Chapter 242: The Meeting
Just as Xiang Chuan was about to fall asleep again due to Captain Huaken’s speech on stage, the announcement “Please have all classmates follow the homeroom teacher to the dormitory to pick up luggage and keys” marked the end of the opening speech, with many students yawning in place or starting to stretch.
Modern youth can’t stand this kind of nonsense speech either.
Captain Huaken on stage looked at the bustling students gradually leaving the plaza below, sighing inwardly: Another year of first-year high school new student visit activity, as if reminding him that he was getting another year older.
But he didn’t dwell on it for long, as the light screen popping up from his personal terminal interrupted Captain Huaken’s thoughts. Seeing the message on the light screen, Captain Huaken frowned slightly, then casually closed the light screen and called the other cadres to greet the teachers and students.
Below the stage, Captain Huaken’s two deputy officers and secretaries had been waiting anxiously for a while. Seeing Captain Huaken finally step down from the stage, the two immediately followed.
“Captain, the Eleventh Fleet side…”
A young deputy officer was about to speak when Captain Huaken immediately stopped him:
“Shh, don’t say it directly.” Captain Huaken quietly scanned the surroundings, confirming no cadres below manager level were paying attention here, before continuing: “I just received the message from the port side about this. I’m going to meet them now. Before we meet, immediately contact Captain Noah and the main ship’s information bureau directly in my name.”
The two deputy officers, upon hearing this, immediately straightened up and began acting according to Captain Huaken’s instructions.
——
Third Military Escort Ship, captain’s office.
Captain Huaken looked gravely at the two youths in front of him. He had seen the exploration force uniforms on his own subordinates, but he never imagined he’d one day hope not to see this uniform.
Especially when it bore the Eleventh Fleet emblem.
The blond youth showed a very affable smile on his face and spoke:
“Sorry to disturb you amid your busy schedule, Captain Huaken. I am Kenny Alek, captain of the Third Pioneer Force of the Eleventh Fleet. This is our force’s scout, Li Wei.”
The black-haired youth beside him nodded lightly.
If Xiang Chuan and others were present, they would definitely recognize these two as the blond youth who was glared at by Ouyang Yating and Nancy at the port exit, and the black-haired youth who apologized to them.
Captain Huaken smiled and said: “It’s really unfortunate timing. We’re just now hosting students from two schools on the main ship, and you happened to arrive right at this moment.”
“Hahaha, we saw that group of kids at the port too. Two schools coming at once—probably even the squad leaders here will have to be assigned as guides for these students. What bad timing indeed.”
Kenny laughed heartily, taking Captain Huaken’s somewhat stiff, pointed remark. Before coming, he had already learned from port staff that the captain here was a rather rigid leader, so his emotions showed plainly.
It seemed his own force had really come at the worst time. Kenny smiled bitterly in his heart.
But the mission from above still had to be completed.
Putting away his playful demeanor, Kenny said seriously:
“Since you’re busy here, we’ll keep it short. According to the regular reports from the space-time network signal station in this space sector, the Third Fleet has been disconnected from the space-time network since March. The signal station staff worried that something had happened to your fleet, so they contacted us. We happened to be conducting a rare metal scouting operation nearby in this space sector at the time. Considering the priority, we began searching for your fleet’s whereabouts, and only today did we finally find you. Gladly, your fleet appears to have encountered no difficulties.”
What bad luck indeed. Captain Huaken sighed inwardly. Though he was grateful to the space-time network signal station staff for caring about the Third Fleet and issuing a rescue to the exploration force, it just had to be them who received the signal.
It just had to be the Eleventh Fleet—a one-in-six chance, and they got it.
Captain Huaken clenched his fist under the desk and said:
“Thank you to the compatriots at the signal station and Captain Kenny’s force for your concern. As you can see, neither our escort ship nor the Third Fleet Main Ship has any major issues. Captain Kenny, you can directly report the good news to the kind people at the signal station who were worried about us.”
“Of course, but…” Kenny narrowed his eyes. “Since everything is fine, why hasn’t the Third Fleet reconnected to the space-time network?”
With that, he shook the personal terminal on his wrist. “Moreover, after entering the port, my personal terminal suddenly entered a state unable to connect to the network. Captain Huaken, can you give me, give the compatriots at the signal station, a reasonable explanation?”
“…”
Huaken looked at Kenny expressionlessly, but his two tightly clenched fists were already starting to sweat.
How to respond? If he told Kenny that the Third Fleet was now using its own local area network, he would surely access the Third Fleet’s local network under the pretext of checking it.
The entire Third Fleet’s SNS now revolved around the “Agricultural Products Increased Production Ratio Adjustment Draft,” Yue Xiang Restaurant, Xiang Xue Live Stream Room, and the binge-watching website “Drama Watching Fun.” As soon as the Eleventh Fleet people saw it, they would definitely judge it as stemming from ancient times’ ingredient processing technology and cultural products, and naturally understand why the Third Fleet disconnected from the space-time network.
At that point, the Third Fleet’s “plan” would be directly exposed to this force.
This “plan” could be known by any fleet—even if the rival Fourth Fleet learned the ins and outs, Captain Kenny wouldn’t be as tense as he was now.
Only… only the First Fleet and the Eleventh Fleet.
They had guarded against everything to ensure these two fleets wouldn’t learn of the Third Fleet’s secretly constructed “plan” before the fleet exchange period began.
Last time Captain Noah decided to let Lin Yu, captain of the First Production Escort Ship of the First Fleet, return safely to his main ship, it already had the other Third Fleet higher-ups breaking out in cold sweats. Despite surveillance by the information bureau on space-time network activity afterward showing that Lin Yu had indeed kept his promise and not leaked their matters to the First Fleet’s central government.
But that was just a special case.
Captain Huaken couldn’t guarantee that this seemingly frivolous but shrewd-eyed blond young man in front of him would make the same decision as Lin Yu.
If the “plan” was exposed, the Third Fleet would be doomed.
——
【Beep—Beep—Beep—】
Just as the two were silently locked in a standoff, Captain Huaken’s personal terminal suddenly emitted a piercing alert tone.
“Sorry, it’s my terminal.” Captain Huaken said, opening his personal terminal.
This alert tone was the standard emergency contact message for government personnel, so Captain Huaken could prioritize handling this emergency.
Seeing Captain Huaken starting to tap the keyboard on the light screen to reply to the message, Kenny could only shrug, lean back on the sofa, and look helplessly at his subordinate.
Li Wei kept his gaze straight ahead, continuing to silently act like air.
Not long after, Captain Huaken closed the light screen and stood up from behind the desk.
“Captain Kenny, Team Leader Li Wei, sorry to keep you waiting. I just received an emergency contact from Captain Noah, who hopes to meet with you two in person about this matter.”
Hearing this, Kenny involuntarily sat up straight, and Li Wei couldn’t help looking at Captain Huaken, full of disbelief.
“Captain Noah is… that one?”
Li Wei pointed toward the Third Fleet Main Ship.
“Our Third Fleet has only one Captain Noah.” A hint of smile finally appeared on Captain Huaken’s rigid, serious face.
“Haha… that’s really too much honor for us.”
Kenny gave a dry laugh.
Li Wei also nervously clenched his fist at this moment.
—Grin Noah, captain of the Third Fleet Main Ship, and also the highest person in charge of the Third Fleet.
