Yu Chuan patted its icy metal surface and continued patrolling the perimeter of the station.
The next few detection spheres operated normally.
In the snowstorm, these silent metal spheres were lined up along the station's curved outline, with one every 50 meters.
They recorded every subtle space tremor on this icy plain, day after day, year after year.
Arriving at the last detection sphere, Yu Chuan habitually looked up at the sky.
Other than the ethereal aurora, only the wind and snow swirled endlessly.
He crouched down and repeated the inspection process he had done countless times before, checking readings, clearing snow, testing signal strength.
[Sphere 12 status: Good]
"Keep it up."
Saying this, he stood up and brushed the snow off his knees, walking back to the station through the snow.
Along the way, he looked up at the station's silver-gray dome, where dozens of small maintenance robots scurried like worker ants among the intersecting alloy frameworks.
