"What was that light just now?" Zhao Chen asked in surprise.
"You could see that faint light, of all things?" Ah-Yin, for her part, looked at Zhao Chen with something of astonishment.
"Didn't you see it?" Zhao Chen looked about him in his doubt.
The petty officers and women soldiers about Zhao Chen all shook their heads, signifying that they had seen nothing at all just now.
Ah-Yin explained at this point, "Within this particular space, ordinary navigation suffers interference. And for the safety of sailing, and for the bearing of it. We built a Torch Beacon there at the base. It is a kind of energy fluctuation that can carry very far, and yet takes no interference. And other interstellar warships can fix their own position by this Torch Beacon. And this Torch Beacon, when it gives out its signal, flickers besides at a certain frequency; but unless one uses special equipment, it is very hard to observe."
Having said it, Ah-Yin looked Zhao Chen up and down.
So that is how the matter stands.
Then his own being able to observe it, can it be because his body has been altered?
Zhao Chen said nothing further upon this topic.
He gave order that the fleet sail toward that quarter.
And after this, at intervals Zhao Chen could see points of light flickering in that quarter.
The feeling of it was as though upon a boundless sea by night there were a signal tower far off, showing and hiding by turns.
The Owl Dragon Guard Fleet, using their conventional engines, sailed for about half an hour, and at last found other light within the pitch-black space.
At the same time there was a stirring upon the starship radar.
"Report, the energy signals of interstellar warships found ahead, and some other fluctuation of signal besides! But it is confused, and cannot be told apart!" the deputy captain reported to Zhao Chen.
"Sail on," said Zhao Chen.
Thereafter Zhao Chen looked at Ah-Yin. "Can you get in touch with the people at your base?"
Ah-Yin said lightly, "I have been trying for some time with the single-person communication device within my body; in the ordinary way, at the position we held ten minutes back. I should have been able to reach them. But up to now I have not."
Zhao Chen was somewhat startled: he had not thought this mechanical life was a moving communication device besides.
"Can it be that something has happened at that base of yours?" Zhao Chen asked.
"I do not know." Ah-Yin shook her head, her look somewhat grave.
Very soon, within the pitch-black space, Zhao Chen could observe through the deep-space telescope certain lights, and the source of them.
They were mechanical makings, standing one upon another, for all the world like mechanical factories.
Upon the outer faces of these mechanical factories were shafts of light that flashed and flashed again, so that Zhao Chen could observe them from very far off.
The feeling of it was as though one hung in space and looked down upon the lights of a city at night upon some planet.
"I have reached them!" Ah-Yin said, touching her temple lightly with a finger, her face grave.
Zhao Chen looked at Ah-Yin.
Ah-Yin stood blankly some several seconds, and then looked at Zhao Chen and said, "Something has indeed happened. The Black Great-Wall Base is at present in a state of war. Which is why my message was not received in time before."
"A state of war?" Zhao Chen asked in surprise. "Did your master not end a campaign only a month and more ago? How is it that they are fighting again now?"
"That I do not know either. But the fighting is very fierce at present, and the forward commander is at her battle, and cannot receive us for the time. Yet clearance has been granted us already, and we may sail within the base," Ah-Yin explained.
"Then is there anywhere our help is wanted?" Zhao Chen asked in his concern.
The Black Great-Wall defense line the Machine Race built is to withstand the invasion of an unknown enemy; and that is naturally to guard the universe Zhao Chen lives in as well.
Were the Black Great-Wall defense line to fall, that too is an outcome Zhao Chen would not wish to see.
"Fierce though the fighting is, the Black Great-Wall defense line is a thing our Machine Race has been building these several centuries. It will raise no very great trouble in a little while. You had better first get clear what task the master has left you," said Ah-Yin.
Zhao Chen came here upon this journey because that little girl, before going into her sleep, had spoken of a matter in which she wanted his help.
But what precisely was to be done, Zhao Chen must pass through the Gate of Gaia himself and come to this side before he could know it.
"Then where should we go now?" Zhao Chen asked.
Ah-Yin pointed at the center of the Black Great-Wall Base. "There is a Star Port No. 1 there; and if the master has left any word. Then when we come there, we shall know it."
Zhao Chen nodded, and ordered the Hades to sail toward Star Port No. 1.
But at the same time Zhao Chen gave orders to the other interstellar warships as well: to hold to a high alert, and stand ready at any moment for battle.
At the same time he arranged for several T5 Phantasm-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scouts to go and survey the state of the fighting at the Black Great-Wall defense line.
In a great many matters one is easy only when one holds first-hand intelligence oneself.
These dispositions of Zhao Chen's were none of them kept from Ah-Yin.
Nor did Ah-Yin say anything from beside him.
System notice: a mission has been completed.
T6 shop missions
Mission content:
Mission one: the task points within the host's account reach a value of 10,000. [Complete]
Mission two: the system points within the host's account reach a value of 1 billion. [Complete]
Mission three: the host's (the Owl Dragon Legion's) fighting-type interstellar warships in service reach 500,000. [Complete]
Mission four: the host's (the Owl Dragon Galactic Interstellar Group's) auxiliary-type Owl Dragon-line warships now held reach 2,000,000. [Complete]
Mission five: the host's (the Owl Dragon Galactic Interstellar Group's) monthly output reaches 10 trillion star coins. [Complete]
Mission six: enter the Gate of Gaia within the Machine Race's royal court. [Complete]
At this moment the notice-tone that sprang up within Zhao Chen's mind told him that he had at last completed the chief object of this journey![1]
Open the T6 shop's permissions?
"Yes."
Zhao Chen held down the excitement stirring within him,
and chose at once to open it.
Thereafter, within the system shop, beyond the five options that were there before, one option more appeared.
But Zhao Chen found that the window of this option's page seemed somewhat unlike the others.
Zhao Chen's thought stirred; he tapped it open, and found that it was truly altogether unlike what had gone before.
For when the T5 shop had been opened, the technologies of the T5 series were set out before Zhao Chen like so many goods, for Zhao Chen to choose among as he pleased.
But now, before Zhao Chen's eyes, there were three frames only.
What did this mean?
Do not tell me the technologies of T6 number only three?
And just as Zhao Chen was in his doubt, a notice-box sprang open.
The T6 shop column is opened. Here three exchangeable goods columns will be renewed each quarter, and the host may choose to exchange for them.
Refreshed once each quarter.
One billion system points may also be spent to refresh the whole of it once.
Zhao Chen understood all at once: so it had gone over to another fashion.
Only one may be chosen and exchanged for among three at a time.
It limits Zhao Chen's choice somewhat.
But it is the system, and Zhao Chen can do nothing about it.
Let him first see what these three options are.