In a certain compartment,
everyone of Zhao Chen's Eighteenth Group was gathered here.
But the bestowal ceremony itself had not begun.
For today there was a guest out of the common way.
As a rule, apart from a few rare grants of high rank, for which some ceremony is arranged, the rest are conferred before a man's subordinates by an officer above him,
which serves to raise the standing of the officer promoted among his own people.
And at the same time strengthens the bond of senior to junior between him and his immediate superior.
But there are cases altogether out of the common,
which are handled otherwise.
As now.
For the major general came into that compartment with a body of officers behind him.
Seeing the major general appear, everyone present rose and saluted.
"Sit, all of you." The major general, smiling, gestured them down.
And walked straight up to Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen saluted him.
"General."
The major general looked Zhao Chen over, and seeing that his color had wholly come back, was much easier in his mind.
He clapped Zhao Chen's shoulder as he spoke.
Then looked at the Eighteenth Group.
"You of the Eighteenth Group, many of you seated here are new recruits. I ought to congratulate you on joining the Eighteenth Group; it is beyond doubt your great good fortune. For here you have a superior out of the common way. He will lead you to merit and to name. And he will bring you home safe besides. By a brilliant record he kept his own Eighteenth Squadron from being struck off, and made it the Eighteenth Group! And that honor is yours to receive. And under his leading, to carry it further still! Now. I shall announce to your leader the reward the Star Alliance Council has granted him for this campaign."
At that, everyone present was beside themselves.
For this bestowal came from the Star Alliance Council itself,
which showed how weighty it must be.
Nothing less would ever reach the standard of a grant issued by the Council in person.
The major general raised a hand, and a light like an unrolling scroll opened before him.
Then he began to read the words upon it.
"Whereas Zhao Chen, formerly leader of the Eighteenth Squadron, showed valor repeatedly in the course of this secret operation. The Star Alliance Council resolves. To grant Zhao Chen the rank of colonel. And to grant him the title of Honorary Professor of the Star Alliance Supreme Military Academy. To bestow upon him one planet, and ten years' pay at a colonel's grade."
At the end of it,
the Eighteenth Group cried aloud.
The rank of colonel!
They had all guessed that Zhao Chen would be raised to field grade, but never that he should become a major[1] at a single stroke.
And they all knew that a month ago Zhao Chen had still been only a master sergeant.
In one short month,
he had leaped clean over the company grades and become a major outright!
One step above that is senior colonel, which is a general's 'reserve list'.
Besides which, a planet had been bestowed.
Which meant Zhao Chen could become lord of a fief.
An award seldom seen at field grade; commonly a man does not receive it until he is bestowed upon as a general.
And so they all guessed at a thing that was rumored.
Namely that the merit Zhao Chen had earned was simply too great, and to raise him so many grades at once would not do.
So other rewards were added.
This fief, they supposed, was one of those other rewards.
As for the ten years' pay at a major's grade, issued in a lump,
that alone made Zhao Chen a small rich man.
For it was no small sum.
Were Zhao Chen to take his discharge now, he could choose himself a planet and live upon it as a man of means all his days.
The fortune so laid by would keep him in comfort three lifetimes over.
And as for that title of Honorary Professor of the Star Alliance Military Academy, though it sounds an empty thing, should Zhao Chen ever wish to retire from the front line.
He could go to that Academy.
For it is the Alliance's highest seat of learning.
To teach there, and to bring up the sons of the nobility, is to make of them all one's own connections; the interest in it, unseen, is terrifying.
After that short astonishment,
fierce applause broke out.
The old hands clapped hardest of all.
To their minds this bestowal of their officer's was no more than necessary.
And no more than their officer deserved.
The major general pinned the badge of a colonel's rank upon Zhao Chen with his own hand.
And when he had done.
The major general went on: "Those are the Alliance's rewards only. As to Zhao Chen's excellent showing this time. I, as commander of this campaign and captain of this mother ship. Have something further to announce. From this day, Zhao Chen's Eighteenth Group is formally the ace group of our mother ship. And Zhao Chen is appointed commander of this mother ship's whole flight force. And supreme commander of interstellar fighters for our Thirteenth Fleet besides."
At that string of titles the applause in the compartment grew fiercer still.
The sound of it seemed fit to go through the walls.
Zhao Chen felt no joy whatever at these bestowals; rather he frowned slightly.
All he wanted was to look quietly for a way back.
He had never thought that in so short a time he should be carried up to so high a place.
And he had become a legendary figure now besides; to keep quiet was no longer possible.
There was no help for it; Zhao Chen could only thank the major general.
And next came the part where Zhao Chen bestowed upon his own subordinates.
Every surviving pilot of the old Eighteenth Squadron was, with hardly an exception, raised three grades,
all of them reaching warrant officer's rank.
The Eighteenth Group's tally of warrant officers came to exceed that of any other group whatever.
These warrant officers might, properly, have taken important posts in other groups.
Their superiors had asked them their wishes too.
But without exception, every one chose to stay in the Eighteenth Group.
Though they served as common hands only, they would stay in the Eighteenth Group.
All of it, beyond doubt, for Zhao Chen's own hold upon them.
Soon that part of the bestowal was over.
"Come to the bridge presently. I called for you before and you did not come," the major general murmured, coming to Zhao Chen's side as it ended.
Only then did Zhao Chen recall the matter.
"My apologies; there was too much to see to before, and I have only just finished with it," Zhao Chen said.
With anyone else, he would likely have met with a hard look.
But for Zhao Chen, that 'best pupil', what was it?
The major general smiled and waved it off. "No matter; I only meant to remind you. Come when you are free."
With that, the major general went out.
And Zhao Chen, when he had dismissed them all,
called several of the old hands to him.