Chapter 7

Silver Fortress, the First Galaxy.

The suspension door slid to both sides. Admiral Wolfe and Secretary-General Golden got off the car one after another. Golden politely let Admiral Wolfe go first while he held the door gracefully, bending down and reaching inside, giving his hand to Mrs. Golden, who was still in the car. He leaned towards her and gently spoke, "Do you still feel bad?"

Jingshu Lin nodded with a pale face. Space transfer was requisite if you do not want to spend thirteen days on the way from the capital planet to the Silver Fortress like Commodore Lin. People had been troubled by carsickness, seasickness and airsickness since ancient times, it was not a big deal that Jingshu had a space sickness now.

Golden said: "Authorize Eden please, let it help you by adjusting the balancer."

Jingshu Lin shook her head silently.

After her brother, Commodore Lin's death, Jingshu had shielded most functions of Eden.

The network of Eden was not accomplished in a short time. In the beginning, it was simply used in a very limited area including helping people control domestic appliances and play holographic games. The technology developed in hundreds of years, providing more and more convenience in daily life. As a result, people constantly gave authorization to Eden in the same way as the ancients installed applications in their cellphones.

The Mental Network Protection Law stipulated that Eden must fully inform citizens of the possibility of the disclosure of their privacy; only after being given the authorization can the application be connected. However, people seldom read those terms and conditions which were detailed in millions of words. Anyhow the legislation and supervision were quite strict since the establishment of Eden so that no one had heard of any scandals about privacy disclosure.

Nowadays, openness, tolerance, frankness and freedom of expression were unquestionable political correctness. Except for a few religious who believed that penance was the way of cultivating themselves, only Jingheng and his Ten Squadrons shielded Eden. It was once a crime of Commodore Lin before his death – an unequivocal evidence of his dishonesty and conspiracy, but now it became a merit in his posthumous praise by the government of the Interstellar Union, saying that he was "the first to embrace the pain for the purpose of sharpening himself and his army".

Jingshu remembered her dead brother like an ascetic vegetarian in this way, about which Golden had no objection. He lent her his arm considerately so she could have a rest. His gentleness was a show in the Silver Fortress in some sort, but it is sincere as well — no matter what conflicts he had with Commodore Lin privately in the past, he was still very affectionate with Jingshu Lin.

After all, as such a beauty, she had the privilege to be loved even if she was like a piece of furniture placed coldly at home.

Commodore Li, the new commodore of the Silver Fortress, had been waiting for Admiral Wolfe and the Secretary-General as well as his wife for a long time. Two rows of guards stood behind him in a solemn and neat way, young and handsome with slender legs and thin waist. If looking more carefully, however, there were some strange details which could not be ignored. If ignoring the numbers on their military uniforms, they were so uniformly handsome that they seemed to be hatched from the same egg. They could almost arouse a feeling of trypophobia.

Admiral Wolfe was a veteran who belonged to the established powers in the army. He frowned when he saw these honor guards. Commodore Li explained in a whisper: "There are few Ten Squadrons left now, and the others...the others are all unruly dignitaries as well as rebels, very difficult to control. Therefore we have to transfer a group of artificial humans for the safety of the Silver Fortress. What do you think of..."

Commodore Wolfe interrupted him in a voice dripping with sarcasm: "Excellent idea. I will write a letter to the IU parliament and advise them to send artificial intelligence to govern the Silver Fortress. From then on, robots will command themselves to fight the battles. How civilized and convenient! They don't even need to have intrigues against each other."

Commodore Li was planning to take the robot model honor guards to welcome them, so as to show off his flexibility and open-mindedness. Being satirized by Admiral Wolfe, he did not dare to say anything more, and led the way listlessly.

They went into the Silver Fortress, walking straight into the ground and entered the deepest underground. Admiral Wolfe opened seven sealed doors with the supreme authority of the IU Armed Force. As the last heavy metal door slowly lifted, a huge mech fell into their eyes.

Near glorious perfection, its icy body shining resplendency; it looked like a sleeping dragon.

Secretary-General raised his head, sighing in admiration: "This is Zhanlu."

"Yes." It seemed that Commodore Li was afraid of waking up something, so he lowered his voice unconsciously, "After Jingheng's... no one can awake Zhanlu again. It rejected any spiritual connection, including Eden. Zhanlu is a treasure to all human beings, and the oriflamme of the Silver Fortress. We don't want to force it to connect, you know, avoiding potential damage by doing that. But the interstellar pirates are growing rampant, the IU really needs it. There is no other way so that we have to bother Mrs. Golden."

Commodore Li said to Jingshu, bowing to her slightly: "You are the only blood relative of Jingheng and shares the same excellent genes with him. Maybe you can wake Zhanlu."

Jingshu Lin stepped back to refuse the formality and gave him an appropriate smile.

Admiral Wolfe walked forward and touched the hull of Zhanlu, pressing his hand on the cabin door and tried: "Request connection."

He felt something extremely powerful crushed over him. The underground space shook with a buzz while the sound frequency went beyond the resolution of human ears, like a silent roar, resounding like waves. The sleeping mech was like a trapped beast, and it was ready to bite once it opened eyes.

