Knock, knock, knock.
A knocking came from outside the door.
"Who is it?"
The knocking sounded again all the same.
"What is it? Do you not know I am resting today? If you have business, go and find Nana." Annie went toward the door in her impatience.
The door was opened; and at the instant she saw the figure outside it.
Annie's pupils widened, as though she had seen some flood or savage beast, and she made at once to shut the door.
Slap.
A hand caught the door frame.
Annie set her teeth; the veins stood out upon her neck and her eyes went round.
She even took the handle in both hands together.
But the door did not stir a hair.
After half a minute's laboring.
Annie let go as though resigned to her fate, and leaned upon the wall, panting.
"What are you doing?" came the voice of the one outside.
Annie drew a deep breath, and put on at once a face of ingratiating smiles. "Why — it is the Commander. You gave me a fright; just now I thought I was walking in my sleep and had seen a monster. Forgive me, forgive me."
The one standing outside was Commander Zhao Chen.
"How is it you have come so suddenly? And without a word beforehand." Annie asked it in her curiosity.
Zhao Chen raised his right hand and pointed at a sticker-shaped pattern upon the wrist.
"Have you forgotten the Dragon Emperor's quantum transmission?"
Annie turned her eyes away, and muttered something under her breath.
Assuredly nothing good.
"Will you not ask me in to look about?" Zhao Chen looked at Annie's room.
This was one of the several bedchambers of the highest order in this T5 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Base — and at present only the three chief engineers had the standing to use them.
Annie stood aside with the greatest unwillingness.
Only then did Zhao Chen see Annie's house dress clearly.
An orange cloak-style house robe patterned with hamsters, and beneath it a simple white shirt, giving one a feeling of idle domesticity.
And with Annie's height besides, following her into the room, Zhao Chen truly had a sense of being charmed.
Zhao Chen followed behind Annie, and looked her room over as he came.
Since these are bedchambers provided for chief engineers, they may be made to order by the chief engineer's requirement — for do not forget this is the Owl Dragon's largest industrial base!
There is nothing that cannot be built here.
At the first glance Zhao Chen saw a vast sitting room!
No — that could no longer be described as a sitting room.
For in the very middle of it was a bed of a hundred square meters; and about the bed the space was divided into several districts, holding severally snacks, drinks, games, books and other apparatus of amusement.
From I know not when, though games and books exist in electronic form, Annie has liked to collect physical comics and storybooks, and physical game cartridges.
"Sit where you like." As Annie said it, she had already curled herself upon the bed.
Sit where you like?
Black lines rose upon Zhao Chen's brow; save for this hundred-square-meter bed of yours, is there anywhere here that one can sit?
At the last Zhao Chen found a cushion, set it upon the floor, and sat straight down upon the ground.
"How is it you have made yourself so large a room?" Zhao Chen asked in his puzzlement.
"Is it not for convenience? When I am at home I need only stay upon the bed, and everything whatever can be done upon the bed." Annie said it with a grin.
"And bathing? And the necessary house?" Zhao Chen looked at her doubtfully.
Annie stood up, snapped her fingers, and put on an air of display.
Whereupon a seam appeared in the middle of the bed; the hundred-square-meter bed began to move outward, and in the middle appeared a crystal room.
Within it a bathtub, a washroom, everything complete.
More black lines rose upon Zhao Chen's brow.
How unwilling was this creature to leave the compass of that bed!
Not wishing to dwell too long upon the question.
Zhao Chen threw out his business outright, and cast the technical materials of the three classes down before Annie.
Looking at the three holographic images, Annie was blank a moment; though they were classes she had never seen, she seemed to take the case as a matter of course.
For this scene had, it seemed, been played out a good many times.
Annie looked at Zhao Chen. "Three more classes?"
Zhao Chen nodded, and pointed at each of the three in a brief introduction.
Then said, "Fold these three into the present production plan hereafter."
Annie, unwilling as she was, took the task upon her all the same.
"And further, I need the production plans to come to be quickened. We want more interstellar warships urgently," said Zhao Chen.
"That wants detailed reckoning and calculation upon our side before we can have the shape of production to come," said Annie.
"I spoke of it with Nana before I came, and sent her a set of brief materials upon the three classes besides. She said she could give me the production plan for the second half of the year within the hour." Zhao Chen glanced at the time. "And the hour is very nearly up."
And scarcely had Zhao Chen's words fallen than the sound of the door came.
Nana walked into the room with hurried steps.
She cast an eye over Annie's room, and a trace of displeasure showed at the bottom of her eyes, though she said nothing of it.
But looked toward Commander Zhao Chen. "Commander, the rough plan of production you wanted I have worked out here. As for those three new classes you spoke of, since I do not know the detailed steps of their building and have only the simple data you sent across, there may be a little deviation. But it will not deviate by much."
"Let me hear it. In half a year, how much of what I require can be completed?" Zhao Chen inquired.
Nana said it clean and direct. "By the Owl Dragon's present industrial case, and given sufficient supply of raw materials.
"First, in the second half of the year our No. 2 and No. 3 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Bases will come into service one after the other.
"And the other interstellar industrial ships will complete a further round of expansion, raising our capacity.
"Though none of this will tell upon our production tasks.
"As to the Owl Dragon Legion's returning to its pre-war level, we can accomplish that in a month.
"Then as to the Owl Dragon Legion's first-phase expansion plan, it can be completed before the middle of September.
"The second-phase plan — the whole fleet of the Owl Dragon Legion expanded to 300,000 interstellar warships — will want until about the beginning of December.
"As for that fleet plan you put forward, we shall do what we can to complete it before the year's end, though we cannot guarantee it. I am exceedingly sorry."
And in speaking of that last fleet plan, Nana felt guilty besides at being unable to guarantee it.
Crunch, crunch… slurp, slurp.
From beside them came, most unfittingly, the sound of chips being chewed and a drink being drunk.
Zhao Chen's and Nana's eyes both went across.
Annie, in her orange hamster robe, lay sprawled sideways upon the bed with chips in one hand and a drink in the other; and seeing the two pairs of eyes turned upon her, she said carelessly besides, "Go on talking, the two of you; never mind me."
So saying, Annie put the hand that had held the chips into her mouth and sucked the fingers one by one.