Every interstellar warship has a training ground of its own, chiefly for the crew's daily training.
Though in this age of interstellar war it is starship against starship.
Every interstellar warship still keeps several squads of interstellar marines aboard, to meet any sudden case.
And these crew need a training ground of this kind.
It can even be used for simulated training in combat mechas.
Zhao Chen looked at the plate reading No.1 Training Ground at the door, and walked over.
Whereupon a projection of light appeared before him.
Scanning identity; determining whether identity for application to use the training ground is held.
The mechanical voice sounded.
Identity scan complete: highest authority. You may use No.1 Training Ground at your pleasure.
The great door opened, revealing the training ground within.
"Let no one else come in," said Zhao Chen.
Yes, the projection answered.
Zhao Chen walked slowly into this No.1 Training Ground, and the great door came slowly down.
Time went by little by little.
Though a thick wall stood between, one seemed faintly to hear the sound of some heavy thing striking.
As it happened, at this time a figure was riding a hovering elevator past the place.
Bang.
This time, the sound of that impact could be heard clearly out in the corridor.
The hovering elevator, which had already passed by, came back under its rider's control.
A graceful figure stepped down.
Lilith looked doubtfully at the door of No.1 Training Ground before her.
She had heard some stir just now; and though it is ordinary enough for there to be noise within a training ground.
Bear in mind that it was wartime now, and every crew member should be at her own combat post; how should anyone come to train at such an hour?
And besides, the sixth sense Lilith had as a succubus told her that within this wall something was happening that concerned her very much.
Lilith walked up to the door of No.1 Training Ground.
That projection of light appeared once more.
The training ground is in use.
The mechanical voice sounded.
"Who is using the training ground?" Lilith demanded.
Forgive me; your authority cannot query that.
The mechanical voice sounded.
Lilith knit her brows. No authority to query?
How should that be possible!
Bang.
Of a sudden a spiderweb of cracks appeared upon the wall beside her, and some fragments even fell to the floor.
The place that bulged outward stood at least 10 centimeters proud!
Lilith's pupils shifted slightly; she grew wary on the instant, and a miniature laser pistol appeared in her hand — for as Secretary she would not, upon the face of it, carry a weapon.
But a weapon is a thing one could hardly go without!
"I ask you: who is inside!" Lilith held her fighting stance, her eyes fixed dead upon the door of No.1 Training Ground.
Forgive me; your authority cannot query that.
"Open the door. I am going in!"
Forgive me; your authority—
At this Lilith, out of patience, simply raised a hand; a virtual page appeared, and thereafter a virtual token.
Highest-authority permission detected.
The mechanical voice sounded.
This was the highest authority Zhao Chen had prepared for Lilith, very nearly identical with his own, though with certain limits upon it; so that short of a necessary moment, Lilith would not unlock and use it.
At this hour, once the artificial intelligence of this No.1 Training Ground had detected this authority, it lifted its restrictions upon Lilith.
"Open the door!" Lilith said sharply, and at the same time sent an order to the bridge, calling for people to come at once; the nearest interstellar marines were on their way besides.
But as the great door opened.
Lilith saw a figure she had never looked for.
The once clean and orderly No.1 Training Ground was at this hour one field of rubble, its former shape past all recognition.
And amid the rubble a figure stood swaying, his body hanging forward, both hands clutching his own head, his upper garment gone.
One could see the chest with its veins swollen, the eyes bloodshot and the wits gone out of them.
Even in a state so frenzied as this, Lilith knew him at the first instant.
The Commander!
"Commander!" Lilith, perceiving that something was wrong with the Commander, cried out at once.
But Zhao Chen, hearing the sound, was as though he had found prey; in the blink of an eye he was before Lilith.
And just as Zhao Chen's hand, like so much talon, was about to fall upon Lilith's face, it stopped.
"Get out!" Zhao Chen roared, and thereafter his body began to draw back.
"Commander, what in the world is wrong with you? What has happened?" Lilith, careless of the danger she stood in, drew nearer the Commander even as she asked it.
This time Zhao Chen did not speak; he raised his eyes once more, and in them was nothing but savagery.
But this time Lilith was prepared.
She used her succubus's innate gift, and reached directly into Zhao Chen's consciousness.
She could feel that the Commander's pain did not come from his body, but from his consciousness.
Though she did not know what had caused it, if the Commander's consciousness could be soothed, that should have some effect.
However it might be, Lilith could not stand and watch the Commander so.
And Lilith's innate gift did indeed have its effect.
The look of pain upon Zhao Chen's face faded by degrees, and the savagery went out of his eyes.
But Lilith at this hour was bathed in a fragrant sweat, for she could feel that the Commander's space of consciousness was in utter disorder, filled with feelings of every ill kind.
She could hardly hold this disordered consciousness still for long; yet were she to leave it be, she dared not warrant that the Commander would come to no harm.
At this point, something occurred to Lilith of a sudden.
What the Commander's loss of control had shown just now was savagery and slaughter.
Could she then alter that feeling?
Lilith found a thread of opportunity, and began to try to shape within the Commander's space of consciousness a dream.
Wherein were numberless graceful fairy-maidens, their garments like gauze, bewitching and lovely.
In this moment another feeling began to appear in Zhao Chen's eyes, and this feeling was the hotter of the two.
But Lilith was easier in her mind — at the least the Commander would not bear too great a pressure of feeling this way.
But the next second, Lilith was borne to the floor.
Like some beast worrying at a little white rabbit.
Lilith had supposed that by reaching into the Commander's space of consciousness she might ease his loss of control there within, and let the Commander have a fair dream.
But she had never thought this case of the Commander's would be so grave that, though his consciousness was brought under control, his body should still act upon its first and rawest desire.
And now Lilith had no way whatever to stop it.
She bit lightly at her red lips and slowly closed her eyes.
And at the same time sent an order to the bodyguards and interstellar marines hurrying here, that they return to their posts and need come no further.
Thereafter.
Lilith called out in a faint voice, with a thread of panting in it, "Close… close the great door. Without… without leave, none is to come in!"
That projection of light answered slowly, "Yes."
The hatch of No.1 Training Ground closed — and closed away with it that boundless spring.