Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones

Supported by the first batch of ten thousand quantum supercomputers, Tom's construction progress truly entered a frantic phase.

On the dozens of large planets with a scale large enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium, and on the larger asteroids that, while not massive enough to be spherical, still held some value, countless intelligent machines, intelligent devices, and intelligent robots belonging to Tom began round-the-clock construction.

That's right, with the quantum computers put into use and the intelligence level of the Hestia AI significantly improved, Tom finally possessed a new type of production tool: humanoid general-purpose multi-functional robots!

Originally, Tom also had a large number of robots, but those robots could usually only be fixed in one place and undertake specific work tasks.

But now the situation was different. Higher intelligence made the emergence of general-purpose humanoid robots possible.

They could not only replace clones working in heavy, dangerous, and harsh frontline environments, but also make autonomous decisions, coordinate autonomously, and complete tasks more intelligently and efficiently.

During this phase, most clones were finally able to withdraw from the front lines and enter comfortable, spacious, and brightly lit control bases to work.

They only needed to sit in front of computers or lie in intelligent cabins, contributing their brainpower under Tom's unified coordination; unless under special circumstances, they no longer needed to go to the work front.

Even the Jupiter aircraft and transfer platforms flying within Altair A could finally all use robots to replace clones, finally freeing the clones from enduring the torment of gravity ten times that of Earth.

From this moment on, the clones collecting deuterium resources only needed to work in orbit around Altair A, controlling the Jupiter aircraft through remote control, with the assistance of the Hestia AI.

There was originally no gravity here, but suitable gravity could be created as needed through self-rotation, marking a huge improvement in the working environment.

Due to the significant increase in work efficiency, Tom could also manufacture more Jupiter aircraft to deploy into Altair A, achieving a tenfold or even greater increase in collection efficiency while using the same number of clones.

Construction on the other planets was also in full swing.

Originally, Tom could only simultaneously carry out the construction of a few hundred thousand factories; now, with quantum computers and billions of intelligent general-purpose robots and machines, the number of factories Tom could simultaneously construct surged to several million, or even over ten million!

Furthermore, over 30 % of the surface area of Altair B, a large rocky planet, totaling 400 million square kilometers, was directly planned by Tom as industrial zones.

These included mines, steel mills, chemical plants, chip factories, spaceship component factories, power plants, and so on.

Countless factories emerged in the industrial zones; their illuminating lights, on the side facing away from Altair, even converged into a sea of light, clearly visible from far out in space.

The same was true for the other planets.

As Tom began construction with full effort, each planet became colorful and dazzling.

The number of transport spacecraft shuttling through space also surged.

The total cargo volume also surged from an average of about 10 billion tons per year previously to over 100 billion tons at present, and it was still skyrocketing.

Similarly, although the total cargo volume significantly increased, the number of clones involved in transportation projects did not increase.

Under these circumstances, the number of various large spacecraft in Tom's fleet began to skyrocket.

Tom's goal was to build a fleet 20 times its previous size, which meant Tom needed to build ten thousand gigantic Aerospace Carriers, fifty thousand heavy transport ships, and so on.

However, in actual construction, Tom needed to build six times more of these large spacecraft.

Of course, these were not actual spacecraft, but empty hull spacecraft of the same tonnage and size.

If the scale of the real fleet grew, the scale of the decoy fleet naturally had to expand in sync.

But even for empty hull spacecraft, their construction difficulty would not be too low.

With such massive tonnage and volume, even if only thrusters, reactors, outer shells, and some simple equipment were needed, the difficulty was incomparable to that of real small and medium-sized spacecraft.

It is worth mentioning that since arriving in the Altair System, all of Tom's construction activities have followed one principle.

Environmental protection.

This was certainly not to protect the environment of the Altair System.

There wasn't even the simplest single-celled organism here, so what was the point of protecting the environment?

The main reason was to avoid causing too much change to the environment here, which could lead to detection by external observers.

Almost all waste gases generated during such a massive production process would be deliberately collected by Tom, solidified into solids through various means, and then deeply buried within the depths of planets or thrown into Altair A.

Because if these waste gases were directly discharged, they would condense into an atmosphere on the planet's surface or merge into the existing atmosphere, changing its composition. In this way, through the occultation method, distant observers might detect industrial activity in this star system from a distance of tens of light-years or even further.

This would inevitably lead to Tom's exposure.

These waste gases also could not be thrown into Altair. Because Altair is a star, it would directly vaporize these solid wastes and integrate them into its own atmosphere.

Although this would only cause a very minor change to Altair's atmosphere, it could still be detected.

Deep burial or throwing them into Altair A, the giant gas planet, would avoid such concerns.

Wastewater, slag, or light pollution on the planets were irrelevant and did not require additional treatment.

At this moment, Tom's industrial scale had expanded dozens of times, and industrial capacity had also expanded dozens of times, with corresponding increases in environmental protection efforts.

Previously, with limited industrial scale, a slight leakage of waste gas was not a big deal. Now that the scale was large, a little leakage here and a little leakage there might form an atmosphere.

Thus, countless spacecraft shuttled and countless factories roared in the Altair System, a scene of bustling activity. But even just 1 light-year away, the Altair System still appeared as quiet as ever, with almost no change.

This was a conclusion Tom reached after actual observations with those 'contingency' spacecraft.

Time flew by rapidly under these circumstances.

The number of warships parked in space grew, and in the images transmitted by the clones from the solar system, that star became increasingly brighter.