Better to erupt in the silence than to perish in it!
Annie went over to Nana's side with a sob in her voice. "Nana, don't be taken in by this big spider. She's come to steal our jobs!"
"Steal your jobs?" Hearing this, Nana looked at Annie skeptically. "Who did you hear say so?"
"I… I…" Annie was at once at a loss for words. It seemed that from the moment the Commander-in-Chief appeared here with this big spider, nothing of the kind had in fact been said.
"Sis, is your persecution complex starting up again? Mom said before that your crisis instinct was far too severe and told you to go see a psychologist, and you just wouldn't listen." Nana at this point comforted Annie for all the world like an elder sister.
And produced from her pocket besides a lollipop, tore the wrapper open, and held it out before Annie.
Annie took the lollipop, licked at it, and her brows unknotted a good deal.
Zhao Chen beside them, taking in this scene, could see that Nana had a well-practiced routine for handling her own elder sister.
Nana was no glutton, nor particularly fond of snacks; so the lollipop she carried about her was naturally kept ready for Annie.
"And this business of stealing jobs you speak of is wholly without grounds. Why should the Commander-in-Chief drive you out? Merely because Sister Iris and her people have come? Think it over properly for yourself: is our industrial system not already overloaded where the technical trades are concerned? Even with the Goddess Academy training up talent— the speed of our expansion, and the speed at which the starship production plan is enlarging, go far past the number of technical engineers we now have. I raised this problem with the Commander-in-Chief a while ago. If this supply cannot be obtained from outside, then very soon there will be a serious problem in the order of our industrial production. The Commander-in-Chief assured me he would settle it within three months. I never thought the Commander-in-Chief would go and find the Spider Queen tribe of all people! With the Spider Queen tribe joining, do you know by how much our pressure can be eased? And unlike us interstellar dwarves, the Spider Queen tribe's racial numbers are exceedingly great."
Spider Queen Iris said mildly from beside them, "As of the present, our Spider Queen tribe numbers 130 billion in all. Our Spider Queen tribe has males too; but we are a matriarchal society, and the male spiders serve more in the role of bottom-tier workers — greater in number, and not high in intelligence, so they can hardly take on industrial production tasks of middling or high difficulty. As for a place like your Owl Dragon Legion here… I seem to recall the recruitment condition is that one must be female, yes? We answer the requirement exactly. We can supply somewhere around 10 billion junior and intermediate technical engineers."
10 billion?
This was no very enormous figure, granted; but for the Owl Dragon star system, and for the Owl Dragon star system's production industry, it was without question 'talent fallen from heaven.'
Combine that with the Spider Queen race's formidable gift for industrial production — one spider serving for several dwarf artisans—
and it could without question carry the Owl Dragon star system's industrial production apparatus a single enormous stride forward.
Having heard all this, Annie looked at Spider Queen Iris pitifully. "You truly aren't here to steal… Annie's… job?"
Spider Queen Iris could not keep from laughing. "Why should I steal your job? I have looked into the interstellar dwarves. You too have very fine industrial production ability, but your gift lies more on the side of research and development, and of exceedingly precise industrial production work. Our Spider Queen tribe's efficiency is high, granted; but on the production and manufacture of certain precision links there are problems of no small size. Research and development I have had a hand in as well; our Spider Queen tribe has an advanced R&D department of its own, but its efficiency is poor. And to speak honestly, I prefer the production and manufacturing process. To watch interstellar warship after interstellar warship, brand new and radiating charm, produced and built by my own hands. I love that feeling."
"Then… then what did you mean by what you said just now?" Annie pouted.
Spider Queen Iris covered her mouth and laughed softly. "Because before we came, my lord said that his chief engineer was a person of very strong technical ability, but rather slow in other respects. And that if we should be working together in future, he hoped I might make some allowance for her. And the feeling you give me is for all the world like the children of our clan who haven't grown up yet — very adorable. So I couldn't help wanting to tease you a little."
"I… I am not a child who hasn't grown up!" Annie put both hands on her hips, but looked down at her own chest with some misgiving.
And comforted herself: there was growing to come yet.
"Very well; the joking is finished. Next we shall go on to another place. Lilith, Nana, make the arrangements. We are going to Platform No. 0117," Zhao Chen instructed.
Hearing this arrangement, Lilith's expression shifted a little; she went over to Zhao Chen's side and said in a low voice, "Commander-in-Chief. What is under way at Platform No. 0117 is a project of the highest grade of secrecy; taking them there… would that not be… somewhat unsuitable?"
"Carry out my arrangement," Zhao Chen said again.
Though Lilith had some misgivings, she knew that once the Commander-in-Chief's order was spoken a second time, he was in earnest, and it brooked no contradiction.
"Please come with us." Lilith and Nana led the way in front.
While Annie and Spider Queen Iris fell into conversation, and Spider Queen Iris talked over with Annie besides some happy visions of working together in future.
It had to be said, Spider Queen Iris truly was very good at 'coaxing children.'
She had simply to say that if she could join hereafter, she would take charge of the whole of the supervision of production and manufacture, and Annie need only settle the broad production tasks from inside her office.
At which Annie's eyes lit up outright.
The harpy Avina, meanwhile, went on like an invisible woman, following along with the party, her presence exceedingly faint.
Zhao Chen's gaze swept over Spider Queen Iris and the harpy Avina; and within his sight, above these two heads there stood in fact a line of figures.
Spider Queen Iris: win-over index 80%
Harpy Avina: win-over index 60%
This was presumably an incidental function of that System task, allowing Zhao Chen to see the index of the targets to be won over.
For all that Spider Queen Iris was very much interested in the Owl Dragon star system now, none of this had yet truly brought Spider Queen Iris to a willing and sincere submission.
Which was why Zhao Chen had expressly arranged the itinerary that came next.
He had already made ready the two trump cards that followed.
They could without question take both Spider Queen Iris and the harpy Avina.
"Commander-in-Chief, how was it you knew just now that I'd been eating crayfish?" Annie turned her head and asked it, suddenly curious.
"There was no trace of it on your mouth — but your mouth reeked of crayfish." Zhao Chen rolled his eyes.
Annie understood all at once: so that was where the road had gone wrong. She would have to mind it next time.
The several of them stepped aboard a mini shuttle, for the T4 Gemini-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship was exceedingly vast, and going on foot would certainly not do; even a hover lift could not meet the required efficiency of passage.
And so this mini shuttle existed, which could rapidly convey people within the industrial ship to their target point.
Half a minute later.
The mini shuttle slowed and came to a hover.
Which meant that Zhao Chen and the rest had arrived at their destination.
Spider Queen Iris — who a moment ago had been chatting and laughing with Annie, and whom Annie now regarded as a thigh worth clinging to — had her gaze drawn by the interstellar warship outside a viewport on one side.
That should not be called an interstellar warship; to put it precisely, it was an interstellar warship not yet completed.
One could even see its keel.
But that hull was exceedingly vast!
Vaster than any she had ever seen; and even unfinished, Spider Queen Iris's instinct told her all the same that this interstellar warship… was out of the common run.
"What is this?" Spider Queen Iris's breath came fast, and her eyes were bloodshot as she looked to Zhao Chen.
The harpy Avina cast a curious look over as well; she had never seen so awe-inspiring an interstellar warship.
Merely to look at it was to feel a terrible weight of presence.
"The Hades-class Interstellar Dreadnought." And having spoken this name, Zhao Chen added two characters more.