Browser search (Book Title) to quickly find what you're looking for in Nikolaev, a port city in southern Ukraine.

Compared to other Ukrainian cities open to foreign tourists, this heavy industrial city, which remains closed to foreigners, is of utmost importance to Ukraine and the entire former Soviet Union.

It is home to the largest shipyard in the Black Sea region, the Nikolaev Shipyard, commonly known as the Black Sea Shipyard.

As the sole aircraft carrier construction and assembly plant during the Soviet era, the shipyard built several Soviet aircraft carriers: the *Moskva*, *Leningrad*, *Kiev*, *Minsk*, *Novorossiysk*, *Gorshkov*, and *Kuznetsov*.

At the peak of its glory, the Nikolaev Shipyard employed over 25,000 workers, covering 302 hectares (including 42 hectares of water), with outfitting quays totaling 2,675 meters, roads totaling 29 kilometers, railways totaling 49 kilometers, and 2,100 cranes...

However, all this grandeur vanished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Since Gorbachev announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union a few days ago, the Nikolaev Shipyard has been transferred to Ukraine. The first order issued by the cash-strapped Ukrainian government after acquiring the shipyard was to immediately halt all projects.

Apart from the *Kuznetsov* aircraft carrier, hastily sailed away by the Russian Navy, the other two unfinished aircraft carriers lay quietly paralyzed in the suddenly silent shipyard, like two cold steel tombs.

One is the *Varyag*, still undergoing outfitting and docked at the Southern Bug River estuary outside the plant. It would wait nearly twenty years before finding its true owner and being renamed *Liaoning*.

And...

Now quietly resting in slipway No. 0, with 30% of its construction completed and all core components in place, is the *Ulyanovsk*, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the only one in the world that could rival the American *Nimitz*-class aircraft carrier.

Note that it is not a steam turbine-powered aircraft carrier like the *Varyag*.

It is a war behemoth with a displacement of over 80,000 tons, nearly unlimited range due to its nuclear-powered propulsion, and the only one equipped with steam catapults for launching nearly 70 aircraft.

If this series were successfully developed, it would, like the *Nimitz*-class aircraft carrier, soon exceed 100,000 tons of displacement and become humanity's top predator in the ocean.

In the thirty years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, no other country has been able to build an aircraft carrier of similar capabilities.

Even nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, apart from the United States, only include the French Navy's *Charles de Gaulle*, built a few years later, a medium-sized aircraft carrier whose full load displacement is even less than that of the *Varyag*.

"What a beautiful child..."

The empty Nikolaev Shipyard, slipway No. 0, which has been idle for almost two months.

Old Director Makarov, with his hands behind his back, looked up at the "child" in front of him, whose main structure was about to be completed. He sighed heavily, his voice filled with helplessness and desolation—the shipyard had never been so quiet.

As the meritorious old man who led this shipyard to glory, Makarov dedicated his life to this place full of steel and the smell of the sea. The point he was most proud of was that he successfully transformed the Soviet Union's large ship construction project into an assembly line operation.

Compared to the long process of the United States needing ten years to build an aircraft carrier, on his slipway No. 0, the Soviet Union only needed three years to complete the entire process of building and launching a new aircraft carrier, and immediately start the next major construction.

For him, the construction task of the *Ulyanovsk* was like a door to a new world. He was already standing at the door, looking inside, and the door radiated countless fascinating rays of hope.

However... This light has now become extremely faint and weak with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

"How is the negotiation progress between Kiev and Russia?"

Makarov sighed heavily again, and asked softly without turning his head.

"Still no progress, all bad news."

Yevgeny, the chief accountant of the shipyard, who was standing next to Makarov, shook his head, his face full of sorrow.

"Russia refuses to purchase and continue to pay for the subsequent construction costs of the *Ulyanovsk*, and for the *Varyag*, they are only willing to pay 30% of the payment for the purchase, the reason being that the previous expenses have been borne by the Union, and they are unwilling to pay according to the price of a complete warship..."

"Are there any new orders recently?"

"There is only one shipbuilding company from Norway. They have initially negotiated with the government for a total of six large merchant ships. Only our shipyard's slipway No. 0 in the whole of Europe can build them. The demand for orders is very urgent, requiring immediate construction, but the deposit is also very generous, enough to support the operation of our shipyard for many years to come."

"Hmph, of course... This is a slipway that can mass-produce aircraft carriers. Those companies have probably been eyeing it for a long time."

Makarov snorted lightly and shook his head noncommittally.

He didn't have any good feelings for those profit-seeking capitalists, although he couldn't say he hated them extremely. If it wasn't for maintaining the livelihood of the entire factory... and in any case, as him, he had no right to refuse the government's decision.

"But if slipway No. 0 has to be used, what about the *Ulyanovsk*? Are we going to push it directly into the sea?! The country has already spent more than 30,000 tons of steel on it, just short of the final slipway closing process."

"I heard from President Kravchuk's staff that they suggested dismantling the *Ulyanovsk* to free up slipway space and complete the important orders from Norwegian friendly merchants as soon as possible. Because the country and the shipyard need to rely on this money to survive. Fortunately, there is also an American scrap steel recycling company willing to repurchase the steel at a high price."

"Dismantle it...?"

Makarov raised his head, looking at the steel behemoth in front of him that carried the Soviet Union's most cutting-edge technology, a look of pain and desolation appeared in his eyes—since the Russian side refused to buy this giant ship, he had been feeling a certain ominous premonition.

"Looks like we have no other choice, do we?"

"That's not true, actually you have a third option... Complete it."

Just then, a crisp girl's voice with a slight British accent came from behind the two.

"Who?! Guards!"

Makarov and Yevgeny turned around abruptly, looking behind them with wary expressions.

A silver-haired little girl was standing behind them with a smile. She was surrounded by several strange old men holding small wooden sticks. As for the guards who had been following behind the two, they were all unconscious on the ground.

"Don't panic, I have no malice. They are just temporarily unconscious, they will wake up in a while."

The girl shrugged, her eyes falling on the two wary Soviet old men, and the corners of her mouth raised slightly. (Image.jpg)

"Let me introduce myself first, Theresa Apocalypse, from Destiny Group... We are very rich."