Chu Changhe was going over the inside of an interstellar warship, several of those under him following behind.
"So this is the inside of a T5-grade interstellar warship… very many of the core regions are truly nothing at all like a T4-grade interstellar warship's."
"Indeed; this hull alone is several times over a T4-grade interstellar warship's![1]"
"Time was we were beside ourselves with joy over a single T3-grade interstellar warship; who could have imagined a T5-grade interstellar warship would be like this."
"Did you get a look at that main-weapon department just now? Tut, tut, tut… the bulk of a single solid round of theirs is near the size of a T2-grade interstellar warship!"
Those under Chu Changhe, having the good fortune to go over this T5 interstellar warship in their own Marshal's company, gave out their exclamations without cease.
At this moment a graceful figure appeared before Chu Changhe, riding up upon the floating lift.
"Grandfather."
That affectionate call made Chu Changhe look in astonishment at the one who came.
"How is it you are here, girl?
"Did I not hear that you were away at the front, fighting?" Chu Changhe looked in surprise at the Chu Xuan who had appeared before his eyes.
"The Commander summoned me back.
"The front is in a stage of rest and refitting now, and no tasks are deployed for the moment," Chu Xuan explained, standing close beside her grandfather.
"You girl — it must be the better half of a year since I have set eyes on you." Chu Changhe looked upon his granddaughter with great delight.
Ever since his granddaughter joined the Owl Dragon Legion, the chances of the two of them, grandfather and granddaughter, meeting had grown fewer and fewer.
Yet his granddaughter's growth is plain to every eye besides; that air of force about her is the very image of Chu Changhe's own in his day.
"How is it you have come here of a sudden?" Chu Xuan looked at her grandfather in her doubt.
"That I do not know either; it is nothing but that young fellow Zhao Chen inviting me of a sudden.
"Said he would take me over some T5 interstellar warship or other — and so he decoyed me across." Chu Changhe spread his hands as he said it.
"He asks you to come and go over an interstellar warship at such a time as this?" Chu Xuan could not make it out; this piece of work of the Commander's truly will not be explained.
Just at this moment a small round-ball robot the size of a thumb floated up before Chu Changhe and Chu Xuan, and then cast out a window of video.
"This ship is arrived at the destination of her voyage, and is come into port.
"Marshal Chu Changhe and Commander Chu Xuan are asked to wait in cabin No. 3."
"Arrived?" Chu Changhe could not make it out. "And where is it we are arrived at?"
Chu Xuan shook her head and said as much: "That I do not know either; the Commander only bade me come, and said nothing else."
"That young fellow — he has learned to keep a thing hid, these days." Chu Changhe shook his head with a light laugh.
The two, grandfather and granddaughter, looked at one another; and then, talking as they went, walked to cabin No. 3.
Some minutes later.
The two walked into cabin No. 3.
A shuttle stood at rest here.
Zhao Chen was already waiting.
"Grandfather Chu, I have put you to the trouble of so long a journey." Zhao Chen greeted Marshal Chu Changhe of his own motion, his tone carrying respect, and not the least air of consequence about him.
Though in their partnership at the outset there were factors of each side's own interest weighed in it.
Yet it must be said that Chu Changhe did a great many things for the Zhao Chen of that time and for his Owl Dragon Legion; and whatever the point he set out from, the outcome at the least was good.
And Zhao Chen has all along carried the sense of that kindness.
"You young fellow — speak out.
"To call me across so long a way, and to call my granddaughter back from the forward battlefield besides — there must assuredly be something in it?" Chu Changhe looked Zhao Chen up and down.[2]
This young fellow is truly grown a great deal more imposing than before; and the air about him is drawn the more within.
"Do you know where this is?" Zhao Chen asked it of a sudden.
And at the same time the outer face of this cabin turned to a transparent window, and disclosed the scene of the sea of stars beyond.
One could see that this interstellar warship lay at rest outside a star port, and that about it were several planets of a deep azure.
Chu Changhe walked to the window and looked about him.
Very soon he caught at certain pieces of knowledge.
"This is… the Machine Race's territory?"
"Grandfather Chu's eye is keen indeed," Zhao Chen praised him.
Within the field of sight there was not one Machine Race interstellar warship.
Yet the old gentleman could tell for all that that this lay within the Machine Race's territory; one can only say the old gentleman's powers are very strong indeed.
"Hmph. The style of the Machine Race's makings I shall not forget while I live.
"Though no Machine Race interstellar warship is to be seen, this star port gives off the Machine Race's smell of rust." Chu Changhe gave a cold snort, and the look upon his face was no longer so friendly as before.
For between the Chu house and the Machine Race there lies, after all, an enmity not to be untied.
"Your guess is not wrong: this is indeed the Machine Race's territory.
"It lies within the Machine Race's LP03 star system.
"One of several star systems the Machine Race has closed off to the outside," said Zhao Chen.
"Closed off or not, it is no interest of mine.
"What have you brought me here to do, young fellow?" Chu Changhe kept his face cold.
Chu Xuan, beside them, felt too that the air of the place was wrong, and looked toward the Commander in some concern.
She knows very well what her grandfather's attitude toward the Machine Race is.
And now that the Commander had brought her grandfather onto the ground of the house he holds a feud with, it would be a wonder if her grandfather's mood could be good.
Before this, when her grandfather learned that Owl Dragon had a partnership with the Machine Race, her grandfather, taking thought for the greater whole, had not inquired into it.
But to bring her grandfather now into the Machine Race's own territory — is this not to set the flying dragon square upon his face?[3]
What is it the Commander means to do?
Zhao Chen, as though he had not seen the color of Chu Changhe's face, pointed at a deep-azure planet far off. "Do you see that planet?"
"A planet, and no more; what is strange in that?" Chu Changhe gave a cold snort.
"But upon that planet there is life." Zhao Chen let fall a sentence that, to Chu Changhe's hearing, made no sense whatever.
Thereafter Zhao Chen went on, "I know it.
"The Machine Race has a great enmity with the Starlight Empire, with the Holy Radiance Empire, and with the Warhammer Interstellar Federal Kingdom; the two sides fought several wars within the age of the Galactic Alliance before.
"It may be said thus: the Angel Race and the Demon Race have their thousand-year war.
"And the enmity between the three great empires and the Machine Race falls not the least bit behind it.
"In that long-drawn war neither side knows how many interstellar warships it threw in and gave up.
"It is not a thing to be quieted simply and easily."
Chu Changhe said nothing; he was waiting upon what Zhao Chen would say next.
"Nor did I think to persuade you, with a few words of mine, to lay down the hatred of before.
"But… I would still have you able to know the truth of certain matters.
"Yet these truths are at present kept secret from the outside.
"I hope you may forbear for the time to let others know of them." Zhao Chen began to tell of the Gaia Empire, and of certain matters of the threat out of another world.
Hearing this piece of history, Chu Changhe's countenance unbent by no little.
"So… the Machine Race loosed war upon the several interstellar civilizations of the whole universe only… to hold a kind of balance?
"And at the same time that the several interstellar civilizations might, within the war, develop their own technological civilizations?" Chu Xuan asked in her astonishment.
"It may be said so," Zhao Chen answered.
Chu Changhe set his face, and said, "I do not doubt these words of yours; but this cannot alter certain things that have already come to pass!"
"I did not wish to alter anything; I wished only to set certain things out clearly.
"As, for instance… that Chu Xuan's father and mother are in fact still alive."
This word of Zhao Chen's, once out, changed the faces of Chu Changhe and Chu Xuan in an instant.