Zhao Chen rode his shuttle in and berthed within the hangar of a T4 Giant Whale-class Heavy Interstellar Transport.
Thereafter he took a hovering elevator and entered the ship's holds.
And very soon he saw a colossal thing.
This was the captured hull wreck of a T4 Keen-Blade-class Light Interstellar Interceptor; and by its outward look, its completeness was fairly high.
In order to hold this T4 Keen-Blade-class Light Interstellar Interceptor, this interstellar transport had had its cargo holds, formerly partitioned one from another, thrown all into one.
Which was what allowed this wrecked starship to lie whole within.
The hovering elevator carried Zhao Chen to a working platform erected against this T4 Keen-Blade-class Light Interstellar Interceptor's belly.
There was an opening there.
The hovering elevator settled.
"Commander-in-Chief." Lilith, wearing an industrial mask and protective suit, came up before Zhao Chen and handed him an identical set.
"You have looked within already?" Zhao Chen asked as he changed his clothes.
Lilith nodded. "We went in and made a preliminary inspection… there is no danger, but there are some things it may still be needful for you to see yourself, Commander-in-Chief. And you are the most thoroughly versed among us here in starship technology."
Zhao Chen nodded. He put on the protective suit, and went in wearing the mask.
The inner structure of this T4 Keen-Blade-class Light Interstellar Interceptor was in the main much the same as a regular mechanical-structure interstellar warship's, save that there might be certain differences in the notions of the design.
Lilith led the Commander-in-Chief straight toward this T4 Keen-Blade-class Light Interstellar Interceptor's energy core region.
"Commander-in-Chief, you… had best prepare yourself somewhat in mind." As they were about to cross a great doorway, Lilith stopped and gave Zhao Chen this reminder.
Zhao Chen nodded.
And when he crossed that doorway, he understood why Lilith had given that reminder.
The sight before him was exceedingly grand, and it crept upon the flesh.
This was an exceedingly vast energy core system — exceeding in bulk, indeed, the core energy system built into any T4-grade interstellar warship of the Owl Dragon line.
It was divided as a whole into an outer wall and an inner core.
The outer wall was for all the world a structure of honeycomb briquettes; but within these honeycomb cells there were besides certain 'small buds of flesh.'
These 'small buds of flesh' were in fact this energy core system's fuel.
Seen from a distance, it could assuredly set a numbness crawling in a man's heart.
And the sufferers of the fear of holes above all.
Zhao Chen swept his eyes over it in a first survey: of this apparatus alone there were here at the least several hundred thousand.
Which is to say that this interstellar warship relied upon several hundred thousand intelligent lives to furnish the starship's energy.
That inner core system in the middle amounted to a great pool — or say rather a thing after the manner of an energy converter.
It converted the energy drawn off from these 'intelligent creatures' into the energy this starship required, and then transmitted it to this interstellar warship's several modules, whereby this interstellar warship could be set working.
"Upon our restoration of this interstellar warship's damaged database, we obtained certain materials. These things they call cultivation pods. Within the pod, by way of those lines, energy is drawn from the brain of the intelligent life; and the liquid within these pods furnishes these intelligent lives their most basic needs of life. The biological energy drawn off is gathered into the central core and used for the starship's energy needs. Besides the creatures you see within these cultivation pods, there are within this interstellar warship's energy stores besides near 1 million packages of 'biological energy' already made up. Once the intelligent creature within a cultivation pod loses its value utterly, it is replaced with fresh 'biological energy,'" said Lilith.
Zhao Chen walked up before several cultivation pods. Within them there were humanoid creatures worn to skin and bone, and humanoid creatures that looked like children.
Their eyes were shut fast, as though they had fallen into a deep sleep.
And upon their bodies, tubes of every kind were thrust in.
"Can they not be woken?" Zhao Chen asked.
"We have made the attempt, but all of them failed. Upon our medical personnel's inquiry. These living bodies, which the Demon Race call 'biological energy,' were injected with a certain drug before ever being carried aboard this interstellar warship, which puts them into a state after the manner of a 'vegetative patient'; their bodies cannot move at all. And once they enter one of these cultivation pods, it signifies that their lives have entered upon a countdown. Once they leave the cultivation pod, these intelligent living bodies suffer brain death in the shortest time. Even relying upon our most advanced medical technology, there is no possibility of saving them. As for those 'vegetative patients' that have not yet gone into a cultivation pod, they too can hardly be woken again." Lilith looked at these cultivation pods past all counting, her tone somewhat helpless.
"The brain of a living creature is the most marvelous structure a living creature has. It gives us the capacity for thought, and it is by that that we were able to evolve a civilization. And at the same time it can produce energy in a form past crediting. But this is a forbidden field of technology. The brain is mighty, and it is fragile besides. Any least alteration may bring about consequences that can never be effaced." Zhao Chen's gaze passed over these cultivation pods.
He knew now why in the end Lilith had called him here.
How these living bodies were to be dealt with was a hard problem.
And only he, as Commander-in-Chief, could make the decision.
"Pass down my order. All these living bodies within the Demon Race's interstellar warships are to be dealt with by cremation, and the ashes after cremation scattered into space. At the least, let them not be tormented and ravaged by others after death; let them obtain… a last freedom." Having said it, Zhao Chen turned about outright and walked out of that place.
Looking upon these things from a third party's standpoint alone, Zhao Chen in fact felt no great stir within him.
But at the thought that these things would be done within his own star region, and to his own people.
An anger past all suppressing drove straight up into Zhao Chen's skull.
He would assuredly never let such a thing come to pass!
Never!
"Besides which, upon that matter Leona reported to us earlier, which took place upon the field. By Leona's account, while she was fighting that Demon Race fleet we afterward annihilated to the last. Three Demon Race fleets suddenly appeared, for all the world as though out of empty air, and assaulted her fleets from the rear. She suspects the Demon Race fleets possess some manner of hull-cloaking capability." Lilith, following behind Zhao Chen, made her report upon this further matter.
Of this matter Zhao Chen knew as well.
Starship cloaking is not in itself too difficult a technology.
Zhao Chen's own T4 Shadow-Demon-class Light Interstellar Stealth Bombers and T4 Banshee-class Light Interstellar Stealth Scout Ships, for instance, all possess the hull-cloaking function.
But to have every interstellar warship of a whole fleet fitted with that function would be far too wasteful.
The value for the price is not high.
"And the result of the investigation?" Zhao Chen inquired.
Lilith answered, "We have found that the Demon Race in fact have one further T4-grade interstellar warship. It has one special capability, which is to perform, within a certain compass, a mass cloaking of its own fleet!"