Zhao Chen, Ah-Yin and Ah-Jin met within a room.
"Do not mistake it; this is the daily combat-readiness state when the Gate of Gaia opens," Ah-Jin explained blandly.
Zhao Chen did not mind it either; he sat down in a chair, easy as at home, and looked at Ah-Yin beside him. "When we set out before, you ought to have told me a word of this. Otherwise, if my flagship had carelessly opened fire and destroyed your royal court, that would have been an awkward business."
In the atmosphere of a moment since, the others had likely thought truly of the worst possibility.
Zhao Chen alone had not changed countenance from first to last.
Even Ah-Yin, who had watched Zhao Chen throughout, could not help sighing at this Owl Dragon lord's quality of mind.
"I am sorry; it was my dereliction," Ah-Yin apologized of her own accord.
"Speak, then: what is the matter you called me for? If there is nothing, I was making ready to go home and have a good rest," Zhao Chen said lazily.
This trip away had taken above a month; he missed his two wives very much.
"Something has happened," Ah-Jin said in a low voice.
Zhao Chen's brows lifted slightly, but his tone was level still. "Speak, then: what matter? Has the Mechanical Divine Church been making trouble again, or has the Demon Race hatched some new mischief?"
Upon this state of things, Zhao Chen had long looked for it in his heart.
But seeing Ah-Jin's manner toward him at this moment, Zhao Chen guessed that the case was not yet very grave, at the least, not pressing upon the brow.
Else this mechanical leader would not have met him and then sat talking with him.
"You told us before that the Demon Race had seven starship industrial bases hidden within dimensional space, didn't you," Ah-Jin said.
Zhao Chen nodded. "There is such a matter; in the earlier stage of the fighting. We found five, and destroyed or took control of them. But there are still two places we have not found."
"We have found them," Ah-Jin said.
Zhao Chen was somewhat surprised.
Ah-Jin added, "To speak exactly, it is not that we found them. It is that they came up of themselves."
Zhao Chen signed to Ah-Jin to go on; Ah-Yin beside him cast a curious look over as well.
"Upon the tenth day after you left. Two abnormal energy fluctuations appeared to the north of the Demon Race's territory. Very faint at the beginning, and growing stronger by degrees. They were discovered, one after another, by us, by the Angel Race, and by your Owl Dragon. Thereafter each of us sent interstellar scout ships to the target place to investigate. In that star region we found nothing whatever. But because of the dimensional-space technology you spoke of before, or rather the folded-space technology. We made a careful search. And very soon found the dimensional space. But thereafter, our Machine Race's and the Angel Race's interstellar scout ships, having entered this space, were all lost without trace; not one returned. Until a fleet of interstellar scout ships under your Owl Dragon entered it. Of thirty interstellar scout ships, thirteen came back. And they sent back intelligence besides. Within that space, they found… the hive-race!"
"The hive-race?" Zhao Chen was somewhat startled.
"Is it a cosmic bug-nest?" Ah-Yin asked.
Ah-Jin shook his head and said, "It is a Hive Nest."
A Hive Nest?
This term Zhao Chen was hearing for the first time.
"At the beginning we knew nothing of Hive Nests either. But very soon the other side unveiled the answer for us. Upon the twentieth day after you left. The two dimensional spaces, for some reason unknown, lost their power of concealment, and appeared outright within the main space of our universe!" Ah-Jin said, his expression grave. "And the true face of those two Hive Nests appeared before us as well. These are the photographic images taken; you may look at them."
Saying it, several video and photographic images appeared before Zhao Chen.
It was a mass of something black,
like a great ball of flesh.
"Do not make light of this thing; it is big! Exceedingly big! This photograph was taken only from very far off. Its true size is already the equal of half your Owl Dragon Star System."
This word of Ah-Jin's astonished Zhao Chen outright.
Half the Owl Dragon Star System?
What manner of notion was that!
Zhao Chen could not imagine it at all.
That was no longer any comparison with the size of a planet, of a fixed star, of an asteroid.
But half a star system!
Past all belief.
"And in this stretch of time while you were coming back. Though these two Hive Nests have launched no substantial threat or attack upon us. Yet they are expanding at an astonishing speed. The hive-race fleets have begun, with the Hive Nests for their center, to go hunting about them, devouring all life entire, and then bearing it back to the Hive Nests. They even use some manner of vast hive-race creature to bring back asteroids and planets whole. To be given over to the Hive Nests to swallow. And a Hive Nest that has swallowed these things will swiftly produce great numbers of Hive Motherships! By our observation at present, within the compass of these two Hive Nests, the number of Hive Motherships has already passed one hundred million!"
A hive-race fleet of a hundred million!
When he heard this figure, those memories of having fought hive-race fleets in the past seemed to wake again within Zhao Chen's mind.
Though Zhao Chen knew that of this hundred million, the greater part might be Hive Motherships of the T1 and T2 grades.
Yet because the base number was so vast, it meant besides that there were astonishing numbers of T4 and T5 Hive Motherships.
Even……
"Have any T6 Hive Motherships been found!" Zhao Chen asked gravely.
"Up to the present, our interstellar scout fleets have not found any," Ah-Jin said, shaking his head.
Zhao Chen let out his breath a little, but was not truly set at ease.
Not at present did not mean not hereafter.
Zhao Chen rubbed at the sides of his nose.
He had thought at first to come back and finish dealing with the Demon King's business altogether.
He had not thought that the hive-race would come up besides.
By the intelligence got upon that business trip, he reckoned this could not be cleared of connection with Order.
These hive-race swarms should be Order's claws.
At this point, Zhao Chen thought of something all of a sudden.
There was no knowing what would happen when Hive Princess faced these hive-race swarms.
This might be tried hereafter; there might perhaps come of it some wondrous chemical reaction.
"Then how does the fighting stand in the Demon Castle star system?" Zhao Chen asked.
Ah-Jin answered, "The fighting in the Demon Castle star system is still under our control at present, and advances by degrees. But there is no knowing how they got word that two Hive Nests had appeared outside. They seem to think this is their hope of turning the board. This has made some of the Demon King's army-group fleets, which had lost their morale before, take up once more the spirit of fighting us till the fish died or the net broke, and this has added a great deal of needless loss to us. And along with the growth of those two Hive Nests, these two malignant tumors we must find means to deal with. Otherwise their hive-race fleets will rise by exponents!"
Ah-Jin's expression at this point was very grave.
Zhao Chen drew a deep breath. "I understand; but these matters need my going back and taking counsel with my subordinates."