When Zhao Chen opened his eyes again, they'd already reached the outer region of Arctic Fox Starport; a few more minutes' sailing, and the starport would come into view.
Once the ship returned to normal sailing state, Zhao Chen first thing contacted that liaison, registry number CC11.
"Sir, you're back?" The woman covered her mouth, her eyes wide with surprise.
From this fleet's departure to its return had been under five hours, all told.
"Not welcome?" Zhao Chen teased.
"No… I… I didn't mean that… that is… the battle at asteroid P331…" the woman asked, some curiosity in her — a question that in fact ran against their reception rules, for they weren't permitted to pry into a client's affairs.
But because no detailed word had yet come back from asteroid P331 — perhaps her rank simply wasn't high enough to be told — she was curious: this "Black Dragon Fleet," which had accepted the bounty yet come back so soon, just what had it gone and done?
"The matter's been handled," Zhao Chen said mildly.
The matter's been handled?
So simple an answer left the woman more curious still.
"Renew my ship workshop for another month; then I need the raw materials on this list, all delivered within three days without fail. A portion of them are for repairing my ship; per the bounty terms, the hull damage and combat expenditure of this battle are all borne by the poster, and I've listed that part out separately." Zhao Chen sent over a materials list.
"This time's 1 million-star-coin materials bill, deduct it from my bounty; as for the shortfall, a sum of funds should arrive within a few days."
"Yes… of course…" the woman said.
The comm ended.
Just what in the world had happened?
The woman was left wondering — and just then a comm request came in, opening straight through without her assent.
It was an internal comm from the leadership.
The woman at once straightened her bearing, and saw, to her surprise, that the one on the far side of the video window was, of all people, the chief liaison of Arctic Fox Starport.
"You just received the Black Dragon Fleet, yes?" the starport chief liaison asked outright.
"Y… yes," the woman said.
"Did they make any requests?"
The woman relayed what Zhao Chen had said a moment ago.
"The one-month usage fee for the ship workshop — waive it for them. The materials order, arrange it within a day. And the bounty, along with another sum of funds, will reach this gentleman's account within 12 hours. You can send this gentleman a message," the starport chief liaison said gravely.
The woman was astonished within. Just what was this gentleman's standing, that the starport chief liaison should look into the matter personally — and mark every item of it for "priority handling"?
"From now on you're promoted to deputy head of the reception department. You can hand your other clients off to someone else; you're now to look after this gentleman's Black Dragon Fleet exclusively. Whatever they require, so long as it isn't excessive, satisfy it as best you can. What you can't satisfy, you may bring to me." the starport chief liaison instructed.
"Deputy head of the reception department?" The woman felt her head swim. Until now she'd been only an ordinary ship-reception staffer — a customer-service clerk, to put it plainly.
And now, all at once, deputy head of the reception department — a leap of several ranks.
"Th… thank… thank you, sir." The woman's speech came out halting now.
The starport chief liaison said, "If you'd thank anyone, thank your luck, for running into a client like this one."
"Um… sir… this Black Dragon Fleet… just what is their background? For you to treat it so gravely. Give me a hint, so I know to take care," the woman asked gingerly.
"Their background isn't yet clear — but they completed the bounty mission smoothly, and led the imperial-navy fleet through the safe-evacuation operation for asteroid P331," the starport chief liaison said in a low, heavy voice.
The woman drew a sharp breath. A mission a whole crowd of private fleets had refused, and he'd actually completed it.
She'd had some inkling of this before. But in the chief liaison's choice of words she caught a vital thread.
It was that they had led the imperial-navy fleet to complete the mission — not helped it, not assisted it.
Small as the difference between those three words might seem, the meanings were worlds apart.
"Assisted" would carry the sense of a little brother helping the big one.
"Helped" would mean the two sides on roughly equal footing.
But "led" meant that battle had had the Black Dragon Fleet as its core, with the imperial-navy fleet coordinating and supporting from the side!
"What's more, a great personage has inquired after the Black Dragon Fleet's information, and will be visiting our Arctic Fox Starport before long. That great personage is not one we can afford to trifle with; even were the Arctic Fox star system's own lord here, he'd have to wear a smile and see to them with all warmth," the starport chief liaison said, with some tension.
A personage the Arctic Fox star system's lord would have to smile and defer to?
The Arctic Fox star system's lord was a resounding imperial count — with hopes, even, of being enfeoffed a marquis within the next 10 years!
Someone whom even so great an imperial count must handle with such care and caution — and the Black Dragon Fleet had ties to such a personage besides.
The woman gulped.
"In any case, just look after this client with all your heart; anything at all, report it to me first thing," His piece said, the starport chief liaison cut the comm.
And at this moment, the Black Dragon Fleet's two ships had already sailed slowly into Arctic Fox Starport's field of view, being guided into their berths in the ship workshop.
The woman called up the video feed, and could see the two ships.
One a carrier starship of chiefly yellow hue, and one a ship of no clear class.
The latter was in some serious state: its whole bow crumpled, its hull pocked with holes as if struck by meteors, and along the port flank a scored trough of a mark stretching tens of meters long.
This, in fact, was the wound left when it had scraped past that T2 Hive Mothership.
"Just what in the world did this go through?" the woman murmured.
……
The two ships sailed into the workshop berths; the T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship still lay berthed where it had been, and better than 100 beast-folk crewwomen without formal posts stood in ranks to welcome them home.
"Whew…" Watching the ships berth safely, Lilith let out a long breath.
After years of flight, this was the first time she'd taken part in an interstellar battle in the role of a ship's secretary — and a battle against the interstellar hive-race, no less.
Composed as she'd seemed on the surface earlier, within she'd been quite tense.
Now that it had come to a rest, the heart she'd held suspended could at last be set down.
"Arrange treatment for Blizzard Zero's wounded; if any are gravely hurt, use the starport's treatment pods, the cost borne by the fleet. And set the T2 Iron-Hammer to work — repair Blizzard Zero's hull, and at the same time build the interstellar drones the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship lost, to restore the T2 Queen Bee's combat readiness as fast as possible. This I'll see to personally; you assist." No sooner had Zhao Chen arrived than he set about assigning the tasks.