On the far side of the video window, Uncle Zheng Xiong was at this moment warmly draping an arm round a young crewman of Shen Bing's. "Little brother, you all rest easy. These crew of yours — we'll host them warmly!"
Behind the video window, one could see several of Shen Bing's crewmen standing together, ringed all round by the crewmen of Zheng Xiong's ship.
There was, between the two groups, a wolf-and-lambs cast to the scene — a plain not-belonging.
The crewman with Uncle Zheng Xiong's arm draped round him wore a dazed look, yet didn't dare stir.
"Then thank you, Captain Zheng Xiong," Shen Bing said gratefully.
"Thank me for what? You young couple and I, Zheng Xiong, are brothers who've braved life and death together!" Zheng Xiong said with a great laugh.
Young couple? Shen Bing's cheeks flushed; she opened her mouth to explain.
The comm ended.
Shen Bing stood a touch stiffly at Zhao Chen's side; she looked round the bridge of Zhao Chen's ship. After she and her crewwomen had been brought aboard this carrier, she'd been invited here to Zhao Chen's bridge.
Looking at the bright, clean, tech-laden bridge before her—
—it was truly hard to believe this was a T2 ship's bridge; against her own ship's bridge, it was simply the gap between a single-berth room and a presidential suite!
"By what the head of the interstellar transport fleet says, we'll wait here 20 hours for the relief force to arrive before setting out again. To guard against other mishaps on the road." Zhao Chen looked at Shen Bing.
Shen Bing, at this moment, was gazing through the imagery on Zhao Chen's bridge, her eyes a touch lost, fixed on her own scarred and battered T2 Hyena.
Zhao Chen could guess what Shen Bing was thinking.
By the look of it, that T2 Hyena was rather gravely damaged; without a repair fee of some tens of thousands of star coins, there'd be no mending it.
With this task complete, Shen Bing would come by a large sum of bounty — but if the bounty went to treating Shen Bing's grandmother, then there'd simply be no way to repair the T2 Hyena.
Perhaps sensing that Zhao Chen had noticed her odd state, Shen Bing looked to Zhao Chen and said, feigning calm, "This time it's thanks to you — else all our ships would have been buried here."
"In truth, a great part of it was luck. That Mechanical Race T3 Black-Iron-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer didn't enter the fight at the start, and that gave us a great opening. Perhaps, to their minds, the 30 T2 warships at the outset were enough to settle us, and that T3 warship need only circle and hunt outside. Who'd have thought they'd capsize in the gutter," Zhao Chen said with a light laugh.
Shen Bing nodded — this too was part of the reason.
"Come to think of it, these Mechanical Race warships really are just as the academy books teach — fearless of life and death. They fought to the very last, giving all they had in the fight. Were it our fleet — even a professional fleet like the imperial military — losses past 50% might shake the will to fight; losses past 70% might mean choosing to flee, or even to surrender." Shen Bing marveled.
Zhao Chen nodded; gazing at the wreckage of those T2 Mechanical Race warships in the picture, he said heavily, "This is the terror of intelligent mechanical life: for the ideology of the programs in their minds, they'll carry out these combat orders at any cost. This may also be why, after coming into contact with the Mechanical Race, the Galactic Alliance handed down a comprehensive ban on all research into high-level artificial-intelligence technology. On any technological field touching artificial intelligence, strict control! For fear that the Mechanical Race affair would play out anew within our Galactic Alliance."
Shen Bing nodded — this was knowledge the academy taught.
Were it not for this restriction, the crewing of warships could be smaller still.
A T2 ship would need only a few people paired with a few intelligent mechanical men or intelligent programs to run.
There was no denying it — the efficiency of artificial intelligence far outstripped that of humankind, and of the other interstellar races.
To this day, the military field was permitted only mid-tier artificial-intelligence programs and related equipment, and the civilian sphere only low-tier artificial-intelligence programs and related equipment.
All of it because of the cautionary lesson of the Mechanical Race!
"All right, let's not talk such heavy subjects. We have to wait for the imperial fleet's arrival anyway — let's first go to our canteen for a meal. These few days, your crew will have the same meal standard as mine. Don't stand on ceremony; call it my treat." Zhao Chen invited.
Having seen Shen Bing's valorous command of her ship in the battle earlier, Zhao Chen prized her the more.
Had it not been for Shen Bing's valorous fighting, the interstellar transport fleet might have paid still greater losses, and the surviving transports might have numbered under 90%.
And then the bonus reward the System had given him might not have been the T2 Lion-King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship.
Of course, Zhao Chen had a small design in mind too.
"Then I'll trouble you." Shen Bing said her thanks.
Then Zhao Chen, together with Shen Bing, led the dozen-odd crewwomen under Shen Bing toward the ship canteen.
Shen Bing's crewwomen looked at the ship's inner space — a whole tier apart from their own ship.
Spacious, clean, beautiful!
Truly, wholly unlike their own dim, dingy working quarters.
And when they walked into the ship canteen, every one of Shen Bing's crewwomen was dumbfounded.
The air was thick with the fragrance of cooked food — utterly unlike artificial nutrient meals!
At this moment some crew of the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship had come on their rest-rotation to dine.
Egg-fried rice, noodles, bread, steamed buns — even… a great platter of fish, and some fruit besides.
"Have I come to the academy's fine-dining hall or what?" Liu Lili wiped away the drool near to running from the corner of her mouth.
Shen Bing too wore a look of astonishment.
"Over there is our meal counter; you order there, and a service robot brings the food to your seat. You've been given the same meal standard as our ordinary crew to order by — only don't waste it. You may go split-meal, or shared-meal," Zhao Chen explained at their side, opening an ordering permission for each of them, to the standard of an ordinary crewwoman.
Split-meal was each ordering her own food — a bowl of noodles, a portion of fried rice, and so on.
Shared-meal was chiefly for when a few crew wanted to order a hearty main dish, but ordering it for one went a bit over the standard, or was more than one could finish.
Then a few crewwomen would order a hearty dish together and share it out.
"We… we can order here?" Liu Lili gulped, looking at Zhao Chen in disbelief.
Zhao Chen said with a smile, "Of course."
After a brief silence, Liu Lili led the pack of crewwomen charging over, crowding before the meal counter to look at the holographic-projected menu.
Shen Bing too was looking at this food; in her eyes, what she saw was not only food, but the value behind the food!
Egg-fried rice was marked at a meal-standard of 0.1 star coin.
But its sale price outside was, beyond doubt, over 30 star coins — higher, even!
The prices marked in the ship canteen were the cost of cost itself!
She found it hard to believe that the crew aboard Zhao Chen's ship could all eat food like this.
"Um… um… could you let me through, I can't see… today's menu…" a timid little voice came from behind Shen Bing.
Shen Bing turned and looked behind her.
There was no one there?
Only when she looked downward did she find the one who'd spoken.
It was a little girl who came only to her waist, with a round little face and great big eyes — cute past all telling!
Above all, that look of her — standing on tiptoe again and again, unable to see over the meal counter for her short height — was enough to melt the heart to mush.
Yet at her neck there was the chafe-scar of some kind of collar long worn.
"How is it that, besides beast-folk women, there's an underage little girl on your ship?" Shen Bing looked at Zhao Chen beside her, dubious.
For all the world as if looking at some suspect creepy uncle.