The Qian family's main planet.
Family Head Qian Feng sat in the principal seat with his face gone iron-grey, and before him stood several subordinates with their heads lowered and no better color to them.
"Report — three more of our planetary industrial bases have come under attack and lost comm contact!"
"Report — the planetary industrial base charged with building starship energy blocks has lost contact! The losses are heavy, and it affects the delivery of our orders."
"Report — the squad of 30 interstellar warships we sent out to investigate has lost contact!"
"Report — one of our starships reached the first planet to go silent, and found… found that every slave upon it was gone!"
Several more subordinates came hurrying in, and reported three more wretched pieces of news at once.
Family Head Qian Feng's face was iron-grey. He looked at the map of the Qian family's several star systems before him, and could see one glowing red area after another — those being the areas attacked, or out of contact.
And now he had learned besides that the slaves he kept had been carried off by somebody.
To the Qian family, slaves were wealth.
Which came to cutting the flesh off the Qian family's own body!
"Who in the end is it! Who in the end has done this! Who is setting himself against our Qian family?" Family Head Qian Feng roared.
"Clan head, I… I suspect it has to do with that Little Skeleton interstellar destroyer that attacked us before," one of the subordinates said at this point.
The Little Skeleton.
At the hearing of that name, the veins stood out on Family Head Qian Feng's forehead.
Over this stretch of time he had been looking into the business of this destroyer called the Little Skeleton without pause.
But the model of that destroyer had never once appeared anywhere!
As though this had been its very first showing.
"Report, clan head. The Stellar Tavern has just sent word back; by the intelligence we purchased, these attackers may have some connection with the Chu family. And as for the reason for the attacks, it is that we plundered people from within the Chu River Star Region." One of the Qian family's people came running in.
"The Chu family!" Something shook in Family Head Qian Feng.
He had not thought it should have anything to do with the Chu family.
"Father, the most important thing before us now is to stop this business spreading further within our own territory. There are no few of our orders sitting on those industrial planets, and if the orders cannot be completed, the penalties for breach are the lesser matter. But those two great clients' orders… are not so simple a business as a penalty," Qian Dafu put in from the side.
Family Head Qian Feng knit his brows; what his son said was the crux of it.
Those two great clients' order requirements were what mattered most.
There could be no slip in them at all.
"Dafu, go and see to it at once. The next three batches of slave transports going to those two places are to have no trouble of any kind. They must be delivered into the other parties' hands on time and in full!" Family Head Qian Feng said gravely.
For this touched the Qian family's standing within the Stellar Alliance.
"Yes!" Qian Dafu took the order.
Family Head Qian Feng drew a deep breath and looked at that map of the Qian family's systems, so full of wounds.
To get this situation under control was an easy thing to speak of and far too hard to do.
The enemy were killers hidden in the dark, and possessed very strong fighting ability besides; their Qian family was simply no match for them.
"Father, if you are anxious that our Qian family's military strength falls short — that it isn't enough to answer the Chu family's fury— then perhaps we might borrow a blade to do the killing!" Qian Dafu spoke up now to remind him.
Family Head Qian Feng looked at his son with narrowed eyes.
Qian Dafu brought out five words. "The Sacred Lancer Legion."
Family Head Qian Feng's eyes lit. The Sacred Lancer Legion was one of the Holy Radiance Empire's Ten Great Sacred-Light Legions; and if their help could truly be had, those posturing clowns could be swept up clean at any hour.
"But… the Sacred Lancer Legion would never take orders from us." Family Head Qian Feng knit his brows.
Qian Dafu said with a cold laugh, "Father, do not forget what we merchants are best at. Is it not the tongue? And what is the Sacred Lancer Legion's purpose in coming to the Stellar Alliance this time? We need only, in the middle of it—"
Family Head Qian Feng stopped his son from going on. "I know what is to be done."
At this hour there was a light in Family Head Qian Feng's eyes like a hawk's.
