Zhao Chen sent the request a third time, and this time made use of his Commander's permissions. This could connect the comm directly, with no need for the crew member's consent. Of course, Zhao Chen was still exceedingly "courteous," and gave a 10-second comm prompt-tone — its content being, beyond doubt, that prompt-tone of the "a Commander's comm is about to be patched in" sort.
The video comm was, this time, "connected."
Within the picture appeared the upper-body image of Chief Engineer Annie — Chief Engineer Annie, drenched in sweat from head to toe, clad in work clothes, with an interstellar-industrial-ship workshop behind her.
"Huff, huff, huff… Lord Commander, what put it into your head to contact me at a time like this?" Chief Engineer Annie looked at Zhao Chen with a rather shifty, dodging gaze, both hands placed behind her back.
This girl had surely done something with a guilty conscience.
"Where are you right now?" Zhao Chen inquired at his leisure, unhurried and methodical, while at the same time quietly opening up Chief Engineer Annie's location. This was a setting every important crew member of the Owl Dragon Legion had.
"I'm hard at work at my post, of course! Commander, look — this head of mine, all soaked in sweat; it's truly working Annie half to death. But for the sake of the Lord Commander's grand and mighty enterprise, Annie is willing to be ground to powder and dashed to bits, to run front and back, with never a complaint nor a regret!" Annie put on a whole posture of I'm-working-so-hard.
Zhao Chen shot a glance at Chief Engineer Annie's location, called up off to the side. It showed: T3 Silver Eden No. 5 ship.
Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes and looked at Chief Engineer Annie opposite with a smile. "Is that so? Then I really must take a good look at our Chief Engineer Annie's work post!"
With that, Zhao Chen used his own permissions to directly pull back the camera of Annie's side of the video comm, magnifying the video scene several times over.
Lilith, off to the side, could clearly see Chief Engineer Annie's expression go from the panic of the first moment, to anxiety, and at last to a guilty conscience. Because Chief Engineer Annie, in the picture at this moment, still had her work clothes on her upper body — but her lower body had, exposed, a swim-skirt. Beside her was a barbecue grill, upon which were, moreover, laid out several grilled fish; and on the other side was the scenic, beautiful surface of a lake, with, along the bank, picnic mats, sun-loungers, and other such leisure-and-recreation gear laid out. This difference of scene made the interstellar-industrial-ship workshop scene behind Chief Engineer Annie look all the more jarringly out of place. Observe closely, and one would discover, in Chief Engineer Annie's hand, a small ball. It was a holographic projection device.
"Our Chief Engineer Annie's working environment is real~ly~ ni~ce~" Zhao Chen said, looking at Annie with a smiling, narrowed gaze.
Annie, at this moment, on the contrary looked at Zhao Chen in terror, and gulped.
She was done for… done for…
Annie was finished…
Was there still time for Annie to grab the bucket and make a run for it?
……
Half an hour later.
"This is the outline of this quarter's construction plan Annie just drew up; Lilith, have a look — is there any problem with it?" Zhao Chen passed an electronic document to Lilith at his side. What was set forth upon it was the construction plans for July, August, and September. Because of the T4 Reviver-class Clone-Human Starship's completion, the production capacity of five T3 Furnaces had been freed straight up. This made the production capacity of the coming three months greatly increased! And at Zhao Chen's requirement, this quarter would build, to a large degree, more combat interstellar warships. And, after Chief Engineer Annie's calculations, a construction scheme of just this kind had, in the end, been arrived at.
Over the coming three months, there would be built, rolled off the line, and put into service:
One T4 Lucent-class Interstellar Jump Ship, two T3 Imperials, five T3 Phantom Assassins, 10 T3 Blizzards, 150 T3 Triceratops, 10 T3 Great White Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport Ships, and five T3 Silver Edens.
A total of 183 interstellar warships to be produced! And, moreover, all of them uniformly T3 interstellar warships, of which combat-type interstellar warships occupied 90%! This would raise the strength of the Owl Dragon Legion's fleet by a large stride!
Of course, behind so large-scale a construction plan, the raw materials to be consumed were likewise terrifying in the extreme.
"This production plan is estimated to consume 7 billion star coins' worth of raw materials. Of the funds and raw materials on our Owl Dragon Legion's books, there remain 4 billion star coins' worth of funds and raw materials; the shortfall is around 3 billion." Lilith quickly arrived at the figures.
Zhao Chen said straight out, "This shortfall — we'll draw it and transfer it over from the Northern Goose Group's reserve funds. I'll get in contact with Li Yaqi directly, and have her transfer over to us, straight off, 5 billion star coins' worth of raw-material resources — going by Chitong's transport channel from before, and using, as it happens, our T3 Great White Whales once they enter service."
Now that Zhao Chen held 91% share in the Northern Goose Group, never mind mobilizing 90% of the funds — even if, right now, Zhao Chen wanted to transfer away the whole of the funds, by all estimates Li Yaqi wouldn't dare breathe half a word of "no." What was more, now that there were 500 T2 Iron Hammers — though the final payment on the arms-purchase order still had to wait until all the interstellar warships were delivered, the final payments on the other clients' orders were entering the Northern Goose account one after another. And so, to draw these 5 billion star coins' worth of raw-material resources was, for Northern Goose, no great matter.
"Yes." Lilith noted this matter down.
"Our Chief Engineer Annie is quite the capable one, after all — this work's been done very well indeed!" Zhao Chen said, looking with a note of praise at Chief Engineer Annie beside him.
Chief Engineer Annie, all grime-faced and dust-covered, looked at Zhao Chen lying on the sun-lounger. "Then, can Annie be allowed to…"
"The matter of your sneaking off here to take a 'vacation' — that I won't call you to account for. But as the punishment for your not calling us along, you first satisfy our stomachs, and only then may you rest — and mind you, before we've eaten our fill, no sneaky nibbling on the sly, mm! First grill me 10 skewers of kidneys." Zhao Chen put on a pair of sunglasses and lounged, at his leisure, on the sun-lounger.
This girl had sneaked off out here to play, and hadn't so much as called them along!
Annie, with a face fit to weep, didn't dare let the movements of her hands go idle for so much as an instant; at this moment she was hemmed in on every side by barbecue grills — she simply had no chance to rest at all. Apart from Zhao Chen, Charlotte, Zhao Wan'er, and the rest had all been invited to the scene by Zhao Chen under the name of team-building; every one of them, clad in swimwear, was frolicking about in the lake. The scenery was superb.
Charlotte, dressed in a white swimsuit, came running up out of the lake, both arms clutching a bighead carp that came up to half her own height, and tossed it down by Annie's feet. "Annie, help me grill this fish — put cumin on this one. I'll go down and catch a few more; the next one… what flavor should I do?" Charlotte muttered as she went, then, with another plop, leapt back into the water. Though she wasn't overly fond of water, there were fish she was fond of within it!
Annie, on the verge of collapse, looked at that "giant fish" that could all but swallow her down in a single gulp — and wanted to weep, but was without tears.
"There, there, Annie. Let me lend you a hand." Sis Bull, at this point, walked over with a caring warmth, and stroked Annie's head.
"Sis Bull… I just knew you're the very best…" Annie plunged headlong into Sis Bull's bosom, her whole head buried within.
Her stomach, at this moment, gave an aggrieved growl too.
Who could have imagined that she, on her first sneaky vacation, would, of all things, be reduced to a beast of labor… wu-wu-wu.