Black Rose No. 1, the bridge.
"And now there is nothing for us but to wait." Song Chen sat in the captain's chair, and there was nothing but gravity in his face.
In the case matters stood in now.
He could only wait, and wait for the relief to come.
Only that the long-range communications were interfered with,
so that there was no knowing how the fighting went at the other places of ambush.
Set against his own case here, the enemy had likely not thrown so great a force into those other ambushes.
And at this a request to speak sprang up before him.
It was Zhao Chen, the flight group's leader.
Song Chen tapped to allow it.
And the window with Zhao Chen's image appeared before him.
"Leader. The mission has been completed successfully," Zhao Chen said, neither servile nor overbearing.
"I saw it. You did well. When this war is over, you shall be richly rewarded," said Song Chen.
Zhao Chen did not take that up, but said his own piece: "My reward may be discussed later. But I have a request. In this engagement I led near a thousand interstellar fighters upon the task. And in the end no more than two hundred and some came back. Seven hundred and seventy-nine men in all fell in this operation. And in the fighting I made them a promise. That so long as they cared nothing for life or death and saw this task through. Then all of those who fell should receive benefits of the highest grade, the same as upon that secret mission I went on before with General Song Qingshan. I would ask the Leader to grant it."
At these words.
The adjutant at his side knit his brows and got in first: "Colonel Zhao, is this not going somewhat beyond your authority? Last time might be let pass, but now you go beyond it again. Is that suitable? Benefits for seven hundred-odd men is no great matter. But by what you ask, the benefits for these seven hundred-odd would fully meet the standard for seventy thousand! You do this once, and then twice. And should others take their pattern from you. How are the Alliance's high men to deal with it?"
Zhao Chen's countenance did not change; he looked at this adjutant in the corner of the window and said mildly: "Is it, then, that seven hundred-odd fighter pilots giving their lives for the Leader's safety is not enough to be worth these benefits? Is the Leader's life worth so little as that?"
Not a man there had supposed Zhao Chen would dare say such a thing outright.
Even Song Chen knit his brows slightly.
"Insolence! You…" The adjutant flew into a rage, and could not even keep from raising a finger at Zhao Chen.
"Hold your tongue!" Song Chen gave a cold snort.
The adjutant lowered his hand and his head, and dared say no more.
Song Chen looked at Zhao Chen, and his eyes seemed as though they would see clean through the man; he said: "Indeed. These seven hundred-odd fighter pilots of yours fought with valor, and knowing it a task of nine deaths to one life, saw it through at any cost whatever. This standard of benefits of yours, I approve."
"I thank the Leader." Zhao Chen nodded slightly.
"Zhao Chen, I will ask you one question out of curiosity. You dare put a demand of this kind. Aren't you afraid that the Alliance's high men will make things hard for you hereafter, in your promotion and your bestowals? You should know that after that earlier engagement, the merit you had could fully have borne a senior colonel's post. You might even have transferred to be a starship's captain; and even had you no ability in that line, you could have been placed in the academy that trains starship captains particularly."
Hearing Song Chen's question,
Zhao Chen answered him calmly: "Bestowals, merely. If they are unwilling to give them. Then let them not. Leader, if there is nothing else, I have other business to see to at my end. I take my leave."
And with that, Zhao Chen cut the link outright.
"This fellow has no eye for anyone above him!" The adjutant at Song Chen's side was in a fury, and bowed to him, saying: "My lord. This one is overly arrogant, and presumes upon what he has done! He must be given a rap for it."
Song Chen looked at this adjutant of his.
And said mildly: "Zhao Chen's affairs I shall see to myself. But as for you… go down and rest a while first. And when you know at what times a man should speak and at what times he should not, come and find me again."
Hearing the Leader say it, this adjutant's face changed all of a sudden.
It amounted to his being cast into the cold palace.
The Leader has several adjutants about him, and which of them becomes the Leader's most trusted is a thing they all contend for.
And with this, he might be counted finished.
He would have explained something still, but he opened his mouth and swallowed it back.
For he knew the Leader's temper, and that to explain now would most likely leave him no chance at all.
"Yes." He bowed in silence and went out.
"Zhao Chen… there is something in him." Song Chen said the name over, and a strange light flickered in his eyes.
And just at this moment,
another video window sprang open.
Only that the sender of this one was out of the common way.
It came from the Murong family!
Which is to say, from the commander of the Murong family's elite fleet, that had taken part in this very ambush!
Song Chen did not hesitate, but connected it outright.
On the other side appeared a middle-aged man seated in a captain's chair, with an arrogant look upon his face.
Murong Qiao.
Son of Murong Bo, the present head of the Murong family.
And the Murong family's heir to come.
That the family's most elite fleet should be held in his hand was natural enough.
"Honored Leader."
Song Chen looked at the man, his face cold, and said nothing.
The air of it grew somewhat awkward.
For the Leader that Murong Qiao had pictured, flustered and beside himself with rage, did not appear,
so that the speech he had made ready in his belly was all of it suddenly of no use.
"Ahem. Leader, the state of things at present is clear enough to us both. Go on with it and you have no chance of winning. Better to surrender now and own yourself beaten. My Murong family can guarantee your life; and for the rest of your years you may live out your days upon some planet, without a care in the world!" said Murong Qiao.
The meaning in those words was plain enough.
It was that they wished to keep Song Chen shut up under guard.
Only whether the words were true or false there was no knowing.
And only then did Song Chen speak. "Murong Qiao. In this you are truly not the equal of that old father of yours who will not die. If it were surrender he wanted of me. He would have said it in the first moment the Murong fleet appeared. And not at a time like this. Now, with the fighting half done. You come to urge me to surrender. Does that not show precisely that you have no full certainty of swallowing my fleet? Or else that it would cost you a very high price, and a very high risk? Isn't it because of the call for aid I sent people out to send just now?"
These words of Song Chen's might be said to have struck straight at Murong Qiao's soft spot.
Their side, in this joint ambush upon Song Chen's guard fleet, had used every device and every method there was.
And had never supposed that the other side would get that call for aid out so fast at the last.
And what is more, they had thought too little of this guard fleet's fighting strength.
They truly had no full certainty of swallowing Song Chen.
Which was why he had come over to play out this urging of surrender, and try what it would do.
And had never supposed that it would lay his own hand bare.
"Song Chen. Do not think so much of yourself. You and your fleet are hemmed in on every side now. And even should your relief arrive. What of it? We can finish you all the same. And those high men of the families that support you have every one of them been ambushed by our arrangement. The Alliance will soon be held in our hands! To let you surrender now is to give you a chance. Do not fail to tell good from ill!"
Faced with what Murong Qiao had said,
Song Chen only flung out one sentence, and cut the link.
"Then keep fighting."