Song Chen was her name within the Song family.
And Song Chen was the Song family's natural daughter, got when her father was young, and drunk, and forced himself upon a woman,
who was Song Chen's mother.
It was a thing against the law; but with the Song family's standing, such a matter could naturally never be traced home to Song Chen's father.
And in the end it came to nothing at all.
And Song Chen's mother, after that business, was broken down for a time, but went on living all the same.
And later Song Chen's mother found that she was with child, and everyone urged Song Chen's mother to be rid of it.
But Song Chen's mother, then, resolved firmly to bear the child all the same.
For it was that man who was in the wrong; the child was not in the wrong.
And so Song Chen came into the world.
Which is to say that it was then that Song Chen crossed over into this world.
Song Chen's mother hid it very well, and she did not know her own parentage.
And though she was a crosser-over, she could feel that her mother was very good to her.
So she thought to rely upon her own ability, and help her mother, and let her live a better life.
"Only it is a pity that my System woke in me when I was eight. If… if it could have come a little earlier. Then my mother might… might… not have stayed behind in that time."
And Zhao Chen, hearing Song Chen come to this, saw that there was self-reproach in her eyes.
In the year Song Chen was six, upon the planet where she and her mother lived, some laboratory or other went wrong, and a chemical reagent leaked.
And mutated creatures appeared within the city.
And Song Chen and her mother did get away in time aboard a transport ship.
But before they got away, Song Chen's mother, guarding Song Chen, was hurt by one of the mutated creatures, and her body was eaten into by the mutation virus.
"At the time, the people upon the transport found the wound upon my mother. And every one of them wanted to throw my mother out. I stood out and set myself before my mother, and said: if you would throw my mother out, then throw me out along with her! Heh, heh, heh… how green a thing that was for me to say then. The life of a little brat like me, in the eyes of that crowd, was an ant's life. And just as my mother and I were about to be thrown off the transport. My mother threw out a thing. And said that I was the offspring of the Song family's head, and who dared lay a hand on me."
The corner of Song Chen's mouth twitched, and a look of self-mockery showed. "The Song family. How should I not have heard of the great and famous Song family? Of the industry upon the planet where we lived, a third of it had to do with the Song. And the Song had only to give one order, and they might kill any man they pleased upon that planet. I had never supposed that I myself should be the Song family's natural child. And naturally no one then was willing to believe it. But by good fortune there was one of the Song aboard that transport. Aunt Song. One of the very few in the Song family that I am grateful to. She is of a collateral branch. And she heard the commotion at my end then, and heard that phrase about the family head's offspring. She carried gear for the taking of blood upon her; and having taken blood from me. She made certain that I was indeed of the Song. Which is how my mother and I came to stay aboard that transport. But every one of them, every single one, looked upon us as a plague."
Zhao Chen marked a shadow passing at the bottom of Song Chen's eyes.
A childhood of that kind.
No wonder that Song Chen, once she was the Star Alliance's Leader, should handle matters so coldly.
"And at that time my mother's case began to grow grave. And I knelt before Aunt Song and begged her to save my mother. And at the last she agreed. She used the best medical gear aboard the transport. But it did no more than make my mother one who lives without waking. And who lived without waking for two years only." Song Chen laughed at her own expense, and there was guilt past measure in her eyes.
"And after that, you went back to the Song family? And your sex, then?" Zhao Chen was curious; for by rights, with the Song family so hostile to her then, how should the matter of Song Chen's being a woman have been hidden?
"When I fled with my mother, I went dressed as a tomboy; and being small then besides, it could not be told from the outside. And after Aunt Song took us back, and this news was reported up. The Song did no more than settle us in a house upon some remote planet. Heh, heh, heh; in their eyes we were perhaps no better than bugs in a sewer, and the Song blood in me was, as they saw it, a filthiness. Not a thing to be made public at all. So that no one ever came to make certain of such a matter as my sex. And later I had the System. You will know how it is. The System gives out rewards of some strange kinds. Among which was one that can change my sex. Though it has a limit of time upon it; but enough, all the same, to meet certain matters that came later," said Song Chen.
To change her sex?
Zhao Chen was greatly startled.
It was hard to imagine what this Song Chen would be when changed into… that shape.
It was as well his own System had no taste in that line.
"What came after, the Alliance knows the most of. After my mother died, my System woke. And from that time I resolved to live, and to live well; and to let those who looked down upon us know that without leaning upon this blood of mine, I could live well all the same. Better than any one of them. Because my mother said… she hoped that little Orange would live well. This life was my mother's giving. It was her wish, and I must see it fulfilled." Song Chen turned her gaze away, so that Zhao Chen could not see her eyes.
But Zhao Chen knew that at this moment Song Chen's eyes must assuredly be wet.
And Zhao Chen might be said to understand Song Chen's mind now, and why in the end she could leave the Song family standing.
It was likely by reason of this Aunt Song.
For were it not for Aunt Song, this Song family would likely not be surnamed Song at all today.
If he remembered rightly, the one who truly holds the Song family's power now is said to be a beautiful woman of a collateral branch.
And not a soul dares question this collateral branch, because it is a thing 'Song Chen' has tacitly allowed.
"That is well enough. At the least you have made your mother's wish good now. You are living well," said Zhao Chen.
And after this brief talk between them,
the fighting in the several parts of the starship came to its end as well.
Every one of the enemy's soldiers within her was cleared away.
And this interstellar warship might be counted thoroughly and entirely in the hands of Zhao Chen and the rest.
"Then what am I to call you hereafter? Our names are so alike that I should not believe it a coincidence though I were told so. And there is no knowing what secret this System hides." Zhao Chen thought of the question all of a sudden, and looked at Zhao Chengcheng.
For to speak truly, with the two names so alike, to call her by her true name was truly a little odd.
Hearing Zhao Chen's question,
Zhao Chengcheng was checked as well.
For she had never thought about the name either.
"Then let us do it thus. We may be counted comrades who have fought side by side, and we know something of each other's secrets besides. Before those subordinates of yours, I shall call you Leader. And in private, I shall call you Orange." Zhao Chen gave a short laugh.
Orange?
Zhao Chengcheng's face checked; it was for all the world as though she heard her own mother calling her.
But she did not gainsay it.
It may be that she longed too much for someone to call her so again,
and not Song Chen, nor my lord Leader.