Zhao Chen marked that the greater part of those fleeing Alliance craft were guarding the one craft that flew at the head of them.
Could it be that…
Zhao Chen guessed at something.
And at this several explosions carried to him.
Several of the Alliance's craft on that side were destroyed.
And the craft flying at the head of them was struck as well, though by good fortune it did not blow apart outright.
But came down toward where Zhao Chen stood, trailing rolling black smoke.
"The devil! Do not come at me, curse you!" Zhao Chen leaped down from the stone tree at once and set off at a run.
For though his body had been strengthened, there was no being certain he could take the full force of a craft coming down at speed and not be hurt by it.
And were he to take a hurt at such a time.
Then matters would truly be more of ill than of good.
But there was no telling whether that craft behind him had some lock fixed upon him.
For it came after Zhao Chen with a single mind; Zhao Chen went left and it went left, Zhao Chen went right and it went right.
And it seemed it would be upon him in a moment.
Zhao Chen saw a canyon before him, and had no leisure just then to weigh the thing,
but sprang straight out and down.
The canyon was deep, a full hundred meters of it.
And in the falling, Zhao Chen used the light-blade many times against the cliff wall to borrow purchase of it, and slow his own descent.
And at the last,
Zhao Chen came safely down upon his feet.
"Now, surely, it will not come at me." Zhao Chen raised his head.
And saw a great black thing come smashing down.
"Damn your ancestors!"
Boom.
One great roar of it, and the dust flew up.
"Pah. Pah. Pah."
Zhao Chen's face was all sand, and his mouth full of grit.
The dust and smoke drifted off.
And Zhao Chen's body went stiff.
For this craft that had come down was in fact a round shuttle, and at its forward end was mounted a gun.
And at this moment that gun was leveled squarely between Zhao Chen's two legs.
Gulp.
Zhao Chen swallowed.
And shifted his body a little to the side.
Let it not go off now, of all times.
Crunch.
Suddenly some stone or other seemed to roll away beneath the craft, and the craft shifted sideways again.
Zhao Chen's face went black as he looked at that muzzle, a bare five millimeters from his own brother.
And at this a figure came springing out of the shuttle.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
So the shuttle's shifting just now had been this person moving about in it.
And this person now marked the man standing before his shuttle.
"It is you!" the other cried out, pointing at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen, for his part, rose to his feet and looked at him.
The Star Alliance Leader, Song Chen.
He had never supposed the man could come to stand before him here.
"How is it you…" Song Chen would have spoken further,
when the sound of craft came from overhead.
Zhao Chen took hold of Song Chen's arm outright and made for a cave in the cliffside.
For he had marked a moment ago that along both sides below this valley were a great many rock caves and hollows.
"No idle talk. Saving our lives comes first." Zhao Chen drew Song Chen in among the rocks.
Nor did he forget to take up, as he went, the emergency pack of supplies from that wrecked shuttle.
And soon the two of them were gone from sight among the caves.
Meanwhile, the several shuttles came down after them.
They saw the wrecked shuttle below, but found no person upon it that they sought.
And one soldier, armored head to foot in gear of their technology, reported upon the communications channel: "The enemy leader's escape shuttle is found. Crashed in the valley in region YY01 of the planet. But no remains of the target are found. He should be hiding in the rock caves within the valley. Request that the proper gear and people be sent to make a search. Or else that weapons of large-scale firepower be used, and the region given a covering strike!"
…………
……
Within a cave, in a blackness entire.
From the emergency pack he had taken out of that escape shuttle, Zhao Chen brought out a lighting rod.
A gentle twist of it, and a few square meters about Zhao Chen were lit up at once.
"It is as well there was a cave of this kind here. Otherwise we should truly have died out there this time." Zhao Chen looked at Song Chen before him.
Song Chen looked wretched enough himself; though he wore a uniform of special make, he was all over dust from the shuttle's forced landing.
"We must find some way of reaching the Alliance. Hiding here is no answer. If we do not get clear in time. They will find means to come at us. Whether they send those scouting machines or else give the place a covering strike, neither is a thing we can meet. Though for the latter, they will likely need some time to make ready." Song Chen had recovered his old coolness by now.
"And what is more, before long. The enemy's warships will come up. And then we should truly be past escaping though we had wings."
"How are you certain of all this?" Zhao Chen asked, not understanding.
Song Chen glanced at Zhao Chen; by his habit of old, he would not explain so much to a subordinate.
But it may be that, reckoning that Zhao Chen had just now saved him besides.
He explained it. "Before our Black Rose No. 1 came down, we found that within this star system. There is a space station of the other universe's. But there is no large star port here, nor any facility of that kind. Which shows. That this should be within the other universe's own borders, but a remote corner of it. So that there are only such basic works as a space station. And these shuttles that pursue us have in fact been drawn over from the planet next door. And there are several more warships of T3 grade hanging outside the atmosphere besides."
Having heard Song Chen's explanation out,
Zhao Chen understood at last why so many craft should have appeared afterward.
So they had dropped into the enemy's own den.
But this might be counted very fair luck all the same.
For the wormhole the enemy had built at the time was a thing wholly of chance; no one knew where a man would be flung once he had passed through it.
Or else that he would simply die in the turbulence of space.
Set against that, to have been flung here might be reckoned great luck indeed.
Only that the case they stood in now was bad enough.
He had thought at first that he might hide himself here a while.
But by the look of it now, with such a 'broom star' as this at his side, Zhao Chen had no chance of hiding at all.
"Then…" Zhao Chen was about to speak.
But Song Chen got in a step ahead of him. "What we must do next is race the clock, minute against minute. At the least, before the enemy's relieving fleet comes up. We must send a call for aid to the outside. Before Black Rose No. 1 went down, I downloaded the surface data of this planet. This planet is habitable; it is neither developed nor rich, but it has no few natives upon it all the same, and the other universe's government has built the basic works of their technology here. Among which are communications stations. We must find others who have come through alive, and put a squad together. And in the shortest time there is, take that communications station. And send out word of where we are!"
Having heard Song Chen's plan out, it sounded reasonable enough.
But Zhao Chen asked him back: "Only this is the enemy's universe. How can you be certain a transmission can cross universes and come back to the Alliance?"
Song Chen looked at him calmly. "In another man's universe, are there then none of our own people?"