Shi Lang came out of the conference room and came directly to the command center. He sat down on his chair and closed his eyes to enter meditation. He did not pay attention to the faces of the soldiers inside the room. All that mattered to him was to take control of his mind which was on the verge of losing control and defile Minerva on the cold metal table in the conference room.
He sat with his eyes closed for an hour, when he opened his eyes, he mumbled, ‘The charm technique is nothing lesser than the Miao people back then.’
Just when he was about to think of some method to deal with this lady, a soldier said, “Sir, there is a report, the Zerg vessels are spotted near our borders. It looks like a small squadron.”
Shi Lang raised his eyebrow, the frustration from getting affected by Minerva shall now be vented upon these hostile neighbors. He said, “Who is on patrol duty, inform them and connect them to me.”
The operator nodded and fiddled with the holocomp, then he said, “This is the command Center, please respond Scout One.”
“Go for Scout One.”, sounded the voice of the pilot on the other side.
The operator said, “The connection is being patched to Alpha”
The person then turned around and gave a thumbs up to Shi Lang. The young man nodded and said, “This is Alpha. Do you copy, Scout One?”
“Yes, Sir.”, replied the other party.
Shi Lang said, “There is a squadron of lizards heading right inside our territory, you are not allowed to take action against them. Let them come in deep, I need new shoes, the leather of the lizards seems to be a nice material.”
The command center was shocked. The new general was a bit too aggressive. The Scout One replied, “Command Accepted, Sir.”
Shi Lang terminated the communication and leaned back in the chair, he began to think, and suddenly, the door of the command center slid open. The Deputy General walked inside and saluted Shi Lang crisply.
The young man nodded and said, “Deputy General Sikar, I have a question.”
The old deputy general nodded and asked, “Yes, Sir.”
“What do you think will the Galactic Council do, if the glorified envoy is attacked by the zergs?”, his sentence made the people in the command center stand up from their seats.
They could not even imagine the implications of this sentence. Shi Lang ignored the shocked expressions and asked, “Deputy general Sikar. What is your answer?”
“The Galactic Council will tag them as a hostile civilization and against hostile civilizations, War is not needed to be announced.”, said the Deputy.
Shi Lang smiled, “Prepare a small ship and tweak the radar a little. I would like to take the Envoy out for a stroll in the sea of stars.”
The people did not react for a good bit of time and Shi Lang said, “Do I need to repeat myself?”
Things became busy again. Shi Lang picked up his communicator and contacted Amelia directly, he told her what he was about to do so that the girl does not think too much if Hayley tells her about this later. The communication was encrypted and not something that could be checked by anyone. This was a special code Shi Lang had designed, if anyone tried to sneak through, even if they were the Secret Divisions, he will know.
…
Shi Lang stood at the spaceport, he had asked Hayley to call over Lady Minerva, he was an old monster who could tell that his earlier ignorance has piqued the interest of the woman and she will not reject his invitation. Just as he predicted, five minutes after he waited, Minerva came over to the spaceport with Hayley leading her.
The group of Galactic Council women also followed her but when they saw the size of the ship they were confused. It was clearly a scout vessel. They all cast their gazes at the tall young man standing in the distance reading and discussing some things with the Deputy General.
Hayley came forward and saluted Shi Lang as she said, “Sir, the Envoy is here.”
Shi Lang nodded and after a few words to Deputy General Sikar, he turned to greet Minerva with a formal smile. He said, “Apologies Lady Minerva, I hope my earlier conduct did not offend you. You see, I am not very familiar with neither the workload of a Fleet General nor the stature of the Galactic Council.
I would like to ask you to guide me about what the Galactic Council is, and how it works. I understand that it is rude of me to call you over here but you see, I have only taken charge today and need to move around quickly. So, if you do not mind, can we talk as we move around?”
Minerva was surprised, this guy was looking at her with a straight face as if her charm had no effect on him, and his words were evidence of his sanity. She nodded and said, “As a guest, I should understand your problems, General. Please lead the way.”
Shi Lang smiled gestured her to move ahead. When he saw the other Envoys moving along he said, “Lady Minerva, to save as much time as possible I am taking a scout vessel. This vessel has space to accommodate only two people. Can you please have your companions stay back?”
His tone was calm and humble, Minerva could not slap a smiling face, because she was aware that this guy will just leave her on the base if he had to and that will mean missing an opportunity to clutch his heart.
She nodded and cast a glance at the four ladies, who obviously wanted to protest, however, Minerva’s glance was indifferent and that was enough for them to calm down. Hayley noticed a subtle flicker of resentment in their eyes, and the same time, Shi Lang passed on a message to Hayley through a soldier on the side.
He did it with a hand behind his back and used single handed signs. The soldier could only admire the new general in his heart. This guy was not only a sharp sword but can also play sneaky like a dagger in the cloak. He was a true genius.
Shi Lang led the lady inside the ship and after the two were done strapping in, the young man controlled he ship to leave the planet. He was going on a patrol inspection which happened to be on a collision course with the Zerg invaders.
Inside the ship, Shi Lang asked, “Lady Minerva, I would like to ask you if there was any specific reason why you visited us, without any announcement?”
Minerva was surprised to see that this guy was still stuck on that. She said, “Well General Lang, it may seem a bit odd but the Galactic Council likes to do random visits, we do this to make sure that the affiliated members are not commiting any activities that disrupt the balance or the peaces inside the galaxy.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “I appreciate that. If the galactic civilizations can have a medium of contact and they could maintain peaceful and cooperative relations, the growth rate will be something beyond imagination.”
He had a big smile on his face as he said that. Minerva was thinking, how optimistic and idealistic is this guy. Shi Lang asked, “I know about the war regulations of the Galactic Council. I met with a barrister on Neomon. Hehe, was he intimidating.”
Minerva was surprised and then she began to ask the ins and the outs of the matter and Shi Lang told her exactly what he told the judges. The woman was surprised and became even more wary of this youth. Shi Lang suddenly asked, “Lady Minerva, you must have a lot of suitors, right?”
The change of the topic was completely irrelevant but it was along the lines of the Envoy. She did not conceal and said, “Yes, many people have been trying to capturemy heart for a long time.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “This is obvious, after all, you are a beauty.”
Minerva wanted to say something when she noticed the change on Shi Lang’s face, she changed the question, “Is something the matter?”
Shi Lang nodded, and pressing the communication button he said, “Command, this is Alpha, is their any covert unit patrolling in sector B32.”
Command center replied, “Alpha, this is command. There are no friendlies in sector B32.”
Shi Lang replied, “Approaching coordinates XXXX.”
Command center replied, “Alpha, do not engage recklessly…”
Before the other party could speak, Shi Lang terminated the communication after saying, “I have a sense of measure.”
The speed of the ship increased and the two approached the coordinates. Minerva said, “Should you not let some other unit perform this check?”
Shi Lang cast a gaze at her that was spewing fire and asked, “If there is a chance that your home is being invaded by someone hostile, would you wait for someone else to come over and check?”
Minerva said, “I get what you mean, but you are the general.”
Shi Lang turned his face and said, “The General is also a soldier, just glorified.”