"There was really no need to make so grand a to-do of it — I only came to have a casual look around." Zhao Chen glanced at the beast-folk walking beside him, the captain and dean of the Goddess Academy-class ship.
Atop her head sat a pair of small round ears; around her eye sockets ran a ring of black, with fair, pale skin everywhere else, until at the neck the black skin appeared again; and at her rear peeked out a little tuft of white tail. Her lower half wore a hip-hugging skirt, and beneath that skirt was a wholly natural set of "black stockings." Mind you — this "black stocking" was not that "black stocking"; for it was the black down of Dean Xiong Xiangxiang's own body, which, glimpsed from afar, truly did look very like a pair of black stockings. As for whether the rest of her was white or black — Zhao Chen was curious enough, but there was, alas, no seeing it.
This dean, one Xiong Xiangxiang, was of the beast-folk panda clan. By Charlotte's account, this was a rather ancient people, possessed of a great store of knowledge and exceedingly gifted at study — reckoned the star scholars among the beast-folk peoples! Which was why Zhao Chen had appointed her both captain and dean of the Goddess Academy.
That scene just now had been a welcome ceremony Dean Xiong Xiangxiang had specially prepared for Zhao Chen. But to speak the truth, it had genuinely given Zhao Chen a fright. Zhao Chen might have found it rather pleasant to be watched by one girl, or two, or a dozen. But picture being watched by thousands upon thousands of women — that was genuinely uncomfortable. There was ever a feeling of being prey marked out by hunters. Zhao Chen had, indeed, more than once caught some of the girls sneaking photos of him; as for what those stolen shots went on to be used for, that was known only to the girls themselves. Though it was said that some days later, someone in the academy began selling so-called private snapshots of the Commander… And the trouble was, the sales weren't half bad!
"The main thing was that the cadets unanimously asked for it — the cadets truly do revere you." Dean Xiong Xiangxiang looked at Commander Zhao Chen and explained.
"I can understand that, but studies must still come first. Take me around and show me how things stand in the academy — and while you're at it, tell me about how things are here, and whether you've run into any trouble," Zhao Chen said.
"Of course."
Zhao Chen followed Dean Xiong Xiangxiang on a walk through the academy. Called an academy, it seemed to Zhao Chen more an academy-city, really — for here everything one could want was on hand, and every need of daily life provided for too. But what left one truly marveling were the teaching facilities.
Just now Zhao Chen stood in a simulated ship-combat room. Here, cadets could carry out simulated-warship combat study, which included every interstellar warship in the Owl Dragon Fleet's current active service. This ensured that, once graduated, the cadets could slot swiftly into their posts aboard the ships in service.
"That's more or less the state of things at our Goddess Academy. As of now, the Goddess Academy has been running a little over a month. Because the Owl Dragon Fleet hasn't been short of recruits during this stretch, our training standard is that one must reach the standard of a senior interstellar crew member to graduate. As it stands, this batch will let us supply the Owl Dragon Fleet with 3,000 senior interstellar crew, their ability the equal of 11-year veteran in the Empire's military service. The one thing they may lack is real combat experience; though the simulated-warship curriculum allows for repeated star-battle training, it's no match, in the end, for the real thing. But I believe that once we've let them go through a single true engagement, they'll break their cocoons and take wing as butterflies!" Dean Xiong Xiangxiang said with unshakeable conviction.
"I believe in all of you too," Zhao Chen praised.
He noticed that the new recruits studying here had, in their eyes, a kind of light — a conviction, a hope. It wasn't that the Northstar Academy had none of its own such cadets, but they'd been very few. Only a small handful of cadets — the likes of Shen Bing — had carried this sort of aura.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Just then, the handheld terminal Zhao Chen carried flashed.
"Forgive me — I have a few matters to see to on my end." Zhao Chen looked at Dean Xiong Xiangxiang and spoke.
"By all means," With that, Dean Xiong Xiangxiang, taking the hint most tactfully, withdrew to a distance.
Zhao Chen tapped open the handheld terminal, and a video-comm request window popped up.
Your private contact "Li Yaqi" requests a video comm with you. Accept?
Li Yaqi, reaching out to him at a time like this? Then it had to be something of great importance — for he'd once told her not to contact him in the ordinary way, if it were nothing important.
Zhao Chen tapped to accept. A video window soon appeared.
"Commander, please — save Chitong!" Li Yaqi looked at Zhao Chen, her whole face taut with alarm.
Chitong?
Zhao Chen asked, "What's happened to Chitong? Don't be anxious — tell me slowly!"
By the look of it, the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company's "lateness" this time had genuinely run into some trouble.
"It's like this — Chitong sent me a message calling for aid just a moment ago…" Li Yaqi began to lay out how it had come about.
Originally the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company had smoothly procured this last batch of raw-material goods and had been on the road toward the Owl Dragon System. And within this transport fleet, Chitong had smuggled along a lot of "private goods." Chitong's Bloody Mary Mercenary Company had pulled off a "black-eats-black" job — waylaying a fleet of interstellar transports carrying slaves for sale. She'd then hidden all those slaves aboard her own interstellar warships, meaning, after she'd delivered Zhao Chen's batch of goods, to carry the slaves smoothly out of Starlight Empire territory on her return voyage. But who'd have thought that, somehow, the enemy had actually pinpointed the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company's location, and a fleet many times the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company's size had thrown a cordon around them, hunting and blockading.
Left with no choice, Chitong could only send Li Yaqi this comm. In truth she wasn't looking to be rescued, either — rather, to let Li Yaqi know of the matter, and to have Li Yaqi pass along her apologies to Zhao Chen, saying that on this last batch of goods she might have to break the contract.
"Chitong loathes the slave trade, so every so often she'll strike some interstellar fleet in the slave-trading business and free the slaves. As this went on and on, some interstellar powers who deal specially in slaves came to have their eye on Chitong. But Chitong, trusting to her own familiarity with the interstellar fringe space, had always come through smoothly. Who'd have imagined this time she'd actually… actually be run down and cornered by the enemy. That she could send out a message like this… it means her situation has already come to where even she herself sees no hope of escape. I… I truly don't know what to do… I know you and Chitong are only in a cooperative relationship… there's no need to risk yourself for her sake… But… but I really don't know what else to do… she's one of my few friends…" Li Yaqi spoke with a sob in her throat, her eyes red and swollen — utterly stripped of that strong-woman bearing the outside world knew her by.
"There now, don't cry. This runny-nosed weeping doesn't look at all like President Li. I understand the matter; I'll find a way to deal with it. Do you have the coordinates from when the Bloody Mary Mercenary Company sent you the message?" Zhao Chen asked.
"I… I do! I'll send them over to you right away…" Li Yaqi said, over and over.
"Then you wait well for word from me." Zhao Chen cut the comm and walked toward Dean Xiong Xiangxiang in the distance. "Dean, forgive me — something's come up on my end and I must leave first."
"Of course — see to your affairs," Dean Xiong Xiangxiang said.
Zhao Chen returned to his own shuttle and at once headed back to the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser. By this time, Zhao Chen had received the data Li Yaqi sent over as well. The coordinates from Chitong's last comm were, of all things, right within the North Wind Star Region — only, situated in a patch of interstellar fringe space.
Zhao Chen at once got hold of Lilith. "Lilith, put the T3 Blizzard on combat-readiness status at once — we have an operation. Someone's dared to lay hands on our Owl Dragon Fleet's goods!"