"These warships are all designs I've never seen before?" Annie looked at Zhao Chen in surprise.
Zhao Chen pointed at the several ships. "I've already done a rough write-up inside — the basic technology each build requires, the raw materials, the construction requirements, the approximate build times, and so on. The detailed construction blueprints and technology I'll enter into the T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship's ship-construction blueprint system afterward."
Annie began opening the brief descriptions of the several warships and studying them closely. Beside her, Jenny leaned her head in to look too. Zhao Chen had offered to let her take this on earlier — only, at the time, she'd turned it down, since she couldn't handle the planning as a whole. If it were merely a matter of reading the build requirements for a single warship, this interstellar artisan did have the knack for it.
Lilith, off to the side, watched Zhao Chen's profile with some astonishment. In these few short months, Zhao Chen had produced the technical blueprints for several more warships. Extraordinary as his ability in ship manufacturing and research was, this was frankly too terrifying. Perhaps this was exactly why Governor Chu of Chu River and the royal house alike paid him such attention.
Soon Annie, a post-meal lollipop in her mouth, murmured, "Your plan requires that we must build one T3 Andromeda-class Interstellar Medical Ship and one T3 Goddess Academy-class ship. Then the T2 Iron Hammers are to be expanded — to at least five hulls or more. The others — the T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber, the T2 Snow Mastiff-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, and the T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship — have no detailed build-count requirement; they need only be built up gradually once the former tasks are done."
"That's right," Zhao Chen said with a nod.
"As for raw materials and funds—"
"Don't factor those in. All I want is efficiency!" Zhao Chen said plainly. Governor Chu's advance of one and a half billion had already landed in his account; the old man did his business well — his word was his bond. Zhao Chen was now a man not hurting for money. What he wanted was ships! Interstellar warships, the more the better!
"In that case…" Annie raised a hand and called up a holographic interface beside her, along with a holographic keyboard, and — hands suspended in the air — rattled away on it at speed.
The sight made Zhao Chen's eyes light up. Annie's posture was thoroughly professional — provided, of course, one could overlook the grease on her hands, the lollipop in her mouth, and her two legs swinging endlessly.
A few minutes later Annie finished and knocked off, turning the projection toward Zhao Chen. "Commander, take a look at this construction plan I've designed. As things stand, the two T2 Iron Hammers we're currently building can roll off the line and enter service by about mid-April."
Zhao Chen took a look.
April: the four completed T2 Iron Hammers would go on to build four more T2 Iron Hammers, so that by early May Zhao Chen would own eight T2 Iron Hammers in all.
May: four T2 Iron Hammers would keep building T2 Iron Hammers, to be finished before the end of May; the remaining three would each build, respectively, one T3 Andromeda-class Interstellar Medical Ship, one T3 Goddess Academy-class ship, and one T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber — these three ships taking a two-month build cycle, to be completed before the end of June. The last T2 Iron Hammer would, over May and June respectively, build one T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship and one T2 Snow Mastiff-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, one of each rolling off the line.
June: the four extra T2 Iron Hammers plus the original four — eight in all — would keep building T2 Iron Hammers, so that by the end of June another eight could roll off the line and enter service.
All told, by the second quarter of this year the number of T2 Iron Hammers in active service would reach 20!
There followed a great deal more detailed construction planning.
In the end, by the close of June, the projected scale of Zhao Chen's interstellar fleet was, roughly:
One T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser
One T3 Phantom Assassin-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber
One T3 Andromeda-class Interstellar Medical Ship
One T3 Goddess Academy-class ship
One T2 Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship
One T2 Snow Mastiff-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship
One T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier
One T2 Bronze Eden-class ship
Ten T2 Black Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy Assault Frigates
And twenty T2 Iron Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ships
In sum: 15 combat-type warships — two of T3 grade, 13 of T2; and 23 auxiliary-type warships — two of T3 grade, 21 of T2. A grand total of 38 ships!
In Zhao Chen's mind there had already surfaced the image of an interstellar fleet hanging in the void, awaiting his command. The thought was rather thrilling. Still, the number was a bit small — what he wanted was an interstellar fleet in the hundreds, the thousands! Take that out for a spin, and wouldn't it just ooze swagger?
Reining in his little flush of excitement, Zhao Chen read on carefully. At the end, Annie had also listed the supplies and raw materials required — and even the current shortfall of starship artisans.
First came the construction resources, which she'd already converted into star coins at current raw-material prices. And it had to be said — truly meticulous! This three-month construction plan required 80 million star coins in all.
In the old days, Zhao Chen would likely have been run ragged scraping such a sum together; but now he wouldn't so much as blink at it. It didn't come to even a fraction of the funds on hand. Before this, from the escort mission and the bonus in this bestowal, he'd already built up 7 million star coins — and on top of that, that colossal one and a half billion! This three-month construction plan was no problem whatsoever. On the raw-material side, the needs were all fairly ordinary materials, no great difficulty to procure.
Money was no issue. But Zhao Chen found another problem had surfaced before him. And that was — people!
The ships in this expansion, once off the line and in service, would need close to 4,000 personnel! Of these, over 200 were combat crew, and nearly 3,800 were technical crew. And the greatest shortfall, of course, was for the 18 T2 Iron Hammers being expanded all at once!
"Personnel really are a serious problem — the technical talent above all, the starship artisans." Zhao Chen knit his brow slightly, rubbing his chin, and muttered, "Not enough people, and once the ships enter service we'll be in the awkward spot of having ships and no crew. Especially where the T2 Iron Hammers are concerned… without enough starship-artisan technical talent, none of the follow-on construction plans can even get off the ground!"
"Commander, actually, I have a suggestion…" Annie raised her hand and called out just then. "We dwarves are born artisans — we're perfectly suited to this post!"
"Is that so!" Zhao Chen looked at Annie with feigned surprise — for all the world like the Big Bad Wolf watching Little Red Riding Hood walk right up to him.