Zhao Wan'er looked the ship over, top to bottom, with great care.
Then she turned to Zhao Chen, astonished. "This… this ship is put together out of those three… the T2 Hyena, the T2 Grey Wolf, and the T2 Devil-Croc?"
She'd worked out why the ship gave her that nagging sense of familiarity: its hull ran a full 90% similar to the hull of the T2 Devil-Croc-class Medium Interstellar Battleship.
The weapon modules mounted on it, meanwhile, closely resembled the weapon modules of the T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer. And besides that…
In a word, this ship carried far too many of the features of those three vessels.
"That's right." Zhao Chen owned to it, open and aboveboard.
The matter of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser still couldn't be spoken of — but that he'd assembled a ship himself was a thing there was no hiding. The ship warehouse had the redemption records, and once you added in that Zhao Chen would go on to duel Zhang Haoran with this very ship, anyone with eyes would put it together.
"You spent this whole past half-month here assembling this ship? Since when did you know the first thing about starship assembly?" Zhao Wan'er stared at Zhao Chen in disbelief.
To dismantle three ships and reassemble them into one — that was no easy task, and the most important thing of all was to make sure every last module of the resulting ship could actually be brought online!
Zhao Chen pointed at the ship and laughed. "I've got no end of secrets. Beyond the courses of our captaincy track, I've taught myself a bit of starship engineering on the side. And this is my very first starship. I've named her Blizzard Zero!"
Because to call her a stripped-down version of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser, and yet go on using the Blizzard name, sat a little wrong.
So Zhao Chen had simply set her apart with a name all her own — "Blizzard Zero."
"Blizzard… Zero?" Zhao Wan'er murmured the odd name over to herself. This thing that looked like an interstellar battleship, and also like an interstellar cruiser, and yet carried the styling of an interstellar destroyer too — just what in the world was it?
"Are you even sure it can actually start up? Zhao Chen, I know what you feel for Jiang Shasha. But that woman really isn't the one for you; don't go hanging yourself on this one tree. And you know full well the state our fief is in. It was all the two of us could do, on the last of the fief's savings, to make it into the Northstar Starship Academy — and only if we graduate is there any hope of reviving the fief. You don't want your title reclaimed by the empire either, do you! And if you're expelled… you… how will you face… the spirits of Mom and Dad in heaven! And Sister's sacrifice…" Zhao Wan'er glared at him, her voice thick with resentment.
Then Zhao Wan'er seized Zhao Chen by the wrist. "I'll go and ask my closest friend for help. She comes from an illustrious family; I'll have her step in and negotiate with Zhang Haoran to call the duel off."
But Zhao Wan'er found she couldn't budge Zhao Chen at all.
Instead, Zhao Chen stepped straight up and swept Zhao Wan'er off her feet, cradling her in his arms.
"You… what are you doing…" Zhao Wan'er's cheeks flushed red.
"Come see my ship." Without another word, Zhao Chen carried Zhao Wan'er off at a run toward the ship's hatch.
Through the somewhat aged corridors within the hull they went, until they reached the bridge — the place that served as this ship's "brain."
The bridge wasn't large, 100 square meters or so; and, the ship not yet started, it lay in pitch darkness.
Zhao Chen set Zhao Wan'er down, walked alone to the captain's chair, and seated himself, then laid his hand on the right armrest.
Highest authority detected…
Beginning identity verification…
Captain… Zhao Chen… identity verification complete…
A floating crystalline console rose up before Zhao Chen, and he pressed several of its keys.
Starship powering on…
Master control system powering on…
Energy system powering on… 10%… 30%… 60%…
As Zhao Chen formally brought the ship to life, the bridge's lighting flickered on, and the whole bridge grew bright.
And with it, this colossus began to wake!
Drive system running automatic diagnostics… diagnostics complete… operating well.
Weapon system running automatic diagnostics… diagnostics complete… operating well.
Starship………
One mechanical voice after another rang out across the bridge.
