By the time Zhao Chen returned to the Owl Dragon System, it was already the end of July.
This round trip to the Reef Star Region, and the handling of the Reef Star Region's affairs, had eaten up close to a month again.
"Once the star gates of the two systems are built, going back and forth will be far more convenient." Zhao Chen stood on the T3 Blizzard's bridge, sipping the drink Lilith had prepared for him, gazing out at the vast river of stars beyond.
"Word's come in from Chief Engineer Annie's end — the Owl Dragon System's T3 Radiant Moon-class star gate is finished. She asks that you come and inspect it," Lilith reported at his side.
"Then we'd best go have a look. Though I expect that little imp is going to raise the matter of bonuses with me again." Zhao Chen thought of the little short one; her attitude when working, and her ordinary manner, were truly like two different people.
Picture it — a band of beast-folk artisans and dwarf artisans, standing before Annie, calling out a respectful "Chief!"
Why did that scene feel so oddly comical?
The T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser got under way, steering toward the site where the star gate had been built.
Some minutes later, Zhao Chen could faintly make out that enormous star gate. It hadn't been activated yet, and gave off an air of lifeless stillness. Yet even so, it still conveyed a sense of majesty, and no less of artistry. The T3 Radiant Moon-class star gate was shaped like two crescent moons casting their light upon each other; one of the materials forming the crescents' outer shape was a crystal-clear, high-strength ore, which lent it all the more of an artistic beauty.
"Report — Chief Engineer Annie has boarded a shuttle and requests permission to come aboard," a bridge crewwoman reported.
"Let her in," Zhao Chen said with a smile. He could very nearly picture the scene to come already.
"Lilith, care to wager? In a moment that girl will walk onto the bridge and start pouring out her woes to me, playing the pitiful thing who's lost half her life." Zhao Chen looked over at Lilith, smiling.
Lilith smiled and said nothing.
Before long the bridge doors slid open on their own, and Annie came in with two dark rings under her eyes, her gaze vacant, her arms hanging limp — walking for all the world like a shambling corpse.
"Commander… sir… sir…" Annie greeted Zhao Chen without even lifting her eyelids, then walked straight for the captain's chair. This time she simply pitched the upper half of her body onto the captain's chair, her legs dangling limp to the floor.
Zhao Chen didn't so much as glance at Annie sprawled over the captain's chair. Instead he pointed out the distant star gate to Lilith and chatted idly with her about some of the star gate's principal technologies.
"The earliest star gates were of the T2 grade, because the T2-grade interstellar warships of those years still ran on tier-4 warp engines. Sailing within a system posed no problem; for a short crossing between systems — a warp voyage from our Owl Dragon System to the neighboring Arctic Fox System, say — it took about four or five days, which was tolerable enough. But if you needed to voyage across multiple systems… Back then there wasn't yet this bounded notion of a 'star region.' Otherwise, relying on T2 interstellar warships alone to cross the North Wind Star Region would have taken close to half a year, at the least. And now? Relying on the star gates, it's a matter of a day or two. So it was this technology, the star gate, that drew time and space close together. The later T3 gates and T4 gates chiefly upgraded the stability and safety of the voyage, along with the number of fleets that could be projected, the distance spanned, and so on. Our T3 gate, though it can't project as large a fleet as others of its grade, has a spanning distance that already reaches the level of a T4 gate…"
Annie lay sprawled over the chair, her little eyes open now. She'd waited and waited, and still the Commander hadn't called out to her — it was as though he'd overlooked her existence entirely. And from the sound of that droning voice, he seemed liable to go on chatting for hours yet.
Never long on patience to begin with, Annie now clambered up at last, pouting. "Commander, sir… Annie's… worn clean out and collapsed right here… how is it you won't even… spare Annie the least bit of care?"
"Worn out, are you? If you're worn out, lie there a while longer. Lilith, go fetch her a blanket," Zhao Chen said without even turning his head.
Annie walked up in front of Zhao Chen, wearing the look of one who'd suffered a great injustice. "Commander, sir… Annie… to finish the star-gate construction as fast as she could… these two months, Annie's lost a good few pounds!"
Zhao Chen snapped his fingers, and a small robot appeared and hoisted Annie up. Before Annie could even recover her wits, the little robot reported in its mechanical voice, "Body weight… 28 kilograms…"
Zhao Chen looked at Annie through narrowed eyes. "As I recall, two months ago Annie's weight was only 25 kilograms, wasn't it…"
Exposed on the spot, Annie rolled her eyes; putting on an air of great frailty, she swayed her body about. "Maybe… I… got fat from being worn out."
Zhao Chen raised a hand with a smile and put up a video image. It was footage of the T3 Blizzard's hangar bay and its corridors — a full record of Annie's whole passage, from stepping off the hangar shuttle to reaching the bridge.
Annie had sprung down off the shuttle in a single leap, then gone at a jog the whole way — skipping and hopping, even. Not the faintest trace of any frailty to be seen. But just as she was about to reach the bridge, Annie had halted at once, patted her own cheeks, and the very next second slipped into character, all the look of one who'd lost half her life.
"Seems to me you were sprightly enough a moment ago. How is it that the instant you set foot on my bridge you're worn to nothing?" Zhao Chen looked at Annie, half smiling, half not.
Off to the side Lilith was struggling to hold back her laughter, tears very nearly running from her eyes.
Well, this was a fine mess — Annie's disguise laid bare, like an execution carried out on the spot.
Annie pouted and plopped down on the floor, deliberately rubbing at her own eyes with her hands. "What is it all my hard work has been for? For our esteemed Commander, of course — for our Owl Dragon Fleet, isn't it? Carrying on like this… carrying on like this, all I wanted was to apply for a few more benefits for everyone." As she said this, Annie's tears came streaming down.
"Very well — in view of our Chief Engineer Annie's utter selflessness, benefits it shall be." Zhao Chen paused a beat.
Annie's head shot up at once, and she looked at Zhao Chen with eager eyes.
"Every technical staffer who took part in this star-gate construction project — save for our utterly selfless Chief Engineer Annie — is to be issued a bonus of half a month's wages."
Hearing Zhao Chen's words, Annie was dumbfounded. Well, this was just wonderful — in the end she was the only one left out of the reward.
Zhao Chen suddenly stepped up close to Annie. He reached out and rubbed at the "dark rings" she wore under her eyes. And a part of those "dark rings" was actually wiped away by Zhao Chen's touch — carrying with it, into the bargain, a whiff of onion.
"It would seem our Chief Engineer Annie really is worn out." Zhao Chen looked at Annie, grinning.
At this Annie had no face left at all to show herself; in one bound she darted behind Lilith and buried her face against Lilith's waist.
"There, there — the Commander's only teasing you. For the technical workers on this star-gate construction project, every one will be issued a half-month bonus. You have one too; the Commander settled that long ago." Lilith stroked Annie's little head.
Among the Owl Dragon Fleet's system of benefits, besides the dining standards and the monthly wages, some reward-type benefits had since been added on. Those combat personnel who'd taken part in the fighting in the Lion King System, for instance, had a wartime allowance. And these technical staff, building the star gate in the rear, working overtime hour upon hour to see it finished, naturally had a bonus too.
Annie at once turned her grief to joy; looking at Zhao Chen with a grin, she said with a pout, "The Commander just loves to pick on Annie!"