Admiral Wolfe was shocked and let go immediately, holding himself after stumbling back a few steps.

"Admiral!"

Admiral Wolfe waved his hand and blocked the flattering hands of Commodore Li, staring at him with his cloudy eyes, said at a measured and slow pace:"In 260, Jingheng Lin was commanded to fight battles against the combination of the interstellar terrorism and the star pirates. In the most famous battle, he invaded fifteen enemy armies and took over their authorities at the same time."

Commodore Li blushed and turned pale simultaneously.

"Jingheng Lin did not command the Silver Fortress by a mech. It is logical for Zhanlu to reject any connections. Linking to you rubbish is a shame on itself. If the spiritual threshold cannot be reached, then use blood and gene to compensate? Preposterous! " Admiral Wolfe said coldly, and then turned to Jingshu politely and aloofly, "There is no need to bother Mrs. Golden. You are not in good health and have not been military trained, way too easy to be injured by Zhanlu. It will be a colossal loss to the capital planet to hurt such a beautiful lady. I apologize for bothering you to have this trip. Please."

The Secretary-General was just here for a show but not really ready to offer a help, so he was gloating to see the military upset. Following Admiral Wolfe's stride, he held Jingshu's hand and led her leaving the Silver Fortress without saying a word.

He did not notice that her weak and soft wife turned around and cast a look at Zhanlu. Her feather-like eyelashes drooped, hiding her quirky smile.

At the same universal time, on the Beijing-ß planet, the Eighth Galaxy.

Dawn has just broken. B4 washed his hand carefully for three times, and decided to clean his face as well.

The robot hand on the wall was still sleeping. B4 shaved and dressed; then opened the windows and doors of the Speakeasy.

The feeling of chill and the sound of wind passed through this house. The Beijing-ß planet had woken up from the shivering cold night.

B4 poured a cup of overnight coffee for himself, and found a lump of sandwich that was a kind of a specialty of the Eighth Galaxy from a fresh-keeping cabinet. B4 had a look at it and failed to find out what was in it, but he did not care about it. He started eating in the cold wind with all doors open, and casually fed the lizard some mealworm.

The noises outside were rising. There were sounds of hurried footsteps, loud complaints of housewives, swearing naughty children, mixed with the whistles of the Gay Sports every five minutes. It was the vitality that only could be found in the Eighth Galaxy.

The Speakeasy was clean and fresh. Spider had disappeared already.

B4 was neither brisk when he was energetic nor listless when he stayed up all night like this time. He was just like a pine which always kept an unchanged look no matter in a winter blizzard or in spring.

As firm as iron, he seemed to have no feelings.

"You had better not to have breakfast in the cold wind, for it will cause gastrointestinal problems." Three hours later, Zhanlu on the wall transformed into a handsome man in time.

B4 seemed to be attracted by something out of the window and he gazed at it without looking back, "No."

He had not finished his words when the doors and windows closed. The temperature indoor rose rapidly, shielding the cold morning of the Beijing-ß planet from the house like a fortress.

Zhanlu said seriously: "Yes, it will. There is a significant positive correlation between having cold food in the wind and gastrointestinal problems."

B4: "..."

Zhanlu took away his extremely simple breakfast and discarded the overnight coffee. He made a cup of hot coffee, and heated the sandwich, "You interrogated Spider."

B4 did not need to speak to Zhanlu euphemistically: "I did. The Toxic Nest ran into a gang of dubious people on the periphery of the Eighth Galaxy three months ago, and they claimed that they had one hundred mechs and two armed starships, hoping to have a munition deal with them. They were those people who brought the chips. Implanted in the heart, humans and artificial intelligence in a 200-meter radius will be affected expediently. Besides, they can also strengthen the implanted humans, turning them into invulnerable supermen. As far as I know, even Eden cannot do this."

What did "one hundred mechs" mean?

Five years ago, the IU government only sent five hundred mechs to besiege the Silver Fortress in secret.

Zhanlu said: "They are not the local gangs of the Eighth Galaxy."

"I suppose not." B4 said, "They offer a quite low price. The first batch of munitions is nearly free. What they required the Toxic Nest to do is to help look for children between two and four, one hundred children per batch, and they have already had two batches. I speculate that they are doing human experiments. The mysterious people do not suggest for them to steal children in the same area to avoid being discovered, or perhaps they are testing biochips on those Toxic Nest fools who are rushed everywhere in the Eighth Galaxy."

Zhanlu waited for B4's conclusion quietly.

B4 finished the processed breakfast absentmindedly, and then said: "No need to hurry. It is only an attempt of the Toxic Nest if extraterritorial pirates really want to do something, they will find us sooner or later. Before that, we'd better find out what the biochips are."

"I will spare no effort to help Headmaster Lu." Zhanlu paused for a while, "Well, will you accept Headmaster Lu's invitation to attend the opening ceremony?"

"Do I look like I have nothing else to do?" B4 drank up the coffee.

Zhanlu: "But I notice that you have gotten in a suit."

B4 said casually: "I threw away that one. It had been stained with blood."

Zhanlu answered "I see" and took away the empty cup and tableware. "I will cancel this plan from your schedule later."

B4 sat quietly for a moment, then he said: " Who asked you to add it to the schedule?"