The first starship to belong to Zhao Chen had been formally roused to life!
All ship function modules operating normally. Ship energy reserve at 19%.
Zhao Chen pumped a delighted fist. For all the skill he carried, he honestly hadn't been able to guarantee it would work start to finish.
And against all expectation, it had come online on the very first try.
"It actually started…" Zhao Wan'er hadn't expected it either.
"How about it? Pretty impressive, isn't she?" Zhao Chen got down off the captain's chair and dropped a hand onto Zhao Wan'er's shoulder, easy as with a brother.
For all that the two of them were brother and sister, Zhao Wan'er's lifelong excellence meant that at times it was more as though she were the elder and he the younger.
Zhao Wan'er rolled her eyes. "So it can start — so what? What's its combat power? Whether it holds up in an actual fight is another question altogether. I've heard Zhang Haoran's ship is a T2. You're sure this cobbled-together thing of yours can beat it? Don't have it fall to pieces before the fight even starts."
"Little sis, why so little faith in your big brother? Never mind beating it — 10 minutes… 10 minutes is all I'll need to wreck that T2 of Zhang Haoran's!" Zhao Chen confidently crossed two fingers into the shape of a cross — the sign for 10.
"Pff… 10 minutes… how did I never notice before that you're so fond of bragging?" Zhao Wan'er shot him a sidelong look, not believing a word.
"Besides, this ship of yours hasn't a soul aboard it but you — not so much as a single crewman. How exactly do you plan to fight?"
Clap.
Zhao Chen struck his hands together all at once, his eyes lighting up. "How could I have forgotten that! No wonder — the whole time I was starting the ship, I kept feeling something was missing."
Zhao Wan'er put a hand to her head, thoroughly despairing of this brother of hers. "I really had better go talk it over with my friend, and figure out how to deal with this mess."
"Wan'er — where's the fastest place to turn up a crew?" Zhao Chen now looked to his little sister in earnest.
Refitting and dismantling ships, that he had a handle on.
But drag him into a matter like this, and Zhao Chen truly hadn't the first idea.
"You haven't even thought this much through, and you still wanted a starship duel?" Zhao Wan'er was left speechless. Still, she explained it for him. "Crew generally comes from three sources. The first is cadets from the academy's other departments — a starship military academy has, besides the captaincy track you and I are in, all manner of other specialized departments. The second channel is to recruit veterans mustered out of the imperial navy. Crew like that give no trouble in operation, but keeping such old campaigners on costs a fair bit of money. The third channel is crew from the less-than-reputable sort of source — people who used to work the gray trades, say: pirates, slaves, and the like. As it happens, the academy provides channels for crew recruitment too. Connect to the academy network with your ID card, and there's a dedicated channel up there."
Zhao Chen rubbed at his chin and asked, almost without thinking, "Which is cheapest?"
Zhao Wan'er rolled her eyes — though she knew well enough that Zhao Chen hadn't a coin to spare in his pockets.
"The cheapest would of course be slaves. These are generally prisoners of war, and among them are some who once piloted starships. But on account of loyalty and status, a great many people are none too willing to use slaves — at most they'll assign them the lowest sort of grunt work. Work on the bridge, now, that's still—" Even as Zhao Wan'er was speaking—
—Zhao Chen had already used his ID card to connect to the academy network, and there, in a crew-recruitment channel, tucked away in its remotest corner, he'd found the slave option.
He tapped it, and up came a whole string of slave listings.
Zhao Chen swept his eyes down the roll — and all at once his gaze fastened, unblinking, on the slave roster, for all the world as though he'd struck upon some hidden treasure!
"This one, then!" Without a moment's hesitation, Zhao Chen tapped a redemption option.
With his academy credits spent clean out, this time Zhao Chen paid from his own personal account.
"What did you… just do?" Watching Zhao Chen close the holographic interface with a thoroughly self-satisfied look on his face, Zhao Wan'er was seized by an ominous premonition.