Zhao Chen took the shuttle back into the hangar of Galaxy No. 1 Base.
He came down from the shuttle; Panther-Girl and the rest had been waiting here in their anxiety.
Had the Commander not charged them beforehand that they need not worry.
There is no saying what they might have done.
Zhao Chen turned his head, and looked through the porthole at that interstellar warship racing away, vanishing into the pitch-black universe.
"Commander…" Panther-Girl stood at Zhao Chen's side; why she could not tell, but she felt at this moment that the air about the Commander was altogether unlike what it had been.
There was a great deal more of gloom within the Commander's eyes.
"It is nothing." So saying, Zhao Chen turned outright and left.
He came first to the office of the three chief engineers.
"Commander?" Chief Engineer Nana looked toward Zhao Chen in her concern.
Annie sat straight up outright, and said without thinking: "I… I was not idling just now!"
"I have no way to stay here and help you any longer. Go on with your work. Finish this year's building plan as soon as you may. I ask it of you." So saying, Zhao Chen left without turning his head.
Only when she had watched the Commander's back vanish from sight did Annie let out a long breath, and lean her whole body back into her chair: "He is seen off at last. I truly do not know how I have got through this stretch of time!"
"The Commander seems to have something hidden in his heart," Chief Engineer Nana said despite herself, looking after the Commander's back.
"What could he have in his heart? Eating well and drinking well every day, with all of us working for him." Chief Engineer Annie rolled her eyes, and put both feet up on the desk outright.
But the next second a stack of documents came down upon her feet.
"Ow."
"No idling!" Chief Engineer Nana glared at her own younger sister.[1]
Annie looked at her own younger sister in aggrieved misery, and dared only mutter a word or two behind her back.
Zhao Chen came in person to the bridge of the T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship.
He cast his eyes round about.
Set beside that other interstellar warship, likewise of the T6 grade,
it was very plain that this warship's bridge had more life in it.
That other warship's bridge was cold as ice indeed.
"Commander, what are your instructions?" A captain stood slender and erect before Zhao Chen, awaiting his order.
Zhao Chen looked this new face up and down.
"Formerly of the Holy Radiance Empire, one of the deputy legion commanders of the Sacred Angel Legion. And a commander of famed genius within the Holy Radiance Empire. A year ago you resigned every office you held in the Holy Radiance Empire, enrolled aboard a Goddess Academy-class starship of the Owl Dragon Star System, and became a raw recruit. You graduated with the most excellent marks, and formally joined the Owl Dragon Legion. And in the selection three months ago you were successfully chosen captain of the Owl Dragon Legion's first T6 interstellar warship. And then you have another identity besides. A collateral branch of the Sacred Angel family. Paternal cousin to Saint Cana, now Empress of the Holy Radiance Empire, and reckoned her student as well. Have I said it wrong? Captain Saint Lorie." Zhao Chen recited off the record of the woman captain before him.
Captain Saint Lorie looked in some astonishment at this Commander of rumor; before this she had only looked up at him from afar.
She had not thought he would know her so well.
As one of the foremost among the rising fourth generation of officers the Owl Dragon Legion had trained, Zhao Chen naturally knew their particulars well.
"It is so." Captain Saint Lorie owned her identity frankly and freely.
"Had you stayed in the Holy Radiance Empire until now. The Empress Saint Cana could have arranged for you at the least a legion marshal's place, or rather, the marshalship of the Sacred Angel Legion itself would have been yours. And even the future headship of the Sacred Angel family would have been yours. An Empress, after all, can no longer go back to inherit the headship. Yet you gave up all this, and chose to come here to me and begin again from the beginning. I do not understand it at all." Zhao Chen looked at Captain Saint Lorie in his puzzlement.
Captain Saint Lorie said with a smile: "In the Holy Radiance Empire I might indeed have got those things you name. But at the same time I should never in all my life have had the chance to stand upon the bridge of a T6 interstellar warship and command her in battle. My cousin said once. That if she were not Empress of the Holy Radiance Empire, there was one thing she would certainly do, and that was the Owl Dragon Legion. For here is the dream she has been seeking. In truth she is not happy seated upon that throne. It is more like a cage. And now I have become the thing she envies. Is such a reason enough? My lord Commander."
Captain Saint Lorie looked at Zhao Chen, a smile in her fair eyes.
Suddenly Zhao Chen found how very like the Saint Lorie of now was to Saint Cana when he first met her,
while the Saint Cana who now sat upon the throne was long since no longer that marshal of the Sacred Angel Legion.
"It is enough."
Zhao Chen sat down in the captain's chair, laid his fingers against his chin, and said lightly: "Captain. Make ready to depart; our course is for the Demon Castle star system battlefield. And give notice to the whole ship to stand ready for battle."
The Commander's order came.
A color of gladness flashed in Captain Saint Lorie's eyes; holding it down by force, she straightened her body and said: "Aye!"
This T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship began her first formal long voyage, and with it the first battle she was soon to face.
And at the same time, a vast change was about to sweep over the whole Owl Dragon Legion, and over this universe.
"Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess Number One, make ready to start the spatial-jump mode. Coordinates set: the station of the Owl Dragon First Legion's fleet. Beginning to build the spatial-jump point. Three minutes are looked for." So called the head of one of the bridge departments.
The next second, Zhao Chen saw the scene beyond the porthole turn to a vast expanse of white,
and then, all of a sudden, to black again.
"Report: the spatial jump is finished. We have arrived near the coordinate region."
As easily as that, this T6 Wrath-of-Heaven-Goddess-class Interstellar Heavy-Artillery Ship came to the Demon Castle star system battlefield.
For this T6 interstellar warship carried the technology of the single-ship spatial jump.
Captain Saint Lorie turned her head toward Zhao Chen, and was upon the point of speaking when Zhao Chen forestalled her.
"You need only apply directly to Charlotte for your next combat assignment," Zhao Chen said to Captain Saint Lorie, rising, before he walked out of the bridge.
"Aye!"
Zhao Chen came to the hangar and boarded the shuttle; this time it was flown by his guard, Panther-Girl.
The shuttle left the hangar, went to the Dragon Emperor not far off, and berthed within her hangar.
Zhao Chen came down from the shuttle and, without a word more, hurried to the bridge.
The bridge doors opened.
The familiar scene within the bridge appeared before Zhao Chen.
Charlotte and Lilith, who had long since had word of Zhao Chen's coming, were waiting here.
"How is it you have come in such haste, and so suddenly? And without sending word beforehand." Charlotte looked at Zhao Chen in her puzzlement.
She knew Zhao Chen's nature well: he had always liked to play the hands-off master. Give him the fighting at the front, and unless she made contact herself, or a report came in after the battle.
He could let go of it altogether and take no part.
"The plan has changed," Zhao Chen said in a low voice, looking at the two women.