Chapter 11: What’s Going On?
Seeing that Dias and Cillin had finished their discussion, Eudy pressed the bell and came in, “Lieutenant, I’d like to borrow Cillin for a little.”
Dias waved his hands, “Off you go. Get along with your squad mate.”
After the two of them went out, they weren’t seen again until it was time to meet up with the main force.
“Where’s Cillin?” Dias asked.
“I haven’t seen him. He’s probably at Eudy’s place.” Cary sounded a little unsure. There were a few times where he mustered his morale to battle Cillin again in the battle room, but he heard that he had been called away by that bastard Eudy to research some formulae. Cary was tactful enough to not disturb them.
“When I sent them their food yesterday, I heard them discussing whether a certain formula should sum the squares or use square roots. When I sent them their food today, they were discussing weighted multidimensional matrix. In short, they haven’t been sleeping for the past days. It’s likely that that formulae Eudy is researching is going to bear fruit soon.” Beaver opened his arms helplessly, “It’s rare that Eudy gets to meet his own ‘kind’.”
The group of people quieted. Two weirdos. Of course, such talents were exactly what the Sixth Squad was lacking. If the formulae Eudy was researching succeeded, then it would be a breakthrough for the future programs written by the Sixth Squad. The automatic ‘sentries’ aim, target lock’s efficiency, and hit rate would be massively increased.
But what Dias was worried about was: If it was this mentally exhausting, then wouldn’t that mean… that the two of them would be sleeping for the next period of time?
Different from the starship Cillin was on board right now, the Sixth Squad’s main starship was far bigger, and there were tens of other starships the same size as this one surrounding the main starship.
After docking on the main starship, Dias went to meet his elder brother, the Sixth B Squadron Commander Shawton.
Surprisingly, Dias did not wear that showy sunglasses of his, and in fact he appeared to be a lot steadier than usual. Once receiving the notice that the meeting had begun, Dias walked into the conference room.
Dias sat down on the lieutenant commander seat that belonged to him before staring soulfully at the famous cool beauty Asiya who was also sitting on her own lieutenant commander seat beside him. However, the other party continued to turn a blind eye to Dias’ passionate gaze, and the other four lieutenant commanders had gotten used to his antics already.
Previously, with Dias as the exception, Shawton and the other Lieutenant Commanders had met with the great galactic family Douance’s Aiflon to talk business, but the results were not as good as they had imagined and the situation remained at a stalemate without change to this day. It wasn’t an easy task to gain more profit from Aiflon, and the goods submitted by the Hunter regiment Navigator, also one of the four Hunter regiments were no worse than the Sixth Squad. The Sixth Squad had spent much manpower and resources to acquire the batch of energy ores in order to gain a greater profit. If they could not sell it for a good price then the Sixth Squad would not be content as well.
The previous two business meetings were unsuccessful, and judging from Aiflon’s attitude, it would appear that he was planning to trade with the Navigators instead. For a few days in a row, Shawton and the lieutenant commanders were all pretty depressed, and it was easily noticeable from their negative atmosphere. The final negotiation would happen today, and Aiflon’s intentions were clear by the fact that he had chosen to negotiate by video conference and not face-to-face. If they failed this time, then the Sixth Squad would have to find another buyer, and this was the kind of goods that no ordinary person could buy. Even if they could, the buyer’s final price would not be high with Aiflon as a precedent.
“Dias,” Shawton handed over a tablet from the front seat, “You weren’t around during the last two negotiation. This is the minutes from the last two dealings. Take a look.”
“Okay.” Dias straightened himself as he accepted the tablet. While he was reading his eyebrows began to wrinkle. Dias knew very well that the Sixth Squad had nearly lost a Lieutenant Commander in order to acquire that batch of goods, and a lot of aircrafts and detection equipment were scrapped. They did request a slightly higher price for this batch of goods, but even then, the price Aiflon was pushing for was a little too low, wasn’t it!
The further back he looked the more irritated Dias became, and he grabbed the cup of water before him and downed it fiercely into his mouth. Suddenly, an image flashed across the tablet…
“PUUU – ”
Dias spat his mouthful of water at the person on his opposite. The table were also filled with water stains.
Asiya rejoiced at the fact that she wasn’t sitting on the opposite side of Dias. The person on the opposite side already darkened expression looked like it was about to thunderstorm after being spat on until he was wet all over by Dias.
Since everyone’s thoughts were placed fully on the matter of the negotiation, no one expected Dias to put up such an act so suddenly. They were also close to each other, so the lieutenant commander on the opposite side couldn’t react in time and was struck dead on.
Under Shawton and the other lieutenant commanders’ condemning gaze, Dias hurriedly explained himself.
“Cough cough… Ahem, excuse me. I got too excited and couldn’t hold back.” Dias turned back to that image on the tablet, pointed at the person appearing on it and asked, “Is this really Aiflon Douance?”
The last time Dias saw Aiflon was ten years ago, and at the time he was just a normal member of the Sixth Squad and Shawton the lieutenant commander. Now Dias could only sigh: No wonder…
Seeing Shawton’s unhappy gaze, Dias hurriedly took out the other portable tablet he carried with him and handed it over, “Take a look at this fellow.”
Holding the two tablets, Shawton himself had looked somewhat stunned, “Alike, they are too alike!”
The lieutenant commanders had also closed in to look, and after they saw it their faces looked odd as well.
“They’re alike, yeah?” Dias wiped the water stain beside his mouth and said, “From the first time I saw that kid I already thought he looked familiar; I just couldn’t recall it. This person is the new member I want to recommend, Cillin. If I haven’t seen the ‘No Children’ displayed under Aiflon’s information, I would have really believed that the two of them are father and son.”
Now, Shawton did not press about Dias’ behavior just now any longer. His finger tapped rhythmically on the table surface thinking about something. Looking at the time, there were only ten minutes left before the video conference would start.
“Dias, please call Cillin over. Remember, try not to let anyone on board see his face as much as possible.”
“Got it.”
Dias did not ask any further questions as he swiftly left the conference room, and in no time grabbed a half lidded, sleeping looking Cillin over.
Cillin cleared away his sleepiness when he saw the people in the conference room. He could sense that these were no ordinary people.
“Sit down. There’s no need to be overly formal.” Shawton pointed at a chair beside and smiled good-naturedly.
Cillin looked suspiciously at the seven people before taking his seat. I’m not really being formal, but your stares are seriously giving me the creeps…
“Cillin is it? Dias has told me about you and we have deliberated over the matter. Welcome to the Vanguard Sixth B Squadron. Your ID card will be sent to you shortly.”
Dias kept his head low and drank more water. Since when did you guys deliberate about it?!
The other lieutenant commanders did not dispute Shawton’s words either. Although they held an opinion against Dias, Cillin’s situation was special. The few lieutenant commanders had come to a rare and unanimous acknowledgement of Cillin’s identity as a new member; a member of the main force even.
Cillin stared suspiciously at Dias lowering his head. Didn’t he say that it would be quite difficult to acquire the identity of a main member? Didn’t he say that the lieutenant commanders would make things difficult? What’s with this situation then?
