69novels Chapter 36 Renovation
Chapter 36 Renovation
The day after the Black Pearl docked, a notice about shift work was posted on the cafeteria bulletin board.
The ship had 537 crew members, divided into two shifts of 15 days each. The first batch—268 people—disembarked that afternoon, dressed in civilian clothes, walking in small groups across the jetty and disappearing into the crowd in the port hall. 269 people remained, and the atmosphere was much more relaxed than during the voyage. Someone was humming a tuneless song in the corridor, a few more bottles of cheap liquor bought from the port appeared in the mess hall, and long queues formed for training ground reservations.
Liu En's communicator rang several times, all text messages from Vitellius urging him to go to the workshop to retrieve documents. After finishing the blueprints at hand and tidying up briefly, he left the Black Pearl.
Furnace Zone 5 is located on the outskirts of the Fair Maxim hive, a nearly two-hour drive from the spaceport by ground-based railcar. The railcar winds its way through the bustling commercial district of the Upper Hive, past the dense residential modules of the Middle Hive, and the further out it goes, the more rugged the buildings become, and the stronger the smell of industrial waste in the air. The view outside the window gradually changes from Gothic spires and flying buttresses to dense arrays of pipes, massive storage tanks, and steaming ground vents.
Stepping out of the station, a wave of sweltering heat hit me. The No. 5 smelting area was built atop the earliest geothermal furnace complex established during the pioneering work of the Lucis foundry world. Expanded layer by layer over thousands of years, it has become an industrial jungle comprised of giant smelting furnaces, forging workshops, and pipeline corridors. The steel-framed dome overhead is nearly a hundred meters high, with mobile cranes and dense cable trays hanging from its beams. Warning lights flash in the dim light at intervals. The air is thick with the smell of sulfur and molten metal. The ceramic steel grating on the ground vibrates slightly underfoot, and the dull thud of large forging hammers echoes in the distance, like the heartbeat of some behemoth.
Following the direction he remembered, Liu En walked through several narrow alleys, flanked by rough cast-iron walls covered in thick soot and rust. Pipes crisscrossed overhead, underfoot, and beside him; some were thick enough to walk on, others as thin as fingers, and the occasional hiss of steam leaked from the bends and flanges. Technical priests and mechanics moved about silently and methodically. No one gave Liu En a second glance—here, those in red robes were commonplace.
Vitellius's workshop was deep within the furnace area, behind an inconspicuous metal door. A sign on the door bore a number in a mix of low Gothic and binary, with a smaller line below that read: "Unauthorized Entry Prohibited."
Liu En pushed open the heavy insulated door, and a gust of hot air mixed with the smells of machine oil, welding fumes, and old paper rushed out. The space inside was much larger than it appeared from the outside—at least several thousand square meters, simply divided into several functional areas. The main workshop was filled with a variety of mechanical creations, ancient thinkers hummed in the corners, and hundreds of machine servants were busy everywhere. Their paint had worn away so much that the original color was no longer visible, but their steps were uniform.
Vitellius's office was at the far end of the main workshop, a small room separated by semi-transparent, explosion-proof glass. Vitellius was standing in front of the wine cabinet, his back to the door, tilting his head as he looked at the labels on a row of wine bottles, the servo motors of his robotic arm's elbow joint emitting short hums.
"You're here?" Vitellius said without turning around, pointing to the desk. "The documents are on the desk, take them yourself. The safe's combination is six zeros, you should be able to figure it out."
Liu En glanced at the table; a thin data crystal and a paper document bag were secured together with an anti-magnetic seal. "That's all?"
"What else? You want me to write an award speech for you?" Vitellius turned around, shaking the bottle of wine in his hand. "Want a drink?"
Liu En glanced at the wine cabinet. There were seven or eight bottles inside, most of which he didn't recognize. The labels were rudimentary, and they looked like cheap, locally brewed products. Only two bottles of Armageddon vintage were on the top shelf, covered with a thin layer of dust. They were clearly Vitellius's treasured collection, which he usually couldn't bear to touch.
"No need," Liu En said.
Vitellius poured himself a glass, screwed on the cap, and walked over with the glass. He sat down in the chair behind the desk, leaned back, put his feet on the edge of the desk, and took a sip.
"Drink less. That's poisonous," Liu En said.
"Poisonous?" Vitellius raised his eyelids to look at him, extending a mechanical finger to tap lightly on the rim of the cup. "In this universe, the followers of the Empire drink it every day. What's a little alcohol? Smell the air in the lower nest; it's ten thousand times more poisonous than this. If we really cared about this, we would have all died long ago. The followers of Om Messiah have plenty of ways to expel this negative effect."
Liu En did not respond.
