Star System AR001.
This star system is ringed about by a great quantity of meteor belts, so that the interference upon communication within and without is exceedingly grave; even the one star gate built here meets the conditions for a star gate's use upon no more than a scant few days in a year.
So that before this the system was in the main an interstellar no-man's-land, with no value to speak of.
But it is within just such a no-man's-land that another sight stands now — one an outsider could no way imagine.
Vast interstellar works stand there one upon another, exceedingly vast, each like a planet.
But look closely and one finds that they are in fact works built upon planets, only that a great quantity of mechanical equipment has been raised upon the surface and even in the near orbits.
So that at a glance one takes them for nothing but works of iron and steel.
And in the most central district of this system one may even see vast passages joining one great planetary works to several moons, making up one super-vast planetary works.
Warship after finished warship is pushed out of these planetary works by interstellar lighters and set within the interstellar anchorages.
And within those laid-out anchorages lie warships ranged in even order.
These finished warships, when they reach a certain number, are carried off and sent to some field of battle.
Just at this time an interstellar transport fleet came sailing slowly into this district.
Its flagship docked with a starport.
Tramp, tramp, tramp.
Treading in military boots, a demon general walked along a gangway; and toward him came a mechanical petty officer, covered head to foot in steel.
"We come to receive this batch of warships." The demon general handed the other an electronic document.
The mechanical petty officer lowered its head; light shot from its red electronic pupils, and it scanned the document.
Then gave out a mechanical voice: "The document is confirmed.
"This time we shall hand over to you 100,000 interstellar warships; set your crews to board them, if you please.
"Herein are all the keys of those warships."
The mechanical petty officer handed over a data disc.
Do not think little of this disc: without the starship keys within it, those warships cannot lightly be carried away.
"Trouble yourself with the final painting; these are the requirements for it this time." The demon general, having taken the disc, had the adjutant beside him hand over a document.
The mechanical petty officer took it, looked it over, and nodded slightly. "Very good."
"Farewell." So saying, the demon general turned straight about and left.
And the mechanical petty officer likewise turned and went back.
One demon petty officer, walking along, wished in his curiosity to turn his head and take another look or two.
But the next second the demon general drew a laser gun, leveled it at this petty officer's head, and fired.
In an instant the whole head was gone.
Seeing it, the demon officers who had come with him said nothing further.
"Clear it away," the demon general said coldly.
"Yes." At once demon officers came to clear away this colleague's carcass.
At such things they were long since practiced hands.
For with the Demon Race's strict system of rank, a superior killing a subordinate at a word is a thing seen again and again.
"General, I am exceedingly sorry.
"This man is upon such an action for the first time," the adjutant behind the general said in a low voice.
"Such a thing is not to appear again, or the next time you shall die along with him," the demon general said coldly.
"Yes!" The demon adjutant answered, the sweat standing upon his brow.
"Remember: His Majesty the Demon King's orders require that our action be of the utmost secrecy.
"Every warship we bring into this district must shut down all recording equipment, all reconnaissance equipment, all communication equipment.
"Save for the captain upon the bridge, no crew member may look upon any sight outside the hull.
"Any who transgress are to be put to death without exception!" the demon general said, his voice low.
"Understood!" the demon adjutant answered.
The procedure that followed they had all gone through a great many times.
Upon those demon transports they had brought, two kinds of cargo were chiefly loaded.
The former, of course, the raw materials the Machine Race wants for building these warships.
The latter, company after company of demon crew.
These crews are likewise packed within things after the fashion of shipping containers, and remain within them through the whole action.
They cannot know where their destination is; they know only that they go to take over interstellar warships and sail them back.
Beyond that they need know nothing.
Within the interstellar anchorages.
Transport after transport thrust those containers of crew into the hangars of those warships, and then quietly went away.
Clank, clank.
The gates upon a container opened slowly; within were the demon crew, made ready many days since.
The first to walk out was a demon captain.
"The first company of crew board first; crew of the other posts stand where they are, and without my leave not a step is to be stirred!" the demon captain said without ceremony.
Thereafter he led his subordinates toward the bridge.
Entering the bridge, the demon captain cast his eyes round.
There was no life in it whatever.
Somehow this warship was wholly unlike the warships he had seen before; it was as though nothing living had ever dwelt here at all.
"Start the warship up and check every system.
"Then, by this order, shut these system programs down before we leave this place," the demon captain charged them.
"Yes!"
His subordinates set to it at once.
Very soon this warship was started up, and those restricted system programs shut down — radar, external communication, sailing-record equipment and the rest, all closed.
At this process they were practiced past all further practice; for before coming they had not only drilled it many times, but no few of them were not carrying out such a task for the first time.
And the working of this warship they knew well too.
For this was a class of Demon Race warship they had all seen.
The T4 Demon-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser.
But one could plainly see that the inner structure of these ships differed in its particulars from the T4 Demon-Hunters they had been given before.
"Reporting — the first settings are complete," the adjutant reported to the captain.
"The remaining crew may board.
"State the task's rules once more; I do not wish anyone to err this time," the demon captain said coldly.
Every earlier time this task was carried out, there would always be some few who transgressed the rules of working — and those who did remained, beyond doubt, forever within this mysterious star system.
All went very smoothly.
A dozen hours and more later, these 100,000 warships and those transports began the voyage home.
And upon the hulls of these warships stood by now the plain black-and-red painting of the Demon Race, and a fleet blazon besides.