"The conclusion is," Dr. Jenner said, pushing up his glasses, "the biscuits are non-toxic. We found no signs of spoilage or pathogenic bacteria.
Their main components are highly compressed carbohydrates and a small amount of plant protein. In theory, they can provide the basic calories needed to sustain life."
He paused, then added the important part. "But the texture issue is obvious.
More importantly, eating only these for a long time will inevitably lead to severe malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, and constipation. They were designed for survival, not health."
Calista looked at the report, her brow slightly furrowed. "So they're edible, but we can't live on them alone."
"Exactly." Dr. Jenner nodded. "They have to be paired with other food sources, especially protein, fat, and fresh fruits and vegetables, to prevent their health from deteriorating."
Calista sighed. "Then we'll eat these first. Keep our own stockpiled compressed biscuits and canned goods in reserve. Once these old antiques are used up, we'll move on to the newer stock."
"Prioritize calorie intake for combat personnel, construction sites, and the heavy laborers working in the fields. They can receive extra biscuit rations."
After receiving the notice, Rickson emphasized the matter to Martha and Mira, who were in charge of logistics.
"For the elderly, children, and those doing light labor, just make sure their basic calorie needs are met. No one is allowed to rely on only one food for a long period. Martha, Mira, keep a close eye on food pairings and try to make them as varied as possible."
When the first batch of biscuits was handed out as food rations, waves of discussion rose through the dining hall.
"OMG, is this thing really meant for people to eat?" Turner held the rock-hard biscuit and tapped it against the table, making a dull thunking sound.
"Looks like a brick from a construction site," Mikey muttered.
Rory tried to bite straight into one, only to grimace and chew with great effort for ages before finally forcing it down, then gulping water one mouthful after another.
"Jesus! It's too dry! I'm going to choke to death!"
Still, there were always more solutions than problems.
Before long, the residents found their own way around it.
They used daggers, or simply their hands, to break the biscuits into small pieces, then threw them into boiling water to cook into a paste, or soaked them in meat broth or vegetable soup until they softened before eating.
It was still far from delicious, and even carried a faint, stale smell of oxidized oil, but at least it could be swallowed.
No one knew who first started calling them "Cold War Bricks," but the vivid nickname, with its touch of dark humor, quickly spread and became synonymous with this life-saving food.
Similar conversations could often be heard in the dining hall.
"Hey, put some extra crushed 'brick' in my soup today. It keeps you full."
"Save some of that 'brick' of yours. You've got field duty tomorrow."
The "Cold War Bricks" tasted awful, but they were stable, easy to store, and came in huge quantities, enough to feed the entire base for a very, very long time.
As if to prove their luck had finally turned, the wind and snow that had lasted for days at last died down.
The sky still held the gray blue shade unique to winter, and the cold remained biting, but long-awaited sunlight pierced through the clouds and spilled over the snow-covered mountains, bringing a little brightness and driving away the gloom of the past few days.
Another huge surprise came from the cold-weather supplies hauled back from the warehouse.
When the mountains of dark green military blankets, thick cotton coats, winter combat boots, wool socks, gloves, and even large amounts of thermal underwear were counted, even Rickson looked surprised.
"This quantity..." Ellie flipped through the preliminary inventory list, her mouth falling open in disbelief. "It's almost enough to equip a small army, or support a town through a nuclear winter."
She realized that the warehouse had probably been built during the most tense period of the Cold War to provide shelter and survival supplies for key personnel or civilians near Norris.
For Rock Fortress, the arrival of these supplies was exactly what they needed.
The residents inside the base could finally use their points to claim thick, warm new clothes.
The sentries on duty changed into better insulated military boots and gloves, while the night patrol teams wrapped themselves in heavy military blankets to keep out the cold.
The newly arrived children, along with Duane and Little Jimmy, were also given priority for suitable winter clothes. The teenager Alan, however, insisted he was not a child anymore and wanted to exchange the points he had earned doing odd jobs.
The other newly arrived adults had to earn points through their own labor before exchanging them for new clothes.
Although the clothes were old-fashioned and carried a musty smell, no one was going to be picky in subzero temperatures.
They genuinely relieved one of the base's greatest survival pressures this year, keeping warm.
Under the sunlight, the residents of Rock Fortress wore winter clothes from a bygone era, ate "brick" mush from that same absurd era, and continued working.
Making the best of hardship became normal. This winter no longer seemed quite so impossible to get through.
...
The two-week period of strict quarantine and evaluation finally came to an end.
When the gate of the quarantine zone opened again, the sixty-one members of the Norris group stepped into Blackberry Ranch, Rock Fortress's secondary base, with both expectation and unease.
They were no longer "outsiders" waiting to be examined. They had been labeled "residents on probation" and would soon be assigned to different positions based on their evaluations.
The first to be properly settled were the former Norris Dam staff.
Knox, Anna, and several other experienced maintenance workers were directly assigned to Elena's water conservancy engineering team.
Elena's student team had a solid theoretical foundation and plenty of enthusiasm, but they lacked direct understanding of large-scale practical engineering, especially complex facilities like dams, as well as on-site handling experience.
Anna had also graduated from the University of Tennessee's water conservancy program a few years earlier and had worked at Norris Dam after graduation.
Although she did not know Ming and his classmates personally, she had taken Elena's classes before, and she was not much older than them, so she quickly hit it off with Ming and the others.
As for Knox and the others, they might not fully understand those complex fluid dynamics formulas, but they could spot at a glance what problems a blueprint might run into during real-world installation.
They could also judge from experience which valve models were more reliable, and even recall the specific features of the hydraulic system on the Norris Dam spillway gates.
"Professor, the slope design for this diversion channel is very clever." Knox pointed to a section of the blueprint and gestured with his rough fingers.
"But at this bend, if we run into frozen ground, the steel pipe specification you marked here could have weld points crack under thermal expansion and contraction.
We ran into a similar problem with the dam's auxiliary pipelines before. Later, we switched to a more flexible type of joint."
Elena pushed up her glasses and carefully studied the spot Knox had pointed out. Realization dawned on her.
"That's very valuable experience, Knox. Our calculation models really can't fully simulate material fatigue under these extreme conditions."
This kind of exchange soon became normal.
The rigor of the theory-focused side and the experience of the practical side began to merge, and the progress of the water conservancy project noticeably accelerated.