The Holy Elf Empire's T6-grade interstellar warships ahead were not worth mentioning beside this golden colossus now.
It was as if a burly man were following behind a little child.
And by now some had recognized what this golden colossus was.
"Could this be the mass-produced quasi-T7-grade Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire released lately?"
"Is it the quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship that crippled one of the three Sovereigns' super-flagships on the Devourer Civilization's battlefield?"
"But isn't this the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's interstellar warship? Why would it be here? And look at where the hull insignia is: there's no Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire fleet insignia at all. It looks… it looks… that looks like the Flame Elf Queen's fleet insignia!"
By now the sharp-eyed had found that the fleet insignia was actually the Flame Elf Queen's.
At this, the curiosity of everyone present was roused all the more.
Why would a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship from the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire bear the fleet insignia of an Elf Sovereign of theirs?
It was really rather too strange.
Besides, those here were all people from the Holy Elf Empire's upper ranks, so naturally they were all the more interested in such matters.
And the high elf Zaris, who had spoken before, now wore a still graver look.
Never mind the airs he had put on before; now he understood why the several Elf Sovereigns and the High Council had ordered the main shipping lane cleared.
For this honored guest's standing was truly out of the ordinary.
Unlike the others, the high elf Zaris had after all served as a high-elf councilor, and knew what lay behind certain arrangements.
Besides, though he had retired behind the scenes, he still got the latest intelligence on some recent events.
So he knew about the business with the Devourer Civilization, and some of the mad things Salaman, the Flame Elf Queen, had done.
He knew some of the rumors about the several Elf Sovereigns and the High Council too.
Putting that together with this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought appearing here with the Flame Elf Queen's fleet insignia, the meaning behind it was easy to guess.
If the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had merely brought one or even several Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts on a visit to the Holy Elf Empire, then even if the Owl Dragon Emperor had come in person, no order would have been given to clear the shipping lane.
So there was only one possibility: the Owl Dragon Emperor had given or lent this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought to the Flame Elf Queen.
The former was less likely, for as far as he knew, even the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire itself did not have many of these Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnoughts yet.
To give one away so lightly was no small matter.
Mind you, the cost of building one such Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought could match a low-grade interstellar civilization's universe's output for a year.
Even powers of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's and the Holy Elf Empire's rank had to count on their fingers and do their sums to build one such quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship.
How could they possibly give such an interstellar warship away lightly?
That left only the latter possibility.
Put that together with the Flame Elf Queen's insignia on the hull, and the attitude of the several Elf Sovereigns and the High Council, who had meant to deal with the Flame Elf Queen before,
and one could pretty well work out the whole story.
This was the Owl Dragon Emperor plainly standing up for the Flame Elf Queen: with such a Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought set down here, you tell me, are you still going to deal with the Flame Elf Queen or not?
When he had worked this out,
the high elf Zaris shook his head helplessly, then went off to one side and quietly contacted his granddaughter's party, telling them he would be a little late this time.
After all, for a matter this large, never mind him, a former high-elf councilor; even an Elf Sovereign here now might not have been granted such face.
This was no mere quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship; this was the only quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship within the Holy Elf Empire's borders now.
Even if this interstellar warship's final ownership might not be theirs,
for now, at least, this interstellar warship was the only one of its kind in this universe,
and that alone was enough to settle its special standing.
And so
this interstellar cruise liner, laden with dignitaries and grandees, could only obediently watch this golden colossus sail past before it, and obediently stay put.
Time passed bit by bit.
Very soon this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought reached the starport outside Moon-God Planet.
It must be said that the manager of Moon-God Planet's First Starport met a problem never seen before with the coming of this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought:
when the starport was first designed, no dock berth had been designed to hold an interstellar warship this large.
"Sir, we really have no dock that can hold this super colossus," the man in charge of the dock berths said helplessly to the starport manager before him.
The starport manager knit his brows and looked at the time; there were less than twenty minutes before this interstellar warship, the Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought, arrived in port, and even if some procedures in between dragged things out a little,
it would not be more than an hour.
And they might well be punished by their superiors besides.
"What about the dock berths we got ready before for T6 carrier starships?" the starport manager asked.
The dock chief[1] shook his head and answered, "Nowhere near enough. This Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought is much bigger than any interstellar warship of ours. Um… how about we put in a request to berth this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought at the outer anchorage?" the dock chief asked carefully.
The starport manager gave him a kick straight off, with no courtesy at all, and said, "I think you're fit to be thrown out to the outer anchorage! That's a quasi-T7-grade interstellar warship, an interstellar warship our Holy Elf Empire hasn't even got. Do you know that all five Elf Sovereigns and every high-elf councilor of the High Council have turned out to greet this interstellar warship? Then you go and tell those lords, 'So sorry, our starport docks can't take this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought; it's moored at the outer anchorage now. Would you care to take a shuttle over there to have a look?' I guarantee that within a day the two of us will be out of our jobs!"
The starport manager's words were no scaremongering.
In ordinary visits, unless the guest asked otherwise, visiting interstellar warships berthed at the starport docks the host appointed, to show the host's respect.
If a visiting interstellar warship could not berth at a starport because of the limits of its hull size, that generally happened only when a higher civilization visited a lower one.
The hosts would come before you pitifully and say their starports were limited, not enough to meet the visiting fleet's berthing needs.
In such a case, everyone could understand.
But now, if your Holy Elf Empire could not receive an interstellar warship from the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, did that mean you thought yourselves a lower civilization?
A head lower than the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire?
Mind you, anyone in the Holy Elf Empire who dared say that need not think of staying on in the Holy Elf Empire.
So today, whatever happened, this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought must not be left to berth outside the starport.
"Quick! Think of something, quick. Whatever happens, this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought has to berth in our starport docks today!" the starport manager said, all but jumping with rage.
The dock chief wiped the sweat from his forehead, then thought of a way and said, "Actually there is a way, but… but we may lose something by it."
"What way?" the starport manager asked at once.
The dock chief called up a map of the starport, sketched over the positions of several docks on it, then said, "These are the two largest dock berths; between them there are three medium dock berths, and beside them, two resource warehouses. We can start work now and take down all these walls between them. These walls aren't main framework to begin with; when it was built, the design idea was that they could be taken down when the starport was upgraded in future. So we've had the demolition plan in our files on our side all along. I've worked out the time the whole job needs: half an hour at most to finish taking it down. Only if we do this, we'll lose the use of this area's functions in future."
Hearing the dock chief's suggestion, the starport manager said at once, "Do as you say. Never mind losses or any of that; the most important thing at hand is receiving this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought. Nothing is more important than this. Never mind taking these down; you could take down my house and it'd be no problem. Quick! Get to work. It has to be finished within half an hour, and then get ready to receive this Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought!"
"Yes!"
At the starport manager's order, every engineering team in the starport was called over to work.
A demolition job like this, planned long before, was not really much of a problem for the starport, and the starport had a great many engineering teams to begin with.
Many hands make light work; while everyone was going at the job hammer and tongs,
that Golden-Scarab-class Heavy Interstellar Dreadnought was drawing nearer and nearer to Moon-God Planet's First Starport.
From the starport, one could even see with the naked eye this nugget of gold drifting in the sea of stars.
In a viewing lounge in the starport, the five Elf Sovereigns and the crowd of high-elf councilors of the High Council were all gathered.