Vitellius placed his wine glass on the table, took a data panel from a drawer, and pushed it in front of Liu En. "I've compiled a list of Garros' exploration records for you. It includes the original data from that exploration team 3,700 years ago, along with mineral distribution maps I unearthed from the Temple Archives, and navigation records from the surrounding star sectors. You can figure out how you want to build your Industrial World yourself."
Liu En put the data tablet into the inner pocket of his robe. "Thanks."
"There's one more thing I need to remind you of," Vitellius's tone became serious. "The annual 100,000 Throne Coins should be paid directly to the Imperial Executive Council's Tax Office in Lucis, through the Temple's official account channel. As a ship belonging to the Fifth Field Fleet of the World, using the Temple's account is the most convenient. Those people in the Imperial Executive Council are ten times more ruthless about the tithe than you imagine. Once your development documents are stamped, taxes are calculated. Now, more than half a year has passed, and you have to pay the 100,000 Throne Coins upfront. And this tax amount is just the beginning. The Empire recalculates tax amounts every hundred years, and the next recalculation is more than sixty years away. That means you'll have to pay 100,000 Coins in taxes every year for more than sixty years. As for how much the tax amount will increase, that depends on the officials in the Tax Office."
"The Tax Office's ledgers are from the Empire's millennia-old history, and they collect taxes using an armed tax-collecting fleet. You haven't paid enough? The fleet will come knocking on your door to reason with you. If that doesn't work? Then they'll just remove you from your governorship and replace you with someone who can pay." Vitellius flicked his cigarette ash. "In the border star sectors, countless governors have lost their heads because they couldn't pay this initiation tax. You're here today to pick up your documents, so I'll take this opportunity to remind you—when you go to the tax office to pay your taxes, remember to collect the original tax certificate and make a copy for yourself. The Tax Office's ledgers are so complicated; if you pay today, they might forget to collect it again in a few years—that's a common occurrence. Without that paper, nothing you say will help. Also, you'd better pay for ten years at once, just to avoid any mistakes later."
Liu En nodded. "I understand. Thank you for your trouble."
Vitellius stood up and dusted off his robe. "Alright, you've got the stuff, and you've given me what I needed to say."
Vitellius nodded and stood up again. "Alright. I have a lot of things to do outside, you go ahead and take care of yourself. Remember to bring a few bottles of Agrippina's good wine next time we dock. I only have this one bottle of Amigidoton vintage left, and I can't bear to drink it."
Liu En turned and went out. Behind him came the sound of Vitellius unscrewing a bottle cap, and a very soft breath, muffled by mechanical breathing, as if saying, "Let's go."
Liu En turned and went out, passing through the workshop, where hundreds of machine servants were silently working on both sides of him.
On the return trip in the railcar, he leaned against the window, opened the data panel, and quickly scanned the exploration records and mineral distribution map. Garros wasn't a rich mine, but the low-grade basic veins and the reserves of tens of millions of asteroids were more than enough to support the start of an industrial world.
Industrial exhaust fumes churned in the morning light outside the cabin. Liu En closed the data panel and put it in his pocket.
When they returned to the Black Pearl, the first group of crew members on leave hadn't returned yet. Days passed. On the fifteenth day, the first group of crew members all returned. They walked across the jetty, carrying large bags and suitcases, their faces showing the relaxation of leave. The corridors became lively again.
Sera returned on the evening of the first day, her long, silver-white hair braided back into a plait, her dark blue gown neatly pressed. She walked onto the bridge, nodded to Liu En, sat down at the navigation console, and spent an hour checking the status of all the systems. Hera returned the next morning, wearing the Star Language Hall's dark gray uniform, her hair meticulously styled with a hairpin. She went into the communications bay, checked the receiver array, and then sat down and closed her eyes for a while.
Commander Kara was among the first to return. She walked onto the bridge, saluted Liu En, said, "It's still more reassuring to stay on the ship," and then went back to her cabin to change into her uniform.
The first group of personnel returning to the ship spent two days readjusting to the routine. The duty roster was rearranged, and long queues formed again at the training ground. The second group of personnel on leave then disembarked.
Fifteen days later, the second batch of crew members who had been on leave also returned to the ship. With everyone present, the Black Pearl was once again at full capacity.
Recruitment is progressing according to plan.
Marcus selected candidates for the first mate and the gunnery officer. The first mate, Edric, was forty-two years old and a retired naval lieutenant commander. The gunnery officer, Vladimir, was fifty-five years old and a retired naval gunnery master officer.
Kara's recruitment efforts were also underway. She used the retired personnel files of the Lucis Temple and Phyllis's connections within the Port Alliance to scout for veterans in various Lucis strongholds. The first batch of over a hundred men quickly arrived; they were all veterans, older, but their experience was undeniable.
Phyllis reported that the weapons inventory, including power armor, explosive guns, plasma pistols, and matching ammunition and spare parts, was more than enough to equip a full force of 1,200 men.