Half a human face; the other half of the head a mechanical structure, with a mechanical prosthetic eye besides.
Had an outsider seen this face, he would certainly have been astonished.
For though in this present cosmic age some people, according to their needs, will remake certain organs or limbs in mechanical form, to this day no technology for a mechanical head has been developed.
At the Doctor's being in such a state, Qin Xiaotian took no notice at all, as though he had long grown used to the sight.
Qin Xiaotian raised a hand and brought up a star chart.
"Doctor, our situation now is rather bad. But I believe that, leaning on your technology, we still have the means to turn the board over. Have we not the hive-egg technology in hand? We can loose these several hive-eggs, one each, upon the North Wind Star Region, the Chu River Star Region, and the Starlight Central Star Region. And we ourselves, leaning on the troops that remain, withdraw to the Pegasus Star Region. And there, with the Pegasus Star Region as our base, we muster our forces anew! Those hive-eggs we loose can make trouble for Qin Xiaolei, Chu Changhe, and Zhao Chen and the rest, so that they cannot be in two places at once and have no leisure to mind us. What do you think of my plan, Doctor! And if it will not serve, then make a further quantity of the hive-race spore-virus, and loose some upon the North Wind Star Region and the Chu River Star Region!"
Qin Xiaotian's eyes were full of bloodshot threads, but his spirits ran high.
By the look of it, he had been turning this plan over a long while.
"Your Majesty, you are too tired. You need rest," the Doctor said gravely.
"I cannot rest now; in half a month at the most, the Imperial Capital Star will fall. We must make our answer ready!" Qin Xiaotian said, gesturing wildly.
"No. You truly do need rest. And this war you have already lost. To do any more of this is wholly without meaning." The Doctor's eyes rested upon Qin Xiaotian.
Qin Xiaotian was taken aback; the Doctor's words seemed to touch the scale that lies backward, and he roared in hysteria, "Impossible! It is impossible that I have lost! I still have the imperial military; I still have the hive-race fleets; I still have you, Doctor! It is impossible that I should lose! I can still come back in force."
The Doctor drew back a few slow paces, and the gaze he turned on Qin Xiaotian was full of cold and mockery.
"You have lost utterly. The more so as I shall not help you further. I have completed the great bulk of my research; to me you have lost your value." The Doctor said it mildly.
Qin Xiaotian was still looking at the Doctor in bewilderment.
In the next second Qin Xiaotian felt a pain at his neck, and thereafter his whole body went soft, and he collapsed to the floor without strength.
He saw a very small mechanical bug crawl down from off his body, creep slowly up the Doctor's foot, and vanish into the black robe.
"You… you… what do you mean to do?" Qin Xiaotian glared at the Doctor.
"A thing that has lost its value is as rubbish; and rubbish, of course, is to be cleared away." The Doctor put out a mechanical arm from beneath the black robe, and within that mechanical arm was a small phial.
The phial's cap opened, and a swarm of small black bugs flew out, flying toward Qin Xiaotian.
"No… no… don't come near… don't come near!" Qin Xiaotian cried in terror. "Guards! Guards! To the Emperor — come to the Emperor, quickly!"
"Aaaah…"
Qin Xiaotian's cries carried out of the great hall.
But not one guard came in from beyond it.
Because at this hour, within this imperial city, there was no living person left at all.
Even those staff officers who had gone out a moment before were now nothing but bones strewn upon the ground.
The Doctor walked at a slow pace out of the great hall and looked upon the silent imperial city.
He put his hood on once more, and thereafter explosions broke out throughout the imperial city, flame and thick smoke covering the greater part of it at once.
There was no telling what manner of flame this was; even the automatic fire-suppression equipment could not, of all things, put it out.
This great fire burned a full day through.
The whole imperial city was reduced to ruins.
Those who came afterward to investigate found above 10,000 sets of remains, and among them they found one whose DNA was Qin Xiaotian's.
And soon the news that Qin Xiaotian had passed away in the imperial city's fire spread throughout the Starlight Empire.
No one had imagined that the Starlight Empire's second civil war would come to its pause in such a fashion as this.
Because of Qin Xiaotian's death, the defensive lines remaining in the Starlight Central Star Region collapsed utterly.
Zhao Chen had originally reckoned it might want half a month, or even a month, to clear the whole Starlight Central Star Region.
And in the end, before June was out—
a T4 Blue-Eyes White Dragon-class Heavy Interstellar Armored Battleship hung in the sky above the Imperial Capital Star.
At this hour a shuttle entered the Imperial Capital Star's atmosphere and hovered above the burnt-out imperial city.
"The imperial city caught fire, and tens of thousands died; of some, remains were found, and of others not even remains. What can be established is that Qin Xiaotian is dead." Lilith stood at Zhao Chen's side, looking through the viewport at the ruins of the imperial city after the blaze.
"The imperial city caught fire… Chu Xuan, do you believe it?" Zhao Chen looked down upon the ruined city below.
Chu Xuan rolled her eyes. "This is 3034, not 2034. Had you said an explosion, I might believe you. A fire? Burning down a whole imperial city? You would do better to tell me outright that a volcano suddenly rose up beneath the imperial city — that would carry more credibility."
"Lilith, has any trace been found of this so-called Doctor?" Zhao Chen asked.
Lilith shook her head. "Since our people took over the Imperial Capital Star, we have worked every channel, but we have found no information whatever concerning this Doctor. It is as though… it had been deleted by human hands."
"And the hive-eggs? Qin Longcheng said before that this Doctor built 10 in one batch; one was used in the Snow-Swallow Star Region, so nine remain," Zhao Chen asked.
"Not a word of news."
Zhao Chen knit his brows.
Over this stretch of the advance into the Starlight Central Star Region, the one thing Zhao Chen had worried over was those nine hive-eggs.
Indeed, to guard against Qin Xiaotian's biting back like a cornered dog, he had scattered great numbers of interstellar scouts across the North Wind Star Region and the Chu River Star Region.
And yet from the remaining nine hive-eggs there had not been the least stir.
And now Qin Xiaotian was dead, and that mysterious Doctor's whereabouts were unknown.
The whole of it was too uncanny.
Uncanny enough to leave one deeply uneasy.
"My guess is that this imperial-city fire was in all likelihood the Doctor's doing. He killed Qin Xiaotian, whom he had finished using, and then deleted every scrap of information about himself, along with certain records of hive-race technology," Chu Xuan said, working it through.
Zhao Chen knit his brows. "Then what in the world is this Doctor's purpose?"
Lilith and Chu Xuan both had no words.
Just so. This Doctor, who had fanned the flames at Qin Xiaotian's back — what in the world was his purpose?
This was a riddle.
And it would, at a guess, be a riddle that hung about the hearts of Zhao Chen and the rest for a very long time to come.
Unless this Doctor were found, or unless this Doctor appeared once more, the riddle would remain.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Zhao Chen's handheld terminal put out a video window.
On the far side was his eldest sister, Zhao Ruyue.
"Little brother, Her Highness the Princess means to convene a conference next month to settle what follows; the Starlight Empire's situation, after these two civil wars, does not admit of optimism. And before that, Her Highness hopes she may talk with you, and discuss the governance and development of the Starlight Empire to come."
"Understood. Send me a position and I shall come over at once." Zhao Chen knew it was time he had his share of this pie that was the Starlight Empire.
And at this hour, no few people were, at a guess, keeping their eyes fixed upon this Owl Dragon lord.