Soon Zhao Chen laid eyes on Annie.
Annie wore a specially made spacesuit — and worn on Annie, it gave the impression not of a work-suit at all but of some kind of toy. The helmet was noticeably outsized against a standard suit's proportions. Through the transparent glass, one could clearly see Annie's little round face: a lollipop in her mouth, her hands working an instrument that controlled a mechanical arm many times her own size, operating away steadily on the keel of the starship under construction.
Having finished the task at hand, Annie pressed the return key on her suit and was carried automatically back to one of the return pods set at intervals along the boxy corridor. Artisans working outside first came back to these little pods; once oxygen had been pumped in and certain harmful cosmic elements expelled, they could strip off their suits and return to the boxy corridor.
"Heh heh heh, 20 more minutes till knock-off. I'll go camp out at the ship's restaurant first — today they've got Annie's favorite hand-shredded beef!" Cradling her gear, Annie muttered to herself with a grin as she walked out.
Only, as luck would have it, Annie caught sight of a pair of military boots — a rare thing to see aboard an interstellar industrial ship, and men's boots at that.
Annie's expression stiffened all at once, like an employee sneaking off early who runs smack into the boss in the elevator lobby. Annie didn't dare lift her head; she only turned slowly, quavering under her breath, "Annie… Annie just came back… to fetch some tools… Annie's going right back to work… Annie wasn't sneaking off… Annie wasn't knocking off early… Annie wasn't going to the restaurant for hand-shredded beef… Annie…"
But before she'd taken more than a few steps, Annie felt a large hand press down on her head.
Annie spun around at once, a look of surprise and delight breaking over her face. "Aiya, Commander, what are you doing here! Annie's working ever so hard right now! Absolutely, positively, definitely no slacking off."
This little lass was far too adorable. They said the dwarf race was a bit soft in the head; now Zhao Chen believed it completely.
Off to the side, Lilith was in real distress from holding back her laughter.
"So it looks like Annie loves working?" Zhao Chen eyed her through narrowed lids.
Annie stood up straight, the picture of sincerity. "Annie loves working best of all! Annie would even work 24 hours a day!"
"Well then, as it happens I see the schedule here is rather tight — so you can put in another three hours of overtime," Zhao Chen said, satisfied.
"Three hours!" Annie's eyes went wide. Instinctively, she said in an aggrieved little voice, "Three hours… the limited-supply hand-shredded beef will be sold out by then…"
"So it turns out that, next to working, Annie loves hand-shredded beef more." Zhao Chen regarded her with a look that was and wasn't a smile.
Annie hung her head, like a child who'd done wrong, staring at the tips of her own toes.
"All right, Annie. The Commander isn't here to punish you — he's come to discuss work with you." Lilith stepped in now to rescue the little sweetheart.
"There's still work to do?" Annie pouted her little mouth, rubbing her little belly.
Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Zhao Chen said, "Let's discuss the work at the restaurant. My treat today."
"Really!" In an instant Annie turned from grief to joy, her big limpid eyes fixed unblinking on Zhao Chen — a trickle of drool escaping the corner of her mouth.
"Don't believe me? Then forget it." Zhao Chen shrugged.
"I believe you! I believe you! Our Commander is the best, the very best!" Annie wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and laid on the flattery.
"Jenny, lead the way. We'll go to the ship's restaurant first and talk over the meal," Zhao Chen said.
"Yes." Jenny led on ahead.
Soon they arrived at the ship's restaurant of T2 Iron Hammer Number One. Perhaps because none of them had imagined the Commander would appear here, the crew stared at Zhao Chen in excitement, one and all, as though beholding some great celebrity.
"Is the Commander really treating us?" Annie's big limpid eyes sought confirmation from Zhao Chen once more, as if terrified he was pulling her leg.
Helplessly, Zhao Chen looked at the cook, who was at that moment gazing at him in a daze. "This meal of theirs — put it on my account." As he said it, a little robot scanned Zhao Chen's face.
"I'll have this, this, and this! And this one too! And this — bring me a whole basin of it!" No sooner had Zhao Chen paid than Annie completed her order at blazing speed. Then, all smiles, she spread her arms behind her and bowed from the waist, her whole head nearly dropping to her knees. "Thank you for the treat, Commander!"
Quick work, this lass!
"Letting the Commander treat us — that's really not right. It should be me treating you!" Jenny scratched her head beside them.
But Annie, without the least ceremony, patted Jenny on the waist. "Sis Bull, forget that little salary of yours. Your appetite's enough just to feed yourself. Treat us, and you'll be living on air for the rest of the month. Don't stand on ceremony with the Commander. Want a plate of hand-shredded beef? Oh, right — Sis Bull, you don't eat beef. Then order that lamb rack you like best."
Jenny, in her guileless way, looked a little embarrassed; from the look of it, she still didn't quite like to see the Commander go to the expense.
"It's fine. I said I'm treating, so I'm treating. Two people's meals — can't I afford that?"
No sooner had Zhao Chen said it than he rather regretted it. Not that he begrudged the cost — he was worried his own meal allowance wouldn't stretch far enough. After all, by the rules he'd laid down earlier, even he, the Commander, had a corresponding meal allowance — the highest, admittedly. But now, looking at a spread that came to a full 10 portions… and then at Jenny's guileless face… Zhao Chen honestly didn't know what to say. He could only quietly check whether his meal allowance would cover it. Happily, this meal was no problem.
Zhao Chen looked at the seating in the ship's restaurant; the tables were plainly about twice the size of every table aboard the T3 Blizzard. Annie went so far as to lead Zhao Chen and the others straight to a great round table five meters across.
"There are four of us — do we really need a round table this big?" Zhao Chen was a little puzzled, looking at Annie seated across from him.
"Commander, in a moment you'll know whether we need it or not," Annie said mysteriously.
Half an hour later.
Looking at the stacks upon stacks of plates before this pair of gluttons, one big and one small, Zhao Chen understood at last why they needed a table this size. He stared at Annie's belly, genuinely curious: how could a little thing like Annie put away a whole washbasin's worth of hand-shredded beef? Could her stomach even hold it? Was there a pocket dimension inside?
"Burp… oh, right — Commander, what did you come to see me about?" Only after eating and drinking her fill did Annie remember the Commander had come to talk business with her.
"I've drawn up the construction plan for the next several months, and I wanted you to have a look — see if there are any problems, or any suggestions you might have." Zhao Chen raised a hand and opened an electronic document. On it were written the names of several ships.
T3 Andromeda-class Interstellar Medical Ship… T3 Goddess Academy-class… T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber… T2 Snow Mastiff-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship… T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship.