Within No. 1 hangar,
the men set to run their laps grew fewer by degrees,
until at the last only one was still running there.
Which was naturally Cao Bing, whose punishment was the heaviest of all.
At length the First Squadron's deputy leader could bear it no longer, and went at a run to Zhao Chen's office.
And pleaded with him: "Group Leader, Leader Cao Bing was discourteous to you before. But… but he has run two hundred kilometers already! If he goes on running, it will be the death of him."
Zhao Chen said mildly, "With the technology of this age, running does not kill a man."
"But…" The deputy leader would have pleaded further.
Zhao Chen raised his head coldly and looked at him. "Whoever it may be, a man must answer for the choice he has made. Leader Cao Bing not excepted."
The deputy leader set his teeth and turned back, unwilling.
And then Zhao Chen spoke. "You may give word to the infirmary, and have them send someone to keep watch. The moment Cao Bing faints away, take him at once for treatment. But what he has left unrun, he runs next time."
Hearing his group leader's words, the deputy leader breathed easier, and went at once to see to it.
At the last, when this Leader Cao Bing had run near three hundred kilometers at a stretch, his strength failed him and he pitched headlong to the ground,
which is a deadly thing indeed.
But by good fortune the medical people at hand came up at once and set about treating him.
And then, by mechanical stretcher, carried Cao Bing away to a treatment pod,
where Cao Bing would need half an hour at the most to come round.
And from that time, within a few short hours,
every interstellar fighter pilot and every man of the ground crews aboard Black Rose No. 1 held nothing in their hearts for this newly appointed group leader but awe.
And soon the several squadrons set about learning a new method of training.
Chiefly the drilling of certain formations.
It was not greatly difficult; for pilots such as these, picked every one out of the elite, a few hours' drill was enough to have it well in hand.
Only they did not know why this group leader should require them to master the thing in so short a time.
"All-ship broadcast. In ten minutes, make ready to leave port."
And at this the sound of that broadcast went up through every department of the ship.
To other eyes this was a leaving of port as ordinary as could be.
None of them gave it a thought; they only saw to the business in their own hands.
But Zhao Chen knew.
That this leaving of port was the beginning of the operation.
Zhao Chen walked slowly to the one place in this department of his that had a viewport, through which what lay outside could be seen.
And he could see interstellar warship upon interstellar warship out there.
This was Song Chen's own guard fleet, three hundred interstellar warships in all.
Among them five quasi-T6 Black Rose-class Heavy Interstellar Battlecruisers, and the rest of one kind throughout, T5.
By that array alone the thing was formidable enough.
Three thousand interstellar warships of the ordinary sort would find this a hard bone to gnaw.
But the enemy knows the size of this guard fleet of Song Chen's, and daring to move against him, has naturally come prepared.
Only there was no knowing what place the enemy would choose.
Zhao Chen opened the star chart.
By the spying device set upon Song Qingshan earlier, he knew the line of this voyage.
He called up the whole interstellar map along that line.
And upon it marked out quickly several places fit for an ambush.
Three in all.
Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin, thinking which of these three places would serve best.
Reckoning from near to far, they might be called ambush points No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3.
For advantage, ambush point No. 1 was beyond doubt the best, but it lay too near this place.
While ambush point No. 3 was the farthest off, and the worst besides.
The likeliest, rather, was No. 2, the most middling of the three.
Zhao Chen noted these places silently.
And then sent down an order to his flight group.
"In thirty minutes, a simulation drill in real-combat conditions."
This order went down to the leaders and deputy leaders of the several squadrons only.
------
The First Flight Squadron.
Cao Bing, but lately come round from his faint, pulled off the quilt laid over him.
There was nothing but gravity in his face.
Though his body had come back to itself, when his legs came down upon the floor he felt them still as though they were no longer his own.
"Leader, the doctor says you must rest a while yet!" Seeing his Leader Cao Bing making to get out of bed, the deputy leader hurried to stop him.
But Leader Cao Bing said stubbornly: "I owe him a hundred and fifty kilometers still. I must run them out!"
And so saying, Leader Cao Bing made ready to rise and go running.
But the deputy leader held him back and said: "Leader Cao Bing said[1] that what the leader has left unrun must naturally be made up. But the starship has left port now, and the whole ship is at third-degree readiness. He does not wish… that a squadron's leader, should fighting come at such a time, should lack even the strength to fly a craft. So your punishment is put off until the next time we put in to rest."
Hearing his deputy out, Leader Cao Bing checked where he stood.
He clenched his fists, and in the end sat down obediently on the edge of the bed.
By the look of it, he had accepted the arrangement.
And just then Zhao Chen's first order came down to them,
which was upon the matter of the combat drill.
"How does the man have so many arrangements in him? It is a bare few hours, and here is another combat drill," the deputy leader said, with some discontent.
But Leader Cao Bing spoke for Zhao Chen at this. "It is what he ought to do. Being newly come to the post, and dropped upon us out of the sky besides. He must get to know his own force quickly, and know what state it is in to fight."
"Leader, how is it you speak for him now? Had he not come, that group leader's seat should by rights have been yours." The deputy leader was indignant on his leader's account.
But Leader Cao Bing said mildly: "The group leader's seat belongs to the abler man. He is stronger than any of us, so naturally he has the ability to sit in it. And we, being his subordinates, ought to carry out his orders. Enough; no more idle talk. Make ready for the half hour's combat simulation. I have no wish to make a show of myself before this group leader of ours a second time. Once is enough of shame."
"Yes."
Soon the half hour was up.
The alarm for battle went up throughout the flight group.
This reached the flight group and the interstellar fighter departments only.
The other departments knew nothing of what passed here.
For the sake of keeping fighting strength up, to run a real-combat simulation in a combat department of this kind is a power the supreme commander holds.
At this the flight group's pilots and ground crews were all of them in motion.
First of all, every interstellar fighter was set in its order of sortie, and the fighters of the first order raised into the combat hangar, made ready to launch.
And at the same time, the interstellar drones alongside were made ready for battle as well.
The interstellar fighter pilots dressed themselves to a man, and waited in their own ready rooms for the order.