Zhao Chen thereupon set out certain figures.
"This interstellar warship of ours, within the enemy's universe. Is called the T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer. And in the matter of speed she is very good indeed. Among the warships the enemy can muster within this star system at present, she stands in the first three. And what is more, if we do no more than run, then unless the enemy hem us in and cut us off, it will be very hard for them to stop us. And we have Yaya in hand now, which comes to having an all-seeing eye opened. So there is no need whatever to fear the enemy's warships hemming us in. Unless the number of the enemy's warships within this star system be increased twentyfold!" Zhao Chen held up two fingers.
Zhao Chengcheng nodded, and agreed with what Zhao Chen said.
"But hereafter, once the enemy has word that you are here, they will assuredly send further fleets. By the intelligence Yaya has stolen alone. There are at present several of the enemy's fleets, stationed in the neighboring star systems, coming across in support by star gate. By good fortune this star system is a cheap one, and no more than a small short-range star gate was built here, for interstellar voyaging. Which buys us some time. But neither may we take it lightly. It is to be looked for that the enemy's pursuit and blockade of us will grow stronger by degrees as time goes on. Within five hours, we are safe. Within ten hours, the enemy's warships may well be in chase of us. At about fifteen hours, the enemy will find means to set interceptions beforehand along the line of our voyage, and greatly lessen the ways we may run. And at about twenty hours, the room left us to run in is less still."
Zhao Chengcheng nodded, and thereupon said: "Unless we can run to somewhere better hidden!"
Zhao Chen and Zhao Chengcheng met each other's eyes.
And said that one word with one voice.
The star-system border space.
The star-system border space is the space where star system lies next to star system, which commonly holds no body of any kind, and no light, and is a region black from end to end.
"If our warship can get into the border space, then the likelihood of our running clear grows very greatly. Whereas if we merely bury our heads and run and hide within the star system, our being caught is only a question of time." Zhao Chengcheng made a pinching gesture with her fingers upon the interstellar holo-table.
And the whole star system was drawn smaller, and showed the region of border space about it.
"But the enemy will assuredly guess at this as well. They will find every means to stop us running into the border space. And if only to hem us in; for though they never catch us, so long as they keep us from entering the border space until their own support comes up, that too is a success for them!" Zhao Chen folded his arms.
And there was nothing but gravity in his face.
Zhao Chengcheng said nothing further, but stared at the holo-table.
And at this Zhao Chen walked round to the side opposite Zhao Chengcheng,
with the holo-table between the two of them.
"Rather than think it round and round to no purpose, we may as well run a simulated engagement. I am your enemy now, and I shall be moving the enemy's fleets to take you. I do not know where your warship is, but every movement of my warships shall be open to you. Yaya, you run the battlefield simulation alongside," said Zhao Chen.
"Yaya understands!" Yaya flew happily above the holo-table.
"It will do." Zhao Chengcheng agreed to it without the least hesitation.
And in that moment Zhao Chen and Zhao Chengcheng were for all the world like two opponents seated on either side of a board.
"I order the third squad of the Yasaduo star system's garrison corps to go to ** and intercept."
"I order the fifth squad of the Yasaduo star system's patrol fleet to go to ** and intercept!"
"I order the first squad of the Yasaduo star system's garrison corps to go to ** and give chase to the enemy warship!"
Zhao Chen's orders went down one after another.
And in this exercise, as Zhao Chen's orders came, Yaya began working those fleets' sailing.
Zhao Chengcheng looked at this move of Zhao Chen's upon the board.
And she hesitated.
For she saw what Zhao Chen was about: it was blockade first and foremost; and though to the eye he had sent pursuers out, it was in truth more like a tactic for driving the quarry into a snare.
"I order my ship to sail at once for **, at full speed!"
And the next instant Zhao Chengcheng's warship was gone from Zhao Chen's sight; nor could Zhao Chen hear what orders Zhao Chengcheng gave.
But Zhao Chengcheng at the other end could see the golden mark of her own warship, and could know Zhao Chen's dispositions besides.
"Hee, hee, hee. Papa set the rule himself. Papa cannot see Mama's starship." Yaya said it, laughing, where she was.
Which was a small trick used, to make what the two sides could see not the same.
And at this moment, in Zhao Chen's mind, that warship had turned into several shadows of itself, sailing off in different directions.
Zhao Chen began sending down order after order.
And Zhao Chengcheng at the other end passed down new orders of her own from time to time.
For all the world like a game of catching thieves.
Zhao Chen the constable, and Zhao Chengcheng the thief in the dark beneath the lamp.
All of a sudden, upon the holo-table before them, that fleeing warship showed itself, for it had met with a warship of Zhao Chen's fleet.
And thereupon came a running fight.
And at the last, after seven hours of it,
the warship Zhao Chengcheng commanded was destroyed by the enemy in Zhao Chen's hands!
Zhao Chengcheng's heart gave a jolt, and she looked at Zhao Chen opposite in great astonishment.
For though she knew the other was a crosser-over as well, and should have a very strong power of command upon a battlefield.
She had never supposed it would be formidable as this.
And in truth these abilities of Zhao Chen's were not given him by the System, but were got by Zhao Chen from time to time in asking Charlotte and Chitong and the rest of them.
And while Zhao Chen seemed to be a master who handed all his work off, he had been studying without cease the battle records of Charlotte, of Chitong, and of Chu Xuan besides.
And where there was anything he did not well understand.
Zhao Chen would ask the commanders of those engagements outright.
Zhao Chen likes well enough to be a master who hands his work off.
But he understands a principle better still.
That there are things you may choose not to do.
But that when those things are set before you, you cannot not know how to do them!
So that the Owl Dragon Emperor, who seemed to idle and let all things slide, had over these seven years past brought himself up from an ordinary man into a fair commander of starships.
And though no match for Charlotte and the rest, he would at the least, set in some interstellar military academy, be of the order of a first-rate student.
And do not forget that Zhao Chen had the super-soldier serum put into him besides.
And the notion of a super-soldier is not a matter of the body alone,
but of the head as well.
Zhao Chen can now run the course of a war through in his own mind very easily.
This ability bears a strong likeness to Chitong's gift for command upon a battlefield.
"Again!" Zhao Chengcheng's interest was wholly roused by Zhao Chen now, and she said it sharply.