Hmph. The Chu family… you are very strong in the Starlight Empire.
But this is the Stellar Alliance, and this time I shall certainly make you pay the price.
Strong as you may be — can you be a match for the Sacred Lancer Legion?
"You may all withdraw." Family Head Qian Feng dismissed them.
And when there was no one left in the whole hall but Family Head Qian Feng himself, he settled his feelings, rose, and put his clothing in order.
And then opened his most secret comm program, and tapped one of the accounts in it.
And left a voice message.
"The Qian family head. There is an urgent matter to discuss."
Family Head Qian Feng waited several minutes, and then a video window appeared before him.
On the other side was the background of a bridge of surpassing brightness, and a Sacred Spirit man with a haughty expression sat in the captain's chair.
"Qian Feng. What business have you?"
Family Head Qian Feng bowed slightly, in a posture of the greatest deference. "The fault of troubling my lord commander is mine. But… Qian has truly no other course. I'll not hide it from my lord commander: there is at present a party who seem to have learned my lord's purpose in coming to the Stellar Alliance this time, and who have sent a great number of warships to attack our Qian family's territory and gather the relevant leads. But we of the Qian family have fought to the last drop of blood, and would sooner die than yield. For all that, our Qian family is in the end no more than a house of interstellar merchants, and is somewhat wanting in military strength. And I still dare not guarantee that great matter my lord means next to do! Besides which, this party appear to be the Chu family's fleet… and my lord knows that the Chu family is at war with my lord's own partner."
The Sacred Spirit commander on the other side knit his brows. "What? The Starlight Empire's Chu family is looking into our business?"
"Yes… and so… Qian makes bold to ask that my lord's Sacred Lancer Legion take the field. Let my lord's Sacred Lancer Legion only be willing to sweep away these fleets of the Chu family's, and it must be as easy as reaching out a hand. And besides… I suspect that whoever carried Saint Cana off in Stellar City before was this very same party! And if the lords of the Saint-Disciple family learn that all these matters have been dealt with clean by my lord, they will surely praise my lord's ability!" Family Head Qian Feng did not forget, at this point, to paint a great cake for this Sacred Spirit commander.
And at the same time to lay Saint Cana's disappearance at this party's door, which could only add to the appeal.
Only Family Head Qian Feng did not know that he had, of all things, struck the mark by a crooked shot.
Sure enough, on hearing this—
this Sacred Spirit commander's interest was roused at once.
"You are quite right. I must destroy a latent danger while it is still in the bud. That woman Saint Cana — if blame must fall, let it fall on her for looking into what she ought not to have looked into." The Sacred Spirit commander said it with a cold laugh.
Just so: the attack upon Saint Cana in Stellar City had been the doing of this commander of the Sacred Lancer Legion and the Qian family behind it.
"But this Chu family crew's whereabouts are unknown at present. And I can hardly stay forever in the Stellar Alliance. Once that matter is seen to, my Sacred Lancer Legion must be on its way back." The Sacred Spirit commander said it with knitted brows.
Family Head Qian Feng said at once, "Of that my lord need have no care. I shall have that crew walk into the net of themselves — and then my lord need only—"
Hearing Family Head Qian Feng's plan, the Sacred Spirit commander nodded. "Not bad. Then it shall be done as you say. But upon one point: it must not affect my own proper business."
"There will absolutely be no effect upon it!" Family Head Qian Feng guaranteed it with every vow he had.
The Sacred Spirit commander's eyes turned suddenly keen upon Family Head Qian Feng. "And besides… is this not making a blade of me and my Sacred Lancer Legion?"
Family Head Qian Feng's whole body stiffened for an instant; he gulped, and said at once, "How could that be? We are friends — and I have even prepared some gifts especially for my lord."
"Gifts I like." The Sacred Spirit commander showed a smile of perfect understanding.
Family Head Qian Feng could only bear this fresh hemorrhage of money in silence.