Zhao Chen looked at the interstellar warship before him, its hull jet black, with a black rose figured upon the paintwork.
He had seen files, or heard rumors, of this class of warship.
For it was the very thing that had laid the foundation of Song Chen's victory in the Alliance's civil war!
The quasi-T6 Black Rose-class Heavy Interstellar Battlecruiser!
And, by the intelligence that is public, the strongest class of warship the Alliance has at present in service.
And the ship Zhao Chen was about to board carried a number out of the common way besides.
Black Rose Ship No. 01.
Which, as the name declares, is the Star Alliance Leader's own ship, and the strongest flagship of all.
"You are Colonel Zhao Chen?" An officer of senior colonel's rank came down just then and looked at him.
"I am," said Zhao Chen.
"Your identity card, if you please." The senior colonel looked him up and down.
Zhao Chen brought out his identity card.
The other scanned it, and when he had confirmed Zhao Chen's identity over and over.
He gave Zhao Chen a military salute.
"Do not take it ill; it is a procedure we must go through. You know what manner of ship the Black Rose is; every man who boards this starship must have his identity strictly confirmed." A slight smile showed on the senior colonel's face.
Zhao Chen nodded that he understood.
The senior colonel asked next, "One last question: do you carry any weapon upon you?"
Zhao Chen drew out the light-blade hilt at his waist. "The only weapon upon me is this."
"So this is the light-blade of the story, where you flew a ground-air interstellar fighter, jumped from the craft, and cut down an alien with a blade in your bare hands ten thousand meters up." The senior colonel looked the light-blade over.
Zhao Chen smiled with some reserve. "A coincidence."
It seemed the man had indeed looked into his history thoroughly and to the bottom.
"Very well; this weapon you may carry upon you. You may board now. Please come with me." The senior colonel led the way.
Zhao Chen followed behind.
He called to mind the request Song Qingshan had put to him an hour before.
Which was that he should go now to Black Rose No. 1 and take up a post there, every interstellar fighter aboard Black Rose No. 1 to be given into his sole command.
And the one requirement Song Qingshan laid on him was that, in whatever case whatever, Song Chen's safety must be assured.
Song Qingshan's face had been very grave when he said it.
"I do not like this man Song Chen. But one must say, the Alliance's future cannot be without him. I ask it of you." Song Qingshan had clapped Zhao Chen's shoulder then, and got in touch with Song Chen's end himself.
It was the one request Song Qingshan had ever made of Song Chen.
Song Chen's end hesitated a moment, and having asked who the man was, agreed.
Zhao Chen still remembered the last thing Song Qingshan said then.
"I warn you: this man is lent to you. When this plan of yours is over, you must give him back to me!" Song Qingshan warned him gravely.
"Colonel Zhao, I shall take you straight to Black Rose No. 1's interstellar fighter hangar," the senior colonel said ahead of him.
"Very well."
"This is the whole of the data upon Black Rose No. 1's interstellar fighter combat module. And further, from this moment, holding the identity card you now hold. You may enter every area relating to interstellar fighters and interstellar drones. And you hold command of that part besides; apart from the Leader, no man may interfere with an order of yours." As he said this the senior colonel looked at Zhao Chen with a strange eye.
It seemed he found the order altogether odd.
That so great an authority should be given to a man boarding Black Rose No. 1 for the first time!
But it was an order the Leader had sent down direct, and he dared not question it in any part.
Zhao Chen at this point began going through the data as he walked.
Though the Black Rose belongs among heavy interstellar battlecruisers,
to put it exactly, she ought rather to be reckoned a battlecruiser of the comprehensive kind.
She carries more than the combat modules that every ordinary battlecruiser has.
Being of the heavy sort, her bulk is very great,
which in some sort sacrifices her speed.
But which gives her at the same time a great deal more room.
And in that room are loaded interstellar missile launching gear and munitions.
And interstellar fighters and interstellar drones besides.
By the detailed file now before Zhao Chen's eyes,
the Black Rose carries in all three thousand interstellar fighters and a hundred thousand interstellar drones,
which cannot be compared with the numbers a carrier starship loads.
But the interstellar fighters and drones she is fitted with are out of the common way.
For all of them were designed for the Black Rose particularly.
And since there is no call to carry out any bombing mission, what she carries is of one kind throughout, ordinary interstellar fighters.
The quasi-T6 Rose Knight-class interstellar fighter and the quasi-T6 Rose Fairy-class interstellar drone.
Both of which belong to the T6 grade.
And are besides the only two classes of interstellar fighter and interstellar drone at T6 grade in the Alliance at present.
"We are here." The senior colonel came up before a vast door.
Beyond which one could hear a great clamor, and see hangars the size of several football fields.
Zhao Chen walked in, and almost in an instant every eye of the pilots and ground crew near that door fell upon him.
The senior colonel stood at Zhao Chen's ear and said quietly: "Because Black Rose No. 1 is, after all, no carrier starship, and has no call to carry out interstellar air-combat missions. At most she sorties to defend when the enemy's fighters and drones come harrying. So the frequency of it is in truth not high. But the standing of an interstellar fighter pilot, and this being the Leader's flagship besides. So there are in fact no few people planted in here, and every one of them a fellow whose eye is above his own head. But as to their identities, be easy; there is beyond doubt no trouble there."
Coming to this, the senior colonel let a note of helplessness into his voice besides.
"Thank you; what comes next is my own work," Zhao Chen said, and thanked him.
And next he must take this work in hand in the shortest time there was; and first of all he must establish his standing, or else, should war truly come.
And these common hands not obey the orders of him, their commander, there would be no use talking at all.
The more so as he was an officer dropped upon them out of the sky.
There were likely no few who held doubts of him in their hearts.
From his coming here now: the leaders of the several flight squadrons must already have learned of this arrangement, and yet not a man had come to meet him,
which showed plainly enough the undercurrents running here.
They did not greatly welcome him.
Zhao Chen raised a hand, used the authority that was his, and opened the communications channel of the whole air group.
"All aircrew, all ground-crew teams. Within ten minutes, assemble at the No. 1 hangar door. Any who are late will be severely punished!"