"What is the meaning of this?"
The squad leader of the fleet opposite was dumbfounded.
He watched that other squad, and their warships striking one against another, one after another.
He truly could make nothing of it.
And at this a link came through from his superiors.
"This is the twenty-first squad. We have destroyed the warship the enemy's Leader was aboard. But… the case is somewhat complicated. The enemy seems to hold some particular weapon, and is fighting it out with our fleet. This case…" The squad leader could not for the moment think how to put it.
"You have been deceived. The other side's Leader was never aboard that warship at all. She was no more than a lure." The voice of the corps commander came to him.
"What? But that was indeed the T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer the other side took?" The squad leader was checked.
"Upon the lane that leads to the star-system border space, our warships and certain of our posts have found a number of shuttles. Our people have tried to hail these shuttles, and every attempt has failed. So we judge that these shuttles should be the true place where the other side's Leader is. That warship you are chasing is a lure merely. Some part of the enemy's soldiers are flying her to draw our notice. That the true Leader may fly a shuttle and get clear of this star system. For it must be understood that every movement of the enemy's before this was laid out toward getting out of this star system," said the corps commander.
Put so,
it did seem to hold together.
"Then what are we to do now?" The squad leader looked at that tangle of a little battlefield, past speech.
This lure had worked very hard at it too.
One could not tell in the least.
"We have arranged at our end for other corps fleets to go on intercepting every shuttle and craft, and make certain the enemy's Leader is cut off by us. As for your end. You need not come across either. Destroy that warship, and end the engagement; that will serve," said the corps commander.
"Yes."
Having his order, the squad leader breathed easier.
He looked at that confused little battlefield.
For to speak truly, he had no wish at all to go too near and take the other alive.
Because the other side, by what means there was no knowing, was working like magic.
But now he need only destroy them.
Which meant it could be done with fire at long range.
"Pass my order. Let every warship of our squad make a net of fire, and destroy those warships that are out of control. And tell that other squad that every warship of theirs still sound is to draw off at once beyond the safe compass. And work with us in the attack by fire!" the squad leader ordered.
"Yes."
And soon those self-destructing ships, gone mad and rushing to their suicide attacks, began to be struck without cease by his squad's warships at long range, and broken up.
And the little battlefield, confused as it had been, came by degrees under control.
"My lord, look at that interstellar fighter. By the intelligence we have had, the enemy holds one very strong super-soldier. Who by single-handed infiltration breaks straight into a warship, butchers the soldiers within her, and then by means there is no knowing takes the ship in hand and sets her to a suicide attack. And so on, and so on!" The adjutant at his side pointed at an interstellar fighter magnified within one picture.
"One man alone, butchering a whole ship?" The squad leader found it somewhat past believing.
"It is indeed a little hard to credit. But by the last data those warships under attack sent out, that is indeed how it stands. Think of it. Since he could be made the lure for their Leader, that shows this man must be out of the common. It may well be he has been remade with some black technology or other. Don't we have a plan of our own for remaking super-soldiers?" The adjutant argued it round for himself.
For a universe's Leader to have one or two such trumps about him is natural enough.
"Lock upon that fighter. And keep your distance. What he is formidable at is fighting as one man, and within a warship is his battlefield. But strong though he may be, he is no match for a ship's guns. Order every warship about us to lock upon this fighter. And make ready to give it a covering strike!"
"Yes!"
Zhao Chen was working the fighter and seeking his next mark; but the warships about him all kept a long way off, and kept that distance of set purpose.
"Heh, heh, heh. I am found out." Zhao Chen took off the 'mask' he wore upon his head and threw it aside.
And gave over flying the fighter besides, and set her to fly herself.
He drew his breath in great gasps.
And felt as though the whole of him were coming apart.
He is strong, and he has been remade with the T6 super-soldier serum.
But there is a limit to it in the end.
And his body now was near enough at that limit.
Yet one must own that this bloody close-quarters hunt had felt very good indeed.
"What wanted doing, I have done. And whether you can get out of this now is yours to answer for. Orange." Zhao Chen said it with a light laugh, for all the world as though he spoke to the air.
He set the seat a little otherwise, that he might lean back the more comfortably.
And marked, beyond the port, that of those warships in the distance every gun muzzle was laid upon this fighter of his.
Some tens of warships, laid upon one interstellar fighter.
And they meant to give it a covering strike,
which had something of the look of a great gun brought out against a mosquito.
Though all this, to Zhao Chen,
was of no importance now.
"System. Send me back." The weariness could be heard in Zhao Chen's voice; he had hardly the wish to keep his eyelids open.
【Very well
I am about to carry your will back into the universe of your own line of time】
"You will vanish. Those technologies in my memory, will they vanish as well?" Zhao Chen thought of it all of a sudden.
【They will not
Those things are all of them loaded into your mind already, and are yours now】
Listening to the System's voice, and why he did not know, there was in Zhao Chen a feeling of loss, of something going away.
For earlier, when he was in that small room.
The System had told him that it had in truth one crossing of space and time left in it, which could carry Zhao Chen's consciousness back,
before it vanished.
And hearing that, what enmity was in Zhao Chen's heart toward the System had faded by no little.
To be able to go home was enough.
And as for having been used by others…
Let it be; he would not think of these things.
"Whatever manner of thing you are. At the least, I thank you for keeping me company these few years," said Zhao Chen.
The System was silent a moment.
【Zhao Chen, you are a fine child
Those few years, though I could not speak with you freely, I witnessed your growing
……I……know how hard you worked……and even without a System……in truth you could……have become a fine child all the same……
Go back to your world……and go on with your……life……and guard well……all that is yours……
Farewell……child
A safe road to you……】
And with those last words,
beyond the port were the dazzling flares of some tens of warships firing together.
Zhao Chen closed his eyes, and his mouth moved.
It was as though he were saying:
Farewell, old friend.