Zhao Chen looked at the succubi before him, some of them near breaking down.
He knew his purpose was achieved.
In truth, they could have borne the dark — so long as they'd never once seen the light.
But Zhao Chen had brought them aboard the ship and given them a blessed life beyond anything they could have imagined.
That was the ray of light Zhao Chen had cast into their once-pitch-black lives — and now his words meant that light was to vanish.
For them, it was cruel.
"As it happens, if you don't wish to leave, you needn't leave," Zhao Chen said mildly.
In that instant, the 18 succubi present all turned as one to look at Zhao Chen — and even in Lilith's eyes there was a kind of yearning.
"You can become my crew, just like the beast-folk crewwomen. And fight for me," Zhao Chen said.
Lilith was stunned; she'd never imagined the choice would be this. To fight for a human — it was a thing she'd never once considered.
For in human eyes, the succubi had never been interstellar warriors — only playthings for a man's release.
"I'll give you time to think it over. You may finish this meal. If you choose freedom, then leave by the canteen's rear door; someone will be there to arrange your passage to any planet or starport you wish. If you wish to stay here, then go to the canteen's front door; someone there will register your information, and from that moment you will be crew of mine, Zhao Chen's," His piece said, Zhao Chen wiped his mouth, rose, and left the canteen outright.
The choice he had given these succubi.
And the answer, in truth, he already knew.
No sooner had Zhao Chen gone than the little succubus Bessie, without a word, wiped away her tears and ran for the front door.
Whatever it took, she would stay; and if she couldn't stay here, she'd sooner die!
The other succubi, one after another, made for the front door as well.
"Sister Lilith, let's stay…" Another succubus, seeing that Lilith had said nothing all this while, came forward and took her hand, urging her.
Lilith bit lightly at her lip — and soon enough, her heart eased.
All this while she'd thought only of freedom.
But once outside, what then? Just as the little succubus Bessie had said — go on hiding here and there? Go on living meal to meal, never sure of the next?
"You go on first; I'll be along shortly." Lilith stroked the succubus's head, then walked quickly off in the direction Zhao Chen had gone.
Walking the ship's corridor, Zhao Chen heard the footsteps behind him, and knew: he had succeeded.
"Wait a moment," Lilith called Zhao Chen to a halt and planted herself in his path.
"Something the matter?" Zhao Chen asked.
Lilith fixed her eyes on him. "Just what is your aim? To lure us with a life of comfort — what is it you want from us? Only to make us your interstellar soldiers?"
"My aim you've already said yourself." Zhao Chen shrugged.
Lilith looked at him doubtfully.
Zhao Chen knew that unless he gave Lilith a satisfying answer, she'd never be truly convinced.
"I won't hide it from you — my fleet has only just been formed, only two ships, near 800 interstellar soldiers all told, and every last one a beast-folk. The beast-folk have no trouble crewing a ship in battle, but at managing a ship's internal affairs, and the affairs of a fleet, they simply won't do. I lack talent. And the succubus race is talent of exactly that kind. Of course, I'll be putting you through assessment and training afterward." Zhao Chen laid out his thinking.
"You… what you truly value… isn't our bodies… but our abilities?" Lilith was somewhat astonished; she'd never imagined there was still anyone who remembered the succubi's innate gifts.
"You're lovely, and alluring. But I don't force anyone to do what they don't wish to do — and by the same token, should you choose to leave, I won't stop you," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
This, too, was the plain truth.
Lilith bit lightly at her lip. "Then you know — if you recruit us, and word gets out that there are succubi serving aboard your ship, how much trouble that will bring you and your fleet!"
"Trouble?" Zhao Chen gave a slight smile, and then, without anger, authority came into his voice. "If anyone dares come making trouble for my crew, then I'll become the greatest trouble of their life!"
Zhao Chen had every good quality — and only one failing.
He was fiercely protective of his own!
"You really are a strange man — but you've persuaded me all the same." Lilith looked at Zhao Chen. "I'm willing to work for you. Though I can't yet claim to be absolutely loyal to you."
Zhao Chen laughed. "I don't need your loyalty; I need only that you're willing to work here with a true and honest heart — for all of us, and for your own lives, too."
In truth Zhao Chen cared nothing for loyalty or the lack of it. He needed only to wait until they had truly grown used to, accepted, settled into life here.
By then loyalty and the rest would no longer matter — because they'd simply be unable to leave any of it behind.
Zhao Chen had given them the light; he was their light.
And so, of course, they would come to follow the light.
"Then what do we do next?" Lilith slipped into the role quickly.
Zhao Chen tossed Lilith a handheld terminal. "There are some study materials inside; take them and study together with your people. In a month, I'll put you through an assessment. That assessment will decide the rank of the posts you hold in my fleet. To put it plainly — it decides your standard of living here from now on, whether you eat meat at every meal or not."
Lilith took the handheld terminal and laughed. "On the strength of that last explanation alone, I'm certain they'll all study whatever's inside it, and study it well."
Study?
Study was the very thing the succubi did best.
Having settled the matter of the succubi for now, Zhao Chen returned once more to the T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship's build bay.
The T2 Iron-Hammer's keel was laid now, but to see the whole of it built out would take a good long stretch of time yet.
"The Quarterly Mission is three different classes of T2 ship. Right now I've got the one T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship in hand. Add this T2 Iron-Hammer, and to finish the mission before the end of December, I'll have to build one more T2-tier ship besides." Zhao Chen had no wish to miss out on a Quarterly Mission with so rich a reward.
……
Within Arctic Fox Starport, in the underground conduit from which Zhao Chen had earlier carried off the succubi.
A band of men, sweeping searchlights before them, groped their way here, and found the corpses in the conduit, along with the traces of people having lived here.
A young man, a hand over his nose, looked around him in disgust.
"Big brother, we've found Rat and the others' bodies. Half of them died of heavy blows to the body; the other half look to have been gravely wounded and then had their throats cut outright. Whoever did it was thoroughly decisive! And there's no sign of the target succubi." A subordinate came before the man and reported.
"I did wonder why Rat and the rest had dropped out of sight these past days — turns out they met their end here. And the succubi we've been after are gone too — that was a task our Black Fox Society's chairman drummed into us again and again. And the leads on them cost us a good few thousand star coins to come by! Just who is it that dares, in Arctic Fox Starport, to snatch the food from our Black Fox Society's mouth!" A cold light flashed in the young man's eyes. "Search for me! Send people to comb every exit of this stretch of conduit for leads. Find out for me, without fail, who it was that carried off those succubi!"