The little girl raised her head and gazed straight before her, as though she were looking at Zhao Chen himself.
"Upon the gate's other side there is a place, and I would have you go and look upon it.
"Of course, this is no more than a request of mine.
"Whether you will go or no is for you to say.
"As for the coordinates, when once you are come to the gate's other side, those under me will share them with you." The little girl swung her legs, and then made as though she stretched herself. "I shall sleep a while first."
With that, the little girl's figure vanished away.
And at this the lights and shadows about them dispersed, every one.
"What ought to be told you has all been told you." Ah-Yin looked at Zhao Chen, as though she waited upon his answer to the request the mistress had just made.
Upon the gate's other side, a set of coordinates he must go himself and look upon?
"Why must it be I?
"Can you not send a patrol fleet of your own to look into it?" Zhao Chen asked in his doubt.
"That I do not know either.
"You must wait until the mistress wakes, and ask the mistress yourself.
"Yet I guess it should have to do with the limits set upon us mechanical lives.
"And among the carbon-based lives, the only one the mistress can trust is you," Ah-Yin said, setting out what she thought.
To go across to the gate's other side is one item the shop missions hold already.
Zhao Chen must assuredly do it.
As for this request the little girl had put forward…
"If I go across, must I do this thing?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Yes." Ah-Yin nodded.
Zhao Chen mused a moment. "When I go across, how many starships I bring across, and when I come back — are there limits set upon these?"
Ah-Yin answered, "When you go across, and how many starships you bring across — upon these there is no limit whatever.
"But should you wish to come back.
"It may be that you cannot come back at any time and place you please.
"This is no limit of ours, but a limit of the Gate of Gaia's.
"Within one year the Gate of Gaia has ten points of time only at which it may be opened, and every such opening can hold three days to five days.
"They fall, in general, at intervals of a month or so.[1]
"So that if you do go across, you must wait a month at the least before you can come back."
So there was such a limit as this besides.
A month's time is no great while.
"Good; I grant your mistress this request.
"But I must make some preparation, for the fighting upon our side here is not yet ended.
"There is the Demon Race still to be settled with." Zhao Chen agreed to the business.
Upon the one hand it was for the mission that opens the T6 shop; upon the other, he wished to look into more of the secrets that lie behind the Gate of Gaia.
"Very well." Ah-Yin nodded her consent.
Thereafter she looked at Zhao Chen and said, "The mistress gave order that, should you agree to this thing.
"There were certain things left for you besides.
"From this day forward your standing within the Machine Race is level with mine and Ah-Jin's.
"You may give orders to our Machine Race fleets; it wants no more than the consent of one of us, myself or Ah-Jin.
"And besides, every star gate and star port within the Machine Race's territory shall be open to you, and you may use them as you please."
Hearing Ah-Yin's words, Zhao Chen looked at her with some surprise. "Which is to say.
"That had I not agreed just now.
"These privileges I should not have come by either."
Ah-Yin said nothing, which counted for assent.
Zhao Chen smiled a little: that little girl had got up such a piece of business for him.
Of a sudden Zhao Chen thought of something.
He asked it outright. "Then may I borrow the capacity of the industrial building works within your Machine Race's territory?"
Ah-Yin was checked a moment. "You have the right to call upon it, but there will be certain limits.
"You may put forward what you require, and Ah-Jin and I will discuss it."
"It is that I need your industrial bases to produce for us a part of our raw-material components.
"I can pay a certain charge, and provide the raw materials myself." Zhao Chen set out what he had in mind.
Over this stretch of time Zhao Chen had come to guess that within the Machine Race's territory there lies an exceedingly strong depth of industry.
Else it had never been possible that, after he handed Ah-Yin those technical drawings of the T5 Prisoner-class Heavy Interstellar Assault Battleship, they should within one short month have built the first batch of three hundred T5 Prisoners!
Nay, by this present time three batches are built and finished, and the numbers of the latter two far exceed the first.
It is said that, all told, no fewer than five thousand T5 Prisoner-class Heavy Interstellar Assault Battleships have by now been built!
And it was by leaning upon these T5 Prisoners that, before ever the Owl Dragon Legion put out its hand, the Machine Race could bear up under the Demon Race's assault.
The T5 Prisoner-class Heavy Interstellar Assault Battleship is not only for meeting such an existence as the quasi-T6 Destroyer-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship: it can be used for regular fighting besides, and is a class of interstellar warship whose performance is very good indeed.
And to build so many T5 interstellar warships in batches within so short a time — even granting that the T5 Prisoner-class wants no long while in the building — requires a very strong depth of industry for all that.
This is the Machine Race's advantage.
And now, having privileges so great as these, Zhao Chen naturally hoped he might borrow this mighty power of production.
"When there is word, get in touch with me at the first moment," Zhao Chen said, smiling.
"Very well."
"Then, as it falls out that I am here, let us next discuss the plan of counter-offensive upon the Demon Race.
"Since the Demon Race has already loosed an invasion upon your Machine Race.
"I take it you will no longer hold to that attitude of watching from atop the wall?" Zhao Chen asked.
Ah-Yin hesitated a moment, and said, "We are willing to take part in your plan of counter-offensive upon the Demon Race.
"But in the fighting before this, our own losses were no small ones either.
"We must keep order within the star systems of our several territories, and guard the places that weigh with us strategically, so that a part of our interstellar warships must be left behind upon garrison.
"We cannot go out with the whole force."
"That much I can understand.
"Do you but tell me how many interstellar warships you are willing to send out." Zhao Chen put the question without going round about.
Ah-Yin answered, "We are willing to send out one million Machine Race interstellar warships."
A million warships…
The number is not very great.
But it is better than nothing.
"And more: we are willing to deliver the command of these one million Machine Race interstellar warships into your hands," Ah-Yin added.
These words came upon Zhao Chen with some surprise.
He laughed. "Into my hands?
"Are you so easy in your minds about me as that?
"Have you no fear that I shall throw your interstellar warships upon the field for cannon fodder?"
"I trust you," Ah-Yin said in earnest.
Looking upon that earnest face of Ah-Yin's, Zhao Chen put away his smile as well. "Good; I will answer for these Machine Race interstellar warships.
"If there is nothing else, I shall go back first.
"When she wakes, get in touch with me at the first moment."
So saying, Zhao Chen made ready to go, and his eyes swept one last time over that T6 nano starship Luoshen.[2]
"Wait — there is one other small matter besides.
"You may find it of some interest." Ah-Yin called Zhao Chen back, came up before him, and told him a certain thing.
And there was astonishment in Zhao Chen's eyes.