"Commander-in-Chief? Commander-in-Chief?"
Only after Lilith had called him several times from beside him did Zhao Chen come back to himself.
"Commander-in-Chief? What is the matter with you? We have completed the interstellar jump." Lilith looked at Zhao Chen in surprise.
Zhao Chen rubbed at his own temples; his head felt heavy and clouded. "Where are we now?"
"By the arrangement laid down earlier, we are back in the Owl Dragon Star System, making ready to give the three Owl Dragon legion fleets a full refit and resupply. It is expected to take 10 hours, and we can then be committed once more to the frontal field," Lilith answered.
"Just now… before the jump — what did you see?" Zhao Chen looked round at them all.
"Ah? You mean that cosmic bug-nest. I seemed to see a T4 Hive Mothership come out at the time," Chu Xuan said.
"Yes! A T4 Hive Mothership. I had not thought it truly was a tier-4 cosmic bug-nest. If it is… permanent… truly… it is very hard to imagine what that star system will become hereafter." Lilith said it with worry.
Charlotte noticed something amiss in the Commander-in-Chief, and asked with concern, "Did you… see something else?"
Zhao Chen thought back on that vast eye he had seen before the jump — that eye which had seemed to be looking at him, and the terror of that feeling.
It was a feeling Zhao Chen had never known before; for the first time, Zhao Chen felt fear from the bottom of his heart.
Yet hearing what Lilith and the others said, none of them had seen that scene.
Could it be that he alone had seen it?
Merely a hallucination?
Zhao Chen opened his mouth, but the words came to his lips and he swallowed them down again.
The thing was too far beyond reason; and yet if he spoke of it, Lilith and the others would certainly take it to heart.
The matter of the Starlight Empire was the most important thing at present; because of this campaign before them, they had gone a very long time without proper rest.
He could not, over a thing he had seen and could not verify, leave them all uneasy in mind along with him.
"It is nothing — only that I may be too tired; my mind wandered a moment." Zhao Chen said it with a light laugh.
"Over this stretch the Commander-in-Chief has kept company with us throughout; in the five days past in the Snow-Swallow Star Region you have had no proper rest at all — you must be worn out. While there is this span of refitting, do go and rest properly, Commander-in-Chief." Lilith looked at Zhao Chen and said it thoughtfully.
Though most of the time Zhao Chen handed matters over to them to deal with—
near enough at every hour, so long as they were at work, Zhao Chen would quietly keep them company.
And it was because Zhao Chen was there upon the bridge that everyone had a drive to strive, a feeling of having a mainstay to lean on.
"Very well, I shall go and rest a while. Matters here are wholly in your charge, Lilith, Charlotte. And mind you — pass what we have learned of the hive-egg plan to Marshal Chu and the little princess and the rest. Remind them to have a care upon the field!" This time Zhao Chen did not refuse; his head truly did feel heavy and clouded, and most uncomfortable.
Since his body had been injected with the T4 super-soldier serum, he had never once felt so.
Zhao Chen rose and walked out of the bridge.
Charlotte watched the Commander-in-Chief's retreating back, then went up to Lilith and said a few words.
……
Stepping off the hover elevator and standing at the door of his own captain's quarters, a curtain of light swept over Zhao Chen.
The bedroom door opened of itself.
Zhao Chen dragged his weary body in and flung himself straight onto the bed.
"What service do you require, master?" the mechanical maid-doll beside him said.
Zhao Chen's eyes opened a crack.
It was a high-grade mechanical maid-doll; though it could not yet manage a human appearance, it used a human frame structure — only, to distinguish it from a human, its face was wholly of metal.
The rest of its build, though, took the curving lines of a human woman.
This was a living-assistance fitting carried aboard this T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Battleship.
"Scan my body," Zhao Chen murmured.
"Yes. Initiating medical scan program. Beginning scan…"
The mechanical maid-doll sent out a beam of light, scanning Zhao Chen from head to foot.
Half a minute later.
The mechanical maid-doll said, "Scan complete. This body's condition is exceedingly good; there is no problem whatever."
If the body had no problem, then this weariness came from his mind.
Was it truly that vast eye that had worked this upon him?
"By the comprehensive scan, master's mental state is poor. You may choose a steam sauna, massage, hot spring, acupuncture… and such means to relax body and mind," the mechanical maid-doll offered.
But it got no reply at all.
Because at this hour Zhao Chen's weariness left him without even the strength to speak.
But somehow, of a sudden, Zhao Chen felt himself lifted up by a hand of no small strength.
The hair on this hand… was very long… and it tickled…
And thereafter Zhao Chen felt the space about him grow exceedingly warm, which drew from him, quite beyond his own will, a groan of comfort.
"Aah—"
"If you're going to soak, then soak properly — what's this odd noise you're making. Mechanical maid, come and scrub him… never mind, I'll do it myself."
There seemed to be someone speaking at Zhao Chen's ear, but just now he was wholly sunk in this comfort, and had no wish to open his eyes, nor any will to speak.
Something began to move about upon him — a scrub here, a knead there.
The strength of it was quite fine, which drew comfortable sounds from Zhao Chen now and again.
Could it be some fairy elder sister looking after me?
That was the thought that rose in Zhao Chen's mind before he fell fully asleep.
There was no telling how long passed.
Zhao Chen felt his chin itch, and reached over to rub at it.
Strange — how is there so much fur?
Zhao Chen went on reaching over to feel at it.
Strange… I recall my own hair not being so luxuriant.
Though feeling further down, here it was exceedingly smooth and springy.
Suddenly—
Zhao Chen felt his body turn over in midair, and then come down heavily upon the floor.
Which brought Zhao Chen awake at once.
He was sprawled on the floor at this moment, backside in the air and head to the ground; he caught at the bedside beside him and slowly got up.
And now he saw a fair figure crouched on all fours upon the bed, the whole posture for all the world like a cat in a fury.
The clothes upon her were in utter disorder too — white fur in some places, smooth skin in others.
And in those places where there was fur, the fur was standing on end.
"Charlotte?"
Zhao Chen was given a start. Could it be that I made a night raid on Charlotte last night?
But looking round the room — was this not his own captain's quarters?
At which Zhao Chen at once got his blow in first, and asked Charlotte with a face full of innocence, "How is it you're in my room?"
"You… I…" Charlotte was dumbstruck on the instant; that furious posture of hers was like a ball with the air let out of it.
"My… where are the clothes off my body?" Zhao Chen looked at himself, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, and was more astonished still.
Charlotte's face reddened at a pace visible to the naked eye.
"What in the world happened last night?" Zhao Chen looked at Charlotte in bewilderment.
"Nothing whatever happened last night!" Charlotte said it on reflex.
"Master, I have 24 hours of video surveillance recording here; would you care to revi—"
The mechanical maid-doll beside them had not finished before its head was torn clean off by a pair of tiger's claws.
Leaving only the maid-doll's ruined body twitching upon the floor.
"Oh — so it was a robot. And here I thought it was some strange thing. Instinctive behavior. Instinctive behavior." Charlotte threw the doll's head aside, her gaze going off to one side, wearing the very picture of I did nothing at all, I am entirely innocent.