Returned to her own captain's quarters, Saint Cana had no leisure to turn the thing over.
She opened the communication channel at once.
Soon a man appeared within the communication window.
The man wore a faint smile, and looked Saint Cana up and down. "By the look of it Miss Saint Cana has passed this stretch well enough? There is flesh upon your face."
Saint Cana threw him a rolled eye. "Did you contact me only to ask me such things, Your Excellency the Owl Dragon lord?"
Just so.
The one contacting Saint Cana at this hour was precisely Zhao Chen.
"Can it be that Miss Saint Cana has no wish to see me?" Zhao Chen shrugged and asked.
Saint Cana wasted no more time with Zhao Chen, and threw out her own question first. "I hear you have a T5-grade interstellar warship."
"What — has Miss Saint Cana lost her employment, and come looking for new work? Were it you, I could arrange the post of deputy captain. The pay and conditions would assuredly exceed what you had over in the Holy Radiance Empire."
"If you mean only to joke with me, then there is no need for us to talk further," Saint Cana said.
But Zhao Chen said with a smile, "I am rather in earnest too. I know your present position in the Holy Radiance Empire, and I know of the unjust treatment you met with before. You warned that crew of the Holy Radiance Empire early on about the Disciple family's private research into hive-race technology. And if I have not guessed wrongly, this appearance of a permanent Grade-5 cosmic bug-nest — nine times in ten the Disciple family cannot wash their hands of it. But I would guess that even with the proofs of guilt conclusive, your Imperial Senate will not pursue the Disciple family's responsibility. Whereas you, General Saint Cana, who bravely exposed that evil and darkness, went before an imperial military tribunal — suspended, and even placed under house arrest. And your Sacred Angel family too were affected by the business. And now? When disaster comes upon your Empire, that crew think of you again, and have you come out and lead the Sacred Angel Legion to deal with the hole they poked themselves."
Saint Cana cut Zhao Chen's words short, and said gravely, "What you say is all of it true. But even so, I will not abandon the Sacred-Spirit people at such a time. The ones at fault are only the Disciple family and the Imperial Senate — not the Empire's common people."
At Saint Cana's answer Zhao Chen was in fact unsurprised.
The two of them had not been long acquainted, but a person of Saint Cana's kind is in a certain degree 'simple,' and very easy to understand.
Which was perhaps also why Zhao Chen was willing to have dealings with her.
"Then do you hold that, in the Holy Radiance Empire's present condition, you can deal with a permanent Grade-5 cosmic bug-nest? For I know that to deal with one T5 Hive Mothership you lost what may be called three Sacred-Light Legions, and near 100,000 interstellar warships. Great though your Holy Radiance Empire's house and estate may be. How many more Sacred-Light Legions can you throw in? How many more hundred-thousands of interstellar warships can you lose?" Zhao Chen returned.
Saint Cana fell silent.
To speak honestly, she had no confidence about this situation in her own heart either.
"I believe that under the Sacred Light's protection we can assuredly protect the Holy Radiance Empire's people!" Saint Cana said stubbornly.
Zhao Chen heaved a long sigh. "You foolish child. While you are thinking of fighting for the Empire, for its people. There may already be those who are thinking of slipping away, and finding somewhere new to open up the map."
Saint Cana was taken aback, and then understood Zhao Chen's meaning.
Her expression shifted; her fists clenched. She wished to refute Zhao Chen's words, and yet seemed… wholly unable to refute them.
"Have you had some word?" Saint Cana fixed her eyes upon Zhao Chen.
From Zhao Chen's contacting her and knowing the Holy Radiance Empire's state of war, Saint Cana had guessed that Zhao Chen had laid a considerable network of intelligence within the Holy Radiance Empire.
Zhao Chen said carelessly, "My people tell me. That the powers headed by the Disciple family have already begun mustering great quantities of resources, and have requisitioned near enough every interstellar transport to be found, and begun quietly loading certain industrial installations. Perhaps, while there is only one T5 Hive Mothership, you still have that confidence of yours that you can give it battle. But if a second appears next, and a third, and a fourth? What do you suppose that crew will do? Go on carrying their family estates here and fighting a battle with no chance of victory? Or take the resources in their hands and go off to develop some other patch of the universe?"
Saint Cana's fists clenched tight; in her heart she already believed that what Zhao Chen said might indeed come to pass.
"Then why have you contacted me at all? Only to tell me these things? Or is it that you would have me be as that crew are — see the case turn ill, abandon everything here, and come over to you? If that is so, then I can tell you now. I and my Sacred Angel Legion will assuredly never turn our backs upon these stars! That is my oath to the Sacred Light." Saint Cana said it unshakably.
A thread of admiration flickered in Zhao Chen's eyes. He had not chosen wrongly.
Zhao Chen folded his hands across his chest and said mildly, "Were you willing to come over to me, I should of course not refuse; but that is not my purpose in seeking you out. Though my relations with the Holy Radiance Empire are poor at present. I would still rather have you crew of arrogant Sacred-Spirit people for neighbors than a pack of bugs who would invade me at any moment."
"You mean to help us?" There was some excitement in Saint Cana's tone.
If, in this hive-race disaster, Saint Cana had felt hope faint before.
Then upon learning that the Owl Dragon Legion held a T5 interstellar warship, she had thought of another hope.
A hope held in this man's hands.
"I am willing to help you. But I will not help my enemies." Zhao Chen said it serene as a light cloud in a calm wind.
Saint Cana knit her brows; these words of Zhao Chen's left her somewhat confused.
What did it mean, willing to help you, but will not help my enemies?
"The Disciple family are my enemies. The Imperial Senate that sent an expeditionary force to the Warhammer against the Owl Dragon Legion are my enemies. Do you take my meaning?" Zhao Chen looked at Saint Cana with a faint smile.
Saint Cana knit her brows. "You mean to… take control of the Holy Radiance Empire?"
Zhao Chen shook his head. "Controlling the Holy Radiance Empire is far too much trouble; I dislike trouble. But if the one controlling the Holy Radiance Empire were a friend of mine, then I should naturally be very glad to help."
A friend of mine?
Saint Cana heard the overtone within the words.
But it left her much torn within as well; this… seemed to be a betrayal of her own Empire.
"I know this is hard to decide. I can give you time to consider; you may contact me at any moment."
Zhao Chen stretched himself, and then looked at Saint Cana opposite with a smile. "But my friend — your people have not so much time."
As the words fell, the window went black.
Saint Cana sat there blankly. That conversation had left her feeling that this man, whom she had once thought wholly unremarkable, was at this hour looking down upon her from a height she had never known before.
And the decision she must next make would decide her fate.