Annie came back to herself, and felt that her face rather hurt.
For she had been grinning foolishly a moment ago, and however Zhao Chen called her it had answered nothing; so Zhao Chen could only pat Annie's cheeks to bring her round, and had left them red with it.
"Commander-in-Chief… I… can I truly be a lord? And… and the Golden Eden…" Annie looked at him with longing eyes, and asked it eagerly.
"There's no difficulty in it at all. For one as able as our Annie — never mind lordship over a few planets; in future even leading a star system or a star region would be more than within her reach." Zhao Chen was not the least sparing in his praise.
A few words in any case, and nothing to pay out for it.
Though should Annie truly bring those things off, every promise Zhao Chen had just made would be kept as well.
As to whether Annie could serve as a lord — her father was the dwarf clan's chieftain, and those dwarves could hardly live forever in a temporary settlement zone.
Use Annie's planets to settle those dwarves, and let Annie's father govern them.
And then use Annie's own Bronze Eden, Silver Eden and Golden Eden to feed them.
Which meant Zhao Chen need lay out no money whatever from first to last, nor even trouble himself to manage it, and would come by a body of excellent interstellar artisans.
The corner of Zhao Chen's mouth could not help twitching at it; but this was no hour to let what was in his mind show, and he held his expression in as best he could — which was truly a hard business.
"Then Annie will try!" Annie said in earnest.
"Good. Put your strength into it!" Zhao Chen encouraged her with great gravity.
"You've eaten your fill; I'll have someone clear this food away." Zhao Chen looked at the sugar-coated artillery left on the table.
Annie stopped him at once, and said, "There's no need to clear this food away. I'll rest… rest 10 minutes."
Zhao Chen glanced at Annie's belly, and out of kindness reminded Annie to measure her own strength.
He had no wish to see tomorrow's Owl Dragon headline read that a certain chief engineer had eaten herself to death.
Zhao Chen left the canteen; and coming to a transparent corridor, he gazed out at several brand-new warships beyond the viewport.
Annie had taken him round them all a short while ago, but looking now, there was excitement in him still.
Three warship classes chiefly had come into service this time.
Of which the smallest in bulk was one whose form was nothing like a regular battle-shaped warship, but rather like a jellyfish spread open.
That was the T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship.
In future it would take over from the T3 Silver-Rat-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship, and carry more important tasks of battlefield reconnaissance.
500 million star coins the ship; built by a T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship, some twelve a month could be produced.
It was at present the only T4-grade interstellar scout ship in the Galactic Alliance, and the finest stealth scout ship there was.
Besides its outstanding reconnaissance performance, it carried a small number of weapon modules besides, and could beat the great majority of T3-grade interstellar destroyers.
And facing the great majority of T4 warships, its short-range acceleration and its stealth function let it hide itself and slip away exactly as it pleased.
For instance: of the most advanced anti-stealth equipment known in the Galactic Alliance, the sort that can be mounted upon a starship simply cannot find this Banshee at all, unless at very close range.
And as for the anti-stealth equipment set upon planets, satellites, star-ports and stations, this Banshee can catch the anti-stealth signal in advance and steer clear of it.
Indeed, this T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ship has a further particular mode: shutting down above nine tenths of the ship's performance and running the stealth module alone.
Keeping itself in the state of an unpowered meteor, with a chance of evading any known anti-stealth equipment whatever!
Stealth capability as formidable as this was fitted to that T4 Shadow-Demon-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bomber Zhao Chen had lately given Annie as well.
Zhao Chen's gaze moved across, and came to an 'island'.
Just so: from a distance that was what it looked like — an island.
Or one might say an island of stars.
For all the world like an island sunk within a ball of glass.
That was the T4 Golden Eden-class Starship; 10 billion star coins the ship, and built by a T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship it could be finished in two months.
One such Golden Eden could produce, in a single month, 5 billion star coins' worth of natural crops, livestock, fruit and the rest.
Enough to meet the ordinary dietary wants of 5 billion people!
And what it produced was of very high quality besides, for all the height of the yield!
The specially supplied ingredients now reserved to Zhao Chen were all of them borne by the Golden Eden-class Starships.
And that layer of what looked like a glass ball was in fact its dome, and could be opened and closed.
Opened, it made the splendid scene of an island of stars as now; closed, it looked like the most ordinary asteroid imaginable.
So that it could hide its own existence — two birds with one stone.
And when Zhao Chen's gaze moved to the last of them, his breathing quickened, and the look in his eyes grew hot past all measure.
So that Zhao Chen felt even a dryness in his mouth and throat.
For that was the lead ship of the T4 Hell-Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship!
Here was an engine of slaughter indeed; 50 billion star coins the ship, and by ordinary building it would want 10 months' work from one T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship.
But under Zhao Chen's earlier requirement, Annie had worked overtime and arranged several T4 Geminis to press on with it together.
And it had come off the line and been finished only a few days ago!
At the thought that upon this rare creature there were 360,000-odd interstellar missiles.
To be exact, 376,100 interstellar missiles of the various models.
But Zhao Chen felt the figure 360,000 rather the luckier — 12, and all things smooth.
So Zhao Chen had mentioned to Lilith that the exact figure might be given to his own officers and men, but that in any declaration made outward hereafter, 360,000 missiles was to be used throughout.
Who, in any case, would be idle enough to count whether it came to 360,000 or 370?
It was a bare 10,000 more, no matter.
Not important. Not important.
Because this T4 Hell-Angel-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship was truly so costly to build, and the building time so long—
it would be very hard to build and commission them in quantity over any short span; so that special fleet Zhao Chen had established for Baixue earlier would still rest chiefly upon the T3 Judicator-class Heavy Interstellar Missile Ship.
And this would be Baixue's flagship in time to come. She would surely be well satisfied with a flagship of this kind.
Everything that wanted setting out was set out.
The building program for the T5 Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought was about to open as well; as to when at last it could be finished, that depended on how many T4 Geminis could be freed up to put into the program.
For the Starlight Empire's civil war stood at its height just now, and the regular warships that wanted building had to be built all the same.
"And we can't simply wait about either. It's about time this turtle Qin Xiaotian, with his head drawn in, was dealt with for good." Zhao Chen put both hands in his pockets and walked slowly on along that transparent corridor.