speed, gradually slowing the asteroid down.
It took three full hours of effort, and Xiao Yu had traveled over 1,000 kilometers before finally managing to subdue the asteroid. He then began dragging it toward a location far away from the ecliptic.
Much like a lion quietly capturing a calf from a herd, Xiao Yu didn't dare feast on his catch while surrounded by other asteroids. He had to move it to a safer location first.
Three days later, Xiao Yu had dragged the asteroid about 40,000 kilometers away from the ecliptic. There were no more asteroids in sight. With the prize in front of him, Xiao Yu let out an excited yell, "Dinner time!"